Visions are sometimes a part of the spiritual journey. For me, visions sometimes occur while I am asleep, but they have a much different quality than dreams. It is difficult to describe the difference, but you know it when you experience it. Visions are sharper, almost 4 dimensional and for me, the viewpoint is quite specific and does not change. Visions are not nonsensical and when you wake up, you are aware of having received important information for your spiritual journey.
Dreams are not nearly as crisp and usually involve details from your daily life, such as familiar locations or familiar individuals. Dreams are a mixture of your conscious and unconscious mind and can give you important insight into your fears, worries, and anxieties, but they don’t include entirely new information. Visions, on the other hand, deal with places or information that is new and has a specific purpose. Visions are a communication from the Divine to help us on our journey. All of us have the ability to receive visions. We need only be open to communication and earnest in our intention. However, visions are used to impart specific information and only occur based on need. We cannot control if or when we might experience a vision. It is a one-way communication from the Divine. We simply receive.
It took me many months to fully understand the message of my first vision. It happened shortly after I began my spiritual journey in earnest. I immediately knew that I had experienced something important, but it was only after months of contemplation that I began to fully appreciate the message.
I woke up from a deep sleep and the clarity, feeling, and reality of the vision was forever a part of me. I was on a vast barren landscape. My perspective was from above the ground, yet I knew I was looking at myself while at the same time I was experiencing the situation. I was not simply watching what was happening, I was apart of it. A bright light was to my back and I was walking away from the light on a deep well-worn path. Clearly, I was not the first person to walk this path, but I could see no one else or any sign of life other than the light that I was getting further and further away from. As I walked along this path in the dirt, it became deeper and deeper until it was more like a rut than a path. The rut was made from the thousands of feet that had walked this path before me, yet there was no sign of life. I was carrying in my arms what seemed to be a huge bundle of dark brown sticks or branches. They were all very dry and brittle. I was collecting them as I walked down the path. It was obvious from the load I was carrying, that I had been on the path for a long time, collecting these sticks all along the way. The load was heavy, but I would not put it down. I did not understand the need for the load, yet I labored on, collecting more sticks and continuing to increase my load of dry brown sticks while getting further and further away from the light. I had been on this path for a long time, but I had no other choice. I couldn’t get off the path and it only went one way in a straight line, directly away from the light.
Soon I came to a fork in the path. Both ways were just as worn, one way continuing straight ahead to the dark horizon before me and the other turning slowly to the right, like an exit ramp off a highway. In the distance, just off the exit path was a large pile of dark brown sticks just like the ones I was carrying. I was tired, worn down by my journey and the sticks were heavy. I took the path to the right and continued toward the large pile of sticks. As the path turned the light on my back began to move to my right side as my direction of travel became parallel to the light. The light was the only source of illumination and was like a rising sun over the desert, but it never rose higher into the sky.
Just as I began to fully acknowledge my surroundings, I found myself in front of the enormous pile of dry, brown sticks, just like the ones I was carrying. It looked as if people before me had dropped their load of sticks and continued down the path, but, again, there was no one else around. I didn’t want to drop my sticks, but I did not know why I continued to carry them. I could see the path continued to turn to the right and it eventually headed straight back in the direction from whence I came, and the returning path would have the light fully on my face. The path led back to the light, just as the path I had been on led away from the light. I was on a semicircular path that connected two parallel paths, one heading to the light and the other heading away from the light. The large pile of sticks was in the middle. The choices before me were clear. I could drop my sticks and continue down the path I was on, which would eventually turn back toward the light in the distance, or I could continue to carry the sticks, go back down the path in the direction I had just come from and find my way back to the path away from the light.
Now, as I write this, the choice is obvious, but at the time, I did not want to drop my load, it was mine, I had collected it, even though I did not know what value the sticks represented. My load was large and I had invested a lot of time collecting these dry brown sticks. I could not just drop them in this pile and leave. These sticks must be of value, or I would not have collected them. That would be insane, collecting things of no value, but what was I to do with all these sticks? My vision ended with me standing in front of the pile of sticks, wondering which way to go. Should I drop my load and follow the path back to the light or should I labor on, collecting more sticks as I walked further away from the light?
Parts of the vision were obvious to me while other parts required a deeper understanding of who we are to fully understand. Before you can appreciate the full meaning of the vision you must first understand the following. We are beings of Love as perfect and glorious as a newborn child is to her parents. This never changes. It cannot change for we are a part of Source, and as such we can never be less than that which created us. Let me say that again. We can never be less than that which created us. Let that statement sink in. We are eternal beings. We will never die; we evolve as our experiences deepen. We came from our Source and we will in time return to that same Source celebrating our adventure and our lessons. The adventure may take many lifetimes, but it matters not, for we will return Home at exactly the right moment, having experienced exactly what we were meant to experience.
