Dear Hulya Avci,

You ask the following: When should you give up on your dreams?

As I see it, we should never give up our dreams and hope. When this is the case we are done.

To have dreams is what make us be alive and fight, say, for a better world. Some dreams and ideals may seem unattainable at a first glance. For example, it seems impossible to have a world that pursues the true, the good, and the beautiful.

However, as someone once remarked, impossible means that I'am possible and able to make this world a better world. It incumbs upon us all to make at least a small contribution to have a more just, peaceful, and non-corrupt world. It may be the case that we will never have a just, peaceful, and non-corrupt world. Even so, we should not give up this social and spiritual idea. To give it up would amount to remaining quiet and inactive and waiting for an impossible miracle. When I have a dream that seems impossible to be achieved I use to invoke the French students' claim, who, in May, 1968, proclamed the following: "Let's be realist and ask for the impossibe" . Note that Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "I have a dream that all children and people may live in, say, a decent world." Also, as F.G. Kennedy once remarded, we should not ask what our country and world can do for us, but rather what we can do for our country and world. Great minds, thinkers, scientists, and the like were great because they had dreams and hope. When we have not dreams we are dommed to becoming radical pessimist and espousing a catastrophic and scatalogical view of the world. As you say: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better" (Samuel Beckett).

Best regards,

Orlando

why giving up? wait and see. do ur best and God will do the rest

Generally, a weak person usually gives up his dreams, but if your dreams hurt people you love, they must be abandoned

Best Regards Hulya Avci

Patience is the most effective means to materialize (not to give up) your good dreams.

We should give up a dream only when we realize that it is not our own dream, but a goal passed onto us that does not reflect our own values and aspirations. One of the most challenging tasks in life is to identify your own path and differentiate it from false paths created by projections imposed by your family and society.

Nor give up, nor give to up (someone else), let your dreams be furnished.

Thank you all very much for your sincere comments - all are very precious! I am of the same mind of what all of you said: "Do NOT give up!"

When you link yourself to goals, and when you fight battles to achieve your dream and when you sacrifice a lot more will realize your dream

regards

When we feel, that despite all our efforts, dream is not the way, our life is taking turns, so, Allah Almighty has best plans for us.

Lograr que los sueños se hagan realidad es encontrar la Felicidad, el Amor que el ser humano necesita.

El ser humano nunca debe dejar de soñar, soñar es una formar de demostrar que se esta vivo.

Whilst I philosophically agree with the "never give up on your dreams", it does imply that one should keep our dreams rigid and inflexible. Some dreams cannot be realized. This can be seen on the TV search for a singing competitions, where some people audition who have the "passion/dream/etc" to be the next pop star but clearly do not have the ability/discipline/insight/physical vocal structures/etc to ever achieve their dreams. To "never give up" is inappropriate advice to them.

Instead, we need to have the philosophy to make sure our dreams are flexible - adapting to new situations and circumstances. Not only can this mean that the dreams are more likely to be obtainable, we may allow ourselves to be open to a dream that may be better than our current vision.

Read Bright+Pryor's Chaos Theory of Careers for more on these concepts.

Really agree with what Rob Cole said above. Keep dreaming and remain flexible, open to new experiences and honourabe in everything you do. Allow your dreams to evolve as you take hold of opportunities that come your way. You may very well discover that you were made for something awesome, but that your dreams and aspirations could not quite capture what life brought you, and you might miss something amazing if you don't adapt or adjust. Just don't quit. :)

I'm studying industrial and organisational psychology and hope to specialise in psychological assessments for these very discussions.

Personally I believe that God can take even the bad things in our lives and turn it into something good, if we invite him in and ask him to do that.

All the best to you!

Dear Lisi Mallinson,

Thank you for your comment which has impressed me a lot.

I hope the best for you too!

Dear Rob Cole,

You touched upon the exact definition of "dream" - great explication. Thank you for your suggestion as well. Look forward to reading it at once.

I agree with Rob Cole. A thin line separates a true dreamer from a stubborn person.

