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As far as I know, the dream yoga workshops are conducted through the glidewing productions website. Last I checked the next one's date is TBA. The ligmincha.org website should have more info. Thanks for the offer - I'm pretty much married to the Bönpo approach right now. It's working for me (albeit slowly) and fits into the context of my other practices.

The book by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is the book I recommended earlier. That covers the Bönpo methods quite comprehensively. The book by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu is probably quite good but I've never read it so I can't comment. Those were mentioned in post #3 I don't want to get too specific because I'm a student, not a teacher of this method and would prefer everyone learn from a more authoritative source. From the instructions I've received from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche through his book, an online course, and a personal retreat, the way to develop stability seems to be focused on - 1. Developing more and more stability in our connection with the nature of mind through the 3 doors practices. This is the key. From the perspective of the nature of mind, dreams and waking life are on equal footing. So it is this perspective that helps us gain the freedom to be lucid in our waking life and in dreams. I suspect that the Daoist approach is similar in that meditation and qigong are doorways to this fundamental nature, as are the 3 doors. 2. Strengthening our intention to engage in and be successful with the practice through prayer and feelings of gratitude, devotion, and trust. This is a very traditional approach. The "fuel" of Tibetan Buddhist practices is both external and internal refuge. While Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche seems to be very progressive in his teaching method on the surface, I suspect that he is very traditional at heart. He seems to be doing his best to adapt tradition so that it is accessible and effective for Westerners. 3. Avoiding the error of letting our ignorance and grasping from interfering with the process. This is done through approaching the practices with a sense of playfulness along with the gratitude and trust. This is the antidote to frustration. In the morning we review the night, celebrate any success, and recommit to the practice. We do not indulge in frustration or self criticism. When those feelings arise, as they inevitably will, we acknowledge them, see them for what they are (transient thoughts, expectations, grasping), and allow them to fully be and then go back to where they came from - emptiness. I think it's very important to be careful about building up too much emphasis on success and failure, expectations and attachment to the method. The method is powerful. It will yield its bounty in its own good time based on our proclivity and dedication. If it is not yielding the type of result we want, we will have a better chance of success if we figure out how to be OK with that - it means we need to focus on our connection to the source and look more carefully at how we are doing the daytime and nighttime practices. There are more helpful suggestions regarding how to stabilize and progress in the book and if you sign up for an online workshop, you can ask Rinpoche questions directly. I don't have any experience with any other dream yoga instructions or instructors so I won't comment much on others. Rinpoche did make the point that Western teachers tend to be more focused on the content and self indulgence. The Tibetan approach always stays anchored in the mindset of working toward liberation in order to help others, the Mahayana view. All of the above is just my own personal opinion and experience. I'm not authorized or qualified to teach this stuff. Just trying to help people understand its existence, value, and availability, and answer these excellent questions as best I can. Good luck!

I feel that the methods introduced by Stephen LaBerge lack any serious thought to building a solid foundation. His teachings are distilled from Tibetan techniques and they do work but only to an extent. Not to mention that his approach is rather dry and an attempt to literally strip out all spiritual aspects of dream yoga.

Well I can't say that I don't sometimes have this dysfunction ;-) Although it's been surprisingly clear this past few days. Hmm, I wonder;-) Where's the thread on the "mudpill"??? And what is a mudpill anyway? I'll go look it up I guess. I think I'd rather NOT have "night creatures" sucking my chi - and in fact I believe I've already encountered such things a couple of times. Whatever "it" was, it came along a tore a piece off my middle. I figured it could have it if it wanted it so badly and I really didn't think further into it. A bad dream is a bad dream. Besides, some "nasty looking" creatures in mythology actually help people heal (think of Kali and some of the soul-eating things for example.) What might be just as bad is when you give your own energy away without wanting to without random weirdness coming along. Or maybe when you give your own energy away because of some short term egotistical gain...a bad deal.

I assume you mean this one : "The American dream, you have to be asleep to believe it" ha!

