This World is a Dream

Sri Annamalai Swami

Q: How does the mind project this world I see in front of me?

AS: Everything we see in this waking state is a dream. These dreams are our thoughts made manifest. Bad thoughts make bad dreams and good thoughts make good dreams, and if you have no thoughts, you don't dream at all. But even if you do dream, you must understand that your dream is also the Self. You do't have to suppress thoughts or be absolutely thoughtless to abide as the Self. If you know that even your waking and sleeping dreams are the Self, then the thoughts and the dreams they produce can go on. They will not be a problem for your anymore. Just be the Self at all times. In this state you will know that everything that appears to you is just a dream.

Q: What I am trying to say is, 'How do thoughts and desires create this world we live in? It doesn't seem possible that all this that I see could be a manifestation of my hidden desires.

AS: Imagine that a man has to catch a train at 3 a.m. He goes to bed thinking, 'I have to wake up before that so I can catch this train.' Then, sometime during the night he has a dream in which he wakes up at 2.30. He remembers the train journey, gets out of bed, goes to the station, boards the train, and takes his seat. Then he thinks, 'I got up early this morning. I am a bit sleepy. I will lie down and have a nap.' He stretches himself out and goes to sleep.

The next morning he wakes up at 8 a.m in his own bed at home and realizes that he has missed his train. His whole journey had just been a dream that had been provoked by the thought, 'I must wake up before 3 am.'

The waking state, which you take to be real, is just an unfolding dream that has appeared to you and manifested in front of you on account of some hidden desire or fear. Your vasanas sprout and expand miraculously, creating a whole waking dream world for you. See it as a dream. Recognize that it is just an expansion of your thoughts. Don't lose sight of the Self, the substratum on which this vast, believable dream is projected. If you hold onto the knowledge 'I am the Self', you will know that the dreams are also the Self, and you won't get entangled in them.