Waking Up within the Waking Global

It occurs occasionally when I’m dreaming.
I catch myself pondering, “Cling on—wait a 2nd—canines don’t sing,” or, “I don’t paintings for the federal government,” or, “Swimming swimming pools don’t fly.”
And in that second, I do know I’m dreaming. What I believed used to be actual dissolves like mist. It’s a projection—shimmering on the edges, able to vanish.

However right here’s the query: what if shall we get up like that within the waking international? What if shall we peer on the tales we inform ourselves, the identities we put on, the solidness we ascribe to our lives, and say: Wait a 2nd… this isn’t actual both, no longer truly.

This brings to thoughts khomar, a Pashto phrase I discovered on my podcast Fifty Phrases for Snow from Afghani visitor Sanjar Qiam describing a state of dreamy wakefulness.

Supply: Sanjar Qiam/Used with Permission

The Elusive Dance of Khomar

Fifty Phrases for Snow is all about exploring phrases with out direct English equivalents—the ones linguistic treasures that seize one thing nuanced, one thing we really feel however can’t articulate. And khomar is precisely that.

In keeping with Sanjar, khomar describes a state of dreamy wakefulness. You’re no longer asleep, no longer subconscious, however you’re no longer totally right here both. You’re adrift in a hazy in-between, eyes open however seeing one thing extra airy. It’s a phrase that defies inflexible definition, an revel in that slips via your arms at the same time as you attempt to grab it.

It jogs my memory of the Buddhist idea of maya, the illusory play of appearances that makes up our so-called fact. We’re all wandering via this lifestyles, satisfied of its solidness, its permanence, its fact. However what if we’re wrong? What if, just like the dream, it’s all fleeting—shimmering, comfortable, unreal?

The Great thing about Being Part-Unsleeping

Sanjar shared how khomar will also be a gradual rebuke. Believe somebody zoning out, misplaced of their ideas, untethered from the existing second. You could say, “You’re so khomar as of late,” to nudge them again to fact. However right here’s the twist: khomar isn’t only a state of distraction. It’s additionally a state of magic.

In certainly one of Afghanistan’s maximum loved folks songs, khomori sterge—“dreamy eyes”—are praised as a lover’s maximum captivating high quality. Those are the eyes that see the arena no longer as it’s however because it may be, softened by means of longing, lit with creativeness.

And doesn’t that describe such a lot of our personal lives? We flow, we dream, we believe. And in the ones moments, we’re suspended between what’s actual and what’s imaginable, soaring in that mystical khomar state.

Supply: Sanjar Qiam/used with permission

The Arduous Spell of Waking Up

However let’s no longer get too comfy on this haze. The dream, whilst stunning, can entice us. It’s simple to stumble via lifestyles half-asleep, wrapped in tales about who we’re, what we personal, and what we’d like.

The present of khomar isn’t simply its dreamy high quality—it’s the invitation to get up. To look in the course of the illusions we grasp to, to let the pointy bell of consciousness shatter the exhausting spell of separation. What if shall we take a look at ourselves and say, Cling on… this “me” isn’t actual. This “you” isn’t everlasting. What if shall we awaken, no longer simply from our desires however from our waking illusions?

A Insurrection Towards Perceived Truth

Supply: Sanjar Qiam/used with permission

For me, khomar is a reminder to rebellion—no longer in opposition to the arena, however in opposition to my very own delusions. To look lifestyles no longer as a inflexible, unyielding construction however as a shimmering, fleeting dream. It’s a decision to query the entirety: Am I wide awake? Am I dreaming? What is going on right here?

So the following time you end up misplaced in concept, believe khomar. Let it’s a reminder to softly awaken to the place you might be, to look the shimmer of fact’s edges, and to seek out attractiveness within the fleeting nature of all of it.

As a result of occasionally, waking up within the waking international is probably the most brilliant dream of all.

Supply: Sanjar Qiam/used with permission