14 April 2009

Dream Lessons and Cultivating Will

I'm a firm believer in dreams and the messages they carry. Recently, I have felt rutted, detached, and annoyed. I chalked it up to my constant headaches. It's challenging to enjoy the subtleties of life when a constant throb takes of residence in my head. I have looked into the physical outer world reasons that may lead to this, but I also can't ignore my inner goings-on as well.

The DNA in our bodies carries lifetimes of memory past from generation to generation. We also carry cell memories of past lives. Some of this DNA or cell memory is good giving us natural features that enhance our lives or gifts and talents that seem to come to us naturally. Some of it isn't so good.

It is possible that this is the true meaning of original sin? It's not that the bad stuff is, in itself, a sin, but it can be a hindrance that we must work through during a lifetime, like Karma. Is it a dark spot in the mind or body?

In Paramahansa Yogananda's collection of talks and essays entitled Journey to Self-Realization Discovering the Gifts of the Soul, he discusses that in past lives we have established thoughts in our consciousness that affect us in this life...we have planted little seeds. and we carry those established thoughts, or Karmic seed tendencies, into this present existence.

In my dream last night, my baggage burdened me. I couldn't continue on my journey due to the excessive baggage that I carried. I kept trying to consolidate and repack items to make taking along all this stuff more efficient, but every time I turned around, there was another bag to carry. I felt such strife in my dream, not unlike the strife I feel in this worldly realm.

How appropriate a dream. The luggage and all the crap in it represented all my established thoughts, cell memory and DNA that weighs me down and affects my life in a negative way.

Paramahansa Yogananda states that the way to change is to WILL it away. We WILL change. He says that upon awakening in the morning and going to sleep at night to affirm the thought, "I can change. I have the will to change. I WILL change." Will in this aspect is not used in the context of, "I will cook dinner" or the future tense, but as the present tense verb "to will" as in to will something. I will myself or under my will. The power, strength and endurance is within me.

I mentally see all the baggage that is hindering me in my dream. I don't even want to rummage through it. I see myself putting all the baggage down and simply walking away. I sever it from my present existence. I will a new day, a bright and lighter day. I will health and strength. I will peace of mind.

The practice is to continue this thought process in the morning, at night and through-out the day.

Is it really that simple? There's only one way to find out.

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