Dream Yoga Basic Skills: Lesson 2

Here we are ready for more strange stuff. You have had about two weeks to practice Lesson1, and I hope you all had an interesting time. Last time I had you explore the world of sensory preception. This lesson will teach you to explore your awareness of your mind. Each of these skills should be practiced and an entry about your observations should be posted within 2 weeks.
I will again, not be telling you exactly what to expect, or why you are dooing each of these. I want you to discover the secrets for yourself, and post them in your workbook. I will at the end of the 2 weeks, be giving out more "Gold Stars" and acknowledging our best mystics. If a student can figure out why I use each of these skills in my LD yoga, or discovers anything insightful, then I will explain how to use these.
I again will not just hand out this knowledge. So, the more students discover and post, the more the whole class will learn. I may toss in some extra knowledge if people get close enough to the mark. For now, just experience each of the meditations, discover fun mentall things, and try to imagine how these skills are related to LDs.

Diffuse Vision: This skill is a little out of place at this point, as most of Lesson 2 is going to be about developing awareness of the mind. This is not just a physical talent, but requires learning a new mental state, so it could kind of fit here. However, I have already taught some of this in a few student workbooks, so I am posting it now.

I googled searched this skill to find out how other teachers explained it. The thing is, I could not find any refrences to "Diffuse Vision" except for one. Hmmm, I guess this stuff may be a little more secret than I realized. However, in todays world why shouldn't it be taught to anyone who wants to learn? The one reference to it was that "Diffuse Vision" was a skill used by Zen Warrior Horsemen. It did not tell you how to do it, but just described what they could do with it. So,,, I will attempt to teach you all. I hope I am up to it. Here it goes...

Level 1: Simply do not look at any object ahead of you. This can be done while sitting or walking, but does not work well laying on a bed. Relax your eyes and have the eyes pointed ahead of you. You want to bring your awareness to the edge of your field of vision on either side. A very good way to practice this is when you are a passenger on a vehical. Here is what you are after. You should try to be aware of what is in the edge of both sides of your visual field. You will likely try to look at something directly in front of you, or your eyes will attempt to move towards one side and focus on something over there. Your goal is to hold two objects or moving scenes in your awareness without allowing your eyes to move towards the side. You also want the eyes to be in a relaxed state and not shift to an object in front of you.

Level 2: Place an object like a coin, pen, crystal, about half an arms length (you can hold it) directly in front of your eyes. You are now supposed to look directly at the object for a moment in normal vision. Then relax the eyes. You must learn how to over ride the fine muscles that cause the eyes to focus, as well as the gross muscles that control binocular vision. Diffuse vision does not use binocular focussing. Look at the object, but do not allow your eyes to come into focus on any object. You should look like the vacant faced stoner or an android. The entire portion of your face involved with eyes should relax. You want to be fully aware of the object, but fight the impulse to let your eyes focus on anything using binocular focus. You should attempt to stay unfocused for over 2 minutes. At that point you may start to experience visual distortions. These distortions are used in other mystical skills like aura vision and crystal ball/ reflexion gazing. For now, just notice them. It is not part of this lesson to see the distortions, so do not worry if you do not. Try using diffuse vision on a tile floor that has dark grout lines and you should see distortions and weird stuff within the two minutes.

Level 3: Simply combine the first two lessons. With out employing binocular focus, be aware of the object right in front of you, and an object on either side. Try to understand what mental impulse is trying to make this hard to do. Something in your mental state will fight you and try to force your eyes into focusing on an object or spot. I can not "teach" this part of it. You need to identify what in your mental state keeps forcing you to "look at something" rather than "just seeing something." You may spend years working this out. In the end learn to supress that part of your mind. Learn to not have to comply with the demand, that you do things the way you have always done them before. Mental discipline is the needed thing; develop it.

Level 4: The true goal! Use the type of vision you developed in lesson three and attempt to watch a colorful or action packed movie. I would suggest that your eyes rest off to one side of yhe TV by a few inches. Your goal is to sit and see the show, enjoy the show, and understand what you are seeing, for 10 minutes, without succumbing to the impulse to look at the screen (or anything) using binocular focus.

