The Land

There was once a boy born in the deserts of a place far away from the society of men & women. The people who occupied that land had spent their entire lives living in that cocoon. No one dared to step outside for it was considered alien and unnatural to look at what was beyond.

One day, the young boy had a dream. In this dream, he met a beautiful girl. For all his life, he had not seen anyone so pretty whose beauty radiated from every pore of her being. The girl showed him a land that was different from his but still similar. She showed him a world he was not aware of before yet something that he found familiar. They spoke for hours for everything and anything. The boy felt more lively in the dream than he felt in his life. The girl offered the boy her hand and asked him to come along but just when the boy was about to take her hand, the bells rang and he woke up.

Excited, the boy ran to his parents to share his dream. He told them about the girl and how he believed that there was someone outside their land who was waiting for him. The parents looked at him confused. His father could not understand what his words meant. He tossed it off to a childish game and asked the boy to focus on his studies. The mother was scared after listening to the boy for she had heard stories of other children who had left the land after similar dreams. Scared and angry, she asked the boy to stop talking like a kid, and focus his time and energy to become a man.

Dejected, the boy went to his friends. He wanted them to know what he had experienced. In his mind, he was convinced that his friends would connect with him and will be as excited to follow the dream. Alas! His hopes were short-lived. His friends got scared after hearing his dream. Their parents had told them that whoever had such dreams was a bad kid, and should not be made a friend. Scared of what they were hearing, the friends left the guy for they were sure that the boy had lost his mind.

Now, the boy started to feel hopeless and wondered if it was all a lie. “Maybe it was just a dream”, he told himself. But, surprising to the boy, the dream continued and as they continued, he met more kids and adults he had never met before. They helped him see what was there in the other land and asked him to continue to try and reach that land. They never asked him to leave his family and friends, but continued to encourage him to find his own path to find his homeland. Hearing about a homeland, confused the boy. “But I was born here, not there. How could I go back to a place where I never belonged.”

To answer his question, he saw a vision of someone who felt like his mom. In the dream, his mom asked him to trust himself. She showed him how he never truly belonged anywhere yet was present everywhere. She showed him how he had been waiting for centuries to go back to the place that was his home. She sat next to him and guided him to challenge himself, and see the truth of where he was. There were people around him lying every day to achieve something that never was. People who claimed to love yet hurt those they said they loved. People who were so scared that they were not even alive. People who were searching for love yet were afraid of accepting that love. People who cherished happiness when it came to them and felt betrayed when it came to another. She showed him how people of his land had chosen to deny the existence of the other land so that they could reject the notion of there being something bigger than themselves. Finally, she looked at the boy and told him this – “The happiness and love they seem to struggle to find lies deep in their heart but they choose to deny. They live in a dream and call this a reality. Once you start to see the truth of what is, you stop believing what’s just an illusion of minds.”

The boy felt like he had lost everything yet in the embrace of his mom had found everything. He asked her, then, “Why make two lands? Why not just combine the two and put this misery to an end?”. Mom smiled and looked at the boy, “It’s not separate. It’s all one. It all exists right here and now. It’s only the people who have divided the land. The lands are the same. The people are the same. You and the girl are the same. You and I are the same. There is no you, there is no me. What there is, is simply eternity. I can guide you to see it for what it is, but it’s up to you to stay here or come to where you belong. No one can make you go where your heart wants to take you but you. No one can force you to believe in your dreams. No one can force you to accept your reality but you. It’s only you and you alone who can guide you to where you’re from.”

The boy woke up to the dream of his land. Everything looked the same, yet everything felt different. He could feel the love within himself, he could feel the call from his homeland, he could experience the dream of this land but he could also see what was not his land. Soon, he realized that the land that he was chasing could not be chased. The girl or the mom of his dreams never wanted him to run after them. They wanted to show them the reality of the world so that he could choose where he wanted to be. The real challenge was never about proving the dream. The real challenge was accepting all the dreams and letting go of everything that was not reality. 

The boy continues his quest to remember his homeland, find his path, and hold the hands of all those who are still asleep. The question now that makes him stay up all day and night – “How do I go alone when everyone I love is asleep. How do I abandon those who have loved me for me. It’s not their fault that they’re still asleep”. But the boy also knows that this is all a dream, separation is nothing but an illusion of what is. If there is no you and there is no me, how can he leave without all that he already is?

With a new direction in his heart and a sense of peace, the boy continues his journey towards eternity while trying to wake up those whom he can help see so that they can all enjoy the journey to where they want to be. The boy now believes that one day, they’ll all be together. And that one day is now, it’s already here. Because time, my friend, is again an illusion.