Unnerving Self encounter dream with Ramakrishna

So in this dream, my friend and I are going to visit Ramakrishna, the famous Indian guru/saint. We cross this L-shaped courtyard and find him and his followers at the back. He's sitting there, blissed out, looking pretty much like he does in the pictures.

We take off our shirts, and somehow Ramakrishna's followers make them into this beany paste? Think chunky peanut butter, but colored, so his is red, mine is blue. Ramakrishna dips his hand into my friend's paste (in a bowl or whatever) to get a reading on who he is. Like, by touching the paste he can tell exactly where my friend is at spiritually. Ramakrishna laughs and says something like "This world is but a dream. Why worry?" The implication is my friend is still wrapped up in worldliness and hasn't perceived the spiritual dimension yet (this whole time he's irritated and wants his shirt back).

Then it comes to my turn. Ramakrishna dips his hand into my paste. He makes a funny noise like "eeykk!" like he's gotten a fright, and then says, "Some of you is nice! Some of you is very, very ugly!" He then shows me what he means by taking a knife and splitting one of the beans in the paste. He cuts all the way, into his thumb. The implication is that a purer person wouldn't be at risk of cutting themselves, but because my paste is mixed, good and bad, you can't split the beans without cutting yourself - or it is way more likely to happen. He then goes on to say something about peelers and peeling layers - like that's my lot, my situation, due to my mixed nature.

I feel like I got the gist of the dream - that I've got a sizeable shadow side that'll make growth harder/more painful than someone of a more wholesome nature - but I wonder if I'm missing some subtlety here with the symbols, like the knife and peeler. It was also pretty unnerving waking up from. Like, not exactly the best news.

For context - I have been interested in Buddhism, Hinduism, and nonduality for the past ten years or so. Even so, I'm still weighed down by a lot of worldly desires and passions, and have felt somewhat apathetic to the whole subject for the past few years, despite attempts to get back into it.

I thought this dream was worthwhile sharing in case anyone has any insights.