As we open our eyes we see a world in front of us, and we see many things in this world. We see each other, we see vegetation, we see buildings, we see the things that God has created, and we see the things that man has created. Inside our head there is also another world, the world of the mind. When you close your eyes you continue to see things in your mind. When you go to sleep you have dreams and you see things in your mind. When you wake in the morning from your dreams you say, “Oh that was a dream.” But when you close your eyes to go to sleep you don’t say, “Oh, that was a dream,” that you saw all day. But the truth is: it’s all a dream. When our eyes are open it’s a dream, and when our eyes are shut it’s a dream. It’s all a short, temporary manifestation that doesn’t touch reality.
In our dreams, just like in our wakeful state, we interact with things. In our wakeful state we interact with each other, we interact with the world, we interact with all kinds of institutions that we’ve created, we interact with politics, we have emotional upsets about all of these institutions that we’ve created (like politics). We all think they’re real, and we all act as if they’re going to have some kind of enormous effect, and then as years go by, we all realize that all of the things we thought about what was going to happen were also dreams. All of the different scenarios we envisioned about where this was going to take us were also dreams. In the state of all these dreams, what’s real? Where do we find reality, and what is reality?
Here we are, interacting with things and there’s an old English saying, I think; “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” So all of us are playing this game, and we all have certain standards as to how we play this game, and we all have certain ideals as to how this game should be played. We put these standards on our politicians and if they don’t agree with our standards there’s something wrong with them. In our heart of hearts we know it’s all a dream yet we give it an enormous amount of energy. Energy to the point where after elections, people who lose are crying, and the people who win are exalting, yet it’s all a dream. It isn’t a dream for a very short period of time, but it is a dream.
So what’s not a dream? What is reality? The method of our interaction with all of the things that we come across in the waking life and in the dream life is where our reality is. We create a being inside of ourselves that is made up of our reactions to this dream. So what’s the purpose of this dream? What’s the purpose of all of this interaction? To create a being inside of ourselves that’s real. And where is reality found? In the qualities of Allah; there is no other reality…
