CosmicSandBox’s Weblog

We hear this question bandied about lately. I think it is because we’re at the same place that Israel was in under the Roman rule in the first century before they were crushed by the Romans in 70 A.D.  At a subconscious level people now feel a great unease as they did then when Jesus lived. 

Imminent catastrophe looms on the horizon as it did then. Governments are mostly corrupt dictatorships pandering to the super rich, while masses grovel in the trenches to eek out a living. Our government is much like Rome was - a miltaristic empire suffering from ED, or Empire Dysfunction as Caroline Casey* has defined it. 

Control but no Command* is the rule of the day. No reverence for God or Creation. People are commodities, not valued spiritual beings clothed in flesh. Inequities abound between rich and poor, free and slave. Sounds awfully grim, doesn’t it? Things haven’t changed much in 2000 years. Alas! 

Jesus was not a super hero. We are seeing a lot of those movies now, because in our weakness we think that might just be the only salvation for “the huddled masses yearning to be free”. But bigger, stronger attackers can’t be the answer. Jesus came on the scene as a prophet consumed with compassion like Jeremiah in the Old Testament who was also called the “weeping prophet”. Not your typical Super Hero to the rescue.

If you could conjure up Jesus and ask him what he would do in 2008, he would probably weep like Jermiah. Most religious leaders of the world would condemn him as they did then, because he would tell them the same thing he did the leaders in Jerusalem: “Love your enemies, feed the poor, love God with all your heart and your neigbor as yourself.” Wow! Not a very popular or politically correct message. And I might add…impossible to do in one’s own strength.

The rich and powerful would certainly disdain him. He proclaimed, “Sell all you have a give to the poor. You can’t serve two masters - God and Money.” 

Jesus’ demographics was the disinfranchised who had no money to spend on stuff. They were not anyone’s “target market”. No one polled them ever. They had no say in anything. Can you imagine setting a career path to minister and teach this group?  Yet that’s what Jesus did.  More in Part 2

*Caroline Casey - visionaryactivism.com                   *See previous post on Control or Command 

         If I could point to a single man who exemplified what a life lived INSIDE OUT would look like in our world today, it would be Tim Russert. Known for his program, Meet the Press on NBC, he was suddenly snatched from us last week. He passionately lived from his heart, which sadly gave out on him at the young age of 58 - right before Father’s Day, which is oddly significant. Fatherhood was such a vital part of him as the only son of Big Russ and as father to his only son, Luke.

        His dad, Big Russ now 88, was immortalized in his book Big Russ and Me, which was all about the legacy his dad instilled in him to live and love 100% from his heart. His dad stressed one thing that Tim has lived by and used as a bench mark in raising his own son, Luke. “Always know that you are loved, but not entitled.” Holding to this truth, he remained humble, real and loving to all. He was the same man with everyone, whether a laborer or a President.

        Our world is in dire need of men who, like Tim, can be strong and male and still be grounded in self knowledge so deeply that they can be soft and caring. The fact that he was so dedicated to integrity made him the “gold standard” of political and social journalism. His command of the truth exposed the counterfeits that found themselves in his presence proving the power of living from one’s heart. He was never mean or controlling. He simply and strongly pursued the truth until the interviewee revealed it.

        It takes great courage and strength to hold to the “gold standard of truth” in a world awash in lies, deception and ego trips. But every single time we make the choice for truth with ourselves and others we enlarge our hearts and our world.  The fact that the world press revered this trait in Tim is his legacy to us, the public he worked so hard to serve. From this we can hope that others will realize how vital it is to put truth ahead of profit in our media and corporate board rooms.

        Real men are so desperately needed in our ailing world right now. We can’t tolerate any more “boy men” needing to prove themselves, using the world as their private playground for power plays and war games. This routine is part of the old patriarchy that’s been driving civilization into the ground for a few thousand years. We crave to have men who are strong but also grounded enough to live Inside Out from the heart.

