Thinkfirst Dream Yoga journal

I've now had 4 LD and I'm getting more familiar with how to accomplish it.
I am in the middle of the Tibetan Dream Yoga book by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche an loving it immensely.
I want to move my journaling from the the beginning class to this one because Dream yoga is
really where my interest lies. Even just after 4 LD, I am gaining some insights that are
making a difference in the waking world. That's what I want from LD - to have it affect this
physical world, which is just another layer of a dream.

The method that works for me is WBTB after about 7 or 8 in the morning.
I use the plug nose and breath method of RC and do that several times a day.
I'm going to drop all other methods of induction, RC and dream signs because they didn't
seem to make any difference after the 3 months of practice.

I'll start through the dream yoga lessons and then just keep track here of things I have learned.

This last LD I had seemed very active and busy with problem-solving and managing people. I pondered doing the TOTM which was to make and enjoy a cup of tea. But everything in the dream seemed so important and busy that I couldn't just switch gears and make a cup of tea. I had stuff to accomplish and problems to solve.

After I woke up, I realized how silly this was. It was a dream. My dream. Nothing was going on. There was nothing but projections of my mind processing my previous karmic attachments. Since this waking physical world is also a form of a dream, I am more aware now that I want to adopt this new attitude. There's nothing to do, nothing happening on the absolute level. There's plenty of stuff appearing, yes, but its part of the dreamer's projection, and I can switch gears, slow down, look around, and make a cup of tea. I do not have any problems to solve.

This is how I interpret and currently look at those LD lessons. I'm sure I will change and mature in my perception. Meanwhile, the learning is fun.

#5 LD this morning.
I realize that I am not doing the nose plug breath RC enough during the day because that's not how I realized lucidity in the dream. I jumped and was expecting to fly, but didn't so I kept jumping and then just went higher and higher until I grabbed a ceiling beam or outside power line. It could be that this was the message that my unconscious wanted to send me was that I had to put some physical effort into reaching my "higher power."

Or it could be that I was just not practicing my RC enough during the day. I did have the thought that I really should stop and make that tea, but again there was so many people, so much action, so much chaos and busyness in the midst of the LD that I forgot the tasks I wanted to do. I was lucid, but allowing the dream to just carry me away.

I suppose that follows how I am in RL. I am aware and conscious of the idea that I might be just the wave of a larger ocean of consciousness and that all other events and people are also another wave, but then I prefer to watch the waves and see what comes up rather than doing anything in particular. My LD seems to be revealing that part of my nature.

I am happy that I have been fairly consistent now with once a month having the opportunity to enter a LD. School is out soon and that will bring different circumstances, so we'll see.

The other consistent things in my dreams over the months are lots of babies and toddlers, and church buildings.

It is getting very hard to make myself sit up in bed to write down a dream. The dreams that occur before about 5-6 am are just fabulous but even the sitting up in bed makes them fade quickly. So my motivation to wake up enough to sit up is pretty low knowing that I won't remember the dream if I sit up.

And sometimes even later in the morning I know I need to sit up and write a dream and I choose not too. And a bit of guilt that accompanies that too. I suppose there is a balance between letting some dreams go, and getting 90% of them written down when a practice goes on for months and years. I never really ever like to get out of bed in the morning. Its always hard.