The Stories Dream Catchers Weave: Chapter 31 Aspiration Dream Catchers

Dream-Catchers teach spirit wisdoms of the Seventh Fire

Dream-Catchers teach the wisdoms of the Seventh Fire, an Ojibwe Prophecy, that is being fulfilled at this moment. The Light-skinned Race is being shown the result of the Way of the Mind and the possibilities that reside in the Path of the Spirit. Real Dream-Catchers point the way.

Aspiration Dream-Catchers of the Seventh Fire

The Stories Dream Catchers Weave: Chapter 31 Aspiration DreamCatchers

Aspiration Dream-Catchers teach us that throughout our lifetime we are often told that we are not good enough, that somehow we fall short of the mark.  We are often encouraged to want to be more than we are, more than we were from birth.  Many people agonize over their inability to reach beyond their grasp.  They aspire to divinity, but they are frustrated that they are "only human."  This separation into categories is the illusion of the mind.  Behind the illusions of ego, at the base of our True Nature we are connected to All That Is.   We are One with all things.  The face, the breath, the song of Great Spirit is in all things and we Are that to which we aspire.   Your face is the face of Great Spirit.  Look around you at the many other faces of Great Spirit.  Your Breath is a celebration of Creation.... and You are the Song. 

So my heart has had this little discussion with my ego-mind about the fear of soaring. "Just like you to play your silly cautious game, ego. Calculating and planning, contingency plans and doubts. One of these days you'll be clear."

"OK! OK!" says ego. "I've seen that it works when you do that spirit connection thing, whatever it is. I'll shut up. I just get a little unsure, you know, with all the weird stuff we've done and that marriage thing with Hermine! I've been through hell in a basket and you've turned it into a sweat lodge and the purification and healing is complete. We've landed this hot air balloon in Wuppertal, Germany. Dorothy! Where's Toto? Then you had to go back and face the wicked witch of Vienna!"

HEART: "No problem, ego. Just relax! Hey, have you noticed what we've learned doing that marriage with Hermine.  She taught you how to use the computer and surf the Internet....and what being Heart ISN'T. She even suggested the name! And the great people we met? Take Peter and Rikki Fischer for example. Peter encouraged you to dream BIG. Then we came to Kotthausen where we've had phone, fax, computers, internet access, video-sound studio, and a place to stay and good food and friends. Crazy Ingrid paid for your Internet Marketing Course so you could create a website for her before Dieter put the kabosh on having another guy around that reminded him of Ingrid's last fling. And remember that Dieter not only suggested you check out Kotthausen, he arranged the cultural event that brought you in contact with Reinhard and Goga. And he brought you out to Heidi's to meet with Heidi and Barbara playing the plum role as Queen Victoria. Was that grand or what? Heidi and Barbara led to the teachings of Osho. Remember your surprise when you discovered that Aspiration summarized Osho's lifelong teachings? Besides, we can learn so much from every experience no matter how ugly it seems. Did you notice that we've learned a lot of computer and Internet skills while we were there? And we got to learn the tricks of internet marketing? It was perfect, no matter the seeming imperfections.

EGO: "Yeah, yeah! I know all that. It just doesn't seem normal, that's all. You know what I mean?"

HEART: "Listen, ego. We've come a long way, you and me, and we've seen and done some really amazing things, right?

EGO: "Uh, huh."

HEART: "So was any of that normal? i mean does any of that fit inside the tiny frame you wanted to make for our life.? Geez, man. We'd still be teaching the propaganda in the history books to the kids just so we could keep that teaching career going. We would still be married to Karan, bless her limited little heart, and M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E!! Right?"

EGO: "Yeah, right, right, right…..but you understand that that is what everyone else does, don't you? They accept their limits and even hold onto them for dear life, afraid that some thing might happen!"

HEART: "Exactly, ego! Something might happen! They might really live life to the peak of experience and know the ecstasy of soaring. They keep struggling to hold onto their limits instead of flowing effortlessly with the river of life. They flail about against the current, grappling with the rocks along the way, bruising and wounding themselves. And so they keep themselves weighted down under a load of fears and anxieties and never become the powerful being that's their natural heritage!"

EGO: "Right, I remember how it was. But it seems so hard to let go."

HEART: "Sure, but that's the paradox! What seems to be so hard leads to a life that's free of fear and anxiety and what seems to be easy is the hardest way to do a life journey here on earth."

