Dreaming is the main function of the mind

Dreaming is the main function of the mind, and the mind dreams twenty-four hours a day. Before we were born the humans before us created a big outside dream that we will call society`s dream or the dream of the planet. The dream of the planet is the collective dream of billions of smaller, personal dreams. This includes all of society`s rules, its beliefs, its religions, its different cultures and way to be, it governments, schools, social events and holidays. The outside dream has so many rules that when a new human is born, we hook the child`s attention and introduce these rules to his or her mind. Attention is the ability we have to discriminate and to focus only on that which we want to perceive. The adults around us hooked our attention and put information into our minds through repetition. That is the way we learned everything we know. We learned how to behave in society: what to believe and what not to believe; what is acceptable and what is not acceptable; what is good and what is bad; what is beautiful and what is ugly; what is right and what is wrong. Our parents, teachers and siblings were all trying to hook your attention. We also learn to hook the attention of other humans, and we develop a need for attention becomes very strong and continues into adulthood. The outside dream hooks our attention and teaches us what to believe, beginning with the language we speak. Language is the code of understanding and communication between humans. Every letter, every word in each language is an agreement. Once we understand the code, our attention is hooked and the energy is transferred from one person to another. As children, we didn`t have the opportunity to choose our beliefs, but we agreed with the information that was passed to us from the dream of the planet through other humans. The only way to store is by agreement. As soon as we agree, we believe it, and this is called faith. To have faith is to believe unconditionally. That`s how we learn as children. Children believe everything adults say. The result is surrender to the beliefs with our agreement. Don Miguel Ruiz calls this process the domestication of humans. And through this domestication we learn to live and how to dream. And we also learn to judge; we judge ourselves, judge other people, and judge the neighbors. We train our children whom we love so much the same way we train any domesticated animal; with a system of punishment and reward. When we went against the rules we were punished; when we went along with the rules we got the reward. The reward is the attention that we got from others. We soon develop a need to hook other people`s attention in order to get the reward. With that fear of being punished and that fear of not getting the reward, we start pretending to be what we are not, just to please others, just to be good enough for someone else. We are afraid of being rejected. The fear of being rejected becomes the fear of not being good enough. Eventually we become someone that we are not..

From: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)