The waking world is as real as the dream world

Objections:

1 General objection: Waking world is real and the dream world is just a dream.

2 Dream objects are subjective, they are the creation of the sleeper’s/dreamer’s mind. Whereas the waking objects are real, they exist outside independent of the perceiver and are perceived by the means of sense organs.

3 Dream experiences are private. Its objects and actions are known to the dreamer and none else. The waking experiences are public. We all live in a shared world.

4 Waking percepts in contrast to dream percepts are said to endure for a long period of time.

5 Practicality: The money a dreamer possesses can not purchase his bread and butter when he feels hungry in the waking state.

6 Dream experiences are found to be fantastic, illogical, random, arbitrary. But the waking world seems to be very logical. Things work according to the laws of science, reason, etc.

7(strong) Dream experiences are refuted by waking. A person can judge the merit of his dream after waking. The reverse does not happen. In a dream, you do not say that the dream is real and the waking world was false. The waking world is more real than the dream.

8 We return to the same objects; children, relatives, friends, house, etc. all come back when you wake up. But a dream is different. Not only every night, every dream to dream it is different.

9(strong) If the objects of the waking state are exactly like the dream state, then our beloved friends, family and relatives would be no more than ideas like those of our dream world friends, family and relatives. Such an attitude is repugnant to our feelings.

10 In dreams the objects one takes to be real are mere ideas whereas in the waking state, the real appears real and the unreal unreal. Here we can distinguish between reality and unreality.

Counter-Arguments:

1 Dream objects are felt while the dream lasts, to be as real as those of the waking state. In dreams, as in the waking state, there exists a sense of distinction between real and unreal. In a dream, we do not think it is a dream. From the dream perspective, it is another waking state for you as a dreamer.

2 What makes this difference is said to be the instrumentality of sense organs which are active in the waking state and inactive during sleep. But a distinction made on such grounds is not plausible, the sense organs in the physical bodies of the dream world are as active as those of the waking world. In dreams too, one not only thinks, but also touches, sees, tastes, hears and smells objects(although they are creations only in the dream). There also exists external objects — those apart from the dreamer and inner feelings in the dream state as in the waking state.

3 The application of the idea of public or private to distinguish the objects of one state from those of another is not valid. Like the waking world, the dream world too has not only its own sun, moon and stars but other living beings as well, who share with the dreamer the public experience of the dream. Dream experience(from the dream perspective) has as much as a public character, as long as the dream lasts, as a waking experience.

4 Dream objects are also observed to endure for a long period of time, though the dream may not last for more than a few minutes as measured from the standard of time from the waking mind. When you go into a dream world, you do not feel like the world has just been created just minutes ago. You feel that the world has been there for millions/billions of years as well from the dream perspective.

5 The money possessed by a person does not serve a similar purpose in his dreams. His money cannot purchase the hungry dreamer’s bread and butter in the dream. If the test of reality is pragmatic, it can be said that the dream objects are means to dream ends just as much as waking objects are means to waking ends.

6 Such percepts/experiences in the dream, however absurd, appear perfectly normal to the dreamer. They don’t seem crazy in your dream. If something were wrong, you would realise that something was wrong, it is just a dream. The dreamer has his own notions of time, space, distance and form. The standards of the dreamer are unreal to the waking person. Similarly, the standards of the waking person do not apply to the dream. They have applications only in their own state.

7(powerful but subtle) To the dreamer, the dream is a waking state. In that waking state(of the dreamer), you may have other dreams from which you(the dreamer) have woken up. There is no longer a reference to “this”(the original) waking state anymore.

8 As has already been mentioned above, the dream is a waking state to the dreamer. One knows a state to be a waking state only there is a feeling that the objects seen are real and as such remain as such in all waking states. In the dream state, all the objects in the dream feel to be absolutely real — they do not feel like they are about to disappear at the end of the dream.

9(powerful but subtle) The objects that appear to a person are as real as the person itself. As real as the waker considers himself to be so real does the waker’s world seem to be. As real as the dreamer considers himself to be so real does the dreamer’s world seem to be. Your friends, family and relatives are all as real as you think yourself to be, either in the dream state or the waking state.

10 In the dream also we have a distinction between real and unreal. One can see an illusion in a dream as well(Example: a mirage).

In that case is anything real? Is nothing true? What is it that is common in both these states? What you can confirm or deny as being real or unreal are all objects of experience. What you can not deny is the experience itself. For example, say that you are looking at a tiger. Are you dreaming or are you actually looking at a tiger? The answer is open ended. You can argue in either way. But the fact that you actually saw something, whether or not you are real or unreal, whether or not the tiger is real or unreal, you cannot deny. Experience(or the lack thereof) itself is the very essence of life. This pure experience/awareness/consciousness is THE reality(it is not a state). Everything else is just an object appearing to this reality. That Thou Art-Tat Tvam Asi (तत् त्वम् असि).