Within the mind there’s this unique nature that fools perception into seeing reality in falseness. As long as the falseness is not realized, the reality is kept intact by delusional rightness. No matter how much another were to point out the distinction of its nature, the beholder of the falseness will see naught what is in front of him. That nature is delusion itself. It has the function of creating an optical illusion to what is being experienced. So long as delusion, or maya, is not recognized, one will be not be able to see Reality but instead perceived-reality.
In life, to be able to notice and recognize an object that is totally new and unknown to us, we must beforehand, has sufficient right knowledge and information of its characteristics. Only when complete information is been fully comprehended, what is not known will be known and what is oblivious will become obvious.
As an analogy to train a child to recognize a cat, spelling out c-a-t to him or seeking him to pronounce it will not help him to distinguish what a cat is like. Thus, a wise teacher will illustrate a cat or probably an image of a cat to match the spelling and its pronunciation, at the same time pointing to the child the unique characteristic that constitute a cat. Having all these information repeatedly shown, when a child were to see an animal, irrelevant whether it is skinny, fat, black, white or furry, what he knows before hand matches what he sees and thus immediately recognize it as a cat and not dog or, for that matter, any other animal. More to that, to the child, a leopard, a tiger, or a civet is also a cat, except in its different form.
Similarly, when we have sufficient information how delusion is like, we will be able to see it in whatever forms delusion takes on. There are no specific curriculum that teaches us how to notice delusion but there are many unique statements made by Masters of the past that points us towards recognizing delusion. Words like “we are never upset for the reason we think it is”, “all betrayals are self-betrayal”, “nothing has permanent nature within it”, “mind is the forerunner of all things” – all these wise statements are pointing to a certain truth that we have yet not realized. These statements are not meant for us to mimic, imitate, or to believe; rather they are meant for us to explore how far these truth are true to our perception.
In truth, all scriptures found in any different faith are all having a common purpose and goal – assisting each individual to come to realize Reality and ultimately Truth; in offering right perception to see through the veil of delusion and thus to bring what was once misperceived to correction. Scriptures are meant to speak directly to each beholder in a very personal way, thus they are not meant as tool for conversion or instilling another. When one realized the true message of a Master and living it, her life becomes an exemplary for others to be inspired.
Scriptures in its rightful purpose are not something for us to segregate another, to rehearse, to challenge, or even to kept in memory without questioning – rather more appropriately, they are directions made for us to explore, to question our fixated misperceptions with relevance to what they expound, so that what is not seen will be seen; what is hidden will be revealed and what is not realized will be realized.
Blindly believing all these truth are insufficient for us to realize the realness of each meaning. Only when we ponder, observe and explore in depth the phrase, each time a certain related experience comes to mind, are we able to potentially come to a deep realization of what the Masters have all the while been conveying.