The Need for Illusion
I have repeated many times, to whoever wants to listen, that the universe, the world and the Gods do not feel forced to reveal themselves to the human being. So existence will respond only to questions that a human being asks, and even there, the procedure by which we choose our questions - even though it represents the methods of our investigations, - also represents the wisdom we have accumulated. This wisdom, in its turn, exposes the side of the world that we perceive. This wisdom will become for us the starting point, the podium or even the window from which we shall advance towards the world. Even for going towards light, we proceed only from where we are. And this is possible only if we discard the solid and unchangeable appearance of light, and replace it with the actually flexible nature of light, a concept that is more or less facultative, allowing light to marry itself to our imagination.
The mystery of humankind lies, perhaps, in our approach, which is, by necessity, partial to the world. We can see that even in our approach towards time and space, our reality is made of only what we perceive of that time and space, and what we do or do not perceive in our dialogue with this perceived environment. Our situation has allowed us to plunge ourselves into a virtual world made of values all defined in such a way that they occupy a place in what we perceive or can perceive.
Should we then say that the world hides itself from mankind or that each human being arrives in a world that is equipped with elements that allow him to get lost in what already exists? In that case wouldn't it be much simpler for the nature to eliminate from human beings the capability to think or even to see, to hear or to feel, etc., and make him an obedient child of the becoming?
Of all the qualities of a human or an animal, movement is the only relatively and apparently independent expression which contributes a more or less perceptible share to the unfolding of the universe. The Gods gave the animal the capacity to perceive so that it can move about. According to Kemetic Holy Texts, at creation, the human being was a "znemti" (stagnant mentally, physically and spiritually); the Gods had to give him a reason for leaving his apathetic state. That reason, whether real or simply fantastic, played and continues to play its part as the driving force behind all the actions which we perform. This motivating factor exists only on the level of individual perception. "You will leave your burning room only when you realize that it is on fire". This little example can thus apply to all other aspects of our lives; we have only one idea and one image of what we are, and around this image we built a system of routines determining what we categorize as worthy, acceptable and intolerable. Whatever has merit delights our hearts, and whatever is intolerable makes us capable of every evil just to prove to the world what we think we are. Even if this is only in our head we will not hesitate to destroy the world if it classified us less than what we believe being.
Apparently, the universe expects only movement from the animal; that is why, no doubt, we are motivated only by what we perceive and by the reality that surrounds us.
The animal separates itself from plants and sand by needing only that the Earth produce mechanical energy necessary to keep it roaming. As long as by nature we show this independence relative to an animal not physically welded to the ground, all that our nature needs to do is give us a motive. And to motivate us, what we perceive distorts the universe into this reality that is always volatile, which even introduces aspects of itself like a tale told to a child who waits to learn what the world really is.
The human being does not have any reason to celebrate the day he discovers what we call illusion. If we define illusion as a perception that is not part of what we call reality, then our conscience must cry that this possibility exists because if our perception is central to our motivation, this perception is necessarily partial and thus necessarily partially false. It is important, then, that we wonder whether what we see is what we see; how much of what we see is what we see;, whether something we do not see exists in what we see; and how much of what we do not see mixes with what we see... etc. And all these questions can be raised against everything our senses tell us. It is from these partial visions, these supposed understandings from analysis and comparison of the elements perceived by questionable senses that the individual built his world, and it is to this world that he attaches his honor and its dignity. To him, this world seems necessary if he wants to cause a change in what we call reality; it is the tuft of grass which the camel rider holds in front of his camel, the tuft of grass which the camel chases, while all we see is its trek across the deserts. The cause of the animal's mechanical movement, even the mystery of the difference between what we do and what we see being done. If the human did not have its ambition to continue, his perception of a world at the center of which he is aware that he should play his part, or even a podium, or a theatre scene in which he is the star, he could not survive waiting for death. The human would not even think it reasonable to ever again perform this mechanical animal movement, and he would dismiss it as mere animal gasoline. So the illusion is a biological need; it produced in mankind all the moral and intellectual characteristics which we can observe. The difference between the wise one and the idiot lies only in the size of their perception and the practicality of the sequence of causes for the event or phenomenon they are observing. This situation prompts us to question our desire to discover the truth and the true face of everything in existence because this quest places us in the shoes of the pilgrim seeking this sacred and pure place which it did not know because each place was pure and sacred before its arrival, but the pilgrim had no means of knowing that it brings its characteristic of corruption everywhere it goes. He, then, is the reason this sacred place is difficult to find.
Thus, it is the great energetic fluid of the becoming affecting everything in existence, which pushes us into this irresistible rush to change, to evolve; it is this that brings us the Wad, the energy necessary to take us out of the state of znemti (the mental, physical, and spiritual inertia). Our perceptions are all that we have to make the case for our wills and our desires to leave the state of znemti. It is the universe, then, that dictates and chooses for us the path to follow by means of the realities which it, the universe, allows us to perceive. With each stage it will present us possibilities of worse or best, leaving to our intelligence and to our wisdom the possibility of choosing a destiny for the totality, and even for ourselves. A bit like presenting a few grains to a famished farmer with the choice of eating the grains as a result of starving, therefore leading all his descendants to death by starvation or planting the grains and risking his own starvation while guaranteeing the survival of generations of his descendents.
If the farmer perceives only his needs at this moment, he will not see the logic of the survival of the group/whole/community. At each stage of our life, we play both the destiny of the universe and our own, but since the Gods refuse to give the intelligence and wisdom necessary for our departure, we can see that even the Gods take a great risk in investing confidence in the human's capacity to seek and to find options which can lead to the preservation of this universe. So there exists a conflict between what the Gods expect from us and what we bring to the table. We are this Heru, the prematurely born child from a dead father. We are feeble and full of corruption, and the Gods for their part comport themselves as though they knew what we are capable of bringing to the universe. The Gods conduct themselves as though we could perceive the threat of death and the complete extinction of our species and of our planet while modern societies work at perceiving only our desires of the moment. The Gods don't seem to see that society has become our world and our universe; modern society is what dictates the paths we follow and the things for which we must sacrifice.
We really do not have reason to celebrate the day we discovered the world of illusions. If the Gods believed it necessary to flatter the human in all goodness and conscience with a life that is in harmony in all its available dimensions, then perhaps they underestimated our capacity to resist corruption.
Unless within this game of the becoming, there is, somewhere, a master guide which we do not yet perceive, we ought, then, to open our eyes and our ears; to look beyond what we can see; to listen for what lies beyond what we can hear. We ought to question all aspects of whatever we do, and to search in order to understand why we die. The act of exploring the world of the Gods is in itself already a spiritual act. Avoid choosing before even knowing the options the Gods give uS. because such a choice is only an emotional act, it is not acting intelligently or wisely.