Dream Practice
/The five practices of orthodox Daoism (Zhengyidao) are zuowang (sitting and forgetting), jindan (the golden elixir), ritual (the spontaneous and routine nourishing and re-balancing of living communities), daoyin (revealing ones true nature through exploring the limits of stillness and wildness), and dreaming.
I'm not sure anyone is really qualified to teach dreaming. The other name for dream practice is "day and night the same." In my own practice I have been experiencing a mind-body sensation that feels like dreaming. It first started in my kua (hip area) and has spread to my entire body. Sometimes it is intermittent, and sometimes it is only a portion of my body. So it has become a measure of "good" practice that my entire body feels like it is dreaming. Perhaps I could describe it as being outside of time. Another characteristic of this "dream body," is that when I want to move, I move the environment around me. I just think, "put the house behind you," and my body turns away from the house. The sensation I get is a sort of short cut to doing what I've already been doing. In that sense it may simply be the integration of new material. But it feels deeply familiar. Dream-like.
(Here is a post I wrote in 2007 on Tai Chi and Dreaming)
I'm not sure anyone is really qualified to teach dreaming. The other name for dream practice is "day and night the same." In my own practice I have been experiencing a mind-body sensation that feels like dreaming. It first started in my kua (hip area) and has spread to my entire body. Sometimes it is intermittent, and sometimes it is only a portion of my body. So it has become a measure of "good" practice that my entire body feels like it is dreaming. Perhaps I could describe it as being outside of time. Another characteristic of this "dream body," is that when I want to move, I move the environment around me. I just think, "put the house behind you," and my body turns away from the house. The sensation I get is a sort of short cut to doing what I've already been doing. In that sense it may simply be the integration of new material. But it feels deeply familiar. Dream-like.
(Here is a post I wrote in 2007 on Tai Chi and Dreaming)
