Benni's first time Yoga-attempt

[benni]

Dream Yoga Basic Skills: Lesson #1: Sensory Awareness Meditation Version 1: Listening to a Noisy World. Level 1 Results of Day 1 (15/8/13): I was sitting comfortably on a chair in my room. First off the only sounds that I actually consistently noticed were the sounds of cars from the road. They drive by quite frequently and are loud enough to be consciously perceived every single time. As soon as I closed my eyes the first thing I then noticed was the quiet but constant humming of my computer fan. I think that my brain just decides not to consciously perceive this because it is such a monotonous sound that never ends or changes whenever I am sitting near my (obviously switched on) computer. I soon started to hear the sound of the TV in the living room and my parents (probably talking about the TV program). It was moderately quiet so that I didn’t understand full sentences. And again: probably the same reason as the one concerning the computer fan. The TV is just switched on and as long as there is no very loud or special sound coming from it I probably wouldn’t perceive it consciously. The loudness of the computer in my room and the TV and the casual talking of my parents is approximately the same (however the TV is slightly louder than the fan at times). Then I started to hear some kids running and shouting/playing outside. At times I heard the traffic light at the nearby intersection beep and some crows carking. The next thing I started to notice was my breath. It is a very quiet pull and push of air that sounds slightly different every time I breathe in and breathe out. It also depends on whether my mouth is open or not. The sound that my nostrils produce are a little higher-pitched than the sound that my mouth produces when it’s open while breathing in and out. Since the cars were quite loud I was unable to hear my breath at all times. After a while I heard a different humming sound and I thought it must be the ceiling fan of our neighbours, but I figured out that it was just the cars somehow distorting the sound of my computer fan (haha, crazy). At this point I felt like that’s it. There was a while where I stopped noticing new sounds, BUT I went back to the so-called “cars”. I then noticed that there are big cars, small cars, motorbikes and buses. The biggest discovery was that I can’t just label this sound as “car”. There is more to it than just “car”. That’s when I thought of what a car is made of and I soon discovered something that made me happy: I started to hear many different noises in the so-called “car”. I heard the roaring and slowing of engines but also the consistent hum of engines while the cars keep their speed. Then I noticed how the car approaches (high-pitch becoming louder) and departed again (low-pitch becoming more quiet). Yet another great thing I heard were the tyres of the car driving across the tarmac. I could even hear when the car was driving across different sorts of tarmac (the tarmac changes at the intersection) and I also heard when the car encountered some bumps. At one time I had some trouble focusing, but I decided to accept those interrupting thoughts which soon made them disappear. So how did I almost dare to start right away with Level 2? I thought that Level 1 was too easy and almost decided to skip. Good on me that I didn’t! There was and still is a lot to discover “just” by listening!!! I will definitely have another hearing-session tonight and tomorrow before I proceed to Level 2. First I want to be sure that I hear everything that my ear perceives. In the second session this evening I was able to hear my breathing and the computer sound much more distinctly due to a much more quiet level of background noise (cars, kids, etc.). I was even able to tell apart the humming fan from the funny clicking/spinning sound of the processor working. The last thing I heard were cars driving on a far away street and a few occasional cars speeding along the nearby street and encountering some pretty rough bumps (probably two fixed road parts which made a very distinct bumm-bumm sound). I am planning that tomorrow I will also try to discover some new and finer sounds BUT that I will also increase my focus on the fact that my mind deliberately blanks out most of those noises before actually focusing on them and become aware of the fact that they are there all the time.

[benni]

Results of Day 2 (16/8/13): I was sitting on my chair again, but this time it was late in the evening. The first very obvious sounds were the crickets chirring. Even before focusing on it I actually heard it quite a few times during the evening. Sometimes they just stopped chirring. It is an extremely constant sound. The only things I was able to hear were that sometimes there were more crickets chirring (louder) and at other times there were less crickets chirring (more quiet). After closing my eyes I heard the computer fan, my breath and ‘the cars’ again. Everything was pretty much the same as yesterday except that it was much more quiet today and that there were those irritating crickets. However the fact that there were so few cars driving by (mostly just one at a time) I was able to hear many more subtle sounds like the cars driving across bumps, the hiss of trucks when they change gears or the rattling sound of small motorbikes trying to accelerate quickly when the traffic light allows them to drive. To be honest it is quite impressive.... of course I know that there is so much sound (and heaps of other things as well) out there, but the fact that my brain blocks most of those impressions that I could perceive is saddening on one hand but also quite understandable one the other hand because I wouldn’t constantly want to overload my brain with every single detail that I can discern in every sound I could possibly take in. So Level 1 taught me that things that look easy (and actually are easy to some extent) can still be in some way challenging and reveal some really interesting, new and great things. This opened up this world of senses and enriched my ADA-practices. I am really stoked to start Level 2 tomorrow and I will see how it goes.

