Back in March of 07 I put forth "The Question: Are we dreamed? And if so, who or what is dreaming us?" in the article entitled "Reality OR Dream OR BOTH?" That question keeps coming up again and again. Maybe it's because it is A KEY QUESTION to unlocking the secret to You?
First it came up in relation to Tim Freke's delicious LUCID LIVING discussed about in You Are Dreaming... Wake Up! You can view a fabulous video of the wonderful Tim Freke discussing Lucid Living ( link) where he perfectly describes the nature of "The Dream" and us as both Dreamer and the Dreamt.
Now we have this powerful article written by Paul Levy of Resonateview.org.
Powerful and thought provoking - clearly presenting that we are dreamed - we are dream players acting in a dream dreamt by something larger. And that it is us who are doing the dreaming also. We are both dreamer and dreamed. Both of which I alluded to in my original article, but left the conclusions up to the readers to contemplate for themselves.
All of them together provide the tools with which to springboard into freedom and your creative (dream!) power. Enjoy the article, if you get lost within it, that's ok - take what resonates and leave the rest. I recommend you come back and re-read it, for you will get something new each time you do!
Happy Dreaming!!
Is the Universe Dreaming
Itself?
When you begin to Spiritually Awaken,
it is like waking up inside of a dream and recognizing that everything you are
experiencing is nothing other than a very convincing projection, or display of
your mind. The boundary between inner and outer, between dreaming and waking
starts to dissolve, and you begin to realize that the same
dreaming mind that is dreaming your dreams at night is dreaming your
life. You realize that there is a Deeper Dreaming Self that is having a
dream and we are it!
This Deeper
Dreaming Self is active in us at all times and is continually seeking to
express it itself. If we recognize the dreaming process that is happening right
now, we can step into it and help it unfold consciously. It will activate our
own inherent process of awakening and reconnect us with ourselves.
It is as though there is a dream that
is trying to be dreamt through each and all of us -- both individually and
collectively. The universe is seen as a field not separate from and through
which this deeper, dreaming process is continually expressing it
itself.
Recognizing the deeper dream, or
archetypal myth that we have been unconsciously acting out in our waking life
reconnects us not only with the deeper ground of the psyche but also with other
people, as everybody is seen to be fellow actors in a divine drama. It takes
one's life out of a purely personal framework and gives it a deeper sense of
meaning, which makes suffering so much more bearable.
When you begin to awaken to the
dream-like nature of things you realize that "Waking Reality" doesn't exist in the way you thought it did,
as something separate from you. Saying it is a dream, your own projection,
reflection, etc. is the same thing as saying it is nothing other than your own mind appearing in a convincing, externalized
display. Everything that happens is seen to be the unmediated expression
of your mind, which you now understand can just as easily express it itself in
outer events as it does in inner feelings, dreams or intuitions.
This is related to Jung's idea of
synchronicity, those "Meaningful Coincidences," where
an inner situation gets mirrored through an outer event. They are examples of
where there is a fissure in reality and one gets a chance to glimpse the
underlying unity.
By saying that our "Waking Reality" is some sort of a dream, which is the same
thing as saying that it is a projection of your mind,
the implication is that how you view it actually effects how
it appears. This is very clear in lucid dreaming, where the dream is
realized to be the unmediated manifestation of your mind.
Once you realize this, you don't
become conditioned by, and react to, the reflections as something solid, real,
and autonomous (as a kitten would looking in a mirror), you just recognize them
as your own energy appearing externally. Your
relationship to the Universe changes dramatically.
Waking
Reality is seen to be a Manifestation of "Something Deeper," just like
the rays of the sun are the manifestation of the sun. In the same way that the
rays are not separate from the sun, but rather are a perfect expression of it,
waking reality is not separate from this "something deeper" but is it itself a
perfect expression of it.
The question then
becomes: what would you do if you did wake up in THIS dream and
recognize that IT was all your own mind? How would you dream it on if you were
to have this realization? Imagine that there are all these other people in your
dream who are so asleep that it is as though they have fallen under an
enchantment. They've gotten absorbed into the dream and have become so
identified with their roles that they literally have forgotten who they are.
They are truly suffering a case of mistaken identity. And they're all just
aspects of you.
It is like your task is to try and
wake up parts of yourself that have fallen asleep. How you do this is totally up
to you; it is the ultimate creative challenge. In
essence you are figuring out a way to wake yourself
up, to break the spell you have fallen under.
As the Deeper
Dreaming Self, we are always dreaming each other up in exactly the role
that is needed. It is an amazing realization when you discover that we can't
help but play the role that other people have dreamt up for us.
(Wow)
For example, you, as the Deeper
Dreaming Self (Your True Self) have dreamt up this
article right now -- at this very moment. And I, of course, by writing it,
effortlessly stepped right into playing and fulfilling exactly the role you
dreamt up for me.
