Is the material world an illusion?

[IslamBox]

I think the world is real and the most real world is the world of here after. Lets prepare ourselves for the here after world.

 

[Sunstone]

Lets prepare ourselves for the here after world.

Good idea! I'll bring the snacks!

 

[Tathagata]

"The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze."

-- The Buddha [Lankavatara Sutra]


"Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a cloud castle,
A dream, an apparition,
Without essence but with qualities that can be seen.
Know all things to be like this:
As the moon in a bright sky
In some clear lake reflected,
Though to that lake the moon has never moved.
Know all things to be like this:
As an echo that derives
From music, sounds, and weeping,
Yet in that echo is no melody.
Know all things to be like this:
As a magician makes illusions
Of horses, oxen, carts, and other things,
Nothing is as it appears."

-- The Buddha








.
.

 

[PolyHedral]

The way it is understood is that since matter/energy is not permanent and is always in a flux and changes form is therefore an illusion But as friend Sunstone stated, one has to still deal with it. It is still to be transcended.

That "therefore" doesn't look like a valid one to me. :no:

 

[YmirGF]

That "therefore" doesn't look like a valid one to me. :no:

Correct. It's probably best to stop at the perpetual change and leave it at that. :yes:

 

[cablescavenger]

Why or why not?

In short what we experience with our senses is an interpretation of what is really out there, so our experience is not a perfect reflection of the material world.

Different animals will perceive the world differently dependent on how developed their scenses are.

Examples:
UV, infra red, x-ray and Gamma Rays etc which our eyes can't see.
The higher and lower frequencies which our ears cannot decipher, the minute which we cannot feel, the quantum which we cannot fathom.
Electromagnetic field that we can't sense, but which some animals can.

 

[Willamena]

That "therefore" doesn't look like a valid one to me. :no:

Put a comma after "changes," that might help.

 

[YmirGF]

Put a comma after "changes," that might help.

Actually, I don't think even that helps, though it would make it slightly more coherent.

 

[Satyamavejayanti]

Why or why not?

I don't think it is an illusion, if you cut your self you bleed, that is no illusion.

 

[1137]

I don't think it is an illusion, if you cut your self you bleed, that is no illusion.

That argument doesn't, in any way, disprove the material world is an illusion.

 

[Satyamavejayanti]

That argument doesn't, in any way, disprove the material world is an illusion.

neither does it prove that it is an illusion, I think we only find out when we are dead.

 

[Songbird]

Your dastardly plot to lull me into an epistemological stupor with your twisted logic while you make off with my beer and money will surely fail because you don't know that I keep a spare key to my cottage under the rock by my front door! Hah! Eat your defeat!

You've stumped me there.

You have a cottage! That word conjure up all kinds of idyllic for me. I imagine you live in a watercolor where birds constantly sing, flowers bloom everywhere, and the sun always shines - but in a soft, blended diffusion. It's exactly like that, right?

 

[Student of X]

neither does it prove that it is an illusion, I think we only find out when we are dead.

Or when we have a mystical experience that is profound enough.

 

[Sunstone]

You've stumped me there.

Never misunderestimate my superior male intelligence!

You have a cottage! That word conjure up all kinds of idyllic for me. I imagine you live in a watercolor where birds constantly sing, flowers bloom everywhere, and the sun always shines - but in a soft, blended diffusion. It's exactly like that, right?

That's a pretty good description of the place, if you include the fawn in the front yard.

 

[YmirGF]

That's a pretty good description of the place, if you include the fawn in the front yard.

Indeed, it is the fawns that really complete the scene. I never get tired of them...

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I believe it is an illusion of sorts. I'm not sure what the dividing line between "real" and "unreal" is supposed to be. "Reality", to me, is electrical signals that are decoded by the brain, which is really like a computer. It's like a holographic projection, basically. I think it's all energy grids or matrices interacting with other.

 

[atanu]

Are orgasms illusions?

 

[Sinful Hypocrite]

The material world is useless to our souls health, and is the most detrimental thing to our souls according to what Jesus taught, here are some examples.


Luke 12:15
And he said to them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.
Topicalbible.org—AKJV
1 John 2:15
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Topicalbible.org—AKJV

Matthew 16:26
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Topicalbible.org—AKJV

1 John 3:17
But whoever has this world's good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?
Topicalbible.org—AKJV

 

[zenzero]

Friends,

Personally take it this way:
Mountains are mountains as we perceive.
Mountains are not mountains when we dissect them and see them to be active changing forms.
Mountains are again mountains when the realization is there that we still need to climb and not wait for that change to melt it away to cross them.

Love & rgds

 

[sadhak]

I think human mind is incapable to decide whether its an illusion or reality. A ant might think that the world it sees is the real world and there are no humans in this world.