The Grand Illusion

One fish said to the other, “Do you believe in this ocean that they talk about?” This Chinese saying illustrates how narrow our vision of the world and the universe can be. We see the world from our limited perceptual framework. Despite an overwhelming evolution of the human race, the human mind is severely restricted by what it can perceive through the senses. What we hear is limited by the frequencies our ears can process – dogs can hear many higher frequencies and hence have a very different perception of the same sounds. Our sight is limited by the light frequencies our eyes can relate to; since pit vipers can sense heat from infrared rays they must construct the same world rather differently. If we had a different receiver mechanism, we would be hearing other frequencies and seeing in new ways. With scientific knowledge, we know that many things are not what they appear to be – the sky isn’t blue, only the scattering of the blue light absorbed by the atmosphere makes it appear so; the moon doesn’t rise in the night; and the house we live in is not stationary, but rotates along with the earth. Essentially, we see, hear and process what we can and not what reality is. Truth realisation is not easy. Besides the difficulty, our perceptions are further clouded by our personal thoughts and emotions. A Buddhist verse says: “Is anything on earth universally and unanimously recognised as beautiful? For a lover, a beautiful woman is an object of desire; for the hermit, a distraction; for the wolf, a good meal.” What is the truth, then? Everything in the universe is made up of energy. All beings are manifestations of the same energy. This vital spiritual force breathes life into every living being and sustains every cell and organism. It’s like an enormous field of colourless and odourless energy which encompasses everything and every being that we can imagine – all of that existing, not in isolation or in separation, but in one continuum. What appears solid is only so because of the frequency of wavelengths that our senses are capable of perceiving. Our minds create a three-dimensional world from this continuum of free-flowing energy, comprising of electrons and neutrons. Like the fish in the Chinese saying, when we cannot see this continuum, we are limited to noticing the individual parts of the creation. As a result, the trees, animals, humans and all other objects seem disjointed from us. ‘I’ as an individual does not exist, never existed, never will – the sense of ‘I’ is merely a perception of our limited mind. From Einstein we know that matter and energy are interchangeable; they’re essentially one. When broken down to its barest form, all matter is the same energy. We can break a glass jar into pieces but each piece, however small, will still be glass. Similarly, know that God is in each one of us, and we are part of the same whole. This knowledge can set us free. As we make a conscious effort to stay connected with this realisation, we become better equipped to playing the roles of our life – businessman, teacher, wife, father and friend – with tremendous happiness and inner peace. This connection lets us be like an actor who plays her role on stage with great sincerity but stays conscious of the fact that she is really not the character she’s playing – and thus not overly identify with the fortunes and misfortunes of her given role!