Dream
Beings
“All
human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all humankind
together.”
Jack
Kerouac
The
Dalai Lama has said that sleep is the best meditation. When we sleep,
we dream. And even if you don't remember your dreams, they are
necessary to healthy living. But if you do remember your dreams, even
occasionally, and take the time to write them down and ponder their
meaning, they are so much more than random neurons firing.
Paying
attention to dreams takes practice. We must discipline ourselves
to remember by writing down at least the thread of the dream as soon
as we wake. Later, that thread will help to pull back other details.
Sometimes, when a lot is going on in our outer life, when our mind is
filled with the concerns of living in the world, we will not remember
our sleeping dreams. Too focused are we on the external to have the
still, small voice of the dream break through. Often, however, when
we wrestle with a dilemma in our outer life, a dream will come that
clarifies, or shows us an alternative direction that our waking mind
had not considered.
Dreams
are another of life's everyday mysteries—both nocturnal dreams and
day-dreams. When we pay attention to them, they guide us from within,
from a part of ourselves that is not influenced by fads or politics
or family pressure. The soul is real. It does not simply appear at
the moment of our death. It is there all along, though it has no
voice. It must speak to us in dreams and images, in synchronicity and
symbol, in spontaneous thoughts and sometimes, in the words of other
people, or in song.
I
encourage you once again, to pay attention to your dreams—both day
dreams and night dreams. Tune in, so to speak, to the flow of your
internal dialog. The soul is a great teacher—ask it some difficult questions.
As Kerouac points out, all human beings are also dream beings.
There's a reason for that.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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