Special Green Plates

While writing the recent post Waking Up, I was reminded of a dream I had few years ago. I seemed to be in some sort of community. There were people of all ages around me and we were having a meal together in the open air. Everyone seemed to be smiling and chatting cheerily to each other. We were sitting at long wooden tables and people were passing round plates which seemed somehow to glow.

But what I remember most about that dream is how happy I was. I was blissfully happy - yet without knowing why.

Even at the time, I didn't know why. I remember waking from the dream with a burning desire to somehow record that happiness. I grabbed a pen and paper to try to write something down to explain it - but I didn't know what to say.

It seems to be quite common for people to experience something a bit like this in a dream: the idea that they've suddenly grasped the secret of life or something and they wake up and write it down, only to find in the morning that they've written absolute gibberish. I've occasionally cited this experience of mine in conversation as an example of this. And yet in my case, there's a slight difference. The point is that I wasn't surprised to find that I'd written rubbish. Even while I was writing it, I knew that I didn't really know why I was happy, that I couldn't think of anything to write that was helpful. I just remembered the vivid experience of that happiness and had to try to write something down in case it helped me to somehow find my way back to it.

What did I write down?

'Eat off special green plates'.

Well, it was the best I could do at the time.

It wasn't till all these years later, while I was writing that post the other week, that I finally realized what this had all been about.

There wasn't anything special about the plates. There wasn't anything special about anything I saw in that dream. The only thing that was special was my consciousness: it was the way I was looking at things. I was in touch with that source of energy that I've talked about in this blog. I felt one with the people around me. There was no pain from the past, or hopes and fears for the future. I was simply filled with joy.

What I had was a dream of being enlightened.

 

These may also be of interest:

Waking Up

Stringing It All Together

Comments

[thethinker]

You've managed to write down what I've thought about for a long time, the idea that in one moment you can feel completely happy yet you'll look upon that moment later and wonder what the heck you were thinking. It happens to me often. If I could just capture that happiness for a little while longer, I'd be satisfied.

[Sunflower Optimism]

This has happened to me several times, in waking life, for nanoseconds - a feeling of elation and oneness and being in touch with a greater life force or energy. Yet when asked to describe what or why, I cannot. It was maybe like the warmth of a hug, or a feeling that "something" was aware of me. I wonder about those fleeting moments often and think that in my concept of "heaven" that must be how one feels ALL the time.

The other similar experience that came to mind after reading about your attempts to record your feeling is the pain of childbirth - which I know you can't identify with, LOL. Although it was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life, if someone asked me to describe it the next day, I would have been at a loss. There is simply no memory in my mind or body for that exact pain and what it felt like - other than the generic "worst I've ever been through." Could be some sort of "chemical" erasure of the pain memory - as most women turn around and do it all over again!

I wonder what those glowing green plates represented in your dream. Maybe the act of sharing in a community?

[Secret Simon]

Thanks for your comments, thinker and Sunflower. I too have experienced these fleeting moments of happiness which you both mention. I find that when they happen, I tend to be caught up in whatever I'm doing at the time, so that I don't have any attention to spare for regrets about the past or concerns for the future. I'm very much there in the moment, in other words, totally focussed and caught up in the flow of life. I wonder if your own experiences happened at similar times?

It sounds like your concept of "heaven" is the same as mine, Sunflower, and I think it is possible for us now ("on earth, as it is in heaven" as Jesus promised) if only we can shift our consciousness enough to be present in the moment all the time. Then we can have happiness constantly, instead of just when it sneaks up and takes us by surprise!

What you say about having lost the memory of childbirth reminds me of the worst days of my illness. Or rather it doesn't, because I can't remember those either! It's like I've automatically blotted them out of my memory to save me the pain of remembering. Thank goodness for that, I suppose. I guess it's a human coping strategy - and in the case of childbirth, it's probably necessary for the survival of the race!

I'm not sure, in retrospect, that it's only the plates that were glowing. I rather suspect the whole scene was glowing, but everything else - including people's clothes - seemed to be quite dark, so it only showed on the plates! But I think you are right to draw attention to the sharing aspect of the scene. I believe that the community was important. Two of the happiest times in my life were my final year at university and the year I spent working on a motorway construction site. On both occasions I was very busy (and hence in the moment a lot) but I was also surrounded by a community of people I liked.

[The Advanced Soul]

Don't you just love dreams like that! I have 'em too from time to time. I always thought it would be cool to write a book about them, but they never make sense afterwards.

[Sham]

Nice post.
Most of my dreams I don't remember them sigh!

[Sunflower Optimism]

Yes, come to think about it, those fleeting touches of supreme "whatever" I experienced WERE "in the moment." Now I consider myself a happy person, no complaints - but these moments were an "other-worldy" happiness - in the sense that it defies description, as your dream did. Other-wordly only because it is a rare experience in this world. I'm not even sure I would call it happiness - that would tend to imply that I am not happy now. It was almost like a different state of being, or being let into a secret for a brief time - and then quickly shut out again. I think I would describe it more as a "connection" that brought me extreme happiness - a connection with what, I can only guess.

I wonder if someone like the Dalai Lama feels this sense of connection or "whatever" all the time. From reading his books, it seems like he might.

"On earth as it is in heaven" - of course - it's right in front of us, LOL.

