Imagine a distant garden, far
away from the world´s ups and downs, a place where you really can rest, sleep
and heal, such as The Garden of Epicurus,
Wang Hsichih´s The Orchid Pavilion,
or The Last Homely House in Rivendell.
In
order to understand the nature of dreams you must simplify your life. In old
days this meant to become a nun or monk. Today you can do this through the
philosophy of idleness.
Dreams
are a continuation in the sleep of the thinking in the awaken state. The awaken state´s
thinking is primarily characterized by words, while the thinking in the dream
state primarily is characterized by images. When
you fall asleep the thinking in other words dissolves in images.
The
thinking´s structure is the personal, collective and universal images in time.
So, in dreams you experience the thinking´s structure. The personal and collective
images work in past and future, while the universal images work in
synchronicity with the Now (the Now is also connected to consciousness, Wholeness and reality - in my booklet, Philosophy of Mind, I have described these connections).
The collective images are the
area of
primordial
images, archetypes, religious images, symbols, teachers, higher worlds, other
dimensions etc. They are
form-formations of energy, creative up-tensions, a kind of matter, though on a
highly abstract plane. These images exist in other words in the actual movement
of the matter, and therefore not only in your mental activity, but also outside
you in nature. They reflect themselves in your personal images, more or less vaguely.
Only you yourself know what
your personal images are, but usually you don´t understand the conflicts. Due
to the challenges of the Now the Ego is created. The Ego is the source of your
conflicts. The Ego makes resistant against the Now, and therefore in fact
against reality. This resistance consists of problematizing the Now by evaluating,
saying yes and now, accepting and denying, comparing with earlier and hoping,
desiring or fearing something else.
In
this way the Ego creates a line of thought distortions of reality.
Feelings arise where the mind
and the body meet. They are reflections
of the mind in the body. Feelings can also be a reflection of a whole thought-pattern.
A thought-pattern can create an enlarged and energy-charged reflection of
itself in the form of a feeling. This
means, that the whole of the thought´s past also can create a reflection of
itself in the body. And if this past is filled with pain, this can show itself as a negative
energy-field in the body. This is the
emotional painbody.
In the concrete dream-content,
which can be personal or collective, the universal images work in form of
symbols. The symbol is a telescopying, a representing quintessence of the
informationquantities, which the wholeness of the universal images contain. In
this way the symbol-function of the dreams has a developmental function, which
works with the person´s developmental level (the level of realization-work and
ethical practice). This means, that dreams seek to put together, to synthesize
and join, what the Ego in the awaken state has divided.
The developmental function tries
to show you the map of your spiritual history, the dreaming tracks and
songlines in the artwork of your spiritual life – your progressive karma.
But therefore it is also
impossible for the Ego in the awaken state to understand the dreams. It can well be, that the Ego finds that the dreams
cost identitical clarity, but the Ego can logical seen not understand their
function. Much dream interpretation is therefore completely deceptive. The Ego must
let go of its desire after control.
Furthermore
the dream state is connected with the body. When you fall asleep the
energy flows away from the head and down into the body – you can feel it when
you become sleepy, and your feet´s becoming warm. And therefore dreams are more characterized by
feelings than by thoughts. The typical feelings in dreams are characterized by
the five existential categories of suffering: unreality, division, stagnation,
anxiety and meaninglessness. These are in Meditation as an Art of Life inextricable
linked with the painbody.
Feelings
are the body´s reaction on the thoughts. Feelings arise where the thoughts and
the body meet. They are a reflection of the thoughts in the body. The thoughts
create a build-up of energy in the body. It is this energy, which is the
feeling, and it is in this energy the images of the dreams show themselves. In
order to understand a dream you therefore have to try to feel it rather than to
think it. And if there is conflict between a positive thought (all of your desires
and longings) and a negative feeling, then the thought is a lie and the feeling
is a truth.
The five existential categories
of suffering are a part of your life-situation. In this way suffering has a
past and a future. The past and the future form an unbroken continuum, unless
the Now´s releasing power is activated through your aware presence, which is
the goal with Meditation as an Art of Life. Behind all the different
circumstances which constitute your life-situation, and which exist in time,
there in other words exists something deeper, more essential: life itself, your
being in the timeless Now itself.
