Continued Lesson with an Inner Master
Dreamscapes can be exhausting to sort. The people in the dreams can be as real as anyone with you. Take Loxy, for example. Maybe she is a ghost or a spirit guide or a tulpa. I don’t know.
Most of the time, I don’t need to know. The dreamscape dramas that follow her muse like kiss are as real as they need to be, and metaphorically relevant to unpacking real life, if there is such a thing. Real life is also found in the dreams, as evidenced by this ongoing, episodic encounter with Jarli Tau, aboriginal Dream Walker, guide, and friend. This is the third installment, and so if you feel out of place, no worries- isn’t that the way dreams roll sometimes? If you want the first
and second in order, to increase contextuality, there you go. Just know, worrying about people in the inner worlds of your mind can also increase the likelihood of serial dreaming.
Waking from a dream, but still in a dream
I went from a dream sequence with Loxy, discussing my urgency to save Alish, one of our friends, only to wake and find myself still dreaming. Literally, Loxy kissed me and I knew I was dreaming and I woke myself up… It was like lightning and the world was whited out but I was sure she was there the whole time.
“I am dreaming!” I said, exuberantly, a flood of joy rushing in all around me. The world flooded with light, a rainbow burst into being arching over us, and the sky became so bright I couldn’t see and then when I became calm, the light diminished and I was no longer with Loxy, but instead I ‘woke’ up in a desert.
Jarli extended a hand to help me up.
“I was just dreaming,” I said, enthusiastically. Standing, I brushed off the sand.
“Yeah, mate,” Jarli said, not adding the point; ‘still are.’
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I’m always here,” Jarli said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Just as Loxy is always here. Everybody you ever met is here, even if you just met in passing, even if you never met but just saw a picture of them, even if you never knew they existed. We’re all here all the time. Not seeing us doesn’t remove us from the mind.”
“But I really felt like I was awake, I mean, lucid! But I feel equally awake now, only I am aware that I am dreaming…”
“When you arrive at the place where you no longer distinguish between waking life and dreaming life, you will have mastered the walk,” Jarli said.
“Does such a place even exist?” I asked, skeptical.
“Not here,” Jarli said.
“I don’t know how I could be more aware than I am presently,” I said, walking with him. I decided to join him in a cigarette.
“Don’t do that,” Jarli said, taking my cigarette and pocketing it. “It’s a filthy habit.”
“You do it,” I pointed out.
“It’s a prop. It makes me look distinguished,” Jarli said.
“No it doesn’t,” I argued.
“A contradiction is not an argument,” Jarli said.
I laughed. I looked at the sun, feeling its heat. Since this was a dream, I knew I could adjust. A bubble of cooler air surrounded me at request.
“Good for you,” Jarli said, noting the bubble and how the denser air blocked his cigarette smoke.
He blew directly at me to reveal what he saw. “Had you been more aware with Loxy, what might you have done differently?”
“Asked more questions, for starters,” I said.
“Questions can be good,” Jarli asked. “Give me an example.”
“I want to know who ‘they’ are,” I said.
“Who are ‘they’” Jarli asked.
“Exactly,” I agreed.
“No, who are ‘they,’” Jarli asked again.
“I thought you were here,” I said, wondering why I was having to explain a part of my conversation with Loxy.
“Just because I was here doesn’t mean I was privy to your conversation,” Jarli said. “Do you hear any other conversations at the moment? No? Why not? There are trillions and trillions of conversations and negotiations and trades going on at this very moment.”
Hearing this didn’t make my ‘they’ question any easier, but rather added voices to it. A buzzard was circling in the distance. Was that a conversation?
“Loxy said there was a ‘they’ who would not permit me to save Alish,” I said.
“Oh,” Jarli said. “You’re still there.”
“How can I not be there?! I’ve spent most of my life ducking and dodging any real commitment to life, to friends, or to even creating my own family. I’ve met a good soul who has a need.
Simultaneously, I have been informed that there is magic in the Universe and not only can I wield it in a very direct, non-‘Carlos Castaneda’ sort of way, but I’ve been accepted into a school of magic to teach me exactly how to do so! What greater purpose could I serve?”
