Dream Interpretation
Everyone dreams. It is a regular occurrence. Several times each evening you go through a series of sleep cycles and you dream. Many people get into the interpretation of the dream - what does this mean? What does that symbolize? And there is certainly nothing wrong with that and many insights may be had from the process.
But what if there is another even greater purpose of the dream? What if the main purpose of the night time dream is to show you that you can have what appears to be an entirely concrete reality - you can live in that reality, experience all kinds of things in that reality, and that everything in that reality is, in fact, not reality at all. It's a dream. Even, you, the dreamer disappear from that dream when you wake up! What if the purpose of the dream, more than figuring out ways to make our daytime better, are, rather, to show us that the daytime drama is nothing but another dream, and that we can awaken from that dream as well?
During the evening dream, you are entirely convinced that it is real. These things are factually happening. You don't question it, no matter how bizarre the incidents in the dream are. Then, you wake up snug in your bed and go, "Oh, THAT was just a dream. Now I'm back in the real world!" And then we spend every moment ignoring the lesson of the dream that, this too, is just another dream.
Most people, at least those that would be reading this, have heard the story of the old monk who wakes up and says, "I was just dreaming I was a butterfly. But now, I'm not sure if I am a monk thinking he had a dream of being a butterfly, or if I am a butterfly dreaming that I am now a monk." We immediately assume that the night dream is unreal and the daytime one is real. Even if we theoretically 'understand' that they might both be dreams, we act on a different level - that the night dream is unreal but the day dream is real.
Numerous scriptures and saints have pointed out that the only difference between the night dream and the day dream is time (i.e. 8 hours versus 16 hours). Right now, as you are reading this, you could suddenly WAKE UP in your bed and go, "Oh, I was just dreaming I was reading a blog by somebody named Aja (the 'Unborn'). Ha Ha. There's nobody named Aja, but that was interesting. Now let me get on with my REAL life." And then you wake up from that one too.
The Yoga Vasistha is a wonderful book wherein you have characters living in dreams within dream within dreams - awakening from one into the other and totally unsure which if any are real. Many Buddhists practice asking themselves, "Is this a dream?" during the day, in order to help facilitate lucid dreaming at night, so that they might have more time to practice their meditations (yes, while they are "asleep and dreaming"). Buddhists often call this whole shebang the dream of Buddha. The Bhagavatam calls this the dream of Vishnu. And yet, every night the Guru of Dreaming shows us that what appears to be real is, in fact, a dream, and every morning we awaken, ignore the instruction, and go on acting as if the daydream is some type of all important concrete reality!
Hmmm... I guess we're just slow learners, eh?!
"Wake Up, Neo.....
The Matrix has got you!"
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But what if there is another even greater purpose of the dream? What if the main purpose of the night time dream is to show you that you can have what appears to be an entirely concrete reality - you can live in that reality, experience all kinds of things in that reality, and that everything in that reality is, in fact, not reality at all. It's a dream. Even, you, the dreamer disappear from that dream when you wake up! What if the purpose of the dream, more than figuring out ways to make our daytime better, are, rather, to show us that the daytime drama is nothing but another dream, and that we can awaken from that dream as well?
During the evening dream, you are entirely convinced that it is real. These things are factually happening. You don't question it, no matter how bizarre the incidents in the dream are. Then, you wake up snug in your bed and go, "Oh, THAT was just a dream. Now I'm back in the real world!" And then we spend every moment ignoring the lesson of the dream that, this too, is just another dream.
Most people, at least those that would be reading this, have heard the story of the old monk who wakes up and says, "I was just dreaming I was a butterfly. But now, I'm not sure if I am a monk thinking he had a dream of being a butterfly, or if I am a butterfly dreaming that I am now a monk." We immediately assume that the night dream is unreal and the daytime one is real. Even if we theoretically 'understand' that they might both be dreams, we act on a different level - that the night dream is unreal but the day dream is real.
Numerous scriptures and saints have pointed out that the only difference between the night dream and the day dream is time (i.e. 8 hours versus 16 hours). Right now, as you are reading this, you could suddenly WAKE UP in your bed and go, "Oh, I was just dreaming I was reading a blog by somebody named Aja (the 'Unborn'). Ha Ha. There's nobody named Aja, but that was interesting. Now let me get on with my REAL life." And then you wake up from that one too.
The Yoga Vasistha is a wonderful book wherein you have characters living in dreams within dream within dreams - awakening from one into the other and totally unsure which if any are real. Many Buddhists practice asking themselves, "Is this a dream?" during the day, in order to help facilitate lucid dreaming at night, so that they might have more time to practice their meditations (yes, while they are "asleep and dreaming"). Buddhists often call this whole shebang the dream of Buddha. The Bhagavatam calls this the dream of Vishnu. And yet, every night the Guru of Dreaming shows us that what appears to be real is, in fact, a dream, and every morning we awaken, ignore the instruction, and go on acting as if the daydream is some type of all important concrete reality!
Hmmm... I guess we're just slow learners, eh?!
"Wake Up, Neo.....
The Matrix has got you!"
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