Child Mind = Quiet Mind + Discerning Mind = Lucid Dreaming Mind

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madmagus

Natural lucid dreaming is the goal we each snuggle up to each night.  It is almost every LD'rs ultimate, not-at-all-hidden desire.  But how do we get from here to there? 

There is a frequent comment on forums that goes something like 'we naturally lucid dream as children, but it's much harder as adults.'  I've been running this through my head for a while now.  I've come to my own personal belief as to why this is a truism and how we may be able to reacquire the sought-after Child Mind.  This mindset is what I believe naturals have, well, naturally, or have developed inadvertently.

The Child Mind really consists of two elements necessary for lucidity. 

To have a child's mind is to have a questioning mind, an actively inquisitive approach to your environment.  It is an instrument of exploration, always in the present tense, in the moment.  As we grow older, we join the local school and fall into the regimented training and mind numbing propaganda that disguises itself as education.  We are told that it is inappropriate to ask 'why'.  If it were not true on its face, why would it be in the book?  We are told to shut up and just rote memorize the material and we'll pass the test.  Move along.  Move along.

Now, having replaced the inquisitive mind with the rote-memorization mind, our brain habituates a response to stimuli in the rather dull, lifeless, utilitarian manner of an accountant.  It either records the data under one heading or another or dismisses it entirely as being non-consequential for not falling within parameters set into the subconscious through rote memorization and categorization.  We lose, to one degree or another, the ability to discern for discernment's sake.  We stopped asking 'why' the sky is blue, 'why' the ocean is wet, 'why' the leaf is green? 

We must reacquire both the child mind of meditative quietness and the discerning mind to foster a natural lucid dreamer's mind.  Habit forming activities are used to acquire both modalities.  Also, as a side note, techniques are most often futile without the proper mindset to start with.

Like anything new to learn, you must start from a position of stability if you want to get the most out of the training.  That stability is acquired through single-point meditation.  This type of meditation teaches you to control the onrushing thoughts and to bring about a quiet, controlled surface against which you can evaluate your surroundings.  This is a critical step to achieving the child mind.  The child's mind is an active arena, but it persists within a naturally occurring meditative state, as is witnessed by the high prevalence of Theta waves when tested. 

Let me give you a metaphor that pretty well shows what I mean:  I give you a well-organized front room and a disorganized one.  In the disorganized room, you have magazines thrown about, books lying around, cushions in disarray, left-over food on the coffee table.  If someone were to burglarize this house, you would be hard pressed to know if anyone had been there because everything was already in disarray.  In the well-organized room, on the other had, should a single magazine be out of place you could tell something was wrong.  For the majority of people, our minds more resemble the disorganized clutter than the ordered environment.

What does this mean for lucid dreaming?  When you go to sleep at night and the standard disorganized dream arrives along with aliens and one-legged donkeys, your mind doesn't consider it any more surreal than the Kung Pao chicken dinner left sitting next to the two-day-old pizza and the first edition War of the Worlds DVD.  They are just other pieces of clutter only occasionally considered out of place, and then with difficulty.  And your disorder doesn't have to be as extreme as illustrated above.  Most dreams are rather mundane.  But so is life, and that is where you are doing your discernment practice.  You are questioning your jacket on the back of a chair much more often than the appearance of a three-legged dog.

This strong base achieved through meditation is the first half of the Lucidity equation.  The second and equally important part is discernment.  Once you have an uncluttered field of operations, you next must reinvigorate the 'WHY' mind of the child.  The standard advice given in the many forums that I've perused is "Look for weird excrement and tell yourself you're in a dream."  But I have a simple question for you.  How many three-legged dogs do you think you're going to have a shot at noting each day or each week or even each month? 

You don't need those extremes.  Not in the least.  If anything, it is counter productive to look at them as necessary in any way.   You have everything you need around you every day of the week, every hour of the day.  What you should be looking for is not the extraordinarily out-of-place object but the familiar items that are out of place all around you all the time.  Ask yourself, "Why is my jacket hanging from the kitchen chair instead of hanging in the closet?"  "Why is there an empty can of cat food sitting on my kitchen counter?"   "Why did the dog eat your homework, John?"  You can do this dozens of times a day with little if any disruption of your normal activities.  Of course, do ask the questions in your head, if you don't want to be considered a loon.

Why, why, why, why?  Child's mind.  Discerning mind.  Orderly mind.  Lucid mind.

In overview, you can not discern the odd events in a dream if your mind is filled with disorder during the day.  It has no position from which to evaluate the disorder of the dream.  The dream, essentially, is business as usual.  You have not habituated the concept of order into your subconscious through daily repetition and practice.  Build the habit of a clear, ordered mind through proper meditation.  Build the habit of discernment through questioning of your environment.

Oh, yes.  The answer to the above questions, for Lucid Dreaming specifically, is always the same.  "The jacket is not in its proper place because this is a dream."  Say it with conviction.  Say it with meaning and intent.  You must create a habit of true discernment, not the habit of blase observation and cataloging.   

Lastly, is answering your questions in the above manner absolutely necessary.  Possibly not.  The mere fact that you question your environment should be enough over the long run, I would think.  Your call.

I hope I was clear enough in what I was trying to share.  Hope it helps as well.  I'm still in the throes of taking my own advice.  Hopefully in a month or two I'll have something definitive to say beyond my simple belief that it is true.  Interested in others' take on this.

Nameless

This is really well thought out. I totally agree with having a child-like mindset. There is one thing I would add to this. Children actually spend their days living, that is moving, being in the here and now physical, engaged and I think all that engagement gives them a boost in the NP as in a lucid state there is always something for the child mind to work with.

Lack of physical engagement doesn't leave much for an adult to work with. I'm not saying adults aren't active but that they have a more laid back seen it done it attitude.
Remember, You came here to this physical earth to experience it in its physical form. NPR will always be there.

madmagus

Thanks Nameless.  I agree that children are naturally in motion, given the opportunity.  They act out their imagined universe, the NP universe if you will, so they are indeed more in touch with it as a consequence.  It's a good observation.  Perhaps that is why adults need to work with visualization exercises to increase their own connectivity.