Softening the Grip of the World
This is my second article on Lucid Dreaming and Dream Yoga. In this article I want to give practical advice on how to soften the grip this “solid” world has on us, allowing us to awaken from the dream of this world.
The Buddha–The Awakened One
The Buddha was known as the awakened one. There is a story behind this. He was walking along the road and someone eyeing him, asked,
“Are you a God, a deity, a spirit?”
He said “No—I just woke up”.
What does this mean?
The World is Not Solid
It means we have to stop seeing this world as solid and real. It’s difficult because the world does appear solid. If I stub my toe, hit my finger with a hammer, or get hit by a moving car, it hurts. Sure seems solid to me.
But we know, despite that, the world is not solid at all. Our minds create the illusion from the light waves that enter our eyes and travel down our optic nerve into our brains. We have no idea if the image our mind creates matches what’s out there. But we do know quantum physics tells us there are no separate objects. Everything is relational and therefore interconnected, but we don’t see that. Our eyes lie to us.
We know scientifically that the pain I feel when I bang my finger with a hammer, is not caused by the matter of the hammer smashing into the matter of my finger because matter doesn’t exist. What happens is the negatively charged electrons in the hammer confront the negatively charged electrons in my finger, creating a force field, giving us the illusion of solidity.
We have to understand that what we see in the world is not what’s there. It’s what we create. In order to get this through our heads, we have to continually remind ourselves that the world we see around us is an illusion. It doesn’t mean nothing is there, but rather what we perceive is only our mind’s interpretation of what is there, based on the equipment we are born with.
I go into this in much more detail in a previous article entitled “What is Reality”?
How to Soften the World
To help us soften our view of this seemingly solid world we live in, there are a few things we can do.
The next time you are sitting in your living room, or anywhere for that matter, imagine that you are in a dream and everything around you is your dreamscape. What does that feel like? How does that change your perception of the world around you?
I know when I have had lucid dreams, the first thing that hits me, is this is not real. My mind created it.
I look at the details of the objects in my dream, seeing little lines, scratches, and bumps on various objects and think, I put all that fine detail in my dream. How the hell did I do that?
Then I might think that in this moment I’m really at home in my bed asleep. And even if I know I’m in a dream, it’s still hard to imagine I’m actually in bed sleeping. The world around me seems so real.
Imagine Your Waking Life is a Dream
So, in your waking life, imagine it’s a dream. In reality you are at home sleeping in your bed. Give yourself completely over to this sensation. Believe it’s true and see how that feels.
Look at the objects around you, and think I created all this. It’s all my dream world. How does that transform them you in your eyes? Don’t they, at least, seem a little less solid and a little more illusory?
This is one of the techniques Andrew Holecek, in his book Dream Yoga, suggests to help us have lucid dreams, or at least to de-solidify the world a bit.
If there are times when we are not sure whether we are in a dream, he suggests we just jump up. If we come down, it’s not a dream. If we don’t come down, then it’s a dream.
He recommends every so often jumping up and down in our waking life, not so much to see if we are dreaming, but to get in the habit of doing this.
We want to carry this habit over into our dreams, where we just might take a little jump and not come back down. Then we instantly know we are lucid dreaming.
Your World is Your Thoughts: No Thoughts, No World
What attaches us most to the world are our constant rambling thoughts. Our “monkey mind” as the Buddhists call it. We are forever thinking about this or that, planning this or that, worrying about this or that, fearing this or that, or stressing over this or that. This keeps us irrevocably glued to this world.
As an exercise, close your eyes and look into the darkness behind your eyelids and imagine you are dead. Imagine that the world you are so obsessed with is gone for good. Now what? Nothing to think about because all our thoughts were about this world and our lives. They were about our home, family, friends, jobs, dreams, fears, regrets and so on. Now that reality is gone.
Andrew Holocek quotes Khandro Rinpoche, who says,
“When we look back at the time of death, the experience of this life will seem like a dream. And just like as with our nighttime dreams, it will seem useless to have put so much effort into it.”
From this perspective, that bygone life seems like a fantasy. It is the same feeling we might get if we recall our childhood memories. They seem like a dream.
As you continue to sit there with your eyes closed, try and stop all your thoughts, even for just an instant. What happens? Your world disappears.
There is just you and the ultimate. Suppose you never had another thought. Your whole world would vanish because your world is your thoughts. No thoughts, no world. That is how flimsy our solid world is.
If that sounds crazy, isn’t that exactly what will happen at death after we empty out all our inner crap in the dying process? This is what happens in the eight stages of death. You can read about it in more detail in my earlier article entitled, “The Eight Stages of Death”.
Eventually we will have to face ourselves, and all that crap that used fill our heads and be so important, will be worthless. So, why not start the process of softening our attachment to the world now.
Anyone Can Do This
Some might be thinking, that’s fine for you to say, but I have a job, a family, responsibilities. I can’t just shuck all that and go meditate on a mountain top.
That’s a good point and I’m not suggesting anyone do that. We can practice this while we are living in the world and carrying out our responsibilities. We just have to begin doing it with a different mind.
There is an old saying that goes something like this,
“Before I was enlightened, I chopped wood and carried water.
After I was enlightened, I chopped wood and carried water, but it was completely different.”
The more we detach from this world, the more we can relax into being who we really are. This will have a much healthier effect on our family, friends, community, and the planet.
To learn more about the magic of the universe: Click this link: The Magical Universe.