EGO: "But it seemed easier just to let God be responsible for me and I could just pray and hope everything would be alright.=

HEART: "So....the God-hypothesis.... It's been an interesting philosophical or theological discussion since the first cave paintings, i suppose. If you can take something, look at its parts and try to figure out how the whole thing works, you must have some kind of hypothesis to work from. The problem with the problem is that it's mind candy for the thought habit."

EGO: "Candy? What's wrong with candy? 'Thought habit?' What's wrong with thinking? Seems like there isn't enough of that these days!"

HEART: "OK, don't get testy now. Nothing intrinsically wrong with thinking but it must be kept in balance. You like to use thinking to make categories of existence and so you eventually only see parts. It's very difficult to grasp the reality of a oneness in all that IS, when every concept, every word, every thing is in a category. In biology it's Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species with all the Super- and Sub- cubbyholes. In chemistry it's the periodic table. In physics they've come to some kind of truce because of Quantum Theory and Chaos Theory. Still these theories haven't made their way into the pervasive cultural milieu even after 80 years. The question leads to another question, and that leads to several other questions, etc. Nothing is ever fully answered, just examined like a rock or a lung of a frog, and there is never a still point of truth. If you live fully in your heart, if you can let go of the qua, qua, qua of the mind, then all things are possible."

EGO: "Qua, qua, qua…..me, ego? You're saying it's qua-qua-qua to be thinking?! C'mon! That's a bum rap!"

HEART: "OK, i enjoy the occasional pat on the back. i blush and scrape my feet across the ground in front of me and say, 'Aw shucks, ma'am. It warn't nuthin,' jes' a li'l sumthin' Ah bin doin' an' thinkin' 'bout. Nuthin' much reely.' And that's the strangest truth. Learners are always learning, they can't help themselves. It's an addiction. The mind is a seductive ……..

EGO: Now wait a minute! Those are fightin' words! You're saying ego-mind is an addiction? Seductive………"

HEART: "Right, ego can never get enough. And since it's so busy gathering more and more knowledge, there's no space for the wisdom of nothingness and being. Everyone from New Age to the sports fans and sky divers are looking for the new experience--mind candy! No problem with that except that it's never enough and there's never an opening to surf on the innernet. Remember the cartoon i had you draw to illustrate the meaning of "enlightened" and the proposition that we aren't?"

EGO: "Yeah, and…."

HEART: "Well, we're already enlightened and don't know it because we've accepted so much programming to the contrary. It simply requires letting go of sacred cow belief systems and experience freely--that's called soaring! In the cartoon i showed the Buddha on an ox going off into the world looking for the Buddha! Looking here and there for what he is already! 'A diamond in the rough,' we often say. But we are already a beautiful diamond and we only need to discover/uncover it. Peel away the layers of belief and programs to find what was always there. That's the same as my double dream catcher, Aspiration, which reminds us that we are that to which we have always aspired. We've simply forgotten our true nature under a pile of sh.... Piled Higher and Deeper .....PHD."

EGO: "Alright! You're getting under my skin calling me sh… !"

HEART: "OK. i don't mean to be hard on you, but it really is true. We just have to let go of the … erhhh…..unnecessary load of stuff.…to be our Natural Self. And that's what some folks have been calling enlightenment! It's not mantras and mystical incantations, or doctrines or dogmas. It's about releasing all of that. i couldn't figure what those swirling lights were that Mishanagqus saw around my head when we met at Halibut Point until i saw a photo of a statue of Buddha. Those tight spirals all over the head aren't hairs in a tight hairdo--they're swirling, spiraling lights! When you've let go of the load of ….garbage…. that you've taken on and play freely (i call it soaring!)in a loving identification with all beings (the Native American way) you allow yourself to accept your Original Face. It really is the most simple thing possible! There is no path to enlightenment because you are already there! You're a Buddha and don't know it! You can soar! You've just forgotten how!"

EGO: "So how did we get there? ….. here, I mean."

