Well, as some (or most) of you know (because I wrote about it earlier) I often have dreams or visions of God.
I made a thread earlier inquiring about my psychic "visions" and I added that whatever I pray for..comes true. Im not sure what I believe about my dreams..I would say they come from an overactive imagination except for a dream my cousin had..well..let me give an example.

I am a devout worshipper of Kalika (on the icon). I often have dreams about her..the same dream over and over again.
In my dream I am living somewhere different amidst people I do not know. I am very unhappy in the dream. At some point someone tells me there is a visitor at the door for me. I go and it is a very dark skinned girl with matted dreded hair pulled up on top of her head. She looks very hoboish (if thats a word) except for a brilliant gold circular nose ring. I always ask her who she is..and she responds "Kali." I never believe her. So I tell her to prove it to me..prove to me that she is Kali. Well..she takes me to my room and opens up a bottom drawer on my dresser drawers. She says she is pulling out prayers. She names off the prayers as she pulls them out..giving a description of each. Now..each of the prayers she pulls are things I have actually prayed for..they are all from times I have actually (in real life) prayed about. I start crying as she recites the prayers to me and I apologize over and over again for doubting her. She then says this:
"You think I am not there..but I am always there."
At that time I wake up in a cold sweat with tears coming from my eyes.

I could write this off as something subconcious..but heres the other strange thing..
My cousin, whom is 12 years old, once told me had a dream about a "demon" dancing in my kitchen. He is VERY VERY scared and skittish about everything but he told that in the dream..he was not scared. I asked him if this demon was male or female..and he told me female. I thought about showing him a picture of Kali..but I didnt want to taint his memories so I asked him what she looked like. He gave me a description that fits Kali to a tee so then I showed him the picture..he then told me thats the "demon" that was dancing in my kitchen.
Before that..he knew NOTHING of Kali, or my religion/faith. He never knew her name, etc etc. All of this was completly new to him.

Im not sure what I am getting at through this post..I just thought it would be an interesting thing to share.
Om Shanti,
Tej

I would say that you and your cousin are connected in the common consciousness.

I more than highly doubt that. I guess if you were either of us you would understand why.

Why? You don't believe in the Ultimate Divine? I was thaught about it by a Hindhu master... well.. sort of...

hey...i wouldn't worry if i were you. You have goddess Kali around you. You should be honour

I believe in the ultimate. But that would have little or nothing to do with my cousin and I being connected consiously or subconsiously. We are ALL connected in either of those ways..I am as connected to the tree outside my home as I am to my cousin. The ultimate teaches us that we are ALL connected in some way..I believe because we are a part of the ultimate as it is a part of us.

But once again, that wouldnt have anything to do with me being connected to my cousin. It simply couldnt fit into the plan.

As I stated before,
I highly doubt my cousin and I are connected in any way other than DNA. If you were him or me I am sure you could understand much better.

My beliefs and how I believe them or why I believe them should be of no concern to you Sorry if that sounds rude..but I am no evangelist waiting to witness to non believers.

TheNeutralBuddhist, the conccept of Ulltimate Divine is something that is rather hard to describe in a forum like this. It took myself quite a while to figure out what it is ( Until now I don;t know exactly what it is ) You might want to learn more about Hindhuism if you're interested. Understanding Hindhu will be beneficial for your own understanding in Budhism.

Let me explain as best as I can. Hindhu teachings contain many paradox and it is the reason why it is very difficult to understand. We know that there are hundreeds if not thousands of deities in Hindhuism. However we should always realise that the deisties, the gods, are the personification of the Ultimate Divine, because the Ultimate is beyond our conprehension. Well.. think about the Ultimate Divine as the Christian God, and the deities as Jesus... i think that will make more sense if you have any Christian background, or maybe as The Force and the Jedi Knights

We are also part of the Divine, and it is also the basic philosophy behind the (real, uncorrupted) caste system. People have to do their duty together. One caste is not complete without the other. In our life, we are seeking union with the divine. By worshipping the gods, by practising Dharma, by meditatation, and by studying the Vedas, we establish connections with the Ultimate Divine.

Hey... look.. the Ultimate is not some kind of deity, I was using God-Jesus as a comparisson, off course it is not exactly like that. God is the abstract. Jesus is something that is much more tangible than God. Well.. the Ultimate is something that is more abstract than God, and the Gods well.. they are Gods.

Yea, it more like that of the Tao.

There is no describing the divine or the ultimate. There is no SET definition. We all have our own divine and our own ultimate.