Thread: ADA Journal - Let's give this a proper try

In "I Am That," Shri Maharaj says that the only requirement for realization (in this context, permanent and unshakeable awareness) is earnestness.

A person's dedication to reaching their goals will always lie along a spectrum, somewhere between desultory efforts at one end and total obsession at the other. I have a theory that ADA gets a bad rap and generally poor results because people don't approach it with enough effort. It may be that the level or earnestness required to have great success with this technique is so high that it becomes impractical for most people who have neither the skills, motivation, or lifestyle/occupation required.

I've been analyzing my own attempts and I think I haven't really been earnest enough at trying this technique out. I thought I'd do a one-week pilot study to see what effect a highly focused and earnest attempt will have on success rates. Writing a daily log will have a double benefit of providing a window into this technique for others and of increasing personal motivation. Anyway, here's today's log:

Day 1 - Tuesday September 24 2013

A little background on me. I've been trying to lucid dream for about 5 years now, trying various techniques. In that time I've had about 5 lucid dreams that I can remember. None of them were very long, and I am unable to attribute them to any one particular technique. Just random, I guess.

I also meditate occasionally, usually in 30-60 minutes sessions, so I have developed some awareness and concentration skills already.

I keep a dream journal. Recently my recall has increased a lot since I became more earnest (that word again) by setting goals for myself. This ADA project is a similar goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound) where I need to attempt to maintain ADA all day throughout all activities for a total of 7 days, writing a detailed log each day.


I find the hardest thing about ADA is that my job requires concentration and critical thinking. It is difficult to be creative and productive while focusing on ADA, so I end up forgetting about it and getting caught up in the moment. It may be that ADA is not compatible with a busy and demanding life, one of the hypotheses I want to test during the coming week.

Today I tried to tackle the moments of distraction directly, by concentrating hardest when having conversations with people or reading/writing on the computer. These activities are easy distractions. I combat them by having the idea or "memory" of ADA in the back of my mind. I am not actually focusing on everything, but instead ADA becomes a prospective memory task which I am constantly aware of and that I will return to as soon as I am able.

I should also point out that I am not focusing on all my senses, as carefully as possible, as specified in the original thread. I think this is good practice for concentration but a wasted effort given the specific goals here. I have not become lucid in dreams by noticing minute differences in the world, but by understanding a fundamental difference in the context of my experience. Therefore I'm focusing on general awareness, on being the observer of my own experience. Wherever my attention happens to land is fine, as long as I am staying aware and not becoming engrossed and distracted. This is a subtle but important difference between my practice and what's described elsewhere on these forums.