Today’s lesson speaks of “happy dreams the Holy Spirit brings” and says they are “different from the dreaming of the world.”
With the mindset of the world, a happy dream would be a dream where all of my problems are resolved. I have enough money. I am healthy. There is only peace in all of my relationships. I feel free to do the things I want to do and do not feel burdened or obligated to do things I do not like to do. Etcetera.
The happy dream the Holy Spirit brings is different than that idea of the happy dream. “The dreams forgiveness lets the mind perceive do not induce another form of sleep, … His happy dreams are heralds of the dawn of truth upon the mind.”
In other words, the happy dream that the Course speaks of has nothing to do with our situation in the world. It is a dream that comes from the gradual realization of truth. Eastern traditions often call this equanimity or detachment, but since those words can be misunderstood by the mind that hasn’t experienced them directly, let me explain the happy dream using different words.
In the happy dream, we are coming to know the true Self as a direct experience. We see with increasing clarity that we are not threatened or affected by anything. We are falling in love with the fact that we are the true Self and not the body-mind-personality.
As our attention moves toward the true Self as truth, and that becomes primary in our awareness, the body-mind-personality and its story shift back and become secondary. It’s not that we ignore problems; when things arise that need to be dealt with we deal with them effectively. It’s just that we don’t feel threatened by them. Our happiness doesn’t hinge on a specific outcome. We are able to be with the dream as if it is a temporary dream, while knowing that we are beyond it.
That’s the happy dream. Although it may include health, health is not required. Although it may include financial abundance, financial abundance is not important at all. In fact, the happy dream is described well in both NTI and The Teachings of Inner Ramana:
From NTI 1 Corinthians: “What is received when all that is false has been let go is only that which reflects truth. This, which is received as truth, shall fill you with new eyes and a joyous heart. … It is upon this recognition, which is the completeness of recognition within time, that you enter the fourth and final earthly phase of the path of truth with Me. The fourth phase is a glorious phase, upon which your feet shall barely touch the ground. As you walk the earth, you know where you walk, so that the earth is merely a symbol within the mind. You shall not know brothers, but you shall talk to them. You will not need food, but you will eat with joy. Music shall accompany you in your every moment, and yet, you will have no need for your ears. Your sight will be changed from earthly sight to sight that is provided from Heaven. All things shall be new, and you shall have no need for any of them. In this, your joy shall be complete.”
From The Teachings of Inner Ramana: “Self-realization is all that matters, because when Self is realized nothing else affects it. Illness does not affect it. Poverty does not cause it harm. Loss of a friendship is no loss at all. The realized Self is full . . . full enough that it may allow the outward symbols to be what they may, and it does not lose its awareness of Self. Therefore, it does not lose its knowledge and awareness of love.”
As mentioned yesterday, the purpose of Lesson 140 is to clarify the goal. The goal has nothing to do with outcomes in the world. Things will always shift and change in the world. Problems will come, problems will be resolved and new problems will come to replace them. We aren’t seeking the end of the dream being the dream. We are transcending the dream and awakening from it. That is the goal.
