The dream of “I am”
This life is a dream and this dream seems so real that we call it: “Reality”
It is the dream of “I am” and “I am” is the dream that this life is real.
This is because this life has all the qualities of a dream. We don’t really remember exactly when it started and we don’t really know exactly when it will end. We are not sure where we came from and we are not sure where we are going.
Think back for a moment…..
Do you remember when you first appeared in this world?
When exactly was that?
And do you remember where you came from?
Where exactly was that?
Think about it for a moment…..
And then who is the “dreamer” of this dream? We can call him or her “I” and there are about 7.7 billion “I’s”. You could say 7.7 billion portals through which the physical and fantasy worlds can be perceived.
It’s like 7.7 billion players in a computer game online on the Internet. And then I am only talking about people, without animals, plants, bacteria and so on.
At the deepest level, this “I” is pure Awareness or in other words the ability to perceive. For without this ability to perceive nothing can be perceived in this world. This is obvious.
Because how could you perceive things and therefore also experience things without this ability to perceive? This cant be done can it? This ability to perceive or in other words Awareness, is the foundation on which all manifestations are built because without Awareness the rest disappears.
Awareness is unlimited, timeless, neutral and transparent
Awareness is unlimited, timeless, neutral and transparent. This is total freedom, happiness and well-being because there are absolutely no restrictions. If you have absolute freedom to be what you already are, where are all the problems? They are gone because there are no demands that you have to be something, that you have to become something, or that you have to achieve something.
But in the dream of “I am” Awareness dreams that it is limited. We can call this limitation; a “person” in a (physical) world. It is contracted energy and focused on one imaginary point. In our dreams while we sleep these limitations are less than in the physical world because in a dream you can do almost anything you want.
The mental dreamworld is limited only by your creativity
The rules of the mental dreamworld are still quite flexible. You can go straight from one situation to another and do things that you cannot do in the physical world.
For example, you are in Africa in the jungle and then suddenly in the Netherlands in the city. You can fly without wings while talking to someone who may have been dead for a long time. You are limited only by your imagination and your imagination is unlimited creativity.
The physical world is much more limited than the mental dreamworld
When you wake up in the physical world, the rules are much more stricter and concrete. You are then limited by the laws of physics.
For example, you cannot just travel from Africa to the Netherlands in a moment and you cannot fly without wings whilst having a conversation with someone who has been dead for a long time.
So these two states of being do have similarities but the physical reality we experience is much more limited than the mental dreamworld.
So the three basic phases of reality that we seem to experience appear to be:
Dreamless sleep: Unlimited freedom, well-being and tranquility. It is a stateless state. No duality (not two) No “I” and world. No; “I am a body / person, I am not the rest of the world”. There is no world and therefore no “I”. There is no perceiver and no perceived.
Dream Sleep: Limited only by our imagination. There are different states that keep changing. For example emotional states such as being happy or anxious or mental states such as “I am this, I am not that”. Sometimes there are very nice and sometimes very bad experiences. There is duality (there is two). There is “I” and the world but still very flexible without physical rules and restrictions.
Awake: Very limited by physical rules / the laws of physics. There are different states that keep changing. For example emotional states such as being happy or anxious or mental states such as “I am this, I am not that”. There is duality (there is two). There are sometimes very nice and sometimes very bad experiences. There is “I” and the world but with much stricter rules and physical limitations.
Realize: You are the conscious silent space of the “Here and Now”
Realize, at the deepest level, that YOU are the conscious silent space of the “Here and Now”. We can then call you: Pure Awareness. Pure Consciousness or “I Am” But these are just labels of course because the description of the experience is not the experience itself.
What you really are cannot really be perfectly described so we have to make do with these labels pointing to; that which never changes in our experience and therefore also, that which we really are.
What is it in your whole life that has never changed? Answer: Your ability to realize. Your ability to perceive.
And as this pure ability to perceive (Awareness) you are formless but you have the ability to identify with temporary forms such as a body, thoughts, emotions, sensations, images and sounds etc.
So you can take on the form of that which you perceive and therefore also with that which you identify with. And you can hear this in your language. For example, “I am ugly” or “I am beautiful” are actually thoughts in consciousness.
When you (Pure Awareness) identify with these thoughts you then assume the form of a “person” who is “ugly” or who is “beautiful”. And how could you determine how ugly or beautiful you are if you don’t compare yourself to someone else?
The idea of “ugly” or “beautiful” is one perspective out of thousands of perspectives and “I am” is the awareness that continues to perceive these different perspectives.
Aware = Realizing and Observing.
ness = The state of.
Awareness = The state of realizing and perceiving what is happening.
To make it easier to realize and also understand that YOU are this state of realizing and perceiving (Awareness), I will now give you an example that you have certainly experienced many times:
When you are fast asleep everything disappears (dreamless sleep)
You don’t see anything. You don’t hear anything. You don’t feel anything. You don’t smell anything. You don’t taste anything. This is total peace and relaxation. Total freedom and therefore total happiness! It doesn’t matter how many problems you have in your daily life and how bad they are, during dreamless sleep they all disappear.
