09-19-2010, 12:00 AM
Waking, Sleeping, dreaming, life, death, rebirth
Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism has great teachings on lucid dreaming. It is
called Dream Yoga. According to the Tibetans the three states of mind
of Waking Life, Sleep, and Dreaming correspond to life, death, and
rebirth. They believe that by practicing lucid dreaming they can gain
control of life, death, and rebirth.
They believe that for most people, who do not cultivate lucidity, upon
death they black out and then gradually begin to sense a dream realm
that they call "Bardo". Because they have not cultivated lucidity
during life they do not recognize this state as a dream state and
therefor believe that it is real rather than the projection of their
minds. There can be either great blissful experiences and/ or very
frightening terrifying experiences. By not recognizing these
experiences as projections of the mind, they react to these experiences
as real and they eventually become reborn. There are six realms one can
be reborn in:The
realm of the Gods, which is extremely blissful. However one is not
immortal in this world and one neglect the spiritual path and
eventually die and are reborn in a lower realm.The Human
Realm, which is a realm of desire and passion, doubt and pride. This is
the best realm to be born in because the greatest spiritual growth is
possible.The Realm of the Jealous gods, Who experience great
pleasure but are caught up in always trying to improve themselves and
be better than each other. A great example in human life are Hollywood
movie stars who are always creating drama with each other and getting
cosmetic surgery and breast implants.The animal realm, which is a realm of ignorance of one's true nature and the fight for survivalThe
hungry ghost realm, where one suffers from intense craving that can
never be satisfied. Into this category fall drug addicts and alcoholics.Hell realm, which is a realm of hatred and violence. Jail, Prison, and War are Hell realms.One
is either born in these realms by attraction or repulsion. That is one
is either attracted to one realm or is running away from a terrifying
hallucination and ends up seeking rebirth in the closest realm in order
to escape.
However, according to the Vajrayana teachings, by practicing meditation
and cultivating lucidity in the three states of waking, sleeping, and
dreaming, one can pass through death lucidly. By not blacking out, one
encounters the Clear Light of Death.
Not to be confused with the White Light. The clear light is not a realm
or bardo but your own true nature itself. One then can try to merge
into this clear light and not get distracted.
The teachings assert that once one merges with the clear light one is
liberated from the compulsory wheel of life, death, and rebirth. One
can choose, however, to consciously seek rebirth in order to teach
others how to attain union with the clear light.
These people are called Tulkus
and claim to remember all their previous lives. There have been
accounts when these people are about to die they tell their students to
find them at a certain time at a certain place as a child to certain
parents. Their students then go and indeed find a child of these
parents and they test the child to see if he has authentic memories of
his previous life. These test include relating personal stories of many
of his previous lives and by recognizing personal belongings from a
previous life among many decoys. The movie "The Golden Child" with
Eddie Murphy opens with a scene where the little Golden Child is being
tested. The Dalia Lama is just one such Tulku.
These teachings are found in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Also called
Liberation through Hearing during the Intermediate State, Akathe Bardo
Thodol. This book also has teachings on how to close a womb so that you
can't enter into it in case you find yourself falling into it.
But what is very interesting to me is that, whether or not the above is
truly how the after death state is, these teachings are great for lucid
dreaming. There are instructions for gaining lucidity at any stage of
rebirth. One can look at rebirth as analagous to waking up in the
morning after a night of sleeping and dreaming. By following the
instructions, one can remain lucid not only during dreaming, but in
deep sleep as well, and also during waking life.
According to Buddhist scholars The realms of rebirth and bardo
experiences are looked at as actual psychological states of mind in day
to day life as well as actual realms of rebirth and halluciantory
states of mind after death. So during day to day life you can pay
attention to when you lose lucidity and you will find yourself in one
of these six states of mind. Either angry, jealous, prideful, ignorant,
desirous, craving, or blissed out distracted in daydream and fantasy.
There are two schools of dream yoga in the Vajrayana. One belongs to the Great Perfection school and one is followed by the Highest Yoga Tantra school. They are very similar, however the great perfection (Dzogchen in Tibetan) focuses more on encountering the Clear Light of Sleep
prior to the onset of dreams with the goal of eventually passing the
whole night in the clear light rather than entering into dreaming.
However along the way to perfecting this path, lucid dreams are a
benificial by-product. The Highest Yoga Tantra school focuses on using
lucid deams to open the mind, release habitual emotions and limiting
beliefs. One then arises in an immortal illusory body in the
shape of a deity upon death and gaining liberation. In the same movie
'the Golden Child' the golden child appears in his illusory body to
Eddie Murphy while he is sleeping and shows him the bird guide.
In the Dzogchen teachings the goal is to remain lucid 24-7 and see all
phenomena as a projection of your mind and upon death the matter in
your body, and the energy in your mind turn into a rainbow and you
achieve the rainbow body leaving behind only hair and fingernails
without a corpse.
Quoted from wikipedia: "
The rainbow body is the physical mastery state of Dzogchen of the Nyingmapa and the Bönpo where the trikaya is in accord and the nirmanakaya is congruent with bodymind and the integrity of the mindstream (the heartmind) is realised as Dharmakaya. The corporeal body of the realised Dzogchenpa which is now hallowed, returns to the pure primordial energetic essence-quality of the Five Pure Lights of the five elemental processes of which it is constituted through phowa and the Bardo of Mahasamadhi or Parinirvana. This is then projected as the mindstream through the process of phowa. The realiser of Jalus resides in the 'once upon a time' time out of time, timeless eternal state that is considered a mystery.[citation needed]
According to Dzogchen lore, the attainment of the Rainbow Body is the sign of complete realisation of the Dzogchen view. As Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
(2002: p.141) states: “The realised Dzogchen practitioner, no longer
deluded by apparent substantiality or dualism such as mind and matter,
releases the energy of the elements that compose the physical body at
the time of death”.
