-
For most that dabble in lucid dreaming you may be right. For a natural lucid dreamer, you probablly have no clue. If I choose to spend my sleep time lucid dreaming or not, it is my choice. However, for natural lucid dreamers, not having spontaneous lucid dream 3 to 6 times a year or more may be of concern as it currently is for me.
Thanks to all who gave advice. It is much appreciated.
-
Last night I dreamed of an enormous water snake, with four legs like a Chinese dragon, curled up under a tree on high ground next to wetlands. When the snake molts the skin can be eaten. When it molts in water we have spontaneous lucid dreams. When it molts on land we have waking-life karma. Seasonally, the snake mates on land. Its life depends on our waking life activity, especially as are related to our moral and spiritual development and sharing.
My decline in lucid dreaming has been dramatic, at least by a factor of 100 in strength and frequency. I think this can’t all be attributed to things l’ve mentioned before like lack of time and interest. To a large extent its a cyclical kind of thing.
I think I understand what Kadie is saying, the concern isn’t how to induce lucid dreams, it is more about whether the source of inspiration is healthy, and how to care for it. If my concern was that there is too little love in my life, I wouldn’t be looking for tips on how to pay for sex. This analogy is unfair as a characterization of techniques for inducing lucid dreams, but it has some element of truth which I mean to highlight. Arguably the snake is rare and endangered, but I think it is definitely alive, and I think it is as healthy now as it was 5 years ago, even though it is in a somewhat different phase of its life cycle.
-
Thank you Shadow, that is a very good way to put it. I wish I had said it so well.
-
Here's another thought....For myself, the main reason I lucid dream is for metaphors in the lucid dreams which I learn from. I think about the parable-like images in the dream, and afterwards I've extracted some inspiration or understanding which changes me a little. I cognize or experience some virtue in a new way and become a tiny bit more compassionate, or courageous, or whatever, depending on the subject of the dream.
So the muse that creates the dream starts with that understanding or inspiration, converts it into some kind of illustrative picture story, then I convert that back into something more like the original inspiration. Something is lost in the process though, no dream image is adequate to capture the full message, and no interpretation of the dream does justice to the dream. Maybe I can find the whole message by thinking more directly about its source. But if I can do that, then the dream images become superfluous, or even a hindrance, since the real insight can't be seen or heard or touched. This is similar to Sageous's criticism of LSD, that having a really shiny bucket doesn't necessarily help you see what's in the bucket.
As I experience my 'muse', it prefers metaphorical imagery to human language, but its first choice would be to not even have to use the metaphors either, which are also superficial and limited from its standpoint. It stoops to talk to me in dream stories for a little while, but would prefer to communicate more directly. For instance, a dream metaphor might suggest the right thing to do in relation to a career or family problem, but I shouldn't need to be told that way, I should just know. If I have that love and courage and patience and wisdom in my heart, then doing the wrong thing will just seem ridiculous, I don't have to be talked into it through stories. I'm not saying that learning from dreams is bad, its obviously a very valuable part of the process. But that other more invisible part is even more fundamental, and in cycles it is emphasized by diminishing the more sensate side of things for a while. I think this is similar to why Laotse criticizes the Confucian emphasis on ethics and culture, he's trying to point to that subtler virtue that can slip away when we're more fixated on forms (Tao Te Ching, English by Lin Yutang, Terebess Asia Online (TAO)).