Cripple

Difficulty in fulfilling ones potential. The parts of your body usually represent the psychological functions they play. So a leg would represent your ability to stand up for yourself, to be independent, etc. Therefore being crippled suggests psychological hurt to whatever limb or part of body is crippled. See: Body; Legs; Right; Left.

 The children one hears about who are maltreated by their family or by war, might well mature with a crippled capacity to trust other people, or the stunted growth of their love. All of us have some of our potential hurt or crippled, and the above dream is graphically portraying this.  This less developed part of John has needs, but also something to offer. This less dominant side of his personality only ‘comes out’ when he relaxes, and will have talents he can use if he gets to know it.

There is a world beyond suffering and even the very sick can be a helper.

“Not a lost soul is helped because those who look upward give themselves up for lost.

In the small open space of the temple burnt a flickering oil lamp at the feet of a tall man who sat there with imperturbable serenity in the dirty room. He, too, was sunk deep in meditation. His broad chest was still, no motion of the breath disturbed it. But the hands that hay in his lap were crippled humps of flesh, and the skin of his well—built body was as though covered with shining lacquer —- the skin of a leper. Around him- and deep in the shadows sat other dark, silent figures, their eyes raised to the empty sockets of the holy man, whose features were composed in an expression of infinite joy.

An oppressive silence lay over the scene.

In the dirty corners lay human bundles, sleeping. By them and between them squatted men with staring eyes as though lost in a dream. Those who were close to the Holy Man seemed to be listening intently, and the nearer they were to his feet the more serene and enlightened seemed their worn features. He himself seemed to be the radiant centre of some invisible light He was a cripple, as they all were. He was a leper, as they all were. A beggar, as they all were. But in him their nameless misery seemed to find its culmination and its divine transfiguration. Inwardly I was buffeted here and there by my impressions. Around me was time lowest depth of human suffering, and yet that was not so. In one creature I sensed the highest degree of bliss amid wish less inner peace. Should I be compassionate or envious?

The features of the leprous Holy Man expressed that felicity whose unapproachable sublimity enforces veneration. Had he forgotten his sufferings? Is that which we feel as suffering really no suffering at all? Is that which seems more dreadful to us than death just a part of the world for which we are struggling; we who are blinder than that beggar with the empty eye-sockets? Is our compassion here merely arrogance? In fact is it we perhaps who deserve the compassion of those on the other side?” See Quoted from Beggar Among the Dead – Mountain of Love

Human beings has evolved through huge periods of time to have self awareness, a truly amazing thing, but for many it is a state of constant pain and suffering leading many to commit suicide. But Dr. Maurice Bucke, who himself lived in constant physical pain tells of how him and many others were able to evolve to a new state in which their suicidal pains no longer were active in them. He called it Cosmic Consciousness, but it has been known for ages under different names such as Enlightenment and Liberation. Those who evolved to this level of awareness often say, “That we could all be experiencing this, if only we could stop being typical suffering humans. Regardless of what hell one might fall into an enlightened one is an ordinary person who acts like a true adult.” All the major faiths recognise this and so have left records of how to reach this evolution of self.

Here are some – Ox Herding Pictures  – The Many Ways To A New Life – Psychological Vomiting – Communicating With Your Inner Guide

Useful Questions and Hints:

What part of me or another person is shown as crippled, and what does that suggest about my own condition? Look up body parts to define this.

If I imagine myself as the crippled person, or as myself with this disability what do I feel or observe. For help doing this see – Stand in Role.

In what way do I hold myself back, or fail to express love or creativity, and how does this dream relate to that?

See Associations Working With – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Learning to Love