Are we living in one world—the world in which we walk with our feet? Or do we live in another world—a world of thought and dream? Which is real? When does life become a reality and when is it just another dream? Who are you? Why are you here? Where do you come from? Where do you think you will go?

By reflecting and working intensively on your dreams you will find answers to these questions, and you will see how much more there is to discover. The objective of the yogic approach to dreams is to contact the Divine within—what the Eastern teachings call the guru (spiritual teacher) within or the Higher Self, and what Jesus calls the kingdom of God within or your own soul.

The yogic method of working with dreams emphasizes independence and stresses understanding ourselves as individuals. Our dreams are our own creations, and as we study them we learn our personal language of the unconscious. Making our own discoveries is a very joyful process and gives us the courage and strength to go on. By finding answers within, we gain self-confidence. We do not depend on someone else to interpret our aches and pains, which can be seen in a thousand different ways. There can be no generalization about symbols because we each develop our own symbolic language.

We can look at how, in our own lives, we have grown up to understand and use language. We should not think that the process we began as children has ended. Learning becomes more cultivated, more refined, more expanded. We learn to use our tools more skillfully. If you become aware of how you use words, you may discover why in the East the power of speech is called the devi or goddess.

Our unconscious will provide us with a great deal of information if we give it a chance. But we have to use a methodical approach because we do not really know how our unconscious speaks. In the conscious mind we have become fantastic acrobats. We can argue and rationalize everything. The unconscious comes and knocks on the door and says, "Look, I'm here. Remember me." We need to recognize how the unconscious is struggling to attract our attention: "Please listen to me." We need to learn to see and to listen to this inner wisdom, because if we do not, we will find ourselves in dramatic or traumatic situations in life.

It is strange: We think we know each other and we think we know ourselves very well, but when it comes to the language of the unconscious, we are really quite ignorant. We have to study it as we would a foreign language.

SUMMARY OF DREAM METHOD

• Dream record:  Write your dream quickly and honestly.
• Signature: Put the date on it and your signature underneath.
• Commentary: Add any detail you may have missed. Describe your feelings.
• Initial Interpretation: What is your immediate impression of the dream's meaning?
• Conscious concerns: Briefly note events that could have led to the dream.
• Key words/symbols: Select the main words from the dream and write down associations and meanings to you.
• Interpretation: See how the symbolic meanings fit together to give messages on several levels.
• Application: Apply the dream's message to your life.
• Dream group: If you find it helpful, you can work with others to get different perspectives.

Resource book: Realities of the Dreaming Mind by Swami Sivananda Radha