Q+A w/Andrew | 84 | October 7, 2022



Q+A w/Andrew | 84 | October 7, 2022

Questions submitted in advance:

  • Seeing emptiness directly, the first bhumi is a shift in consciousness, direct recognition that all appearances are mind? Do the short instances of recognition of the nature of mind during pointing out directions and self-inquiries during meditation eventually lead to this shift or is it a big shift that happens all at once? Does this shift happen for many students or is it rare?

  • Do you have experience with “dreaming” and “dreamless sleep” in meditation? Not in dream yoga, but in sitting meditation.

  • Yesterday President Biden said we are closer to nuclear Armageddon than we have ever been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. I also heard children in Kiev go to school in bomb shelters and are terrified of the nuclear attack they expect to come. The world may be illusory, but the suffering is real. How can we respond to this with an open heart? What are the best prayers for a situation like this. I was a teenager during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I was scared. I’m not scared for myself now, but I worry where this will lead the world, and how much suffering will follow.

  • Hi Andrew, I really feel an attraction or calling to Dream Yoga as my Spiritual Path and I know that you said that to be successful with Dream Yoga we need to be able to do Lucid Dreaming. From what I have learned so far I am trying to work with these factors to induce Lucid Dreams: 1) Intention, 2) Journaling (for recall) 3) Meditation Practice,4) Daily Reality Testing, 5) Occasional use of Galantamine tablets (4mg), and also 6) Books,Videos, Workshops and programs such as this to saturate my Mind with the topic. Is that pretty much it, or am I missing anything else you can think of or suggest? I have experienced 5 Lucid Dreams in just over a month which seems to be an improvement over my previous frequency. Of course I want to keep improving. Thank you so much for your help and guidance on the topic of Dream Yoga!

  • We suffer because we imagine that reality has qualities that it hasn’t (permanence, solidity etc).
    In Tibetan Buddhism we use imagination as skillful means (visualization of deities, channels etc) to alleviate suffering.
    It works, but how replacing one imagination with another can also lead to a clear perception, realization?

  • Hello Andrew! I was ordained a Taoist monk some 30 years ago. However, dream yoga is something new to me. I am struggling with the idea of repeating “this is a dream” and doing reality checks at the same time. It seems that by doing a check I am confirming that I may not be in a dream which negates assuming that I am in a dream. Said another way reality checks interrupt the state of being of believing you are in a dream. If I believe I am in a dream why would I check to see if I was or not? Transcend and include or “this is like a dream?”

  • For some time, I’m pondering:
    if unconscious habits (karma) create non-lucid dreams and in lucid dreams, our actions and intentions create karma like in our physical reality, what if……
    If time doesn’t really exist (Carlo Rovelli) and the World doesn’t exist (Markus Gabriel), what if Karma ‘creates’ space and time? Or what else do you think ‘constructs’ our illusion?

2 Likes

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Hey Alyssa,

I believe this is Q&A 84 not 83. Please double check.

Thanks,
Braddon

Fixed that!
Thanks for your help!