Even to say that someone else stepped
into a role that you dreamt up for them is to say too much. As it is all just
you. There is no one else.
It is exactly as if you were having a
dream and into your dream walked a dream character who was having an awakening
(he has become lucid in "his" dream). Let's make it even more real than that,
let's imagine that this dream character expressed himself by sending you an
article such as this. Who is this dream character other than the awake part of
yourself? He knows that he's being dreamt by something deeper. He is a mirror, a
reflection, a manifestation of the awake part of you.
It is also no accident that he has
delivered this article into your dream; he is trying to engage you. It is your
own awakeness appearing in seemingly separate, externalized form. It is clearly
your own projection, something you've thrown out of yourself.
And it is trying to step back into
you. Or better yet, you're trying to step back into yourself. It is a situation
that you, as the Deeper Dreaming Self, have clearly dreamt up.
This dream character realizes that
the "I" who he thought he was, including the body that he's been identifying
with all this time, is not only not who he is, but is itself being dreamt by
"something deeper" -- what I call the "Deeper Dreaming
Self." Becoming lucid means that he's recognized his
true identity with the Deeper Dreaming Self, which is dreaming the entire
dream.
This is the same thing as saying that
he has recognized his unity with the entire dream, which is realized to be
nothing other than the manifestation, or expression of the Deeper Dreaming Self,
not separate from it in one iota. Just like the waves of the ocean are not
separate from, and are the expression or manifestation of the ocean. It is as if
one wave discovered that it was one with the entire ocean, and hence, with all
waves. Nothing has to be added, one just discovers an already existing
fact.
This awakening dream character has
had an expansion of identity from a skin-encapsulated ego, or separate self --
which experiences it itself as being disconnected from the rest of the
dreamscape -- to a larger, much more all-embracing identity, which recognizes
that the dream is nothing other than a very convincing display of his true
nature. This is analogous to having an archetypal death/rebirth
experience.
Our dream character also realizes
that he can consciously step into this Universal Dream That
We All Are Sharing and help it unfold. He can help co-create and co-dream
the dream to its highest unfolding, whatever and wherever that may be. When he
realizes his identity with the Deeper Dreaming Self,
he also recognizes that everybody else has the same Deeper
Dreaming Self. He realizes that there is just one Deeper Dreaming Self and it is
not only his own True Self, but it is the True Self for everyone. He understands
that he's not even the slightest bit special, as everybody else is in the same
condition, but they just haven't recognized it yet.
At the point when you understand
this, is when you become that awakened dream character who can then step
consciously into the next person's dream. You then become the mirrored
reflection of their own awakened part. And what would you do other than to try
and awaken them in as gentle, loving and creative a way as
possible?
When enough
people awaken to this situation, and this is simply a matter of when the
Deeper Dreaming Self dreams that enough people awaken to it, we can begin to create an art happening that we can title "Global
Awakening". This is really a question of stepping into and owning not
only your negative shadow, but your positive shadow also. It becomes so easy to
project your own enlightenment out there onto whatever guru. It is a question of
realizing who you are, for God's sake. I would like
to suggest that there is nothing stopping us from doing this right now. And not
only that, I would like to further suggest that IT IS
HAPPENING RIGHT NOW and it is simply a question of recognizing
it.
Don't place any limits on yourself.
It is your dream, please dream it all the way, go totally far out, over every
edge. If you woke up and realized that it was your dream,
how would you then dream it on? Remember, I am not addressing you as the
little egoistic self but as the True
Self.
I would like to suggest that if you
are having a genuine awakening, you have no other recourse than to let the Deeper Dreaming Self dream itself through you. The question
then becomes, if we are the dream of the Self, where is this dream
going?
We need to really expand our realm of
possibilities and realize that we are living a historic
time, maybe more amazing then if we lived in Palestine during the life of
Christ. We are actually living in the time period where
human beings wake up. We need to realize, to see that the Universe is dreaming itself awake through us. And it
takes the most visionary among us to help further the momentum of the process
until it actually builds up a life of it is own, which it already has in
us.
Isn't it just a question
of whether you see the situation or not? And if you do see it -- it is not a
question of thinking about it but of seeing it -- then at that very moment you become an awake, responsible
player in this dream drama you've found yourself in. And not just a
player, but writer, director, producer and the audience, too. You begin to
realize that this isn't a Universe that you are just passively observing but one
that you are also actively participating in and co-creating with. At this moment
you step into your Bodhisattvahood, which is who we
are meant to be. You realize that there is no
separate "self" or "other", just
"Self". Out of this awareness naturally arises genuine
compassion.
Finally, you realize it is
total insanity to be waiting for the Messiah to arrive. We
are the Messiah.
