Spiritual Enlightenment

As I said in my summary post below, it's a been a long time since I had a dream I could remember, but this morning I did.

I was in a shopping centre looking for a supermarket.  However, it turned out that all the shops had been replaced by creches, and every time I went into what I thought was a shop, I saw lots of young children being minded by adults.  

I was a little baffled and asked one of the adults what had happened.  Interestingly, this particular creche was run by Christians who made it their duty to indoctrinate the kids in their care.  I noticed bibles, crayons and children's colouring books all over the floor.  I spoke to a tall, middle aged man who ran this creche and asked what happened to all the supermarkets.  He confirmed they had all been replaced by creches like his (though not all of them were Christian).  He was then about to use this as an opportunity to try and convert me, but could somehow sense I wasn't interested, so he left me alone.  

I left the creche and walked outside where I saw a sign which read 'Spiritual Enlightenment This Way'.  This caught my interest as I knew it was something deeper and more substantial than what the Christians were offering.  I followed the sign and found myself descending a spiral staircase in what was looking less like a mall and more like an old school building.

My excitement grew as I reached the bottom, wanting to know what this enlightenment was.  When I got to the bottom, I came across a wooden door that was ajar.  I opened it and found another wooden door locked from the inside (I could see the lock mechanism on the door, but there was no handle).  Disheartened, I realised I couldn't open the door and turned to leave, but the door behind me shut, and the previously locked door opened.  I found myself in complete darkness then heard someone laughing.

Now, this would normally be eerie, but I wasn't afraid.  I steeled myself as an inner voice (not audible, but within me) told me that this darkness was not to be feared, but embraced and understood for what it was.  I then woke up.

For a while, I pondered on the meaning of this dream, but the more I think about that darkness and the effect it had, the more I think I understand the principle of the dream.  We tend to view darkness as evil and foreboding, but this is not always so.  Sometimes, darkness can represent the unknown, and this is what was happening.  The laughter did unsettle me a little in the dream, but even then, I understood that laughter was not sinister, just something I did not yet understand.

Now I just need to apply this to my life somehow.