Category Archives: Spirituality

Dream Yoga

Posted on by
Reply

In August, when I visited the Shambhala Center in Davis, I picked up the book of Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light .  I don’t usually read popular literature, but it was laid out for free and lucid dreaming has been something I had some limited interest in and thought I might pursue.  I had some limited experience with lucid dreaming and wanted to learn if this might be a tool to clear some of the trauma residues that I still carried in my subconscious and that seemed to manifest in my dreams.

This was my first contact with the author, Namkhai Norbu, but I was pleased to find that he was a recognized Tibetan lama with an excellent Dzogchen teacher.   Both his teacher and paternal uncle achieved rainbow body.  His awareness of ultimate reality and the path to enlightenment came through in the book.  For instance, he clearly understands that dream interpretation or focusing on the content of the dream are not useful activities for one aspiring to liberation.  In fact, pursuing lucid dreaming was not a goal at all.  He says:

dzogchen symbol Ah

White symbol of the Tibetan letter A. (Pronounced Ah) Copyright Paul GNU free

In the Dzogchen system, it is not necessary that one commit oneself to working on dreams.  That will arise naturally out of the practice of the natural light.  The most important thing for this practice, as I have described, is to do the particular visualization of the white “A” before sleeping.  In doing this visualization we use the working of the mind in order eventually go beyond the mind.

I started doing the practice on December 11, 2014 with the idea that I would commit to it for a month and then reevaluate.  His instructions are quite simple, as many effective spiritual teachings are.  The key part is to practice.

I appreciated Namkhai Norbu’s presentation of the nature and classes of dreams. In it he demonstrates a good understanding of dreams.  First, he divides dreams into two broad classes:  Those arising from karmic seeds or traces and those arising from the clarity of the mind.  Those arising from karma can be due to the current state of the persons body, energy and speech or tensions in their mind or they can be due to karmic traces from an earlier time or from the recent past.  Clarity dreams provide insight that allows the practitioner to progress towards liberation.

I highly recommend the book.  You can borrow my copy or your purchase using the link below support TESLI.  Thanks!


Karma

Posted on by
Reply

Karma is defined as the movement of the mind and what it motivates.

It is said that the subtle workings of karma are harder to perceive than ultimate reality itself.  This suggests that the karmic results we see around us are not as simple as direct cause and effect. Many factors go into the results we experience.

In the opening lines of the fourth chapter of the Abhidharmakosa we are told

Deeds (karma) make up the multitude of worlds.

Since many people call the creator of the universe “God” we find here an alternate definition of God as Karma (and vice versa Karma is God).

Another good definition is offered by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:  Karma is the force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence.

What is “next existence”?  The Buddhist understanding is that we are all changing things and a changing thing lasts less than a second.  So our next existence is who we are in the next moment, and the next, and the next….

Simplified Model of Karma

When one thinks or does an action this creates a seed, trace or mental potential that is held associated with the mindstream.  At a later date, when conditions are optimal, the seed ripens and the karmic result is experienced.  For instance, if I give money to a friend, I create a seed that can ripen into me receiving money from someone in the future.

Four Characteristics of Karma

  1. All actions lead to a result of similar type.
  2. The consequences are greater than the original action.
  3. If you experience something, you must have done the causal action in the past.
  4. Once you do the action the result cannot be lost.

 

The first characteristic means that if I give someone money I get money as a result.  If I instead call them a name, then I create the potential to be called a name in the future.

The second characteristic implies that the seeds that are planted “grow” during their latency period.  Just like an acorn produces a great oak, the seed of giving a dollar has the potential to come back as a thousand dollars.

The third characteristic is that everything you experience is due to something you have done in the past.  No more room for being a victim once you have this understanding.  This also frees us to be able to create our liberation.  Freedom is only possible if we have control over our destiny.

The fourth characteristic is that once you create the seed, it will not just disappear.  However, it you do not want that seed to ever germinate then you can do the practice of the four powers that the Buddha taught.  The instructions are in my book:  The Twelve Steps as  a Path to Enlightenment.

 

My Experiences with Lucid Dreaming

Posted on by
Reply

I was fourteen years old when I first heard about lucid dreaming.  The instructions I heard back then on how to “wake up” during a dream were to focus on your hands.  The idea, as I recall, was to look at your hands once you realized you were dreaming.  I don’t remember what you were supposed to do next, and perhaps that is the reason that the couple of times I did manage to look at my hands, my brief moment of being aware of dreaming passed and I slipped back into the dream unconscious.

I’ve never really tried to cultivate dream awareness, but every once in awhile I have a lucid dream – or at least a moment of lucidity during a dream.  I’ve had dreams where I became aware that I was dreaming, but still couldn’t control my actions and watched myself struggle to make a cell phone call.  I’ve also had repetitive dreams of driving a car without brakes.  These usually trigger me into some awareness of being in a dream state and I simply know that I need to find something to hit to stop the car.  Instead of feeling out of control during the dream I have the awareness to know that I’m dreaming and cannot be hurt, yet still cannot control the car without colliding into something.

My best trigger for lucidity is not being able to see.  This is another common theme in my dreams and it also seems to frequently happen when I am driving a car.  I just cannot get my eyes open.  These days, about 75% of the time, I am able to realize that when I cannot open my eyes I am dreaming.  After the realization, I loosen up, and I just tell myself that I don’t need to see in order to drive.  I have other senses I can use.

While lucid dreaming is exciting, I have never formally pursued the activity because I had never thought it was valuable given my goal of enlightenment.  Then, earlier this year, one of my meditation teachers mentioned he was interested in learning more about lucid dreaming.  I was surprised by his interest, since I know him to at least at third path and cannot imagine a lucid dreaming practice would be something of value to such a person.  Then again, if you are at third path, you might not be too worried about reaching enlightenment and lucid dreaming might just be an extracurricular activity.  Still, his interested made me wonder if there might be some value in the practice.