I wake (not for the bathroom or anything other than) to hear the following words being spoken to me, from a non-descript (like words without sound) inner voice: “Treat tapas savan as an onlooker in everything you do and say.” The feeling space I woke in was profound, the voice clear in direction. It was enough to fully wake me, causing me to reflect meditatively on the message. I soon returned to sleep and dreamed a very spiritual woman was speaking to me, saying something about my spiritual practice/path, and commented about a state of being that would come, in time… like, in some years, I heard… I began weeping with deep/soulful yearning, not wanting to wait “years” to know the love of the Divine Feminine within me in a greater way. It was my weeping that woke me.

Besides offering that "tapas" (in Sanskrit) means "heat"/"essential energy"/"spiritual suffering," I think what I shared in my previous dream post speaks to this dream as well. This dream came about one week past that dream.

Kristi

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I forgot to add: I found that savan, or sawan, means monsoon, or, the rainy season, in Hindi...which I feel relates the tears of yearning I wept.

It reminds me of an earlier dream message and image when I woke with reference of being on my way to meet the Buddha, and then seeing a steady rain falling, like a monsoon.

Many rain songs are sung in India, and by other cultures (Native Americans, for one). While rain can be seen (in a dream) as a sign of sadness, it is also a symbol of emotional cleansing, creative fertility, renewal, forgiveness, grace, spirit, gift from God, replenishment, nourishment, etc.

Kristi

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Less we forget that monsoons are often symbolic of deep unconscious emotions. Heavy rains can be thought of as letting the emotions out. The two aspects of cleansing, the positive and the negative. Your previous post may involve both.

Jerry

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Hi Jerry,

Yes, this is underway. I think I focused more on the positive meaning/implication as I need to be mindful of that while going to such depths.

And, as for the words advising to be "an onlooker in everything you do and say..." There is an increased abiding awareness/presence, as I go about my days, seeing motivations in myself...when they are positive, and also when they are not in harmony. When they are not in harmony, I feel the need for emotional release/letting go.

Kristi

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Kristi,
Such diligence will be important over time. Your awareness of the negative, and yet being able to focus on the positive, indicates how far you have come in your journey. One path to enlightenment, and one that inherently fits with the psyche because it is a product of the psyche, is Jung's Individuation Process, the self psychologically process that you and I subscribe to {which is verified by Joseph Campbell's many works}. And there are many paths within that path, each of us being different {yet still bound by the same psychological patterns we find in myth and our dreams}. One of the great aspects of Jungian psyche is psychologically 'knowing' there are 'helping hands' when we need them while on the journey, beyond religion-greater than religion. That knowledge will help you slay many dragons in the future, you count on it.

Perhaps the true task that we confront as we age is
to carry that strength throughout life, and in the process expand/grow even more. The emotional self is more prevalent in later life and that is where we need the most strength.
When I sometimes enter into that 'mana' mold {when I begin to think I am it. I am not it} I remind myself of the first proverb of The 4 Noble Truths to keep me mindful of expectations of life {1. Life means suffering}. Staying grounded is important, never forgetting the sorrows of the world beyond our own world.
But like you I have that 'strength' that keeps us focused on the positive, letting us expand and grow personally as well as fulfilling the deed of giving back {which I believe is centered in the creative and spiritual Self}. The Grail myths involving knights of Camelot who served the legendary King Arthur of Britain serve for me as an example of the hero deed to be obtained, but with the Holy Grail being the soul.

I do believe it is more difficult to 'stay the path' in this century compared to the past. I heard Campbell addressed this issue prior to this death in an interview, how difficult it is in this age to live a truly 'heroic' life. But I guess that is the challenge that we must confront, as all ages have had to do, and to find a way to grow even to greater heights.

"What all myths have to deal with is transformations of consciousness. You have been thinking one way, you now have to think a different way. Consciousness is transformed either by the trials themselves or by illuminating revelations. Trials and revelations are what it's all about" ----Joseph Campbell

Jerry

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Thank you, Jerry.

I went goosefleshed as I read your response. Not sure if it was your last paragraph, or Joe’s quote, maybe both, maybe the entire post, but I was touched with knowing I was hearing something important/true as I finished reading it yesterday evening.

In saying that the emotional self is more prevalent in later life (I did not know that), are you saying that we are prone to more emotions/emotional responses? This is something for me to contemplate as I go about my days at work, as I am working with a (mostly) geriatric population. The new job is going wonderfully, BTW, much like as was shown in my recent ‘groundwork’ dream. Reading this note from you gives greater meaning to that, to my work. Again and again, while there, I am moved with great compassion. Being mindful of the conditions of life does keep one sober, keep us from flying off into self-created/inflated spiritual ideations about ourselves which, in my way of seeing things, actually only separate us from the whole.

It has sure taken me some time to get to where I can focus on the positive while being aware of the negative, and the single greatest thing that keeps me moving forward right now is knowing that I have something to give back, can give back, to others.

This sharing reminds me of the story of Buddha, who upon having reached “Nirvana” was bid to go back and share the dharma with others/help lead others out of suffering. It also reminds me of some words from Adyashanti who tells how the journey often starts as a very personal one where we are seeking freedom for ourselves, but that it evolves into knowing that, truly, the journey is also about the whole…that anything we achieve for ourselves, truly, is really achieved for the whole.

I wonder if it is more difficult today simply because the energies (experiences and information) we are exposed to are more chaotic. It is an intense time in our world. And while it is hard, I also feel it is all a catalyst for greater growth.

And, yes, there are "helping hands," and they are needed, for we are none islands unto ourselves.

