The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep

Book excerpt: 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 yoga is a powerful tool of awakening, used for hundreds of years by the great masters of the Tibetan traditions. Unlike in the Western psychological approach to dreams, the ultimate goal of Tibetan dream yoga is the recognition of the nature of mind or enlightenment itself. "If we cannot carry our practice into sleep," Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche states, "if we lose ourselves every night, what chance do we have to be aware when death comes? Look to your experience in dreams to know how you will fare in death. Look to your experience of sleep to discover whether or not you are truly awake."