Dear all, today we’re diving into a critical topic—“Delusion Has No Cause.” What is delusion? What is confusion? Where does it come from? Does it even have a cause? If we don’t get to the bottom of this, we’ll forever be stumbling in a fog of our own making, trapped in self-imposed illusions. Today, I’m here to unravel the truth about delusion, peel back its illusory mask, and guide us toward clarity and liberation.
Yanruodaduo’s Madness: A Causeless Delusion
Let’s start with Yanruodaduo from the Shurangama Sutra. Why did he go mad? What was the reason? Was it because he looked in a mirror? Or because he saw his head? Or maybe because of what he perceived? It seems like they’re all connected somehow. You can’t say he’d have gone mad without the mirror, nor can you say he’d have lost it without thinking about his head. The mirror, the head, the seeing—it all feels related. But look closer: in reality, his madness has no direct connection to any of these. This is the hallmark of delusion!
When people indulge in delusion, it feels like they’re thinking about something real. But in truth? It’s all madness, all a delusion syndrome! You might say, “If there were no mirror, I wouldn’t have gone mad. If I hadn’t seen my head, it wouldn’t have happened. If I hadn’t looked, I wouldn’t have started thinking.” You see it, you think, you can’t figure it out, and boom—madness. It looks like there’s a cause, but this madness? It’s not directly tied to any of those things. No direct tie means no cause. That’s the defining trait of delusion—it seems to lean on something, but it’s leaning on nothing at all.
The Nature of Delusion: Pasting Nonsense
Every single delusion works this way. It feels like there’s a basis, a foundation, but here’s the catch: once it starts associating and weaving things together, it veers off into absurdity—pure nonsense, sheer madness. Take a cat, for example. You don’t see the cat, so you go looking. Can’t find it? You lose it. Then what? “Oh, it must’ve been hit by a car, swallowed by a snake, snatched by a dog!” None of this happened, but you pile it all on, acting like it’s connected. Sure, there are dead animals on the road, snakes do swallow things, dogs do bite—but what’s that got to do with your cat? Nothing! You’re slapping someone else’s plaster on your own wound, and it won’t stick. That’s the absolute signature of delusion—random, baseless pasting.
Worse yet, every one of us lives in this delusion every single moment. Even now, as we study the Dharma, we’re learning through delusion. We can only connect to things we’ve experienced in memory. Ask someone to come up with something they’ve never felt? They can’t. So, they just paste this and that together, and what happens? More fear, more greed. Every delusion—all of them—follows this pattern.
How Delusion Harms: A Self-Made Prison
Why do I sometimes speak so slowly? Why do I mull over how to phrase something, which word to use? Because I’m afraid if I misspeak, you’ll weave your own delusions into it and misinterpret everything. That’s the state of sentient beings—constantly steeped in delusion. They see something, anything, and they dump all their afflictions, emotions, and energy into it. Eating? Full force. Anger? Full force. Joy? Full force. Hatred? Full force. That energy? You add it yourself. The result? You fuel the creation of greed and anger karma with even more intensity. This is a major root of suffering for sentient beings, a clear sign of ignorance, and an absolutely warped view.
Imagine a cat napping peacefully. Someone insists on searching outside, convinced it’s been hit by a car. That’s the hallmark of delusion—remember it, it’s vital! Once you see through it, every delusion you examine is just random pasting, unrelated to the matter at hand. That’s why people fail—at relationships, at handling affairs, at work, at study. Everything flops. Why? Delusion messes it all up!
Musk’s First Principles: No Room for Delusion
So why does someone like Elon Musk succeed at everything? If his cat went missing, would he spin a web of nonsense? No. He’s got his first principles—a rulebook. Cat’s gone? It’s gone. Why? “I don’t know where it is; the rest is useless.” He doesn’t wonder if it’s been hit, snatched, or whatever. That’s pointless—it only harms. But most people? They waste all their time on this useless thinking. Spend your time there, and your work suffers. No work, no money. No money, no family. What woman sticks around after a couple of years? Marry twice, they both leave. It’s obvious: too much delusional thinking—meaningless and harmful.
You don’t get it, so you keep thinking, dreaming up grand tales—martial arts master, Buddha, Jesus-level stuff. But in reality? Utterly pointless. It’s all fiction, unattainable, unachievable. Why? Because you’re stuck dreaming instead of doing. Musk’s edge is sticking to first principles—no delusions mixed in. What is, is. That’s why he succeeds, even at the impossible—like electric cars.
