Why do people fall for the illusion that we are all seperate, fragmented beings?

Question

The ego controlled illusion of seperatedness is the cause of all conflict, of all wars, of violence in unimaginable proportions, of lovers squabbles and of the two world wars we have witnessed.

Being seperate is an illusion. We are all just consciousness brought temporarily into many different types of forms but ultimately there is only one being and that is consciousness.

We all come from the same source.

Why do people not see this and believe that we are all fragmented, divided beings, totally alone in the universe when this is clearly not true?

Is it the ego that causes this illusion of seperatedness?

Ronin - Yes all humans will die but collective consciousness will live and take other forms.

The ego is an essential "tool" as I like to call it and yes I agree that it is needed to solve problems and to protect our own physical essence. But that is all it is - a tool.
The ego and thought has become a monster. Instead of using it as a tool, people have turned it in on themselves and it becomes almost like a disease where people are controlled by thought and mistake it for who they are.
We are not thought. We are the being beyond thought. We are consciousness in its purest, distilled form.
When you finally get in touch with that inner consciousness a peace will come over you that you could not imagine existed and you will know instinctively that we are one and that there is a deeper source from which everything originates as you will feel that source within you. You will feel the joy of being and past and future will be irrelevant.
Inner consciousness is like a deep lake as large as the universe itself, wheras thought and ego are just the ripples and waves on the surface

of this consciousness.
The problem with the world these days, and which I think will be resolved in the next step in the evolutionary cycle, is that people are possessed by these waves and ripples and some people are totally unaware of the deep, undending lake that lies within them. They ride the waves and ripples and believe that this is all there is.
I am not stating these opinions from ego. I am just saying what I feel to be true and there is not attack or defense, there is no "I am right" or "I am wrong" because although the ego should be used for practical purposes I do not belive my ego (thoughts, opinions, beliefs) to be "me". I am not possessed by it.

Answer 1

we have egos for a reason, if we did not have a point of view then we would not know what we are not

Answer 2

Great question, and as might be expected, some really interesting answers, Circus Bliss, I liked yours very much.

I don't want to go into a long rant, it just pleases me to see such debate at all. So I will try to keep it brief.

As a couple of others have suggested I don't really buy into laying the whole 'Illusion' at the feet of 'ego'.

If one imagines that amongst dozens of other things that we are, in a simplistic sense, a synthesis of two major factors, an energetic being which is the driving force of the physical manifestation, which some call the 'soul' or 'spirit', and a purely physical 'vehicle', the human body.

The physical body has a whole spectrum of 'attention needs' such as the maintenance of body function, breathing, heart beat, digestive tract, etc. None of these items are handled by forward consciousness, so 'who' is taking care of the 'home fires' ?

My answer is Mr/Ms. 'Ego'.

Which might explain why we tend to some pretty wild extremities of behaviour of anything threatens our physical well-being.

I suggest that the 'Illusion' is a necessary part of the physical experience, without it we would know that everything that happens here is merely a playground, and that the great imponderable 'Death', was just like pulling faces at ourselves in the mirror

I believe that we are in the throes of a major evolutionary ( I mean 'real' evolution, not the Darwinian kind ) leap, and that more and more children are being born with more and more awareness of the greater reality beyond this little one we call the Universe. In other words the 'solidity' of the Illusion is gradually dissolving to more and more of us.

It was never Ego's brief to hold us here, just to take care of us while we are passing through.

Seperateness is an illusion.

We are all from the same source.

We are all 'One'.

We created the Illusion in order to make the physical experience seem more 'real'.

Answer 3

Is it not your ego that is telling you that you have the right answer and everybody that disagrees is wrong? You're causing conflict by saying if we don't believe what you believe we're just being ignorant. If we are all one in the same than how can what I believe be wrong? Because if I am you, than our beliefs are one in the same too. But if you say my belief is an illusion then you have to say the same about your own belief which makes it a self-defeating idea to believe in.

"Being separate is an illusion. We are all just consciousness brought temporarily into many different types of forms but ultimately there is only one being and that is consciousness." - You say this so matter of fact, well I'm afraid it's not. Out of any religious, philosophical or logical explanation of truth and reality - this idea is for sure the hardest to provide evidence for. It's just another idea or possibility (primarily to make you have that "warm fuzzy feeling inside") out of the infinite amount of possibilities that there are, but remains the hardest to find any evidential reason to back it up. You say that the idea of us being divided, fragmented beings is "...clearly not true"- what is it that proves or even implies that it's clearly not true? In fact everything we know implies quite the opposite. What is it that implies that what you're saying clearly is true?

If you truly believe this I have a couple questions...

-If a bum comes up to you on the street and asks for all the money you have on your person - would you give it to him (say it was your whole paycheck) knowing that money is an illusion and that you and him are really one in the same? This attitude would bring about goodness rather than hate right, so why not give it to him? Or would you be self motivated (note the word "self") and say you need it to pay your bills?

-If what we think reality is is actually an illusion, then has the real reality lied to us? In other words, why has reality (reality= the one ultimate consciousness) led almost all people throughout history to believe in a lie?

-Why did we ever come in to this state of separateness in the first place? Is it a test to see who who can really see through the illusion? But if we're all one in the same then why would some of us test wrong and some of us test right? That in itself implies that we are individuals and some of us are wrong some of us are right.

I will agree that as separate individuals through selfishness and greed we cause all the pain, war, violence and suffering that goes on in the world. But just because individualism causes suffering doesn't make it not true. In other words, you can't deny what truth seems to be just because you don't like something about it. And if it's just an illusion then why do you care about people suffering? Their individual pain isn't real ayways.

