Where there’s “nothing from the start”, what is our “existence”? Buddha said, “Treat this life as a dream”. A dream is a mirage: although “seen” it is nevertheless an illusion. A dream is not real; but it also does not seem or appear to be unreal—to the dreamer. Where does the dream originate? In the mind. The dreamer and the dream are not separate: the dreamer is a part of—a central character in—the dream.

The world depends on you for its “existence”, its “reality”. But when you and your mind are gone, the world is gone. However, in a dream does anything actually die? Death is in the dream—and you are in the dream. But when the dream ends, what is there?

Put another way, when you are not real, what else could be real? What is possibly actually “existent” if there has never been any thing from the start? When ajata (means and) says “no creation”, it is telling us that all things are, and always have been, empty, empty of reality. No creation (emptiness) means that not anything has ever been born; death can occur only in the dream. To an awakened “dreamer”, death is empty.