Ichorid's Workbook: A Deep Dive in Dream Yoga
Greetings, here I will take a dive into the vast field of awareness, in the form of dream yoga exercises. I meditate frequently for the last 2 years and I feel that my mind is more open than before. Here I'll post my experiences and questions on dream yoga. As it's the first time for me to keep a public log of such an inner work, we'll see how it goes :)
Dream Yoga Basic Skills - Lesson #1: Sensory Awareness Meditation
For this lesson, I have decided I will do Versions 1 and 2, as it seems that my teeth hurt when eating candy.
Version 1 - Level 1
Before intentional awareness, I noticed usual sounds such as traffic noise, the music from my girlfriend's headphones as she studies and drips from the sink faucet.
Then I closed my eyes and moved my awareness around. The procedure lasted for about 20 minutes (no timer) and I caught multiple sounds, the majority of them being of a short duration, not constant:
- The quiet humming of my laptop's fan
- Random clicking noises from the fridge
- A short horn from the traffic outside
- Sounds of turning pages and quiet sighs
- A horse trotting on the asphalt outside and someone shouting
- A bus stopping on the traffic light and moving on
- Some bumping noises from neighbors upstairs, a constant bass thump, probably music
- A doorbell sound from downstairs
I decided not to sit in a formal pose of meditation, just sitting tilted a bit backwards on the couch, resting my head on my pillow. Somewhere in the later half of the practice I felt a brief feeling of bliss and became aroused. I caught myself clinging to this feeling and tried re-focusing on the sounds again. Eventually it became less intense.
I feel I can proceed to Level 2, as I feel I can maintain my awareness for an extended period of time.
Dream Yoga Basic Skills - Lesson #1
Version 1 - Level 2
12/5 afternoon ~10 min - Sitting on a bench, my eyes were open and fixed on a nearby spot. I began listening to sounds and connecting them. I heard 3 constant fans, people talking nearby, steps, a bird picking the trash. The sounds connected, almost like a symphony. By keeping my sight fixated on the pavement, the patterns seemed to dance around, until the moment I blinked, then again.
12/5 night ~15 min - Tried again lying on my back on the couch but couldn't hold more than 4 sounds in awareness simultaneously. I was constantly distracted by other thoughts and becoming drowsy because of the late hour.
13/5 afternoon ~20 min - Sitting cross-legged, I concentrated on multiple sounds (traffic, fridge, shuffling pages) while visualising them as points connecting to each other, forming a triangle. As time passed and I entered deep relaxation, I stopped counting the sounds and just let go, letting the sounds play their symphony, while catching them all in my ears. Again I was distracted by a brief arousal and re-focused on the meditation.
Lessons learned:
- When meditating at night, I'll sit in a formal pose to retain stability and awareness.
- I think that setting a number of sounds as a goal distracts me, as I tend to count instead of listening.
Question:
- Is it ok to let go and just be aware of the multitude of sounds and their different pitches, for as long as possible?
Dream Yoga Basic Skills - Lesson #1
Version 1 - Level 2
14/5 afternoon ~15 min - Sitting in a cafe outside, I was able to concentrate and connect voices of people talking to each other, leaving the place, others entering, with a constant background buzzing of ventilation fans.
15/5 afternoon ~15 min - At this time, the sound of the traffic, random and variable, made it difficult for me to focus on other very subtle sounds (I could only distinguish the sound of my pc and that disappeared when traffic came).
Lesson learned:
- In cases where there is no sound that can compete with that of the variable traffic, I find it difficult to expand my awareness. Next time I'll try to put some background music to serve as my base anchor.
Dream Yoga Basic Skills - Lesson #1
I've been rather busy these days, but I've managed to practice a bit:
Version 1 - Level 2
Here I found that, as another student has posted, my expectations influenced the results. There have been times when I couldn't move to 3 sounds, because of a mental block. Also, because the majority of the sounds aren't constant, I've been incorporating elements of Level 1, to identify subtle noises.
Version 2 - Level 1
This was a very interesting practice, leading into a deep state of relaxation, as I was resting on my bed and feeling the force of my body lying on the bed. I also felt my heartbeat through my forehead and minor twitches in my hands. I had my eyes open in order not to fall asleep, but that didn't distract me at all, as I was staring at the ceiling.
Question:
- How can you tell when you can keep X sounds in awareness? Do they combine into 1 sound with multiple pitches? What do you do when there is no constant sound?
Going to try Version 2 - Level 4 (before sleep) tonight, even though nearly all my previous attempts at something similar in the past have failed, due to me falling asleep! We'll see...
Dream Yoga Basic Skills: Lesson 2
Diffuse vision:
Levels 1 and 2 were okay for me, I find that I can easily control the eye muscles and subsequently, the focus on the background or foreground.
Now, level 3 is another story. I used it when riding my bike today and it blew my mind. I felt like my field of vision was expanded. As I rode the bike, I noticed people on the crossroad away from me, that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Not focusing on one object didn't have any impact on my general awareness; on the contrary. I could be aware of traffic lights changing colours, parked cars on the side, cars overtaking me, beautiful scenery... without ever focusing on them!
Wandering mind recall:
In the same bike ride I tried to focus on a specific thought (this is a dream) for ~3 minutes. I've been distracted multiple times, e.g. by thoughts about pedestrians, random noises and words I catch. I tried not to remember the distractions and re-focus on the thought. I have a feeling that I missed recalling some distracting thoughts when it was over, but I guess I'll never know :S
So, can you ever get to a point when there are no distractions from the mind for, say, 10 minutes? Anyway, I think an interesting experiment would be to focus on the thought "this is a dream" for a long time within a LD, but trying to remember the distractions afterwards will likely prove to be very difficult.
I will try diffuse vision - level 3 in a dream. I'm curious about what comes up. Maybe heightened visual awareness? We'll see.
