August 8, 2017
The Course teaches us that we live our life in this world in a dreamlike state while we are spiritually asleep. While we believe we are separate from each other and God, we are asleep to our spiritual awareness. We all understand that the dreams we experience while we are sleeping are not real. They may seem very real while we are dreaming, but we know they are simply a dream when we awake. The contents of our dreams often contain distorted perceptions of the events and experiences in our daily lives. Sometimes they ae nightmares that cause us great fear when we awake. Our parents always comforted us when our dreams scared us and assured us that they were just dreams and not real. We learned not to be afraid of our sleeping dreams.
The perceptions of our waking lives could be considered a waking dream perceived when we are spiritually asleep. They contain distorted perceptions of the real world. Sometimes they are good dreams and sometimes they cause fear, anger, anxiety or guilt. Like our sleeping dreams, we are experiencing a distorted perception of our spiritual reality which we have chosen to see through the lens of separation. The lens of separation is the egoic thought system we made to make an identity separate from each other and God. Not only do we perceive our experiences through a lens of distortion, but we even perceive ourselves through a lens of distortion. There appears to be much chaos in our waking dream from this distorted perception. We think there is something or someone outside of us to arrack or defend against. It appears there is no peace or love to be found as we search for just that.
Our mind arranges everything in our sleeping dreams, and we accept that on awakening from those dreams. Yet, we have not been willing to see our waking dreams similarly. We insist that our waking dreams are reality, even though they are not. We allow our egoic thought system to arrange everything in our perception. We dictate who and what people are and everything they do in this waking dream. This has become such a habit that we don’t realize it can be awakened from. Dreams are perceptual temper tantrums, in which we literally scream, “I want it thus!” And thus, it seems to be to us. And yet the dream cannot escape its origin. So, this dream becomes reality for us for a time in our minds.
Dreams show you that you have the power to make a world as you would have it be, and that because you want it you see it. And while you see it you do not doubt that it is real. Yet here is a world, clearly within your mind, that seems to be outside. You do not respond to it as though you made it, nor do you realize that the emotions the dream produces must come from you. It is the figures in the dream and what they do that seem to make the dream. You do not realize that you are making them act out for you, for if you did the guilt would not be theirs, and the illusion of satisfaction would be gone. In dreams these features are not obscure. You seem to waken, and the dream is gone. Yet what you fail to recognize is that what caused the dream has not gone with it. Your wish to make another world that is not real remains with you. And what you seem to waken to is but another form of this same world you see in dreams. All your time is spent in dreaming. Your sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all. Their content is the same. They are your protest against reality, and your fixed and insane idea that you can change it. In your waking dreams, the special relationship has a special place. It is the means by which you try to make your sleeping dreams come true. From this, you do not waken. The special relationship is your determination to keep your hold on unreality, and to prevent yourself from waking. And while you see more value in sleeping than in waking, you will not let go of it. T-18.II.5:1-20
The special relationships we are so firmly attached to keep us unaware of reality. The answer is to release our attachment to the “specialness” of our relationships, and allow Spirit to heal and transform them. Our special relationships are dreams, too, for they are a distorted perception of holy relationships. Holy relationships, which acknowledge our Oneness with each other, are real. They embody reality, where love and peace abide. They abide within us, for we have never been separated. Separation is impossible in reality. Look within and see that the basis of the dream is our own misperception, our own spiritual unawareness. Awaken from the waking dream. Look within to the reality of Heaven within and release all that which doesn’t fit. The basis of the dream is not real.
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