Walking without shoes

I woke up exhausted one morning.  All night long I had been walking. I don't know where I was going or where I was coming from. I was just walking, walking and walking. At one point, I was walking across a bridge. Maybe it wasn't a bridge but a ledge. On one side was a wall, on the other a sharp drop down to God only knows where.

Still I'm walking.....I'm half-way across this bridge and I'm afraid. Afraid of falling. I stop, frozen in fear. I see ahead of me solid ground but it's still a long way off. I look back but realize that I'm too far along to turn back now. Forward is the only option. I rush forward telling myself "just keep walking forward. Don't look back, don't look down...Just straight ahead."

Finally, the solid ground in the form of a patch of grass is within my reach. I run to safety and as my feet hit the patch of grass I feel my feet are wet. That's when I realized I didn't have shoes on!! I can't turn back now to go get my shoes. I have to continue walking. Where to, I have no idea. So the walking continues. Through all sorts of weird surroundings. The background changes but I'm still walking. I've been walking for so long now without shoes that my socks are full of holes. Still I keep walking......

It's no wonder I woke up so exhausted after all that walking I did in my dream!!

Anyone have any idea what this crazy dream is about and why it is still so vivid in my mind when it happened months ago?? The mind is such a strange place to visit. The yoga sutras tell us that our dreams are "remembering in our sleep". If that's the case, what was I remembering?

This past week-end I had the opportunity to teach a class on the yoga sutras. In the process of preparing for the class and in the process of teaching the class I discovered just how much I have learned during the past few years of study. I have come a long way, I have walked a long time on this yoga journey. Perhaps the dream was showing me how far (even without shoes) I have traveled. Perhaps the changing scenery in the dream signified my various experiences both in this lifetime and past lifetimes.

The scenery of our lives change but the essence of who we are stays the same. In the dream, it was "me" walking and everything else around me was changing. The truth of it is that the "me", my true nature, is always the same even when the external changes. The essence of "me" will remain the same even as the scenery of my life experiences change.

I continue walking this path. Walking, walking, walking. Forward but never back. Firm in the knowledge that the essence of who I am will always be the same. Firm in the knowledge that I am too far along on the journey to turn back now. When I find myself frozen in fear I will look ahead to the soft patch of grass ahead of me, that solid ground and continue to move forward. After all, what choice do I have? Even if I don't know where I'm going or where I'm coming from. The "I" that is my true nature knows everything. All I have to do is trust that I will one day awaken from this dream....... Then everything will be known and all my doubts will be removed.

Om Namah Shivaya!