Quotes about Illusion

When our life feeds on unreality, it must starve.

Before we can see that created things (especially material) are unreal, we must see clearly that they are real.

It seems that many men, and some women, cannot give up the illusion of possessing another person. The idea of that person—and "idea" is related etymologically to the word "idol"—becomes more important, more potent than the actual living creature. It is much safer to love an idol than a real person who is capable of surprising you, loving you and demanding love in return, and maybe one day leaving you.

You cannot go on 'explaining away' for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on 'seeing through' things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it.

Consciousness is either inexplicable illusion, or else revelation

This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.

Practical experience and accurate observation show that one cannot influence one's own dreams. There are people, it is true, who assert that they can influence them. But if you look into their dream material, you find that they do only what I do with my disobedient dog: I order him to do those things I notice he wants to do anyhow, so that I can preserve my illusion of authority.

In this way he slips imperceptibly into a purely conceptual world where the products of his conscious activity progressively take the place of reality.

A career, producing of children, are all maya [illusion] compared to that one thing, that your life is meaningful.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich--something for nothing.

Safety is an illusion, and trying to protect ourselves does nothing more than protect us from experiencing a full, evolved, and juicy life.