Dreaming On with Soundtrack

Sitting by the river in the late October morning, soaking up the clear New England sun, sipping my Dunkin Donuts coffee, I hear a radio downriver. At first, I feel upset that somebody needs to play their music way too loud, but then I see that irritation as a thought, and understand I'm creating this disturbance in my mind, thought creating thought. To try to ignore it though would be to resist a thought that really doesn’t exist, thereby giving it more power. Instead, I let it be what it is: just a dream.

And begin writing in my journal. I’ve been practicing exactly that this week: being vigilant for any thought with which I had been identifying as me and therefore filtering the dream through it instead of letting the dream just be. And when such a thought is caught, I’ve been divesting it of any belief I may have been giving it. Not fighting it (although I may investigate it for its origin), I see it for the thought it is: illusionary ego stuff. And then I let the dream flow again from the source. Let the self be moved by Self. Like this river flowing from the White Mountains more than one hundred miles north.

Finished making an entry in my journal about this practice, I just sit beneath the sun and soak, feeling the energy of the manifest reflected in its warmth. Soon a song from that radio downriver begins to seep into my consciousness. I recognize the Aerosmith tune, smile at its felicity, feel the rhythm, and listen to the lyrics: “dream on, dream on, dream on, dream until your dreams come true.”

I know that’s not coincidence; this dream is not without design.