Delusion

Delusion (moha) is one of the three unwholesome roots (akusala-mūla) identified in Buddhist psychology, alongside greed (lobha) and hatred (dosa). While greed and hatred are often easily recognised, delusion is more subtle and pervasive. It is the fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of reality — the inability to see things as they truly are.

Delusion manifests as ignorance of impermanence, suffering, and non-self. It sustains attachment to fleeting experiences and identification with the self. Under its influence, the mind constructs elaborate stories about the world, about others, and about oneself, projecting stability and solidity onto that which is inherently unstable and empty.

Unlike simple intellectual confusion, delusion operates at the very root of perception. Even when we know that things change or that clinging causes suffering, deep habitual patterns continue to reinforce distorted views. This is why genuine insight requires more than conceptual understanding; it demands direct experiential seeing — moment after moment — into the conditioned, impermanent nature of experience.

Delusion is not overcome by accumulating knowledge but by cultivating mindfulness, ethical conduct, and meditative stability. As clarity deepens, the clouds of ignorance gradually part. The world reveals itself not as a fixed stage for a personal drama but as a flowing interplay of causes and conditions, free from the weight of ownership and control.

Freedom from delusion is liberation itself — the end of fabrication and the opening to reality as it is: luminous, empty, and peaceful.

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge.”
— Daniel J. Boorstin