Dreaming a Helpful Dream

. . . on letting the metaphysics go

A Course in Miracles say that our experience of dreaming at night and being awake during the day are the same dream. They differ in appearance, not substance.

Your sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all. Their content is the same (T-18.II.5:13-15).

This is confusing, because it implies that what we do doesn't matter. Dreams while asleep at night are one thing. But during the day if I'm not trying to make myself a better person - studying the Course, meditating on the yama, practicing forgiveness - then what am I doing?

Is Jesus really suggesting that it’s fine if I throw it all way to live alone in a strange city, drinking the cheapest forty-ouncers I can find?

The answer is "yes" because it’s just a dream. You're naked, you fail an exam, you burn down a children's hospital. Those are bad dreams but they are still just dreams. The bad things didn't actually happen. Just so with waking dreams.

But the answer is also "no" because we don’t believe that it’s a dream. Therefore, it is real for us.

This is a critical aspect of our ACIM practice - accepting that we believe the dream is real which means leaning into the dream. The metaphysics get us here but they are awful at getting us out. You can’t undig the hole you’re at the bottom of.

Imagine you are hungry and I set a bowl of soup before you. Does debating whether the soup is real or an illusion help your hunger? Just eat!

Or say you're lunch. A tiger jumps out of the forest - how curious about the metaphysics are you then?

I am not knocking deep dives into the "real vs. illusion" pool. I am more saying that it's not as deep as it looks. It's there to distract, not help, us.

In the dream, we wake up from the dream when somebody shows us how. Ramana Maharshi comes along, or A Course in Miracles. We read Dorothy Day and become Catholic Workers. The therapist asks just the right question.

In other words, we have a good dream - good because it is helpful, and helpful because we are now better at serving others, or at least not hurting them.

But this is where it gets tricky! Because having a good dream means doing things that make us happy, healthy, and helpful. In practice this looks a lot like studying and practicing A Course in Miracles, meditating on forgiveness, practicing ayurveda, et cetera.

In other words, do the helpful thing. Do the happy thing. The metaphysics are beside the point; they really are.

When we do the happy thing we are still asleep, yes, but the dream has changed subtly. It's responsive now. If we don't want to suffer, then we don't have to. When the high priests of chaos (or their followers) beckon, we are welcome to ignore them.

Forget about the metaphysics. What helps? How do you want to pray? How do you want to worship? How do you want to live a life that is predicated on love instead of fear? The Vision of Christ is given the instant you stop pretending you have to earn, deserve or work for it. Dreams don't last because nobody sleeps forever. Signs of the light are everywhere; even now you are seeing them.

Love,
Sean