Posts Tagged ‘kathmandu’

Sensing the “Dreaming”

April 30, 2010. Kathmandu, Nepal.

In last twenty one days I have been fortunate to wake-up in three different continents, North Africa (Morocco), Europe (Andalusia) and Asia (Nepal). The experience of my first day in three unfamiliar places and energetic places made me realize the meaning of “Dreaming”. It made me ‘see’ what make us seek ‘familiar things’ or hold-on to my ‘little identity’.

We left San Diego on April 9th at 9am and after three flights, two trains, and two taxi rides, we reached Fes (Morocco) on April 10 at 9pm. We were completely exhausted, tired, hungry and ‘out of our mind’. The smell, sounds and sight of Medina shifted my ordinary awareness, a part of me went into medieval time and city. Something made my inner-sense feel at home. At the same time my ordinary-sense was worrying about how will reach our Riad (the B&B) and will we get any food as it already past 9pm.

We were waiting outside the gate of walled-city (the city gates close after 8pm so taxis can not go in) for someone to come from Riad and help us to get there. After sometime an old man with hand-carriage shows up. Very sweetly he greets us in Arabic/French. I did not understand any of it however, my heart was very comforted to see his expression and hear his tone of voice. All talking was done by Shaz who understands Arabic and can speak a bit. We walked with old man through winding narrow alleys of Fes. Both sides were dark tall buildings. Alleys are partially lit that you can see someone from far but you cannot see their face until they are at seven or eight feet from you. Winding lanes made of my ordinary-sense very nervous, so I started to count turns and memorize building names, colors, etc, so I can the remember the path. It did not work. In fifteen mins or so, we reached our Riad and were warmly welcomed by the manager.

After unloading everything we somehow communicated that we are very hungry. So, the old man again took us back through another set of winding lanes to a restaurant. By the time we reached the restaurant it was 10pm. As I enter the restaurant the first thing I hear is loud belly dancing music and my heart missed the beat at the sight of scenary. It was a beautiful Dar (Dar is same as Riad, a traditional Moroccan house, only difference is that it does not have garden in the middle-courtyard) with high ceilings and amazing Moroccan-Arabic artwork with vibrant colors. In the courtyard there were around 40 people sitting in traditional low Moroccan seats. There was beautiful Moroccan women performing belly dancing on live music played by a band of Moroccan musicians. I looked at Shaz and her eyes were wide open with a big smile. We sat there for one hour easting khus-khus and vegetables, listening to music and absorbing the performance of various artists. Somewhere in that hour I completely forgot about my exhausting travel from San Diego. I even lost my sense of where I was and what was time or place. I could sense the “Dream” of place and of my self. I was aware of both the present time as well as timelessness.

While walking back to our Riad I remembered the words of Arny Mindell: “The ‘yes and no answer’ to reality is that you and I are people. We come from the same or different nationalities, age groups, genders, sexual orientations, religions, mental and physical health, and so forth. ….But this is not the whole truth. These are just the yes-and-no-answers, the ones that fit our legal systems and political realities worldwide. The whole truth includes the viewpoint of Aboriginal Australians, Zen Buddhists, and native peoples everywhere. That whole truth includes the Dreaming that created each of us.”

Arnold Mindell says that we don’t stop dreaming in the morning. In fact our unconscious continues to dream while we are in our ordinary-awareness. Our Dreaming process creates reality around us is not just limited to our state of sleep. He says our dreambody (which is our energetic-subtle-body that has all the chakras, Kundalini and capable perceiving symbols and archetypes) is continuously dreaming however, it’s our ‘little ego’ in ordinary-awareness that does not see the ‘dreaming process’ so that it can stay in the ‘familiar world’ or “common reality”.

Virgina Satir, the family therapist, once said to Richard Bandler (co-developer of NLP), “You know, Richard, most people think the will to survive is the strongest instinct in human beings, but it isn’t. The strongest instinct is to keep things familiar”. I believe that ‘unfamiliar’ is the gateway to Great Mystery, because the instinct to keep things familiar originates from our ordinary-awareness. Unfamiliar places and things kind of shutdown our ordinary awareness and in these instances we can experience the ‘Dreaming’.
I had another shift of awareness in St Michel’s cave in Gibraltar. I have always wanted to go to Gibraltar, I have no idea why. Most of the Gibraltar is covered by a big rock called ‘The Rock’. Life in Gibraltar literally and metaphorically revolved around The Rock. At one end of the Rock there is natural cave. The age of cave is unknown but it has been used by humans for over fifty thousand years. A Neolithic skull was found in the cave to shed some light on its history. Shaz asked me to sit in meditation so she can take my picture. Within few moments I was resting against floor of cave. Gone. It was dark and warm as if I was in the timless womb of Great Mother. Cave was alive and pulsating and that’s how it was giving birth to crystals! There is crack in everything that’s how the life and light gets in.
Yesterday was my first day in Kathmandu and while circumambulating the great Stupa of Boudhanath (built in 5th CE), I was totally absorbed in its breathtaking size and the compassionate eyes that looks at every pilgrimage, as if asking them to wake-up.
 

Somewhere in 3r or 5th round I forgot where I was and which way I was going. Every direction looked same, and every step had feeling of deja vu as if I have done this many times before. When you lose the sense of time and direction and you are completely in the present moment then the separation between inner and outer becomes porus. One can clearly see the ‘Dreaming process’ and subtle waves flowing seamlessly from all direction, far and near, like a Tibetan Endless knot.

By the time I got back to my ordinary senses I was in a temple, sitting in front of Padmasambhava and a monk was blessing me by lightly hitting with his book on the crown of my head, gesturing me to wake-up! I was happy for the wake-up call and also see to the Padmasambhava. Tomorrow I continue my Yatra – to Muktinath, where Padmasambhava stopped before heading to Tibet!