I first read Carlos Castaneda's The Art of Dreaming years ago and was amazed to learn that I had effortlessly been lucid dreaming for many years, so much so that I thought the lucid dream experiences I was having were normal experiences that everyone had every night. It started as foreseeing crime events, or dreaming of a person and later on ending up meeting that person in waking life. Then I read about the 4 Gates of Dreaming as described in The Art of Dreaming, written by Carlos Castaneda. The first gate is very simple: "Stabilization of the dreaming body- Arrived at when one perceives one's hands in a dream. " Carlos Castaneda
In lucid dreaming Toltec shamanism guides you to train yourself to become aware that you are dreaming by looking at your hands. As soon as you are capable of looking at your hands in your dream state, often you will instantly become aware that you are in a dream. Those who develop this skill eventually are also able to control the course of the dream, or at very least, wake oneself up out of a dream that isn't going in a nice direction.
After years of practicing this technique, sometimes successfully; I would be able to see my hands, and guide myself into very mystical realms...other times to no avail the chitta vrittas, or the modifications of the mind stuff (a.k.a. mental chatter), like a hurricane, would sweep me into complex inescapable realms, that are surely real...until I wake up of course.
Simple right? Just attempt to look at your hands when you are dreaming. The idea being that if you become aware of your hands in your dream, you step out of the dream and witness it happening from a very powerful awareness. Like watching a movie. To me this idea is strikingly similar to what the ancient yogis asked us to do with realizing that everything around us is maya, or illusion. We are all viewing life through our own lense. It is through awareness of this that we can step out of the maya that binds us to one set reality and begin to understand that our reality is a direct reflection of what is going on within us. Along with this one begins to realize how mould-able reality is, and consciously co-creates reality through intention followed through with right action.
"If you can have control over the thought forms and change them as you want, you are not bound by the outside world. There's nothing wrong with the world. You can make it a heaven or a hell according to your approach. that is why the entire Yoga is based on chitta vritti nirodhah ("The restraint of the modifications of the mind stuff is Yoga." Sutra 2:1). If you control your mind, you have controlled everything. Then there is nothing in this world to bind you." Sri Swami Satchindananda, from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
I have realized that looking at my hands in dreaming and calling awareness to witnessing the dream movie play out, is very applicable in waking life as well. To pause, "look at your hands," and become aware. You are the eternal witness. Everything that spins around you is the maya, or dream stuff of "real life."
Imagine if we all took a moment, or several each day to pause and "wake up from the dream". To "look at our hands." To realize this place within that is eternally witnessing, still, Divine in Nature. When we step into that place of stillness it becomes more effortless to honestly examine our actions, words, thoughts, and our relationships with others and ourselves. Shedding the light of awareness on our conscious or unconscious intentions....Allowing yourself to pause and "look at your hands" (literally of figuratively this practice works), breathe, and become aware, the more effortlessly we will have clarity in the direction our life is headed. Be fully aware that what you think is what you live, be willing to call yourself to awareness and examine these patterns, what needs to be released, lean deeper into it, examine it like a lover. Nourish it, eventually with the light of awareness it will dissipate until it is so far from you not one thought arises about it again. The result is subtle (or not so subtle sometimes!) shift in reality as we know it. Remember what a dear friend of mine says ,"Every disappointment is a blessing." It's up to us to create alchemy with our life circumstances. The more aware you are of yourself and your conditioning, the more you can step out of the movie and infuse your life with intention towards manifesting what nourishes you.
Affirmation: "I willingly and lovingly create my reality."
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