Reprinted by permission of Charles Mitchley
Lionheart Publishing
Email:
charles@lionheartpublishing.com
Web site:
www.lionheartpublishing.com
It is quite impossible to practise active dreaming when the physical body
is tense and uncomfortable; therefore, the very first prerequisite in
setting up dreaming is to cultivate the ability to achieve complete
relaxation at will in the chosen moment. We term this state of relaxation,
deep relaxation, and in the final analysis it is nothing more than a
conditioned reflex.
In setting up dreaming it is important to set aside a room and a time of
the day in which you will not be disturbed for at least thirty minutes.
Ultimately an experienced warrior can dream anywhere, at any time, no
matter what his or her circumstances or surroundings may be, but in the
beginning it is a great help to create the ideal environment in which to
dream.
Having chosen the time of day at which you are going to practise dreaming,
try more or less to stick to that same time every day, but realise that
this will be purely from the point of view that a set time fosters a sense
of self-discipline. Strictly speaking, the time of day has very little
impact upon dreaming, and it therefore does not matter when it is done,
except that it is obviously not a good idea to practise dreaming when you
are tired and apt to fall asleep. Having said this, I should point out that
different periods of the day do yield differences in the quality of
dreaming, but this is only of relevance to very experienced dreamers who
are engaged in specific types of research work. For ordinary dreaming by
the warrior who is not so engaged, any time of the day or night can be
utilised. However, you should never attempt to practice dreaming when your
stomach is full, or after having consumed alcohol.
The room chosen should preferably contain a bed because, once again, it is
a lot easier to set up dreaming by lying on a bed, in order to achieve
maximum relaxation. Care too should be taken that the light in the room is
neither glaring nor disturbing, and if at all possible, the room should
also be fairly quiet and warm, but with plenty of fresh air. Once the
conditioned reflex has been set up, and proficiency in dreaming has been
achieved, the warrior can, if need be, dream sitting perched on a busy
pavement in full sunlight, whilst surrounded by noisy traffic, but this
obviously takes a great deal of personal power and is only possible after
considerable practice.
Having chosen the room and time of day, dress in something which is
comfortable and just warm enough. Tight clothing, shoes and jewelry can be
an awful nuisance if you are trying to relax, and they often have the
annoying habit of cutting off the blood supply to some part of one's
anatomy after a while. If you are practising dreaming during the day, draw
the curtains so that the light in the room is subdued. If you are
practising at night, make sure that there are no overhead lights causing a
glare, but also do not turn out all the lights. Having something like a
bedside lamp placed outside of your peripheral vision is about the best
solution. You are now ready to start learning the conditioned reflex.
STEP 1a:
Lie down on the bed, flat on your back, using either a light pillow or no
pillow at all. Rest your arms on the bed at your sides; the hands a small
distance away from the body and with palms up; that is, facing the ceiling.
Your legs too should be slightly parted, so that your feet do not touch
each other. Close your eyes lightly, sigh deeply, cough if you feel the
need to do so, and then concentrate upon relaxing. You are now going to
learn deep relaxation.
In learning the conditioned reflex it is important also to learn muscular
isolation, and although for most people this is a very difficult thing to
do, it is nevertheless essential for learning to relax. Starting with the
toes of both feet tense them by crunching them up tightly for a few
seconds. Now release the tension abruptly and completely. In tensing and
releasing it is not the duration of tension that is important, but the
degree of tension achieved. Never tense for so long that the muscles begin
to cramp, because if they do you will have a terrible time and achieve
nothing. Tense as hard as you can for only a few seconds, and then release
as abruptly and as completely as you can.
When you tense the toes, concentrate on not tensing any other part of the
feet or body simultaneously. Complete muscular isolation is in fact
impossible, for the simple reason that all muscles are interactive; but it
is still possible to concentrate tension in any one given area. Therefore
you should not have to tense up the face, or even the legs for that matter,
when you try to tense the toes.
Once you have tensed and released the toes, tense the insteps and calf
muscles by forcing the relaxed toes down towards the bed. In doing this you
should not again tense up the toes. Hold the tension for a few seconds, and
then release abruptly. Now repeat this process with the thighs and knees.
