thoughts on dreams

Don't even think, just let yourself dream.

Thoughts are veils that hide the moon's bright face.

The heart's a moon, where thinking has no place.

Toss these thoughts away into the stream.

#84: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Search word: dream

This morning, for the first time in a long time, I recalled and recorded a dream. In this verse Rumi contrasts dreaming with thinking in true mystic fashion, that is, poor thinking gets tossed out. Thinking is so close to my heart, it is so much something that I love to do, that I cannot imagine separating head and heart like that. Still, Rumi is right about a certain kind of chattering thinking that is like a rehearsal for human conversation. It can direct one's mind away from what one truly desires and more toward what will improve one's social standing. The latter is important for survival and it is a natural instinct to want to please others. However, the great religious quest discussed by the alchemists, the gnostics, the mystics, and the theosophists, this quest is for the pure Self and that must, indeed, be discovered beneath or before our efforts at social acceptance.

My dream featured a carnival atmosphere, kids with party hats and feathers flying. A new pope had been elected but this time it was a woman.

I have been reading recently about the (probably fictitious) Pope Joan and this must surely have inspired my dream.

La Papesse, Marseilles deck @ wischik.com

Welcome to segovius who commented on Rumi's pure wine image and whose site I look forward to exploring.