Awakening Exercise
To simplify we'll talk about two stages:
The first stage is that twilight condition you experience when you first awaken in the morning. We call this the "first awakening".
Don't move. Don't open your eyes -- you are still practically in a dream-like condition. You can observe imagery, thoughts, and so on going on -- like movie clips. They change and change. Sometimes one lasts for three seconds, sometimes for a half second, and then something else comes, and so on. This you already know from experience.
Now, what I suggest you do is be very aware of what happens. Do not itemize (analyze) the pictures, but get the feeling of the situation, as a whole, and of you in that whole situation. This is the first stage. You only stay so long in this stage, after that you have to go on.
Now you get up, you awaken fully. This is the "second awakening". I want you to observe the huge difference between the first awakening and the second awakening (situation-wise not item-wise) and of you in these situations. Do not say: "the difference is in this or that aspect" etc. Simply experience the difference of world -- from one world into another. The second world is a lot bigger, a lot sharper, a lot more varied, and you are a lot sharper too.
Then you can go one step further. When you are in the first awakening, try to exert some control over the imagery going on. But watch out, if you do it too drastically you will go into the second awakening. You must really respect the first condition.
So, to continue, you, as identity in the first awakening, choose to stay with one of.the pictures or movies going on -- something you like -- and you let the imagery continue. Perhaps you will succeed for three seconds, perhaps ten, but if you haven't come into the second awakening you will notice that before you realize it, other images have taken over. This means your ability to exert a direction is very poor.
Next you awaken fully, exert control over some aspect, and watch the difference. Again it's two worlds. The "you" that acts is different and the ability to be more steady, to exert some control for a length of time is hugely different as well. Register this. Don't register items, register the whole situation. Register how it is to make an image, I would say, worlds apart. Do this thoroughly.
You have to imprint the huge difference in impression between the first and the second awakenings so that it is there without any doubt, just plain obvious for whatever function: sensory, emotional and mental. It has to be very, very clear.
Now those who have a sense of something other than just the person, those who feel a spiritual side, can go a step further:
You are in the first awakening and you are aware of that. You respect the first awakening, and, in that surrounding, you, as spiritual being, exert an action on the surorounding. This action is not done by an imaginary spiritual being, but something you know consciously.
Then you move into the second awakening and do the same. You will experience the sense of spiritual as being hugely different from the first awakening to the second.
___________________