Is then the world no better than a dream?

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Q : Is then the world no better than a dream?

 

Maharshi:

What is wrong with the sense of reality you have while

you are dreaming? You may be dreaming of something

quite impossible, for instance, of having a happy chat

with a dead person. Just for a moment, you may doubt

in the dream, saying to yourself, ‘was he not dead?’,

but somehow your mind reconciles itself to the dream

vision, and the person is as good as alive for the

purposes of the dream. In other words, the dream as a

dream does not permit you to doubt its reality.

 

It is the same in the waking state, for you are unable

to doubt the reality of the world that you see while

you are awake. How can the mind which has itself

created the world accept it as unreal? That is the

significance of the comparison made between the world

of the waking state and the dream world. Both are

creations of the mind and, so long as the mind is

engrossed in either, it finds itself unable to deny

their reality. It cannot deny the reality of the dream

world while it is dreaming and it cannot deny the

reality of the waking world while it is awake. If, on

the contrary, you withdraw your mind completely from

the world and turn it within and abide there, that is,

if you keep awake always to the Self which is the

substratum of all experiences, you will find the world

of which you are now aware is just as unreal as the

world in which you lived in your dream.

 

 

 

 

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