I don't deny the possibility (I stress the word possibility) that what your saying is true. But through philosophy, logic and science - which are the three categories of knowledge we have to base anything off of - it does seem to lack support in all three of these categories.

I would be happy to tell you why I believe that Christianity is the most logical and reasonable truth there is but that's a whole other long description to get into. But I know that just because it may (from my point of view) seem to have the most evidential backing doesn't make it true , it only makes it the most possible possibility.

I don't mean to come off arrogant in my beliefs or disbeliefs. I just feel very strongly about what I do believe as I'm sure you do as well.

Answer 4

First, by asking the question aren't you perpetuating the illusion. Debate is only needed between seperate beings. Second, if we are all the outworking of a single conciousness then conflict must be what that single conciousness is seeking to achieve, and I as a mere temporary part of that consciousness can do nothing about it. Surely it is only if I believe I am an individual with free will that I will take responsibility for my part in making the world a better place.

Answer 5

That being the case would not ego also be apart of the illusion?

I believe in this theory myself but also fall victim to the illusion and the grip it has on squinting clouded eye. It is difficult to overcome, the temptation, the pleasure.

You cannot place blame on one single weakness though. All of our distractions feed on one another.

Answer 6

So if we are controlled by ego, which must also be inspired by the universal consciousness (after all if we are part of the one consciousness, must not that consciousness determine our ego?), then the consciousness itself is the cause of war, as it must of inspired the ideas which lead to it.

However there is evidence for your side, such as ESP (or ESPN for you blondes).

Answer 7

I follow hindu/buddhist/zen philosophy, but not the religions. Thinking of the world as you do can be helpful, but it is false. Humans, lions, monkeys, fleas, eels, etc... are all separate beings with no intrinsic value whatsoever. What happens on the other side of the world actually has no effect on me whatsoever, unless I allow it to by reading the news.

Some day, all humans will be dead and all of our accomplishments will be dust.

Answer 8

Evolution works by beings becoming autonomous and looking out for number one. It takes a lot more evolution and language development to see that this individuality is an illusion, and a lot of meditation to remember that, once seen.

Answer 9

Can you put all that you said in a more compact form with easier to understand simple & everyday wordings so that other mortals like me may understand what exactly your question is please? Or rather what answer you aim to get since you seem to know all about the universe & the human race already?

Answer 10

This world without confrontations, what would that be like? That would be a frightening place, like a mother goose sitting on her eggs constantly and hatching no chicks - a bold statement from me, and the one bound to be controvertial itself ... how do I mean by this? The history stands witness to the fact that we cannot live without conflicts, wars and divisions among us of most impossible nature. But I would not rest my case entirely upon the facts of history alone, for I have my own arguments to support what I have said in response to your question.

Imagine people living in a state of perfect peace and harmony, in a state of complete unison of mind, together as a single consciousness however in many shapes and forms but one. Now, what this grand consciousness would see, or experience? It would experience isolation and loneliness in form of nothingness, as it would find itself in the vast bleakness of space, at the mercy of time limitlessly spread from eternity to eternity. This would be a state where people would be insignificant, without opinions and uniqueness, waiting to pass on to something that then would be nothing, for there then would be no heavens to go to. Our differences however conflicting and augmentative do give us a sense of collective and also individual excellence. And when people try to excel in their personal way they ensure that they are right, this ensues competition which in turn gives birth to our needs to do well in the world, and also in all the worlds of possibilities in existence, as for example, the world here after. If we do not have anything to talk about, argue about and fight for then what would we do. We would not be able to take that intense a gaze of the reality into our single mindedness for then we would see just one thing, and there would be no one else to distract us, to make us look at something else.

The concept of collective consciousness however is not entirely invalid either, but the only ways to experience the essential reality of our existence, that we are all the same, would be by looking at it through formative reality of existence, or by feeling togetherness with all things in the universe is by standing separately upon our own individual standpoints of our individual person. This is the fact that all human being are essentially the same, and as a matter of fact all things in the universe are but one singular existence. I for example would not have been what I am if even a single person were missing in the entire existence of mankind. I am in this sense as indispensable as any other person in existence. Then nothing in the world would have been the way it is if I along with all the things were not in existence. This is true that a seed is also many flowers and many seed at the same time, only separated from the rest by time and space. All things are the one and the same essentially only separate formatively, as each form is a unique sets of the similar characterises. All things appear different only as variations of all other things due to their unique sets of characteristics; and all things would be one thing if considered essentially realistically.

Human ego is not the source of the problem, ego is our useful tool for the purpose of interfacing with the outside physical reality, and therefore a part of the same existence – where my inner self ends outside world starts and ego is a buffer or the link in between. It is only when our ego is inflated and injured it tends to cause obscurity in the vision. It is then we see ourselves essentially and not merely formatively separate from the rest.

The fact of our existence is that we are displaced, parted of separated from the origin; we have the same essence but we are often able to view only forms in our own various ways. Instead of trying to imagine that we have already covered this distance, and instead of thinking that we can cover that distance just by thought, we need to travel this journey step by step, in our own way and still with the rest of people; we need to learn to stay together even when we have options to go in our own ways.

What you have in your presentation of the question is the destination, this right, and also the origin of a journey, and what I am suggesting is the paths to that destination, this life as it is. When we fight we say we are right and others are wrong, whereas in the fact we try to say that we are along the right path and others are not, and thus often fighting starts. But this is not all that bad as this does reminds us of life’s value and it’s significant, and that we must choose carefully what path we have for ourselves in this life.

Answer 11

This is western culture for you.

I agree with you that we are all interconnected and all parts of the whole, however this idealogy of separateness has permeated in Western thought since it's beginnings...