It isn't in what you say Nikolai. It doesn't matter if you believe it's true or, believe it's rubbish. The paradox only exists as long as you let it. You hold two conflicting premises. Of course my words have a vulgar consistency for you. Ignore the book, I wrote it when I thought as you do now. I was showing only that this is the process like one half of a journey. It is objective reality that you believe what you believe is true, or believe what you believe is subjective nonsense. The content doesn't matter. I said before its either the red or the blue pill. You either want to know objective reality, or you want to stay in the subjective program of the Matrix. That is something you have to chose. Not everyone likes reality, that's an objective truth for you. As Cypher said "ignorance can be bliss", he despised everything about the real world, it was miserable experience for him and he hated Morpheus for doing it to him. He said Morpheus had lied to make him take the red pill, he said, if he had known, he would have told him to shove it up his back side. Do you understand why my words are vulgar to you ? They are poison to your beautiful subjective dream, bitter, harsh, blunt. I couldnt blame you for taking the blue pill.

Being capable of disagreement with me makes it right, regardless of statement of the disagreement which may be valid or not. It is entirely possible to make a valid statement-in the sense of inductive reasoning-but still be ignorant of why it is valid. A thing is a thing and no other thing. This was the reasons monks battered their students with sticks once they moved into subjective illusion and believed they had transcended mortality . It literally was 'to knock sense into them'. It's very hard to deny a stick is a stick, a body is a body and pain is pain. We have one tool and that's logic. It is a birth right, but it can be abused and oppressed. Remembered knowledge is mistaken for true knowledge. We are losing the ability to use logic effectively. This is a modern world of skills and specialisation, in which the incredible progress afforded by the division of labour and the laws of comparative advantage have led to a situation in which logic has been largely usurped by the instantaneous nature of our lives. It has created a longing for a return to a simpler time, but without logic to guide our understanding, we have become attracted to a mash up of facts, pseudoscience, religion, mysticism, superstition and Magic. These things are entirely knowledge based-in effect it's another skill. If all we have to guide us is emotional intuition ( feelings ) then we are in danger. If you don't know what a Tiger is, or if you dispute that it is a Tiger, or believe that it is nothing but an illusion of consciousness subjectivity-akin to a dream-then you are seeking to hide from reality. The legend of King Canute is a classical example of that mode of thinking. The Tiger will attack you if it is its intention to do so and the sea will advance. It's been the case for many years that those prepared to shout truth from the rooftops usually get short shrift by the residents. If they are lucky it's only verbal abuse.

To be honest, I also have not seen this among daoist literature... but I recently came across "The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep"... I can't recommend it as I have not read it yet but I can at least mention it in case you want to find it. I don't think one "enters the kingdom" , except in their own interpretation of events (time). The last barrier is a state but IMO, we can 'borrow' from states even though we're not in that state... because the most important aspect is: Nothing Separates Us. As I explore this, at times I am floating above and getting detached from it. As I get into universal consciousness, I travel past time and space, as it collapses (no separation). Sometimes it collapses on 'me'.

Something to keep in mind...... For someone who is seriously walking the PATH, faithfully and observing the various necessities (sila, samadhi, panna), dream-yoga arises naturally. No need for any specific herbs/drugs or effort to create lucid dreams. A serious student keeps his attention on strengthening the foundation, because without proper foundation anything built on it is likely to fall down/regress/fall-back, and one is forced to restart the building process, without ever reaching higher levels. I am not discouraging in any way. A yogi is awake, when the whole world sleeps. This does not mean he is a night-owl

Of course everything is creation of the mind, this is obvious. Slight problem though comes from the fact that the mind can create responses to external stimuli and to internal ones. Responding to external stimuli or interpreting them in a right and adequate way may have life or death consequences. Whereas when mind responds to internal stimuli, it could mean anything or nothing at all. The difference is significant. Does dream yoga help with that?

Very nice - but If that was true you wouldn't bother tub thumping for all your world of objective realities. You simply need to realise that in any given moment we can judge something as either real or ideal. In any given moment, one perspective is in the limelight, but in our heart we know and feel that the other perspective is also there, in the shadow. If something seems real, we still do not let it bother us...we cannot...because in a deep way we know it is a dream. If something seems unimportant and dreamlike, we still attend to it because deep down we know it is also real. This is wisdom. It is folly to set up this biocentrism as some great grand truth, but this guy is only led to do so because the grand truth of a big wide universe of matter is also a folly. It's a shame that you grasped what most find unbelievable, included the ideas in your book, and then scurried back to your original view. You still aren't synthesising. Synthesis IS a moment by moment endeavour, it is true, but the words of those who have achieved it have a characteristic ring.

