7 Things you can do during dream yoga

As you explore astral dreaming, you may decide to experiment with dream yoga. If you hesitate, then you may wonder whether this is for you or, whether you do it already. On your journey to the next level, you have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Tibetans describe dream yoga as the original or basic state of lucid dreaming. They are historic masters at awakening their consciousness during dreams. Astral projecting is when you become aware of an out-of-body experience (OBEs). As you gain more conscious control of OBEs, you can become lucid.

Many methods exist to discipline the mind, deliberately induce OBEs and lucidity. As you contemplate whether this experience would appeal, or select among ones to share as comments, consider five things you can learn to do during dream yoga;

1) Manifest physical things-Based on your perception, you create external, objective physical things, and the internal, subjective physical things. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations are the external or objective physical things. The five base senses are the subjective of internal physical things.

2) Discriminate among feelings& shift recognition. You choose to experience positive, negative or indifferent energy. Then, you shift to identify particular things. This mental recognition exercise moves from unconscious to conscious. You bring the process to the surface and become observer.

3) Explore different planes. You visualize a particular place in all its detail and go there, whether you have heard of it and visited there before or whether your imagination conjured an image from somewhere.  Your mind sharpens the texture.

4) Dialogue with enlightened beings- You interact with beings of higher awareness on dream planes and different levels of awareness.  You  only release what you learn into conscious awareness when these beings sense you are ready.

5) Meet with other sentient beings- When you mobilize your mind, you can actually intend to meet other sentient beings in designated places. That is, while your physcial body is at rest, your astral body can be directed elsewhere. Its also possible to explore other dimensions, realms, and bodies and log them all.

6) Unpack your paradoxes.  You evolve to realize all conditioned ideas in waking life are lying to and about the awareness that knows them.  You await your own soul-level process of conscious awakening, trigger a domino effect and watch.  Then move beyond the watcher.

7) Dissolve or transcend the dream states. As you detach consciously from the physical body (recognize you are lucid) and detach from the dreaming mind (become observer to your dream within dream), then you move to observe the purest form of conscious awareness.  This is that level where you become aware of an emptiness and become aware of the nature and dimensions of the reality behind everything. Opportunities exist to move through many levels of dream states.

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When did you last redefine "normal?"

You may think you know people, have them pinned down so to speak, and suddenly discover there is more to them. In the process, you are raising your awareness and expanding your perception. You are realizing your notion of normal changes.

I think to a recent dinner I shared with friends of my parents I have known forever. It was an informal affair that involved post-holiday turkey leftovers, an array of mis-matched dishes and homemade treats. This heart-warming setting taught me the power of energy shifts based on how receptive we are. The forty-five year age gap between couples is part of normality.

Our topics for small talk vary widely. On this particular evening, I did not bring up my growing epitaph collection, poisonous creature- related stories linked to places I have visited, or the motorcycle adventures of Ewan McGregor who intrigues me as he documents a journey "All the Way Down" through unique regions of Africa. The energy in the air invited other kinds of exchanges. Ever notice how or why people introduce topics into dialogue? They feel comfortable with you, with themselves with the topic. It is all about self-acceptance.

Now, the host of the evening was a former priest. He admits he gained valuable life experience in his religious roles before resigning and redefining his idea of normal. He married in his fifties, twice became a father in his sixties, then a widower before falling in love and remarrying. He shared how opening his mind led him to expand his perspective in unexpected ways. His life prepared him to attune. His beliefs shifted to focus on things he had not considered, let-alone seen before.

Without faltering, he calmly shared an experience that he had not confided with me before. He was asked to be a poll bearer (casket handler) at the funeral of a former religious colleague. He felt grateful to be part of the service, as he had known this man well. While my friend waited in an alcove near other poll bearers, he watched a filmy version of the deceased enter through the doorway. This spirit communicated with my friend using telepathy. He asked, why the gathering? He was initially unaware his body was dead. My friend used his mind to shift this spirit's attention to the body in the open casket. The spirit seemed to register. He looked around, smiled and suddenly vanished. My friend calmly continued with his funeral responsibilities. For him, this was normal. To me, it was too.

