| | Thanks for starting this thread, Carolyn. As a result of recent posts by Daniel on another thread, I have started investigating the possible connections between AF practice and lucid dreaming. You can find Daniels posts on this thread:
http://dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/2404614
I began by asking myself "How can AF practice increase lucid dreaming?" and I came up with my own interpretation of HAIETMOBA. I ask myself this question-
How does my present experience differ from dreaming?
I have tried many practices to promote lucid dreaming, but I never felt like those practices aligned much with my mindfulness practice. So although these LD practices gave me the great reward of increasing the frequency and length of lucid dreams, which I found both wildly enjoyable and occasionally healing, by themselves, the practices had no apparent benefits outside of generating more lucid dreams, and the questions and practices became tiresome over time. This question, (HDMPEDFD?) however, gives me a way of increasing my lucid dreams WHILE also helping me keep my attention on present moment awareness. When I ask this question, I can note the different ways that my present perception of reality differs from my perception in dreams, especially lucid dreams, and I can work very specifically, or I can work broadly. The specific noting results in a complex noting vocabulary, admittedly at the beginning stage: normal discomfort gravity future thought unpleasant normal stable gravity anticipation thought tongue writing thought context awareness past thought unpleasant gravity hunger doubt
Some of these notation labels will only make sense to a lucid dreamer, or may be peculiar to my own experience. For example "normal" or "stable" I note in direct contrast to the usually abnormal and unstable environment of the lucid dream. Gravity affects me strongly in shared reality, but only marginally in dreaming. In lucid dreams I don't have future planning thoughts other than the very next thing I plan to do. In dreaming, I don't have memory of what happened an hour ago. In shared reality, I do, and I call that context awareness. I have unpleasant vedana in shared reality, but in lucid dreaming, I have unbounded joy and optimism. I have only experienced unpleasant vedana in lucid dreaming when I have gotten myself trapped underground. I had several dreams like that (years ago) until I learned to let go of the fear those situations created in me, and to generate a positive experience in any confined space. Once I did that, release from that "trap" became both irrelevant and inevitable.
Noting broadly, I can pay attention simply to my mood or the general tone of my experience. If my mood feels "normal" and not joyously optimistic, then that differs from lucid dreaming. If I note "unpleasant", without an environmental or situational cause, then that differs from lucid dreaming.
This practice benefits me in the same way my mindfulness practice, or HAIETMOBA practice benefits me. It keeps me focused on present awareness of reality. It triggers a sense of fascination and wonderment as I note different perceptions and wonder how these perceptions might differ in the dream world. Does my visual peripheral field look the same in waking as in dreaming? I don't know. Do my ears ring in lucid dreaming? I don't know. I still need to improve my level of mindfulness in the dream world, and I can only do that by improving my mindfulness in the waking world. This practice opens my mind to look deeper and broader into my present experience, and notice more details.
Just my two cents, anyway. GY |