The Experience of Lucid Dreaming: A Meditation with Eckhart Tolle

Most humans, except for those who already are in touch with that dimension within that lies beyond this superficial realm of delusion. Most humans then have a number of things that they derive their sense of self from. Partly collective, partly personal. Collective could mean your nation, your tribal identity, which relates to sport teams and so on. Religion, my religion, our religion, or particular church or movement within one religion as opposed to another church. That's different. Nationalism in some places is still strong, not as insane as it perhaps as it was in the 20th century in many places and many other. Collective identification from my club, my town, my this, my that, or our, and then personal possessions, status, recognition from others or lack of it, knowledge, personal appearance, external appearance, and so on. All things the mind identifies with. Very precarious. Because basically they're all mental fabrications, stories. There's nothing wrong with mental fabrications and stories. You can enjoy those as long as you know that's what they are. But if you take them to be ultimate reality, then very quickly you begin to suffer. We continue to live surrounded by these stories. Enjoy them. You can watch the game, you can even be happy if your team wins and the other team loses. But it doesn't go that deep anymore. So if your team loses, yes, there's a surface dissatisfaction which you observe, or if your team wins, there's a surface elation. You go, wow. Yeah, but it doesn't go that deep because on a deeper level, you know that that has nothing to do with who you. It's a game, it's a story, a play. The dreamlike formation. Now, mostly in a dream, you don't know that you're dreaming. Occasionally it happens that you have a lucid dream when you suddenly, in the middle of the dream, realize that you are dreaming. And then there's a fundamental shift in the way in which you experience the dream. The same in daily life. Most people are so identified with mental formations, things, events and so on, which all become mental form, that the. The lucidity factor is missing. So they are in the dream of daily existence, but so identified with it, they don't know it is a kind of dream. So they try to derive a satisfying sense of self from it, which is impossible. Now, the equivalent of having a lucid dream or realizing in the middle of the dream that you're dreaming, is of course, to become aware in your daily life. Suddenly there is an awareness which is not a thought. The awareness, sorry, from the dimension of awareness, you can recognize a thought, it's just a thought, and you realize who you are, essentially, is that deeper Aware, presence, the acidity that enables you not only to have sense perceptions, but also enables you to have thoughts. That is lucid living. So you have. You can have lucid dreaming. But more important, it's much more important to experience lucid living. And that is the beginning of the end of misidentification with who you are. And what then happens is that there can still be minor manifestations of happiness and unhappiness, but it doesn't go that deep anymore. Now, some people might say, okay, I'm okay with unhappiness not going that deep. But they might feel uneasy with happiness not going that deep anymore. What I mean, of course, is the. What is conventionally called happiness is a temporary surface phenomenon. But there is a deeper happiness, if we even still want to use that term. Usually I don't. There is a deeper sense of presence, of rootedness, of vast spaciousness, of aliveness that is sometimes called joy. But you can call it inner peace. You can call it a deep sense of contentment in the background. And this is why we're here, to be reminded that that dimension is there within you, waiting to be discovered or waiting to reveal itself to you. Or if you already live in connectedness with that, to deepen it. That's why we are here. So the question then, of course, is do I know who I am beyond my physical body or beyond my external appearance, beyond my place in society, beyond whatever country I happen to belong to, because I happen to be born there, beyond my religion, which again, in most cases is my religion, because I happen to be born in a particular place, beyond my social function, status in society, or beyond my possessions. And all those things I mentioned are really. They may have an external existence, but you experience them as images in your mind. And of course, you are the presence behind those images and even within those images. So right now there's a chance for you to stop thinking. Not through any kind of effort, not through any willpower, act of will, not through suppression of thinking, but simply because you realize that right now thinking is not really necessary. You don't need to figure out what I'm talking about by thinking about it. You understand the words. So of course there is some mental activity. But the words are not understood on the level of mental concepts. They are understood by you at a deeper level, where the truth that these words point to is immediately recognized and your own presence. So the only presence, when words point towards presence, only the presence in you can recognize the meaning. You go. You might not be able to explain it to anybody. It's just the simple fact that you are conscious right now, which is beyond doubt. Everything else may be a kind of dream, but there must be a consciousness for the dream to appear. It appears in the light of consciousness. I am that I speak for you. For myself. I am that I am. I am conscious, presence. I am consciousness, formless, timeless. And I know myself, us, the formless, timeless consciousness. But that knowing can only arise between two thoughts. Or in the absence, temporary absence. Sensation of thought. Like now, between this moment. Because on the external there is time. The deeper there's no time. Between this moment now and this moment now, there's no thought. It's a very amazing thing. So let's try it again. I say now twice. And in between the two nows, see, if you can just be there as the presence. Now, now. Well, that wasn't that difficult. Now, a little longer. Now, you can either close your eyes or you can look into my eyes. It may be helpful to look into my eyes because I'm not thinking. And that can connect you with the state of not thinking. We do it again. Now. Now. There's nothing more important in your life. And I'm totally, 100% confident and certain that that's the absolute truth. There's nothing more important in your life, no matter who you are. Then accessing that dimension, which is not only the dimension of your true identity, but also the place where true intelligence arises and creativity and peace and loving kindness towards all beings. Because that is the formless realm of life itself, of consciousness itself, that then recognizes itself in all other forms. So it's vitally important. It.