Hey everyone, thanks for the responses!

have you noticed an increase in dream lucidity also? Do you WILD easier from doing concentration practices? I'm still not convinced that the imagery from concentration exercises are different than hypnagogic imagery. . .to me it seems like they both come from the same place..the subconscious, concentration just allows that "focus beam" to penetrate into subconscious
Yes, my meditation has affected my dream lucidity more than anything else I do. It really supercharges lucidity to a point not possible without meditation imo. There are entire books on the Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, and I have practiced Tibetan Dream Yoga for a few years now. It is an exceptionally powerful practice and is obviously empowering towards lucid dreams. Yes concentration makes it easier to wild. More specifically, by getting concentrated, and working with the subtle energy systems directly, this is very much connected to astral projection.

WILD's and AP's are actually quite similar, except that in a WILD I will generally allow the mind to grab onto some aspect of the hypnogagic imagery that streams through the minds eye, and then will be pulled into a WILD. When AP'ing, it is more of a vibrational loosening, then rolling or rising out of the physical body, but remaining in the physical realm unless one projects directly to the higher realms.

I have substantial experience in both dreaming practices and concentration, and I maintain that the imagery during jhana is quite distinct from the streaming hypnogagic imagery. Hypnogagic imagery for me is like flipping through many channels of random imagery and sensation, wheras the jhana-nimitta is very stable and clear in the mind during jhana. I maintain that a distinction between the two should be made, otherwise less experienced practitioners will get confused and be easily misled by hypnogagic imagery.

First of all, I think that escaping all desires, is unrealistic. The fact that you eat warm food and sleep in a bed show that you have desire.
My interpretation of buddhism is that desire is not to be eliminated per se, buddhism sees some types of desire as skillful or useful, and others as not so skillful or useful. The distinction to make here is that, what we aim to cut off is aversion and craving. This means, aversion to the present.. desiring for things to be other than they are... and craving for things to change or be other than they are in the future. These two mental patterns, aversion and craving, inevitably lead to suffering.

As has been pointed out, it is pivotal in spiritual practice to first hone ones perceptual abilities so that we can see reality very clearly and directly in it's entirety, and then, we must accept reality fully as it is in the present, and surrender to this. It is in this moment of surrender and acceptance of what IS, that we reach unbinding, the cessation of suffering, nibbana. These techniques simply develop the necessary dexterity of the mind, and remove obscurations so that we may be capable of seeing reality directly, and clearly as it is.

Without this kind of training, our minds are too burdened and obscured by all of our negative conditioning, emotional turmoil, and discursive thought to be calm enough to allow for clear insight into the nature of reality. Concentration is what gives us the clarity.. like allowing murky water to settle until it has become clear.. then we can see things clearly as they are... Insight is when we make contact with an object and penetrate it, seeing it's true nature once we have attained this initial clarity through concentration.

I understand that it can be frustrating to not be familiar with a lot of the jargon or terms associated with buddhist traditions. However these terms have been used and passed on for generations, many of them are the Pali terms themselves, and they are the most accurate way of describing technical aspects of meditation practice to date. It is not that I am simply parroting these terms, I am speaking from personal experience here, it is just that I find the terms I am using to be the most accurate. It is a better approach to use an excellent system that is already in place, than to re-invent the wheel, so to speak.

That being said, it does mean an initial learning curve in figuring out these terms. The book I linked, luckily is explained in common English terms, it is however still quite a lengthy book. Most importantly, it is dedicated meditation practice that truely clarifies, and gives rise to real insight. There is only one way to attain enlightenment, and that is through doing the experiment yourself, seeing the truth directly yourself, through dedicated practice. These meditation technologies / techniques are very powerful and effective methods for doing so. May you all awaken!

metta!

enso