All is Dream
Two nights ago I saw a man lying on the side of the road not moving. A police officer was looking at him with a flashlight. There were some people gathered around and one was making hand movements to suggest a hit and run.
Yesterday on my morning walk I saw a cricket on its back struggling for life. I tried to flip it back over but it just turned over again and continued to writhe. On my afternoon walk I saw it again, still fighting. I told it to just let go. This morning the dead cricket was being eaten by ants.
I have been really contemplating the dream-like nature of waking life. Scientifically there is a lag between events and our experience of them. Then our reactions and stories surrounding what happened place an overlay on top of right now and becomes our experience of reality. If we mistakenly identify with this construction of mind it can be a very big problem. It’s not to say things don’t happen and there is no reality. Just that what we consider ‘real’ isn’t so concrete. It’s constantly changing moment after moment. It is the mind that creates continuity and imbues meaning into things. In this way when we change our minds we change our reality.
The dream-state is the same. It’s just much more flexible and less stable but it’s still an experience constructed by the mind.
Failure isn’t a concrete block. It’s a wrong action repeated again and again. It just takes skill to identify it and to stop doing it in exchange for something that does work. I think that’s a big problem, thinking we just have to give things up we’re used to and that’s that. The bad habit must be replaced with a good one.
Sometimes it’s very counterintuitive. The right thing might not seem to be doing anything at first but with a deeper understanding you just start to know that the actions are planting seeds that will blossom in their own time. Studying successful people is very useful for getting this deeper understanding. Not to copy what they did but to see how they did it.
It’s all about the process. If we get too excited about the result impatience can arise and ruin everything. If we get discouraged by a lack of instant gratification laziness can arise and ruin everything.
All things in life are done the same way. They seem so different and separate if we get caught up on the details and terminology. But really all things grow the same way.
Decide what you want to do and continue to hold the intention regardless of current conditions. Regardless of doubt or criticism. Understand that opportunities for progress might not be exactly what you expect.
In a dream, with much practice, we can make everything change in an instant. In reality we can still create changes we want it just happens much slower but they come from the result of the same practice used in dreams.
