Bad Dreams

I know a guy who has bad dreams. Nearly every day.
Well not really, but the way he carries on it sure does sound like it.

One frequently hears his lamentations drift down the hallway as he argues with is computer, complains in loud frustration, begging his computer to cease it's vendetta against him as it never does anything right (yes, there are people in this day and age who still use things called "legal pads" to do their work and he's one of them). The way he carries on is not unlike one living a nightmare as he vocalizes his displeasure with technology in general. I'll spare you what happens when he gets automated menus while on the phone.

One lesson I learn from this is that complaining, getting upset is like living a bad dream. Dreams seem real but they are not--especially bad dreams.

Think about things that upset us. Those things do not upset us--WE upset us. We go along with our emotions, failing to check ourselves, "hey, that's not right!"

The computer does not make the man angry. He makes himself angry. The computer is box of circuits. It turns on and burns electricity in a mathematical fashion until it is turned off. To say "the computer made me mad" is unreal--its a dream. The reaction, on the other hand, was real.

So check yourself: what makes you angry? What makes you complain? What makes you sad?

Know what makes me angry, complain, sad--even happy? Nothing. And when I think that something else controls my emotions, I am wrong. Things are neutral. They are not personalities. I make myself angry or meek, complain or content, happy or sad.

Awake sleeper!

"Return to your sober senses and call yourself back; and when you have roused yourself from sleep and have perceived that they were only dreams which troubled you, now in your waking hours look at these (the things about you) as you didst look at those (the dreams)." --Marcus Aurelius, Meditations