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Abstract

an out-and-out mistake, the work of the Demiurge. Traditional Christianity tends to devalue this world, making it a testing ground where we prove our worthiness for Heaven (which is eternal, in this case). Judaism takes a more life-affirming view of this world, which is no doubt part of the basis of antisemitism. Anyway, there are many variations on the theme, but in general traditions suggest that we shouldn’t take God’s creation to be an illusion, however unpleasant it can be.For our purposes, I want to focus on more recent Western approaches, as we find in Spiritualism, the New Age, and also via psychedelic and hypnotic exploration into the state ‘between’ lives. For many of us, these more recent approaches have greater appeal than those found in traditional Western religion, and are therefore more relevant.Considerable diversity is found among these contemporary Western perspectives. In the spirit of our age, each account is offered as-is rather than being condensed into a unified system. Still, we can find some common denominators that describe the overall thrust of the teachings.First among these has to be reincarnation and the assumption of multiple lives. Since it is well-known that belief in rebirth was common — but by no means universal — in antiquity (even among some early Christians), the emphasis on multiple lives seems to stretch back to more genuine spiritual perspective, before the tyranny of the Church and Western materialism.Next, we find an elaborated afterlife that is populated not only by the departed but by guides, angels, and a variety of other beings who work in a systematic way. Sometimes, it appears that there’s a veritable Motor Vehicle Bureau in the afterlife, while other reporters suggest a more organic process that can only be described in more mundane analogies.Another common theme is that this world is a denser version of the higher world(s), a stepped-down and easier place for us slow kids. This is often described as a lower vibration, which places this world on a continuum of reality, as opposed to a strict dualism (up there and down here). The basic assumptions of our 3D reality, things like time, space, and physical causality, are merely a convenient framework so that we can learn in a step-by-step fashion.That brings us to the big question: why are we living in this illusion? An illusion it is, because we are bound up in it, unaware of our real nature and our connections to higher worlds. If we were simply living here as a kind of kindergarten but we knew that this was a slower, denser reality, it wouldn’t be an illusion. Yet we all know that it’s possible to believe that this is the only world — in fact that seems to be a condition for learning our lessons that we be completely immersed in the illusion. And we’re here to learn lessons.In fact, this plane of existence is often described as a ‘schoo

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l,’ although there are apparently also schools in the next world. In discussion with our guides and angels and soul family, we choose lives in which various lessons will be learned. We then enter into the game, forgetting that we chose our roles, and even forgetting the lessons we are here to learn.<h2 id="92d9">Comparisons…</h2>Both East and West often describe our reality as an illusion, and both have a strong emphasis on reincarnation because multiple lives are needed for us to accomplish our task. Yet the task is very different.In the Eastern traditions I’ve described, the goal is to liberate oneself from the illusion. Multiple lives are needed because of the strength of the illusion, which is fed by our ignorance, attachment, and aversion. In fact, many lives seem to be more or less wasted as we are engulfed in our desires and/or hatred. Few people even get to hear the teachings, fewer still can practice, and very few can achieve liberation. The between states are rarely described, but when they are they appear as either frightful (Tibetan Buddhism), or higher-level illusions (the various heavens). It is the inexorable law of karma that determines rebirth conditions, not a soul committee.In the contemporary Western accounts that we find in Spiritualism, the New Age, and from other sources, the situation is quite different. This world is not an illusion that we need to escape from, but an illusion that is here to teach us. It may not be ‘real’ in the sense that we think it is, but it has a purpose, as does all of the suffering we encounter. That purpose is not to drive us towards liberation, but to make us more open, loving, and compassionate.In other words, it’s not the infinite’s illusion that we’re caught in, it’s an illusion into which we voluntarily enter in each life so that we can grow. That’s a very big difference.In the East, our natural ignorance of the reality is the source of our suffering and of our being bound to the illusion. In the West, that very ignorance is what allows us to ‘play the game’ of life and so learn the lessons of spiritual growth.I note, too, that in the East our fundamental ignorance comes in the form of perceiving a separate self, which is itself an illusion (and ultimately the source of the illusion). In the West, where sense of individual ego is perhaps over-developed, it is our personal spiritual development that is emphasized, not the overcoming of the sense of separate self.I have no doubt that these differing perspectives could be reconciled from a higher order perspective — I might have taken a crack at it myself if I hadn’t wanted to keep this article informational rather than speculative. Yet there are some aspects of the approach to illusion that are mighty hard to fit together when we consider the Eastern and Western approaches, even if they share many commonalities.</article></body>

Dealing With Maya: East and West

There’s agreement that we live in a world of illusion, but there are many differences in ideas about why, and how to work with (or through) it…

Maya, Samsara, illusion, The Matrix. From ancient religion to the New Age, the idea that the world we’re living in is an illusion is a common theme. It’s not ubiquitous, but it shows up in many places, and it suggests two questions: why are we living in an illusion, and what are we supposed to do about it? The answers from East and West are quite different.

Escape Hatch…

The religions of the East generally take the approach that we need to find our way out of the illusion. Of course, there are plenty of practices devoted to making life here on Earth, within the illusion, better, or getting to heaven after this life, but I don’t expect that many of my readers have too much interest in this aspect of Eastern religion — after all, there are many options within Western religion for improving this life or the next.

The appeal of Eastern religion comes mostly from its more spiritual aspect, as found in Buddhism, Vedantic Hinduism, and similar strains of thought, where the emphasis is almost entirely on escaping the illusion. The world of Maya, or Samsara, is ultimately unsatisfactory, as all pleasure is countered by pain, happiness by sadness, and life by death. Even the worlds of the gods, the heavens, are not eternal, but merely temporary resting places (nice ones, though!). The task, then, is to find our way out of the illusion.

