The Reality Within the Illusion

"In all wisdom traditions there seems to be a tendency to bash the illusion of the sense of self. Don’t you think one needs to love and nurture this illusion first to be able to live in remembering the truth of non-self? Rupert says: ‘The sense of self is not an illusion – the sense of being a separate self is an illusion. But all illusions have a reality to them. The faces on a screen are illusory, but there is something real – the screen itself. An illusion is something real that is not what it appears to be, whereas something unreal doesn’t exist even as an illusion. The separate self is not unreal; it is illusory. What is real about it? The self. What is unreal? Its apparently separate qualities. It’s the other way around from what you suggest: King Lear needs to recognise himself as the actor John Smith, and that enables him to love himself and all others. There are no prerequisites for recognising your true nature – you can go straight there regardless of the condition of your mind.’"

From event 21 - 28 November, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta, 21–28 November 2025

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