Great thoughts, Simon, thanks!

[Cosmic Sunshine]

Wow, that is really wonderful Simon. It is so good to hear of you having these amazing experiences. I am blown away every day myself with how I feel one with everyone and everything. It is truly miraculous. I have recently read a book called The Code http://www.intenders.com/TheCode.html which is a bit like The Celestine Prophecy in that it is a good story, but it also outlines some nifty ways to look at life. One thing in it is that when the main character is in a particular space, everything around him glows. Perhaps that is why your dream struck me so much -- you were definitely in that place. When I am meditating I sometimes get tingles all over me and a warmth that suffuses through me. As I have my eyes closed and it is usually dark, I don't notice any glowing... We Are All One!

[joe blogs]

Happiness is not a permanent state I guess. Though its what we strive for.

[Mr Zip]

Perhaps you were dreaming you were at a SF convention banquet ...

[Battlerocker]

My dreams are hardly ever so interesting. I do remember a similar dream that repeated it self every several years through my childhood--I was blissfully happy, without really knowing why. I haven't had that dream in years, and I miss it.

[jennifer]

Hey Simon... Ahhhh yes. If we could just live in the moment. For me, the more I accept the more I feel peace; the more I experiencet silence, he more I am filled.

It seems so contrary to what we think... :-)

Jennifer

[Secret Simon]

Thanks for all these comments and welcome Joe Blogs. It's interesting that some of you have had similar dreams. Maybe those dreams make sense to our hearts, if not so much to our minds.

Sunflower - My humble belief is that this 'connection' you mention is to the source of energy which some of us choose to call God. Jesus, presumably, had that connection constantly and so, I suspect, does the Dalai Lama - and indeed anyone else who is enlightened, though there may well be a number of different levels of enlightenment. (I'm not trying to set down any hard and fast rules here, you understand!) I also suspect that Cosmic Sunshine's experiences while meditating are another example of the same thing. I myself get flashes of light from time to time while in meditation.

In answer to Joe Blogs, I think that happiness *can* be a permanent state if this connection can be stablised, though there is darkness as well as light in this world, so perhaps it might be better to think of it in terms of a constant backdrop of bliss upon which other emotions are superimposed. The Dalai Lama, I suspect, experiences flashes of anger and sadness from time to time. And Jesus lost his temper in the temple, didn't he? The important things is: I doubt he was still brooding about it the next day.

[Secret Simon]

I suppose I've been coming out with some fairly challenging stuff here, so I guess I should do my usual thing and explain that I'm presenting these ideas for your consideration, rather than trying to tell you what you have to believe.

[Secret Simon]

Jennifer - This sounds brilliant. It sounds like you are able to accept this and stay with it. I too have experienced something of what you describe, but the trouble for me is that the mind interferes. The mind says: "Wow! What's going on here?" and then the connection is "quickly shut out again", as Sunflower describes it.

Since her contribution above, Cosmic Sunshine emailed me to suggest that this sudden "collapse" of the experience, when we notice it, might be compared with a phenomenon in quantum physics: the sudden collapse of a wave function when it is observed. I don't know whether there's any connection or not, but it's an interesting idea.

Mr Zip is referring to the times when we used to attend science fiction conventions. Fandom was great, Mr Z, and still is, as far as I know, but it didn't have quite the same feeling of warmth and love which I experienced in my dream. There was always the scintillating possibility of getting a knife between the ribs.

[People in the Sun]

The problem is that I've felt like that, but I also woke up with inexplicably extreme sadness and the only thing that cheered me up was the idea that it was only a dream and that in real life I had no reason to be depressed.

I do think you have a point, but I wonder if you've also had that same experience with sadness.

Are these opposite experiences or are they similar?

[Carol]

You're one step ahead of me. At least you got up to write "eat off green plates"! I usually end up rolling over and going back to sleep! :-)

[Sunflower Optimism]

Yes, Simon, thats what it felt like - a connection with something bigger than me or anything I know in this life. i would say a connection with God, as that is where my beliefs lie. Like I was briefly aware that something "out there" - God - was aware of me.

Your posts always manage to coax some interesting thoughts out.

[Marion]

Very interesting comments. I enjoyed them all, in addition to your post.

There is no way for me to describe what it feels like when I can hold the connection I have at times...it is indeed otherworldly...like receiving constant Reiki energy!

[Secret Simon]

Welcome Carol and Marion, and thanks to you all for your your comments. Feel free to keep them coming. It's great that so many of you seem to have experienced something of what I'm talking about, whether asleep or awake!

Sunflower - I wonder if this something you felt really seemed to be "out there"? Did it really feel *separate* from you?

People in the Sun - Referring back to my earlier post, 'How To Deal With Difficult Emotions', Nick Roach suggests that it is only our emotions which are blocking us off from the state of enlightenment (of which this connection or feeling of bliss that we're talking about is a taster). Once the connection is made, it seems to be easier for us to release those emotions - and as we release them, we feel them. It is possible that what you felt was deep-seated sadness being released.

[Sally]

Fascinating comments. A taste of this intense peace and amazing joy have been coming to me this week.(hence my going quiet on the comments front)I have had to just give thanks for those moments as my mind tries to follow the feelings and look for them. It all comes back to being present in the moment and for me that means doing more meditation. House is a mess but I put my blinkers on and don't look at it!