The High Price of Desire, Cont.

Jesse has yet to learn that happiness must never be thought to consist in anything outside himself: not in any person, not in any place, not in any thing. In his church or out of it, he is still a dependent creature. He must become an individual, complete unto himself. Just as a good teacher seeks respectful relationships with his students but does not allow them to become emotionally attached to him, a good path, while providing for the occasional support of fellow travelers; is not intended to supply lovers and friends.

We'll leave Jesse at religion's base-level, worshipping Samsara's false idols. Before he becomes spiritual and finds Christianity's true mystical ladder, he'll likely become thoroughly disillusioned and disgusted with religion and life and find himself in the Swamp.

Dreams and Visions

As terrible as it is to have an unprojected archetype prowling our mind, it seems even worse to project the creature upon someone who tears it off and tramples it. A disloyal child can inflict more injuries than a legion of devils; and as we can all attest, it seems easier to look into the eyes of a hooded cobra than it is to search the face of a perfidious lover.

Whenever a bond is broken without our consent, whether by death or infidelity, or whenever we suffer injury or failure great enough to cancel our security and obliterate our hope, we grieve bitterly and alone. God's comforting hand does not seem to be anywhere near us. We are in what we feel to be eternal, isolating darkness, full of pain for which there is no anodyne. Yet, God is there to help us. We need to learn how to ask for help and how to receive it in whichever way He gives it.

A man once came to a Chan priest asking for help in determining the meaning of a vision. "It happened several years ago," he said. "I awakened in the middle of the night and found my father, who had died years before, standing at the foot of my bed. I saw him as clearly as I'm seeing you. I called to him but he disappeared before he had a chance to speak. I want to know, what was he trying to tell me?"

"Your father wasn't trying to tell you anything," the priest replied. "Your father was dead." "But I saw him," protested the man. "I am sure you did," countered the priest. "But THAT you saw him IS the message. Without knowing your history I will guess three things: one, that you loved your father very much; two, that at the time you had the vision you were in deep personal distress; and three, that afterwards you felt much better." The man confirmed all three guesses. He had been going through bankruptcy at the time of the vision and was severely anxious and depressed; and, indeed, he had recovered his composure after the vision.

"No doubt," said the priest, "You had been praying for God's help. Well, God answered your prayers. You saw with your own eyes that your Dad, the one person in this world who could comfort and reassure you, was right there watching over you as you slept! No matter what trouble you faced, your Dad was still standing beside you. Of course you felt better! Who wouldn't? A true spiritual experience produces euphoria! For months afterwards you can feel that surging happiness. Financial problems don't seem important when you're in a state of Grace. What a wonderful thing for God to do for you! Now," demanded the priest, "tell me what you expected when you prayed for help? Did you think God would write you a check and leave it on the kitchen table?"

All visions are important and deserve consideration. It will not do to make a celebrity of one man because he sees the Virgin Mary standing by the freeway and to make a pariah of another man because he hears the devil talking to him on a shortwave radio. Yes, as in this exchange between the man and the priest, we are usually correct when we interpret a pleasant vision as therapeutic, a signal of strife's resolution; and we are usually correct when we regard an unpleasant vision as describing defeat or disintegration, a signal of worsening emotional turmoil. The problem is that usually the person who has had a frightening vision has had other less-troublesome visions before, or has at least exhibited other signs of distress which we chose to ignore. The ante gets 'upped'. Signals of distress become more and more outrageous until somebody finally pays attention to them. When the devil starts making speeches on the shortwave we grab his audience, institute drug and shock therapy and attempt to communicate with a psyche that by then is in ruins. Sometimes when a problem is small a little kind attention is all that is required to solve it. (Can we not do this much for each other?)

Dreams serve a variety of needs. They regulate a person's psychic balance, alert him to the dangers of a course he has undertaken, or even to prompt him to explore new solutions to a difficult problem.

In compensatory, balance-restoring dreams, a person who has been humiliated by someone he admires may dream that he is praised or befriended by one of his heroes... perhaps a movie star or athlete; and the dream will help to restore his self-esteem. Likewise, if on some occasion a person has been overly smug about himself, he may dream that one of his heroes snubs him; and the dream will have a disquieting, sobering effect. Thus, compensatory dreams serve to moderate the extremes of our ego's pride or debasement.

In premonition dreams, a person may be encouraged to proceed with a certain course of action or to be warned against it. The dream may caution him about someone or, conversely, may suggest that someone be seen in a more favorable light. The dreamer will be influenced. If he acts in accordance with the dream, he feels reassured. If he acts against the dream's advice, he feels anxious.

