Love you guys, and we're we're going today is not the part of the month where we do a poll. But instead,
what does every Night Club need? A comedy act. So I have one joke for you. Why did the dreamer break up with the waking state? Because lucid dreaming treated them so much better. There you go. Yeah. So if nightclub ever votes on who to be the comedian for the comedy act, a vote for Bodie, and now we'll get to more of our serious stuff.
Thanks, Bodhi. Thank you all for being here. It's great to see all your faces. Can you all hear me? Okay, okay, great. I'm in a new location, so Testing, testing, testing, Chelsea and I just late last night got home from a retreat at Esalen with Tenzin wing yar Rinpoche. So it was a Tibetan Dream Yoga Retreat, and so our intention today is to share one gem from that retreat, a very important point that he emphasized and and then we'll move into heart obstacles to lucid dreaming. So in our last session, we've focused on body and mind obstacles to lucid dreaming. So today we're going to complete the triad with heart obstacles to lucid dreaming. And before we do that, I want to share the most important point that Tenzin William Rinpoche emphasized in the retreat, which was actually about sleep, he encouraged us to sleep nine hours a night, everyone, no matter the age, and to stay in bed for nine and a half to 10 hours to ensure that we get nine hours of sleep. And this was he spent the first two days focusing strongly on this and encouraging all retreat participants to show up in this way. It was very inspiring to see how many people transformed, people who were average six or seven hours a night sleepers, or even some three or four hour night sleepers that they were actually able to get eight or nine hours of sleep just by creating that intention and continually revisiting it throughout the course of the retreat. On the second day of the retreat, there was a participant who reported he was maybe a 70 year old man, and he reported that he got nine hours of sleep, and then he hadn't slept that much since the age of seven. So that very inspiring to witness these transformations happen, and also very joyful for Chelsea and I, because we are long sleepers, we do sleep nine hours a night, and we very much feel that that is a huge influence on our lucid dreaming practice, expanding our prime time dream time, or our REM state, our REM cycles after we've already gotten sufficient deep sleep is incredible at Promoting lucidity in a very natural and easy and accessible way. So there's nothing magical about this. It's it's really setting the intention and sticking to it. So we wanted to bring that gem with us. And he invited everyone at the retreat to share this with their communities, to encourage and to model this long sleeping which is in many ways not represented in our societies and not encouraged in our societies. So we invite you all to try this, to try to stay in bed for nine and a half to 10 hours at night as a way of getting deep sleep, nourishing yourself, calming yourself and creating more space for dreams and for lucid dreams. So with that being said, we'll transition first into just a little bit of content around heart obstacles to lucid dreaming. So we're going to mainly focus on two heart obstacles. One is idealizations, and the second is identities. The first heart obstacle. All idealizations. So what are idealizations? They are ways in which we either elevate or diminish ourselves or others in the context of the lucid dreaming practice. So if we elevate ourselves, we may feel a sense of self importance or better than others in our lucid dreaming practice, if we diminish ourselves, we may feel a sense of I'm not important, or I'm not good enough in my lucid dreaming practice, or others are better than I am in my lucid dreaming practice. So there's also this element of comparison that comes in with idealization. When we bring in these comparisons, or these hierarchies in terms of better, worse, even with ourselves, we might bring in a comparison, such as, oh, I used to be a good lucid dreamer, or last week, I was a really good lucid dreamer. But this week, I'm not. When we do this, it actually takes up space in our heart field and prevents us from having greater lucidity. So our invitation is to to bring awareness to where am I idealizing myself? Where am I idealizing others? Where am I comparing myself to others or comparing myself to myself, and to let go of that and just be present in the moment with who we are and where our practices right now. So Chelsea brought up this beautiful slide, and we're going to go into identities that can get in the way of us being lucid dreamers, or of us expanding our lucid practice when we have identities that are like bad sleeper, or too old or too young, or I don't believe, or I'm too busy, these can all greatly influence our lucid dreaming practice. Identities are often very subtle. We may not even know what our identities are that we're holding. Sometimes they can look like beliefs. They may look like roles that we play, such as, I'm a parent or I'm a professional so I don't have time or capacity for