If you activate this deeper
dimension you will get the opposite categories: reality, cooperation, movement,
safety and meaning.
The Ego-weakening, and the
dreams´ connection with the body, causes that the energy-laws of life work much
better in the dream state. In other
words: dreams balance the energetical swings of the thoughts. And dreams seek
to finish unfinished situations.
If you follow your dreams you
will see, that wherever and whenever the Ego´s awake life - on the background
of evaluations using opposites - has slipped out in one extreme, then the dream-process
seeks to balance this imbalance by insisting on the opposite extreme. If you awake were too gentle, the dreams depict the
more stubborn and unfriendly sides in your personality. If you were too
negative, the dreams seek to bring the positive aspect into light. And each and every
time the Ego in the awake life reacts on the challenges of the various
situations, by using the past, an unfinished situation is left behind. The dreams seek to finish this as good as possible. As you know you are
cursed to re-live the same dreaming themes again and again – until you begin to
examine yourself, and change and restructure your thought-patterns, so that you
can let go of the situations.
So, firstly the dreams have a
developmental function through their symbol-function (progressive karma). Secondly the dreams function with reference to bodily
and energetical balancing and regulation of the swings of the thoughts
(compensatory karma). This, the self-regulating system of the dream-process,
is a Sisyphean task though, as long as you in the awake life don't help.
This help is Meditation as an
Art of Life. In my booklet The Nine Gates of Middle-earth I have described the typical phases of this journey, as seen in relation to the chakra-system.
Your dreams, and the five
existential categories of suffering, will typical revolve around three of four themes
(it can be less or more). The themes are due to particular painful/problematic
events in your life. Jorge Luis Borges says something important about ordinary dreams:
“A curious feature of my
nightmares – I don´t know if you share this with me – is that they have a
precise topography. I, for example, always dream of certain corners in Buenos
Aires. I´m on the corner of Laprida and Arenales, or the one at Balcarce and
Chile. I know exactly where I am, and I know that I must head toward some
far-off place. These places in my dreams have a precise topography, but they
are completely different. They may be mountain paths or swamps or jungles, it
doesn´t matter: I know that I am on a certain corner in Buenos Aires. I try to
find my way.”
I think Borges here tells us something very common
to all ordinary dreams. The thought (the dreamer) is lost in an endless split,
and he tries to control the situation without luck. The horror is the negation of control. The content of the dream will normally be about childhood, your
hometown, your school, family, the time where you lost the innocence of childhood, as well as later traumas; all elements of your painbody - in all kinds of variations. All characterized by that
you try to find your way; either concretely as a search for the way home, or as an
attempt to figure out how to manage situations. Without luck. The painbody is
the material for the dreams. If we want to enter into unordinary dreams (lucid or astral dreams) we must let go of our will to power.
The first step in Dream Yoga is to be clarified over what
kind of themes your dreams typical revolve around. Therefore you must begin a
process of remembering your dreams. You can do this by writing your dreams down
in the moment you awake. Later you won´t need that.
In the booklet The Nine Gates of Middle-earth I clearly emphasize that you must begin working with the lower chakras before you can move to the upper chakras in a balanced way. If you start this work (when following my teaching), your dreams will normally change character from compensatory karma (balancing thought extremes, and finishing unfinished siturations) to progressive karma. The chakras are now being processed. This will show itself in an increasing experience of quest dreams, dreams where you are on a journey, visiting strange and unknown places, and are meeting unknown people, all in a balanced and pleasurable way. These people are spirits of different kinds. But they will be clothed in the shapes you give them by using your personal images. And it is a very slow process. It will not happen at once (in the appendix to my article, Paranormal Phenomena Seen in Relation with Mystical Experiences, you can read more about shamanism and spirit help).