So what do you think the main purpose would be in practicing the dream yoga, preparation for the bardo or something else?

I don’t recall coming across the concept of moving beyond time in spiritual literature before (which isn't to say it isn't there), but perhaps because this thought had been put in my mind after reading your post, I did see a reference to beyond time and space while reading about Taoist dream practice: You talk about entering ‘the kingdom’ by “break[ing] outside of the last barrier of 'time'”, I wonder if you could expound on this idea a bit further, for me right now the idea is a bit like falling down the rabbit hole, I don't even know the right question to ask...yet

In the last month I experienced a lot of dandruff, as if my liver unbalanced, even though I don't eat shit. I'm not an angry person, maybe even too much sometimes Anyway I experienced a lot of anger when I was living with my parents. One month ago I stayed for two weeks at my parents home and afterwards I experienced dandruff and quite the same dream about me getting angry with my family, and exchanging that anger between us (as we actually did in the past). I felt it like a setting-free of that stucked anger, that is good, but on the other side the same dream comes again. The same happened the months before with the kidneys, both physically and emotionally - I've actually realized it just today. And this path makes sense (what a chance...) with the generative path of the five elements: Water creates/nourishes Wood Wood nourishes Fire Fire creates Earth (ash) Earth creates (contains) Metal Metal collects (contains) Water So now I ask your opinion about my experience: do you think that this interpretation makes sense ? Any suggestion about specific practice ? At the moment I do 3 times a week kung fu, every morning some qigong with movement (mainly Spring forest 1&2 or Ba duan jin), every evening cross-legged meditation (MCO and emptyness). Cheers

In Poland we have an idiom that says "Dream - Mara, God - belief" (Sen - Mara, Bóg - wiara)

B ut ... but .... why Sydney for Gawds sake ? Up here, I can go to beach 10 am Sunday morning, mid summer, and there isnt a footprint on it some times ! Last time I tried that in Sydney at 8 am, I couldnt even park near any beaches (in the middle south area) I ended up going to Botany Bay and swimming in the water near the container terminal ... nice ! Adelaide eh ? I used to dream of going to Adelaide ..... when I lived .... near Bordertown (not even in Boredomtown Bordertown We went to Bodertown once ... saw some girls there we did

Maybe in their dreams. Appearance of numbers in your dream states and in your real life are very common.

Don't go there. Bush launched his Iraq War as a Christian crusade. I saw it in my dream. He was a preacher and talking about his crusade, inside his church. Think about this as to what it means to say America must spread the seed of democracy across the world???

It is in the body but is more like the undergirding that supports so to cultivate the normal psychlogixal mexhnusms associated w heat vibration etc are exsausyed first bypassed second it is easiest after you have induced shaking w gung not shake and callit gung but shake your quiver. Menthol breath. This is the layerto cultivate when you areade aware of it by your actions it us difficult to cultivate something if you have not felt it before you can work up to it or you can spontaneously exp it a good teachercn induce it, feel. When you cultivate both aides yi shen temper extreames command lightly heavy thinngs when I have exp it best the blockages are all gone, a steady hum abounds, work is the hum, gung, yi mind manifest anything in the body you can think of like dream state so then this is reversed, then instead of feeling sweat when you work you feel a cool heat, but it only seems to happen after a maintained segment of practice in which you have the chance to experience mind without the effort that is normally involved with both thought and action This is truley esoteric Taoist art and practice here bevise tricks to bypassing the navigational plane of the language barrier alone involves the evolution or deevolutipn the casade or ascend or descent of the one to the tenthousand... And back again. The opening of the passage, it's transit, and safe return.. Being ready does not just mean anticipating attack or offense, it means projecting peacewitan touch. Finding wuji is profound considering the power the imagination plays thus regressive clensing in that clarity playsuchore vital roles in clearing the meridians the zero point in which concept takes shape to action the impotance of unifying thought and action is to make tangible the dream mind pie. The door way opens a frame wirhth gravity to cycles planes without yonder not to increase or decrease youvrid this bit to convergent point after point of coincidental alighnment until the one you is humming and glowing with lively anticipation and ready heart of you who wring the wright song along the cours set ahead one degree after another until the corrective mean trim is complete, at the points the wave breaks regardless of 'practice' it is destiny meaning life purpose reason for being changing lives by default etc some things you see once, and the rest is visable results from those life changing sets of experiences. People are a very unique attribute on earth besides plants and rocks. The possibilities of the various combinations of elements divide and provide a medium in which conciousness can be approached from how the senses blends synthenasia with focus drills to train focus and diaaapatikn into and out of the ennagramic labryth more

