What is the philosophy of the dream?
Dreaming is one of the greatest subjects. It is still undiscovered, unknown, hidden. It is part of the secret knowledge. But now the moment has come when everything secret must be made open. Everything that was hidden up till now must not be hidden any longer or it may prove dangerous.
Science will prove dangerous if spiritual, esoteric truths still remain unknown. They must be made open so that spiritual knowledge will be able to keep pace with scientific knowledge.and so, we will discuss very different aspects of the dream.
Yoga and Tantra divide the life of man’s mind into three divisions: waking, sleeping, dreaming.
Western psychology has only recently become aware of the dreaming dimension. Really, only with Freud, dreaming became important. But with Hindus, this is one of the most ancient concepts: that you cannot really know a man unless you know what he is doing in his dreams. Because whatsoever he is doing in his waking hours is more or less bound to be acting, false, because in the waking state of his mind he is forced to do many things.
He is not free. The society is there, rules are there, moralities are there. He is constantly struggling with his own desires: suppressing them, modifying them, molding them in the mold the society allows. And society never allows you to be your total being.
Your total being is not accepted anywhere; it is — nowhere. Certain aspects are accepted here, certain aspects are accepted there, in this country or that, but nowhere is the total human being accepted. So the waking consciousness is bound to be false, pseudo, artificial, forced. You are not real there — just actors; not spontaneous — manipulated. Only in dreams are you free; only in dreams are you authentically yourself.
so… Dream is the ultimate place
You can do whatsoever you like in your dreams. No one is concerned; you are alone. No one can penetrate, no one can look into your dreams. And no one is bothered: what you do in your dreams is your business, no one is concerned. They are absolutely private. Because they are absolutely private and related to no one, you can be free. So unless your dreams are known, your real face cannot be known. Hindus have been aware of it: dreams must be penetrated.
at now we do not discuss waking state. too many things have been said and wrote on it. we are taking rest two.
sleeping has been touched. Now many sleep labs are working in the west to know what sleep is because it seems to be very strange that we don’t know what sleep is. What really happens to you in sleep is not yet known scientifically.
And if we cannot know what sleep is, it will be difficult to know what man is, because for one-third of his life he will be sleeping. One-third of your life! If you are going to live for sixty years, for twenty years you will be sleeping. It is such a major part. What are you doing while you are asleep? Something mysterious is going on, and it is so essential that life is not possible without it. Something deep is happening, but you are not aware.
In deep sleep, you are again a different person. You can’t remember even your name while deep asleep. You don’t know whether you are a Mohammedan or a Christian or a Hindu. Out of your deep sleep, you can’t answer who you are; rich or poor — no identity, no image.
so, the sleeping state is the pioneer of the dreaming state, let’s discuss the third one,
In the waking layer, you exist with society. In the dreaming layer, you exist with your own desires.
but here we have some questions…
How can you remember in dreams? Can you create a dream consciously? Can you manipulate a dream? Can you have your own dreams of your own wishes? You cannot. How impotent man is! You cannot even create a dream of your own. They too happen to you; you are helpless. But there are certain techniques through which dreams can be created, and those techniques are very helpful in transcending,
Just close your eyes at any time of the day. Relax the body and you will feel that the dreaming is there. It never disappears; it is only suppressed by our daily activities. It is like the stars in the day. In the night you see the stars. In the day you cannot see them, but they are there always. They are simply suppressed by the sunlight.
Dreaming is day stars… how??
If you go into a deep well, then you can see the stars in the sky even in the day. A certain darkness is needed to see the stars. So go into a deep well and look from the bottom, and you will be able to see the stars in the day also. The stars are there. It is not that in the night they are there and in the day they are not, they are always there. At the night you can see them easily. In the day you cannot see them because the sunlight becomes a barrier.
The same is true with dreaming. It is not that you dream while you are asleep. In sleep you can feel dreams easily because the activity of the day is no more there; thus that inner activity can be seen and felt. When you get up in the morning, the dreaming continues inside while you start acting on the outside.
dreaming is like watching a film…
You might have felt it sometimes while looking at a film for three hours, and suddenly the film stops and you come back to yourself. You remember that three hours have passed, you remember that it was just a film. You feel your tears… you have been weeping because the film was a tragedy to you, or you were laughing, or you were doing something else, and now you laugh about yourself. What nonsense you were doing! It was just a film, just a story. There was nothing on the screen — just a play of light and shadow, just an electrical play. Now you laugh: you have come back to yourself. But where were you for these three hours?
You were not at your center. You had moved completely to the periphery. There, where the film was moving, you had gone. You were not at your center; you were not with yourself. You were somewhere else.
This happens in dreaming.