In the same booklet I also sugggest that you let your dreams be your teacher. But again: don´t let yourself be fooled by the "interpretation bias". The whole thing happens by itself. Treat the dreams as a whole (a gestalt). The secret is to allow the dreams to be your teacher (you can for example ask them in a prayer to teach you), and allow them to work according to their nature. You wake up with a certain feeling and direction in the mind. Normally, when you aren´t in spiritual practice, you´ll also wake up with a mood and direction from the compensatory aspect of the dream. But here you normally will let your ego´s daily life and ideals move you back into the usual pattern (the Sisyphean work). If you are in a spiritual practice, and for example practice the morning meditation, the message from the night´s dreams as a whole, will more and more be allowed to get through as intuitions and ideas.
Where dreams, without a daily spiritual practice, will try to get you to change certain things in your life, dreams, with a daily spiritual practice, will focus on corrections of this spiritual practice.
The Art of Pilgrimage theme is a theme which my free Ebook Philosophical Counseling with Tolkien is revolving around.
In the later development your dreams can become lucid and even astral. The states of dreams can be
grey, lucid and astral, which again correspond to the personal, collective and
universal images in time. In the grey state you don´t know you are dreaming. In
the lucid state you know you are dreaming, but you don´t know you are lying here
in this bed and are and sleeping. In this state the creativity of the
consciousness is set free in a fascinating degree.
In the astral state you know
all this, and your consciousness can so to speak follow the dissolvement of the
thoughts out into the astral worlds of the collective and universal images of
time. In this state you can leave your body and use your dreambody to travel
elsewhere, meet other astral travelers, and receive teaching from dream masters.
In this state you´re like Peter Pan.
Again the secret is to let the dreams teach, to allow the spiritual practice to become a part of the dreams, so that you in dreams are seeking spiritual guidance, and not are following the ego´desires. You can for example seek churches, temples, or other places which seem spiritual to you (it could also be places like Rivendell or Lothlorién in The Lord of the Rings). You can stumble upon written messages, which contains direct teachings, and finally you can meet concrete teachers (though still in symbolic form). In connection with this it is important that you find a religion which suits you; with this I mean a religion with a long tradition for spiritual practice, and which is lying in your own ancestral roots. In this way you are supporting the already existing material for the spiritual dream content, instead of adding further layers of conditioned reality (see my article The Value of Having a Religion in a Spiritual Practice). This doesn´t mean that you can´t be inspired by other traditions though.
My own personal spiritual practice consist in a combination of Nordic/Celtic shamanism, Christian mysticism and Tibetan Dream Yoga. But I don´t teach Tibetan Dream yoga like a Tibetan teacher, since this involves the ability of spiritual transmissions linked to tradition and lineage. I use what I can use in combination with Nordic/Celtic shamanism and Christian mysticism.
Since its first publication I have been fascinated by the fantasy table-top role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, probably because it contains all these elements from quest dreams (see my booklet on Dungeons and Dragons). In my view you should not understate the implied philosophy of pop cultural phenomena.
And, in connection with Dungeons and Dragons: the area of the collective
images of time is a dangerous place
full of pitfalls. As explained in my booklet The Nine Gates of Middle-earth, it is quite easy to open the upper chakras, but very difficult to open them in a balanced way. To open them in a balanced way requires that you work with your lower chakras first, and to open the lower chakras is more difficult in the sense that you have to realize your shadow. The internet is swarming with methods to open the third eye chakra, and psychedelics are also a means to experience openings of the third eye. And with these methods you can have incredible dreams and visions, and you can experience lucid dreams and astral projections, and believe you are close to enlightenment. But if this happens in an unbalanced way you will just add further layers of conditioned reality; further layers of psychological and mental constructs. The worst is that such a movement, in New Age, is supported by a problematic metaphysical theory called idealism, an idea that doesn´t allow you to discriminate between subject and object, dream and reality, fact and fiction. You therefore have a metaphysical justification for getting completely lost in this masked ball (in my view this is a demonical trick). I call this The Borgesian Nightmare (see my article on Jorge Luis Borges, who deals especially with the absurd consequences of philosophical idealism). The cult-classic The Arabian Nightmare, is a novel by Robert Irwin, where the narrator in a similar way moves into a labyrinth of stories, dreams and visions, where it becomes increasingly difficult to discriminate between dream and reality. The special touch in this latter novel is that it deals with kundalini and, in my interpretation, an unbalanced third eye awakening.
