Are you Having a HAPPY DREAM or NOT?--A Course in Miracles 18. 3

acim.org/acim/chapter-18/ligh...
The POWER of a dream is in the dreamer--the PURPOSE of the dream is not. Whatever enables the astounding visuals of nighttime fantasy is less important than what the mini-series are used for. Something beyond waking consciousness steers our dreaming as a 'tool' for self-awareness. They can keep us aslepp or wake us up, figuratively and literally. In other words, when I am so exhausted physically that the dream sets a goal to let me find a warm, cozy bathroon where I can relieve myself--WAKE-UP! We do not want the warm liquid comfort of relieving ourselves just to get another 2 minutes of sleep. Notice, in those rare cases, someone 'in us' 'notices' that we are about to dream ourselves into a messy, time-consuming problem and wakes us up. Children have to learn this through whatever level of trauma is required so that they wake themselves and take care of business. In the same way, spiritual maturity requires learning to 'wake ourselves' in the waking dream before we create maintenance issues for ourselves. Are you about to invest in a colloidal silver product that requires 10k minimum to start, promises an 85% chance of a 50% return, and a liability waiver, relieving the colloidal wonder worker of all responsibility? PINCH YOURSELF--THIS IS A DANGEROUS DREAM! There is a still higher level of intervention in the waking dream emphasized by the author of ACIM--while awake, if you think you are doing anything by yourself, WAKE-UP!--you are dangerously asleep! (The results are worse than rusty bed springs.]
The dream topic reminds me of a talking dog joke. Telling it well will not improve it, so I won't. There are two horses in a stable. A dog sits nearby, attentively. One horse is old, headed for the glue factory if he can't carry his daily load. He says to his partner horse, "You've got a ways to go, give me a break and take some of my load for a while until I can figure something out.
The long -time partner says, "You are putting me in a tough spot--I'm barely keeping up as it is. It will NOT go well for me if I pull some of your stuff. You know, we're all headed to the same place eventually--try to be a little philosophical and enjoy what you can."
Hearing this, the dog chimes in, "I can't believe this...you two have been together as long as I've been around and I'm shocked! This is not just a matter of life and death--it's about us animals sticking together. Maybe with a little combined brain power we can fix this death-machine and help all of us!"
The two horses looked thoughtfully at each other. Finally the old-timer spoke up.
"Wow, this is amazing," he said, "A talking dog!"
The talking dog is the phenomenon of dreaming--we discussing it are the talking horses who do not notice they are as strange an event as a talking dog. By the way, no kidding, someone trained a dog to say the word 'cup.' Isn't that a little like training a cat to say meow? In any case, ANY 'WHERE' a person finds him or her-self is 'ordinary' and not noteworthy. This is 'sleep.' It is a symptom of unconsciousness to not notice we are 'talking horses' who are intrigued by the 'talking dog' of our fantastic dreams. The things, conditions, events, circumstances of which I am unaware can and do control my behaviors. They are the invisible strings that connect this body-mind to the puppet master of the illusory world. Ironically, that puppet master is a level of 'me' of which I WANT to remain unaware. We talked about it--don't ruin the movie by measuring the flicker rate on the screen or doing shadow puppets in front of a 12 foot tall head shot close-up of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. We WANT to be fooled. led, channeled into 'surprizing' twists and turns of fate--it is the 'novelty' and 'freedom' this place was invented for.
When a moment comes and I simply do not want the tired action-reaction of this realm, and I push-back against the carney-salesman-jailer-self who is ALSO invented to keep it all going---its apparent coherence and power develop phenomenal oseoporosis. The structure of this 'reality' loses integrity in fast or slow phases and crumbles. Then we are confronted with the absolute, boundary-less love that caused the fear that created the flight that made the decision to build the illusion that holds the house that ego built. But be reassured--or forewarned as the case may be--the house the ego built is in no danger of collapse until we'uns no longer fear Love. Love will never, can never force itself on anybody. So, torn between two lovers, we might take 2 8.5 x 11 sheets and draw a line top to bottom down the middle of each. Top of page 1 put "God and His Miracles." Top of page 2 is "Ego and his gifts." Left column on each page is "PROS" right column is "CONS." Knowing that "Mr. Right" is going to "pop the question" as soon as you complete this--get ready.