To have a conscious dream, follow these four fundamental steps. The main practices of lucid dreaming have their origins in the way the mind is used in everyday life.
Lucid Dream: Four Basic Practices For Conscious Dream | Dream Yoga
- CHANGING KARMIC IMPRINTS
- ELIMINATE ATTRIBUTION AND AVERSION
- STRENGTHENING INTENTION
- IMPROVE MEMORY AND JOYFUL EFFORT
1. CHANGING KARMIC IMPRINTS
2. ELIMINATE ATTRIBUTION AND AVERSION
The second essential technique works to lessen attachment and aversion even further. The second exercise is carried out after a reaction has taken place, in contrast to the first preparation, which is used after encountering phenomena and before a reaction happens.
The only real differences between them are the circumstances in which they are used and the thing being focused on. The first technique focuses on having a clear perception of and recognition of dream-like phenomena with regard to anything experienced, including sense objects, interior experiences, one's body, etc.
The second configuration focuses the same sharp awareness on the emotionally nuanced reactions that arise in response to experience-related items showing up.
The technique should ideally be used as soon as attachment or repulsion to a thing or circumstance begins. The greedy mind's reaction can take the form of want, rage, envy, pride, pain, joy, fear, melancholy, anxiety, boredom, or any other feeling.
As a reaction takes place, keep in mind that both the thing and your reaction to it are just dreams. Your inner voice may say, "This rage is a dream. This dream is a wish. This wrath, this suffering, and this elation are only dreams.
When you focus on the internal processes that produce emotional states, it becomes evident that this statement is accurate: you dream through a complicated interplay of thoughts, images, body states, and sensations. Inanimate items do not exhibit emotional reactions. Within you, it appears, is felt, and then vanishes.
There are countless stimuli to which you can react, such as attraction at the sight of an attractive person, rage at a driver who passes you, disgust or grief at a devasted environment, anxiety and worry at a circumstance or a certain individual, etc.
Every circumstance and response must be acknowledged as a dream. Try to feel the dreamlike nature of your inner existence rather than just inserting the term into a portion of your experience.
The relationship to the situation alters and the tight emotional grip over the phenomenon is relaxed when this confirmation is truly felt rather than just thought.
When things grow clearer and more open, greed and aversion are immediately seen for what they are: painful compulsions. This is an effective remedy for the state of fixation that negative emotional states cause.
The genuine practice of clarity and flexibility that leads to freedom, later on, begins with the direct and true experience of employing this practice to untie the knot of negative emotions. Even extreme rage, despair, and other negative emotions can be overcome with regular practice. They disintegrate when they are.
This specific technique is described in the teachings as a way of getting rid of attachments.
Both healthy and bad methods of quitting exist. When desires are repressed, they either transform into inner excitement or into criticism and intolerance from the outside. Also, it is detrimental to one's spiritual growth to try to avoid suffering by becoming distracted or by squeezing one's body to block out the sensation.
It can be healthy to give up the world and become a monk or nun, or it can be detrimental to try to avoid and repress traumatic experiences.
By reorganizing one's perception and knowledge of an object or circumstance, changing one's viewpoint, and enabling the practitioner to see beyond an object's false appearance into its radiant, light-like actuality, lucid dreaming helps people let go of attachments. With practice, things and events become more vividly and clearly perceived, as well as understood to be transient, unimportant, and fleeting.
3. STRENGTHENING INTENTION
Reviewing the day before going to bed and making a stronger commitment to practicing at night constitute the third preparation. Allow the day's recollections to come to the surface as you get ready for bed. Recognize everything that comes to mind as a dream.
The events that are potent enough to influence future dreams are the ones that are most likely to resurface as memories. Try to imagine the memories that come up during this repetition as dreams. Sleep and memory are quite similar.
It's not about self-identification or a ritualized repetition of "That was a dream." When describing your experience as a dream, make an effort to fully comprehend its dreamlike qualities, the projections that support it, and the differences they make.
Then, make a determined decision to recognize nighttime dreams for what they are. Make the strongest effort to realize that you are dreaming immediately and clearly while you are sleeping.
The intention acts as a beacon for consciousness to follow throughout the night, pointing toward the clarity that comes with rest. To send a wish is how the Tibetan phrase we use to develop intention is translated.
We should have the impression that we are sending our instructors, the Buddhas, and the deities petitions and intentions in this place, pledging to do our best to maintain our consciousness and pleading with them for assistance. There are other exercises you can perform before bed, but this one is accessible to everyone.
4. IMPROVE MEMORY AND JOYFUL EFFORT
After getting up in the morning, the fourth fundamental practice is carried out. Also, it enhances the capacity to recall the details of the previous night's activities and cultivates strong intention.
Review the evening to begin. This preparation is known in Tibetan as "to remember," literally. you dreamed Did you realize you were dreaming? If you've been dreaming but don't feel clear, think about it "Even though I was dreaming, I wasn't aware that I was dreaming. It was a dream, though." Make a resolution to recognize a dream's genuine nature while you are still inside it the next time you enter one.
It can be beneficial to set a strong purpose to remember your dreams during the day, but especially before bed, if you are having trouble recalling them.
You can reinforce the practice of treating your dreams as valuable by writing down your dreams on a notepad or recording them on a tape. To reinforce the intention to recall the dream when you wake up, the notebook or tape recorder is set out every night.
After the desire to remember dreams has been formed and even sustained for a few days, it is not difficult for anyone to do so.
If you have a lucid dream, be happy for your accomplishment.
Enjoy the practice and make a commitment to keep gaining clarity the next night. Continue to strengthen your purpose, using both your triumphs and failures as learning experiences to make it even more clear that you want to finish the activity. And remember that whatever you intend is a dream.
Make a clear decision in the morning to continue your practice throughout the day, and then pray fervently for success. We all have a wonderful power that we rarely use called prayer. The more focused and alert you are during the day, the more these qualities will carry over into your sleep.
This technique combines with the first fundamental technique, which is to view every event as a dream. This allows for uninterrupted practice around the wheel throughout the day and night.
Final observations
Give mindfulness and awareness more and more energy. Be completely mindful while you go about your regular business. Take me, for instance: I am writing this piece while completely alert and aware. I type slowly and deliberately. My hands don't move like machines or robots. My fingers are deliberately heading toward the keyboard. live your life this way. It is essential to Lucid Dreaming.
So, this much for today. Till then keep practicing, and be alert. Who knows, maybe you are in a dream now.