Category: Inspirational

Posted on

The Wild Man

Last nights was about a wild man who is a cave dweller.  I could see him eating meat off the bones.  I can see how his sons lead the same life of hunter gathers but they seem at one with that way of life.  It is awkward for me to see their poverty even though they don’t view it as poverty.  They wear their animal skins with pride.  I am the one perceiving through a filter of societal norms and notions of the way I should act and carry myself.

Posted on

Honey Just Marry Jewish

Like a Prayer : This dream was so funny I had to post it. So one day God came to Madonna and said, “I have just one commandment for you … Marry Jewish!” So Madonna went on her way. God saw Madonna was trying, so he placed on her path NOT 3 but 4 Honey Bunnies. Madonna was aroused by her new Honey Bunnies. As she lay in bed with her two Black Jewish Lovers, God came to her and said, “Since you have followed my commandment, I promise to have your back. He then taught her to fight her own battles.

Marriage Equality!!

Posted on

The Promised Land – A Place of Healing

Honey CombLast night I had an incredible and extremely vivid lucid dream.  In the dream I am in what appears to be a psychiatric ward of a hospital where people come to recover from mental and emotional trauma.  I notice the ward is mostly occupied by young men.  Most of the attending staff of doctors and nurses are women.  I am given a private room for my stay.  The layout reminds me of a honey comb.  Every room has 6 sides and is adjacent to another room with six sides which is adjacent to another room with six sides and so on and so forth for as far as you can see.  The layout strikes me as unusual so I walk through the rooms.  There are no corridors.  Every room simply leads into another room.  Many of the rooms are empty so there are plenty of open rooms available for new arrivals.  I see patients playing board games with each other and there is a very good communal atmosphere present. 

 

A nurse approaches me to perform my intake.  She encourages me noting the success of the hospital to treat trauma.  She tells me if I choose I will never have to suffer again.  This all seems so bizarre to me and I suddenly realize I am dreaming.  In this now wakeful state I begin to pay very close attention to everything she is telling me about their treatment program.  It sounds so appealing and makes perfect sense to me except I’m in a dream and I am lucid so I must investigate my surroundings.  I tell her I need some time to run some personal errands before committing to my stay.  She tells me there is no problem.  I can leave at any time and come back at will but I’m thinking a program this good is sure to fill up quickly.  I want to benefit from the program as well as conduct my research into this lucid state in which I find myself. With her assurance that a space is reserved for me, I leave through the door in the courtyard.  

 

Outside I run into my sister Grace who is going to accompany me on my journey.  I tell Grace that we are in a lucid dream and to pay close attention to everything she sees and hears and make a mental not of it.  I want to find the extent to which the illusion we are in persists.  At what point does the illusion of the dream break down?

 

What I am seeing through my mind’s eye is simply breathtaking.  I can see the sky and clouds and the moon and the stars with such clarity and beauty that is simply indescribable.  Upon the horizon is a massive thunderstorm approaching.  It is dark and ominous yet quite contained to a very specific area in the sky.  It is not threatening.  It is beautiful in the power and force it holds within it.

 

I continue to walk and walk till I finally reach the end of the illusion like walking through quicksand nothing else exists except the raw material from which reality is created.  I have long left my sister behind and only I stand alone in a thick sticky substance as if I had a sheet draped over me.  Feeling I’ve reached my goal and found my end I turn back and soon reencounter my sister who escorts me back to the hospital.  

 

I’m given the same room that I had been assigned before.  I’m surprised that they actually held the room for me. They in fact saved my place.  I sit in the courtyard looking up at the sky knowing that now I can benefit from all the healing properties of the dream.  I also can’t believe that I am fully aware of everything around me.  There is nothing out of place.  I have examined every detail of this dream, this reality and found every part to be complete in every detail.  Every word and sound makes perfect sense. I am in the process of healing my wounded soul.

 

After thought:

I was very struck by the honey combs.  Is this what a sixth dimension reality looks like, feels like? Within a hexagon is found the 6 pointed star or Star of David which is a reference to God.  Honey is a reference to love. 

“And thy Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees and in (men’s) habitations…there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colors, wherein is healing for mankind. Verily in this is a Sign for those who give thought”.   

