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Temple in the Mountains:
Letters from Espanola

EK ONG KAAR KAUR

Sometimes, I have trouble falling asleep.

More so now than in my younger years. It is part of the process of getting older, I suppose. The body changes. It has a different rhythm. And so the blessing of a good night's sleep is something that is always appreciated, but never guaranteed.

I have learned, in the middle of the night, to just lay there in the darkness, breathing deeply, keeping my body and mind as relaxed as possible. If I do this, sleep can quietly sneak up on me. It likes to come without warning, and it avoids me fiercely if I try to watch for it.

In those night-time intermissions, I often take a few lines from a shabad, or a few words of Gurmukhi - ek ong kaar / sat gur parsaad / sat gur parsaad / sat gur parsaad / ek ong kaar - and silently recite them to myself over and over again.

It keeps the mind occupied in a positive way, and sometimes, helps me cross into the realm of sleep.

Recently, during one particular evening, I found myself struggling to find a path into that sweet and necessary nothingness. So I pulled a few lines from the shabad, dhunn dhunn raam daas gur, from of my memory, and began reciting them mentally over and over and over again.

naanak too lehnaa too Hai 
gur amar too veechaariaa
gur ditthaa taa man
saadhaariaa.
Dhunn dhunn raam daas gur
jin siriaa tinai savaariaa

These are the last few lines of the shabad and the first couple of lines …

You are Nanak. You are Lehna. You are Guru Amar Das. This is how to see it. Seeing the Guru, my mind comes into balance. Continual prosperity and blessings are bestowed on Guru Ram Das. The One who created him has set all his affairs right.

It did not take a very long time before I fell asleep. But rather than losing consciousness, I found myself in a very vivid and powerful dream.

In the dream, there were (it's hard to describe) a group of interlocking wooden mechanisms that had not yet come into alignment, and I was pushing hard to get one of these wooden blocks into place. It took effort, but eventually, something
clicked.

The moment this one piece clicked, an inner intelligence took over and began to move all the remaining pieces. I did not have to do anything else, which surprised me.

The mechanism corrected itself, fixed itself and began to operate.

The next thing I knew, that mechanism began to manifest a beautiful city, coming out of the mountains, seemingly from nowhere. Domed temples rose into the sky, where there had been nothing before.

A huge, crystal clear river began to pour down from the mountain. The water caught me in its wake. It was the purest, cleanest, sweetest water I had ever seen. It flowed gently, but with force, through the curves of the mountains, life renewing itself on all sides.

I saw a man and a woman embrace in total purity and spirit. A kind of heavenly, etheric, deep love that had no ego and no malice.

I woke from the dream with a sense of expansion and wonder. And as I drifted back to sleep, I meditated on the feeling of the dream, and the symbolism.

When we look at the world, and see the darkness, the simple truth is that we are the creators of it. The world exists as it is today because of the way that people think, and act, and choose. The outer world is a manifestation of the inner struggles and wounds of the human mind.

If we want the world to heal, we have to first heal ourselves.

Guru Ram Das's life was a living miracle -- from an orphan to a spiritual king. He fathered a spiritual lineage that lasted in body for seven generations and in spirit to the present day.

I have my own struggles in my life. My own demons that I wrestle with. There is a mechanism within me that I work hard to heal. The dream showed me that my part is so tiny. Once one thing shifts, a much Greater Power can take over and correct it all.

The magic of that is so vivid. When the inner alignment happens, for me, for you, for anyone, that other world can manifest. The life that we all dream is possible on the earth.

Majestic. Harmonious. Prosperous. Clear.

A spiritual city in the mountains. Heaven on the earth. The earth elevated to the heavens. It begins in us.

It comes through us. If we can let that Greater Power flow and do what It needs to do.

A few lines of gurbani can get that one switch to move, inside, and allow the process to unfold.

Well, it was a dream, but it was a beautiful dream. It gave me hope, and I do not think it was a coincidence that it came as I silently chanted dhunn dhunn raam daas gur.

So I thought I would share that dream with all of you, and hope that it brings a smile to your day.


March 6, 2014

 

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