Who we think we are is an interpretation, and what actually is an interpretation, anyway?

Idries Shah, the foremost contemporary exponent of Sufism, was once asked to name a “fundamental misinterpretation” that most individuals make, and his response sparked my thinking about my own interpretation of reality. 

He answered that, “Our errors rest in the fact that we think we are alive, when we really have fallen asleep in life’s waiting room, which is the illusion most of mankind is influenced by.”

In a similar discussion about who we think we are and man’s destiny, a Zen master added, “It is the ordinary state of consciousness we call ‘waking’ that is so far from our seeing things as they truly are, that it could more accurately be called ‘sleep’ or ‘dreaming.’”

The philosopher Bertrand Russell has written, “The dreams we call waking perceptions have only a very little more resemblance to objective reality than the fantastic dreams of sleep.”

Think about the true power of your mind.  How do you really know that you’re awake right now? 

Could it be because the world tells us, “Of course you are awake. 

Why would you argue this fact?  Are you nuts?”

You may say you remember waking up from your last night’s sleep. 

But that may merely have been a “false awakening,” and you might be fooling yourself now by actually being in a dream that is telling you it’s not a dream. 

Perhaps what we take to be “true awakenings” are just another degree of partial or false awakenings, and, if so, is why we’re confused over who we think we are and how to have a happy life.

(By the way when you’re done contemplating here, I suggest this related post on a simple way to begin finding peace and happiness with balance and harmony in life.)

So once more, now, try to really ask yourself this question:  Am I really awake?

You will note within yourself how difficult it is to genuinely raise the question.  A part of you says that this is a ridiculous thought. 

However, to even ask sincerely whether or not you’re really awake requires honest doubt—a willingness to accept “no” for an answer, even if the amount of doubt and willingness is tiny. 

I always suggest seeking a mindfulness meditation technique for listening closer to your inner Voice for the guidance you need. 

Or is there an urging inside, a voice within, if you will, of you that is asking this? 

Inside, you are aware that if you try to believe this you’ll feel some guilt, due to the idea seeming ridiculous. 

In book 2 of the series we discussed…This is no easy matter for most of us. 

But also consider, if the idea does seem ridiculous to you, how did this notion get seeded into you?

And why are we sometimes, or even often, wondering about who we think we are?

Please move on now, and as you do, seriously ask yourself, or re-listen to that voice within about all of this again, and then again. 

How might we not be fully awake? 

If this is so, could it be that we possess a higher sense—such as a type of intuition, let’s say—that ordinarily remains asleep, when our lesser, though better-accepted senses are awake?

Additionally, the daily experience we call “waking up,” and consider to be complete, may in fact only be a partial awakening. 

This is the case in what is called “lucid dreaming,” where part of us is consciously awake while another part of the mind dreams while asleep. 

This alone has been a deep subject.

This idea has undergone countless research studies by so-called “dream experts.”  Or could we just call them expert dreamers?

All kidding aside—and please take my comment lightly—notice that even in your own dreams there is usually a voice within, or a character present whom the sleeper, you, takes to be yourself. 

It’s through the dream eyes of your dream body that you normally witness the events of the dream. 

The dream body is usually who we think we are while dreaming, and this seems an obvious conclusion. 

But we actually are only dreaming of being that person, and understanding this can lead you to writing your own story.

Perhaps, maybe an idea for living your true potential?

The dream character is merely a representation of ourselves—or we can call this the dream ego, as the actor of the dream, with our spiritual awareness standing by as the Voice within. 

The point of view of the dream ego is that of a willing participant, apparently contained within a multidimensional world (the dream), much as you probably experience your existence at this moment while you read and think about this possibility.

It’s why we wonder about who we think we are. And it’s our spiritual awareness that tells us we are much more than what we think we are.

I also suggest this related article on how to truly find happiness and answer to what rumbles in many of us: “What on Earth am I Here for?

To your spiritual awareness,

James Nussbaumer

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