A few years ago, I attended a one-day seminar by Aliana Scurlock, an enlightened student of Tara Singh. She gave a wonderful analogy that I have used frequently in the years since, as follows:

Imagine you are a parent, of, say, an eight year old boy. One night you enter his room, where he is sleeping, and just stand there, loving him.

But in his sleep, he is dreaming. And in his dream, he is off someplace fighting monsters. And in his dream, the monsters are real.

Does that change the fact you are standing there loving him? Of course not!

Is there anything he could possibly dream that would make you stop loving him? Of course not!

But he thought he could. In his dream, he was lost, and alone, and unloved. And the monsters he faced were real!!!

And yet you were standing there loving him, and that was real. And when he woke up, he knew it was all just a dream.

WE ARE HERE, DREAMING, AND WE THINK IT IS REAL!!!

And yet, only Love is real.

ADDENDUM (Added July 15, 1997)

Yesterday morning I awoke with the fullest memory of an AMAZING dream, a STRANGE dream, in which many elements from many different periods of my life were interwoven in a very wierd manner. Some elements from 30 years ago were juxtaposed with people in my life today, and I was AWARE as I dreamt that they were PURPOSELY mixed as to time.

When I awoke, with this full memory of the dream, I felt that it had great significance, and immediately went into meditation to allow the meaning to become clear. Suddenly a song popped into my head, a song I haven't heard or thought of in more than 20 years...."Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is BUT A DREAM".

And I KNEW, without ANY doubt, that WAS the meaning of the dream, that all of the things of the past are LIKE a dream, now, and that all of the NOW things (of the world) are likewise meaningless in the overall truth of love, and our functions is to MERRILY enjoy them ALL.