Our common sensations are sometimes misleading; the result of scientific research is more reliable. If we conduct logical analyses, we come to realize that the world we are living in is only as brief as one ten thousandth of a second; the rest is our own illusion.

As an example on the macro level, consider dozens of lights lined up together. The first light is turned on, then turned off; immediately after that, the second light is turned on and off, then the third, fourth and fifth light, and so on to the end. We could see that each light is an individual with not much relationship to the others, but if we see the lights from a distance, it seems that one light moves from the first spot to the last. This is only an optical illusion in which there is actually no movement of the light. Again, in Buddhist terminology this is called arising and ceasing.

[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series ~ The Illusory World]