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we are endlessly fascinated with dreams
nocturnal dreams, daytime dreams:
we turn them inside out looking for meaning, guidance, purpose
we record them, manipulate them,
discuss them, compare them
yet the everyday Life-dream
fails to be seen as a phenomenon of the same order
“it’s real life!” we cry
but how can there be any ‘reality’
in a dream? or a dreamer?
it only takes one question,
held in earnest,
asked of your very own experience,
and you’re tumbling down that rabbit hole to Wonderland:
what’s aware of the dream-time?
~
echoes from emptiness 
The appearance (fact?) of logicallity and cohesion in the state of wakefulness as compared with night dreams is what fools us. It would be a mutual dream where “we” are all trapped.One cannot deny, though, that it is more consensually verifiable, stable and ‘logical’, even though both body and mind are, or can be in the way of real understanding. Any explanation?
The more one is “awake” the more is he asleep?
Is it true that the state of so-called wakefulness is “consensually verifiable, stable and ‘logical’”? Doesn’t deep investigation reveal that it is rather fickle and certainly transient, impermanent? And isn’t that how one would describe a dream?
Can anything impermanent be Real? Only in a relative sense. Find out what is permanent.
There’s something that’s inescapable, whether one is asleep and dreaming, or up and running around with the rest of humanity, busily believing the unreal is Real. It’s closer than any thought, belief or idea and it is utterly unaffected by any experience. What is IT? Or as the ‘echo’ asks: “What’s aware of the dream-time?”
“The more one is “awake” the more is he asleep?”
The One never sleeps, nor awakens. The one who imagines himself to be awake or asleep is the one who still believes himself to be a permanent, solid person of some sort. This is the fundamental error that enables consciousness to create its dreamtime dramas ad infinitum, and have them believed to be Real. This is what “fools us” as you say.
The dreamtime continues as long as consciousness is present – that’s its job-description after all. But once one ceases to be fooled … that’s when the trip down the rabbit hole to Wonderland begins.
Thank you for opening the opportunity for me to express this dear friend.
~ ml
Love this . . . beautiful awareness . . .
Thank you for sharing your appreciation dear Darla. The ‘echoes’ seem to like knowing there’s been … reception …
~ ml
Well said! Completely agree. However, one can see meaning, an intelligence at work, when having a retrospective look at one’s “individual” life. There is, or seems to be an intelligent plan overall, a design of sorts, even if it is a sub-plot (or many such) within a much larger plot (a play within a play). A play, a plot have a/some meaning, i.e., intelligibility, do they not? This does not, by and large, apply to most night dreams, mostly chaotic, illogical.
What about the 3rd stage or state: deep sleep? Is it that of a jiva (soul) that has lost its sense of individuality and has merged with Consciousness, the One without a second? Or is it that of Atma/Brahman itself? This may be too fine a point, but I would like to know what you would say about it. Much appreciated,
Any notion of an intelligent plan or meaning is completely conceptual, is it not? There’s nothing wrong with that – the role of consciousness is to conceive. It will do so ad infinitum, creating plots and sub-plots, but it will never explain the vast Intelligence that’s running the show. It cannot ‘reach’ that Source, yet it emerges from it and is never separate from it.
Deep sleep? I don’t know much about concepts like “jiva” or “Atma/Brahman” or even “soul”. What seems to happen in deep sleep is that there is a total absence of the ‘me’ with all its stories and beliefs. There is, however, a Presence, in which one remains immersed for a brief time upon awakening. It seems that the absence of ‘me’ ensures a deliciously refreshing, regenerating, healing sleep takes place – I adore waking up after such a sleep! It’s as though one is poised, held, cradled in great Silence. And then consciousness stirs and the dream kicks in. But it’s possible to ‘retain’ the immersion in Silence even then, in the midst of the dream-time; Life seems to prefer this ‘option’ these days.
Excuse my lack of technical-speak; I can only examine what’s actually happening here, and I find it’s necessary to avoid concept-building or conclusions if I want to see clearly.
Thanks again ~ ml