contemplativedreams are what you wake up from,
but if you're sober in the middle of your dreams,
are dreams dreams? or is it reality?
"Dreams are what you wake up from", by Raymond Carver.
"Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane." Red to Andy in Shawshank Redemption.
what draws the line between dreams and reality? i used to have a dream within a dream. i woke up from that dream, only to realise that i was still dreaming. it's a strange experience for me definitely. but even in reality, we often know not how to segregate dreams from reality. how different are dreams from expectations? and what is hope then? how often have we lived in dreams of reality, only to be betrayed by fleeting dreams; dreams that we have to wake up from? how often then, do we 'wake up' and realised that what we've been doing so far was supposed to be a 'dream'; and that we have rouse ourselves from the slumber, to move on, to carry on with the relentless cycle that we call life?
hope brings us forth, but wisdom we need, to wake up from some dreams.
bravo! well said..
Yup, it's fine to dream dreams and have ambitions, but the really wise men know when to cut losses and bail out. Sadly, some dreams do turn sour.
dreams
for the most of us, we realise that one can't always be sure if one is dreaming or not. is this life just one extended dream? i can't say definitely. (some of us may have even realised this before our first encounter with descartes' meditations.)
anyway, here's a thought. instead of wondering if it's all a dream or waiting to wake up from your dream, why not treat every situation - which may or may not be a dream - as reality? that way, whether or not it tursn out to be a dream, you won't regret not trying your best.
interestingly, i recorded a weird dream i had last night on my blog.
Re: dreams
perhaps that's why drug addiction never goes away.
*thoughtful*
Re: dreams
all a downward spiral, because one gets in trouble because of the drugs, and becomes even more reliant on the dreams, which in turn begets more trouble...
mmmph.
ooh i like ray carver. mischevous short stories.
Re: dreams
does that mean he has lucid dreams?
Re: dreams
all my dreams seem real until i wake up. sigh. mind playing tricks on me.
chuang-tzu
it's a delightful read.
Ammu opened her eyes.
It was a long journey that she made, from the embrace of the one-armed man to her unidentical two-egg twins.
'You were having an afternoon-mare,' her daughter informed her.
'It wasn't a mare,' Ammu said. 'It was a dream.'
'Estha thought you were dying.'
'You looked so sad,' Estha said.
'Iwas happy,' ammu said, and realized that she had been.
'If you're happy in a dream, Ammu, does that count?' Estha asked.
'Does what count?'
'The happiness - does it count?'
She knew exactly what he meant, her son with his spoiled puff.
Because the truth is, that only what counts counts.
The simple, unswerving wisdom of children.
If you eat fish in a dream, does it count? Does it mean you've eaten fish?
I can still remember dreams that I had a couple of years back. Some dreams always remain; others you wake up from.
but if he feels happy in a dream, yeah i think it counts because emotion can't be measured physically.
that happiness counts even if you forget it.