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January/February 2008 Spirituality
The Waking Dream: Living the Toltec Path

by Barbara Emrys

Barbara Emrys

This thing we have named reality could probably be more accurately described as a dream. For the mind, in its astonishing capacity to interpret light by using symbols, is constantly applying those learned symbols to create a world of events, characters and observations on behalf of the human being. And the human, of course, has no choice but to graciously give the mind refuge and follow along.

The mind is continually telling stories. It tells stories about everything being perceived by the brain. This is what we refer to as thinking. Thinking brings visual images. Images create a lively dream in our heads - a universe of events and people that is eventually reflected out into the world of physical things through our actions. Our own actions are directed by the beliefs that have fed this personal dream over time. And really, these beliefs have little enough basis in truth.

Indeed, nothing is particularly true but the simple fact that we are life - both in physical manifest reality as well as in the dreams we weave in that reality. We are life, before, during and after manifestation. There truly exists only life and the countless ways through which life expresses itself. All our dearest stories about what we are not, all stories that imply that we are refugees from paradise and distant relatives to the life which creates us in all moments are distortions of this truth.

So what's the difference between sleeping dreams and waking dreams? In waking dreams there's structure. You can say the structure comes from your own beliefs, but you are also obeying the laws of society and of physics. In sleeping dreams, obviously there is little or no structure. Whatever mandates of society or science we follow, they don't apply here. In our sleep, we can walk through walls, we fly over city streets. In our sleep, we summon wise old men and women to comfort and advise us. In our sleep, we have the last word in every confrontation. We love who we want, and we survive through conflict and our darkest fears.

Flying is a pretty frivolous notion and walking through walls has no attraction when we're awake. In our personal reality, it appears that we can't conjure anything. Fear nags us. Problems are constant, and we tell ourselves that there is no waking from this dream. But is any of that true? Don't we, in fact, get everything we believe we should?

If we put our attention on what we allow ourselves to have based on our meager expectations, based on our doubts about our worth and a system of belief that tells us what is possible or not possible, we see that we do receive exactly what we think we should from life. In fact, we manage to meet our own expectations repeatedly and even reach beyond.

Awake or asleep or somewhere in between, we live in a magical world wherein anything is possible. The structure of our waking dreams is constantly changing, but our beliefs seldom do. We are, in fact, dreaming all the time. We're taking in light, with all its messages, putting stories to it, and we're living the visions that come as a result.

Each of us has real power. We have proven that we have the power to create a personal reality, and yet we may not know that we have the power to transform it into a dream of heaven. We have the power to make great things happen, but instead we worry. We have the power to fill our lives with love, and instead we use it to defend against betrayal. I'm sure many would agree that the power is there, but not many of us were taught to use it for things as basic as joy and love, and authentic expression.

Faith in the truth of what we are is real power. But of course, the truth doesn't really come with an argument. It's voiceless. How do we find truth if it has no story to tell? Truth is experienced. We can say that it's all that remains when we no longer believe ourselves. Break our personal attachments to ideas of right and wrong and good and bad, and the human is free to experience life as it is. Give up our masks and our well-groomed images of ourselves, and we can laugh like uninhibited children again. End our constant wanting, and we can finally see.

Detaching from conditioned beliefs and patterns makes it possible to move through our dream with all senses active and awake. We were built to receive and to transmit all information - sublime information from life itself, not just the recycled phrases that define our ordinary speech and thought. We were designed to dream truth into human correspondence and behavior.

We are gifted with free will but do little more than just talk about freedom. A free person, or people, wouldn't choose to complain or to condemn or to suffer. Free people enjoy fearlessness, respect and happiness in all moments. Free people dream a dream called heaven while living as human beings on a very remarkable blue planet.

Barbara Emrys is a teacher of transformational wisdom called Toltec Dreaming™, based on the philosophy of living life as art. She is a longtime colleague of don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements. She presents workshops on "Toltec Dreaming and the Power of Intent" on March 7-8 in Portland. Visit www.barbaraemrys.com.