Exploring a Lost Mine
Imagine that you are a middle-aged mother and career woman named Jillian. One night you are rummaging underneath your bed for a lost shoe. Groping in the dark, you feel an edge, a crack in the floor. Moving your hand along it through the dust, you notice a corner. Following it with your fingers, you find a metal ring anchored to the floor. “What is this?” In a hurry, you get your shoe and get dressed. You’re late. Months pass. One night, you are lying in bed, thinking about all you have to do, when that metal ring in the floor pops into your mind. What is that thing? You get out of bed and find a flashlight. Pushing aside flat boxes of clothes, forgotten socks, and sweeping away the dust, you cast the light around until it falls on what is definitely a small brass ring lying flat against the floor. Reaching far under your bed, you put your index finger through it and try to lift. It is heavy, but that section of the floor moves up with it a little – not much, but enough for cool air to find your hand and cheek. “What is this? Is there an old root cellar down there?” Tired, with a busy day ahead, you resolve to investigate further as you fall asleep.
The next Saturday morning you decide that it’s time to rescue your lost underwear under that bed and have a look at that root cellar. You drag your creaking bed across the floor, out of the way, and start vacuuming up all the dust as you collect long-lost clothes and put them in your hamper. “Yes, there’s that ring.” You vacuum around it and follow the edge with the working end of your vacuum. Yes, there is the outline of the door. Not that large, but big enough to climb through. Standing over it, you grasp the ring with both your index fingers and lift. There is creaking as the hatch lifts up and back. A blast of cold air hits your face and you look down, expecting to see steps and a root cellar. You can’t make out anything but cobwebs and blackness. Getting your flashlight out, you shine it into the inky black. On the rock beneath where the ring was, about three feet down, there is an old, rusty metal ladder anchored to the stone, heading straight down, out of sight in the blackness. It doesn’t look safe. “This must be an old, abandoned mining shaft,” you think. Why did someone build a house over something like that? Slightly annoyed that this unexpected problem has intruded into your life, you close the hatch and get back to cleaning. As you drag your bed back into place you wonder if you should have a look and if you even have the time.
A year passes. Every now and then you have thought about that old mine shaft. You have mentioned it to friends in passing as an architectural curiosity and a historical oddity. Everybody agrees it is strange. Some think you should explore it. Others think it is dangerous and should be buried for good. Life is busy, with many pressing concerns, and the conversation quickly passes on to work, kids, bills, and plans. A couple more years pass before time rolls around for you to once again clean out all the dust, trash, and neglected valuables underneath your bed. You decide you will investigate that old mine shaft further. So you put on old jeans, a faded flannel shirt, gloves, and a heavy worn-out leather jacket to protect you from the rocks, grime, and cold. You open the trap door and again feel cold, moist air rising from far below. “Are there bats down there? What if I get hit by a bat?” You carefully test your weight on the top rung of the ladder. “It’s very old. Is it solid? Can it hold my weight? What if it pulls away from the wall?” It’s not easy to lower yourself because the ladder is narrow and you’re holding your flashlight, but you manage slowly and carefully, stopping every now and then to shine the flashlight below you, looking for the bottom. You descend twenty, thirty, forty, fifty meters before the strong beam of your flashlight makes out a dirt floor another fifty meters below. Looking up, the ceiling of your bedroom far above you looks indistinct and not so bright. Continuing down you think, “What if something happens to me down here? What if the ladder breaks and I can’t get out? How long will it be before anyone finds me? I should have brought a phone or a friend or left a note…” Now your boot crunches loose gravel under foot. The feel of solid ground is reassuring there in the cold, surrounded by blackness. You shine your flashlight. Yes, there is a passage leading to the left and a steeply downward sloping one straight ahead. The walls are moist and black. There is a pile of tailings nearby. Having had enough of climbing, you head into the passage on the left, shining your light on the walls and ceilings. “What did they mine here, anyway?” Stones litter the floor of the shaft. As you walk on you begin to think of the possibility of collapsed floors and cave-ins. You decide that there is little to be seen here; you gather a couple of rocks from the floor and put them into your pockets, turn around, and make your way back out the passage and carefully make your way back up the long verticle shaft. It’s a long, hard climb. Once back in your safe, warm, and light bedroom you pull the rocks out of your pockets. They are dark and grimy, showing some cleavage. Nothing much of interest there. You put them on a shelf on your back porch.
