Be kind and compassionate, especially to those you fear or dislike and to those who try you the most. Find in them something to love and something to like knowing that they too are only human, with human feelings and emotions, though they may keep them hidden and locked away. Let kindness and compassion lead you to right action. Though this may be difficult as you face those you fear or dislike or those who try you the most, remember that eventually good will and good deeds, combined with good intentions will pave the way for a better relationship. Kindness and compassion are energetic, unspoken actions, but they can certainly pack a powerful punch. So watch out! And remember, true kindness and compassion ask for nothing in return!
It’s two in the morning, just barely awake, emerging from and remembering a dream lived, a world visited just a moment ago. Eyes closed, I notice some fears; fears of the stillness, fears of the dark, a confrontation with aloneness in a primordial forest of lurking, unseen dangers.
Consciousness gains some momentum, then thoughts: Will I be able to get back to sleep? Will I be able to function tomorrow? What sins did I commit that landed me here?
Thoughts originate from many sides of the many-sided self. Consciousness must decide what road to take, which thought to engage or not. If the decision is to return to sleep, a stand must be taken.
Rigid stands, like commands, tend to mobilize greater waking awareness, the antithesis of sleep. Nonetheless, a decision requires a course of action if it is to be successfully implemented.
Ancient wisdom and practice suggest repetitive prayer, mantra, or intent to find the way back to the sleeping ship. Something within is quite suggestible, like yin awaiting directions from its yang. The gentleness and thoughtlessness of soothing repetition woos yin into submission, as yang surrenders its directive to the successive round of verse.
Yin, as the body self, awaits this direction or easily falls prey to impregnating thoughts, alien yang scenarios that stir the energy in the body to a greater waking consciousness. Thus, the ego must take its stand, albeit gently, by bringing attention back to its chosen lullaby.
Perhaps a suggestion might direct awareness to the sensate body, telling it to “Go deeper into calm.” With each successive repetition of this suggestion the body releases its grip and finally goes back into sleep, word and action uniting as one.
Perhaps the intent is to shift awareness to the energy body in dreaming, suggesting, over and over again: “I shift my awareness to my energy body.”
Perhaps the intent is to connect with a being no longer in this world, their name becoming the repeated word, their image the focal point.
Perhaps the intent is simply to sleep and awaken at a designated time. Again, state the intent, gently, over and over again, returning always to the word should attention find itself elsewhere.
If a thought or feeling keeps interfering, write it down and promise that insistent part of the self that attention will return to it with full waking awareness in the light of the following day. Make sure to keep that promise the next day. With this, the many-sided self can join in cooperative sleep assured that it will be held in deep contemplation during waking time.
Perhaps taking a stand to not go where thoughts want to go, where spirit wants to go, where dreaming wants to go is most appropriate, taking a stand to not be drawn into something you are not ready for, perhaps intending instead to go there under your own power and under your own terms, in full conscious awareness, when the time is right.
Taking a stand is not a demand, it’s leadership in the service of deeper rejuvenation and inner harmony, the real intentions of sleep.
Remain open and let love find its way. Though it may seem at times that love is lost, eventually it returns and fills all the places that are empty, for it is as natural as the air you breathe, as fluid as the waters of the oceans, rivers, and streams, as swift as the wind seeking open spaces, open hearts, open minds, seeking always you. Let love in.
Change does happen naturally, but human beings have the potential to change and to enact change by design. By centering within the self, anchoring and grounding in present reality, with focus and awareness on what is truly right, choices that are good and beneficial can be made, both personal and universal. For what is within one person is also within another. If one person focuses on what is right and good so will another and then another. That is how the good will thrive and survive, even in a world of evil. Make that a personal challenge, to do good within and without. What one makes for and about the self naturally becomes for and about the greater universe. Change the self within and manifest change without. Now that’s a good intention!
Suffered with a backache for most of last week. Must have done something “wrong.” Finally had enough, reached out with a clear intent: May the healers come tonight and heal my back.
Had the kind of sleep where you wake up convinced you haven’t slept. Jan assures me that I definitely slept. I choose not to ask her how she knows for sure.
Walking all night long… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
All night I found myself with Dr. Yang, the surgeon intern on Grey’s Anatomy played by Sandra Oh. She is belligerently and steadfastly determined to stack her own unique pile of practices, like chapters of a book, as an alternative to the required purchase of health insurance. All night we walk briskly along the shoreline of ocean beaches, miles of beaches, in what feels like a doggedly active, sleepless night, as she builds her chapters.
I open my eyes at 4:30 am. Time to wake up. My awakening ego consciousness is deeply disappointed by my restless night. I’m immediately drawn to judge my activities of the day before as the culprit for my lack of deep rejuvenating sleep. My thoughts evoke negative feelings. I must have done something “wrong.”
I’m reminded of a workshop I once attended, led by Carol Tiggs, the Nagual woman, Carlos Castaneda’s counterpart. It was she who left with don Juan’s party of sorcerers as they “burned from within,” as they left this world to embark on their definitive journey in infinity, life beyond the human form. Only in Carol’s case, she returned to human form ten years later and became the spark for Carlos’ coming out party in the birth of Tensegrity.
At this workshop, Carol went on hilariously talking about “Bobby the Flyer,” the being she characterized as filling her mind with negative thoughts about herself. She even broke into a song about just how bad she was. Bobby became a playful name for that character in all of humanity that commandeers the mind to fixate upon and be tormented by its human inadequacies.
Yesterday, Jan and I were reading a lecture Carl Jung gave in 1936 on children’s dreams where he amplified the meaning of a child in a stable. Of course, a major archetypal representation of this is Christ’s birth. Jung pointed out the significance of being born as an animal, in a stable. Why would a “god” incarnate thusly?
Jung suggested that the stable archetype offers support to the lowly human animal to appreciate its animal instinctive self. We hold ourselves to such high spiritual and moral perfectionist standards that take us away from truly appreciating and accepting the instinctual, physical animal that we really are. Perhaps this is the original sin that gives fertile ground to Bobby the flyer. As soon as we switch from body to consciousness, or spirit self, all we see are our human animal failings.
As I sat in bed observing Bobby doing his “I’m so bad” thing, I suddenly realized that my back didn’t hurt so much and then I remembered the intent I had set before sleep and the dream of walking all night. Could it be possible that my back had actually healed? Could that endless walking on the beach with the anima healing surgeon have been the realization of my very clear intent to heal?
I very gently set my feet onto the floor, stood up straight, and walked a few steps. Pain completely gone!
“Sorry Bobby,” I thought, “guess I’m really not so bad after all!”
