Scriptural quotes on basic self awareness and lucidity

**VagalTone** · 10-31-2014 09:06 PM

I hope these quotes, while unavoidably directing the reader to spiritual/religious terminology, will inspire one to build confidence, or even faith and devotion, on the practice of simplicity ( in the sense that our life is unnecessarily complicated). There are so much more interesting passages on the books i have read that it would be a painstaking nightmare to put them all here. However, i will copy past here from now on.

The degree to which one becomes familiar with the practice can be measured by the extent of one's control over the dream state, recognizing one's dreams to be dreams while still dreaming. Through practice, day by day one overcomes attachments and so sensations of pleasure and pain no longer condition the individual. One finds oneself in a state of integration which is in no way clothed in conceptions and judgments (ma gos mnyam-nyid ngang). Because primal awareness is present, all appearances arise as friends who can help one on the path. In fact, everything encountered along the path can now be something utilized to help develop one's practice. Therefore, one can interrupt the continuity of illusory visions ('khrul-pa'i rgyun chad) and one finds oneself in the state of the dharmatii, the real condition of existence.

Norbu Rinpoche, The cycle of day and night

When one practices the essence of this yoga both day and night, the whole of our dimension of life enters into contemplation. Becoming familiar with the practice, our passions will arise on the path (as something useful to us). Certainly we will attain the full measure of accomplishing the benefit of beings, whose numbers are equal to the vastness of the sky, because of realizing the three dimensions of our existence. (44) The measure of our familiarity (with this practice is the degree to which we are able to) recognize our dreams to be dreams while we are still asleep. Since attachments to sensations of pleasure and pain (will be overcome day by day), we find ourselves in a state of integration, in no way clothed (in concepts or judgments). Because primal awareness is present, all appearances arise as friends (who can help us on the path). The continuity of illusion is thus interrupted and we find ourselves in the presence of the state of the real condition of existence. (45) Since the practitioner of Atiyoga, throughout both the day and the night, remains without moving from this state of the real condition of existence, it is said that he or she may realize Buddhahood even in the instant between two breaths. So it was said by that great being Garab Dorje.

Norbu Rinpoche, The cycle of day and night

The Essence of Wakefulness - A Method in Sustaining the Nature of Awareness
Homage to the glorious Primordial Protector.

When sustaining the nature of awareness, the three stages of recognizing, training and attaining stability will gradually occur.

First of all, scrutinize the naked and natural face of awareness by means of your master's oral instructions until you see it free from assumptions.

Having resolved it with certainty, it is essential that you simply sustain the nature of just that.

It is not enough just to recognize it, you must perfect the training in the following way:

You may already have recognized the face of awareness, but unless you rest in just that, conceptual thinking will interrupt it and it will be difficult for awareness to appear nakedly.

So, at that point it is essential to rest without accepting or rejecting your thoughts and to continue by repeatedly resting in the state of un-fabricated awareness.

When you have practiced this again and again the force of your thought waves weakens while the face of your awareness grows sharper and it becomes easier to sustain.

That is the time when you should abide in the meditation state as much as you can and be mindful of remembering the face of awareness during post-meditation. As you grow used to this the strength of your awareness is trained further.

At first, when a thought occurs you need not apply a remedy to stop it. By leaving it to itself it is, at some point, naturally freed - just as the knot on a snake becomes untied by itself.

When you become more adept, the occurrence of a thought will cause slight turmoil but immediately vanish in itself - just like a drawing on the surface of water.

When you train in just that, you gain experience that transcends benefit and harm, at which point thought occurrences cause no problem whatsoever. Thus, you will be free from hope or fear about whether or not thoughts do occur - just like a thief entering an uninhabited house.

By practicing further you perfect the training so that, finally, your conceptual thinking and the all-ground along with its moving force dissolve into un-fabricated Dharmakaya.

That is the attainment of the natural abode of awareness.

Just as you cannot find any ordinary stones on an island of gold even if you search for them all that appears and exists will be experienced as the realm of Dharmakaya.

Attaining stability is when everything has become all-encompassing purity.

In the same way, just as conceptual thinking gradually falls under the power of awareness during the daytime, at night you do not need to apply some other instruction, but should simply understand how the recognition of dreams and the luminosities of the shallow and deep sleep correspond.

Until you attain stability, by all means continue with undistracted diligence like the steady flow of a river.

This was taught by Mipham. May virtuous goodness increase!

