131. Reducing the gap between reality and dream

We have two lives in us. One is the life that we want to live, the dream. The other is the life in reality, the life we are living. The meeting of these two lives is what I call 'yoga'.

Now, how can these two lives, your dream and real life, unite?

You can unite the two either by reducing the depth of the dreams and fantasies or by increasing the expression of your energy so that reality can come closer to the dream.

If you reduce the depth of the fantasy, the dream plane and the reality plane will come closer together. On the other hand, if you increase the energy expressed through reality, the reality plane will come closer to the dream plane. The meeting and merging of these two planes is what I call yoga.

Continuously doing something, either to reduce the depth of the fantasy or to increase the energy that expresses in reality is yoga.

One important thing, when the two planes of dream and reality meet there is a spiritual explosion or what we call 'yoga' happens. But it does not end here, yoga just begins here!

Usually yoga is understood as mastering postures or achieving a particular state. Yoga is neither mastering postures nor achieving a particular state. It is awakening to the continuous happening around you and inside you.

The person who tries to raise what you call as 'real life' to his dream level is a materialist. He tries to achieve in his life what he dreams. But the problem is, his dream is not fixed, it is not static. As you work towards the dream, the goal is continuously changing. Your ideas are continuously changing, so the goal is continuously moving!

The person who tries to reduce the depth of his fantasies and brings the dream plane closer to the reality plane is like the renunciate who suppresses his desires and tries to realize the truth.

But an important fact is that neither suppression nor expression leads to the truth. Neither suppressing and renouncing nor expressing energy and following dreams works. It is a very subtle game. I can say this is where Buddha's teaching of the middle path comes to our help.

Yoga is realizing that you are a spiritual being having the human experience.

The middle path can be called the essence of the awakening or the essence of yoga. You are not pushed or pulled by the extremes of emotions, you simply witness them and follow the Middle Path.