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| I let them in. Oil on canvas. |
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| elusive illusions of a dreamlike state . Oil on canvas In Tibetan Buddism the world itself isn't seen as an illusion, but rather our emotions and concepts we hold provoke our response to the world, and these are seen as the illusion. Therefore dreams are not seen as illusions but depict the illusions of our every day experience in life. Dreams are expressive and we hold within our subconscious mind a complex realm of fears, longings and concepts which we see flood out in an array of symbolism and metaphors when we have more vivid dreams or nightmares. These nightmares show how deeply our awakened self is involved with our subconscious dreaming self. No thought or worry that occurs in a dream is ever the thing that it is about. we think of the future sometimes, for example, and might worry about the outcome of certain events which are yet to come. However, more often than not the events that follow are completely different. and when they arrive we can respond to them in numerous different ways. Therefore to take emotions and concepts as if they are real is an illusion. But dreaming isn't an illusion because it is an experience, it is a truthful event which happens to all of us. The beauty of dreaming is you never know what to expect. Your mind holds limited control over your subconscious and emotions are the driving force. The element of time comes to play in dreams quite alot. Time is jaded and disfigured. Things which seem like they have taken days happen in a few seconds, and nighttime and day time are intertwined. I have looked at a" reoccurring" dream which I have had approximately about 5 times. I found this dream strange for a number of reasons, firstly because the dream was neither a nightmare nor a good dream, but it was a mixture of both. I experienced so many different of emotions in these dreams, happiness, fear, excitement, calmness, and anger... and the imagery and symbolism has retained strongly in my memory even though I had the dreams a long time ago. The imagery and symbolism is also a mixture of places that are familiar and places which I have never been before. and depsite the setting and events which occur during each of the dreams differ slightly, the ending has always remained the same. I am plunged underwater and come face to face with a white horse. It is an extremely vivid dream, and painting it to me brings back vivid memories of the experience. It's ashame that I can't force my own mind to dream of it again. However, if that could be achieved I feel the mystery of dreaming would be diminished. |
