When is it Not a Dream?

"...from behind the Buddha Hall there appeared a most miserable-looking skeleton, which uttered the following words:

The autumn wind

Has begun to blow in this world;

Should the pampas grass invite me,

I will go to the moor,

I will go to the mountain.

What to do

With the mind of a man

Who should purify himself

Within the black garment,

But simply passes life by.

...

Towards dawn, I dozed off, and in my dream I went to the back of the temple, where many skeletons were assembled, each moving in his own special way just as they did in life. While I marveled at the sight, one of the skeletons approached me and said:

Memories

There are none:

When they depart,

All is a dream;

My life—how sad!

If Buddhism

Is divided into Gods

And Buddhas;

How can one enter

The Way of Truth?

For as long as you breathe

A mere breath of air,

A dead body

At the side of the road

Seems something apart from you.

...

Well, we enjoyed ourselves together, the skeleton and I, and that illusive mind which generally separates us from others gradually left me. The skeleton that had accompanied me all this while possessed the mind that renounces the world and seeks for truth.

...

But when is it not a dream?
Who is not a skeleton?"

- Ikkyū Sōjun (1394 - 1481)
Gaikotsu (骸骨, “Skeletons”)
Translated by R. H. Blyth & N. A. Waddell