Lucid dreaming and dream yoga.

A well known but uncommon practice of the Buddhist meditative tradition is the practice of dream yoga. Most of what you hear about dream yoga is the spectacular stories and experiences people have during lucid dreaming. Everyone has heard the tale of flying in your dreams, or exploring unknown lands, the heavens, or even the depths of the ocean. These stories are often other-worldly and quite unlike our everyday waking experience, so they are fun to hear and talk about.

I am not going to discourage you from exploring the hidden territories and landscape of the dream world. Maybe you will find something that you are looking for, or come away with some insight that you can carry with you on your journey. At the very least, lucid dreaming is interesting and fun.

Dream yoga is a practice of waking up, gaining some insight into who we are so that we can recognize our true nature and show up in the world more fully. With this understanding, using lucid dreams to go on adventures or have a good time seems a little mundane. We start to realize that lucid dreaming also provides great potential for mining the depths of our own wisdom and manifesting our innate Buddha nature in a very experiential way. There are many ways to do this, but I invite you to consider a quote by the great master Padampa Sangye:

Go to places that scare you.  In haunted places, seek the Buddha within.  

Use the practice of dream yoga to wake up. Go to the places that scare you, that bring up fear. Use that fear to 'wake up' in the dream. A Buddha is 'one who is awake', and that is what lucid dreaming is all about, knowing that you are awake in the dream and that this is a dream. 

Think about your normal experience of a dream. You are normally immersed in the plot as it unfolds and have no power or control over what happens. You just go along for the ride as a bystander and are subject to experiencing the highs and lows of this subjectively real dream world as they come. Does this sound a little bit like waking life? 

Normally, it is only after we awaken from the dream that we discover freedom and a sense of relief, "Ah, thank goodness. That was just a dream." In dream yoga, the key difference is that you wake up in the dream, knowing it is a dream. When you wake up in the dream you discover a natural freedom because you know that what you are experiencing isn't real. It can't hurt you, it can change. 

"This is a dream. This isn't real. I am free." That's a nice sort of mantra for waking up in the dream.

With this insight, going to places that scare you is a powerful way to look at what you are holding onto. What is that monster? It looks terrifying, but what is it really? Who is it that is chasing you and what are you running from? 

Waking up in those dreams allows us to look at our own confusion and grasping. It allows us to invite the hidden recesses of our mind into the light. I see you, I hear you, I understand. Those are just as powerful in the dream world as they are in the real world. 

Waking up in this way, we might ask ourselves, "What would Buddha do?" As a Buddha, what would you do?

How does our wisdom and generosity show up in the world? How do we exercise compassion and patience in difficult situations? How do we maintain an open and responsive presence when we are in the midst of confusion and overwhelm? 

These are questions that we struggle with during the day, and questions that we can continue to work with during the night. 

Go confidently into the darkness. Find the light within.

Stuck.

Many of us feel stuck in our life or in our situation. Day after day we travel on well-worn tracks of habitual routines. Changing directions or charting a new course seems like a remote possibility.

Most of our days we are simply going through the motions, moving from one task to the next. We have to get from point A to point B and we hustle to get there on time. Along the way we are bombarded with news and information, consuming a never ending stream of entertainment. The effort to remain present and aware can be daunting, as our minds are habituated to following after the shiniest and most colorful objects.

When those very same wandering and distracted hearts and minds catch a moment of presence, a world of possibility opens up. Our world opens up to wonder and awe, and we enjoy a greater sense of well-being. In those moments, we may realize that we don't need to recreate our life anew, but that we can meaningfully participate in and create this very life as it continues to unfold before us.

The challenge then, is how to we catch those moments of presence? What signs or indications can we rely on?

Notice when you are feeling stuck. Notice when you are hiding, or scared, or hesitating. Notice when you are anxious or stressed. Those are the signs to look for on the road. When you see the signs, look for the Buddha within.

"Go to the places that scare you. 

In haunted places, seek the Buddha within yourself."

Padampa Sangye's advice to Machig Labdron

So hard to get started.

ལེ་ལོ་
Tibetan: lelo (actually pronounced lay-lo)
English: indolence, faintheartedness, procrastination

The Tibetan term lelo is a subsidiary negative emotional state that undermines one's enthusiasm for virtuous or productive activities.  Maitreya Buddha taught that this is the first flaw that we bump up against in our daily practice.  It is a flaw because it ensures that we do not start, that we don't apply ourselves.   It is a flaw because it ensures that we remain feeling stuck. 

We may want to do something important, want to accomplish an activity, but when we try to do so we run up against the inertia that is our own indolence.

There are three types of indolence:

Lethargy.

This is the fatigue and laziness that we all experience.  It is heavy, sluggish.  I could get started or I could rest for a second.  I could do a little bit today, or I could wait until tomorrow when I feel better.

Obsession with pointless activity.  

We all know these... 

Discouragement.

This is feeling inadequate or unable to start.  A lack of self-confidence that results in waiting or hiding.

It is easy to pass the blame to something else, something outside of ourselves.  But as a practitioner, or someone aspiring to be a practitioner, we need to look at our situation and our life.  We need to be honest with ourselves, our choices and our activities.

Are we really committed to making this happen?

To overcome these three types of indolence, Maitreya Buddha taught four types of remedies:

Belief. Intention. Perseverance. Pliancy. 

Belief is knowing there is something greater than this.  It is not blind faith, but rather our deepest aspirations and knowing there is a truth in them.   

Our intention seeks to purposefully accomplish our activity.  Clarify it.  Be specific. 

Perseverance pushes us to continue to show up.  Put in the time.  Do the work.  Make the effort.   

The result is pliancy.  We become adaptable, flexible, dexterous.  We become open to change, ready to change.  We become confident with the continuum of change which is life.

No longer too tired to go, too busy to go or too scared to go, we simply go.  We start, and figure out what else we need as we go. 

Are you going, or waiting?  What else do you need to start?

Grasping at straws.

Where do you turn when you're scared?  When you're tired and you had a bad day?  When you are feeling overwhelmed? 

Do you find yourself scrambling, desperate to find another safe haven?  Do you fall back into old thought patterns and neurosis?  Pour another glass, go to bed?

When things get tough, where do you turn for refuge?

You have to go to refuge.  It's an action, not a belief.  You need to actually go, actually do the practice. 

Most of the time when we feel hopeless or encounter our demons, rather than having certainty in our refuge we turn and run, often looking for another safe haven or someone else to work their magic.  We start grasping at straws, hoping anything will work. 

And the wheel turns.