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Tue 11 Jan
I don't remember when I last had such deep revelations. Since discussing the metaphor of life as a dream with J yesterday, I've been able to think of very little else. It has propelled me to a constant state of self-inquiry for the past 24 hours: Who is dreaming this dream?
From a dialogue with Ramana on the difference between dreaming and wakefulness:
What would happen if I were able to remain aware at all times, in wakefulness and in sleep? Is there a way to remain openly aware even while the body is sleeping? (Is it through the technique at which I scoffed earlier, yoga nidra? -smile)
When asked the question, "Why do we sleep?", a respirologist specializing in sleep studies responded that the body follows such regular and predictable patterns in sleep that a better question might be, "Why are we awake?" It's during wakefulness that all of these nice patterns are so mixed up and disturbed.
My reflections during the past 24 hours seem to be offering that save for the physical constraints of the world around us, there is no significant difference between the wakeful and dream states. Both states continue to be constructs of our minds, and to withdraw the mind from these constructs (or at the very least, to remain constantly and abundantly aware of their nature thus), is to move a step towards dwelling in Awareness of that which alone is Real; that, which alone, IS.
I don't remember when I last had such deep revelations. Since discussing the metaphor of life as a dream with J yesterday, I've been able to think of very little else. It has propelled me to a constant state of self-inquiry for the past 24 hours: Who is dreaming this dream?
From a dialogue with Ramana on the difference between dreaming and wakefulness:
Disciple: It is easy to accept tentatively that the world is not ultimately real, but it is hard to have the conviction that it is really unreal.
Maharshi: Even so is your dream world real while you are dreaming. So long as the dream lasts, everything you see and feel therein is real.
D: Is then the world nothing better than a dream?
M: What is wrong with the sense of reality you have while you are dreaming? You may be dreaming of something quite impossible; for instance, of having a happy chat with a dead person. Just for a moment, you may doubt in the dream, saying to yourself, "Was he not dead?" But somehow your mind reconciles itself to the dream vision, and the person is as good as alive for the purposes of the dream. In other words, the dream as a dream does not permit you to doubt its reality.
Even so, you are unable to doubt the reality of the world of your wakeful experience. How can the mind which has itself created the world accept it as unreal? That is the significance of the comparison made between the world of wakeful experience and the dream world. Both are creations of the mind, and as long as the mind is engrossed in either, it finds itself unable to deny the reality of the dream world while dreaming and of the wakeful world when awake. If, on the contrary, you withdraw your mind completely from the world and turn within and abide thus; that is, if you keep awake always to the Self, which is the substratum of all experience, you will find the world, of which alone you are now aware, just as unreal as the world in which you lived in your dream.
What would happen if I were able to remain aware at all times, in wakefulness and in sleep? Is there a way to remain openly aware even while the body is sleeping? (Is it through the technique at which I scoffed earlier, yoga nidra? -smile)
When asked the question, "Why do we sleep?", a respirologist specializing in sleep studies responded that the body follows such regular and predictable patterns in sleep that a better question might be, "Why are we awake?" It's during wakefulness that all of these nice patterns are so mixed up and disturbed.
My reflections during the past 24 hours seem to be offering that save for the physical constraints of the world around us, there is no significant difference between the wakeful and dream states. Both states continue to be constructs of our minds, and to withdraw the mind from these constructs (or at the very least, to remain constantly and abundantly aware of their nature thus), is to move a step towards dwelling in Awareness of that which alone is Real; that, which alone, IS.
