going out to meet our dreams...

A few years ago I took a course on Dream Yoga, the Tibetan approach to dreams. One of the first things that struck me is the idea that in our dreams we work out karma.  This feels encouraging that our soul is always being met and supported.

…and it also feels a bit frustrating. So many of us are not only unconscious of having dreams but even if remembered, we don’t understand what it is they are trying to communicate to us….which makes for a very slow process. I can see why it can take thousands of lifetimes to awaken.

The Buddha was asked, “How long have you been on this journey to enlightenment?”  He replied, “Imagine a mountain six miles long, six miles wide, six miles high. Every 100 years, a bird flies over the mountain with a silk scarf in its beak and it runs the silk scarf over the mountain. In the length of time it would take the silk scarf to wear away the mountain, that’s how long I have been doing this.” …that’s a long time.

In a deep meditation years ago, feeling a self-imposed pressure to achieve something, arrive somewhere I heard a distinct voice in my ear say, “Relax, we’re going to be here a while”…and I burst out laughing…yes we are.

Enter dreamwork...by consciously working with our dreams, by going out to meet the dreams, engage them, learn from them can we perhaps help the dreams help us and accelerate the process? When we are willing to make conscious things that are unconscious can we come to healings and awakenings in one lifetime that might have taken scores? Imagine the courage it takes to go out and meet our dreams…to be engaged with all they want of us and for us…that is why dreamwork is so scary, so challenging, so beneficial…and so very enlivening, awakening and ensouling.

Could it be in trusting and being open to this…by going out to meet our dreams…in accepting their call...we enter a sacred and conscious partnership with our own soul on this very difficult journey to awakening?

(Image by randy nyhof)

Mary Jo Heyen is a certified Natural Dreamwork Practitioner working with clients throughout the country and abroad in person, phone or Skype. Learn more about her work with dreams at www.maryjoheyen.com.