Dream Yoga - Dream Works

I just scratched the surface of Dream Yoga by attending a 5-day Dream Yoga “seminar” or “teaching” of Chamtrul Rinpoche of the Bodhicitta Charitable Trust in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala recently.

But already I can say one thing: Its potentials feel great.

Please excuse the lengthy post...

• Why Dream Yoga?

(as my specific is most likely not so interesting for most of you I just cut it)

To put it short: the qualities of my dreams had been mostly negative for huge parts of my life.

Occasionally I was able to control the dream in such a way that I was waking up myself by thinking: “What crap is that dream? Wake up!”

“Lucidity” never really occurred to me as such in a dream, only once I recall myself responding to the question what all this is about: “I don’t know. I’m not even supposed to be here (in my hometown), but in Bali. So most likely this is just a dream and I will wake up any given moment.” (Which I did.)

Little did I know at this time what eastern philosophy could hold for me.

• (Tibetan) Dream Yoga

Really as my experience with Dream Yoga or dream works is so very fresh, I can’t tell you too much about it. Also I would like to avoid any erroneous input as to what (Tibetan) Dream Yoga is (not), yet I feel compelled to share that little bit of experience.

I was able to detach from experiences in dreams and further from experiences (or problems) in my life, by that give it less energy and improve the quality of my life and relationship.

It might be regarded as a tool for “lucid dreaming”, hence I would advise to thoroughly inform yourself about the subject from a few sources, before intentionally indulging in ethically and morally questionable activities (such as killing) during the course of your sleep...

Essentially Dream Yoga is about realizing the dream as such – as a dream. It is a tool for awakening. For waking up - within the dream.

In Eastern philosophy, sleeping is regarded a ‘little death’. We only die once in a lifetime, but we go to sleep countless times. By mastering our sleep, we might master our death – or the process thereof.

If that already sounds weird to you, maybe the following might sound even weirder…

• Karma and Mind

Under the rule of Karma, our (daily) life is determined by our actions (Karma = the rule of “cause and effect”). Every action will leave an imprint in our souls. Dreams (as in: the life within our dreams) are similar to the life we lead during the day; they are created by our subconscious mind and have a ‘relationship’ with our daily life. Our (conscious) actions during the day will leave a more distinct imprint on our souls; also our actions in our dreams will leave an imprint – even though not as deep. In other words: A murder committed in our dreams will not result in the same karma as a murder committed in our dreams, still it will leave an imprint.

We hold different levels of mind: The mind governing our physical functions (such as digestion); the mind connected to our five sensual organs (eyes, ears, smell, taste and touch); the mind that stores our experiences (memory) and the conceptual mind (that juggles all)… (side note: there might be a few more ‘layers’ or ‘determinations of mind’ depending on the approach)…

• Dream Work

The essence of Dream Yoga goes further: It is not only the aim to realize that the dream is a dream, but also to realize that life is nothing but a dream. That everything is just an illusion, a temporary occurrence.

In the same way as one should aim to lead a genuine life and to refrain from ‘unskilled behaviour’ one should aim to dream “good dreams”. In the same way as one should exercise and train the physical body, one should aim to exercise and train the mental body – after all we might only ‘govern’ the physical body for a period of 40 – 50 years, whilst we may be able to live up to 90 (and even beyond).

Especially in the modern age, where the human lifespan becomes longer and longer, practising the mental body becomes more and more significant. (On a disclaiming note: this might (not) be the case for everybody and IMHO, even without ‘training’ or ‘practice’ one will be able to live a healthy, content and beneficial life – merely by depending on “common sense”)

As this is getting specific now, I’d like to hand the topic to people who are far more experienced in this and provide you with some links.

Only on a short notice I would like to point out that there currently is study, funded by the Fetzer Institue (in which everybody can participate), regarding sleeping postures.

Please: as with any information you receive (on the internet): apply your inner filters and spam-guards, leave behind what is not yours, what doesn’t feel right.
It would be very kind of you to (come back and) share your experiences.

• Links

1) Dream Yoga .com (.com website – not my favorite approach, but well )
1.1) Dream Works useful information about Dream Work
2) www.plotinus.com very comprehensive article about (Tibetan) Dream Yoga (Two Parts!)
3) www.natural-connection.com
Short but very interesting article about Dream Yoga in various aspects and cultures by Peter Ochiogrosso in the Yoga Journal Feb 2007.
4) lucidity Here you will also find the .pdf document for download to participate in the study mentioned above.

