About

Hi there. My name is Rory. Welcome to Beyond the Dream.

This blog began as a place to share my reflections on life, with a particular emphasis on finding happiness, peace of mind and understanding the nature of consciousness, mind and reality. My intent was to make sense of life and become a better, happier person–a goal common to most people.

It’s no secret that we live in stressful times. The information age has spiralled into an information overload age. Things are coming at us from every direction. The world seems increasingly turbulent and life is filled with ever more pressures. As a result, people are feeling stressed, burned out and disconnected. Unhappiness is rife.

I know this only too well. Since I was quite I young I suffered bouts of depression and anxiety as well life-threatening health challenges. Just a few years ago I hit rock bottom and, dealing with a chronic health problem that left me with next to no energy, I often found it hard to even get out of bed. I did learn a lot from the adversity, however. With determination I learned to inch my way forward, bit by bit. I found ways to fix up not only my health but my confidence and self-esteem. My intent with Beyond the Dream is simply to share what I’ve learned in the hope it will help others.

We weren’t born to suffer. We were born to enjoy life and be free and happy. That is both our birthright and our natural state. We all intuitively know this, which is why unhappiness and limitation are so inherently unacceptable to us. We want to be free. One of the greatest obstacles is actually our own mind. Much of the theme of this blog is what I call jailbreaking the mind; which means making our minds work for rather than against us.

Much of our suffering is unwittingly self-created. This suffering is entirely reversible, however, if we can learn to question the thoughts, beliefs and mindsets that are causing it. This does take a degree of courage and open-mindedness. But freedom is the ability to step out of the prison of our thoughts and beliefs, and that freedom is available to all of us, now.

As a social science graduate and student of philosophy and metaphysics, I’ve been greatly inspired by Taoism, Zen, New Thought, modern psychology and sociology and in particular Vedanta, which is based upon the wisdom of the Upanishads. I owe Vedanta an immense debt, and have created a blog called Essence of Vedanta, in which I will be exploring this ancient science of consciousness as it is traditionally taught.

I also have another blog, Dreamlight Fugitive, which is focused primarily on my fiction writing and creativity in general. I’m the author of two novels, Eladria and The Key of Alanar, as well as my own translation and commentary of the Tao Te Ching.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the site. Be sure to check out the  Articles section for a list of the top posts on this site. It’s the perfect place to get started. All comments and feedback are greatly appreciated. Look forward to hearing from you.

Love and best wishes,

Rory

36 thoughts on “About”

  1. I like what you’re saying about Vedanta ‘… the clearest and most incredibly transformative science of consciousness there is.’ I’m still finding out about this and looking around to see what other people have discovered.

    Reply

    1. Hey, thanks for reading and for your comment. Yup, it’s amazing. I have been learning traditional vedanta from a guy called James Swartz who’s a superb teacher (although he shoots from the hip and isn’t everyone’s idea of what an enlightened guy ‘should’ be haha). It’s an incredible, beautiful, totally logical system. These guys figured it out millennia ago, and there’s really no way to improve upon it. The western neo advaita peeps have taken elements from it but lack the full methodology and psychological understanding, which is why I guess I found them so unhelpful. I’m going to post what I feel to be the essentials of vedanta very soon. 🙂

      Reply

      1. Look forward to your post on the vedanta essentials. I’m interested in how the Buddhist sila (virtue) fits in. In Theravadin Buddhism ‘virtue’ goes together with ‘focus’ and ‘wisdom’ (sila, samadhi, punnya) and all three have be there in order to see Truth. How does this sound to you? Some Vedantisit will say the whole consciousness thing, when experienced and understood, is so immense it sweeps you away and so maybe I’m being finicky here?

      2. it’s a good question 🙂 yeah when we realise the Self (atman and anatman kind of refer to the same thing I believe, as irreconcilable as it might seem) then I believe virtue is just natural; any actions just arise from a state of balance and harmony – so long as we’re not still bound by too many negative vasanas/samskaras (not sure the Buddhist term).

        It’s absent in neo advaita (which I guess is partly the reason it doesn’t work) but traditional vedanta teaches about karma and dharma, which perhaps ties in with virtue. Dharma is responding appropriately to the needs of the situation rather than simply following our likes & dislikes and karma yoga is offering up the fruits of our actions and being unattached to the results. Together with bhakti/devotion, it aims at exhausting our obstructing vasanas and creating a peaceful and balanced mind. So perhaps that’s the equivalent to Buddhist virtue?

  2. I’m looking forward to learning more about Vedanta. I’ve heard about it, but never really investigated. It’s a blessing that u’r very kind to share what you’ve learned/ experienced. Be well!

    Reply

    1. Thanks for stopping by and your comment. It’s gonna be my absolute pleasure, I love vedanta, it’s immensely profound, beautiful and transformative 😀

      Reply

  3. I’ve been having conversations with friends lately about this very topic, Rory…the whole ‘overload’ thing. I have three children, two of whom suffer with high anxiety and depression. I resist medication and work with them on self talk, shutting out the ‘noise’, meditations, affirmations, etc. I see SO many young people, children suffering…and I realize they have SO much coming at them. They are constantly stimulated and rarely about to just ‘be’. They dont’ even know HOW. It is our job to teach ( and in some cases learn it ourselves). Looking forward to more of your blog.

    Reply

    1. I’ve been thinking about this too lately. There’s way too much stimulation coming at us — electronic, visual, auditory — it’s all very mental and head-oriented…I think it’s easy to get a kind of energy imbalance, all stuck in the head. I’ve found qigong very helpful and trying to train myself to keep some awareness in my dantien (navel) or heart…keeps me rooted in the body and prevents me from getting too overloaded in my head. Your kids are very lucky to have a mum who is aware and able to help them in such a way 🙂

      Reply

      1. yoga has been calling me lately, though my flexibility leaves much to be desired. I have not tried qigong, though if i’m not mistaken, its along the lines of tai chi yes? Centering and grounding is ALWAYS good…I do that several times a day…it has kept me from having a complete mental breakdown trying to help and guide my kids. ( and thank you 🙂 )

      2. yup tai chi is a form of qigong. There are hundreds of variations and forms of it I’m lucky to have found one I really like. Repeatedly bringing the energy out of the head centres and down into the navel and heart throughout the day has an immensely balancing and healing effect. Hope it helps and good luck with your kids, as someone who is very sensitive to all this relentless mental/electrical/digital stimulus I can sympathise 😛

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      1. Mais oui! You should especially love Won’t Take the A train – dream of Merlin and I after his passing and the Cicada Principle is just decidedly sweet.. Time-Travelling Georgian Dandy is also groovy and Anointed by exalted mentor – another lucid astral plane encounter between Merlin and I is pretty cool… sweet dreams!

      2. sounds amazing! I’d like to talk to you about lucid dreaming sometime, I’m so intrigued. Look forward to reading those posts, I need to get some time and space to do them justice 🙂

      5. Sweet dreams – better yet, let’s meet up on the astral plane, hold hands, push off and start flying into the glorious light just beyond the horizon… because we’re worth it!

  9. Hey Rory! I have nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award. You don’t need to do anything about it, it’s just a way to show I appreciate your blogging efforts. But if you want to participate you can see the simple rules on the following link: http://wp.me/p2e9tz-KS
    Congratulations!

    Reply
  10. Pingback: Best Moments of quirkybooks – Two Best Moment Awards | quirkybooks
  11. Pingback: mind-boggling blog awards 1 | dhamma footsteps

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