yes, and it also has high margins on top, which is great for writing my notes 
@Bucket did you read this post?
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Beautiful. The moment is perfect in itself,
Oh nice! I’ll have to skip a DnD session I think my players will understand though. I’ve really gotten a lot from Charlie’s book which I just finished today.
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Had a fun dream two nights ago. I was in an amusement park with a friend. We were searching for a girl that had gotten on a ride like a merry-go-round but that goes much faster. My friend gets on and as the ride starts it makes a chugging, diesel noise as it starts rotating. I can hear words in the noise, it sounds like “TATHAGATA BUDDHA” repeated again and again with each rotation of the ride. When I notice this my friend seems to notice too and shouts happily from the rise “It’s saying TATHAGATA BUDDHA! It’s saying TATHAGATA BUDDHA!”
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UAU! any highlights you wish to share?
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LD last night. Lot of excitement. I tell myself to calm down. Rub my arms to ground myself. The room I am in is dark. I shout “illuminate!” but nothing happens. I try it again, still nothing. I find a light switch and flip it, that doesn’t work either. A little frustrated I find a door and open it, the room beyond is illuminated with several different people in it. I remember my dream plan to talk to everyone I see to work with social anxiety and not knowing what to say when I talk to people. When I approach though, everybody but this one woman moves away. I go up to her however and start talking to her. Our convo is pretty shallow at first, but she starts talking to me about a master’s thesis she is writing about drainage (I think?). I think she’s talking about a building but she seems to be referring to it in regards to people.
I loose my lucidity after this I think as there is a scene shift and I’m on a road trying to calm down this guy standing next to a bus who is freaking out.
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That dream plan didn’t really go the way I was planning lol. Only got to talk to one person. Will try it again moving forward.
Some things that helped: WBTB (woke up did some work, studied some Greek, listened to a lucid dreaming podcast, meditated, then went back to bed), MILD, and a prayer to God that I would have a lucid dream.
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I really like the idea of writing out a dream plan and being very intentional what you want to do in your dream. It’s something I’ve been implementing. I also like his “Columbo method”. Taking time to investigate your reality, whether awake or sleeping. I’ve made it more of a habit to do this during the day. I also really appreciated his thoughts on using lucid dreaming for shadow work. That’s something I really want to do, I know I have a lot of purification to go through. I bought his book on the topic, Dreaming Through Darkness, and am making my way through it now.
The dreams he shares in the book are very inspirational. And the book has a lot of great quotes, like this one:
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this is SO COOL… I learned this with him and it worked (still works) really well with me!
My first super lucid dream happened thanks to Charlie and especially the dream plan which I was postponing, but in the middle of the night, I decided to do it and it materialized on that same night. This was life changing for me! I was registering my dreams since 2003 and I believe it also helped a LOT, but his techniques are VERY POWERFUL. It was with him that I also learned how to MILD 
it also worked very well because I already practice conscious breathing for years, so it was just adding some sentences that my heart felt resonance with.
love the quote also - and it’s aligned with the previous work I was doing for years now, without knowing that one day it would just trasnport me into super lucid dreaming 
thanks for sharing.
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that in itself could be a message for you.
if this was my lucid dream I would interpret it as focusing my social communication, and trusting what life brings on to me.
perhaps I would refine it to “What can I give in my social interaction with world?” or something like that…
In my lucid dreaming plans the results are very non-linear, but they are there…
example:
A lucid dream plan with the sankalpa “My feminine and masculine energies merge”
what happened in the dream was fascinating!.. My energetic arms moved to raise and then came to my heart, hands together.
When I woke up, I clearly felt that thanking for all in life was the way for my energies to unite inside. I’ve been practicing that and I still agree with that.
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Had a cool dream tonight. Background: I did an exercise from Dreaming Through Darkness yesterday answering questions like “What are you most ashamed of?” and “What do you hide from others?” to identify my shadow. During my first sleep cycle of the night I had the following vivid dream:
I’m with someone who I know is my father even though he doesn’t look like my father in the waking state. We are in a room with no floor, just the bare baseboard. We are tapping the floor in order to get a sense of what’s below in the basement. Eventually my father goes down in the basement and pokes a hole in the ceiling/ floor with the handle of a broom. The hole opens up so I can see below. I see an old computer printer. There is a book sitting in the printer tray. My dad says it’s a book written by this holy woman who died. I tell him that I would like to read the book. He says that we will have to read it in order to find out her last wishes, but that there is no rush.
Well that’s pretty clear even to me who doesn’t have much experience with dream interpretation. The basement is my unconscious. Tapping the floor was doing the exercise to identify my shadow. The opening of the floor is the revealing of the contents of my unconscious. The spiritual book is the spiritual treasure that lies in the unconscious for me to find. The person who wrote them is my soul, or anima in Jungian terms. There’s no need for me to rush to read them right away, it will all come in due time.