Pushing the knees down against the bed, get the feeling of pulling them
down towards the bottom of the bed, taking care not to tense the calves and
feet.
Now tense up the buttocks by squeezing and pinching them together, hold,
and release. Next, tense up the lower abdomen by getting the feeling of
bringing the hip bones down and together, so as to contract what I call the
'bikini' muscles. Now do the upper abdomen and chest by forcing the ribs
together and downwards. Then force the shoulders down towards the bottom of
the bed. Finally, tense the back by getting the feeling that you are
arching backwards in an attempt to make your shoulders touch your buttocks,
but without literally arching your back.
Having done the body and the legs, you repeat the process with the arms and
hands. It is by no means easy to achieve the necessary muscular isolation
in this part of the body, and it is therefore best to practise the muscular
isolation of the arms separately whenever you have the chance to do so,
otherwise you will spend a great deal of time and frustration in trying to
isolate the sections of the arms during the exercise. In doing this, first
tense up and release the upper arms, then the forearms, and finally the
hands, by crunching them up into tight fists before releasing.
Next, tense up the neck muscles by simply pushing the neck backwards into
the bed. Then, tense up the face muscles by screwing up the whole face into
a tight ball, tensing also the eyes, the lips, and the mouth by biting on
the teeth and forcing the tongue against the back of the teeth. Finally
tense the muscles of the scalp by frowning upwards without opening the eyes.
Now lie still and make sure that the teeth are slightly apart and the
tongue and eyelids are fully relaxed. Mentally check every part of your
body to ensure that no tension remains anywhere. If you do detect tension
somewhere, then tense and release that part of the body again, but take
care not to tense up another part of the body in the process. This is where
the muscular isolation becomes so necessary.
The sign that your body is fully relaxed is the feeling of being extremely
heavy - as if you are sinking right into and through the bed. If you try to
move your fingers, the movement should feel slow, sluggish, and heavy, like
trying to move your fingers through thick treacle. In practice you may find
that you will have to repeat the tensing and relaxing two or three times
more before you are fully relaxed, but the rewards are well worth the
effort. Under no circumstances must you rush this part of the training, nor
should you move on to the next step before you have achieved complete
relaxation.
STEP 1b:
Having relaxed deeply and completely, keep your eyes closed, and do the
following breathing technique, which is termed the 2/4 breathing sequence.
This breathing technique, unlike many others, is in itself perfectly
harmless and safe but, as with any other technique, please adhere to the
instructions as given.
Keeping the teeth slightly apart and the tongue fully relaxed, breathe in
to a count of four (4), hold for a count of two (2), breathe out to a count
of four (4), and hold for a count of two (2). This is one cycle; now repeat
the cycle ten to twelve times, but no more, otherwise you will begin to
hyperventilate. All breathing should be done only through the nose.
The speed of the counting should be neither too fast nor too slow. Ideally
the speed should be worked out in relation to one's own heart pulse, taking
two beats to one count. Ascertain this speed beforehand by feeling your
pulse, and counting each beat as 'one and two and three and four and',
giving a total of eight beats to four counts. The idea here is to fill the
lungs totally on the inbreath, and to empty them completely on the
out-breath. In doing the counting, count mentally without moving the tongue
or jaws.
Take care that you do not tense up the body during the breathing, which
should be relaxed and easy, but nevertheless quite vigorous. Do not worry
about making a noise. You should be able to hear your breathing quite
loudly and clearly. When you hold your breath after the intake you must not
close off your throat by blocking the air with your throat or tongue.
Simply suspend the breathing with the feeling of hovering in mid-air. Any
blocking will only cause tension. Likewise, after exhaling, just leave the
lungs deflated under the force of gravity; do not block or hold anything.
After you have finished between ten or twelve cycles, breathe in to the
count of four (4), hold for two (2), and then exhale in one rapid expulsion
through the open mouth, allowing all air to escape before the lips slowly
close, seemingly of their own accord. Resume normal breathing naturally
when the body urges you to do so. This final breath of 'in through the nose
and out through the mouth' should be in the nature of a huge sigh, and is
termed a cleansing breath.
