Feast Master: Is this a dream? Is it awake?

Buddha said life is like a dream. Especially when life is full of joy and happiness, how difficult it is to regard it as a dream. No one wants to wake up from a beautiful dream, let alone see life as illusory. How do you know if you are awake or dreaming? Buddha told us that sleep is a combination of short dreams, while life is a long, long dream. You may find yourself waking up in a dream, but you will soon fall into it again. It is mentioned in Buddhism that waking up from a big dream of life means that a person finally realizes his own nature. If sentient beings don't have this experience, they will always sleep in the big dream of life in the spring and autumn.

Practice awakens long dreams.

We always think that dreams are unreal, but waking moments are real. But when we realize that the body itself and the world, life and death are illusory, we realize that sleeping and waking up are actually like dreaming.

There is a famous photographer in China, Lang Jingshan, who reassembled the photos taken in the Yellow River and the Yangtze River into a China landscape painting. The artistic conception presented in the whole picture is intertwined by many one-sidedness This is how our hearts work, and life experiences are stored in the subconscious like fragments. Our memory is usually incomplete, but fragmented, but at a certain time or place, these fragments appear, even in dreams.

We have all had this experience, a feeling of deja vu, which affects our emotions and echoes in our hearts. Just like impressionist photos, these are only superficial fragments, reflecting personal experiences, thoughts and fantasies. Only a few people know that they are dreaming, and even fewer people are willing to wake up from a beautiful dream. People who have never seen themselves always think that they are awake and feel that their life is real and painless. When they realize that "I" is illusory, they will find that they have been dreaming for a long time, full of painful dreams.

However, few people can understand that only through serious practice can we realize the illusory nature of life. It is not enough to just listen to me, read a book, or understand from the knowledge and concepts. Many people know that Buddhism is about practice, but few people really want to practice on the spot, and even fewer people can practice seriously every day, wake up from a long dream and never sleep again and see themselves.

Dreams are illusory and fleeting.

There is a famous folk story in China called Dream. It means that a young man went to Beijing to take an exam and wanted both fame and fortune. On the way, I met an old man who cooked millet porridge. Seeing that he was tired from the journey, the old man gave him a pillow and let him have a rest. After lying down, the young man fell asleep and had a long dream. In his dream, he won the first prize, married the princess and became the prime minister of the imperial court. After that, he accepted many wives and concubines, and by the time he was 100 years old, he had countless children and grandchildren.

He enjoys a long and healthy life and wealth. Even at this age, he doesn't want to face death. After all, the time has come. Two evil spirits caught him in the underworld. Because he had abused his power and embezzled public funds, the underworld judge sentenced him to death and punished him for going up the mountain and cooking. He endured great pain and cried at the top of his lungs. Just then, the old man woke him up, and the original millet porridge was cooked.

Although the old man only spent two hours cooking porridge, the dream of young people has gone through a hundred years. Time flies, not only a dream, but also our daily life. Sometimes, it seems like a long time in a dream, but real life only lasts for a few minutes. This kind of time to experience different feelings will also occur during meditation. When my leg hurts and I can't concentrate, time passes slowly. Time passes quickly when the leg is not uncomfortable and the mind can concentrate on the method.

Dreams themselves are illusory and fleeting, and our awareness of time and real life is like dreaming. But it is really wrong to treat sober behavior as unimportant as dreaming behavior. Maybe we won't suffer from what we dream, but the consequences of our waking behavior are inevitable. Everything we say and do will have a strong and lasting impact and will not fade away as easily as a dream. This is the law of cause and effect and karma.

Pay attention to your mentality and don't achieve your career.

Most people think that there is no need to be responsible for ideas that have not been put into action. We all have bad ideas, but we don't really do them. Even the most loving mother sometimes inevitably thinks of hurting her unruly children. Generally speaking, although those evil thoughts do not violate Buddhist precepts, for a bodhisattva practitioner, having evil thoughts is equivalent to breaking up. Few people want to hit people or kill people during meditation, but in sleep or daily life, the idea of violent killing sometimes comes out. All those who are interested in practicing Bodhisattva, whether in sleep or in daily life, should abandon evil thoughts.

People often have bad ideas or do bad things in their dreams, because these ideas already exist in their hearts. However, a really diligent practitioner will not do bad things in his dreams, just like he usually doesn't break the rules. This is the only consistency between mind and action, that is, body and mind; On the contrary, it is physical and mental inconsistency. Although I don't violate the rules when I am awake, I still have evil thoughts in my dreams. There is an interesting example to illustrate. A few years ago, when I was in class, I suddenly encountered a power outage, and my classmates couldn't help but start shouting or laughing. In the dark, their hidden hearts are revealed, because in the light, they know how to control themselves, but in the dark, they make themselves feel free.

Although we know that life is as unreal and unreal as a dream, we are still responsible for our actions, whether it is the dream of life or the dream we have in life. Because physical activity is karma, so is psychological activity. For example, if you don't know the person behind you and accidentally step on him, you will definitely apologize. In this case, you won't feel that you have done anything wrong. Similarly, from the bodhisattva's point of view, the physical behavior is not serious, but the mind is very important. However, ordinary people always think that career is much more serious than career.

You should know that Bodhisattva values the mind, and the karma created by the body is smaller than that created by the mind. Therefore, we should attach importance to our own thoughts, be responsible for our own thoughts, and at the same time keep our hearts simple, peaceful and quiet, and settle down with serious and rigorous practice, so as to reduce karma day by day.