Dream World Experiences — Waking World Experiences

Note: In this writing, the author refllects on and compares recent experiences of his sleeping/dreaming state with those of his waking/non-sleeping state.

I had enjoyed flying [in my dream]. I had enjoyed the encounter with the vendor [in my waking state], and the corn was nearly the best thing I had ever eaten. Yet here in the park, images of home, corn, vendor, flying through space all existed equally distant from where I sat. One image was not closer or farther than the other. Nor could I say that one thought was more real than the other. These thoughts, images, concepts just drifted through like clouds. Memories of home might snag on emotional knots, but the thought of home itself had no stronger roots in an object called “home” than the image of corn lived in a plant called “corn.” When we stop to investigate the quality of these thought-clouds, they emerge more like dreams than like what we normally label “real.” Neither nighttime dreams nor daytime thoughts have substance or durability. Yet until we wake up to reality, day and night perceptions have the capacity to disturb our lives.

Yongey Mingyur
from In Love with the World; What a Monk can Teach You about Living from Nearly Dying