Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00230)

Just a thought regarding terms like delusion and illusion and there connection to maya. 

Theosophically, maya, similarly to Buddhist perspective, is an adjective which describes all that is "dependent". Therefore only the ONE (First Cause, Absolute, Ain Soph) is real and not dependent. 

This sense of dependence is an aspect of the Doctrine of "Dependent Origination" in Buddhism. It refers to all that is not self-sustaining or self-born. By default this implies a state of karmalessness, which is the case of those who have the power and freedom from illusion and delusion to cause their own births. Contrary to this, those who are born periodically and who are subservient to their karma, are "dependent". From what we have studied, very few are not subservient to their karma. 

However, we really have no idea who are and who are not born because of the consequences of their karma. 

But, those who are captives of illusion, and the belief that the illusion is truth or delusive, are not free and are not self-born.

This is all one way to look at this and of course there must be much more. but I have to leave.- Steve levey

----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Stubbs
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 5:04 PM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World Re: Maya and Beyond

--- In theos-talk@y..., "M N S" <redrosarian@y...> wrote:
> It is my understanding that illusion has more of a mental quality 
to 
> it while delusion is the combination of illusion that has both a 
> mental and an emotional quality to it. I'm not sure if this is a 
> theosophical perspective.

It has been awhile since I took psychology 101, but The Great Moon 
Illusion is a perceptual foulup, whereas in the DSM IV the delusional 
disorders (a class of psychiatric disorders) are mental rather than 
perceptual. Delusional Disorder, Persecutory Type is the medical 
term for what most lay people call paranoia. (As when Woody Allen 
says that "paranoids have enemies, too.") So in psychology IL-lusion 
and DE-lusion do have different meanings. Maya is usually translated 
as IL-lusion, but I am not sure if the term includes DE-lusions as 
well or not.

Does anyone know?





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