Tony's Workbook

I think it's hard to stay at full burn all the time. And I think we shouldn't expect that we will. I've noticed over the years that recall and lucidity come and go in high and low cycles, depending a lot on what's going on in waking life. I keep coming back to the notion that mindfulness is not at heart an exhausting focus, but a quiet, opening relaxation that gives you the ability to see/hear/feel what's going on inside and around you.

Sometimes you just need a good night's sleep without trying to do anything, and just looking forward with joy to the dreams that will come in the night all on their own, without you having to "do" anything.

Also I find that as a goal, "being lucid a lot" is not terribly motivating for me. Concrete, specific goals are much more so. Looking forward to the night and allowing yourself to be open to fully experiencing your dreams instead of "trying hard to get lucid" can be both refreshing and very effective for enhancing dream experiences! Some of my favorite LDs come when the only intention I set at bedtime is "to have beautiful dreams!"

Remember, there is no such thing as "good" or "bad" meditation. If you're finding yourself distracted a lot, just keep acknowledging it and returning gently to your chosen center of attention. If you find yourself getting frustrated at the distractions, look squarely at the feeling of frustration and know it for what it is. Then return again to your center of attention.

I think burnout comes when we're out of balance and trying too hard to force progress.

^I really like this FryingMan! Especially beautiful was:

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I keep coming back to the notion that mindfulness is not at heart an exhausting focus, but a quiet, opening relaxation that gives you the ability to see/hear/feel what's going on inside and around you.

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Tony, you know you have it in you. :) Perhaps give yourself a day off. Start the following day after by reading through the suggestions and establishing a written game plan for that day, one day at a time.

A few more thoughts: motivation is usually made up of a combination of the carrot and the stick. The carrot is perhaps the more productive approach, but every once in a while we need a bit of stick. I really like (and employ) Sensei's approach. He designates a single day during the year, his began-LD-practice anniversary day, as the only day during the year that he will allow himself to quit the practice. On no other day is quitting allowed. I find watching youtube motivational videos also helps to regain focus.

I continue to read "dream yoga" and I'm meditating every day. Last night I was able to reach mind awake body asleep and was so impressed with myself I snapped out of it. I'm gradually working my way back into the awareness, reflection, recall and building momentum again. I'm proud of myself for not giving up while going through a lull.

Attaboy! WILD-stuff is tricky. The balance of keeping awareness but staying slightly aloof from what is happening takes practice (to avoid that "YEAH HERE WE GO BABY...oops I'm now wide awake..." scenario). Keep it up. Capture moments, practice "stop" throughout the day.

I highly recommend "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life". In particular the opening several chapters are incredibly profound about what mindfulness is and what we're aiming for. We're aiming for a way of being, not a way of doing. I equate the quality with Holecek (and even maybe slightly better in some ways!). Really great stuff!

I am loving the Holocek. I've been reading a little bit every day for a few months and it's just friggin great. That was a spectacular recommendation. and truly better than the audio book.

HI there. Touching base. It's been a tough couple of weeks but I've had a few neat dreams, I haven't been active in my LD practices but I am meditating every day, doing mindful, trance and visualization excercises and I am doing my dream journal every morning.

Keep it going as much as you can! Your future self will thank you later!

3 dreams remembered last night. one of them was a FA where i got up and wrote into my dream journal. I love those!
I've been sitting every day for 5-10 minutes and also working on 21 breaths meditation at the onset of sleep.
I think i'm about ready to start WBTBing again.

Do it! I've be n off schedule too but back on this week. At least you are meditating which is more than I can say.

Spontaneous DILD last night! Only saying spontaneous because I didn't DILD or MILD but I am doing the Dream Yoga Lotus technique going to bed, Sitting practice, reality checks and Journalist intentions during the day so there is some work happening on my end every day.

I am at a party and a friend of mine gives me a drug laced cookie. It DMT's me into another world and I know that I'm dreaming (now here's the thing... I don't know if i'm dreaming in dream drug trip dream or if I'm in my bed sleeping dreaming) but the world is vivid and I know i Have super powers. I go flying. I proposition tori spelling for sex and instead of penis I have two clear plastic balloons that work like penises. It doesn't faze me. Afterword, I'm looking at a magazine in a doctor's office and I see pictures of a bear in a space suit floating in space. I fly up to meet him and we have a bit of a wrestling match.

