The Ultimate Either/Or: Illusion or Infinity?.

It feels undeniable that we each live a finite life, because everyone is limited by behavior rooted in the brain. No one’s brain is free from the past, and over time, we’ve all developed fixed behavior patterns. The most troubling patterns, such as phobia, prejudice, and addiction, make the person’s free choice almost impossible. Even with less destructive patterns like overeating, refusing to take risks (or the opposite, taking too many risks) or being too shy to interact well with others, pose limitations in countless lives.

It is quite remarkable, then, that the world’s spiritual traditions in their own way hold out a different, higher life that escapes the bonds of limitation. Why didn’t the realists win out long ago? Because realists are people who take human limitations as a given and try to work with them.

But this misses the critical factor, which is called “conscious agency.” You are a conscious agent as the author of your own story, meaning that your conscious choices outweigh what your brain is controlling. “I have total awareness” would be the apex of conscious agency. “I am out of control” would be the low point of giving in to fixed habits, responses, beliefs, traumas, and conditioning in the brain.

People find it hard to admit or recognize when they are acting like brain puppets. But history is filled with groupthink and blind obedience carried to the point of violence and destruction. Most of us defend beliefs that we bought into second-hand; we act in various ways to curry favor; we go along in order to feel more secure and less vulnerable; and we turn to the distraction of texting, video games, and watching TV because these involve little or no conscious thought.

Spiritual guidance in every generation keeps pointing out that these limitations are self-imposed and have no real validity. They are just the tip of an all-enveloping illusion, namely, that you are an isolated human being fenced in by fears, habits, bad memories, second-hand thinking, and old conditioning. Far from being an object to glorify, the human brain reflects every aspect of this illusion, down to the most basic perceptions received from the outside world. For example, only 1% of your visual field is actually in focus and detailed; everything else you see is a lingering snapshot from the past as this 1% darts around. Even the sense that you see a filled-in picture of the world is wrong, since your brain papers over a large blind spot in the center of your retina that sees nothing.

However, the chief reinforcer of illusion is the ego, whose agenda controls everyone’s life. Ego is like the 1% of focused, detailed sight. “I” filters experience down to the minimum that makes “me” feel in control. The ego agenda can get very complicated, but its essentials are basic.

• Minimize pain, maximize pleasure
• Project a confident self-image
• Avoid potential threats and risks
• Paper over any signs of insecurity
• Shove unwanted emotions out of sight
• Don’t expose your vulnerabilities
• Exaggerate your strengths
• Convince others that you are socially worthy

Over time these basic tenets, which are automatic once a child is in grade school, become innate. Asa result, we aren’t the authors of our own stories; we are willingly following an agenda based on unconscious subservience to “I, me, and mine.” The ego hides its flaws and insecurities, which we connive in because flaws and insecurities are unpleasant to face.

Caught up in the wrap-around illusion produced by unconscious living, people see nowhere else to go.

Spiritual traditions hold out a surprising alternative: infinity. Infinity can be personified as God or the gods; it can also be impersonal as a state of awareness known as enlightenment. These versions of infinity reflect each culture. Unfortunately, at the level of organized religion, each became infected with its limitations, illusions, and even outright evils. (As a cynical quip goes, “God handed down the truth, and the Devil said, ‘Let me organize it.’”)

To have infinity guide your life, you must walk away from illusion. It isn’t the journey of a single step, but it is perfectly doable. The foundation of illusion can be demolished one brick at a time. The necessary steps all occur in self-awareness. Each is about regaining your status as a conscious agent.

You willingly give yourself over to this invisible intelligence, and idealism says that you can do this with your behavior, attitudes, and identity. Giving yourself over to infinity is realistic because what your ego and your brain connive to reinforce is false. They send messages telling you that you are isolated, alone, weak, and overpowered by the forces of nature. In reality, you are unbounded, without dimensions, and are constantly tapping into infinite possibilities. In a word, you are living from your infinite (or divine) source, but you aren’t aware of this essential fact.

If you were, you could stop being a mixture of conscious agent and brain puppet.

As a start, look back at the list of basic reactions that form the ego’s agenda. If you stop every time you catch yourself following one of these innate responses, you will create an open space, a pause into which a new response can offer itself, which is the same as saying that a better you (call it the true self) is allowed a say in your life. Get into the habit of ignoring the illusion, and you will become more firmly ensconced in reality.

A big step will be gained once you see that the only escape from illusion is infinity. This is the secret of every tradition of higher consciousness, and its truth will never abandon us.

DEEPAK CHOPRA, MD, FACP, FRCP, is a Consciousness Explorer and a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is co-founder of DeepakChopra.ai, his AI twin and well-being advisor. He also co-founded Cyberhuman, a transformative suite of personalized health and well-being solutions. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is also an Honorary Fellow in Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He is the author of over 95 books, translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers.

For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution. His mission is to create a more balanced, peaceful, joyful, and healthier world. Through his teachings, he guides individuals to embrace their inherent strength, wisdom, and potential for personal and societal transformation.

In his latest book, “Digital Dharma” (Harmony/Rodale), Chopra navigates the balance between technology and expanded awareness, explaining that while AI cannot duplicate human intelligence, it can vastly enhance personal and spiritual growth. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of their top 100 most influential people.” www.deepakchopra.com.