what is a dream, & what is not a dream???\

i am a zen buddhist, & the philosophy of zen seems to be (i only know of it, so far, from books), that all of our experiences, & everything we believe is real, is actually a construct of our own minds\so, when i was asleep last night, & i was in a hotel room, that i do not remember paying for, & which, i have no idea where it was, & people i did not know appeared in the room, was i dreaming?, & if so, am i also dreaming now???\

If you believe you are, maybie you are? It seems like you have a 50 percent chance of dreaming before doing a reality check. I may know for a fact that Im awake right now, and dont even have to bother with doing a Reality check, but if I were dreaming, then I would be wrong, and wake up with a missed LD. Is that what your saying?

Well if you really believe that the fact that everything around us is a construction of our minds, and that this fact means we cannot really ‘know’ anything, then it would be nearly impossible to tell, right? :tongue:
Luckily enough, our brains produce a fairly accurate picture of the outside world for us most of the time, so like Hebrew said, a simple reality check should answer both of those questions :smile:

Yes, if you’re talking about the Buddhist concept that reality is illusory and dreamlike. In that sense dreams and waking life are the same in that they are both transient and ‘empty’. Neither are absolute reality of which we are ignorant, so in a way you and I are ‘dreaming’ right now.

You sound like Chuang Tzu wondering if he just dreamt he was a butterfly, or if he’s a butterfly dreaming that he is Chuang Tzu.

The philosophy theory I disagree with: the difference between dreams and real life is that you have your senses!

UNTRUE. I’ve felt pain in a ND and many people have felt all 5 senses and feelings that they’ve never felt before. So what is the difference? It could be those feelings that are only felt in dreams and OOBEs, proving that dreams could be the actual life and actual life is the dream! (theoretically of course)