Follow the yellow brick road. Yes our imaginative dream world can be as exciting and frightening as any Hollywood blockbuster.
What is impossible in reality is possible in dreams.
We can fly. We can jump incredible heights. We can run and find ourselves stuck. We can travel anywhere in the universe. We can fall and survive. We create new worlds with new possibilities.
We meet people from our lives whether they are dead or alive, close or far. Sometime we get creative and become great actors, singers, musicians or we find ourselves in a different time period in a different country as a different nationality.
I often dream of flying. At first I was struggling but after many years I became a pro. Sometimes I know I am dreaming and take advantage of using my superpowers. I have written songs stemming from my dreams, met loved ones and strangers.
Sometimes my dreams are so real I get confused as soon as I am waking up and wished I was still dreaming. Imagine natural disasters and you escape every single one. Sometimes my dreams create a world that is so breathtaking like a forest with beautiful sun rays on my path.
Sometimes the dream world is the place where ...excuse the language…miracles….can really happen.
What amazing dreams have you had?
What superpowers have you discovered you have?
What dream gave birth to something you created in your real world or was useful to you?
What dream caught you off guard? You didn’t see that coming!
Do you think there are drastic differences of dreams based on place of birth, place of residence, culture, sex, beliefs or non-beliefs, etc. or are we more or less...in the same dream world?
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@In Spirit: Not sure what dream world people are in. I do know there are a whole lot of dream worlds out there. I have found that the closer my dream world maps to reality, the more functional I am. I'd like to make the assertion, "Dream worlds are for people that don't have dreams."
A man fell asleep on a river bank and dreamed he was a butterfly. Then he woke. Was this a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man? (Buddhist story)
@cranky47 (Buddhist story)
Did you hear what the Buddhist monk said to the hot dog vendor?
"Make me one with eveyrthing"
After handing over $20 he asked for change...
"Ah" said the hot dog vendor, " do you not know that change can only come from within?"
Cranky: RE: Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu) (369 BCE to 286 BCE), Taoist; Chang-tzu's Butterfly
You gave the answer in the question. "A man fell asleep on a river bank and dreamed he was a butterfly/" Either you have said the truth or you are lying. If you are lying, there is no man sleeping and no dream. If you are telling the truth then a man actually dreamed he was a butterfly. Try it this way......
The story, as translated by Lin Yutang, goes like this:
Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man."
In Buddhist teaching, one must lose the self. Both the dreamer and the butterfly are still dreaming. (Yes Buddhists tell this story too. I heard of it while studying Zen) As long as there is 'this' and 'that,' ( 'I' and 'not 'I') the dream continues. The multiple use of the word "I" is a key to understanding. Who is this I you speak of? Is it the butterfly or the man? "I" do not know. ('I" can never know. 'I' is incapable of understanding."
There is nothing not to like in old stories.
I have never seen this interpretation on line, but it was the one I gave to the story and my teacher accepted it.