Why the same dream?

[Miguel Angel Carrasco]

Watched from my ºThere is noº  position (see my posting of 21/10/97), the
significance of the perceivable things appear to me like a huge jigsaw
puzzle. There are many pieces to be put together so that the whole bears
some coherence. Having tried to do so with many philosophical systems,
Advaita seems at last the most and only logical pattern to order the
pieces. And the global meaning of the puzzle is: the sum total of the
pieces is ONE, however that One is not the result of adding the pieces.
Rather, once the pieces are in place, they disappear in the One. And I am
the puzzle (and the game-playing).

So far, so good. But surprise! I did not notice a tiny piece that was left
outside the Big Picture. It has been causing me trouble for some time. I do
not know how to fit it into the puzzle (and how thus to make it disappear).
I cannnot even see that piece properly. I do not yet know how to formulate
the problem. I just feel the presence of something disturbing. So I will
try surrounding this black hole with some tangential questions that I think
may lead to focus on it.

Today´s question is -

If phenomena are an illusory perception, a wrong superimposition, how is it
that all of us make the same mistake? A rope does tend to be confused with
a snake, because it is in the nature of both to have a somewhat similar
shape. But this cannot be said in the case World v. Brahman, since the
latter has no form or shape, and Its nature (if any) is not similar at all
with that of the world.

Billions of jivas make the same superimposition. There must be a common
cause for that coincidence. Which? Note that I am not asking for the cause
of the illusion (which Samkara shrewdly dispatches as beginningless), but
for the cause of the coincidence in the illusion.

In other words. Some sages describe the appearance of the world as a dream.
Each of us is dreaming the world, a personal dream. Those dreams exist only
in the minds, which if purified will be able to realize that it is just a
dream, not a reality outside. But why are we all having such similar
dreams? Surely there cannot be a real misleading factor that makes us all
fall in the same illusion. If there is such a common deceitful factor, it
cannot be real (because then it would be a fault in Brahman or, worse, an
Evil Second God). But the cause cannot be illusory either, because the
cause cannot be part of the effect. Then what is the cause of the
coincidence in the same individual dreams? Why do we all dream of the same
common world?

Of course, I already havea provisional satisfactory answer to this
question. This is not my real problem. But it borders it. And clarifying it
further will help me find out how to attack the real trouble in the jigsaw
puzzle.

Thanks a lot for any contributions.

--
A dreamer who knows it is dreaming but does not know the way out (if any).