You are then formless because you have no boundaries, just like the silence and the space have no boundaries at all. Just think for a moment:
Where does the silence end?
Have you ever heard the edge of silence?
And where does space end?
Have you ever seen the edge of space?
During dreamless sleep your body disappears and everything disappears with it. You are neutral and transparent. There is no duality (no two) For example: No world and no person. No “I” and no “not I” No positive and no negative.
Your ability to be aware is still active but there is nothing to be aware of except “the nothingness” And yet “You” are still present. You are “sleeping” therefore you are still there but the world of thoughts, feelings, images, sounds and so on that you normally perceive has completely disappeared, and even your body that is sleeping is nowhere to be seen.
Our reality is like a computer game
When you are in dreamless sleep, it is like turning off a computer game. Everything in that game disappears but you don’t. Your avatar disappears in that game and the world your avatar lives in, but you don’t.
Where are you then?
And when are you actually?
When you start to wake up, you start dreaming and you start experiencing events in your dream. It’s like your computer has been turned on and the game starts again.
You see, hear, feel, smell and taste things again. You start to dream and an idea arises that you are a person in a world, just like an avatar in a computer game.
This seems so real that you don’t even know you are dreaming, even if the dream is very strange it can seem like it is normal and vice versa. That way you can very easily be led to believe that you are somewhere where you are actually not because you do not realize that you are dreaming.
Your attention is fixed for a time in the mental dreamworld of thought and this mental dreamworld seems so real. This is your own virtual reality cinema.
The deeper meaning of every dream
Every dream you experience is concrete proof that it is easy to believe that you are somewhere in the physical world when you are not really there.
This is the deeper meaning of every dream!
This is so important that I’m going to repeat it!
Every dream you experience is concrete proof that it is easy to believe that you are somewhere in the physical world when you are not really there.
The experience is a real experience but the world and the person you think you are is a mental illusion. This is literally and figuratively a mental dreamworld and it seems just as real, just like this physical reality that you are in right now as you read this seems so real. Just really think about it for a moment…..
How would you know if this reality here and now was a dream?
How do you know that this reality is real?
Where is your evidence that this is real?
And what does “real” mean anyway?
How do you define real?
Whats the difference between reality and illusion actually?
Where is the boundary between real and dream?
Could it be that there is no real boundary to be found?
Or is it that the boundary is really imaginary and therefore is also an illusion?
Is this life a real illusion or an illusory reality?
You could conclude from these questions:
Reality is illusion and illusion is reality.
Reality is the dream and the dream is reality.
What do you think? What’s your conclusion?
How many times have you had a dream where you were completely convinced that you were in the physical world? The dream was a real experience but you were sleeping in your bed convinced that you were somewhere else. Then suddenly you woke up and you became aware that you were just dreaming.
You might then suddenly realize:
“I was not in the dream as a person in a world. The dream was in me … the person and the world was in my Realization. In my Awareness. In my Perception. In my Consciousness.”
There was no person and no world. There was no duality. It was all happening in your consciousness. Everything you had seen, heard, felt, smelled and tasted had happened in your consciousness.
The body you thought you had was created out of your consciousness. Your ability to realize, your Awareness, your ability to perceive was the “material” out of which everything in the dream was made because without your ability to realize what was happening you wouldn’t be able to perceive anything at all.
Awareness is therefore the “material” out of which all experiences are made because without Awareness there is no perceiver and no perceived and therefore no experience of “I am”
Awareness dreams that it is a person in a world. This is the dream of “I am”
And in the same way that you can have a dream that you are born in a strange world that you first don’t understand, that you are a baby with parents and grandparents, that you become a child growing up and playing with your toys and your friends, that you become a teenager going through puberty and become more and more mature, that as an adult you have multiple relationships, jobs and homes while you continue to develop different skills and traits, that you get even older and maybe have your own children who also have their own children, that you eventually grow old and weak and inevitably die after a long life, only to realize when you wake up in your own bed that you were dreaming all the time.
It is also possible that infinite, unlimited, neutral, transparent Awareness can experience a unique, strange, mysterious dream, which is about an imaginary character called “I am” who takes a form and therefore appears to be limited, which from the perspective of a human being in a physical world seems to have positive and negative experiences, who seems to live a long life from birth to death, while this pure Awareness never actually went anywhere and never did anything because all the time it had remained peaceful, calm and relaxed in its own natural essence of freedom, well-being and happiness while having the incredible, incomprehensible and improbable dream about an imaginary character called “I am”
There is no dreamer and no dream. There is only the dreaming of what is.
While dreaming there is actually no dreamer and dream. This is an illusion! There is only the dreaming of “what is”. There is no two. Everything is made of the same material and we can call this material: Awareness. Realization. Perception. Consciousness. Unconditional love. Conscious energy.
Without the ability to be able to realize, the rest cannot arise. This proves: Consciousness is not something we temporary have. Consciousness is what we really are.
If thinking can so easily fool you in this way that you are in the physical world while you are dreaming, how difficult would it be to fool you while you are awake?