        I think this is possible and that it can happen quickly. Because of economic and political turmoil worldwide, people are tired of the status quo and business as usual politics. We want to believe in ourselves and our leaders. We want to honor our heartfelt convictions.

        When we experience the shock of losing great men who give their lives to do the right thing we wake up. We hear a call from within to rise to a higher standard. Mediocre isn’t okay anymore. If we don’t do our best it isn’t worth doing. Every moment counts. Every person counts. There are no “accidents”. We never know when our heart will punch our ticket and tell us the trip is over.

        The wakeup call is becoming louder and louder, “Make life count every moment.” But, we can be so distracted and busy that we don’t hear. A shock like Tim’s passing can be very precious and sacred, especially if we take it to heart by stopping and listening to our own hearts within.

        I hope men as well as women around our country and the world will hear the message of these men’s lives, and have courage to live for truth Then they may just “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks”. Isaiah 2:4

        From the time we are little kids we strive to be in control.  But very early on it becomes obvious that we aren’t in control. We are controlled by almost everything in our lives…parents, school, community, police on down to the bully on the playground. We don’t like it one bit. We want control and a predictable life, darn it!  We believe we can create this life by force. It takes a lifetime to learn we can’t.  

        The need for control is built into our hard drive as human beings and is a key to our survival. Another hard wired human need is to be nurtured, which includes being listened to, accepted and understood.  This need is even more vital to our thriving than food and shelter, because if one is truly loved and respected for themselves they are empowered to do almost anything!  However, we can’t force someone to love and respect us.

        The word empowered is the key here. The difference between empowered and enforced is huge.  It is the difference between controlling and commanding. As children we are not empowered because we haven’t earned it yet. Power is bestowed. Others will willingly submit to another who is trustworthy no matter the age, sex or race. We have examples in Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and many others.

        The intent for wanting control over others determines whether one will be a dictator or a diplomat, whether one will hear an opposing idea or be closed minded. If the intention to control comes from fear of losing face or security, then authoritarian measures will be used to reign others in, and prove who is boss.

        But the flip side of controlling from fear is commanding from love, which overrides and transforms fear.  It is a head vs. heart issue. Control is of the head (or left brain ego mind) and command is from the heart (or right brain, intuitive mind). We speak of someone “having command” of a situation. It is so much broader and comprehensive than saying someone “has control”. With control you get the feeling of great strain to hold things together that could fall apart at any second. But with command there is a peace and security that every contingency is covered, and that all will be well in the end.

        We must wake up and realize controlling by force just makes what we’re resisting more persistent and bigger? Look at all the things we are at war against…drugs, poverty, terrorism, immigration. What would being in command over drugs, poverty, terrorism, etc. look like?  We can find out by questioning our motives for wanting control.

        To take command we must be willing to hear the opposition’s viewpoint.  Why are people taking drugs? Why are people drowning in poverty? Why are individuals choosing terrorism to get their message through? Why are people risking their lives to enter our country illegally? We will never have command if we don’t question the motives for these “wars”.

        The toxic part of controlling is that it can never instill trust because its source is fear. Inability to trust causes control freaks with a myriad of psychotic disorders manifesting as addictions, perversions, and fanaticism, both political and religious.  When we don’t trust ourselves, we can’t trust others. Without trust, true power or command is impossible. IMPOSSIBLE! 

        Trust originates in the heart, not the head. We can’t talk ourselves into trusting ourselves. We can only earn that trust of ourselves by being authentic and honest with ourselves and others. Then we have command of our circumstances and have clarity for decisions.

        Our biggest and only enemy that needs to be controlled is fear. It truly is the root of all evil. It takes over our minds and drowns out our heart’s wisdom, which makes us desperate to have control, which then creates more fear…the classic vicious circle.

        Think about your motive the next time you find yourself wanting to control another. Knowing it won’t work, can you refrain and choose instead to empower the situation by following your heart, knowing what is the very best for all in the long run?  Control can be a quick fix, but never the solution. The issue merely subsides to create a bigger problem later. Gaining command of the situation through trust and understanding transforms it. The choice is always ours.

