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Dream and Reality
All of us dream whether we remember dreaming or not. We dream as infants and continue dreaming until we die. Every night we enter an unknown world. We may seem to be our ordinary selves or someone completely different. We meet people whom we know or don't know, who are living or dead. We fly, encounter non-human beings, have blissful experiences, laugh, weep, and are terrified, exalted, or transformed. Yet we generally pay these extraordinary experiences little attention. Many Westerners who approach the teachings do so with ideas about dream based in psychological theory; subsequently, when they become more interested in using dream in their spiritual life, they usually focus on the content and meaning of dreams. Rarely is the nature of dreaming itself investigated. When it is, the investigation leads to the mysterious processes that underlie the whole of our existence, not only our dreaming life.
The first step in dream practice is quite simple: one must recognize the great potential that dream holds for the spiritual journey. Normally the dream is thought to be "unreal," as opposed to "real" waking life. But there is nothing more real than dream. This statement only makes sense once it is understood that normal waking life is as unreal as dream, and in exactly the same way. Then it can be understood that dream yoga applies to all experience, to the dreams of the day as well as the dreams of the night.
Excerpted from The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleepby Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Copyright © 1998 by Tenzin Wangyal. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
| Preface | 11 |
| Introduction | 15 |
| Receiving the Teachings | 17 |
| PART ONE: THE NATURE OF DREAM | 21 |
| 1 Dream and Reality | 23 |
| 2 How Experience Arises | 24 |
| Ignorance | 24 |
| Actions and Results: Karma and Karmic Traces | 26 |
| Negative Karma | 29 |
| Positive Karma | 29 |
| Liberating Emotions | 30 |
| Obscurations of Consciousness | 31 |
| Karmic Traces and Dream | 32 |
| The Six Realms of Cyclic Existence | 34 |
| Hell Realm | 37 |
| Hungry Ghost Realm | 38 |
| Animal Realm | 38 |
| Human Realm | 39 |
| Demi-god Realm | 39 |
| God Realm | 40 |
| Why "Negative" Emotion? | 40 |
| 3 The EnergyBody | 42 |
| Channels and Prana | 42 |
| Channels (Tsa) | 43 |
| Prana (Lung) | 44 |
| Karmic Prana | 45 |
| Three Kinds of Karmic Prana | 45 |
| Wisdom Prana | 46 |
| Pranic Activity | 46 |
| Balancing the Prana | 46 |
| Prana and Mind | 47 |
| Chakras | 48 |
| Blind Horse, Lame Rider | 49 |
| 4 Summary: How Dreams Arise | 52 |
| 5 Images from the Mother Tantra | 53 |
| Teaching Metaphors | 56 |
| PART TWO: KINDS AND USES OF DREAMS | 59 |
| 1 Three Kinds of Dreams | 61 |
| Samsaric Dreams | 61 |
| Dreams of Clarity | 62 |
| Clear Light Dreams | 63 |
| 2 Uses of Dreams | 65 |
| Experience in Dream | 65 |
| Guidance and Guidelines | 66 |
| Divination | 68 |
| Teachings in Dream | 70 |
| 3 The Discovery of Chöd Practice | 72 |
| 4 Two Levels of Practice | 76 |
| PART THREE: THE PRACTICE OF DREAM YOGA | 79 |
| 1 Vision, Action, Dream, Death | 81 |
| 2 Calm Abiding: Zhiné | 84 |
| Forceful Zhiné | 86 |
| Natural Zhiné | 87 |
| Ultimate Zhiné | 88 |
| Obstacles | 88 |
| Agitation | 88 |
| Drowsiness | 88 |
| Laxity | 89 |
| 3 The Four Foundational Practices | 90 |
| One: Changing the Karmic Traces | 90 |
| Two: Removing Grasping and Aversion | 93 |
| Three: Strengthening Intention | 94 |
| Four: Cultivating Memory and Joyful Effort | 95 |
| Consistency | 96 |
| 4 Preparation for the Night | 97 |
| Nine Purifications Breathing | 98 |
| Guru Yoga | 99 |
| The Practice | 101 |
| Protection | 102 |
| 5 The Main Practice | 104 |
| Bringing Awareness into the Central Channel | 104 |
| Increasing Clarity | 106 |
| Strengthening Presence | 108 |
| Developing Fearlessness | 110 |
| Position | 111 |
| Focusing the Mind | 112 |
| The Sequence | 116 |
| 6 Lucidity | 119 |
| Developing Flexibility | 121 |
| 7 The Obstacles | 127 |
| Delusion | 127 |
| Laxity | 128 |
| Self-distraction | 128 |
| Forgetting | 129 |
| Four Obstacles according to Shardza Rinpoche | 129 |
| 8 Controlling and Respecting Dreams | 131 |
| 9 Simple Practices | 134 |
| The Waking Mind | 134 |
| Preparing for Night | 136 |
| 10 Integration | 138 |
| PART FOUR: SLEEP | 141 |
| 1 Sleep and Falling Asleep | 143 |
| 2 Three Kinds of Sleep | 145 |
| Sleep of Ignorance | 145 |
| Samsaric Sleep | 145 |
| Clear Light Sleep | 146 |
| 3 Sleep Practice and Dream Practice | 148 |
| PART FIVE: THE PRACTICE OF SLEEP YOGA | 151 |
| 1 The Dakini, Salgye Du Dalma | 153 |
| 2 Preliminary Practice | 157 |
| 3 Sleep Practice | 159 |
| Entering Sleep | 160 |
| 4 Tiglé | 163 |
| 5 Progress | 165 |
| 6 Obstacles | 167 |
| 7 Supportive Practices | 170 |
| Master | 170 |
| Dakini | 170 |
| Behavior | 171 |
| Prayer | 171 |
| Dissolving | 171 |
| Expanding and Contracting | 172 |
| 8 Integration | 174 |
| Integration of Clear Light with the Three Poisons | 174 |
| Integration with the Cycles of Time | 177 |
| External Unification | 177 |
| Internal Unification | 179 |
| Secret Unification | 180 |
| The Three Unifications: Conclusion | 181 |
| 9 Continuity | 183 |
| PART SIX: ELABORATIONS | 185 |
| 1 Context | 187 |
| 2 Mind and Rigpa | 188 |
| Conceptual Mind | 188 |
| Non-dual Awareness: Rigpa | 189 |
| Base Rigpa and Path Rigpa | 191 |
| 3 The Base: Kunzhi | 192 |
| Mind and Matter | 193 |
| 4 Knowing | 194 |
| 5 Recognizing Clarity and Emptiness | 197 |
| Balance | 199 |
| Discrimination | 199 |
| 6 Self | 200 |
| 7 Paradox of the Essenceless Self | 203 |
| Final Words | 205 |
| Appendix: Outline of Dream Yoga Practices | 209 |
| Glossary | 213 |
| Bibliography | 218 |
Overview