04 Apr 2024
I have been thinking of Shakespeare, especially of his use of a story within a story - e.g. within Hamlet. I have long been interested in stories and this interest only grew once I studied Narrative Therapy. Expanding upon this, I have been imagining a dream within a dream.
I have been reading about how to become lucid in dreams and one text discusses a Buddhist approach which basically has you practicing in a “waking” state. In brief, you ask yourself through the day, “Is this a dream?” The idea is that if you can get into doing this during the day, you will also be in practice to ask yourself while dreaming and thereby convert your dream into a lucid one.
Another aspect of this practice is that you begin to challenge your waking state - is this really a dream? Buddhism is about awakening and this practice helps you to challenge what you believe to be your conscious state. Is this also a dream?
It is a powerful approach to begin challenging your dreams and take that approach into the rest of your life. If your life is a dream, then you should strive for lucidity always. Just as you can learn to “wake up” (become aware) during your dream, you can become aware that your life is a construct that you have created - a construct which brings you suffering.
I began by trying to change my dreams through lucid dreaming - what if I can change my life by lucid living?
What if we are having dreams within dreams?
Somehow, I feel that Shakespeare would have loved the literary and other possibilities of these considerations.
Is this a dream?
Aroha nui,
Lee Sturgis
leesturgis.eth
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