If this whole world should suddenly disappear and you alone are left, it would be such a great shock that you would die. The same would happen if suddenly all dreaming disappeared from consciousness. Your world will disappear because your world was your dream.
This is the simple philosophy of Dream.
Now let’s take it spiritually.
The dream is the easiest way to reach nothingness. Because we all are in kind of sleep… surprised…!!
Gurdjieff, in this century, emphasized this fact that man is asleep.
“In fact,” he said, “man is a sort of sleep. Everyone is deeply asleep.”
What is the reason for saying that? You cannot know, you cannot remember who you are. Do you know who you are? If you meet a person in the street and you ask him who he is and he cannot reply, what will you think? You will think that he is either mad, intoxicated, or just asleep. If he cannot answer who he is, what are you going to think about him? On the spiritual path, everyone is like that. You cannot answer who you are.
This is the first meaning when Gurdjieff or Jesus or anyone says that man is asleep: you are not conscious about yourself. You do not know yourself; you have never met yourself.
spirituality says that man is asleep. This has to be understood.
For centuries spirituality all over the world, East or West, has said that man is asleep. Jesus says this, Buddha says this, the Upanishads talk about this: man is asleep.
what is the connection between man and dream?
This process of activity, of daily activity, simply suppresses the dreaming. The dreaming is there. Close your eyes, relax in an armchair, and suddenly you can feel: the stars are there; they have not gone anywhere. The dreams are there always. There is a continuous activity.
We call Buddha the awakened one. What is this awakening? This awakening is really the cessation of inner dreaming. There is no dream inside. You move there, but there is no dream. It is as if there were no stars in the sky; it has become pure space. When there is no dreaming, you become pure space.
This purity, this innocence, this non-dreaming consciousness, is what is known as enlightenment — the awakening.
This is the ultimate we ever read about dreams.
here a story for you to understand that dream and awareness both connected.
A woodcutter was cutting wood in a jungle. He was tired, so he came down from the tree and fell asleep. He dreamed that nearby lay buried a great treasure of diamonds and gold in huge pots that were lightly covered with dirt. In his dream, he thought that he would come at night and remove the treasure quietly. If he removed it in the daytime he might be caught. He was a poor man and the treasure was worth millions. When he awoke, he buried a stick to mark the place and returned home.
When it became dark, he went back to the spot. He found the stick in place but the pots had been removed. He went back and told his wife,
“I don’t understand whether I dreamed about the treasure or actually saw it. The stick is there all right, and there are holes where the pots were, so it is certainly not just a dream. But someone has removed the pots.”
His wife replied,
“It must be a dream. You must also have dreamed that you went out at night and saw the stick in the ground and that there was an empty place where the pots were supposed to be. So go back to sleep and sleep in peace.”
But it happened that another man also dreamed that he saw these very pots buried in the same place and that a woodcutter had buried a stick to mark the place. When he got up from his sleep he ran to the place. He found the stick in the ground and also the vessels underneath! He removed the pots and brought them home. He told his wife, “I cannot understand whether I dreamed a dream or I actually saw a vision. Whatever it is, I have brought the pots home. They are proof that it is not just a dream. I must actually have seen the woodcutter burying the stick and therefore I knew where the treasure was.”
His wife said, “The pots are here. That much is clear. But if you actually saw the woodcutter marking the spot, it isn’t right that we should keep this treasure. Take the pots to the king and let him decide.”
He was an honest man, so he took the pots to the king’s court where the woodcutter had already lodged a complaint. The king was perplexed. Finally, he told them, “It is very difficult to decide whether you were asleep or awake, so I shall divide the treasure equally between you both, for the pots are very much there.” So he divided the treasure between them.
That night the king told his wife, “A very strange thing happened today: Two men dreamed the same dream. Now it is difficult to decide whether they dreamed or whether they really saw the treasure. But the pots of treasure were actually there, so I divided them equally between them.” The queen said, “Go to sleep, you must be dreaming.”
ha.. ha.. think about it.. what was the reality,!?
Read about — excerpts from the book: Don’t kill him
A Dream Within a Dream.
Did they dream it or not? Who actually dreamed?
Those who have known say, “This is a dream dreamed with open eyes.” It is a dream because it has no relation to that which is. This is an intermediary state of imagination; it is merely a thought. It makes no difference whether you saw it when asleep or when awake.
The characteristic of a dream is that it is here one moment and gone the next.
My question is, if a dream is ‘gone next moment’ thing, why should we discuss it?
All Hindu sculpture, all ideology of Hinduism goes very next to it.
the discussion is incomplete without talking about 7 bodies of ours.
We have seven bodies: the physical, the etheric, the astral, the mental, the spiritual, the cosmic, and the nirvanic. Each body has its own type of dream.
The physical body.
