Dreams Require Action

Yesterday, on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, a date I, like many people on this planet, remember with sorrow and prayers for the dead, a date that shocked us all awake, I posted my dream for post election America.

Today I want to emphasize that dreams require action. Those of us who have a dream of a cooperative society, not a warring one, must take whatever steps we can to help make it so.  In my dream, each person has his or her own disposition and soul purpose, so no one can dictate what another should do, but we all do something.

I'm dedicated to the spirituality of Love, which is not a person, but a vital Energy, as in essence are we.  Love is something that can seldom truly be described in human paradigms. So for me, the challenge is to come up with something creative, something I can do from my heart, that might help make it so.

Well, speaking out is one thing.  In my post election America, we aren't afraid to talk with one another, but we use respect.  Name calling, bullying let alone shooting people doesn't come into the equation.  We try to figure it out, we ask our dreams for council, we believe there is a way to live together and serve a greater purpose than our puny little physical selves.  The fact is, as human beings, we die.  Jesus came back from the dead, but that's not all that unusual.  We all come back. We all cross over. Maybe Jesus just wants to make us feel safe in that crossing.  This is why I call dreams organic spirituality; anyone can figure this out for themselves if they pay attention to their dreams.

It occurs to me, that sign in town I mentioned yesterday employs a strategy that reduces everything to a false slogan and appeals to fear, trusting it's the most common denominator among the people of this great land right now. These words are really more symbol than sign, meaning, they pack an emotional wallop that goes far beyond words.   It's large and simple, OBAMA = SOCIALISM in red and the catchy one liner, "gateway drug to" in between the two big words.  In my dream, I see a sign right across the street in the same mode: JESUS = SOCIALISM with the thought in between "He loves the poor."  See what I mean? 

I'm not comparing President Obama to Jesus, but neither should anyone compare him to Stalin or Castro.  That is why this gentleman's sign is inflammatory: it uses the biggest hot buttons in the American psyche, or so he thinks.  It's defamatory, because the person this is being said about has done nothing to deserve this incredible disrespect, and not true because caring for the poor is not really communism or any other ism the world has contrived; it's Christian, according to the teachings of Jesus.

I’m very lucky that back in the late 70s and early 80s when I was studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood at  Colgate Rochester Divinity School, http://litadreaming.blogspot.com/2010/03/awesome-correlations.html the theologians I read, the people who taught me and the nuns, priests and bishops I knew, were all very much in favor of ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood. Then Rome managed to reassign a lot of those bishops, to Siberia, I presume, and many theologians were “silenced” (just ask the ever beautifully vocal, Matthew Fox, the theologian not the actor).

Today, RC Headquarters through the Pope is yelling at American nuns for caring about the poor more than protesting against abortion; really?  I’ve always, always found a great deal to admire about  many major sisterhood orders in this country. I’ve lost track of the RC community because my spiritual interests are elsewhere, but I'm always proud of what many American nuns are accomplishing. 

And what I’ve always loved about Jesus is his commitment to the least among us. When we start calling caring and social justice, socialism, we turn into an unsociable contentious culture obsessed with money; when hate is stronger than love, we’re in for tough times ahead.  In my dream of the future, Americans have the heart to live their Christianity and not be fooled by dictates and dogma from the old boys club.  Just because your pastor or priest tells you to jump off a bridge, doesn’t mean you have to do it.  No, we listen to our Mother, she speaks to our Hearts and we vote our conscience.

In my dream, we Americans don’t make a caricature of our Divine; we accept each  person’s way of expressing spirituality, just as we respect each person’s way of finding intimacy and relationship. There are a diversity of roads that all converge in Love, we respect them all. 

Now here’s my huge disclaimer; the visual image I chose for this post is very strong, dreams have taught me the power of image.   I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS A SOCIALIST; I BELIEVE HE LOVES THE POOR.  Also, I DO NOT BELIEVE PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST;  HE ACTS MORE LIKE A CHRISTIAN THAN THE OTHER PARTY'S NOMINEES.  AND JUST LIKE JESUS, HE STANDS UP FOR THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.

