Perhaps we look at ourselves from the wrong perspective when it comes to training our dreaming minds to achieve lucidity. We are always trying to make the dreaming mind recognize aspects of waking consciousness in order to become lucid. Maybe our approach is a bit off, if not backward in a way.

We look to achieve conscious awareness of the 'Now' in our waking existence, to be in the moment as much as we possibly can, hoping for this truth to pass into our dream state and make us aware there as well, mimicking our waking state awareness.

But what I put to you is that in our dream state we are already aware of 'Now', already in the moment. We are perpetually in the moment while in the dream state, to such an extent that we see nothing else. It is not that we have no memory of the past or contemplation of the future, per se. We are simply so totally devoted to being in the moment, in the 'Now', that anything else is irrelevant to our mind. We are hyper-aware of the 'Now' while dreaming.

So, we don't simply need more moment-to-moment awareness in the dream. What we need, perhaps, is to be focusing not soley on moment-to-moment awareness in our waking state. Expanded awareness of the 'now' is what we should be trying to pass to the dream state. To be aware of the present moment but at the same time having the expanded awareness of who we are in the big picture. Pure, focused awareness of the 'Now' moment is actually the enemy, so to speak, of becoming lucid in our dreams. We have to break the dreaming mind's total focus of the 'moment' and allow it to see just a little bit more.

While in your mindfulness meditation, as an example, don't simply focus on what is going on in the self. Instead, focus on your energy and how it expands into the universe around you. Feel your energy interact with what is around you. Acknowledge your greater place, not simply the small you. And I'm speaking of meditation that is specifically directed at Lucid Dreaming, not meditation in general. So, don't get the wrong idea. This idea is LD specific.

Be in the 'Now', but an expanded 'Now." Let that reality drift into the dream state. Breaking the over-focus on the 'Now' of the dreaming mind is our true goal.

I believe that there should be other practices during the day that can be done to assist this process, but I am still rambling through them with my un-caffeinated morning brain.

Would love some feedback on what people think.