The Illusion is Real.

 Anything constructed in the universe is not of a permanent state. At some time every thing breaks down into its subtle elements. So, every thing only has the illusion of reality.

 The very nature of everything is its lack of reality. That lack of reality is real, hence the illusion is real! This is so vital to understand that I wish there was a bigger word to emphasise how big and important this is!!!

 This is the basis of the two truths – relative and ultimate.

One could say, the ultimate in the relative.

This is also the basis for the symbolic teacher.

 Every moment that an appearance happens in the mind (due to external events, which includes thoughts in the mind) is the cause of a reaction, which creates an emotion. Neither the event nor the reaction has any basis of reality. However, they have a basis for reality, as there is an awareness of these appearances: this awareness is the relative aspect of our being, and remains in the realm of relative truth. The other aspect is our absolute nature, which is pure – pure perception – which is emptiness, or in sanskrit, Shunyata.

 Understanding this means that we can give things – and people – their true value, as no thing lasts. We can respect them, have fun with them, love them, but have no permanent attachment to their relative state: we can, however, recognise their true nature as being absolute truth. So, everything now becomes our ‘symbolic teacher’ – a reminder of everything’s true nature.

The two truths are inseparable: by virtue of one, the other is known. But first we need to have recognised our inner teacher, which is pure awareness. This can only be known by having access to an outer teacher, who reveals the inner teacher to you. Without this, we will remain in concepts: it is very easy to assume that we know our inner teacher when it is still our thinking mind.

Some of these teachings can take weeks to explain: reflect upon them, and digest them slowly!