Friday, November 25, 2011

illusions


Enlightenment, like God, is a word that means different things to different people.
Because of the assumptions and preconceptions which are often highly emotive, they can be considered contaminated words and not used unless accompanied by definitions.
Liberation is a more appropriate word for 'stream entry', a Buddhist  term for someone who has realised (made real) or seen at an experiential level the illusion of a 'self' (and some other stuff - see here)
The illusion of permanence is also another one the Buddhists place great emphasis on.
The illusion of knowing another person.
The illusion of knowing anything at all.
The illusion of Truth (see here for an exposition this and the previous illusion)
A caveat on knowing anything and Truth is that these may not be illusion for somebody more fully realised. i have no insight for this - yet.
Illusion of the existence of an entity called society, church, government, etc., anything that is a name for a collection of events or people. It is the generalisation (an illusion) that constitutes the evil (another illusion) and makes for 'isms. (racism, nationalism etc.)
The illusion of Ownership.
The illusion of the inevitability of suffering.
The illusion of the future/past.
The illusion of good/bad.

In fact, if it is said that seeing what is real as distinct to what is illusion, then we get to a position where the only reality is the wordless happening of NOW. (it can only be described post event)
Does this make everything else illusion?

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