- My expertise at procrastination (Housework? What housework?)
- A comment made below by Writer Mom, which set me thinking, and
- A dream post at ME Strauss's site which got some good answers
Bear in mind too that I have spent a couple of years doing what I accused the reincarnationists of, which is basically staring at the seed catalogues and letting the garden go to pot - I stagnated. I am short of a life path and pretty self-involved about it. An egoistic dreamer and directionless time waster. I confess.
So, in this unhealthy and self involved situation I had a very bizarre dream and am willing to take any interpretations, however unflattering. Just don't pander to my ego and tell me I am wonderful because I will shoot you down in flames; I have to. I have a big enough head as it is and that's how the angels fell; they marveled at their own beauty. Believe me, I am, not so secretly, flaming amazing, so I know how easy that is to do.
Anyhoo:
I was up on a mountain with a bunch of amused looking and unnervingly hunky Tibetan monks and, a la Indiana Jones and the Grail cup, was asked to choose 'the real prayer bowl'. You know, the one that rings so perfectly that you can travel with the sound, are the sound - the one where time and form and everything break down or are at least traversable. The one that touches eternity and everything in between.
I forget what I chose, but it was in among ridiculously grand items and also plainer wooden ones, and even, for some reason, ornamental pottery chickens. Anyone want to tell me if Tibetan monks really revere, or liken themselves to, domestic chickens? I mean, even sing songs about them?
The secret in my dream is that the bowl is not the bowl; the bowl is really only the gong, the tuning fork, if you like - we are the bowl. We are that which reverberates and that which creates the multilayered, perfect, breathtaking and physically incapacitating tone.
I've never heard or experienced a sound like it and I've had several stabs at meditating and praying in an effort to revisit the dream and hear it again. Marginally addictive, to say the least. That said, there have been periods where I forgot all about it. This was one such time, until Writer Mom's comment.
Argue all you like whether this was a dream (lessons from the subconscious) or a vision (lessons from an external source) - it doesn't matter. What matters, and annoys the hell out of me, is that I (or whoever) tried to tell me something, show me something, and for a brief moment I got it. I still have no idea how it relates to the now, what to do with it, how to unlock it, what I needed to know about myself in practical rather than airy-fairy and self congratulatory terms.
Why tell me there's more tools in my toolkit, then leave me to wake up without the key? Why say 'this is important, but I'm not going to tell you what it is or what it does'?
Sound conceited? Yeah, I thought so too, which is why its taken me a couple of years to mention it. Do by all means bring me back down to earth, I'd be grateful.
All suggestions gratefully received.
19 comments:
Hmm. I don't feel such a problem with understanding this dream. Maybe I am being simplistic but here goes.... the bowl was the thing that would mean so much, that was the answer to everything, had so much power and then you realise that you are the bowl... that the answers are within you and that you are the power. You can go searching for the answers but the answers are within you.
I don't see this as a self-grandiosing dream but a realistic dream in that the power, or the answer to everything, is within. I feel that is the same for everyone. We may have to find the right fork or hammer (maybe this means religion/job path/whatever) but that ultimately the answers are within.
It is lovely that you had handsome guides and maybe this represents your sense of beauty or good order. Or desire for good looking men - even amongst the guides of this world!
As for the chicken isn't that your sense of humour? Haven't you got to put a spanner in the works or expect the odd thing in everything?
Anyway, I think it sounds like a wonderful dream. Very special and liberating.
Whadya'fink?
Er chicken.... can I remind you of your post from yesterday? LOL
Yes, I agree with Doris, to do with being one with the universe. Just be, you ARE the answer.
[/serious off]
And do not seek the pottery chicken, for it is within you. :)
Haha you two!
Raises as many questions as it answers, but food for thought. Not chicken feed, either.
Ummm ... did you eat cheese too close to bed time? The hunky Tibetan monks sound "interesting!"
I think Doris is on track too, and want to add that this type of dream is not that uncommon, and those of us who have had it (whatever the particulars) are often left with the craving for another look. Sort of that, "It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite grasp it" frustration.
