Waning moon

Shikantaza

Inspired by O12, tried something similar to shikantaza last night. Picked a stressed region in the body and observed whatever it was that went through the mind. Once I had relaxed the body and the regular mind, I went deeper. Then deeper again. Then cat jumped on my stomach, startling me out of this meditation (the cat is heavy).

The cat also wanted to enjoy meditation. It took me a while (perhaps 15 min) to relax again.

I've found that it helps when I focus on the space around me. Need to spread the consciousness enough so that I would have a background viewpoint without getting absorbed in the arising emotions or images. When relaxing a region within the body, I anchored the "secondary attention" around my back, sides and in front of me. The more the volume and distance, the stronger the anchor. However, it needs to have enough density to be of help. When relaxing the mind, I spread it out on a plane just below the layer of mind that I was relaxing.

Cat: Wake up, wake up, look up there

"What now-Oh"

A large waning moon (according to https://www.moongiant.com/phase/today/, 7%) right in front of me. Felt quite mysterious. Imagine the feeling of being alone in the world with the moon and a cat (everyone else is sleeping). I wanted to sleep but apparently the cat kept staring at it until it descended behind some buildings just before the dawn. Man, the cat is better at Trataka than me.

Got a lot of very short deep cycles of sleep.

Dream: Pk camp

On Thursday morning I had a dream where I woke up to some voices outside. Waltzed to the balcony and looked down. A British master teaching psychokinesis to a small group of people (5 - 6) that were sitting around him in a half-circle. Recognized the master - I had seen him teaching somewhere before .. but I was surprised to see him in the back yard.

I would've wanted to go down and listen to him as well, but I had barely any time before going to work. So, I tried to pack my things as fast as I could, and get down there.

Wrong approach, dreams don't work that way. Should've sat on the balcony and listened to him from there.

Dream: Gliding around

Jumped down from a bunch of rocks that started emitting wasps, and floated. The ground looked slippery and dangerous, so I visualized a sledge. The sledge eventually broke into pieces. Flew back, landing every now and then to gather the pieces (wouldn't want to litter the environment). I was happy about the flying, it always lifts the mood.

Dream: Herb store

Wandered through the town, looking for someplace to eat. All of them were ridiculously expensive. Eventually got to a small store where they sold some eco stuff. I consider myself educated enough to know that "eco" = "ridiculously overpriced". I looked around, until the lady at the counter asked what it was that I would like to have. I selected something, and witnessed the peculiarities of the dream body again - touching something was the same as smelling, tasting and eating it. It was something made of mint and whenever I touched it, I felt mint throughout the body. I was embarrassed by my manners - eating something off the counter and not even paying for it.

The dream seemed very vivid up until the moment when I touched the object. The dream deterioriated soon after.