I would add also a relaxed, compassionate, open, and curious attitude.
Ive said it before and will say it again:
Sometimes the best way to achieve a desired Outcome is to Divorce yourself from Outcomes. I have noticed this with animal training and communication. (And I think we have all noticed this when going on a first date). Many animals (and people) can ‘smell’ an agenda from a mile away.
An open clear loving mind works wonders. Attachment to outcomes seems to greatly contract the mind.
If the practice didn’t go well, don’t feel discouraged or disappointed; this is part of the path.
Part of the path! He specifically wrote that. It’s an important message. Indeed, orienting too strongly on the results is undoubtedly a form of grasping!
Thats a big Sychronicity in my book, and I think maybe even a sign from the Buddha or God. Whenever the big synchs take place, its a sign for me to meditate on or pay very close to the essence of the message.
I had a short lucid dream this morning. This night I adopted the “set intent, forget it, and just let go and rest, let your mind/the universe do its thing” mindset. Not only did I have some interesting dream recall as a result, I got back to sleep after the 6 hour waking (almost always a challenge… it wasn’t fast but it was successful) and had a short lucid dream :).
Mark Gurriaran’s books have some very interesting content: (“The Illusion of Method”, and “Astral Projection Without Tears”), that embodies this “your conscious mind/ego is not responsible for your results, your nervous system (subconscious) is, so get the hell out of its way and let it do its thing” (my paraphrasing) approach.
I recommend these books. They’re short, inexpensive, and he makes a very convincing case for this approach. It’s not something new per se (“just relax”), but it is an interesting framing in the context of out of body experiences and lucid dreaming (and also just getting to sleep!), and he walks through the examples of various methods and deconstructs them to their core principles and shows that methods themselves can hinder more than help.
TIOM goes through the derivation of his approach, and APWT is an example practice embodying it. I found them very useful. Especially about how keeping past results (negative AND positive) in mind create mental tension / anxiety that interferes with achieving OBE/LD.
I absolutely tend to obsess on my LD frequency, and I now see that that very mindset is itself probably what is limiting me. Forget results/outcomes! Approach every night/experience as a newbie.
This clear light mind is already there in all of us, we just muddy the waters with thoughts, emotions, prejudices, and all other ‘fun’ mental activities…
Awesome to hear this! More big progress, I wonder if the Universe rewarded you 2x already for liberating yourself from the turkey farm…
Small synch, a dear friend of mine mentioned Astral Projection to me in the past 24 hours, I would love to pick her brains on the techniques and insights for this practice. @BlessingsDeers
Thank you for this, will add to my reading list. I actually bought some cheap ones from amazon and was disappointed in the authors works. Always looking for quality books and resources on this sacred topic.
In the TWR Bible New Testament (Second Edition), he gives a very powerful breathing exercise on page (35):
“Balancing the Prana”
This meditation/breathing exercise he gives is so simple, yet very powerful, here is a version I like:
(@_Barry do you have the link to the cartoon version of this exercise that Mary Ann has shared a few times during dream Sangha?)
At night, if you can, I highly recommend taking a shower before bed and doing a similar exercise in the shower, but by 'sucking" water into the nose (one nostril at a time and shooting it back out, to help cleanse the nasal passage from all the contaminants (pollen, mold, dirt, etc) you have breathed in during the day.
If you dont want to shower you can do it in a sink (1min mark):
You may often have a clog in one nostril or both. I have found a few min of doing this can often dislodge the clog and get the nose ready for the sacred practice.
Feels amazing when it clears. It can clear on its own too doing just the breathing technique, but often takes longer, and you have to relax into it.
After you get the physical clogs out, very important to get the energetic clogs out as well.
The other benefit of doing this before bed is you will be getting much more O2 while you breath during sleep, so your mind and body is much better oxygenated.
I had a several-hours stressful communication today (in waking life) with a person with whom I have a financial arrangement. While I certainly was lost in the story of that interaction and experienced the stress and frustration and anger even, now that it’s over I recognize all the internal turmoil I experienced was a dream, I feel calm and centered, and have re-connected with internal spaciousness. Thank you TWR!
In pre-TYoDaS times, I would have ruminated and fumed and boiled all the rest of the evening and undoubtedly all night about this.
More and more, I am missing that place less and less. At first the pull to keep checking it was strong (but I mostly resisted). Now…just 13 days into my “retreat”, I feel…liberated
This is the Miraculous power of TRUTH!!!
These realizations are such profound spiritual revelations
One of my favorite quotes from ‘Dr.’ Katie
Me as well, the world is an unjust place at times, and letting our 'Dream interpretation" of it run wild turns wake life into a Nightmare, sometimes a Nightmare that haunts us for an entire lifetime!
At this stage in life I would much rather be free. Thank you Brother for sharing this and your powerful dream, I was deeply moved by it.
Its almost like these amazing Synchs are trying to show us we are all less, separate, solid, lasting, and independant than we may seem…
That is a powerful quote! I see the wisdom of it now. Being “right” and “making people admit that my point is correct” were (are! I’m a work in progress!) powerful driving forces in my life. To what end? To what ultimate good? Satisfaction of the ego, recognition of being “better.” What empty, unsatisfying concepts. While the road to hell may be paved with good intentions, I think the residents are those who insisted on being “right” at all costs (and I believe hell is not a place of judgement, but a place of self-construction built by those who are there, a place of the results of self-separation). Pride is considered the most insidious of all the deadly sins for very good reason.
TWR:
When you abide in the peace of clear awareness, you can feel compassion for the attacker, you see the person is lost in their own dream. You can respond with care; you don’t need to win the disagreement. This is being aware in action, in behavior.
While I admit that my dreams tonight were colored by my daytime negative experiences, at least my sleep was relatively calm and I did not suffer unusual insomnia (just the typical awake at 6 hrs, recall dreams briefly journal key words, then…long back to sleep. But I did make it back to sleep, at least for a little while and one more [emotionally draining unfortunately] short dream).
Sunny day at the lake. Blue sky, clouds, sun on the water, water rippling slightly in the wind. More and more I’m finding it comfortable, natural, and exciting even, settling in to the groove of seeing all experience as the “luminous phenomena of a dream” (TYoDaS TWR p. 154). Dream sky, dream clouds, dream lake, dream trees… The people around are all dream characters … like me!
My entire experience consists of schema projected by my mind to appear like a 3D world “out there.”