The physical body creates its own dreams. If your stomach is upset, a particular type of dream is created. If you are unhealthy, feverish, the physical body creates its own type of dream. One thing is certain: the dream is created out of some dis-ease.
Physical discomfort, physical dis-ease, creates its own realm of dreams, so a physical dream can even be stimulated from the outside. You are sleeping. If wet cloth is put around your legs, you will begin to dream. You may dream you are crossing a river. If a pillow is put on your chest, you will begin to dream. You may dream that someone is sitting on you, or a stone has fallen on you. These are dreams that come through the physical body.
If you have suppressed physical desires — if you have fasted for instance — then there is every possibility that you will dream of breakfast. Or, if you have suppressed sex, then there is every possibility that you will have sexual fantasies. But these dreams belong to the first body.
The etheric body
— the second body — dreams in its own way. These etheric dreams have created much confusion in Western psychology. Freud misunderstood etheric dreams for dreams caused by suppressed desires.
The etheric body can travel in dreams. There is every possibility of it leaving your body.
The etheric body can go out of you when you are asleep. Your physical body will be there, but your etheric body can go out and travel in space. There is no space limiting it; there is no question of distance for it.
now the first question arises in mind how can we know, that dream belongs to the physical body or etheric body?
You must become aware of your own body: its workings, its subtle feelings, its music, its silences. Sometimes the body is silent; sometimes it is noisy; sometimes relaxed. The feeling is so different in each state that it is unfortunate we are not aware of it.
When you are going to open your eyes in the morning, do not open them right away. When you have become aware that sleep is over, become aware of your body. Do not open your eyes yet. What is going on? A great change is taking place inside. The sleep is leaving you and the awakening is coming. You have seen the morning sun rising, but never your body rising. It has its own beauty.
Only then can you become really aware of your physical body. And the moment you become aware of it, you will know what physiological dreaming is. Then in the morning, you will be able to remember what was a physiological dream and what was not. If you know the inner feelings, the inner needs, the inner rhythms of your body, then when they are reflected in your dreams you will be able to understand the language.
We have not understood the language of our own bodies. The body has its own wisdom; it has thousands and thousands of years of experience. My body has the experience of my father and mother and their father and mother and so on, centuries and centuries during which the seed of my body has developed into what it is. It has its own language. One must understand it first. When you understand it, you will know what a physiological dream is. And then, in the morning, you can separate the physiological dreams from the non-physiological dreams.
Only then does a new possibility open up: to be aware of your etheric body.
how can one awake etheric body?
There are etheric thirsts, etheric hunger, etheric longings, but these things can only be seen when the physical body is known completely.
You can experience more subtle levels of sounds, perfumes, lights.
A mantra is one of the methods to create etheric visions, etheric dreams. A particular mantra or a particular nada — a particular word, sounding repeatedly in the etheric center — can create etheric dreams.
There are so many methods. Sound is one of them.
Sufis have used perfume to create etheric visions. Mohammed himself was very fond of perfume. A particular perfume can create a particular dream.
Colors can also be of help. Leadbeater once had an etheric dream of blueness — just blueness, but of a particular shade. He began to search for that particular blue all over the markets of the world. After several years of search, it was finally found in an Italian shop — a velvet of that particular shade. The velvet was then used to create etheric dreams in others as well.
So when someone goes deep in meditation and sees colors, and experiences perfumes and sounds and music absolutely unknown, these too are dreams, dreams of the etheric body.
Gurus revealing themselves before their disciples are nothing but etheric travel, etheric dreaming.
3. Astral Dreams.
There are also astral dreams. In astral dreaming, you go into your previous births. That is your third dimension of dreaming.
The astral mind can go into the whole infinite series of the past, from amoeba to man.
In the first body, the physical, you can travel in neither time nor space. You are confined to your physical state and to the particular time it is — say, ten o’clock at night. Your physical body can dream in this particular time and space, but not beyond it. In the etheric body, you can travel in space but not in time. You can go anywhere, but the time is still ten o’clock at night. in the third body, you can travel not only in space but also in time. The astral body can trespass the barrier of time — but only toward the past, not toward the future.
If you have known the real astral body and not just astral dreaming, then you will go beyond the fear of death. From here, one knows one’s immortality.
4.Mental dreams
The fourth body is mental. It can travel into the past and into the future.
In an acute emergency, sometimes even an ordinary person can have a glimpse of the future. If someone near and dear to you is dying, the message may be delivered to you in an ordinary dream. Because you do not know any other dimension of dreaming, because you do not know the other possibilities, the message will penetrate your ordinary dreaming.
In the fourth body, The mental body can have dreams that are as realistic as the real.there are methods to create such dreams — yogic, tantric, and other methods. A person who is practicing fasting, loneliness, darkness, will create the fourth type of dreams, mental dreams. They will be so real, more real than the reality that is surrounding us.
