TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Why share the content of "The Vision"?
When satsang was being offered here, and now when seekers come for a non-dual retreat, what happens with them when the discussion of the vision unfolds is often exactly what happened me we as the vision unfolded originally.
There is almost always an "Aha!" kind of reaction to the clarity that comes with an understanding of the content of that vision.
It was a "game-changer" here and has often been a game-changer for the seekers who have read it over the years and grasped the message or who have come here and heard it and grasped the message.
So first, you are invited to read the vision; to know that, for the most part, it made no sense after it first came; to understand that its message "hit like a lightning bolt" which brought the light and the explosive force which blasted away the final obstructions and blockages;
that beyond its basic revelations regarding the non-dual teachings, many other more subtle parts of the teachings were only seen and recognized over a period of days and weeks and months; and that the entire "three-legged journey" can be understood by you now - with no more long and arduous seeking required - if you understand all that the vision can reveal.
THE VISION (Continued)
Trees line either side of the stream, and you begin walking through them toward the sounds of the water crashing below. Astonished, you noticed that you are literally walking through the trees. As you progress, fauna of several species join you: a black bear rubs against your leg in the manner of a docile house cat; a cougar does the same on the opposite side, and each playfully swats at the other as if to proclaim dominion over both of your legs; a lamb skips along ahead as a heron brings up the rear.
The heron walks as if on stilts, taking more time than needed, looking rather judgmentally, it seems, at the wasting of energy by his peers.
As you near the edge of the cliff, you walk across the top of the water, not becoming wet at all; your new companions either lead or follow.
As you approach the left side of the plateau, the animals nudge you toward a winding walkway of sorts, cut from the stone side of the cliff naturally, definitely not made by man. After swinging down and around and back to your right, you find yourself on a level piece of ground jutting out from the side of the cliff. You see that a pond is overflowing, part of its waters cascading down the cliff side and pooling in another flat below.
That same pattern repeats itself until the waters reach a level valley. You watch the falling waters eventually form a river that winds its way across the desert basin. Along the river has sprung up a variety of shade trees. All else appears brown and dry. Then in the far distance, hills grow into mountains.
In the forefront arise huge columns of stone, cathedral-like, forming spires of varying shapes and heights. The colors vibrate with life, offering images of the blues and oranges and browns and beiges like those of Venetian palazzos when reflected in the waters of the Grand Canal.
In the far distance to the left stand even grander mountain ranges. Puffy clouds float slowly across the sky.
You focus attention on a fire burning next to the pool, and you feel yourself being nudged there by the bear, nudged in a very persuasive way. Then, from behind the cougar lifts its front paws onto your shoulders, forcing you into a cross-legged, seated position before the campfire. Finally, all four animals form a semi-circle around you, from your left side, behind you, and to your right.
Looking at the animals quizzically, you notice that each is focusing on an object in the distance. Allowing your eyes to follow the path of theirs, see a bird of some kind flying directly at you, drawing nearer by the second. Its speed accelerates as it moves dart-like across the skies, aimed at your chest like an avian arrow. Yet you feel very calm.
As the bird approaches closer and closer, you extend your arms and, with the sides of your hands touching and your palms up, you form a landing area for the fowl. A raven, the bird of death that comes from "the spiritual world," now slows as it approaches even nearer.
Why had you not made that association between spirit and death and this bird? It swoops upward to curb its flight and, with only a slight, backwards fluttering of wings, settles gently into your outstretched hands. The other fauna watch but do not react.
The bird stares at you, and you at the bird. You sense the bird drawing forth something from within you that is flowing out via your eyes and moving directly into the eyes of the bird. You watch as the bird leaves, but you feel as if you have left and that your mind has stayed behind. A second degree of separation you seem to detect.
The raven soars over the valley, flying high, then flying low, and then flying high again. Its spirit is high. Soon, it makes a direct course for the mountains, for it us driven to try to reach the mountaintop. You no longer watch from the cliff but see everything below through the eyes of the raven. After missing the mountaintop, the raven passes beyond and begins a fast descent toward an ocean which has come into view just after topping the peak.
The raven begins to dive lower, and lower, and lower yet.
Suddenly, the spiritual exuberance of the high-flying raven seems to be unraveling into an imminent and deadly crash against the ocean's surface. Following a huge impact one that you take to be the end of you the waters first splash upwards from the collision and then fall back into the ocean.
Ultimately, the waves settle, and the sea surface smooths to a mirror finish.
Suddenly, a bird's head forcefully breaks the surface, but it is not the head of a raven. Instead, the head of a gull - the bird of ignorance - comes forth, gasping for air.
You find that you are no longer observing the gull, but have transitioned into the gull. A third degree of separation from what you had left outside the arch, then by the pool, and now through the raven, has manifested.
The gull surfaces further and then begins flapping its wings. Leaving behind the cleansing, baptismal waters, you in the form of this gull fly and play and dart. You feel like a child again, flying high, until suddenly crashing into an eagle. More truthfully, you feel yourself merging into - maybe even dissolving into - the eagle.
. . . . . . . . 
For a time, the eagle soars, glides, and mainly just witnesses. You feel the remnants of the gull; you sense the remains of a raven; you look at you seated at a fire and see only a mental image; you look through the arch and see the figment of a body imagined. Another degree of separation.
But now You the Eagle have no time to contemplate, for you feel yourself being pulled deeper into the universe through a clear-walled tunnel in the remotest part of the heavens. You feel yourself accelerating at the speed of light. In fact, at the end of the tunnel, you can see nothing other than light.
Your speed now nearly doubles, and just as you reach that point of mach two, with the deafening sounds of the winds racing by your ears, you crash through a veil of sorts.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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