illusion maya

Everything belongs to God. Everything is God. It is true that you appear to be using it, but never for a second believe that it belongs to you. 

This is why, 

when people realize this truth, it's so easy for them to share, but when one believes they are the body then they have to hoard, and hold onto something, and fight for their existence and stick up for their rights. 

Is it any wonder that you don't wake up? How can you wake up when you're fighting for your rights as a human body, when you're trying to protect the things that you think you own? 

This is maya, total maya, the belief that you 

own something, that you are something. It's all an illusion. 

There is only God. 

There is only consciousness. 

Everything else is an appearance. 

Enjoy the world if you can, but do not allow the world to be your master. Do not allow the world to tell you how things are. 

Do not allow the news, or the newspaper, or the way of the world to confound you and confuse you, and to make you sad, or angry, or upset you. 

After all, it's the same as seeing a movie. You look at the movie and you see all kinds of dastardly things going on. But then you catch yourself and you say “It's only a movie. It's not the truth." 

And so it is with life. 

You observe everything that's going on in life. You watch, you look, you see, yet you 

never react. You're never for or against. You understand and this makes you free. 

What we call maya is very powerful and so it appears. It grabs you in its clutches and makes you believe that things are happening in this world, and makes you believe that things are moving, changing. That's the picture it shows you. 

There are very few people who can go through a day without being affected by maya. 

Think about yourself. 

Just today. How have you been affected by maya, believing something about your body, or about somebody else, or about a situation in your life, or about the world, or about the universe, and feeling it? 

That's maya. 

Here's an example. 

I've told this story before. 

One day Buddha and his chief disciple, Narada, were walking along a country road. Buddha was discussing maya. 

He explained that the trees, the river, the mountains, the beauty, all of the bugs and the mosquitoes, animals, it's all maya. 

And Narada said 

“But master, how can this be? It sounds virtually impossible. I can grab the tree. I can grab your arm. I'm stung by a mosquito. I feel this thing. There's a bump on my arm. How can this all be illusion? I don't 

understand." 

And Buddha said “I'm thirsty. Go get me a glass of water." 

There was a town nearby so Narada went to the town and knocked at the door of the first house he saw. 

An old lady opened the door. 

She said “What do you want?" 

Narada said “My master would like a glass of water." 

She looked him over and saw that he was handsome, well built, healthy, and she said “Come on in.” He went into her house and there was a beautiful lady sitting on a chair. The woman said “This is my daughter. Isn't she beautiful?" 

Narada was astounded at her beauty. He said “She is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." The old lady said “How would you like to marry her?" and Narada said “Why not?" 

So he married the girl. They had a big wedding and all the people in the village came. The next day he got a job. He was a potter by trade and he made beautiful pots out of clay. He did this for a living. After the first year they had a child and he was able to afford a beautiful house. He had a mortgage payment, had to pay taxes, so he had to work harder and hire people to help him. He had employees. He had to pay them salaries, take out taxes, workers 

compensation, everything else. 

Then, after two years passed, another child. He was completely enmeshed in family 

life. Some days were good. Some days were bad. A couple more years went by, three years, four years, five years. 

One day there was a big hurricane, a very powerful hurricane, that came into the town. The place was getting flooded. 

Narada said “What are we going to do?" All his furniture was being ruined. Everything he believed he owned was getting wet, totally ruined. He took his family up onto the roof. There was a clothes line on the roof. 

They all hung onto the clothes line. The hurricane became stronger, and stronger and stronger. His mother-in-law was washed away by the flood. 

Narada said “I guess we didn't need her anyway. She was old." 

But the hurricane was still very strong and his wife and two children were holding on. One of the children was washed away, and Narada became very distraught, but he was holding on with his wife. Then the other child was washed away. He became very upset, but he said to himself “At least I have my wife. We can have more children." 

Then his wife was washed away and he said “What happened to my family? 

They're all gone. Everything I worked 

for is all gone. Everything I strived for is all gone. I'm going to end it all, commit suicide." So he let go of the rope. 

The next moment he found himself sitting next to Buddha with a glass of water. He looked at Buddha and Buddha said 

“It's about time you brought me my water." So Narada looked at him and said “Now I understand what maya is." 

This is just like us. 

We become so enmeshed in the world. 

We think things are real. 

Everything bothers us. We become angry. We become upset. But the truth is you are not maya. 

You are absolute reality. 

You are total awareness. 

You are the self. 

Know who you are and wake up.

~ Robert Adams. 

✅ Collected Works.  Consciousness and Maya