Maya, (Sanskrit: “magic” or “illusion”) a fundamental concept in Hindu philosophy, notably in the Advaita (Nondualist) school of Vedanta. Maya originally denoted the magic power with which a god can make human beings believe in what turns out to be an illusion. By extension, it later came to mean the powerful force that creates the cosmic illusion that the phenomenal world is real. For the Nondualists, maya is thus that cosmic force that presents the infinite brahman (the supreme being) as the finite phenomenal world. Maya is reflected on the individual level by human ignorance (ajnana) of the real nature of the self, which is mistaken for the empirical ego but which is in reality identical with brahman.
So that’s the definition I found online. If you can’t totally relate to that…well…I’m with you.
But I as I explored this subject, I found an interesting fact on which I’d like to focus. Maya comes from combining Ma meaning source and Ya meaning spreading out; in other words a spreading out of the source. Now pair this for a moment with the Big Bang theory. According to this theory, everything in existence started as a singularity (source or Ma). Then, via some catalyst, the singularity exploded forth (spreading out or Ya).
Quantum physics has shown that our physical world is not as we perceive it: Everything is really energy. Even down to the level of the atom, we find mostly empty space, yet we see solids. But our eyes don’t directly perceive “objects” but rather the light that reflects off of them. Recall seeing a tree. Did your eyes perceive the tree directly? No, your eyes perceived light reflected by the tree. I believe this works as an illustration of the illusion of which Maya speaks. If you see a grove of trees at sunset reflecting golden light from their leaves quivering in the breeze, and then, moved by their beauty, bring someone the next day at noon to see the beautiful grove, you’ll be disappointed. The trees now look plain and uninteresting. Yet the trees themselves haven’t changed. And if you should be foolish enough to wander the grove at midnight during a new moon, you may find out the hard way that the trees, although invisible, are as solid as they ever were. In each cae, only the light has changed; the tree remains as it always is.
Yet the light, the tree and our eyes all originated in that big bang…the Ma as part of the singularity. Now think of the singularity as a seed, the initial stage of the light-reflecting tree. The entire blueprint for the tree is there in the seed. Once grown into the tree, if a piece of the bark could perceive a leaf, it would likely not see it as a part of itself…UNLESS it perceived the tree as a whole and itself as a part of that tree. So it must be with the universe, with Ma as the seed and you as that piece of bark.
I am in no way saying that I’ve given here a complete explanation of the concept of Maya (or that I even understand it). But what I come away with from considering Ma and Ya is that we are part of an ever changing (see the Kaleidoscope blog post) whole. Our separateness is part of that illusion. What we perceive (although incomplete) is something real. How we perceive it is the illusion.
So what do we do with this information? Can we change the experience through Maya and would we even want to? Logically, there would be some purpose behind Maya. Is the world in disarray due to Maya? I’m thinking not, but due to another, exclusively human level that I call Story. That will be a subject for next time.
In the meantime, my hope is to experience Maya while being aware of its existence and finding wonder and laughter in the process.
A song I’ve written called The River captures just a glimpse of it for me. Please have a listen. There is no voice as yet recorded, so you’ll have to read the lyrics. Thanks for being here!