Life Is…But a Dream

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Gently Down the Stream

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily

Life is But a Dream

This verse, with such a lilting melody that English speaking children have heard and sung since childhood, carries a profound truth. Is our waking reality any more substantial than a nightly dream or daydream? Our everyday reality as we perceive it has a quality of projection to it, so that the coherence we perceive is constructed rather than real; it is a mapping of our experience according to conceptual systems that we develop through socialization and language acquisition processes. Language sorts our perceptions according to cultural categories and habitual experience. Even our sense of Self, of who we are as persons over a life course, is constructed by the brain or Mind, weaving together disconnected moments as a seamless stream of consciousness, even though with multiple threads of attention and attitudes—including archetypal MULTIPLICITY–our sense of self could more accurately be described as diverse and disjoint or multiplex.

So, Life IS but a Dream! Such potentials open up with this awareness, so long as we learn to recognize how bound we can become to fixed ideas and habitual, self-limiting behaviors and beliefs.  Since life is a dream, we can change our life by altering our perceptions and attitudes. We might just as well MANIFEST that which we intend to realize, being cause via our mindful choices rather than the effect of our responses to others’ choices, for instance.

Since Life is But a Dream, then you might just as well dream deeply and dream BIG.

How is your life like a Dream? Is it a “dream come true”?  Would you change anything about your life if you could? How might you choose to alter your waking dream life?

You can work on little things as well as big things in modifying any fixed elements or patterns you have established by recognizing these and choosing to implement changes. For example, last week while in a contemplative, “receptive” mode at night, I had an impulse that told me I could “save nine years” of life by no longer drinking soda drinks. It was a very clear impression, so I made an inner agreement and have not imbibed a soda since, nor do I intend to any more. This one slight adjustment to patterns I have established in this life-dream scenario could make a big difference down the road.

Since life is but a dream and YOU are the Dreamer, this opens opportunities for LUCID awareness that empowers you to create the life you choose to live in every aspect, moment by moment as well as on the largest canvas.

Good Dreaming to you!