Question:

Didi,
Regarding the SNGS book, Quote 20 – ‘I witness that there is a continuity in dream stories just like there is a continuity in the waking story’, is this a correct understanding? Just like the mind creates a sense of continuity by assuming a story in the waking state, it does the same in the dream state. 

Answer:

Yes dear. Let’s first look at the Dream state, followed by the Waking state.

• • You never see a dream from its beginning point. You always find yourself in the middle of a story – the Dream character engaged in the Dream world.
  • If you have been practicing Swapna Nidra Gnyana Sadhana [Effacement of conditioning through Wake-Dream-Sleep wisdom], you would have started recognizing yourself as a mere Witness of the Dream character. Pay attention and realize that even in the Witnessing state, the recognition that ‘I am witnessing a dream’ arises mid-story.
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Let’s take up a Dream example: Sometimes in a Dream, the Dream character is saying to someone else in the Dream, ‘Why did you not tell me this when we met yesterday?’ This example implies that there is a continuity assumed even in the Dream State. There was a yesterday and there is a today in the Dream world. The Dream character had met the other person for 2 consecutive days. A continuity is implied there.

But what is the Reality?

Was there a ‘yesterday’ in the Dream world, or is that merely a ‘yesterday-thought’? A ‘yesterday-thought’ is merely a thought claiming to belong to the past. 

Is there a possibility that the same happens in the Waking?

• • Nobody has seen the Waking World from its beginning point.
  • Nobody has seen their body from the beginning point of the body. Ask yourself – Do I remember coming out of Mommy’s womb? Do I remember the day when I entered this Waking world? Are you sure about your birthdate from your own direct experience or do you believe it because Mommy says so?
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Nobody knows the beginning of the Waking. We always know the Waking story from an intermediate point. 

Also, look carefully at the concept of time. It is only a concept. There is no possibility for anyone to step out of the now and step into a ‘yesterday’ or ‘tomorrow’. If you observe, you will realize that there is only a ‘Now’. There is not even a ‘today’. It is just the ‘Now’ again and again. There exists only a ‘Yesterday-Thought’ that arises and sets in the Now. There exists only a ‘Tomorrow-Thought’ that arises and sets in the Now. A false continuity is implied by sewing these thoughts sequentially. In reality, these thoughts are random, disconnected, and non-sequential.

Quit pretending that there is a continuity. Courageously embrace the randomness of phenomena!

P.S. The book referred to by the questioner is Waking Dreaming Sleeping Being: Swapna Nidra Gnyana Sadhana Level I – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQT7SNWH