Awakening From The Dream Of Thought

To enjoy watching a movie we ‘suspend disbelief’ identifying with the characters and losing ourselves in the drama of the story. We also enjoy the emotional responses of excitement, love and even fear from the safety of our lounge chairs.

I could never really enjoy watching horror movies with my dad because he would continuously point out that it’s not real – that’s tomato sauce not blood or he’d tell me that person didn’t really die he is only an actor. I would plead with my dad – I know it’s not real but I’m trying to enjoy the movie.

Spiritual awakening is not for everyone.  When I first heard this I thought it must be wrong but awakening can be challenging; it’s like when you’re rudely awakened by an alarm clock from a nice dream, sometimes you just want to go back to sleep and enjoy the dream.  Or when you’re trying to enjoy a movie and an annoying person keeps reminding you it’s not real. It can be difficult coming to terms with spiritual truths about your life being  just a dream or an illusion or empty of any inherent meaning. Most people, myself included would like to think their life is important, special and have a deeper meaning but how do you confront the reality of it all being a projection of your imagination onto the infinite play of existence?

This is common theme amongst the great meditation traditions that reality lies beyond our normal thinking minds and is vast and actually one with everything. Since the universe is so incredibly enormous, were the Earth is like a sliver of a grain of sand in the ocean of infinity, it is no wonder that it’s impossible for us to imagine. I often think expecting humans to be able to conceptualise with their thinking minds the infinite nature of the universe is like expecting a fish to understand algebra – it’s just not possible with the equipment we are using.

In mindfulness therapy they make the distinction between being fused with thoughts and being the observer of thoughts. Being fused with thoughts is characterised by confusion and no separation between your identity and your story. When you are fused with thoughts you have suspended disbelief and are living the life of a movie character in your own movie, which can be fun as long as you know it’s not real and it’s just a movie. When you are the observer you can choose to engage with the thought or to let it go and therefore you are in control instead of your thoughts being in charge.
Getting caught in thoughts during meditation and in life is like a watching movie, we engage in the drama so fully it’s the only reality happening and it has control over our emotions. But if we can detach from our thoughts, notice there is more going on than just the thoughts and they are not real we can have a chance of experiencing the spacious stillness of a broader perspective which is always available but mostly overlooked and awaken from a hypnotic trance.  Like Eckhart Tolle says:

“Spiritual awakening is awakening from the dream of thought.”

The Way of Meditation is to integrate this awakening into every aspect of our lives. To follow our bliss instead of our stories, to put down the need to know things with the mind, to give space for the intuitive whispers over the noise of our conditioning and to flow with the spontaneous wisdom and compassion that is always there when we drop the last thought and enter into the river of infinity.