[benni]

Level 2 Results of Day 3 (17/8/13): So it was about 11:30pm (which is a bit late). However I had a first little try at Level 2. I started off as usual (I might change the location in the next few days to get some new sounds). So first of all I focused on the crickets which were loud and clear again. As soon as I got them set as my first sound I tried to add the ‘cars’. However this DID NOT work. Trying to focus on both always made my brain ‘switch’ quite swiftly between those two sounds – but I was not able to actually focus on both at the same time... so I watched this with interest as stated in the description of Level 2 and asked myself "well well well.... how do I go about that...?" The solution that I soon found was not to focus on both sounds but instead to just ‘let both sounds happen’. So as soon as I just let both sounds happen I was able to listen to both of them at the same time. Basically I just ‘told my brain’ to perceive those two sounds and sort of pin them down like you would pin down two notes on a board. So those two notes will be there on the same board, but not at the same place if you know what I mean – they are there, but they don’t hinder one another. It also helped me to imagine a blank/black space with two objects that represent the sounds. I also imagined those objects in the approximate location of where those sounds came from so I was able to ‘see’ those sound-objects (crazy, See something that you hear). To the left there was the car sound and a bit to the right there were the crickets. Then I added the hum of my computer far to the right and in the middle I settled my breathing-process. That’s how I got my four sounds all set. My brain just ‘let those sounds happen’. I just casually had my view on this blackness with those four objects that represented the four different sounds. When I opened my eyes and the visualisation vanished (I made it vanish on purpose to see if I can still focus) I was still able to perceive those four sounds at the same time. All in all that’s a good start. Tomorrow I want to find a place without those loud crickets and some different sounds. Then I will proceed to practice my focus and add some more sounds. I would be glad to be able to actively perceive six sounds at the same time without losing one of them while picking up new sounds. I’m quite happy with Level 2. It’s a great challenge to learn from! Might take quite a while before attempting anything close to Level 3... Anyway, it’s fun. I guess I will just sum up my results from now on so that I don't post too much text. Before I attempt Level 3 I will write a short summary of further experiences I have made during my Level 2-exercises.

[benni]

As I have progressed with my exercises I had some really nice experiences. Noticing many sounds at the same time has become easier and a few days ago I started Level 3 during activities that I am familiar with like riding to school with my bike. I was able to focus on the sound of my wheels on the tarmac, my breathing process, the wind passing me and the cars driving by. At times I noticed the clicking sound of my gears and the bike chain. Since doing this has become sort of a habbit it actually started influencing my dreams. I have been able in quite a few vivid dreams to hear a lot more vivid and realistic sounds than usual. Last night for instance I was on a boat and could constantly hear the deep humming sound of the engines and the waves crashing into the front and the sides of the boat. Never before have I experienced such rich sounds in my dreams. It's like practicing one sense has quite a large impact on this sense in my dream world as well. It also helped me to induce my last LD... I was sitting in my chem class and all over the ground were dry leaves and my biology teacher was taking photos of them.... so I always heard this noise of her walking across those dry leaves. This was so irritating that I questioned it and it immidiately hit me: "Leaves all over the ground in my classroom? What the hell? this can only be a dream." So that was quite a cool observation My question? How should I proceed besides keeping up this practice? Should I maybe try the same thing but this time with a candy in my mouth or trying to feel the world around me...? Or maybe have a look at a different class? And also: Practicing those things really is fun, but are there any variations that might have a larger impact on my dreams like instead of focusing on all sounds I am able to perceive to try and pick out dreamlike sounds/ feelings/scents and analysing them more closely while trying to take them in all at the same time.... Maybe something like creating a list of things that I perceive in the waking life and things that I perceive in my dreams and then trying to figure out differences and similiarities and finding out which sounds/scents/tastes often occur together or at different times... ? Do you think this is a nice addition to the original practice?