HEART: "We did nothing! The door to enlightenment (or whatever you want to call it) is always open, always has been open and it's really so simple that the first reaction is to laugh at the surprise. And then to laugh at the silliness of all the seekers looking here and there, trying this discipline and then that practice when it's stunningly simple and obvious. You only need to let go of all the knowledge, experience the knowing, and not be attached to the experiences. Enjoy the experience but don't hold on to it. If there is pain, experience it, learn what's to be learned from it and don't hold on to it. It doesn't belong to you unless you insist. Love lavishly, extravagantly, without calculation or design. Everyone, every being, is a Buddha awaiting SELF-discovery. You ARE enlightened and haven't allowed yourSELF to discover it yet!"

EGO: "Just let go and experience the experience? "

HEART: "Yup. That's all we did. And weaving the dream catchers eventually led to the ultimate dream catcher of "enlightenment," ASPIRATION. It's a double spiral that's attached at the base but not at the top. At the base of our being we're one with all things. We forget this, we're programmed to forget this through our earth journey. Throughout our lifetime we're often told that we aren't good enough, that somehow we fall short of the mark. We're often encouraged to wish to be more than we are, more than we were from birth. Many people agonize over their inability to reach beyond their grasp. They aspire to divinity, but they're frustrated that they're "only human."

EGO: "But they are only human, aren't they?"

HEART: This separation into categories is the illusion of YOU, the ego-mind. Behind the illusions of ego, at the base of our True Nature we are connected to All That Is. We are One with all things. The face, the breath, the song of Great Spirit is in all things and we ARE that to which we aspire. Your face is the face of Great Spirit. Look around you at the many other faces of Great Spirit. Your Breath is a celebration of Creation.... and You are the Song!

EGO: "Yeah, cool. But not very many people get there. It's normal to wish to be something more, to be somewhere beautiful and fun. I mean, I kinda like the way we are experiencing now, but I worry sometimes, you know."

HEART: "Sure, it's been a beautiful, fun journey. Didn't always seem that way when you were in control, ego, but you've been learning….actually unlearning….. a lot. It's good to have you around for a lot of stuff, but it wasn't good when you were in control."

EGO: "Hey, c'mon! I was doing the best I could. It isn't like I'd been taught this in school or at home… or anyplace for that matter."

HEART: "OK! Right! We usually don't allow it into our lives. Every moment must be filled with thinking or bungee jumping or learning all about crystals or astrology or something to occupy the ego-mind. When we left Minneapolis to travel and sell the dream catchers, we spent most of our time alone! With me! No one to talk to for weeks at a time. Here in Europe, unable to understand spoken German you were alone in a crowd. You relaxed a bit and went inside and found a beauty and comfort unknown to a busy world."

EGO: "Yeah, it was kind of like being on vacation without a travel itinerary to keep me busy. Just kick back and watch the experience happen! When do we do this enlightenment thing I keep hearing about?

HEART: "Who said we aren't enlightened already? Are you willing to accept that program? Enlightenment is a natural way of Being. If you let go of all the preconceptions, turn off the calculating mind, and allow yourself to soar into the cosmos by connecting unconditionally to all that is--you're there! No trumpet fanfare or angels singing, only the sound of your own laughter that it was so silly to not accept this possibility earlier! It only requires NON-requirements. Be authentically, outrageously yourself! Wow! More is less. Dance!"

Hi, back again. Hope you didn't mind my inner conversation taking up so much space on your computer, but in my heart it seemed right to bring you in to hear the discussion. i'd certainly invite you to join in on the fun soon. The way these systems work it seems that we can only have two-way conversations and you had to just listen on that one. i've had enough discussions with ego-mind, but it's always there wondering and questioning and doubting. You know how that works. Are you still with me?…… Oh, good! This is going to be great fun. i'd rather dance with you than alone. As a matter of fact, there's a special magic in that to be explored and experienced that just isn't available normally.

Part of me is reminding that I am just a farmboy from southern Minnesota, a science teacher.  It warns me not to be caught up in grandiose thoughts fired by stories of fiction writers.  I should only aspire to greatness.  It is very easy to place "reasonable" limits on the Earth experience.  Then I remember the many amazing things that have happened.  That part of me that prefers to stay inside the safety and security of the "frame" says, "Just coincidence!"  It is also very easy to reply, "Why not?  All things are possible!"  

"Dreamkeeper, now is the time to send him the dream of the bridge, the rainbow bridge.  He shall see that he is to build that bridge with his life and words, with his weaving and writing.  He has become the Spiral.  And the dance." 

Bawaudjigaeaun wae-ondji manitouwiyaun. In Ojibwe this means, "To dreams I owe the mystery."

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