These considerations naturally lead us to an assertion that the world of appearances is valueless, as it is limited, short-lived, imperfect, painful, sinful, hopeless, and miserable; while the realm of reality is to be aspired for, as it is eternal, perfect, comfortable, full of hope, joy, and peace-hence the eternal divorce of appearance and reality.  Such a view of life tends to make one minimize the value of man, to neglect the present existence, and to yearn after the future.

Some religionists tell us that we men are helpless, sinful, hopeless, and miserable creatures.  Worldly riches, temporal honours, and social positions-nay, even sublimities and beauties of the present existence, are to be ignored and despised.  We have no need of caring for those things that pass away in a twinkling moment.  We must prepare for the future life which is eternal.  We must accumulate wealth for that existence.  We must endeavour to hold rank in it.  We must aspire for the sublimity and beauty and glory of that realm.

14.  Where does the Root of the Illusion Lie?

Now let us examine where illusion lies hidden from the view of these religionists.  It lies deeply rooted in the misconstruction of reality, grows up into the illusive ideas of appearances, and throws its dark shadow on life.  The most fundamental error lies in their construing reality as something unknowable existing behind appearances.

According to their opinion, all that we know, or perceive, or feel, or imagine about the world, is appearances or phenomena, but not reality itself.  Appearances are ‘things known as,’ but not ’things as they are.’  Thing-in-itself, or reality, lies behind appearances permanently beyond our ken.  This is probably the most profound metaphysical pit into which philosophical minds have ever fallen in their way of speculation.  Things appear, they would say, as we see them through our limited senses; but they must present entirely different aspects to those that differ from ours, just as the vibration of ether appears to us as colours, yet it presents quite different aspects to the colour-blind or to the purblind.  The phenomenal universe is what appears to the human mind, and in case our mental constitution undergoes change, it would be completely otherwise.

This argument, however, is far from proving that the reality is unknowable, or that it lies hidden behind appearances or presentations.  Take, for instance, a reality which appears as a ray of the sun.  When it goes through a pane of glass it appears to be colourless, but it exhibits a beautiful spectrum when it passes through a prism.  Therefore you assume that a reality appearing as the rays of the sun is neither colourless nor coloured in itself, since these appearances are wholly due to the difference that obtains between the pane of glass and the prism.