Bhikkhu Pesala - The Nature of Illusion

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The Nature of Illusion by

Bhikkhu Pesala

Latest Edition Nov 2012Bhikkhu PesalaAssociation for Insight MeditationYou may print copies of this book for your own use. However,

all rights are reserved. You may not use this PDF le on yourown web site, nor for commercial dis ibution. If you post anex act on a forum, post a link to the appropriate page. Please

do not link directly to the PDF le.


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ContentsThe Nature of Illusion.............................................................1

The Illusion of Perception...........................................................2The Illusion of Thought..............................................................2

The Illusion of View....................................................................3How Illusions and Wrong Views Arise......................................4How to Remove Illusion.............................................................6The Dangers of Illusion...............................................................8The Development of Insight.......................................................9


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1

The Nature of Illusion

Like most people, you would insist that the square markedA above is much darker than the square marked B. It is soobvious as to be beyond question. Label B must be on thewrong square, or the text must be wrong. There is no way thatthey are the same shade.

However, take another look at the two squares on thecontents page. Is there any difference between the two squares

there? I promise that they are cut om the exact same picture.If you dont believe me, use a colour picker to measure thecolours. The squares appear very different, but they are not.

That is the nature of illusion. It is so convincing, until youinvestigate it in the right way. Illusionists make a very goodliving through creating convincing illusions. They becomefamous if they can present illusions skilfully. People really believe,at least for a moment, that the illusionist can de the laws of nature, read their minds, or predict what they are going to do.

The squares marked Aand B are exactly thesame shade of grey.
http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.htmlhttp://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.htmlhttp://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.htmlhttp://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html


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4 The Nature of Illusion

become disoriented and believe that he is avelling northtowards safe , when, in fact, he is avelling south, deeper intothe desert. The harder he ies, the farther as ay he goes. How

pitiful his plight is!Nearly everyone in the world is living under the spell of theillusion of view. They think they are right, but they are wrong.They are busy working for aims that are emp and futile.Because they have insufficient knowledge of the Dhamma, theydo not know what to s ive for, nor how to s ive. What theyperceive as happiness, the wise perceive as suffering. Whatthey perceive as suffering, the wise perceive as happiness.

Just look how hard people s uggle to get a new car. Theywork overtime, cut down on other spending. Then they haveto pay for insurance, road tax, pe ol, maintenance, parkingnes, congestion charging, etc. They use a new car for ten or een years, then they have to s uggle again to take it to therubbish tip. If only they had s uggled to remove their desirein the rst place.

It is easy to be wise with hindsight, but illusions and wrongviews are a serious problem. It is due to such illusions thatpeople have to suffer so much. When their loved ones die, orthings do not work out as they planned, people have theirillusions sha ered, and have to suffer terribly. It is not easy tosee things as they really are.

All suffering has its root in illusion. The Buddha taught that

craving is the cause of suffering, which is right of course, butit is the proximate cause, not the root cause. Why do we geta ached to things, to people, and to views? The root cause isignorance (avijj), which includes illusion (vipallsa), delusion(moha), wrong view (dihi), conceit (mna), and personaliview (sakkya dihi).

How Illusions and Wrong Views AriseIt is vital to understand how illusion, delusion, and wrong

views arise. Not even ying to understand means the darkest


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How Illusions and Wrong Views Arise 5

ignorance. It is not that you do not know what the Buddhataught you know very well what you should do but youdo not want to know, so you ignore what he said, and just

continue your life as usual. That is what ignorance is a kindof bury your head in the sand mentali . It doesnt mean justa lack of knowledge. One may have heaps of knowledge, butwithout insight and wisdom one remains ignorant.

There is a saying in Burmese: One visit to a funeral is be erthan ten visits to the monastery. You visit the monastery, youlisten to Dhamma talks, discussions, and lectures, and perhapsyou read Dhamma books too, but nothing changes very much.Why is that?

It is due to the profound nature of illusion. The illusions of permanence, pleasure, and self are just too convincing, too real.You cannot even imagine that they are illusions. Just like squareA and square B nothing will convince you until you seethrough the illusion for yourself.

When you go to a funeral, it is usually the funeral of someoneknown to you very well. If not a relative, then at least it will be a close iend. Then you may realise something about lifethat you cannot read in books, and you cannot hear in talks.When you see that things are impermanent, painful, and notsubject to your con ol, you gain some faith in the Dhamma.

Only seeing is believing, as the saying goes.In the Dhammapada it says:

In the unreal they imagine the real, in the real theyimagine the unreal those who abide in thepasture ground of wrong thoughts, never arrive atthe real. (Dhp v 11)

To arrive at the real, which means to a ain nibbna, onemust practise insight meditation. There is no other way. Onemay gain some knowledge and wisdom om reading booksand listening to talks, but it is supercial knowledge andshallow wisdom, not deep knowledge or profound wisdom.


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One can study nautical science and meteorology, or one cansail a yacht across the ocean. The kind of knowledge that onegains in each case is totally different. Theoretical knowledge is

very useful, even essential if one intends to sail alone, but itcannot compare to practical experience.Insight meditation is similar. Those who read books about

meditation and practise for an hour or two when they feel likeit, have not even begun to meditate properly.

How to Remove IllusionTo understand deeply what the Buddha said about the nature

of illusion, one must practise meditation continuously forweeks or months, not just for a few hours. Within a singleten-day course one might obtain some insight someone withstable morali and good concen ation might do that. However,one course will not be enough. One will gain some faith in thepractice, but ones insight will still be very shallow and unstablea er just ten-days. All too soon, illusion will reassert itself, andone will be in the same boat as non-meditators, swept aroundhere and there by worldly currents. However, if one practiseshard, not just for one course, but for ve or six courses, andkeeps up the practice at home too, ones a itude will change.