lucid dreaming, or they may also just be labels like, oh, I have poor dream recall, or I'm a superior lucid dreamer, or I'm an inferior lucid dreamer. So today, what we want to explore are some of the identities that we personally experience that are getting the in the way of our practice, wherever we are in our practice, if the focus of our practice at this moment in time is getting more sleep. How is it that our identities might be getting in the way of us getting longer sleep, getting more consistent sleep, getting more quality sleep, if where we are in our practices more dream recall what identities might be getting in the way of greater dream recall, and if our where we are in our practice is more around lucid dreaming, either becoming lucid or staying lucid or having longer, more profound lucid dreams, which identities are getting in the way of this? So these identities are like clouds in the sky that block the light of inherent lucidity that is inherent in each of us underneath these identities. So the lucidity that comes through will shine when we move these identities out of the way, and that's what we intend to move into as we go into our contemplation and then a practice today. So with that being said, I will now hand it to Chelsea applause. You.
Thank you, Katie.
So next we'll go into a contemplation. We'll spend about five minutes in the contemplation, and I'm going to bring up another slide with the question. So the question is, which identities do you most strongly identify,
and why?
So, which identity with, which identities do you most strongly. Identify and why, and we have a list below. Katie gave some great examples that were in the clouds, such as, maybe you feel like you're too old, or you're a bad sleeper, or you're too young, or you're not naturally inclined to be a lucid dreamer. Maybe there's a belief behind your identity of not really thinking that lucid dreaming can happen, which can you know it can be subtle in a way. So looking at that we can think we're good at lucid dreaming or bad at lucid dreaming, or that we're too busy to do it, so just looking at these identities, really contemplating which one is the strongest for us. And we're going to be doing that for about five minutes, so you're welcome to write this down or just internally contemplate it, and I'll let you know when we're complete, and then we'll be moving into a discussion group where we will be talking amongst each other about one of these identities.
Ding. You.
Evening, we'll go on to the discussion groups,
And I'll just go to the next slide. So the discussion prompt for the groups is to choose one identity to share with your group, and then discuss, how does this identity Impact Your World of sleep and dream if you want to take a moment to write that down, to ensure that somebody in the group has the prompt,
and we'll Be in the breakout groups for about 12 minutes. So yes, and I am going to invite You all in to The rooms right now. You
Welcome back.
How was that discussion? It's good, great. We'd love to hear what identities came up for you. If you want to share them in the chat, maybe wait a couple minutes so people can write them in if you feel inspired to share open, yeah, identity with being open. Mm, hmm. Open,
yeah, it's kind of interesting. If we have, like, such a big identity with being open, it can actually make us more contracted, right, contracted around the openness. Uh, distracted, yeah, many of us are distracted, cluttered, busy, distracted, mind habit of Wired, tired, old and lazy striver, but it didn't sound that bad, difficult, lucidity, grasping too much, yeah. Lucid, distracted, difficult, I can't do this. Mm, hmm, yeah, open. Can lead to distracted, yeah. Thank you so much for sharing your identities. I know this can be. Kind of like a vulnerable thing to explore, and it can be so great to share openly with each other, so that we all know that we all have identities that we're working with. You know, one of mine can be, I'm not spiritual enough. I'm not doing enough spiritually to like obtain lucidity that so, so we'll be going into the practice next in which we will be working with these, yeah, we have many identities that is true. Very, many, many, many, many, many, many, yeah, something that 10s of one yoga Rinpoche said was to not focus on all of them at once, but to choose one, choose one, and work with that. And then they'll keep on changing, and they'll show up in different masks and different clothing and different forms, and we just keep on working with them, working with them. So we'll be going into a practice. So Katie,