Reminds me of an earlier day when I walked into my analyst's office telling her how I, in the moment, felt that I just could not hold on any longer, could not hold on to my sense of reality as I knew it. She had me to sit and close my eyes and told me to jump into the black abyss of not knowing that I was afraid of. I had told her I felt I was standing at the edge of an abyss. I did and I began weeping, thankfully, as I descended, for in the darkness I found only hands reaching out to help.

Thanks again.

Kristi

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Kristi,
I'll address the age issue in greater detail later in the day. Each individual has their own response to emotional stimuli. But with the accumulation of all the baggage from a lifetime of emotions it is only natural that one would have more to respond to as they age. And there are other factors that enter into the equation. One is aging and the other is death. Those are two issues most people do not even contemplate until they get past 40.

On the issue of death. What is the afterlife about? No one knows. But the fear that it instills is at best unconscious. My remedy to that fear is an old mystical Islamic proverb Joseph Campbell often quoted:
"When the angel of death approaches it is horrific.
But when it reaches you it is bliss".

Is that heaven? Or reincarnation? I don't dwell on the specifics {or the dogma}. I believe the release from emotional and phsyical from 'suffering' is itself the bliss the proverb addresses. The body falls off and dies. But the soul?

Jerry

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Kristi,
Sorry I didn't get to your post as promised. A 12 hour day left me little time before bedtime {I am an early to bed early to rise type}. And as one of my favorite singing group's song goes 'PRESSURES'. You know, Queen with a Q.

Giving back is the essence of the hero journey. Once you crossed the return threshold:

Campbell: "The returning hero, to complete his adventure, must survive the impact of the world. Many failures attest to the difficulties of this life-affirmative threshold. The first problem of the returning hero is to accept as real, after an experience of the soul-satisfying vision of fulfillment, the passing joys and sorrows, banalities and noisy obscenities of life. Why re-enter such a world? Why attempt to make plausible, or even interesting, to men and women consumed with passion, the experience of transcendental bliss? As dreams that were momentous by night may seem simply silly in the light of day, so the poet and the prophet can discover themselves playing the idiot before a jury of sober eyes. The easy thing is to commit the whole community to the devil and retire again into the heavenly rock dwelling, close the door, and make it fast. But if some spiritual obstetrician has drawn the shimenawa across the retreat, then the work of representing eternity in time, and perceiving in time eternity, cannot be avoided". The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real. {From Wikipedia}

The goal is to become the master of two worlds, the next step in the hero journey.

Is it possible to live in one's bliss and still give of oneself without harm to the cycle of the hero journey? I think so. But the sorrows will always accompany the hero no matter what path is chosen. The reality of life is we do age and we will all die. Death need not be feared but accepted as the final stage of the journey. At least for the body. I believe the soul has other purposes beyond death. But to dwell on those possibilities is useless. It only makes the emotional self more desperate to survive reality, to live in an nonobjective state of being, and ultimately a death of 'soulfulness' in this life. It is my belief that the hero is about the communicating the Self through the creative aspects, the muse, spiritual in that it gives back through that creative being. That is how I defeat the social demons of this sorrowful world. Creativity, and spiritual endeavors in all aspects of the waking life {WWJD, WWBD}. That dethrones any attempt be the emotional self, led by the ego centric personality, to control life in this human condition. Life is much different at 60 that it is at 40. But the journey is still the same. The question becomes, "do I let the emotional self retain control or do I turn to the hero path and be the savior of my own self?"
It is really all about the emotions.

Jerry

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What an interesting discussion. As much as I respect and admire Joseph Campbell, I am curious about his statement that in these days it is harder to live the hero's journey than in the past.

Could it be more that we hear more about the hero's and guides of the past than we do of those who did not follow this path? So could it be the eternal perception of those who are living in the now looking back to the heroes of the past who have made their journey and left their markers, with the addition of hind sight when our futures are still in the mists of the future, believing that it was easier in the past because the path of the Hero is not an easy one for us, yet seemed easy to those who walked it before us? Was there path any more difficult than ours if we were to put ourselves in their shoes?

My perception is that the Hero's path is no harder than in the past, merely different. Different lures off the path, a different environment.

But I am still only beginning down this path and capitulate I have a long journey ahead. That said my eagerness oversteps its bounds as I want satisfaction now, which is a desire that helps push me, but I wonder if it pushes too hard?

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Thanks, Jerry,

Again, a profound piece for me, as I read it last night.

I hope to have time to respond more this evening, or tomorrow morning.

In the interim, I first considered "death" as a teenager when my grandmother passed. It moved me profoundly. I wrote the following poem (in these later years) reflecting on my muse/meditation in those early days. The moment that was the inspiration for this poem came, specifically, on the day of her funeral. My question was, "The meaning of life?"


"Butterfly's Genesis"


Sauntering aimlessly away from home,
On a once half remembered childhood day

Immersed in my seeking to embrace
That which I could not see,
As a throng of feeling filled me

Restlessness, rising from within
When I heard a faint request say,
"Come child, stay awhile and play"

I stooped nether to visit with Her
As the world around me become sheer

Conjoined, one with the other
Many parts
And carrying the whole most synchronistically

Music was in the movement
Of a bounty awaiting
That shone gloriously

Beauty set adrift on tides of caress
Sustained by the rays of Creation

From creature
To cocoon
To the flowering of soul

~

It was a catepillar...

~

Hi Rook, being an Aries (with Aquarius rising), I know well the "I want it now." I think it can be helpful, to a point, in the way of making effort toward the goal, but that we also need to learn to stand aside (so to speak) along the way, to allow that something "Other" to come through.

Kristi

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