"life Is A Dream" Meaning?

[sgn]

I guess the meaning is that the life of a person is a dream? That no person is living it? No doer etc.
Or does it mean something more?

Beautiful song:

 

Edited May 15, 2017 by sgn

[Big_D]

"Life is a dream" means that well... life is a dream, literally liiterally literally literally. It's not meant as a metaphor, it is a dream.

But life can only be a dream if you awake from it, otherwise it is reality

[egoeimai]

It means that,my friend,its all in your mind. Even "life is a dream" is in your mind. We will never know what is true. But it doesnt matter really,we are living inside a dream (mind) or not,who cares? Live the dream. When the mind is sleeping or being killed,the dream dies,the story ends. Thats the proof the dream is the mind. The mind ia the dream. It never ends If you think about it like this. Its sad almost. Dunno. You just live in your mind,the mind dies then u die.loool. like a puppet. So the story in the dream doesnt really matter. Anyhow there are a million different stories out there,all different.unique.Thats how I view it. All are equal. Not that one story is more valuable than another. 

[SOUL]

It's spiritualist rhetoric that is illustrating a contrast in differing mindsets of being awake in awareness or asleep to awareness.

Some people take it more literally in understanding, some more metaphorically, find whatever interpretation works for you and be at peace with it.

If there are other meanings you gain through your own inner work then let those understandings illuminate your own life but be conscious that spiritual work is subjective so they may be specified to your own experience and not universal.

Edited May 15, 2017 by SOUL

[egoeimai]

If life is a dream (a game of the mind and inside the mind) and therefore it doesnt have any VALUE/END/PURPOSE/OUTCOME/RESULT,why do we need to live? Looool.

So we just exist and we GIVE a meaning to our lives without life having it at the first place,and we CREATE a reason/excuse to live. We say life is beautiful life is hard,all these stories,but truth is never found its ridiculous actually.So many of us we believe there is a reason there must be a reason we live.maybe there isnt.maybe we believe there is for us to not kill ourselves. Oh,great! The more you think,the worse it gets. Thats why peace and happiness is in silence,no words arise.

 

[Shin]

It's a nice analogy, but only if you don't take dreams for dreams
What I mean is that a dream is not something out of reality, it is reality, as much as what we are experiencing now.

So, when you can clearly see thoughts for what they are, you start to see life less seriously, way less seriously than before.
In the process, you start to see everything as "ethereal", nothing really exist, and everything is real at the same time.
If you've experienced lucid dreams, it's exactly like that.

Your actual life, what you call your life, is not all of it.
You think you're traped in some sort of constricted reality, but in fact you're just unaware.
That's why spiritual teachings aren't really teachings, they just make you realize what you already know.

The best advice I could give you, would be to not have any concept of what reality is, because whatever you can think of, it won't be, it will just drives you away from it.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Shin

[Hsinav]

1 hour ago, Shin said:

The best advice I could give you, would be to not have any concept of what reality is, because whatever you can think of, it won't be, it will just drives you away from it.

So you know/have experienced reality?

[cetus]

@sgn God's dreamscape is reality to us.

[alyra]

there are many ways to interpret that. they are all valid. 

[Prabhaker]

5 hours ago, sgn said:

the meaning is that the life of a person is a dream?

It is not a dream life to you; it is real. When you see a dream the dream is real. Somebody who has awakened from sleep may go on saying that whatsoever you are seeing is just a dream, but the person who is dreaming, he is dreaming a reality, not a dream. In a dream, howsoever absurd, you cannot feel it as a dream. You believe in it, because once you feel it is a dream the dream disappears. The dream cannot remain there, your cooperation is withdrawn. You can cooperate only with reality, not with dreams; and if you cooperate dreams become reality -- it is through your cooperation.

In the night, deep in sleep, you dream that you have become a king. You may be a beggar, or vice versa: you may be a king and you dream that you have become a beggar. But in that dream you are so identified you cannot think that it could be a dream. If you can think that it could be a dream, the dream will stop immediately. It will be broken, you will come out of it.

If you realize in dream that it is a dream the dream is broken, the dream cannot exist. It exists through your cooperation, your identification is needed. If you are committed to it, if you get involved in it, only then can it continue. And the same happens with the greater dream which is life. When you realize this is a dream, immediately you have become a Buddha, you are enlightened. But this enlightenment cannot happen to you by others' knowing, others' wisdom.

