Money and food in relation to waking and dreaming

Light School
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Hi - Does anyone know of buddhist (or other) teachings on what money and food are in relation to waking and dreaming?

My question is one of inter-action. Money is a relation to objects that is also attached to power, control, and some kind of structure (for either self or society). It carries an energy, I think everyone knows that, but in what way is one supposed to develop mindfulness around this? Be super mindful of every transaction? Or is that too neurotic? In this culture a severe lack of it affects experiential possibilities. It limits where one can go, but also can open one up to '“chance” manifestations and openness in a certain kind of way. Possibly helping to realise fluidity, objects coming into your life independent of self will. For some reason, money is an issue I think is important and I am having trouble wrapping my head around it. Yes it is a kind of control mechanism (as in personal control and societal control), but so are stoplights and walls. Is it a case of, “It is not that the wall is solid, but that you’re solid?” (I have heard Andrew say this). Is it something like that?

As far as food --. it sustains our physical body. Is it possible to eat sustaining food in a dream? This seems one distinction between waking and dreaming.

I don’t know. I hope these questions aren’t annoying. I have not studied enough texts. It does seem relevant to dream yoga tho, if the ultimate goal is to realise the dreamlike nature of the waking state.

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I’ve eaten ice cream in a dream and it tasted as good as it does in the waking (sensory) state, but it didn’t seem to raise my blood sugar level when I tested it in the morning.

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That’s awesome that you tested your blood sugar in the morning! Such a genuinely inquisitive thing to do. Truly scientific, imho.

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So last night I had a dream I was in a cooking competition with two of my friends. Throughout the competition I was munching on cookies. When I awoke and checked my blood sugar I was dangerously low (83) and hustled down to a milk and cereal breakfast. The body knew!

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Money and food are required to sustain us at the conventional level. At the ultimate level we need more metaphysical nourishment.

We need both.

As James Low likes to say…a bird needs two wings to fly and each wing is doing something different to make that directional flight happen.

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