After Awakening, the World Is at Peace

I once had a dream just before dawn, in which I lost two very important parcels. Surrounded by chaotic strangers, I felt it would be difficult to recover them. Yet, at that moment, I felt no panic; instead, I was calm, lucid, and rational, as if aware that I was dreaming. I decided to wake up quickly. So, with a mental effort, I opened my eyes and awoke. My mind was clear and serene as I lay there for a while, reflecting on the dream. I realized that the lost parcels in the dream were not real—I had lost nothing at all. This dream was vivid, and I remember it clearly to this day. Though anything can happen in a person’s dream, once awake, nothing remains. This shows that in the state of wakefulness, free from dreams, the mind is genuinely at ease, unburdened and unobstructed.

Such dreams are short and easy to wake from. Yet the great dream of life and death is long, very long, and not easy to awaken from. In this dream, people are often lost, entangled in greed, hatred, and delusion, continuously creating karmic actions, mistaking all people, events, and phenomena as real. Only upon awakening through enlightenment do they realize it was all a dream—in truth, nothing happened at all. How wonderful it is to awaken! But how can one awaken as soon as possible? One needs to maintain a clear mind within the dream, knowing it is a dream, without clinging to the dreamscape. One must have the aspiration to awaken, along with concentration power, wisdom, virtuous roots, and meritorious blessings. Though still temporarily trapped in the dream, it is essential to perform more good and pure karmic actions, avoiding evil deeds. Evil karma heavily obscures the mind, making it dull and unable to recognize the dream state, thus preventing the resolve to break free from the illusory dream.

In the great dream of life and death, all phenomena are illusory—seemingly real but fundamentally false. When the mind is unclear, one mistakes the false for the real, creating various karmic actions, especially evil ones, which cause one to linger in the dream, unable to awaken. It is absolutely necessary to perform good and pure actions within this dream, especially pure actions, which clarify the mind, allowing one to see through the dream’s nature, avoid delusion and attachment, and strengthen the resolve to break free. With sufficient concentration, profound wisdom, and a powerful aspiration for liberation, one will swiftly awaken, living in a peaceful and prosperous era—with a tranquil mind, few desires, as light as floating clouds and breezes, free and unoccupied. Therefore, do not seek trouble where there is none, keeping the body and mind constantly restless, burdened by greed, hatred, delusion, afflictions, and layers of evil karma. In this world, nothing is worth clinging to; nothing is worth holding onto; nothing is worth being obstructed by. All matters of the mind are but dream affairs—clinging is useless. Wealth, sensual pleasures, fame, food, and sleep—none can be grasped. The world is but a dream. Many people exhaust themselves pursuing fame and profit, which is truly not worth it.