Translation of Quran 16:68–69

Posted on

Fresh Drinking Water

Tap WaterI had a dream where I am at my house.  I have guests staying with me.  A cleaning lady is busy in one of the other rooms of the house cleaning. There is bird feed all over the floor.  I’m wondering where the bird feed came from.  In the corner of the room I find a small wicker basket with a cotton cloth lining that is filled with colorful bird feed.  Knowing the source of the feed, I turn and ask the cleaning lady to please tidy up the room and to be sure to pick up all the bird feed that has fallen on the floor.  After asking her I ask myself if I might have been a bit presumptuous in asking her to clean up for me after all I don’t have a maid in real life and I can very easily do it myself.  At this point, I’m obviously aware that I am dreaming.  I allow her to carry on her business not offering her any help…after all she is the cleaning lady be it only in the dream. 

I then walk over to the kitchen to get a glass of water.  Instead of turning on the water from the filtered tap I decide to use the regular tap to fill my glass.  I’m curious what the consistency of water is like in a dream.  After filling the glass with water I hold it up to a light that shines above my head.  In the water I can see tiny colorful micro organisms swimming about the glass that remind me of Sea Monkeys.  Puzzled I set the glass down on the counter and ask myself, where did the light above my head come from? 

With my hand firmly holding the glass on the counter I look up into the light and see billowing clouds gathering. Within the clouds I can see a face begin to emerge.  It is the face of God.  Knowing this is my opportunity to ask God for a favor, a favor he cannot refuse, a favor that might change the course of human history, I quickly think ….if you had only one question or favor to ask of God what would it be?  I want to ask for something universal that would benefit all mankind and not just myself.  Immediately I know what to ask for.  I look him straight in the eyes and ask, “God can you please give us clean drinking water from the tap.”   God looks up and away, slightly rolling his eyes at me while at the same time smiling in a way that lets me know I have in fact cornered him with the perfect request.  It is something that everyone needs and cannot live without.  After a short pause he turns to me and with seeming reluctance he agrees to grant my wish. 

The scene instantly changes and I now find myself standing outdoors in an open courtyard.  All peoples are gathering and gazing up at lights in the heavens.  There is a great display of beautiful lights in the sky in shapes that are unfamiliar to me.  I am disoriented not sure of where I am or what exactly we are looking at.  I immediately realize the awesomeness of that which we are beholding.  Celestial beings are arriving in space ships by the dozens. Very soon we will know our true origins. 

As we are gazing up at the approaching ships one of the landing gears falls off and lands next to me.  At first I think it is accidental but as I examine the landing gear which looks like a shoe to me it becomes apparent that they dropped it for me to retrieve.  The shoe is metallic with very sharp edges.  I turn the shoe over and inside it deep within the sole of the shoe is concealed a very bright light.  I am absolutely sure the shoe was not an accident. The shoe was delivered to me deliberately to conceal the light. Unfortunately, I don’t know what to do with it or how to use it.  I assume I should place the shoe in such a way that the light reflects back to the approaching ships as a beacon or light house a way for them to find me and take us home.  I try placing it over my head but its enormous size makes it difficult to work with.   It is about two thirds the size of my body. 

I finally give up and leave the shoe behind.  I decide to head for the country and away from the city and all the on lookers that are beginning to gather.  I feel as though I wasn’t able to fulfill my purpose. 

I get into my car and start driving.  The car I am driving is a convertible.  As I reflect in the rear view mirror I suddenly realize I am now three people; the observer, the driver and the passenger who is seated in the back seat of the car.  As the observer I see myself as God sees me.  As the observer I am looking at the passenger who is completely unaware that I am looking at him.  I see myself in him.  I can see the light coming from within him perched on his shoulder.  He is unaware, unaware that I am with him, unaware that I am in him, unaware that I and he are one, unaware that the three are one..unaware that although he sits as a passenger in the back seat of the car…he drives the car.  He is unaware that he carries the light upon his shoulder.

Posted on

Saint Theresa's Home Made Blueberry Cheese

Saint TheresaLast night I had a dream where I am with my ex and we are visiting Santa Teresita (Saint Theresa).  She lives with her husband in what used to be a disco I used to frequent when I lived in Los Angeles.  The building has a Spanish flare to it.  Inside, the house has 3 levels and the ceiling or roof of the building is visible from every level of the house.  It is a beautiful thatch ceiling much like a hut.  Santa Teresita is an artisan.  She has many of her own hand made Spanish artwork, sculptures, paintings and murals displayed in the house.  As a matter of fact she has even painted her own face (face painting). She also makes edible delights.  She has so many of these delights from which to choose from. I am hungry but can’t decide which one of the many delights I want for myself.  I know I can’t possibly sample all of them.  I want to choose the best one.  She then presents my ex with a gift for his business achievements.  The package has a beautiful deep blue wrapping.  He opens it to find that it is a home made blueberry and white cheese.  The blueberries in the cheese are huge.  He cuts a piece off for me to sample it making sure to use a clean knife to slice it with. It is so overwhelmingly delicious.  The taste sensation is out of this world. The berries are tart yet sweet at the same time and still have much of their juice. Her husband then presents me with a gift; three fragrant green bottles of shampoo presumably also naturally home made.  My ex asks me quietly what is the man’s name as if he had forgotten the name of Teresita’s husband.  I reply, “He doesn’t have a name but Santa Teresita does.”

