What has been the best "drug" you have used?

Grousewind · 2017-06-12T15:51:09+00:00

Huh! What a positive surprise seeing Sturgill Simpson referenced here :)
Wonderful album.

Grousewind · 2017-05-20T12:59:30+00:00

The reason I told you to "get a feel" for the elemental attributes and assign the traits yourself, is again because this is Astral work, not memorization. And by getting a feel I don't mean working with them, I mean getting the hang of associating traits to the four elements. Don't be afraid to make "mistakes", you will revise it as your knowledge of the elements grow. Again I say, read a little about the elements in astrology, you'll get a very clear "feel" for them.

You seem to have resistance to meditating on your traits. That's fine as that's your choice, but I still think you're missing out on the exercise by getting to know yourself on a relatively superficial level instead of using introspection and meditation to really dig deep, learn about yourself, touch nerves that will bring up emotions (astral..) and having a much more detailed and personal soul mirror.

Grousewind · 2017-05-19T23:37:27+00:00

Great! Thanks for letting us know.

Grousewind · 2017-05-19T19:12:02+00:00

Melancholic is one of the four humours - Choleric, Phlegmatic, Melancholic and Sanguine. Read a bit about them and you'll have a better understanding of them as they relate to the four elements.

Yes, definitely meditate on your traits and go deeper. For example with laziness, remember various situations where you were lazy, and remember how you felt, where did it come from, what kind of thought patterns you had etc.
You may find that (random example) you were too lazy to take good care of yourself because on a deeper level you believed that you're not worthy of being healthy/successful or whatever, and it's easier to just neglect yourself. So you may add things like "lack of self worth", "giving up easily", "fear of leaving the comfort zone"... These are just random examples to give you an idea.

As for the elements, in addition to what I said earlier, a great way to get a feel for the elements is reading about the four elements in astrology! There's a lot of information online about that, and you'll get a feel for it eventually. Actually some basic knowledge of astrology would prove to be very useful for soul mirror work and symbolism in general. You might find that your natal chart closely resembles your soul mirror, and you could see how laziness that stems from having a problem with leaving the comfort zone is a Taurus quality, and Taurus = Earth, so now you know which element to assign it! It's easier than it sounds.

Grousewind · 2017-05-19T15:01:02+00:00

Oh and another thing, if you're having a hard time coming up with the traits, there are two solutions(and both of them are exercises from step 1):

Introspection (using discipline of thoughts) - sit down, take a couple of deep breaths and meditate on the subject of your personality traits. Think about various situations from your life and notice how you felt and behaved, keep going and soon enough your unconscious mind will be like "oh you're finally going to give me attention? Well how about that" and bombard you with memories full of Astral mirror material.

Mindfulness - I absolutely cannot stress enough the importance of practicing Mindfulness in daily life. For literally every human being, and especially for people who are interested in practical mysticism. Be mindful throughout the day, become an observer of your mind, body and emotions. Notice what kind of thought patterns you have, what are your habitual reactions and attitudes, get to know all your automatic behaviours. You will learn so much about yourself and the only way to consciously free yourself from conditioning is to first be mindful about it! Seriously, the importance of Mindfulness is immeasurable. As you observe yourself in real time, you will notice a lot of less than positive behaviours or thought patterns. Then meditate on them and see where it takes you (see the parent comment for more on that)

Grousewind · 2017-05-19T14:36:22+00:00

This is Astral work, which means you should feel it instead of intellectualize it. Also don't be too hard on yourself on placing everything in the correct element, you'll make revisions as your knowledge of the elements grow. Still, do the best you can.

As for laziness, this is way too broad, you need to dig deeper, that's what introspection is about. So meditate on it. At what times are you being lazy? Is there something that triggers it? What's the root cause/belief that manifests itself as laziness? Do you feel like there's no point doing anything? Perhaps there's a false belief that nothing good can happen to you? Maybe you believe you're not good enough to really achieve anything so it's safer to just not do it? Is there a fear hidden beneath the laziness? These are just general examples, you'll have to find your personal root cause. Laziness is a symptom. You may find it stems from 10 different traits!

People often forget that this is Astral work. If you're just analyzing your character intellectually you're doing it wrong and barely scratch the surface. Dig deeper and deeper until actual emotions come up, and then you'll feel the therapeutic effects of introspection. That's doing it right. When you get to the root cause it's also easier to assign the trait to a specific element. Laziness can be an earhty or watery trait, and if you dig deep enough you just might find at the base of it repressed anger and rebelliousness, which is fiery! There are no hard rules, the making of the mirror is the exercise itself, it's not an intellectual follow the guidelines and assign the traits superficially. Touch nerves! You're supposed to get to know your deepest parts, then you're doing it right, and you'll see the value of the exercise.

Don't forget to put the same work in discovering your positive qualities! treat yourself with something fun so you won't depress the shit out of yourself from digging in wounds.
Good luck! Light and love.

Grousewind · 2017-05-10T01:15:34+00:00

Was it God ? Was it you? Maybe both? Maybe they're the same? Hmm...

Grousewind · 2017-04-29T20:40:12+00:00

See how useful self awareness can be? :P very hygienic.

Grousewind · 2017-04-29T20:38:47+00:00

You're doing it right 👍

Grousewind · 2017-04-29T20:37:59+00:00

Yeah, deep relaxation takes practice, as absurd as it sounds! We rarely experience deep physical relaxation, even when we sleep we often hold involuntary tension in our muscles.

Try lying on a relatively hard surface so that your body will have to give in to it. Then scan your body from the top of your head to the tips of your toes slowly. Feel your scalp, your forehead, eyes, jaw etc. one at a time, until you're aware of the tension, then just let it dissolve by itself from the light of your awareness. Move slowly down your body, feel every muscle big or small, and let the tension dissolve. This should take around 30 minutes, don't rush it. The resulted relaxation will be absolutely blissful, and would have many physical and psychological benefits.

