Main Pages

By Region

Pages

Resources

Dreaming

Diamond Approach

Glossary of Spiritual Wisdom

From the teachings of A.H. Almaas

What is Dreaming?

Diamond Approach Teachings About: Dreaming

All of You are Dreaming and are Dead Sure it is Reality

In the experience of oneness, all that you see is perceived as your own body. Then you truly know that the notion, “This small body is my body and that one is your body,” is a figment of your imagination. It does not actually exist. My body is all that there is, and it is your body, too, and who we are is not this limited individual: Who we are is everything. We do not exist separate from each other, we do not exist separate from the environment that we live in. We are all one. The separateness that you perceive just does not objectively exist: it is not there. Just as when you are dreaming—you go to sleep and dream that you are this person here, and in the dream there are people, cities, universes, airplanes; you could marry, you could get divorced, you work, you have a wonderful time or a miserable time. . . . Right? And it feels completely real; in the dream it feels absolutely real. You wake up and it is gone. It was never really there. All of it was just ideas; you created all of this in your mind. But in the dream, you do not question it, you do not say it is a dream. You are dead sure it is reality. So that is the way I see the situation right now—all of you are dreaming, and are dead sure it is reality. And you believe that you are there and that person is there, and you are talking to that person. But when you wake up, you realize, no, it is actually all in one place, in your mind. These people do not exist, not in the sense that we usually think. That is why it is said that most people live a dream life, live the life of illusion.

Creating a Reality Out of Nothing

But if you think further, you realize that there are things that are not explained by thinking of yourself merely as a physical organism. How can this body, this physical thing, have dreams at night? Dreams that look as real as this reality. When you are dreaming at night and you are walking in your dream and talking to people, it seems real. You feel things. You sense things. Everything is as real as it is now. How does that happen? Something in your mind can create a reality out of nothing. You are in bed. You are doing nothing. But in your experience there is a whole universe you've created that is exactly like this universe. But when you wake up you say, “Oh, that was just a dream. This is the real thing.” How do you know? If we have the capacity to create a dream and live in a dream in which everything feels real, then we have the capacity to create what we are doing right now.

Utterly No Separateness

And you believe that you are there and that person is there, and you are talking to that person. But when you wake up, you realize, no, it is actually all in one place, in your mind. These people do not exist, not in the sense that we usually think. That is why it is said that most people live a dream life, live the life of illusion. When I say that when you wake up from this dream and you realize that all that you believe is not true, it does not mean that you no longer see people. You continue to perceive people, but you realize that there is only one. It is not that I have Essence inside me and you have Essence inside you and we know we are connected because it is the same kind of Essence. That is the experience of the first dimension, the realization that we are essential. What I am talking about now is that not only what is in you is what is in me, but that what is between us is also the same thing, and our skin is made out of the same thing. It is one block. There is utterly no separateness.

Why Not Just Relax and Be Here?

So can you let yourself be? I am not suggesting that you let yourself be to get anything or do anything, even to understand anything. I mean just to be. Are you giving yourself the simple privilege of being, of existence? Why do you think that what you do, what you have, what you get or don’t get are more important than just being here? Why are you always wanting to get something or go somewhere? Why not just relax and be here, simply existing in all your cells, inhabiting all your body? When are you going to let yourself descend from your lofty preoccupations, and simply land where you are? Stop striving after all kinds of things; stop dreaming, scheming, planning, working, achieving, attempting, moving, manipulating, trying to be something, trying to get somewhere. You forget the simplest, most obvious thing, which is to be here. If you are not in your body, you miss the source of all significance, meaning, and satisfaction. How can you feel the satisfaction, if you aren’t here? We miss who we are, which is fundamentally beingness, existence. If we are not here, we exist only on the fringes of reality. We don’t sufficiently value simply being. Instead, we value what we want to accomplish, or what we want to possess. It is our biggest mistake. It is called the “great betrayal.”

Subscribe to the Diamond Approach