Awake.
A state of mind.
A question, is this real?

I think there for I am. Is this real? Am I real? Or am I dreaming?

A question.

A table and two men.
One and the other.

One "I am dreaming"

The other "Are you dreaming? Or am I dreaming of you?"

One "I am the dreamer you are the dream. I think therefore I am"

The other "Such vanity.... How can you be so sure? I think as well you see, I think of deep thoughts and riddles there for I am as well. Do you even know who you are? What is your name dreamer?"

One ".... I am so far in to my dream that my name escapes me....... I know that I am the dreamer for I know there is a world beyond this dream."

The other "Oh do you? A world with people and trees and flowers with cars and planes? I know of that world as well. What proof do you have that this world is not real and that world is the dream?"

One "I know the sensations of that world. I have experienced them I have drank them in and absorbed them with my flesh my heart my mind and my soul I know it to be the real world for I live in it."

The other a smile "Do you not breathe the air do you not taste it with your every breath? Is not the chair you sit on comfortable and to your liking? You experience this world to dreamer you breath it and feel it just like the other world. Can you be so sure that this world is not real and the other a dream? Such divinity do you poses to make a judgement as bold as that to assume that the truth you believe is the one truth above all truths?."

One "I do breath in this air and I taste it and the chair is firm and comfortable. This is not my world this is my dream. If this place would be the real world then where are all the other people? Where are the ones who nurtured me from birth the ones I’ve loved and loved me back? Where are they hmm? They think and they dream as well, I know this for they have told me in past times."

The other "Can you be so certain that all such times have come to pass? Are you so sure that these moments that you have shared with them are not just fabrications? Are you so certain that your mind did not create them? Perhaps.... You think there for they are? Have you considered the possibility that you wish them to be, so they became? What would any grand play be with out players? One perceives reality as one chooses what is real and what is truth can often be to wholly different things. One could taste fruit and find it sweet while the other could find its taste most bitter to his pallet. Which is true? What is your proof that this world beyond the one in which we sit is the truth?"

One with a smile of arrogance "Surely if I had such power o' my tormentor the dream that would be my world would be with out hardship with out the pain and suffering of ill times. Surely my world would be utopian in scope and with out the poverty pain and misery which plagues it. Such a harsh world is that real world that world of truth from which I was born."

The other "Tell me? What is the sweet with out the sour? What would the grandest love mean with out the pain of loss? In a world of perfect bliss..... What is bliss? Of what importance is a cure without affliction? Where is the glory of victory with out defeat? Would life be worth living with out chance? Does one not crave for better things, is there not longing for more in the human heart then mere contentment? Perhaps... The pains and woes of your other world are of your own conception? For how would one compare good to evil with out evil?

One "Not only does my dream call me the god of my own world but its devil as well."

The other "I accuse you of nothing dreamer I pose to you questions and ask you what truth is and then I ask proof of such truth."

One "Very well then here is truth. This is a dream. You are a figment. The world outside of this is reality. Those whom I love and hate and love and hate me back are creatures of there own will. I know this for truth for I believe it from the bottom of my sole."

The other "Which is stronger dreamer? The ground which one walks on...... Or the ground one builds in his mind. Truth or belief?"

One "Truth is undeniable and fact truth is the almighty unquestionable answer."

The other "In your world was it not once flat? Were people not persecuted for the beliefs otherwise? Is it not now I your world absurd to believe the world is anything but a sphere?"

One "Those were older times wisdom and science weren't what they ought to have been people were blind and misguided"

The other "And who is to say older times are not now coming to pass again? A new truth was founded by those who would be your forefathers. Could not now be a new truth founded, a truth in which the reality of your other world is simply a dream, a dream that you are waking from?"

One "Such a thing is impossible I know in heart and soul the truth. This is not my world this is just my dream. Those beyond this place are real those whom I love and hate and love and hate me back are the truth those who think and act of there own free will are what reality is."

The other "Is that so? Very well the time has come for me to tell you the absolution of truth........ The dawn is coming and soon I shall wake already I feel the sun pouring in to the blinds above my bed warming my face."

One "PHA lies you are a deceiver and liar my tormentor I know what is truth."

The other "No. You know what you believe. As do all beings who think, they only know what they believe. Truth is beyond them."

One "Then what of the others? I remember them my friends and loved ones? I know they are real I remember them."

The other "No. What you believe you remember is a mirror image of what I have experienced you are after all my dream and can only know what I believe to be real"

One "Oh? And what proof have you of this? You are but a liar and deceiver NOW I ASK YOU WHAT PROOF HAVE YOU OF YOUR TRUTH?

The other "I am sorry you couldn't see the truth before our time came to pass...... You are at your end now my friend.... I can only hope you dream. And the proof of my truth is simple... I remember my name."


The other awakens in his bed the sun warm on his face his lungs fill with the first morning’s breath the soft blankets brush against his body as sits up and rubs his neck. "The question has been posed as well here as in my dream and I ask myself is this world of my own making? is this reality? Am I awake... or am I still dreaming?"


The End