Human civilisation is under the influence of a powerful illusion, which has arisen from our inordinate sensory perception of the outside world, and languages that are fundamentally restricted and thought determining.

The illusion is the idea that we are something that is separate to the world that we see outside of us, and that our skin is a barrier that separates self from other.

Due to this perception, we have grown to feel that the world is something that we are confronting; we feel that we have to teach and instruct people to act, think and believe in a certain kind of way, so that we can beat the world, before it beats us.

Most of the world’s population see it that the purpose of life is to attain status and success, and to better others, rather than simply to live, love, and enjoy.

This delusion is not due to a lacking in our intelligence, or an inability to interpret what is true, but is maintained simply because it is what we have always been told.

It is encrypted into our language, and it underlies our culture in the form of frivolous traditions, sloppy education, incongruous laws and inculcating television. It has corrupted our political systems, distorted our integrity, wasted our environment and exploited our people, and for these reasons, it is a very serious illusion indeed.

We are all humans, and our problems are a disease of our race as a whole, and not of its individuals.

When we put aside the semantics of our problems, and forget about who may be to blame or not to blame, changing the world becomes as simple and easy as closing our eyes.

All it takes is a choice—you can choose to attach yourself to the outside world and your thoughts or not—to live with jealousy or with trust, with greed or generosity, or with fear or love.

To live in fear, and with attachment to the world, we will continue to use up our resources, eradicate endangered species, create masses of pollution, exploit the poor and so on.

If we choose to live with love and stop trying to control the uncontrollable, however, we can save the environment and transform renewable energy. Living with love will create equality around the world, resulting in world peace and the development of healthy and fair economic and social systems that will benefit us all.

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Apprentice Editor: Carrie Marzo / Editor: Travis May

Photo: Bragi Kort / Pixoto