Reluctance is a natural state for a human being to take. It is an act of choice. Mostly it is based in fear, or shame, or a combination of the two. When it’s time to finally act and take a leap, change will ask that you let go of your fear and that you let go of your shame. What are they anyway but ideas implanted in your mind from old experiences and old patterns of learned behavior. They are well worth depositing on the side of the road that you are journeying on, too heavy and depressing to carry forth into new life. Make a decision today to let go of one small fear, and a little bit of that shame, and see what happens.
“Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.” (Ephesians 4:26-27) In modern terms this simply means, “don’t go to bed angry.” Certainly the calm of good will to all, before sleep, allows the body to release into restful rejuvenation as the mind goes off to dream, in the depths of infinity.
This nightly journey of mind, in its soul body, into the subtler dimensions of life, is full of encounters with the wandering souls of other sleepers in human form, as well as with those in soul states no longer attached to human bodies.
Robert Monroe, in his journeys beyond the body, charted the various bands of energy one can visit on one’s nightly journeys. The band of energy closest to earth Bob designated as the M band field. This energy, though subtler in composition than the physical body, is nonetheless focused upon the passions and desires of life in human form.
Many souls in M band have yet to fully accept their physical death and exist in a limbo state of private dream, a bardo, where their imagination recreates a life in human form, with its attempts to satisfy its physical longings. Souls in this state are dominated by need and are largely unawakened to their true state of being.
When we go to sleep with unsettled thoughts, or hate, our soul launches in a volatile state of energy that is naturally drawn to like-energy in the M band field. Typically, we arrive in M band with very little consciousness and find ourselves interacting with unknown souls with similar torments, either entering into their dreams or co-creating new ones with them.
Sometimes these are the dreams of intense emotion that generate nightmares. Other dreams find their impetus in what Freud called wish fulfillment, in the playing out of suppressed aggressive and sexual impulses.
The upshot of all these encounters is an unsettling impact upon our waking consciousness, as our soul returns to its physical body. The download of these nefarious engagements typically casts a negative shadow upon the mood and thoughts of the day ahead.
The bands of energy that Bob Monroe mapped in infinity mimic the chakra centers in the physical body. These ascending chakras, from the root, at the base of the spine, to the crown, at the top of the head, reflect the transformational journey of energy from the grossest state, at the root of the spine, to the most refined, at the crown of the head. The journey of energy through these energy centers is the journey from crude passion and narcissism to refined all-inclusive love and oneness.
To achieve the level of refinement at the crown chakra, we must fall in love with life, with equanimity. At the heart center, for instance, we learn to love our enemies as ourselves. This profound depth of love extends love to those whom are embroiled in hatred. This is how love trumps hate. Whereas hate has no room for love, love includes hate, in all its vitriolic and sadistic forms. Love only wants the best for all, including those whom hate.
When we end our day with detached, loving thoughts, we launch into infinity with our soul body drawn to the higher dimensions of love that reflects our waking thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, we interact with more enlightened souls who can shed their guidance and wisdom upon issues that engage us in waking life. And though we might not fully remember our encounters in infinity, we return deeply calmed, wiser and rejuvenated as we reenter our bodies and take on the day ahead. We enter with love and optimism, and look forward to the gifts to come.
These journeys into the higher bands of infinity also accrue to a growing awareness of the terrain beyond the physical body, where we will one day settle in as we embark upon our definitive journey, into life beyond the physical body at physical death. With increasing lucidity in sleep and waking life our lives are enriched now, as well as then.
The key to richness of life, now and then, is love. The more mature the love, the greater the wholeness and the acceptance that hate is simply a cruder form of love. Welcome its refinement that all might wake up to the overarching reign of love.
Up from the depths come pearls of wisdom… -Hudson River Brick wrapping by Maggie R.
In a dream, I am swimming across the Hudson River, beneath the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge. As I swim along, I reach up and gather thousands of fishing lines, thin filaments that originate from the top of the bridge and hang down to the water. No one is now fishing from above, these are the remnants of past efforts.
When I gather, in one hand, enough entwined lines to form a thick rope, I use it to propel me forward. Then I let go of it and begin gathering new lines. I awaken before reaching the Kingston shore.
Crossing the river is a powerful archetypal symbol of significant Completion, be it with a stage of life, a relationship, a passionate obsession or a dominant attitude. To truly complete, we must be ready to let go of the solid ground we have habitually walked upon, as we venture forward into the unknown of murky waters, replete with powerful tides and undercurrents of emotional uncertainty, before arriving at a new solid ground of knowing. Such is the perennial opus of human life.
