One Of These Two Is Not Like The Other

After his great enlightenment, the Buddha encountered a Brahman on the road who was struck by his radiance and peaceful presence.  The Brahman stopped and asked, "My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god?" 

"No,"  replied the Buddha.

"Well, then, are you some kind of magician or wizard?" the Brahman asked.

Again, the Buddha answered "No." 

"Are you a man?" 

The Buddha said, "No." 

"Well, my friend, then what are you?" 

The Buddha replied, "I am awake."

This was a little hard for me to understand at first.  My belief is that the Buddha was not a divinity or some sort of supernatural being, so I felt reassured when he answered "No" to the first two questions.  But why did he not admit to being a man, and what did he mean by "awake?"

The very clever science fiction film Inception give us some insight into the answer.  I don't think that I'm spoiling the plot for anyone if I explain that the premise of the movie is that using some sort of suitcase-sized  device (which is never really explained or even shown in the movie), waking, conscious people are capable of entering into a subject's subconscious and interacting with that dreaming subject, as well as with other characters who are figments of the subject's subconscious.  It all seems real enough, except that in the dream realm certain rules of physics, like gravity, and time don't always apply in the same way as in the real world.

Now imagine that you are a waking, fully conscious person who has used this device to enter into the dreamworld of another.  Around you, you see a city, and although it looks realistic enough, you know that it's not real.  It's just someone's dream.  The street is filled with pedestrians and passers by, but each of them are nothing more than a construct of the subject's imagination, the residents whom the dreamer imagines populate the city.

Now, picture this: one of those imaginary pedestrians notices there's something different about you and approaches you.  He asks who you are.  He asks why you seem different from the other imagined characters.  If he asks "Are you a man?," how do you answer?

Just as in the case of the Brahman, what the person really means is "Are you like me?  Are you and I both of the same kind?"  If you're not a god, a magician or a wizard, we both are alike, right?

In the Inception premise, the answer has got to be "No."  You and the imaginary pedestrian are not alike, as he is only a subconscious manifestation of someone else's mind, while you are, well, awake.  You are not a "man" in the same sense that he considers himself a "man," as you have an understanding and knowledge of realms of existence far beyond his comprehension.  While he is merely a part of the imaginary dreamscape you've allowed yourself to enter, you know what it real and what is not real.  No, you're not what he thinks is a "man," for you are awake.

In his great enlightenment, the Buddha awoke from our ignorance as if from a dream to the true undivided nature of the self and the world, and directly saw things as they are - thusly, just so, and not as the mind interpreted them.  In this state, the Buddha saw himself as different from the Brahman as Inception's dream interloper would be from the imaginary pedestrians.  He told the Brahman that what made him appear so radiant and so peaceful was that he was awake, and he encouraged us to also see the world as if it were a dream.