it could be half illusion and half real there for some of what u bvelieve is real

Or the illusion can imitate the real so well that we will never know what is deemed 'real' or 'illusion'.

i just took a course at my university that revolved entirely around tao te-ching's works. the whole "illusion" thing isn't talking about some illusion of reality... it's all metaphors for finding who we really are as people. most of his works are simply guides to finding things like inner peace and contentment. !no offense meant! - by all means questioning everything is great... but, please don't take a wonderful author and throw him in with some matrix style "illusion" theory. i will try to find a link for my professor's site-- he has tons of material for tao te-ching and i'm positive many people on this site would find what he is really talking about EXTREMELY interesting.