Dreams and Reality – What is real?

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Dreams and Reality – What is real?

When I’m dreaming at night, it seems real to me. I couldn’t differentiate if the people that exist in my dream, it seems very real. I can talk to them, I can touch them and events seem to happen too. When I’m awake, I know that it’s illusions. Is that the same thing for my life right now? How real is this life? Would it be possible in one day, when I awake all this is just an illusion to me? All people are going to be gone.

The problem is you’re reading bits and pieces of zen. Okay? Bits and pieces of zen are dangerous. Bits and pieces of anything is dangerous. Now, what you’re saying is true in a way because 99 percent of your life is just thought and emotions. Thought and emotion are just a projection of life, not life isn’t it?

When 99 percent of the time you’re only thinking about life. Emotion is also a kind of thought a juicer thought isn’t it? Thought is dry, emotion is juicy, but still a thought isn’t it? The way you think is the way you feel isn’t it so? Yes? Isn’t it so? Now if you think, “oh this is a wonderful person.” You’ll have sweet emotions towards that person.

“Oh, this is a horrible person.” You’ll have nasty emotions towards that person. You can’t think this is a wonderful person and have nasty emotions. You can’t think this is a horrible person and have sweet emotions, isn’t it so? Because the way you think is the way you feel. Thought and emotion are not different, they are the same thing. They’re just taught one is dry, another is juicy.

Because it’s juicy it has a drag time, so you think they’re different. You can be thinking like this, today you can be thinking this is a very wonderful person, tomorrow morning he does something that you don’t like. Suddenly you can think he’s a horrible guy. The thought immediately takes a right angle turn, but emotion cannot turn so quick. It takes a long turn. It takes a few days or months, but after some time it will come and join the thought, isn’t it so?

Yes? It has a drag time. Emotion will not turn immediately, so you think they’re different, they’re not different. They are the same, one is thought. One is dry, another is juicy. Your whole life is just thought and emotion. It is very much like a dream. It is. Now that you are on the zen, you must know Seungsahn who went about doing this. Seungsahn was a great general zen master. In his ministry, he had many monks and he is a recognized master.

One day, he was in a great state of misery. When they saw the master in misery, everybody got terrified. If the master is in misery, something must be really bad must of happened. Because all of us is joyful and nice. Slowly most of his monks approached him and asked, “Master, what is happening?” He said, “Don’t do this to me. I’m in a deep distress, get away.” They said, “If you are in distress, that should be death for us. Please tell us what is causing this stress to you.” Than Seungsahn said, “Oh, yesterday night in my dream I was a butterfly.” The monk said, “What is wrong with a butterfly? We sometimes dream many things, we’re being pigs, we’re being birds, we’ve been many things. That is no problem, butterfly is quite good. What’s wrong with the butterfly?”

He said, “You idiots, you don’t understand. When I was a butterfly, I actually flew, I went and sat on the flower. I could feel the flower, I could smell the flower. I could taste the flower. It is all real. Now, I don’t know whether I’m Seungsahn dreaming to be a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming to be a Seungsahn?” Which is true? Because both look equally, vivid and real. When you live just on the top process, this is how it is.

He’s using it as a method to shock his monks out of their stupor of spirituality. Because people are reading sutras and this and this, they think what they read and what they think is spirituality. He’s trying to knock the psychological structure out so they become existential. If you’re experiencing life, life, not thought, not emotion, life. If you’re experiencing life as such, such a question will not come.

When most of your life is just thought and emotion, it is very true. It is very much a dream. It’s just another projection.