Months, then years go by. You are packing to move. You come across those rocks and throw them into a box. That box goes into the basement in your new house in Milwaukee, over a thousand miles from where you lived. Years pass. You’re old now, and you’re getting rid of stuff. Going through your basement, you come across those rocks. You remember that day when you had that adventure, climbing down that narrow ladder. You have more time now that you are retired. Why not clean these up and see what they are? You take them out back and hose them off. To your surprise, they are translucent with golds, pinks, and greens within that seem to glow. What IS this? Curious, you look up the address of a local jeweler and take them in. Greeting the owner, you say, “I found these years ago in an abandoned mine shaft. What do you think they are?” The jeweler takes out his eyepiece and carefully inspects your specimens with growing intensity and fascination. After a while he puts them down, looks you in the eye, and says excitedly, “Where did you get these?” You tell him about your excursion down the abandoned mine shaft years before. He says, “These are rough diamonds. This one is well over 3,000 carats. When cut it is probably 500 carats. That one is more, maybe 700. There is a fortune in that mine.” You say, “What does 500 carats mean? I don’t know anything about this stuff.” He shakes his head slowly and says, “Well, the largest cut diamond in the world is a little over 500 carats…” You are speechless. You don’t know what to say. You thank him, and now with a sudden care that borders on reverence, you pick up your stones and head home. As you drive you feel a mixture of astonished joy at your good fortune followed by a sickening sense of regret. You think back to the years you spent sleeping over that mine, first unaware of it and then doing your best to ignore it. You think about how you were always too busy to go down into it. It was cold, dark, dirty, and too much trouble. Suddenly all those things that were so important back then seem relatively trivial and meaningless. You filled your life up with so many important things that, from the perspective of what you now know was always lying there beneath you, were neither important nor necessary. Now you are old. You no longer live over that mine. The money and fame that having these jewels will bring doesn’t mean so much to you now. There was a time in you life when they would have meant everything, when they could have changed everything. But now…You think about what to do. You don’t know. So you get the stones cut. Then what? Do you sell them? Do you give them to a museum? Do you keep them? You go to sleep that night wondering about it.
That night you have a dream. Two swans are sitting on a small pond in front of your home. It is a beautiful, serene sight. You go out and sit in the sand in the stone fire circle between your home and the pond. Suddenly you hear great splashing. You look up to see the first swan take off low across the water, moving slowly, with the sound of its great wings beating the air. You follow it with your eyes as it flies straight toward you, ducking as it passes only three meters above you, in a great surge of power and beauty.
Astonished, you wake up. “What an amazing dream! Why did I have it? What does it mean?” Checking the internet for dream interpretation sites, you find that swans are good luck, aspirations, messengers, and reflections of your own inner beauty. While all of that might be true, it still doesn’t tell you why you had the dream. Looking further, you come across “Dream Yoga.Com.” It talks about a method, called Integral Deep Listening, in which you pretend you are the characters in your dream and ask them questions designed to help you learn why you had the dream. You find the web page with the dream questionnaire at IntegralDeepListening.Com. Why not imagine you are that swan and see what happens? Here is the interview and what the swan had to say:
What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?
Why did I have this dream?
Why didn’t I go into that mine when I first found it? Why did I wait so long to look at those rocks?
What should I do with these rocks? I could turn them into gemstones, sell them or keep them. But I really don’t need the money. I like my simple life. I don’t want the notoriety and fame.
Write down a dream you remember. It can be an old one, a repetitive dream, a nightmare, or one that you’re sure you understand.