Incidentally, the currents of the Hudson River are so powerful that they have claimed the lives of many a seasoned and professional swimmer. I associate those potentially fatal undercurrents with the state of the global energy of our time. We are dealing with volatile, unpredictable currents of energy that can exhaust one’s intent to stay afloat, or simply move forward.
The dream offers a technology to successfully traverse such chaotic times. The suggestion is to grasp and appreciatively weave together the thousands of attempts to spiritually advance. This processing and act of love can now provide the strength for a major advance.
One powerful association, for me personally, with fishing, is the act of remembering and interacting with dreams, messengers from the depths of the unconscious, or infinity, who nourish and share their pearls of wisdom, as they deliver needed guidance to the conscious mind.
As all who fish are well aware, patience and effort are required to successfully reel in the fish that is quite energetically capable of slipping back into the river. In practical terms, this means setting the intent to lucidly remember the dream and then record it immediately upon awakening, before the familiar thought of, “Oh, how could I forget this?” lulls us back into oblivion and lost dreams.
There is no actual waking-life fishing permitted on this bridge of my dream. The fishing lines presented are symbolic of countless attempts to align the efforts of waking life with the spiritual guidance from the depths. These are the many cycles of groundhog days we have endured to inch our way beyond our default habitual patterns.
In Buddhist tradition, this completion is emergence from a path of Avidya, which means ignorance, unwisdom or delusion. By suspending judgment we can see Avidya as a necessary stage of learning, whose cycles accrue to a broader awakening to the true nature of reality. We see the deeper picture and no longer need the support of older scaffolds of attachment. We can let go with love and compassion. The many strands of this journey, when fully entwined and grasped, thrust us forward into new life.
Completion requires us to not turn back. To move forward may require some sacrifice, but energetically we have fully explored and exhausted our attachment to our prior way of being. To look back at this point is to lose our fluidity and turn to stone. We no longer need to go there; it is done.
The many fishing lines also represent the efforts of our ancestors, whose knowledge is there to be grasped and consciously integrated. This is a major feature in the technology of advance in the water. By grasping and intertwining so many threads the strength is gained to propel forward. There is also the suggestion to stay collectively united with resonant beings who strengthen our resolve.
Inwardly, our greatest resource lies in the Divine Intelligence accessed in our subconscious minds. The subconscious is the storehouse of all memory and experience, the many fish brought up from the sea of human history.
As I write this blog, my subconscious immediately responds to my conscious mind’s deliberations with associations to vaster knowledge, both personal and collective. This interactive relationship between conscious thought and subconscious associative memory, personal or collective, is a constant creative interaction within and between our minds and bodies.
My subconscious brings to the surface several memories of frightful encounters with the undercurrents of the mighty Hudson River. I’m reminded of the I Ching, hexagram #63, After Completion, depicting the river being successfully crossed. Psychological references to the island in the ocean as ego, in its relation to the greater collective unconscious of humankind, flood my mind.
Aside from the powerful ability of the subconscious mind to miraculously manifest desired change, is this automatic ability to constantly interact with the conscious mind by presenting a treasure trove of timeless knowledge, accrued through evolutionary history.
Of course, it remains for the conscious mind to weave or process these associations in such a way that they provide the solution to the dilemmas and questions we face.
We can quite directly ask the subconscious a question before sleep that will spin its strands of knowledge into the dream we are invited to participate in.
And finally, we can retrieve those dreams, as I have done here, and deepen our ability to successfully navigate our lives, and the troubled waters of our time.
With certainty of self firmly in place, with your heart centered and focused on your own growth and prosperity, set your foot down into the firmness of your life. And, as you claim your space in the universe and in your world, know that you are guided and protected in more ways than you can imagine. Open up to the truth that you are never alone. Ask for guidance and it will come. Ask for help and it will come. Ask to be shown what to do next and you will be shown. The answers may come in outlandish ways. You have no idea how spirit will speak to you each time you ask for something, but believe and trust that it will. Keep alert so you don’t miss anything!
To unfold into the self is to fearlessly embrace life, to fearlessly face each day, but most importantly to face the inner voices that hold you back, that tell you that you are not that important, that you don’t deserve, that you are not worthy. Those old voices travel the world looking for places to land. They attempt to implant in every mind, and they often do for quite a long time. But if you wake up to the fact that they are foreign voices whose only mission is to occupy an individual’s mind, taking over and wreaking havoc, then you will be prepared for them. Tell them, in no uncertain terms, to scram! Leave! Go away! Say it often enough and they will go. But the most important thing is to not give them room in the first place. Fill your mind with the beauty and bounty of self, with positive and nurturing words of wisdom and encouragement, for such words of love for the self will quickly push out any negativity and leave you feeling prosperous and grateful.