Now simply lie still for a few minutes longer without falling asleep, and
enjoy the utterly relaxed state of mind and body. Never forget to do the
cleansing breath, for any deep sigh is a signal to the subconscious mind
that you wish to change something. This is extremely important, for the
subconscious mind is very much like an automatic pilot. It is the
subconscious mind that is responsible for both breathing and the heart
beat, amongst many other functions. We do not consciously have to think
about making our heart beat or about breathing, but we can at any stage we
wish, take over from the automatic pilot. However, if we do, we must also
make it clear when we wish automatic handling to be resumed. Many an
apprentice has found him or herself in a very tight spot after going to
sleep whilst doing the breathing sequence. If, after having fallen asleep,
the subconscious mind does not resume normal breathing, and it can and does
happen, the result is severe hyperventilation causing extreme nausea, a
violent headache, and a totally erratic heart beat, which invariably brings
about terror and panic.
Steps 1a and 1b should be done every day, for it is during this process
that the subconscious mind is being trained to associate the 2/4 breathing
sequence with deep relaxation. Once the subconscious mind recognises the
process, you only have to initiate the 2/4 breathing and the subconscious
mind will send the body into a state of complete relaxation - something
which is not only useful for dreaming, but also for getting rid of unwanted
nervousness or tension. Ultimately the warrior refines this technique down
to just having to do the cleansing breath in order to go straight into
dreaming.
Depending upon the individual, it can take anything from four to six weeks
of daily practice before the subconscious mind has established the
conditioned reflex. If you are prone to a great deal of tension, it can
take up to three months before the reflex has been set; but even if this
should be the case, just keep on persevering, for persistence eventually
overcomes all obstacles. However, realise that if at any time before the
conditioned reflex has been established you miss a day, you will put your
progress back by at least a week, and sometimes even by as much as two
weeks.
After about four weeks you can begin testing to see if you have already
acquired the conditioned reflex, by doing the following test. Simply lie
down on the bed, close your eyes, take a deep sigh, and then without having
gone through the process of tensing and releasing, do three to four cycles
of the breathing sequence, followed by the cleansing breath. Now give the
subconscious mind one or two minutes to register the command. If you find
that you quite happily slip into deep relaxation, then you have acquired
the conditioned reflex, and you can now move on to step 2. If nothing
happens, then continue with the tensing and relaxing for another week or
so, then test again. Keep this process up until the conditioned reflex has
been cultivated.
Under no circumstances should you proceed to Step 2, or even experiment
with it, before you have mastered the conditioned reflex. If you do so, you
will only be undermining your own personal power. Therefore resist the
temptation to rush into dreaming like a bull in a china shop, and content
yourself with taking everything one step at a time. If you heed this advice
you will never regret the time and patience you have invested.
STEP 2: "The Yellow Rose of Friendship".
After you have achieved deep relaxation, perform the following
visualisation technique termed the Yellow Rose of Friendship. Realise that
ultimately this section of dreaming is eliminated if the warrior should
have the need to enter an altered state of perception quickly, but in
formal dreaming, and definitely in setting up dreaming, it is a vital
prerequisite for entering heightened awareness in this specific technique.
The Yellow Rose of Friendship is a symbol which is ancient beyond belief,
having its origin quite literally in a time before time. In other words, it
is a force which originated before this present manifestation of the
universe, and when seen by a seer creates the visual impact of a yellow
rose. This ancient symbol is described in the first of the four parts of
what is known as the Sorcerer's Explanation; an equally ancient and
powerful verbalisation of manifestation, life, and the purpose of
incarnation. Thus, the symbol of the Rose is extremely potent when properly
visualised, and it has the property of sending the practitioner far into
the left side. In due course of time, the Sorcerer's Explanation will be
revealed, but for now we will simply look at how the Rose should be used in
the art of dreaming.
