Absorbed into What's Out There

When we go to a movie, we get absorbed in the story and, assuming that the movie is well-made, we often forget that we are just watching the movie. The transition from being “observers” to being “participators” is unconscious and quick. When that happens, we get absorbed fully and unreservedly into whatever is happening on the screen.

Seldom, though, the movies are able to hold our attention without break from beginning to end. We generally shuttle back and forth between being observers (when we can lean back on our seats and know that we are watching a movie) and being participators (when we forget where we are and who we are).
While our periods of self-forgetfulness may be few and their lengths relatively small while watching a movie, such periods can be innumerable and their lengths can stretch from a few months to many years to even lifetimes while watching the movie of this universe.

We don’t know when we began watching this movie. It certainly is well-made, for how seldom do any of us feel that we are “watching” this cosmic movie! How rare an occasion when we can lean back on our seats and remember that we are the Atman! How easy it is to get absorbed into what’s out there, and how difficult it is to remember that because something is wrong “in here” that we are even able to see something “out there.”

The problem is really simple. We have gone to sleep and, naturally, we have forgotten where we are and who we are. That forgetfulness has produced the dream of this world. It’s all “in here” in my mind but I don’t know it. The dream world does seem “out there” to the dreamer.

Dreams don’t end unless the dreamer wakes up. What is “waking up” other than the dreamer throwing aside the dream-identity and reclaiming his or her waking-identity?
When we wake up from the dream of this world, we will throw away our dream-identity of a human being--mortal, imperfect, weak, and vulnerable--and reclaim our true identity of a divine being--immortal, free, perfect, and blissful.

Seen in this light, Swami Vivekananda’s words acquire special significance: “Arise! Awake! and stop not till the goal is reached.”