Thread: What do you think Stephen LaBerge means in this paragraph?

This paragraph is taken from LaBerge's book "Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming":

"Twenty years ago I attended Tarthang Tulku’s workshop on Tibetan Buddhism at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
Rinpoche (“precious jewel”), as we called the teacher, had been forced to leave Tibet when the Chinese Communists had invaded, and had “just gotten off the boat” from India.
He therefore spoke precious little English.
The bits of his speech that weren’t already broken were frequently broken with laughter.
I had been expecting esoteric explanations of advanced theory, but what I got was something incalculably more valuable.
Rinpoche would indicate the world around us with a casual sweep of the hand and portentously announce: “This... dream!”
Then he would laugh some more and pointing at me or some other person or object, rather mysteriously it seemed, he would insist: “This dream!” followed by more laughter.
Rinpoche managed to get the idea across to us (how, I don’t really know; I wouldn’t rule out telepathy, considering how very few words were exchanged) that we were to attempt to think of all our experiences as dreams and to try to maintain unbroken continuity of consciousness between the two states of sleep and waking.
I didn’t think I was doing very well with the exercise, but on my way back to San Francisco after the weekend, I unexpectedly found my world was in some way expanded."

I find the last part rather mystifying - what does he mean by "expanded"?
This seems like it could be of interest for lucid dreamers in general, since this was pretty much the point when LaBerge started becoming seriously interested in lucid dreaming, as far as I can tell.

To me, it is like you start noticing how really dream-like reality is. Synchronicities are noticed. "Dream symbols" in real life are noticed.

He's referring to how the awareness exercise he was doing broadened his view of the world, that is, expanding to encompass more people, ideas, or things.

When you become more open-minded, it becomes easier to grasp the concept that you might be dreaming.

I think it's two things that are related.

In the first sense, his world was expanded to include an Eastern philosophy, whereas it had previously been dominated by Western conventions. It can be quite shocking to realize that, all your previous knowledge, all your trusted sources, all the authorities in science, are actually confined to one tradition. When you encounter a new tradition, you suddenly realize that our experiences are open to a much broader possibility of interpretation. Upon some reflection, we might conclude that our previous views were limited, naive, indoctrinated.

Secondly, he's talking about being opened up to a more fluid view of reality. When the teacher points to waking reality and says "This... dream!" he's inviting your to consider: What is a dream? What is reality? How do we distinguish them? And can we trust our perception? Do our definitions trap us? This causes us to enter an much more open view of our experience. Is it influenced by tradition? Teaching? Language? What is limiting us and what is opening us?

I just wanted to add that I have been thinking about this ETWOLD passage since seeing the OP and it encouraged me to try addressing what I see around me, before or after some of my RC and RRC "check-ins," in what feels like it might be a similar way as Rinpoche was doing it in that passage. When I attempt doing this, it is easier for me to be present and to see the wonder and beauty in the mundane around me (something I have felt at various times to various degrees during my lucid dreaming practices and journey). Obviously I don't pretend to know anything close to what Rinpoche knows, but perhaps this kind of exercise provides a glimpse into one of the aspects of his practices or mindset.

I encourage others to do the same...look around you and wave your hand at your surroundings and say "this dream" to see if you have any effect. I am not saying this will be good for lucid dreaming, as I don't know that at this point, but it is an interesting exercise and/or mindset.