How is life just a dream?

[7thLetter]

So I've only gotten halfway through Leo's recent upload, "Life Is A Dream" video and I've came up with several questions. If anyone is kind enough to answer them and help me along with other readers understand this topic, would be very much appreciated.

How did Leo come up with this insight? I mean I'm sure it must've been through psychedelics or an enlightenment experience.

Why does he seem so confident in his belief that life is a dream? He talks about the materialist paradigm, but wouldn't he be speaking from another paradigm himself which possibly may or may not be the absolute truth? Isn't it just another 'belief'?

If God is dreaming an infinite number of 'dreams' like my life and Leo's life and a dog's life and the tree's life, why could God 'wake up' from the dream in one human's life, but God doesn't wake up from the dream in every other dream? If let's say only 1-2% of people have waken up from the dream, does that mean God has only partially woken up from the infinite dream?

If we could come to the conclusion that life is just a dream, wouldn't the fact that we can come up with that idea also be apart of the dream? Everything in the dream must be apart of the dream and not separate from it right? So that includes all ideas and thoughts meaning enlightenment, spirituality, non-duality, God, etc. is all apart of the dream. Any absolute truth that a human can come up with is just apart of the dream and not truth?

 

 

[Nahm]

@7thLetter It’s unimaginable, direct experience is a reference or term or pointer. 

[Extreme Z7]

4 hours ago, 7thLetter said:

If God is dreaming an infinite number of 'dreams' like my life and Leo's life and a dog's life and the tree's life, why could God 'wake up' from the dream in one human's life, but God doesn't wake up from the dream in every other dream? If let's say only 1-2% of people have waken up from the dream, does that mean God has only partially woken up from the infinite dream?

That's a really absurd way to put it. God is YOU!

YOU are God who is dreaming that he is not God. God waking up from the dream means YOU realizing that you are literally God. It doesn't rely on other people.

Edited February 14, 2018 by Extreme Z7

[Joseph Maynor]

I still can’t figure out his motive in that video.  Something is missing.  It’s like a contemporary art piece that leaves you walking away with something, but you’re not sure what.

[Rilles]

I dont get the confusion, its not a new idea, many have spoken about life being a dream. Chuang Tzu, Osho, Borges comes to mind, Oh and of course... Row Row Your Boat!

[Joseph Maynor]

14 minutes ago, Rilles said:

I dont get the confusion, its not a new idea, many have spoken about life being a dream. Chuang Tzu, Osho, Borges comes to mind, Oh and of course... Row Row Your Boat!

Something was off about it in content and in tone for me.   But that’s just me.  That’s why I think it could be tongue in cheek.  As in — here’s another story for you to use as a chew-toy while you continue to avoid the only truth there is — that which is contained in the present moment.

Edited February 14, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Rilles]

He could have gone more in depth about how to use it as a practice I guess, like how Tibetan Dream Yoga is a useful tool for awakening.

[Joseph Maynor]

 

8 minutes ago, Rilles said:

He could have gone more in depth about how to use it as a practice I guess, like how Tibetan Dream Yoga is a useful tool for awakening.

It came off as dogmatic to me.  But a lot of people seemed to love it if you look at the Youtube comments.  They think it’s brilliant.  

Edited February 14, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[alyra]

17 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Something was off about it in content and in tone for me.   But that’s just me.  That’s why I think it could be tongue in cheek.  As in — here’s another story for you to use as a chew-toy while you continue to avoid the only truth there is — that which is contained in the present moment.

same

[alyra]

life is a dream because that's the literal function of the brain. to dream up its belief of reality based off its feeble attempt to measure it, just so "the conscious being" can try to model the world, try to make right choice, and try to make its own presence in the world as meaningful as possible. 

 

Even if you trust science as Truth, life remains a dream. We have no actual proof that anything exists as we believe it to exist. Our knowledge is nothing more than faith. We could be a Boltzmann Brain about to suffocate and freeze to death, for all we know. 

[Rilles]

It connected with me I guess, I've always felt "reality" to be a bit surreal ever since I was a child. But I understand your point.

[Joseph Maynor]

1 minute ago, Rilles said:

It connected with me I guess, I've always felt "reality" to be a bit surreal ever since I was a child. But I understand your point.

Why not suspend belief.  That’s an option too.

[Rilles]

@Joseph Maynor What do you mean?

[Joseph Maynor]

1 minute ago, Rilles said:

@Joseph Maynor What do you mean?

Saying reality is a dream is clinging to belief.  No one is forcing you to make claims like that about reality. Why not just suspend such beliefs regarding reality.  

Edited February 14, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[snowleopard]

@7thLetter 

5 hours ago, 7thLetter said:

How did Leo come up with this insight?

