Facing Illusions Does Not Lead to Enlightenment

            Last week’s article had this paragraph:

 

“There is a difference between the illusions of ego and the illusion that is ego. If you become aware that ego is an illusion, you will become aware of ego’s illusions as well. But becoming aware of ego’s illusions does not lead to becoming aware that ego is an illusion. Ego can be taught to see its illusions. But ego cannot be taught to see that it is an illusion. That awareness comes only when truth (pure consciousness) rises to conscious awareness, which it does of itself. This is not something that ego can make happen. And the awareness does not come to ego. Ego only senses that there is something else in consciousness and claims it for itself, which is how it makes its religions and spiritualities.”

 

Let’s unpack this.

What are the illusions of ego that ego can come to see? These illusions are what one faces throughout life to some degree. These are not just opinions and judgments one may hold, but the ideas behind opinions and judgments that one feels are fixed, are immutable truths. Because these ideas feel fixed, they feel like reality, they go unquestioned. One unconsciously builds one’s world around them and when they are revealed to not be fixed, there is a period of disorientation as one reorients to the “new” truth. There is often grief, as well, as the “old world” falls away.

Imagine when people first learned that earth is round, not flat. Or that earth revolves around the sun and it’s not the other way around. The first is almost inconceivable because it cannot be perceived on earth. You must accept it on faith, or learn math, or find your way to outer space to perceive this in some way. The second shattered more than merely physical perception. Earth was supposed to be the center of the universe and if it wasn’t then that challenged not just perception but religious beliefs as well. There was so much resistance to these ideas that those who taught these ideas were imprisoned or killed.

Those are universal ideas that challenge people’s views of their world and themselves. (Education is an illusion-buster, which is why many are uncomfortable with it.) But one faces challenges to their world throughout their life. For example:

 

A boy grows up in wealth and security and knows nothing else until he is eight and is driven through a poverty-stricken area of town. He had no idea others lived differently; he had no idea he was privileged. The world he thought he was in is shattered. It was an illusion. He finds he’s in a new world that includes the awareness of other, very different lives.

A young woman who grew up feeling safe and secure and loved finds out her beloved father had sexually abused her older sister for years. Now she questions her entire upbringing and family dynamic. The world she was in is gone. It wasn’t what she thought it was. It was an illusion. The reality of what was going on when she was growing up has become the untrustworthy world she is in now.

A woman marries a wonderful man but finds out life just goes on with its pains and challenges as before. Her illusion that marriage and family would be “happily ever after” is shattered. Life is just as it always was.

A man reaches middle age with a happy marriage, healthy kids, career success, and a hefty bank account. He did it all right, but where is his reward? His illusion that worldly success would bring recognition and lead to fulfillment is shattered.

 

Facing illusions is a large part of what we consider “growing up”. You can make the choice to go deeper than the lessons life offers to find your illusions and look past them and choose instead another world to see. And this is what something like A Course in Miracles offers, which shows you that your world is not fixed, it is made through projection of meaning and story making. You can choose to make a better world for yourself.

Finding illusions, seeing past them, and choosing another way to see to make a better world for yourself is something ego can learn; it is something that can be taught. But ego cannot be made to see past itself. It cannot see that it, too, is an illusion. Only something else can see this about ego. If you have had the experience of seeing ego and its world, even its “better” versions, are not real, that was not ego seeing this, that was pure consciousness (truth) rising to your conscious awareness. So, ego cannot bring to itself the awareness it is an illusion by looking at its illusions. It can only make better illusions.

When truth rises to conscious awareness without ego falling away, ego remains the thought system occupying your conscious awareness. Ego is made aware that there is something else to see in consciousness that is good and desirable, but ego cannot see beyond itself. It cannot see truth. Yet, it thinks anything in consciousness is about it. So, this “something better” or “heaven” that it can only sense becomes something that validates its own reality. It is now a “soul” on a journey to get to that something better. Sometimes, this means living a “good” and “moral” life to “deserve” that something better when the body dies. Sometimes it thinks it must live many lives to attain this “better place” or “state”. Sometimes it is aware it does not have to wait for death and seeks enlightenment now. Behind all the world’s religions and spiritualities is a genuine experience of truth that ego took over and turned into an elaborate process of attainment for itself. But, in fact, ego never reaches enlightenment or heaven. It cannot, because enlightenment and heaven mean ego is no longer in conscious awareness. Ego’s religions and spiritual journeys are its deepest illusions, and they are only undone by truth rising to conscious awareness.

This distinction between ego facing its illusions and ego as an illusion is important because many pursue facing their illusions thinking this will lead to enlightenment. But nothing leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment occurs when truth rises to conscious awareness or itself, not through any effort of ego. Ego sees what appears in consciousness backwards. It thinks it is headed somewhere when what appears in consciousness is an expression of an idea already past. An ego embarks on a spiritual journey not to reach somewhere but because this is the effect on ego when truth rises to conscious awareness. So, you are not on a spiritual path because you are to get somewhere. You are on a spiritual path because truth is here and has already come to your conscious awareness to some degree and this is the effect of that. Your person’s life in the world is not a vehicle for a “soul journey” for ego but is an expression of a moment long past.

More on this in the next article. 

>>>> 

If you have a question the answer to which you feel may be helpful to others, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered in this newsletter/blog.