Are you getting fed up with having to think, feel and say everything in a 5 second sound bite?  I am. Not only is the media spitting everything out in sound bites, but it is infecting almost all our communication - even within our own heads.  You’ve heard of the 5 second meditations haven’t you?!

My father always needed us to say whatever in 5 seconds or he lost interest. My kids with ADD are the same way.  Maybe my father had ADD before we knew it existed.  He’s 93 years old now and doesn’t listen to anything at all anymore! 

I don’t think many people even realize that this dehydration of speech has happened to us.  We’ve just acclimated and evolved into short attention span beings on the run.  But like fast food, it puts fuel in our tank, but doesn’t satisfy the soul.  We never get that FULL feeling that floods the whole Being.

Bill Moyers spoke of beware the “terrible simplifiers” on his PBS program The Journal. He was referring to the political media reducing whole speeches, sermons, articles, etc. to 5 second sound bites that inflame, distort and can even bring down an empire. 

We can’t even relate to things like the Lincoln vs. Douglas debates of the 1850’s for the Presidency. People actually hung on every word, talked about it for weeks and had their own debates around the kitchen tables. Can you even imagine that happening today? 

In more recent times, I recall the Grateful Dead refused to make a 3 minute record which was required in order to play on commercial radio until their one and only commercial single, Touch of Gray. Their rich culture -changing charisma couldn’t fit on a 3 minute sound bite recording!  You needed their whole creative, free flowing extravaganza to effect the shift in consciousness of an entire generation.

We can’t shift the consciousness of the world today if we keep insisting on getting our wisdom from sound bites.  I think that most of us blogging, or taking the time to read blogs, want to see a shift in consciousness that will help us move toward more peace and harmony on the Planet. We obviously appreciate words.

Sound bites are only one dimensional. Therefore, they provoke conflict because they evoke the opposite stance. This still only gives you two dimensional conversation that just goes back and forth forever or going circular. Real conversation and debate is three and four dimensional and provokes understanding of the others’ perspective.  Then one isn’t just a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Christian, Muslim, Hindu etc. Labels don’t work. Each one is an individual who has ideas and beliefs that align with various philosophies in subtle ways. 

Sound bites are rallying cries in battle. Hitler used them constantly to inflame his audiences. They stick in our minds like advertising jingles that we remember for 40 years!  “ Plop, plop fizz, fizz. Oh , what a relief it is!” comes to mind.  Do we really want our world run by sloganism? 

I want real relationships with real people that want to exercise their minds as much as their bodies and their stomachs. I want others to listen to me long enough to understand me and what I’m trying to say.  Please slow down, take a 10 second meditation (maybe more) and let’s consciously listen to each other for as long as necessary.  I think our lives depend on it.

I think my last post was a tad dark even though it had a rather happy ending. It isn’t easy writing about “shame” in a light-hearted way. I named my website and blog Cosmic Sand Box because I wanted to convey that learning about our cosmic selves is a fun journey.

With all the “shame” and injustice in the world it isn’t easy to walk on the sunny side of the street. But we can never solve the problems on the same level on which they were created. The Cosmic Sand Box is a place to go in the imagination that many of us have long forgotten. But if we would take the time to visit our earlier self and make the effort to remember what turned us on, we could mine a treasure of passion and enthusiasm that could transform the darkness of this world into light.

In my own experience I just recently realized that I was still allowing old shame messages to rain on my parade. The reason I didn’t recognize them as shameful was because our culture is still using the same messages today. We are labeled “bad” or “odd” if we differ from the mainstream and think for ourselves unconventionally. We are still urged to “play it safe”, “stay in the box”, conform to the majority. I still dread the thought of people thinking badly about me just because I differ in some way. My courage has been shamed out of me.

By going back to that earlier time before all that “crap” was piled on, I can recapture that vitality and freedom of spirit I had. Then with a lot of grace I can erase or neutralize all the conditioning in between so I can resurrect my true Creative Self that is still waiting to be set free in me.

