Simplicity
March 10, 2007 8:23 pm
Simplicity Blossoms When Coercion Dies
Govern a state with predictable actions.
Fight a war with surprise attacks.
But the universe becomes ours
only by eliminating coercive acts.
By not doing, nothing lacks.
How do we know these lessons?
By tuning into our Essence.
The more taboos and prohibitions there are,
the poorer the people become.
The more deadly weapons there are,
the more our fears turn us numb.
When craftiness spreads far,
the more bizarre what is done,
The stricter the laws there are,
the less the robbers run.
Therefore, the wise know
to make no one a foe.
The less coercing we do,
The more tranquilities grow.
When harmony reigns,
and we rule ourselves with felicity,
everyone gains,
and we’ll all live in simplicity.
Tao Te Ching
Lao-tzu (abt.551-479 BCE)
verse 57 as translated by Ralph Alan Dale 2002 ISBN 0-7607-4998-1
via mindfully.org.
Lucid dreaming for dummies
March 9, 2007 3:01 pm
The art of lucid dreaming is all about waking up inside your dream, becoming conscious that you’re dreaming and realizing that you are in control of what is created. My own lucid dreams are relatively infrequent… about once every two months, but when they happen, I love to take off flying.
Lucid dreaming takes a bit more work than dream recall.
Critical State Testing
One method to wake up in dreams is to ask yourself if you’re dreaming or not. To do this you need to build up the habit while you are awake.
Pick 5-10 occasions during the day to ask yourself “Am I dreaming or awake, right now?”. Make sure you stop and become intently aware of your surroundings. Look carefully for oddities or inconsistencies. Think back to events of the last several minutes. Do you have any trouble remembering what just happened?
Be careful not to just answer to yourself, “of course I’m awake” without thinking about it, otherwise in your dream… you may do exactly the same.
Scheduling time for lucid dreaming
Another step is raise your awareness before you dream. Here is a technique:
- Set your alarm to awaken 2-3 hours earlier than usual, then go to bed at the normal time.
- When alarm goes off, get out of bed immediately. Stay away for 2-3 hours.
- A half-hour before returning to sleep, think about what to accomplish in lucid dream: where to go, who to see, what to do.
- Return to sleep in an undisturbed place, keeping your intention focused on having a lucid dream as you fall asleep.
- Give yourself at least 2 hours to dream.
Dream analysis 101
March 8, 2007 2:35 pm
Okay, here is my quick and dirty Jungiang Dream Interpretation guide. Brace yourself.
There are 3 elements to Jungian dream interpretation:
- Dream Details.
Record as closely as you can the exact details of the dream. Events, emotions, anything out of the ordinary, anything that stands out. Not just the object in the dream, but also the distortions on the object. - Personal, cultural, and archetypal associations.
Gather your associations of your dream details, starting with what symbols mean to you personally, and then what they mean to you culturally, and finally what they mean on an archetypal level (in that order). - Put it in context.
Place the dream and associations in the context of the dreamer’s current life situation. As a general rule, if you already know what the dream seems to be saying, then you have missed its meaning.
There you go. That’s it. I said it would be quick and dirty, didn’t I? It’s not rocket science.
Where do dreams come from?
March 7, 2007 2:26 pmRecent theories postulate that dreams often stem from worries or emotionally charged problems that are unresolved when you go to sleep. The dream process helps to break down the emotional charge so you the following day you can devote your energy to… uncovering new problems and worries!
This is slightly different to Freud’s theory that dreams have latent meanings; instead, your dream comes from your conscious introspections instead of your ’subconscious infantile impulses’ (if you have such a thing). Also, your dreams aren’t disguised or distorted wishes - they are just your senses replaying unexpressed emotions that have aroused from your day.
On another interesting note, your beliefs about how your dreams are structured and what they mean may actually effect HOW you dream. If you read up on Freudian dream analysis, your dreams are more likely to fit Freud’s theory. If instead, you’re a believer of Jung’s interpretation methods… then your dreams will adapt accordingly.
Either way, the more you recall and analyze your dreams, the easier they become to understand.
Dream recall
March 6, 2007 1:51 pm
Having trouble remembering your dreams? Here is what you do:
- Get a private dream journal and keep it next to your bed.
- Before falling asleep, repeat to yourself (at least 10 times) a positive intention to remember your dreams. For example: “I remember my dreams with ease, and write them down as I awake.“
- First thing in the morning, as you awake, lie still. (Yes, this is difficult with an alarm clock.)
- There is a period between when you end dreaming and when you awake, where you are conscious but still have access to your dream memory. Think up 3 key words to describe your dream.
- When you awake, write down the key words before anything else.
- Next, write down your dream in a much detail as possible including anything you remember - most importantly how you felt and anything out of the ordinary.
