Do You Lead a Lucid Life?

Or are you lost in a dream?

A Peruvian ornamental bird living a lucid life on an outside wall of the house at Evergreen.

We’ve all heard of lucid dreams. Most of us have had at least one.

Usually when you have a dream, you’re not aware that you’re dreaming: it seems real. The bear is chasing you. The floor is collapsing under you. The public toilet doesn’t have a door. You have no control over the situation. You’re a victim. You’re not conscious.

But if you’re having a lucid dream, you know you’re dreaming. You’re fully aware of the situation. You think, Hey, I’m dreaming! Wow! You look around, then move your body in the direction you want to go. You decide what to do next. You are in control. You are conscious as you dream.

I’ve had a lucid dream where my body is flying over coastal hills to look at boats in a harbour faintly lit by a quarter moon. I know I’m dreaming because I’m aware that it’s impossible for my physical body to fly like a bird. But I decide where and how to fly. I zoom high above the harbour, then hover low over the boats, enjoying the sensation of flying while it lasts. I am creating what happens in the dream I know I’m in.

A similarity can be drawn between life and dreams.

We can spend our life lost in a dream, or we can lead a lucid life.

The difference is in our degree of awareness, our level of consciousness.

The Seat of Awareness

Deep inside you, where the view is all-encompassing and eternal, sits awareness. Awareness is always with you. You take it everywhere. It’s the most important part of you but you always forget about it. You’ve forgotten it for such a long time that you may not believe you have it. But it’s there, waiting for you to notice it.

Awareness is easy to forget about because it’s silent and still. It doesn’t create pop-ups inside your mind, ping on your mobile, or send you a sequence of emails to get your attention. Your awareness is the true you.

Michael A. Singer writes about this in his book The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself:

When you are an aware being, you no longer become completely immersed in the events around you. Instead, you remain inwardly aware that you are the one who is experiencing both the events and the corresponding thoughts and emotions. When a thought is created in this state of awareness, instead of getting lost in it, you remain aware that you are the one who is thinking the thought. You are lucid.

In a lucid dream, you are aware. You are in control. You are the creator. You notice your thoughts and intentions

When you lead a lucid life, your awareness is similarly in control.

Awareness doesn’t have emotions and thoughts. Awareness is just aware. It’s the great observer. It is universal consciousness. Awareness doesn’t feel frustrated, angry, or annoyed. It just notices. From this state of awareness, you can make decisions without being distracted by the endless series of objects, events, people, thoughts and feelings that flood your days and almost choke the life out of you.

The same things are appearing or happening whether you live in a dream state, or live lucidly, but the outcomes can differ widely.

Awareness enables you to simply focus on what matters in the moment.

Awareness gives you awesome clarity.

Awareness enables you to live effectively.

With love, Marlane