THE ART OF DREAMING (DEEP)
(INTERVIEW WITH PREM MOODALEY)
*I chose the title of this interview “The Art of Dreaming Deep” because when reviewing your work, I fell into the depth and the richness that is multi-layered through everything that you have done. Of course, the art of dreaming is also intimately connected to your work as a Jungian therapist within the larger context of this “dream” we are all collectively living – You have through your work, your art, certainly lived this life deeply. Can you share with us some of the deep wisdoms you have gained on your journey, and who/what have inspired you to “go deep”.
May all beings everywhere be happy and free
And may my thoughts, words and stories
Contribute in some way to the happiness and freedom for all
Who am I? Why am I here? What is this phenomenon we call life? Why all the suffering and despair? Why the unhappiness? How does it all hang together? Evolution is after all a process of creating greater and greater unity or not?
We all seem to share these questions – an innate human propensity to search for “the ultimate truth”. These questions are often considered to be the most basic definition of the human spiritual impulse.
It would be fair to say that my whole life has been dedicated to these questions and to the fundamental madness, absurdity and damaging illusions of our identity that accompanies this human endeavor. Life became a pilgrimage for me in this sense. It felt and still feels like a delicate unfolding of a certain sense of beauty, harmony, reverence and mystery. I do not claim to understand anything. So here goes…
Once upon a time, there was a terrible drought in a part of the world where a lot of people lived. After all the ways to bring rain that the people knew had been tried, they decided to send for the rainmaker. A small grey old woman, dressed in different coloured cloths, climbed out of the covered cart and sniffed the air distastefully. She turned her head to the four corners of the world and then demanded to be left alone. She stayed in a small cottage outside the village and her meals were left outside the door.
The villagers were puzzled. They waited for three days and then it not only rained, but there was also an amazing downfall of snow, unknown at that time of the year. Everybody was so happy. They danced, clapped their hands and sang songs of the beauty of life, hope and new growth. One of the villagers, who could not believe what was happening, sought the rainmaker out and asked her how it was that she could make rain, and even snow. “I am not responsible for making it rain or snow”, she replied. The man insisted that there was a terrible drought, until she came, and that it rained and snowed after three days of her arrival. The wizened old woman took a long time to answer. “Oh, I can explain that. Where I come from, the people are in order; they are in Tao (order); so the weather is also in order. When I arrived here, I could feel that the villagers were out of order and their chaos infected me. So I remained alone, until I was in order or Tao, and then, of course it rained…
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This story is a story that I adapted from a story that Jung loved telling when he addressed an audience. When our inner worlds are in harmony, it has an effect on everything else around us.
Women will know consciously and sometimes on a less conscious level, that their babies will stop crying, if they are in harmony, if they feel calm, if they live in beauty, if their choices are in balance, and if they strive to live from the centre of their beings. Because you are forever in relationship to everything else, your inner harmony will impact on everything else.
Real change starts with the individual.