SORCER 9:09pm 3rd-September-2011 Techniques for LUCID DREAMING

Techniques For LUCID DREAMING - Preparing Oneself For The Endeavor (11,793words)

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AWAKEN FOLLY (1,400words)

Coming awake is akin to remembering the physical self. Within the first few minutes of waking from dreams there is a dramatic shift from subconscious to conscious thought. Almost immediately we begin to perform and lay out the script or template that we will follow for the rest of the day.

Most templates tend to include the same general categories. We make future plans; plans concerning today, tomorrow, next month or even years from now. We recollect recent history to history long past; on Monday we may recall what happened at our job last Friday or we may recall a particularly joyful or painful experience from ages ago.

When not involved in an imaginary future or reminiscing about the past, we tend to keep a verbal play-by-play of the current situation or whatever ideas come to mind. We converse and argue with our self with regard to every opinion and perception that passes our way. We don’t awaken from a dream ready to debate and make an elaborate speech. Verbalization requires a great deal of effort.

The shift from the sub-conscious to consciousness is a result of energy allocation. We start with a minimal awareness of our surroundings followed by simple and often repetitive utterances. Many persons actually sing themselves awake. Not by singing a song from start to finish, but by repeating whatever verse comes to mind until a greater degree of lucidity has been attained.

Once you realize that this is how you are managing to wake up, you may feel a bit foolish. Trying to wakeup without these rituals, however, can be very difficult. If you are paying attention to the internal dialogue to the degree that you begin to silence the script that you would normally follow, you may counteract its usefulness such that you begin drifting back to sleep and dreams.

Following the same poorly written script, each day we place ourselves in similar situations. We play through our usual feelings and reactions and are held back by the same fears and inhibitions. Without intentional and directed effort – our emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing remain unchanged.

Though ignorance isn’t bliss, it is comforting to remain within the parameters of the status quo. In some persons, however, there will arise a hunger for new kinds of emotion, knowledge and purpose. These persons will want to write a new script, adopt or improvise a different template.

Wishing to move forward, they will bear in mind that we arrive at a destination only by understanding and factoring in our current position. Self-study is the cornerstone of future growth and development. Therefore, allow your everyday self to indulge in its current rituals, but endeavor to observe them just the same.

It is an art to realize that though we are actors and perceivers, we may perceive without being caught up in our perceptions and act without being caught up in our actions. Self-study involves stepping away from the immediacy of the self. We may step back from thoughts and emotions, almost as if the physical body were only a puppet.

For now, don’t worry about taking the strings of the puppet into hand. The task isn’t to be the puppet-master or to cut the strings to the puppet, but to simply move away as if part of the audience – observing the various and often comical machinations of the puppet.

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In this way the observer becomes the observed. This type of vigilance doesn’t require you to silence the internal dialogue or to behave differently than you normally would. The only difference is that you section off a part of yourself to take mental notes in an impartial manner.

With a bit of practice, no matter the earthly drama which unfolds around or inside of you, there can be a place in your mind that remains calm, unperturbed and watchful. Start by assuming that everything you do is completely necessary – and you will be able to watch as it becomes otherwise. As an observer, it is your job to recognize that each thought is absolutely significant; defining who and how you are at this moment. Each thought is also utterly insignificant; very likely having less effect on the world than each individual breath that you exhale.

If you are able to see each thought and action as both important and unimportant, then you have reached the vantage of which we speak.

From this vantage the burdens of self-importance are lessened, the over certainty of the ego is yoked and we may take our rightful place in the universe as a mystery among mysteries. Being drawn from complacency to increased wakefulness needn’t leave you sitting cross-legged in meditative wonderment. When,

“..the world, while still persisting, has lost its validity; one still has to do one’s share in it but, as it were, without obligation, in the perspective of the nullity of all action … decisions (you) must continue to make in the depths of spontaneity unto death – calmly deciding ever again in favor of right action.” (Buber)

Cognizant that the manner in which he or she moves through the waking world either strengthens or loosens the ties that bind, the sorcerer strives to balance activity and passivity, self and other. Those who practice the mastery of awareness will discover that in the absence of self-importance the only way to deal with the external world may be in terms of ‘controlled folly’.

A short dialogue from the works of Carlos Castaneda will serve to clarify. After being asked to explain what is meant by controlled folly, his teacher slaps his own leg and replies,

“I am happy that you finally asked me about my controlled folly after so many years, and yet it wouldn’t have mattered to me in the least if you had never asked. Yet I have chosen to feel happy, as if I cared that you asked, as if it would matter that I care. That is controlled folly.” (Castaneda)

Seeing that no one is really going anywhere and seeing that nothing is more important than anything else, the practitioner becomes connected to his fellow man only through his controlled folly.

“Thus a man of knowledge endeavors, and sweats, and puffs, and if one looks at him he is just like an ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under control. Nothing being more important than anything else, a man of knowledge chooses any act, and acts as if it matters to him. His controlled folly makes him say that what he does matters and makes him act as if it did, and yet he knows that it doesn’t, so when he fulfills his acts he retreats in peace, and whether his acts were good or bad, or worked or didn’t, is in no way part of his concern.” (Castaneda)

And from the work of Martin Buber we hear, “This is the activity of the human being who has become whole: it has been called not-doing, for nothing particular, nothing partial is at work in man and thus nothing of him intrudes into the world.”

When you abandon the fallible construct of reason and can give pause to the incessant internal dialogue, then you have begun to practice the sorceric task of self-remembering: the absolute not-doing of being caught up in the drama of the waking world. An old story tells of a troubled king who, while at market, had several philosophers imprisoned for arguing in the streets. Back at the castle these philosophers were chained and brought before the king. He said to them, “You have one night to think and agree upon a think which will bring me joy when I am feeling troubled and will cause me to remember my sorrow even though my heart may be glad. If you fail to do so by this time tomorrow, then your lives will be forfeit.” The philosophers convened for long hours in the dungeon below. Near morning they had instructions sent to a local metal smith whom was well known for his skill in fashioning jewelry. When the philosophers were brought before the king the following afternoon a courier arrived as well. One of the philosophers hailed the courier, stepped forward and presented the king with a simple gold ring whose inscription read,

“This Too Shall Pass”.

“I choose whether or not to see I always am what I choose to be.”

Next post will be Folly Past