You go on moving ahead of you: this is what dreaming means. You are not one with the real, that which is nearby, that which is here and now, you are somewhere else– moving ahead, jumping ahead
We live in a deep illusion-the illusion of hope, of future, of tomorrow. As man is, man cannot exist without self-deceptions. Nietzsche says somewhere that man cannot live with the truth: he needs dreams, he needs illusions, and he needs lies to exist. And Nietzsche is true. As man is, he cannot exist with the truth. This has to be understood very deeply because without understanding it, there can be no entry into the inquiry which is called yoga. The mind has to be understood deeply-the mind which needs lies, the mind which needs illusions, the mind which cannot exist with the real, the mind which needs dreams. You are not dreaming only in the night. Even while awake, you are dreaming continuously. You may be looking at me, you may be listening to me, but a dream current goes on within you.
Continuously, the mind is creating dreams, images, fantasies. Now scientists say that a man can live without sleep, but he cannot live without dreams. In old days it was understood that sleep is a necessity, but now modern research says sleep is not really a necessity. Sleep is needed only so that you can dream. Dream is the necessity. If you are not allowed to dream and allowed to sleep, you will not feel in the morning fresh, alive. You will feel tired, as if you have not been able to sleep at all.
In the night, there are periods-periods for deep sleep and periods for dreaming. There is a rhythm-just like day and night, there is a rhythm. In the beginning, you fall into deep sleep for near about forty, forty-five minutes. Then the dream phase comes in and then you dream. Then again dreamless sleep, then again dreaming. The whole night this goes on. If your sleep is disturbed while you are deeply asleep without dreaming, in the morning you will not feel that you have missed anything. But while you are dreaming, if your dream is disturbed then in the morning you will feel completely tired and exhausted. Now this can be known from the outside. If someone is sleeping, you can judge whether he is dreaming or asleep. If he is dreaming, his eyes will be moving continuously-as if he is seeing something with closed eyes. When he is fast asleep, eyes will not move; they will remain steady. So while your eyes are moving, if your sleep is disturbed in the morning you will feel tired. While your eyes are not moving, sleep can be disturbed, in the morning you will not feel anything missing.
Many researchers have proved that human mind feeds on dreams, dream is a necessity, and dream is total auto deception. And this is not only so in the night: while awake also the same pattern follows; even in the day you can notice. Sometimes there will be dream floating in the mind, sometimes there will be no dreams. When there are dreams you will be doing something, but you will be absent. Inside you are occupied. For example, you are here. If your mind is passing through a dream state, you will listen to me without listening at all, because your mind will be occupied within. If you are not in a dreaming state, only then you can listen to me.
The future is nothing but past projected again–more colourful, more beautiful, more pleasant, but it is past refined. You cannot think anything else than the past. Future is nothing but past projected again, and both are not
Day and night, mind goes on moving from no-dream to dream, then from dream to no-dream again. This is an inner rhythm. Not only that we continuously dream, in life also we project hopes into the future. The present is almost always a hell. You can prolong it only because of the hope that you have projected into the future. You can live today because of the tomorrow. You are hoping something is going to happen tomorrow–some doors of paradise will open tomorrow. They never open today, and when tomorrow will come it will not come as a tomorrow, it will come as today, but by the time your mind has moved again.
You go on moving ahead of you: this is what dreaming means. You are not one with the real, that which is nearby, that which is here and now, you are somewhere else-moving ahead, jumping ahead. And that tomorrow, that future, you have named it in so many ways. People call it heaven, some people call it moksha, but it is always in the future… The future is nothing but past projected again–more colourful, more beautiful, more pleasant, but it is past refined. You cannot think anything else than the past. Future is nothing but past projected again, and both are not.
The present is, but you are never in the present. This is what dreaming means. And Nietzsche is right when he says that man cannot live with the truth. He needs lies he lives through lies. Nietzsche says that we go on saying that we want the truth, but no one wants it. Our so-called truths are nothing but lies, beautiful lies. No one is ready to see the naked reality. This mind cannot enter on the path of yoga because yoga means a methodology to reveal the truth. (to be continued in the next issue)
(Excerpted from Osho’s book The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 1, Chapter I - Introductions to the path of Yoga)
By Osho
