homeless dream

[Mikey22]

So I had this dream that I voluntarily became homeless.  I decided I wasn't going to work anymore and was going to panhandle.  I was with a group of other guys, and my dog, Jessie (beagle) was with me too.  I don't recall if the other men were anyone I knew in my waking life.  We went from place to place, all within the same city.  Stood out front of stores, bars etc..  One store owner gave us 10 dollars each just to get off his front stoop.  Another place was a bar/strip club of sorts.  People were consuming alcohol/drugs and performing sexual acts.  It was tempting for me to go in there but I knew that wasn't really what I wanted and left.
At the next place I was talking with some people when I heard a dog barking and noticed jessie was in danger.  She was cornered by a much bigger, quite ferocious looking dog.  Huge jaws and teeth.  I got in the middle of them, and though I was afraid I was willing to fight to save Jessie if I needed too.  The dog never attacked us and we walked to the sidewalk.
At this point across the street, in the middle of the city, I noticed my grandparents old beach house that I used to visit often as a child, and still visit occasionally.  It was on a very busy corner, cars buzzing past and buildings all around it (in reality this house is in a quaint setting on the massachusetts coast).  It is a place of fond memories for me.  Upon seeing the house I decided I did not want to be homeless anymore.  I remembered a dumpster where I had hidden some cash and my old credit card-I retrieved these items.  I was careful not to let anyone around me see for fear that I would be robbed.  The money was less than I had remembered, but still enough to get started.  Jessie and I proceeded to try crossing the street, but there were many cars and I was scared Jessie would be hit.  Then I woke.

[Tony Crisp]

Mikey - I feel your dream shows this is a sannyasin phase in the life of people seeking the Self. During it one often dreams of wandering homeless, without any means of support, and leaving family behind. In the East it is recognised that after the age of 50 one is released from ties, dresses in saffron robes representing an inner fire that burns out impurities.

In the west we seldom live it out in the world, but it often touches us in some way. But I feel that the Chinese symbolism of the Ox herding pictures are a better description for the Westerner. This is because the person in search of the Self at the end does not remain a wanderer but returns to society and lives in the crowded marketplace of everyday life, spreading enlightenment by mingling with humankind. See The Ten Bulls - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Bulls

I think if you look at your dream in that light you will see the connection. Also the meeting with the different types of life, like the drug taking and sexual acts are a part of meeting all aspects of life to become whole. And the grandparents are a connection with your whole past.

Tony

[Tony Crisp]

Meeting these feelings has left a very profound wish inside me. I want to say to people, to those of you who are looking at your dreams; who looked to them for advice or strength -- beauty even -- I want to say, allow yourself that wonder. Allow yourself that gentle beauty. No matter what the world might say of it; no matter what others might make of it, of that secret wonder that you can feel and that you are almost too shy to admit to; too shy because you might look at yourself and you think, "This can't be that I have this wonder inside of me. I am just an ordinary woman -- just an ordinary guy -- just a young person, and I feel this wonder glowing in me. It is so good it is difficult to believe it is mine -- that it lives in me. I am almost afraid to let it show." 

 

But, having walked that path, I want to say to you, it's okay. It is strong enough. It is perhaps the strongest thing there is in life. It is good enough to let fly. It has its own beauty that others will recognise, so you don't need to be afraid of your own smallness or your own ordinariness. You have your own beauty no matter what your body is like -- no matter what you may think of yourself -- no matter what you have been taught to think about yourself or to see yourself as. You have that beauty. So, let it fly. Let it carry you along with its wings. Let it flow into the lives of other people. Let it create through you the wonder that it is. It will speak words through you. And love will flow like a spring from your depths.