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On Dreams
Answer
5/2/13 7:31 PM
Hello. First time poster, long time lurker. I've been practicing meditation for more than a year now.

On occasion, I get dreams that are very, very vivid. I don't know what to make of them. They usually occur when I'm going through Dark Night territory. When I'm in Equanimity, I tend to not remember my dreams when I wake up. However, during Dark Night, I wake up remembering all of them. They are not very ordinary (if that's possible). I've tried to make sense of them, but to no avail.

These dreams only started happening when I started taking meditation seriously over a year ago. And in that time, I can say I remember all the wild, vivid dreams I've had while in DN territory. At times when I know I'm in DN for more than a few days, I will have these dreams nightly. Once I step out of DN, they usually fade away or I stop remembering them when I wake up.

Can anyone give me some explanation for this? Should I pursue the content of these dreams? I've tried analyzing them and I have a feeling that there is some hidden meaning underlying these dreams, but I'm not dream interpreter. I don't even know if it's worth it. If you'd like, I can describe one of these dreams for you if that helps.

Thanks

RE: On Dreams
Answer
5/2/13 9:29 PM as a reply to Aos Bound.
Hi and welcome! --cool topic

In my experience dreamwork can be a powerful way to contact subconscious forces and processes of the bodymind. Exploring this territory can be a good complement to meditation training. The process that can emerge with such work can lead to greater experience of wholeness and stability and integrity. This can both facilitate insight practice and condition the fruits of insight practice. Approaching dreamwork can be tricky though, if you believe in your 'interpretations'.

if you could clarify a few things I bet you could get some helpful responses:

describe in more phenomenological detail your meditation practice, and what you mean by dark night and equanimity. try to do this in plain descriptive language without using those terms.

Then if you could clarify what your motivation and goals are for practice, that would also help guide those who might respond.

Then if you could clarify how you approach dreamwork, what you hope to get out of it, that could help guide responses to that aspect of it.

Thanks for posting! emoticon

RE: On Dreams
Answer
5/6/13 3:20 PM as a reply to . Jake ..
. Jake .:
Hi and welcome! --cool topic
describe in more phenomenological detail your meditation practice, and what you mean by dark night and equanimity. try to do this in plain descriptive language without using those terms.


My meditation practice usually consists of insight practice. I usually try to recognize the three characteristics in all phenomena that occur while I'm meditating: thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, etc.


I started meditating because I had some really bad panic attacks and after trying drugs and realizing they were only band-aid solutions. After I started meditating, I got into a deep deep depression that lasted for a month or so. Then it slowly cleared away and I felt an enormous amount of energy. I experienced a whole range of amazing emotions. Confidence, bliss, tranquility, you name it. I continued meditating and after a few months I felt this amazing peace... it was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. About a month or so after during one of my morning sits I experienced a "blip"... or a reset? I honestly don't know what to call it. I was reading MCTB at the time and I figured this is stream entry. A wave of good feelings washed over me.

Honestly, I should have clarified about dark night and equanimity. I am honestly not sure where on the path I am. After my "blip", things have changed drastically. For the first month or so afterwards, I had an enormous amount of energy. I partied a lot, I just wanted to be around people. Afterwards, I started to cycle from really high highs to really low lows. It felt like I was on a roller coaster ride. But slowly, I secluded myself more and more. I felt a lot of negativity. Sadness, anxiety, etc. This is usually when my vivid dreams occurred. After a while, it started to give and I felt at peace for a week or so. Then it started happening again. I really got sick of it so I switched over to do strictly concentration practice. The darkness really gave away then and I felt normal again.

Then if you could clarify how you approach dreamwork, what you hope to get out of it, that could help guide responses to that aspect of it.


I don't really plan on doing any "dreamwork". Honestly, I'm naturally a curious person and when I started seeing these dreams occur I figured it might be due to my meditation practice. I wasn't sure if there was some underlying message inside my dreams to better help guide me through my dark night, or life in general.

Anyways, this has been a lot longer than I intended. Thank you for reading.

RE: On Dreams
Answer
5/6/13 3:33 PM as a reply to Aos Bound.
Hi.

On my last retreat, I had some unpleasant dreams in dukkha nana territory. No fun. They seemed a bit like warnings/messages of terrible things happening. (After the retreat I checked whether any of those things had happened. They hadn't.)
The teacher told me not to worry about what happens in dreams. I guess that's good advice.