Observation re mindfulness vis a vis LD practice

**LWA** · 07-08-2010 12:51 AM

After an LD dry spell of a couple of months or so, I was reminded that practicing meditation while going to sleep might be helpful, so two nights ago, I chose sounds as my object of awareness while falling asleep.

I have found that paying attention to my breath while falling asleep can wake me up so much that I can't fall asleep, but attending to sounds didn't seem to have this effect.

Maybe reverse psychology came into it: Having told myself I was going to notice sounds for as long as possible, I fell asleep in short order.

In any event, I paid attention to ambient sounds, not trying to change anything, when first falling asleep and every time I was awake during the night. Per usual, I made dream notes during the night, and in the morning, I had ten dreams for my DJ (more than usual), and had had two dreams where I thought, "Wow, that's odd," as opposed to seeing something strange and thinking nothing of it. (According to Patricia Garfield, it's a good sign when you know you're seeing something odd in a dream and don't rationalize it away.)

The next night--last night--I did the same thing but with ambient sights (with my eyes closed) and I could not believe the difference. I felt very strong physical sensations, and a claustrophobic sort of breathlessness, and actual physical pain. It didn't impede my ability to go to sleep, but it was a really pretty unpleasant experience. (I had seven dreams to write down this morning.)

I thought mindfulness would be mindfulness and not differ depending on the object, so I was really surprised by this.

Tonight I'm going to try a body sensation other than the breath.

**LWA** · 07-09-2010 07:09 PM

Yeah! (Replying to my own post here.) A 2.5-month dry spell ended last night mainly thanks to the above practice.

I recommend this article for more on mindfulness and lucid dreaming: http://www.tricycle.com/feature/3652-1.html

A few evenings ago, I did a night of focusing on sounds while falling asleep initially and during the night when I was awake, and then a night using ambient sights, a night using body sensations in general, and last night it was back to sounds, which seems to be perfect: Focusing on sounds doesn't keep me awake, isn't unpleasant in any way, and seems to generate enough alertness to carry into sleep.

This also is a means of following Naiya's excellent advice about not lying in bed thinking about random stuff. It provides a focus that can be returned to over and over.

I look forward to working with this technique, and I am thrilled to have had another lucid dream, finally! (I wrote more extensively about all of this on my blog, which is at www.bugwalk.com.)

**Raz** · 07-13-2010 12:37 PM

Thank you for sharing your practise!

I extracted what I thought was the most (for me) important part of the article:

3. Dissolving: Although awareness of the true nature of the dream may enhance one's meditative awareness, there is also the danger that, by becoming skilled at the transformation of dream images, one may become attached. This attachment must be overcome. Without pride in the ability to train and transform, one cuts attachment through recognizing the nonreality and insubstantiality of all that arises.

The principal means of cutting attachment through the dream experiences are three: First, during the day, do not dwell upon the dreams you have had. Second, while actually dreaming, watch without judging, without pleasure or fear, regardless of whether the visions seem positive or negative and thus might provoke joy or unhappiness—that is attachment. Third, while dreaming, and then afterward, do not "clarify" what is "subject" from what is "object"—that is, do not consider which of the images that appear are real. By proceeding in these ways, you will find that complex dreams gradually simplify, lighten, and eventually may vanish completely. Thus, all that was conditioned will be liberated. At this point, dreaming ends. On the outside, one's presence does not become attached to manifestation. On the inside also, one's instant presence is not attached to the reflections that manifest directly. Without being conditioned by the concept of connecting the duality of manifestation and mind, totally beyond subject and object, one relaxes in the spacious radiant depth of the self-luminous rigpa, without mental fabrication of anything.

**LWA** · 07-13-2010 04:46 PM

You're welcome! I'm glad Wallace's article was helpful. I'm thinking of getting one of his books, if I can figure out which would be of most interest to the aspiring LDer. (By the way, I was averaging 2 LDs a month before my long recent dry spell. Using sound as a focus of attention resulted in an LD on July 9, as mentioned above, and another last night, just four days later!)