11-19-2012, 12:00 AM
Glad to be of service, Trinsic....lots of great/seasoned perspectives here.
In terms of personal self-assessment as per above, I take it with a grain of salt....but then again, a grain of salt is packed with flavor, yeah? It's important, but nothing to obsess over. They key, for me, in general is simply about deepening awareness...on all fronts. Maybe, in light of what Nemo put forth, I'm more of a stalker. i.e. I don't remember jack squat about having any kind of special skill at dreaming when I was young. All I remember is some occasional vivid nightmares. i.e. I'm not "a natural". When I heard about lucid/conscious dreaming...I was excited about the possibility, but didn't recognize the state in terms of history of personal experience. I took me over a year to have my first lucid dream! With that in mind, its no mystery as to why I emphasize dreaming in order to bring clearer and deeper awareness there. Not only is it a blast...but its also an area that hasn't seen much of my conscious awareness...so, in terms of personal "growth", I naturally want to bring more awareness there. But never at the expense of neglecting my awareness here in the daily world as well. There's always room to cultivate deepening awareness here amidst the nitty gritty I tend to take for granted on a daily basis. So its important to focus on that as well. All in all, for me its about cultivating a continuum of awareness. Beyond that, I don't care much about where I stand in comparison to others....1st attention, 2nd attention, 3rd attention warrior and such..but perhaps recognize the value of having guidelines such as these. They help in giving a range of perspective...to see that its not all about dreaming...or anything else in particular. It's about taking this gift of awareness, as a whole...and making the most of it
Thanks everyone!
In terms of personal self-assessment as per above, I take it with a grain of salt....but then again, a grain of salt is packed with flavor, yeah? It's important, but nothing to obsess over. They key, for me, in general is simply about deepening awareness...on all fronts. Maybe, in light of what Nemo put forth, I'm more of a stalker. i.e. I don't remember jack squat about having any kind of special skill at dreaming when I was young. All I remember is some occasional vivid nightmares. i.e. I'm not "a natural". When I heard about lucid/conscious dreaming...I was excited about the possibility, but didn't recognize the state in terms of history of personal experience. I took me over a year to have my first lucid dream! With that in mind, its no mystery as to why I emphasize dreaming in order to bring clearer and deeper awareness there. Not only is it a blast...but its also an area that hasn't seen much of my conscious awareness...so, in terms of personal "growth", I naturally want to bring more awareness there. But never at the expense of neglecting my awareness here in the daily world as well. There's always room to cultivate deepening awareness here amidst the nitty gritty I tend to take for granted on a daily basis. So its important to focus on that as well. All in all, for me its about cultivating a continuum of awareness. Beyond that, I don't care much about where I stand in comparison to others....1st attention, 2nd attention, 3rd attention warrior and such..but perhaps recognize the value of having guidelines such as these. They help in giving a range of perspective...to see that its not all about dreaming...or anything else in particular. It's about taking this gift of awareness, as a whole...and making the most of it
Thanks everyone!