Elusive Illusions

“…Your treasure–your perfection–is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart…” Elizabeth Gilbert, “Eat, Pray, Love”

This is all probably too convoluted for a post but here goes a try.

Haiku-Heights posted the Saturday prompt  -” illusion”.  I spontaneously  and quickly wrote the Haiku below and then have labored how to express what prompted me BEHIND the “illusion” prompt.

I always smile inwardly when I hear “We need to live in the moment”.  Think about it!  We can ONLY LIVE IN THE MOMENT.    It’s just our conscious mind busy IN THE MOMENT worrying or thinking about the past or the future  - our ego defining what we want, what we need.  Our ego deciding what is fair and thereby defining who we are. 

Translation: Our perception of time and who we are, everything we think about ourselves is an illusion…it is our ego at work.

We are creatures of two worlds.  We make our way through this physical plane while having an innate sense of an invisible realm – something outside our conscious ego. I think that the sense there’s something “more” comes as a sense of longing. A yearning which we try to fill with relationships, possessions, things of the world. But no matter what STUFF we try to fill it with, the void is still there.

Translation: Reality is in the background patiently waiting for us to turn our focus inward, beyond our thoughts. When we choose to focus on this moment, and Be CONSCIOUSLY Present (like when we meditate) we can get a glimpse … of our real self, our spirit and let go of our ego. (Easier said than done)

As I grow older the void grows smaller the more I consciously  try to live less from ego and a more spiritual life.  Hopefully, that too isn’t an illusion.

Believe it or not                                                                                                                                                                        

Everything’s an illusion

Except God in all

 

It’s no illusion
All are connected
Accept God or not

…If you can recognize illusion as illusion, it dissolves. The recognition of illusion is also it’s ending. Its survival depends on your mistaking it for reality. In the seeing of who you are not, the reality of who you are emerges by itself…” -Eckhart Tolle,( A New Earth)

“When you wish to reflect upon or consider a matter you consult something within you….Surely there is a distinct power, a distinct ego. Were it not distinct from your ego you would not be consulting it. It is greater than the faculty of thought. It is your spirit which teaches you, which inspires and decides upon matters. ” (Abdu’l Baha’i: Baha’i Scriptures, p. 365)

“Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.” Hans Margolius

Artwork by M.C. Escher

 

 

Tags: ego, God, haiku, haiku heights, illusion prompt, longing, M.C. Escher, Spirituality, void