Do Taoist Yoga Nidra/Dream Yoga Practices Exist?

[altiora]

Now, i know the purpose of my coming into this thread is fulfilled   It was to find you, so that i can follow your writings and learn from you. I was not aware that you are a valuable member here.  Thanks for sharing. I see 3 pages worth of postings from you, when i search. Which thread would be a good place to start, if  i want to learn more about you and your experiences/knowledge ?

 

It is an unfortunate trend on TDB that threads by one person asking a question about Taoism are highjacked by others to discuss some irrelevant rubbish (in this case about spirulina) and their own alleged achievements.  Sadly it seems to be an increasing trend on TDB, primarily by those who are relatively new members.

 

Start you own thread if you wish to talk about yourself or other matters.

[vonkrankenhaus]

Re:

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"Start you own thread if you wish to talk about yourself or other matters."

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Okay. I had no idea.

 

I thought spirulina, as mentioned by someone else, and dark training, also mentioned by someone else, were part of this topic.

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[forestofclarity]

Oneironaut, I recently picked up this course at my local used book shop:

 

Dream Yoga by Andrew Holecek

 

It's pretty good so far, but I've only made it through Disk 2. He combined dream yoga with modern techniques, and he's been trained in both. He says in some ways, the Western techniques he learned are better than the Eastern ones. However, most Western lucid dreaming techniques are very similar. I have not seen much difference over the years. I have found them to be effective. 

 

A lot of Tibetan and Indian yoga based teachings are very cultural. In other words, they use symbols and images that are very charged in the culture of their origin, but may not have the same impact on people from other cultures, unless one has internalized the culture on an unconscious level. I would imagine that the same would go for Taoist techniques. So finding a Taoist technique may not help you unless you are already deeply steeped in Taoist teaching/practice.

[ChiForce]

Dream yoga isn't just about lucid dreaming.  The goal of dream yoga or sleep yoga is to achieve the Clear Light Mind.  To to this, you need to have a fully awakened consciousness during sleep and dreams.   Just because you can lucid dreaming, it does not mean you would have realized the Clear Light mind in your dreams!!!!  Heheheheh..... 

 

What is a Clear Light Mind?  When the mind has transcends the duality of our existence and the mind is fundamentally seeing its own nature, like a mirror.  The Clear Light Mind is a literal experience, not a metaphor.  Either in your dreams or within your dreams or you woke up from the dreams, your third eye is preceiving a Clear Light, a Clear luminious transparent bluish/whitish light.

 

Here is a good reading on the subject....

 

  https://ia601405.us.archive.org/35/items/TheTibetianYogasOfDreamAndSleep/TibetanYogasOfDreamAndSleep.pdf

 

The Dream of Clarity is interesting...it is when you will receive visitation and spiritual guidance from sambhogakaya beings.....

 

[Daeluin]

My sense is that the capacity of dreaming becomes as an empty realm for use in shen training if one wishes. Challenges one faces externally may be trained for internally, skills honed and refined. And so much more.

 

Also, as one becomes more refined and unified, one's conscious and subconscious are also more unified, and the awake/asleep polarity is also more unified. The relaxation necessary to maintain unification serves to fulfill needs for rest and connection to subconscious.

 

As one becomes more unified and does not feel as sleepy, the mind needs greater refinement and stillness in order to find rest instead of insomnia.

 

Just what resonates with me from what I've read.

[Antares]

Here I will answer to Terry Dunn's  post in his thread:

 

I will start by saying that while you are entitled to your own belief that  "a practitioner should avoid any dreaming on the advanced level of practice",  your statement that it is taught or upheld universally by a singular or monolithic "Taoist Tradition" is absolute wrong, fallacious and misleading, and counterproductive in that it only sews confusion in a beginner of Qigong of any tradition--whereas an advanced practitioner would have had enough experiential truth to know that the matter is absolutely moot and thus know to take issue with you. 

 

I have to answer in this thread because I was strictly prohibited to answer re lucid dreaming subject in his own thread (I can only guess why).

 

Well, l would appriciate if anyone can cite taoist scriptures where it is said that there are taoist lucid dreaming practices which were practiced by any renown taoist masters of the past. Contrary, I could find only texts where is said that taoist adepts seem to have negative attitudes toward dreams 

 

 

 

https://www.persee.fr/doc/asie_0766-1177_1995_num_8_1_1090

Edited April 14, 2019 by Antares

[silent thunder]

without seeking it, constantly am i reminded how like a dream is this waking life?

 

only it seems, insofar as I can tweak my nose, and yours and we may agree that such has taken place do we seem, or tend to find comfort in proclaiming one real and one false...  or that in this collective dream called real, we can count and agree, that there are definitively five trees in this park we sit in together...  only here is a caveat as well, for how often in waking real life, do we sit in the same space, read the same book, hear the same lecture and not agree at all as to what is taking place?

 

one shared and one private is more how i experience it.

not at all that one is more real... this is just me perhaps.

 

good bad, right wrong, have no place in the discussion for me.

 

is there not an assumption that waking life because it appears not as passing, illusory and mist-like as the dream realms is thus more real?

 

many realizations and experiences of the dream are more impacting and revealing of the natural state than those of the waking manifest flow... when realization arises is it only valid from certain sources?

 

the light of a candle

the glare of a flashlight

the light of the sun

 

all will reveal, which is best?  most real? 

[Rocky Lionmouth]

There are Daoist Sleep Skills i’ve been told about in private, i’ve been working on the basic prerequisites for a few years now (progress is slow even for a diligent student and i have trouble maintainingconsistency of effort) and i know some of them are related to maintaining full awareness during sleep (which i think is not lucid dreaming) and to use it to contemplate and develop thoughts and ideas.

It’s been hinted at that dreaming matters and is important also, perhaps for divination purposes or cultivation of a certain state or energy but these are only my own speculations. I don’t think awareness and dreams are to be intermingled however.

 

It seems as tough the methods are highly organized and strict but that it’s very esoteric in that the student can be given clues and indirect pointers to study, but must pass the first ”gate” on their own, i think the right frame of mind and ”location” to reach first isn’t something you can teach by explaining.

Describe the direction and outline the spot where the student is supposed to show up, if they cant get there pursuing it further isn’t even possible. Not a test, just a ”either you got it or you don’t” sort of thing... again, i speculate, dont heed this if you have instructions that speak against my words.