Illusion: Staying With What's Real

How believable our thoughts are! They create an illusory world that we live in, more or less. Those who live in this illusory world think they feel freer, happier, more content, and more alive and open to life and life's possibilities. This illusory world is not a happy place, but the source of all suffering.
Thoughts aren't believable because they are true; they are believable because they are meant to be believable. We, as humans, are programmed to believe them. If thoughts weren't believable, we would live in Reality instead of the illusion of being a separate self.
We are programmed to believe we are a separate self, and the programming is carried out by making our thoughts believable. Our thoughts hold the illusion of separation in place. The reality is that we are One Being, masquerading as individual selves. If our thoughts weren't believable, life would be unmasked as one seamless Whole. Because of our thoughts, we experience ourselves as separate from others, divided within ourselves, and separate from life and from God -- our true nature.
To discover that even some of your thoughts aren't true is a very big step, and from there, the illusion begins to unravel. Ultimately you discover that none of your thoughts about yourself are true -- or about anyone or anything else! That's pretty radical.
The truth is radical, once it's seen. It's radical to discover that you don't need that voice in your head, which seems like your own voice, to guide your life or to be safe, happy, and fulfilled. The truth is quite the opposite -- believing that voice (your thoughts) takes you out of Reality, where happiness, peace, fulfillment, and true guidance are found.
What does it mean when we say that thoughts are not believable? It means that our thoughts don't match reality -- what's here and now. Reality is what we know to be true and real right here and now. Every self-image you have and every story you tell about your life or life in general doesn't match what is real and true right now.
Is an image or a belief about yourself, someone else, or life true right now? Can you be sure that it is true? When we begin to examine our thoughts this thoroughly, we discover that our thoughts don't match reality, and that is a recipe for suffering.

We all have images of ourselves that we carry around, both consciously and unconsciously. Are you aware of some of these images? Do they match reality now? All self-images were created in the past, so they are unlikely to match reality right now, since reality is never the same way twice.

However, our self-images create a false reality if we believe them. For instance, I carry around an image of a complainer. If I believe that I am that, then I'll probably complain. On the other hand, if I notice this image and don't believe it (i.e., realize that it doesn't match reality -- who I really am), then I probably won't complain.
By behaving as if a self-image (or a belief, such as "I'm unworthy"�) is true (even though it isn't), we bring it to life -- we make it true for the time being. That's how our thoughts create, or shape, our experience of reality moment to moment. Meanwhile, who we really are is here in the midst of this enacting of our self-images.
What would life be like if we didn't shape reality this way with our images and beliefs? We eventually see that Reality is waiting for us to discover it, once we drop out of our thoughts about ourselves and life and are just here, stripped bare of these. Then we discover that Reality is sweet -- and mysterious -- and so are we.
How can any image, idea, or story match reality now, when reality is constantly changing and can't be defined by one or even several self-images or stories? We, as humans, are concept-makers. Our mind makes up concepts, and these concepts help us function to some extent. But concepts don't describe or do justice to reality nor to the mysterious reality that we are.
Concepts define and limit reality. So what is reality really like right now? What are you really like right now? What do you actually know? A self-image may be present, but what else is present that is much bigger and truer than any self-image?
This is really good news -- that you're not your self-images, your beliefs, your past, your desires, your future dreams! You're too mysterious and vast to be so narrowly defined. Let yourself be as vast as you are right now. Let yourself discover who you are beyond all images, beliefs, opinions, likes, dislikes, and desires.
~ by Gina Lake