I could say that there are many parallels between dreams and waking life, and it wouldn’t be wrong.
And this is a more honest and direct way of saying it:
I keep noticing many ways dreams and waking life are the same.
THE WORLD IS MY MIRROR
The world – whether in dreams or waking life – mirrors me.
I can take whatever story I have about anyone or anything, turn it to be about myself, and find specific and genuine examples of how it’s true.
Exploring the world as a mirror, whether it’s dreams or waking life, helps me find and get to know more of my wholeness. I am already as rich as the world, the question is only if I actively explore it, notice it, and consciously live from and as it.
This is an ongoing and deepening process without any finishing line.
DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE HAPPENS WITHIN AND AS WHAT I AM
In one sense, I am this human self in the world. That’s not wrong. And yet, when I look, I find I more fundamentally am something else. I am what the world, as it appears to me, happens within and as.
Dreams and waking life are both content of experience. They both happen within and as what I am. They are no different from each other in that sense.
What I am forms itself into dreams and waking life at different times, and sometimes even at the same time. (During waking life, I can sense and sometimes connect with the dreaming part of consciousness.)
Even more fundamentally, what I am is capacity for all of it – consciousness and all it forms itself into.
DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE ARE MADE OF THE SAME
Said another way, dreams and waking life are made of the same.
They are made of the consciousness I am. They are made of awakeness. (The ordinary awakeness inherent in consciousness.)
They are made of awake space.
They are made of capacity taking the form of all of it – awakeness and what it forms itself into.
DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE COME AND GO
Dreams and waking life come and go. It’s all ephemeral. It’s all visitors.
Even this human self and any ideas of being a self (or anything else) come and go.
I am not fundamentally any of it.
I am what forms itself into all of it. I am what it all comes and goes within and as.
I am capacity for all of it.
DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE LIVE THEIR OWN LIFE
Dreams and waking life live their own life.
Even this human self lives his own life.
It all is happening on its own.
HOW I RELATE TO THE WORLD IS HOW I RELATE TO THE WORLD
How I relate to the dreaming world is how I relate to the waking world.
How I relate to the world is how I relate to the world.
How I relate to anything reflects my patterns, habits, and assumptions.
CONSCIOUSLY AWARE OF THE NATURE OF IT ALL OR NOT
Whether in dreams or waking life, I can consciously notice the nature of it all or not.
Within a dream, I can consciously notice it’s nature as consciousness. (I have done this, even as a child, but haven’t pursued this. It’s too tempting to change the content of the dream, and I don’t want to interfere with the dream-making process.)
In waking life, we can notice the dreamlike nature of it all. It’s all happening within the consciousness I am. It’s all the capacity I am taking all these forms. This is something I am actively noticing and exploring.
THE WAY I EXPLORE DREAMS IS HOW I EXPLORE WAKING LIFE
I tend to explore dreams and waking life in similar or the same ways.
I see them as mirrors for me. I find and get to know what in me I see in the dreams or waking life.
I identify stressful stories, question them, and find what’s more true for me.
I do tonglen or ho’oponopono with dream figures or people/beings/collectives in waking life.
I notice it all, to me, happens within and as the consciousness I am. (These days, I tend to rest with viscerally noticing it all as forms of Amma.)
I notice anyone and anything my psyche tend to see as “other” as the consciousness I am, and as expressions of the divine, and rest in and as that noticing.
I notice contractions in me and notice that these, in my experience, are made of the consciousness I am.