Here's a simple illustration, a person comes here to this satsang, sits with me and because my talks are usually boring, he goes to sleep. He dreams. He dreams he's a wanderer. He takes a plane to Tibet, studies with the llamas. Then goes to India and goes through many austerities, fasting, performs many sadhanas. Then flies to Japan, goes into a Zen monastery for a few years. Then goes for a vacation on a Caribbean Island. Meets a lady and gets married. Has three children. Children grow up. Get married. He has grandchildren. He gets old. Wonders what he has accomplished. Ready to drop the body. Then he wakes up and he is right here at satsang. He hadn't gone anywhere. He hadn't done anything. He never searched for enlightenment. He never got married. He never had children. He never got old. He never died. He awakened. And he is right here where he's always been. This is true of us. We are right where we are supposed to be, free and happy. But some illusion called the personal self, the I-thought, tells us quite a different story. It tells us that we're starving, things are bad, we can't find gainful employment. It shows us all kinds of pictures in our mind, and we fall into deeper delusion. This is called maya, the grand illusion, the cosmic joke. (Robert A.)

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