Hello, fellow lucid dreamers!
First, i would like to congratulate you for this nice, information-packed forum. I’m sure it has helped many people attain lucidity.
Second, i would like to tell you why i’m here…and that is…i have some questions
I first heard about lucid dreaming six months ago. Since then i’ve been on and off in my quest for lucidity. I had reached a point where i would have 5 LDs a week if i was really trying. However now i am obsessed with a certain idea…
It all started one day this winter when i decided to really think ONLY of lucid dreaming.I soon discovered that i couldn’t, and that my mind would soon start to drift off. I know what you’re thinking…“it’s called lack of concentration”…but it was a big thing for me to really be conscious of it. I realised that i couldn’t hold a thought for very long time and that the mind is somewhat “slippery”
I also realised that somehow the way our mind (more specifically our innerdialogue) manifest itself is very similar to how dreams manifest themself.It’s like we’re dreaming throughout our whole day, and the way thoughts form out of nothing (having no link to what’s happening NOW) is very similar to how dreams are born…random stimuli from the unconscious.I know what you’re saying…“that’s the whole point of Yoga”…but i have studied very little of Yoga and once again it was a big discovery for me.
From that point on, i read some Carlos Castaneda books and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and there you have it…I’m now obsessed with the idea of INNER SILENCE…stopping your inner dialogue.
It’s like a much more difficult quest than lucid dreaming and a much more elusive one…and that’s why i’m kind of depressed. I also have a feeling that it is in strong connection with LDing.
Does anybody here have the same problem as me? Did you travel this path? Do you know somedy who did? Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated… I know that Yoga deals with this problem but Yoga is a much bigger subject to tackle…I would very much like specific ideas or exercises…
Thank you!
I know what you’re saying and how hard it can be. I’m guessing that you’re introverted, which can make it even harder to stop that internal dialogue. (My assumption is based on that both lucid dreaming and inner silence are explorations inside yourself, which is almost always an indication of introversion.)
I have been trying to attain this too, with little progress so far. It’s much like meditation, it seems impossible to focus on one thing without focusing on focusing on that thing. (Did ya get all that?!)
I’ll be watching this topic too for any suggestions from people who have mastered this.
Have you read “Practicing the Power of Now” by Tolle? It’s a small book full of practical tips and suggestions as how to come in touch with your inner silence, the Now. But basically you have to try to observe your thoughts and emotions. Instead of identifying yourself with them, try to observe from a deeper layer of awareness. Don’t think, but witness yourself thinking “from above”. Don’t feel your emotions, but witness yourself feeling your emotions. The critical point is not to judge your thoughts and emotions, but let them pass through you. If they become repetitive as a result of that, just let them be that way, as long as you keep a distance as much as possible. I’m not a master in this technique. Not by far. But with a little practice of trying to witness your thoughts and emotions, you should sense there’s a deeper layer of consciousness hidden beneath the surface layer of chaotic thinking and emotional patterns. One thing which helped me is paying attention to what you’re doing Now. If you’re waiting for a bus, don’t let your thoughts wander away, but concentrate on how you are Now. Feel your feet touching the ground; feel the wind blowing against your face; feel the rough structure of your clothes pressing against your body; try to see the instantness of the visuals you’re seeing; try to hear the instantness of the sounds you’re hearing; become aware of your whole body as a whole entity being there at that place, at that moment. You’re not in the past, nor in the future, but you Are standing there Now. Try to observe this Being again without judging; it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work, as long as you keep focussed on the instant moment of you being there by trying to extrapolate the conditioned notion of time to the timeless Now of that moment. Don’t fight your thoughts or emotions, but observe them. I think that’s the important key here. Once you get along with that, the thinking patterns will dissolve naturally with practice and patience. But once you’re trying to shut down your mind actively by using mental force, you’ll only get the opposite result.
Hope this helped
I’ll have to check out that book, it sounds a lot like my philosophy about the body. I always consider myself completely separate from my body, and even if that’s not true, it has enabled me to fight through pain and accomplish amazing physical feats. Maybe it’s the same with the mind. But what am I then if not my body nor my mind?
Your body and mind are certain aspects of Yourself, but you can never reduce Yourself to one or both of them. You’re far more than that. One way to see them is to consider your body and mind as dense vehicles which enable you to go from A to B in life. With every new step, they facilitate a new step in the deepening of your consciousness (if conditions let it happening) until the point where you realize that all this evolution was in fact an necessary illusion to make you become aware of something that already is. The body is only the physical manifestation of your infinite consciousness, which at this stage of human evolution, is largely accompanied with a rational mind. Therefore, in the end it is essential to stop your identification with your body and mind and to reach for deeper layers of awareness. That doesn’t mean you have to reject your body and mind. No, you have to integrate them in the bigger, deeper structure of your being. If necessary, you can always reach back for primal instincts or random thoughts, emotions, but there’s no identification anymore with them. You use them, but only from a deeper observational point of view, because you Know you’ve reached a deeper awareness, and you Know you’re more than those random thoughts or primal instincts alone. In the same way you keep preserving your body as the vehicle to live this life, so you never stop eating or anything once you don’t identify yourself anymore as being that body eating its necessary food. And that subtle, but immensely deep, shift of awareness makes a whole difference…
fflarex: yes, i am introverted, but not a very good one
sircle: thanks for the site. I’ll check it out!
mystic: great advice!! I haven’t read “Practicing the Power of Now”, just “The Power of Now”. Eckhart Tolle was preety lucky to have this happen to him that night. He didn’t practice it or tried to attain it. That’s why i don’t know if you can achieve this through practice or if it comes down to something else…The desire to attain a wanted state in the near future(through practicing) is also a function of the mind.
I,too, believe that body and mind are extensions of our deeper selves and we should use them as tools and not let them dominate us.
