When you start living in meditation, you tend to become totally aware. Now the question is what are you totally aware of?. You become aware of the world around you. The sights , sounds, feelings, sensations , emotions , thoughts and so on. Nothing can be missing from them. Now if you are aware ask yourself this question?. Am i now aware of anything in the past? You can see that the answer is no. Am i aware of anything in the future . no. You can never see anything of the last second. It is gone irretrievably. The only trace that remains of the last second is through something called memory. But a memory is not directly accessible to your senses. It is only available as a thought that arises. So you can see awareness only knows the Now. Every thing else is faint and false. Can you trust your memory of what you did yesterday?. Can you become aware of it now?. No. It is gone .
So awareness knows only two things . Here and Now. It knows them completely and without any exclusions. Think of the knowing. It would refer to only things that exist. Does the sun rise of yesterday exist now?. So awareness and reality are the same. Whatever comes into its purview is real and existing. In fact awareness and existence are one and the same.
So we can understand why we suffer. When a thought arises of the past or the future, we are taken away from awareness. The reason that happens is because we believe in this thought. When the thought multiplies, and goes on producing enormous implications, our awareness goes to the back seat so to speak. Remember this simple rule, when your awareness is no longer your true focus, then you would suffer because you are under the clutches of the ego. You might ask what is the problem with the past?. The answer is simple, it is not real. It no longer exists. The moment we start grasping something that doesn't exist we are in trouble. So the moment you think you are in trouble ask yourself am i grasping something real or am i under a delusion of holding onto something ?. Most cases of suffering are a result of clinging onto unreal things.
This is why most non duality philosophers have said that we are in a dream. Dream objects are unreal. Yet we are affected by them because in that experience we don't doubt their reality. This shows that when we believe in something that does not exist we can suffer. Only when we get up we realize that we were wrong to have a fear. The only difference between a dream and the wake state is that the latter has a more lengthy duration and each one is having his own dream.
You might say if we were in a dream , is the world also a dream object?. If you analyse this closely you would see there is not much of a difference. The world is impermanent . Dream objects are also impermanent and exist only in our mind. There is a small difference between the world and dream objects. Dream objects are a result of past impressions in our mind. They are just imagination. The world however has two aspects. One is the current moment of the world which exists for sure. But the second aspect is anything other than that . The projections and memories of the world is not real. So if we accept that , we can see that the world is real only in this moment.
So to come out of your wakeful dream, all you need to do is to understand the impermanent part of the world and reject that as a dream object. If you can just accept the real part of the world which is the now and here, then you would no longer suffer. This is because you are now seeing touching smelling reality not hypothetical dream objects. So the world is a half dream. One part which is the now is real while everything else is unreal and gone.
In order to have this sense of wake state as a half dream, we need to aware that we are semi dreaming. If we know we are dreaming we would not be affected. Then we would know what is real and what is not. In yoga there is a state of sleep called yoga nidra in which you are aware that you are in a sleep state. Similarly yogis can put themselves into a state of dream and yet know that it is a dream and this is called a lucid dream.
If you look at a strong experience as a pain , you can see these two aspects. One is the real sensations of pain. Second is the thoughts about the pain. Now ask yourself this. Are these thoughts referring to something real?. If they are accept them. Of course you might not need to do this consciously after some time, It would come naturally.
If you look at desires you would see this again. A desire is always about something that doesn't exist now. So the moment a desire arises and you believe in it, you are grasping an imaginary dream object which doesn't exist. Belief in it increases the suffering. If you are aware , you would see the desire arising , but you would clearly see it is not real , so the mind would not entertain them.
If you look at aversion , you would see this clearly. What you want is that the present moment to be something else. A slight change here, a slight change there. Whatever it is , it is not something that is truly existing now. So it is also unreal. If you are aware you would see how aversion comes and modifies into anger , hatred and all. Now since you know it is unreal you let it go.
So awakening or enlightenment is not something grand. It is understanding the unreality of things completely. Unless we understand the unreality of things we would continue believing them.
It is the belief that aids the clinging onto them. Don't we all live as though we would live forever.? There may be moments when we realize that we would also face death , but it is not felt in our daily life. This shows that we are not aware of the impermanence of many things.
So awareness knows only two things . Here and Now. It knows them completely and without any exclusions. Think of the knowing. It would refer to only things that exist. Does the sun rise of yesterday exist now?. So awareness and reality are the same. Whatever comes into its purview is real and existing. In fact awareness and existence are one and the same.
So we can understand why we suffer. When a thought arises of the past or the future, we are taken away from awareness. The reason that happens is because we believe in this thought. When the thought multiplies, and goes on producing enormous implications, our awareness goes to the back seat so to speak. Remember this simple rule, when your awareness is no longer your true focus, then you would suffer because you are under the clutches of the ego. You might ask what is the problem with the past?. The answer is simple, it is not real. It no longer exists. The moment we start grasping something that doesn't exist we are in trouble. So the moment you think you are in trouble ask yourself am i grasping something real or am i under a delusion of holding onto something ?. Most cases of suffering are a result of clinging onto unreal things.
This is why most non duality philosophers have said that we are in a dream. Dream objects are unreal. Yet we are affected by them because in that experience we don't doubt their reality. This shows that when we believe in something that does not exist we can suffer. Only when we get up we realize that we were wrong to have a fear. The only difference between a dream and the wake state is that the latter has a more lengthy duration and each one is having his own dream.
You might say if we were in a dream , is the world also a dream object?. If you analyse this closely you would see there is not much of a difference. The world is impermanent . Dream objects are also impermanent and exist only in our mind. There is a small difference between the world and dream objects. Dream objects are a result of past impressions in our mind. They are just imagination. The world however has two aspects. One is the current moment of the world which exists for sure. But the second aspect is anything other than that . The projections and memories of the world is not real. So if we accept that , we can see that the world is real only in this moment.
So to come out of your wakeful dream, all you need to do is to understand the impermanent part of the world and reject that as a dream object. If you can just accept the real part of the world which is the now and here, then you would no longer suffer. This is because you are now seeing touching smelling reality not hypothetical dream objects. So the world is a half dream. One part which is the now is real while everything else is unreal and gone.
In order to have this sense of wake state as a half dream, we need to aware that we are semi dreaming. If we know we are dreaming we would not be affected. Then we would know what is real and what is not. In yoga there is a state of sleep called yoga nidra in which you are aware that you are in a sleep state. Similarly yogis can put themselves into a state of dream and yet know that it is a dream and this is called a lucid dream.
If you look at a strong experience as a pain , you can see these two aspects. One is the real sensations of pain. Second is the thoughts about the pain. Now ask yourself this. Are these thoughts referring to something real?. If they are accept them. Of course you might not need to do this consciously after some time, It would come naturally.
If you look at desires you would see this again. A desire is always about something that doesn't exist now. So the moment a desire arises and you believe in it, you are grasping an imaginary dream object which doesn't exist. Belief in it increases the suffering. If you are aware , you would see the desire arising , but you would clearly see it is not real , so the mind would not entertain them.
If you look at aversion , you would see this clearly. What you want is that the present moment to be something else. A slight change here, a slight change there. Whatever it is , it is not something that is truly existing now. So it is also unreal. If you are aware you would see how aversion comes and modifies into anger , hatred and all. Now since you know it is unreal you let it go.
So awakening or enlightenment is not something grand. It is understanding the unreality of things completely. Unless we understand the unreality of things we would continue believing them.
It is the belief that aids the clinging onto them. Don't we all live as though we would live forever.? There may be moments when we realize that we would also face death , but it is not felt in our daily life. This shows that we are not aware of the impermanence of many things.
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