Bridges

In A Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan Mateus is quoted that "once the idea of taking death as a companion, it becomes a witness to our acts." He said, "when the premise is accepted, in whatever mild form, a bridge is formed which extends across the gap between our world of daily affairs, and something that is in front of us, but has no name; something that is lost in a fog, and doesn't seem to exist; something so terribly unclear that it cannot be used as a point of reference, and yet, it is there, undeniably present." The unknown.

Don Juan claimed that "the only being on earth capable of crossing over that bridge was a warrior: silent in his struggle, undetainable because he has nothing to lose, functional and efficacious because he has everything to gain."

In my the previous blog entry, "An Interesting Dream This Morning..." I intentionally left out two parts of the dream. I'm not sure why I did that, perhaps its because I didn't fully accept the symbolism of the lucid dream.  Last night, after reading Don Juan's comments in Castaneda's book The Wheel of Time, I realize that I should include the two facts I left out.  1) The castle wasn't completely deserted. There was a feminine spirit present who showed me the way to the wooden door and the exit to the castle. 2) When I looked over the edge of the spire with the ship perched on it, I saw something else besides baggage, clothes, etc. I saw the remains of people who discarded their unneeded bodies over the edge.

Those two parts of the lucid dream, bothered me somewhat, and I left them out of the narrative. First, I'm not completely sure of the significance of the feminine spirit. Second, while I understood the part of the vision of the discarded bodies, I wasn't completely comfortable with writing about it, primarily because I wasn't sure if it was a "physical death" of the body or a spiritual death of the ego. I'm quite sure now that it isn't just the physical death, but it is both the death of the individual human ego, and also it is the death of the body, because it is no longer significant to the spirit/Soul. Or, we are not our bodies.

I also wrote "Standing at the helm, I took the Wheel of Time in my hands..." I didn't know of Castaneda's book The Wheel of Time until after I wrote and posted the previous blog. I didn't know it existed until I did a web search for Castaneda about a week ago, found the book and bought it. I didn't remember mentioning the Wheel of Time in the previous blog entry. So, feminine spirits (think about males accepting their feminine side, Yin/Yang), bridges formed across gaps that only warriors (I'm a retired military officer) can cross, deaths of the ego and body, Wheel of Time, journeys into the unknown, etc., is just too much to be coincidence. Sometimes, I feel that its only my "over-active" imagination (to quote a friend) that strings together what my subconscious wants. And all of it seems very convenient now that I've written about it after the previous blog. But, I know with every fiber of my being that it is true. Instead of being slightly freaked out about the lucid dream, and Don Juan's quotes, I'm very calm about this. There is no return bridge. A-Z...

My friend Steve Kubacki told me that I've already crossed the bridge, and that "you just don't know it yet." He said that it takes time for reality to catch up with the present... Like a spirit who stays for a while, because it doesn't realize it's body is dead, but eventually even its reality catches up with it. Wow! Reality IS kinder than our thoughts.

And, I believe Steve is right...

TC,
Michael

Copyright (C) 2011 by Michael G. Hesley
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