The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep

**DannyCool** · 09-14-2015 06:34 PM

Going to follow the format you have given but always reference the Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangal Rinpoche

First Lesson - Based on the First Two Foundational Practices p.159

So I have noticed many sounds in meditation:

Rain on the window
Leaves rustling in the wind
The overall sound of the wind
The fan on my computer
My breathing
The cpu on my computer working
Some burping in throat
A cow calling
My stomach grumbling gently

I am very much interested in getting more connected with my senses

So the first foundational practice is about realising everything IWL is just like a dream changing all the time. It is called "changing the karmic traces". As soon as I go into the state of shamatha and focus on sounds, past and future ceases and all sounds dissolve like a dream. This is the point of focus I rest on in the dream time and in daily life. When mind is distracted with speculation based on my own narrow perspective I am not lucid and not in the state of shamatha. Tenzin Wangal says:

'Upon waking in the morning, think to yourself, "I am awake in a dream."
When you enter the kitchen, recognize it as a dream kitchen. Pour dream milk
into dream coffee. "It's all a dream," you think to yourself, "this is a dream."
Remind yourself of this constantly throughout the day.
The emphasis should actually be on you, the dreamer, more than on the
objects of your experience. Keep reminding yourself that you are dreaming up
your experiences: the anger you feel, the happiness, the fatigue, the anxiety – it
is all part of the dream. The oak tree you appreciate, the car you drive, the
person to whom you are talking, are all part of the dream.'

So if we do this and keep to shamatha due to this understanding then our karmic traces will disappear as we wont react to things as we see them all as a dream. He says that there are two ways to be sure of this one is that appearances are dreamlike and the other is that our perception is subjective to our experience. The experience of just listening to the sounds with no interpretation for example is the place to be rather trying to interpret something that is dreamlike and always changing. So here the exercise on shamatha is the basis for the dream yoga that is being learnt. The is the basis for developing all day awareness or constant lucidity. This means you don't hold onto your perceptions and attitudes as real IWL. TW says about IWL:

'As stated above, an important part of this practice is to experience yourself
as a dream. Imagine yourself as an illusion, as a dream figure, with a body that
lacks solidity. Imagine your personality and various identities as projections of
mind. Maintain presence, the same lucidity you are trying to cultivate in dream,
while sensing yourself as insubstantial and transient, made only of light. This
creates a very different relationship with yourself that is comfortable, flexible,
and expansive.'

This is to be done experientially not just repeating words but really feel it like done in the lesson one of this workbook. It is to be done without the subtlest concepts of existence or non-existence but totally free of concepts as practiced in lesson one. The second foundational practice fits neatly onto to this it is called "removing grasping and aversion". So when object provokes us we think they are real and we react emotionally but instead of creating karma we dissolve it by reminding ourselves of the dreamlike nature of reality. It could be any emotion excitement or disgust but we must remember not to hold onto these as it is not our practice and the nature of everything is free and already perfect. Lucidity is and has always been the only thing that is real and stay in that and not get carried away by personal agendas.

'There is an infinite variety of stimuli to which you may react: attraction may
arise at the sight of a beautiful man or woman, anger at a driver that cuts in
front of you, disgust or sorrow at a ruined environment, anxiety and worry
about a situation or person, and so on. Every situation and reaction should be
recognized as a dream. Do not just slap the sentence onto a piece of your
experience; try to actually feel the dream-like quality of your inner life. When
this assertion is actually felt, not just thought, the relationship to the situation
changes, and the tight, emotional grip on phenomena relaxes. The situation
becomes clearer and more spacious, and grasping and aversion are directly
recognized as the uncomfortable constrictions that they truly are. This is a
powerful antidote to the state of near possession and obsession that negative
emotional states create. Direct and certain experience of using this practice to
untie the knot of negative emotion is the beginning of the real practice of
lucidity and flexibility that leads to consequent freedom. With consistent
practice, even strong states of anger, depression, and other states of unhappiness
can be released. When they are, they dissolve.'