There is MUCH more information available on the internet (sure, including Wiki ) but I would say that nothing is more valuable than experiences and information of real people – like you



Thanks for taking the time to read this HUGE post – I might keep it updated and if, I'll mark the update as such (*)

That’s great Fire Tom. It seems like you have found some thing that really works for you, especially in regard to your dreams.

I’m familiar with the concept of life is an illusion, but I hadn’t connected with our actions leaving an imprint on our souls through dreams. I suppose, I’ve been coming from the angle of being more mindfull through regular meditation, and the mindfullness carrying into the subconscious. If that makes sense.

It’s a good idea aim to dream “good dreams”.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Cheers

Hi Tom...I actually read the unedited version of your OP and was going to respond by saying that those dreams of falling, and running, specifically running, while being unable to run (like you're waist deep in water of something) are pretty common.

I can actually control my dreams, somewhat and I manged to eliminate that running thing just by telling myself that "I'm having one of those dreams....." suddenly, the scenario ends.

So dreams affect karma ? good grief...who thinks this stuff up ?

Stout, I edited my OP and cut that personal stuff out because it was significantly adding to the length of the OP and I thought a) it could keep ppl from reading and responding and b) I'm not sure anymore how much exactly of my personal (hi)story I want to disclose to the community.

Thanks for telling me that my (negative) dreams have been pretty common - makes me feel less... errm uncommon

Stone, it indeed works for me. Last night has been a bit freaky though - I was struggling with my embodied (alter) ego and killed it in the process... Not a nice dream - not sure what imprint this is meant to leave...

The practice is pretty much like giving positive suggestions before going to sleep, like: I'm going to dream good dreams. I'm going to wake up within my dream.

The fun part is that it's no longer about waking up 'from' the dream - but waking up 'within' the dream - and continuing the dream, but being able to control it.

The suggestions to regard daytime occurrences as 'dreams' or 'dreamlike' is a great helper, can tell you that much...

Happy (day)dreaming, please - if you're interested in the topic, inform yourself more from other sources. What I've provided in the OP is just rudimentary and might even be 'misleading' for you...

I liek the idea of this, but i have a real hard time remembering dreams, I heard that if you have a note book next to your bed, and are "prepared" to write down your dream, they are easier to remember. I tried that a couple times and only once did i wake up remembering my dream and think "Oh i gotts to write it down". Then i read the dream i wrote and it seemed just like random strings of sentences mashed together.

/shrug

Dream(memorie)s sometimes are more like random strings. Dave's is a good suggestion/ tactics, I'd follow it. Yet recently I remember 85% of my dreams (in detail).

It also depends on how you spend your days/ how you go to sleep/ how much sleep you actually get/ how you wake up and what you do after waking up.

It's not helpful to go to sleep only past the last possible moment, i.e. beyond exhaustion and all mind altering substances seem to significantly alter/ affect our memories (great news, huh?)

If you read ore into the links I provided, you may notice that dream yoga actually can develop into a powerful tool to get a grip on your mind (along with or independent from other techniques like meditation) and subsequently you may be able to conquer habits, thought patterns, phobias, etc.

Thanks for participation

This is also called Yoga Nidra, right? I have a book on it somewhere, but it was quite hard to read and digest. Sounds awesome though!

Hey Tea Fairy

It seems as if the practice of Yoga Nidra is similar to the Tibetan Dream Yoga. Naturally the practices are interconnected.

Unfortunately it seems to be a human preference to rename and thus to confuse, ie. to contribute to Babylon. We can observe this in all aspects - even in the Poi-community. Division seems to be easier than unity - matter of identification maybe.

However, I feel that Dream Yoga is not just a tool for "lucid dreaming" but maybe for 'self-realization' (or what I understand it to be) - if you wish to call it that. In the short run it has helped me to govern some fears and 'instinctive' mechanisms that (always) turn out to threaten my social behaviour. Let's see what happens in the long run.

It's advised to read more into the links provided And if you have any experiences or if you find the book you're talking about and would share some of its content - I'd really appreciate it