There are variations. For example, in Theravada Buddhism, the emphasis is on each of us freeing ourselves into the timeless state of Nirvana, while Mahayana Buddhism celebrates the bodhisattva, a being who could be fully liberated but chooses to remain to help all other beings to attain liberation. There are other variations, as well, but all share escape as the ultimate goal.

More recent Eastern thought, as found for example in Sri Aurobindo, can take a more hopeful approach, with the idea that we are evolving towards a world where the infinite perfectly expresses itself in the finite… but traditional Eastern thought emphasizes escape.

There isn’t as much concern about why the whole illusion was generated in the first place, but generally it is seen as a play of the infinite, the dream of Vishnu, or something similar.

School’s In Session…

Just as there is diversity of thought on the matter in the East, so there is in the West. Gnosticism is perhaps one of the closest parallels to Eastern thought in the West, but rather than seeing the world of illusion as a play of the divine, it is viewed as an out-and-out mistake, the work of the Demiurge. Traditional Christianity tends to devalue this world, making it a testing ground where we prove our worthiness for Heaven (which is eternal, in this case). Judaism takes a more life-affirming view of this world, which is no doubt part of the basis of antisemitism. Anyway, there are many variations on the theme, but in general traditions suggest that we shouldn’t take God’s creation to be an illusion, however unpleasant it can be.

For our purposes, I want to focus on more recent Western approaches, as we find in Spiritualism, the New Age, and also via psychedelic and hypnotic exploration into the state ‘between’ lives. For many of us, these more recent approaches have greater appeal than those found in traditional Western religion, and are therefore more relevant.

Considerable diversity is found among these contemporary Western perspectives. In the spirit of our age, each account is offered as-is rather than being condensed into a unified system. Still, we can find some common denominators that describe the overall thrust of the teachings.

First among these has to be reincarnation and the assumption of multiple lives. Since it is well-known that belief in rebirth was common — but by no means universal — in antiquity (even among some early Christians), the emphasis on multiple lives seems to stretch back to more genuine spiritual perspective, before the tyranny of the Church and Western materialism.

Next, we find an elaborated afterlife that is populated not only by the departed but by guides, angels, and a variety of other beings who work in a systematic way. Sometimes, it appears that there’s a veritable Motor Vehicle Bureau in the afterlife, while other reporters suggest a more organic process that can only be described in more mundane analogies.

Another common theme is that this world is a denser version of the higher world(s), a stepped-down and easier place for us slow kids. This is often described as a lower vibration, which places this world on a continuum of reality, as opposed to a strict dualism (up there and down here). The basic assumptions of our 3D reality, things like time, space, and physical causality, are merely a convenient framework so that we can learn in a step-by-step fashion.

That brings us to the big question: why are we living in this illusion? An illusion it is, because we are bound up in it, unaware of our real nature and our connections to higher worlds. If we were simply living here as a kind of kindergarten but we knew that this was a slower, denser reality, it wouldn’t be an illusion. Yet we all know that it’s possible to believe that this is the only world — in fact that seems to be a condition for learning our lessons that we be completely immersed in the illusion. And we’re here to learn lessons.

In fact, this plane of existence is often described as a ‘school,’ although there are apparently also schools in the next world. In discussion with our guides and angels and soul family, we choose lives in which various lessons will be learned. We then enter into the game, forgetting that we chose our roles, and even forgetting the lessons we are here to learn.

Comparisons…

Both East and West often describe our reality as an illusion, and both have a strong emphasis on reincarnation because multiple lives are needed for us to accomplish our task. Yet the task is very different.

In the Eastern traditions I’ve described, the goal is to liberate oneself from the illusion. Multiple lives are needed because of the strength of the illusion, which is fed by our ignorance, attachment, and aversion. In fact, many lives seem to be more or less wasted as we are engulfed in our desires and/or hatred. Few people even get to hear the teachings, fewer still can practice, and very few can achieve liberation. The between states are rarely described, but when they are they appear as either frightful (Tibetan Buddhism), or higher-level illusions (the various heavens). It is the inexorable law of karma that determines rebirth conditions, not a soul committee.

In the contemporary Western accounts that we find in Spiritualism, the New Age, and from other sources, the situation is quite different. This world is not an illusion that we need to escape from, but an illusion that is here to teach us. It may not be ‘real’ in the sense that we think it is, but it has a purpose, as does all of the suffering we encounter. That purpose is not to drive us towards liberation, but to make us more open, loving, and compassionate.

In other words, it’s not the infinite’s illusion that we’re caught in, it’s an illusion into which we voluntarily enter in each life so that we can grow. That’s a very big difference.

In the East, our natural ignorance of the reality is the source of our suffering and of our being bound to the illusion. In the West, that very ignorance is what allows us to ‘play the game’ of life and so learn the lessons of spiritual growth.

I note, too, that in the East our fundamental ignorance comes in the form of perceiving a separate self, which is itself an illusion (and ultimately the source of the illusion). In the West, where sense of individual ego is perhaps over-developed, it is our personal spiritual development that is emphasized, not the overcoming of the sense of separate self.

I have no doubt that these differing perspectives could be reconciled from a higher order perspective — I might have taken a crack at it myself if I hadn’t wanted to keep this article informational rather than speculative. Yet there are some aspects of the approach to illusion that are mighty hard to fit together when we consider the Eastern and Western approaches, even if they share many commonalities.