Dreams are just like any other intoxicant. It makes you less conscious of the present. You are watching a movie in your mind. You can do so much there. You can fly, swim, dance, party. All the things that are not possible physically, go on happening mentally. You can build a beautiful house there or go on your favorite vacation. No one can peep in. No one can know where you are and what’s happening in your mind. You are living in your own private world. It feels really really good at first. Just like taking a drag of a marijuana joint or cigarette or having a few shots of alcohol. The beginning feels very good. You forget your worries. The tough reality is softened. The dream is so beautiful. “Why should I not spend more time here?” you might think. Because like all other intoxicants, this is also extremely addictive. It gives pleasure at the beginning and can make your life hell if you continue doing it.
People are addicted to thinking and they don’t realise it. When we are thinking, we are essentially dreaming with our eyes open. We think we are awake and conscious but most of our attention and focus is on our thinking. It is not possible to engage with reality without using the vehicle of thought. Whatever we feel inside is created by our thinking. It might seem as if its coming from the outside, that it’s the enemy that’s causing my anger, but notice that the person is an enemy only for you. You have used your thinking to interpret his actions and that’s causing your anger. You can replay all the past memories that are stored within you where the enemy treated you poorly. You start dreaming about hurting the enemy as well. You might not do anything in real life but in your head you are punching and slapping the enemy. It gives you great joy.
But reality can never live up to your dreams, your thinking. Reality is what it is. It is neither for you or against you. It is flowing like a river and anyone who flows along, will have a positive experience and anyone going against it is going to have a negative experience.
Every time you have a desire, you are declaring that reality as it is, is not sufficient. Something is missing. You are not satisfied. You don’t trust that the river is taking you in the right direction. This is the only reason you desire. You want existence to give you an experience of life according to your ideas. Where did you get these ideas from? You have gathered them from others. Your parents, teachers, priests, politicians and society have stuffed their own beliefs within you. You have been hypnotised from a young age. If I keep telling you something from ever since you were a child, you will accept it. Children are the most helpless beings. No child can survive without an adult. The adult becomes almost God-like for the child. Whatever they say becomes the truth for the child. They are completely empty and have no way of defending themselves. This cannot be avoided. It also is necessary and important because it has a utilitarian value. The problem is that we soften their innate intelligence with our knowledge. They become their crutches even though they don’t need them.
No one ever needs knowledge. I am not talking about skills like painting, dancing, writing, entrepreneurship etc. These are utilitarian. They serve a purpose. We use them to express our creativity. The knowledge I am talking about are the subtle ideas, thoughts, beliefs, ideologies that are stored in your mind. Everything that you have accumulated from the outside. This includes everything you know about you and the world. Your name, your religion, how you are supposed to behave, what you are supposed to read, what other people are like, how to resolve issues and so on.
Our mind is constantly being used as a projector and we project our ideas onto reality. If you are a Hindu, the way you look at other Hindus and Muslims will differ. Neither is true. Both views are illusory because they are generated by your mind. The complete past is being used as a contaminated filter to look through at reality. You cannot see reality as is. I know this because I have experienced it.
When the way I look at a situation changes, the entire situation changes. Something that happened in the past would cause me so much misery and the next moment I’d get a fresh thought and the misery dissolves. An insight transforms you. It does not come from your knowledge. If you notice, a solution for your problem never comes to you when you are trying to solve the problem. It comes to you at the most random of times. Just out of the blue. You would be stuck in a challenge for days, trying to think your way out without any success, torturing yourself. You allow yourself to relax and boom, you get a feeling. An “Aha!”. A light bulb goes on in your head. Something clicks. And you know what to do next. You can see the next step. It can only happen if you are present. When thinking is settled. Your desiring has settled. Your dreams are broken. Only then. And it always works this way. You are not stupid. If you are completely present, you’ll know how to respond to any situation.