Tag: living in the present looking toward the future

Clearing Space for the Future

~ d2k ~ Leave a comment

John:  As my dream starts off, I’m in an area where I see a lot of trails cut through after a snowstorm. It took a lot of work to do this – it’s a monumental feat.

I’m in a campus area and there are a few buildings and then a huge open area in the middle. There are sidewalks that go this way and that under the snow, leading to the various buildings.

Everyone is basically asleep or unaware of what has happened in the night. These trails had to be opened up because come morning people have to move about. The shoveling has already been done, so most people don’t pay any attention to it; they take it for granted.

In looking at this, I’m impressed. They trails may be narrow, just a shovel pushed along the sidewalk and a pathway opened up, but it’s enough to walk on. It’s not like the whole sidewalk is exposed. So there’s still a need to widen and groom the pathways.

Henry is the man who got up early and did all this. Now Henry’s attention has switched to doing something that’s very time consuming: he’s clearing the open area in the center, which will add a more comfortable feel and people can actually hang out. It adds a spatial ambiance, a type of light, to the place so it’s not just cut up into trails.

To do this is very time consuming, and it’s not readily appreciated because the immediate need is to go from one place to another, quickly.

I notice a number of women in the courtyard, and I see them criticizing how the job’s been done. They’re critical of Henry because they don’t see him doing much, but they seem to appreciate my service as I’m further grooming the trails, clearing the snow all the way to the edges. This makes it easier for people to pass back and forth, but not necessarily to hang out in an overall ambiance.

People weren’t up and around to see what Henry did – they were asleep – so what they see him doing now seems a waste of time. They ignore him and invite me to join them for tea.

Before I do, I have a responsibility to quickly finish grooming the sidewalk. But I’m a little confused about joining them because they’re critical of Henry who did the initial trailblazing.

They have their opinion of what needs to be, and because they’re in a position of authority, they may even want to fire Henry. I find myself caught in the overwhelming energy projected by these women, collectively, in which they’re dismissing what Henry has done. And they can’t appreciate what he’s trying to do right now because it’s slow, time consuming, and it doesn’t fall within the immediate needs.

Did you figure out the meaning of this?

Jeane: No, I never figure it out!

John: The uneasiness I feel, and I’m beating myself up about it, arises when I try to sort out the value of the big picture. In other words, that’s what Henry was working on, creating an ambience where all the trails come together.

That wouldn’t be possible if there hadn’t been the necessary trailblazing at the beginning. So the trailblazing is done, and what’s currently needed is the grooming, which I’m doing. So the trailblazing is a thing of the past, the grooming is what’s occurring now, but, what about the bigger picture?

No one wants to pay attention to the bigger picture. It’s as if, when you deal with the bigger picture, you disappear.

I was focused on grooming the trails to be more serviceable, and that’s what’s noticed and appreciated, because that’s the short-term need. Yet I recognize and value the process of trailblazing, and also can appreciate the aspect of focusing on the overall.

Those in power don’t recognize the need to accommodate the overall, and I may not have the sight to know where Henry’s process is leading. It’s not like I can try to say anything, because deep down I’m not sure what’s the best use of Henry’s time.

It’s such a different level of need when you’re dealing with the overall, how do you know? What’s required isn’t as readily apparent.

The reason for the dream is that I’m sorting out, within, how to take on the need in all its aspects. I can see that the first step has been done, and that’s the trailblazing.

Then comes the part that’s now at hand, which is the grooming of the trail and I’m involved in that. But Henry has moved on to the bigger picture – he’s moved on from everyone else. A huge gap seems to exist in the collective consciousness, and I noticed that Henry became more invisible, in terms of the whole, with his focus on the bigger picture and its overall ambience.

In other words, he’s becoming more and more isolated, by carrying that sense of the overall from a depth inside him, which is becoming subtler and subtler in terms of whether others can appreciate it.