Two beautiful, peaceful swans are sitting on a small pond in front of my home. I go out and sit in the sand in the stone fire circle between my house and the pond. Suddenly I hear splashing. I look up to see the first swan take off low across the water, moving slowly, with the sound of its great wings beating the air. I follow it with my eyes as it flies straight toward me, ducking as it passes only three meters above me, in a great surge of power and beauty.
Why do you think that you had this dream?
I don’t know. I went to sleep wondering what to do with those diamonds, but I don’t know how it relates….
If this dream were playing at a theater, what name would be on the marquee?
A Swan Flies Over
These are the characters in the dream, beside yourself…
The two swans, my house, the lawn, the stone fire circle, the sand, the pond.
If one character had something especially important to tell you, what would it be?
The swan that flew over.
Now remember how as a child you liked to pretend you were a teacher or a doctor? It’s easy and fun for you to imagine that you are this or that character in your dream and answer some questions I ask, saying the first thing that comes to your mind. If you wait too long to answer, that’s not the character answering – that’s YOU trying to figure out the right thing to say!
Swan are you a character in Jillian’s dream, yes?
Yes.
Swan, would you please tell me about yourself and what you are doing?
I am enjoying this pond with my mate. Then I take off and fly over Jillian. She wakes up.
What do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?
I am equally at home in the water and the air. I can manage on land, too. So I’m versatile and adapt well. Also, I’m loyal; I mate for life.
What do you dislike most about yourself? Do you have weaknesses? What are they?
I can’t think of any.
Swan, Jillian created you, right? What aspect of Jillian do you represent or most closely personify?
I am her strength and adaptability. I am her harmony with nature.
Swan, if you could be anywhere you wanted to be and take any form you desired, would you change? If so, how?
I wouldn’t change. I like myself the way I am.
(Continue, answering as the transformed object, if it chose to change.)
Swan, how would you score yourself 0-10, in confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, peace of mind, and witnessing? Why?
Confidence: 9 I can protect myself very well. There is very little I have to be concerned about. I have to be vigilant on land, though.
Compassion: 9 I care about my mate a great deal. I value my world.
Wisdom: ? I know enough to have a rich, full, satisfying life.
Acceptance: 9 I take each day as it comes. It doesn’t matter to me if it rains or if there is snow.
Inner Peace: 9 I make my world. Yes, it affects me, but I know I can and will adapt.
Witnessing: 10 I not only witness, but I can do so from a lot of interesting perspectives, those from the sky, from the water, and from land. I can even witness things beneath the water! And although I know I’m part of the natural order, I don’t feel victimized by it. I’m not caught up in the drama of fighting to survive.
Swan, if you scored tens in all six of these qualities, would you be different? If so, how?
Not much.
How would Jillian’s life be different if she naturally scored like you do in all six of these qualities all the time?
Nothing much would bother her! She would enjoy her life and she would be busy with it, taking one thing at a time in a focused, involved way.
If you could live Jillian’s life for her, how would you live it differently?
She would have no regrets about the past. I don’t. She wouldn’t worry about the future. When and how life will end is not her concern now. She needs to focus on living today.
If you could live Jillian’s waking life for her today, would you handle her three life issues differently? If so, how?
Why did I have this dream?
You were wondering about what to do about those diamonds. You had it to put them in a broader context, so you could see how to use them.
By “broader context” do you mean the way you live, Swan – in the now, in harmony with nature, with confidence?
Yes.
Why didn’t I go into that mine when I first found it? Why did I wait so long to look at those rocks?
You were self-absorbed. You were too much in your own way. You weren’t listening. You didn’t catch the wake-up calls. You turned over and just kept sleeping,
What should I do with these rocks? I could turn them into gemstones, sell them, or keep them. But I really don’t need the money. I like my simple life. I don’t want the notoriety and fame.