 

Saint Thérèse de Lisieux (January 2, 1873 – September 30, 1897), or more properly Sainte Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte Face (“Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face”), born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, was a Roman Catholic Carmelite nun who was canonized as a saint, and is recognized as a Doctor of the Church, one of only three women to receive that honor. She is also known by many as The Little Flower of Jesus.

 

Thérèse is known for her “Little Way.” In her quest for sanctity, she realized that it was not necessary to accomplish heroic acts, or “great deeds”, in order to attain holiness and to express her love of God. She wrote,

 

“Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”

 

I found it interesting not knowing anything about Saint Theresa that my dream would draw my attention to her litteral face painting which is something that was very much out of place in the dream and correlation to her name Sainte Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte Face (“Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face”).  Dreams like this reasure me that I have been visited by the real person.   So who was the husband the man with no name?  Was it Christ?

 

This dream came at a time when my own heart has been very depressed.  I received consolation in Saint Theresa’s message “Little Ways”.  Maybe it’s not about making a big splash to change the world and have people see the importance of dreams.  Maybe I am making a difference …. one flower petal at a time…. one dream at a time.  My heart was uplifted today by this dream.  I have a renewed sense of hope.

Posted on

Smoky Truth

FireplaceLast night I had a dream where I am retelling my dream.  I am walking down my street that my house is on.  I stop to look at the beautiful landscape and the clear blue sky.  I notice the sky is too perfect and I become aware that I am dreaming.  Since I am retelling my dream I tell those with me that everything I see here even in it’s perfect appearance is an illusion. But then something catches my eye.  The neighbor’s house has changed.  It is bigger than before. My house does boarder their house.  I walk by the two houses twice to try to figure out how it could have changed.  Somehow I know this is not an illusion.  The homes are real.  

 

Now inside my house I pass by a tiled fireplace and something catches my eye in the reflection of the tile.  In the tiles reflection I can see the truth.   I can see who is actually in the room.  I can see both the physical and those invisible beings from other dimensions.  I am amazed.  I confront the other worldly beings those who are otherwise invisible except when reflected.  I show them that I am not afraid.  They are beautiful to look at.  I play and dance with them. 

 

My ex Michael comes over but he cannot see them. He is happy to see me, so happy that he has alas found me.  I too am happy to see him.  He stands out on the front porch to have a smoke.  While out there the other dimensional beings over hear him saying how much he still loves and wants to be with me.  They share this secret with me. 

Posted on

The 7th Seal and the Seeds of Enlightenment

SignetI had an incredible lucid dream where I am trying to achieve and master all the things I’ve always wanted to master.  I am recreating all the situations that will bring me the experiences I have wanted to defy.  I want to reveal all the things that have been hidden from me.  In this one dream scene, I am in my house which has a security system which keeps all things contained in their order.  Unknown to everyone else, there are hidden treasures stored in the walls of the house where no one would suspect.  I defy the security system bypassing it in such a way that I am able to gain access within the walls of the house.  Within the walls, they have hidden hallucinogenic substances to confuse and distort perception.  These treasures are a double edged sword.  On the one hand they keep those who might make it past the security system within a distorted perception of the truth yet on the other hand they possess the keys to enlightenment. 

 

There is a beast who oversees all operations within the walls.  I challenge him at every step of the way learning more and more about his secret world and how it works.  I pursue him relentlessly with supreme conviction and determination of mind. 

 

I was so much in awe at the experience that at one point I had to get up and pee. Worried that I would not be able to come back to this golden opportunity to experience truth, I held my bladder and remained in my bed to carry out the dream to its finale. 

 

Back in the dream, I come upon a door where a light shines forth underneath the door.  I bend over slightly to examine the source of the light.  From out of nowhere appears a penny on the floor.  Wow, synchronicity in the dream, I knew I was on the right track to discovering something very profound and the dream had just confirmed this by manifesting a penny. 

