Chasing Maya: How the Unreal Affects Us

What is maya? Maya literally means illusion. It is a Hindu term for an ancient concept in Indian spiritual philosophy that suggests that there is a veil that covers our true nature and cloaks the world around us with illusion. At its heart is a fairly simple question: Are the things we see and experience around us the ultimate reality, or is there something deeper?

Here is one practical way to look at maya:

Have you ever been convinced that if you could just get one particular thing, you’d be happy?

Maybe it’s a better job, more money, a new house, a relationship, recognition, or finally achieving some goal you’ve been working toward. You get it, and for a while, it feels great.

Then something happens.

The newness wears off. Before long there’s something else we want. Another goal. Another accomplishment. Another thing that we’re convinced will do the trick. Sound familiar? We were duped by maya.

Michael Gottlieb, master teacher and founder of Royal Way Spiritual Center, uses an example that makes the idea easier to understand.

Imagine watching a great actor play Winston Churchill. He’s so convincing that you forget you’re watching an actor. Then you see the same person playing Jack the Ripper. Again, completely believable. Next, he’s Mahatma Gandhi. “But he is neither Churchill nor Jack the Ripper nor Gandhi,” Michael writes. “Not one of these is there. Only an actor is there.”

When we are fooled by maya, we spend a large portion of our lives concentrating on the roles—not just actors playing them, but roles we ourselves play—and forgetting about the actor underneath.

“Awakened people have long understood maya,” Michael adds. Which means we want to dive deeper and understand how maya, the unreal, affects us.

We Are Not Our Roles

Think about all the ways we define ourselves.

I’m a husband or wife. A parent. A businessman. An artist. A teacher. I’m successful I’m struggling. I’m wealthy. I’m important. I’m attractive. I’m the person other people think I am.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with any of those identities. The problem begins when we start believing the illusion, believing that the role is actually who we are. We let the role define us.

Michael teaches that those who are awakened recognize this. They understand that we are more than our ego. Beyond the ego is a deeper self, and part of our purpose in life is first to discover that self and then to become it.

But the pull of the world is in the opposite direction. It constantly encourages us to look elsewhere. It tells us that fulfillment is out there somewhere. It tantalizes us with illusions. With maya.

Make more money. Get the promotion. Buy the house. Get in better shape. Have more followers. Take the perfect vacation. Get people to admire you. And on and on. There’s always something else.

Michael points out that in the outer world, the world of maya, material possessions and holding on to them seem enormously important. “In the outer world, the world of maya,” Michael writes, “attaining material possessions and holding on to them is the greatest goal for most humans. Money stands above almost all else.”

We Can Enjoy Maya—But We Don’t Want to Live in It

This is where the idea of maya can easily be misunderstood.

If the material world is maya, are we supposed to stop enjoying it? Give away our possessions? Stop trying to succeed? Move into a cave somewhere and meditate for the rest of our lives? No. That’s not the Royal Way. Michael is very clear about this. “A seeker finds a way to enjoy every bit of maya every minute of his life,” Michael says.

There’s nothing wrong with making money. There’s nothing wrong with having a beautiful home, enjoying a great meal, building a successful career, traveling, seeking a relationship, or accomplishing something you’re proud of. Enjoy them. The question is whether we’re expecting those things to fulfill us, to give us something they can’t possibly provide.

If I believe the next accomplishment will finally make me complete, I’m going to be disappointed. Not necessarily because the accomplishment isn’t worthwhile, but because I’m asking something external and temporary to give me something permanent.

Michael says that if we believe there’s more we can accomplish in our external lives, we’re probably right. We can improve ourselves, master something new, build a career, make money, and enjoy life. That is all about improving our life situation.

But, very importantly, Michael stresses: 

“There is something much more vital than your life situation, much deeper, and that is life itself, or being itself. If you are disconnected from that and you are seeking fulfillment, the fullness of life, through your life situation, that is a continuous source of frustration—and ultimately nonfulfillment and suffering.” 

Where Are We Looking for Home?

Here is another example. We’ve all heard the expression, “A man’s home is his castle.”

Why a castle?

Because a castle represents security, protection, power, and wealth. Somewhere in the back of our minds, we think that if we can accumulate enough of those things, we’ll finally feel safe and happy. There’s only one problem, Michael writes: “Even castles are invaded, destroyed, and turn to dust and rubble.”

Michael says our desire to find home is actually “innate and beautiful.” We’re just looking in the wrong direction. “We look for it outside of ourselves, when it is already here in the very depths of our inner being. Because our two eyes are always directed outward, we never look inward.”

Spirituality isn’t telling us that our desire for happiness, security, love, or fulfillment is wrong. It’s asking us to reconsider where we’re looking for them.

Turning Our Attention Inward

So where do we look?

“The third eye looks inward and sees all.”

Meditation is a key aspect of the inward journey. Not because we’re trying to escape life, but because we’re trying to experience what’s underneath all the noise.

Michael urges us to gradually detach from the endless diversions and attractions that consume our attention and instead discover what he calls the “inner sky, the inner light, the inner bliss.” All are terms for the experience of God.

That’s ultimately what the spiritual quest is about: not blind faith, not just talking about the divine, but experiencing that divine presence, the God within, for ourselves. That happens in meditation. That happens during retreats at Royal Way Spiritual Center.

Living in Both Worlds

Among the beauties of Michael’s teaching about maya is the fact that we don’t have to choose between living a spiritual life and living in the real world.

Michael teaches that genuine wholeness comes from succeeding in both the spiritual and the material. The awakened person pursues the spiritual without neglecting the material. The awakened person understands what maya is, and is not fooled into thinking the illusions of maya will fulfill or complete us.

That means we can own the house without believing it is our security. We can make money without believing our bank account determines our worth. We can be successful without making success our identity. We can enjoy possessions without letting our possessions own us. And we can play all the roles life gives us while remembering that underneath those roles is something much deeper.

Michael makes another point that brings all this together. The purpose of a spiritual life isn’t to reach some elevated state and stay there. It “is not to remain on the mountain, not to escape into spiritual insulation,” removed from ordinary life. We have to come back down and bring what we’ve discovered with us. To live in the material world and help elevate it toward spiritual heights.

That’s also part of what we practice at Royal Way Spiritual Center. Through meditation, retreats, discussion, and spiritual practice, we learn to turn our attention inward. Not so that we can withdraw from life, but so that we can live it differently.

Maya isn’t going away. We’ll still have careers, relationships, responsibilities, possessions, successes, disappointments, and probably a few things we’d really like to buy.

That’s okay. The goal isn’t to stop participating in the world; it’s simply to stop confusing the role with the actor.

And once we begin to recognize the difference, we may discover that what we’ve been searching for outside ourselves—God, wholeness, peace, our true self—has been within us all along.