Martial Arts Dojo – Dreaming Courses – Dream – 31-01-2026

Here is last night’s dream had around 5 AM on a night with unbroken sleep until 6.44 AM.

The dream opens in a large martial arts dojo. It is in a hangar like building which has practice mats of good quality in a light lovat hue. There are many people there, maybe a hundred. We are waiting for the instructor. He comes in with a small entourage. He proceeds to engage the crowd in a manner to whip them up and get them excited. It is almost evangelical. I think to myself that this does not bode well. I am there with the wife and we are both in white aikido-gi. The instructor asks who is ready to rumble and take part. They are to stay on the mat the others are to go to the side. I nod to the wife and she stays. I make my way to the front of the hall where there is an un-matted area.

The instructor notices me and asks why I am not going to stay on the mat. I say that although I have had previous experience with a Japanese trained instructor I cannot not take part until I have had a medical clearance, a medical note because I have just had a replacement hip. He wants to ask who I have trained with but does not do so in case that makes things uncomfortable for him. He turns back to the crowd.

Sat leaning against a table at the front are two women whom I know to be acolytes of his. It is not uncommon in some “martial arts” circles for there to be groupie-like fans. The women are club secretary like “officials”. One is early thirties of Asian Indian background with long jet black hair. The other is blonde and more matronly with a certain girth. She is the boss. I see on the table an excel spreadsheet of upcoming courses for the “Shenji” martial arts academy. I see a number of days blacked out. I ask what they are. The younger woman says that they are for dreaming courses that the teacher wants to give as a part of the martial arts training. I say that I have been doing a dreaming practice for 25 years or so and that I have an interest in dreaming. She suggests that I might learn from their courses. I say thank you for the offer but I think that it is very unlikely that they could teach me anything about dreaming. Rather it is they who could learn from me. The Indian woman is slightly interested. The matronly one is not overly pleased. I say that I could probably run dreaming courses but that it is not something which can be taught, it has to be started and then left free rein. In the dream I note that the notion of dreaming courses has once again risen up in the dream.

The scene changes and the teacher asks me to go up on the roof as there are some kids from the school there who need to be gotten down and admonished. I go up to the roof and call them off. They want to play fight with me. I do this putting a wrist lock on one while picking the other up with one hand. They know they have been “naughty” and we go back towards the dojo. In the entrance hall the instructor is there. He mentions that I could be affiliated. There is simply a question of the joining fee, the licence fee and mat fees. I know that he is solely interested in money and that this is not attractive to me. It is more business than school. It is money which is the priority.

The dream ends and I note that again the theme of dreaming courses has cropped up.  

Here am I sitting in a tin can – dreaming

For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

Though I’m past one hundred thousand miles
I’m feeling very still

David Bowie

——

Outside it is chucking it down. We are due 15mm in the next hour or so.

The recovery from the hip hop hip op seems to be going well. At a guess I am doing slightly better than “normal” for a fat bastard of my age and previous substance intake. It seems that physically I will be more able than I have been for a couple of years.

The residual fate question remains unanswered. We could try to sell the house and move. We do need to downsize but we can afford another year here.

So far the dreaming has not pointed at any obvious option aside from doing “dreaming courses”. There has been some hint at uncovered knowledge. And I did once get a suggestion for a new book. Whilst I could write one, I doubt it would get published unless I self-published. I don’t have the kind of provenance which makes a good sales pitch. I am not airy-fairy and flaky enough. I am conservative. Nor am I in a university neuroscience or psych-ward {psychology department}.

The take home message that I have received from the world so far is , “don’t start anything, it will get complex and then go pear shaped”. 

There is an ancillary, “don’t try to get in contact with anyone it will be ignored and/or cause a massive drama.”

People have busy lives and they do not want to be disturbed by the rattling chains of ghosts from days gone by. I do not seek to inflict myself into the lives of others.

I have done zero SEO on this site. The idea being if someone finds it they were kind of meant to.

I am reasonably clear that I have very little to offer anyone who might be embarking on a meditation/soul searching journey. I might be of more use to some who has travelled a bit. It is moot.

I could easily be kidding myself.

I am not convinced that anyone needs to take refuge in a sangha. If you want to liberate, read the text meditate and get busy. A sangha could hold you back…by peer coercion and FOMO related drama.

There is a reasonable notion that I could generate around five grand in the January to June pre-exam “A” level science tutoring period in the UK {2027} . Some people are charging shit loads per hour. We could just about afford to live in the UK. In the second year with good “Trustpilot” reviews I could easily double or quadruple this. I could probably sustain this for a couple of years before I rebelled against the dogmatic marking schemes. This might take me to state pension age.

