Life is but a dream

Sage Vasishtha

'This is wealth', 'This is body', and 'This is a nation' - all these are notions, O Rama, which are the manifestation of the energy of the mind and which are otherwise illusory. Know this to be a long dream, or a long-standing hallucination, or day-dreaming, or wishful thinking. When, by the grace of God or the self you attain awakening, you will then see all this clearly. The existence of a world independent of you or the mind is but the jugglery of the mind, it is nothing but the recognition of a notion as if it were a substance. 

I remarked that I was born of the mind of the Creator: even so the world arises in the mind as a notion. In fact, even the Creator is but a notion in the cosmic mind; the world-appearance, too, is a notion in the mind. These notions gain strength in the mind by being invested repeatedly with the mantle of truth and, therefore, they arise again and again creating that illusory world-appearance with them. 

If a man resolutely seeks the source of the notion, he realizes consciousness; otherwise he experiences the illusory world-appearance again and again. For by continually entertaining notions such 'This is it', 'This is mine' and 'This is my world' such notions assume the appearance of substantiality. The permanency of the world is also an illusion: in the dream-state what is really a brief moment is experienced by the dreamer as a life-time. In a mirage only the illusory 'water' is seen and not the substratum: even so, in a state of ignorance one sees only the illusory world-appearance but not the substratum. However, when one has shed that ignorance, the illusory appearance vanishes. Even the man who is normally subject to fear is not afraid of an imaginary tiger; the wise man who knows that this world is naught but a notion or imagination is unafraid of anything. When one knows that the world is nothing but the appearance of one's self, of whom need he be afraid? When one's vision is purified by enquiry, one's deluded understanding concerning the world vanishes. 

It is by clear perception and understanding that one's nature is purified and then it does not become impure again. What is that right understanding? It is to realize that this world is nothing but the reflection (and therefore appearance) of pure consciousness and thus it is neither real nor unreal. Birth, death, heaven, knowledge and ignorance are all reflections of consciousness. I, you, the ten directions and all this, are consciousness: such is right understanding. When there is right understanding, the mind does not arise nor does it set, but it attains supreme peace. It does not indulge in praise and censure, in exultation and depression, but it is ever cool and rests in truth.