Sensual Philosophy …

I had an interestingly beautifully weird dream just now.

The points of view / perspective switch from person to person. I’ll try to describe it as understandably as I can, by speaking in first person, second, or third (though I will not use “I”, you’ll see what I mean).

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In it, there were three people … two of which were most prominent, the third faded along with the extra details of the dream. Of the two … one was a younger (in his 20’s) student of Kung Fu. He has a bald head, and wears a light bluish, greyish, white-ish, traditional chinese kung-fu student attire. The other (his sifu), an older man with grey / white long beard and hair … unkempt, wearing a tattered dingy white over-sized garb, and a cloth white sachel slung over his right shoulder, and descends to his left hip … carrying something in it. The third doesn’t seem to be walking, but hovering like an apparition slightly off to right the side of the path (yet behind them)… watching.

The path is made of tall wooden poles, fifteen inches in diameter, three or five feet apart from one another … they are dark brown in color (almost black, with slivers of lighter brown, as if not completely petrified), and seem to extend somewhere between fifty and a hundred feet above water which surrounds them on all sides. On top of each is a pale flower, the petals looked reminiscent of a sunflower … but the center only has a small shaft of pollen, the rest is large / wide petals. It is big, almost the size of the pole’s diameter … yellow (like a paler version of the sunflower). It rests flat against the top of the pole, as if it is there welcoming people to step on it.

You’re on a journey … destination is unknown, but it seems light-hearted. You’re walking calmly along the path on the left side of it … appreciating the scenery, the large over-sized / close yet not too bright sun which hangs in the sky to the north-west. It reflects off the water to the left … creating a shimmeringly beautiful glow. The large / wide mountainous green island ahead casts a shadow to the right of the path … but it still shimmers slightly. You look up into the sky, slightly blocking the light with your left hand as if saluting it. You look ahead, and see your student a few yards in front, on the right side of the path. The path ahead swerves slightly … as if there’s a bend in the road, but continues going straight after the bend. It seems like it’s solid ground the further away it goes, because the distinction between the poles cannot be clearly made … except for the flowers which are on top of each, but even those eventually blur together (but not completely).

You casually step with long strides from pole to pole, looking at the flowers with each step … trying not to crush any petals, you slide your big toe underneath the corners of each flower … supporting your weight / steps by only your big toe. Each flower is beautiful, and different. Some have hints of green in the center, as if freshly bloomed, others are almost pure white … with shades of pink pollen. You look up at your student. He’s hopping high from pole to pole, expending too much energy on this path which is a few miles long. With each jump, he lands directly on top of the flowers, crushing them. It’s as if … the poles are much further apart for him, because his jumps are long. Maybe he’s skipping every other pole, making his journey more difficult than it need be …. maybe he has shorter legs. Whatever the case may be, you simply smile at it.

As you jump from pole to pole … you inconsiderately come crashing down on each flower, stamping it’s life out of existence. When you jump again, you do not squarely land on the pole … and slip … almost falling into the dangerous rippling current created by the rocks which support the beams below. You can’t see the rocks, but you know they are there because of how the water changes as it flows from the left side of the path … to the right. You’re scared, hanging onto the top of the pole with the fingers of your right hand, your left arm dangling.

You pause, and peer ahead again … slightly covering your eyes. See your student hanging, but just smile.

You can see the sifu’s right shoulder … you’re slightly behind him, to the right. You shift positions and go off to the right of the path and can see the two of them from the side, looking like small figures on top of the tall poles. You approach the student quickly. Your left hand descends, and you remain there without walking … your student pulls himself up. You say to him …

“do not fear the journey”

he says to you … “but I might fall”

you say to him … “falling is the least of your concerns, there is much peril within every step.”

You look down, at the flower below you … and see it in a different light. From the center of it … it’s overcome by darkness, it changes as if black paint was spilled onto the center of it and krept outwards. The stem of pollen fades to purple, the pollen turns to a bright pink … you can see that the stem is really a spout, and alternatingly / periodically shoots out a deadly poison.

The apparition is a wraith … or death.

Your student who’s now on top of the pole … sees him looking down at the flower, so you look down at the flower crushed beneath your feet. Though, you cannot see what he sees … all of the flowers still look whitish-yellow. Yet, you begin to worry. There must be some truth to what he said.

You see your student looking down, you look ahead at the path in front … and the black flower seems to infect many of the others, for from the spot you stand most of the rest of the flowers in front sequentially change to black. You see that the flower he’s standing on is white, the others he previously landed on … also white. You smile and say … to you he says …

“you need not worry, for you fear death … each step will always be right.”