Little Raindrop Wakes Up From His Dream.
I was a raindrop.
I was falling down through the sky towards the ocean.
It was taking a long time to fall all that way, and as I fell I felt many different emotions,
And thought about many different things.
Looking around, I could see lots of other raindrops falling through the sky also.
Falling.
Falling.
A Little Raindrop in the sky.
Suddenly - I stopped!
I just stopped dead in the sky.
And all the other raindrops stopped too.
Suddenly - I realised that my dream-self had been dreaming!
I woke up from this dream-inside-a-dream
And realised that I was not a raindrop at all!
That I was not falling through the sky towards the ocean!
And that there were no other little raindrops falling through the sky either!
'But if I am not a little raindrop - then what am I?
Who has woken up from this dreaming dream?' I wondered.
Then it dawned on me -
I was the ocean!
I had been asleep on the ocean bed, but now I was awake.
Now I could see that there are no little raindrops,
Just one big ocean that stretches unbroken, all the way to the horizon.
posted by Seamus "Moose" Anthony at 1:17 pm
4 Comments:
Mighty Moose,
There is an analogy in Buddhism -- and is perhaps more widely known -- that we are all the ocean, and that each incarnation is a wave on the ocean. There is another one where each drop of dew reflects the moon -- which speaks to much the same idea. That is, that we are each manifestations of the whole.
Also, Dzogchen, a form of Tibetan Buddhism, has a particular keen interest in dreaming, and realization of "the rainbow body." A rainbow btw is rain's fixed inprint set magnificently in the sky. [I would recommend "Beyond Words: Dzogchen Made Simple," possibly available at your library. The book also talks about lucid dreaming, and suggests this trick to aid lucid dreaming: Try to create the habit of looking at your hands when you dream; you can use this as a totem to alert your 'awake' self that you're dreaming.]
From the book, this:
'My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So be it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die! ...'
OK. So the dream is a little morbid, and not as cool as yours. But 'to die' means many things -- such as awaking from a dream, or awaking TO a dream.
3:44 pm
Hey thanks thar ZU - I will make a deliberate effort to think about my hands next time I realise I am dreaming. Although the amount of work I am doing right now, what with starting a new biz and meditation, Qigong, Wing Chun, part time job, detox diet, gigs, recording a cd...suffice to say I mostly sleep pretty soundly and dreamlessly.
Although today when I was getting acupuncture I fell asleep for a moment and dreamt that I slipped up on a banana peel, which made me jerk my legs and arms out. I think it kind of gave my acupuncturist something to giggle about!
9:42 pm
Great post! I too often dream of water, but for me, it is more the Zen flow of water around the rock.
Blue
5:14 am
I believe there is a good section in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind describing drops of water in a water fall, eventually merging after being separated.
Dream on!
1:13 am
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