Report 41

Reading Gaya's report made me think of the book I just started reading again "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell" in which the author narrates that there are books of magic, and books about magic, with few knowing the difference.

 :)  

I have so much to share about the topic of viewing everything as a dream, that I think it must have been an unintentional blessing that I was turned around last week and therefore missed the session! I am sorry to have kept everyone waiting, but really enjoyed reading the transcript just now.

These things jumped out from the log:

Dao Yheng: for me, it can be more vivid, but also less solid

Mitsu Ishii: But to bring it back to the Lojong I was thinking that the whole "treat everything you perceive as a dream" is intended specifically for those moments that seem the most real

Gaya Ethaniel: Not sure if this has anything to do with the homework, but couple of mornings I saw sense of self gathering up.

Dao Yheng: so seeing anger as a dream for instance might also mean seeing it not as some small ridiculous thing but also seeing it in its true context, which is this unimaginably grand thing

Mitsu Ishii: So the dream metaphor I think is more than just a metaphor, it's actually pointing to an aspect of the nature of reality at all times

Also, from Dao's report:
Later, sitting in a restaurant, I couldn't help noticing the the ephemeral nature of our own biology too -- that young woman will soon be middle aged, the other woman sitting over there was young just a little bit ago and will soon be older still

It is difficult for me to write about these things, mostly because I try to hear myself from the angle of others and think "Oh, she's flaky or trippy", or whatever. :) I'm going to drop all those concerns and just share what I observed this week, and also a bit of background that dreamlife is a significant aspect of what I think of as my practice, and also has steadily been taking over more and more of my real life... a bit like The Blob. >grins<... 

Its a wonderful Blob, and what I mean to convey with that description is a sense of Heavy Substance in both dreams and waking which feels to me more 'real' than other 'feelings'. 

So, the last two weeks I have payed attention to what acts are 'awakening' to me during the day ... which things I do that are more open portals I guess. It used to be that water was the biggest one... that paying attention to drinking a glass of water, or washing the dishes, or swimming, I could experience a kind of spaciousness that shows me I'm dreaming. If I stop and really slow down with it, then this is still very true... very there.

What I notice now, is that things that are 'hard', that I don't 'want' to do, like sort the finances or deal with paperwork or clean the refigerator, can be like digging into a 'more' tangible clay which then gives 'breaks 'me' down' a bit, allowing the dreamy substance in to things ...

I wont use this 'blob' imagery again I think... but I'm trying not to censor too much. :)

In night time dreams, winds seem to be the most powerful expression of that substance. I really hesitate to compare to 'natural light' which is refered to in some books, but there are conversations with people in dreams which, when combined with that Presence, are deeply real and *actually* affect the rest of the day when I wake up... things falling into unusually notable timing or synchronicities, etc.  Writing about it becomes the same sort of exercize. 

I've been talking a little about some of these things in other settings too, but it seems like *here* I need to just express as openly as possible. I guess I'm saying that the Substance is more 'important', in a sense, than whether it is night time or day time. That when in/with that sense of presence, one sees the dreaming going on either way.  

Meditatively is somewhere in between, as is Second Life. I rarely have flying dreams since being part of SL... maybe because I can fly around all the time now.