I will be suprised if most people do not find this to be very challenging. I am not pretending these skill I am teaching can be learned in a few weeks. Develop all these skill over the years. For now, post in your workbooks anything you feel is worth commenting on, any cool experiences, or if you think you understand why I want you to learn this.

Wandering Mind Recall:

This mental state awareness skill is pretty straight forward. It only has one step. Simply sit comfortablly or it can be done during a walk or bike ride. You are going to attempt to keep one thought in your mind. The thought should be something worth repeating. I use the thought "Thank You" or any short positive phrase like "I am going to have a great LD tonight" would work. It could be anything.
Now for a period that should increase as you practice, say 2 to 10 minutes, you want to stay aware of you thinking this thought. With the normal mind the way it is, you will probably also think about many other things. If you notice a thought that is not the phrase, do not be upset, just go on and refocus on the thought.
Now, when you are done with the time you planned on doing the exercise, try to write down what the thoughts were that distracted you. Do not attempt to remember them while doing the exercise! You would then NOT be focusing one the phrase you chose. Try to recall as many distracting thoughts as you can, only after you reach the time you planned on.
That is it! Very straight forward. Try to go longer times and see if you can figure out how to reduce the amount of distracting thoughts.

Be Here Now:

Follow the same format as "Wandering Mind Recall" but the allowed thought is now going to change. You no longer get the benifit of one clearly defined thought to keep distracting thoughts at bay. This time do not repeat any phrase or mantra. You are allowed to think any thought, as long as it has only an attachment to what is going on this very moment. If you find that a thought is not about the current moment, do not get frustrated, just pick something from "the here and now" to think about.

Here is an example of correct thoughts. "My butt is falling asleep,, I should shift my weight or stand up,, there that is better,, now, can I hear anything?,, oh say, that sound is a woodpecker,,"

ok, now an example of the thoughts going wrong. "yes it is a woodpecker,, doesn't really sound like old Woody the cartoon,, how did his laugh go?"

Ok, so the train of "Be Here Now" thoughts above got derailed by Woody. Now the thoughts should hold no blame or frustration, like so. "Woody is not here and now,, let's see,, a catapillar is crawling across the deck,, I wonder if it is fuzzy,, let's look closer"

It is only when the time choosen is up, that you would attempt to recall the non-now thoughts that snuck in. During the whole exercise practice as much awareness of your surroundings as you can. You are supposed to be discovering how your mind works, and really experiencing the moment, not the past or future.

Mantra Awareness:
The idea here is that certain sounds have the ability to create effects in us. An easy way to put this is that we get specific feelings from specific sounds. In this exercise you are not going to learn much about mantras. Instead I just need you to identify the way some sounds make you react. As humans we have identified this and used it in our technology. Think about the "busy signal," it is designed to make you hate the noise, the ringing noise is designed to attract attention but not negative feelings, and on games we know what sounds mean "good job."
Sit and relax, then become aware of your general state of feeling. Now vocalize an "A" sound. There are at least 3 ways the "A" sound can be modulated to cause emotional response. Think of a mom who finds her child cute and she goes "Awe," that sound is clearly expressive of an emotion. Now, think the child who is told he can not have something, and in disappointment he goes "awe." Finally, think about someone in the throughs of extacy who calls out "Awe!" Those three versions of the basic sound are drastically different, just by vibrating in slightly different manners. Play with the A sound and try to intone it in a way that resonates. Then explore other basic sounds in various manners. Try to identify any sounds that cause a response in you.
You should also start trying to notice what it is about various sounds and music that cause reactions in you. Try to learn how to make basic vowel sounds resonate and feel powerful.

