[Advaita-l] Dreams and Reality

[sriram]

Dear Sri Suresh
While dreaming you are not fully conscious that is you are not fully awake
and alert.The theory of dreams suggests that dreams may be as a result of
wishfulfilment,confusion in taking a right decision and so on.Dreams are not
generally indicate anything.Brain is arranging the sequences of the
thoughts,actual sights and those read in novels etc.This is called
unconscious state and when something very bizarre comes up the dreamer is
shaken out of his slumber and he gets relieved that after all it was a
dream.Consciousness is the cause.Are we not reacting responding instantly to
situations like fear,anger,desire etc and repent that we should not have
behaved like that etc.Here also the consciousness is blurred by the emotion
which is strong at that particular instant.That is why in Sandhya Vandhan we
say kamo karsheet,manyura karsheet namo namah.I did not do it but only
anger,desire did it .Anger,desire are emotions and they can not do anything
by themselves but through the individual who nurtures them they accomplish
what they want is the figurative meaning.So when dreaming you are not having
any control over your thoughts and dream takes absurd designs directed by
emotions .But once very absurd thing comes in dream consciousness comes into
picture and restrains further dreaming by awakening the person.In dreams
dead persons may come but they may not talk to you or some indication will
be there that they are dead and you know it.R.Krishnamoorthy
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Suresh" <mayavaadi at yahoo.com>
To: <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 12:22 PM
Subject: [Advaita-l] Dreams and Reality


> Dear Friends,
>
> In advaita, we're often given the dream analogy so we can make sense of
> why we mistake an illusory world as real. But there's one thing I don't
> get. Why do we mistake the dream (the dreams we have while asleep) for
> reality? For instance, we may dream of someone flying or something even
> more bizarre like some long dead historical personality. Yet, while
> dreaming, we never once get suspicious, we never once get the feeling that
> something's odd (except of course in rare cases of lucid dreaming).
>
> My question is, Why is it this way? In the normal waking state, we all
> know that it'd be impossible to see a flying guy, we laugh at the very
> idea. But while dreaming, we do the exact opposite, in that we believe
> every bit of it. How is this possible, when the 'waker' and the dreamer
> are one and the same person, and with the same knowledge and awareness.
>
> I am a guy with the awareness that X is an impossible event, and with that
> same awareness I go to sleep. Yet I believe X totally while dreaming. Why?
> How can awareness vanish like that, or be replaced by some other type of
> awareness? What's it about the dream that makes us fall for it completely,
> even when it's totally illogical?
>
> I look forward to reading your views on this.
>
> Warmly,
> Suresh
>
>
>
>
>
>
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