Regard All Phenomena as Dreams

This slogan is another contemplation on absolute bodhichitta, our innate, ongoing wakeful state that is an expression of emptiness—the central Buddhist doctrine that reveals the phenomenal world as having no tangible, self-existing, or substantial nature. This world is said to be like a dream, a mirage, a magical illusion, an echo, or a reflection on water. That same world, when purified of our obscurations, is seen to be an ornament of our natural awareness. For when we awaken to ever-present reality, the world is not a dream, it is an aspect of our enlightened body, our wisdom mind, and our compassionate heart. This is why we can have relationships and feel love and compassion. In other words, when the world is seen apart from buddha-nature, it is illusory, but when it is seen as an aspect of buddha-nature, it is quite pure. Before we can generate love and compassion in our meditation practices, we need to understand that our thoughts and emotions are also insubstantial. Dharmarakshita (tenth century) summarizes this view in the The Wheel-Weapon Mind Training, a text which earns its name because it equates a weapon with prajna’s ability to demolish the superstructure of egoistic foundation:

Like the plantain tree, life has no inner core. Like a bubble, a lifetime has no inner core. Like a mist, it dissipates upon close examination. Like a mirage, it is beautiful from afar. Like a reflection in a mirror, it seems as if it were really true. Like clouds and fog, it seems as if it were really stable.