**DannyCool** · 09-14-2015 06:59 PM

Lesson 1: Version 3: Mixing it up. Here now I am moving on to the third and fourth foundational practices which will complete them. The third is called "Strengthening Intention" while the fourth is called "Cultivating Memory and Joyful Effort". These are on p75 of the Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangal Rinpoche. Referring to the third and fourth practices which relate to preparation before and after sleep he says:

'This practice merges into the first foundational practice, recognizing all
experience as a dream. In this fashion the practice becomes uninterrupted
around the wheel of day and night.'

As a basis for this section two practices were completed. One 50 minute meditation session (including the candy challenge *_*) on the senses and one progressive muscle relaxation before going to sleep. I also included the other practices recommended by Tenzin Wangal before going to sleep and waking in the morning.

50 min meditation session plus candy challenge: So this session proved delightful especially when I got to eat the candy 30mins into the session. I wish all the chocolate I ate tasted like that it was simply amazing and confirms how being present to the senses heightens the experience 1000s of times more than usual. I don't think I ever waited 30 mins to eat chocolate before. I experienced all my bodily sensations in the first 30mins. First my stomach, being a man it is the first thing I noticed of course

, then my knees, the warmth in my body, my shoulders, my spine, my groin, the sensation of breath, the tinkling of all my nerves open to the environment, my toes and most importantly my heart open. It is this heart that I noticed as being soft and warm and bigger than anything even space and time. In fact when I am dreaming a whole new environment emerges from my heart which has nothing to do with what I am experiencing right now with my senses. Before going to sleep I make a very strong intention that I will remain lucid in my dreams that I will know I am dreaming. This will give me heightened awareness to my sensations.

'The intention is like an arrow
that awareness can follow during the night, an arrow directed at lucidity in
dream. The Tibetan phrase we use for generating intention translates as
"sending a wish." We should have that sense here, that we are making prayers
and intentions and sending them to our teachers and to the buddhas and deities,
promising to try to remain in awareness and asking for their help.'

Teachers, buddhas and deities are not affected by sensations or interpretation. They cannot be harmed. They know everything is dreamlike. They exist simply on an energy level when we go into meditation or we are in delta sleep. This is how communication is received during delta sleep or deep meditation as it is connecting with others on a one mind level not on a conceptual or sensation based personal level. A teacher for example is practicing for all sentient beings every day so as soon as you open your heart to them and direct your intention to them they will respond. So when you pray to the teacher, buddhas and deities you receive their protection and lucidity for the whole night as they are already omniscient and can grant that wish. They are and have always been with you on a heart level but then what you generate and see in rem sleep is related to your own sub conscious or karmic traces. It is not that sensations and stories are not experienced during rem sleep in fact they are experienced even more, just like the chocolate

but what holds all this together is the lucidity. So as I went to sleep and did my body scan I remembered various events during the day realising the illusionary quality of all the stories and sensations that went with them and then made a firm and strong intention to my teacher that I would be lucid and know that I am dreaming during the night.

'As you prepare for
sleep, allow the memories of the day to arise. Whatever comes to mind
recognize as a dream. The memories most likely to arise are of those
experiences strong enough to affect the coming dreams. During this review,
attempt to experience the memories that arise as memories of dreams. Memory
is actually very similar to dream. Again, this is not about automatic labeling, a
ritual of repeating "It was a dream," over and over. Try to truly comprehend the
dream-like nature of your experience, the projections that sustain it, and feel the
difference of relating to experience as a dream.'

The whole purpose of dream yoga is to reduce grasping onto a false sense of self during the day and night. In the fourth and final foundational practice when you wake up after the night of sleep you immediately check to see did you remember any dreams and if so did you recognise you were dreaming. Here there is a beautiful line:

'If you dreamed but did not attain lucidity, you should reflect, "I
dreamed but did not recognize the dream as a dream. But it was a dream."'

