Whenever we make a decision, we become something: we become the thing that does “that,” – whether it’s good or bad. And, on a certain level, that creates our identity. You could say that who we are is the sum total of what we will do and, even more importantly, what we won’t do. Yet, at the same time, to become aligned and intertwined with the universe, we also have to let go of that identity to allow ourselves to truly merge with what is higher. (At the end of this post there are instructions and a link to download this recording to your computer.)
Jeane: Well, I lost my main dream, and all I really know about the dream is, I think one of the reasons I lost it, when I opened my eyes was that I was in conflict about something. It was like kind of one side debating another side, and I couldn’t hold onto that when I opened my eyes.
And I did have an after image, and the after image is like I just mowed the lawn where I was living, and I’m thinking about it’s almost like the image of a Y-shape, in other words, like if you kind of came up the sidewalk and the sidewalk goes to the right, but I had also gone off to the left which was all grass.
And now I’d come back after I had mowed the lawn, and I’m kind of at the top of the Y on the sidewalk, and I’m sweeping up all the loose grass and stuff. But it stirred up so much dust I have to put on a little mask, and once I have a little mask on then I realize it’s still stirring up so much I need to put something over the eyes, too. That was the only image.
John: So, the theme of the dream is about definition. In other words, every person, no matter how they try, never quite gets to the essence in which everything is still. And that, as a consequence, whatever signature note that they carry creates dreams, creates images, creates a dynamic in which the outer, which appears to be a dynamic that is actively engaging, is technically an illusion in which, if one didn’t have their nature, you know, their signature note going at it, you wouldn’t have an imbalance. You would be in flow and intertwined with everything.
You naturally are, but because everyone has a signature note this, then, no matter what they do, whether it’s good action or bad action it really doesn’t matter because what matters is the definition that you find yourself buying into. And so the tone is set by your initial dream, that you don’t hardly remember, in which you find yourself as having a contrast. And, of course, whenever you feel there’s a contrast, or decision-making, or positioning, or whatever it might be, that sets in motion something that keeps you from coming to a complete stillness or an emptiness.
And then you have the image in which you are on a path, and you choose to veer this way or that way on a path, which means you cover the territory, or the lawn, that extends in one side or another of the path. And you’re experiencing this to recognize that this is just how one’s predilection is – as it tends to have to invoke, or involve, in relationship to an overall. It does not know how to just be an amoeba, or an intertwined essence, in the overall. It is always constantly struggling to stand out, or be recognized, or in some capacity function, and it does so in terms of an orientation that it has taken on, and that orientation, whether its an orientation that’s good, bad, or otherwise is still an orientation that takes one outside of what really is the natural stillness.
That’s why on, say, the Naqshbandi path you have the dhikr. Conceivably, if you could do the dhikr correctly, you would be in a deeper space inside of yourself so that you would be functioning in the outer without a mind and senses going at it to try to define your caricature in the outer. You would instead be immersed in something that you’re deeply touched by, which is the overall, the oneness, the heart of the world, the light of the world.
Even though you may not see it, you would still be putting yourself as much into that as possible, to the point where you lose yourself in that, as opposed to some mannerism instead of how you see yourself.
The same thing’s true of listening to the sound, like I do in the meditation, and as Shadeen has indicated, that’s all he does when he meditates, which is an interesting statement. I asked him something about that, and he says, “That’s all I do.” Now, of course, on what level are we talking about? And what is it that he’s able to actually truly listen to?
But what I’m noticing is that if you can listen to this completely, and not have some part of yourself loudly jumping about, you can come closer and closer, or who knows to what degree you actually are able to experience the essence of it all, instead of some mannerism, or motif, that you propound.
To download this file, Right Click (for PCs) or Control Click (for Macs) and Save: Immersed in Something
