The Teacher Within
by Kelly Tobey

  My journey of awareness started innocently enough with me looking outward. I didn't feel whole myself so it seemed obvious that the place to look for completeness was out there. At that time I had no way of knowing that just because I wasn't aware of my wholeness it didn't mean I wasn't whole. I figured if I could only grasp the right things I would feel complete. So like many others, I looked to books, to presumed holy people, to workshops, to presumed people of knowledge, hoping they could complete me. Hoping they could fill my holes. Some of these methods would fill my holes temporarily but the emptiness would always return eventually. My dependence on outside  sources to complete me, ultimately left me feeling empty and abandoned.

Finally, I was drawn to teachers and teachings that didn't attempt to fill my holes. However, they were willing to guide me towards learning how to be open to having the holes filled from the inside out. They wouldn't fill my holes, but they would point me in the direction of full-fill-ment. That way, when they left, the holes that had been filled were still full, and I didn't feel abandoned and incomplete in those areas. I started to learn that inner and outer sources of awareness work in unison.

It has become more common knowledge that outside sources alone cannot fulfill us, that we need to look internally. We even have a great little catch phrase that covers all the different branches of it: "inner work".

One area of inner work I've been pointed towards is my dream world. I found it fascinating that one of my most powerful and made to order inner guidance systems had been virtually ignored. Of course when compared to the world of logical, linear thought that I had been raised on, the dream world looked like pure insanity. How could I expect guidance from a bunch of seemingly random images and happenings?

As crazy as those images may seem at first sight, they are exactly tailor-made to fit myself. They do need to be unraveled and therein lies their beauty. This need to be unraveled and seen in their own way, this language of symbols and images forces a break with the usual patterns of linear thinking. They call for a more complete seeing through a combination of intuition, imagery, feelings and logic. This urges me to look deeper into the meaning behind the stories laid out before me. Now I begin clearing the blind spots in my awareness that I couldn't see with my traditional mode of thinking. The power of these dreams is that they come from that inner unconscious part of me that is aware of my wholeness.

Attempting to balance me, the dreams project parts of me that my conscious mind is not aware of in hopes that they can be brought to light. What better teacher could I ask for than the one that knows me so intimately, my own unconscious self?

For support in remembering your dreams go to the article 

Recalling Your Dreams.

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