The Veil of Illusion
A Letter from the Editor
Dear Tarka Readers,
Imagine walking a lush green path through an open meadow. Wildflowers bend with the summer breeze and you can hear the peaceful flow of a steady creek up ahead where your friends are currently resting and waiting for you to join them. All of a once, you become aware of a dark shape aligning the edge of your path. Curious, you draw nearer when suddenly your heart drops and adrenaline rushes through your entire body. The dark shape is clearly a dangerous snake!
Or is it?
Pausing for a moment, fingers still tingling from fright, you reconsider. Perhaps the shape is a stick or a rope? Looking closer you realize your initial mistake - there is no snake. With a sigh of relief and a smile, you walk past the shadowy stick and continue towards your friends. Now more alert, the brief misapprehension has nonetheless shifted your experience of the day.
The narrative of the rope/snake is a classic example in Hindu philosophy that demonstrates the power of illusion. Perception impacts our experience of reality. The role of perception, that is, the ability to see the world as it is, instead of how it merely appears, is a foundational teaching within yoga philosophy. In the Bhagavad Gītā, when Arjuna initially confides in Krishna that he cannot stand to enter a war where he will be forced to fight and kill members of his own family, Krishna responds with the foundational teaching, “Never have I existed, nor you, nor these kings; and never in the future shall we cease to exist.” (BG 2.12) In short, Krishna asserts that the world that Arjuna laments is an illusion and that correct action in the world must be guided by the practices of equanimity, discernment, and devotion.
Another epic text that elaborates on the drama of illusion, dreams, and mistaken realities is the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha. In this web-like tale, the young Lord Rāma considers renunciation and argues with his father and teachers, suggesting that non-action may be better than action. We might also wonder, if the world is an illusion, why bother with spiritual practice and ethical actions?
Yet, the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha is primarily a text about re-orienting how we relate to this ever-changing, illusory world because action, or karma, matters. In the Tarka article, “Worlds of Dream in the Yogavāsiṣṭha: Virtual and Virtuous Realities,” Christopher Key Chapple explores how the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha recounts and explores the illusory realm of dreams to better relate to and understand the world we share. Chapple writes, “Only when we see that this seemingly fixed realm constantly changes can we become aware of our own participation, our own co-creation of our circumstances.” (Tarka, vol. 2, On Illusion)
Thus, the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha teaches a kind of dream yoga, one that interweaves the narratives of life, dreams, and imagination such that the reader begins to experience the truth of impermanence on a deeper level. To read this article in full and to learn more about dream yoga and the fascinating intersections between virtual reality, illusion, and spiritual practice, check out vol. 2 of Tarka, On Illusion.
~ Stephanie Corigliano