Namo Buddha, Dharma, Sangha
Today we will begin our investigation of illusion. Then over the next few weeks we will explore this concept in Buddhism from different perspectives.
For today’s discussion, I wish to make a distinction between delusion and illusion. The first term I am referring to something that is falsely believed. For example, a curled-up piece of rope mixed among the vegetation along a mountain path at first glimpse, is believed to be a snake. Illusion is something that is something misapprehended as objectively existing. For example, driving on a hot day you see a pool of water on the road but when you reach that spot, nothing is there.
The great work by Vasubandhu entitled Abhidharmakosha informs us that, “all lust, anger, and delusion belonging to the sphere of desire with the exception of belief in a self…” From this we know there is a difference between the delusion about things and the misapprehension about self. So, I will focus on the second item. However, today I am using this language but actually the terms illusion and delusion are often used interchangeably so keep thin in mind.
Buddhism is well known as teaching no-self. Yet such an idea goes against our experience. Each of us innately feel there is a self. The self undergoes change but there seems to be some sort of single thing like a thread running through these changes. How does this come about? To begin with we have an apprehension of there being an experiencer when we process information through our senses. That is according to Buddhism our senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell, thought are activated by a stimulus in their appropriate field and we not only have the experience of say hearing a sound but also a consciousness of have the experience. That is, you hear a car horn but also have the thought “I’m hearing a car horn.”
Secondly, you have memory. In your mind, the child playing on the beach is a recorded fact in the memory of the old woman sitting in the rocking chair. This old woman has many facts stored in her memory just like a computer has many documents stored in its memory.
You however, do not have a memory of your last life or what happened between your last life and this life. In fact, we cannot imagine being dead. In terms of your memory and your experience you always were. Because of this it is natural to think you will continue to be. So, although your body will die the real you, the soul will continue on. Christians believe that the real you will go to heaven if you have been good and accepted Jesus or hell if you have been bad. Hindus believe the real you will be reincarnated. This idea of a real you is so strong you will create a you to experience your dreams. In your dreams the dreamer creates a self who goes through the dream because we do not know how to experience without an experience. The Tibetan Book of the Dead teaches we create a similar self to go between lives. This is the bardo body it is just like your dream body.
But all of this is completely wrong!
First, if you gain some mastery over particular meditations entering into their samadhis, you can experience an awareness or clarity that is free of the experience of a self. Of course, at the time you cannot think, “I’m not experience self.” But when you have left that samadhi, you will know that you did have an experience of no self. From the experience of no self, we can know that the experiencer is actually connected with the experience and the two arise together.
Second, your memories are not a simple recording of facts. There are a number of studies that demonstrate that both in the making of a memory and in the recalling of a memory, there is a process of selection and distortion. If you are study a vocabulary list as you progress to learning a second language and you are sitting on your deck, you are focused on the new words you must learn. You have selected out any sounds that may come your way and that a fly has landed on the table that holds your book. In the future, you will recall the words but not the fly. We all know that if a group of people experience a bank robbery, the police will get a different description for each of the witnesses because what people recall of the robber is their perception along with their emotional overlay. So, one person saw a cold face, another a rough face, and another a brutish face. Perhaps everyone would have just seen an average face if they robber was simply another customer. What we remember is our experience of an event which is colored by our mind set.
From these investigations we can determine that our memory is incapable of providing a support for the notion that there is a self and that consciousness is equally incapable of providing that support since it is situational and can be transcended. Thus, the self is an illusion just like the pool of water on the hot road, you can clearly see it in front of you, but you can never get to it. However, even though it is an illusion, we strongly hold to it.
For this discussion we can conveniently divide our experience of the world as the experiencer and the things experienced. Things experienced may be from external stimuli or may be internal like a thought. We go through life wishing and acting in such a way as to try to increase the experiences that bring us pleasure and decreasing those that bring displeasure. Pleasure and pain themselves are interpretations of stimuli although we think of them as the actual experience. You do not experience pleasure or pain; you experience a stimulus and the experiencer interprets it as pleasure or pain. So that is part of the illusion.
The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 lines states, “Although we speak of a ‘self’, yet absolutely the self is something uncreated.” [pg. 92]
Here is a little practice you can do. Every time you feel slightly annoyed or discomforted, look inside yourself as to why this feeling comes up. Look at your own thinking, the categories, the values, etc. that are part of you which leads to the feeling at this moment. For now, disregard the external and focus on the internal. You will learn a lot about your “self” in this way.
Because the experiencer arises along with the experience, this tells us something about the nature of the things. In Indian Buddhism they do not speak of the “One” as this term was earlier used by the Hindu yogis meaning Brahman. We do find the term used outside of India much more. This oneness in Indian Buddhism is termed the non-dual.
The Vimalkirti Nirdesha Sutra has a chapter called The Dharma Door of Nonduality. In this chapter many Bodhisattvas offer their understanding of non-dual. For example, Parigudha Bodhisattva states, “’Self’ and ‘selflessness’ are dualism. Since the existence of self cannot be perceived, what is there to be made ‘selfless’? Thus, the nondualism of the vision of their nature is the entrance into nonduality.” After each Bodhisattva gave an answer basically X not X are dualities and don’t exist. Manjusri states that all of the other teachings are dualities and not engaging in X is nonduality. Vimalakirti when asks gives no reply thus not engaging in dualism at all.
I point this out because all there is, is the nondual. The notion that there is nirvana and samsara; self and other; pain and pleasure; or any other dualism is an illusion. These are all false dichotomies. During the day we go about engaging in unneeded dichotomies. In your formal meditation practice dwelling in the emptiness of emptiness. Then during the day enter into the activities only to the extent need and return to the emptiness of emptiness, even if only for a few moments.
Be free!