Question and answer 11

Disciple: If the waking world, like a dream, comes into being through avidyā and appears falsely, why speak of a difference between waking and dreaming, and of a difference in their grades of reality, calling waking empirical and dream merely apparent?

Guru: What arises and appears through avidyā joined with the defect of sleep, without the proper place, time and materials, is the dream, and it is called merely apparent. What arises and appears in the supreme Self, a Self with no place, time or materials, directly through avidyā, is waking, and it is called empirical. This was said in keeping with the threefold division of reality. When one looks with the eye of enquiry, there is no difference in grades of reality at all. Nor is waking different in kind from dream. Consciousness alone is the absolute reality. Everything other than it is merely apparent. For all of these, avidyā is the material cause and consciousness the substratum.

Disciple: If, like the dream, the waking world too comes into being falsely through avidyā and appears, why speak of the difference of waking and dream, and of the difference of reality, waking empirical, dream merely apparent?

Guru: What arises and appears through avidyā joined with the defect of sleep, without proper place, time and materials, is the dream, called merely apparent; what arises and appears directly through avidyā in the supreme Self that has no place, time and materials, is waking, called empirical: this was said in keeping with the threefold difference of reality. When one looks with the view of enquiry, there is no difference of reality either. Between waking and dream there is no difference in kind either. Consciousness alone is the absolute reality. All that differs from it is merely apparent. For these, avidyā is the material cause, and consciousness the substratum.