Tattva-viveka
The nature of illusion
Yamuna Dasi - September 17, 2008 4:25 pm
Dear devotees, I am preparing a training titled "The nature of illusion" which is a big challenge for me since it will be a training for trainers.
As you know the training is the most popular nowadays form of teaching in which through games and personal experience one gets a first hand experience and conclusions about the ideas stated in the training. Training also includes usually games and situation oriented tasks.
I would appreciate any help and ideas.
At this training I would like to prove to the participants that we are so accustomed to illusion, that we are not even mentioning it even if theoretically we know that something is an illusion.
Other aspect will be that in some professional techniques which we teach we actually teach the art of creating and maintaining illusions – for example in the popular sales technique “pacing the client” – we create in the client the deliberate illusion that we are just like him in any aspect so that the client can feel us close to himself and accept us.
So… a broader view to the illusion and especially to its NATURE.
Any quotes from Shastra describing Maya and its nature are very welcome.
If you also have any ideas of games or tests in this aspect – please help me.
Prahlad Das - September 18, 2008 5:25 am
I don't know if it would relate to your attempts, but some of the best physical tests can come from a magic supply shop. One of my favorites was a glass that looked as though it were full of liquid. The object was to show the glass, then act as if you were going to splash the liquid on the victim. The victim would almost inevitably jump. Have you seen the documentary of Edward Bernays titled "The Century of the Self"? It might be pertinent to the courses you are offering.
Yamuna Dasi - September 18, 2008 7:43 am
No, haven't seen this documentary, but can search for it, thank you!
I was hoping that there can be some shastric quotes also describinh the nature of illusion whih can help me with ideas for the presentation.
Madhukari Dasi - September 18, 2008 2:13 pm
Hi Yamuna, here is a nice analogy from the Joy of Self explaining the source of illusion and how we come to be in illusion:
"As a ray of sun is separated from the sun by a cloud, we are apparently separated from our source by the cloud of illusion. The supreme sun - eternal joy and consciousness personified - is the source of both its own rays and the cloud of illusion. Thus, as rays of consciousness now illusioned by the cloud of ignorance, we must connect ourselves with our source and thus overcome the material illusion." Chapter 1 In Search of Joy, Swami B.V.Tripurari
And here are a few quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books:
“In illusion the living entity is serving in this material world. He is bound by his lust and desires, yet he thinks of himself as the master of the world. This is called illusion.” Srila Prabhupada, BG Purport 18.73
‘Being conducted by divine will, material nature, although inferior, acts so wonderfully in the construction and destruction of the cosmic manifestation. The Vedas confirm this as follows: mäyäà tu prakåtià vidyän mäyinaà tu mahesvaram. "Although mäyä [illusion] is false or temporary, the background of mäyä is the supreme magician, the Personality of Godhead, who is Mahesvara, the supreme controller." (Svetäsvatara Upanisad 4.10 ) Another meaning of guna is rope; it is to be understood that the conditioned soul is tightly tied by the ropes of illusion. A man bound by the hands and feet cannot free himself—he must be helped by a person who is unbound.’ Srila Prabhupada, Purport BG 7.14
“The material atmosphere, in which we are now living, is called mäyä, or illusion. Mäyä means "that which is not." And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we are all trying to be lords of material nature, while actually we are under the grip of her stringent laws. When a servant artificially tries to imitate the all-powerful master, he is said to be in illusion. We are trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. Therefore, although we are engaged in a hard struggle to conquer nature, we are ever more dependent on her. This illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped at once by revival of our eternal Krsna consciousness.” Srila Prabhupada, Science of Self-Realisation, Chapter Practicing Yoga in the modern age
“..Because in daytime you forget that night activities, and at night you forget the day activities. So this is also illusion. So therefore you are in illusion. That's a fact, day and night, day and night. That is called mäyä. This is also mäyä. But they have accepted this as fact. The gross illusion they have taken as fact. This is also illusion. You are thinking, "I am American," "I am Indian," "German." What is that? By one kick of nature you are out, the cat and dog. This is also illusion. What is not illusion?”
Srila Prabhupada, Morning Walk Conversation, June 1974, Germany
Swami - September 18, 2008 3:34 pm
"maya" often translated as "illusion" means "to measure." To think that one can measure and thus bring within one's intellectual grasp the entirety of even one single atom is to be illusioned, or better deluded.
Yamuna Dasi - September 22, 2008 9:28 am
Thank you for the quotes and help!
