We are on the road to enlightenment when we become aware that our thought  processes create illusions.

Before you start analyzing the picture below, you may want to get a pencil and paper to write down exactly what you are thinking as you go through this article. As you look at the picture write down any thoughts, experiences, statements or questions that you have.

Write down exactly what you are thinking, what your thought processes are, as you look at this picture.

What do you see?

An image.

What does the image represent.

Two faces or a vase.

What is this phenomenon called?

An optical illusion.

Ask yourself why this is called an optical illusion when you have to think to process the  information about the image?

Here are my thoughts on this.

Firstly I had  to  identify that I was looking at some ink on paper or an image on a screen. Then I had to give it a name. "Oh, it's an optical illusion." Then my mind triggered a process of identifying what I was looking at by searching my memory of experiences to find similar looking objects. The two faces jumped out at me (black filled spaces), then the vase (the white filled space).

Is this really an optical illusion or did I mentally talk myself into interpreting what I was seeing to make sense of it?

Do you remember the first time you were shown an optical illusion? Someone had to explain to you how to see the objects, what mental processes you needed to start to see the objects.

That makes this image a mental illusion, not an optical one. So the label 'optical illusion' is really an illusion itself.

The same thing happens in everyday life. Someone has explained to you the mental processes you need to use to see the illusions as they see them.

This is how you are prepared for life in the society that you live. You are told what to call something by giving it a label, then you are told how to process the information about that label.

You mentally talk yourself into seeing and understanding things around you in the same way as everyone else in your society or religion or any group you belong to. That is the influence of language. The language you speak and the words you use to describe something take you through mental processes that create generally accepted illusions.

Your mind then, which is all your thought processes and memories, is trained to see things in a certain way.

When you become aware that there are mental processes at work, that they run automatically, that your mind guides you to certain conclusions then you are on the road to enlightenment.

Life is experienced through the five senses. You are enlightened when you realize that you can mentally step into the gap between your what you are experiencing at the moment and how you interpret it.

When you can perceive anything, simply enjoying it for what it is, as sensations within your senses, without labels, judgements or interpretation, when you can accept all as being within your experience and life force you will have experienced enlightenment.

Having stepped into the gap between experience and mental processes, you will be in total control of the tool that is your mind, you will be in total control of your mental activity, of your judgements, of your interpretations.

You will be totally responsible for your behaviour and not be a slave to events around you. You will have no buttons that others can push.

An excellent book about this process is available at Amazon:  The New Earth by Ekhart Tolle