photo by Jennifer Gerard
I was poking around on Butternut Squash’s wonderful blog and came across this stunning story about a dream she had during one of her earlier trips to Asia. We’ve posted several of her synchronicities and all of them are rich, profound, and take you right into the heart of a deeper mystery. This one is no exception.
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Dreams have some catching up to do after you have been without sleep for so long. I always find that my dreams are more colorful and fantastic when I have been without them for a while. But sometimes I have dreams that are not of the same quality as the others. I have had a few that have come true in inconsequential ways, some that are scary and some that are easy to control so that I can take flight and go where I like. This type of lucid dreaming is my favorite. But three times in my life, I have had a very different kind of dream.
The third time that I had one of these dreams was after that long journey to Thailand shortly after I was married at 29. My hotel room had two single beds. I fell asleep very quickly, but shortly after I fell asleep, I was aware of the room again as if I was looking through the backs of my eye-lids. Everything in the room was exactly as it had been when I went to bed except that I had visitors.
There was a monk lying seemingly deceased on the bed next to mine. Around the departed or nearly departed, three other monks in long dark red robes with large yellow hats were marching clockwise around the body. One of them swung an incense burner as they circumnambulated and chanted. They were completely absorbed in what they were doing until they came around the foot of the bed. One of the monks realized that I was there and looked right into my eyes with a fierce and fixed gaze. I cannot ever remember the feeling of being seen in any other dream than this one. Usually it is the dreamer that does all of the seeing.
In seconds I was awake again and running down the stairs to the lobby. I asked the teenagers at the desk how old the building was and had anyone ever seen any ghosts there before. They said that the building was quite old but they hadn’t heard about any ghosts. They also pointed out that Thai monks wear orange robes and do not have big yellow hats.
I couldn’t go back to sleep that night. I didn’t want to be alone in the room, so I went out on the town with another guest at the hotel.
The dream was vivid in my imagination for years. A couple of years after my first child was born, I was on another buying trip in Nepal. There on the wall of a different hotel was a mural of the same red robed monks with large yellow hats that I had seen in my dreams.
It just so happened that on this trip, I was treated to a dinner by a member of the Dalai Lama’s family because I had done her a small favor. (It’s a very big family.) I was so surprised about the painting I had seen on the wall, that I had to tell her my dream. She was sure it was a reincarnation dream and that perhaps my son was a reincarnate. She urged me to contact his holiness’s office. I still have his business card, but I was not prepared for the prospect of a special Buddhist education for my child. I have never made any contact.
Over the years I have thought many times of Lhasa’s lost. All of those deeply religious gentle souls that passed so quickly and so violently. I think about their spirits being scattered around the world still praying for the enlightenment of all of us.
Wow, I thought the first dream was interesting and then Gypsywoman having the same dream…wow.
I have never heard of that before.
In the dream where you felt you were invisible you may have been in spirit in that past life. My understanding that sometimes we take "time off" and stay in spirit to help other loved ones and to rest. Life is the hardest journey.
It is all so fascinating.
what an incredible experience/memory of lauren's, being with a group, invisible, sharing the same thing – neat!
and trish, i totally agree that such dream experiences may be way more common that thought – and what an incredible forum that you and rob have created here for the sharing of them all – we are grateful!
What wonderful dreams.
Lauren – your experience, gypsy's, butternut's, makes me think these dream experiences are more common than we realized.
Fascinating dream, more so that it seems to be shared by two people. If time and space are much more fluid than we think in waking life, perhaps it is possible both dreamers actually went to be present at the passing of the monks?
Many years ago I did a number of "past life" regression work with a group. In one of my experiences I had a vivid "memory" of joining a large group of people surrounding a woman who was dying. It seemed that we could hear what she was thinking, and we were all there because we cared for her. At some point, I realized that I was, along with the others, invisible. I've always wondered about that.
Thanks to both for sharing their dreams.
OMG! You guys are astounding. The dream is so profound on so many levels. Wow.
Interestingly, gypsy sent me the following comment in an email and I asked her if I could put it up under comments. No clue what it means, but the parallels are startling!
from Gypsy:
here's the deal, trish – i've had that same exact dream – except – i've never been to thailand – i've never met a monk in this life – and i've never known anyone who had this dream so it never occurred to me that it was any more than one of my own – and i might not have even remembered it out of the blue but for her describing my own dream in this post –
in my own dream, i, too am in a hotel – it seems to be a very old hotel – it is in a strange place [foreign to me] – but i don't seem to be surprised at being there – the room is rather dark – it is a small room and has two small beds [i don't remember headboards – just the small beds] – both beds are against walls – there is not much space between the beds – the doorway opens toward the foot of the beds – i am sitting on the bed further away from the door – and i am just sitting there – watching – watching the other bed as three [geezeee…this is weird] monks stand over another who is lying on the other bed.
These monks are dressed in dark red wrap/robes [but mine are not wearing hats] – their heads are shaven – and are holding something like incense burners over the monk who has died or is dying – although i cannot understand their language i believe that they are saying prayers over the other monk – in my dream, they do not circle the bed but rather stand with their backs to me as i sit on my own bed.
Now, also in my dream, it seems i remember a very small window on the wall above the other bed – and i sense that the room is on a second floor as through the window i see the sky – in my dream it doesn't seem at all curious to me that i would be in a hotel room in a foreign country with a dying monk over whom others are praying – i don't feel obtrusive at all in being there.
Anyway, i'm sitting there just peacefully watching and then the monk in the middle who has been more vocal than the others with chants and/or prayers turns around as if he has just become aware of my presence and he stands there, half turned, holding the smoking brass thing, and he looks directly at me – just calmly looks at me – and in that moment, i awaken – oh, and in my dream, i am watching "myself" from behind "me" – i mean,from behind "me", i "see" "me" sitting on the bed watching the monks –
now, i cannot even give a date as to when i had this dream – i do know that it was quite some time ago and not within the last few months at all. But as i read your post, i literally sat with mouth open and kept thinking where had you gotten the dream i had – i mean, it was just surreal to be reading my own dream –
so – there you have it, lady! i've no clue as to what any of this means – but – i've had that same dream, with the slight variations i mention – geezzeee…very weird!
yes, nancy, please, what was your dream? i just sent trish a note about a dream of my own –
this is a beautiful story of butternut's – and what an incredible experience, the whole of it all –
oh, interesting wv, trish –
clingu=cling you?? 🙂
You tantalize us, Nancy. What was the dream??:)
I just love Butternut's story.
It reminds me of the dream I had recently that was very "real." Those dreams are different, for sure. Lhasa's loss was so incredibly awful.