"There is no believing in God" he declared, smiling again. "We either know God, or we don't".


"Well", I laughed, "I certainly don't know God, and frankly i'm inclined to think that God is impossible to believe in, at least most of tho notions of God that i've come across."


"Oh, of course, naturally, God is impossible. That is the first proof that he exists."


(...)


"I will explain. Nothing exists as we see it. Nothing we see is really there, as we think we are seeing it. Our eyes are liars. Everything that seems real, is marely part of the ilusion. Nothing exists, as we think it does. Not you, not me, not this room. Nothing."


(...)


"Let me put this in another way. The agents of creation, the energy that actually animates the matter and the life - that we think we see around us, cannot be measured or weighed or ever put into time, as we know it. In one form, that energy is photons of light. The smallest object is a Universe of open space to them, and the entire Universe is but a speck of dust. What we call the world is just an idea - and not a very good one, yet. From the point of view of the light, the photom of light that animates it, the universe that we know is not real. Nothing is. Do you understand now?"


(...)


"The sane man is simply a better liar than the insane man."


(...)


"No", i lied. "I am sorry, but i just don't agree. I don't think you can make things true, just by believing them."


"I have not said that", he replied, patiently. "What i am saying is that reality - as we see it, and most people see it - it's nothing more than an ilusion. There is another reality, beyond what we see with our eyes. You have to feel your way into that reality with your heart. There is no other way."





(in "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts)