Day 10 - Dream yoga - Dreams be Dreams (2003)

We sleep at least 1/3 of our life, so we think, what do we do with the 2/3's left?  When we are awake,  we are busy with things and the stream of activities, feeling important but dizzy, foggy and lost amidst the sun be shining outside on top of our heads. Some days, when we get so lost, we need a roadmap to helps to go safely in life, look for a vision or a sign that says "come this way, you are following your dreams, girl!".   Can we follow our dreams, really if we are barely aware of them? where do we find inspiration and insights in our life? I know We can find some of the answers in our dreams while sleeping. 

Today is one of those days when an answer came to me, I woke up and felt a message was sent to me in my dreams.
I can't reveal them in public yet, but I told Andrew about them, who will keep a file of them in his wonderful HD...
Meditation and dreams, what does it have to do with each other?

 In my life, since I was little, vivid dreams while sleeping have been my way of healing. I know that sleeping well is fundamental if we want to have a healthy life, and a long life too. Vivid and lucid dreams are like jewels in the crown of our sleep time, precious gems in my collection of signs and insights in the path of enlightment.

 There is a study made by B. Allan Wallace from the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies that shows the importance of lucid dreams in meditatio:
"In Tibetan Buddhism, the practice of dream yoga is pursued within the larger context of seeking to understand the mind and the true, inner causes of both suffering and genuine happiness. The overall structure of Buddhist theory and practice is the Four Noble Truths: (1) recognizing the reality of suffering, (2) eliminating the fundamental,
internal causes of suffering, which are identified as craving, hostility, and delusion, (3)
realizing the possibility of the cessation of suffering and its source, and (4) following the
path of spiritual purification and transformation that results in such freedom. ' 


So dreams have been used as part of yoga for healing and undertanding of consciousness for a long time in Tibet and other places, like India and China. 
One can recognize the dream state for what it is while dreaming, and  learn how to stabilize the mind and sustain lucidity, and this opens up many possibilities for exploring the dream state. If dreams are seen as sources of spiritual direction they are to be interpreted and followed

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche wrote a book in 2002 about meditation and dream yoga, and find in dreams source for enlightment, if reality is embedded in dream-like nature, and dreams have keys for undertanding counsciouness... “wake up” in your dreams as a way to learn to “wake up” while awake, from the dream of life.

May our meditation be on our dreams. Jack Johnson has a song from  On and On (2003) album that is sweet about making our dreams not be only dreams. Our life is a dream, and we can transfrom our dreams into our enlightment.

"Dreams be Dreams"

she’s just waiting for the summertime
when the weather’s fine
and she could hitch a ride out of town
and so far away
from that low down, good for nothing
mistake making fool with excuses like
“baby that was a long time ago”
but that’s just a euphemism
if you want the truth he was out of control
but a short time is a long time
when your mind just won’t let it go
well summer came along and then it was gone
and so was she but not from him
because he followed her just to let her know
her dreams are dreams
all this living is so much harder that it seems
but girl don’t let your dreams be dreams
you know this living is not so hard as it seems
don’t let your dreams be dreams …