Analysing Dreams

 

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Analysing Dreams

Human consciousness is divided into four stages according to Patanjali. The first is the ordinary waking state; it is only so-called waking, it is not real awakening because only a superficial part, just the tip of the iceberg, has a little consciousness, but nine times bigger than this is the unconscious underneath it. It is a superficial consciousness; hence it is called the so-called waking state.

The second state he calls dreaming. It is a strange phenomenon that we are closer to our reality in dreaming than we are in the so-called waking state, because when we are awake, we are hypocrites. We not only deceive others, we deceive ourselves too; we pretend to be somebody who we are not; we say one thing, we do another. We have many masks. It is very difficult to find the original face of a person — he himself has forgotten what his original face is. But in dreaming we are a little closer to our real self.

Dreaming is the second stage, in which we are truer. If our dreams could be understood we would see our authenticity, because then we are not Christians nor Hindus nor Mohammedans, neither moral nor immoral, we are simply whatsoever we are. All masks disappear.

Patanjali is not in favour of the analysis of dreams. He says meditate on your dreams. Except for us nobody can know the exact meaning. Either go to a Buddha who has no mind of his own, who has no ideology, no dogma, to interpret it, to give it a certain colour, to emphasise a certain concept, a certain prejudice, that he is already carrying. Either go to a Buddha or the best way is to meditate over it, silently watch it, and in that watchfulness, we will come across the third layer. Just hidden underneath the dreams is a third state of consciousness: dreamless sleep.

It happens every night. When we are not dreaming but simply sleeping, there are almost eight cycles every night. We will dream for a time then there is a dreamless pause, a rest, because dreaming is a very tiring process, very exhausting. So, we take a little rest, and when we are rested, we start dreaming again.

If we meditate, we will find those small intervals. That will give us the insight into the third state — dreamless sleep — which is even closer to reality than dreams. Modern psychology has yet to discover it.

And then Patanjali says now the most difficult task for the seeker is to meditate on dreamless sleep. If one meditates and watches one’s dreamless sleep, those pauses, then one becomes aware of the fourth. No name is given to it. And no name is given to this stage for a significant reason, it is simply called the fourth; so that we don’t start interpreting it – that’s why a number is given rather than a name.

Only when we are in the fourth state will we know our original face. In the first we are the farthest away from our original face, in the second a little closer, in the third a little closer; in the fourth we are centred at the very core of our being. And that centring is the only revelation of truth, of freedom, of love, of bliss, of all that is worthwhile, of all that is significant.

One enters into a world of eternal celebration; then there is no fall from it, then there is no going back. That is the real awakening – the ultimate goal of all seekers!