If more of us were able to realize this is possible we could transform the shame to self-worth. We could realize the truth of who we really are. The Bible says “Ye are gods.” WOW! How come you don’t hear that verse in church or synagogue? 

I haven’t heard from anyone about the “Cost of Shame” article that I’d hoped would spawn a discussion from people who didn’t realize the shame they feel today is something they can be free of once they see it is just a false story they’ve been told by people who didn’t know any better. They were just passing on what they had been taught unconsciosly and never questioning how it would effect anything.

In “Things that Make You Go Hmmm” I said that our gut knows the truth. Well…shame will make you go “Hmmm” big time. Your “god self” within won’t resonate with shame for a second. It will start shooting stress hormones into your blood stream that would put a “shock and awe” attack to shame!  I know cause I’ve been experiencing them for many more years than I would like to admit.

There is one good thing about all the chaos and crisis that is going on now. It is making us come to the end of our “cope rope”.  We are finally realizing that we have to do something different. We see that we need a new solution to the problem. When we are sick and tired of being sick and tired, then we heal. Then we will be willing to let go of old shameful beliefs about ourselves and the world and begin to enjoy this wonderful life.

            The adult children of the world are having a temper tantrum! Individuals and nations are blaming and hating each other because they’re not getting their own way.  Centuries of hiding from oursevles has produced this gigantic season of violence and calamity in which we find ourselves. We can’t begin to find a way out of this conundrum until we know the cause. I believe the cause is our hidden shame.

            Although it would take a book to explore this subject, I just want to begin a discussion and hopefully you will resonate with what I think I see happening.

            We are suffering from what some therapists would call “arrested development”; meaning we stopped growing emotionally at a young age, and we see life through the fear-filled eyes of our child, who is still very much alive within us . We don’t realize this child within is directing the show, because we buried him/her when we were little. We were punished, humiliated and shamed. We were told we were bad, ungrateful, selfish little boys and girls. Grownups didn’t like who we were BEING when we were just being ourselves, full of light, joy, vitality and imagination. Being threatened with rejection, we decided we had to be someone else to be loved and cared for.

            With our young, now hurt and shamed little minds we tried to figure out what our parents wanted. A lot of us modeled one or both of our parents’ roles, such as Bully, Victim, Pleaser, Joker, Abuser, Rescuer, etc.  You know the drill. The abused child becomes an abuser. We put our joyful, happy, trusting child self in the basement of our psyche. And there he/she has stayed.

            So here we are now. We’re all grown up little kids with our masks firmly in place playing our chosen roles and trying to find joy and fulfillment in our prefabricated lives. Life works for awhile until something major happens that requires that the real us shows up. When something or someone demands 100% of us be present, our false self can’t make the grade. Our real self is stuffed so far down we don’t even remember he/she is there. So what do we do? We project that fear and hurt from our shamed child outside ourselves onto whomever is involved in the drama. We attack, judge, manipulate, play victim, run and hide, you name it.

            We must acknowledge that the care givers had good intentions. The goal was to teach children how to control their selfish, angry feelings so they could function in our society. But no one seems to know how to do that in a healthy and life affirming way. Most everyone makes the child wrong and bad for having human emotions. They are coming from fear of losing control and they repeat what was done to them as children.

             If we can understand what happens to children when parents/teachers project their hurt and shame onto young minds, we can begin to free ourselves of that shame. The fear of being humiliated is a person’s greatest fear. This is why we are experiencing so much violence on the planet. Billions of us were shamed as children, and we fear being shamed or made wrong and bad again now. This is why we project our buried shame outside ourselves onto scapegoats.  We do this as individuals and as groups and even nations. What our parents did to us is what their parents did to them back for hundreds of years, so this isn’t a beat up the parents time. But we do need to recognize that just because it has been accepted practice to shame children it must stop with us now. We can be free of those toxic tapes running in our minds by being aware that they are there and choose instead to listen to that still small voice inside our heart instead.

