The ultimate dream sign (Buddhism inspired)

Hi folks!

According to Buddhist philosophy the signs we are dreaming (taking our reactions as inherently real and valid ) is when we experience aversion or attraction toward our external or internal perceptions, that is towards what our senses apprehend through the sense organs (so called external perceptions) but also towards inner experiences. But let's focus mainly on the former one.

Everytime we produce a reaction of aversion and grasping towards an external stimuli that can mean we are fabricating a set of concepts and thoughts about that stimuli, and although conventionally valid or not the point is that these elaborations are entirely subjective and not inherently real, but rather fabricated by our mindset, culture, upbringing, etc.

We could say these reactions are habits.
They manifest through sensations of like and dislike, so these two are a sure way to know when our concepts are interfering with our equanimity (let's say our equanimity is our lucid state)
So whenever you can recognize aversion or attraction you know you are being moved by a set of conditioned responsss and habits that shape the state of our delusion, daytime and nightime. Without recognition these habits grow, and lucidity is obscured. (Maybe that's why children report
frequent lucidity?)

But with recognition we can weaken these habits and gain insight into our automatic reactions, and it can start by recognizing when we are fascinated or repelled by experience

That's quite interesting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VagalTone

.....with recognition we can weaken these habits and gain insight into our automatic reactions

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Classic lucid dreaming is a fantastic tool for recognizing our habits and learning to transcend them. In the dream state we are able to free ourselves from the grasp of our powerful preconceptions. We can then learn to change the illusory dream state. In time, we can then learn to change the equally illusory waking state.

When that begins to happen we start to go from state to state maintaining the same level of conscious awareness. That's when things get very....interesting.

I am always very happy when LD is returned to this concept. I'm sure the couple of people in this thread know Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep" but I thought I'd mention it for people who might stop by and don't.

I think we might have that in the Book Club section. :) : https://www.dreamviews.com/book-club/

The dream state is just another opportunity to practice Insight or Vipassana. Being a Buddhist, my goal with lucidity is to establish Dhamma practice within lucid dreams.
So I do understand what you are saying. Perhaps preplanning an intention to practice Vipassana from within a dream is a worthy practice.