weird dream...

scenario: a military exercise involving troops moving stealthily into position below some hills. it was just before the h-hour, the time of the commencement of an assault. i was walking some distance away with an ex-military colleague (or so i thought, but he was someone more senior than me) and sharing my views about the hills where i had trained in decades ago. i shared about the reasons why i prefer one hill over the other.

the scene somehow morphed. the soldiers faraway were still moving. but their attire had turned to that of toy soldiers. my colleague walked with me and suggested walking to the hills i had spoken of. we walked along and somehow i found myself walking in a stream. there were lots of fishes swimming in front of us as we walked. and soon, we came to a well before the stream branches out. the fishes were caught in the well and couldn't swim further. i looked into the well and it looked like a bottomless pit. in it, i saw a soursop. a grey coloured soursop. now, the soursop is something my mum likes and wanted to buy lately. i found myself telling my mum (in my dream) that the soursop seemed spoilt and cannot be eaten. my mum responded with an ok.

my ex-colleague and i continued our walk along the forested trail. and we came to a fork. the left path looked narrow and long but it led to my "favourite" hill, whereas the other led to somewhere else. my ex-colleague took the path i suggested and i followed suit. 

at this point, the path changed. it became one that looked like 2-3 cement slabs stacked against one another and standing precariously on their sides. and as my colleague walked on them, the slabs would start to break apart. i hurriedly followed behind so that i won't be left behind. after some steps, my ex-colleague fell off and i found myself walking alone. it felt like my ex-colleague was following me behind. it was not an easy walk as i had to balance myself as i walked and as the slabs fell off, threatening to make me fall off too. but i didn't. 

soon enough, i came faced with a wall of metal scaffolding. the type that one see at construction sites... for some reasons, we had to climb the metal scaffolding to get to the top (of the hill, which by that time, the concept of hill did not exist anymore, it was just the whole idea of climbing to the top). and we started climbing. i climbed the scaffolds easily. i didn't see my ex-colleague anymore but felt that he was behind me. seeing how easy it was for me to climb, he commented that for buddhists, we tend to know how to manoeuvre ourselves amongst the scaffolds easily and thus was able climb faster. but i noted how the scaffolds got more and more unstable as i climbed. but i continued.

i came to the last scaffold very quickly and swung myself (like a chinese pugilist), onto the wooden board right on top. now, this board was very narrow and i had to prone onto it as i crawled forward. after a while, i reached the edge of the board. it was then that i realised how high up i had climbed. the troops in toy soldier uniform were still moving into position. they looked like little ants from the height i was at. i was at the edge, i couldn't go further. the only direction available to me was down. and even then, if i were to head down, it would be a certain death for me. but there was no more scaffolds for me. i had to decide what to do...

while my physical self was on the board up in the skies, i found my "other" self at the base. the scene had morphed into that of a check-out counter of a shop. i was talking to the cashier and she told me that if i could jump off the board, and walk out of this check-out counter, she would award me with a bonus prize of $300 (yes, it was $300). but given the "rules" of the game, the award would be equally shared - i.e. $1500/ $1500 (for some reasons, the award had increased tenfold to $3000). at that moment, my physical self persona up on the board and the checking out self person at the base seemed to come together and i was caught pondering if i should jump...

it was then that i woke up.

i think i know what this dream is about, but it was really weird and it shook me out of my sleep...