Distracted By Dream Recall During Anapanasati

jim bracken, modified 7 Years ago at 6/25/16 3:49 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/25/16 3:49 PM

Distracted By Dream Recall During Anapanasati

Post: 1 Join Date: 6/23/16 Recent Posts
Looking for advice on a concentration problem I have. Once I really get focused on sensation at lip/nostril area I start spontaneously remembering little snippets of dreams and usually the memories are strong and bizarre enough to stop my concentration. It's surprising because I usually don't remember my dreams when I wake up. I get drowsy quite a bit in meditation and it is really screwing up any progress toward absorption - which I have yet to experience despite 5+ years of regular if not daily practice. I sleep through the the night and take naps and I don't think sleep is a problem. I'm wondering if depression/antidepressants are the issue. I take 20mg of Paxil daily and I'm not a very functional (or nice) person without it. Is there a known difficulty for depressive people getting into absorption?
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Noah, modified 7 Years ago at 6/26/16 11:28 AM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/26/16 11:28 AM

RE: Distracted By Dream Recall During Anapanasati

Posts: 1467 Join Date: 7/6/13 Recent Posts
Use mental labels on the distraction.
C P M, modified 7 Years ago at 6/26/16 6:25 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/26/16 6:24 PM

RE: Distracted By Dream Recall During Anapanasati

Posts: 218 Join Date: 5/23/13 Recent Posts
Hi Jim

Welcome to the forum.

For the remembering snippets of dreams, the usual advice for distractions is to notice it and return back to the meditation object.

I don’t typically remember dream segments during meditation, but I do remember things that I haven’t thought about in decades. My theory is that during meditation, sometimes I encounter emotional states that I haven’t encountered in a while, usually various flavours of relaxation that I haven’t experienced in a long time. Those emotional tones provide a context, and a memory will pop up from a time that I had the same emotional tone – often from a very long time ago.

In your case, I wonder if your drowsiness is providing a context for your memories of dream segments.

Overcoming dullness\drowsiness is one of the developmental milestones for concentration meditation. Culadasa discusses it thoroughly in his book, “The Mind Illuminated”. It’s discussed more briefly here: http://dharmatreasure.org/wp-content/uploads/LightOnMeditationHandout.pdf

I wouldn’t think this has anything to do with Paxil.

Do you get drowsy at other times in the day? You mention you take naps.
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SeTyR ZeN, modified 7 Years ago at 6/26/16 7:00 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 6/26/16 7:00 PM

RE: Distracted By Dream Recall During Anapanasati

Posts: 113 Join Date: 9/9/14 Recent Posts
Hi Jim,

i also regularly recalled dream snippets while meditating, just after accessing a good focus, and it has been even stranger , for a period, i started recalling them from the most recent to the oldest dreams of a serie of dreams i had in a period spanning 3-4 years before, when i was quite depressed;

I first started grasping on them for several month, as if it was some important piece of information to meditate on .. i found it went nowhere but in circle, growing stronger;

Then i switched to what C P M advices, just letting them be recalled without givin in in any of what it could provoke in me, just aknowledging and getting back naturally on focus as soon as possible after notice.  Thats when i started recalling them from the most recent to the oldest ... and then i seems i was done,  i haven't had a recall for month now, and manage now to meditate uninterrupted by this ;

I hope this can confort you  

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