Awakening From The Dream Of Thought

To enjoy watching a movie, we “suspend disbelief,” identify with the characters, and lose 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 constantly point out that it’s not real – that’s tomato sauce and not blood, or he would tell me that that person didn’t really die but was just an actor. I would beg 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 was wrong, but waking up can be a challenge; it’s like being rudely woken up by an alarm clock from a beautiful dream, and 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 that it’s not real. It can be difficult to come to terms with the spiritual truths about the fact that your life is just a dream, an illusion, or that it has no inherent meaning whatsoever. Most people, myself included, would like to think that their lives are important, special and have deeper meaning, but how do you deal with the reality that this is all a projection of your imagination onto the infinite game of existence?

But what if reality was much more special than you could ever imagine or dream? what if you are part of a deeper mystery that is connected to all things? As meditation master Tenzin Palmo says:

“Meditation means realizing that the deepest nature of your existence is beyond thoughts and emotions, that it is incredibly vast and connected to all other beings.”

This is a common theme among the great meditation traditions that reality is beyond our normal thinking minds and is vast and actually one with everything. Since the universe is so incredibly vast, while the earth is like a grain of sand in the ocean of infinity, it is no wonder that this is impossible for us to imagine. I often think that expecting people to be able to conceptualize the infinite nature of the universe with their thinking minds is like expecting a fish to understand algebra – that’s just not possible with the equipment we use.

In mindfulness therapy they make a distinction between merging with thoughts and observing thoughts. Thought merging is characterized by confusion and the lack of separation between your identity and your story. When you’re merged with thoughts, you’ve 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. If you are the observer, you can choose to engage with the thought or let it go and therefore you are in control instead of your thoughts being in charge.
Getting caught up in thoughts in meditation and in life is like watching a movie; we get so caught up in the drama that it is the only reality that is happening and has control over our emotions. But if we can separate ourselves from our thoughts and notice that there is more to them than just the thoughts and that they are not real, we can have a chance to experience the spacious silence of a broader perspective that is always available, but is usually overlooked and awakens from a hypnotic trance. As Eckhart Tolle says:

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

To awaken is to awaken from the dream of thought into the vastness of a direct experience of the totality of the universe.

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

Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coachingprovides three online programs – The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.