Are Dreams and Life just an illusion? Sadhguru

Participant: When I am dreaming at night it seems real to me, I couldn’t differentiate if the people that exist in my dream, they seem very real and I can talk to them, I can touch them and events seem to happen too. So, when I awake I know that is illusions. So, 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 illusion to me; all people is going to be gone. Sadhguru: The problem is you are reading bits and pieces of Zen. Ok? Bits and pieces of Zen are dangerous. Bits and pieces of anything is dangerous. Now, what you are saying is true in a way because 99% of your life is just thought and emotion. Thought and emotion is just a projection of life, not life, isn't it? When 99% of the time you are only thinking about life emotion is also a kind of thought, a juicier 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 will have sweet emotions towards that person. ‘Oh this is a horrible person;’ you will have nasty emotions towards that person. You can’t think, ‘this is a wonderful person’ and have nasty emotions. You can’t think, ‘this 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 are just thought: one is dry, another is juicy. Because it’s juicy it has a drag time, so you think they are different. So, 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 is a horrible guy.’ Your thought immediately takes a right angle turn. But emotion cannot turn so quick, it takes a long turn. It takes a few days or a month 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 are different; they are not different. They are same. It is just thought, one is dry, another is juicy. So, your whole life is just thought and emotion. So, it is very much like a dream. It is. So, now that you are on to Zen you must know about Chuang Tzu who went about doing this. Chuang Tzu was a great Zen master. In his monastery he had many monks and he is a recognized master. One day morning suddenly, he is in great state of misery. So, when they saw the master in misery everybody got terrified. If the master is in misery something really bad must have happened because always he is joyful and nice. So, senior most monk slowly approached him and asked, ‘Master what is happening?’ He said, ‘Don’t you disturb me I am 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 distress to you?’ Then Chuang Tzu said, ‘Oh yesterday night in my dream I was a butterfly.’ The monk said, ‘What is wrong being a butterfly? We have been many things, sometimes we have been pigs, we have been birds, we have 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 was all real. Now, I don’t know whether I am Chuang Tzu dreaming to be a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming to be a Chuang Tzu?’ Which is true, because both look equally vivid and real? When you live just on the thought process this is how it is. He is using it as a method to shock his monks out of their stupor of spirituality because people are reading sutras and this and that. They think what they read and what they think is spirituality. So, he is trying to knock their psychological structure out so that they become existential. If you are experiencing life, life - not thought, not emotion - life, if you are experiencing life as such, such a question will not come. But 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.