Today's topic is Awakening. More specifically, awakening from the Dream of Life. As an author of the book Awaken the Living Awareness Within - Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony, I get asked lots of questions. One of the most asked questions I hear is: "What is Awakening From the Dream of Life?". Well, in this blogpost, I will try my best to summarize the answer here. On the website, named Infinite Quantum Zen you can find plenty of related reading material to ponder over. Anyways, after this brief introduction, let us delve right into it.
Short answer: Awakening From the Dream of Life is something that takes place within each of us whenever we are ready to remember our eternal nature, whenever we are ready to take that first step in remembering who we are at the deepest level of our being, whenever we are ready to know our core essence as Spirit. Practicing mindful way of life, it is possible to awaken within oneself more awareness. In turn, every once in a while, it happens that we wake up to know that we are dreaming; every once in a while, it happens that we wake up to a higher spectrum of awareness where the dream is happening. In this higher spectrum of awareness, it is possible to know how truly mysterious life really is. And so you see, while we are at it — we may as well dream lucidly, become awake and aware in a dream, and make the most out of it. But alas, unfortunately, most humans are dreamers who are not aware of the dream they are dreaming.
Long answer: Let us start with the following question: What if life is a dream, and when we die — we wake up? To stretch this even further, let us consider for a moment, that the individuated experience of life can be seen as a form of simulacra, in which the existence simulates the possibility of limitation, separation, and ultimately, its crescendo — that of death, where the individuated, finite expression of life is revealed to be part of a larger whole, to be part of the continuity that transcends all concepts and definitions. And now, let me ask you this: What if, it is, indeed, possible to awaken from the dream of life, whilst being alive in material reality inhabiting physical body?
When we investigate this idea, we find that on a deeper level, our shared “reality” seems to resemble, quite indeed, more of a collective dream than anything else. In this bigger dream, what we often call “life,” we ourselves are both the dreamer and the dream at the same time. This goes on to say that there is nothing outside of ourselves, even though it may appear to be so. This is because everything within the dream comes from the dreamer’s mind, from the dreamer’s consciousness, and therefore the whole dream can be seen as a projection from our unconscious mind. In this respect, the whole dream world is simulated from the contents of the mind — originating from deeper levels of consciousness.
Now, if we are to suppose for a moment that life is, indeed — a dream, wouldn’t that mean, then, that eventually, the dream itself is dreaming the dream and creating reality? And if so, wouldn’t that mean, then, that reality is creating you as you dream? Now, if that is indeed the case, wouldn’t that mean, then, that essentially, we are dream characters in each other’s dreams? In that respect, this is my dream from my perspective, that is your dream from your perspective, and our dreams are entangled — isn’t that fascinating? This brings us to conclude that life is a dream, and the dream is very much real and tangible. Every once in a while, it happens that we wake up to know that we are dreaming; every once in a while, it happens that we wake up to a higher spectrum of awareness where the dream is happening. In this higher spectrum of awareness, it is possible to know how truly mysterious life really is. And so you see, while we are at it — we may as well dream lucidly, become awake and aware in a dream, and make the most out of it. But alas, unfortunately, most humans are dreamers who are not aware of the dream they are dreaming.
Naturally, taking all the aforementioned into consideration, it brings about the question: How is it possible to awaken from the dream of life? How is it possible to become more aware? Well, you see, there are three classical paths that lead towards being more aware, towards higher consciousness: meditation, concentration, and contemplation. Even though each path is different, they all lead to the same final goal or destination — absorption of Self into the Ultimate Reality; like a river flowing into the sea, the Soul returns to its Source, becoming one with the Ultimate Truth, you see? There is another side of the coin, though: just like the water from the river flows to the ocean, evaporates from it, and falls as a rain to gather to streams and rivers again, likewise is the nature of human existence — cyclic, you see? Without being present, without awareness, without higher consciousness, one is destined to repeat the patterns again and again, unless, of course, one is able to break the cycle and Awaken from the Dream of Life.
By virtue of the aforementioned, with regard to the dream of life, it is worth highlighting the following: this dream is so deep, so strong, and so captivating in its essence that it makes us continue to sleep. As majority of the people are sleepwalking through their lives, slumbering in an illusory dream, it goes without saying that it is a challenging process to awaken from this dream; it is difficult to go against the stream, if you will. In this context, the collective humanity represents that stream — most humans are not ready to awaken or to be awakened. Blinded by groupthink, people function like a flock of birds or herd of sheep, nearly all of them running at a given time in the same direction — this is that stream, you see? It is for this reason why the spiritual path is often a lonesome one — only a few are able to awaken, and even fewer can become aware that such path even exists; of those who do, only very few recognize, acknowledge and appreciate the possibility it represents, even fewer contemplate and reflect upon it, and finally, a rare few have the capacity, tenacity and resilience, perseverance and will to embark on a spiritual path.
2021-04-02, Best wishes, Sambodhi Padmasamadhi