We live in a world of illusion.  What appears to the five physical senses to be real is not.

Matter, which occupies most of our waking experience, has been debunked now by quantum physics and where it first seemed to be made of molecules and atoms, now is generally recognized to be made of nothing but waves.

So what are waves made of – and on and on down to nothing.

Like a dream, matter appears to be real, but even the science of physics is now closing in on the fact that there’s nothing really there.

Einstein said years ago that something isn’t there and so we see it, but it’s really that we see it and so it’s there.  We make it up in our minds.  It’s what we were taught by our predecessors, and so it’s all we know.

But now it’s getting so that we know better.

Time isn’t really real, it too an illusion.  Einstein proved this to be so many years ago and yet we go on living like time is the master.

“Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one”
– Albert Einstein

“The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”
– Albert Einstein

“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
– Buddha

So how do we be wise men and women?  What do we do with this 21st century knowledge?  How do we apply it to our lives?

Moment to moment.  Thoughtfully reconsidering the universe.  Looking out at our world through different glasses and taking each moment to see things as they truly are.  Being careful to not get caught up in the routine of matter perception.  Taking nothing for granted.  Starting over again each moment.

Does this mean we stop brushing our teeth?  Heavens no.  We’ll have to learn to live it in order to overcome the illusion.  We’ll have to get good at it.

There is precedent.  The great spiritual leaders of mankind’s history got it and to greater or lesser extents lived it and taught it.  It’s why Jesus healed.  It’s why Moses could part the Red Sea.  It’s why Eckart Tolle is being listened to today.

“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion.”
– Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

“When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.”
– Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

This is what we’re dealing with.  “…thousands of years of collective human conditioning.” This is what we have to overcome as a human race.  Perhaps this is why we’re here – to overcome the illusion.  To see it as it truly is.

If so, what a strange trick we play upon ourselves!  To make up this world of matter and mortality, struggle through it all, live and die – all in the name of experiencing a life that isn’t a reality.  Egads!  What a thought…  To live in this human consciousness experiencing the illusion of life in matter.  What’s the purpose?  Why do it at all?

And once again we arrive at the $64 question.  Why do it at all?  Where did the mistake come from in the first place?  If we are, in fact, purely spiritual beings and this is all an illusion, then why did we chose to go this route in the first place?  Seems like a waste of time.  But then again time…

And on and on in circles…

Perhaps here we must turn to human wit to help balance thought for the time being.

“What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet”
– Woody Allen

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