We tend to think that daily life and some dreams are not dreamlike because we grasp onto ourselves as having some lasting permanent existence yet that is not the case. In lesson one it is clear that sensations and interpretation of the sensations do not last and in the first two foundational practices it shows that what we grasp onto is merely dreamlike. In fact Tenzin Wangal places the emphasis on realising that me the dreamer himself is dreamlike and so holding onto experience only creates suffering. So who we are is not sensations, emotions or interpretations but lucidity. "Lucidity is my goal." Tenzin Wangal finishes the section on the four foundational practices by saying:

'Experiencing the vivid, luminous, dream-like qualities of life allows your
experience to grow more spacious, lighter, and clearer. When lucidity is
developed in dream and in waking, there is much greater freedom to shape life
positively, and to finally give up preferences and dualisms altogether and
remain in non-dual presence.'

**DannyCool** · 09-16-2015 09:33 AM

At this point in my journal I wanted to state the clear understanding that Dreaming is not Dreaming, Dreaming is Lucidity and Waking Life is Lucidity. Whether dreaming or not the only difference is that IWL you have to pay your bills and fit into conventional activity and not go flying around the place! In this dream daily life and so called dreaming merged:

After my lunch I fell asleep and had a WILD out in the countryside. I kept telling myself "When I am dreaming I will know I am dreaming". I woke up a few times knowing I was dreaming as I seamed not to be stabilising. Then I fell asleep again. I could see my son Matthew and my ex-Wife Melissa. Melissa was giving me a list of instructions on what to do when I was minding Matthew while Matthew was looking up at me smiling with not a bother on him. Matthew is 8. I looked into his face and then I knew I was dreaming. There was something about the twinkle in his eye and as I stabilised myself looking at him. Melissa had finished giving me the instructions and had gone away so immediately I said to Matthew would you like to go flying. He looked puzzled but then he said ok. So a grabbed him in my arms and flew up into the sky. I could see the clouds around me and could feel the height we were at. Then I remembered about the black hole. Probably last months task but anyway it is meaningful to me. I told him we were heading up to the black hole and he looked puzzled again but said ok. We went up into space and found the black hole quite quickly and kinda disappeared into it. We were in there for a while. I wanted just to see what would happen next. Now this is when I realised that dreaming is not dreaming as the whole of our perception including ourselves turned into the Buddha in the form of a golden statue. I stayed in that state lucid for some time not very long and then opened my eyes. All my thoughts had stopped and I was one with nature looking up at the sky. I then realised that the whole point of dreaming and waking life is to understand this and stay in this reality. The lucidity in daily life and dreams becomes much more vivid and I am able to understand and see everything clearly. This is definitely reality free from personal interpretation. A flower is a flower and a tree is a tree without any other stories going on. So dreaming is not for dreaming but for being fully present in the dream and daily life.[/SET_ANCHOR]

**Sensei** · 09-27-2015 03:01 AM

Hello! You seem to be enjoying this a lot! I really would recommend to make sure that you go at your own pace in this, not meaning to slow down like it usually does, but meaning that you should go faster if getting bored and slower if enjoying. Redo all the ones that you enjoy a lot. Lean into your joys and easier developed abilities and use them to cover your weaknesses. Practice weaknesses a little, but don't focus on them, because that is a long and energy draining road.

I love how you can use meditation to enhance certain senses or all the senses. Makes you wonder about people that lost their sense of sight. What if they enhance their senses through meditation? Temporary Daredevil abilities?

It will be fun to see you get into the more advanced stuff. I really like visualization above all and it is what I lean towards.

I practice it above all and as a catalyst for all of my weaknesses.

**Sivason** · 10-21-2015 03:26 AM

Exciting stuff so far. You definitely are grasping the deep life changing parts. Experience reality with out your predefined version of things, that is va big part of lucidity. I can tell you honestly understand this is as much about waking lucidity as dreaming. Take your time. Post over the years and do nmotbworfy if weeks or months pass in between.