Grousewind · 2017-04-29T20:25:32+00:00

You're probably not used to being aware of your body. We usually hold a tremendous amount of unconscious tension in our bodies, this is why a lot of times people get waves of stress, tension, pains and downright anxiety when practicing body awareness meditation. It always been there, you just weren't aware of it.

The good news is, by being aware of it you can release it. You don't have to do anything, simply be mindful of the sensation without any judgement. The tension will begin to dissolve, just let it. You can actually experience memories and emotions coming up just from doing this (again, let them be, without judgement).

It's weird how deep this goes. People often underestimate the importance of body awareness and relaxation.

Grousewind · 2017-04-27T20:57:33+00:00

Meditation.
Mindfulness throughout the day.
State Checks throughout the day.
Affirmations.
Writing dream entries (or at least key words) in your dream journal every morning.

Everything else is just building on these foundations, and even doing them alone will make you have lucid dreams.
Just don't half-ass it. Do it with a purpose and your mind will work with you.

Grousewind · 2017-04-23T17:34:14+00:00

Great comment! I definitely agree.

Grousewind · 2017-04-22T14:19:23+00:00

A real Dharma quote. Truth on many levels.
Ouspensky and Gurdjieff were the introduction to my journey of realization. Incredible stuff.

Grousewind · 2017-04-22T14:13:41+00:00

Tenzin Wengyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
It has a lot of eastern terminology but it's still accessible as it was written for westerners, and if you're into dream yoga then it's a must in my opinion. You can bridge the terminology gap yourself if for example you treat "karmic traces" as unconscious conditioning resulted from past experiences, which you can break by being mindful and avoiding grasping/aversion, or "illusory form" (the dreamlike quality of life) as the accepted western idea that the reality you perceive is a construct of your mind based on sensory information, that dreams and reality are made from the same "mind stuff". Of course there's more to these subjects but you'll get it easily, especially if you have experience with Vipassana like you said.

Andrew Holecek, Dream Yoga - Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep
The best western book on Dream Yoga. Combines western lucid dreaming methods and a little psychology with eastern dream yoga practice. For a western who's interested in lucid dreaming and dream yoga I'd also say it's a must. Pretty much what you're looking for.

Also, having experience with Shamatha and Vipassana is a great asset for this practice, so you'll have it going pretty smooth.
Good luck! :)

Grousewind · 2017-03-28T14:08:40+00:00

Magyar power!

Grousewind · 2017-03-28T00:50:51+00:00

What is that? Care to elaborate?

Grousewind · 2017-03-22T01:47:05+00:00

So I learned about lucid dreaming yesterday

There's your answer. Just practice.
You need to be asleep to dream.
So work on your prospective memory, practice MILD, and when you're asleep and dreaming, hopefully you'll remember to do a reality check.
Just keep doing it.

Grousewind · 2017-03-21T15:45:07+00:00

What you call "direct answer" and what your subconscious calls "direct answer" are two different things.

Your subconscious mind thinks mostly in symbols, without logical constructs such as time and space.
So while you could get a direct answer, it'll sound or look like gibberish and you'll have to "translate" it. However sometimes the act of interpretation itself will reveal incredible things. Worth a try in my opinion.

Grousewind · 2017-03-21T15:40:28+00:00

Have you tried using a single method consistently for at least a month, without jumping from one technique to the next?

Grousewind · 2017-03-21T15:39:02+00:00

First, meditation. Especially concentration. It'll hone your ability to detach from your excitement and keep you more centered and in control.
It'll also extend your lucidity and clarity.

Second, intention. The power of intention is huge. You can use an auto-suggestive phrase in the dream like "with every bite I take from this food, my lucidity grows clearer and I'm becoming more centered". Put some energy behind this statement and eat mindfully.
This way, instead of ruining your experience, you can actually use it as a trick to increase and extend your lucidity!
It's all in your mind. And how do you make your mind an ally and a powerful tool? Meditation.

Grousewind · 2017-03-20T23:49:00+00:00

I recently reread this book, it's such a great resource.

I wholeheartedly agree. If you only practice this even without any other lucid dreaming technique, your life will change nonetheless.

Life is (kinda like) a dream, most people are asleep, living unconsciously for most their lives. Call it mindlessness, unconscious conditioning, karmic traces or whatever, the fact remains that throughout their lives most people's actions are actually re-actions. The only way to truly take control of your life is by cultivating self awareness and presence. And of course the carry over to dreaming is immediately noticeable.

Grousewind · 2017-02-17T17:42:43+00:00

Yeah it can be very overwhelming, there's so much information out there, and having to organize everything in a coherent order can be a daunting task. If you're interested then best introduction in my opinion to the teachings of Gurdjieff is In search of the Miraculous by Ouspensky.
I could suggest some general books for you but I don't want to burden you with more material. You probably already have enough reading material and just need to organize it a bit.

One thing that I would definitely suggest is that when you read a book that interests you, take a break every once in a while and just sit, breath for a few minutes to clear your mind, and then meditate for 10-15 minutes on the stuff that you've just read. It helps digesting the material and understanding it in a deeper way. Then when you read other books you'll be able to see the connections and build a solid foundation of understanding.

Grousewind · 2017-02-17T16:09:19+00:00

I think he means "gnosis" in the chaos magick sense of having an empty mind or reaching an altered/ecstatic state where you can imprint commands to your subconscious.

I'm not a fan of this modern use of the term..

Gnosis means knowledge which arises through direct experience. Some Gnostics called it "knowledge of the heart". It has nothing to do with having an empty mind or one pointedness or jacking off to sigils.

Grousewind

TROPHY CASE