'Yes, I am dreaming!'
And because of that awareness, you would have been able to change some of the dream scenes as you wished – for about two to three seconds.
Understand, for a few moments after you became aware that you were dreaming, you would have been able to move a few things around in your dream as you wish. But if the awareness increases further, suddenly you will be awakened!
In the same way, in the waking state too, if the awareness about 'I', the center, increases, you will realize that the whole world which is in front of you is just a 'waking dream'.
Just because of this awareness, you will be able to move and arrange the incidents in your life as you wish to!
This is what we call having siddhi – mystical powers.
When the frequency of 'I' consciousness increases, you will suddenly start experiencing the waking state as a waking dream, and you will have the energy and freedom to change the incidents of your life.
When this starts happening, if you get caught in the changing of the incidents in your life, by and by, the awareness of the 'I' will come down, and you will fall back into the same waking state again, and these special powers will also disappear.
But if you are not too attracted to changing these scenes, and you remain centered on raising the consciousness, you become enlightened!
MAXIMIZING YOUR MEDITATION Triggering the Psychological Revolution Within MOVING FROM DREAM TO REALITY
And after enlightenment, if you wish to re-enter the dream and play in it, you can do so with complete freedom. The world is no longer a bondage, but a game. That is why we say, an enlightened Master's life is just his own leela (blissful play)!
Q: If my life is just a dream, how can a Master appearing in my dream pull me out of it?
Wonderful question!
It shows you have been thinking, you have allowed my words to start churning your inner space.
You are asking, 'If life is a dream, how can a Master appearing in that dream pull me out of it?'
The enlightened Master Sri Ramakrishna says, the Master is like a 'simha swapna' (lion-dream or nightmare).
Suppose you are sleeping, and suddenly you start dreaming that a lion is chasing you.
What happens?
When the fear becomes too much, suddenly you wake up, you jump out of the dream!
Understand, the lion that is chasing you has appeared only in your dream, but its sheer presence in your dream is enough! It can make you leap out into the waking state.
Just like the 'simha swapna', the Master who is happening in this dream can also wake you up into enlightenment.
Appearing in your dream, he can wake you up from the dream.
Understand, the Master is a simha swapna.
Once you are in his jaws, you no longer have a choice.
You simply have to wake up, that's all!
Preparing your Inner space
Miracle and accident are both beyond your logic. If the effect is favorable to you, you call it a miracle. If it is not, you call it an accident! If you know how to use your inner space, you will be constantly making miracles. Purifying your inner space is the way to make miracles!
If you don't know how to use your inner space,
you will constantly be creating accidents, because you will be attracting incidents of the same frequency into your life.
When the psychological revolution happens, it triggers a powerful understanding inside you.
The very understanding empowers you.
You feel, just this one understanding is enough! Just by understanding about the states of consciousness, I will remain centered on the 'I' consciousness.
Then, when you begin your practice – the next hurdle comes up!
Even though your understanding is clear, even though your practice is sincere, sometimes you may find that these Truths are not becoming the reality of your life.
Why does this happen?
The simple reason is, your inner space also needs to be prepared to receive and practice the Truths.
Just as a seed needs a fertile soil to take root and grow, these great Truths need a clean, prepared inner space in which they can take root and flourish. This is the first thing that has to be taken care of.
The most powerful natural resource available to you is your inner space! But just because we don't know how to use it, we constantly misuse and abuse it.
Someone asked me, 'Can you tell me, in a single sentence, how to get results in my meditation practice?'
Actually, this is a tough thing!
If I can speak at length, if I can give you whatever guidance I want, it is easy.
But if you want it in one sentence, it means it has to be the essence.
So if you want your answer in just a single sentence, I will tell you, 'Take good care of your inner space.' That's all.
Sankara says beautifully, 'Aahaara shuddhayo smrti shuddhihi.' If your intake is purified, your memory and your inner space will be purified.
Understand, when Sankara says 'intake', he does not mean just the food which you take in through your mouth.
No!
He is talking about all that you absorb through all the five senses - your eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin. Whatever you take in through these five senses is called aahaara or food.
Understand: without realizing it, we are constantly abusing our inner space.
Our inner space is constantly abused by a wrong diet!
Visually, we swallow so much violence everyday through movies and the media.
I don't mean that you should not read the newspaper.
But if you look honestly, you will see that we have a subtle enjoyment in taking in violent information and visualization.
We think, how can just reading about violence affect my life?
After all, these are just incidents happening somewhere far away from me, in someone else's life!
We just don't have the sensitivity to understand that all the negativity we are throwing in is corrupting our own inner space.
Please understand: this is a very important thing you should know when you enter into meditation.
Whenever you encourage or allow such corruption of your inner space, knowingly or unknowingly, you create what is called samskara or engraved memories (engrams).
Samskaras are the memories that go and sit in your inner space and pull you to repeatedly go through the same experiences, to perform the same kind of actions, to run through the same kind of thought patterns, even if you don't want to.
With the right meditation techniques, you can completely cleanse your inner space of unnecessary samskaras.
Of course, all the samskaras accumulated by you are unnecessary! You can be alive and well without any samskara.
The Truth is, your very body has already been created of the particular samskaras that you need to run your life. So your mind does not need to carry any samskaras to run your life! You have already come well-equipped to fulfil the desires for which you took this birth.