I find illusions fascinating and profound. For example, optical illusions remind me that I am living in a body-mind that is prone to, well…illusion. When I look at the dice, I have the curious experience of feeling like I know what I’m seeing until I realize an instant later that I am suddenly perceiving something else. Both cannot be true. Or can they? I mean I’m looking at it with my own two eyes and they are telling me what I’m seeing, right?

I really want to understand this so I slow down, step back in my mind, and start observing my own process of perception. This is what I notice: One instant I perceive one thing, the next instant I perceive another. Something in my mind says both perceptions cannot be ‘right’ or ‘true’. This is followed by a moment of feeling confusion. This all happens very fast. Then the whole thing starts over again. And I find I can repeat this ‘pattern’ pretty much indefinitely.

What stands out for me for me, though, is the momentary feeling of confusion followed by the desire, the need, to feel like I have an accurate perception of something; that it must be one thing or the other. When I reflect upon the experience I realize that I have a need for a feeling of certainty. I also notice that when I don’t get it I feel slightly agitated or anxious.

In the end, what I find is if I can just let both perceptions ‘be’ then I relax without the need for certainty. I don’t have to be ‘right’, I can just appreciate both perceptions. In fact, I can choose either one I want at any moment, knowing that I am choosing my perception. This creates in me a feeling of relief and simple expansive joy. I smile and have a feeling of something profound like wonder mixed with awe. Good stuff.

An illusion is a misperception not so much of the visual sense but of the mind.

This simple optical illusion causes me to consider where else in my life am I engaging in illusion, or perhaps delusion, for that matter. The answer is just about everywhere, all the time. And the truly crazy thing is so is everyone else!

What I realize is that there is a lot more going on in my process of perception than I noticed before. Whereas in the past, I thought of myself as just passively perceiving things ‘as they are’ - like some camera objectively registering the world - I now understand that I am actively participating in my perceptions all the the time whether I’m conscious of it or not.

When I become conscious that I am not just seeing things ‘as they are’ out there, but instead, I am making up ‘how things are’ in my mind, and that I am doing this not just in this moment but in every moment of my life is when I comprehend that, ultimately, I am responsible for my perceptions.

As one reads elsewhere:

‘We don’t see things as they are.  We see things as we are.” - The Talmud

“When the whole world arises in me, it is just an illusion.” - Ashtavakra Gita

This is good news, for the moment one truly becomes consciously aware that they are an active participant in their own process of perception is the first moment they can experience a bit of liberation. When one is able to maintain this conscious awareness throughout the course of one’s life is when one experiences a certain ray of real enlightenment.

As an exercise, take a day to practice noticing the ways in which your perceptions of things and events are habitual, and how these ‘habits of mind’ not only determine not how you think of them but also what you think about them.