At precisely 7:00 a.m., Bob Dingaling heard the sound of the alarm on his bedside table and slowly wakened from his slumber. He shut off the alarm, stretched his arms wide, and ambled to the washroom. A few minutes later, he groggily joined his wife, Helen, in their rustic kitchen. The room was aglow with the warm sunlight that was shining through their kitchen’s eastward-facing window.
“Coffee?” Helen asked, as he approached her and kissed her softly on the cheek.
“You know it,” said Bob, with a grin. He added milk to the coffee and assumed his favourite position in the glider chair next to the window. The first few sips of his coffee tasted like morning nectar.
Holding her own cup of coffee, Helen moved into a chair directly across from her dream guy. Twenty years earlier, when she had first learned that Bob’s last name was Dingaling, she had wondered if she could ever bear to take it; but now couldn’t imagine being anything but a Dingaling, albeit by marriage.
“You know,” began Bob, “last night I dreamed that I was drinking coffee that tasted every bit as real as this.”
“Tell me more,” said Helen.
“Well, I was holding my favourite mug, the one you and boys got me for my birthday. I could feel its weight, the heat of the coffee, and even smell the aroma of the freshly-ground coffee beans. Strangely enough…just like I’m doing now.”
Helen took a few sips of her coffee and looked around their kitchen. “It’s incredible, isn’t it,” she said, “how the mind can replicate reality in our dreams.”
“It definitely is,” said Bob, “even to the point of fabricating skyscrapers, mountains, and people.”
“Truly amazing,” said Helen.
Lost in thought, Bob seemed to freeze momentarily. “You know,” he said, with a puzzled expression, “it almost makes you wonder if the mind could be rendering this, right here and now.”
“What do you mean?” asked Helen.
“You know, dreaming us, drinking coffee in our kitchen.”
“Well, that’s preposterous,” said Helen.
“Is it?” said Bob.
Helen smiled and softly pinched her cheek. “I feel pretty real to me,” she said.
“But we feel real in our nighttime dreams, too,” said Bob. “When we dream that we’re skiing, driving a car, or eating a meal, it all seems very real.”
“Oh, you–you crazy Dingaling!” exclaimed Helen.”Don’t be so silly. Enjoy your coffee and then get your butt into the shower. “Our backyard lawn really needs to be cut today.”
Bob smiled and slowly sipped the remains of his coffee; but as he showered and, later, cut the grass, the question about the nature of reality kept begging his mind for an answer. As Helen washed the breakfast dishes, she also found herself pondering the following question: “How would we know if our lives were a dream?”
That afternoon, Bob was rummaging through papers on his desk when he came across the following quote by T. E. Lawrence. Given what Helen and he had talked about earlier that day, it gave him pause to think. Could it be…?
“All men dream, but not equally.
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind,
wake in the day to find that it was vanity;
but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
for they act on their dreams with open eyes,
to make them possible.”
***
From The Final Truth, by the great Ramesh S. Balsekar:
The manifested universe is therefore simultaneously dual and non-dual.
Time, space, mind, ego, etc. have acquired illusory reality
although they have not been created at all.
Nothing has been created as a a separate thing,
though it may appear so.
***
Awaken, dear spiritual brothers and sisters, you’re dreaming. When you realize this, a new and exciting world full of possibilities opens up before you. It’s the reason behind the following verse from Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Yes, this requires surrender of the belief that you’re the “person” (of various name or form), but with this knowing, you also realize what you truly are, Spirit eternal.
Dare to Dream (and care for one another).
With heartfelt regards,
Art
Copyright © – 2021 – R. Arthur Russell
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones–released September 8, 2020), press here. May it help you in your spiritual journey. ✌✌
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