1. Dreaming is a Learning Experience.
By learning is meant here the destruction of IGNORANCE, a DARKNESS inherent to the souls and which is there already with them from beginningless times. It is ANATI, unoriginated and hence nothing to do with Freudian UNCONSCIOUS that results because of repression or suppression. It is not the Collective Unconscious of C.G.JUNG as it not the source of archetypes. It is simply the absence of consciousness , a state of Being that we shall call ABCONSCIOUS to distinguish it from other related states of Being. It is Darkness generated by GIGGOSUM that in Tamil Saiva literature is called ANAVAM.
a] A dream experience pierces through this enveloping Darkness simultaneously disclosing a TRUTH that has been hidden, covered up and so forth. A dream experience is ILLUMINATING, lights up an area of Darkness that has remained unlighted up so far. The experience comes along with the reflective experiences of the day but usually showing some elements that have escaped our notice. It is in a way INFORMATIVE of something related to that experience but which we failed to access during the day while in active commerce with the senses.
1. kanavenpatu oortaling kaNNathu kaaNpatu
karutaR kariyameyk karu
¸É¦ÅýÀÐ µ÷¾Ä¢í ¸ñ½Ð ¸¡ñÀÐ
¸Õ¾ü ¸Ã¢Â¦Áöì ¸Õ
b] But the understanding of the dreams belongs to the field of HERMEUTIC SEMIOTICS for all dreams need to be interpreted to be understood. Furthermore the dreams are METAPHORICAL in nature and hence what is communicated is essentially semiotically related. It is hermeneutical because the dream disclosure is a TEXT that has a Surface Structure and a Deep Structure. The interpretation is actually onto-pretation the going from the Surface Structure elements to the Deep Stucture elementsts which is the MEANING of the dream.
6. UnakkaN utavA meykaLai kanavinvazi
Njaanak kaN Ukkum nallaruL
°Éì¸ñ ¯¾Å¡ ¦Áö¸¨Ç ¸ÉÅ¢ýÅÆ¢
»¡Éì¸ñ á즸ªõ ¿øÄÕû
C] Some dreams are peculiar in that the deep archetypes emerge into the consciousness camouflaged in earthly forms that are with the normal experience of the individuals. Such dreams are the sources of the mythologies and folklores and are full of the magical and mystical. They can be easily misunderstood as the bizarre and fantas-tic, quite unbelievable etc. But such incredulity arises only because the interpretive norms of naive hermeneutics of ordinary experience is applied to them without considering their archetypal and hence the essentially mythical character.
9. purANa urukkaLin putumozip payilumE
aRituyi lAngkAtci yil
Òá½ ¯Õì¸Ç¢ý ÒЦÁ¡Æ¢ô À¢֧Á
«È¢Ð¢ Ä¡í¸¡ðº¢ Â¢ø
2.Dreaming Experiences Bring About Releasement
a] One of the basic facts of human existence is that there is bodily and mental constraints of various kinds. The bodily constraints are obvious, men cannot conceive and give birth to a child like a woman. Less obvious are the inner cognitive constraints. The mental functioning is deeply constrained by prejudices of various kinds thatTolkAppiyar calls vinai or vilangku, i.e. chains of a kind. The mind cannot be creative, productive and innovative unless these chains are destroyed and the cognitive functioning is made more fluid and flexible. One of the functions of dreams is to bring about this fluidity, flexibility and productivity. The mind is made to experience a bewildering variety of the fantastic and magical, the unbelievable and the impossible. The straight jackets of the mind is loosened and the person is made to think along lines he dares not under normal circumstances.
