Dream meditates within us every night

In meditative thought, reality is given an access to the mind, it is given the freedom to become manifest without the mental tendency towards analysis. The meditator surrenders to that which exists and is open to its secrets, and this access is not blocked by the structures of the ego. Dreaming is all about this. The dreamer opens up to sheer existence, being first addressed by the spirits of the past and later, after his mind has become emptied, he is exposed to the secret of existence, divinity. Dream meditates within us every night. In sleep, are gotten rid of the ghosts that hinder our openness. The more open I am to existence, the more readily existence manifests itself to me. Openness deepens sleep reality, in that, it turns what might be called ’routine dreams’ into more profound ones. Thus the truth will gradually become manifest, at first as glimpses of the divine light.

The inherent power of dreaming to introduce the dreamer into a more profound mode of existence arises from its innate quality: in the state of the unconscious there is no expectation to interfere with this openness. Sheer observation is without predominate evaluation. Learning to do conscious dreaming contains this in itself. This state of pure alertness cannot be trained. It simply becomes a reality at certain stage. ”The great Tao silently fulfills its purpose; it makes no claim. It nourishes ten thousand things without making an effort”. Paradoxically enough, the dreamer here works ”decidedly unconsciously” in order to overcome the reality incessantly making distinctions. A ”purified spirit”, a ”spiritless spirit” starts working in us: ”Blessed are the pure in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.

Our dreaming will be constantly creating new stories about the things we have, so far, not confronted. While making such a story, the dream makes use of the collective mythical tradition, placing its own scenes within the collective drama and then watching them there. In addition, the dream will thus receive support from other ’audiences’ too; someone's trauma has been the trauma of number of other persons. Therefore one finds one's own self among heroes and gods, since I am able to face the past brought up by the dream from my self. To open up a dream is to make these connections more conscious within person and help him also to live his personal drama on the conscious level. Someone's trauma can then be released more readily through watching it in a dream, and becoming able to understand its symbols. For this purpose, it is witnessed in the shape of living spirits.

The vision of reality brought out by hypnosis is no more realistic than that created by dreaming. The former lifts a story, connected with the individual’s past, into the present, the historical world. Within the current outlook and the subjugating power of modern man’s fearful ego, re-experiencing one’s past traumas can be harassing and distressing. When felt as a threat to one’s independence, they can drive a person into a temporary psychosis, despite the fact that the past, as exposed by the hypnosis, no longer exists today. The dream, on the other hand, approaches this aspect much more gently, even if the proximity of the everyday ego turns the dream into a nightmare. Yet, while in deep sleep, a person can watch even his own death quite peacefully. A death in a dream means a release and becoming born again. If the dreamer chances to be close to his day-conscious state, this same dream can be felt as a harassing nightmare.

This article is out of the book Find Your True Self through Your Fantasies and Dreams by Olavi Moilanen, Ph.D, published by Atophill in USA 2009