Why People Prefer Illusion
“The biggest con in the spiritual game is pretending you’re holy.”
In the spiritual world, the temptation to appear holy is one of the greatest traps of all, the moment a seeker begins to taste spaciousness or stillness, the ego rushes to claim it as an identity. It begins to posture, to soften its voice, to move slowly and speak in riddles as if enlightenment must look and sound a certain way. What was once authentic inquiry becomes performance, and the simplicity of truth is replaced by the complexity of image.
Pretending to be holy is a subtle form of deceit. It is not malicious, but it is deeply unconscious. The seeker starts to believe that spirituality is about appearing pure rather than becoming real, yet truth has no interest in appearances. The awakened are not above humanity; they are immersed in it completely, they laugh easily, speak plainly, and live without a need for masks.
When the mind begins to pretend to be a certain way, separation is born, holiness implies hierarchy, those who have and those who have not, those who are holy and those who are not. This illusion of division blinds people to the living reality of oneness. It feeds ego instead of dissolving it, and the ego grows stronger under the disguise of humility.
The truth is that enlightenment has nothing to do with looking holy; it is the end of pretending. It is the discovery that reality itself needs no improvement, that awareness is already pure, and that the most awakened state is profoundly ordinary.
Watch Satsang excerpt here:
The Mission of The Vishrant Buddhist Society
The work of The Vishrant Buddhist Society has never been about cultivating the appearance of spirituality. It exists to serve truth, to strip away illusion, and to remind seekers that awakening is not a performance but a profound return to what has always been here.
When awareness finds itself, the person does not become angelic; they become natural, they stop needing to manage impressions or uphold an image. The light of truth shines not through perfection but through transparency, the awakened are not concerned with being admired; they are concerned only with helping others see clearly.
This is why the Society’s mission is grounded in service; the community exists not to elevate anyone but to support the undoing of ego. Those who come looking for holiness are invited instead into honesty, those who seek magic are pointed back to the simplicity of presence.
In a world obsessed with image and status, ordinariness becomes revolutionary, to live in truth is to live without disguise, to walk through life without needing to be seen as special. That is real holiness, not appearance, but authenticity.
The Trap of Faith and Belief
“Being awake is really just about being ordinary, very ordinary.”
Faith and belief can be comforting, but they are poor substitutes for direct experience. Faith looks outward for authority; belief clings to ideas that offer security. Truth requires neither, it asks only for openness and the courage to see what is.
Many seekers trade one illusion for another, they abandon the world’s ambitions only to adopt spiritual ones, they believe that enlightenment will make them pure, untouchable, or adored. Awakening does not feed the ego. When awareness awakens to itself there is no one left to be special.
Ordinariness is the hallmark of true awakening, the awakened do not speak of their holiness; they are not perfect, but they are real. They laugh, they cry, they make mistakes, yet through it all, awareness remains untouched.
Faith wants to believe in a holy figure; truth invites you to look within and see that holiness was never real. The truly awake are not interested in belief; they are interested in freedom.
The Lie of “Holy”
“The whole idea of holy is rubbish.”
Holiness is a concept created by the mind to elevate some and diminish others, it says “You are closer to God than I am,” or “You are worthy and I am not.” This idea breeds separation and separation is the root of suffering, to live from truth is to see that there is no above and below, no saint and sinner, no holy and unholy. There is only life expressing itself through countless forms.
When awareness awakens, it does not create a new identity called holy; it ends the entire game of comparison, the awakened one sees the same light shining in all beings. No longer is there a hierarchy, only a vast sameness clothed in many bodies.
Those who appear holy are often caught in the desire to be seen as enlightened, they wear robes, speak softly, and cultivate mystique because it keeps the illusion alive. Yet holiness cannot be worn like clothing, it is not a performance, the truly awake are simple, they need nothing from others and seek no worship.
Why Truth Is Always Unpopular
Truth rarely wins popularity contests because it takes everything the ego wants to keep. The mind wants comfort, recognition, and meaning, yet truth offers only reality. It gives nothing to the ego, which is why the ego resists it so fiercely.
People prefer illusion because illusion feels safe, a teacher who looks serene and perfect allows the seeker to keep dreaming. It gives the impression that awakening can be attained without loss, without surrender, without dying to the self. But that is not the way, real awakening demands everything.
When truth enters the room, the false begins to burn, pretense cannot stand the light of awareness. Those who cling to their image will always find truth offensive, for it exposes what they are not ready to see, yet in that exposure lies liberation.
To love truth is to love the fire that destroys illusion, it is to welcome discomfort because you know that only through honesty can freedom be found. Truth may be unpopular, but it is the only thing that heals.
Satori, Glimpses, and Silence
The moment of Satori is not dramatic, it is not thunder or ecstasy; it is the recognition of what has always been. Awareness turns back upon itself and sees that it was never separate, life continues as before, yet everything has changed.
Those who live in this recognition move differently, there is silence where noise used to be, stillness where striving once ruled, the awakened no longer try to fix or improve reality; they live in alignment with it. Around them, others feel the peace that radiates from a being that has awareness on itself continuously.
This radiance is sometimes called the buddha field, not a mystical force but the natural presence of stillness, it is what you feel when you are near someone who is deeply at peace. There are no special effects, no ceremonies, only an atmosphere of profound ease.
The glimpse of truth, once seen, calls you home time and time again. It whispers that holiness was never real, that enlightenment is not an act of becoming, but the end of pretending. The silence of Satori is not the silence of emptiness; it is the silence of fullness, of being everything at once.
Bringing Truth into the Marketplace
“You can come around me and feel the buddha field. That’s the indicator of enlightenment.”
To bring truth into the marketplace is to bring it into ordinary life. Enlightenment is not meant to be locked away in monasteries or reserved for mystics; it belongs in the streets, the homes, the workplaces, and the marketplaces of the world. Real spirituality does not withdraw from life; it participates fully without getting lost in it.
A true teacher does not invite worship, they invite awareness. Vishrant often says that seekers deserve the unvarnished truth, not a diluted version that keeps them comfortable, he offers no illusion of perfection, only the living reality of presence. His teaching is not about belief but about seeing through what is false.
Around one who is awake, something subtle happens. The mind grows quiet, the body relaxes, and the heart begins to open, this is not the result of holiness but of reality. When you stand in the presence of stillness, it reminds you of your own.
The buddha field is not something to revere but something to help you recognise the truth within yourself, the awakened do not claim it; they simply embody it. When truth walks into the marketplace, it does not wear robes or demand offerings. It speaks plainly, it laughs easily, it lives openly.
The End of Pretending
Do not settle for performance when what you truly long for is reality. Sit in Satsang with Vishrant, a space where holiness dissolves and simplicity returns. Here you will not be asked to worship but to see, you will not be told what to believe but invited to look directly into the nature of awareness itself.
In this field of presence, there is no hierarchy, no sacred and profane, no specialness at all. Only life, vast and ordinary, shining through everything equally. The buddha field is not proof of holiness but the quiet fragrance of peace that appears when all pretense ends and reality is all that remains.
Let go of the image of the holy one, stop reaching upward for what has always been beneath your feet. You are not meant to become something divine; you are meant to recognise the divinity that already lives through you.
Step out of illusion and into truth, let every mask fall, and discover the freedom of simply being as you are; ordinary, awake, and free.
