How much of our lives do we spend wasting opportunities to venture inward and experience the truths that are seeking our awareness? What if we were to actually “go within” for only a few moments each day and learn from the “inner teacher” that is there, inside, waiting to share with us our daily assignment?

It is as though our dreams provide us with this wisdom, but, even then, we must still consciously work to integrate whatever has been shared with us on that level. Our dreams contain the richest and most marvelous tools for us to further explore our development as human beings, but we must consciously engage them in order for their fruits to come to pass.

It is as though we have to actually open the door to greet the person standing at the door—the man there with the million dollars in cash neatly arranged in his briefcase! It takes little effort to open that door, yet we must do that in order to collect the rich gifts he has brought! How many of us take the time to open the door? How often are we caught with the man walking away from our front door because we refuse to open it?

I recently had a dream in which I am driving and engage a man who wants to loan me money:

I am stopped alongside the road where this guy is parked and standing out by his car. I lean out the passenger window and ask him if he gives out loans. It’s a random question—there’s no way I would know if this guy does or not. Yes, he says—let’s go back to my office.

We’re back in his office and he hands me a form to fill out. It is very simple—no job info, nothing difficult. Maybe four places to write info. Very simple. I hand the clipboard with the form back to him. We talk, and I ask him what happens next—he says the owner will now interview me. We begin to walk back out toward the door and worry about the loan form being too easy.

Our dreams are like that: they seem too easy, as if they were giving us something for nothing. But why wouldn’t they give us something of great value for the most minimal of exertion on our part? Perhaps all they require is our recognition and integration of their material in our dayworld. Then, maybe, they will be able to truly come alive—in our lives.

I like to think that the most miraculous things we’ve given ourselves are our dreams. They are such amazing portals to our true selves, and to the possibilities that we’ve given ourselves in this life. How many of us truly wake up to this potential and bring our dreams into our waking lives? The ancients made this a daily practice. Perhaps us “modernists” would learn something by reinstating an ancient ritual into our technological lives. Then maybe we’ll see some real action!