 

Now beside my Self with excitement in materializing a penny within the dream, I look around to carefully examine my surroundings.  This empowers me to press onward.  One illusion after another I am able to defy.  Finally there is only one last thing left for me to defy and that is the fear of being formless; to see myself as I really am.  I want to experience the void and conquer the fear of death.  I pursue the beast and corner him in front of a mirror.  He struggles to keep me from looking at my Self in the mirror.  I somehow know that if I can corner the beast and place him in front of me while standing in front of the mirror I will be able to see and know my own truth.  I tear the cloths off the beast pinning him in between me and the mirror.  In a moment of utter clarity, I am finally able to see myself as pure invisible void draped in the clothing of the beast.  I can also see the beast between me and the mirror completely naked.  His image is distorted and ugly yet I recognize that I AM the beast. 

 

The image of the beast melts away and in its place appears a second coin; a very large gold coin.  My alarm sounds “bad timing,” I think to myself.  I reach over without leaving the dream to hit the off button on my alarm.  I am amazed at my ability to be fully awake and at the same time fully within the dream.  As I marvel at my awareness and this radiant gold coin which I hold in the palm of my hand, an inscription appears on the coin.  It has inscribed on it “7H”  I can see the inscription very clearly but I am confused as to its meaning.  As I lay there holding the coin, a profound awareness comes over me.  I have broken the 7th Seal. 

 

Knowing I only had a few minutes remaining before I needed to get up I didn’t want to leave this state of consciousness.  I had this dream while attending the 2008 IASD conference in Montreal.  I was sharing a room with David L. Kahn.  I could hear him in the shower.   Determined to see this dream through I pressed on wanting to understand the significance of the signet. 

 

It suddenly occurred to me, “Tear down the walls!”  I quickly began tearing down the walls of the house like ripping wallpaper off a wall.  Underneath the wallpaper I could see screening rooms.  Alien civilizations were hidden in the walls of the house.  The aliens had left me two shipments within the walls for me to find at this particular time history.  These shipments contain the seeds of enlightenment stored in small packets that have a very pungent odor.  Some of the packets have seeds and others have worms.  The worms hold the secrets to the seeds of life.   The seeds need the worms to survive and grow yet they are contained separately in their chloroform baggies. 

 

The experience was so real I could swear aliens had arrived and announced themselves on Earth this morning.  I could see them arriving at their welcome centers.  Panic could be heard throughout the world. 

 

I try to get the message out that there is nothing to fear.  Then a pink cockatoo bird comes and begins eating the seeds from the packets before I have a chance to plant them in the ground along with the worms. 

 

I now have to pursue the bird. Without thinking I immediately take flight.  I can feel my wings flapping against my back carrying me to soar above the clouds in pursuit of the bird.  As I look down at the ground below me I am in total and utter awe.  I am flying!  I am a bird! 

 

It was total bliss.  Unable to breath I heard myself gasp for air.  I sat up in bed.  David was sitting at the edge of his bed meditating.  I immediately began sharing with him what I had just experienced.  Wow that was phenomenal!!! 

 

I remember thinking, Wow, we go through life asleep and unaware of the truth.  I was also struck by the word Chloroform.  I had never used the word before and I had no clue what the word meant.  I assumed it was a variation on the word Chlorophyll which I know to be the green pigment in plants so I decided to look the word up.  Coincidentally, I found the following:

 

The major use of chloroform today is in the production of the refrigerant R-22, commonly used in the air conditioning business. However, as the Montreal Protocol takes effect, this use can be expected to decline as R-22 is replaced by refrigerants that are less liable to result in ozone depletion. In addition, it is used under research conditions to anesthetize mosquitoes for experiments, most frequently for the study of malaria. In film and television, it is sometimes used in a fictional manner to knock out an unsuspecting victim, leaving no trace.

Chloroform was developed in the mid-1800s and was mainly used as an anesthetic. Inhaling chloroform vapors depressed the central nervous system of a patient, causing dizziness, fatigue and unconsciousness, allowing a doctor to perform simple surgery or other painful operations.

 

I found it interesting that Chloroform is used as an anesthetic to dullen the senses.

Posted on

All I Want To Be Is A Monk

Monk ParakeetI had a dream where I am in an interior room that is enclosed by glass.  It appears that I can see out but nobody can see into the room or it may be that no one is aware of the space I occupy.  I am feeling over looked.  My aunt Helen (my Godmother in real life) wants to be just like me.  Unlike the others, she is aware of the room and comes and stands just outside the closed door.  In honor of the room she genuflects.  In genuflecting she becomes a small parakeet.  I can see her flying in the open space outside the room. 

