All in One and One in All

Greetings!

I would like to share with you two dreams.  I had the dreams one after the other in the same night some years ago.  When I woke up, I realized they had the same theme which I would explain later in the post.

                                                  ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~ 

I stood in front of a female author.  I asked about the cost of her book.  She said it was $13.75.  It was a good book.  I gave her $25, $20 for the book and $5 as my way of thanking her.  She signed on the cover of the book.  The color of the cover was orange-peach with a tint of red.

Later I saw what she wrote on the cover was kind of strange.  Normally, the author addressed the reader first or put the name of the reader on the top as that of a letter, and signed her name on the bottom.  However, on the cover, I saw my name on the bottom as if I was the author.

The next scene in the dream - I washed the cover with water until the words were removed.

A man saw me holding the book.  He asked to borrow it after I finished reading it.  I said, "Yes."  I said it was a good book.

                                                  ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

In a restaurant, the three of us (a cook, a waiter, and a waitress) sat at a table in the dining room.  Two men dressed in expensive suits stood by our table.  They were customers who were there to place orders.  They were very demanding and particular in how they wanted their food.  At one point, one of them made a rude judgmental comment.  I stood up and asked them to follow me to the outside.  Though they were reluctant, they did as I asked.

We walked past the manager.  Outside of the dining room, there were 4 booths along one side of the wall.  I asked them to sit down in the last booth.  Standing in front of them, I began lecturing them about life, judgment, and so on.  In the dream, somehow they had to listen, and I wasn't harsh as I talked.  At the end, I said, "Now go inside and eat with a heart of gratitude.  Food would only taste good if you eat with a heart of gratitude."  They stood up and went back to the dining room.

                                                  ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

Upon waking up, this came to my mind.

The boundary between author and reader or customer and waitress was very blurry in the dreams.

In the first dream, the one who bought the book found her name on the bottom of the cover as if she was the author, while the author signed her name as if she was the reader.  In the second dream, the two well-dressed customers were standing while the servers (cook, waiter, and waitress) sat at a table in the dining room.  In life's setting, it was the opposite.

I realized the dreams had the same theme, and these words came to me -

                                                  All in One and One in All.  

The act of washing the words from the cover symbolized that it was not important who the author or the reader was.  They were two yet one.  I should look at others in the dreams as myself,  i.e. the author was me, the waiter was me, the customer was me, and so on.  In other words, the one who lectured about life should see herself in the one who was being lectured as well.  With this understanding, we knew not to judge but adjust our view and attitude.  With this understanding, we could look at situations or others in our lives with discernment and/or compassion.  Sometimes when we saw something was wrong be it our own doing or others, it was but a cause for the wholesome thought to come through and put into action.  (If you may, please click to view the post What if you are at the RECEIVING END of your own WRATH? which was also about our oneness.)

                                                  ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

We don't come into being from nowhere (All in One).  There is divinity in you and me (One in All).  It is for us to seek and turn within to find out who we truly are.  With our ego or deluded mind, it is not easy to look at others with discernment or compassion consistently.  Seeing the chaos around us, sometimes we may feel life is senseless or meaningless.  It may help to remind ourselves from time to time that we are not just the human beings we appear to be.  'Food would only taste good if we eat with a heart of gratitude' and 'life is more meaningful if we live with a heart of gratitude'.

Peace,
Q of D

P. S.  The human I felt "All is One and One in All" sounded right, but "All in One and One in All' was what I wrote down in the journal.