Reality in the Dream

"Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward." -- A Course in Miracles

I read a quote yesterday from a popular author... it said to live out of your imagination, not your history. When I reflected on this, I felt the truth in it... and yet, not truth as my ego would have it. Whatever I hold in my mind and heart seems to take on reality and substance in my dream. The catch is that my ego is incapable of true creation... it generates only perceptions, images within a dream world. And because of the dual nature of this dream world, all self-created thought forms are some thinly disguised version of fear. Desire, longing, lust, greed, jealousy, pride, outer goals and focus... all are veiled aspects of the fear of loss and lack.

Our true Self, in continual Oneness and communication with God, is the only Creator. It generates what ACIM calls the happy dreams of the Holy Spirit by creating out of ItSelf… from the inside-out. These dreams are often counter-intuitive to the ego. Listen carefully to the still, small Voice of Self. Out of these tiny seeds of inner vision emerge dreams of awakening that echo the Truth of Being. The forms as such do not matter (anytime I catch myself making the form matter, I know ‘who’ it is mattering to)… it is the Source that makes creation what it is, Self to Self.

And as I reflect on all of this, I realize that I have set up competitive constructs in the mind that are all based on outer-referral, which is quite typical of the way the conditioned self operates. There is a felt need to withdraw and protect what needs no defense… and in this competitive stance I am drawn back into dualism again and again. There is no struggle, except in my mind. There is no confusion except between thought forms. There is nothing to fear.

Within my dream I often seem to be going against everything I have been taught, against everything that common sense says I should do, that I should have done, or that I could have done. Going against is the operative word here, because what I go against or rebel against becomes my enemy, and I am once again lost in the dream. There is a way to move within the world without having enemies. As I welcome all the thought-forms I have generated with open arms. As I welcome them all as simply my own thoughts and projections, they all come together as One and are re-formed into something very like Heaven.