Is it possible to become enlightened in a dream?

Is it possible to become enlightened in a dream?

Not only possible -- whenever it happens, it always happens in a dream. Whatsoever you think is your waking consciousness, that too is not waking; that too is dreaming. While sitting here in front of me, do you think you are awake? I don't see it. I can hear your snore. And if you listen minutely, you will be able to hear it yourself: a deep snoring inside, a deep sleep -- and dreams and dreams. In sleep, only dreams can happen. That's what we have been insisting in this country continuously: that your world is illusory, it is MAYA. When Shankara says the world is MAYA, he's not talking about HIS world. He's talking about YOUR world. Because in sleep, how can you know that which is real? The sleep distorts. A totally different world is created by sleep: a world of dream. Whatsoever you call your life is…

"does an enlightened person ever dream? Can you tell us something about the quality and nature of an enlightened person's sleep?"

No, an enlightened person cannot dream. And if you like dreams very much, never become enlightened. Beware! Dreaming is part of sleep. The first thing is that for dreaming to happen you have to move into sleep. For ordinary dreams you have to move into sleep. In sleep you become unconscious. When you are unconscious, dreams can happen. They happen only in your unconsciousness. An enlightened person is conscious even while asleep. He cannot become unconscious. Even if you give him an anaesthetic -- chloroform or something like that -- only his periphery goes to sleep. He remains conscious; his consciousness cannot be disturbed. Krishna says in the Gita that while everyone is asleep the yogi is awake. It is not that yogis are not going to sleep in the night; they also sleep, but their sleep has a different quality. Only their bodies sleep, and then their sleep is…

But if every night, continuously, you go to sleep with the same thought—that when the dream comes, I will remain aware that it is a dream, I will remain the witness—then one day the event happens. Between three and six months of steady effort, if each night you fall asleep soaked in this resolve—to see the dream and recognize it as dream, to recognize within dream that it is dream... Waking, all recognize; in the morning everyone knows it was a dream. There is no adventure in that; it is ordinary. The adventure is: while the dream is unfolding at night, you shake yourself in the middle and remember—it is a dream. The day this happens, you will be astonished: a revolution has occurred. It does happen. By remembering each night as you fall asleep, the remembrance slowly enters your sleep. As you sink toward sleep, keep thinking, keep remembering.

Osho, in the lives of us heedless people there are only dreams upon dreams—but what is the truth of dreams? Can we know it while we remain heedless?

You have understood by listening to me that it is dreams upon dreams. Don’t accept so quickly. Knowing is needed, not believing. If I say it and you accept it, it won’t work; it remains borrowed. You yourself must discover that they are dreams. Many people go astray by believing others. Because I may say a thousand times that it is a dream, yet if inside it feels true to you, you will go on believing me and still moving in the direction of what feels true to you. This is the human tangle. Buddha says: anger is madness. You have heard it and can’t even deny it. And Buddha is powerful; when he speaks there is weight in his words; his whole presence is their proof. You cannot deny him. You cannot argue with Buddha. And deep within, your own sleeping buddhahood nods “yes”—that it is so. However much…

For people who have been so clouded by lies and deceptions in the waking state, can remembering dreams, re-enacting and experiencing them in the waking state, be a useful method -- the first step on the path of higher consciousness and truth? Can this method hasten the thirst for god until the point comes when the dreaming mind is dropped?

You will remember the dream, now the mechanism has to be understood. The dream is a message from the unconscious to the conscious because the conscious is doing something which the unconscious feels is unnatural. And the unconscious is always right, remember; the unconscious is your nature. The conscious is cultivated by the society, it is a conditioning. The conscious means society inside you. It is a trick of society. The conscious is doing something which the unconscious feels is too much against nature, so the unconscious wants to give a warning. In the morning, when you remember, again you will remember from the conscious, again the conscious will interfere. Whatsoever is against it, will not be allowed; whatsoever is sweet will be allowed. But that is not the point. The bitter part was the real message. But try it. What they do in psychodrama can be useful. Rather than…