I don’t care what you do with them. I can’t eat them. They are no good for nests. Turn them into grain! Turn them into algae and pond greens! Turn them into food that will nurture baby swans and our world – trees, fish, plants – everything we need!
What three life issues would you focus on if you were in charge of her life?
1. Feeling more like us; becoming as confident, versatile, and at peace with yourself and nature as we are.
2. Turning those stones into something we can use.
3. Living in the here and now.
In what life situations would it be most beneficial for Jillian to imagine that she is you and act as you would?
Whenever she has self-doubt. Whenever she isn’t sure of her direction.
Why do you think that you are in Jillian’s life?
To help her put her stones into a context that will serve a greater good.
How is Jillian most likely to ignore what you are saying to her?
She is good at ignoring things, dreaming the dream of her life, and going deeply unconscious.
What would you recommend that she do about that?
Reading over this interview is a good place to start. Every time she does it will remind her that she has choices about how she lives and how she views others, life, and herself.
I think Jillian had this dream because
She is trying to figure out how to make these diamonds fit into her life.
I think this dream event happened or (some character) was in the dream because…
I flew over her to get her attention, to wake her up!
Why should I pay any attention to what some imaginary dream character says to me? Aren’t these just my own wishes and projections?
Of course I’m imaginary! And yes, some of your own wishes and projections are in me and in what I say. However, I score higher than you do in core qualities of enlightenment. Wouldn’t it be wise for you to suspend your disbelief long enough to test out what I recommend? If it doesn’t work, just call me imaginary and forget about me!
What have you heard yourself say?
This swan represents a part of me that is strong, versatile and in harmony with nature. This dream was a wake-up call to help me put this decision about what to do with these diamonds into a broader context. Also, I don’t have to believe this swan. All I have to do is suspend my doubt and see what happens in my life when I follow these recommendations.
If this experience were a wake-up call from your inner compass, what do you think it would be saying to you?
This experience has given me a brainstorm! That part about turning the stones into food for baby swans and nature…I think what I need to do is quietly enquire around and find out if I get a higher price selling these stones uncut or cut. Then I need to take the proceeds and buy the house where I used to live that is over that mine. Then I need to set up a foundation that uses the proceeds from the diamonds down there. It would teach future generations of children how to contact and listen to their inner compass, to find their own truth and follow it. It would teach them how to listen to their own emerging potentials so that they will know which, among all the competing choices that they have at any moment, is likely to do the most good for the greatest number.
This story is a metaphor about our relationship not only with our dreams, but with our inner life. Like Jillian, we are asleep, dreaming, and sleepwalking, lost in the drama of our life scripts. Our work, school, families, friends, web and phone time can easily crowd out any awareness of our inner life until some critical intensity builds up inside. We are stuck in the perceptual reality of our physical, emotional, and mental filters. Each of these has a definition of what is real and valuable. Our body wants security and comfort. Our emotions want to be heard. Our minds believe they are see things correctly. Those different perceptual realities often compete with each other. Because they naturally filter and distort experience, they often have little to do with what our most central emerging potentials consider to be real and valuable. Our job is to wake up. Jillian does so as she investigates the mine shaft, gets her stones assayed years later, and then interviews her dream. We wake up as we ask,”Is this a dream?” “In what ways might I be living in a state of self-delusion right now?” We wake up as we see everything as a wake-up call. Jillian’s swan encouraged her to view it, her dream, her mine and its stones, as wake-up calls, beckoning her to a broader, more inclusive definition of what it means to be alive. We wake up as we remember and act on our priorities today. Jillian received from her interview a vision of how to use the stones to build a good that would outlast her, a way that her life and its actions could make a difference long after she was gone. She now has a clearer, broader priority that organizes and gives meaning to her life. As she fulfills it she wakes up. Like Jillian, when we remember who we are and where we are going our daily actions can support and contribute to that greater vision. As we do so we move from delusion and mental fuzziness to clarity, and thence to luminosity, cosmic humor, and abundance – core elements of the sacred.