Back to my communal dream; a communal dream must be communal.  If we each contribute something to making our dream happen, we can do just that.  I’m calling all Jesus loving Christians especially to ask themselves in their heart, would Jesus vote for the rich merchant or would he vote for a man like Barack Obama?  Also, we know what Jesus would say about violence and nasty approaches to our message; he’d say be creative, but come from your heart, not in anger, but in hope,  creatively, as creative as you can get.

Let’s dream on it and let’s act on it.  Let’s make the future we want, not just for ourselves, but for our children, their children and everyone’s children, for many generations to come.

Dreaming the Future - Si Se Puede

In my town,  a gentleman of means, very active in the Republican party, who happens to own a billboard on a very main drag in town, posted a political message that I consider  inflamatory, defamatory and untrue.  I’m told he owns the signage under personal property license so, he can post what he wants there.  Well, I’m all for freedom of speech. 

I can get mad, but that's a lot of energy I'm giving to the dark side. Searching for peace, I realize that Now, more than ever, it’s important to dream, not just a personal dream, but a dream for the community.  When I let my heart feel the deep divide in our collective consciousness at this moment, I feel anxiety, dismay, bewilderment and anger. When I exercise my imagination to dream a better future outcome,  I feel hopeful and I'm encouraged to act to make that dream a reality.

The dream I have for America in this election  is that the person who cares most for all of the people of our nation be elected President .  In my dream,  I also see a Congress filled with intelligent, committed public servants who care deeply and compassionately for all the people of our country, regardless of wealth,  and who will make decisions that respect and empower  every person.  I also see leaders who will take responsibility  for safeguarding our planet Earth for the benefit of at least seven future generations, as our Native American ancestors taught.   I dream a future where we respect Nature as Gaia, living Consciousness,  who not only depends on us, but more profoundly, on Whom we depend completely.

I see citizens of this country making the effort to be truly informed.  We base our opinions on the public record of those who serve us, not on slogans thrown out by political marketers with no basis in fact. In addition, we consider much more than the economy when we weigh the qualifications of our leaders.  As they say, you can’t take it with you.

In my dream, we know that there are key human rights protected by the Constitution  that are deeply  at stake in this election.  While the right to free speech is one of them, so is the right to freedom of religion (and from religion).

In my dream, women of all religious affiliations realize that Father doesn't know best.  Who says that god is male and woman must obey Him? The Book of Mormom? The Bible? The Koran?  The Vatican?  (I’ll give you one big HINT; they don’t call these patriarchal religions for nothing).  In my America - the one just down the road in a couple of months - woman is still free to choose her conscience in all matters related to her own body.  We know that abortion is a RELIGIOUS issue, not a political one.  To allow one religious group to legislate morality is to demolish the most basic freedom a human being can hope for, the right to choose and pursue their own spiritual truth according to their own conscience.   Only patriarchal religions seek incessantly to control women and restrict their voice and power in the body politic; in my dream we know that an American Taliban like government is one to avoid and we will not vote for patriarchal religious fanaticism in any stripe.

 

In my dream of America,  post the 2012 elections,  I see that many,  many people  have come together to solve our problems in a heartfelt way.  We don’t dismiss each other with empty labels, as if life is one big football game.  We value our amazing diversity of race, culture, gender and beliefs, so we create social structures that work for everybody.  We are a spiritual and conscious culture,  excited by the revelations of this new age where science and spirituality meet, where dreams prove their power to each one of us and we each connect in our own way with our Consciousness of Divinity.   We have access to other worlds, other dimensions of reality through our dreams, we don’t fear the unknown, we explore it.  

Even if we still struggle to feed, clothe and educate  ourselves and our communities, we don’t fear destruction or lack. We want less and create our own plenty with cooperation and imagination. Will there still be greedy, selfish people?  Perhaps, but we don’t call them smart business people and uphold their realities for them; we help them to lay down that heavy burden and walk into a consciousness that is spiritual as well as material. 

In my future America, voters, the majority of us, have embraced a path with heart, not just on the coasts, but all through the land.     There is a new Consciousness about life and death and we're not afraid. Teachers like Eckhart Tolle. Caroline Casey and Robert Moss are gaining ever growing popularity among us.  We are investing in much more than our economy, we are growing our spirit.

