I am only awake
When I enter the chamber of slumber.
Then I forsake all dreams of wakefulness
Or nocturnal dreams of fancy.
I am awake when I silence my mind
And its dreams of this cosmic puzzle.
The dreams of sleep are one dream for me
And the dream of wakefulness is another dream.
When both these dreams
Disappear from my mental stream
Then alone I am awake.
At night I may have many dreams,
But every day during wakeful hours
I dream I live in a temple of flesh
And have eyes, ears, smell, taste, and touch,
And that I have to live or die.
But when I sleep I awake in blissful vastness
Forgetting all my dream titles of the day.
All those who think they are born are dreaming.
All those who died have been dreaming too.
Those who thought they were sick,
And those that gloated o’er health,
Were dreamers all.
Those who thought they were man or woman
Ah, all dreamed,
For when they sleep, die or melt in God
They are really awake from this dream of life.
— From Inner Culture Magazine, June 1940