We live in a logical, left-brain society that values doing over being, and facts over fiction. For many, fairy tales, myths, and dreams fall under the fiction category as things that are not true and therefor not important. In actuality, these timeless mediums use symbols and metaphors to express deep truths that are not easily put into words. They represent another way of knowing that has been underutilized. Investigating our dreams can help us practice this ‘new’ way of thinking, seeing, and understanding.
“When you sleep and when you dream, where comes that light you see to dream by?”
This question, from Thomas Ashley-Farrand’s six CD set “Mantra: Sacred Words of Power,” was in my mind when I woke in the night. I had listened to him several years ago as part of my yoga training, and I can still hear his voice explaining the ancient teaching in the East where the spiritual teacher asks the student this very question. The answer is it is the light of the soul, which is reflected in the subconscious mind while we are asleep, and the conscious mind while we are awake. It is the same light but neither the subconscious or the conscious has any light of its own (the mind is like the moon), it is all from the heart.
He was describing the most chanted mantra in the world – for uniting mind and heart. “Om Mani Padme Hum” If mind and heart are united we are truly free and anything is possible, because mind is the conceiver, heart is the great power. I love that the disciplines of yoga, Ayurveda, and dream work intertwine and confirm each other. The wisdom traditions do tend to agree, both halves – mind and heart are needed. Access to both ways of knowing makes us whole.
The most important thing I learned in my Dream Work Training Program is that the one thing dreams can never be is ‘all figured out’. Dreams are open ended, insights can continue to arise long after we have them. They are deep and fluid, having many meanings at the same time depending on the lens we are looking through. These lenses are colored by our beliefs and experiences. This is why we say, “if it were my dream…” when we get together to share our dreams.
I think of it as the Yoga of Dreams because yoga means union and our dreams unite our mind and heart. They also bring us into union with the unconscious source of our dreams, (the holy dream maker, the collective unconscious, our creator, our inner wisdom) and the dreamers we share with.
Dreams open our hearts to the unknowable. We are playing with wonder and imagination as we hold the mystery and let go of certainty. We are also listening, being receptive, and releasing the impossible perfectionist notion of fully understanding everything right this minute. As in yoga, there is no forcing, only allowing and being willing to remain open to and guided by what is not fully understood.
Sleeping (and dreaming) made our ancestors vulnerable to attack from wild animals so there must have been some reason nature decided they were worth the risk. There are many theories about this. Dreams arrive to rehearse future events, digest past events, reorganize information… Carl Jung believed that dreams come to help us in the process of individuation. Jeremy Taylor believed they come in the service of health and wholeness – even the scary ones. Toko-pa Turner says that dreams are “part self-regulatory, part transmission of wisdom, and part connection to an unseen network of intelligence unconstrained by time and space.” Yes to all of this.
Once we decide to explore our dreams, there are things we can do to help ourselves remember them. Reading about the importance of dreams, setting an intention to remember, joining a dream circle, finding a dream mentor, creating a dream journal with words and/or images are all ways to honor our dreams. Even the snippets, because they contain the distilled essence of the message. Since dreams evaporate quickly with the light of day, when we wake in the morning we can take a moment to pause and remember as much as we can before we move a muscle even to open our eyes.
It is not either/or, it is both/and. Like yin & yang, both types of knowing are needed to make a whole. Tending to our dreams can help us to unite our mind and heart and practice this new way of thinking, seeing, and understanding. Incorporating both ways of knowing helps us imagine new possibilities for ourselves and for the world as we journey toward wholeness together.
Photo by Vladislav Muslakov on Unsplash