Night Practice 3 - Clear Presence

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After you experience deep well-being with a stable mind you will find a clear presence that might be more profound that you have experienced so far. Some lucid dreamers are familiar with the experience that you feel like you are more wake in a dream than you have ever been during a day. This is a deeper experience than just thinking that you are present. It goes all the way to the core of your being. Of course we can experience all this during day also but few of us have time to do it regularly. Dream yoga is a good practice to do it in your dream.

With the practice of presence your ability to be present without losing your inner balance should be so strong that becoming lucid in a dream becomes easier.

Clarity is something you already have in your mind and experience so you don’t have to look for it very far. It might be easier to understand and notice if you think what is unclear or clouded mind. You are feeling unfocused and restless. All the clarity seems to be away from you experience. But you still have it all the time. It is a basic quality of mind, consciousness or presence. Mind is already pure and clear. All you have to do is to be conscious.

Usually we pay attention to the objects of our mind like a flower or joy or a headache. We rarely pay attention to the quality of the mind. The pure perception or the flower, joy or a headache is already clear. You have no difficulty at all to pay attention to any sensations or thoughts and feelings. You can perceive them clearly by just noticing when they arise or wherever you turn your attention to. Resting in this clear perception without losing yourself to the objects of attention is experiencing clarity.

The magic of clarity is that no matter how difficult or painful experiences you have, you can experience them clearly and without any difficulties. There is no pain in perception of pain. It is effortless and easy. Now, it is not much fun to experience pain with clear mind - although it cuts you suffering. You don’t suffer anymore because of the pain. It just is and most of the pain is just suffering and resisting it. When you are feeling well and joyful few have a need to rest in clarity. Life is easy and painless.

The challenge and practice is to learn to experience clarity when you are feeling well and joyful in order that you can sustain it when the pain eventually comes. And it always does sooner or later when we grow old and become sick at the latest. In tibetan buddhist symbolism clarity means emptiness and at the same time consciousness or experience of it. This consciousness or knowing is usually called light. It is as though your consciousness is shining light like a torch to the objects it perceives in a dark room.

When you learn to fall asleep in state of clear presence a lucidity in your dreams will become a natural continuity of this presence.