I just got back from a week long vacation where meditation was a key part of the proceedings. There was hiking, beautiful scenery, and very few vehicles around. Cell phone service was non-existent, although my friends and I were able to keep in touch using a new off-grid technology that allows text messages without using cellular data. Using this technology along with GPS. we could keep tabs on each other’s location and plans without being in close proximity. This allowed for some decent “alone time” for checking out my surroundings and for meditation, as well as the ability to meet up, say for a meal. 

After listening to some inspiring words from a close friend whose main drive is to help others to meditate well, I sat down to meditate and discovered a few things. 

I have the power to place myself in a state of mind where nothing can touch me unless I want it to. This is an amazing realization. I can fill my mind and heart with love and joy and dwell there for long periods of time. To be able to shut out all thoughts of things that distract me from immediate happiness - talk about taking a break! And to able to do this while taking in some of the most beautiful things nature has to offer - ocean beaches, trees, wildlife… Take it from a guy who spends most of his time in a big city, it was magnificent. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that for me, it was a true taste of freedom. Freedom to be surrounded by beauty and permeated with joy for as long as I could make that happen each day. I think I can safely say that that one week's vacation had the affect of two. I feel rested, full of energy, and although tomorrow is Monday I am not fearful or sad that I have to go back to work. I am calm, confident that I will meet whatever challenges come my way with all the resources I have available. 

A few days ago it was the 4th of July - Independence Day here in the U.S..  I truly wish my fellow countrymen and women could taste even a small bit of the freedom I experienced last week. This kind of freedom is a real power that has the ability to do great things for so many people who are bogged down with the struggle to pay bills, raise families, and live in an age when politics are a grim sideshow and the future can appear rather bleak. Even in the midst of all this, people can still decide to pursue true happiness and freedom. 

And so for your most recent birthday, I wish this for you, America. May you remember, realize, and embody the reasons for which you were founded.

With peace and serenity in my daily life, my subtle world (or dream) life is very much more pleasant and the colors are more vivid.  When I'm irritated, worried, or super distracted in my waking life, my dreams are extremely chaotic and seem to have no rational connection to each other whatsoever and are often quite dark and gloomy.  This is all stuff we've talked about before.  However...

I've been having more success with meditation lately, and I find it to carry over into my daily living and now I see how it is affecting my dreams as well.  When I get meditation "right", I generally feel lighter during the day.  I mean that I don't feel so attached to all the things that happen around me and just tend to observe and appreciate things more -weather, nature, people, my health.  My mind is more focused and I don't let things pull my attention away from what I'm trying to accomplish.  

An interesting question arises: what is MORE real?  The things that are happening outside yourself, or the the things that are happening within?  The so-called "objective" or the so-called "subjective"?  We are human beings having a human life experience.  The things that are going on within us -thoughts, emotions, intuitions, desires, etc.- determine our destiny and life path much more than the physical things that surround us, don't they?  Two people can go through the exact same material experience; one of them it crushes and depresses him for the rest of his life; the other faces it, deals with it, learns, grows, and becomes a stronger person because of it.  What's the difference?  The inner nature of the individuals.  Isn't that inner nature, then, at least as real as the thing that happened to them?  

Maybe our response to things isn't a response, is what I'm trying to say.  Maybe we have anger, irritation, or lust as PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, embedded in our consciousness first.  Maybe that is the reality.  It's not that someone cuts us off in traffic and then we get upset; it's that we are upset and then someone switched lanes in front of us.  When we're in the subtle world, where the matter is maleable in response to thoughts, those pre-existing conditions materialize as part (or whole) of our subtle world experience. 

I believe this is true.  And it's about time I begin taking more responsibility for establishing more wholesome and beneficial pre-existing conditions in my consciousness.

Have you ever noticed that your dreams sometimes follow what you were doing right before you went to bed?  Sometimes I watch action packed films and wake up in the morning with a cool story to tell about all the bad guys I out-maneuvered that night.  Or sometimes I’ll get into playing video games with my 7-year-old a for a few hours and then dream that I was the main character in the game going on all sorts of quests and defeating level bosses.  Sometimes I read about some of the evil in the world and my dreams can get quite dark and nightmarish. On the other hand, when I take some time to meditate and read uplifting material before bed, I often see very kind people and we have very pleasant interactions.

I would love to hear your experiences with this.  Please leave a comment below!

Hm, as I re-read what I just wrote and ponder over all the other material on this website, I am getting a notion that I really ought to direct my daily attention with more purposeful intention.  I mean, uplifting thoughts not only make my day more pleasant, but also my nights!  Who doesn’t want that?  It’s in my grasp if I can just manage to make constant decisions to pick up positive, uplifting reading material instead of the scary and depressing stuff that is so much more readily available in this day and age. 

Did someone say “thought-experiment”?