 

My friends and family notice that she has changed into a bird.  They believe she should return to being a human.  What they don’t understand or hear is her song.  In her song, I hear her true desire which is to be the bird that she now is.  Even though her plumage may be tattered from a long hard life and her size is insignificant, she is now finally everything she had ever dreamed of being; a bird.  What they don’t understand is that in her insignificance she has accomplished what she has always wanted.  

 

I shared this dream at the IASD conference in Montreal in my dream group.  In the group a gentleman named Bob suggested the parakeet might be a symbol for a monk because there is such a thing as a Monk Parakeet. After the session I thanked him for his symbol.  He then asked me to call him by the name “Sandman”.  When he said the name Sandman a chills went down my spine as I felt a wave of subtle energy flow through me.  I shared with him what I felt as the synchronicity of my meeting him and my previous dream where I met the Sandman which I titled, “The Jesus Man: A Gateway For Immigrants.”

Well what does that mean for me. I looked up the word Monk and found the following:

A monk (Greek: monachos), derived from Greek monos (alone), in modern parlance also referred to as a monastic, is a person who practices religious asceticism, the conditioning of mind and body in favor of the spirit, and does so living either alone or with any number of like-minded people, whilst always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions and in philosophy.

Asceticism (Greek: askēsis) describes a life-style characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures (especially sexual activity and consumption of alcohol) often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals. Indian religions (including yoga) teach that salvation and liberation involve a process of mind-body transformation that is effected through practicing restraint with respect to actions of body, speech and mind, whereas Christianity mandates that Jesus does this for them. The founders and earliest practitioners of these religions (e.g. Buddhism, Jainism, the Christian desert fathers) lived extremely austere lifestyles refraining from sensual pleasures and the accumulation of material wealth. This is to be understood not as an eschewal of the enjoyment of life but a recognition that spiritual and religious goals are impeded by such indulgence. Asceticism is closely related to the Christian concept of chastity and might be said to be the technical implementation of the abstract vows of renunciation. Those who practice ascetic lifestyles do not consider their practices as virtuous but pursue such a life-style in order to satisfy certain technical requirements for mind-body transformation. There is remarkable uniformity among the above religions with respect to the benefits of sexual continence. Religions teach that purifying the soul also involves purification of the body which thereby enables connection with the Divine and the cultivation of inner peace. In the popular imagination asceticism is considered a sort of perversion (self-flagellation by birch twigs as the archetypal stereotype of self-mortification) but the askēsis enjoined by religion functions in order to bring about greater freedom in various areas of one’s life, such as freedom from compulsions and temptations bringing about peacefulness of mind with a concomitant increase in clarity and power of thoug

…describes a life-style characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures (especially sexual activity and consumption of alcohol). Need I say more.

Posted on

Lemur's Pet Shop

LemurI have a dream where I am deployed to serve in the military.  My main concern is who is going to care for my parents while I’m gone.  It is an undercover assignment which will require me to lose my identity.  Even I won’t know who I am.  With a blink of an eye I slip into another dimension within the playing field.  We are in a submarine in a room with many beds.  There is a cleaning lady in the room on a break lying on one of the beds.  She looks at me and recognizes who I am. With her recognition, I realize I don’t know who I am. The only thing I know is that she knows who I am.  There is no turning back now. 
  
The location we are in is under occupation.  There are many men walking around who I did not invite here.  I had allowed only one person in who in turn allowed the others in.  Visiting hours are 2 12 and 5.  Everyone here has a blood disease.  They throw up on you.  One guy has had an outbreak 3 times already.  Doorknobs have yellow tags to indicate active infection.  Knowing I just arrived on stage here, I instinctively know I’m not infected yet.  I go into a restroom where I can be alone to plan out some form of strategy.  There is a guy in one of the stalls who is throwing up.  I have a sense that he is able to detect that I am not infected.  Knowing I must flee, I realize I can fly but I unable to descend.  He throws up on me like a bird regurgitating a meal for his young.  Outside the restroom door, there is a procession of inmates walking by.  In a vision I see a dove crossing a street.  Midway the dove begins to transform into a man and continuing his walk across the street.   
  
