Sunday, November 11, 2012

Jeff Foster - What is illusion?



The word is so misunderstood.

'Illusion' simply means 'deceptive appearance' - not 'non-existence'. The self, the 'me' is an illusion, not because it doesn't exist, but because it doesn't exist in the way we imagine it to. Its appearance is deceptive. At first, there seems to be a solid and separate 'me' - an individual wave separate from the vast ocean of life itself. But upon investigation and inquiry and deep looking, that assumption crumbles. The 'illusion' is seen through. The wave is seen to be inseparable from the ocean. There is a self, but it is inseparable from the unstoppable flow of life. It is life, selfing, not a self experiencing life.

And so, by 'me', I don't mean the story of myself. I mean this ever-present, vast, boundless open space in which all those ever-changing thoughts, sensations, feelings, sounds, come and go - the space in which every facet of this cosmic dance is deeply welcome, not because 'I' am welcoming 'it', but because it IS. Ancient galaxies arise and dissolve in the intimacy that I Am, in this boundless love beyond all concepts of love.

And so, in the rubble of illusion, we discover a love beyond imagination.







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