Indian sage, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), who lived over a hundred years ago
dealt at length with the topic of illusion or maya in his lectures and discussions. He
introduced yoga and the Vedanta to the West and was an eminent disciple of Sri
Ramakrishna. In the book “Jnana Yoga,” on p.63, Vivekananda explained that those
of us trapped in the veil of illusion are forced to experience good and bad, happiness
and sorrow, laughter and tears, etc., “Both the forces of good and evil will keep our
universe alive for us, until we awake from our dreams and give up this building of
mud pies. That lesson we shall have to learn and it will take a long, long time to learn
it.”

It is interesting to note that, like A Course in Miracles, (ACIM), the Hindu sage refers
to our world as a dream. It is stated in Chapter 6 of the Text of ACIM: “You are a
child of God, a priceless part of His Kingdom, which He created as part of Him.
Nothing else exists and only this is real. You have chosen a sleep in which you have
had bad dreams, but the sleep is not real and God calls you to awake. There will be
nothing left of your dream when you hear Him, because you will awaken. Your
dreams contain many of the ego’s symbols and they have confused you. Yet that
was only because you were asleep and did not know…” Text, p.101

Vivekananda also refers to the fact that we will awaken from the dream one day,
when we have grown tired of this world. “There comes a time when the mind
awakens from this long and dreary dream—the child gives up its play and wants to
go back to its mother.”

If awakening from the dream seems to be an impossible task, ACIM gives us a few
words of encouragement in Chapter 10. “You are at home in God, dreaming of exile
but perfectly capable of awakening to reality.”