Suffering From Illusion

Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.

'The Illusion of Doubt' confronts one of the most important questions in philosophy - what can we know? The radical sceptic's answer is 'not very much' if we cannot prove that we are not subject to (permanent) deception, and shows that the radical sceptical problem is an illusion created by a mistaken picture of our evidential situation.

The one habit that can improve almost every leadership skill There is a simple practice that can improve nearly every component of leadership excellence and it doesn't require adding anything to your busy schedule. In The Mindfulness Edge, you'll discover how a subtle inner shift, called mindfulness, can transform things that you already do every day into opportunities to become a better leader. Author Matt Tenney has trained leaders around the world in the practice of mindfulness. In this book, he partners with neuroscientist Tim Gard, PhD, to offer step-by-step, practical guidance for quickly and seamlessly integrating mindfulness training into your daily life—rewiring your brain in ways that improve both the ‘hard' and ‘soft' skills of leadership. In this book, you'll learn how mindfulness training helps you: Quickly improve business acumen and your impact on the bottom line Become more innovative and attract/retain innovative team members Develop the emotional intelligence essential for creating and sustaining a winning culture Realize the extraordinary leadership presence that inspires greatness in others The authors make a compelling case for why mindfulness training may be the 'ultimate success habit.' In addition to helping you improve the most essential elements of highly effective leadership, mindfulness training can help you discover unconditional happiness and realize incredible meaning—professionally and personally.

The Dance of Illusion story covers the topics of courage, change and the power of choice in a way that has never been done before. Imagine the possibility we are all impaired at birth with the blessing of forgetfulness to the universal truth that separation is The Dance of Illusion and where there is love, Divine Love, there is no separation. This story calls humanity forward to awaken from an unidentified silent epidemic of an addiction to suffering caused by an underlying, unrecognized belief system rooted in separation. What is required as the entrance ticket to new beginnings in life? It is for the reader to answer an invitation to love, Divine Love that stands the test of time, with a resounding YES. Ultimately, The Dance of Illusion proposes a new way of living in the 21st century and beyond; to learn and live in joy, with suffering a distant memory of the past. This is a story laced empowerment, hope and new beginnings. This is one woman’s true story about awakening to something more in life and how to navigate through many sunrise and sunsets to find true love, Divine love that is found on a journey within. The basic universal truth offered for consideration throughout the story is that we are human beings having a spiritual experience. What is important along the way is to discover the building blocks of truth both personal and universal to rise out of tragedy to experience triumph. What is triumph you might ask? From the author’s point of view, it is the joy of living in freedom without suffering with great passion while consciously creating life with Divine Love as the foundation of faith upon which we stand. Every element of the story showcases an innovative, breakthrough process on how to thrive through difficult times of chaos and change, and how to quiet the passions of the mind in ways that are previously unimaginable and unavailable to millions of people today. The reader is encouraged to ask and seek the answer to a tough question, “How do we create peace in the world when so many millions of us are at war, an invisible war, an attack unrecognized within our own being, perhaps even sleepwalking through life?” The described paradigm creates the set up for denying the time to question the true meaning of life on earth beyond the obvious. In midlife, the author asked herself the question, “Who am I at the core of my being?” The answers sought were beyond the field of right and wrongdoing, beyond make a living and beyond material possessions. While this sounds serious and it is, there are many stories shared that will leave the reader laughing and asking for more. Time may just be the new currency of wealth in the 21st century. It is the author’s perspective; it is what we consciously choose to do with time, that is up for investigation throughout this story. In midlife, the author found herself in emotional and financial crisis which, unexpectedly led to a spiritual emergency. After experiencing great loss, she found herself experiencing deep depression, anxiety and nagging, never ending suicidal thoughts. Having been raised Catholic, she found herself feeling separate from God, family and everyone she loved. This is a story that has never been told before about suicide from a spiritual perspective. This is a must read for those who suffer from depression, anxiety and suicidal tendencies, those who love them and professionals who help them.

Advaita and nondual teachings are about finding the Truth. This Truth is not a dogma that you study; it is the Truth about life †the Truth about who you really are. This Truth is discovered, not learned. It is discovered through sincerely inquiring, Who am I? What you discover is that who you are has nothing to do with self-images or roles and everything to do with what you experience when you ask this question. What you discover is that who you think of yourself as is just that †a thought! And beyond that thought is a great Mystery †an experience of nothingness, which is your true nature.Nothing Personal leads you to the experience of your true nature and helps you explore its depth. Through exposition, questions and dialogues, it brings you to a place of realization of the Truth: you are that spacious Awareness in which everything appears, including your thoughts and feelings. Your thoughts and feelings do not define you but merely appear within Consciousness along with everything else. This Consciousness is who you are.Nothing Personal offers a gentle and persistent guide to seeing the underlying truth of your ultimate nature. In this concisely edited collection of satsang talks and dialogues, you are invited to honor the limitless love that is your true nature and to enjoy the sweet richness that is revealed when you give this Truth your undivided attention.From the introduction:Unlike most books, this one is not meant to add to your knowledge or understanding. It is about the Truth that cannot be spoken or written. Although the Truth cannot be contained in this or any other book, each word written here is intended to point you toward that Truth. Many of the words and ideas may seem paradoxical or contradictory because what they point to is larger than our conceptual frameworks. Many questions are asked, which are not answered anywhere in the book. Find out what the experience is like to ask yourself these questions, even if they leave you emptier of knowledge and understanding. In this emptying, you just may discover what you are looking for.The Truth is revealed when we allow ourselves to not know, so I invite you to set aside all that you know for the time being and allow yourself to look with innocent eyes at what the words are attempting to unveil. Take the time to experience the unspoken truth in each section before moving on to the next. Resist the temptation to read these words with your mind, which is likely to rush right past the Truth. Allow the words to sink into your heart and reveal the truth of who you are.

