Dream Yogas: The Art of Living on the Edge of Dreams and Every Day Life. (Part I)

Beyond all possible expectations, this series of articles delving into the subjects of dreams, consciousness and reality has been empowering Steemians across the globe with their sharing, thoughts and realizations leaving me speechless with gratitude multiple times.

01 Eric-Boucher's Photography, "Moonlit".jpg

_{(May conscious awareness rise and shine through and beyond all darkness.)}

Now that we have been through what I believe to be the essential techniques to learn the process of awakening to one’s dreaming, it is now time to delve more deeply into what has been defined as “Dream Yogas”. As the words underline, they consisting of exercises having for goal the unification of consciousness under all aspects of the processes bringing someone from daily wakefulness to night dreaming and all the way back to daily wakefulness again, without loosing the stream of awaken consciousness found within the dream as well as during day time. This waking up to our own innate wakefulness is the rise of our being awareness that also slowly brings one toward the eradication of the concept of self as a detached entity from oneness.

02 Eric-Boucher's Photography, "Orbitals".jpg

Lately, the conversations with @szuri, @bitopia, @gggreenhouse and others have brought me to discuss matters surrounding the essence of consciousness itself while moving into its nature more deeply. Not wanting to step ahead of myself, here, I think it would be important to start tackling the subject of awareness, an intrinsic aspect of our consciousness that plays an important role in our awakening.

Awareness itself is one of the essences of consciousness, it is constantly there. In some ways, we could say it is awaiting our own wakefulness to itself just like our dreams are always there while they are “awaiting” our awaking to them! Remember how we all have dreams, at least 4-6 per night? Have you begun the process of waking to their existence yet?

03 Eric-Boucher's Photography, "Moonlight Fog".jpg

_{(Coming through the veils, the luminous nature of consciousness emerges.)}

Though awareness is always present, it is obscured by layers upon layers of walls erected by our immediate ego-self and genetic propensities. Peeling the layers one after another, like an onion, takes time, diligence and perseverance. Such discipline requires inner strengths most of us possess. If we take the path to study, practice and understand the experiential-knowledge acquired through this process, we can succeed in this journey toward the realization of complete awareness. Though, I can foresee that we’ll have to continue on this topic a bit later, I’d like to underline the fact that the very first steps to this process, as well as its principles, have mostly been laid in the previous articles 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

As the onion layers peel off, one approaches lighter and lighter states equivalent to moving from ice to liquid. As your consciousness becomes more watery, it starts to have the show one of its formidable properties, it starts to take the shape of whatever it is bordered by and, if the border is moving, it keeps on moving with the changing shapes. In other words, breaking the ice of our congealed everyday habituated ways greatly helps promoting a healthy fostering of openness to life’s essence that change is.

04 Eric-Boucher's Photography, "Shifting Sands".jpg

_{(Like shifting sands the ever changing nature of reality is perceived through the awakening consciousness. At first, we have the tendency to believe in its solidity, an unchanging core of some sort. Yet, as time goes by, one one comes tot he realization that nothing is ever seen more than once in this ever flowing ebb and flow of change.)}

Yet, becoming watery is not the limit. Some would say the sky is the limit, I would have to say, based on my experience that it isn’t: One can go much further, much more further. The trick, if we keep going on with our water example, is to rise the energy the water travels with. Just like water put in a cauldron take the shape of the cauldron, heating and stirring (moving) it will also cause it to gain in energy, translated as speed and heat within. From there, something quite incredible happens when it starts to boil. If your heat is very high, the boiling seems to occur almost instantly. From little to bigger bubbles to rolling waters evaporating in instants. Heating it up and decreasing the heat to keep it on the edge of boiling will allow one to observe the intricate modifications and change of state that occurs much more easily. Now, let’s apply this to consciousness.

Thus, by learning to raise the energies of our being or by letting go of weights we hold on to while being naturally attracted to the light forms where we come from, we can reach further realms than stardom… The study of intermediary states interconnecting everyday life and the different sleeping states is like the study of these points of connection between the passing from a liquid phase to a gaseous phase. This contemplation allows us to become clearer about the nature of our being while experiencing the fact that everyday life isn’t disconnected from the night sleep and/or the dreams we encounter while in the sleeping states we find ourselves in. Light can be found everywhere, even in the darkest of holes or deepest of caves.

05 Eric-Boucher's Photography, "Mirrored Sunlight".jpg

_{(Patiently awaiting in awaken awareness, a subdued shimmer grows from dim to bright, from formlessness to specific shapes. Rising from your peripheral vision, a concentrated light coalesces ushering apparently out of nowhere the making of visions. Is this all dreams?)}

As one is about to fall asleep, learning to rest with darkness, using the soft gaze technique I mentioned earlier in a previous article, allows you to open your perception of awareness through sight. While striving to stay aware darkness will slowly subside, if you are not too tired. Remember, the more tired you are the faster your consciousness moves into deep sleep possibly rendering the observation and study of this passage almost impossible. Practicing this exercise while not too tired will prove beneficial beyond all hopes. Being able to practice it wide awake even more so….

