Spiritual Liberation: What Does "It's All Made Up" Really Mean?

By Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
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The Enlightenment Map > Stage 4 > Spiritual Liberation

Spiritual liberation is often described as the end of suffering, the realization of no-self, or the recognition of one's true nature. Across many contemplative traditions, there is a common theme that liberation involves seeing through something that was previously taken to be real. Yet what exactly is being seen through?

One phrase frequently used by contemporary awakening teachers is: "It's all made up." For some, this statement points to the discovery that thoughts are constantly creating stories about reality. For others, it points to the realization that personal identity is constructed rather than inherent. Some take it further and recognize that beliefs, perspectives, and the physical sensation of being a self are also mental fabrications.

But there is a deeper question that is rarely explored. When someone says, "It's all made up," what does the word all actually refer to?

The answer often depends on the developmental stage of the person making the statement. What appears to be complete liberation from one perspective may later be seen as merely another layer of conceptual construction. Thus, understanding spiritual liberation requires examining these progressively deeper levels of what is being recognized as "made up."

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What Is Spiritual Liberation?

Many nondual teachers define spiritual liberation as the end of the knower, the collapse of the sense that there is someone separate who possesses knowledge, experience, awareness, or realization.

In traditional Buddhist frameworks, this insight is often associated with the final fetter, sometimes referred to as fetter ten. At this stage, the tendency to identify with any personal position, perspective, attainment, or identity may fall away.

From this perspective, liberation is not the acquisition of ultimate knowledge. It is the recognition that structures of knowing were constructed by the mind and they aren't actually real. This is why many liberated teachers eventually arrive at statements such as "it's all made up," "there is no ultimate truth," or "nothing can be said about reality."

Yet these statements can mean very different things depending on what level of construction is being seen through.

Video: Liberation as Seeing That "It's All Made Up"

The First Layer: Thoughts Are Made Up

The most common interpretation of "it's all made up" concerns thoughts. Most people spend their lives assuming that thoughts accurately describe reality. Thoughts appear to explain who we are, what others think of us, what happened in the past, and what might happen in the future.

Through meditation, inquiry, or spontaneous awakening experiences, many people discover that thoughts are constantly generating interpretations (or meaning) rather than pointing to some objective truth.

A thought says, "I failed."
Another says, "I am successful."
Another says, "This should not be happening."

Each thought appears convincing. Yet upon closer inspection, thoughts are simply arising and disappearing phenomena. This realization can be profoundly liberating. The mind is seen as a storyteller and narrative creator rather than an authority. Psychological suffering often decreases because thoughts are no longer treated as facts.

However, despite its importance, this insight still occurs within a framework where thought is appearing within a mental context which remains invisible. That context is often called 'ego-development'. It is basically the lens through which everything, even liberation, is viewed.

One Type of Spiritual Liberation: Seeing Through Thought (i.e., The Reflector)

The Second Layer: The Self Is Made Up

Another realization occurs when attention turns toward the one who appears to be observing thoughts. Many awakening traditions guide practitioners toward investigating the sense of self. Upon examination, the self often appears less substantial than previously assumed.

What initially seemed to be a solid entity is revealed to be a collection of sensations, memories, narratives, preferences, and habits.

The sense of ownership begins to dissolve. Thoughts happen, but no thinker can be found. Actions occur, but no doer appears to be directing them. Experiences arise, but there is no obvious owner of experience. At this stage, "it's all made up" refers not only to thought content but also to the apparent individual who owns those thoughts.

This realization is frequently described as no-self. Yet even here, subtle assumptions often remain. Many people simply exchange one identity for another. Instead of being a person, they become awareness. Instead of being a small self, they become a Big Self. Instead of being the ego, they become the One consciousness. All of this is still an illusion being constructed by the mind.

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The Third Layer: Beliefs Are Made Up

At a deeper level, even spiritual insights themselves begin to lose their apparent solidity. People often assume that awakening provides access to a more accurate 'Truth' on reality. Yet every perspective remains a perspective.

Beliefs about nonduality are perspectives.
Beliefs about no-self are perspectives.
Beliefs about awareness are perspectives.
Beliefs about consciousness are perspectives.
Beliefs about enlightenment are perspectives.

Even the conviction that "everything is love" is still a conceptual position. This does not mean such insights are false. It means they are interpretations. They are meaning being made from neutral phenomena.

Many seekers discover that religious beliefs are constructed but continue treating spiritual beliefs as absolute truth. The content changes, but the mechanism remains the same. The mind continues creating meaning. The realization here is that every belief system, including spiritual belief systems, is made up.

This can feel unsettling because many of the assumptions that previously provided orientation begin to disappear.

One Type of Spiritual Liberation: Seeing Through Belief

The Fourth Layer: Concepts Are Made Up

This level is far less commonly discussed. Here, the realization extends beyond beliefs into the conceptual frameworks themselves. This is when is becomes clear that awakening to do with the self or any sort of personal identification. When there is still the concept of self operating, the concept of no-self makes sense and appears to represent a real experience, a real 'spiritual achievement'.

A person may genuinely recognize the absence of a separate self while still unconsciously treating no-self as an objective truth.
Another may experience profound states of awareness while assuming awareness itself is fundamental.
Another may conclude that consciousness is the ground of existence.