The longer you do this, the better you get. Practice, patience and intention. Everyone dreams every night. Except possibly when there is a lot of alcohol… I find that drastically interferes with my dreaming process. Which is probably why I don’t drink much. I like my dreams.
I must be dreaming
March 5, 2007 11:28 amDreams are a beautiful thing. Half our life we run around in a dream world, half asleep, running away from something or plagued by problems we don’t understand. Then we wake up, and keep doing the same thing.
My interest in dreams boils down to three things:
- Dream Recall (remembering our dreams)
- Dream Analysis (understanding what our dreams are about)
- Lucid Dreaming (becoming conscious as we dream)
Dream recall is the first stepping stone to any dream work. Everybody dreams, whether they think they do or not. Being able to remember your dreams is possible for everyone, it just takes some practice, intention and patience.
Once you can remember your dreams, then you can look for useful symbols and patterns that uncover problems in your life that you might not be aware of, as well as a source of creative insight on ways you might approach these unresolved issues.
Lucid Dreaming is taking control of your dreams while you are dreaming… a tool where you can both embrace your problems and create situations that you wish to be in… like the ultimate vacation. Too bad it only lasts until you wake up.
Dreaming
March 4, 2007 9:37 am
I like to dream. I even like to dream that I’m dreaming. During the day, I look for hidden opportunities, like riding the tube, where I can doze off and discover a delightful dream. Only when I dream, I try to become lucid and awake, so I can be aware of what’s going on.
I know you think this topic will put you to sleep, and you wish I would pick something else.
Dream on.
Five senses plus four more
March 2, 2007 10:36 am
At the core of Vipassana is understanding the impermanence of all things. Everything we know, we experience within the body as a sensation, either as a subtle vibration of awareness, or through our senses. Everything we experience arises within us, and then passes away.
Our obvious senses include sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch.
According to wikipedia, our senses also include:
Thermoception - the sense of heat or the absence of it (cold)
Nociception - physiological pain (in our skin, joints and organs)
Equilibrioception - our perception of balance
Proprioception - our kinesthetic sense - our body awareness
What about our thoughts? Are a thoughts one of our senses? Or are they a product of a different sensation? They’re certainly something I experience… and something I can even influence occasionally.
Dissolving pain
March 1, 2007 4:44 pm
I have experienced two 10-day Vipassana retreats.
During my second retreat, I had an amazing insight into the power of the meditation. (I’m a slow learner.) One of the objectives behind Vipassana is to dissolve pain by observing it in the present moment and accepting what is. When we are aware of the internal resistance we are creating, we can stop the cycle of craving or aversion that creates pain within us.
At these retreats, around the fourth day, they start these sittings where you are expected to sit still for the entire hour. For a guy like me, who doesn’t sit on the floor often, my back starts aching after about 10 minutes. In my first retreat, I never quite made it a full hour without adjusting my back.
The second time around, and something stupid came over me - I resolved to sit still for a full hour. My back was killing me, but I continued to meditate without moving. I could barely focus on anything except for the sharp feeling in my back, which, by the way, felt like an army of four year olds scratching chalkboards. I forced myself to sit through it. Masochistic? Probably.
And then the most curious thing happened. The pain… dissolved. It went from feeling completely unbearable to feeling like any other sensation on my body. It didn’t cause me any more anguish. What I found really peculiar was that those same sharp fingernail on chalkboard sensations were there… they just didn’t hurt. They didn’t distract me. They felt as painful as my pillow.
That’s when the practice of Vipassana became clear to me, and what they mean about using awareness to dissolve your pain. The physical sensation, even if uncomfortable, is not what I thought was the pain. The true source of pain is something I don’t think I could have understood before I experienced it.
I have started noticing where in my life I am resisting what is, and how I am reacting to situations. It is not just physical pain, but can be found anywhere - arguments, laziness, frustration, boredom, apathy, and probably a million other places.
Practicing Vipassana
February 28, 2007 8:30 am
Vipassana meditation is pretty straight-forward. At the retreat, you start working with your breath, and progress to passing your awareness through your body.
The rough guide to Vipassana is:
- Awareness of breath (paying attention to your breathing).
- Focusing your breath awareness onto a smaller and smaller point at the base of your nose.
- Passing that same awareness slowly over the surface of your entire body, starting with your head, arms, chest, back, legs and then back up to the head.
- Sweeping your awareness over the surface of your body.
- Passing your awareness through (inside) your body.
- Becoming aware of your entire body simultaneously.
All this is done while trying to remain as an objective observer. This would be dead easy, but unfortunately, minds like mine like to run wild… much of the meditation is just recognizing that thoughts are popping into our head, accepting that this is happening and returning our awareness to the practice.
I never knew how much my mind had a mind of its own until my first retreat.
