Daydreaming – In Gita Verse 4.42 Therefore the doubts which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge. Armed with yoga, O Bhārata, stand and fight.
Krishna guides all of us that we need to work on our ignorance, you may choose any path, one of the paths is yoga, so that your knowledge which is the cause of your daydreaming will become your knowing, where you can come out of your daydreaming.
What are some of the other factors which can make one conscious while dreaming?
This is a significant question for all those who are interested in meditation because meditation is really a transcending of the process of dreaming. You are constantly dreaming – not only in the night, not only while you are asleep; you are dreaming the whole day. This is the first point to be understood. While you are awake you are still dreaming.
Just close your eyes at any time of the day. Relax the body and you will feel that the dreaming is there. It never disappears, it is only suppressed by our daily activities. It is like the stars in the day. In the night you see the stars. During the day you cannot see them, but they are always there. They are simply suppressed by the sunlight.
If you go into a deep well, then you can see the stars in the sky even in the day. A certain darkness is needed to see the stars. So go into a deep well and look from the bottom, and you will be able to see the stars in the day also. The stars are there. It is not that in the night they are there and in the day they are not, they are always there. At night you can see them easily. During the day you cannot see them because the sunlight becomes a barrier.
The same is true with dreaming. It is not that you dream while you are asleep. In sleep you can feel dreams easily because the activity of the day is no more there; thus that inner activity can be seen and felt. When you get up in the morning, the dreaming continues inside while you start acting on the outside.
This process of activity, of daily activity, simply suppresses dreaming. The dreaming is there. Close your eyes, relax in an armchair, and suddenly you can feel: the stars are there; they have not gone anywhere. The dreams are always there. There is a continuous activity.
The second point. If the dreaming continues, you cannot be said to be really awake. In the night you are more asleep, in the day you are less asleep. The difference is relative, because if the dreaming is there you cannot be said to be really awake. Dreaming creates a film over consciousness. This film becomes like smoke – you are surrounded by it. You cannot be really awake while you are dreaming, whether in the day or at night. So the second thing: you can only be said to be awake when there is no dreaming at all.
We call Buddha the awakened one. What is this awakening? This awakening is really the cessation of inner dreaming. There is no dream inside. You move there, but there is no dream. It is as if there were no stars in the sky; it has become pure space. When there is no dreaming, you become pure space.
Krishna guides all of us not only to Arjuna he says that – the doubts which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance – it’s because you have collected so much information, and started dreaming about it. Instead of how to use that information to act. You live in the future and to get approval for your day dreaming you refer to your past. So in this moment you cannot act to respond in the present moment. Very clearly and categorically Krishna tells that the path of yoga is to bring you into the present moment and not for collection of information for daydreaming. So he tells Arjuna – stand and fight.
Tags: Daydreaming