These literary examples deal with the nightmarish consequences of unbalanced openings of the upper chakras. But you can also have ego-inflated, euphorical experiences, which completely removes any possibility of critical evaluation (see my article The Ego-inflation in the New Age and Self-help environment).
Central in Dream Yoga is the
discrimination between subject and object, dream and reality - and what is lie
or illusion, and reality. All original wisdom traditions have knowledge about
this. The Dominican mystics call this step discriminatio, the ability to
discriminate between how the energy is used temporal or religious. And despite
that magical thinking actually can create something magical, then in true
spirituality it is still something temporal, or relatively (black
magic/occultism), which will create negative karma if practiced. The Orientals
call it viveka, discrimination, the ability to use your will on that part of
the energy, you can steer yourself, and steer it towards exercises, prayer,
mantras, meditation, instead of towards career, worldliness, self-unfolding, as
for example the New Thought movement wrongly preaches. Hereafter you let the
process work by itself.
Tolkien made it clear that enchantment
would not be possible if you couldn´t discriminate between dream and reality.
Enchantment is precisely enchanting because of the sense of something real, or
true; that is: something you haven´t produced yourself.
The most philosophical
provocative part of his essay “On Fairy-Stories” is what Tolkien says about fairy stories
being “true”.
It
is…essential to a genuine fairy-story…that it should be presented as “true”…
Probably
every writer making a secondary world, a fantasy, every sub-creator, wishes in
some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes
that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are
derived from Reality, or are flowing into it…the peculiar quality of the “joy”
in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the
underlying reality or truth. It is not only a “consolation” for the sorrow of
this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, “Is it
true?”…In the “eucatastrophe” we see in a brief vision that the answer may be
greater – it may be a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium [gospel, good news]
in the real world…All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they
may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally
redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen, that we know (“On
Fairy-Stories”, pp. 87-90).
Tolkien found the process of
writing The Lord of the Rings to be
one of discovery rather than creation. Tolkien´s son Christopher said of his
father´s writing: “I say discover
because that is how he himself saw it, as he once said, ‘Always I had the sense
of recording what was already there,
somewhere; not of inventing’ (Silmarillion, Foreword, p. 9).
So, in spiritual practice it
is of vital importance, that you begin to practice Harameditation (or other
supporting religious/spiritual exercises), if there should occur lucid and/or
astral states. This consists quite simple in stopping the fascination of the
anti-spiritual (ego-based) experiences and temptations, and instead focus the
awareness in Hara, and therewith lead the awareness in towards the source of
consciousness. As mentioned: you can also seek after spiritual places and persons.
This will lead the
consciousness towards the more universal images of time, which work in
synchronism with the Now.
If
you remain in, or explore the astral worlds of the collective time, which the
astral state gives access to, then you in other words distract your awareness
in past or future. This can cost awakenness and life energy. In addition it can cause Ego-inflation and other
spiritual crises.
It
is in other words very important that you do not move accent from awake day to
dreams and sleep, do not use drugs or one-sided development techniques, which
promise you great experiences concerning either lucidity or astrality.
You
have to have patience. Even for people with a regular and well-ordered practice
(2-3 hours every day) there can pass weeks, months or years between the
reflections into the processes of dreams and sleep. However if practice is
appropriate, the spiritual consciousness will with time automatically penetrate
the nightlife´s vegetative forms of consciousness.
The nature of dreams is
equivalent to the nature of death.
Three reminders (if you are practicing Meditation as an Art of Life):
1) Let the dreams work by themselves as flowers.
2) Don´t interfere in their self-regulating system with interpretations, psychedelics, or similar.
3) If you interfere they will get more distorted. You will add further layers of your own conditioned reality, further psychological and mental constructs.
Dream Yoga is
about fertilizing the nightlife´s own vegative forms of consciousness.
