Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya said,

The sage's son continued,

Therefore, I tell you that you should investigate the matter closely. (You will probably argue as follows,)

Dream and wakefulness resemble each other in their discontinuous harmony (like a chain made up of links). There is no unbroken continuity in any object because every new appearance implies a later disappearance. But continuity cannot be denied in the fundamentals underlying the objects! Because a dream creation is obliterated and rendered false by present experience - what distinction will you draw between the fundamentals underlying the dream objects and the present objects? 

If you say that the dream is an illusion and its fundamentals are equally so, whereas the present creation is not so obliterated and its fundamentals must therefore be true, I ask you what illusion is? It is determined by the transitory nature, which is nothing but appearance to, and disappearance from, our senses. 

Is not everything obliterated in deep sleep? If you maintain however, that mutual contradiction is unreliable as evidence and so proves nothing, it amounts to saying that self-evident sight alone furnishes the best proof. Quite so, people like you do not have a true insight into the nature of things. Therefore take my word for it, the present world is only similar to the dream world. Long periods pass in dreams also. Therefore, purposefulness and enduring nature are in every way similar to both states. Just as you are obviously aware in your waking state, so also you are in your dream state. These two states being so similar, why do you not mourn the loss of your dream relations?