Mudra Awareness:

This exercise is a lot like the Mantra Awareness. A Mudra is a hand gesture. The position of your hands effects the flow of energy through your body. It can also effect the way you feel. Common Mudras are the Christian prayer hands, and the waving hand.
Sit in a relaxed state and become aware of how you feel in general. You should now take your dominate hand and make a tight fist, then relax it and unfold the pointing finger, and point. Then open your palm and turn it so the palm is up. Now go back to tightening your fist. All three of these gestures should cause a subtle shift in how you feel.
As soon as you can detect a difference in how you feel when making those gestures, I want you to explore other hand gestures on your own. Feel free to try either hand or both. Interlock your fingers or anything that seems like a standard way to position your hands. Strive to detect your very subtle reactions to the hand positions, and report in your work book if you make any interesting observations.
If you get into a relaxed state like meditation, you will have an easier time finding the subtle difference in feeling I am trying to show you.

This completes the lesson part of Lesson 2. I will open the thread for general Q & A on 06/12/12. This will give about two weeks for you to study and attempt to figure out these skills. At that time I will award "Gold Stars" for any good or thoughtful posts in student handbooks, and I will copy those posts here. Gold Stars are now worth 30 hall points.

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Originally Posted by Dark_Merlin

Last night as I was laying in bed, meditating before going to sleep I think I realised the key of how the diffused vision is important for learning to WILD (I keep up with fOrceez's thread aswell :P). It's not so much that you can train your eyes to relax while you concentrate on the pen - it's to learn to understand how to move your focus throughout your body and throughout what you see without your body reacting. This is where I normally go wrong in the WILD process, while I can lay still for long enough that my body will begin to fall to sleep, as soon as I become aware of that fact I start naturally reacting to it - changing my breathing patterns, feeling tense, etc and it snaps me out of the tricky balance between awake and asleep. Whereas, learning to train your eyes to not move, and focus on what you are seeing as one is used to doing when watching a TV show, reflects the same skill that allows you to be aware of what is happening as your body goes to sleep, but not to react to it!

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I am going to give you 2 "Gold Stars" (60 hall points) for that! You nailed the core of this skill! I think you explained it clearly, so that is awesome. Good job!!!

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Originally Posted by fOrceez

Was playing around with it during all of last night before sleeping. I laid in bed staring at the roof and not focusing on anything. The vision end up getting very blurred. I then closed my eyes and just focused on all of the dark space. Drifting in and out of consciousness, I really entered that 'this is a dream' state of mind. This later induced a DILD within the first cycle of REM, which is quite odd - it seems first REM cycles only ever let me get lucid by DILD ^_^
Something that really bothered me while trying to practice the diffused vision while closing my eyes was that I kept on moving my eyes - There was a HUGE urge to just let them.... sway around. Is there anything I can do about this?
As for the lesson, I realised what it was teaching a few nights ago - without it having put into words, the shift in focuses was what I was already doing. I just never done it for sight alone.

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Gold Star (30 hall points)

It takes you learning the subtle ways your brain trys to get you to move your eyes. Patients and observation. You need to explore and figure out something very subtle. When you can over-ride your urge to have your eyes move and focus, you will have learned a new mental state. In that mental state you can avoid having your WILDs fail due to you reacting to anything you see or feel. You get to a state of awareness minus the harsh edge of attention that can hold you in a fully awake place. Hope that makes sense. Work your way through the lesson, in all its part and give it about three weeks. Before long you will have a tool to use that should allow your WILDs to go smoother.




Ok, so now that everyone gets the idea of "Gold Star," as a token award of Hall Points for good posts, I am going to just award points at the start of the post. It will look like this <***30 Points***> this will tell you the post is something I felt was insightful.

<***30 Points***>

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Originally Posted by Belle

Level 4 was the most interesting in my opinion. Looking at the side of the television was a great suggestion. I'll admit, I made repeat glances with binocular focus but after that urge dissipated I began the ten minutes. Few things I noticed:

i: Familiar sounds and scenarios made avoiding binocular focus easier.
ii: Unfamiliar sounds and scenarios made avoiding binocular focus difficult.
iii: Since I could no longer rely on visionary input on the characters, I was forced to listen to their words and tone more carefully when they spoke. Also their interactions with others became more obvious.
iv: I became more aware of things around me besides the show! I had to open my awareness and get past the tunnel-vision which sight supports.