Buddha may go on calling to you that this is a dream you are living, but you will only feel that this man is a disturbance, a constant nuisance, he is disturbing your life. That's why we kill such persons. Socrates -- we poisoned him because he was a great disturber. Jesus -- we crucified him because he was a nuisance. Everybody is dreaming such beautiful dreams, and these persons unnecessarily, and without being invited, go on disturbing people and saying to them, "Wake up! You are dreaming. This is a dream." And the man may have been dreaming such a beautiful thing that he could throw away all life for that dream.

If you become alert a dream disappears; if you become alert of your misery, the misery disappears. You cling to it because you think it is not misery, or some happiness is hidden somewhere in it. It may be misery outwardly, but a deep treasure is hidden behind it, so you have to cling to it for that treasure. Your life is misery -- but not for you. Realize its misery, it falls down. The very truth transforms you. And the moment misery falls the divine is revealed. To a miserable mind the divine cannot be revealed. To a celebrating mind the divine is revealed.

Remember, only to a celebrating mind, to a mind which is happy, blissful, enjoying moment to moment, ecstatic, is the divine revealed. To a miserable mind the divine cannot be revealed, because a miserable mind is closed. The divine is here and now, but you are not here and now. If you are also here and now then the divine will be revealed to you.

[sgn]

Ok, so I got some different perspectives. Thanks.
Just some mental masturbation from my side that doesn't really matter in the end.
But I've heard this several times and started to wonder what people mean.

[Deep]

@sgn "Life is a dream" means, all the things you believe to be true are not Absolute Truth. Race, culture, society, religion, who you think you are, etc. Those things are not true because they are temporary and changing. God is the only Truth because it never changes. God appears as everything we see but everything is not God. Our body and mind are not God because they are constantly changing. Being in the dream state means you believe all the finite things are Truth even though they aren't. 

 

[Prabhaker]

6 hours ago, sgn said:

does it mean something more?

In the direction of living in Truth, it is important to remember these two rules: (i) Life is a dream; (ii) We are the witness.

There are very few fortunate ones who realize the truth of existence. The majority of us live and die in slumber. We have to awaken from this dream life, in order to realize That which is not a dream; we have to become aware of the drama in order to recognize that which is not a drama. 

Since all lies belong to the dream-world, they are false and untrue. Once this is experienced, one realizes that one was always free! What immeasurable bliss and joy this knowledge brings in its wake! There is no way of gauging its dimensions, nor can it be expressed in words, nor is there a method of conveying this joy. It can only be lived and experienced.

As we proceed in this witness-state, so the path unfolds before us; and once the door opens, no matter how little, there is so much left to be done by ourselves. That lithe opening then, keeps calling the individual; it attracts him so that he cannot help but be drawn towards it. If a man jumps from a roof, he cannot stop to ask what he has to do next; the ground will do the needful – the gravitation of the earth will pull him down. His work is over as soon as he leaps; the earth then takes over and finishes the rest for him.

Once a man leaps into the witness-state, he has nothing more to do himself. Then the pull of the Universal Spirit, the gravitation of God, does the rest. As long as we stand in the dream world, this power does not work, but as soon as we break through the dream world, and jump out of it, the pull of God begins to work. Then, when a man walks one step towards God, he walks a thousand step towards him. Then, a slight effort and the reward is a thousand-fold; one feeble call evokes a flood of response from Him!

But we are such, we refuse to budge even an inch from our dream-state. Rather, we are forever occupied in strengthening its walls from all sides. He who is surrounded by lesser things, begins to dream of bigger things. The dream of living in a hut is a painful dream; the dream of living in a palace is an enjoyable dream; so all those whose dreams are painful, dream of more fulfilling dreams. And the more we dream, the further we are from Truth. Dreams are to be destroyed and not nurtured – but we are displeased and upset if anyone talks of destroying our dreams!

Those that sleep are the losers; those that have awakened, they alone attain the wealth, the beauty, the prosperity of life. Please remember these two short rules: Life is a dream and man has to be only a witness thereof. As the witness-state develops, the dreams begin to break until only That remains in the end, which is the Reality, which is the Truth.

[Leo Gura]

Take strong psychedelic. See for yourself.

[Thinh]

What do you mean when we say life? I'm curious about this, does it mean all of activities we do and all relationships that we got ?

[pluto]

What Leo said will give you the answer you seek. If you want a direct experience that is

[OwenMackay]

Well, yeah, this thread is quite old. I just wanted to add that In eagerness to understand the meaning of our life we should opt for understanding our dreams. They are interrelated.