ADVAITA-L Digest - classification of lucid dreams

[Giri]

On Tue, 28 May 1996, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:

> The state you describe is not described as dreaming (svapna), but rather
> jaagrat-svapna, by the kaivalyam. I reproduce for your benefit:
>
> jaagrat svapna - the state of day dreaming, castles in the air. The fussy ego
> conjuring up visions is the jaagrat-svapna state.
>
> svapna - the dream state. Having _uncontrollable_ visions,
> sleeping after a full
> meal is the svapna state.
>

        I am sorry if this debate on svapna has been skewed by the introduction
of the topic lucid dreams by me.
        Anyway, as I mentioned to Sista in a private e-mail, I dream
occasionally and whatever dream I have is lucid in the sense that it is
completely uncontrollable but I clearly am the witness. It is kinda like
watching TV knowing well that the characters in the TV are not real..
        It is certainly not day-dreaming and occurs only during sleep
after a meal (though not neccessarily a full meal :-).
        It is often said by various vedic seers that we should question
the reality of the dreams during dreaming and not in the waking state. All
I am saying is that I do and find the dream is unreal while dreaming (if
you can call that dreaming). A good question to ask 'where does this
awareness which says this is unreal go when one is awake ?' I don't know.

Namaste

Giri