The Buddha tells us this world is an illusion. In the sense that our ego is an illusion. Our true self is Christ consciousness, beyond the illusion, beyond the ego. Pema Chodron found this concept to be viscerally described in the movie A Beautiful Mind. She narrates her inspiration from this movie in her book, Getting Unstuck, and here is a description found online:
"I really love Pema Chodron’s discussion in Getting Unstuck about our thoughts being like the schizophrenic hallucinations John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. In the film the you see John Nash interact with several people, a roommate, the roommate’s young niece, and a government agent. At a certain point in the film the audience comes to discover all three of these characters are hallucinations. Other people in his life are real, his wife and child, other co-workers and friends, but not these three.
Now John goes through many stages with these hallucinations. Initially totally believing in them. Then being told they are not real and trying to fight with them screaming to them that they aren’t real. Finally, he shakes their hands and says thank you but I’m not going to talk to you anymore. At first the hallucinations yell louder at him trying to get his attention back, but after some time they soften just looking at him. But they NEVER go away."
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