Are we really living in an "illusion"?

Q:  I have a hard time understanding the concept of living in an "illusion."

A:  When you understand that the “illusions” are limited to the physical "things" of life, and do not refer to our "lives", the concept makes a bit more sense. It's ironic that we’ve been taught since childhood that "things" like our thoughts, our imagination, and our feelings, are the illusions of time and space, while objects like tables, rocks, and material things are real – because the opposite is true. 

Our spiritual selves and the journey we're on are what’s real. Our essence and our experiences, and those elements that define both, like our beliefs, emotions, desires, and values, are what’s real. The "intangibles" are real. We are born of illusion, into illusion, so that we can experience what is real: like joy, beauty, frustration, envy, compassion, pain, sorrow and love. 

As an analogy, take a theatrical play, or a movie: everything physical about the production, including the actors and actresses, are the illusions, these are all pretend, however whatever the production imparts to its audience would be real, like the story's ideals, morals, and emotional effects. And on life's stage, we, the actors and actresses, physically, help make-up the props, but so too are we our own audiences, experiencing and learning from what is real, in a sea of illusions.