A great deal of nonsense has been written about the art of visualisation,
and as a result people are generally quite confused as to what this art
entails. There is nothing mystical or difficult about visualisation; for in
the final analysis it is nothing more than recalling to memory the desired
object or being. Every man, woman and child quite spontaneously practises
visualisation every time they think of a favourite person or thing. If you
are unclear about what a rose looks like, then study one every day for
several days until you are quite clear about all the details pertaining to
every part of it. For this purpose you do not necessarily need to have a
yellow rose - any colour will do, for you only need the shape, structure
and detail. This study can be done whilst you are still practising to
achieve the conditioned reflex.
Once you are clear about what a rose looks like, and you have acquired the
conditioned reflex, lie down on the bed, close your eyes, and do three or
four cycles of the breathing sequence, followed by the cleansing breath.
Once you have achieved deep relaxation, visualise in front of you a
beautiful yellow rose. The colour should be a lovely soft pastel yellow,
neither too light nor too dull. Although pastel yellow, the colour should
be vibrant and completely clear, with no trace of cream, gold, orange, or
red.
The rose itself should be a crisp loose bud, in which only the outermost
petals have begun to unfold, whilst the innermost petals are still closed.
More than this I am not permitted to impart, for each and every one of us
has to learn to see the Rose for what it truly is. Do not be despondent,
because it will not take you long before you will begin to see the most
amazing detail in the rose. In this you must follow your feelings; that is,
your heart. If you feel something is not quite right, then experiment and
change it, until it feels right for you. In due course of time you might
well change it again, and this process will go on until finally you will
know that you now have the right rose. The astonishing thing here is that
ultimately everyone sees the rose in exactly the same way, for at the end
of the day there is only one Yellow Rose of Friendship.
You will find yourself faced with all sorts of questions in trying to
visualise the rose. Does it have a stem and, if so, are there leaves
attached? If there are leaves, how many, and how are they placed and
clustered? Is the rose attached to a bush, and if so, where is the bush
placed? If the rose is part of a bush, is it the only rose? How many petals
does the rose have, and how are these arranged? Do the petals fold right
over left, or vice versa? The questions are many, and each one has
significance. Each of these questions can and should be answered, but in
this respect know that there is only one right answer for each question,
and that these answers are the same for everyone!
Do not try to answer all the questions at once. Take your time in
discovering the rose at leisure, and in time you will be rewarded by the
most breathtaking beauty and composition. As you continue to visualise the
rose, day after day, year after year, you will begin to sense the
significance of every part of the rose and, as a result, the most
astounding secrets will gradually be revealed to you. Unveiling the Yellow
Rose of Friendship is one of the most exciting practices of the Toltec
tradition - a practice which can only be described as truly magical! Also,
there is no other technique that builds so much personal power as unveiling
the Rose, and it is for this reason that no-one who has seen the Rose is
permitted to impart its secrets, for to do so is to rob the apprentice of
the opportunity to harvest his or her own personal power.
Apropos the above, realise that you should also not talk about your
experiences of the Rose to anyone other than someone whom you can trust as
being a genuine seer. Keep all you discover about the Rose quietly to
yourself, and if you are going to notate your discoveries in a journal,
then ensure that your journal remains confidential at all times. Above all,
remember that the Rose is a symbol which will put you in touch with a most
potent force of unimaginable antiquity. As such it should always be treated
with due respect and caution, not in the sense of yielding to superstition,
but in the sense of handling an unknown force.
As you visualise the Rose, allow it to revolve clockwise on the horizontal
plane, and at the same time to turn slowly on its own axis, also clockwise.
This movement is much like the rotation of the planet upon its own axis as
it spins around the sun. At some point along its orbit the rose should
slowly turn upside-down, and then correct itself again shortly before
coming to a stop at the end of the revolution. All this movement is to
enable the practitioner to view every part of the rose in minute detail.
Therefore the speed at which the Rose revolves should not be hurried, but
neither should it be laboriously slow.
Once the Rose has completed a single revolution, allow it to come to a
stop. Now mentally feel a petal of the Rose with your thumb and forefinger.