Poets, painters, all live in the fourth type of dreaming; all art is produced by the fourth type of dreaming. A person who can dream in the fourth realm can become a great artist.
The fourth body is the original source of the mind. the journey is quite interesting. let’s go ahead.
In the fourth body, awareness and the witnessing mind is the path toward the real.
You will be able to see past, present, and future, but not as one. And you will be able to see only your own individual dreams, dreams that belong to you as an individual.
5. spiritual dream
The fifth body, the spiritual body, crosses the realm of the individual and the realm of time. Now you are in eternity.
all myths of creation have been developed. They are all the same. The symbols differ, the stories differ a little bit, but whether they are Christian or Hindu or Jewish or Egyptian, the myths of creation — how the world was created, how it came into existence — are all parallel; they all have an undercurrent of similarity. For example, similar stories of the great flood exist all over the world. There is no historical record of them but, still, there is a record. That record belongs to the fifth mind, the spiritual body.
The fifth mind can dream about them.
That is why dreams are objective in away. We can compare notes. That is how so many persons, dreaming in the fifth body, came to know the same myths. These myths were not created by single individuals. They were created by particular schools, particular traditions working together.
So the fifth type of dreaming becomes much more real.
All theological concepts are created by the fifth body. They differ in their language, their terminology, their conceptualization, but they are basically the same. They are dreams of the fifth body.
we hear often, God is One. There is only one religion and that is truth. these all created by the spiritual mind. and we know this.
6. Cosmic dream
In the sixth body, the cosmic body, you cross the threshold of conscious/unconscious, matter/mind. You lose all distinctions. The sixth body dreams about the cosmos.Theories of Brahma, Maya, theories of oneness, of the infinite, have all been realized in the sixth type of dreaming. Those who have dreamt in the cosmic dimension have been the creators of the great systems, the great religions.
In the sixth body, dreams of cosmic myths have been realized. Through the sixth type of mind, dreams are in terms of being, not in terms of nonbeing; in terms of positive existence, not in terms of non-existence.
Matter and mind have become one, but not existence and non-existence, not being and nonbeing. They are still separate.
7. Nirvanic dream
The seventh body, the nirvanic, crosses the boundary of the positive and jumps into nothingness. It has its own dreams: dreams of non-existence dreams of nothingness dreams of the void.
the seventh body has its own dreams. Now there are no symbols, no forms. Only the formless is. Now there is no sound but the soundless; there is absolute silence.
my dear friends, just like a journey we have transformed our self to one body to another. here I mentioned how can we know our physical body, and turn towards etheric. then from etheric to Astral one must come out from fear of death…
what about other bodies,?
how can one reach to spiritual body from the Astral body?
In the fourth body, one must be aware of any type of mental creation. One should not project anything; otherwise, it will be projected. One should not wish anything; otherwise, there is every possibility that the wish will be fulfilled. Not only inwardly, even outwardly the wish can be fulfilled. In the fourth body, the mind is so powerful, so crystal clear, because the fourth body is the last home for the mind. Beyond this, no-mind begins.
One must constantly be aware that there is no wish, no imagination, no image; no god, no guru. Otherwise, they will all be created out of you. You will be the creator! It is so blissful to see them that one long to create them.you are must be a witness in the fourth body, then you know the real.
In the fourth body, awareness and the witnessing mind is the path toward the 5th one, the spiritual one.
now let’s talk about how can one move from a Cosmic mind to a spiritual mind?
How can one be aware of whether he is dreaming in the fifth or living the real? There is only one way: to drop every type of scripture, to take leave of every type of philosophy. Now there should be no more guru; otherwise, the guru will become a mirror. From here on, you are totally alone.
Now one should be alone in every dimension: words, concepts, theories, philosophies, doctrines; gurus, scriptures; Christianity, Hinduism; Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Mahavira… One should be alone now;
the aloneness is total and complete.
Aloneness is the only way to reach a Cosmic self.
now we are at the end of the discussion. the last journey.
from Cosmic mind to Nirvanic mind…
In the seventh, there is neither dream nor reality.
the seventh is the center. Now, dreams and reality have become one. There is no difference. Either you dream of nothingness or you know-nothingness, but the nothingness remains the same.
In the seventh body, only nothingness remains. There is an absence even of the seed. This is nirbeej samadhi, seedless samadhi. Now there is no possibility of dreaming.
So there are seven types of dreams and seven types of realities.
Osho: Remembering talks: “The Inward Revolution — The Psychology of the Esoteric.
I am eagerly waiting if anyone has any other perspective of a dream…
Originally published at https://www.thelitthings.com on April 24, 2020.
