Thread: Calling all Pros!

This is one of my great dream goals. The type of meditation I would choose would be awareness meditation. It's where you focus on something, most choose to focus on their breath as it moves against one single point in your nose. Whenever I do this in the real world, there is always a heightening of senses. Though your eyes are closed you seem to be much more aware of the world around you, as long as you do not let your thoughts wander from the breath on that point in your nose. I think this could be pretty amazing in a dream. I wonder what that heightened awareness could do in terms or revealing the nature of the dream. I'm guessing with lack of visuals you would probably start hearing random noises, much like hypnagogic hallucinations. Has anyone tried meditating with their eyes closed in a dream?

Originally Posted by kevojy

This is one of my great dream goals. The type of meditation I would choose would be awareness meditation. It's where you focus on something, most choose to focus on their breath as it moves against one single point in your nose. Whenever I do this in the real world, there is always a heightening of senses. Though your eyes are closed you seem to be much more aware of the world around you, as long as you do not let your thoughts wander from the breath on that point in your nose. I think this could be pretty amazing in a dream. I wonder what that heightened awareness could do in terms or revealing the nature of the dream. I'm guessing with lack of visuals you would probably start hearing random noises, much like hypnagogic hallucinations. Has anyone tried meditating with their eyes closed in a dream?

i haven't gotten that far yet! i would like to try it though. i do the same type of awareness meditation. but i often meditate with my eyes open in the zen buddhist fashion. as this is how i was recently taught. i'm not sure what would happen in a dream.

Originally Posted by lucidlistener

I was wondering, simply, if any of you "pro" dreamers have ever tried to sit down and
meditate while lucid.

I'm no pro at lucid dreaming or meditating. I had my first experience the other night with meditating during a lucid dream. (It is what tipped me over the edge and gave me the motivation to join this site.) My experience was that it lasted about 2 minutes, maybe. At one point I was looking down on the dream while meditating. A kind of static also seemed to infuse the dream and I think it became black and white. If you want to see more I put it in my DJ (though it is mostly about the preceding nightmare).

A friend of mine who is a much more experienced than I at lucid dreaming (pretty much every night) said she meditates while lucid dreaming all the time. She said it can be more challenging because thoughts take form as the dream around a lucid dreamer as they meditate so they can be more distracting.

A fascinating and exciting topic, thanks for bringing it up!

Originally Posted by lucidlistener

haha sounds great guys, i can't wait till i get to try it out myself. I'd imagine something pretty crazy would happen if successful,
maybe even partial enlightenment! lol i doubt it, but still good to hear it's easy and relaxing while sitting down in a lucid.
I would still like to hear from a pro who's tried it out and not woken up.

Thanks for the replies and good luck testing!

Maybe the tree Buddha was under was a dream tree!! it all makes sense now!!

Yes, with quite unexpected results. I was put through a test.

I wanted to meditate on mathematics. I did not understand the test for a long time. But I was tested on the real meaning of the trinity. Perception, conception and will. Concepts I would not run into for a long time (years) afterwords.

This is such a great idea! I'd love to try this.
I don't usually meditate in real life though. :/
What's the best way to, and most effective method while dreaming?

oh so i finally had a lucid dream and remembered to just sit and meditate. not only is it strange to sit and make sure your back is straight, etc... while fully aware that you are actually laying in bed. but the experience was really something!
for me. everything went dark, and then slowly became bright and i was looking at myself as if in a mirror of some sort.

Originally Posted by opalwolf

oh so i finally had a lucid dream and remembered to just sit and meditate. not only is it strange to sit and make sure your back is straight, etc... while fully aware that you are actually laying in bed. but the experience was really something!
for me. everything went dark, and then slowly became bright and i was looking at myself as if in a mirror of some sort.

Congrats! It is interesting to me that people talk of their back being straight or their legs crossed while meditating in a lucid dream. I haven't run into that (though I've only had a lucid meditation twice). I haven't had a body that I could feel explicitly like that when I meditate in a lucid dream, and the surroundings seem to dissolve to whatever degree.

Originally Posted by Mellie

This is such a great idea! I'd love to try this.
I don't usually meditate in real life though. :/
What's the best way to, and most effective method while dreaming?

Not sure if it will be the best way for you, but I usually first relax and feel my body for a minute, noticing the different sensations in different parts of it, and then let that go and just focus on my breath. (I focus on the sensation of the air passing over a particular place in my sinuses, though others focus on their chest moving up and down, etc. Pick what feels right to you.)

If a thought or emotion comes up and I find that it distracted me to the extent that I've lost the focus on my breath, I gently bring my focus back to my breath. I don't try to crush my thoughts and emotions, just separate from them and let them do what they will and keep awareness on my breath.

I get the sense of being still and expanding; all my thoughts and emotions are not me, they're just arising within me. If I can observe it (a thought, an emotion, a physical sensation, etc.) then it is not me, because I am the observer.

One thing that can be helpful to some is to count your breath as you focus on it if you like. It can help maintain the focus and is a good way to tell if you've lost your focus on your breath so you can bring your focus back.

I also like to do emotional processing practices, though some would argue those are not meditation. Now those could be fascinating to do in dreams, too. I'll put it on my goals list.

I remember meditating in a non lucid and it was crazy. I meditated and i felt like I got sucked inward to myself. I then felt a falling sensation then woke up. I can only imagine meditating in a lucid i might try it after i do my lucid goal of the month in May.