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july 15, 2002
Dear Jet,
Having read the Question and Answer Session on the Forum, I found an interesting stuff. You said, you were reading the 'Dream Yoga'.
Is this book about how to become conscious in one's dream? Why do you think it could be important? Could you share some of your thoughts about this topic?
Thank you for your time.
Respectfully,
Marta
Jet's Response:
To answer why it could be important to be able to control, or become conscious, during your dreams, I should explain my feelings on dreams in general as they relate to one's life.
As you know most people have dreams at night while they're sleeping. Upon waking we all understand that the dream itself didn't really happen. Within the dream you might feel happiness, fear, nervousness and experience a wide variety of things. But whatever the feeling you had in the dream, when you wake up that experience was never real.
From a Buddhist standpoint, life is an even longer dream. A dream while you sleep lasts only one night, and the experiences you had -- happiness or sadness -- weren't true. To Buddhists life is a dream of sorts. As we understand it, the human lifespan is typically under 100 years. This is a much longer period than one night, but if you think of 100 years as compared to the time-frame of the galaxy or the universe, then 100 years is like a single night.
In the present moment, when you look back at the experiences of your life, how is the image in your head different than the images you remember from your dreams? It's just a memory -- just a dream. For myself, in the past 38 years, I've had happy times, and times when I've suffered -- a lot of emotions have occurred in the past 38 years -- but they are in my past. While I am awake in the current moment those emotions and experiences are nothing that I can hold in my hands. Just like a dream. It is the transitory nature of life. At the end of this "dream of life" you won't be able to hold it, and just like a sleeping dream all the experiences, riches, emotions, possessions -- they're all gone. There is no container for them except for your memories and imagination.
When you learn to control your dreams your focus is on how to learn from the dream. It's not just an experience for the sake of having an experience. Everything in the dream isn't real so you learn not to hold on too tightly to what happens. Likewise, in this life, the emotions of the past only exist in your memory so you try not to hold on to them too tightly as well. When you're upset what comes next? Less upset .. then maybe a bit happy. It's all a cycle that repeats itself over time.
When you understand the nature of life and see that all things are part of this cycle, you learn to detach yourself from the storms of life. That's why you learn to try and control your dreams. It gives you more control over understanding the process of the dream of life.
For myself, attachment to the emotions of the past or future aren't as important as experiencing the life of the present. I don't want to live in the past -- it is a dream that has finished. I don't want to live in the future -- it is a dream that has not yet happened. I want to enjoy this moment right now. To live in the present, and try my best, and feel comfortable with the results that my best effort brings about. This is one of the reasons to train to understand your dreams.
