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It's All A Dream
Satsang with Robert Adams
October 18, 1990
Robert: I always take my dog for a walk in the morning and I go to the park, where I meet interesting people. There's
a little old lady who walks in the park with me every once in a while. She is very spiritually inclined, and we
have discussions. This morning she asked me a very interesting question; we will focus on that.
She asked me, "Robert, you say that the world is phenomena and in continuous change, change, change. And you
also say that Consciousness is Reality, the substratum of existence. Now, we can confirm that the world is changing
because we can see it, but how can we confirm Consciousness? How do we know that it is not changing?"
And I thought it was a very interesting question.: Now you know that you exist, don't you? Everyone is aware of
their own existence. When you go to sleep, and you are in the state of deep sleep, you still exist, but the world
does not. And as far as you are concerned, the world only exists when you are awake. But once you go to sleep,
the world no longer exists for you, and you are in a state of dreamless sleep. The state of dreamless sleep is
like Jnana, self realization, except you have consciousness. But there is no denying that you exist, for when you
wake up you say I slept well."
The state of dreamless sleep is like a person who died. It gives you an idea of what happens to you when you die,
so to speak. You are in a state of dreamless sleep, and you usually stay like that for about two to four hundred
years, earth time, before you do anything else. So the first state of consciousness is dreamless sleep, and you
exist in dreamless sleep.
And you also exist when you dream. Take a look a your dreams. A person dream he is married, and his wife has cancer.
She is dying of cancer. And they both come to see me. He says, "What should we do? My wife has had ten operations,
and is dying of cancer.
And l say, "The only proper thing to do is turn within, and not react to it, because everything is determined
before birth."
They look at me and say, "That's not a practical answer; we want something practical."
And l say, "That's the best l can do. It's a dream. Hold on. You will awaken soon." But that's not good
enough for them. They are caught up in a dream.
Now remember, you are dreaming the dream, everything is going on in the dream. In your dream there is a sky, there
are flowers, there is a moon, there are people. Just like the world. And the dream seems to be external from you,
but if you investigate, you see the dream is all taking place in your mind. While you are dreaming you still exist
as the dreamer.
And in the dream somebody comes to you and tells you, "Look, there is going to be a recession. There is going
to be a failure of the banks." And you've got money tied up in stocks and bonds, IRA accounts and everything
else. Everything is going down. You ask, "What should I do?"
You both decide, "Lets go see Robert." So you come to see me, and I say, Well, you can do two things.
You can take your money and we'll build a large ashram and help others see the truth that it's only a dream. Or
give everything away to the poor, to the homeless, and you won't have any problems." So they both say, "What?
Are you crazy?."
That is reminiscent of a story about Jesus. If you recall the story of when Nicodemus came to him. Nicodemus was
a Pharisee, and very wealthy. He was embarrassed to go listen to Jesus because his kind never heard anything like
that. They never went out; they were snobs. He sneaked out one dark night, and he came to Jesus and said "Master
what should I do to enter the kingdom of heaven?" (Entering the kingdom of heaven simply means, to be Self
realized.) And if you recall, Jesus said "Give all your worldly goods to the poor, and follow me." Nicodemus
couldst' handle that and left. And that was the end of that.
So we go back to the dream, and we say to both people, "This is only a dream, can't you see? Do not take it
so seriously." They both leave.
Then somebody else comes to me in a dream, and he says, "Robert, I've got a lot of anger in me. I do not trust
anybody. I have no friends. I feel inferior and have low self esteem. What should I do?"
And I say, "Turn within, and you will become free and liberated, because it's all a dream." And he says,
"I can't do that, I want a practical answer." And he goes away.
So you're here having a dream all this time, but then you wake up, and it's all gone. It never happened. Your wife
never had cancer. There never was a recession. And you were never angry. But you still existed while you were having
a dream.
So now you existed during dreamless deep, and you existed during the dream, and now you are awake, and you still
exist. So you see the part of you that exists is permanent. It is the "I Am", the Self. It is Consciousness.
Everything else is illusion; it comes and goes. It is always changing, changing, changing. You are real, what you
appear to be is false. Identify with the real, not with the false. Do not accept anything you see as reality. The
only freedom you've got is to turn within, and not react to any condition, and you will be safe. One day you will
awaken from this dream, for this is also a dream, and you will be free.
So let's talk about you. Look at all the problems you think you have. Where do they come from? How do they get
there? Why do you become upset over them? Think of all the possessions you are afraid to loose. Think of all the
sicknesses you think you are going to catch, or that you think you have. You look at the world and you become sick
because you don't like what you see. You have to ask yourself, "For whom is the world?, For whom are these
problems?, For whom is the anger? Am I really the doer? Am I the body? Am I the mind?. What am I?" Ask yourself.
Now how does a Jnani think? I can tell you. Say there is a man; he's a Jnani; he's the manager of a bank. He's
got two sons that he loves dearly. One day the two sons are going to New York by plane, and the plane crashes.
Both sons die. He takes care of the funeral arrangements, goes to the burial, and when its all over goes back to
work like nothing happened. His wife and his friends and relatives approach him, and they look at him and say,
"You heartless bastard, how can you treat your children like that? They loved you so much, and you loved them!
You don't seem to care that they died. You never shed a tear. You were not upset at the funeral. How can you be
like that?
And he smiled and said "Sit down with me. Let me explain:"
A day prior to this I had a dream, and in that dream, I was a king, and married a beautiful princess. We had six
lovely sons. I used to go hunting with them, and fishing, and we truly loved each other. Then one day there was
a hurricane, and all six of my sons got killed. But then I woke up! So my question is to you "For whom shall
l mourn? For the two children who were killed in this dream, or for the six sons that were killed in the last dream?"
This is how a jnani sees things.
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