Mipham Rinpoche http://wearebuddhamind.blogspot.pt/2...method-in.html

CULTIVATING LUCIDITY DIRECTLY
One of the best ways to lay a firm foundation for attaining proficiency
in lucid dreaming is to train in the shamatha technique
of settling the mind in its natural state. In this practice one's attention
is placed neither on the tactile sensations of the body nor
on the breath but on the phenomena of the mind itself. That
means that your object of attention will be the space of the mind
and whatever thoughts, emotions, images, and other kinds of
mental phenomena arise in that domain of experience. The goal
is to simply observe this passing parade without becoming
involved-without cultivating, investigating, being attracted to,
encouraging, or rejecting any mental phenomena that appear in
your mind. You maintain an even, calm presence whether those
phenomena come fast and furious or few and far between. You
have no preference as to what might appear. Just attend to what·
ever arises.
Using this practice as a complement to lucid dreaming
makes perfect sense. Settling the mind in its natural state
closely parallels the act of lucid dreaming. When you practice
settling the mind in its natural state, you are becoming lucid to
the mental activity of the waking state. You recognize these
mental events as mental events, not mistaking them for events
in the outer, intersubjective world. Normally we are as caught
up in and carried away by our mental activities in the daytime
as we are in the nocturnal mental activity we call dreaming.
Rarely do we step back and simply observe our minds in action,
becoming cognizant of the nature of the reality we are experiencing
in the present moment. It makes sense, then, that if you
can become lucid in your daytime experience, this will greatly
facilitate lucidity when you're dreaming. Settling the mind in
its natural state can also be effective for reentering dreams
when you awaken at night.

Alan Wallace, Dreaming Yourself While Awake

A Lamp to Dispel Darkness

An Instruction that Points Directly to the Very Essence of Mind

In the Tradition of ‘the Old Realized Ones’

by Mipham Jampal Dorje

[.................................................. ......READ IF YOU WANT

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The true measure of your familiarity with this is the ability to maintain the state of clear light during sleep. The signs that you are on the right track can be known through your own experience: your faith, compassion and wisdom will increase automatically, so that realization will come easily, and you will experience few difficulties. You can be certain about how profound and swift this approach is if you compare the realization it brings with the realization gained only through great effort in other approaches.

As a result of cultivating your mind’s own natural clear light, the obscurations of ordinary thinking and the habits it creates will be naturally cleared away (sang), and the two aspects of omniscient wisdom will effortlessly unfold (gyé). With this, as you seize the stronghold of your own primordial nature, the three kāyas will be spontaneously accomplished.

Profound! Guhya! Samaya!

This profound instruction was written by Mipham Jampal Dorje on the twelfth day of the second month, in the Fire Horse year (1906), for the benefit of village yogis and others, who, while not able to exert themselves too much in study and contemplation, still wish to take the very essence of mind into experience through practice. It has been set out in language that is easy to understand, in accordance with the experiential guidance of a great many old realized masters. Virtue! Mangalam!

