Thread: Dream Yoga

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Dream Yoga




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First things first. Let me make it clear that I in no way claim to be a 'master' of Dream Yoga. I'm just some guy that used to be extremely into the various facets of meditation, consciousness, etc. I've read some books on Dream Yoga, looked it up for long hours on the internet, and have experimented with it extensively in the past. Unfortunately Dream Yoga wasn't my thing. I'm using all the knowledge and experiences I gained in my studies of this interesting induction method to write this tutorial, hopefully you will find it more to your liking than I did.


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Overview

Traditional Dream Yoga is a constant awareness of your current state of being. The goal of professional Dream Yogis is to attain a state of nonstop reality check - that is, a state of mind wherein the Yogi never loses consciousness of his environment and mental/biological processes.

It would take an incredible level of devotion to get anywhere near that. I'm just going to go over the environmental-focus aspects of the practice. If you're serious about getting into Dream Yoga you should probably go out and buy some books, as I've cut out a lot of the complicated stuff. From here on out when I say 'Dream Yoga' I mean this tutorial's version of it.
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Basic premise: stay aware of whats around you in real life, and you'll become aware of whats around you in your dreams.

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I want you to close your eyes and take a mental walk through the room you're currently sitting in. Without looking around beforehand, try to make the room as close to reality as you possibly can and then notice as many details as possible. Do it, then read on.
Now that your eyes are open, look around and see how accurate your mental map was. Did you see that sock laying by your bed? That paperclip on the desk in front of you? More than likely you just saw huge vague outlines of a bed, dresser, and desk (or whatever big items are in the room).

Now watch this:

You see, we usually trust our subconscious to keep track of whats going on in our environments as we focus on certain tasks. It takes a lot of energy to stay completely aware of what exactly is happening around us, which is why we never do it.
If you were fully conscious of what was happening in your vicinity at any given moment, it would be pretty simple to spot the dreamstate. This is the idea behind Dream Yoga, you train yourself to keep track of your surroundings during the day, then this behavior follows through into the night.


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The Practice

So lets get down to business. It would be futile for most people to just jump right into a full Dream Yoga mindset, so I've tried to make a small program to ease you into it. This is by no means perfect, its just what I did when I first started getting into this -- if you want to skip a step, or stay on one for longer than I have down, go for it. Theres no magical secret contained in here, just common sense.


Step One.
Length: a few days

Just start to pay more attention to the objects that surround you in your day to day life. Notice the location of the watercooler at work, the grotesque looking stains on the wall in your living room, etcetera.

Just begin to let yourself examine the details of your day to day life. Let go of feeling like you're wasting time when you stop to smell the proverbial roses.

This just helps you to become more naturally observant and critical of your environment. A lot of the following steps actually go against your natural biological tendencies; this step is like a warm up, it can make the rest less intimidating.


Step Two.
Length: a week or two

Every time you walk into a new room, scan it. Start with the ceiling/sky, then work your way down. Your objective is to notice and then be able to remember every little detail of every room you enter. Notice where each thing is in relation to all other things, try to build an accurate three dimensional map.

Once you build this map, take a moment to float through the room in your imagination and view it and all of its details from various angles. Relate each room you enter to the room you were just in. Space and time are connected, you don't teleport, and things have a logical progression.
At the end of each imaginary viewing of a room, zoom out and take a look at the big picture. This room is in x building (see all the rooms of the building in relation to one another), which is in x county (see landmarks around the building).

This step is critical. You begin to see the interconnectedness of locations and objects. All things are related and follow concrete logical rules. You can't be in your room if you were just at work - you never experienced a car ride.

Equally as important, you create a habit of being much more critical of your surroundings.


Step Three.
Length: as long as you want

Finally, keep a seamless mental map that is perfectly in alignment with the real world in your mind at all times. As you walk around in your day to day, stay conscious of your location continuously. Keep both the big and little picture: the guy that was sitting in the chair over there just got up and walked to the service desk (don't say that in your mind, see it), at the same time your noticing this, also continuously contemplate your location in this building your in, and in this region your in.

Your mental map must be updated continuously. A piece of paper was moved when you left the room? Make a conscious visual note of it to update the map, and continue about your business, always keeping aware of your surroundings.

Obviously it would take a very devoted person to summon the kind of willpower it would take to do this step. This was what a perfect Dream Yoga user would do; its what you should shoot for, even if you never attain it.
Just stay as aware of your environment as you possibly can. Make sure you scan and cache each room in its entirety every time you walk into it, and be aware as often as you possibly can.

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Summary

So in conclusion, Dream Yoga is a form of continuous awareness. If we teach ourselves to be aware of where we are all the time, we'll be more aware of where we are in dreams. Also when using Dream Yoga we critically study each new room we enter. These two habits combine to give the practitioner unparalleled opportunities to attain Dream Induced Lucid Dreams on a nightly, and even dream by dream, basis.





Tools.

Do you have trouble visualizing? How about concentrating? Here are some tools you can use to improve these abilities, which will in turn make it easier for you to break into your Dream Yoga practice.


Image Streaming -- Visualization

Meditation -- Concentration

Thanks for reading.