On Dreams

On Dreams

Recently, I was asked about dreams. I’ve not written much on the subject. Basically I see dreams as mental and emotional digestion or processing. The content and the emotions are not generally connected. We might say the content is the vehicle for the emotions but has no meaning in itself. There’s a somewhat similar process that takes place during purification in meditation.

I’ve heard spiritual teachers describe dreams as our washing. You don’t need or want to inspect every bit of dirt leaving.

And then there’s those that culture “lucid” dreaming. I tend to favour the first. I’ve looked at dream interpretation books and they never made sense here. I don’t find insights through dreams so I’ve not explored that. But I know some people do. There are various ways intuition and such work for people.

I do sometimes wake in the morning with solutions or inspiration that may have come as a result of the processing. But I’ve not seen it in the dreams themselves, just the end results.

When I first began witnessing sleep many years ago, I manipulated dreams but quickly realized this was pointless and not restful so I let it go.

Enlightened or not, we all have experiences to process from our day. Someone well awake may have less of a backlog but there would only be nothing to process if there had been no experiences. If someone were to never dream, they’d become psychotic.

If there is no dreaming, it’s deep sleep. The mind is asleep so there is nothing to experience. Not remembering we dreamed is a different thing. We all dream.

After awakening, dreams may become richer just as all forms of experience become richer. But it’s not unique to the dreams.

I’d say there’s no hard and fast rules. We’re all a little different. You may find dreams are different when you experience the world differently. But how that will express will be how it expresses. There is too many variables to know in advance.

The more important process is learning to allow whatever is experienced to be experienced as it is. The less attachment and resistance we have, the more naturally it’s experienced, the more completely it’s processed and completed and the less it becomes baggage. The less baggage, the lighter our load, the more the available energy, and the smoother the life.
Davidya

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6 Comments

  1. Hi Jose
    That’s a little different. What they call Dreamtime isn’t about dreaming in sleep so much as going to the dream worlds while awake. Sometimes they do this by inducing trance states.

    At least that’s my understanding.

  2. zen pig

    Hi Dave san. got to tell you about this dream. I was with some people, and for some reason I was focused on this one person. I told him, that we are dreaming. to make my point, I started to float above the ground, and then I said, ” see, this is just a dream”. he then said, “Yes, I know, and now that you know I have to leave. there can only be one of us that knows this is a dream”.

    goes a little more, but this was the deepest part of it. somewhere, there is this “me” that knows this is a dream, yet, it does not want to let it go beyond a certain point. at least, this is my take, and it goes deeper than that, but don’t want to prattle on too much. cheers.

  3. Hi ZP
    Yes, the dream content can reflect underlying themes in our life. But as the article notes, they tend to be related to processing and purifying so should not be taken too literally.

    In the case of a personal dream though, there can be only one dreamer, but the mind can produce some curious dances sometimes.

    Right – this is a growing clarity. At some point, the volume of the presence (that knows) overshadows the me that doesn’t want to let go and the shift happens.

  4. Rob

    Hi David,

    As I feel I move into realisation and my mind is having less and less influence, I’ve noticed an increase in the intensity of my dreams. It’s as if my mind has shifted its sphere of influence from the waking state to the dream state. Is this something you’ve come across?

    Additionally, is the mind the director and experiencer of dreams? Are we able to reach a consistent state of awareness within the dream state?

    Many thanks
    R

    1. Hi Rob
      Semantics perhaps, but to be clear, the “I” doesn’t move into realization. We wake up from the I. Stages of enlightenment are post-personal. 🙂
      .
      Dream intensity can be from a variety of things. There could be more alertness during sleep leading them to seem more intense. You may be processing bigger or more intense things. Or you may be lucid dreaming.
      .
      Dreaming is a function of the mind so its not a change of territory but can be a change in what we’re conscious of.
      .
      No, dreams are an indication mind is processing – experiences of the day, purification, backlog, ad so forth.
      .
      The sense of being the director is the ego claiming experiences as mine and from me. Dreams simply happen. We can step in and control them sometimes but that can interfere with their function. Generally, people play around a little then let it do its thing.
      .
      When witnessing sleep becomes established, awareness in dreams becomes ongoing. But clarity continues to vary due to fatigue, condition of the body, etc.
      .
      Some people do culture awareness during dreams, but as I talked about in the article, I don’t place value there.
      .
      Some do have other styles of dreaming, but I personally don’t see it as a reliable source because it’s astral/ emotional body stuff. Waking state access to deeper levels brings more reliable results.

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