Hi Rupert,
This question comes up quite often for me and I usually end up dismissing it because I feel it is unanswerable. I wonder why consciousness arises as illusion. It seems so difficult to see the illusion, so much struggle. I also wonder, why consciousness? I am not sure if you understand my question, but I was hoping that it has been asked before, maybe in different words. Thanks for all the time you give.
Best wishes,
Ronna
Dear Ronna,
There are two satisfactory answers to your question as to why consciousness rises as illusion.
The first is, it doesn’t. An illusion is something that is not real. Only consciousness is real and therefore an illusion would have to be made out of something that was not consciousness. If we look deeply into our experience to find something there that is not consciousness, we do not find any such thing.
In other words, it is not possible to have an illusion, because such an illusion would have to be made out of something that is not real. What would such an illusion be made out of? Obviously not consciousness, because consciousness is real. That is our experience. There is nothing else in our experience that is present and available for an illusion to be made of. The idea of illusion is simply a concept of something that is never actually experienced.
The idea that the world is an illusion is often misunderstood. It is meant to indicate that there is no independent world that exists in its own right, separate from consciousness. In that sense, the apparent reality of the world is an illusion. In other words, it is not real as an object. However, if we look into our experience of the apparent world, we find only consciousness there. As consciousness, it is real. Its reality is only consciousness.
The reality of absolutely everything is consciousness, and consciousness is real. Therefore, there is never any illusion at any time.
The second answer to the question ‘Why does consciousness arise as illusion?’ is ‘Because of your question!’
In other words, the very question about illusion presumes that illusion is present and real. However, its only apparent reality is the very thought that thinks it. It has no reality of its own. Illusion is created with the thought that thinks it, and the thought that thinks it is itself only made of consciousness.
* * *
Ronna:I also wonder, why consciousness?
Rupert: The ‘Why?’ question always presumes a cause. In this case the ‘why’ question presumes a cause for consciousness that is prior to and separate from consciousness itself. If we look closely at our experience we find nothing that is either prior to or separate from consciousness.
In fact, the ‘Why?’ question always presumes at least two things, a cause and an effect. Again, if we look deeply into our experience, we do not find two things. We find only consciousness.
Therefore, again, the idea of cause and effect, in other words, the ‘Why?’ question, has no satisfactory answer on the level from which it is asked, because the presumption at its origin, that is, the existence of two things, is conceptual only.
Another way to say this would be that consciousness is its own cause. It is not caused by anything other than itself. But of course the idea of causing itself doesn’t make sense. It is already itself.
So all we can say is that consciousness is, which is the same as saying ‘I am’. Simply abide as that.
With kind regards,
Rupert