URRa vudampin uRuththum paRkaddu
Viddazikka vidinthanak kanavukaL
¯üÈ× ¼õÀ¢ý ¯ÚòÐõ Àü¸ðÎ
Å¢ð¼Æ¢ì¸ Å¢Êó¾Éì ¸É׸û
kaadciyung kanavung uLakaruL wiikkungkathir
puuthipuR RaLaippukun tOdum
¸¡ðº¢Ôí ¸É×í ¯Ç¸Õû ¿£ìÌí¸¾¢÷
â¾¢Òü ȨÇôÒÌó §¾¡Îõ
b] Certainly there are different types of dreams depending upon the Depths reached. The very deep dreams, compared to the widely sexual and superficial , are archetypal in nature where the divine forces themselves emerge into the deep recesses of the human mind. The experience borders the religious. During such precious moments, the deep parts of the mind where resides the GIGGOSUM itself is somehow reached and what's more the BLACK stuff thwarted somehow. The bestial hold of Giggosum is violated and hence the self definitised somewhat. The narrowness of outlook and vision is changed so that it is broader and deeper. The person ascends in personal development so that he is a better person with a more endearing personality. Along with the growth of such mental health there is growth in physical wellbeing as well. Such deep dreams are in fact self purificational.
Azak kanavukaL aNumaiyaith thiiykkum
Paazak kanavukaL pAri
¬Æì ¸É׸û «Ï¨Á¨Âò ¾£öìÌõ
À¡Æì ¸É׸û À¡Ã¢
udarkaddu muLakkaddu mudaikkumee uRangkungkaal
untikamalat tinezumuyar kanavu
¯¼ü¸ðÎ ÓÇì¸ðÎ Ó¨¼ì̧Á ¯ÈíÌí¸¡ø
¯ó¾¢¸ÁÄò ¾¢¦ÉØÓÂ÷ ¸É×
paRRellaam pazikkum paasaththaLai erikkum
uRRuNarvaar uLaththezu kanavu
Àü¦ÈøÄ¡õ ÀÆ¢ìÌõ À¡ºò¾¨Ç ±Ã¢ìÌõ
¯üÚ½÷Å¡÷ ¯Çò¦¾Ø ¸É×
c] The most important aspect of dream experience is related to the different experiencing of TIME. There are two different modes in which we experience time: TEMPORALITY or psychological time and the physical WORLD TIME that is the matter for astronomical calculations. Temporality is related to our basic COMPETENCE for time reckoning as such. Dream experiences, in severing our commerce with the worldly, exposes us to TEMPORALITY of TIME consciousness in its purity. There is only a succession of dream events with the dreamer caused to be in the Mode of Being of awaiting for the yet to come. He awaits for the NEXT, the yet to come without being able to pin the dream event into a spatio-temporaly locatable event in world history. There is no OTHER with respect to whose experience he can locate his own dream experience. It throws him into a world where the normal spatio-temporal categories are inapplicable. This is one of the reasons why dreams are so difficult to understand and have to be looked at as belonging to Hermeneutic Semiotics.
kaddakaRRung kanavin kaalamung kuRuukum
viddakal viduumpaRRu muRRa
¸ð¼¸üÚí ¸ÉÅ¢ý ¸¡ÄÓí Ìê¯Ìõ
Å¢ð¼¸Ä Å¢Þ¯õÀüÚ ÓüÈ
3.Experiencing the Mythical
a] Western Historicism emphasizes the phenomenal reality and hence World Time consciousness and along with it physical causality. A historical event must have a set of antecedent events which causally determine the event and its nature under question. Any personal problem is also analyzed in terms of a set of causal events: the cultural background, the sociopolitical patterns of life, the forms of upbringing, early childhood experiences and such other external factors. Dream experiences shatter all these by throwing us into the realms of the mythical and metaphorical. The world is begun to be seen as a DRAMA enacted by forces that are powerful and at the same time uncanny. The events in a person's life and in fact what a person is, is constituted by these archetypal forces which are for most of the time unconscious. This ahistorical way of seeing the world and what happens to one belongs to the field of transductive perception the beginning of which is dreaming experience. It is that which has been described as the THIRD EYE which is just a colorful way describing what everybody has a competence that probably remains untapped. Everybody dreams but only some who can recall them, a limitation that can be corrected by practice.
