Osho – The dream can exist only if believed; the dream disappears if you don't believe in it

Osho – Beware of imagination. It can cloud your mind. It can destroy your capacity to see clearly. Hence I say: Unless you drop being Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, you will not be able to see clearly. Your imagination has been contaminated for centuries. All your ideas and ideologies have to be put aside so that your eyes can face, can encounter truth as it is.

Imagination keeps you asleep. If you come out of your imagination you start waking up.
Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples that the most important thing is to remember in a dream that “This is a dream.” But how to do it? It seems almost impossible. How to remember in a dream that “This is a dream”? But if you practice the Gurdjieffian method, one day you can remember it.

The method is simple. You have to go on remembering the whole day, whatsoever you see, that “This is a dream.” Walking on the street, “This is a dream”; the dog barking, “This is a dream.” Go on remembering the whole day, “This is a dream, this is a dream….” It takes three to nine month for the idea to sink into your heart. Then one day, suddenly, in your dream you remember and you say, “This is a dream!” — and that is a moment of great illumination.

Immediately, the dream disappears. The moment you say it is a dream, it disappears and you are awake, fully awake, in the middle of the night. Of course, these trees and the people on the road are not a dream so they don’t disappear. You can go on saying, “This is a dream.” That was just a method to practice. But when you really remember in a dream that “This is a dream,” the dream disappears. The dream can exist only if believed; the dream disappears if you don’t believe in it. Our imagination is intoxicating.

Source: from Osho Book “Dhammapada Vol 10”