The scene now changes.  The war is over and my mission is ended. We are now at peace.  It is inauguration day to welcome in the newly appointed High Commissioner.  We are at the Council of Nations. There are television cameras capturing everything about this historic moment which marks the end of the war and the appointment of the new commissioner.  Two singers are invited to sing for the new High Commissioner.  The cameras pan the League of Nations where many sit.  Over the loud speaker I hear them ask one of the angelic voices to stand and be known.  “Angel #1 please stand and be known.”  The excitement rolls like thunder through though the crowd.  A beautiful blond woman stands in the distance and all begin to cheer.  Unable to contain her excitement she runs a great distance to arrive at the podium to greet the new commissioner.  Her hair is very long and very beautiful and her skin is milky white.  She is glowing with admiration.  She apparently deeply loves what she is doing to serve the commissioner.  They pan the audience a second time and over the loud speaker I hear, “Angel #2 please stand and be known.”   Without even thinking she immediately stands and rushs down toward the podium to join with Angel #1.  She is a vibrant red head with a milky grey colored skin that is strikingly distinct and beautiful.  The two angels stand together at the podium. They hug and kiss as the crowds cheer in a thunderous moment of sheer bliss.  Never before have two united as one in this way.  As they hug and kiss the blond angel’s hand accidentally cups the breast of the red haired angel.  It is an act so natural and befitting of an angel’s innocense and love. 
  
The crowd now becomes completely silent.  I am expecting to hear them sing but instead they drop into absolute silence as they look each other in the eyes.  In their silence I become lucid and immediately drop into a vision within the dream.  I am standing in front of a mirror. In the mirror I can see nothing except my third eye.  It is not as I’d expect my third eye to look.  My third eye is a radiant crystal suspended before me.  Within the crystal I can see the many geometric facets and all the many dimensions contained within it.  I can see the matrix a grid that separates the many dimensions. In the one I can see all.  Wanting to touch it, I reach out my hand and with my index finger I gently lay my finger tip upon it.  It seems to be nowhere yet in many places at once.  My sense of touch is in all places where it exists.  In response to my touch, my third eye crystal changes color to a brilliant passion red. 
  
I hear a voice asking me to describe it.  “What does it look like?  Does it look like….?”  No I answer…. immediately a wormhole appears with white and yellow light pulsating through it. It is so incredibly beautiful.  I ask them if they can see what I am describing.  In the wormhole I can see the city of Los Angeles.  The buildings are melting away leaving behind the natural beauty of the land.  
  
In recognition of my service to the mission I am granted an inheritance.  Since I love animals they give me a pet shop full of many exotic animals.  As I walk through the pet shop amazed that this could all be mine I am taken by group of lemurs sitting in an open cage.  They are so cute I wonder if they can be held.  I invite one to come upon me.  He jumps into my arms and begins nibbling on my finger.  He is toothless and completely harmless.  I am so happy. This is something I will enjoy doing for the rest of my life; finding good homes for these more exotic creatures. 
  
When my alarm sounded I simply opened my eyes for I was already awake.  There was no need to snooze my alarm to meditate for I had been meditating all night long.  I got up out of bed and marched into the bathroom to pee.  Feeling so overwhelmed by my dreams I had to sit down to do my business and ponder over the nights events.  As I sat there relieving my bladder I had a vision.  Three women approached me.  They were exquisitely beautiful.  Their ethereal gowns glistened with pink and magenta sequins.  Telepathically I heard a single word.  “Shambala”.
  
This night was all over the place.  How was I going to make sense of it all, yet I knew it held a profound message for me.  Here are some things I discovered while researching. 
  

The term “lemur” is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning “spirits of the night” or “ghosts“. This likely refers to their large, reflective eyes and the wailing cries of some species (the Indri in particular). Female dominance is a very rare social structure in mammals only observed consistently in hyenas and lemurs.

  

In the Commonwealth of Nations, a High Commissioner is the senior diplomat (ranking as an ambassador) in charge of the diplomatic mission of one Commonwealth government to another.

KalachakraShambhala is a Sanskrit term meaning “place of peace tranquility and happiness”. Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have taught the Kalachakra tantra on request of King Suchandra of Shambhala; the teachings are also said to be preserved there. Shambhala is believed to be a society where all the inhabitants are enlightened, actually a Buddhist “Pure Land”, centered by a capital city called Kalapa. An alternative view associates Shambhala with the real empire of Sriwijaya where Buddhist master Atisha studied under Dharmakirti from whom he received the Kalachakra initiation.

The image is from the Kalachakra thangka from Sera Monastery.  A “Thangka,” also known as “Tangka”, “Thanka” or “Tanka” is a painted or embroidered Buddhist banner which was hung in a monastery or a family altar and occasionally carried by monks in ceremonial processions. In Tibetan the word thang means flat, and thus the Thangka is a kind of painting done on flat surface but which can be rolled up when not required for display, sometimes called a scroll-painting. The most common shape of a Thangka is the upright rectangular form.

