Wake up from the dream

 When I was a teenager, I had these recurring nightmares. A monster was following me, and I got stuck in the mud. It came closer and closer and when it was was just about to get me, I woke up. In fact, these dreams happened so often that one day it occurred to me—while dreaming—that this scary scene must imply that I am sleeping. Not only did the monster disappear when that realization occurred but I used my new-found creative powers to fly in the dream. This was the beginning of lucid dreaming. It’s magical when it happens.

 

Why am I telling you this convoluted story? It’s to show you that the insights, “body, mind and world are one,” or “the analyzer of our thoughts and emotions is the analyzed,” is not hopelessly tautological. There is a Presence behind all inner and outer happenings that we have access to. Viktor Frankl summed up this power well when he said, “Between stimulus and response is a space. In that space is our power to respond.” This space of s (ilence) e (nergy) l (ove) f (low) is the Awareness the non-duality community talks about.

 

How to get access to Awareness? We can’t gain conscious access, but we can wake up from the dream when it becomes repetitive. The Presence is always around. It’s that we are too involved in the body, mind, world complex to take notice.