The declaration that “none of this is real”, or that “reality is an illusion” is trivial and does a disservice to the pursuit of truth and love.
The power of recognising that “everything is an illusion/nothing is real” lies wholly in using this as a portal to deeper wisdom and knowledge. The danger of recognising that “everything is an illusion/nothing is real” is in mistaking this as a conclusion that implies that nothing matters.
A milestone on the spiritual path met by seekers pursuing meditation, prayer, philosophical enquiry, physics, psychedelics, and diverse other practices alike, is a profound ontological realisation that is frequently articulated as “none of this is real” or “this is all an illusion”.
The basis for this statement relates to the observation that when the parts of experience are sufficiently analysed, matter does not at all possess the properties that it appears to at the normal daily plane of existence.
When this phenomenon is discovered via experiential inquiry, it looks like finding that everything dissolves into/arises from nothing.
Summarising these observations as a conclusion that “everything is an illusion/nothing is real” is trivial in the simplest sense of this word - on its own, it provides no real value, no insight that is intrinsically powerful.
It is what follows from this statement that is really important - but that is unfortunately often left unspoken.
The power of this observation lies in recognising that it represents a portal, a threshold to power. But it is not an end point or a meaningful conclusion of its own, and misunderstanding it as such can cause a lot of confusion.
Spontaneous awakening or deeper questions can reveal the true power of the understanding that “everything is an illusion/nothing is real”. Questions such as: What does it mean, to “be real”? If everything is an illusion, then what is real - what is not an illusion? And what are we to do with our experience of all these “illusions” which appear very real? When I accept that this is all an illusion, how am I wiser than I was before I understood this?
In looking beyond the surface we may discover that “only love is real” (or “God” or “energy” or “this special type of subatomic stuff”) and this can be a powerful context shift that fundamentally changes a person's approach to life - because it at least anchors this insight to a profound force of goodness and truth (rather than merely pointing to what is not).
Or at the very least this subsequent step can provide some momentary comfort to existential concerns about the ramifications of loss, mistakes, and regrets.
But knowing “everything is an illusion” alone doesn't automatically translate into a better way of living which must take place now, in the material context we are inextricably part of. At best it can open a deep personal channel to direct knowledge of love, but at worst it can operate as a thought terminating cliche, with the erroneous implication that since nothing is real, nothing matters. This existential despair may spontaneously open a person to its paradoxical opposite, in which case the observation represents a powerful catalyst to more truth and love (revealing my hot take as hyperbole), but I think that’s probably a rare scenario.
I think a more common implication that people take is that since nothing matters, we may as well discard intention, reverence, and structures of meaning. However if we just ignore stuff and meaning because they it's not real we will meet with very negative experience. The more devoted seekers might conclude that it’s fine and insignificant to have a negative experience, since their suffering is merely a choice and not real according to this axiom. However they can not avoid deciding that something is better than another thing (even if it is just to be landed at “the truest truth” that nothing is real - they are committing to that, at the very least, being real, and therefore undermining any logical consistency or internal validity in their stance. This is a classic fatal dilemma encountered in epistemology and relativism) and distracts the seeker from the continued evolution of love and truth that is available. This fatal dilemma also implies the solution that love > nothing.
In order to be relevant and meaningful, “everything is an illusion/nothing is real” usually requires significant additional inquiry which will illuminate the path to living within a multi-plane context, where different truths hold at different levels of inquiry and experience, and where we may live better moments when we understand this well, including understanding how the different levels interact and affect one another. My wish is that people who present this axiom also articulate how it is in service to love and truth.