Have you ever had an incredibly weird, violently abrupt or annoyingly repetitive dream, woken up, and then realised that you really need to go to the bathroom?
Sometimes the dream is just there to wake us up.
Sometimes the dream is just there to wake us up.
Sometimes the dream is just there to wake us up.
No, that’s not a typo…
That’s exactly what I did this morning (after a seriously weird dream that I was tempted to try and inventively interpret for some deeper meaning to entertain my mind with) and, from that simple place of not-knowing, I arrived at a wonderfully peaceful place. Right here, right now, with nothing more on my mind than “right here, right now”.
And this pure “right here, right now” experience (without any fabricated narrative wrapped around it, masking it’s purity) is a really good place to be when there are “bad”, potentially stressful things happening all around us, or when we are given cause to fear about the future or the unknown (like what is happening in the world today).
So let’s not overthink it.
Bad things can just happen. Sure, many of us believe that there may be some element of karma involved, but be careful about giving these things too much meaning. Because sometimes the (bad) dream is just there to wake us up; nothing more.
There is seemingly still an intelligence behind it, as sometimes things we judge as “bad” create outcomes that are clearly very “good” (the strange dream that wakes us up to find relief).
However, getting too invested in any narrative around it is like adding weights to our hot air balloon — we can get stuck. We never fall up into the peace and infinite openness that awaits us as pure consciousness. We’re not naturally buoyant like we can be.
There’s a danger in spiritualising life too much.
Often we want to deeply spiritualise every inch of our experience, every drop, every rustle in the leaves… but invariably, we have just swapped our previous “negative” narratives for a more deliciously mysterious spiritual narrative. It’s often still just ego and projection.
It’s no more real necessarily — just more positive perhaps.
Admittedly, our new “spiritual” narratives are often much closer to ultimate truth — these narratives mostly pointing the way towards the nameless, formless space we manifest from and eventually leading us on to become more fluid and less “grasping”.
We live more lightly as a result, and that’s definitely a good thing.
However, the greatest peace is found in the formlessness.
“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can [only] see the manifestations.”
—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
To find ourselves in formlessness does require practice and presence however. It requires the process of kenosis — to empty out and release attachments to form. This takes time and regular meditation, so remember be kind and patient with yourself along the journey.
To help, I’ve made my meditation journey “Kenosis” totally free to download. This is a deeply refreshing musical holiday away from the dense form-based existence that most of us find ourselves in, so even if you just need a little “reset”, it’s a great way to do it.