yes, so we're going to go into a practice now, and I'm just going to describe a part of the practice first, so that we can relax and be in it as we're practicing together. So for part of the practice, we're going to do a 12 second or a 12 count breath, in which we inhale for a count of four and then exhale for a count of eight, and the invitation while in this breath is to have it be really embodied. So as you inhale, really feel that, experience that, and as you exhale, feel as though you are letting go, relaxing, sinking. We're going to use this breath in a couple of different contexts. And also, just to let you all know, this is a breath that we learned from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche a while ago. We're very inspired by him for this session today. And this breath can be used as a way of settling, settling, settling down before sleep, letting go, letting go, letting go, so that we can fully relax our bodies and come out of our heads and into our bodies as we go into sleep. So we're going to do the breath in a couple of different layers today, but I just wanted you to have that context of it, and also to be aware that you can go at your own pace with this breath. So it doesn't have to be four seconds and eight seconds on the inhale and the exhale. It can be a count of four whatever is comfortable for you. You don't have to push the exhale to eight seconds, if that's challenging for you. So play with it in your own pacing and in your own timing. So with that being said, I invite you all to close your eyes. Find a comfortable seat. If your feet are on the ground, feel the soles of your feet connected to the ground and to the earth, stabilizing and grounding your energy. And you may have your hands resting gently on your thighs, face down or face up. You might also have your palms resting, one on top of the other in your lap. Just feel into whatever feels comfortable and centering for you in this moment,
feel that your spine is upright and straight, alert, but also relaxed at the same time.
And feel your chest, your heart space as open, pulling the shoulders just slightly back to emphasize the openness of the heart,
gently bring your awareness to your breath first, simply as it is, without repression or elaboration, simply notice the breath and allow yourself to begin to settle. Into your body and into this present moment.
Notice if there are any thoughts or emotions or feelings or sensations that are naturally arising in your experience, and if so, simply witnessing, noticing them as they arise, and then coming back to the breath.
Notice also, if there's anywhere in your body where you're holding tension or holding on in some way, and simply invite this tension to relax, to melt away with each exhalation and
and now gently, slowly Moving into this 12 count breath in which you inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of eight at your own pace, and feel that with each exhalation you are sinking deeper and deeper into your body, letting go more and
more for The next few moments in silence, find your own timing and pacing with this 12 count breath, as you invite yourself to settle to rest deeper and deeper into Your Body, You
music, continue breathing in this way as you now bring into your awareness the identity that you are working with, the one that is an obstacle to your sleep, your dreams, or your lucid dreams, simply bring this identity into Your awareness and feel that with each exhalation you are letting go of this identity. You are allowing this identity to dissolve into space, letting go, letting go. You. And breathing in this way for the next few moments In silence as you let Go of This identity and
and now feel that you have let go of this identity, and you can now Breathe into the pure space of goodness, of lucidity in your heart. Each time you inhale in this 12 count breath, feel that you are breathing all the way into the center of your heart, into the goodness, the love, the lucidity that is inherent in the center of your heart, and each time you exhale, feel that you are sharing this love into the space around you. It could be this space immediately around you or into your whole house, your neighborhood, your city, your country, the world, the universe, feel how far out you want to breathe this love that feels right for you and with each inhalation, breathing deeply into the center of your heart, feeling this lucidity, this love, and exhaling as you share it out with The World You
then from this heart centered space,
this spaciousness and we'll invite in curiosity
by asking ourselves, who am I? I.
Who Am I? I
and if something is arising within the space, maybe it's A sensation,
an emotion, a feeling or A thought notice it in the spaciousness and
notice with compassion
how this story
is feeding into an Identity and
and we're just noticing it. And
now open up the space around the identity,
create a bigger space within yourself to hold that identity with compassion
of understanding And and acceptance and
we're not wanting to try to fix or change. In this moment, we are holding it with love and
Just like the sun emerging from behind the clouds and notice The light of our inherent lucidity within this spaciousness and
Now feel within this space,
holding both the identity and your inherent lucidity,
the warmth that is present and
I feel this warmth for yourself,
your practice
and your community and
within this space of awareness,
you have the capacity to change anything you
Rest in this space for A few more moments and
I invite you to take your hands and just place them over your heart and
if it sounds enjoyable to you, you can put a smile on your face.
