Dream a new dream…
A conversation with Ken, my teacher.
Ken and I travelled to Southern Ireland with a group of people, where we all embarked upon a journey into the realms of the elementals and the dream timelines of the Emerald Isle.
I decided to go for a walk to get my bearings of the Ring of Kerry and found Ken sat gazing at a river. At one point, I could almost feel him disappear, as if he had become the waveforms of the fast-flowing water that glistened in the sun.
Without turning his head, he said “Come and sit next to me (while patting a flat rock), here we will enter a waking state of dreaming”. My stomach always churned with nervousness when he said such things but deep down I knew that I was about to experience yet another unravelling of awareness.
I sat down on the rock a few feet away from him. I was close enough to the flowing water that I could submerge my hand in it and let the buoyancy of the current move my hand in fluid directions as I surrendered to its ‘will’.
Me: What does it mean to lucid dream, Ken?
Ken: Lucid dreaming is to know that you are dreaming!
Me: How does one know that one is dreaming?
Ken: By having enough available awareness while you are dreaming, to know that you are dreaming!
Ken: Caroline (he snapped my attention to align with his), when you fall asleep, initially you are in an ordinary dream and not aware that you are dreaming. In fact, you think this is your only reality until the moment you wake up, and hey presto, you’re back in your bed again! However, when you have learnt the art of lucid dreaming you know that you are sleeping in your bed, alongside dreaming a dream!
Me: Can anyone lucid dream, or is it something only certain people can do? (I was transfixed on Ken’s ability to widen my field of awareness)
Ken: Anyone can lucid dream, just like anyone can learn to ride a bike!
Me: What is required to learn this dreaming awareness or skill?
Ken: As with all of the skills you have learnt so far, whether they are Toltec or not, you have to practice until lucid dreaming becomes part of your awakened anatomy. As I say, it’s like exercising a new muscle to work for the first time. Toltecs call it body knowledge! It’s hard at first, but keep applying your awareness and intent and it will start to become accessible to you and available at ‘will’. You, on the other hand, are a natural…
Me: What do you mean?
Ken: You have a natural affinity to dream, you are built for it. You, in the eyes of Toltec seership, are known as a ‘dreamer’.
Ken: Now we are going to enter another state of dreaming awareness, known as ‘dreaming awake’. I want you to gaze at the river with me (with a gentle voice), soften your eyes until your body starts to ‘see’ - then you will experience a dissolving from its definition.
Me: (I juddered a bit as I felt unsure as to what was happening)
Ken: Don’t take your mind with you (he said, with an unbending knowing), gaze at the river with your body, go beyond your eyes now, they are just the windows to the first gate of dreaming.
Me: (I slightly repositioned myself on the rock and then entered the most profound state of dreaming awake)
Ken: You are now in the second attention of dreaming awake!
More Toltec teachings to come…
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