Quote by Murasaki Shikibu: “Is this world of ours only a dream from which none of us ever wakes?”

This question doesn't ask us to doubt reality in a trivial way — it asks whether we sleepwalk through our lives, never reaching true awareness. It draws on Buddhist ideas of maya (illusion) and the Taoist butterfly dream, asking what it would mean to truly wake up.

The Tale of Genji, from which reflections like this emerge, was written during a period in which the Heian court was deeply influenced by Tendai and Pure Land Buddhism. Aristocratic culture was preoccupied with transience, beauty, and the uncertainty of what lies beneath appearances — questions Murasaki Shikibu explored with extraordinary psychological complexity.

Japanese author and court lady of the early eleventh century, widely credited as the author of The Tale of Genji, considered by many scholars to be the world's first novel. She served at the court of Empress Shoshi in Heian-era Japan and also kept a personal diary, the Murasaki Shikibu Diary, which offers a rare first-person account of court life. Little else is known of her life with certainty.