It was before dawn, the world was still deep in sleep. She slid out of her bed, carefully put on the black traveling cloth, lightweight boots, wrapping cape and hat; then took down the sword hanging from the wall and walked down the stairs quietly. The flickering lanterns swaying in the breeze, casting shadows on the bushes in the garden. She skillfully evaded the guards, quickly walking to the stable.

The first sound of rooster scratched the silent night sky. The early rising birds are jumping, dancing, swinging, and chirping on the tree branches. In concert with the roosters toiling to wake up the sleeping world.

She pulled out a black stallion, tapped and lifted her hat a little, glanced at the dark, massive high walls under grayish twilight for a second, then leaped onto the stallion and sped away...

I woke up and looked around our hotel room, remembering it was the morning of the 18th day of our visit in China. We had flown from Luoyang to Nanjing yesterday. As I sat up and grabbed the glass of water from the night stand, that clear image of the dream felt so vivid, hanging in front of my half opened eyes.

Over 20 years ago I bought a dream interpretation book from a new age bookstore in Malibu, California. The staff psychic told me, “In a dream, no matter who, where, or what happened, it is always about you, not anybody else.”    

“So just like the Enchanted Mirror, it should always be used to reflect on ourselves.”     I added jokingly.

“What do you mean?” She looked at me puzzled.

I explained briefly the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West”. One of the immortals in the book had an “Enchanted Mirror”. When she would shine the mirror on any monster who pretended to be human, the original form of that monster would shown in the mirror. I continued to explain that Head Master Jih-Chang of the Bliss and Wisdom Buddhist community used to say, people who were newly exposed to Buddhist teaching often acted as if they received the “Enchanted Mirror”. The problem is, instead of reflecting on themselves, most of them use it to shine at others. She laughed and said, “This master knows what he is talking about!”

Those years I was very interested in figuring out the meaning of dreams, and found a few interpretations that would sometimes work. For instance, when my sister shows up in my dreams, it's highly likely that I could get into fight or argument with someone. Dreaming about your father means you believe that your success and fortune is in your own hands. It also represents your courage in pursuit of the wisdom and knowledge. And dreaming of police means security, good future prospect, and stable life, etc.

Many years later, my partner Seann, who loves to burst my bubbles, said, “Those interpretations probably only apply to you. You believe them so they come true, like a self fulfilling prophecy.”

Regardless, as Kevin Ryerson puts it, "Dreams are the language of the soul." Every dream, every night is unique. The dream world, no matter how confusing, how terrifying or how magical; can reveal the secrets buried deep inside our heart. Our most extraordinary dreams act like a mirror, reflecting our deepest desire, fear, struggle, and hope.

Sometimes dreams warn us of possible dangers, and some even predict the future. Often, the solution to something that we couldn't figure out when we were awake, is revealed clearly in our dreams. 

The story of Zhuang Zhou dreaming of being a butterfly is well known not just to Chinese, but is also well known to certain western scholars. Many different cultures believe some dreams are a message from God.

Therapist and sound healer Tom Kenyon pointed out in a workshop that only about 15 percent of our dreams have special meaning, the other 85 percent are junk dreams, essentially just random background noise. Dreams, like meditation, can be used as tools to explore our inner self or subconscious mind, but we don't need to forcefully assign some special significance to them. In other words, look at dreams with both discernment and an open mind. 

Sleep is the path to dream world. On average, we spend one-third of our life in sleep. By the time we are 60 years old, we have spent 20 years in sleep and about 8 years in dreams. Even though I became interested in dream interpretation many years ago, I started paying even more attention to dreams while in the PhD program at California Institute of Integral Studies, focusing on Transformative Studies.

One of the professors, an author and Jungian Psychologist, instructed us to keep a notebook and pen by the bed, and write down our dreams the moment we wake up. He suggested writing down everything as we remember it, without needing to understand the meaning or trying to make sense of the dream's landscape or timing. After about one month following the instructions closely, I suddenly grasped that I could be awake in my dream. 

One morning, I dreamed that I was chased by two huge scary monsters. Just when I was running crazily for my life, terrified to the edge of my consciousness, I woke up in the dream and realized it was only a dream. So I stopped, turned around, faced at those monsters and said, “Wait! This is only a dream, you can't scare me. Go away!” They were stunned and like a deflated rubber toy, silently turned the other way and left.

“Ha! I got it!”

I woke myself up from the dream excitedly and wrote an email to my professor. The professor replied to my email with two words, “Dream on.” After that experience, I could stay awake in my dreams more easily, and learned that the term “lucid dream” means just that. Many people have those experiences. To a Jungian Psychologist, they are not so unusual or special.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I am enlightened. Life continues forward, and at times old bad habits still unconsciously influence my daily routine. Even though I'm not in control of my dreams all of the time, it's much easier to be aware. And, it's easier to differentiate inspirational and prophetic dreams, or junk dreams that just showed up to help us process or clear our unconscious garbage.

One thing I came to understand over the years is that once we learn, experience, or realize something, it stays with us. Even though we may not consciously remember it all the time.