How did illusion begin (Buddhism)?
According to the Buddhist teachings, illusion (if you mean our mistaken view of reality) didn’t “begin” – it has been with us from beginningless time. There wasn’t a time when we saw reality in a correct way. In such a case, we would have been buddhas, and would never have fallen down from that state. What Buddhism explains is what makes this “illusion” exist, not how it at first came into existence (because it didn’t). The cause for the illusion (since beginningless time) is our ignorance (since beginningless time) which gives rise to desire (since beginningless time), aversion (since beginningless time), karmic formations (since beginningless time), and so on. And just a sidenote: “illusion” doesn’t mean that reality or things don’t exist, and we just mistakenly think they do, but simply that reality and things don’t exists in the way we mistakenly think they do – for example, we mistakenly think they exist independently from their own side, whereas in reality they exist purely in de
The Buddha, or at least the historical Buddha in the Pali Canon, did not teach that the world is an illusion as though it did not really exist. What he taught was that our perception of it is deluded and we see purity, happiness, permanence, and selfhood in conditioned phenomena where such cannot be found. So you could ask, “How did delusion being?” But the Buddha does not answer this, as it is beside the point of overcoming delusion here and now and would get people involved in fruitless metaphysical speculations. The Buddha taught that not only was metaphysical speculation and philosophical debate fruitless, it was actually a pernicious waste of time. Those who engaged in it would be much better off cultivating the means to attain direct knowledge for themselves. The most famous example of the Buddha’s teaching in regard to philosophical speculation is of course the parable of the poisoned arrow in the Culamalunkya Sutta. In the sutta, the monk Malunkyaputta decides that he will leav