“Let it be,” Jarli said, gently, actually answering my last question, as opposed to my interpretation which was “just drop it.”
“Who are ‘they’?” I asked.
“What would you say if I told you every cell in your body had its own soul?” Jarli asked.
“I'd say that’s absurd,” I said.
“But you don’t deny that you’re a host to a plethora of creatures, both flora and fauna, who aren’t you, do they have souls?” Jarli asked.
“Not likely,” I said, but entertained the idea.
“Do dogs have souls?”
“Of course,” I said without hesitation. A quote from Will Rogers popped into my head. ‘If dogs don’t go to heaven, when I die I want to go to the ‘other’ place.’
“So, you will philosophically permit a dog to have a soul, perhaps even a myriad of animals, but not an individual cell in your own body? Is it a paramecium?” Jarli asked, but wasn’t really waiting for an answer. He pointed to the buzzard. “I want you to think really hard about these distinctions, because every time you draw a line in the sand you box yourself in and add another level to reality from which you have to wake. Either none of us have souls, or we all do. And when I say we all do, I am saying every rock, every tree, every atom, every particle… There is not a single division that separates us. Humans believe they are special and alone in the universe, when everything in your own science tells you there is absolutely nothing special about you.
Your earth was once the center of the Universe. You know that’s not true. It moved from the center, to three planets out, to 30 plus thousand light years from galactic center point, in a galaxy not the center of a Local Group, in an expanding universe that continues to accelerate away from an origin point that is most likely already beyond your light horizon, blocking you off from ever knowing with certainty where you came from. And there is no central original point, it all just simply was.
“On your own planet, humans are not even .01 percent of a sample size of all Earth life, and yet, humans are the only ones with souls? That, to me, seems more absurd than to doubt whether your cells have their own souls. Add to that knowledge that every cell has its own life cycle. You don’t want every cell living forever, because if they did, humans would look very different. You would have fur, for starters, and webbed fingers and a primordial tail. Every cell has its own purpose, but collectively, they function as a whole to give your consciousness, your perceived ego, a vehicle in which to navigate, and to give continuity for a certain space of time. And maybe that’s why our dreams are never empty, as every now and then, a bladder cell spirit wants to fly across the stage of you and hold a conversation, even if it’s just to tell you , ‘wake up we need to pee.’
“For better or worse, you were chosen to speak for this body. You are not even one tenth of yourself, but you speak for yourself. You were not chosen to speak for all of mankind, or even
the Earth, and it is very likely that even if you yell at the top of your lungs, your world will not acknowledge your voice because it has its own agenda, just like that bladder cell you’re not listening to. You’d be surprised how healthy humans could be if they just listened to themselves.
And it goes without saying, if you can’t hear yourself, you won’t be able to hear your neighbor.
And if you can’t properly speak for yourself from a lack of listening, and you can’t speak for the Earth for lack of being heard, then you definitely can’t speak for Alish or her planet. She speaks for her and her collective consciousness, and her species has its own voice and it will make its own calls. That’s how this works.”
The urgency to urinate ended this dream session.
Waking Life is Like Naps between Lessons
If there is drama in life, there will be drama in the after life, or the dream realm. Between the last encounter and this, there was some drama. Yeah, welcome to my world.
I found myself in a pub. It’s familiar. I have been here since Lucas gave this to a child that was me who is not even close to being me… Jarli waved at me from a booth. “Oh!” I said. The place suddenly seemed less dark, and more colorful. I hurried over to Jarli.
“Hey,” I said.
“You’ve been tearing things up!” Jarli said.
“Are you referring to me having sex, or the incident at the Bizarre?” (You don’t have to know the drama behind the Bizarre incident, but if you’re interested, I’ll link you at the end.)
“Both,” Jarli said. He pushed a box at me. “I was told to give you this.”
“What is it?” I asked, excited.
“I didn’t look,” Jarli said.
“Who gave it to you?” I asked.
“Great question and difficult to discern. Now, based on the fact that this is your dream, I would say you’re giving it to yourself, but who knows where things actually come from,” Jarli offered.
“Should I open it now?” I asked.