With that knowledge, what is there to fear? What is there to worry about from a pile of sticks? You cannot be harmed in any way, so enjoy the ride. But it’s never that simple from inside the rabbit hole, is it? That is why we have lessons, visions, and teachers, to help us push through all the illusion so that we can realize the simplicity of it all. The enlightened ones see creation with simple clarity. The rest of us struggle through the mist of illusion.
With that said, my vision was a view from outside the illusion of this world looking at what I had created within the illusion. None of it was real, but from my perspective inside the illusion, it was very real indeed. As a whole, the vision shows the insanity of our lives and wasted energy collecting nothing of value. I was walking away from my Source, wandering out into the wilderness, going down the same path as so many others before me.
Upon leaving my Source, I began to collect the dry brown sticks, not one just like the other, yet they were all the same. I was struggling under the weight of the sticks, but I would not stop collecting, further clouding my vision and my perspective as I struggled to carry my load. It was not until much later that I fully appreciated what the sticks represented. They were my judgments; the fears, the worries, the anxieties that we all create as we pass through this world. The sticks, not one exactly like another, yet all the same, were a burden of my own making. I had created the drama that swirled around me in this world, not my Source, or any other individual; I had done it to myself. I had created the world I lived in and could blame no one but myself. One stick at a time, I had created the illusions that clouded my vision and kept me a prisoner of fear.
However, I had a choice, as we all do. I could continue down the path of collecting judgments or I could lay it all down and return Home to the Light. The longer I would continue down the path away from the Light, the more deformed and bitter I would become. My load of sticks, my judgments, blocked and distorted my view of the world. I didn’t dare drop any of my precious sticks for fear that I may lose them all. From my point of view, walking away from the Light, the sticks were all that I could see to pick up. The sticks were all I had. In time my pile of dry brown sticks would completely obscure the Light from my eyes and all I would have left would be my pile of sticks. I refused to put them down and instead was walking blindly down the path convinced that collecting worthless brown sticks was all there is to life. How about you? How big is your pile of sticks?
The Truth is as it has always been, simple. The lies and illusions are of the world we have created. Just put down the sticks. Throw them on the pile along with all the other worthless judgments and fears collected by others. They cannot hurt you if you just put them down, walk away and start down the path Home. The Light on your face will show you the way. The vision was telling me that the choice is ours. Put down the sticks, leave the judgments, fears, worries, and anxieties all behind and start the journey Home, or turn around and continue the insane life of moving through this world alone, collecting things of no value as you move farther away from Source. Not much of a choice really, but I still find dry brown sticks hanging on to me.
As easy as it seems in the vision, walking away from a lifetime of judgments is not so easy inside the rabbit hole. It is a process, but it gets easier each day. With each judgment dropped, we become a little more integrated into the reality of who we truly are. The Truth, Love, and Light flow through our being a little more freely and we feel the Light on our face showing us the way Home.
There are as many opportunities to turn around on the path of illusion as there are individuals tired of carrying their load of dry brown sticks. Time does not exist outside of our illusions and is of no importance. Take all the time you need. Try dropping just a stick or two at first and see how it feels. Soldier on down the path of illusion if that feels right to you, it is your choice.
The Love and Light of Source is our inheritance, it belongs to each and every one of us. However, we all walk the path of illusion away from the Light at some point. We all collect dry brown sticks of no value and carry them around with us. Each one different, yet they are all the same. It does not matter, the Love and Light illuminate us just the same, whether we carry a huge load of sticks, just a handful or none at all. It will never leave us and try as we might, we can never really leave the Love and Light, the energy of Source. We pretend to leave it within our illusions as we pile the sticks high, but we never do. Love and Light is who we truly are.
Know that the Truth, Love and Light is at your back. Whether you can feel it or not, it is always there, waiting for you to drop your load of sticks and turn around.
Blair is the co-owner of Yoga Daily in Mt. Pleasant, SC. He is a certified yoga instructor, recovering lawyer and a spiritual student. The content of this blog is what Blair considers to be universal truths that span all dogma and religion and it is offered to you in Love and Light. Check out The Daily Yogi for additional blog entries. You can contact Blair at[email protected]. Yoga is but one path to the knowing that we are all one. Please take what resonates with you and leave the rest without judgement or offense.