I’ve been interested lately in Dream yoga. This was sparked by an article by Andrew Holecek and his research on the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep. The basic premise is that in sleep you are most spiritually awake – a vast array of experiences are available to you; you are not encumbered by the earth’s physical laws; the deep patterns of your subconscious will choose the direction you go (here’s where the practice of lucid dreaming comes in). And when you are awake, we are most spiritually asleep – limited by our physical experience and by the habituated patterns of our egos. If we could see our wakeful experience as dreamlike – not permanent, illusory – we would cultivate a different perspective on our sense of self, and the arising of various circumstances and phenomena.
Consider this as a kind of Jedi mind trick for yourself: Deep sleep is reality. Try to remember your dreams and set intentions for what you’d like to see happen. Wakefulness is not reality – it is all changeable and impermanent, for the good or the not-so-good. View it with less attachment. Set intentions for what you’d like to see happen.
Michelle Stortz 