Statements that refer to awareness, no-self, or transcendence point to a certain level of recognition where these experiences still seem real or true. This is prior to conceptual deconstruction.

At the conceptual disillusion level, both self and no-self are unreal and they have nothing to do with the continued unfolding.

Conceptual Boundaries
The conceptual level is about the boundaries of concepts themselves. Concepts such as awareness, consciousness, awakening, liberation, enlightenment, nonduality, presence, and every single other concept begins to lose its apparent reality.

The issue is not that these concepts are inaccurate. The issue is that they are boundaryless. No concept actually points to anything solid, stable, or permanent.

If, for example, someone says, "consciousness is the ground", they still have the belief that there is such a thing as consciousness. At the conceptual level of seeing, it's clear that there isn't even consciousness. It's just a concept, and it only seems like it exists when the boundaries between concepts still seem real.

Thus liberation becomes increasingly radical. Even the most refined spiritual descriptions are recognized as mental constructions. Even the most elegant teachings are made up because they are made of concepts that don't actually point to anything.

The Fifth Layer: The Structure of Reality Is Made Up

Very few teachings point beyond concepts into the mechanisms that create the experience of reality itself. There seems to be continuity. There appears to be a relationship between past, present, and future, a relationship between THIS and THAT. There appears to be causation. Yet closer examination raises important questions.

What actually connects one moment to another?
What actually makes a practice seem related to awakening?
What makes a perspective seem true?

If you look deeply, you can see the mental mechanisms constructing reality itself. The mind is tagging events, making relationships between things, tying certain things to meaning, and creating sequences that seem like continuous time.

The Self Illusion Is Not The Last Illusion
This depth of seeing has nothing to do with a self or no-self.

It's beyond seeing that there is no doer, it's that in direct experience, 'doing' is actually the same as 'non-doing'.
It's beyond seeing that there is no decision maker, it's that in direct experience 'making a decision' is the same as 'not making a decision'.
It's beyond seeing that 'you are not your emotions'. Emotions are not even emotions. For example, fear is itself, it's opposite, and nothing simultaneously.
It's beyond having insights. It's beyond even 'insight is just happening' for no one. It's that there is no actual perceptible difference between the experience of insight and no insight.

All of these experiences are conceptual. None of them even seem real until the mind labels them. Whether there is a self or not is irrelevant.

Comparing The Levels
From the perspective of thought and belief, past and future are 'made up'. But when concepts are seen though, it's clear that even awareness, suffering, peace, and love are made up. When we go even deeper, we see that even the 'here' and 'now' is made up. There is no 'ultimate reality' and 'relative reality'. There are no boundaries to be found anywhere. There is no actual way to distinguish opposites.

The Limits of Most Definitions of Spiritual Liberation

The vast majority of contemporary descriptions of liberation stop at the recognition that you are not the personal self and that you are awareness or consciousness. This is really the recognition that you are not your thoughts. The experience of being a self is seen as a collection of thoughts, sensations, memories, and perspectives rather than an independently existing entity.

These insights can be profound and life-changing. They often bring a dramatic reduction in psychological suffering and a greater sense of freedom. Yet they still leave much of the underlying structure of experience unquestioned.

Beliefs Running Rampant
If you look, you can pretty easily see that most people who claim to be 'liberated' still hold beliefs. They may say things like:

"If you meditate or do self-inquiry or complete your shadow work, you are more likely to awaken." ⬅️ That's a belief.
"There is no separate self. Rather, the truth is there is 'no-self'." ⬅️ That's a belief.
"Your true nature is consciousness." ⬅️ That's a belief.

Consciousness is a concept. No-self is a concept. Nonduality is a concept. Liberation is a concept. These words point toward apparent experiences, insights, and shifts in perception, but they do not possess any inherent reality outside the conceptual systems that construct them and give them meaning.

No Truth
This can be difficult to understand because spiritual teachings often present these ideas as discoveries about Truth with a capital T. Yet, there is no privileged truth that can be separated from everything else. Either it's all true or none of it is. Either a concept is everything or it is nothing. Thus, what most people call liberation is generally just the seeing through of thoughts.

You can go deeper if you want to...

One Type of Spiritual Liberation: Seeing Through Concepts

Beyond Liberation

At a certain point, even liberation begins to lose its apparent significance. The idea that someone awakens already assumes a causal sequence in time. The idea that ignorance transforms into wisdom assumes that ignorance and wisdom are real things that are different from each other.

The idea that liberation involves X, Y, and Z experiences assumes that those experiences are real and that their end is meaningful.

The only way to even explain what liberation is is to hold a perspective on what it isn't. Thus, everyone's definition on liberation is wrong and entirely based on their mind's construction of meaningless information into categories: liberated versus not liberated.

Final Thoughts on Spiritual Liberation

Spiritual liberation is often described as the realization that "it's all made up." Yet what is included within that "all" varies dramatically from one person to another. For many people, the insight refers to thoughts. For others, it includes beliefs.

Rarer still is the recognition that the conceptual structures that create the appearance of reality, including space, time, continuity, causation, and meaning, may also be constructed.

From this perspective, liberation is not the discovery of an ultimate truth hidden behind appearances. It is the progressive collapse of knowing what anything means. In the end, there is nothing you can point to. Liberation (and non-liberation) doesn't really exist.

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