I knew a man who for the longest time was in federal prison. Every chance he got he would go to sleep in his bed. Despite incredible noise and periodic prodding from guards and inmates he would sleep as much as he could. When asked why he slept so much he said, “When I’m asleep I’m not locked up, I’m not in jail. I’m free in my dreams.”
We all experience feeling trapped or restricted at times or in one way or the other. What this man knew is that even in inhumane physical conditions that higher spiritual atmospheres are accessible to those who desire to inhale them. It is up to us to deny that any life can be enslaved by its environment.
That reminds a lot of the story Viktor Frankl tells in the book,”Man’s Search for Meaning.” He describes the experience of living in a Nazi death camp, and even though his wife had already been executed at a different camp, he never felt he had lost her becase he would talk to her every night when he dreamed, and this helped him maintain his sanity in the face of horror.