Haunted dream

I do not rest haunted by strange dreams in the hinterland between waking and sleeping. In this strange landscape of the mind I run and crawl and climb a place of rocks and ruins and oil filled lakes which burst aflame. I feel a strange presence, I am spellbound though flame I see a moving statue. An old man as old as time speaks to me, he seems made of stone although he was once flesh and blood and strong emotions’ he has crossed the river Styx. His eyes have no expression and a face, which I recognize although I have not seen it in many years; I ask him what it is like to be dead. And he responds “that is not for the living to know”.

I wonder a while aimlessly away from that strange and now frozen figure and happen upon a cave and enter. As I walk deeper I feel the chill eat into my bones. In this coldness the dark seems endless and enclosing, I ponder the statues words and think, the world is what appears and disappears but this darkness which haunts me into my slumber is not death, it is fear and loss and all sorrowful things known to man when mourning the dead for I have known loss twice within a year.
I am aware that I am dreaming, and about to awake. I run at full sprint to escape the cave and the echoes of my despair .On reaching the surface the world shakes with the power of an earthquake the ground growls and speaks of its condition.” The earth is only scorched in memory and no treason holds the world to ransom, for men have short memories and though the earth will eat thee when your time has passed only the flesh is consumed but I am reborn though out the ages” The surface of the earth heals its self before my eyes. I fall back deeper into sleep.

Wind has grown powerful uprooting trees and buildings. Now the air speaks “No age or anon are eternal and all things pass, do not pity the dead but cherish the living”. I can hear the elements and I feel as Samuel did upon hearing a familiar voice. I ,am pushed toward the cliffs and over by the power of wind, falling headlong into the depths of the ocean ,the sea begins to rise as if possessed by fury and I tremble in cold and fear buried by the waves. As I feel life leaving me I go within and instinct instructs me “fear is the killer of the mind I must face my fear and let it burst through me as a wave I must surrender to it or drown”. I and the ocean are one as in truth there is no I only the illusion of ego and the sum of the ego is despair. My identity is lost within this dream but I feel the power of my awaking as I wash up on the shore.

From the beach I seem to float up towards the sky, above the clouds and on into the starry heavens. There is the light the same as in the eyes of the living which goes out at death, the same light which ignites the heavens. So all life proceeds from light re-enters the light and is absorbed by light and this is the process of the world. The light itself speaks, the tongue cannot touch it so much must remain unsaid and all else is mystery for now and ever more. My eyes flicker and the dream it is no more.

The old man waits at this place of crossing and we will meet again once more.