Knowing the Illusory and Departing from the Illusory

The Fleeting Nature of the Illusory

What constitutes the illusory? All phenomena that arise and perish through Causal Conditions are inherently illusory. Everything we encounter in this world—the people we meet, the events that unfold, and the landscapes we traverse—are all manifestations of these conditions. They are exactly like a dream. Just as the people, the scenery, and the events within a dream are mere phantoms and shadows, so too is our waking life. These illusions and dreams are not permanent; they arise when conditions gather and vanish when conditions disperse. They possess no lasting substance.

The Trap of Delusion

Those who are lost in confusion are deeply deceived by the illusions and dreams generated by their physical bodies within these shifting conditions. Because they mistake these phantoms for reality, they give rise to endless suffering. This process of delusion manifests in several ways:

• Sensory Perception: We form attachments to our feelings, thoughts, and behaviours.
• Karmic Accumulation: These thoughts enter our consciousness and solidify into karma.
• The Five Poisons: We are constantly swayed by Greed, Anger, Ignorance, Arrogance, and Doubt.
• The Five Desires: We chase after wealth, lust, fame, food, and sleep.
• The Cycle of Life: We are trapped in the cycle of joy and anger, sorrow and happiness, union and separation, and the inevitable suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

When the conditions that sustain these experiences finally dissipate, everything returns to nothingness. The only thing that remains is the heavy burden of the karma we have carried with us. Most people in this world do not realise that their suffering is also a product of Causal Conditions. It is merely an illusory existence. Because they are deceived by this illusory existence and mistake it for something permanent, they are unable to escape and thus endure suffering without end.

The Perspective of the Awakened

Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, patriarchs and venerable masters, as well as those who have realised their true nature, possess a different vision. They are able to understand the Universal Principle, the Truth, and the Right Way. They can clearly distinguish between the illusory environment and the ultimate reality. Consequently, they are not deceived by the physical body or the various phenomena that arise from Causal Conditions, such as our fleeting feelings, thoughts, and behaviours; the deep-seated habits of Greed, Anger, Ignorance, Arrogance, and Doubt; the relentless pursuit of wealth, lust, fame, food, and sleep; or the emotional turbulence of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

Living in the Illusion to Save Others

Because they know the illusory for what it is, they are able to depart from it. They can teach and transform beings even while remaining within the illusion. They act like a bodhimanda reflected in water, performing the work of the Buddha as if in a dream. Their purpose is to help all beings recognise the true reality of the laws of the world, so that every being may eventually find their way back to their true self and their original, pure nature. Namo Amituofo.

Recorded and transcribed by Namo Amituofo’s disciple, Venerable Fa Hui.