My Experience With Lucid Dreaming In Different Traditions (Personal Insights On Importance Of "Personal Match" With Lineage)

[Nuralshamal]

Dear Dao Bums,

I've already detailed my "journey" with lucid dreaming since I was a teenager here:
Part 1: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/53847-sleeping-qigong-and-lucid-dreaming/

Part 2: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/55610-my-experience-with-tulku-lobsang-medicine-buddha-dream-yoga/

Today I want to share some more recent experiences and insights especially pertaining to the importance of the match between you as an individual and the particular practices, teacher and lineage you learn from.

Since my last update this is what I've done lucid dreaming wise:
6 months of daily medicine buddha, tummo meditation and nightly lucid dreaming as taught by Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche.
6 months of "golden light dream travel skill" as taught in Maoshan.

Buddhist Practice:
Here my progress was very linear.
I started with about 1-2 lucid dreams a week with low control, then it just slowly increased to 3-4 dreams with more control, then ending with about 5 dreams a week with some pretty good control and interesting insights.

Daoist Practice:
I got a formal initiation quite some time ago, and it had been about 1 year of daily recitation of the "golden light mantra" alongside its meditation, before I stopped everything else in order to go "all in" with Maoshan.

I first intended to try just one 49 day cycle and see how it matched up against my former buddhist dreaming practice. In the entire 49 days I think I had only 1 lucid dream. I was quite surprised - I had formal initiation (something I didn't have at all with the buddhist practice), on top of that I had cultivated the mantra, meditation and talisman used for more than 1 year before starting the dream practice associated with it.

After the 49 day cycle, I felt an inner kind of "discipline" arising, like I wouldn't quit before I reached success.

So I went on for 6 months with continous daily golden light mantra recitation and meditation, and nightly golden light dream skill.

However, in the entire 6 months, while I did feel the power of the golden light mantra recitation and meditation increasing, I never had any lucid dreams. In the entire 6 months I had only 3.

Personal Insights
Looking back I tried to understand what happened. Looking even further back, I saw that even though trying different dream practices for 12 months (6 months buddhist, 6 month daoist) I never reached the same success as I did with a Bön method I did for just 1-2 months.

With the Bön practice, I just read it in a book. I never even met the teacher face to face, nor got a formal transmission or initiation. Just reading the book was the only "transmission". Yet to this day, it's the one thing that just works for me.

This inspired me to do a kind of meta analysis of all the spiritual practices I've done. I've tried a lot of things, something I've also been critiqued for both publically here on the forum in threads as well as in personal messages here.

I saw that of all the practices I've gone through since 2013 (when I made the commitment to daily dedicated spiritual practice for the rest of my life - before that I had been practicing a few things sporadically since about 2003), there was a really small "greatest hits" list that just "worked" for me.

1) Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY)
First one was Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY) I started in 2017. Since the very first day, I just hit home, I found personal satisfaction, and felt like I found "what I had been looking for" spiritually all my life. Since then, this has been my main daily practice which I never stopped.

2) Talisman Healing Qigong
Second was "talisman healing qigong" with Master Zhongxian Wu in 2018. I was super sceptical about healing, actually didn't believe in it, but just by chance there was a chance to attend a workshop. On the workshop I was quite surprised that it seemed to work. However, when I did the 49 day cycle at home, I practiced on family and friends, and to my great surprise - it just worked! The word spread, and random people started calling me for healing. After this first 49 day cycle (this was just 1 talisman), I've since learnt and practiced 5 talismans (one for each element). It feels like a solid, reliable support for me - it's just there, it just works, and it was from day one. Just the whole surprise and power of it has also made it a mainstay in my practice - use it daily to bless and energize food, drink, sometimes if I'm with family and friends and they ask.

3) Bön Lucid Dreaming Method
Just by chance, I read a book on lucid dreaming in 2021. I tried the usual "red syllable" in the throat method, I tried since I was a teenager, it never worked for me. As I read on in the book, there was a very simple Bön method where you visualise a crystal. To my great surprise, it just worked! And it stabilised, I predictably had lucid dreams every single night from that day. I was blown away! It was huge for me, decades of reasearch, reading, studying, workshops and failed practice was a thing of the past, it just clicked.
However, I felt I got progressively more tired during the daytime as the days went on, this made me fearful, as I remember Master Zhongxian Wu critiquing buddhist sleeping and dreaming practices during one of his retreats, saying night time is for rest. So I stopped the practice, and my energy returned.