For the next two months, I’ll be busy expanding this dream because I need to believe in what I value most, the power of Love, and not allow myself to be prematurely dismayed.  So I invite all  you wonderful citizens of this great land to dream a piece of this dream and do what you can to make it a reality.

May all the Goodness that guides the great universe lend us teachers, guardians  and companions in this soul quest to dream a communal dream we can wake up to post elections.

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”  (I do hope John Lennon is one of our guides, doing what he can to fuel this dream from his side of existence now - maybe that’s why he’s been back in my night dreams lately.)

As Within So Without

PBS NOVA's "The Fabric of the Cosmos."

I think we're living in a time of extreme paradigm shifts, cursed and blessed with fantastic changes.  On one hand, quantum mechanics is stretching prior scientific theories of physical reality in mind-boggling directions.  I really can’t listen to guys like Brian Greene while I’m driving, though I love to other times, because I might find myself driving off the road in wonderment.  What I most love about all the theories I’m hearing from Greene and others in his field is the many parallels I can draw to dreaming and dreaming reality.

From my own dreaming, lucid dreams and OBE experiences, inner space has many dimensions, but perhaps it’s not inner space at all, but the back door of physical reality that opens on to a Greater Reality, True Consciousness, The Collective Unconscious, Space, the Universe, That Which Is?  I frankly don’t know what to call it.  But once dreaming becomes a practice, paradigms suffer a seismic shift.

For one, anything is possible.  You can fly.  You can outsmart the ax murderer.  You can have your prince and….well, some things are better left to the imagination.  Dream barriers are bridgeable; the world of form is only one world, but the dream worlds play by different rules.  Paradigm shift?  Definitely.

Another paradigm shifter is Eckhart Tolle, ET.  The ego is insane?  I love it.  I think, the ego should be the chauffer, not the driver.  The owner of the limo is the SELF; the ego is only the driver, though of vital importance.   According to ET, an ego in control is dangerous; a New Earth will come into being when we all learn to shift our paradigms from bug on the rug egos to cosmic awareness of our own eternity.  

Even though these times are trying, they are definitely among the most interesting and worth while of times to live for seekers.  May your best dreams come true.

Happy Independence!

A lot of national holidays around the world have to do with war.  The 4th of July, 1776 is when our country declared independence from its colonial overlord, England.  We celebrate it as our nation's birthday, though it took another seven years of bloody battle to seal the deal.  

So what’s independence to you?  Freedom from tyranny?  The right to do what you want, within certain legislated limits?  The pursuit of happiness?

Jim just finished reading his third John Burdett crime mystery in a row,  “The Godfather of Kathmandu” set in Thailand. He told me about the detective of the series, Sonshai Jitpleecheep, a practitioner of Buddhist teaching, who views American obsession with “the pursuit of happiness” to be a great national psychosis preserved in our cultural meme in the Declaration of Independence, 

Thanks to that ever-helpful cyber-encyclopedia, Wikipedia, I can share the exact phrase Sonshai is talking about:

“The United States Declaration of Independence, which was primarily drafted by Jefferson, was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.[3] The text of the second section of the Declaration of Independence reads,

    ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’”

As political documents go, it does sound inspired.  But in my understanding of Buddhist teachings, happiness is as much an illusion as suffering is, so that’s why the pursuit of it is crazy.  If I’m happy or sad, it’s on the level of my Ego consciousness, not my Eternal consciousness that exists now and forever, outside of time.  There is only the Present; life is to be experienced as fully and consciously as possible in the Now.  That doesn’t mean lots of possessions, drugs, sex and rock and roll, necessarily.  It means always being aware of my own truth and opening my heart to living what is, not what I wish it might be.  Time is a mental construct, convenient for some things in the material world, but reality is only in the present moment, so to live in the past or the future is to spin one’s wheels.  Of course, to live fully means also to be alive in my dreams, or else I’m missing out on an entire aspect of my existence on this planet, my link to Home.

So here’s to independence, not just from political tyranny, but from limiting beliefs and self-imposed limitations, Blake’s mind-forged manacles.  Here’s to freedom from fear and hate; here’s to life. 

I'm posting this video of Jim playing our national anthem in honor of those who for love or duty are serving in the US military branches on this celebration of our nation's birthday. 