Dreaming about sex ? I dream about dreaming about dreaming about sex. Mostly it's lawn mowers and travel programmes. The only cultivation I've done was planting some taties and a couple of deciduous bushes. I stick to my opinion. Archetypes........roars with laughter.

You're right, apart from the size of my boat...but doing all of these things to what end, and for who? To dream is the false self and to experience things physically is true self?

guys i need your help i wanna mediate and progress spiritually but i have fear of dark and ghosts and paranormal things i wanna get rid of this fear because when you are in fear you cant meditate it keeps you always on check you have to meditate alone in a room and even close your eyes and that increases my fear (i know it sounds childish but i cant help) my fear increases as the day progress twards night this fear has gain strength these days, i had fear in the past but it was never inhibiting my work or anything, but i dont know what has happened these days i get nightmare every single night, i scream every night because of nightmares its amazing how can i get nightmares every single night i once had a scary dream about the room i meditate in, may be thats the reason i experience fear in my room these days but guys i really wanna get rid of this fear if you are always on check because of fear you cant relax and you cant meditate guys what can i do to eliminate this fear so i can relax and meditate properly in my room i cant change my room are there any rituals which i can do to remove this fear ? may be some buddhist or taoist ritual ? may be i can burn incense or change something in my room ? may be i can ask for forgiveness ? guys pls help, i want to remove my fear of dark and ghosts completely just thinking about not fearing wont help, i have tried i wanna eliminate this from the root, inside out, no wishful thinking

My practice is dzogchen in the Bon lineage of Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyu. My secondary practice is Dream Yoga from the Ma Gyu Tantra. I have not found this forum to be a comfortable or supportive place to discuss specific results. I can say that the practices have profoundly impacted my life, work, and relationships in beautiful ways so I would say, yes - good results.

OMG!! This topic could not be any more timely for me. I drifted off to sleep last night, with a belly full of unusual supplements that create some rather vivid dream states, and I found myself on the new Mars colony. The only problem was that it was an exclusive community, populated with people who were more spiritually evolved than me. I was angry, baffled, and disappointed, especially when I found myself providing room service for all these folks who wouldn't give me the time of day. I can only infer from this dream that my own communication style in this forum has been wanting. I have tried to maintain a civil tone while attempting to obey the rules of critical thinking, particularly intellectual humility. I have had some measure of improvement, punctuated by very pronounced bouts of belligerence. I have said before that I think it is the anonymous nature of this forum that tempts us into saying things, writing things, that we would never say to each other's faces. I'm guilty of this as well, and I berate myself for it, because I'm old enough to be the father of a lot of you and should have learned to be more compassionate by now. I hope you guys will pardon my lack of charity. I've learned a great deal in here, and it's been a nice opportunity to hone the skills of writing on one's feet. But I should probably come in here less, and focus on what I really want, which is to move the Northwest and find some quiet piece of property in the country where my family and friends can practice the 3Ms- music, meditation, and martial arts. Maybe i'll see some of you up there. Regards, Scott

Not to get too far off topic, but this reminds me of a visit I had a while back. I was visited by a person in my dream, something inside me knew they were a master and I asked them to take me as a disciple, but they replied that I have to choose 1 thing. The master was referring to life, and me choosing one thing, with regards to my work. I still havent choosen one thing.