Where has the dream gone?

What am I? I am the screen and the image projected on the screen. There is no image separate from the screen. The image is the screen, there is no independent image on the screen. “The world is Other, the body is Me and the Mind is Me!”, thinks the I-thought that has fooled himself. All is One, all is perfect in Love. As life happens to Me the movie goes on in all its beauty and love in its continual flow in the Now. There is no ‘I’ and there is no ‘Other’. The past is gone and the future is an illusion. There is nothing witnessing the ‘I’ and the ‘Other’ because the ‘Witness’, the ‘I’ and the ‘Other’ are all one in the ultimate present Now. What and where is the world, the body and the mind without Me? Where has the dream gone when I woke up?

Like a Dream

Nagarjuna

There is no reality in a dream but nevertheless we believe in the reality of the things seen in a dream. After waking up, we recognize the falsity of the dream and we smile at ourselves. In the same way, the person deep in the sleep of the fetters (saṃyojananidra) clings (abhiniviśate) to the things that do not exist; but when he has found the Path, at the moment of enlightenment, he understands that there is no reality and laughs at himself. This is why it is said: like in a dream.

Moreover, by the power of sleep (nidrābala), the dreamer sees something there where there is nothing. In the same way, by the power of the sleep of ignorance (avidyānidrā), a person believes in the existence of all kinds of things that do not exist, e.g., ‘me’ and ‘mine’ (ātmātmīya), male and female, etc.

Moreover, in a dream, we enjoy ourselves although there is nothing enjoyable there; we are irritated although there is nothing irritating there; we are frightened although there is nothing to be afraid of there. In the same way, beings of the threefold world (traidhātukasattva), in the sleep of ignorance, are irritated although there is nothing irritating, enjoy themselves although there is nothing enjoyable, and frightened although there is nothing to be afraid of.

— Nagarjuna – Mahaprajñaparamitopadesa – Chapter XI

 

The Game of Chess

Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj

In the waking state, the husband, the wife, the king, and queen, are all as false as in a dream. The one who understands this well, is the Incarnation of the Incarnation. He himself is God. The Scriptures, the Vedas, you, I, all are only a myth. This world is a dream. One who awakens from this dream, is truly awakened. In this world appearance, we really own nothing. We say that we should not die and we have to be careful accordingly. That is not how it is in the game of chess. In chess, the man who is defeated is not hanged, nor does the one who wins gets any kingdom. This Illusion is like a game of chess. When a game of chess is over, the players go away with only what they brought with them to the game. What kingdom or spoils can they take away? In short, this world is a game of chess. What is visible is Brahman, but I ask you, what is beyond this appearance? It is Parabrahman. I ask you, “What and how is it?” “That” is Shiva. “That” is Brahman, which is the Truth. There is no horse, house, or man. There is only One, nothing else. However, “That” has no name, no shape. It “is,” that’s all. There is no asking what “It” is, or how “It” is. The dictates of the Vedas are all like a dream. Bondage and freedom are false. One who understands this and lives a natural life has no insistence that some thing should be done, or should not be done. To do, or not to do, is the thought belonging to the “body-consciousness.” Many were able to be completely and perpetually free by withdrawing from the worldly life, but they also kept the sense that they were “somebody.” Even when they attained victory, to be immovable or movable, are factors belonging to the body. Such a one valued himself, or conceived of himself, in relation to the body only. Such conceptual delusion should not be there. Really we are nothing and at the same time, we are all things. Not one, not two, not even zero. Elephant, dog, horse, we are all these, we are everything.

— Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj – Master of Selfrealization – Talk 04/11/1935

Life is…

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

— Mother Theresa

Where are you going?

Treading along in this dreamlike, illusory world,
Without looking for the traces I may have left;
A cuckoo’s song beckons me to return home –
Hearing this, I tilt my head to see
Who has told me to run backwards;
But do not ask me where I am heading,
As I travel in this limitless world
Where every step I take is my home.

— Dogen

To live in a dream

We are like the spider.
We weave our life and then move along in it.
We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.
This is true for the entire universe.

— The Upanishads

You can fly, but that cocoon has to go

Viewing our experience in this world as a dream, Siddhartha found that our habit of fixating on the mere appearance of our dreamlike relative world, thinking that it is truly existing, throws us into an endless cycle of pain and anxiety. We are in a deep sleep, hibernating like a silkworm in a cocoon. We have woven a reality based on our projections, imagination, hopes, fears, and delusions. Our cocoons have become very solid and sophisticated. Our imaginings are so real to us that we are trapped in the cocoon. But we can free ourselves simply by realizing that this is all our imagination.

— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche – What makes you not a Buddhist – P 63

The Last Curtain

Like a dream,
Whatever I enjoy
Will become a memory;
The past is not revisited.

— Shantideva – Verse 36 / Chapter 2 of the Bodhicharyavatara

I know that the day will come
when my sight of this earth shall be lost,
and life will take its leave in silence,
drawing the last curtain over my eyes.

Yet stars will watch at night,
and morning rise as before,
and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains.

When I think of this end of my moments,
the barrier of the moments breaks
and I see by the light of death
thy world with its careless treasures.
Rare is its lowliest seat,
rare is its meanest of lives.

Things that I longed for in vain
and things that I got
—let them pass.
Let me but truly possess
the things that I ever spurned
and overlooked.

— Rabindranath Tagore – Gitanjali – Poem N° 92