kanavum mERkaadciyung kaaaNpaarkku nutalvizi
nookkuN dee nunit tuyara
¸É×õ §Áü¸¡ðº¢Ôí ¸¡ñÀ¡÷ìÌ Ñ¾øŢƢ
§¿¡ìÌñ§¼ ÑÉ¢ò ÐÂÃ
b] The dreaming experience allows us a peep into our own unconscious, the hidden recesses within our mind where the forces at PLAY are made to work. But it is not always the case that we have dreams that are archetypal and sublime, something bordering deep religious experience. The soul must be ready for such deeply satisfying dream experiences. The worldly people, tied to the earthly are denied such accesses. One must be desirous of Deep Wisdom, the Absolute TRUTH, a true understanding of the world free of various prejudices that condition our worldly existence. There must be a fine tuning and a receptivity of the mysterious and subterranean forces that may be dark and unsavory at times. One must be brave to face the Dark Side of oneself by discarding the false face-masks that one wears for the world and also for oneself. One must be ready to unmask and be NAKED , ready for a certain of kind NIRVANA, a psychological nudity , a baring of oneself of prejudices that condition our ordinary experiences.
kaadcik karitaaya karukkaLaik kaaNpar
mIdci viruppin vittakar
¸¡ðº¢ì ¸Ã¢¾¡Â ¸Õ츨Çì ¸¡ñÀ÷
Á£ðî Å¢ÕôÀ¢ý Å¢ò¾¸÷
c] Thus dreaming experience is purificatory in a way and when one persists in it , interpret and gain a proper understanding of them, there is the destruction of IGNORANCE or the anjnjaanam in the Indian philosophies. And as we persist more and more in this task, more of this Abconsciousness is destroyed and inner self flooded with INNER RADIANCE or uLLOLI. It is actually wiping clean the dirty windows so that the light that is always there shines within undistorted and unsullied. The SEEING becomes PURE so that the understanding becomes free of falsities. In the end it leads to enjoying the ABSOLUTE understanding i.e. civanjaanam, the TRUTH. One gains an understanding of METAPHYSICA UNIVERSALIS that is in bosom of every person only waiting to owned and appropriated as the understanding of self itself..
kanvenung kuRimozi kaNtuunyn taRivaarkku
uNavau muyarciva njaanam
¸É¦ÅÛí ÌÈ¢¦Á¡Æ¢ ¸ñÞöóò ¾È¢Å¡÷ìÌ
¯½ÅÕ ÓÂ÷º¢Å »¡Éõ
d] The deeply symbolic dreams are actually archetypal in nature and hence disclosures of BEING itself. Each archetype is a presentation of BEING and not the product of mental fictions. One does not fantasize or imagine them even transcendentally. They are presentations of BEING , shapes BEING assumes in order to enact the DRAMA of life however BEING remaining forever uninvolved in the PLAY. BEING does not play as a sport or anything like that, it is not a LILA , game of amusements but a more serious unfoldment of the GRACE of BEING, an infinite KINDNESS that knows only the sufferings of the souls. Being FULL OF LOVE, BEING assumes these archetypal forms to instruct and illuminate the psychic beings suffering in their worldly entanglement. Such deep dreaming experiences are LIBERATING through providing ILLUMINATIONS of a profound kind.
kanavin kaadciyin karuttin palllutippin
ninaivil vArAvIsannin RAduvAn
¸ÉÅ¢ý ¸¡ðº¢Â¢ý ¸Õò¾¢ý ÀøÖ¾¢ôÀ¢ý
¿¢¨ÉÅ¢ø šáţºý¿¢ý È¡ÎÅ¡ý
nuzaivinait tantu nuthalvaa niRaivan
kanaviR Ranakkaatti yaruLi
ѨÆÅ¢¨Éò ¾óРѾøÅ¡ É¢¨ÈÅý
¸ÉÅ¢ ȨÉ측ðÊ ÂÕÇ¢
4. Dreaming Experience as Pedagogical
a] The sensorial experience which is basic and common to
everybody is peculiarly important in that it provides the most assured
sense of reality. However this confidence in the sensorial is misplaced
for the most important aspects of reality are unconscious and become available
for experiencing only when we enter dream-like experiences . Things that
are there in the world become ACCESSIBLE only during these states of consciousness.
