What can happen in a Dream?
My first wife, Kay, and I were married in 1969. At that time, the Smothers Brothers had a popular variety show on TV. Kay and I loved to watch it. One morning, when we woke up, Kay was very angry with me. She had a dream where I got a job on the Smothers Brothers program and was going out with all the beautiful women on the show. I don’t remember my dream, but I can assure you that wasn’t it. I was jealous. I wish that had been my dream. Kay was mad. I tried talking to her, but when I did, she just get madder. I realized that there was nothing I could do. How can you change someone else’s dream? Two and a half years ago, I had a Vision during my morning meditation. I heard, “It’s an Illusion!” It sounded happy and light. A friend once told me that a Vision can come in on multiple dimensions. I have found this to be true. For me there are four “dimensions,” to this Vision: 1.The meaning of the words. 2.The lighthearted sound. 3.The feeling that it is an answer. 4.The timing. It is important for me. It is what I am ready for. I have decided that the Illusion is this World. For me, the Tibetan Buddhist say it best: This World is not real because it is always changing. But behind the World is an Unchanging Truth. This Vision has powered and shaped my Spiritual Journey for 2 and 1/2 years. Why? 1.This Vision came “out of the blue.” It was totally unexpected. 2.It was really clear and memorable. 3.I don’t get a lot of Visions. So it stands out. 4.It seems to answer a number of questions. 5.It fits well with what we have been reading in our Course in Miracles class with Brian Jones. One definition of the word illusion is “a thing that is, or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses.” For me, the word “Illusion” also has a feeling of intention behind it. I believe that this comes from my experiences growing up. For example: My Father was skilled in telling jokes and especially in pulling practical jokes. Practical jokes are tricks played on someone to make them look foolish and amuse others. We kids had to be alert to avoid being the “someone.” The target of a practical joke. I was also interested in magic tricks. These are often called illusions. When I was in college, I became interested in film and how images are put together. Movies are illusions. Creating carefully crafted successful Illusions is a skill. I was conditioned to find intention behind an illusion. Perhaps this story will help illustrate how conditioned I was: My Father had a little old Shell Service Station that had been built by my grandfather in 1928. Behind the Service Station was a long, low shop where mechanics repaired cars and trucks. The owner of the shop was Paul Cline and he had been there since before I was born. When the shop was open, we kids would wander in and out. This was back in the 1950’s and 60’s. Today there would be a sign warning people to stay out. But not then. A man noticed that Mr. Cline would let us freely wander around and asked him about it. And he said, “Oh, the kids are fine, they won’t touch anything.” Well, there was a good reason for that. The vehicles of that era had a condenser in the ignition system. A condenser stores electricity. The condenser was a shinny metal cylinder with an insulated wire. At the end of the wire was a flat piece of metal. A condenser was about 2 inches long and looked like a fire cracker. Mr. Cline would charge a condenser up and leave it lying aroud. It was irresistible to us. The trick was, when you picked it up, you would get a shock. And not a gentle shock. One that my Father described as “strong enough to clean your teeth.” We would not warn any new kids about this. We just watched to see if they picked it up. Needless to say, we kids would carefully watch our step and not touch anything. We might point and ask, but not touch. We seemed very polite. Eventually Mr. Cline ran out of innocent victims. So he started unexpectedly tossing someone a charged condenser. He would hold it carefully by the insulated wire, yell “catch” and toss it. When someone caught it, they would get a shock. A really strong shock. So after we caught on, when he would yell “catch” and toss something, we would step back and let it hit the ground. I remember a man once saying, “You know the kids around here are kind of strange, when you toss something for them to catch, they step back and let it hit the ground.” We were believers. In our Course in Miracles Class, we read that the One Mind, our senses, and our ego create our reality. They create and reinforce the Illusion. One source says that it is our belief that powers the Illusion. We are believers. Here are two quotes that I really like: “Don’t get caught in the words.” “Words point us at the truth, but they are not the truth.” If I use the word Dream in place of Illusion, I gain a different perspective. By Dream, I mean what happens when I am asleep. I know that dreams can be intuition and provide insights. However, this has not happened for me. My dreams seem to be much more random. While I am in a dream, it seems very real. Even if it doesn’t make sense. When I wake up, I realize it is a dream, and that nothing happened in my real world. Where is the dream? It is all in my mind. Usually my dreams are about the past. I am still having dreams about work, even though I retired over 21 years ago. In