You have no control over your dreams. Since they are the blueprint of waking experience you have also no control over you waking life. See my essays on IJoDR posted online by University ion Heidelberg, Germany. Regards, Kurt

Now, there is a classification of dreams: 1-dream vision, 2-ordinary dream, and 3- intentional or predictive dream. First, is the dream-vision (in Arabic ru'yā), that enjoys higher-order meaning and differs from both regular dream and waking vision (ruya/without ā). Second, is the regular dream that has two Arabic

words: manām (derived from the word naum that means sleeping), and ḥulm. So, if you have a dream-vision (ru'yā) you should be confident that you will achieve it (God's willing). If you have a regular dream, you should work hard to achieve the good aspects of it (as that regular dream might be illusive or, as Freud argues, discloses your deep unconscious desires). The third (intentional or predictive dream) requires certain rituals that you or a practitioner can perform to test your future goals (however, these rituals might be religious or magical required certain conditions).

El=Sayed : if one dream is predictive why not all? Nature is CONSISTENT!

Dear Kurt,

I think I should clarify some important points here as I did in my article "Dreams and the Construction of Reality..." (Anthropos 2010: 105: 441–453), posted in Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289814992_Dreams_and_the_Construction_of_Reality_Symbolic_Transformations_of_the_Seen_and_the_Unseen_in_the_Egyptian_Imagination.

I propose that there are two forms of transformations, dream transformation and awakening transformation. Dream transformation means that dreams enable individuals to unveil the hidden and unseen dimensions of the universe and the person transformed into signs or symbols. I take awakening transformation to mean the attempt to change the reality through interpreting dreams and relating them to that reality. Across the polarities of subjective– objective and unseen–seen, dreams are viewed as vehicles for symbolic transformation of inner or incorporeal and spiritual experiences to be outward or corporeal realities, socially or collectively communicated and discussed. In other words, if the unseen is to become seen in the world, individuals should take their dream visions seriously.

For intentional or predictive dream, it is a distinct phenomenon to Islamic/Muslim cultures. It is known as istikhara, which means seeking guidance from God in making a critical decision affecting peoples’ lives. It is a sort of dream prediction evoking God’s help. Because of its intentional character, the istikhara is restricted to functional purposes depending on how critical and serious the matters people wish to accomplish. Unlike dreams that occur beyond human’s control or will, the istikhara is thought to be controllable through certain ritual or practices and utterances (see also the abovementioned article p. 444, 449).

Dear El-Sayed, thank you for your elucidations. Dreams and waking are both subjective. Objects have no point of view. Reality is unchanging. Waking is not. Hence waking is but another form of dreaming. Dreams and waking are like the blood circulation - breathing in and breathing out. They are one interdependent process. Dreams are breathing in, oxygenation. Waking is breathing out. Dreams are the program for waking. Both dreams and waking are illusive. They are an emanation of absolute consciousness; the sine qua non of existence. Existence means standing out from something: from absolute consciousness which is unchanging and therefore real. Absolute consciousness can be equated with God-consciousness. God directs all hence the emanations of consciousness, absolute consciousness are directing waking life. Hence all dreams are predictive since they are the program of the future which is dormant in absolute consciousness. In order to be ONE with reality we must die. It means switching brain functions off. This can be done without the demise of the body. The highest form of meditation switches the brain off. Mystics have their brain switched off. The body gets cold as in death. Reality shines forth clear and self-effulgent. When you read Shabistari, for instance, you know that he speaks form this supreme experience. "Know that the world is a mirror from head to foot, in every atom are a hundred blazing suns. If you cleave the heart of one drop of water, a hundred pure oceans emerge from it...In the pupil of the eye is a Heaven, what though the corn grain of the Heart be small, it is a station of the Lord of both worlds to dwell therein". (from the Garden of Mystery) Regards, Kurt.

I agree with you, dear Kurt. Dreams are fascinating experiences.

Indeed!

Snyder defines hope as goal directed thinking in which the person utilises pathways thinking-the perceived capacity to find routes to desired goals) and agency thinking-the motivations required to take those routes (Lopez, Pedrotti & Snyder, 2015). I feel that Snyder's hope theory encourages us to continue to pursue dreams but modify as required!!

When u should wake up....