The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep

by Tenzin Wangyal

Book Overview

Deepen your awareness through the Tibetan practice of sleep and dream yoga--both presented here in this "thought-provoking, inspiring, and lucid" guide (Stephen LaBerge, PhD, author of Lucid Dreaming)

It is said that the practice of dream yoga deepens our awareness during all our experience: the dreams of the night; the dream-like experience of the day; and the bardo experiences after death. Indeed, the practice of dream...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559391014
• ISBN13: 9781559391016
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Snow Lion Publications
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Readable, understandable, practical, & profound

This is a beautifully written practice manual for Bön Dzogchen (~Buddhist Nyingma or old school) dream & sleep yogas based on the Mother Tantra. The author confirms most Western psychological views of dreams but, though some object, states that lucid dreaming (in which the dreamer is conscious & in control) is of great spiritual as well as psychological value. He states, despite some Buddhist authors, p. 12: "how greatly dream is valued in Tibetan culture & in the Bön religion, & how information from the unconscious is often of greater value than the information the conscious mind can provide." He provides a sensitive, balanced, non-extremist perspective-pp. 25-6: "Cultural ignorance is developed & preserved in traditions...If we are not careful, the teachings can be made to support our ignorance" & p. 94: "It can be healthy to give up worldly life & become a monk or a nun or it can be an unhealthy attempt to escape difficult experiences through suppression & avoidance." He provides explanations easily understood by western practitioners using modern analogies e.g. saying that mind can be like a computer with 2 windows open at once. Since scientists have shown that waking visualization can increase task performance, he logically extrapolates that to lucid dreaming as well. His approach is pragmatic & transportable to the West-e.g. p. 206: "Continue learning & receiving teachings, but develop a deep enough understanding that you can take from them what supports you." He also perceptively observes that awake practice of emptiness/Rigpa/mindfulness parallels lucid dreaming-i.e. viewing the awake state as a dream is analogous to lucid (conscious) dreaming-a yab-yum or yin-yang relationship & relates these yogas' spiritual aspects. This may be the best adaptation of traditional Bön/Buddhist works/methods to the West I've seen (see Traleg Kyabgon's "Mind at Ease" for a Mahamudra one). He recognizes that p. 41: "The concept of self-hatred is alien to Tibetans who do not have words to describe it" & compensates for cultural as well as terminological differences (p. 200: "According to Bön-Buddhism, the conventional self does exist. Otherwise no one would create karma, suffer, & find liberation. It is the inherent self that does not exist. Lack of an inherent self means that there is no core discrete entity that is unchanging through time"). In short, it's a most valuable contribution to both spiritual realization & East-West understanding. His advice that p. 137: "Maybe we should write a sentence on our toothbrush, `after this, wash your mind" has, IMHO, universal application. This book is HIGHLY recommended-as are his other works.

An Excellent Guide to Tibetan Bon Buddhist Practice

After reading Sogyal Rinpoche's "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", I was intrigued by the practice of "Dream Yoga", which, although mentioned and discussed several times in Sogyal's book, was never covered in any depth. "Living and Dying" didn't include any instructions in the practice of this exercise either, so I decided to look elsewhere. While glancing through the Eastern Religion section of a local bookstore, I stumbled upon this fine little volume.Wangyal Rinpoche delivers more than a guide to the practice of Dream Yoga- he delivers a guide to a complete nondual practice. The book includes meditation instructions, Guru Yoga and Dakini practices, breathing instructions, a guide to basic Tibetan bioenergetics, a little history of the Bon tradition, a brief introduction to Tantra and Dzogchen, and even a glossary filled with Tibetan and Sanskrit terms used throughout the book. There is enough here to begin a spiritual practice beyond dream yoga.To the seeker looking for a guide to Tibetan mysticism, look no further- "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep" is the perfect introduction.

Best Book on Tibetan Spirituality Ever

Sorry if this sounds like overstatement, but it's really true. Not only is this by FAR the best book on dream yoga, it's the best book on Tibetan Spirituality I've ever read (and I've read MANY). I absolutely gurantee you that if you buy this book you won't be disappointed. This book is totally devoid of the usual vagueness and mind-numbing discussion of texts and philosophies in most books about Tibetan spirituality. Tenzin Wangyal is a really outstanding example of the newest wave of Tibetan teachers in the west--though he is a Tibetan, born and educated in India, he totally understands the west from the inside out. This book is so much more direct and practical than almost all other books on Tibetan subjects that it's almost a jarring surprise (a good surprise). Read it, then compare it to the work of some far more famous yet vague and impractical Tibetan teachers (such as Trungpa, Rinpoche) and you will be amazed. What this book left me thinking was this: what if these two guys (Tenzin Wangyal and Mark Dahlby) wrote five or ten more books this good? As the great Steve Allen once said, "This could be the start of something big." We're talking classic here, folks, and I'm not kidding.

Clearly written and surprisingly accessible

I was intrigued by this book when I first saw it, but was afraid, that it was like others in this subject, difficult to understand and written unclearly. What a pleasant surprise then it was to read this book. It is clearly written, concise, with a lot of examples that we, who are not experts in this practice, can relate to. What I really like about the way that Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche writes is that no only does he want to sincerely convey difficult teachings previously not taught to the General Public (see Final Words), but he writes with genuine Compassion.The Book begings with discussions on the Nature of Dreams and their relationship to "Reality" and Karma. He also provides an introduction to breathing, chakras and the nature of dreams before moving on to the actual practice. Here another great feature of the book is the emphasis that the practice can be gradually incorporated into one's life, but that already from the beginning one can benefit greatly. I think that this is very important, because otherwise potential practitioners might be discouraged, because the practice is quite involved and requires great discipline. The book ends with elaborations on the practice as well as kind encouraging words from the author.What a pleasure it is to finally have a book that describes these important practices, which are instructions for understanding our reality, our dreams, ourselves and are preparations for our eventual death. I highly recommend this book, and am looking forward to more books by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.

Remarkably well-written and informative.

Even for a seasoned lucid dreamer like myself, this book was highly useful in offering traditional Tibetan practices for lucid dream induction, as well as various suggestions for activities to attempt within a fully lucid dream. However, what is most amazing about this book is its instructions for abiding as the pure, empty Awareness (rigpa) that is our true Self. As a Zen Buddhist, I am quite familiar with maintaining this "mirror-mind," but I usually cannot maintain it for very long, and I've never held it past the dream stage, into deep dreamless sleep. The practices in this book are helping me to change all that. Maintaining meditation practice during sleep--literally 24 hours a day--accelerates things profoundly. When the gross, manifest world of spacetime has dissolved into the subtle realm of souls and dreaming, and when even that realm has dissolved into Emptiness, your truest self shines forth clearly as the one and only Mind behind all illusory manifestation. Truly, the awareness within you that is right now reading these words is the Buddha. Your true nature is absolutely vast, silent, empty, blissful, and timeless Consciousness as Such--the source and substance of all that seems to exist. When you become identified with this Consciousness, your true Self, and not merely with the deluded, individual mind (or ego), you find yourself in a state of constant consciousness--never blinking, never fading, 24 hours a day--remaining completely "awake" even during dreaming and deep sleep. You'll have discovered your true Home--the Home you've never left, the Home you couldn't possibly leave, but a Home that you refused to admit you were in while you suffered for lifetimes in this silly dream.