Leo did not come up with this insight ... It is as old as the most fundamental original spiritual insights, including the Vedas and Buddhism ... from wiki:

According to contemporary teacher Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, all appearances perceived during the whole life of an individual, through all senses, including sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations in their totality, are like a big dream. It is claimed that, on careful examination, the dream of life and regular nightly dreams are not very different, and that in their essential nature there is no difference between them.

The non-essential difference between the dreaming state and ordinary waking experience is that the latter is more concrete and linked to attachment; the dreaming experience while sleeping is slightly detached.

Also according to this teaching, there is a correspondence between the states of sleep and dream and our experiences when we die. After experiencing the intermediate state of bardo, an individual comes out of it, a new karmic illusion is created and another existence begins. This is how transmigration happens.

According to Dzogchen teachings, the energy of an individual is essentially without form and free from duality. However, karmic traces contained in the individual's mindstream give rise to two kinds of forms:

forms that the individual experiences as his or her body, voice and mind

forms that the individual experiences as an external environment.

What appears as a world of permanent external phenomena, is the energy of the individual him or herself. There is nothing completely external or separate from the individual. Everything that manifests in the individual's field of experience is a continuum. This is the 'Great Perfection' that is discovered in Dzogchen practice.[8]

It is possible to do yogic practice such as Dream Yoga and Yoga Nidra whilst dreaming, sleeping and in other bardo states of trance. In this way the yogi can have a very strong experience and with this comes understanding of the dream-like nature of daily life. This is also very relevant to diminishing attachments, because they are based on strong beliefs that life's perceptions such as objects are real and as a consequence: important. If one really understands what Buddha Shakyamuni meant when he said that everything is (relatively) unreal, then one can diminish attachments and tensions.

The teacher advises that the realization that life is only a big dream can help us finally liberate ourselves from the chains of various emotions, different kinds of attachment and the chains of ego. Then we have the possibility of ultimately becoming enlightened.[1]

Different schools and traditions in other strains of Tibetan Buddhism give different explanations of what is called "reality"

[Joseph Maynor]

51 minutes ago, snowleopard said:

@7thLetter 

Leo did not come up with this insight ... It is as old as the most fundamental original spiritual insights, including the Vedas and Buddhism ... from wiki:

According to contemporary teacher Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, all appearances perceived during the whole life of an individual, through all senses, including sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations in their totality, are like a big dream. It is claimed that, on careful examination, the dream of life and regular nightly dreams are not very different, and that in their essential nature there is no difference between them.

The non-essential difference between the dreaming state and ordinary waking experience is that the latter is more concrete and linked to attachment; the dreaming experience while sleeping is slightly detached.

Also according to this teaching, there is a correspondence between the states of sleep and dream and our experiences when we die. After experiencing the intermediate state of bardo, an individual comes out of it, a new karmic illusion is created and another existence begins. This is how transmigration happens.

According to Dzogchen teachings, the energy of an individual is essentially without form and free from duality. However, karmic traces contained in the individual's mindstream give rise to two kinds of forms:

forms that the individual experiences as his or her body, voice and mind

forms that the individual experiences as an external environment.

What appears as a world of permanent external phenomena, is the energy of the individual him or herself. There is nothing completely external or separate from the individual. Everything that manifests in the individual's field of experience is a continuum. This is the 'Great Perfection' that is discovered in Dzogchen practice.[8]

It is possible to do yogic practice such as Dream Yoga and Yoga Nidra whilst dreaming, sleeping and in other bardo states of trance. In this way the yogi can have a very strong experience and with this comes understanding of the dream-like nature of daily life. This is also very relevant to diminishing attachments, because they are based on strong beliefs that life's perceptions such as objects are real and as a consequence: important. If one really understands what Buddha Shakyamuni meant when he said that everything is (relatively) unreal, then one can diminish attachments and tensions.

The teacher advises that the realization that life is only a big dream can help us finally liberate ourselves from the chains of various emotions, different kinds of attachment and the chains of ego. Then we have the possibility of ultimately becoming enlightened.[1]

Different schools and traditions in other strains of Tibetan Buddhism give different explanations of what is called "reality"

The fact that it’s  so old just tells me it is probably dogma.  We don’t need any more dogma.  If I want dogma I can read Philosophy.  What we’re focused on is personal development I thought.  Philosophy can be a distraction to personal development.

Edited February 14, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Rilles]

@Joseph Maynor I should have been more clear, I dont actually believe that its literally a dream, I havent experienced it as that, it was more of an intuitive notion.

[snowleopard]

@7thLetter Another example of how old this insight is, paraphrasing Shankara ...

 

Brahman alone is real.

The world is a dream,

Brahman is the world.

[Joseph Maynor]

1 minute ago, Rilles said:

@Joseph Maynor I should have been more clear, I dont actually believe that its literally a dream, I havent experienced it as that, it was more of an intuitive notion.

What is intuition?  

[Rilles]

A feeling I cant quite place.