I had an interesting conversation with a wife of one devotee which finally reached the topic of the nature of illusion. She is a wife of a devotee, but still on her path to become a vegetarian due to her own taste towards meat eating and the strong pressure from the side of her parents that vegetarianism is actually not healthy.
So we spoke about some advice that her husband’s Guru gave him. She was saying “but why does the Guru have to tell him this? Can’t he see it himself? It’s so obvious!”
I tried to explain her that this is actually the nature of illusion – making invisible for our sight something that is actually obvious. She could not understand and her mind kept on rejecting it. “But it is so obvious, why does a Guru have to tell him this so that he can see it? Can’t he see it himself if it is so logical and so obvious?”
I understood that she needs another example so that her mind can stop blaming the husband for not seeing something so obvious. An example that would show her that such things happen also to her – not being able to see something that is very obvious. It was a risky attempt from my side, because the mind can revoke if provoked so directly, but I had to try this due to not being able to find out other solution. One cannot become compassionate for the mistakes of others and understand them if not able to see himself as a person who makes mistakes as well. Jesus said it very well “let the one who has no sin throw the first stone”. So I decided to give her the example with the meat eating – that even though it is so obvious that it is a cruel act to catch and kill an animal and most people are absolutely unable to do it themselves, still they eat meat, closing their compassionate eyes to the fact, that if they cannot kill an animal with their own hands, but leave it for somebody else to do it and then eat the meat forgetting it’s suffering origin, then this is something quite obviously a double-minded standard, but is still so broadly practiced. Everybody knows that meat is the flesh of an animal which has been killed to be taken that flesh, and most probably over 95 % would not be able to kill or even to watch an animal being killed, but still they eat this flesh and enjoy doing so. Isn’t this very obvious contradiction but still so broadly practiced?
Also we have to see so many absurd advertisements – like advertisement for chicken soups with a logo of a happy chicken joyfully jumping around or some pork meat advertisements with a happy sweet piggie as a logo. Complete absurd! Neither the chicken nor the piggie can be happy to be killed and cut into pieces, but these images are used as logo for advertising these products. Isn’t it so obviously an absurd contradiction with any common sense? But still the broad public accepts these advertisements as “good” and they promote people to buy these products, even though using an obvious and completely brutal contradiction.
Gladly she was able to see the absurd into this and agree that indeed it’s obvious, but still not seen. This is where Guru, Scriptures and devotees enter – to help us see the obvious 
What a noble and heavy task!
This is the nature of illusion – making invisible for our sight things which are so obvious.
Yamuna Dasi - September 22, 2008 9:40 am
I was meditating how to illustrate to people on this seminar the fact, that in our lives we mix in an incredible way reality and illusions. And I got an idea!
I will ask them to sit around the table and let us all make an experiment - to drink together a cup of imaginary tea, in imaginary cups and saucers, putting inside it imaginary sugar or honey with imaginary spoons, but while eating real biscuits! To do it completely consciously and then to share the experience. It will be of course a funny game, but is will depict a sad truth - that this is actually what we do in our lives - mixing realities with illusions, without being conscious of doing so. This can be seen either as sad or as comical - I prefer to present it firstly as comical. Somehow this is a more easy way for being accepted… I hope.
Because the goal of this training will be to show how many illusions we accept as “real” even when they are obvious contradictions to reality.
Yamuna Dasi - September 25, 2008 1:17 pm
I found another idea of how to present in an interactive manner the idea and subtleness of illusion to my students, this time not as a game, but in a way that provokes more their intellectual capacity.
The previous game (drinking a cup of imaginary tea while eating real biscuits) was destined to ease them in their path to accept and admit that we are all not only subjected to illusion, but also its representatives and mediators. My idea was by making them laugh at it to make them accept it and confess it… ok, let it be with a smile if it facilitates them. 
But the next game should be much more demanding from them, since the first step is already made - acceptance that we are subjects and mediators of illusion. Next step would be - discover the illusion.
I decided to use as a material for this test the article from NY Times offered to our attention by Gaura-Vijaya Prabhu in the topic of Karma, started by Maharaj.
Will print for them this article and their task would be to discover where and how illusion was used in this presentation.
Their second task would be how they would defend the idea of the evolutionist theory if talking to a friend, but without using illusions and also without denying God if they would like religious people to hear them as well, but also without being unfair towards their own conscience in case they are not religious people and don’t believe that God had created the world.
By this double task I would like them to learn:
1. To discover illusions, even when they are quite subtle and invisible
2. To defend an idea without falling under the temptation to use illusions in order to make it look better presented