Dreams from the other side

I’m with my old friend Peter Cerda. Peter died about 17 years ago from AIDs. Peter has come to see me from ‘the other side.’ It is wonderful to see him again. I ask him what life is like over there. He says “I only got to the third level because I held onto too much pain and fear.” I asked “How do you get farther?” and he replied “Faith, but not faith like you usually think of it.” And then Peter gave me a letter to read that was about taking risks, stepping out, not letting fear stop me from following my bliss. The letter said that is how I will make it to the higher levels of heaven.

I wrote this dream down first thing when I awoke last Monday. I keep wishing I had the letter. I keep asking to see it again as I fall asleep. I’ll write more if it comes back to me.

And the dream has given me faith. I have enough. All I need to do is be myself, fully and completely. That is the highest level of heaven, accessible right here, right now.

Kosas: Yoga Bodies

The physical body Annamaya Kosa: we move around in this. Our physical body is our form, our flesh, our blood and bone. It is the vehicle with which we experience life. It is our own personal temple. The physical body has its own intelligence and awareness. It speaks to us in sensation: pleasure, pain, cold, hot rather than words. The physical body speaks loudly, adamantly. The needs and desire of the physical body are strong drivers of action.

The intellectual body Vijnanamaya Kosa: our thoughts and ruminations. Writing these essays is an act of my intellectual body. The intellectual body desires puzzles, stimulation, and mental activity. It enjoys beauty and is yet called to the underside of life as well. The intellectual body is engaged at the computer screen.

The emotional body, Manomayo Kosa: our response to relationships. The yearnings of the heart come from our emotional body: love, joy, anger, jealousy, loneliness. The emotional body is is activated in interactions with others and the feelings that arise from those interactions, or from the lack of interactions.

The energy body, Pranamaya Kosa: our chi, prana, joie de vivre. The energy body provides the umph that gets us out of bed in the morning. The energy body provides the fuel of passion to ignite the physical, intellectual and emotional bodies. Lack of prana can lead to depression, exhaustion, illness.

The divine body Anandamaya Kosa: the spark of life at our center. The part of us that knows we are part of something greater than ourselves. The divine body experiences bliss and awe at existence: enlightenment. When we find balance between the other bodies we can bring the divine body forward into our awareness. We can let the light shine for all to see and we can see the spark in everyone around us.

Yoga means to yoke. Yoga is a practice designed to bring the bodies together into resonance. From this resonance comes a deep glow of grace.