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Mindful While Sleeping?

comicallyinsanecomicallyinsane Veteran
edited July 2005 in Buddhism Basics
I was wondering if we can be mindful while sleeping? Thanks.

Comments

  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited July 2005
    I don't know, Comic. I'm asleep at the time.
  • comicallyinsanecomicallyinsane Veteran
    edited July 2005
    Simon I was waiting for a very long answer from you. You never cease to suprise me. LOL :bowdown:
  • emmakemmak Veteran
    edited July 2005
    Yeah I have thought the same thing. Sometimes I have really wrong dreams about being really violent or innapropriate dreams about other men. Does that mean subconciously I am a bad person?
  • comicallyinsanecomicallyinsane Veteran
    edited July 2005
    I had a crazy evil dream last night. It was about this big fat guy who selpt with hookers and had some diseases from sleeping around. I kept hearing this song playing while he was sitting in a bath tub in some sort of cellar. "It really burns when I pee". Over and over it kept playing. I think we all have a dark side that we repress. The dream kind of freaked me out. I have been analyzing it all day. :confused:
  • emmakemmak Veteran
    edited July 2005
    So, subconciously you are a fat guy in a cellar with a urinary tract infection?
    Makes you wonder how our minds make this rubbish up and what it really means. Do you think it does mean anything?
  • comicallyinsanecomicallyinsane Veteran
    edited July 2005
    I have always thought that our dreams are just our imaginations going wild. I think the dreams that make sense are the ones that mean something. Just my opinions though.
  • emmakemmak Veteran
    edited July 2005
    How does your brain come up with stuff though if you have never experienced it? What do you think of deja vu?
  • comicallyinsanecomicallyinsane Veteran
    edited July 2005
    Ihave experienced deja vu many times while awake. I think we all have some sort of psychic abilities. Some more in tune than others. I think I am more in tune than the average person but not as much as a real psychic. I probably saw something in a movie and that's why I get these images. I have seen thousands of films. I probably have forgotten more than I know about. LOL
  • emmakemmak Veteran
    edited July 2005
    Have you ever gone some place and you are sure that you have NEVER been there, but when you get there you recognise it and it feels like you have? I have had that feeling twice, and it was a little unnerving. I also get a lot of deja- vu. Sometimes I even get deja vu deja- vu. When I get deja -vu and I think 'wow, deja- vu' then I have the deja -vu feeling of thinking deja -vu. ( I am laughing as i tyoe this cos I bet it makes no sense!) My older sister and I are very tuned in to each other. So many times one of us will think about the other and then the phone will ring.
    Getting back to deja vu, do you believe it could be from a past life?
  • _BeautifulSpringtime_BeautifulSpringtime Veteran
    edited July 2005
    comicallyinsane wrote:
    I was wondering if we can be mindful while sleeping? Thanks.

    There are traditions that rain mindful sleeping - such as lucid dreaming.
  • emmakemmak Veteran
    edited July 2005
    Can you please elaborate?
  • comicallyinsanecomicallyinsane Veteran
    edited July 2005
    Emma I have gotten deja vu more times than I can count.
  • BushidoBushido
    edited July 2005
    I get déjà vu probably as much as anyone, but I also get feelings of nostalgia for events I’ve never experienced and places I've never been to.

    When I was a kid in the late 1950s, I’d hear the drone of an airplane high overhead and I’d feel strong nostalgia for World War II. I still get that from time to time.

    Certain Asian music gives me a strong sense of nostalgia for places in the Orient and especially for an era there, like the 1940s. I’ve been in various Asian countries, but I get this strong feeling for places I haven’t visited there.
  • AnitaAnita
    edited July 2005
    This may sound really silly...but do you think deja vu may be something recollecting (sp?) from a previous life?

    And Bushido, what is nostalgia? How do you pronounce that? :)
  • BushidoBushido
    edited July 2005
    Hi Anita,

    Nostalgia (nuh stal juh) means yearning for something in the past. So what is strange for me is that I have this strong sense of yearning for a past that I haven't had.

    I read somewhere that deja vu might be you remembering the future. Your life has already been laid out. So when you experience deja vu it's you having a brain burp or something, and remembering a moment, a part of the script, that is your laid-out life. (insert Twilight Zone music).
  • _BeautifulSpringtime_BeautifulSpringtime Veteran
    edited July 2005
    emmak wrote:
    Can you please elaborate?

    Sleeping sat upright in a box, mindfulness into the dream state and whilst sleeping.

    I don't really know much about it - I just read about it in Lama Surya Das' book.

    Sorry I can't be more informative.
  • emmakemmak Veteran
    edited July 2005
    BSF What is the book called? I'll look iy up... thanks though.
  • LittleBenBuddhaLittleBenBuddha
    edited July 2005
    Lucid dreaming is consciously perceiving and recognizing that one is in a dream while one is sleeping.

    Wikipedia article on lucid dreaming

    One exercise (I was able to accomplish when I tried it years ago) is to raise your hands up and look at them or look down at your body. Apparently, we rarely see our own bodies in our dreams. Lucid dreaming technique has been used to help people overcome their nightmares.

    But to get back to the original question about mindfulness while sleeping...I try to follow my breath as I fall asleep and as soon as I wake up. My goal is to have a 24-hour continuous loop of mindfulness. I also meditate just before bed and after waking.

    Side note: I have sleep apnea and use a machine to help me breathe. Any snorers out there, I highly recommend it. I sleep much better now.

    Summary: I think sleep can be a valuable dharma practise. :hohum:
  • _BeautifulSpringtime_BeautifulSpringtime Veteran
    edited July 2005
    emmak wrote:
    BSF What is the book called? I'll look iy up... thanks though.

    'Awakening the buddha within'
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