Delusion Series, Part 13 –The Truth About Delusion
Hello, dear friends!Welcome to this episode of the podcast, brought to you by the Australia Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated.
Today, I invite you to explore a realm that feels both familiar and unfamiliar—delusion. It’s like an invisible director, silently manipulating our thoughts, words, and actions, shaping how we perceive the world. But where does delusion come from? How does it lead us astray from the truth and cause us to stumble repeatedly in life? Most importantly, how can we break free from its grip to find true peace and success? Let’s peel back the layers and uncover the answers together.
1. The Root of Delusion: Repetitive Confirmation and External Conditioning
Delusion is not something we are born with; it is a cognition built gradually through repetitive confirmation and external conditioning. From childhood to adulthood, we are inundated with countless pieces of information: we are told what is good or bad, what is beautiful or ugly. These messages, like seeds, are planted in our minds and grow into deeply rooted views.
- For instance, people in Sichuan find spicy food fashionable, those on the coast praise sweet desserts as trendy, and certain African tribes even believe that going without clothes is fashionable, while wearing clothes is considered “insane.”
- Why such differences? Because everyone’s views are shaped by their environment, culture, and experiences, rooted in the definitions we repeatedly perceive and are instilled with.
- Once these views take shape, they become as solid as a rock, unchangeable even in the face of death. They are like pictures stored in our “storehouse consciousness,” ready to be recalled at any moment, automatically labeling things as “good or bad,” “right or wrong,” “true or false.”
These labels are not the truth; they are the products of delusion. They play out in our minds like a movie, with fast-forward, slow-motion, and chaotic splicing, even grafting memories from years ago onto the people or events before us, jumping across time and space in a jumbled mess. What’s more alarming is that these delusions move so quickly that our rational mind cannot react in time—they’ve already “arranged” a vivid, convincing storyline, as if it were real. Have you ever considered that those images and sounds are actually fake? They are merely fragments of what you’ve seen, heard, or felt, reassembled by delusion.
2. How Delusion Is Trained: From Sentence-Making to Effortless Habit
How do we learn to indulge in delusion? The answer is: practice. The education and experiences we undergo from childhood are essentially training us to “weave stories.”
- Sentence-making: Do you remember learning to make sentences as a child? Teachers asked us to place a word in a sentence, expressing it logically and coherently. In that moment, we were learning how to organize delusions to make them seem “legitimate.”
- Writing essays: As we grew older, we began writing diaries and narratives. Writing felt like crafting stories, full of poetic flair. But have you ever realized that these stories were simply us “making things up”?
- Over time, our delusions became more “professional,” evolving from clumsy attempts to seamless narratives, so convincing that even we cannot distinguish truth from fiction.
This training ultimately leads us to a state of effortless habit—delusion running on autopilot, requiring no deliberate thought. It’s like writing your own name: you don’t think about how to form each stroke; your hand moves naturally. Delusion operates the same way—it has become an “automated program” in our lives, popping up at any moment to control our thoughts, words, and actions.
3. The Consequences of Delusion: Distorted Cognition and the Root of Suffering
Delusion pulls us away from reality, trapping us in a false world.
- The Rashomon Effect: In the movie Rashomon, the same event is described differently by each person. Why? Because every account is tainted by personal emotions, biases, and definitions. In real life, it’s the same—everyone sees the same event in different shapes and colors, yet each believes their version is the “truth.”
- The Source of Suffering: When we cling to these delusions, firmly believing in our own “good or bad,” “right or wrong,” we suffer when reality contradicts our delusions. For example, you buy a designer bag and are overjoyed, only to cry when you discover it’s fake. Laughing or crying from head to toe—is it worth it?
- The Cause of Failure: Delusion leads us away from the laws of reality. Take cooking, for instance: without the right amount of water, rice, heat, or time, the dish fails. In work and life, acting on delusion instead of reality inevitably leads to failure.
4. The Path to Liberation: Return to First Principles and Follow the Law
How do we break free from delusion’s grip and find true peace and success? The answer is: return to first principles and follow the law.
- What is truth? Truth is the unchanging law. For example, tires are round because roundness aligns with the law of rotation. If you whimsically make a triangular tire, will your car move? Obviously not. Defying the law leads to failure; following it leads to success.
- Elon Musk’s Way to Success: Why does Musk succeed? Because he adheres to first principles—things are what they are, without the interference of delusion. He discovers the law, follows it, and never allows personal preferences or biases to cloud his decisions.
- Our Practice: Whether in work, life, or relationships, we must act according to the law.
- Speech: Say the right words at the right time, fitting the occasion and your role.
- Action: Follow standard procedures (SOPs)—no step can be skipped.
- Mindset: Don’t let delusion lead you astray or allow emotional fluctuations to cloud your clarity.
Observe your thoughts, words, and decisions—are they driven by delusion? When you see through delusion’s true nature, you realize it’s merely a “puppeteer,” and you are just a puppet being manipulated. The real you can choose to break free from its control.
Act according to the law, speak what’s appropriate, and do what’s necessary. Let go of delusion’s labels and stories, and you’ll find that success and peace naturally follow.
Conclusion
Friends, delusion is the root of our suffering and the trap of our failures. But when we see through its true nature and learn to follow the law, we can find true peace and live an authentic life!
Thank you for listening! See you in the next episode!
