The Nature of Illusion-See It For Urself !
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Like most people, you would insist that the square marked ‘A’ above is much darker than the square marked ‘B’. It is so obvious as to be beyond question. Label ‘B’ must be on the wrong square, or the text must be wrong. There is no way that they are the same shade.
However, if you look at the two squares in isolation. Is there any difference between them? I promise that they are cut from the exact same picture. The squares appear very different, but they are not.
That is the nature of illusion. It is so convincing, until you investigate it in the right way. Illusionists make a very good living through creating convincing illusions. They become famous if they can present illusions skilfully. People really believe, at least for a moment, that the illusionist can defy the laws of nature, read their minds, or predict what they are going to do.
This is one reason why the Buddha did not approve of displaying supernormal powers. Some might think that such things are just illusions. People flock to any guru who can do such tricks. There are always two camps: the believers and the non-believers. The believers have great faith in their guru, but the non-believers think that the guru is a charlatan and the believers are just gullible fools.
In Buddhism there are also two camps: those who understand the Dhamma, and those who do not. I will try to explain the Dhamma. Please try to understand it.
Illusion is called “vipallâsa” in Pâli. It is of three kinds:
The illusion of perception,
The illusion of thought, and
The illusion of view. -
The Illusion of Perception
The illusion of the grey squares is an illusion of perception. The squares are exactly the same shade of grey, but due to the context in which you see them, the square marked ‘A’ seems to be much darker than the square marked ‘B’.
Another example of this illusion is a scarecrow. If a farmer sets up a scarecrow in the middle of a field, birds and wild animals stay away, because when a man is in the field they are afraid to approach. They perceive the scarecrow as a real man. If they were to approach closer and check it out, they would not be afraid of it.
The Illusion of Thought
The illusion of thought is like illusions created by magicians. By making you pay attention to some details and not to others, a magician can make you believe that he can read your mind to know which card you have chosen, etc. It is also very convincing, even though one knows that it is just an illusion.
Another example is the various kind of scams that con-merchants use to prey on innocent people. If one does not know about such scams, it is very easy to be fooled by them. If one knows about a particular scam, one can see through it at once. Take pyramid selling for example. Anyone who understands the mathematics behind pyramid selling will not be taken in by any such scam. Those who participate in such pyramid selling scams are either dishonest or very naïve.
Look at the diagrams:
The bottom one was created by simply copying the top shapes to the bottom. Nothing was resized, just the position was changed. Where did the white space come from? Count the grid cells, they are all the same size, and are not distorted in any way. I was baffled when I first saw this puzzle. Now that I know how it works, I am no longer deceived by it.
The Illusion of View
The illusion of view is like the case of a man lost in the desert, where there are few distinguishing landmarks. A man may become disoriented and believe that he is travelling north towards safety, when, in fact, he is travelling south, deeper into the desert. The harder he tries, the farther astray he goes. How pitiful his plight is!
Nearly everyone in the world is living under the spell of the illusion of view. They think they are right, but they are wrong. They are busy working for aims that are empty and futile. Because they have insufficient knowledge of the Dhamma, they do not know what to strive for, nor how to strive. What they perceive as happiness, the wise perceive as suffering. What they perceive as suffering, the wise perceive as happiness.
Just look how hard people struggle to get a new car. They work overtime, cut down on other spending. Then they have to pay for insurance, road tax, petrol, maintenance, parking fines, congestion charging, etc. They use a new car for ten or fifteen years, then they have to struggle again to take it to the rubbish tip. If only they had struggled to remove their desire in the first place.
It is easy to be wise with hindsight, but illusions and wrong views are a serious problem. It is due to such illusions that people have to suffer so much. When their loved ones die, or things do not work out as they planned, people have their illusions shattered, and have to suffer terribly. It is not easy to see 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, but it is the proximate cause, not the root cause. Why do we get attached to things, to people, and to views? The root cause is ignorance ,which includes illusion ,delusion, wrong view , conceit and personality view .
It is vital to understand how illusion, delusion, and wrong views arise. Not even trying to understand means the darkest ignorance. It is not that you do not know what the Buddha taught — you know very well what you should do — but you do not want to know, so you ignore what he said, and just continue your life as usual. That is what ignorance is — a kind of “bury your head in the sand” mentality. It doesn’t mean just a lack of knowledge. One may have heaps of knowledge, but without insight and wisdom one remains ignorant. -
There is a saying in Burmese: “One visit to a funeral is better than ten visits to the monastery.” You visit the monastery, you listen to Dhamma talks, discussions, and lectures, and perhaps you 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 square ‘A’ and square ‘B’ — nothing will convince you until you see through the illusion for yourself.
When you go to a funeral, it is usually the funeral of someone known to you very well. If not a relative, then at least it will be a close friend. Then you may realise something about life that you cannot read in books, and you cannot hear in talks. When you see that things are impermanent, painful, and not subject to your control, 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 they imagine the unreal —
those who abide in the pasture ground of wrong thoughts,
never arrive at the real.” (Dhp v 11)
To arrive at the real, which means to attain nibbāna, one must practise insight meditation. There is no other way. One may gain some knowledge and wisdom from reading books and listening to talks, but it is superficial knowledge and shallow wisdom, not deep knowledge or profound wisdom.
One can study nautical science and meteorology, or one can sail a yacht across the ocean. The kind of knowledge that one gains in each case is totally different. Theoretical knowledge is very useful, even essential if one intends to sail alone, but it cannot compare to practical experience.
Insight meditation is similar. Those who read books about meditation and practise for an hour or two when they feel like it, have not even begun to meditate properly.
To understand deeply what the Buddha said about the nature of illusion, one must practise meditation continuously for weeks or months, not just for a few hours. Within a single ten-day course one might obtain some insight — someone with stable morality and good concentration might do that. However, one course will not be enough. One will gain some faith in the practice, but one’s insight will still be very shallow and unstable after just ten-days. All too soon, illusion will reassert itself, and one will be in the same boat as non-meditators, swept around here and there by worldly currents. However, if one practises hard, not just for one course, but for five or six courses, and keeps up the practice at home too, one’s attitude will change. -
Take a closer look at the diagrams shown above. They are the same shapes as those above, but with the straight lines against them you can clearly see the difference. Now you can understand why the lower ‘triangle’ has a greater area than the top one. It is only about 1.5% difference, so when that difference is spread out along the longest side, you do not even notice it.
Once the theory behind this illusion has been explained or understood by oneÂ’s 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 is like the difference between the two big ‘triangles.’ To the casual observer, the difference is imperceptible. Someone who is perfectly straightforward will easily notice the difference, but the minds of non-meditators are not straight enough to distinguish right from wrong. That is why they don’t meditate, and also why they think that they don’t need to meditate! They think that meditation is a waste of time. What a pity. Thirty, forty, fifty or more years of their life has gone by, but they still cannot think straight. They haven’t even set one foot on the Noble Eightfold Path.
Bhikkhu Pesala -
Interesting... used to ask my friends the triangle question too.
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Originally posted by neutral_onliner:
CANT BELIEVE IT !... -
I cut and paste to compare A & B... its true
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Mind intriguing inputs.
Exactly what Ajahn Brahm said: "Bend on FAITH to fit the FACTS, and not bend on FACTS to fit our FAITH."
The reason of doing this is to stress test to see if it can fail. We cannot control and understand about the external Universe, but we can realise it from our inner core. Interestingly, our inner core and the Universe are ONE.