One major conclusion I came across is that sight is very limiting. It's completely useful when you want to inspect something, but it's horrible if you're trying to broaden your awareness. I don't think it would be better or worse without sight; having both options seems incredibly useful to cross-reference anything we experience.

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I am attempting to use diffuse vision to teach a different state of mental processing. The "Tunnel Vision" way our mind has learned to process eye sight is also used by us to process most information. It is very useful in learning, doing tasks, and reading. The "Tunnel Vision" way of experiencing reality is bad for WILDing!

You need to be able to hold awareness on your anchor of choice, and yet still passively observe the changing stages of sleep. You do not want to use the mental state used in binocular vision in WILD, because it will keep your mind to awake, and it also prevents you from experiencing the actual inner-state of being, while being able to stay anchored. Diffuse vision is the best way I know how to teach this new mental way of processing stimuli, be it is visual or HH things like heat and sounds.

<***30 points***>

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Originally Posted by Ichorid

Diffuse vision:
Levels 1 and 2 were okay for me, I find that I can easily control the eye muscles and subsequently, the focus on the background or foreground.

Now, level 3 is another story. I used it when riding my bike today and it blew my mind. I felt like my field of vision was expanded. As I rode the bike, I noticed people on the crossroad away from me, that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Not focusing on one object didn't have any impact on my general awareness; on the contrary. I could be aware of traffic lights changing colours, parked cars on the side, cars overtaking me, beautiful scenery... without ever focusing on them!
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That is the mental state we are looking for!

<***30 points***>

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Originally Posted by she

go very slowly. just forgot about practise. made for myself something like timetable - to notice what i made yesterday and today make other exercises. mantras- singing A in many ways. I think i found some response but i don't sure. i feel good vibration between neck and chest so i think mantra works:)
mudras - feel the differense very good.

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she faces a little bit of a language barrior, but has been experimenting and reporting as best as can be hoped. Props to she!

<***30 points***>

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Originally Posted by Beefer

I think that I quite figured how that skill can benefit for lucid dreaming. I noticed that in my dreams when an object is out the range of my sight it usually disappears or rebuilt (in other words changes ,but the concept stays the same). So the first thing you taught us was to maintain those part which are more likely to disappear. Then you told us that we need to learn to focus what is ahead of us along with the sides. Now the final level of being able to maintain the edges of sight as well as a plot of a movie is similar to maintaining a whole rapidly changing dream scene. By being able to that we will be able to achieve a very vivid lucid dream which we are able to maintain.

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Great job. This is one of the many uses for diffuse vision inside an LD. If you use binocular vision in an LD, you risk the images from the sides changing or collapsing. I use this type of vision to be able to examine the sky in detail, while holding on to the image of my curernt place in the dream. It is not needed for muchh of an LD, but is required to hold the visual field stable if you wish to keep the scene intact while examining a portion of the dream. Say you are at a girlfriends house in the LD and that is what you want. You walk into a room and something is on a small table. If you use binocular type focus the image of the table becomes clear and the whole visual field is taken up with the item and the table. When you look up the scene may be totally changed. By keeping your entire field of vision intact and passivily being aware of the table, you can examine the object and be sure to stay at that girlfriend's house.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Beefer

I think that I quite figured how that skill can benefit for lucid dreaming. I noticed that in my dreams when an object is out the range of my sight it usually disappears or rebuilt (in other words changes ,but the concept stays the same). So the first thing you taught us was to maintain those part which are more likely to disappear. Then you told us that we need to learn to focus what is ahead of us along with the sides. Now the final level of being able to maintain the edges of sight as well as a plot of a movie is similar to maintaining a whole rapidly changing dream scene. By being able to that we will be able to achieve a very vivid lucid dream which we are able to maintain.

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This is a use for the skill while actually in an LD. I use diffuse vision to prevent the scene in an LD from shifting, when I wish to look at an object. If you focus normally on an object in a dream, you loose track of your surroundings and risk a complete scene change.
Picture you are exactly where you wish to be in an LD. Let's say a lover's house. You walk into a room and see something on an end table. If you allow yourself to focus on the item normally, the table and object will come into clear focus, but will take up almost the entire visual feild. When you look back up, chances are the scene will have changed, and you may now be at school or at your grandma's. By holding the entire picture in diffuse vision, you can examine the item without taking your mind away from the scene of your lover's house. Good job.