The texture should feel like cool soft velvet. Start feeling the petal near
its base, and then run your fingers gently to the top of the petal. Notice
the thickness and the strength of the petal near the base, and how its
texture becomes progressively thinner and more frail towards the top.
Having felt the Rose, mentally smell its delicate scent. The fragrance
should be strong and clear, exactly like a real rose, and not cloying like
a cheap perfume. Smelling the Rose is not easy for most people, and since
this is also dependent upon one's general progress upon the Warrior's Path,
it can take a long time before one is able to smell the Rose. Sometimes an
apprentice will have what can be termed beginner's luck, but all too often
after this initial success the scent has a habit of just vanishing.
However, in time it will return.
After completing this section on the Rose, let it fade quite rapidly from
your inner sight, but remain in your relaxed state for a few more minutes
without allowing yourself to fall asleep. Practise this second step of
setting up dreaming until you can perform it effortlessly, and are fully
familiar with every aspect of the Rose. It is not necessary first to be
able to answer all questions concerning the Rose before proceeding to the
next step. Normally it takes many years of practice before you are able to
unveil the Rose fully, but just ensure that you can visualise the Rose with
ease and clarity before proceeding to Step 3.
One final point needs to be elucidated with respect to the Rose; namely,
that it acts like a barometer in showing our personal relationship to the
world around us. Therefore, if the Rose is determined to look wilted and
scruffy, no matter how hard you try to make it crisp and fresh, leave it,
but realise that you will have to take a good hard look at your
relationship to the world around you, in order to find out where you are
out of harmony with life in general. Likewise, if the colour continues to
fade to a dull pale yellow, you are once again out of harmony with the
world around you.
Step 3: "Entering the Colour".
This section of setting up dreaming is what is known as entering the
colour; that is, the colour of the dreamer. Becoming aware of the colour
will be your first indication that you have succeeded in setting up
dreaming. However, it must be stressed that you must not try to visualise a
colour, as with the Rose, but must see whatever colour presents itself to
you, as if you have your eyes open and are looking at a screen lit up in a
uniform colour. There is absolutely no mistaking the colour once it does
appear, and therefore you will not be left with any doubt whatsoever. If at
any time you think that maybe you are seeing a colour, then take it as a
fact that you are definitely only imagining a colour. When the colour does
present itself, it is clear and very real!
It mostly happens that when the colour first appears, it will be in an odd
irregular shape, much like a blotch of ink. When this happens, concentrate
upon mentally smoothing out the edges of the colour until it has become
uniform and fills your entire inner view. In doing this, do not stare at
the colour directly, otherwise it will simply, and most frustratingly,
disappear. If it should vanish, wait until it again emerges, and then try
once more to even it out. Remember, practice makes perfect, and depending
upon the individual, you can find yourself playing hide and seek with the
colour for some weeks.
Once you have achieved a uniform colour which fills your entire view, you
will discover that you have somehow mysteriously entered into the colour,
in that it will appear to you as if you are totally surrounded by the
colour on all sides, above and below. Furthermore, you will now also be
able to look at the colour directly, and even move your eyes around
anywhere without it having the tendency to vanish from sight. You will now
have achieved what is termed entering the colour, and this is the sign that
you are in heightened awareness proper.
Sometimes the shade of colour is so dark that an apprentice will at first
not recognise it, believing that he or she is simply staring into
blackness. Should you find that you also seem to be staring into a black
hole, then peer closely at that darkness, as if you are looking for a
texture of sorts. In time you will begin to discern minute specks of
colour. Once you have accomplished this, start to merge these tiny specks
mentally into one coherent centre, until they form a mass of colour, and
then proceed as above.
Once you can enter the colour easily and at will, proceed to Step 4. As you
gain experience in working with the colour you will in due course of time
begin to notice that if you glance casually at any shadow you may encounter
in your daily life the shadow will no longer appear dark or grey, but will
now be in your colour, especially the edges of the shadow.
STEP 4: "Declaration of Intent".
This section of dreaming is termed the declaration of intent and, once
again, as with the Rose, the declaration is used only in formal dreaming.
