If we think about it, we are inhabiting many dreams: some good and some horrific. Nonetheless, they are all dreams. And if we can contemplate that we are not the dreamer--that is, we are not identified with the dream--then we are able to inhabit those dreams and benefit all the sentient beings in them.
If I feel alarmed by my behavior---it's not who I wanted to be--I must ask myself: is the person I want to be "real" or just a wandering thought? Is the subject or topic I want to learn truly worthy and valued, or is it too just passing fad and fashion? Many thinks can be objects of curiosity, but at the end of the day, they are just like the colors in a kaleidoscope. Though working with them may prove to be valuable to some degree, they are not absolutely necessary or essential. For this reason, we should always meditate on what we are holding onto so tightly in these dreams.
As for nightmares: knowing their impermanence, do we need to feel that they will go away, or can we ride them out? This is a reflection on the ethereal nature of all dreams, and knowing that there is nothing we need to emerge from at all, because we are not part of the dream itself.