Lovely dream, Cheryl. Hunky monks-- priceless.
No, after a re-reading .. what is wrong with that?
We have so much potential to answer our own questions ... we just have to know where to look/how to harness our abilities.
Nice dream
Actually the hunky monks were rather too, erm, caring. I woke not wanting the attention.
Maybe thats the reaction I should be looking at.... LOL
Too caring? Clearly you left out some details in your original post. I vote for a repost with more details! Bare your soul, woman!
CARING.
Touchy feely, face stroking type caring. After the bell bowl it felt natural and then it felt really like 'woah get out of my space'.
It was awful like an unbonding, like I made the rejection. They werent lechy - sorry to dissappoint, Zilla!
Perhaps you admire the Tibetan monk lifestyle, which led to your mental projection of them as beautiful. However, after your exposure to "the true nature of things"/ the perfect tone of the bell, you began to see that they too are imperfect beings, also incapable of living in the bell's tone.
I enjoy the pursuit of answers more than actually finding them; otherwise life would be a real downer.
(He's a religious studies major--he really wanted to participate!)
So I googled "Buddhist Chicken." Lots of great recipes on the web. That didn't help, however.
Then I remembered...'bout three years ago, I gathered up as many books on the bodhisattva as I could.
This is why I keep my books!
Have you studied Mahayana Buddhism? Seems like you have.
I was unfulfilled with religion in college, so took a Buddhism course. Most of it made a lot of practical sense, until it encouraged persons to let go of all things that may cause suffering...including the good stuff. That's when I bailed. BUT, I was drawn in by the Mahayana 'middle way' beliefs. And the Bodhisattva seemed to describe my grandmother...a Lutheran.
And now you've gotten me totally re-engrossed in my book: The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva.
Random page quote:
All the joy the world contains
Has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains
Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.
So. I dunno. If one is truly a Bodhisattva, they reject the bowl...or what represents that end of the road, 'my work is done here, and now it's time to go party with the gods,' because they want EVERYONE to make it to the bowl. That is their idea of heaven/nirvana/what have you.
I have no way of knowing this happens after life, but I most admire people who are bodhisattvas throughout THIS life.
We are that which reverberates and that which creates the multilayered, perfect, breathtaking and physically incapacitating tone.
I've been thinking about your dream all day and I know I'll write about it tonight. This sentence to me IS your dream. It's telling you that you don't have to worry that without thinking you found it. It exists. You might not get there again, but you can feel safe knowing that it exists. You heard it. No one can take that away from you. You got a sign that everything turns out in the end.
Liz
Leave it for your mind to answer again, just before sleep. Think on it, before you put your self to bed. Relax, seek and be well. Pleasant dreams Cheryl, xxx, Lori
So many valid possibilities!
Annoying, isnt it, that it could be any one, or even just indigestion!
It was a while ago.
Writer mom's husband - religious studies: - one religion, or all of them? I love doing stuff like cross matching flood stories, but my husband is the one for that really, mapping diversions.
No. Not read buddhism.
Thanks all!
"So I googled "Buddhist Chicken." Lots of great recipes on the web."
I loved that one Writer Mom!
Nobody said they were buddhist - there are older faiths in Tibet?
Thanks, Doris. :)
Cheryl, Tom (no longer letting him go by writer mom's husband) will be so happy to talk to you.
He has been stuck in dental school for three years...but he's studied most all religions (including Star Trek & religion).
Due to his restrictive religious upbringing, he became a cross referencer, like yourself.
I'll get his ass on here as soon as he gets home.
See what fascinating discussions you start!
My brother and I are not that close, but there have been several periods where we were always coincidentally bursting out in the same song or some such thing and finding it "spooky". We've had identical dreams on ocassion, and both of us used to talk about those dreams where you're on the brink of full knowledge of the universe, but then wake up knowing that you've learned it, but can't quite recall it. That's what I was talking about before.
I am really craving fish and chips today.
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