Dreaming Awake (II.)

Prerequisite for dreaming awake, as per the works of Castaneda and his teacher Don Juan, is losing the human form:

"The only thing that makes you think you are yourself is the form. Once it leaves, you are nothing.
A warrior without form begins to see an eye. The formless warrior uses that eye to start dreaming.
If you don't have a form, you don't have to go to sleep to do dreaming.
The eye in front of you pulls you every time you want to go..."
- Don Juan, The Second Ring of Power

Some info on the Dreaming Awake can be read here >>

the Eye

Once the "Eye" can be summoned, the dreaming (shift or movement of the assemblage point or, using different terminology, redirecting the focus of attention) becomes easy even without falling asleep. The Eye itself, from my (empirical) point of view, is the representation of total and full potential of the One Spirit/Intent and a skillful dreamer can utilize this potential to travel on the wings of Intent, without any kind of complication or aid from other beings.

In other words, the formless dreamer is so fluid and de-identified from his own inner projections/thoughts/feelings about himself, that alteration of the perception of reality becomes an easy maneuver. The dreaming practice itself becomes straightforward, uncomplicated, and free from the dependence on the energy from "friendly" inorganic beings (which Castaneda and his lineage adored so much).

In practice that translates to an easy flow of perception of separate and entirely different realities from the one awake dreamer happens to be currently in...

In this blog, however, I will be trying to express somewhat different notions on the skill of dreaming awake. 

Integration

In the Maya lineage I belong to, integration of spiritual awareness (which itself is way beyond the lower or higher astral levels of awareness Castaneda wrote about) and organic or material energy is of paramount importance.

Some info on this all-important subject (as per the dreaming practice) is posted in the blog on The Seventh Task of Dreaming, here >>

And how is this integration felt and experienced by a person on the path to Freedom?

Well, I don't know about the other Nagualists, but in my case, after years of not knowing what to do with the Eye and only after a Maya Nagual (spiritually perfected teacher for whom total Freedom has been empirically and directly validated) has explained certain things to me, the first sign of said integration has been an enormous impact of the Eye on my dreaming practice.

Before I move on, first things first:


Wasted years

dreaming practice has been, I admit, a hit and miss for me for years, decades even. I could not produce a consistent record of lucidity during nights. Sometimes I had like four or even seven lucid dreams a night, and on other times, none whatsoever (apart from constant awareness of my inner dialogue in dreaming, which is not such a tremendous achievement for me. Lucidity for me is total control over the flow of dreaming and awareness that I am awake in dreams and that my physical body is fast asleep back at my home AND willful exploration of the separate worlds as per various dreaming tasks of my Lineage).

Now I know, of course, that the lack of consistency in my dreaming practice over the decades has been due to my involvement with the low astral level beings (the inorganic beings and black death defiers) Castaneda wrote about and with the higher astral beings, called demons (a seriously flawed label).

Those beings (lower astral level beings) are a total waste of time for someone on the path to complete freedom as they are only after power and thus will never ever be free.
Well, without the proper guidance of a teacher that has already attained total Freedom (and thus far beyond the reach of these low-level beings), I or my dreaming self was at a mercy of low astral level winds of energy. In practice that meant that they (the inorganic beings and black death defiers) controlled my dreaming, pretty much totally. Sometimes they gave me a necessary push and dreaming was awesome and at other times, nothing happened.

Decades went by and I had no idea what the hell was going on. I was blinded by my own low astral level mental and emotional fog (quest for power, immortality, magical or sorcery feats, overly emphasized mental control, addiction to feeling good/great/the best, etc...). And those low-level astral beings (the Castaneda "friendly" beings and not so friendly black death defiers and the so-called demons) were just reflecting my dispersed and limited attention...

... and everything I did or intended was limited to the illusory astral level existence. Tedious, boring and a complete waste of time, from where I stand now...

...and yet an unavoidable process for someone like me, a solitary Sorcery and Nagualism practitioner without proper guidance.

Kukulkan Temple

It was my contact with the Maya seers, at first during the dreaming in the "Golden Maya City (see the blog post here >>) and afterwords with the dreaming lessons in the Kukulkan Temple, Chichen Itza, that instigated a gradual but thorough change in the overall perception.

In terms of the dreaming practice that means that in a matter of weeks, I recognized and let go of my own low-level astral delusions and started to access my Light or Nagual body at will.

A Maya teacher has taught me very effective Movements of Power that contributed to the skill of conscious and willful shifting of the focus of perception from astral level dreaming body straight to the Nagual or Light or Spiritual body. After decades of astral aimless wonderings, it has been a rewarding skill I am most grateful for.

Certain Words of Power were given to me which were and still are employed to summon the Eye and to directly enter the dreaming, even while the physical body is still awake (as it is now, for example).

Now, as I mentioned above, the enormous impact of the Eye on my dreaming practice, meaning, the enormous impact of the direct contact with the total potential of the Spirit/Intent, first resulted in the ability to enter the dreaming at will, anytime, anyplace, regardless of the state physical body is in.

It is like being in some sort of trance, only vaguely aware of the awake physical body and more or less completely absorbed in the visions and voices of the dreaming scene within.
The control over the dreaming situation is total and the awareness of the fact that all of it is only a dream or a visit to some distant and separate reality is sharp and constant. Much, much more so than in dreaming sessions while the physical body is asleep.

And since there is no "human form" left to identify with, the reality of the physical body and the separate and distant reality are equal in importance and realness, meaning, an awake dreamer identifies with and attaches to neither.

Also, the recall after the dreaming awake is perfect, and all the positions of the assemblage point during the dreaming awake session are re-visited with ease even days or weeks after the actual dreaming took place.

The only explanation for these 'benefits', from my point of view, is that the Spiritual or Nagual or Light body operates outside established Earthly conditions and also beyond the astral level limitations.

That been said, the aforementioned integration has other implications and is resulting in, for me, surprising experiences. These experiences are more and more common, and even now I can enter into such a dreaming state with ease and at will.


See the previous or the next blog on the subject of Dreaming Awake, if you will:

<< Dreaming Awake  <-->   Dreaming Awake (III.) >>