relaxing A few nights ago, I had a dream that one of my children was swimming in a pond that had a few dead fish floating in it. I was angry at him, because he would not heed my warning and get out of the polluted water.
A moment later, I fell into a stream full of dead fish - there were so many they could not be avoided. The dream was clear: stop worrying about others’ dead fish, and my lack of ability to control their actions, and focus on my own dead fish - the fears, limiting beliefs, and outmoded thinking that polluted my own subconscious. We can steep ourselves in judgment and fear…or we can free our minds to discover truth and love. All that we perceive comes to us through the filters of our beliefs and fears. We wonder what others think of us. We worry that there will be repercussions for our perceived wrongdoings. The Day of Judgment is here, and it resides in each of us, pulling us away from joy, day after day. These judgments are based on whether we consider ourselves worthy or not… deserving or not…lovable or not. Are we too fat or too thin?…Too talkative or too silent?…What should we be doing, and what should we not have done? As adults, we subconsciously take on the roles of our parents, teachers, and society in heaping these judgments on ourselves. No wonder we are anxious all the time! This fearful state of recoil is not our natural state. We have taken a primitive mechanism - that of hypervigilance - and distorted it. No longer having to brandish weapons against warring tribes and wild animals, we turn instead upon ourselves. Even our judgments against others are just a veiled attempt to create distance before others can judge us. If we don’t think them worthy, perhaps what they think of us will matter less. This behaviour points to a false belief in separation: that we exist apart from one another, and so can be elevated or denigrated by their opinions. In reality, there is only Love. Love is the one unified field of 38
INTERIOR WELLNESS SUMMER 2018
energy in existence. On the Earth plane, it experiences itself in myriad forms. Love dancing with itself. We are not and cannot be separate from each other. However, our minds have become so conditioned to see the world of duality as real, that we need methods to realize our Oneness.
by Bonita
In the Tibetan practice of “dream yoga”, one comes to this awareness through lucid dreaming, meditation, and related techniques. In his book, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche describes the state of Oneness, or rigpa, this way: “When the moving mind dissolves into the pure awareness of rigpa, we see the light that has always been, we realize what we already are… it is the space in which experience arises recognizing itself… Rigpa is like the early morning sky: pure, expansive, spacious, clear, awake, fresh, and quiet.” The author describes this state as “one without effort or process”, a state of calm abiding, where there is no separation of subject and object. Dream yoga is one way to awaken to this state - I have also experienced this level of awareness through deep meditation and prayer. There are many doorways to the Source. Our natural state does not have an observer and observed, so there can be no judgment: no evaluation of worthiness or lack thereof. There can only be loving awareness. Relaxation is the key to realizing this state. If we think of our judgments as an act of tightening - of contraction against the natural flow of life - then it stands to reason that relaxation, expansion, and surrender are the antidote. When we finally stop fighting what is, we can fall into grace. In the Bible, we read that we must approach God “the way little children do”. We must come back to our innocence, to seeing without fear and judgment, and to being open and curious. The Bible also refers to the “peace that passeth all understanding”.