Dream Yoga, ‘learning the skill of recognizing you are dreaming within the dream…’ Dream Yoga is an ancient practice with roots in Tibetan Buddhism. It includes techniques for exploring and manipulating your dream state.
Dream Yoga allows practitioners more lucidity in the dream state… this can then be used for spiritual development, self-exploration and investigating the nature of consciousness and reality… through the dream state.
Early Examples in Print
While definitive written records from the very beginning might be few, there are some written examples that show the presence of these concepts within The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
This ancient text, compiled around the 8th century CE, includes practices for recognizing the dreamlike nature of the ‘bardo state’, and using it for liberation.
Evidence suggests it emerged within the Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhist traditions.
The ‘Yoga Sutra’ of Patanjali contains early references to dream practices… written 450 BCE.
The Four Stages of Dream Yoga
There are four stages, focusing on developing lucidity and awareness within dreams:
Stage #1 Learning to Retain:
Learning to recognize you’re dreaming…. this involves learning how to stay conscious as you enter a dream state. Techniques include mindfulness throughout the day and performing reality checks (like Lucid dreaming)
Stage #2 Controlling and Increasing Dreams:
Once you are lucid in the dream, begin focusing on stabilizing the dream and influencing it’s content. Start controlling the dream experience eg: flying, falling… multiplying objects and things… affecting the environment of the dreamscape.
Stage #3 Training in the Illusory Nature:
Fear is common in lucid dreams. This stage emphasizes recognizing fear as a ‘dream element’ and approaching dream fears head-on, reminding yourself that the dream isn’t real. This can be used as an opportunity to explore the dream’s illusory nature.
Stage #4 Meditating on Reality:
This stage involves meditation within the dream itself… how trippy! Contemplating the nature of reality and recognizing the dreams arise from your mind.
The Bardo Experience
By practicing Dream Yoga, the idea is to cultivate awareness and the ability to navigate dreamlike states.
In the Tibetan culture this prepares a person to recognize the Bardo State and avoid being swept away by it’s illusions.
The Bardo is described as a dream-like state lasting 49 days after death. During this time a persons consciousness reviews it’s past life and has the potential to be reborn.
This period is also filled with illusions and powerful emotions that can lead to a negative rebirth.
Benefits: What Can Dream Yoga Offer?
Dream Yoga can lead to a variety of benefits, including:
Increased Self-Awareness: By recognizing dreams and altering them, practitioners can gain deeper insights into their own thoughts, emotions and unconscious patterns.
Spiritual Development: Dream Yoga can be used to explore spiritual concepts like emptiness, compassion and the very nature of reality, all within the dream state.
Problem-Solving and Creativity: The heightened awareness and control in dreams can be used to creatively tackle real-life challenges or tap into one’s creative potential.
Overcoming Nightmares: These techniques can be used to transform nightmares into positive experiences, leading to more peaceful nights sleep.
Enter the Lucid Dream State…
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