Illusion

"It is because the cosmos is meaningless that we must secure our individual illusions of values, direction, and interest by upholding the artificial streams which give us such worlds of salutary illusion. That is — since nothing means anything in itself, we must preserve the proximate and arbitrary background which makes things around us seem as if they did mean something."

"Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower."

"Huey Freeman: Obi-Wan Kenobi once said: "Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them." Seems to be getting harder distinguishing reality from the illusions that people make for us OR from the ones that we make for ourselves... I don't know, maybe that's part of the plan. To make me think I'm crazy."

"The real sky is (knowing) that samsara and nirvana are merely an illusory display."

"Today's liberals, encouraged by the demise of Marxism, have the illusion that we can finally dispense with the notion of antagonism has become widespread. This belief is fraught with danger, since it leaves us unprepared in the face of unrecognized manifestations of antagonism."

"As a magician creates a magical illusion by the force of magic, and the illusion produces another illusion, in the same way the agent is a magical illusion and the action done is the illusion created by another illusion."

"We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth."

"“Seeing an illusory object (māyā)”: Although what one apprehends is unreal, nothing more than an illusory sign. If one does not admit this much, then an illusory sign should be non-existent. What is an illusory sign? It is the result of illusion magic. Just as one with higher gnosis can magically create forms, likewise this illusory sign does actually have manifestation and shape. Being produced by illusion magic, it acts as the object of vision. That object which is taken as really existent is in fact ultimately non-existent. Therefore, this [Māyājāla] Sūtra states that it is non-existent, due to the illusory object there is a sign but not substantiality. Being able to beguile and deceive one, it is known as a “deceiver of the eye."

"Acting is illusion , as much illusion as magic is, and not so much a matter of being real."

"We trained hard...but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams we would be reorganized [and] I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing: and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."

"Suppose, monks, that a magician (māyākāro) or a magician’s apprentice (māyākārantevāsī) would display a magical illusion (māyaṃ) at a crossroads. A man with good sight would inspect it, ponder, and carefully investigate it, and it would appear to him to be void (rittaka), hollow (tucchaka), coreless (asāraka). For what core (sāro) could there be in a magical illusion (māyāya)? So too, monks, whatever kind of cognition there is, whether past, future, or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near: a monk inspects it, ponders it, and carefully investigates it, and it would appear to him to be void (rittaka), hollow (tucchaka), coreless (asāraka). For what core (sāro) could there be in cognition?"

"This gnosis shows him all beings as like an illusion, Resembling a great crowd of people, conjured up at the crossroads, By a magician, who then cuts off many thousands of heads; He knows this whole living world as a magical creation, and yet remains without fear."

"Those who teach Dharma, and those who listen when it is being taught; Those who have won the fruition of a Worthy One, a Solitary Buddha, or a World Savior; And the nirvāṇa obtained by the wise and learned— All is born of illusion—so has the Tathāgata declared."

"Perhaps these were the errors of others rather than his [Jesus] own; and if it be true that he himself shared the general illusion, what matters it, since his dream rendered him strong against death, and sustained him in a struggle to which he might otherwise have been unequal?"

"Wir Evangelische sollten uns aber auch keinen Illusionen hingeben, dass "Rom" zu einem echten Dialog auf Augenhöhe bereit wäre. Ökumene sieht aus römischer Warte wohl eher so aus, dass die Evangelischen zurückkommen ins alte Boot dieser Kirche."

"Wie teuer Du eine schöne Illusion auch bezahltest, Du hast doch einen guten Handel gemacht."

""Wenn einer die Illusion bekämpft, so ist das das sicherste Zeichen seines unvollkommenen und unzureichenden Wissens"

"Reich hat nur einen Glauben, den an die Überlebenskraft der Literatur und Kultur. Dieser Glaube ist frei von falschen Illusionen, aber er ist schön und stark."

""Jede Kultur wird durch die Suggestion eines unsichtbaren Hypnotiseurs zusammengehalten"

"Jede Illusion muss einmal zerrinnen."

"Gib deine Illusionen nicht auf. Wenn du sie verloren hast, existierst du wohl noch, aber du hast aufgehört zu leben."

"Entweder sind Sie sich des chaotischen Zustands der Welt bewußt, oder Sie schlafen nur, leben in einer Phantasiewelt, einer Illusion."

""Der Glaube an einen lenkenden, strafenden Gott ist die letzte große Illusion der Menschheit, und was, wenn auch diese verloren ist? Dann ist sie klüger geworden"

"Die schönste Illusion, dass man ankommt, bevor man stirbt."

"Die multikulturelle Gesellschaft ist eine Illusion von Intellektuellen."

"Die Forderung, die Illusionen über seinen Zustand aufzugeben, ist die Forderung, einen Zustand aufzugeben, der der Illusionen bedarf."

"Die Erinnerung an alte Liebe erwacht gar schnell, wenn man sich in der Nähe des Wesens befindet, das sie einst in uns entzündete, die Begierden werden unwiderstehlich, wenn die Illusion nicht durch die Abwesenheit aller Reize gestört wird."

"Die Aufhebung der Religion als des illusorischen Glücks des Volkes ist die Forderung seines wirklichen Glücks. Die Forderung, die Illusion über seinen Zustand aufzugeben, ist die Forderung, einen Zustand aufzugeben, der der Illusion bedarf."

"Denn die Welt ist nicht geschaffen worden, damit man sie versteht. Sie schert sich nicht um Erkenntnis. Vielleicht ist sie sogar geschaffen worden, um nicht verstanden zu werden. Die Erkenntnis ist zwar Teil der Welt, aber nur als totale Illusion. Genau das finde ich interessant, denn es bedeutet, dass das Denken nur Teil eines Ganzen ist, und dass es für dieses Ganze keine Interpretation gibt."

"Das Schreiben löst die Illusion vom individuellen Sein auf, und man wird Teil eines Ganzen. Das liebe ich am Schreiben: Cornelia ist mit einem Mal ganz viele."

"Bewahre deine Illusionen. Wenn sie verschwunden sind, wirst du weiter existieren, aber nicht weiter leben."

"Alles im Leben giebt kund, daß das irdische Glück bestimmt ist, vereitelt oder als eine Illusion erkannt zu werden."