Feel the warmth that we've cultivated with our inherent lucidity together. Just feel that in your body.
Feel the joy of that and
and you can take your hands and you can put them over your eyes,
and you can slowly open up your eyes with your hands covering them.
And as we take our hands off of our eyes,
really notice how the light comes into your beat as we return to the group and
thank you.
Thank you Katie, thank you Chelsea, thank you everyone. I want to invite you to share Marion, thank you for preempting me saying this. Share how you feel in the in the chat. Share anything about your experience you're feeling state, what you notice now? I. And as these shares come in, we'll also open up our our time for sharing, for Q, A, for comments, for offerings, anything that you'd like to share with the group is welcome, and you're welcome to raise your hand or put that in the chat, and I'll begin to read some of what what's coming in. Marion says, the heart is lucid. Wow. Patrick, relaxed, lighter. Lloyd, grounded. Calm, complete. Brooke, calm and easy. Thank you. Jude, beautiful meditation. Thank you. Chris, feeling calmer and lighter. Scott peaceful. Dominica, this feels very timely, as in the past week, I have become aware of how my lack of self love may be a barrier to lucidity. Yeah, Rob, sad, but in touch with what's making me sad, beautiful. Rob, yeah, yeah. So holding space for the sadness, knowing where it comes from, and allowing it wonderful. Thank you all. So if anyone would like to share or ask a question, you're welcome to raise your hand. I know we're in a very spatial, heartful field right now, and there might not be a lot of words coming, and that's fine, too. Elaine is feeling lighter relaxed with dissolved noise and tension.
Great. Okay, I see Mike has his hand raised, so I will, yeah, go ahead, Mike
integrated, I had a found experience yesterday with my natural path was also a dreamer. So during the meditation, the visualization she did with me came back. It was very aligned with Chelsea's meditation. And for me, the whole thing is just let go. Just go non linear, just be there, and just let all of the warmth and sunshine that my indeed gave me just come all the way back into me. Phenomenal. I'm in Windsor, Ontario, wow, still connected to the big cosmic internet. So, okay, thank you.
Thank you. Mike, Chelsea, would you have any response to this?
Yeah, I just think it's beautiful what you shared. Mike, I can feel the integration within you, the the calmness within you and the light. So thank you for sharing how that connected to your experience yesterday with your naturopath, you
Great,
okay, Gillian,
I really loved that. Thank you. The meditation I had a really nice when Chelsea said, Who are you? I had some images come. But when we were in our breakout, we were talking about a lot of things, but we talked about that kind of busyness of our culture, and I mentioned that kind of upper limit where. And someone here mentioned, a moment ago, I'm sorry about something about not deserving that was sort of the feeling, but, but that blissful, you know, like that we don't surrender to what's actually, maybe even getting lucid or, you know, there's that upper limit of bliss, or space or leveling up. And when Chelsea asked, Who are you, I had some imagery. And then the fact of, I don't even want to say the term, the fact of Sambo Gaia, came up, right? The enjoyment body, that between body, the, you know, the body of dream and Word and breath and imaginal realm. And I had been saying in our group that, and people here, we've been talking. But I'm ill right now, and I've set aside time in the morning to do my morning like waking dream time, where I'm awake but I'm, I'm dreaming. And what I do, Katie and I am reporting back to you, because we've met privately, is I'm, I'm on my own, kind of very slow, but I'm still in that work world mode of getting up. You know, up I get and then there's my clipboard that I had for years, and I'm going to call the cardiologist to get on the wait list, like I start this whole American Day. And the truth is, whenever I spend time in this, and I'm not just talking the sleeping at night dreams, but the laying here also active imagination, dream time, just letting it happen. What comes there is so potent, so filled with help. The inner world is so filled with help. Frankly, so far, the neurologists, they're not reading long COVID research, you know, like, I've got to find