Nutritionial advice for lucid dreamers, from the Dalai lama

Quest for Lucidity
1

This is a Quote from the dalai lama quoted in Sleeping, Dreaming and Dying, ed Francisco Varela, p 129

"Different factors are involved in the ability to recognize the dream as dream. One is diet. Specifically, your diet should be compatible with your own metabolism.

For example, in Tibetan medicine, one speaks of three elements: wind, bile, and phlegm. One or more of these elements are predominant in some people. You should have a diet that helps to maintain the balance among these various humors within the body.

Moreover, if your sleep is too deep, your dreams will not be very clear. In order to bring about clearer dreams and lighter sleep, you should eat somewhat less. In addition, as you’re falling asleep, you direct your awareness up to the forehead.

On the other hand, if your sleep is too light, this will also act as an obstacle for gaining success in this practice. In order to deepen your sleep, you should take heavier, oilier food; and as you’re falling asleep, you should direct your attention down to the vital energy center at the level of the navel or genitals.

If your dreams are not clear, as you’re falling asleep you should direct your awareness to the throat center."

(thank you to Mary Pat Mann!)

This is interesting, as I lately have taken the habit of falling asleep with my hands on my belly.

This illustrates how things work differently for every dreamer. I hope you are going to experiment with this and post the results here :smile:

Q

2

Very cool, I am going to try this, I think I tend to be a heavy sleeper.

3

I know the quote. Got the book. (in Dutch, by the way :smile: )

It is very interesting though to think on how food influences one’s sleep and thereby one’s dreams. And how drinking influences dreaming, for that matter. I find alcohol doesn’t do a lot of good for dreaming, which might not come as a surprise. On the other hand: drinking a lot of non-alcoholic beverages can make me go to the toilet a lot at night, which sometimes works as a WBTB.

But of course this is not what the Dalai Lama is talking about. It think it makes sense also from a western point of view that if you’ve had a lot to eat this might not feel comfortable. Same with any meal that may be difficult to digest. It makes some sense to me that if one falls asleep not feeling entirely comfortable, it is more difficult for the dreaming mind to become clear and lucid. In a way the mind then is too distracted to have the clarity to become lucid. I think…

4

Great! I’m going to center my awareness to my throat so I can remember my dreams better.

5

Interesting. I think he is talking about the Chakras (forehead=cosmic chakra) but interesting. Glad to know the Dalai Lama is interesed in LDs.

6

I’m going to eat a bit less tonight.

7

erm… how does one know if they have a predominance of bile?

8

I have to admit that after drinking some alcohol (say 2 or 3 bottles of 33 cl each) I still have lucid dreams the morning after… Perhaps even more so then normally. I usually sleep a little less well when I’ve been drinking. I wake up more frequently and maybe that’s what makes it easier to have WBTB’s.
I don’t know what would happen after drinking a lot of alcohol because I don’t do that.

9

Is it this book?
do’nt mind the weird description about the Message Passing Interface I guess…

Or are there other/better (dutch) versions?
If anyone knows, thanks in advance.

10

Yeah, that’s it.

The description does not really match the content of the book… AT ALL.

The Dutch title is: “Slapen, Dromen en Sterven, een onderzoek naar het bewustzijn met Z.H. De Dalai Lama”, ISBN 90-71886-12-3

I found it to be really interesting. It says a lot about how Tibetan Buddhism regards consciousness in relation to sleeping, (lucid) dreaming and dying.

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Thanks for your reply, the description got me a bit confused, but now I know it is the right one. :smile: