After Awakening, the World Is at Peace

Once before dawn I had a dream in which I lost two very important packages, and I was surrounded by chaotic strangers. I felt that these two packages would be very hard to recover, yet at that moment my mind was not panicked; instead, I was very calm, very clear-headed, and very rational, as if I knew I was dreaming, so I decided to wake up quickly. With an effort of mind, I opened my eyes and woke up, feeling utterly clear within. I lay there peacefully for a while, recalling the dream just now, and knew that losing packages in the dream was not a real matter at all—I had not lost anything. This dream was very vivid, and I still remember it clearly. In everyone's dreams, although anything can happen, once one wakes up, there is nothing at all. This shows that when one is awake and dreamless, the mind is truly at ease, without hindrance or burden. 

Such dreams are short and easy to wake from, but the great dream of birth and death is very, very long and not easy to wake from. In the dream, people are often lost in delusion, indulging in greed, anger, and delusion, with karmic actions unceasing, all believing that everything—people, affairs, objects, and principles—is real. Only after awakening to the Way do they discover that it was all a dream; in fact, nothing happened at all. How wonderful it is to wake up. But how can one awaken as quickly as possible? One needs to have a clear and lucid mind within the dream, to know it is a dream, not to linger in the dreamscape, to have the aspiration to awaken, to have meditative concentration (samādhi), wisdom, good roots, and merit. Although one cannot yet emerge from the dream for the time being, one must perform many wholesome and pure karmic deeds and not create unwholesome karma, because unwholesome karma heavily obscures the mind, making it muddled and unable to discern that the present is a dream; then one will not generate the aspiration to escape the illusory dream.

Within the great dream of birth and death, all dharmas are illusory manifestations; they appear real but are in fact false. When the mind is not clear and lucid, one takes the false as real and creates all kinds of karmic actions, especially many unwholesome ones, causing one to linger in the dream, unable to wake up. For people within the dream, it is absolutely necessary to perform some wholesome and pure deeds—especially pure deeds, which can make the mind clear and lucid, see through the essence of the dream, avoid deluded attachment, and strengthen the power of the vow to escape. With sufficient meditative concentration and deep wisdom, one will awaken swiftly, living in a time of peace and prosperity, with a pure mind and few desires, calm as light clouds and a gentle breeze, with nothing to do, utterly at leisure. Therefore, do not seek trouble when there is none, leaving body and mind never a moment's rest, weighed down by greed, anger, delusion, afflictions, and unwholesome karma. In this world there is nothing to cling to, nothing that cannot be let go, nothing to be hindered by; the matters in one's mind are all matters within a dream—clinging to them is useless. Wealth, sensuality, fame, food, and sleep—none of them can be grasped in one's hand. The world is nothing but a dream; many people busy themselves to exhaustion for fame and profit, which is truly not worth it.