PRELUDE
Are you living your life? Your true life? Not some way of being in the world determined by what others told you. Are you living your real life, your true life and not some false life made up of "shoulds" and "oughts," a false life imposed upon you by others who tell you what they think you should be. Those "others" may mean well, they may or may not be nice people, they may point to their success in the world and want the same for you.
But here's where the matter comes to a head. No one can tell you what your true life is. You are unique, special, unlike any being that has existed in the past or will exist in the future. Your parents, teachers, guides may claim a success for their lives and want the same for you. Or, it could be that they never really lived their life and fear that you may be like them, disappointed in what they made of their life. In either case, no person, near or far, past or future, can tell you your true life.
How, then, can we find clues that may guide us toward living our own life, guided by an identity we name our "true self?" What source do we have that we can trust, a source that is universal, timeless, ever-present, and often ignored? That source is our dreams. In this writing I plan to present the idea of our dreams as guides to our identity and our moral existence. Along the way in later writings we will explore many dreams.
And, by the way, I hope you will take this occasion to reflect on your own dreams. If you do not presently record your dreams, this is a good time to begin. Any kind of notebook will serve as a dream journal, preferably a book that is not lined, so as to allow you to draw pictures along the way.
In your journal, allow for a section where you record the meaning of words you may not know. Definitions are wonderful. They help to clear the fog in our mind that obscures insights. "Insights" are the "ah-hahs" that open our way of thinking, feeling, sensing, and acting.
For example, here are a few of the words and concepts that will appear in our journey together. Let's begin.
DREAM
--Dreams are stories in the ancient language of symbols.
And like the stories we read in our novels or watch on our screens, a "story" has a beginning that moves toward a climax which resolves the problem or issue and brings the story to an end that may or may not be satisfactory. The story often commands our attention, propelled by characters we like or dislike, often reminding us of individuals and situations we have experienced in our waking life. After all, theatre began in ancient Greece (500 BCE, 490 BCE) when the Grecians needed a way to understand and cope with the political, moral, cultural, and religious concerns of their time. So it is with us. On the stage, in our movies, and novels we face and try to cope with the "dramas' in our personal and public life. Mythic stories entertain us while they also make possible the tears, laughter, wonder, awe, and meaningfulness of our deepest humanity. Appearing as we sleep, our daytime dramas come to us each night in our dreams. In other words, our unconscious works to resolve matters of our waking life. This is the gift of dreams as well as the challenge as to how we may understand them.
VALUES
--things, behaviors, qualities considered as important, interesting, and worthwhile.
We may or may not be conscious of what we truly value and, most importantly, we may discover in our dreams that we do not honor those values.
MORALS
--standards of behavior regarding right and wrong that one may or may not practice.
Note also that moral behavior differs from moralistic behavior, which is a judgmental view of one's behavior. In other words, moralistic preachings and behavior do not necessarily reflect our deepest morals.
COMPASS
--"a device for determining direction by means of a magnetic needle...turning freely on a pivot and pointing to the magnetic north." (Merriam-Webster)
Sometimes the concept of a compass may be used in considering the direction or misdirection of one's life. See the following.
TRUE NORTH, CHARACTER
--"the direction from any point on earth toward the fixed geographic North Pole, where the earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface." (Wikipedia)
True north differs from magnetic north (to which a compass points). See above.
True north may refer to a person's core values, qualities, and behaviors that determine an individual's character.
While the terms "values," "morality," and "character" may be described in still other ways by many professions, I will later be using these words and concepts as I described them above. My intention is to place dreams within a frame or theoretical construct in such a way as to take note of the direction of a person's life. Is the dreamer following his/her True North? How can one know? Is it possible that our dreams search for a moral compass?
It is in such a moral compass that we find our freedom, a gift that is profound, and yet, very simple.
"SIMPLE GIFTS"
'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free.
'tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be.
And when we find
ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
'til by turning, turning we come round right.