I am very grateful to my unconscious for sending me such a clear message of encouragement. I will continue doing shadow work to unveil these spiritual treasures. I love you, unconscious. 
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A-MA-ZING! 
Thanks for sharing.
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Yesterday I did an exercise to identify my golden shadow. Found it more difficult than identifying my dark shadow. Anyways last night I had this dream:
Last night I had a dream about being in a barber shop whose bathrooms had massive sinks for some reason (so big it was hard to spit into them). Anyways I’m hanging out there and this women hands me a book and tells me I can take it. I look at it, it’s a Penguin edition (I know this because it has the characteristic cream colored cover) of some medieval author, Jefry of Tula or something like that. Spelling it like I remember it being spelled in the dream. Don’t think it’s an actual medieval author. Anyways I open the book and skim it a bit (apparently I have no problem reading text in dreams) and I see a part where the author describes battling their demons. I thank the women and say that this book will be very helpful. We talk a bit, the Necronomicon comes up in the discussion for some reason in the context of the Greek language. The woman gives me her Bible too to keep. It’s a leather bound New Testament with buttons on the front cover. Some of the buttons look like they are attached with scotch tape. I’m a little overwhelmed that she’s giving me her Bible. I browse through it and don’t see any actual text, but I do see some pages with handwriting on them that looks like Greek declensions. I clearly remember seeing the genitive -ou ending.
Not sure exactly what this dream is supposed to mean. Perhaps that I will have what I need to live into an express my spiritual longings? Spirituality is a big part of my golden shadow.
Anyways feeling good about my path right now.
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I learned this with Charlie and do it, more or less, every three months. Last time I did it was this week too 
I do it together with the dark shadow and then merge them.
In this last time, my dark shadow was being dogmatic, the golden shadow had fierce compassion. pretty cool! When they merged together I felt a profound peace.
Would you like to receive feedback?
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Very cool. As a beginner to shadow work I’m curious what benefits you’ve noticed from the practice. I feel like it’s my path right now, I need to do a lot of cleaning up/ purification before I can go deeper into the spiritual life.
Wow! Hope to maybe do this someday. Is there a specific practice you work with to merge them? Was this in an LD or somewhere else?
Oh yes I’d welcome any thoughts you might have 
I want to get into working with dreams in this way more. I’m reading Inner Work by Robert Johnson at the moment to learn how to interpret dreams better, I really love this approach. Seeing dreams as a conversation between you and your unconscious. I’m appreciating my dreams a lot more, not just the lucid ones,
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this is really the best… I do notice that even when a dream seems to be very distant (not vivid - almost like a faraway impression) or with very few details, when I register them… ping! consciousness drops 
I have also noticed that when I wake up and sing, other parts of dreams pop up, and I delight myself in discovering what you mention - conversation between me and the unconscious.
what is the key for that, according to the author? for me, it’s experience (having a dream diary) and allowing sometimes time to do its work - what might not make sense today, after some weeks or months awakes something inside with crystal clear insights what i also love with this practice is to notice how so many dreams are indeed premonitory. Also the lucid dreams are often premonitory, and I only discovered that by having a file with them - and looking at them after some months.
Yes. I learned this with Charlie.
It’s a meditation where:
- you identify in your body where your black shadow is and let it come out into your left side;
- you give hand (if it has a hand, if not, just connect deeply with it, accepting this part of you) with that part of you, and sense what energy it is, checking all the details you can, so that you bring consciousness into this part of you - all feelings are welcome here, to help you embody this part of you;
- you identify in your body where your golden shadow is, and let it come out into your right side;
- you give hand with that part of you, and sense what energy it is, checking all the details you can, so that you bring consciousness into this part of you - again, all feelings are welcome here, to help you embody this part of you;
- you invite those parts to go to your front, and they turn to each other;
- they merge;
- when they merge, they come back to your body in full embodiment and awareness.
I do it lying down, eyes closed (with a meditative music in the background). Never happened on a LD… but you never know… it’s possible
Self-acceptance, more aware of what I can improve (shadow aspect) and what I can empower in myself (Golden aspect); healing (I do feel this simple exercise helps me to heal deep stuff - in several traditions it is said that “When you name it, you heal it”); stimulates my creativity; helps me to relax with who I am; I love myself more (even in the most challenging moments, because I am used to acknowledge that I’m human); I can see my evolution, as well where I am at in this moment; more lucidity in life (daytime and night); lightness (I used to this only with a therapist to find out that it can be done just like this, and it’s equally effective); gives me true elegance in life - AH on his new book “I am mindful, now what”, page 57 quoted Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche “Elegance is life without complaint” and then he completes “Elegance is therefore life fully embodied”, which is something this practice gives you. I could go on, but I think you got the picture… if not, please let me know!