<***30 points***>

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Originally Posted by Beefer

Today, I tried to use my finger instead of a key and combine the diffuse vision with "Listening and Feeling the world" . Actually that was quite a success :D . I was able to feel gravity (along with my body of course ) and maintain the sounds around me while focusing my finger and notice the edges of my vision. It was easy to link the sight of my finger to the feeling of gravity pulling it down so I used that method in order to maintain those two at the same time. In order to maintain the sounds I used the other skill you taught us "Be Here Now". I found that one very helpful and soon enough I used it to maintain all of the three senses.

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Be Here Now skill helps with all other meditations! Interesting jump to combining exercises.

<***30 points***>

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Originally Posted by hermine_hesse

I went for a walk this morning and practiced the "Be Here Now" in Lesson 2 for about twenty minuets. I found that I when I truly choose to focus my awareness, I have very little inner monologue lately. I noticed, when I did become distracted from the here and now, it happened in distinct ways. I would sometimes find myself narrating my experience to myself, as if my mind was already planning how to speak of it later. Although, this wasn't exactly stepping outside the here and now, it felt disconnected from direct experience. Other times, I would have an instantaneous flash of a picture, either from a memory or imagined future event. Once, I heard a song I had recently heard start to play in my head; and once, I began planning what I would do after I rounded a bend in a walkway.

I have definitely noticed an overall increase in my awareness - colors seem brighter, I notice and feel even small sensations such as the wind blowing a single hair across my cheek.

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Great observations on Be Here Now. It is a wonderful skill that is valuable for increasing awareness in general.

<***90 points***> !!!

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Originally Posted by Strit

Hi again

I know this diffuse vision. When I was a child I loved to look at stereograms and I practised to turn the pages without loosing the "unfocus" of my eyes. At my school we had a ceiling with lines on it and I would lay on the floor looking at it until the lines were floating just centimetres from my eyes. I still do this whenever I see a ceiling or a wall with lines. Just because it's funny. It takes less than a seconds for me to get that effect. Then later I realised that if I look at a lawn with this vision I'm able to see how the wind moves through the grass. Really see the waves of wind and which way they are moving. It's really something. I never before tried to watch a movie with the diffuse vision, but I didn't have a lot of trouble with the ten minutes. The whole thing seemed to be in 3D, especially a part where the camera flew over a city. Sometimes I focus at nothing just to relax.

I never before considered this way of seeing to be an exercise in concentration, but I can easily see how it can be. I guess you could use it for meditations as well. When people meditate with open eyes, is this what they do?

I had a lot more troubles with the other exercises. "The wandering mind recall" was really difficult. I seem to keep repeating my line and thinking about other things at the same time. I can hardly do two or tree repeatings before my mind wanders. Just like when I meditate. But I do seem to do pretty good at the recalling. It's kinda like it's two exercises in one: focus your mind on the one sentence (which I guess will be a good thing to be able to do if we are going to use mantras later), and recall something after having thought about something else for a while (just like writing in my DJ every morning).
The "be here now" was actually a bit easier and I weren't thinking as many stray thoughts as in "wandering mind". But it made me notice more details around me because I had to find something new to think about all the time. That means that I was more aware of my surrounding and I can see how, if I'm able to incorporate that into my life, I should be more likely to become lucid.

The mudra exercise really opened my eyes. I've always thought that the power of a mudra was in the association (when I meditate I hold my hands like this, and therefore, when I hold them like this my mind gets ready to meditate) but to simply ad a clenched fist into the mix, and really try to feel the difference made it clear that it was more than just that (though the feelings coming from a clenched fist could also be an association). Afterwards I tried with some other mudras I've seen on pictures and I couldn't feel a difference between them, but maybe it's possible if you are more "tuned in" to it.
With the mantras I had just about the same experience as with the mudras.

