Lessons from a Dream

Sweat gushed down my face and chest. My heart pounded so hard, it threatened to pop right onto the dusty road under my bare feet. Mindlessly I ran, trying to put as much distance between me and those horrid men as I could. But they were unrelenting. Like a pack of wolves hunting a baby boar. Soon enough, I could hear their thundering steps closing in on the kill; I dared not look back. Then, all too soon, I stumbled and came crashing to the earth. Dust rose all around me, and tall, grim silhouettes loomed in every direction. The stench of death was overpowering. And just as a cruel hand plunged for my neck, I woke to the soft hum of an air-conditioner  and the moist touch of my pillow.

It was only a dream; but it felt mighty real. So real in fact, that it got me questioning what I considered reality. There are two major differences between the dream world and the "real world". First, that the dream world is short lived. And second, that it is not shared with others in the "real world". But the point is, that dreams feel completely and undeniably real until we wake up.

Dreams may be just a construct of our minds, or even some would say, an alternate dimension of existence. However, that is not what I wish to bring up. I wish to ask myself what truth we can glean from the human experience of dreams?

Although in dreams we never consider a world or existence beyond that present moment, we know after waking up, that such a world beyond that present does exist. Similarly, in the "real world", even though we hardly ever consider the possibility of an existence beyond the "real world", there is all likelihood that such a world beyond the "real world" does exist. This concept of existence beyond the real world, can be likened to life beyond death. And just as the "real world" is a higher dimension of reality in comparison to dreams, similarly, there is all the chance that life beyond death would also then be a higher dimension of life and reality when compared to the "real world".

So in contrast to the notion that there is no life beyond death, which is not backed by any logical inference, it is infinitely more likely that there is indeed life beyond death, just as is seen in the analogy of 

dreams vs. the "real world".

I am not suggesting that life is a dream or an illusion, but I am suggesting that life as we know it, doesn't end with the death of the body. Upon coming to this realization in one's spiritual journey, the next obvious conclusion then is... that we're not this body. Because if life doesn't end with the death of the body then obviously, we are not the body but something that is embodied.

In the words of C.S. Lewis, "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." 

Every day we live our lives as if we're the body, and we 'have a soul'. Thinking thus, we go to the ends of the world trying to satisfy our body. However,  if we 'are a soul' and  'have a body', rationally speaking, we should be trying to satisfy our soul and not our body. Maybe that is the reason why there is no lasting happiness in this world, because we're trying to satisfy something that is not really who we are.