“Unless you want to open it when you wake up,” Jarli said.
“Good point,” I agreed.
I opened the box. I suppose anyone watching would have seen that golden light, like Pulp Fiction, or perhaps when Indy found the Ark of the Covenant, but I didn’t see the light on my face, but I was definitely mesmerized.
Jarli stood up. “Quick, close it, mate!”
“Are you kidding?!” I asked. “I’ve always wanted one of these.”
“You don’t want that!” Jarli said.
“Do you even know what it is?” I asked.
“It’s a lightsaber, like from Star Wars,” Jarli said.
I reached for it. He blocked.
“Please, don’t touch it,” Jarli said.
“If I have this, I can’t be beat,” I said. “It’s not like the sharks or Fribourg have lightsabers. The plasma can cut through anything, and probably even deflect magic missiles.”
“You know what happened when Lucas ran out of Jedi? He invented a metal that could withstand a lightsaber. Close the box,” Jarli insisted.
“Why are you so afraid of this?” I asked.
“Why are you not?!” Jarli said.
“Why?!”
“How can you be so old and so daft at the same time?! If you own a weapon, you will have to use it. Even if you don’t use it today, the weight of carrying it means you have to be prepared to use it, which either means, you’re imagining that you’re using it, or you’re practicing using it, and then every encounter for the rest of your life is a conversation of whether it’s time to show it and bluff or show it and use it, and inevitably someone always dies,” Jarli said.
I stood up, retrieving the lightsaber from the box. It was a bit heavier than I imagined, but its weight felt nice in my hand. I was so excited I failed to realize all the sound and activity in the bar ceased.
“See, nothing bad happened,” I said, surprised by the presence of my own voice that filled the room and echoed.
The sound of chairs being pushed back from their respective tables broke the stillness following my announcement. Ten people stood, revealing they each had lightsabers. I tried to put my lightsaber back in the box, but I couldn’t open my hand to put it down. Jarli didn’t even bother to say, ‘I told you, some things can’t be undone,’ but the look suggested he was sorely tempted. He sipped his beer while reaching for popcorn, predicting entertainment about to ensue.
“Now, wait just a minute,” the bartender said. “This is my bar. You take this fight outside.”
“There won’t be a fight. He’s not a real Jedi,” one of the Sith said.
“He owns Shark Slayer. He may be more formidable than you imagine,” another said.
The familiar raspy, mechanical breathing of Darth Vader became prominent as he entered the bar, even his silhouette in the well-lit doorway was easily recognizable, as if he were simply a coalescing shadow. “Leave him to me,” he said. The ruby saber ignited.
“Let’s talk about this,” I offered.
“You are not my son. Prepare to die,” Vader said.
“Jarli?” I asked.
“Tried to warn you, mate,” Jarli said, tossing popcorn back. “Good luck.”
Vader attacked. My blade ignited even as I blocked the first blow. Patrons left the bar. Jarli helped himself to the pitcher of beer on the table behind him. The bartender pulled a weapon and fired at me and Vader. Vader used the force and pulled the weapon from the bartender’s hand, caught it, and fired back at him. The bartender went down. He pointed the weapon at me.
“Join me, and you might survive my training,” Vader said.
“I’ll never join a Skywalker,” I said. “Bunch of whiny babies.”
Jarli cheered me on with a beer salute.
Vader fired, and I managed to reflect the bolt of energy back to the weapon.
“You got lucky,” Vader said, tossing the broken weapon and advancing with his saber.
“Only when I slept with your mother,” I said.
Vader roared and attacked. I lost a hand. I think I heard a knight saying, “It’s just a flesh wound…” but the blade had come up through my wrist and circled back down into my chest.
That hurt like a son of a bitch, but the weirdness was that there was no blood spilt, but I felt the
blood no longer coursing through my body, and my brain was diminishing like a candle that had run out of wax….
It’s all the sort of thing that wakes you up.
Never analyze the dream while in the dream
This advice comes from Carl Jung. I think specifically I found it in the Red Book. I am confident, but too lazy this morning to verify. My ‘Red Book’ is titled “Not Here.”