JUNE 20, 2008 — I’m reading Carlos Castaneda’s, “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge” and came across this quote which rings true with where I am along my spiritual path and has resonance with the dream. Here he talks about the 4 things we must overcome.  The first is Fear, the second is Clarity, the third is Power and the fouth is …..<haven’t read that far yet>.

“He must do what he did with fear: he must defy his clarity and use it only to see, and wait patiently and measure carefully before taking new steps; he must think, above all, that his clarity is almost a mistake. And a moment will come when he will understand that his clarity was only a point before his eyes. And thus he will have overcome his second enemy, and will arrive at a position where nothing can harm him anymore. This will not be a mistake. It will not be only a point before his eyes. It will be true power.

He will know at this point that the power he has been pursuing for so long is finally his. He can do with it whatever he pleases. His ally is at his command. His wish is the rule. He sees all that is around him. But he has also come across his third enemy: Power!”

Posted on

Idealism: I Think therefore I Am

Pillars of HerculesLast night I had a dream where I am visiting my nephew who is a student in college.  He has most of his days free able to enjoy the campus.  He shows me around campus.  The campus is on the edge of the sea.  The water is tropical, shallow and crystal clear such that I can clearly see the sand at my feet.  There are many boulders and rock formations in the shallow sea that protrude above the surface of the water. 
 
We are standing in the shallow waters where we have a clear line of sight down a water way that leads to where I come from; my point of origin 3000 miles away.  I know this to be the path I need to take in order to return home. As I stand there with him, we marvel at the majestic beauty that is this place.  As I am standing there I realize I am standing atop of an old ruin.  I am standing on a pillar; the leg of a man; a stone statue that once stood here.  All that remains is the stone from his ankle down to his shoe of both his right and left leg which now form two pillars. I stand upon the stone that is his left leg to admire his shoes.  In looking closely at his shoes I notice he wore tennis shoes.
 
In a moment of clarity, I become lucid.  I suddenly know where I stand.  With a new awareness, I realize they had idealized his tennis shoes.  Looking out upon the horizon, I realize the magnitude of where I stand. 
 
As I stand upon the pillar of his left leg, the ruin around me now begins to rematerialize as it once was before the day of its destruction.  From the sea arose an arch to my right that is covered in seaweed.  I know that by standing on the ruin of his leg I bring the life force back to this man because these were my tennis shoes.  Now awestruck with this revelation, I know I must return home with the news.  In the strait, a staircase appears.  I run up the stairs to the top but when I reach the top there is no place else to go.  I turn back, knowing I will have to return home the hard way and travel through the campus to the other side.  Running back toward the campus of the university, I arrive at a wooden gate that is secured with a pad lock.  The moment I stand in front of the gate the pad lock releases and the gate swings open. 
 
I pass though the gate and enter the campus courtyard.  Standing in the center of the courtyard I look back and see a demon standing on the inside of the now open gate.  This demon had allowed me in.  The demon then run toward me.  My initial reaction is to flee but a part of me knows I must confront this demon head on once and for all.  I circle the courtyard and turn myself around to take up my stand.  Like a bull in a ring, I lower my eyebrows in a determined frown.  I charge the demon head on.  Surprised by my action the demon turns to retreat to a corner.    Head to head I corner him and open my eyes to awake from the dream. 

At the foot of my bed was standing a sea faring man who wore a sailor’s hat.  In his left hand he held a shoe; heel facing me.  He was shaking like a wet dog.  He was offering me the shoe as he repeatedly ran his index finger along the ankle of the shoe. 
 
I immediately grabbed my voice recorder to record the details of the dream.  I knew the dream had great importance to me.  When I got to the part about the tennis shoes I became stuck unable to place a word to the feeling I had felt surrounding the shoes.  As if to help me, the sailor placed the words so clearly in my mind.  They came like a refreshing sea breeze that I could literally feel.  “They idealized his shoes.”
 
I thought that’s an odd way to describe it.  It wouldn’t have been my choice of words but I knew those words were true to the dream.  He then held out the shoe.  I reached over to receive the shoe and held it in my hand.  Sitting in my bed, my alarm clock sounded as the sailor disappeared leaving behind the etheric blue shoe in my hand.   I reached over to snooze the alarm.  I put the shoe under my covers and laid there in amazement. 
 