Not that difficult right? Because they are the same thought processes. They can fool you just as well while you are awake as when you are dreaming. This is certainly the case if you just believe everything that thinking and thoughts suggest and say to you.
The past and the future are illusions, and in these illusions there is an imaginary self called “I” (or enter your own name). Now try to touch the past for a moment.
Try to find the past now. You cannot because it does not exist in the physical world.
It’s just like a dream. It is perceived in your imagination and your imagination is perceived in your perception, in other words, in your Awareness.
Thoughts are like salespeople at the door
In the mental dreamworld of thinking, pay attention to what the thoughts in your thinking say and how they talk to you! But don’t take them too seriously because you are not what the thoughts say you are.
Thoughts say, for example, “I’m stupid” or “I’m clever.” This is an opinion, a perspective, a suggestion. Each thought is one perspective out of thousands of possible perspectives.
Thoughts are like salespeople at the door who want to sell you something. They want to sell you a uniform and sell a role in a story in which you can wear the uniform.
For example, “I’m stupid” or “I’m clever.” They really want your attention and then your belief that this suggestion is true.
When you believe in what the thoughts say, you have bought a suggestion or an idea from them. You then assume the role of the suggestion or idea and you wear the uniform that goes with it.
If you believe that you are stupid, then you act like you are stupid. If you believe you are intelligent then you act as if you are intelligent.
And if you take on this role and wear the uniform of the role, you are more likely to be viewed and treated that way by other people. They then confirm what you project. It becomes a “self fulfilling prophecy”. They confirm the role you have assumed.
It’s like walking around wearing a T-shirt that says, “I’m stupid” or “I’m clever.” So it’s then no wonder that other people treat you like it’s true.
If you are really stupid or clever it is a matter of perspective, opinion and situation. So it is true and false at the same time. It depends on how you look at it and through which filters you perceive it.
This is one of the secrets of life!
What is “the truth”?
Answer: It depends on how you look at it and through which filters you perceive it, and you can always adjust or change your perspective and your filters.
Thoughts can lie and they can tell you what you want to hear. They also use the word “I” more often to make you believe that the thoughts are already yours.
They are not “your” thoughts. The thoughts are temporary visitors to your home, they are salespeople at the door.
And where your home? in the “Here”
And when do they come to visit? “Now”
The “Here and Now” is where you (Awareness) “live” so to speak.
Thoughts are impersonal
The thoughts that come by are not your thoughts. They are impersonal. You are like an antenna and the thoughts are signals that you receive. They are looking for an owner and they use the word “I” or “You” to make you believe that they are yours.
For example, “I am a failure” or “I am successful” or “You are worthless” or “You are valuable” and so on.
Thoughts want to sell the content and meaning of these suggestions to you. But those are not “your” suggestions. It is not about you unless you accept the suggestion as the truth.
You do not own these suggestions. They are not yours. In the same way that the clouds in the sky are not yours. They are not your clouds just because they have come into your conscious attention.
These suggestions are temporary visitors in the “Here and Now” (In your house where you, Awareness live). You do not have to claim them because they are not yours.
And if a thought comes up now and says something like, “This is nonsense”
Then this is another salesperson at the door who wants to sell you the suggestion of “This is nonsense”
Realize this! And don’t be fooled by the thoughts (salespeople) who want to sell you one perspective.
Recognize, respect and accept without judgment that they are thoughts but do not pay too much attention to the content and whatever they say. Don’t give them too much authority or importance.
That way you give the thoughts unconditional love while you remain neutral, which ensures that you do not resist them being there. This is of course much more important when it comes to “negative” thoughts.
A thought is actually a limited perspective so it depends on how you look at it if the content is correct or not, and this is also true when it comes to people because the opinion of a person is also a thought or a series of thoughts that is vocalized by the person.
Everyone is right from his or her own perspective.
It doesn’t matter how unreasonable someone is with her or his opinion. From her or his perspective through her or his filters, they are right. Why? Because that’s how the person experiences it at that moment.
If you sit in a room with other people and look straight ahead without looking around and describe what the room looks like from that particular perspective, everyone would give a different description but still all be right.
So it’s never about who is right because everyone is right. It’s about what the best perspective and filters are for you, and by filters I mean mindset, beliefs, feelings, preferences and so on.
From the perspective of Awareness, there is only one real truth
From the perspective of Awareness, there is only one real truth and that is:
We can all realize, perceive and therefore also experience what is happening. This is always true for all of us!
WHAT we perceive and what it means to us is different. The fact THAT we perceive is TRUE for all of us and we can prove this at any time by asking ourselves this simple question:
“Am I perceiving?”
or
“Am I aware?”
The answer is always “Yes” of course for all of us because how could we know that a question had been asked at all if our ability to perceive is absent?
So we are always perceiving, wherever, whenever and with anyone. We are pure Awareness at the deepest level. Pure Realization. Pure Consciousness. Pure Perception. Or whatever you want to call it.
We are limitless, infinite, formless potential dreaming that this reality is real and the name of this incredible, unlikely, incomprehensible dream of life is called “I am”
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Related links:
Self-realization / Consciousness
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