           We aren’t the persons we were told we were by our hurt/shamed care givers. What is true is that at our core we are still vibrant, joyous, innocent beings who love and want to be loved.  That never changes one iota no matter how old we may be. The flip side of the story is that we also have a darker shadowy side that does want its own way, and can be selfish and demanding like our three year old child. This is called being human.

           None of us have been trained in accepting our darker side or how to integrate it. Like I said, we have “arrested development” and we just react to situations from our inner three-year old child space. In order to get back in the driver seat of our lives we have to pay attention to our feelings in the moment. 

          When scarey, hurtful, stressful events happen in our lives, pause a moment, and look within to notice how and what we are feeling down deep…in that still, small place where our inner child is hiding. Fear of some sort usually comes up first, i.e. fear of failing, fear of not being good enough, fear of being humiliated. Then instead of running away from that fearful feeling, accept it. If possible go back in your memory to when you were a small child and note when you first felt this same fear. When you get a hold of it, realize that you don’t have to react with that fear in your current situation. You are grown and safe now, not a scared, powerless three year old. We can honor and respect that imaginative, joyful free spirited child within us.

            We could never stand up to our parents as kids and tell them they were wrong about us and to ask them for what we needed.  Now we can do that for ourselves. Our authentic vibrant self is alive and well within us. This isn’t a Polyanna philosophy either.

            We are both light and dark, good and  bad. We don’t really want an all flawless vanilla world. We want the dark chocolate to spice it up and give us contrasts and challenges. These become fertilizer for our new creations. However, if our fears and hurts are denied and  kept hidden they become toxic. That’s when we unconsciously project the negative, destructive behaviors onto others.

            I am encouraged because I see that more and more of us are beginning to awaken to who we are as human beings – the good, the bad and the ugly. We are learning to accept ourselves, forgive ourselves and integrate our weaknesses instead of denying them and stuffing them into our unconscious. If we face our fears with courage, we can live an authentic life in peace and creative compassion. 

           We won’t have to have any more tantrums!

When you find yourself going “Hmmmm”, it is because you feel something doesn’t make sense in your Knower (gut).  What you’re observing on the outside doesn’t gel with what you’re feeling on the inside. You’re saying “What’s wrong with this picture? Something doesn’t ring true here.”

I find myself going “hmmmm” when someone I know is always late, yet they claim they really want to be with me or go somewhere with me. Seldom would I ever say anything to the person, but I lose trust in them because of this discrepancy between words and deeds.

I am beginning to feel that by not verbalizing my “hmmmm”, and questioning them about their chronic lateness is a disservice to both of us. The relationship gets weaker and weaker because of misunderstanding and distrust. 

Lack of trust in any relationship is deadly. Ignoring the things that make us go “hmmmm” is just as toxic as ignoring the garbage. If left too long it morphs into different forms until it is unrecognizable. Saving it then is like trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again. There was a point in the decomposition process where a transformation could be made. I think we’re at this point is now as individuals first and as citizens second.

Therefore, I am proposing that we all spend one week examining everything that makes us go “hmmmm”.  Consider every inconsistency, whether it be in a personal relationship, the religious organization you belong to, the political spectacle of this election year, the daily news, or whatever else. Our inner Knower wants to engage us in a conversation. It wants to let us know it is time to take out the garbage!

Fearing to look at the garbage doesn’t make it smell any better or stop decomposing. For example, the government tells us not to question or resist its anti-terrorism policies because you could be accused of being one. Your “hmmmm moment” is a form of treason. 

Questioning religious doctrine can be scary too. Many religions are like the government in that you’re accused of treason and banished to hell for inquiring about the inconsistencies between what their prophet originally taught and what they actually do. All major religions teach not to kill, to love God and one another as we love ourselves, because we are all one family.  How does that square with killing others or justifying hateful prejudice against those that don’t agree with your doctrine? This is a big “hmmmm” if I ever heard one! Ignoring this one has turned the world into a garbage dump of war.