In a way, this dream captures the arc of spiritual history. The great writings and teachings exist from those who have done the trailblazing in human history. What is called for at present is a refining and an updating of those understandings in the way we live our lives. But at the same time, the overall must be considered, and the future must be considered, and incorporated. Yet there is resistance from the “powers that be” who only have a short-term view.

Said another way, we must let go of the past, act in the present (awaken), and be open to the future. It’s a process of integrating ourselves with everything. And it’s what’s required of the human, as a response, in these times.

The Underlying Thread

~ d2k ~ Leave a comment

John: In this first image, I’m trying to show another person how to distinguish between the variations and types of energetic projections that come from the casinos, because casinos can have a number of different levels to them. Some features, such as the theater shows, are interesting, and then there are other aspects that just kind of suck you in.

To begin with, I set aside, for reference, the projections that are most obvious in terms of what the casinos project about themselves. Yet to gain a greater perspective, I’m also isolating the projections that aren’t so apparent, which portray the casino energetic in ways that aren’t so flattering.

In other words, I’m seeing both the positive and the negative. I’m trying to examine everything up and down, back and forth, and in and out. The object is to generate a more balanced image by taking into account the opposite polarities.

Then, I take this one step further to reach that which is important to all of life, which lies deeper still beneath the surface. In other words, I’m not just trying to find the middle ground or the balance between the positive and negative. What we’re really meant to do is shift into, and find, that all of the surface detail sits within, or is encompassed by, a greater energetic.  

Everything we see is an aspect of a greater energetic that comes from somewhere else, and we need to be attuned to that. But we humans, being in a physical body, tend to see everything as good or bad in relation to us personally, which is huge a distraction from what’s really at play.

As we develop, we try to find the point of balance, where we can fit in and be okay with things, and then further on we have to shift again and appreciate the whole for what it is.

In the next dream image, I’m trying to understand what a friend of mine is seeking in terms of his inner path. He’s written down 92,000 words for a book. I’m not sure that that many words are meaningful. Maybe its a deviation in me, so I’m trying to look at the rawness of it all.  

As I look, I’m surprised to see he’s written down every little thing. He’s writing it all down because even he seems to know that he’s got to document everything – not knowing what will be meaningful once he pulls it all together.  

As I look at what he’s done I flinch a bit, not knowing what can be edited, so I find myself reading it to see if there’s a flow. There’s got to be a central flow. I realize that the text is fairly benign and choked down without a lot of energy, but maybe if it’s pulled together then the flow of it will be important. I’m trying to look at the overall context to understand if it’s important or not.

In both dreams, I’m seeking to catch up with what is meaningful to my soul, energetically, and to how I’m meant to be in relationship to the soul. In your dreams you were trying to catch up with your soul by taking on the overall, which had you removing the coal from the basement, then coming to know what was truly explosive and overwhelming, and then knowing how to get that quieted down. Ultimately you reached a point which led to a purity and a stillness; it died to the world and yet still wasn’t really dead (for the full discussion of this thread, see Coal into Diamonds, An Explosive Situation, and The Greatest Freedom).

That was an amazing image you ended with: were those aspects really dead? Or did they sit in a state of purity within the overall energy? In my first dream, I know there’s something more there, but I need to take in the whole picture first before I’m able to identify the underlying thread that’s evolving in terms of life.

The casino image represents how we can be drawn off on tangents in life – seeing and being attracted by only the shiny surfaces and missing the deeper meaning of things.

In the second image, I’ve documented everything (92,000 words) that can be experienced in terms of outer life and now I need to find, within that, the flow. The approach in both dreams involves recognizing an inner flow within the context of outer scenarios and reflections.

I’m developing the understanding that the outer world is merely a symbolic reflection of the inner worlds. To break through the bewilderment of these outer reflections, I need to identify the underlying thread that’s in motion from within. I know that there’s an energetic vibration there, even though it may not be readily apparent.

