Whether you remember your dreams or not, I would like you to consider that we spend a third of our life sleeping. As Winzal Rimponche phrases it:
"we close our eyes and dissolve into darkness. We do so fearlessly, even as everything we know as "me" disappears. After a brief period, images arise and our sense of self arises with them. We exist again in the apparently limitless world of dream. Every night we participate in these most profound mysteries, moving from one dimension of experience to another, losing our sense of self and finding it again, and yet we take it all for granted. We wake in the morning and continue in "real" life, but in a sense we are still asleep and dreaming. The teachings tell us that we can continue in this deluded, dreamy state, day and night, or wake up to the truth." So with this knowing why not choose to "wake up!" I offer you a shift in your yoga practice. To not only take your yoga practice outside of your mat by integrating yoga philosophies into your "waking state," (cultivating compassion, responsibility, love, etc.) but continuing your practice & shine your awareness into the mysterious world of dreaming in "sleep state." In practicing dream yoga not only will you be able to play & run wild on the infinite possibilities of creativity with "Control," a directly manipulate dream themes & settings plots at will; "Inspiration," seeking out artistic imagery and technical solutions to apply in waking life; "Therapy," initiate profound conversations with your true self; "Relief," overcome fears, anxieties and grief in the safety of your dreams; but also you might just touch into to the most subtle energy of all "pure consciousness!" |
[From NIGHTLIGHT 1(1), 1989, Copyright, The Lucidity Institute.]
How To Remember Your Dreams
Remembering your dreams is the starting place for learning to have lucid dreams. If you don't recall your dreams, even if you do have a lucid dream, you won't remember it! And, in order to be able to recognize your dreams as dreams while they are happening, you have to be familiar with the way your own dreams work. Before it will be worth your time to work on lucid dream induction methods, you should be able to recall at least one dream every night. |
[From NIGHTLIGHT 6(2), Summer, 1994. Copyright, The Lucidity Institute.]
A Fool's Guide to Lucid Dreaming
By Lynne Levitan PEOPLE often want us to specify the criteria for lucid dreaming, asking, "Was this a lucid dream?" and describing some definite non-rationality in the midst of a lucid dream. Webster's definition of lucidity is: "clearness of thought or style," and "a presumed capacity to perceive the truth directly and instantaneously." However, the lucidity referred to in the term "lucid dreaming" as coined by Frederik van Eeden in 1913, refers only to perception of the truth that one is dreaming. This is much like the usage of the word "lucid" in psychiatry to describe a patient who is well oriented to time, person and place. |
Dream Yoga: Lucid Dreaming in Tibetan BuddhismBy Rebecca Turner
Tibetan Dream Yoga
Tibetan Dream Yoga and the ancient philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism. Explore new depths to lucid dreaming and get a taste of some dream yoga techniques. Tibetan Dream Yoga is the original form of lucid dreaming documented for at least 1,000 years. Also known as Milam - the yoga of the dream state - it's a suite of advanced tantric techniques. Just like our Westernized understanding of lucid dreams, the initial aim is to awaken the consciousness in the dream state. However, as for what happens next, Tibetan lamas have more esoteric goals in mind... The Basis of Dream YogaDream yoga is taught within the trance Bardos of Dream and Sleep. In the tradiditon of tantra, it's usually passed on by a qualified teacher, once the student has passed an initiation. It's considered a passing on of enlightened experience rather than reading texts, and requires the student to develop sufficient self awareness to achieve conscious lucidity during sleep. Down Load pdf:
"Tibetan Yogas of Dream & Sleep" by Tenzin-Wangyal-Rinpoche A main theme of this book is:
"that through "dream yoga" practice we can cultivate greater awareness during every moment of life. If we do, freedom and flexibility continually increase and we are less governed by habitual preoccupations and distractions. We develop a stable and vivid presence that allows us to more skillfully choose positive responses to whatever arises, responses that best benefit others and our own spiritual journey. Eventually we develop a continuity of awareness that allows us to maintain full awareness during dream as well as in waking life. Then we are able to respond to dream phenomena in creative and positive ways and can accomplish various practices in the dream state. When we fully develop this capacity, we will find that we are living both waking and dreaming life with greater ease, comfort, clarity, and appreciation, and we will also be preparing ourselves to attain liberation in the intermediate state (bardo*) after death. |