Training in Compassion 2: See Everything as a Dream

Last week, our first Training in Compassion was: Remember the four basics: this life is precious, death is coming, our actions matter, and we all suffer. Today’s training is: See everything as a dream.

When things aren’t going well, when things are going especially well, when things are going somewhere-in-between – remind yourself to see it all as a dream. Everything is always passing away. As soon as something appears, in that same moment, it's already gone.

Things do seem to be here, but the closer you look, the less clear this is. The me of today is slightly different from the me of yesterday and the me of tomorrow because the me of fifty years ago is almost completely different from the me of today. Where did the 1975 version of me go? He disappeared decade by decade, year by year, day by day, and moment by moment. But how?

Where did yesterday go? Where is tomorrow now? For that matter, where is right now? As soon as you try to fix on it, it is already gone. Was ever really here, in any hard-and-fast way?

As we row our boats down the stream of life, it actually is but a dream. The past is completely gone. And so quickly! The brain registers experience a moment after the experience has happened. Those 100 billion neurons take a few milliseconds to assemble the illusion that we call experience. The closer you look, the stranger it gets.

Listen to something acutely or stare at something for a moment trying to feel what your own mind feels like. It’s so odd. Life is like a dream. Seeing it this way will coax you into relief, just like when you wake up from that nightmare and your whole body relaxes as you realize that the dire situation you seemed to be in was just a dream. Your anxiety disappears, and you immediately lighten up and relax. Even the worst things can exude some lightness.

"Yes, this is terrible, this is not what I wanted, not what I'd hoped for, not what I'd worked for, maybe it’s just what I had feared. But also it's not that bad. It is like a dream. It's happening and not happening. Soon it will be in the past. Maybe I don't need to be so worked up about it. Maybe I can just deal with it without that extra measure of anxiety and freak-out."

When you practice seeing everything as a dream, apply it in your daily experience, it begins to change things for you. When you find that you are upset or angry, when you are having a day when you are mad at yourself or someone else, you can remember to see everything as a dream, and your mind will snap into a more alert present and you will find that you can lighten up to some extent. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.

* * * More detail on this spiritual practice is in this longer version here.