Gurdjieff, one of the buddhas of this century, used to give a certain meditation to his disciples which is very significant. He used to say to his disciples, “If you can remember in a dream that ‘This is a dream,’ then you are on the very threshold of transformation.”

 

But it is very difficult to remember in a dream that it is a dream. When you are in a dream you believe that it is the truth. And every night you are in a dream, and every morning you come back and you see and you know that it was all false. And again when you fall asleep the dream is there and you start believing in it again, as if you never learned anything.

 

But how to remember? He created a small device. He would give this device to a few advanced disciples: that in the daytime… because you cannot do anything while you are asleep and in a dream. The preparation has to be done in the daytime; then you have a little bit of awareness.

 

He used to tell them, “As many times as you can manage — brushing your teeth in the morning — just put your left hand on your head and say, ‘This is all dream.’ Walking on the street, put your left hand again on your head and say, ‘This is all dream.’ Let your left hand and the putting of it on your head become associated with the idea that ‘This is all dream.’

 

“Repeated many times, whenever you put your left hand on your head, immediately the idea will come: ‘This is all dream.’ Or whenever you say, ‘This is all dream,’ automatically your left hand will go on your head. This has to be practiced for at least three to nine months in the daytime.

 

“And then,” Gurdjieff used to say, “one day suddenly in a dream you will see it happen: the dream is there, and you put your hand on your head, your left hand, and suddenly you say, ‘This is all dream.’ And the moment you say it the dream disappears, you are fully awake. The dream cannot exist if you know that it is a dream.”

 

And that is a great experience when it happens — you can try it. When it really happens, that one night your hand goes to your head while you are asleep, while you are dreaming, and suddenly the idea comes that “This is all dream….” And you are immediately fully awake and you find your hand on your head. It has become so associated; it is like a conditioned reflex.

 

But one thing has become clear: if you can remember, “This is all dream,” the dream disappears. The dream can only disappear by your remembering that this is a dream; reality cannot disappear. You can go on remembering, “This is all dream,” but you know all the time this is not so. Philosophically you can go on repeating, “This is all dream,” and you can be very cunning philosophically.

 

- Osho, "The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 5, #9"