A Lamp to Dispel Darkness | Lotsawa House

**VagalTone** · 10-31-2014 09:52 PM

MAINTAINING OPEN INTELLIGENCE
IN SLEEP AND DREAMS
CHAPTER TWENTY
“If we maintain open intelligence as we drift into sleep, then we will have directly introduced ourselves to open intelligence in a whole new way. When we accomplish undistracted open intelligence in sleep, then it will also be much easier for us to enjoy undistracted open intelligence at other times of the day.”
When we go to sleep at night, normally we just sort of conk out, and then some hours later we wake up. Most of us don‟t have any control over what happens
during those hours. When we fall asleep, we‟re just asleep; we can‟t consciously do anything while in that state, and consequently we believe that we‟re at the
complete whim of sleep and dreams. We don‟t know how it all happens, but something is happening to us, and we don‟t have any power over it.
When we don‟t recognize the open intelligence that is at the basis of sleep and dreams, we‟re just lost in those worlds. When we have a dream, anything can
happen in it. It can be the craziest and most bizarre thing or the most sublime thing. All these phantasmagorical images appear, some of which we remember and
some we don‟t. Generally speaking, while in the dream we have no idea that it‟s a dream and we take it to be real. The same can be said for the waking state, which is truly just a dreamlike appearance within the changeless reality of open intelligence. If we take our bodies and the various events sandwiched between birth and death to be who we are—while ignoring the substratum of open intelligence that alone can truly be said to exist—the result will be alienation from the timeless freedom and perfect peace that constitute our true nature. This is what non-recognition of open intelligence is: being lost in the belief that the thoughts, emotions and experiences define who we are and thinking that the states we pass through are real. For the whole of our lives we‟ve been thinking that
the everyday states of waking, dreaming and sleeping are who we are. Most of us are deeply convinced that our birth, life and death completely define who we are.
We think that without them we would not be, and we depend on them for our sense of identity. However, when we rely on open intelligence, more and more we find
that we‟re not dependent on any concept whatsoever. We‟re not dependent on the body or the mind, nor are we dependent on the waking, sleep and dream states.
We don‟t even depend on air, the Earth, the sun or even the universe! It‟s very important to go beyond all the ordinary descriptions we‟ve learned to identify with,
and we do that simply by maintaining open intelligence. I want to share with you a very powerful practice that can help you use the
pivotal moment of falling asleep to discover the substratum of open intelligence. When we go to sleep at night, we can begin to maintain open intelligence as we‟re
falling asleep. As we do this, we‟ll see that all the activity of the conceptual mind—the stirring and proliferation of thoughts and emotions—gradually merges into a
non-conceptual state, which is the sleep state. This is still a state of mind. It‟s not real freedom; it‟s just another datum within open intelligence.
At that pivotal moment when we find that all the concepts have merged into a non-conceptual state, we can then pose a very important question to ourselves:
“What is it that is aware of this non-conceptual mind?” This question leads directly into the substratum of pure open intelligence. By relying on the open intelligence
that is revealed through this inquiry, we will be able to differentiate between the basic space of open intelligence, which is our true identity, and the non-conceptual
sleep state, which is just another state of mind. When we have discovered the open intelligence that is the same in all states and conditions, it will become easier and easier to maintain open intelligence throughout the day and during the night as well.
We don‟t have to make a big deal out of it. It is as simple as relying on open intelligence for short moments, many times, while falling asleep. This is the single
practice with all data, including falling asleep, dreaming and sleeping. If open intelligence comes easily when falling asleep, it‟ll come easily, and if it doesn‟t come
easily, we don‟t try to force it. At some point it may just naturally appear, and we‟ll fall asleep totally aware and remain aware during our sleep. We don‟t have to try this every night, but if only once we can be aware in this way as we move into sleep, we will see that sleep and dreams are themselves data within open
intelligence. If we maintain open intelligence as we drift into sleep, then we will have directly introduced ourselves to open intelligence in a new way. When we
accomplish undistracted open intelligence in sleep, then it will also be much easier for us to enjoy undistracted open intelligence at other times of the day.
Some people practice remaining aware all night long, even in deep sleep. What‟s most important about this practice is to see through firsthand experience that
dreaming and sleeping are appearances of open intelligence. Through relying on open intelligence the three categories we use to describe our 24-hour experience—
waking, dreaming, and sleeping—are completely gone beyond. We see that all three of these are just data within the all-encompassing pure view of open
intelligence.When we maintain open intelligence in the dream state, we realize that all the component parts of the dream can be changed or manipulated just by deciding to do so. If we choose to do that, we will be able to actively participate in the dreams we have and change what goes on in them. We‟ll be able to be aware in our dreams and be a master of the illusion of dreaming. When there is a feeling that we are at the whim of dreams, they seem totally
beyond our control. But with the decisive experience of being able to change what is going on in a dream, it becomes possible to directly experience open intelligence as not only beyond all phenomena, but also as having mastery over all phenomena. However, rearranging the figures in the dream—whether it is the waking dream or the sleeping dream—is not really a pastime we need to get into. In and of itself it is not a goal worth striving for, but the ability to do so is a natural byproduct of the complete mental mastery that comes through the practice of relying on open intelligence.
