Meditation and dreaming
There are many immediate benefits to daily meditation. Stress reliever, lower blood pressure, decrease body tension, this list goes on and on. I find the more profound benefits are the realized awareness in the various states we experience. There are three that we are aware of in a general sense. The gross, subtle, and casual. Some correlate these to body, mind, and soul/spirit. The gross state is the waking state. The state you are in as you read this and the state I am in as I write this. The subtle state is the dreaming state. Day dreaming, early morning dreaming. Then there is the casual state which is the deep sleep state. There is a believed fourth state called the non dual where subject and object are simply "not two". This last state floats around in a land of paradoxes and while there is much to be said about it I particularly want to talk about the subtle state because of how it effects my dreams.
My dreams seem to have entered a sort of pre-lucidity. Whenever I dream my awareness seems to be the subject. They "eyes" which I view the dream through so to speak. Up until about 3 months ago the vast majority of my dreams seemed like movies or picture shows going on in my head and I was the captive viewer sitting on the couch in my mind. I couldn't control what was happening on screen and the only way to not watch was to wake up.
Since I've started meditating I've managed to get up off the couch and crawl into the story that my mind is creating. I have started to become more conscious of the subtle state. This doesn't seem like full blown lucid dreaming yet because I'm not really controlling my dreaming actions. I'm just experiencing them in a more fully aware fashion. The decisions that are going on within the framework of my dreaming perception seem more like thoughts originating from within me instead of some detached subject.
This awareness comes and goes and it seems to correlate to the frequency of my meditation. If I meditate for a few days in a row the awareness will come and if I stop I will slowly strap myself back to the couch.
At about 4am this morning I woke up on a real couch in my living room. I very vaguely remember waking up from my bed a few hours earlier to go to the kitchen. I must not have made it. I haven't meditated since last Thursday.
-May polka dotted snowflakes cover your village.
My dreams seem to have entered a sort of pre-lucidity. Whenever I dream my awareness seems to be the subject. They "eyes" which I view the dream through so to speak. Up until about 3 months ago the vast majority of my dreams seemed like movies or picture shows going on in my head and I was the captive viewer sitting on the couch in my mind. I couldn't control what was happening on screen and the only way to not watch was to wake up.
Since I've started meditating I've managed to get up off the couch and crawl into the story that my mind is creating. I have started to become more conscious of the subtle state. This doesn't seem like full blown lucid dreaming yet because I'm not really controlling my dreaming actions. I'm just experiencing them in a more fully aware fashion. The decisions that are going on within the framework of my dreaming perception seem more like thoughts originating from within me instead of some detached subject.
This awareness comes and goes and it seems to correlate to the frequency of my meditation. If I meditate for a few days in a row the awareness will come and if I stop I will slowly strap myself back to the couch.
At about 4am this morning I woke up on a real couch in my living room. I very vaguely remember waking up from my bed a few hours earlier to go to the kitchen. I must not have made it. I haven't meditated since last Thursday.
-May polka dotted snowflakes cover your village.