By this point in the evening, it seemed perfectly natural for me to share my impressions of Ram Bahadur. He recently emerged from a meditation he underwent from May 2005 to December 2008 inside the trunk of a tree near Katmandu. He had lowered his metabolic rate, breathing and mastered his other bodily functions. Imagine, he had been sitting still during much of his meditation. I invite you to read this and review your sense of "normal"; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Bahadur_Bomjon

No doubt you have your own understanding of the term, "normal." It is always based on experience. It can only ever be based on experience. That is how you permit your current life to unfold.  What happens next is also up to you. And, so?

Fall asleep and maintain consciousness

Different levels of awareness exist.  Every instant, a certain separation divides what you think, feel and physically do.  Your being has too many functions for the human mind to keep track of all at once.  The more aware you become of this separation, the more you may begin to believe parts of you are dreaming while other parts are more conscious and aware.

If you assume that part of you works while part of you sleeps, then you may begin to believe you can fall asleep and still maintain consciousness. This does not make it advisable to drive or operate machinery as an experiment while you take a power nap.  And yet, how you view rest may never be the same.  How you sense spatial awareness will also evolve.

It is useful to decide on something you would like to do in waking life or presumed sleep.  Otherwise, you have no point of reference.  In the case that you choose not to be aware, you selectively tune in or out of internal and external realities. Your underlying motivation shapes the roles you choose to play.

In my experience, conscious participation expands how one explores different levels of awareness. From the moment you take responsibility for perception and formulate deliberate intentions, your life experience changes in degree. You perform roles of observer and participant. You are in your life, not of it.

Did I really do that?

Everybody can reflect on experiences and view the past differently in the present. You have insight into yourself now that you did not have before. And yet, certain choices or behaviours may still amaze you. When have you asked, "did I really do that?" What meaningful lessons did you gain?

One man I know broke baby toes on each foot more than once. He did so as the result of making his way to the toilet in the dark. He was reluctant to admit his night vision was not dependable. Yet, when the doctor taped his toe for the third time, it was no dream. The man then opted to use a flashlight.

I recall a time in my life when I lived in the Netherlands for a summer. Before I ended up juggling seven jobs (one for each day of the week), I had a few curious job interviews based on misunderstanding newspaper ads. One waitressing job turned out to be in a bar that offered legal drugs on their exotic menu. The masseuse interview turned out to offer additional erotic massage training in the basement of a bar with leopard couches and sheepskin rugs.  Although I chose not to accept these two positions, I learned that each experience is a teacher. I learned to find humor, keep composure and a straight face.

A good friend of mine was accepted to a university Master's program. His parents helped him pack up and move to a nearby city. He had lived at home during his undergrad, so this was his first home away from home. Yet, he was not away a week before he decided to abandon the program and called his parents to pick him up.  He listened to his gut. This inner growth served him. Not only did he learn to listen to his heart and pursue a more fulfilling career. He also gained the confidence to come out of the closet and be truer to himself. As he learned to face his fears, he inspired greater self-acceptance in the lives of family, friends and patients. Looking back, he wonders what took him so long to be more honest.

What we used to perceive as thoughts to be disregarded, do not have to be dismissed.  Some insights we gain are visceral.  They change as profoundly as our subjective experiences.

3 Tips to discern the gift in your internal judge

The urge to judge is human. We all go through stages where we are more or less judgmental of oursleves and other people.  You may recall periods in your life where your opinion seemed justified, where your feelings were colored by emotion but you did not realize it then

One question you may ask is, how attached or committed are you to your beliefs?  Commitment can become a conscious decision to revisit your inner judge.  You can grow to discern the gift in every perception.  You can evolve to recognize that any assumed deficiency is actually a piece of a master puzzle.  You are gradually collecting and connecting the pieces to feel more complete. Consider these 3 tips;

1) Recognize everyone has things to work on. The next time you catch yourself about to criticize or say anything negative about others, remind yourself that you also have your own growing to do.  Any thought or feeling that does not encourage or build confidence, means you have forgotten you have access to greater compassion, wisdom and perspective.

2) Emotionally-wounded people heal with love.  People relate through experience.  People who share common experiences connect through feelings without words.  From the moment you realize you relate to pain and suffering, and love, you begin to realize you can relate to everyone.  Knowing this reminds you that unconditional love helps transcend uncomfortable silence and misplaced unworthiness.  

3) Everything is a stage in a process.  Any conditioned attachments, fear of change, yearning for certainty, all distract you from the core strength of your human identity.  This impermanence allows for evolution, transition, and growth that indifference, disinterest or absent awareness would not.