—(Composed by Elder Joseph Brackett, 1948)
Are you living your life? Your true life? Not some way of being in the world determined by what others told you. Are you living your real life, your true life and not some false life made up of "shoulds" and "oughts," a false life imposed upon you by others who tell you what they think you should be. Those "others" may mean well, they may or may not be nice people, they may point to their success in the world and want the same for you.
But here's where the matter comes to a head. No one can tell you what your true life is. You are unique, special, unlike any being that has existed in the past or will exist in the future. Your parents, teachers, guides may claim a success for their lives and want the same for you. Or, it could be that they never really lived their life and fear that you may be like them, disappointed in what they made of their life. In either case, no person, near or far, past or future, can tell you your true life.
How, then, can we find clues that may guide us toward living our own life, guided by an identity we name our "true self?" What source do we have that we can trust, a source that is universal, timeless, ever-present, and often ignored? That source is our dreams. In this writing I plan to present the idea of our dreams as guides to our identity and our moral existence. Along the way in later writings we will explore many dreams.
And, by the way, I hope you will take this occasion to reflect on your own dreams. If you do not presently record your dreams, this is a good time to begin. Any kind of notebook will serve as a dream journal, preferably a book that is not lined, so as to allow you to draw pictures along the way.
In your journal, allow for a section where you record the meaning of words you may not know. Definitions are wonderful. They help to clear the fog in our mind that obscures insights. "Insights" are the "ah-hahs" that open our way of thinking, feeling, sensing, and acting.
For example, here are a few of the words and concepts that will appear in our journey together. Let's begin.
DREAM
--Dreams are stories in the ancient language of symbols.
And like the stories we read in our novels or watch on our screens, a "story" has a beginning that moves toward a climax which resolves the problem or issue and brings the story to an end that may or may not be satisfactory. The story often commands our attention, propelled by characters we like or dislike, often reminding us of individuals and situations we have experienced in our waking life. After all, theatre began in ancient Greece (500 BCE, 490 BCE) when the Grecians needed a way to understand and cope with the political, moral, cultural, and religious concerns of their time. So it is with us. On the stage, in our movies, and novels we face and try to cope with the "dramas' in our personal and public life. Mythic stories entertain us while they also make possible the tears, laughter, wonder, awe, and meaningfulness of our deepest humanity. Appearing as we sleep, our daytime dramas come to us each night in our dreams. In other words, our unconscious works to resolve matters of our waking life. This is the gift of dreams as well as the challenge as to how we may understand them.
VALUES
--things, behaviors, qualities considered as important, interesting, and worthwhile.
We may or may not be conscious of what we truly value and, most importantly, we may discover in our dreams that we do not honor those values.
MORALS
--standards of behavior regarding right and wrong that one may or may not practice.
Note also that moral behavior differs from moralistic behavior, which is a judgmental view of one's behavior. In other words, moralistic preachings and behavior do not necessarily reflect our deepest morals.
COMPASS
--"a device for determining direction by means of a magnetic needle...turning freely on a pivot and pointing to the magnetic north." (Merriam-Webster)
Sometimes the concept of a compass may be used in considering the direction or misdirection of one's life. See the following.
TRUE NORTH, CHARACTER
--"the direction from any point on earth toward the fixed geographic North Pole, where the earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface." (Wikipedia)
True north differs from magnetic north (to which a compass points). See above.
True north may refer to a person's core values, qualities, and behaviors that determine an individual's character.
While the terms "values," "morality," and "character" may be described in still other ways by many professions, I will later be using these words and concepts as I described them above. My intention is to place dreams within a frame or theoretical construct in such a way as to take note of the direction of a person's life. Is the dreamer following his/her True North? How can one know? Is it possible that our dreams search for a moral compass?
It is in such a moral compass that we find our freedom, a gift that is profound, and yet, very simple.
"SIMPLE GIFTS"
'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free.
'tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be.
And when we find
ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
'til by turning, turning we come round right.
—(Composed by Elder Joseph Brackett, 1948)
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