The Aha and the Oh That

“What’s probable is tedious and petty.”

— Ursula Le Guin, The Tao Te Ching

Sometimes you might wake from a dream and think, “Oh, I know exactly what that means.” It seems obvious, and you barely give it another thought, stowing it away in a box marked “Uninteresting” and going about your day untroubled. The conscious mind loves to keep things manageable, preferring not to be disturbed by new information that disrupts the order of what feels familiar. We want to analyze dreams, figure out what they mean within the context of what we already know, instead of accepting the invitation to pop out of the construct of the known and into a bigger pool of possibility.

Jeremy Taylor, in his wonderful book The Wisdom of Your Dreams, says dreams don’t come just to tell you something you already know. Instead, their intention is to give you new information you very much need, to deliver a message that is for your benefit and well-being. Each dream is a package that holds everything you need to take a journey – tickets, maps, keys, and possibly a new identity. To be in contact with your dreams is to open a gate to your deepest wisdom, not confirm your unexamined assumptions. 

So when you wake up from a dream and sigh, “Oh, that,” pay attention. It could very well be an invitation to learn something that will upset the stacks of dusty and uninteresting boxes in your mind’s closet, perhaps spilling the contents out on the floor. Look closely through the disarray, each item a portal to a wealth of experience. Pick one thing you can touch – a ticket stub, a marble, a photograph. Hold it and let your felt sense carry you someplace you forgot you knew.

To sit with a dream in open awareness is to have all of your senses available to you. Instead of feeling tense and determined – like looking for your keys when you’re late or avoiding eye contact with someone you hope won’t see you – you soften and open up the pores of what keeps you separate and allow yourself to soak in the experience.  Wait for the “aha,” the feeling of relief when something that’s been held back finally breaks free. An experience of creative flow rushing in rather than the taut discomfort of certainty.

The miraculous always disguises itself in the mundane, and love is letting things surprise you, never assuming you know all there is to know. The meaning of dreams is unknowable; everything is. You are vast beyond comprehension, and so is every mote of dust on this or any planet. To gaze with loving uncertainty is to escape the confines of your well-worn neural pathways and begin to experience yourself and everything around you as limitless possibility.