Blavatsky on illusion and our spiritual evolution

H.P. Blavatsky in the Key to Theosophy

Blavatsky - Q. But who is it that creates each time the Universe?
A. No one creates it. Science would call the process evolution; the pre-Christian philosophers and the Orientalists called it emanation: we, Occultists and Theosophists, see in it the only universal and eternal reality casting a periodical reflection of itself on the infinite Spatial depths. This reflection, which you regard as the objective material universe, we consider as a temporary illusion and nothing else. That alone which is eternal is real.
Q. At that rate, you and I are also illusions.
A. As flitting personalities, today one person, tomorrow another — we are. Would you call the sudden flashes of the aurora borealis, the Northern lights, a “reality” , though it is as real as can be while you look at it? Certainly not; it is the cause that produces it, if permanent and eternal, which is the only reality, while the other is but a passing illusion.
More by Blavatsky on maya or illusion