We spend roughly a third of our lives sleeping. Every night we dream, although we may not remember those dreams. And our waking life, too, is filled with dreams. They’re woven into the narratives of our moving minds as fantasies, projections, images, and thoughts of the past and future.
Dream yoga is a body of teachings and practices taught in the Bön and Buddhist tantric traditions of Tibet. The goal is to wake up. To wake to the clear awareness that is our fundamental nature.
The practice spans the full cycle of day and night. Lucid dreaming—recognizing you’re dreaming while remaining in the dreams of the night—is the bestknown feature of dream yoga. But waking up amid the dreams of the day is equally important. Developing lucidity during the day leads to lucidity in the night. And developing lucidity in the night leads to lucidity during the day.
The benefits of the practice can appear long before a first lucid dream, and continue all the way along the path. Bringing more awareness to your present experience makes life more vivid. Presence is stronger and each moment is fresh. There’s greater freedom because, with increased awareness, you can choose to respond to experience