one that keeps up on the research, because they're not reading it. So the outer world, you know, I'm going to keep looking, but there isn't much help there. But the inner world is filled with help. So I'll stop there and just say, like claiming our sambogakaya at the relative level, I'm not a Buddha, but, you know, secretly, we all were will be was, I don't know, you know, but, but at the relative level this dream time Sambo go Kaya, so thank you really always these three wizards of dreaming. Thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. Gillian, one thing that's arising for me as you share this is something that Rinpoche shared with us at the retreat on the last morning of the retreat, he had an early interview, and he found himself waking up in the middle of the night and having pain identities come in around, I need to be responsible. I need to get up and practice for this. And he noticed the pain identities, and he said, No, I'm not going to let these pain identities interfere with my sleep and interfere with my rest and integration, because actually creating from that place is not true creativity. Yeah, and it feels as though what you're sharing is very much in alignment with that, giving yourself that space and the morning to be in the imaginal space and with the sambhogakaya and enjoying Yeah, So yeah, thank you and keep it up. Okay, Rob.
Oh, you guys are really good examples for me, and I really appreciate this. I very unexpected experience when you know all those identities were kind of like milling around in my head, and it was kind of kind of kind of felt sort of half in, half out, like reminding myself that I'm supposed to be, you know, staying at keeping with this. And you said, Who are you? And it it just everything went sort of blue, like cobalt blue. And there was this just sort of shrinking down, zeroing down, this kind of concentric rings. And it was sort of like something like a fetus, and even like smaller and the identity attachment at the very bottom of it really like what I brought in here with me, you know, was apparent and but viewed in this very big sort of compassion field, wasn't exactly what I was shooting for, but it just, I can't tell you it really well. I don't want to even try to sort of understand it now, but it, but it, I can see the tremendous helpfulness of it. It was amazing experience. So thank you for that.
Thank you for sharing. Rob, yeah, I'm so glad to hear that you were able to notice, like that primordial contraction, I hate what you came in with, and then build a space of create a space of more spaciousness, more compassion around that. And something that was really profound for me during this retreat was within that spaciousness, there can be sadness where we aren't the sadness we are, but we aren't the sadness, right? It's in this bigger space and then we. In actually choose to go towards the light, the light of the sun, the goodness. So you can have that sadness in this big space that also has joy. And it can feel like a paradox at first, right? But it's, it's, can all be there. So thank you for bringing that and Rob.
Okay, Jude,
thank you when you said you can change anything, that was really a potent phrase, because I feel like I'm trying to grasp for lucidity. It's been perhaps years since I've been lucid, and I feel like this, in this grasping that I I have so many dream plans that I want to do is a hindrance. So thank you for saying I could change that.
Yes, there's a there's a quote We love that probably many of you are familiar with, in terms of laying arm. Rinpoche, this is a dream, I am free, I can change. This is a dream, I am free, I can change. Thank you. Thank you so much. Jude, thank you for being here. You okay, great. And Lloyd says my thoughts when that prompt came was, you are many of those identities, but beneath all that, you are no thing that feels like a beautiful note to end on. Lloyd, thank you for that. And so thank you all for being here. We will now transition into the blessing with Bodhi.
Thank you Chelsea and Katie. I invite everyone to join in with the blessing in the coming weeks, may we all have deep, restorative sleep, May we all be blessed with more recall of Our dreams and more lucid dreams. Blessings to all.
We dedicate the merit of this practice to all beings. May all beings recognize their inherent lucidity.
Thank you for being here, everybody.
Thank you. Thank you. We hope to see you again. Thank you. You