What‟s most important is to decisively realize open intelligence as the pure space of all images that occur within it. There‟s no need at all to try to analyze any of the
images, whether they are daytime images or nighttime images. Like all phenomena, the nighttime images in dreams are just self-appearances of open
intelligence, as are the images during waking life. They‟re identical in that respect. When we acknowledge open intelligence as the ground of our being by relying on
open intelligence in the direct encounter with all phenomena, then we realize in a very powerful way that all images that appear are due to open intelligence and
nothing else. So, there‟s nothing that needs to be done about any of them. By relying on open intelligence, more and more we know open intelligence as the
benevolent reality of our being, and all phenomena are then seen as benevolent and perfect just the way they are. They don‟t need to be analyzed, improved or
changed; in fact, nothing at all needs to be done about any appearance. If we‟ve been accustomed to analyzing the images in our dreams, this is a perfect
opportunity to bring that to a complete stop, for the ultimate substance and meaning of all images is the same. They are all just passing forms of open
intelligence, and that‟s all we need to know about dreams. Although most people believe that the waking state is reality and the dream state
unreal, the “waking dream” and the “sleeping dream” are identical in that they‟re both data within the changeless reality of open intelligence. The wisdom benefit of
flawless open intelligence is completely uncontained and has never been made into anything. Even though the various phenomena that appear in waking states and
dream states may seem incredibly substantial, when we examine them we find that there is nothing hold-able or keep-able within any appearance. When we maintain open intelligence in the face of what appears, then we can relax and know that the appearances are nothing at all to be afraid of.
We can rest assured that whatever appears—whether it is an event during the day or an image in a dream during the night—it is nothing but an appearance of open intelligence. This understanding is a very powerful resource for working out our daytime data. The phantasmagorical content of our dream states at night can
bring about a very powerful resolution of data within us, so that during the day it will be easier for us to rely on open intelligence. When we can be at ease with even
our most frightening dream imagery, the images we face in our waking state become significantly easier to face. When we awake in the morning, normally all the data of our waking state that were in abeyance during sleep immediately come flooding back in. If we rely on open intelligence in the moment when we wake up and the thoughts return, we find that we need not get caught up again in the torrent of thoughts and emotions.
Giving in to the thoughts that appear when we wake up in the morning is just a habit we‟ve sustained for a long time. It may have seemed that it‟s impossible to
feel ourselves empowered because of the immediate onslaught of thoughts, but if we can maintain open intelligence we‟ll see that we don‟t have to be ruled by the
thoughts or sensory impressions. When we sustain open intelligence as we wake up in the morning, it will be
easier for us to see the workings of the mind and not get caught in habitual patterns of identification with passing phenomena. Rest is best upon waking up in
the morning; otherwise, we may be tempted to think, “Oh, after such a beautiful vacation in sleep, here‟s all this garbage again!”
Instead of getting into endless stories about thoughts, emotions or images—identifying with some thoughts and rejecting others—we can see all phenomena as
equal and allow the relief of open intelligence to be our constant comfort. Thoughts and emotions never have an independent nature and will vanish of their own
accord, so there‟s no need to do anything about them. What do we need to do about them when they‟re going to vanish anyway? If we don‟t see that thoughts are
their own undoing and are free and perfect in their own place, then we‟ll think we have to do something about them. But when we practice seeing perfection in all
appearances and relying on the open intelligence that is the substance and essence of all appearances, the illusion of a personal identity and its workings is recognized to be insubstantial and without conflict. With continued practice we come to see that open intelligence pervades not only
our waking life, but also sleep and everything that is contained within sleep. If we bring this presence of open intelligence to the process of falling asleep, we‟ll soon
see that open intelligence is present in all that appears. As we feel more and more empowered, we may eventually be emboldened
enough to pose the question: “If open intelligence supersedes waking, dreaming and sleeping, then could open intelligence also supersede birth and death?” The
question might not mean very much if it remains only a philosophical idea, but if there is a direct experience of open intelligence as the unchanging basis of all phenomena, then something quite extraordinary could occur. One would come to see that even birth and death are just passing data within changeless open
intelligence, and the irrevocable realization of this truth can only come through getting fully acquainted with open intelligence; mere theoretical acknowledgement
is not enough. It‟s quite likely that no one has ever told us this very important truth about ourselves, namely, that dreams and sleep and birth and death are just data within changeless, timeless open intelligence. Each datum that appears is complete and identical and equal to every other datum that appears. There‟s never been any differentiation, inclusion or exclusion, because open intelligence is indivisible—and its own appearances can never affect that oneness. This is crucially important.
The practice of relying on open intelligence while falling asleep can help introduce us to the fundamental nature of open intelligence. Then, while maintaining open
intelligence as we experience the states of sleep and dreams, we can know that it is open intelligence alone that encompasses and transcends all states of mind. When we‟ve discovered all-encompassing, all-transcending open intelligence to be our fundamental nature, the treasure of perfect mental balance becomes our own, and it is a treasure we‟ll be happy to share with all.

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