You Can’t Solve An Illusion

Start with the correct premise.

Once in a while, it hits me: Life is simple.

But then I forget and make it complicated again.

But, in those brief shining moments of clarity, I remember that what we experience is all perception.

That's why life is simple. The answer to everything lies in this premise.

All that we have to do is shift our perception.

The problem is we forget this simple fact.

My sister once sent me a math riddle that appeared freaky and impossible. I couldn’t figure it out.

Then, I reminded myself to shift my perception and begin with a different premise. When I did that, the answer was obvious.

The riddle was designed to confuse.

It started with a logical premise that was easy to accept. But that premise had no answer—ever—because it began with an error.

When I shifted my premise, the answer was immediately evident.

The worldview is precisely like that.

It begins with a premise that appears logical and that we can easily accept.

In fact, our five senses tell us that it’s true.

Within that premise, we search and search for answers. We read books, talk to friends, get counseling, let go of desires, and remind ourselves to have faith.

However, none of these methods provide an answer that works for long if they begin with an illusion.

There will never, ever be a correct answer to an illusion.

When we begin with the correct premise, the answer is easy.

I was working on some writing that required me to copy and paste what I had written on one document into another. I copied and pasted and saw nothing.

In the past, I would have assumed that I didn’t copy and paste correctly. I would have spent some time confused and irritated by the problem.

That time, I paused.

I started with the premise that I had copied and pasted correctly.

I highlighted the area on the page I had pasted into and chose black for the text. "Magically,” it appeared.

It was always there. I

had pasted white text to a white page so it was invisible to my eyes.

During a rescue attempt in the first Star Trek Episode, “The Menagerie,” the crew tries to blast through a mountain with their phasers. Nothing happens, so they keep firing away. Nothing changes. They give up and attempt other means of rescue, but none succeed.

Finally, Spock and Captain Kirk realize that the Talosians, the planet's inhabitants, are masters at creating illusions.

Knowing that, Kirk and Spock begin again with the correct premise that their phasers do work.

Without any extra effort on their part, the illusion of the untouched mountain dissolved, revealing the hole in the mountain that had been there all along.

It’s that simple.

The premise determines what we perceive as the outcome.

What premise do we begin with when attempting to discover an answer or dissolve a problem?

If we begin with the premise that the worldview is correct and that our senses report the truth, we will never see the Truth and what is already present.

It is a lot less work to begin with the correct premise and let it reveal the answer than to try to make something work inside of an illusion.

The great teacher Christ Jesus has told us, “Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.”

Hum. Doesn’t that sound like the idea if we begin with the truth—the correct premise—that it dissolves the prison of the worldview without effort?

The effort is in shifting perception, letting go of false premises, and giving up personal preferences and ego.

Once we make that shift, the work is over, and the provisions we need for our lives are revealed.

Of course, that shift is an ongoing process and practice.

Yet, it is one with guaranteed results and much more satisfying than chasing illusions.

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