Take a look at the diagram on page seven. They are the sameshapes as those on page three, but with the s aight lines againstthem you can clearly see the difference. Now you can under-

stand why the lower iangle has a greater area than the topone. It is only about 1.5% difference, so when that differenceis spread out along the longest side, you do not even notice it.

Once the theory behind this illusion has been explained, orunderstood by ones own reasoning, it is impossible to be fooled by it again. One would have to forget the explanation to be baffled by this puzzle as one was before.

The difference between meditators and non-meditators islike the difference between the two big iangles. To the casualobserver, the difference is imperceptible. Someone who is


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How to Remove Illusion 7

perfectly s aightforward will easily notice the difference, butthe minds of non-meditators are not s aight enough todistinguish right om wrong. That is why they dont meditate,and also why they think that they dont need to meditate! Theythink that meditation is a waste of time. What a pi . Thir ,for , or more years of their life has gone by, but they stillcannot think s aight. They havent even set one foot on theNoble Eightfold Path.

Let me remind you what it is: Right view, right thought,rightaction, right speech, right livelihood, right effort, right mindful-

ness, and right concen ation. The rst two and the last three areall about mental development or meditation. They must becultivated in conjunction with the other three, not a erwardswhen those three are perfect. Without meditation, morali willnever be perfect.

Non-meditators may protest, I keep the ve precepts andsupport my family. Why do I need to meditate? Im so busy! but they dont even keep the ve precepts. They cannot, becausethey cannot con ol their minds properly. They are not ee omillusions.

The TangentsRed iangle = 3/8 or 0.375Big iangle = 5/13 or 0.385

Blue iangle = 2/5 or 0.4


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Even shallow insight is be er than none at all. If meditatorsa end one course a er another at least one ten-day courseevery year sooner or later they will gain some useful insight,

and really set foot on the path to nibbna.Those fortunate and gi ed individuals who realise nibbna,obtain something unimaginably rare and precious. You cannotcompare their insight to diamonds or rubies, it is far morevaluable than that.

Their escape om suffering in the lower realms is secure.The most deeply-rooted illusion of self, which has accompaniedthem throughout the eterni of sasra, is completelydes oyed. Never again can they be fooled into regarding anyconditioned thing as permanent or reliable. That illusion issha ered, so they no longer think in the same egotistical waythat ordinary people do. They have overcome all three illusionsof perception, thought, and view regarding the so-called self.

The illusion of perception is very difficult to overcome asthe illusion of the grey squares demons ates. Even though ithas been fully explained, and you have seen that the squaresare the same shade of grey when taken out of context, whenthey are back in context again, they still look different, just asthey did when you saw them in context for the rst time.

Even a S eam-winner is not ee om illusions of pleasure.A S eam-winner is only ee om wrong-view, the mispercep-tions that makes right seem wrong, and wrong seem right.

The Dangers of IllusionOrdinary people see no harm in drinking a li le, and the

foolish ones see no harm in drinking a lot. Even telling lies isunavoidable for them. It is just a white lie or the lesser of twoevils. Buddhists dont usually rob banks, but as for illegal useof copyrighted so ware or other dishones , their answer is,

Everybody does it.Illusion deludes people completely. It is wise to realise thatone is deluded, or even a bit insane. If one imagines that one


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The Development of Insight 9

is perfectly sane, normal, and happy, then one is in seriousouble. Not only people with emotional problems need tomeditate, everyone needs to meditate even Arahants do it.

As in the well-known saying, You do not have to be madto work here, but if you are, it helps a lot dont assume thatyou know it all. When it comes to meditation, you know veryli le until you are enlightened, and then you know nothing!That is not just some Zen koan. The aim of insight meditationis to remove conditioning. It is a gradual process of cultivatingthe art of non-grasping learning to keep the mind completelyopen and receptive to the way things really are. Each breathand each step that you take is completely new, and has neverarisen before. A er it ceases, it will never arise again. Yet youperceive, think, and believe that you are breathing and walking.It is not so. The breath arises and passes away dependent onconditions. The steps arise and pass away dependent onconditions. In reali , there is no one who is breathing orwalking no one who is thinking or talking.

The Development of InsightMental and physical processes arise and pass away, in

fantastically rapid succession. Most people are totally unawareof this fact. They see these processes as a continuous person, asa self, as me, as I, or mine. They do not perceive thediscontinui . To perceive this uth clearly means the knowledge

of arising and passing away, which is deep insight. Lazy medita-tors cannot a ain it. A part-time meditator cannot a ain it either.

At higher stages of insight, the ego begins to dissolve, andthe meditator gets ightened by what he or she discovers.Mental and physical phenomena are seen as terri ing andunreliable. One must go beyond this to realise nibbna, that iswhy nibbna is so elusive.

This is just some theoretical knowledge for your education to whet your appetite so that you can appreciate be er whatshould be done to overcome illusion.


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Please y to meditate seriously to gain some genuine insight.Even the lowest stages of insight knowledge are not perceived by non-meditators, who cannot understand the special value

of this life.To be a non-Buddhist, but to live an honest life, is be er thanto call oneself a Buddhist, but to be ignorant of the Buddhasteaching. Why is that? A non-Buddhist will not misrepresentthe Blessed One by saying, There is no need to practisemeditation. Just give alms to the monks, respect your parents,observe the ve precepts, and maintain the Buddhist aditions.Such people will swear that black is white rather than admitthe uth.

Bhikkhu Pesala - The Nature of Illusion

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