More of us need to honor our “hmmmm moments” and start speaking out. We will be delightfully surprised at how many others feel the same way, but were afraid to express it.  None of us want to be the Lone Ranger, especially if we think we’re the only ones who see and feel as we do.

Because of instant 24/7 news we’re programmed to think that the entire country and/or world is marching in lock-step off a cliff.  But wait. Look around you. What do you see in your own town and neighborhood?  Is there chaos everywhere?  No! Hmmmm! 

The reality is that out of almost 7 billion people, only a tiny select few are setting policy and deciding what you hear and read in the news. And, they are selling fear, plain and simple.

All of us together are so much more powerful than the .0001% that seems to be running everything. If just a few discover that a few others are asking the same questions, a safe haven is created for many more to come out of their “hmmmm closet” and express themselves. Alone we feel impotent and despair of ever being able to restore harmony.

The garbage has been ignored too long already.  Can any of us afford to keep ignoring our hmmmm moments? If we are up front and honest with ourselves, we have lost the trust in these relationships because the breach between what’s said and what’s done is too great.  It is okay to verbalize the doubts and demand honest answers. In fact it is mandatory if we are to save the relationships. 

As some sage said, “The civil aren’t organized; and, the organized aren’t civil”. However, the civil ones of us can get organized, but only if we face the truth within us and act on it. That is the first step.  Will you take the challenge and face the questions begging to be heard and answered …“hmmmm”?  I will. I hope you will too.

Last post I wrote about the little song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” which we all know and love. Most of it is about going with the flow of life, instead of striving to turn the tide or push the river.  But the last line and meaning to the song is that life is but a Dream.

            I know. Everything in your mind and body is rising up and shouting, “ NO IT’S NOT!”.  How could we be on this planet in a physical body and be living a dream, which we equate with a fantasy.  We all object to that idea. We feel it would make our life here irrelevant, because we think our dreams are irrelevant flights of fancy.

            But the truth is that life here in our physical form is a dream. We don’t realize it because we are still asleep. For example, when you wake up in the morning, you realize you were dreaming, and you think that what you dreamed didn’t really happen. Didn’t it? What happens to you when you slip into unconscious sleep? Where do you go? Who is experiencing the dream? Think about this a moment.

            Have you had dreams in which you committed acts that you could never imagine yourself committing? What do you suppose that was about? Most of us try to squelch those dreams. Even some fun dreams can unsettle us, because they are so vastly different than what we think of as ‘real’. We’re flying or doing supernatural things, or we’re being romanced by a movie idol.

            We just don’t take our dreams too seriously. Besides that, most of us don’t remember them unless they’re shocking nightmares or very bizarre. Most scientists or other ‘authority’ figures don’t give dreams any credence. But some are beginning to.

            In our manic culture, all of us are dream starved in the same way so many are sleep deprived. We are being kept so busy just staying alive and keeping up with the pace of life that we are becoming like robots. Our greatest gift as human beings is consciousness and we are ignoring it. We are allowing ourselves to go unconscious and to be led around by the loudest barker at the carnival.

            Our dreams reveal our inner, hidden intentions, shed light on problematic issues, foretell a future event, or delight us with magical experiences. As I mentioned before, 99% of our minds is tucked away in our subconscious. If you could take a microscope to your consciousness you would be overcome with amazement!  You haven’t even begun to tap into the universes that exist within you. We are all Harry Potters. We can get glimpses of this when we dream.

            However, we have to put in some effort to learn the language of our hidden self that is attempting to communicate with us. Our dreams are encoded with symbols which is the language of our subconscious.

            Decoding dreams begins by understanding their purpose. First, we dream to keep us sane. Even if we don’t think we dream, we do. If we didn’t dream we wouldn’t be alive. Secondly, the other important function of dreams is to expose our shadow side to us so we can integrate and/or heal it. All that we have stuffed and denied stays filed away in our subconscious; and, when we dream it surfaces as people and things that are symbolic representations of our hidden feelings. These continue to effect our lives by keeping us stuck, fearful, hurt, etc.