I firmly declare that I am not an Atheist but an advocate of Advaita i.e., world is one, and all of us are one. Atheists also call the world as an illusion, but as an Advaitist I do believe that all of us are God just veiled by senses. As German Mystic, Meister Eckhart says: “The eye in which I see God is the same eye in which God sees me.” Atheist denies the existence of God which could lead to immorality in our life though under illusion. I do believe in contacting various levels of energies available in the cosmos as per Vedic Shastras for various types and levels of happiness to live a good life, though, it is illusion. The cosmos to me is an illusory field. Beyond the concept of Cosmos lies the web-wave field which is discussed extensively in this book. Atheist defines the final power as infinite which has no motive and thereby does not grant human wishes, whereas I do believe in the infinite atman called as Paramaatma which absorbs us in its web-wave field of pure bliss and never again to give us the illusion of birth death cycles. If one merges with it he escapes the illusion of birth and death. To the question of existence of God, I had explained in this book that during the cycles of birth and death through the illusory field there are various degrees and levels of cosmic power which does helps to mitigate the illusory effects and come out of the illusory field to merge with Paramaatma. I do make a distinction between consciousness and illusion. Both are same but marginally different. In consciousness one has the awareness whether inside or outside the body. Consciousness permits to have awareness outside the body. It could have a motive. But illusion exists inside a body and not necessarily outside the body. Illusion is a particle that pertains to the matter and its awareness is inside a body only. But consciousness is not. Consciousness exists outside the body too but inside the illusory field. Outside the body there is no illusion. Illusion gets dissipated when the body no longer exists totally with its senses. All senses pertain to illusion. All our scope, our sciences and philosophy, particularly life, death, rebirth, beliefs pertains to the body which gets the illusion, because the body is matter. Vedas and Adi Shankar Acharya call illusion as Maya, and consciousness as Prajnaa. The illusion has to be perfect for all of us during the illusory life, giving us the utmost happiness in all walks of this life. Everything to us happens only in illusion and so we must evoke the divine power to be happy in this illusion in the short life and thereafter free us from this illusory world. On this score the invocation of divine or cosmic energies are absolutely a must. Though it is easier to talk about illusion in theory, in practical life it is not easy either. Everyone has their daily routine to follow, like attending their work, begetting children, raising children, getting them married, owning property, engagement in business or agriculture or profession and so on. No one can quit these and gloat on illusion. Except for a very few no one would sacrifice anything or give up their rights, based on a concept called illusion or the illusory field. They feel real during their sojourn in this worldly life and they would like to feed their senses with pleasures. One would not gift his house to charity because of the fact that everything is illusion, as they find these philosophical talks are not practically appealing. They feel they are living a real life. A life in which they own and have to own properties, joy, children, education, as if they are going to live for long. The idea to write this book came to me as I went through Vedic / Upanishad teachings. Whether the world we live is real? Or illusory? Therefore, the main idea of this book is to make an honest attempt to investigate who is behind our lives, and if so, why is he required to play the drama of creating us, and what he wants to achieve through our creation. More fully what is that cosmic code that is behind creation? Physics describes it as fermions and bosons. But it is more than that. It is illusion. Fermions and Bosons themselves come from illusion. Particularly illusion of existence. Everything we feel, see, hear, touch, and smell is illusion. This illusion defines an impartial God or infinities. The illusion can alone define an impartial God. Many religions have come out with answers recently during the last 2200 years or so, but I find the Upanishads and other spiritual texts and teachers in India offer answers to this question conforming to modern physics and experiments. This is what this book is all about. An inquiry into secret of Human life. Most of the religious texts describe God in human form. The prophets or teachers are described as an incarnation or children of God or to whom God revealed himself in a place, at a time and handed over the words of wisdom. The main purpose of all religious texts is to tell humanity that there is a super power who is watching us and he would guide us to heaven where he lives, if we live our human lives conforming to the teachings laid down by his messengers or prophets. If such conformity is not accepted, then we would be doomed to hell. Or in other terms there would be no salvation for such person. The biggest irony is God also permits them to kill persons who do not follow such religious teachings. God treats them as enemies. The enemies of God must be killed. The tribes who are enemies of God can be killed. Well this is the irony. When God must be all LOVE, one fails to understand that such God asks for killing, when he can kill them himself. Why seek the help of other humans to kill fellow humans when he can himself do the killing? And again, why should he kill after creation. If so, why create at all! Why create such evil persons at all in this earth, who steal, or cheat or commit adultery, or who murder others? What is the purpose of such creation and evaluation? What is the purpose of God having such a character? Persons who are responsible in writing these texts know very well that unless you use the name of God no one is going to believe their own writings. Every piece of their own advice has to be stated as if they come from the mouth of God himself for mankind to believe. Their own opinions are stated as if they originated from God. Therefore, God is a convenient tool. This book goes into the semantics of the main topic that Cosmic code is illusion and I have used scientific, philosophical, mathematical, and Vedic teachings, to prove clearly my conviction, that the world we live is only illusion. It is not for the sake of writing a book I have written but it is out of my own strong feeling that the Universe has to be illusory to have an Impartial God. I trust the readers will find it interesting and get convinced.