On the way to work someone traveling on the Metro with a suitcase bumped my ankle removing my shoe.  I stopped to fix my shoe thinking, “that’s a strange coincidence.”  At work I searched Wikipedia for a suitable image to convey the imagery of the dream.  The water way reminded me of the Straits of Gibraltar.  I knew nothing of Gibraltar other than the fact that there was a water way so I looked it up.  This led me to the Rock of Gibralter.  Come to find out the Rock of Gibraltar is also known as the Pillars of Hercules.  I was beside myself.  Here this dream turned out to be a continuation of yesterdays dream. .
 
I knew there was definitely something very profound here.  The synchronicity gave me the assurance that what I experienced is in fact real.  I then decided to look up the meaning of idealize which was an oddly placed word conveyed by the dream.  I felt it had some significance that I need to investigate.  As I followed this clue, I was lead to the term idealism.  I was surprised to find the word has a lot to do with metaphysics and God.
 

Idealism is the doctrine that ideas, or thought, make up either the whole or an indispensable aspect of any full reality, so that a world of material objects containing no thought either could not exist as it is experienced, or would not be fully “real.” Idealism is often contrasted with materialism, both belonging to the class of monist as opposed to dualist or pluralist ontologies.

In Eastern thought, as reflected in Hindu idealism, the concept of idealism takes on the meaning of higher consciousness, essentially the living consciousness of an all-pervading God, as the basis of all phenomena. A type of Asian idealism is Buddhist idealism.

Plato
Main article: Platonic idealism
In common discussion, Plato is often referred to as an “idealist”, because of his doctrine of the “Forms,” which are certainly “ideals,” in a broad sense. But Plato doesn’t describe the Forms as being in any mind. Instead, he regularly describes them as having their own, independent existence.[1] So it seems clear that Plato is not, at any rate, a “subjective” idealist, like Berkeley.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is sometimes interpreted as drawing attention to the problem of knowing “external objects”–the problem that concerned Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and other modern philosophers. But the Forms that the Cave-dwellers are ignorant of aren’t “external” to them in the way that material objects are for these modern thinkers. The Forms are the true realities, but they aren’t spatially outside us, as material objects are. So the issue that Plato’s allegory addresses–which is, roughly, how can we know what is truly real (and truly good)?–is quite different from the modern issue of our knowledge of the “external world.”

However, even if Plato doesn’t share the specific concerns of modern philosophy, and of George Berkeley, in particular, Plato could still be a non-subjective idealist. He could believe that matter has no independent existence, or that full “reality” (as distinct from mere existence) is achieved only through thought. Bernard Williams and Myles Burnyeat have maintained that Greek philosophers never conceived of idealism as an option, because they lacked Descartes’s conception of an independently existing mind.[2] But Williams and Burnyeat didn’t consider the possibility that Plato could have held an idealism like Kant’s, which argues from the nature of knowledge to the nature of the objects of knowledge, or like Hegel’s, which denies that matter is fully “real”–without (in either case) reducing material objects to ideas in a mind or minds. Moreover, Plato’s theory of the separation of soul and body could be seen as an earlier, rougher form of Cartesian dualism.

The German Neo-Kantian scholar, Paul Natorp, argued in his Plato’s Theory of Ideas. An Introduction to Idealism (first published in 1903)[3] that Plato was a non-subjective, “transcendental” idealist, somewhat like Kant, and Natorp’s thesis has received support from some recent scholars.[4]

Descartes
Writing about Descartes, Schopenhauer claimed, “… he was the first to bring to our consciousness the problem whereon all philosophy has since mainly turned, namely that of the ideal and the real. This is the question concerning what in our knowledge is objective and what subjective, and hence what eventually is to be ascribed by us to things different from us and what is to be attributed to ourselves.” (Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. I, “Sketch of a History of the Doctrine of the Ideal and the Real”) According to Descartes, we really know only what is in our own consciousnesses. We are immediately and directly aware of only our own states of mind. The whole external world is merely an idea or picture in our minds. Therefore, it is possible to doubt the reality of the external world as consisting of real objects. “I think, therefore I am” is the only assertion that can’t be doubted. This is because self-consciousness and thinking are the only things that are unconditionally experienced for certain as being real. In this way, Descartes posed the issue of epistemological idealism, which is awareness of the difference between the world as an ideational mental picture and the world as a system of external objects.

Does this mean I’m Hercules…or possibly a divine hero?  I think…therefore I Am.  In keeping humble, I interpret it as my potential is herculean and if I exercize it, I can be a hero in my own right.  There is something so compelling in all this that makes me feel I’m onto something.  I get the feeling that if I stay on course I will do or discover something in the course of my life that can have the potential to change human history.