Dream Within a Dream

by Gordon Artrias Rosenberg

I awaken from a dream to the realization that I am still dreaming. Not in the way we sometimes think we’re awake when we’re asleep. You probably know that experience: Like having a dream within a dream within a dream. This time, I really am awake and I know I am in a dream world at the same time. I’ve read and considered the possibility that this world is but a dream, even know it on some level. But now I really know that my waking life is a dream; no different from the dreams I have in my head during the night, or the thoughts in my head during the day. I know this world is a dream and is always going to be a dream, no matter what I ever do.

Does this mean it’s a mistake to be here? Does it mean we can’t accomplish anything here? No, it doesn’t mean this at all. It simply means that it may serve us if we learn to see this world as a dream reality, that it will be a dream as long as we’re here, and that this particular form of the dream will end as soon as we’re gone … just as our dreams at night are gone once we awaken. When one has such a realization, there comes often the knowing that once one awakens from the dream that most people believe is real, one can then become who one really is! One can then go on to live a life free of the old dreams, which may have formerly seemed so real.

Once we let go of our “waking” dream, we can continue to live within the dream we call life, but with the full realization that there’s more to us than we see here. We can be all we are, without holding ourselves back. Once you learn to be your true self and not hold yourself back, you have very little to do or learn here, because this is the main reason we incarnate here – to learn who we are beyond the illusion of this place. You can go on being yourself and doing your work here, without fearing that you’re not good enough, that whatever you do isn’t enough, that you can’t be yourself, etc., etc. You can be you and stop holding back for any reason.

Dreaming and being may both be parts of the same illusion. For instance, if you believe you’re dreaming when you’re awake, what’s happening when you’re really dreaming? Do you believe you’re dreaming so that you can awaken to your true self? I think so. I believe we’re all dreaming all the time; that it’s not necessary to dream one moment and be awake the next, but that our dreams in the night are as valuable a part of life as our waking dreams. I believe both are dream states which may be giving us valuable information about ourselves, and that we can process this information to learn more about ourselves.

Once one learns this information, I believe both forms of the dream may fall away entirely. You may stop dreaming at night, or whenever you believe yourself to be asleep. Your “sleeping state” dreams may be no more or less dreamlike than your “waking state” dreams. Do you see what I mean? Can you see how dreaming may be dreaming no matter when and how we experience it? What about the times when you feel awake and yet are still experiencing a dream state?

This may occur soon after beginning to wake up from a night’s sleep, or during the day when “daydreams” seem to come and go. What’s so different between these states, and why worry about which is more real than the other? If it’s all a dream, we’re free to have whatever experience we want within the dream, and to grow and expand our consciousness as a result.

Dreaming may be one of the best things we can do for ourselves, as long as we’re aware that we’re dreaming on some level. When you dream, you learn to imagine other possibilities. Eventually, you become aware that there are possibilities which far surpass limited human experience. It’s then that you can begin to imagine the unimaginable, to allow yourself to become your expansive and infinitely creative self.

This is the place of our true origin and it’s our true destination. Imagine it and it can become real. But don’t stop with the imagining. Let yourself dream your new reality by waking up to the realization that you’re already that reality; that you can do whatever you want to create a beautiful and magical life – here or anywhere, dreaming or not.

We may very well dream up this entire life; and not just the events of our lives, but the form within which all those events happen. When we accept that all may really be formless, we open to greatly expanded possibilities. Form and formlessness exist here simultaneously. You can’t be here without experiencing both at the same time. Form can be defined as “the physical context within which we live our lives”. I define formlessness as “that greater reality which includes all we see and experience, and a whole lot more we can never see or define but which we’re all part of”.

We experience form in all we do here. When we’re ready, we also experience formlessness. We can learn to experience both form and formlessness at the same time. We can learn to sense form around us and know we’re living within some form of form, in order to maintain a sense of our own existence. We can learn to see and experience what we do, as merely expressions of the universal consciousness which operates here. We can see forms as no more real than anything we can’t experience here.

We’re participating in worldly reality for a reason we can never fully know. Apparently, this world needs to maintain a sense of its own existence, yet all the forms we see and know are only beliefs about the way things are. When you become fully aware that form is but an illusion, that it can go away or change, you see how you are complete without the need for any particular forms in or around you. Form is only a way of having an identity here, and you can go beyond the need for such identities.

I had a dream recently in which a group of construction workers were building a large house. They were mixing up some kind of lightweight concrete-looking material for the basement walls, sort of a mixture of cement and gelatin. I realized that this material used to “form” the walls themselves was the same as the material used to make the “forms” in which the walls were poured. Both were completely malleable, and were being molded into the particular shapes and sizes necessary for each wall of the house.

I interpret this dream to mean that we not only create the events of our lives while we’re here, but we also help create the entire structure which oversees this place. That we’re both the creator and the experiencer, or at least that we’re an intrinsic part of the entire process. That we help to create this place as we go along, rather than being forced to fit into a given structure, within which we must perform in some particular way.

What then about our own individual identity? Do we need to have a particular identity to be here? Must we look at ourselves and our lives in a particular way? Is it wrong to have an identity at all? I believe that it’s not wrong, as long as we’re aware that an identity is only an illusion which serves us while we’re here, an identity which will no longer be part of us once we’re gone. This is where form and formlessness merge, as in my dream: Where you become aware that you’re both at the same time, and that you don’t have to hold on to either.

That’s right; you don’t have to hold on to an idea of formlessness any more than you need to hold onto form. Formlessness is always with you. Why would you need to hold on to it? It’s always part of you. Formlessness is the true nature of your existence. You don’t need to hold on to it to know yourself. You can merge into formlessness and be who you are. You can identify with a particular vision or awareness of formlessness, of ultimate reality, as long as you need to, in order to maintain your identity as an expanded, formless being. Then, when you’re ready, you can let go even of formlessness, and become the indefinable being that you are.

Dreams and formlessness are only concepts. Who knows what a dream really is? How does one dream? Where do dreams start and end, and where does life begin? Is it all a dream? Probably. But we don’t need to worry about any of this. Formless existence is as easy as saying “I go wherever I need, to be what I am”. Let that be enough.

You are what you are, and you’ll always be it. You may change, since change is pretty much synonymous with this physical existence. But you’ll still be who you are. It’s to be that which we are and not worry about the details. Everything we don’t know will be handled some place in the universe. This is the nature of formless living; to be what you are, free of any worry that if you don’t do things just right, you won’t exist. You’ll always exist, in your truly formless form.

Life here is not what we often think. Life is a dream, just like the dreams we have at night, except our eyes are open. When we really wake up to who we are, and we’re no longer dreaming, we awaken to so-called ‘higher possibilities’ and we learn to live with our eyes really open. May we all learn to have sweet dreams in all our waking states.