our Course in Miracles Class, Brian Jones has asked the question: “What can happen in a Dream?” His answer is “Anything.” That is my answer too. When I consider the Illusion as a Dream. And thus I think about Life as a dream, it is a different perspective and really useful. A dream is like Life. For example, there is separation. I didn’t experience Kay’s Smothers Brothers dream. There can be an attempt to make something that is happening in the world, like a noise or a movement, part of a dream. And time is not be the same. I once was sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I fell off and hit the floor. I had a complete dream that seemed a number of minutes long, between the time I felt myself falling and when I hit the floor. I woke up and lay there stunned about how long the dream seemed and how short the time had to be. I just lay there on the floor. Kay asked me if I was hurt. I said, no, I just had a complete dream between the time I felt I was falling and I hit the floor. In a dream, I could be anywhere. But when I wake up, I find that I am still where I fell asleep. That is, there is no there. Only here. In meditation, I heard, “Everything is here.” Today, we sang the line, “I am always here.” I am always here, because there is no there. Some sources say that we never left Heaven, we have never have been separated from God. Life, were I perceive that I am separate and travel everywhere, is just like a dream. It is all in the Mind. When asked how he was different, the Buddha said that he was awake. We are really asleep and dreaming. And we will continue to experience reincarnation, life after life, until we wake up. Steven Covey said, “We see the World as we are, not as it is.” My dreams are this way. That is, my dreams while asleep, are created out of my experience, but when I awake, I find that m dreams are only in my mind. Are there advantages to considering My Life a dream instead of an illusion? Yes. When I consider My Life to be a Dream, and something comes along that I am not sure exists, I ask myself, “What can happen in a Dream?” “Anything!” As a result, I am much more open to possibilities and less judgemental. When I consider My Life to be a Dream, I am less likely to try and make sense out of what appears to be happening. As a result, I am more accepting. When I consider My Life to be a Dream, I expect someday that it will all disappear. That it doesn’t really exist. I don’t have to try to figure things out. I simply need to wake up. When I consider My Life as a Dream, I realize that they may be very few people who consider their lives a dream. And even fewer who know how to wake up. When I consider My Life as a Dream, I realize that what I perceive as having happened, does not exist. And what I think that people have done, hasn’t really happened. Like Kay, in the story at the start of my talk, no matter how strong her dream is, I am not in the Smothers Brothers show. As a result, I am able to forgive anything, because it really doesn’t exist. It didn’t really happen. Carole sang the song, The Impossible Dream. This song was written about reaching for the stars, striving beyond what seems possible. Perhaps a greater challenge is to realize that Life itself is the Impossible Dream. The Grand Illusion. And the challenge is to strive to go beyond, to wake up. I want to talk about our shared dream. Although I have not experienced a shared dream, I know of one. Our middle daughter, had a dream of doing something with a mutual friend. When they saw each other, they compared notes and their dreams were the same. That is, meeting in the dream was like meeting in Life. Some sources say that is what happens. That is, there is only one Mind and at a unconscious level we are all connected. So what we think is our own experience is based on shared information. Since we are now so connected via the Internet, I can now see how that could be possible. For example, when I use the GPS on my phone, I know that the information is not coming from what I see, but from a shared data base. By knowing where I am, and where I want to go, a computer can access this data base and tell me things like, which lane to be in and when to turn. Now I want to be clear, that doesn’t mean that I understand how the GPS works, but then, understanding is not required. What is required is awareness. Awareness that this Life may be a dream and to find Heaven, we just need to wake up. In Summary: What I think is important from this talk, are three things: 1.The question, “What can happen in a Dream? 2.The answer, “Anything!” 3.And from the song row, row, your boat. “Life is but a Dream.” Tom Clancy (a well known author) was once asked the difference between reality and fiction. His answer was, “Fiction has to make sense.” Meditation: Waking up. The Tibetan Buddhist say,”Behind the World is an Unchanging Truth.” The sound of the didgeridoo can help us feel the Unchanging Truth behind the World. I am going to play a track from my first CD, Infinite Divine Oneness. The introduction is a recording of Kay’s voice. The lowest sound of the didgeridoo is unchanging. Listen for this unchanging sound. As the Tibetan’s say, “Listen for the Sound behind the sound.” After the recording, I will play the didgeridoo. Again, “Listen for the Sound behind the sound.”
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