A short essay from Yunqi Zhuhong's collection. It seems like this question of being "like" a dream or "actually" being a dream is one people have been asking Buddhists for centuries.

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A Dream of the World

An ancient saying goes: ‘Dwelling in the world is like a great dream.’ The scripture says: ‘Looking back at the world, it is like something within a dream.’ Expressions such as ‘like’ or ‘as if’ are spoken only out of necessity, as a figurative aid. Fundamentally, it is truly a dream: not a mere metaphor.

Human life goes from youth to strength, from strength to old age, from old age to death; then suddenly one enters a womb, suddenly one exits a womb, and thus enters and exits again without end. Yet in birth one does not know whence one came, and in death one does not know whither one goes. Dim and obscure, confused and indistinct, through thousands of lifetimes and countless aeons, without self-awareness.

Suddenly one sinks into hell; suddenly one becomes a preta, an animal, a human, or a heavenly being. Rising and falling, falling and rising again. Anxious and hurried, rushing and scrambling through thousands of lifetimes and countless aeons, without self-awareness. Is this not truly a dream?

An ancient poem says: ‘A brief spring dream on the pillows, A thousand miles travelled.’

Now, being bound by profit and fame, one goes back and forth over ten thousand miles. Must it necessarily be only on a pillow that this is so?

Thus we know: Zhuangzi was dreaming, even before he dreamt he was a butterfly. Confucius was dreaming, even when he was not dreaming of the Duke of Zhou. From vast aeons long past, there has never been a single moment outside of dreaming.

Only when ignorance is utterly broken and one becomes fully realised, does one say: ‘In heaven above and earth below, I alone am worthy!’ Only then can one be called an "Awakened One".

Birth and Non-Birth in the Pureland

Full Text Can Be Found Here

Pureland Buddhism is often reductively understood as a mode of faith-based Buddhism, where the devout pray for salvation in a distant life. A dualistic view that is to be disregarded. But that could not be further from the truth. As Yōuxī demonstrates in this short text, Pureland is inseparable from the profound metaphysical view of the Mahayana tradition. As the Author writes:

“Thus, all day long is there birth that has never been apart from non-birth. All day long, there has been non-birth, which does not obstruct birth."

In the following ten gates, the reader will find that Pureland Buddhism is not embedded in a duality between oneself as an ordinary person here and a blissful world ‘out there’. Instead, the foundations of Pureland are an acknowledgement of the mutual interfusion of all phenomena, the inseparability of Buddhas and beings, and a profound meditation on the union of the three truths.

About the Author: Yōuxī Chuándēng

Yōuxī was a giant of his time, bringing the ancient Tiāntāi out of obscurity during the Late Ming Dynasty, which saw a new golden age of Buddhist studies in China. In the turmoil of Mongol Empires collapse and the stagnation of Buddhist institutions during the early Ming, Buddhism had entered a state of internal turmoil as monks sought to return the Dharma to the flourishing state of earlier times.

Yōuxī was one of these figures, originally trained in Chan. He encountered Tiāntāi through the syncretic text Yǒngjiā’s Chán Collection, after which he became enamoured with the school's profound teachings. He finally attained awakening under his teacher, Bǎisōng, who was the first monk to formally revive the Tiāntāi lineage.

“One day I entered [the master's] room where there was no one else. I knelt and put my palms together to ask about the Great Concentration [in the Śūraṃgama Sūtra]. The master simply opened wide his eyes and looked around, keeping silent without a word. At that moment, I had a great awakening.”

During his life, Yōuxī sometimes used the pen name "Limitless Transmission of the Lamp" and there is no more apt title for this great master, for all modern Chinese Tiāntāi lineages trace back to Yōuxī and his master.