In the dream state you enjoy and suffer. When you wake you realize that your enjoyment and suffering was nothing but a dream—an illusion. But know that your present state of consciousness which you call being awake, when compared to the Real Awake State, is nothing but a dream state. Your life is a dream within the mighty Dream of God which is the Universe.
From your present awake dream state you have to go through many sleeps of deaths before you get established in the Real Awake State. After ordinary sleep you awake in the same surroundings; after death you arise in a new environment. But this does not bring the end of your suffering, for the Thread of Action (Karma) continues unbroken and unfailingly keeps on determining your life. The humor of it is new settings create new worries. The grip of illusion is so tight and deceitful that you cannot help worrying. So your life in your awake dream state becomes an endless chain of suffering.
-The Everything and the Nothing, p52