Dream

Intention (2337 the night before)

Got some tingles on reading what stage 6 of meditation is: "Subduing Subtle Distractions." That's an exciting prospect. I'm going to read through stages 6 & 7 and go and revisit stages 4 & 5 in case there's some stuff I missed or didn't understand in my stage 2 context.

That's all a bit of distraction, though. It's intent time! It's a bit late, so some sleep-in is acceptable. Also, opslead next week, good to get extra sleep when possible.

So, then, WBTS and incubation and DILDs and WILDs.

I'd like to continue practice watching myself fall asleep, both here and now and then WILD after WBTS.

Feeling real good. Thanks me-at-the-moment for working in harmony with past and future!

Wake-Back-to-Sleep (logged at 0445 this morning)

Don't remember any early REM dreams. I think one of them may have been stretching or exercise related.

Watched myself falling asleep to a pretty late stage, but definitely not as late as I've managed in the past. Will try to WILD, still.

Going to try mind-chanting "strawberry donuts" as I fall back to sleep.

WILDs Be Mild

So, I can kinda watch myself fall asleep into dreaming. The problem is that I dream about trying to fall asleep. This happened twice.

Though, in the second dream, the dream continued for a bit.

There is a pun I say. I am a woman. Maybe Batgirl.

There is some naughty shenanigans in conveniently empty bits of the city.

Maybe Not So Mild

So, this dream I know is a dream, but I'm still falling for the logic of it. The wife is with me, and I am fully convinced I'm sharing the dream with her. I do not remember realizing it's a dream, I think I know from the beginning. (Successful WILD?)

I both have little control and do not ever think I have control in the dream. There is a central room we keep returning to, often on accident via dream teleportation.

We are exploring a city. There is some naughty shenanigans in conveniently empty bits of the city.

At one point we go looking for a naughty store. After a long bit of walking, we end up in a really dark room. I realize where we are and the lights turn on. It's the room we keep returning to.

The wife is visibly frustrated. "Why are you doing this?" she asks me.

"I'm not doing it on purpose, and you may be doing it," I plead. We calm down and explore the room.

I think about it and deduce that we must have entered through the fridge. Our brown tabby cat, Yoda, shows up. So does my aunt. She brings one of her cats, but it isn't the black and white one or the pure black one, but a dream-only cat that looks a lot like Yoda.

At some point I wonder how much longer the dream could last.

That's all I remember.

AirBnb Why

I am staying at an airbnb. I thought it would be a normal hotel, and am a bit angry, because I no longer trust AirBnb. There are various little things funky about the place, but it's hard to recall. The owner/manager seems to at least live in the place and is renting out a room, which makes me feel better.

Wake (logged at 0735 this morning)

This morning confirmed something for me that I had a feeling was true, but wasn't sure: I can in fact fail to recall a lucid dream. That I remembered it was luck.

Also, the lucid dream fell into a different place than the previous ones. Similar to how I can know I'm awake but not be "lucid" in the waking world, I can know it's a dream and not be "lucid".

Not sure what I should do with this realization. Need more data.

Still, pretty cool. Liking how things are going.

Dream Fragment (recollected at 0957)

At some point, I look at my rubber coated stretching staff and notice the gold icon is back and more vibrant than ever.

Pre-nap (1445)

It's a bit pre-mature, but I have a feeling that lucid dreams are about to become much more frequent. And also perhaps much more... tricky? Realizing I'm in a dream may stop being novel and lead to something I'd call "pseudo-lucidity". Yeah, I know it's a dream, but I'm not mindful of it or of much of anything.

I think it's too soon to start addressing this issue. It may not be a real or common problem. But I want to note it. This way, if it is a problem, I decide to start working with it sooner.

Oh, also, reality checks are really building as a habit. Cool.

Nap time (1450).

Post-nap (1505)

Breath on nose still vivid. Working on playing out a scene that maybe helps incubation. Visualized and went through the process of baking strawberry donuts. I am also considering trying to remember to summon strawberry donuts when I know I'm dreaming. A mindfulness check, if you will.

Meditation (Day 128)

Intentions for the day:

• Stay in posture part of prep until you're prepared to set the intention to stay still
• Body-scan during the "focus on the breath throughout the body" beginning part of meditation
• Stage 4 intention (vigilance on keeping introspective awareness continuous)
• Fall back to stage 3 if necessary
• Note where the breath was when you label a distraction (attention, awareness, or forgotten)
• Try to catch a distraction as it enters awareness and/or attention
• Body-scan when few distractions and when focus not as vivid as could be

Post-Meditation (1115)

I am able to recall much more of my distractions. Which looks like I'm getting distracted more, though it is still much less. Today a gross distraction snuck in.

I'm playing with and expanding my (limited) understanding of the mind-system model whilst on the cushion now. I believe it will further cement stage 4, leading to a real mastery. Body-scanning is happening again, and the breath is quite vivid for a long time, though I still don't have stamina for the whole session (though regaining the vividness with a body-scan does not seem to induce dullness).

Cascading distractions don't happen, but they can still come in clusters. Which is distinctly different but similar. I'm learning to handle this in a slightly different way than cascading distractions. Though I'm also exploring the mind for the different cause. It's a fun new thing to notice, that I'm sure I confused with cascading distractions before.

Today's a power-of-two day! That's fun. It's a power of 2 after a prime number, to boot!

Not a best day but still a great day. It's also putting me in a good place for the rest of the day, as per usual.

General Thinking

Today was mostly a get overflow stuff done day. Did a pretty good job of it. Also, some interesting thinking has arisen from dream journal.