More to Me Than Meets the I

Should I not be I, but us? 

Talking in an interview about his awakening to the power of the present, Eckhart Tolle explains that what stopped him as a young man from succumbing to his suicidal thoughts one agonizing night was recognizing as he was thinking, “I can’t stand to live with myself anymore,” that there must be two of him. “Who is I who can’t stand to live with Self?” he asked. This epiphany was the catalyst that initiated his journey to become one of the world’s foremost spiritual teachers, to my delight, one who intentionally disaffiliates from formal religions. 

My interest in Tolle’s teachings began in early May when I borrowed the audio book, A New Earth.  At the end of April, before I encountered his teachings, I posted about my little big dream that posed the question, “Can the ego be dissolved, what is the role of the observer?” and shared with you my own power of Now mini epiphany.  http://litadreaming.blogspot.com/2012/04/observer-or-observed.html 

The serendipity of finding his teachings on ego/observer right after writing about the same subject confirms for me the importance of this material, as they say, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I’m sharing the story with you because it also makes the organic process of dream spirituality pretty obvious.  A dream from 11 years ago (Hey, Trish, I found my eleven!) seeds this profound spiritual koan in my heart and gradually, with the help of one sign post after another, leads me to this great, new to me, teacher who can deepen my understanding of the question.

Dreams are organic spirituality; all it takes is listening, paying attention and braving up to the difficulties they may present, as well as, recognizing the gifts they bring.  Writing them down ensures that you’ll have them eleven years later or when you can really appreciate them.  Dreams are way ahead of us.

I began by asking a question about our use of the personal pronoun, should it be singular or plural? Well “we” is the royal personal pronoun, isn’t it? 

There are many theories of personality proposing that we’re actually multi-selves, whether we talk about  complexes, sub-personalities or lost soul parts.  It can be a little hard wrapping the logical mind around this; I think of it as psychic string theory.  In many psychological models, the ego is seen as the captain of the ship, the center of personality that must be in charge to keep us from going crazy.  The stronger the ego, the better able one is to cope with life’s vicissitudes and become successful.

Tolle shakes things up when he proposes that the ego is crazy and letting the ego control our lives is insane, both on a personal and collective level.  The ego is shortsighted and easily deluded; egoic consciousness focuses on the world of form, gets lost in the past or the future and is thrall to distorting subjective thoughts and projections.  When we switch our awareness, become the Observer, we live in the reality of the present moment and can tune in to a larger consciousness than our puny human egoic thinking can fathom. The observer is the part of us that can see the ego’s self-created dilemmas and detach, releasing the obsession by seeing it for what it is, what William Blake termed, mind forged manacles.

The challenge that Tolle lays out isn’t new and sounds pretty Buddhist to me, but his synthesis of many spiritual teachings into a clear, contemporary understanding is very helpful.

.

So, can the ego be dissolved?  What is the role of the observer?

Shall we sleep on it?

Here’s the link to ET TV where he tells his story.

http://www.eckharttolletv.com/adwords1?_s_ref=75E59Cx3S&kw=[eckhart%20tolle]&creative=8377150426&gclid=COqP2Kevt7ACFQlN4Aodm2V76g

Who’s Out There?

 The other day a dear friend, a man I’ve known for over 30 years, called to share a dream that excited him but made him wonder if he was crazy.  Having known him so long, I couldn’t guarantee he isn’t crazy, (kidding) but I know his dream is not.

In the dream he hears himself say; “Lord, what is the meaning of life?”   The answer he hears is, “To live it.”

I’d call this type of dream, A Little Big Dream, simple, spiritual and to the point.  It’s the type of dream that sets you pondering and makes you feel instinctively that you’re not alone. 

To be fair, some might ask, is this the voice of his waking conscious mind reminding him of what he already knows or is it the voice of something other than the dreamer himself? The more you pay attention to your own and other people’s dreams, the more easily you recognize that there are common threads that link us when it comes to dream experiences. 

