One of the most powerful tools for transcending the illusion is the knowledge of how it works. First, understand that there is a much larger Reality than the teeny tiny world that most human beings are living in. I usually call the larger reality God, but that's a loaded term that people have many different conflicting beliefs about, so I'll stick with the term Reality.
Now, the illusion isn't a direct part of Reality, but it does directly affect how peope perceive Reality. Because it affects perception, it can appear to be the reality, and a person stuck deep within illusion cannot tell the difference. A person going through a spiritual awakening has, however, gotten at least a brief glimpse of the Reality beyond the illusion. This usually leads a person to question everything in their life, and realize that the way things Really Are is not what they used to believe.
Another very important thing to understand about the illusion is that it's made up of what you believe. The illusion is nothing more than the beliefs held by the limited mind. Reality simply Is, and its Truth can be observed directly without any need for interpretation. The mind makes things needlessly complicated, and forms beliefs based upon limited perception. This has a bit of a snowball effect, since beliefs are what influences the mind's perception, and then that limited perception is used to form more illusionary beliefs. You can't build up truth on a foundation of lies, but this is what society attempts to do every day. This is how people get so lost.
For an actual example of illusion in action (perhaps I should say inaction?) look at money. If I believe a piece of paper is worth something, and the person at the store believes the piece of paper is worth something, we can exchange it for something useful. What if the person at the store didn't believe the piece of paper was worth something though? What if everyone stopped believing in money? It would go back to what it really is, pieces of paper, metal and 1s and 0s in a computer, it would lose the extra value people put on it. The world's governments, religions, businesses, political parties, they're just collective beliefs, illusions. It's only because people feed their energy into them that they appear to be real.
What makes transcending the illusion so difficult for people is that it appears to be real. That's all an illusion is, something that appears to be real. This is why many people believe that their beliefs create reality. Beliefs affect perception, they influence enormously how we see the world. What we believe appears to be true within the illusion, not because it is true, but because the mind is able to filter out anything that contradicts what we believe. Opposing viewpoints are rejected outright, and this is how incredibly ignorant beliefs like racism are able to flourish. For the person who really wants to find Truth, do not seek to build up beliefs, seek to break them down.
One final thing to understand is that the illusion isn't "bad" or "wrong". Those are dualistic judgements that come from the illusion itself. The illusion is just an illusion, and it's when you take it seriously that it has power over you. A young child can create an illusion, have fun with it, and release the illusion all within 10 minutes. This is called playing pretend, and in this children have a wisdom that most adults have lost. The illusion only has as much power over you as you give it.
The Galactic Free Press
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