Dreams and reality - too close to be true

This blog should be about something special. The two of us, me and Tobi are often discussing dreams. Dreams in their various forms, like the dreams at night, the dreams regarding our future and of course the dream-life we are living presently... But what are dreams and how important are they really?
Well first lets got to have a look at the obvious. Dreams are happening within the mind - all of them. They always do express something and we don`t control them even if it seems so. Now that`s true for every single dream we might have in all different circumstances. Do you believe us yet? ;)

Dreams are happening in the mind? What does this mean actually? Well, I believe that dreams are something like thoughts - At night, all our external senses are withdrawn and practically not working. So what we experience during the night in our dreams is happening within our thought and emotional system - call it mind. Within dreams, we do feel, hear, taste and so on but its all a little bit like a visualization, a mental process. If the things we see in a dream would be real, then of course our body would be at that dream place too or we would have for example real spiders in our room (Tobi often has some realistic dreams of spiders and then he stands up and runs around scared until I wake him up or he wakes up himself while trying to rescue me from the big spiders under our pillows... Always really funny!). We can clearly see, that dreams are a different state of mind compared to our mind during the daytime.
Lets say you dream of mountains...

Guess for yourself if they are real or only images appearing to your mind. Reflecting this way you might be able to directly understand the difference between a dream at night and so called "reality". You might understand one thing clearly - dreams do happen within the mind as we`ve mentioned above before.
You might now say: "Parn, Tobi, stop! What about the dreams regarding my future or even better - my present state of affairs and my daydreams?" Check out for yourself wether or not they are happening within your mind or not.


Let us give you one sentence to think about deeply:

There is no proof that you aren`t dreaming right now and will wake up soon saying that you had a totally realistic dream.

This sentence is your tool to find out more about the above question... Happy thinking!
And then...? Yes, then we`ve mentioned that dreams always do express something. It`s really simple. A dream is always an expression of a conscious or subconscious process coming from our past actions and conditions. They might express a past event in the light of present conditions or they might even express the future in some rare cases.
Of course, not everyone telling us that he knows the future from his dreams is telling the truth. But not everyone who is telling us something like that is necessarily a liar...
The third point - not beeing able to control our dreams. Imagine having a cup of tea...
You see it clearly in front of you. Imagine feeling the porcelain of the cup getting warm while the tea is being served. Imagine seeing its colour and the greenish reflection of your own face on its surface. Maybe there is a leaf on the bottom of the cup? The tea smells fantastic, so natural and rich. A little bit like good cooked Thai rice and a little bit like the rainforest maybe?

Well, imagining a cup of tea like that or actually having it really seems to be different at first, doesn`t it? Tobi and me usually try to think that it isn`t different at all. Remember dreaming at night? All your senses are involved while you are dreaming. They are involved internally. You seem to feel, taste, hear, or see things during the dream. It seems as if your senses are working completely normal even though it is only happening in your - lets say - imagination. In a dream you don`t know that you are dreaming - even that this is a power you might achieve through proper meditation.

But normally we don`t know it and so a dream appears to be "real". Do you know, why Buddha is called "the awakened one"? That`s probably because he woke up from a different kind of reality-dreamstate and now sees things beyond the normal conceptions. He sees them exactly as they are. Wouldn`t this be a fantastic experience?.
The question would be - what is beyond our conception and the mental construct of reality? This question has been raised numerous times as for example in the movie "The Matrix" or by many philosophers of the past and the present. It leads to a deep and important understanding of the mode of existance in which we are currently dwelling.
We hope to have raised some interesting and fun questions. Feel free to share your thoughts on this topic and bring up something fascinating, motivating and wonderful...

Have a great time,

Parn and Tobi from Phuket Meditation