Not really any the wiser…

It is still early doors for 2026…given what orange-boi in DC is soap boxing about anything might happen…

Why do Americans keep having old men as presidents?

It is not really my business but the ill-will generated there does impinge and echo around the world.

Disharmony…selfishness and unpleasantness…

A misuse of power…

All that optimism of 1989-90 has faded…

With dread I wonder what lessons humanity is calling forth for itself… how will the world look in a decade?

America may be powerful but by no means is it great in the fullest sense and meaning of the word. The example being set is retrogressive. It is old…

Dreaming Courses Dream – 14-08-2025

Here is this morning’s dream had between 4 and 6 AM. Again another one seemingly out of the blue.

The dream starts in a faculty office. Behind a large desk is a woman in her 40/50s. She is powerful and dressed in an expensive skirt and jacket suit with a royal blue shirt. She exudes wealth and she is very accustomed to getting her own way, obeyed even. She tells me that the faculty have agreed to my proposals for a course on dreaming and that I may go ahead with these courses on an experimental basis. She needs to be kept in the loop of developments. She thinks that I am fearful and subordinate to her. When I simply very relaxed and fluid. I know that she has other agendas which she is trying to forward and that there are politics going on behind the scene. She hands me a book of mounted photos like a book of material swatches used in fashion or decorating design. The book of “swatches” has covers and I cannot see the contents. She intimates that she wants these included in the courses.

Her office leads out onto a full or partial quadrangle with a covered ambulatory or walk way. It has a light reddish-brown brick. There are cobbles in the quad. It feels a little like Greenwich but also has a sense of Berkley CAL. There is a history and the word meridian is to mind. On the side wall of the ambulatory there is a small wooden display case with a lockable glass front. In this cabinet I will display course synopsis for the passing footfall of students.

I go into an open room with whitewashed walls and a dark red stone or painted concrete floor. I am met there by a younger woman who has been assigned as to help me and, to keep an eye on me. She asks me why I think that there are no definitive books on dream content. I say that by their very nature dreams are nebulous and not well suited to reductionist quasi-logical methods. Dreaming is dreaming and it has to be approached via dreaming and not structure. Sense-making can hinder dreaming significantly.

I open the book of swatches to show to her. Inside it are photos of some kind of Tibetan centre, out in the country. There are images of coloured prayer flags blowing in the wind. One of small stupa only a few metres high. There are western white participants and a very few Tibetans dressed monastically. I know the word Drukpa is associated. It is clear that a part of the agenda from the powerful woman relates to Tibetan dream practices. There is more agenda.

The young woman has a notion that in dreaming cultures there is always a myth and a mythos. That these grow up around the dreams and the reporting thereof. As a part or her research she would like to see if we can seed a myth and a mythos into those participating in the dreaming. Rather than that being an ancient hagiography she wants to seed an artificial mythos and see where it goes. She ushers me over to the back of the room where there is a museum style display case with a sloping horizontal glass covered display. Under this are full depth “admiralty” drawers containing specimens. She pulls out one draw and there packed in cotton wool nests are several rock specimens. She selects a grey and black speckled “agate” egg. The black is dark like obsidian

She says that this will or could be the dream egg around which we start to create a dream mythos or myth. She is excited and I say that I am happy to explore this avenue but that it needs fleshed out. We can use the egg for the birth of the course, metaphorically.

The power woman, the principle, from before knocks and enters the room.  She is wearing high heels which have been tricky on the cobbles. I show her two pages of A4 text which will serve as a flier for the course. This text will go into the cabinet. She asks what the syllabus will be and I say that the syllabus will be decided to a large extent by the attendees and mostly by dreams. She looks sceptical.

I usher her over to a tarpaulin. On which are several plants in black plastic pots tied to short bamboo supports. I say that these are going to go into the green house and that these will comment upon and be a part of the course. I ask if she would like to help us plant them. Yes. We load half the plants onto a flatbed trolley and head out of the quad-building to the university allotment where our greenhouse is. Together we all plant the plants. The principle comments that she found it very enjoyable and that it is the first time for a very long while that she has had dirt under her nails.

We go back to the quad room. The principle asks about a web presence or page. At her prompt I know that I have to send someone a link to the dream yoga blog as it currently stands. I will do this after I have written up and posted this dream.

The dream ends and I note with some surprise on my way back from the bathroom that its exactly 6:00 AM…