Should the warrior need to enter an altered state of perception
immediately, the Rose and the declaration are eliminated.
The declaration of intent is different for every group of dreamers, and
therefore I again cannot reveal too much. However, this also is not really
a handicap, for the simple reason that all the declarations start and end
in the same way and, moreover, dreaming can be practised very successfully
without having the full declaration. In time, as you begin to sense to
which group you belong, and as you gain proficiency in the art of dreaming,
you will discover the four missing words in the partial declaration given
here.
Once you have finished with step 3, allow yourself a moment or two of
stillness, and then mentally sound the following words:
Lord, I enter here that I may be filled with the richnesses of life ......,
......, ......, ......; to be able to share them with those who are in need
of upliftment in the mind, and of peace unto the body.
The term 'Lord' has absolutely no religious implications at all, but is
merely the ancient and accepted nomen for one's own dreamer. 'I enter
here', refers to entering the colour or the vibration of the group to which
one belongs. You must through dreaming ascertain for yourself what is meant
in your own group by the 'richnesses of life'. There are four of them, each
one being assigned to one of the four quarters, starting in the East and
then going North, South, and ending in the West. Take great care in what
your understanding is of the final part: under no circumstances should the
statement be taken at face value.
In order to sound the declaration you must ensure that you do not turn it
into a kind of internal dialogue, by talking to yourself, or in any way
muttering it under your breath, moving the tongue silently, or whatever.
The best way in which to achieve this sounding is to imagine that you are
standing in some huge stone-walled building, and hearing your own voice
speaking somewhere in the centre of that building. The feeling you should
get is that you are listening to your own voice reverberating, but not
echoing, off the walls of the building. Practice this at any time other
than in your dreaming, until you can do it with ease. In dreaming sound the
declaration only once. Even if you feel that it was clumsy or haphazard, do
not try and repeat it. If you do, you will only succeed in turning it into
internal dialogue quicker than you will believe possible!
STEP 5:
We now come to dreaming proper, something that is a lot easier to write
about than to master. The trick here is that once you have sounded the
declaration of intent, you must allow yourself to go further and further
into left side awareness. The problem arises because the rational mind
associates this with falling asleep, and a terrible battle ensues between
going into the left side and falling asleep.
There is no help I can give you here except once again to state that
practice, determination and perseverance, makes perfect. You must reach
that stage of awareness in which you are hovering on the brink of deep
sleep, but in trying to achieve this you will, no doubt, fall asleep time
after time until finally you discover that it is possible to let the
physical body fall asleep whilst you retain full awareness. The sign that
you have achieved this is that although you will feel asleep, you will
nonetheless still be fully conscious of all sounds and smells, and feel
that you are somehow highly alert.
Once in this state you simply concentrate upon the colour and wait and see
what comes up. Do not try to still your mind in any way whatsoever. If you
do you will only be draining yourself of personal power. Simply allow your
thoughts to flow unimpeded, but cultivate the feeling that you are watching
them play off on a television screen. This will create in you a sense of
detachment, and in time you will find that, because of this detachment, you
quickly enough lose interest in your thoughts. What in effect will happen
is that your thoughts will fade away because you are not sustaining them
with your intent. Once your thoughts have faded away you will be left
suspended in only the colour, meaning that you have stopped the internal
dialogue.
What happens beyond this point is what is termed true dreaming. Again,
depending upon the individual, there can be a long time in which nothing
seems to be happening. The trick here is to watch for whatever feelings may
come up for you. When a feeling does surface, and even this can take a long
time before anything significant is noticed, just flow with it without
trying to grasp it or analyse it. Most of the time it will only be some
while after the dream that you will notice that you suddenly have clarity
on an issue which has been bothering you, or that you have somehow come up
with the answer to a question, or that you have become aware of knowledge
that you never knew you had. In the final chapter we will look at a few
examples of how to fathom the feelings which arise during dreaming.
Dreaming can sometimes yield a visual impact, or an audio impact, or both
simultaneously. When this happens, just watch the scene unfolding, or just
listen to the message, which most of the time is very cryptic. After the
dream you will have time enough in which to fathom the meaning of these
impressions, for should you try to grasp their meaning whilst they are
unfolding, you will simply interrupt the process and dispel the experience.