The steps I’ve taken to sort this out have been depicted by the levels of attraction of the casino and the documentation of everything that’s happened to me for years and years. From each image, I’m seeing other levels lying beneath what I seek to reach. To reach these more subtle levels, I need to let go of the indulgences, misunderstandings, and personal involvements that hang over these outer portrayals.

The subtlety of the inner is beneath it all and reachable if the outer reflections that affect the mind and the senses are set aside. Only in this way, like a letting go, can I become free and able to see the more meaningful aspects or qualities that lie behind the energetic projections.

In other words, first we have to see the projections, and then we have to go behind them to see what is causing them. When we’re able to sift through all these levels, it means we’re developing a greater meaningfulness in life.

A Matter of Timing

~ d2k ~ Leave a comment

John: Our dreams have been giving us a sense, or an understanding, that what’s currently occurring is more than just the existing moment, i.e., it has to do with a greater picture that’s unfolding.

What you dreamed had to do with finding a balance between the overall and the present moment (see Things To Do Today). I too dreamed about how something’s in the moment, but my imagery showed that I was more indulgent than you were, in terms of how it needs to be, or could be, in the future.

I lost the earlier part of the dream that set the whole thing up, but it had to do with me coming to understand that the way things currently exist is not the way they’ll be in the future. I knew that something was going to change, but I was still going along with what I saw in the present, though not taking it as seriously as other people might.

So whatever I was doing in the dream, I was just passing time. It’s just like some of my relatives who think that the worst of times are coming. It gives them a particular bias in how they approach life. Well, this type of bias can exist on spiritual levels as well.

So I have a particular perspective of what’s going to take place, and what I was shown was how to go along with the way things are, even though I have a knowledge of something more. If we ignore what’s currently going on and dwell only on this “something more,” then it’s like we put ourselves out on a lonely stretch of road through a desert where there’s no one to pick us up. It isolates us.

The way things are is the way things are, and we have to go along with them even though we might know better in terms of what’s meant to be. Timing is everything. This is a repetitive pattern that human beings are guilty of, whether it’s expecting the return of Christ, or the End of Days, or anything like that. No matter how much a person might believe it will happen, they still have to stay, and live, in the present. We can’t ignore the present.

In the dream, I address this issue a lot differently than you did. In your case, you’re wounding yourself in terms of your overall sense of knowingness, by accommodating something that you know you shouldn’t accommodate (procrastination). And I’m hurting myself in terms of my overall knowing by holding a conviction (projecting) toward something that hasn’t yet arrived.

Therefore, I’m not being completely attentive to the moment. I might think it’s okay to skip over the top of certain details because my perspective is upon what’s yet to come. To a certain degree it’s okay to base current decisions upon that which is yet to come, but not to the degree where I get overly indulgent and disassociated from what currently exists, even if the world around me is all based in dead energy.

We’re meant to hold onto both – the present (however it is), and that which might occur (because we don’t know the timing.) This is also a dilemma for a spiritual teacher. They can look at a student and see how that student is going to evolve; this might be characterized as “looking it up in the Book of Life.”

But what a teacher doesn’t know, and can’t know, is the timing. In which lifetime is this person going to attain what the teacher sees in them? Is it going to be this lifetime, or a future lifetime?

I may feel that I’m able to sense and see some of what’s coming, but the teacher takes it another step and can actually start to look at the timing. There are even people whom I can see divine traits in, but I can’t tell you when, if ever, they’re going to catch up with them. A good spiritual teacher is probably able to gauge that.

So my dream last night is basically saying that if I go off and try to base a life or understanding in terms of what I see on the horizon, I’m very apt to dishonor how I exist in the here-and-now.  

Said another way, I’ll lose a certain humility towards the here-and-now based upon a transcendent perspective. The fact is, I have inner psychologies that still predominate and they are part of the “now.” So, if I go off into the future and then, all of a sudden, get drawn back and have to face those inner patterns without being in balance, as I need to be, I could be in for a big shock.