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"When I was a child I loved to look at stereograms and I practised to turn the pages without loosing the "unfocus" of my eyes." - I never thought of this as a way to train this skill, but it would work great. I forgot about those steriogram things! They are an excellent tool for studying diffuse vision.



" But I do seem to do pretty good at the recalling. It's kinda like it's two exercises in one: focus your mind on the one sentence (which I guess will be a good thing to be able to do if we are going to use mantras later), and recall something after having thought about something else for a while (just like writing in my DJ every morning)."- Nailed it! This is the reason I am teaching Wandering Mind Recall! Great job. Both for Mantra skillls later, and as a practicle way to develop dream recall.

OK, that is the basic stuff for lesson 2. The thread is now open for comments or questions. Even if you do not have a workbook, you may now usee this thread to ask questions.

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Originally Posted by sivason

Level 2: Place an object like a coin, pen, crystal, about half an arms length (you can hold it) directly in front of your eyes. You are now supposed to look directly at the object for a moment in normal vision. Then relax the eyes. You must learn how to over ride the fine muscles that cause the eyes to focus, as well as the gross muscles that control binocular vision. Diffuse vision does not use binocular focussing. Look at the object, but do not allow your eyes to come into focus on any object. You should look like the vacant faced stoner or an android. The entire portion of your face involved with eyes should relax. You want to be fully aware of the object, but fight the impulse to let your eyes focus on anything using binocular focus. You should attempt to stay unfocused for over 2 minutes. At that point you may start to experience visual distortions. These distortions are used in other mystical skills like aura vision and crystal ball/ reflexion gazing. For now, just notice them. It is not part of this lesson to see the distortions, so do not worry if you do not. Try using diffuse vision on a tile floor that has dark grout lines and you should see distortions and weird stuff within the two minutes.

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Lol. I don't really understand this one. Should I relax my eyes until the object doubles or should I just unfocus but keep the object "undoubled"? :D

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Originally Posted by Samick

Lol. I don't really understand this one. Should I relax my eyes until the object doubles or should I just unfocus but keep the object "undoubled"? :D

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You will probablly have double vision. What is important here is just to learn to over-ride the natural act of engaging facial muscles in order to look at something. In this case, you try to maintain full awareness of what is in your field of vision, but do not allow any contraction of facial or eye muscles.

This relaxed state will probably cause double vision, but the goal is re-traing your mind. You are learning to have enough training and mental power, to over-ride natural impulses.

I actually have read something about diffuse vision very much like you describe it in an "esoteric" book, when I was a young teenager - don't know, which one it was - but it claimed to disclose "secret knowledge".
I used to do lots of such things - including a little bit amateur yoga and a bit of meditation back then.

What also belonged to these diffuse vision practices - and I did all these exercises back then - was having two different coloured circles next to each other on a page - and you were supposed to look at them, but diffusely - and merge them together partly and have that seem to float a bit above the page.
Managing this was an experience, I still remember vividly - and a skill, I thought, I had pinned down pretty well in general.
A bit like some of the optical illusions I and others posted in here: http://www.dreamviews.com/lounge/147...illusions.html. Just as an aside - maybe you like some of them.

The objective I remember was - among other things - to catch glimpses of "another world" in the periphery of your vision, while not focussing on it, but looking straight on in a relaxed manner.
I never saw such glimpses - and do not believe in "other worlds" any more - but I can see clear as daylight how this thread and the exercises are useful for LDing!

Thanks!
:)

I also have read about somebody on here - maybe even you? - who LDs without a dream-body and with a 360° in 3D surround-vision - should be nothing speaking against such a feat - do you do this sometimes?

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Originally Posted by StephL

I also have read about somebody on here - maybe even you? - who LDs without a dream-body and with a 360° in 3D surround-vision - should be nothing speaking against such a feat - do you do this sometimes?

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Not me. I find the idea interesting, but have never spent time trying to develop it. I have attempted to do this while awake and using my energy sense. I can look at energy in any direction, including behind me, but it reduces my attention in front of me. I think looking at something in a manner like normal vision is very ingrained. It would take serious reprograming to pull off true 360 vision. However, I may have another 50 years of LDing in this life, so who knows what I may eventually be able to do.