Let's Take a Hike

I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that I remember clearly still.

I've always thought when you can remember a dream that clearly weeks later, like it's a TV show you've watched, it's more of a message than a dream.

In the dream, it was my dharma, or my path, and Yogini's, to complete a hike. This hike had to be done across the most difficult terrain in the world - miles of desert, miles of snowy mountains. The hardest hike anyone could make.

We started to hike across desert and came across a group of low-lying, white buildings. We went into the buildings, and they were like an ashram.

There were lots of happy people inside having dinner by candlelight. It was warm and inviting.

As I was walking around the ashram I looked out a window and saw Yogini had gone back to the hike, but she was far ahead of where we'd come into the ashram from.

I thought she must've found a way out that saved her from having to hike miles of the way.

I looked for this same way out and found a door. But when I opened it, there was a wall behind it. That way out was blocked.

I found another way out and it was also blocked.

I was getting anxious about spending a lot of my time looking for a way out that could erase part of the hike for me, but was actually getting me nowhere. I had to decide whether it was better to use my time looking for a way out that would keep me from having to do the entire hike, or to go back to where I left off and complete the entire hike by myself.

There were two options. Continue looking for a short-cut that was, admittedly, getting me nowhere, or start again where I'd left off, knowing it might take much longer than I wanted it to, but at least I'd eventually get where I needed to be.

What was the right thing to do?

I so didn't want to start where I'd left off. I was dreading it. But it looked like I had no other choice, and mourning a shortcut was wasting my time.

The path we walk is not always easy. A lot of times it feels unfair (the most difficult terrain?) and we want to get off and onto someone else's path (a nice cozy ashram). But, no matter how many breaks we take. No matter how much we try to avoid it, pretend it wasn't meant for us, eventually we'll have to walk every inch of our own specific path. We have to face whatever has been set out for us to face, no matter how much we try to delay it.

The dream tells me there's no reason to be envious of people who have what you want or to try to achieve those things via artifice. There is no way to get that which is not yours; and no way to avoid what is yours.

But that's OK, because what actually belongs to us is always 100 percent better than what we try to get that isn't ours.

Even a cozy ashram doesn't stay cozy forever. And our path makes us who we are.

It also means we don't have to keep a death-grip on the things we've gotten and want to keep. If it's ours, we can let go, and it's still, and will always be, ours.

So, let's man up, and get back on our path. I think it's a good one, with some good people going the same way.