As you sit in a chair, you are moving. You are a passenger on a rock hurling through the cosmos. Your chair is never in the same spot second to second even though you do not perceive the movement. There is always more happening than it is possible for you to see. This is the first illusion.
As you think back on life, all you can perceive is a few years, a tiny fraction of human existence. Yet, the human species spans many more generations back than you can even comprehend. Modern ideas, technology, and comforts are only recent privileges, fragilely separating us from a history of traditions our ancestors evolved to overcome unfathomable hardships. We adapt to our present circumstances quickly, thinking it is our reality. This is the second illusion.
As you consider your sense of self, you think you understand yourself. You do not contemplate how your animalistic nature has shaped who you are, nor do you perceive the vast amount of nonconscious, automatic awareness that your mind is always analyzing, filtering, and adopting. You believe the agent part of you, the part that you think of as “me”, is all there is. You are made of many parts, and most of who you think you are you have not discovered yet. You think your thoughts are your own. This is the third illusion.
As you decide to undergo or forgo action, you think to yourself, “It doesn’t matter. It is only a small thing.” You do not comprehend how your actions and your life impacts the pattern of events that have been forming through the consequences of actions stretching back farther than we can perceive. Great accomplishments are the consequences of a chain of uncountable choices that preceded. We believe we are powerless because we are unaware of what power we may possess. This is the fourth illusion.
As you progress through life, you’re presented with a series of choices. Do you go left or right? You think that one path is morally superior because you have been taught it is so. Neither path is wrong unless you believe it is so. Nothing is good or bad except that you deem it so. You are convinced of the rightness of your beliefs, not understanding that they are constructions of your life experiences. This is the fifth illusion.
When observing the behavior of others, you think to yourself, “How pitiful a fool must they be. I would never.” You overestimate your own goodness, and you do not understand the complexity of your nature. The wrongdoer has a nature like your own. We are all capable of monstrous acts. To know light is to know the shadow. This is the sixth illusion.
As we strive towards goals, we become upset by the things that we judge to be resisting our progress. We believe our paths and our destination are important, and we allow our tranquility to be disrupted when we are hindered. We do not realize that we do not truly own or control anything, except for our own volition. This is the seventh illusion.
As you experience life, it is always through your own perception. “I did this. This thing happened to me.” You are constantly being reminded of your own emotions, needs, desires, and fears and being encouraged by your nature to place your own interests above those of others. This experience of the world through the self deludes you about what is truly important. This is the eighth illusion.
It is not people, things, or events that upset us but our judgments about such things. Our beliefs concerning good and bad affects our automatic or animalistic responses to such things. We believe a thing is good or bad, so when something happens, we react as if it is good or bad based on our beliefs. You believe that you can’t control this response, but you can choose to exercise agency over the immediate response and practice retraining our automatic and animal natures. This is the ninth illusion.
While you live, you only sporadically consider your mortality. You live as if your time is not limited. The duties and responsibilities of living spurn you forward, ever distracting you with constant demands for activity. To live is to have responsibility. Only in death are you free. This is the tenth illusion.