Before him, Japan spent decades on cars—gas, diesel, nitrogen, electric, you name it. Back in the day, electric cars outnumbered gas ones because engines were weak. Then engines got better, and electric got sidelined. Japan kept tinkering, wondering if it’d make a comeback. When Musk started Tesla, they laughed: “We’ve been at this for decades and failed—you’re a fool.” Guess what? He ate their hats. The lesson? Delusion only leads to self-destruction—ruining studies, careers, families. Some even end it all, scorned and alone, convinced they’re geniuses with no one to understand them, starving to death in defiance.
The Fallout of Delusion: A Downward Spiral
You’ve all been there—lost in delusion, missing deadlines. Who hires you then? No one. Everything unravels, and you spiral downward. Either you cheat your way through, or you ditch the delusions and get real. It’s that simple. But people refuse to see how delusion sabotages every success.
The kicker? We don’t admit delusion’s the culprit—we blame others. “They ruined me!” we cry, with endless excuses. But the root cause isn’t anyone else—it’s us. Stop chasing delusions, stop following feelings, and it turns around. Musk’s first principles shine here: build a car? Build it. Problem? Fix it. Pour money in—high salaries, cash flowing out like water. When it ran dry, he borrowed. When borrowing failed, he calculated how many paychecks he could squeeze out—ready to die if it didn’t work. But in those last days, the market turned. Same with rockets. If he’d hoarded cash for safety, he’d have collapsed. Most fail because they hold back—leaving themselves a way out kills them. No retreat? Charge forward and live.
Breaking Delusion: The Dharma Way
In Buddhism, you’ve got to kill delusion first. It’s a habit since beginningless time—so give yourself a window to brake that momentum. Stop it cold, then follow the rules. Take the precepts: they’re wisdom incarnate, ensuring you avoid suffering and find peace. No bad causes, no bad effects. See everything as it is—no need to think. Thinking’s useless, even harmful. First, grasp delusion fully. What’s ever succeeded through it?
Typing a word—specific letters, no more, no less. Skip one? Fail. Add one? Wrong word. That’s the rule, the first principle. What it is, it is—don’t paste anything on it. No cutting corners, no chasing profit—none of that. One thing sparks a hundred delusions, layer upon layer, trapping you. Failure’s guaranteed—nothing works, and even food loses its taste because you’re done.
The Turning Point: Live in the Now
This is a make-or-break point in Buddhism. Don’t break through, cling to delusion and feelings, and you’ll never enter the Dharma. Delusion destroys everything—you can’t succeed fiddling with it. Why do others thrive while I fail—even at Buddhism? You’re too “busy” spinning delusions, hustling yourself into defeat.
It’s profound—yesterday I got mystical, today I hope you feel it. Test it with reality: delusion always fails, 100%, no exceptions. Act on delusion, and the outcome’s dead wrong, tangling you in past shadows.
The Diamond Sutra nails it: past, present, future—all ungraspable. Meaning? Stop thinking—it’s futile. What’s now is now; do it well. That’s everything. Master the moment in daily life, and you’ll master practice. Daydream through simple tasks, and complex ones plus delusion? Done for.
Delusion Has No Cause: Pasting Creates the Mess
Delusion has no cause. It’s not the initial thing—it’s you latching onto something and pasting away. Yanruodaduo looked in the mirror—fine. Then: “Everyone’s got a head, the mirror’s got a head—where’s mine?” More pasting, more madness. No pasting, no linking, no weaving—just a mirror, just the task, no mess. Start pasting? You’re wrong—it’s not that anymore. Keep piling it on, treating it as real? It’s further from truth, all screwed up. Between people—you think this of me, I think that of you—it’s all nonsense, all pasted.
Even the good stuff gets pasted. He smiles—you paste what? No clue, just slap on cold, hot, whatever. It’s a habit—paste onto anything. Once pasted, it’s not the original; it’s your fantasy, divorced from reality. That’s why wars spark—between coworkers, spouses, kids, elders—all 100% from pasting. Work? Pasted. Parents? Pasted. Kids? Pasted. Everyone pasting, misunderstanding everywhere—happy pasting, mad pasting, total chaos, not the present truth.
Delusion’s essence is causeless. Phenomenally, it chains causes—you paste them on. A smile’s certain; then uncertainty creeps in—greed, anger, doubt. That’s the delusion’s root—nothing real there. From uncertainty, you pin a false certainty: “He’s after my money!” You hide it, like burying clothes as a kid, then lose it. Delusion’s a swamp—painful, confusing, sinking deeper. Impossible dreams keep you in “can’t-have” agony.
Closing: Drop Delusion, Find Freedom
Everything you do—fear the wandering mind. Once it roams, nothing gets done. To succeed in practice, ditch delusion. That impulsive confidence? It’s self-harm, self-ruin—world karma at play. Don’t follow; rest it. Don’t know? Stop there, don’t think. Delusion has no cause—see it, drop the pasting, focus now, and you’re free. That’s the only path to success, the first step in practice. Thank you all!