And because they open up new realms of reality , light up the hitherto
UNKNOWN realities as present there as the POWERS that in fact constitute
what one is , such experiences become pedagogical. There is LEARNING not
in the behavioral sense but rather in the sense understood in Agamic Psychology,
learning in the sense of REDUCION of INNER DARKNESS, or ignorance.
The scope of experience itself becomes EXTENDED so that the mind and along
with it , the cognitive processes are made deeper and more profound. New
creative capabilities become available for the individual
kAriruL azivin kAdciyung kanavum
pAlavan padaikkum pAdam
¸¡Ã¢Õû «Æ¢Å¢ý ¸¡ðº¢Ôí ¸É×õ
À¡ÄÅý À¨¼ìÌõ À¡¼õ
B] We are using the term "dreaming-experience" in an extended sense communicated by the frequently occurring phrase kanavum kAdciyum. Broadly speaking there at least TWO distinct dreaming states: dreaming while asleep and dreaming while awake (which is not day dreaming) The mechanisms are the same though the quality and contents are different. The sensorial commerce is disengaged because of sleep for sleep-dreams and meditative stance for awake-dreams. Continuous practice leads one to enjoy also the awake-dreams in which the archetypes are experienced in the phenomenal drama, how in fact they constitute the worldly events. In Saiva Literature these states of higher dreams are called yOkak kAdci , vinjAnak kAdci civanjAnak kAdci etc. The states of consciousness are also distinguished into suzuththi , turiam and finally tiyAtiitam. The last named is the highest . In all such higher states, BEING itself discloses itself so that the archetypal presentations of BEING are directly experienced in their phenomenal disclosures.
kanavung kAdciyung kadantaturi yatiRkANpar
uruvilaa turuvAkumoN poruL
¸É×í ¸¡ðº¢Ôí ¸¼ó¾ÐâÂò ¾¢ü¸¡ñÀ÷
¯ÕŢġ ÐÕș̌Á¡ñ ¦À¡Õû
c] The understanding that comprehends ALL these states of consciousness finally attains an understanding in which there is NO UNCONSCIOUS at all, no more DARKNESS or ignorance. The understanding is absolutely TRANSLUCENT, there is NOTHING that it does not comprehend. As such it is the final state of consciousness or understanding called sivanjAnam in Saiva literature. It is that TOWARDS which all our efforts are directed though under normal circumstances we are not clear and rather confused about it. But as our earthly involvement become loosened , this NEED surfaces to the fore and becomes the consuming passion of an individual. It is only at this point an individual becomes philosophic or metaphysical, deeply committed to the experiencing the hidden realities, the mysterious and mystical, the real stuff of religious experience.
turiyattin atiitatiR RonRntoR civanjAnam
vizikaLvE Rilainutal viziyE
ÐâÂò¾¢ý «¾£¾ò¾¢ü §È¡ýÚ󦾡ü º¢Å»¡Éõ
ŢƢ¸û §ÅÈ¢¨ÄѾø ŢƢ§Â
aRivariya iRaivanai aRivaakk maRituyil
aRithavat tinmeyp payan
«È¢Åâ ¨ÈÅ¨É «È¢Å¡ìÌ ÁȢТø
«È¢¾Åò ¾¢ý¦Áöô ÀÂý
d] The dream experiences , in this extended sense of the word, are genuinely meta-physical, the going beyond the purely physical. As such they also constitute the genuinely re-ligious , the connecting back with BEING by overcoming the severance with BEING of ordinary experience. Once we begin to explore the UNCONSCIOUS as a field of HERMENEUTIC SCIENCE , a science where everything experienced including the dreams are taken as TEXTS that need to be INTERPRETED to be understood, we also transform the religious dimensions of human experiences as a field of SCIENCE and hence a field of RATIONAL ACTIVITY. The religions will cease to be DOGMATIC but rather a scientifically tuned explorations of the metaphysical realms. We accomplish by this also the dream of Husserl of founding philosophy as a rigorous science but philosophy understood as the same as metaphysics.