A playful version of nonduality, stories and poems about a group of people who attend a Dream Workshop in Hawaii, who discover that reality is not what is seen.

Some people are afraid to practice because they think they won't be able to tend to their families or take care of their responsibilities. This is an unnecessary thought. Enlightened saints and sages have proved to be completely functional if that were their destiny. Once you begin to lose some of your misconceptions and beliefs, you see and feel that there is nothing scary about spiritual practice. Less conceptual baggage and less identity usually amounts to more responsibility, not less. Your family will certainly benefit from your happiness and joy.

Many sages have proclaimed: I am not in the world; the world is in me. How does this apply to you? How can the whole world fit inside yourself? If you assume your identity is a body in a world, it is impossible to understand. If you believe you are a dream character, it is impossible to understand. Your understanding completely depends on your own identity. For understanding, use the inquiry "Who am I?"

Are you willing to take the consideration of your identity beyond human connections? What a blasphemous thought. The highest aspiration of the usual person is to live for others. Love, compassion, service, these are the highest ideals of human beings. You should engage in these as long as there is a semblance of a human being. When you serve others you are truly serving yourself. Loving-kindness is right and good. Yet at some point there is a call to understand your total existence even beyond the duality of "me" and "you."

Your friend or lover may look in your eye and say to you, "If there is only one of us, which one is real?" Nonduality is difficult to understand from the point of view of a body. You have to look beyond the bodies to understand. The real truth of the "I" in one body and the "I" in another is exactly the same: neither the persona nor any qualities comprise the real truth, but something much deeper. Each finds truth, not by looking toward the other and trying to figure it out, but by knowing him/herself. Sri Nisargadatta has said you cannot really love another person until you know them as yourself. This is real love.

When you take a flight on an airplane, the flight attendant gives you some good advice: in the event of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask first. You can't help others until you are in a stable position. Similarly, if you tend to your own spiritual awakening, it will be very clear how to help the others. It is not egotistic or selfish; it is the only way to effectively help the others. If you come from the stable position of your own peace and joy, it will affect everything around you.