And it gets even better when I share about this - having shared this with you the other day, gave me extra awareness during the day 
I was even in a situation where there was someone with an attitude that inspired me to be fiercely compassionate and it was amazing!
have you tried Reverse Meditation? This sure helps a LOT
I have some ingredients for you to cook on your Golden Shadow.… hihihi
you have something inside that you want to “spit” - expression.
your openness to do shadow work is one part of your golden shadow - bravery and depth.
you deserve this - worthiness.
knowledge and wisdom.
knowledge from the past.
grace. you be and it comes to you magnetic divine force
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this work is explained in other terms in this excellent video:
“where is the deity in the fragments?”
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Which one?
LOVE his work, and all the serious dreamers I follow have spoken very highly of him.
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This is the one I am reading now too, have not finished yet, but very impressed with what I read.
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Great Mind thinks a like my friend, I was thinking the author of the book might be your Anima as well.
Would also add this quote from Master H’s teacher. who said something like:
‘The bad news is there is no way out
the good news is: there is a way in.:’
Andrew mentions this quote in the interview that @BlessingsDeers posted with the Astrology Guy. If you have not watched it, I would HIGHLY recommend it!
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So as some of you have already saw I’ve returned. Been having a hard time recently and I’ve let is be an excuse to stop practicing. First my dog got sick in the beginning of October and almost died. he pulled through but then my grandfather got sick and died. Then there was the US election. Donald Trump ran on a campaign of lies, fearmongering and hatred. Among the people he targeted with his hatred are members of the LGBTQ+ community. He fed into conspiracy theories about trans people and incited hatred and prejudice against them. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community I dread him being in power again. Republicans have already started celebrating by passing discriminatory laws against trans people. There was one passed here in Ohio recently. And we aren’t going to be able to get rid of him in 4 years. Trump has made it clear he is going to ignore any constitutional limits to his power.
Now recently my dog had to go to the hospital again and passed away and I’m dealing with a complicated mix of sadness, despair, anxiety and loss of hope. I’ve been reflecting however how much opportunity there is in adversity to make spiritual progress. Jeremiah was one of the greatest prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures- he saw his home invaded by the Babylonians and all the people forcibly relocated to Babylon. Epictetus was a slave and beaten so hard by his master that he limped in later life. He became one of the wisest Stoic philosophers that ever lived. Milarepa was treated like a slave by his aunt and uncle, his land stolen after his father died. He became one of the greatest Buddhist saints. Black Elk witnessed his people being massacred and their livelihood and way of life being taken away. Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi and several other Hindu saints saw the horrors of the British Raj. Today, many Tibetan monks still practice under the oppressive Chinese Communist government. I think if these great saints could handle the challenges they faced during their own times, I can handle Donald Trump, and the other stuff going on in my life right now.
Times of anxiety should not be an excuse to stop practice. That’s what I have been doing though. The urge to drown myself in video games and tv shows is strong. I took about a two month break with meditation. Haven’t been doing any dream practices for longer than that. I’ve decided that I’ve had enough though and I need to return to my spiritual roots. What else can anchor me during such times of anxiety like this? The world is getting more unsafe, people are feeling more hopeless. Suicide hotlines are receiving as many calls in a month as they usually receive in a year. People are hurting. If this isn’t a time to practice, when is? All the things we hoped will keep us safe are being stripped away and more and more the impermanence of this world is being laid bare. What better time to practice than right now, when so many of the things we fear have become more possible?
So I’m rededicating myself to my practice in general, and dream practices specifically. I actually have been doing some dream practices- I’ve been exploring dream interpretation a la Jung these past few months. I mean to continue with that- I like how it honors all dreams for the messages they contain instead of dismissing non lucid dreams like so much lucid dreaming literature does. I will also start my lucidity practices up again.
I actually had a lucid dream yesterday. Weird since I haven’t been practicing lucidity for about 3 months. The dream was so strange though I couldn’t help but recognize it as a dream. Will share it below in more detail.
Just wanted to write this up and let you all know why I was away and that I’m back. Thanks for reading this everyone.
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Capturing a dream on video
12/3/24
I’m wandering through a house. Crazy unusual stuff is happening all around me. I open a cupboard and something strange comes out. I see a cat jump across my vision and pieces of grass follow it and catch up with it and merge with its fur. I find some people, they give me a mug of something hot to drink. I know I am in a dream. I decide what I want to do with this dream, but just decide to go with the flow. Some music starts up, I am in a room with a bunch of people. The people start singing, harmonizing with each other. I sing along with them, anxious that I might be off key but I harmonize with them perfectly. I lose myself to the music, dancing along with all of them. We rise up in the air as we sing.
I wake up. I hear the music coming from my voice recorder (the one I use to record my dreams). I see a video of my dream on the voice recorder’s little screen. It’s the part of the dream where I’m walking through a house and odd things are happening around me, like grass merging with the cat’s fur. I’m flabbergasted and say “What’s going on?” really loudly. My mom hears and asks what’s up. I show her the video and she watches it. “I took a video of my dream somehow” I tell her. My mom tells me that that is nice. I contemplate sharing the video with some of my friends and how amazed they will be. Then I really wake up with my voice recorder right next to me.
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