Hanuman. . .animal/human nature

I went on an awesome date last week. Before dinner he took me to a gallery for some live music, followed by a perusal of the exhibits. The music was definitely unconventional, but hypnotic and very soothing. The first act was hilarious, comprised of random utterances read from a book with responding guitar strums. It was rather enjoyable and kind of tapped into the right brain and its non-linearity. The second performance was transcendental viola that sort of enveloped the ambient din of conversation into its sound.

Having started the evening like that, I was in a sort of alpha wave state of mind. Earlier we had been talking about a piece of his art, which featured Hanuman (a monkey-like God, supposed to be an incarnation of Shiva) with flaming hands. It sparked the memory of a powerful dream, which I shared. It was a bit embarrassing - I was actually sweating by the end of my explanation of my dream - but I felt compelled to share it because if I didn't the memory might escape me.

This dream is really important. I was in a stone mansion with many rooms (obvious self metaphor). I was in a dark room on one of the upper floors, there were women in there but at a distance, sitting, crowded together, on a Chaise lounge. I looked through the window and there was a large gorilla looking from outside, like King Kong climbing up the side of the Empire State Building. Except the gorilla's head was a hand "wreathed in flame."

OK, very odd thing to share with someone you don't know! Well, I only shared the part about the gorilla with the flaming hand head. Then, you'd think I would have dropped it! Nope - when we were talking later, the meaning of the dream came to me and I had to verbalize it to him.

We had been talking about the place of conflict in human interaction and the related topic of violence. There is a place for disagreement and conflict - in fact, I don't think it would be possible to have this world without it, it is fundamental to the experience here. However, there is something I learned from my aforementioned yoga teacher in Switzerland. Animals in the wild deal with conflict by fighting for dominance. Humans do that, too - but we take it a step, or many steps, farther. We go for injury beyond dominance, we go for the kill. Or we manipulate indirectly. We deal with feeling dominated, or oppressed by others, in sick ineffective ways.

The meaning of my dream was that I was embarking on a journey to unite healthy, but primal, animal qualities of my self with the sublime spiritual qualities. Hanuman physically represents this in his human/monkey appearance. There doesn't need to be a dichotomy between those things. Learning to assert yourself, and being OK with acknowledging someone's dominance are key elements of human interaction. Healthy interaction is a part of loving your brothers and sisters on this planet and overcoming the collective illnesses. Amen!