Additionally, a person who is struggling with a problem, intellectual or emotional, may find a clue to its solution neatly delivered in a dream.

When evaluating dreams we must recall that the Self - the dream director - is privy to data collected from a variety of sources unnoticed by consciousness.

Nightmares cry out for interpretation and anyone who experiences them is well advised to seek professional help in determining their significance.

In our dreams the clothes we are wearing (or the lack of them) usually represent an evaluation of our persona while the house we find ourselves in represents the condition of our ego. Most people find that before they are spiritually saved they dream of being in a dilapidated building. Sometimes the building has a nice facade; but once inside the dreamer finds himself in a bombed-out wreck. When he is saved and gets on the Path, he finds himself occupying higher priced real estate.

Dream messages are rarely verbal. Usually, metaphors are played out. For example, if in his everyday speech a man says "kicked the bucket" when he means died, then when he dreams that he saw his Uncle John kick a bucket that was lying on the sidewalk, he has likely dreamed that his Uncle John died. Curiously, a dream of actual death (non-metaphorical) in which the dreamer sees his death occurring on a given date, or sees his tombstone, etc., often heralds the date of his satori. It is as if the ego, but not the man, is scheduled to die.

Dreams that are repetitive call the dreamer's attention to a psychological problem which he must resolve. If he cannot interpret the symbolical language for himself, he should seek the help of a Jungian analyst or psychologist. Also, dreams may have an anniversary nature, marking a significant event in the dreamer's life. Sometimes if the event was painful, the dreamer may not be consciously aware of the event, his memory of it having been graciously erased. A complex of associations may have constellated around the event, creating a 'block' which will likely require professional assistance in clearing.

Dream settings and the various dream props have significance that varies among individuals. What is a threatening object to one person may be a useful tool to someone else. A place which one person associates with peace, another may associate with terror.

We can see immediately that such highly subjective meanings and evaluations render useless any casual analysis of dreams. Only someone who is familiar with the various universal dream symbols and who is able to ascertain the dreamer's specific metaphors, associations, definitions, and so on, can possibly assist in interpreting a dream. Dream-books and such are worse than worthless. They can be dangerously misleading.

The most important classification of dreams, the archetypal dream, is the one associated with what Jung called Individuation, the process by which an individual acquires independent non-attachment. Archetypal dreams or visions are true spiritual experiences and as such are psychically energizing and produce a long-lasting euphoria. A series of several dozen such dreams occurs during the Individuation process.

By studying dreams and mythologies Jung was able to discover that instinctive behavior patterns are represented in our unconscious minds by certain universal forms or images which he called symbols. These symbols appear to us in profound meditative states, in spontaneous visions, and in these rare but powerful archetypal dreams. The setting, props, characters, and action in these dreams are extremely vivid and completely unforgettable. Years later, the dreamer is able not only to recall the details but to replay the drama with the same sense of wonderment.

Besides appearing as gods in human form, instincts can represent themselves as animals or even inanimate objects. For example, the Mother archetype can not only appear as a great earth goddess or heavenly queen, but she can also appear inanimately as a sacred bowl or vessel, or as an animal, usually a cow or some other milk-giving creature. In the Orient she often appears, no doubt because of her power and grace, as a large cat - a tiger or panther.

The Self, though usually seen as dazzling light or valuable diamond or gold, may appear in dreams or meditative visions in the human form of a god, goddess, Chakra Lord, or divine agent such as an angel or one of the four directional Kings; in an animal form such as a white horse or elephant; or in a geometric representation such as a mandala, a yantra, or a splendidly designed and colored kaleidoscopic pattern involving circle, triangle or square.

The hallucination of sound is no less significant than sight. Aside from certain 'white noises' such as buzzing or humming which we often hear in meditation, there can be rare blasts of sound that seem to function as 'annunciation' messages, signaling that we will soon attain an important spiritual goal. Since this auditory event, called the Holy Shabd or Nahd, is far easier to describe than to explain, I'll simply relate my own experience. I was awakened at 4AM one morning by the sound of a distant trumpet and wind whistling in the trees. I sat up and listened as the whining sound grew louder. Soon, the wind buffeted the house like a tornado and the trumpet's blare became a microphone's feedback squeal. I pressed my hands against my ears to block the painful noise. My right eardrum burst. Fluid oozed out between my fingers and down my arm. Then the sound and the buffeting stopped. I looked at the clock and felt my arm. It was perfectly dry (of course).

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