The question of what is consciousness in waking and dreaming is the subject of much exploration in the field of lucid dreaming.  One of my favorite lucid dream authors, Robert Waggoner, writes about his awakening to the humbling realization that although lucid in his dream, he could direct the focus of his experience, but he (his dream ego) was not in control of the experience or all the characters anymore than he could be in waking life:

 “…I knew that something was “behind” the dream, even when lucid.  There was simply more than the waking self conscious in the dream state…the conscious unconscious, the creative system – something – hid behind the creations, yet could be seen in the creativity…I knew too that I did not control the unconscious and its expressions…”
Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self; p.63

Sometimes this "something" is a Voice, like the one my friend experienced hearing, (Waggoner also talks about a Voice). These dreams crack me up because of their sheer directness.  I shared my Voice revelation dream with him (the one I recently told you about in my post, “The Observer or the Observed”).  I wanted him to know that he wasn’t alone in his experience.    

We talked about his dream for a long time; I guided him through the Lightning Dreamwork process, the quick, non-intrusive dream game developed by Robert Moss as a guideline for sharing dreams and discovering their energy. After we finished, his dream shines with its message of soul purpose and soul consolation.  Despite the difficult circumstances of his life, it illuminates his heart with courage and sparks a desire for something deeper, attainable with the help of his dreams. 

What makes life worth living?  What’s it all about? What is the meaning of life?  To live it. 

But what if you don’t care to live it?  What if it’s so hard, you want to give up or if somehow the meaning has gone out of it, you’re just marking time?  This is true for an astounding number of people in western “civilized” cultures, and it has nothing to do with the tanking economy. 

Dreams offer profound revelations, spiritual truths that fill the aching void in us and give us the courage to live more fully. When we put our ear to the pillow, we create an opportunity to open our hearts to the messages of hope and inspiration that can come from dreams. Dreaming is the royal road to soul recovery; bidden or unbidden, our dreams light  our way home.

Robert Moss’ new book, Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole, is a goddess send for anyone who wants to explore the soul healing aspect of dreaming.

Ancient Mother

I trace my awakening to the Mother archetype to my dreams, especially one Big Dream. Raised under patriarchal religious paradigms, I salute the amazing Power of the Dream Source that gave me, "Howling Mary."

Happy Mother's Day to all women, and perhaps to all men. (What are the odds, if you choose this life setting often, that you've been both sexes?)

Thanks to all women who choose to give birth, and to those who don't.

Thanks to all men, who don't just plant seed, but nurture it.

Happy Mothers and Fathers day.

Howling Mary is the Goddess pissed off about a whole lot of things.  The way the boys are running things; the wanton destruction of hearts and earth. She's the return of the Feminine to Divinity.  I don't just want equal pay, I want Her to share divinity with Him.  Mother/Father, Sister/Brother.  When She is recognized as One Who Has Always Been, the Archetype of Divine Motherhood, the Creator and Nurturer, the Earth, things will change.  Mothers are a good influence in general; She is the psychic part missing from our paradigm.

With all apologies to Mary; the Goddess is Not a Virgin. She likes sex.  She gives birth, not just once but continuously, to us and to all that is.  She also wouldn't step on a snake or anything else.  She can be Wild, She is Nature.  But Mother Virgin Mary is as much of the Goddess as the boys could take, the people wouldn't give her up and they had to give them something.

Howling Mary is Mad as Hell and She Ain't Going to Take it Anymore.  That seems to be what my dream is saying.  How many of us will join her in howling?

I love women; the women in my life, starting with my mom and continuing with the dearest of dear friends; I wish we'd get busy doing more to ensure that women aren't rendered inconsequential once again.  I shudder at the thought of being legally bound by life altering and restricting rules, just because I'm a woman, and because only men make the decisions.  I love men, for the very same reasons.  My dad is my Buddha; it just came naturally to him to be the best father possible.  My brother is a wonderful man and a loving friend, my loving husband, Jim, and so many wonderful guy friends.  I call on them to get busy, too.  Whatever happened to 50/50 here in the USA? 

Honoring the Mother is a great first step to healing the planet; can you imagine a Middle East that honors Her?  I think any religion that relegates Her to the bench, relegates women to varying degrees of jeopardy.   Extreme, rigid, dogmatic men are dominant in Christian sects today, too.  I think western women need to participate more in changing the paradigm for the sake of future generations, especially.  Dogmatic rigidity kills Spirit; just ask Jesus.

 

I sing a heart song for the Mother today.