The difference between dreams and the thoughts that delude us during our waking hours is that we can awaken from our dreams on our own, but our own efforts can't awaken us from our deluded thoughts.
Thinking that we want to escape our thoughts just plunges us deeper into the realm of thought.
Don't misunderstand me, though. There's nothing wrong with thinking in and of itself. Heck, I try to do at least once every day. But to confuse our thoughts with reality is like confusing our dreams with our waking life.
The left hand can't grasp a fist made of the left hand, but the right hand can easily grasp the left-handed fist. Just so, we need others to help us awaken.
The Buddha, the Awakened One, laid out the blueprint for us to wake up. The great teachers and monks since that time have passed the blueprint down teacher to student, generation by generation, all with the same message:
"Wake up, children."
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