Assuming life is but a dream...

I'm sure the idea of life being but a dream is a quite enthralling one. And assuming that it's true... I will have to make a flashback.

About a year ago, I head a preety ludicrous dream. All of us had some dreams in which we were talking about lucid dreaming, thinking about lucid dreaming and so on, while still being non-lucid. However, I dreamed that I was lucid. But I wasn't. In the dream, however, I thought I was, I was so excited, etc., but still I made a lot of stupid things which I would never do if I were truly lucid. Only when I woke up from the dream, I objectively look at it and say: Although I believed that I was lucid, I was not.

Now what if life is just a dream? Everything I believe in starts to virtually fall apart. I can say: 'I love you' to somebody, or 'I feel well', or 'I'm happy', or even 'I'm enlightened'. And this means virtually nothing. I know it may sound a bit trivial, but think about it for a while... I thought few times about the possibility of life being a dream - rather an abstract fantasy - but now... Only now I realised the implications of that.

You are non-lucid in a dream: you are a victim of your dream fate. You've got no control. There are beautiful dreams, and there are nightmares. You treat everything that happens with solemnity and after worst nightmares wake up with terror or tears, only to realise that it was but a bad dream, and sooner or later you recover.

You are lucid in a dream: you create your reality. The more you practice lucidity, the more control you've got. In a lucid dream there's no negativity. You keep what happens in perspective, as you are aware that it is but a dream and you can wake up whenever you want.

When I remembered that dream I got a gut feeling... that I understood something important. There is just such a striking analogy between a dream in which I believe I am lucid, and then I wake up and it turns out I wasn't, and my waking life. What if... your alarm clock just suddenly went off?;)

But seriously, only now I think I'm beginning to grasp what does it mean - to awaken... The awakening... Why 'awaken'? Because it IS but a dream, either in a literal, or metaphoric sense, doesn't matter.Too many analogies to dismiss the whole idea. What if I... just tried, for a single day, to treat all my life as if it was just a dream... I mean, not that I will jump off skyscrapers;) but a lucid, in which I had no control. An observer who can't wake up. For he's still to afraid to admit that the dream is nothing more...

Why, on earth, do I always have to write such leeeengthy posts... Sorry for that, guys.;)

Another one remembers...

Although, we always remember to forget...

Well then, explore it.

Whether or or not the non-dreaming state is real, it doesn't matter. The whole point is the experience.

I remember seeing a thread where people were talking about committing suicide in a dream. I would think that would mean they are more likely to committing suicide in real life. The logic is mind boggling that an individual would kill him/herself in one reality, yet supposedly would never do that in the reality they feel certain about. If the reality while awake ever came crumbling down due to stress etc., then they may not see their reality secure, which in a sense it could be treated like how they would treat a dream. Though suicide is more difficult, yet probably easy in a dream, I think the individual would be more prone to the thoughts.

Maybe we are in a dream, maybe not. Maybe when we dream while asleep, we are dreaming, but dreaming within a dream.

If life is a dream, who is the dreamer?

God, it's all interesting shit! We could be the imagination of ourselves.. Our minds are that powerful. But..that would be a dream! :) Another theory, backed up by scientific research, is that reality as we know it is simply a very controlled hallucogenic trip. Taking hallucogenics certaintly makes you question 'What is reality'? Although we're getting close to the point, we're not quite there. All we want is to be as happy as we possibly can right? Because that's when we feel the best. Being able to be happy is the single most important thing.. x

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Originally Posted by Forsaken

If life is a dream, who is the dreamer?

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You, duh. :P

Also, when comparing the feeling of reality and awareness of it between a dream and what we call waking life... there's quite a difference! So, I wonder what the "real waking life" feels like if this "the dream".

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Originally Posted by Forsaken

If life is a dream, who is the dreamer?

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actually this is a very troubling question thank you forsaken
it is possible that we are dream characters in anothers dream or even god experiencing itself subjectively. dreams do not adhere to the laws of time and space so when time takes it toll on our physical bodies it is even possible that our consciousness will still exist in some plane of reality.

beatifull realy. if life is a dream that makes this reality as we know it is nothing. i believe the only thing that exists is nothing. but its paradoxical because there cant be nothing. thats why all the possibilitys exist, everthing. i think that live is infinite wether in this reality or in multiple realitys. at the same time i belive a ball multiplying its size infinite times is nothing infitly equals nothing.
so the ball isnt there still its growing infitly large

I feel that it's unlikely to be true. But from a philosophical standpoint I can't disprove it. But if it's a dream or a trip, then it's a very stationary one and that makes these statements false to me. I like to think of life that, I am I. If I'm someone's fragment of imagination, then fuck that person.

If you die in your dream you wake up, but if you die in this dreamer's dream then what? I wouldn't try to find out.

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Originally Posted by eperbokor

I feel that it's unlikely to be true. But from a philosophical standpoint I can't disprove it. But if it's a dream or a trip, then it's a very stationary one and that makes these statements false to me. I like to think of life that, I am I. If I'm someone's fragment of imagination, then fuck that person.

If you die in your dream you wake up, but if you die in this dreamer's dream then what? I wouldn't try to find out.

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Could be shared dreaming.

Wow, I enjoyed reading this thread. I could go off now on my philosophy, but I will spare y'all. Well, I will say a little, but I will try to control myself.

We aren't characters in someone else's dream, but our own dream. Dreaming, waking, life, death, etc. is just a whole bunch of false awakenings in the greatest dream there is. Wake up from that, and you are the awakened one (the Buddha). But you have to be willing to let everything fall away, including yourself. Pierce the onion layers of dreams, lives, deaths, wakings, with relaxed vigilant determined concentration. Don't be distracted by the dream phenomena. All phenomena are dreams. Nothing is real except the dreamer. What we call reality only borrows its reality from the dreamer, who is dreaming RIGHT NOW. That is why only NOW is real. The past is a dream, the future is a dream. But when is NOW? How long does NOW last? It is infinitesimally small, like a dimensionless dot. That is because it is from beyond this dreamworld. Climb the ray of reality by dissolving into the Now at the core of all dreaming, at the center of the onion layers, dissolving into your so-called spinal cord. Your spine is the center of the onion. That is the doorway into awakening. Just relax into the now, forget about the near past and the near future. Forget about a few nano-seconds off either way. Focus. Become lucid.

When you arrive in the very IS-ness and SUCH-ness of the real NOW, you will feel it very profoundly. Then try dual awareness. Look at an object, but don't become distracted from this Reality of the Dreamer who you are. See how the reality of the dreamer is reflected by the object, how the object takes on the reality shining from your awareness. DO NOT BECOME distracted. Everything will become brighter, and more alive, and extremely relaxed. Ordinarily we think that everything is real, because we don't know who we are. We are not lucid. This world only REFLECTS our own reality. Don't get lost in the reflections.

If you are interested in more click on the link I have in my signature titled "Life, Death, Sleeping, Dreaming, Waking" or whatever.

I definitely agree with Dannon, stay in the NOW and watch the changes it brings to your emotional state and your whole reality.