Daily Meditation: Monday, October 29, 2012

Dream and reality - their relative nature

10/29/2012

Suppose someone has a nightmare and dreams, for example, that they are being chased. They run and run, and then an abyss of breathtaking depth opens up before them, and they fall… The anxiety! Even when they wake up, they still feel upset for a little while, as if what they had just dreamed was real. So, what conclusion can be drawn from this experience? If we can take a dream for reality, then we can also think of reality as a dream. That's right, and sages do. Whatever happens to them, they say, ‘I am suffering, I am anxious and I feel as if I am being pursued, but it is a dream, and when I wake up there will be no trace of it left.’ You will say that all this reasoning will not stop you from suffering. Of course not, but people who have nightmares also suffer: they toss and turn in their bed, they scream, and yet whatever causes them to react in that way is not real. And they actually tell themselves that once they are awake. So when you suffer, tell yourself that it is not real.