To recapitulate, as darkness starts to subside with a dim faded light, at first, forms of light will start to take moving shapes like layers of movies projected on thin curtains hanging top of one another. Sometimes the shrouded imagery will be switching positions as one scene will become more prominent than the other based on its level of immediate importance within your mind. As they start showing up, it is a cultural conditioning to have the inclination to look at them directly, as if we were hunting for one clear image. Solely taking a direct route fully encompassing the focus of this image will automatically make it disappear while making your consciousness move back to your casual everyday life, not being able to fall asleep for some reason. Instead, using the soft gaze technique of letting the images flow in, which ever way, will allow you to let them be and, by the same token, let your awareness be.

Without interference from your wilful egoic mind, awareness will carry your consciousness through the veils of perception. With time and experience, you relax the bewildered mind to the surprises of imagery coming through your sight, which ever the nature of the vision you are experiencing. Whether it is a supernatural being, an old friend or lover, the scariest anima of all, a train or fire, you’ll settle into the experience of awareness itself.

06 Eric-Boucher's Photography, "Dread-Full Elder from Haida Gwaii".jpg

_{(Layers upon layers awake into your mind's eye, how do they relate to you? How do they feel? Where do they come from?)}

As a little boy, I’d be slowly drifting into sleep and, while keeping my eyes closed, I’d see this faint glow appear within minutes after starting to relax into the darkness of the night. My tendency was to follow it, of course and as soon as I would stare at it, it would disappear. Then, I thought, let it be. So, I let it travel through the span of my mind’s eye sometimes it would appear as a single dot, sometimes multiple dots, blobs of diffused light on the edge of my peripheral vision. Then, the single light or multiple lights that had started faintly slowly grew in brightness while stabilizing itself in the very centre of my mind’s vision which established itself everywhere, sort of like reality would when you just see it before your eyes. I came to realize, as the years went on, that I have never been able to see what people call black. There’s always been light within. Many years ago, on an excursion with my dad, we went into a cave. A quarter of a mile further, I stopped under a waterfall and sat under its pounding waters. Still, the light shun dim, persisting in complete darkness. To this day, it hasn’t stopped and it keeps on teaching me ways to learn from light.

Practicing these methods will also help you learn to wake up in full awareness of you returning to your body after the journeys of dreaming, more often spent outside of your physical body. Remember the discussion about “falling asleep”?!. As I also mentioned earlier, these practices are easier to delve into when the body is just rested enough. Thus, for many of us, waking time in the morning can be a very favourable moment to exercise these techniques, especially as the sun is just about to rise, when the electromagnetic field of the area where you are located gets charged…

07 Eric-Boucher's Photography, "Stabalized Mind's Eye".jpg

_{(Aiming for the light within, we wake up to our innate nature, a luminous awareness as encompassing as our heart and mind open.)}

To finish this part and as a side note, there is no need for panic if you start seeing your room as if you had your eyes open. Some people even experience seeing their body as their soul/spirit body start to move out of their physical body or reenters it. Here, again, no reason to panic. You are connected to it and won’t get lost or lose the ability to get back into it.

Enjoy the ride as there aren’t any dangers here. Go wherever you want to be… Not only is it the most potent door to walk through to start into the journey of soul travelling but it is, also, the key to “Dream Healing”, “Remote Viewing” as well as a plethora of special meditation techniques practiced both during the day or night with our mind’s eye wide open. Anyone interested? If so, just let me know what you think and want to discuss, we’ll get into it deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, with great pleasure.

_{(Contemplation and comprehensions embracing one another on the path to a bright unification.)}

Well, let’s stop here for the moment and digest a bit of what has been shared as I understand it to be, for most, not the every day type of discussion or realm of thinking thus making this reading a dense one to tackle, as it was pointed out to me over and over during throughout course of my life.

Meanwhile, I keep encouraging you to practice, review the exercises we have looked at so far, keep track of the results. We are soon to emancipate beyond them. On our next article about Dream Yoga, we are going to focus on questions to ask during our awaken dreams while I’ll start sharing some of my own stories relating to many aspects of what we have discussed already.

From there, I’ll delve into meeting with kindred spirits, sharing dream time with others and active healing processes available during our night dreaming and daily envisioning.

My experience tells me that in deed we sometimes do manifest light, especially when a very intense desire supported by life itself and/or love drives it out. The level of intensity will also make other things happen... The veracity of phenomena is as relevant as the nature of its reality and must be judged based on the recognized perspective it is taken, understood and experienced from.

I can't help but use the terminology of light, liquids and , especially water, to describe the underlying energy that propels all forward into existence. As it is perceived from our levels of reality and the 5 senses, for instance, that light has slowed down to a point of congealing into what looks like a solid brick, compared to where it comes from... ;) Yet, it is still light, just like ice is still water.

I simply LOVE your comment, it is so appropriate to the situations rising in the matters at hand right now. More, much more, on this topic especially in the next article of this series. Thank you for your continuous fellowship, caring and intelligent sharing. Keep your smile, take good care, Steem on and thrive on!

Namaste :)