Waking Up from a Nightmare

In a prior post, I mentioned the opportunity I had to do a 9 day course based on The Work of Byron Katie.

The course involves a basic set of questions and a turnaround that can be found on Katie's website -- www.thework.com

The idea is simple -- stressful thoughts are the cause of everything that we don't want in life.

Working on our thoughts effectively, as they appear, offers us the best course of action to have lives of peace.

I recently realized that doing the work is a lot like waking up from a dream.

I have found the four questions to be close in form to the ones I ask myself when I awake from a nightmare, only to find to my relief that no-one has died, there are no thieves at the door and that I am not naked and everyone is not laughing (don't ask!)

The four questions are:

Is It True?
Can I absolutely know that that's true?
How do I react when I think that thought?
Who would I be without that thought?

And the turnaround is merely the opposite of the original thought.

For example, in the case of the nightmare that ends up with me naked, the turnaround would be "I am not naked."

It makes me think that, in the words of the Prophet by Khalil Gibran, I am merely awakening from my greater dream, which is my daily living. In my greater dream, there are thoughts and mental pictures that fill my mind that produce the very same effect as my most vivid dreams.

Day-dreaming, it's called.

Or Day-Maring, perhaps.

P.S. Strangely enough, I had a nightmare last night that a friend of mine died in a motor-cycle accident. I was glad to realize during the dream that I was in a nightmare! When I awoke to my senses, I was quite relieved, even though I could feel the residual stress from the dream in my body.

P.S.2 I am in the middle of a great opportunity to practice what I learned in the School. Through some error, I was not booked on a return flight from Port of Spain to Kingston, and when I thought I had a seat on Saturday, I didn't. I was wait-listed for today's flight (on Sunday morning) without luck and will try again on Monday.

Obviously, this is where I am supposed to be, because I am actually, and in fact, very much here.