4) Becoming a SKY Master
This was in the late fall into early winter of 2021. I went to the temple in India to get my last initiation of activating all chakras and learning as well as blessing and training to become a master myself, to help others progressively open their chakras in the SKY way.
Similarly, it just clicked. Since that day I've initiated about 70 people, about 30 family and friends and 40 strangers on workshops. Every single one felt the power of Vethathiri and SKY, it just works. I'm amazed each time, the power just generates and flows through me (I'm just a vessel). I cannot even imagine how powerful Vethathiri must have been while in the physical body. 

5) Bodily Pleasure of the Goddess, Sri Vidya
This was more of a surprise, I gave it a shot on the recommendation of a close family member. With Raja Shyamala I felt a bodily pleasure in meditation I had never felt before, it was so incredible. Then I  reached the Sri Meru Navavarana Puja (worshipping the golden 3D pyramid version of the more commonly known 2D Sri Yantra), and was blown away. I was so blissed out I could barely lift my arm.

It was however incredibly time-consuming (2 hours daily), so haven't done it since completing my first 41 day mandala. But it's nice to know it's there and available.

6) Maoshan Black Magic
Very recently some parts of the "black book" of Southern Maoshan has been posted as an online class. I've tried a few of the methods (even though I must admit I was quite scared and of course directly opposed to all forms of black magic), but realised it honestly wasn't that different from all the mantras, talismans and qigong methods I've tried before. 

It just depends on your intention: if you wish to help alleviate the suffering of yourself and others, while avoiding hurting yourself and others, there's not really anything to oppose (from my usual religious/spiritual perspective that's against black magic) about the method.

Usually black magic is done using "impermissible" means (e.g. filthy and blasphemous objects and despicable acts with the intention of selfish gain to the detriment of "the greater good" (other living beings, nature, the universe, your fellow man)). However none of these are in the methods I've tried.

There's been 1 particular practice in there (using mantra and talisman) that's honestly blown my socks off. This has also been a game changer for me, and opened up my mind and perspective about what magic is and what it can do, instead of just being "against it" in a very black/white way. 

Conclusion
After these 12 years of daily comitted spiritual practice, there are just 6 items on my list. These are things that are reliable, secure, available and just works.

When I compare that to ALL the teachers, teachings, practices, workshops and lineages I've been through, my God, those particular practices are simply precious pearls, so hard to find, so hard to come by and exceptionally rare.

The list with all the things I've tried that just flat out doesn't work, or didn't work for me, or didn't really impact me or my life in any way - it would have a LOT on it.

When I philosophize over the reason behind it, the only thing I feel arise in my heart is just the feeling of the importance of "the personal connection".

Your soul is very particular and unique, just like a custom made lock. Only a very specific key can unlock it. You can insert 1000s and 1000s of keys, but no one will fit and open your soul, UNLESS it's one of these rare and precious pearls, gems hidden across this Earth for your soul to search out, earn through effort and ethical living, and finally receive to transform yourself and your life forever.

I needed to roam, to explore, to cultivate adventure, to sample, but having now sampled so much, I feel that I now value these few practices much more.

I think I will shift my focus to going further and deeper with these few precious pearls at least 80% of the time, then staying 20% open for new practices.

If I had just "shut down" shop when I found SKY, I wouldn't have found these other precious gemstones, but on the other hand I can also see how over the past 4 years I've probably divided my attention 40/60% in favor of adventure and trying new things.

With what I've learnt now, I feel it will be better to go to 80/20. I feel like I need to stay open, because you never know when a new blessing will emerge and change your life for ever, but on the other hand, the depth and power you get from cultivating just a few things ALL the way is incredible.

That's the whole basis of gong fu - master just ONE thing, and everyone will bow their heads in honor of your achievement and you will use it to better lives of yourself, your family, your loved ones and society, alleviating the suffering of others while being a blessing to all living beings.

So I guess my invitation to you now is:
1) What's the best thing you tried spiritually, that just clicked, that just worked? Did you stay with it?
2) Why do you think it matched you so well? How is it nourishing your unique soul in incredible ways?
3) Are you holding on to practices "just to stay disciplined, loyal and comitted", even though they're not really doing it for you? What stops you from letting go and trying new things?

I pray all our souls will enjoy their adventure to the full, sampling, enjoying and adventuring, while also staying true to our unique course on the long term, and that we all may find the precious pearl of our personal soul, journeying in the mystery of the all-encompassing Absolute

God bless you