The practice of mindfulness is at the heart of Buddhism. It is also at the heart of much fruitful dreamwork. It is, I believe, what allows us to come to that knowing spoken of, above. "Right mindfulness is the energy that brings us back to the present moment," Thich Nhat Hanh tells us. He goes on to explain that in Sanskrit, the word for mindfulness means 'remember.' So to practice mindfulness with dreams is to remember to be present to them. This in turn allows them to be present to, and re-member, us.
Presence is the First Miracle of Mindfulness.
The Second Miracle of Mindfulness is to make the Other fully present. This speaks to the intention we bring to our dreams and to acknowledging that they do not come simply to serve us. Dreams are not only a mirror in which we are reflected. They have a livingness, a presence of their own, as well. When we bow to them, we make them present.
The Third Miracle of Mindfulness is to nourish that to which we are attending. To nourish is to feed and water in order to promote healthy growth. Being attentive to our dreams nourishes us, but it also nourishes them. This is, I believe, what Frasier Boa was suggesting when he said that working with dreams was a "living dialogue." In The Way of the Dream, he said that "When we listen to dreams, we change, and when dreams are heard, they change." Similarly, Thich Nhat Hanh says to practice giving nourishment by asking "Who are you, my darling?" This is also good practice with dreams. Rather than asking "What are you?" a better first question may be "Who are you, and how may I serve you today?"
The Fourth Miracle of Mindfulness is about healing. It involves relieving the Other's suffering by being fully present to it. This is particularly useful to remember when we have, or work with, both nightmares and highly numinous dreams. (Sometimes they are one and the same.) I believe nothing suffers so much from dream autopsy as nightmarish or numinous dreams. And dissecting a nightmare or other highly charged dream, reducing the energy simply to a collection of symbols and placeholders, can serve to re-traumatize the dreamer instead of relive him. Dreamwork should not feel like an attack or be hurtful. It should feel nurturing. When the imagery is inviting us to relate to an aspect of ourselves from which we would ordinarily turn away, it is especially important that we be held with healing presence, in love and trust.
The Fifth Miracle of Mindfulness has to do with looking deeply. When we are present with a dream, we are able to look deeply and lovingly into its essence, and also then, into ourselves. This is the beauty of working with the dreams of others. Since we are all inter-being, in looking deeply at another's dream, we have the opportunity to look deeply also at a part of ourselves. "You observe the object of your attention and you also see your own storehouse full of precious gems," Thich Nhat Hanh writes. This mutuality is one of the fundamental ideas underlying a Jungian oriented approach, but one which is too often forgotten or overlooked in both private and group work. Mindfulness helps remind us that in looking deeply at another's dream, we are seeing something of our own gem-like nature - even if at the moment that gem is still a lump of coal!
The Sixth Miracle of Mindfulness has to do with truly seeing what we are looking at. To see means not only to take in a visual picture, but significantly, to have experience of. Truly seeing something or someone is a prerequisite to understanding them. In dreamwork, the experience of truly seeing is often reflected in the 'Aha' we feel deep in our core when an image resonates and takes on livingness for us. In this sense, it has to do with receptivity and creative resonance, that capacity to respond with, in, and from the ground of our being. For women and men, this ground is feminine. It is Yin. The I Ching describes this place in the second hexagram, K'un, The Receptive. It is made up entirely of open (broken) lines, and according to Richard Wilhelm, its attribute is devotion, and its image is the earth. Aside from the obvious ecological dimensions which might be inferred, there is wisdom here for dreamwork. In order to see, to have an experience of, we must first be in a position of receptivity. We must be open.
The Seventh Miracle of Mindfulness is about transformation. "When we practice Right Mindfulness," writes Thich Nhat Hanh, "we touch the healing and refreshing elements of life and begin to transform our own suffering and the suffering of the world." Our dreams and the dreams of others contain a storehouse of healing and refreshing elements, images that invite us again and again to be present with them so that they may work their transformative magic, for us, and for our world. In order to be transformed, we have to touch, to reach out, to make contact with these images. We have to receive them as guests, but also be willing to return the visit and be received.