Waking, We Do Not Blame the Dream
When one departs from all fixed marks, that one is called awakened. It is not adding something, but shedding what was overlaid.
Is my suffering from the fact, or from the story I overlaid on it?
📝Reflection
We easily think awakening means newly gaining something grand. But this verse says the opposite — it is shedding what was overlaid. We endlessly paint stories over facts. Onto the plain fact "they didn't greet me," we layer the thick interpretation "they're ignoring me, they must dislike me." Suffering comes not from the fact but from the overpainting. To depart from marks is to peel that paint layer by layer and see the fact as just a fact. As waking from a dream ends our fear of its monster, shedding the overlaid story leaves the fact unable to pierce us anymore.
🌱Apply It Today
If something stung you today, write "the fact" and "the story I attached" separately. Seeing them differ already lightens it.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
