What Is The Dream You're Having Right Now?

Have you ever had a nightmare so vivid you woke up gasping with relief — only to realize how much of your waking life carries that same weight? In this talk, Tiger shares a dream from the night before and traces its parallel to the spiritual journey of waking up. He explores how the pain we carry, the things we believe are real, and the stories rattling around inside us might all be part of a dream we haven't yet seen through. An invitation to take a breath, create some space, and notice what you've been turning into something it isn't. Tiger weaves in reflections on letting go, presence, and finding peace in the middle of the human experience.

Transcript

Last night I had this dream and it's one of those dreams you wake up from and you say, Oh my god, I'm so happy that wasn't real. We've all had those dreams, Right? And in this dream, Without getting into too much detail because it was just weird, I guess it's symbolized by the loss of love and also the pain and anguish of being radically misunderstood by the world. You know, Imagine you walk around and everyone's looking at you, But you see that they don't understand. You feel so alone, You feel so broken, And the thing you love most was destroyed. And then you wake up and you go, Oh my god, It wasn't real. And I couldn't help but remember the similarity in this spiritual journey of waking up. Because in the dream, You don't know it's a dream and it's visceral. You feel it. The pain rattles around inside of you. You feel like your life is over. And then you wake up from that dream and you say, Oh my god, It wasn't real. And of course, I see that throughout my whole life, Right? So many experiences where given enough time and distance, Something shifts and you say, Oh my god, It's not what I thought it was. And the fascinating thing about that is, Even in my human life now, There are things rattling around that something inside of me thinks is real. And then given enough distance or given a moment like this, Where you just breathe for a second and you say, Wait, What's actually going on? And so maybe that's something to consider. What is the dream I'm having right now that is creating so much torment? And it's wise to say, Because I love disclaimers, My god, I can only say this for myself though, Right? It seems to completely miss the point to go up to somebody else and say, Hey, You're dreaming. I don't see that that's the point. It's such an intimate discovery for oneself to wake up from their own dream and realize they were just dreaming. And of course, The beauty in that, And I guess in my own experience when I meet with people one-on-one, Because I know they're dreaming, I can hold a beautiful space. You recognize that? I mean, Imagine, You know, A parent with a child, The child drops their ice cream cone and their dream is that this is the end of the world. And the parent knows they're just dreaming. It's okay. Come here. Let me hold you. Let me create some space so that you might see a little bit of distance between what's actually happening and what we're turning it into. And of course, That's the point of moments like this, Isn't it? Let's create some space, See what we're turning things into, And then just acknowledge a deeper honesty. And also what I see is that this discovery, This waking up and seeing beyond the dream, It doesn't fix my life. It doesn't give me all the things I want. But just like in my dream, There's so many things I think I want, But guess what? I wake up from those things too, Because in the dream you want so many things. And there just seems to be this persistent human dream that even after we're done here, We'll go back to our life and start dreaming again. And it's unavoidable. It reminds me of where my real home is. Even though I'm not getting anywhere, Even though I'm not storing treasures up on earth, It reminds me where my real home is. Thank God. Let's look at it in the context of the natural dream state when you go to sleep. Do you notice how when you're dreaming and you don't know that you're dreaming, It's much more intense? And then if you're dreaming and you know that you're dreaming, There's two things that can emerge. One, There's a decrease of intensity, Or two, It becomes more playful. There's a permission to play in the dream. Do you see the freedom in that, To play in the dream, Knowing it's a dream? Almost like, Oh, This isn't as serious as I thought it was. Yes, It's true that the dream state is where the richness of experience is. Right? Without that richness of experience, Then yeah, What's the point? Which is why I often allude to good luck trying to escape the dream experience. It's not going anywhere. As soon as we leave here from this space that is seeing what's really going on behind the curtain, When you leave, You're going to start dreaming again. It's just like when you go to sleep at night, You might be well aware, Oh, I'm just going to dream tonight. Okay, It's just a dream, It's not real. But you're going to forget that when you dream, And you're going to get sucked into it, And it's going to seem real. It's required. Which, You know, Points a little bit playfully to the fantasy of spirituality. One day I'll wake up from the dream and I'll never forget that I'm just dreaming. Good luck. This isn't the spiritual invitation. It's not to escape the human experience. It's to hold space for the human experience. This is unavoidable. Roll with it. Right? Like when you realize that, Oh, When I go to sleep at night, Dreams happen. Okay, Let's just roll with it. You don't sit there before you sleep, Terrified of entering into a dream state. You just know it's part of it. And you know that whatever happens in the dream, You're ultimately going to be okay. So you just let it be whatever it's going to be. And I find like, This is the same with the space that we find here, Right? We come back, Take a breath, Remember, Oh wow, I'm actually okay. After that long week of dreaming, Nothing actually happened to me. Okay, You ready for another week? Okay, Let's go. And then you just slide into it with a little bit more ease. It's the in-breath and the out-breath. And yes, The richness of the experience is so intentional, Right? The whole ego dream, It's not a mistake. It's not saying that something's going wrong, Or it shouldn't be, Or it should be fixed. If anything, The spiritual invitation is to see that this is just part of it, And it's okay.