Having explained this, you must, however, not make the mistake of expecting
or anticipating either visual or audio impressions in your dreaming. It is
vital here to remember that essentially dreaming yields personal power, and
that this power can only flow to you through feeling. It is therefore the
feelings generated during dreaming which are important. Any visual or audio
impressions which may arise are by no means the rule, and should be looked
upon only as an added bonus.
Apropos the above, it is also important to know that when visual
impressions do arise in dreaming, then the only ones which should be noted
are those that are in full colour. In true dreaming, colours are always
very clear and vibrant, in fact almost luminous, and can even sometimes
appear to be three-dimensional. However, in the beginning stages it quite
often happens that an apprentice will get impressions that are decidedly
monochrome or black and white. All such impressions, no matter how
fascinating, should be ignored. Note them, but do not try to keep them in
focus. Simply allow them to fade as quickly as they will. These black and
white images, which more often than not are the faces of what appear to be
unknown people, are technically termed ghost dreaming, and are the result
of unresolved feelings which are strong enough to cause a visual impact.
They are therefore in the nature of past events which should be dealt with
in recapitulation. Do not fall into the trap of trying to recapitulate
these events during dreaming, because if you do, you will get stuck in
ghost dreaming and never master the real art of dreaming.
Finally, as far as time is concerned, you should as a rule of thumb never
spend more than twenty minutes in dreaming. You will find that after
approximately twenty minutes you will spontaneously feel the urge to return
to normal awareness. This is as it should be, because although people are
mostly never aware of it, life pulses at twenty-minute intervals. Because
of this fact, intervals of twenty minutes are a most natural rhythm in all
of life, and therefore no matter when you decide to do what, you will quite
automatically adopt a twenty-minute rhythm. Sometimes, depending upon your
frame of mind and your emotional state, this rhythm can pulse in intervals
which are slightly shorter or longer than twenty minutes, but this too is
natural and need not concern you. It is only when you ignore this natural
rhythm altogether that fatigue and frustration begin to set in.
There is a step beyond this point, but this you must discover for yourself
through the power of your own dreaming. In the final analysis, dreaming is
a most private and personal experience and, in this, your own dreamer will
begin to guide you as you gain proficiency in stopping the internal
dialogue. Relax into your practice of dreaming and be content to build your
personal power at whatever your own individual pace may be. You cannot
hurry the process, nor can you force it - all will unfold at a pace which
is suitable for you.
Moreover, realise that the art of dreaming is the ultimate meditation, in
that you will be entering that vibration which signifies your dreamer's
dream, and in that vibration you will learn about yourself, your purpose in
this lifetime, and about life in general. It is also in dreaming that you
will learn the true meaning and significance of intelligent co-operation.
In mastering this technique the world becomes your oyster, and a day will
come when you will realise that you are beginning to do things you were
never able to do before. In other words, power will then be at your
command, and the Eagle's gift will be yours for the taking. What you will
do with your life after that, and how you will utilise your power, is
entirely dependent upon you as an individual, and upon the impeccability of
your spirit. That you may reach this point speedily, and that you may use
your power wisely, is my most sincere wish for you.
Theun Mares is a teacher of the Toltec Path of Freedom, and is author of 7
books that describe this universal, timeless and practical approach to
finding freedom, joy and power in one's everyday life. "Cry of the Eagle"
describes the technique of dreaming - one of the fundamental aspects that
warriors need to master. For further information about Toltec and the
books of Theun Mares, and to purchase online, visit
www.toltec-foundation.org.
The website also has a download of Toltec
Universal Dream Symbols
Cry of the Eagle - Theun Mares
The Toltec Teachings - Volume 2 - ISBN 1 919792 13 9 -- $14.95
The Extract is from Cry of the Eagle, by Theun Mares. Price $14.95
To Order online, and to download a List of Toltec Universal Dream Symbols,
visit www.toltec-foundation.org
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