            We can ferret these blocks out if we become aware of them as they show up in dreams. The first step is to notice how they make you feel. As you contemplate the various images from the dream you will begin to uncover some hidden secrets. Maybe you discover past hurts you thought you were over long ago. Your dream is alerting you that you have unfinished business. Until the original wound is healed and cleared it will continue to resurface and influence your life and your dreams. This is just one example of how insights of your dreams can serve you.

            Our Higher Self (or whatever you like to call it) is using dreams as one way to make you aware of how and where you may be stuck or moving in the wrong direction. When your ego mind is “sleeping” and silent, your Inner Mind can speak to your heart without interference. We all have this fantastic inner guidance system built in. We haven’t been taught how to use it until recently.

            Remember, ‘life is but a dream’. Don’t you want to understand your dream? 

By Shirley Hart from www.cosmicsandbox.com

You know that jingle:

“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream.”

An entire philosophy of life is encapsulated in this little song. Row your boat. It is only your boat, not your partner’s, parents’, friends’, child’s boat. It is only your life on the stream of experience. Only you think the thoughts in your mind. Only you know what those are. No one can make you think a single thing – ever. We might like to think that others make us think or feel a certain way because it gets us off the hook. Then we can blame them if things don’t work out.

Thoughts are oars. They give the boat direction and momentum. We can use them calmly and gently, or erratically and forcefully. But no one else can row for us. We can choose not to row at all, go unconscious and drift. We may end up on the rocks or stuck in an eddy and grounded on the shore. Our choice.

Rowing gently down the stream and not forcefully up the stream is a better choice. Pushing the river is exhausting and never works. Pride is the cause of this plan of action. One could call it “playing God”. It is amazing how many millions of people in the world believe they can actually succeed at this ridiculous endeavor. Much war is caused by this prideful self-righteousness.

Going with the flow, being in the zone, are idioms that describe rowing gently down the stream. Trusting in the Divine, Sacred nature of Life Itself is what enables us to relax into the Present. The oars (thoughts) are moving in sync with the rhythm of the stream and there is clarity to direct our boat to gently bypass the hazards that appear moment to moment. There is no final destination. We are only given a direction – down the stream. The stream is the dream. Gently go down into your deep flowing inner Being.

In this state we are merry or joyful. This state too is a choice, and is a result of how we use our oars (thoughts). To gently flow it is necessary to relax, to be aware of the surroundings and be grateful for all you behold each moment. Remember, you can’t live now and think about tomorrow. If you focus on the future you are not here. You have abandoned yourself in an unknown illusion of “what if” land. You can only know yourself NOW.

If you encounter a boulder in your path, ask yourself what you were just thinking and even what you recently dreamed. Boulders and rapids are signs notifying you that you are rowing down the stream but you’re focusing on your past. It’s not a problem; it’s a reminder to stay present and trust the process. Don’t make mountains out of mole hills, unless you like the drama of mountain climbing!

The ultimate prize of rowing gently down the stream merrily is that you realize that ‘life is but a dream’. We are all flowing in the stream/dream which is always changing. It is a life sustaining substance – water. It supports our boat – physical life. Only a tiny part of us is on the surface and visible to the physical eye.

One man had a dream that he was a butterfly. When he awoke he was perplexed because his dream was so real that he wasn’t sure if he was a butterfly now having a dream of being of man or if he was a man who had a dream of being a butterfly.

Since our dreams come from our subconscious and it is 99% of our consciousness, do you think it may be more real than the 1% we experience in our physical world? Quite a thought to ponder, don’t you think?

Our dreams inform us in symbolic language what is important for us to know to go with the flow gently down the stream. What do the dream events and symbols mean? They hold a treasure trove of wisdom and guidance masked in picture puzzles for us to solve. Our life is but a dream, but we are asleep.