Thread: Dream Yoga: Another Perspective of Lucidity Practice

Intro

I just started to read a book called The Tibetan Yoga of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.

To summarize my reaction quickly - Every self-discovery I have had can basically be summarised with: The Dream Yogis already did it.

So I am going to the source. I am writing this post out of pure excitement because this book had some very exciting perspectives on lucid dreaming. Enjoy!

Recieving The Teachings

To begin I'll explain how the dream yogis describe a good student that can recieve the teachings:

A good student is like a gluecovered wall: weeds thrown against it stick to it.
A bad student is like a dry wall: what is tossed against it slides to the floor.

Coming to the conclusion of the meaning of teachings is like turning on a light in a dark room: What was hidden becomes clear.

Imagine yourself standing in a dark room (or reading a post on a forum) I can tell you about a flower, describe the details, the color, the texture, my own name of the flower, it's shape, how I percieve it and yes you will gain intellectual understanding of it. But it's not until the light is turned on (you actually experience it and see it) that you can directly know the flower.

It's the same with lucid dreaming methods it's not useful if you can only repeat the words, it must become a part of you.

Lucid dreaming isn't understood by knowing the definition, it's understood when you have your first lucid dream.

By applying the teaching in practice we turn what has been conceptually understood, pondered and made meaningful into > direct experience.

This is obvious, but easily overlooked. So when reading the perspectives of the Tibetan Dream Yoga, don't only think about what it means, think about how to put it into practise.

How to stop dreaming

Here is one of many interesting viewpoints from the book: We have been taught that it's not natural to control our dreams and some may even say that it is wrong. There might be ideas that it can be dangerous for the brain. Or some other subconscious beliefsystem about why we should not be aware of our dreams.

This is the dream yogis answer: "It is better for the lucid and aware dreamer to control the dream than for the dreamer to be dreamed. The same is true with thoughts: it is better for the thinker to control the thoughts than for the thoughts to control the thinker."

That sentence alone is filled with so much practical wisdom. Because it clearly summarise a simple way to practice lucidity daily.

What is dreaming? It's basically to be totally identified with the thoughts, emotions and situation in front of us. So identified, that we believe it is real or act unconsciously.

In other words, if we practice to become aware of our dreaming (identification) during the day, we will be more ready to become aware of our dreaming during the night.

The first step is to understand what this identification means. In short, every negative emotion you have is identification with your thoughts and emotion and situation. For example, if you miss your bus and start to think "Ah this sucks, I will be late. Why did the stupid bus didn't wait a little longer, busdrivers are so stupid. Why does this always happen to ME?!" this is an example of identification. Instead of going through this mental hell, simply observe and label your emotion and think: "Oh I feel anger, interesting."

Ancient people thought of identification as demons possessing the person. If you observe the world today, it's not difficult to understand why.

Do this with all six negative emotions: Hatred, Greed, Ignorance, Jealousy, Envy and Pleasurable Distraction.
Or simply: Become aware everytime you feel strong emotions and lots of thoughts instead of being controlled by them.

I also recommend that you read spiritual texts to get a feel for what it means to become aware of one's ego and pain body.

When you do this the awareness will deepen over time and you gain a better understanding of what identification means.

I can also add that negativity isn't the only thing that we can lose ourself in identification with, observe yourself and you will discover the rest.



Meditation & Letting Go

I actually made my dad meditate with me and become aware of his own identifications with the mind.
Since the non-identification state can't be explained I simply told him to sit on a chair for 15 min with closed eyes and the goal is to simply sit there until the timer rings. Afterwards my dad explained the experience like this when I asked him how he felt:

"It felt like I was cleaning my mind and that I understood that some thoughts that I had didn't really had that much importance."

Now we can understand why meditation is so beneficial for lucid dreaming. Because it's a practice of letting go of one's identifications.

Closing Words

I shared this because it's a different way of practicing self-awareness and I believe that if people learned to let go, this world would be a brighter place.

This was just a short reflection of two viewpoints from the dream yoga practice. If you want more summarisations, leave a comment. But I highly recommend that you read the book.

Peace!