I will continue the path of dream yoga. Work every day. Keep doing awareness and recall work during the day, keep sitting practice, keep working on my lotus. I don't have much time for sleep so i don't think I'm at a point in my life where I can WBTB, i think that takes away from my REM right now.

but this can work!

Nice job Tony! It's great to hear that you've found something that works for you even without WBTB.

Visualization training going very well. I keep working on the 4 petal lotus with the different color symbols, I've drawn it several times and I'm working on creating it in my mind, and working on putting it together at night time. I've also been doing the whole "am i dreaming" thing more naturally during the day and working on the sensory awareness. Less stress about it but I'm thinking about it more every day. I am almost ready to go back to full scale WBTB practices.

Just wanted to let you know I've started reading Holecek again from the beginning, this time I plan to finish it!

Last week or so has been very work heavy. repairing tornado damage to my house and having a house full of inlaws who know how to build things ( thank goodness for them because I'm all thumbs )
Recall has been waining, but i journal every day
not getting to sit meditate like i like to
but have been doing a little bit of trance work going to sleep.
I've been working on visualizing tracing the lotus and building the different color symbols on the petals.
I'm getting better at that.
Now that I'm more in the clear, I'm going to work on day time awareness and questioning and visualization exercises.
I'll be lucid again by the end of the month. My goal is to eat something either from a pantry, a tree, or a refrigerator.

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^^^ let's do this shit together, lucid as fuck, living a sharp life that we consciously choose

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Amen, bruh!

Lucid eating and drinking is awesome and majorly stabilizing. I've barely done either one. I just get a bit distract... hey babe, how's it going?

Always remember: THIS IS THE GOAL!

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This is the sequence: awareness in the first moment of experience, in
response, in dream, and then in death. One cannot just start at the end. You can
determine for yourself how mature your practice is: as you encounter the
phenomena of experience, examine your feelings and your reactions to the
feelings. Are you controlled by your interactions with the objects of experience
or do you control your reactions to them? Are you thrown into emotional
reactions by your attractions and aversions, or can you remain in steady
presence in diverse situations? If the former, practice will cultivate the presence
needed to free you of karmic conditioning and reactivity. if the latter, you will
increasingly develop stability in awareness and your dreams will change in
extraordinary ways.

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Attachment 9790

I practice drawing this when i can, and think about tracing the symbols. I'm looking for something on line that can give me more information, but I've been using them in my trance as it goes.

I've barely touched on the lotus work, but started back on my first (partial) read through of Holecek. Will continue once I reach that point again. Time for pre-bed LD reading and meditation!

My recall has been on point lately. I haven't had an LD in over a week but my dreams have been epic and fun. I plan on going back and doing a full read of my dreamjournal over the last year and look for signs.

Good recall is good times! Epic, fun, that's what it's all about. Review of dream signs is very good, fogelbise has a lot of experience in that. I think dream sign review, like meditation, right before bed, is very conducive to lucid dreaming.

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

Review of dream signs is very good, fogelbise has a lot of experience in that.

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Some experience…let me know if you have any questions on that Tony.

I've been reading about Holocek and the Clear light mind. I'm about 45% of the way through the book and currently deep in the weeds of the more esoteric behavior aspects of the book. What do you guys thing about the three layered strata of mind he presents?

It's complex and I didn't grok much of the mind layers the first partial-read through (I got up to the middle of the actual dream yoga practices, I think which was seeing-oneself-as-a-deity practice). I'm focusing on the "easy" fundamentals right now: mindfulness, being present, developing a steady presence in the face of diverse experiences. That's quite a challenge right there already. When I get there again I'll let you know.

I sent Holecek an email about question I had about mindfulness, let's see if he answers!

I don't have the book yet, but I plan to get it before too long.

My "life" has been very stressful over the last couple of weeks with several transitions happening all at once. I can feel my goal slipping out of the sights as even my recall has drained to a trickle. I'm making this post to recognize that I see the long term benefits to this daytime and nighttime practice and to affirm that this is not something i want to let go. Lucid dreaming and Dream yoga is a lifestyle for me and one I will continue to practice until my turn on this reality is done.