13 Things you can do to shift in Lucid Dreams

Dreaming can be developed as a skill to sharpen aptitudes in waking life. Daytime experience is helping night and night is helping day. In practicing of raising consciousness in sleep states, you prepare for Bardo (in between life and death). Yet you do not have to wait for Bardo to put this into practice. Consider 13 things you can do to shift life course in Lucid Dreams: 

1. If you feel held back, change speed

2. if its about size, you can grow or shrink

3. If feeling stuck, free yourself 

4. If you resist something, let go

5. If you imagine self as human, shapeshift into another creature

6. If some creature scares you, transform it into a kind and loving creature (i.e. puppy) or something ridiculous

7. If you freel frozen, allow yourself to move

8.  If you feel uninspired, stagnant, engage your creativity

9. If you experience scarcity,  transmute the situation into abundance

10. If you are serious, allow yourself to laugh, be happy, experienfe aliveness

11. If you have problems, devise effective solutions

12. if you feel limited, stretch save yourself, escape chains that bind you

13. If its about monkey mind, focus on smthg long enough and it becomes effortless

Honour the Self

Notice facing and honouring yourself is the most direct route to piercing through the veil of illusion. Everything is pointing toward Reality, though its not Reality itself. Would it not be curious if someone could give you who you really are? Everybody has given us what is on load-our personalities. When the body is given back, we realize who we are but we can also realize this before. To be a seeker is to imagine a gap between "here" and there. To maturely integrate a spiritual teaching requires you apply it, not simply believe, write about or work toward it. This knowing and being activates cosmic alchemy. Tune into what makes you feel most alive. The ultimate solution to a problem is to realize you do not really have any problem. This is the Truth of who we are. To awaken to this is to be truly satisfied. Its a spontaneous happening. It happens when the well-intentioned self-will takes a vacation. Beautiful things in life simply happen without effort. Falling asleep is effortless. Falling in Love is beyond you. Falling into you and the Truth cannot be forced. It is effortless. Let go of all that is self-centred.

Get out of that dilemma

I am sometimes asked why share Zen stories as part of my workshops and group sessions. In a nutshell, Zen stories may confuse or leave one hanging, yet they do not impart information or knowledge. They are designed to to get rid of something, to get rid of a false problem with which you are wrestling so that the problem will disappear as the result of understanding the story.  In this way, they invite joining the dots like stars into constellations and evoke eureka moments.

There was a Master walking, engaged in forest meditation with a group of his disciples.  Suddenly, he picked up a tree branch and said to one of the monks, "what is it?" As the monk hesitated , did not answer immediately, the Master hit him with it.  Then, the Master turned to another monk and asked, "what is it?" That monk said, "Give it to me so I can see."   The Master tossed it and the monk hit the Master.  The Master said, "Well, you got out of that dilemma." 

When we look for the mind that seems to be giving us so much trouble and realize it cannot be found, this is a pointer to the solution to our perceived problem. A dilemma is like a physical stick that many people hold within themselves, dwell on, discuss or allow to fester. Focusing on dilemmas harms ourselves. Letting go, going with the flow, acting spontaneously, implies less thinking, and more savouring this moment as it is. A dilemma is a state of mind. Albert Einstein echoes we cannot solve a problem with the same level of consciousness that creates it.  We can always tune in, and allow the rhythm of the breath to guide us. The power resides within.

Is multi-tasking the solution?

People continue to ask me about the value of multi-tasking.  How often do you tell yourself that you are doing a  lot yet, feel you are getting virtually nothing done?  Feel like you are struggling unnecessarily or going nowhere fast? That's because you are.  See the point? 

In essence, experience is the best teacher.  You offer yourself wisdom every moment but have selective awareness based on judging what is useful. Stop judging and then see what happens.

As you begin to slow down, you see clearer.  Be your Dream.  Realize it is not just noticing you do the things you do that's important. It's also being conscious of them, seeing you attribute or overlook value in everything.  Only you can uncover the underlying purpose behind your own apparent madness.  Delve deeper.  Nothing is purposeless.  Every behaviour speaks through you.

"Multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself." - Marilyn vos Savant

See through your questions

Every question you ask beckons you to read between the lines. Discern the lies you tell yourself. Notice that when you ask how to do something, you assume the knowing or solution is outside, you assume things are not already working themselves out. Why does the urge arise to look? Do not doubt yourself but doubt what you come to believe.

Be that which trusts the clarity of the heart. To know you dream this existence is to realize you are already awake. To be aware of a habit is to move beyond it so that unconscious pattern is broken. Every move you make, every step you take, something is watching and loving you throughout every choice and judgment. That which cannot be named has silent power. It knows transparency and has nothing to prove.

"No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious."
-George Bernard Shaw