The Vision of the Dancer

There once was a young man who heard a divine melody, and that music from heaven made him want to dance.  It was a rapturous rhythm, and when the music played in his heart, his imagination was illuminated and he could see the magic in it.  He could see the choreography and bodies spinning, intertwining, and exalting the music.  But the young man could not dance, so the music and the dance in his heart haunted him; he tried to express himself through movement and passion, but nobody understood him because there was no form, nothing recognizable, it was a different language that no one spoke.

The young man grew into a man and decided that he must learn to dance.  It took many years of training and discipline to transform the man into a dancer.  He had to learn the discipline of dance from teachers and he had to dance to other forms of music.  At first he resisted the new music and the focus of dance as a whole.  Others were dancing for fame, for fortune, for themselves, for the applause, for the glory.  He learned to dance despite the desire to dance only for the vision, despite the desire to dance only to the divine melody.

People marveled at what a fine dancer he had become; and his perfect technique made him one of the best dancers around.  But still, his heart ached because he was not able to express the illuminated vision to the divine music that was trapped inside of him.  And the fire of his passion had gone from a fire to merely a foggy memory and a crackling spark hidden behind its own smoke.

In his efforts to become a better and better dancer, he forgot to stay close to the passion of his youth that drove him initially…he forgot the music!  He remembered how much he loved the music; he resolved that he must find it again.  It took many more years for him to rediscover the music and the divine vision in his heart.  But he would not quit.  He would not abandon what had been placed in his heart.

The years of hard work paid off; it had taught him how to discipline his body and also to hear the music again!  The world announced the dancer as an artist, a beautiful example of humankind.  In his pursuit of expressing the vision, he touched many lives.  People admired him and lost themselves in his performances…just glimpsing the vision.  The dancer had moments of being lifted up into the glory of the song, but it never lasted.  The dancer was still burdened by the music and the vision and his inability to express the divine.  He never felt good enough: always an awkward shadow of what had formed in his heart.  He found people along the way that shared his passion, others that recognized the music:  teachers, students, other dancers…but, even in collaboration, the effect was less than divine!  Everything fell short in his mind, and he had failed at giving the vision life.

As the old dancer lay dying, he felt his life had been a waste; for he had never been able to truly express what he saw in the vision dancing around in his spirit all his life.  His body was never capable of expressing the notes of the magical song.  His most joyous times were sharing his vision, however incomplete, with audiences and the other dancers he crossed paths with.  Even with the world’s applause, it was hollow and incomplete.  So he dreamed of dancing as he took his last breath and he passed into the Light…into the melody…

The dancer looked down with tears in his eyes; for below, he saw a multitude dancing like twinkling stars, like a symphony of fire-flies…against the backdrop of night on the earth, he saw innumerable people-of-light dancing.  He realized in an instant all the people’s lives he had touched with his passionate pursuit, like little flames that licked at each other and celebrated the dancer’s divine vision:  there were young men whom he had helped along the way, leaping and spinning and glowing with warm light like a flock of birds turning and bending in the wind.  The young women he had trained traced feather-light lines in the air that came alive in bright colors to the music still playing in the dancer’s head…but now the music was all around him, in him, and part of him.  All he could see was exactly what had haunted him all his life.  There it was…magnificent to behold: a wondrous manifestation of the vision!

The dancer was so filled with joy that he danced in the Light, and laughed, and lifted his hands to the Light in praise.  A voice like thunder, yet soft as a whisper, echoed across boundless joy and said, “I told you that you would dance greater dances than Me…just wait and see what is to come…watch it grow…”