By Gonny 
At first glance, that sentence may sound abstract, even philosophical. But look again. It is actually describing something very ordinary, something you already know…just not usually in these words.
Imagine you are watching a movie.
A landscape appears on the screen: mountains, cities, people, drama, love stories, disasters. While the movie is playing, everything feels real.
The body reacts within the movie.
Laughter appears. Tension appears. Tears appear.
For those two hours, the landscape, with everything happening in it, has the full attention.
But the movie can only be seen because it is projected onto a screen.
So what makes the movie possible is not the story…..
it is the screen.
The screen does not move.
It does not age, or panic when the story becomes intense.
And it does not celebrate when the ending is happy.
The screen simply allows everything to appear.
And here comes the subtle shift.
When we say that the world is an illusion, we do not mean that the story does not exist. The illusion is believing that the story..about a person with a name, a body, and a personal history…..is who you are.
This is the core of it. Not what appears is the problem, but from which identity it appears.
The movie may exist. The drama may exist. Life may be fully lived.
But the moment the story says, this is you, the screen is forgotten.
And when that is forgotten, we ourselves become an image inside the illusion.
The landscape of life…bodies, relationships, memories, thoughts, fears, plans….is extremely convincing. It moves, changes, reacts. It feels personal. It feels urgent. It seems to say: this is who you are.
But the deeper reality is simpler and quieter.
You are not the landscape.
You are that in which it is known.
You are the screen, the field of Awareness.
And this is not a spiritual belief or a new idea you need to adopt. It is something you can notice directly.
Right now, thoughts are appearing. Sensations are appearing. Perhaps emotions too. All of that belongs to the landscape. But what is it appearing in?
There is an open, knowing presence that does not come and go with thoughts. That presence takes no effort. It does not need improvement. It does not need protection. That presence is not watching life from a distance. Life is appearing within it.
This is where the word illusion is often misunderstood.
Illusion does not mean “worthless” or “to be ignored.”
It means: not what it seems to be.
A rainbow is an illusion, and yet it is beautiful. A movie is not real,
and yet it can move you.
The problem only begins when we forget the screen and try to find stability inside the movie.
We try to fix the landscape so we can finally feel at peace.
We try to improve the character we think we are and we try to control the story so it will not hurt.
But peace does not come from a perfect movie.
Peace comes from recognizing the screen on which the movie appears.
When that recognition happens, life does not suddenly disappear..
…bills still arrive….bodies still age…emotions still move, but something fundamental relaxes.
You no longer need the landscape to behave in a certain way in order to be okay.
Because the screen has always been okay !
And here the quiet miracle happens:
When the screen is recognized, the movie is no longer a problem. It can be experienced. You can participate in it. It can even be challenging, but it is no longer taken as the definition of who you are.
You are not a person trapped inside a world.
The world is an appearance in Awareness.
The landscape is an illusion…yes!
But being the screen is not an illusion. It is your reality.
And once this is seen, even for a moment, something in you knows:
Nothing essential is at stake here.
Nothing real can be threatened.
And nothing needs to be proven.
The movie may continue, but the screen has been remembered.
With love and light
G.