More specifically, the rainbow body is
constituted by the Five Pure Lights. When the view of Dzogchen and the
integrity of the mindstream which links the Trikaya is realised prior
to the death-Bardo (Skt. antarabhava), the bodymind of the Nirmanakaya (Tib. sprul sku) Dzogchenpa enters samādhi (Tib. ting nge ‘dzin)[1] and commences Phowa or the ‘transferral of consciousness’ into the constituent Five Pure Lights of the Sambhogakaya (Tib. longs sku)[2] to the Dharmakaya, sometimes leaving the non-living faecal elements of the bodymind such as hair and nails.
There have been a number of documented sightings of the Jalus process
through the Bardo of death which may take a number of days to complete.
The bodymind of the Nirmanakaya in samadhi, all the time decreasing its
dimensionality as the constituent Five Pure Lights of the mindstream
are transmuted into the 'glorious body' of Sambhogakaya.
From the case studies of those who have realised the rainbow body the practices of tregchöd and thödgal are key."
Sounds crazy. It is hard to believe. But there are lineages of teachers
until the present day who are said to have each attained the rainbow
body. The living one now is named Namkai Norbu and he is a Dzogchen and
Lucid Dream Yoga master.
Regardless if this is true or not, or if one is a skeptic or a believer, it is an inspiring reason to practice lucid dreaming.
Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism has great teachings on lucid dreaming. It is
called Dream Yoga. According to the Tibetans the three states of mind
of Waking Life, Sleep, and Dreaming correspond to life, death, and
rebirth. They believe that by practicing lucid dreaming they can gain
control of life, death, and rebirth.
They believe that for most people, who do not cultivate lucidity, upon
death they black out and then gradually begin to sense a dream realm
that they call "Bardo". Because they have not cultivated lucidity
during life they do not recognize this state as a dream state and
therefor believe that it is real rather than the projection of their
minds. There can be either great blissful experiences and/ or very
frightening terrifying experiences. By not recognizing these
experiences as projections of the mind, they react to these experiences
as real and they eventually become reborn. There are six realms one can
be reborn in:The
realm of the Gods, which is extremely blissful. However one is not
immortal in this world and one neglect the spiritual path and
eventually die and are reborn in a lower realm.The Human
Realm, which is a realm of desire and passion, doubt and pride. This is
the best realm to be born in because the greatest spiritual growth is
possible.The Realm of the Jealous gods, Who experience great
pleasure but are caught up in always trying to improve themselves and
be better than each other. A great example in human life are Hollywood
movie stars who are always creating drama with each other and getting
cosmetic surgery and breast implants.The animal realm, which is a realm of ignorance of one's true nature and the fight for survivalThe
hungry ghost realm, where one suffers from intense craving that can
never be satisfied. Into this category fall drug addicts and alcoholics.Hell realm, which is a realm of hatred and violence. Jail, Prison, and War are Hell realms.One
is either born in these realms by attraction or repulsion. That is one
is either attracted to one realm or is running away from a terrifying
hallucination and ends up seeking rebirth in the closest realm in order
to escape.
However, according to the Vajrayana teachings, by practicing meditation
and cultivating lucidity in the three states of waking, sleeping, and
dreaming, one can pass through death lucidly. By not blacking out, one
encounters the Clear Light of Death.
Not to be confused with the White Light. The clear light is not a realm
or bardo but your own true nature itself. One then can try to merge
into this clear light and not get distracted.
The teachings assert that once one merges with the clear light one is
liberated from the compulsory wheel of life, death, and rebirth. One
can choose, however, to consciously seek rebirth in order to teach
others how to attain union with the clear light.
These people are called Tulkus
and claim to remember all their previous lives. There have been
accounts when these people are about to die they tell their students to
find them at a certain time at a certain place as a child to certain
parents. Their students then go and indeed find a child of these
parents and they test the child to see if he has authentic memories of
his previous life. These test include relating personal stories of many
of his previous lives and by recognizing personal belongings from a
previous life among many decoys. The movie "The Golden Child" with
Eddie Murphy opens with a scene where the little Golden Child is being
tested. The Dalia Lama is just one such Tulku.
These teachings are found in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Also called
Liberation through Hearing during the Intermediate State, Akathe Bardo
Thodol. This book also has teachings on how to close a womb so that you
can't enter into it in case you find yourself falling into it.
But what is very interesting to me is that, whether or not the above is
truly how the after death state is, these teachings are great for lucid
dreaming. There are instructions for gaining lucidity at any stage of
rebirth. One can look at rebirth as analagous to waking up in the
morning after a night of sleeping and dreaming. By following the
instructions, one can remain lucid not only during dreaming, but in
deep sleep as well, and also during waking life.
According to Buddhist scholars The realms of rebirth and bardo
experiences are looked at as actual psychological states of mind in day
to day life as well as actual realms of rebirth and halluciantory
states of mind after death. So during day to day life you can pay
attention to when you lose lucidity and you will find yourself in one
of these six states of mind. Either angry, jealous, prideful, ignorant,
desirous, craving, or blissed out distracted in daydream and fantasy.
There are two schools of dream yoga in the Vajrayana. One belongs to the Great Perfection school and one is followed by the Highest Yoga Tantra school. They are very similar, however the great perfection (Dzogchen in Tibetan) focuses more on encountering the Clear Light of Sleep
prior to the onset of dreams with the goal of eventually passing the
whole night in the clear light rather than entering into dreaming.
However along the way to perfecting this path, lucid dreams are a
benificial by-product. The Highest Yoga Tantra school focuses on using
lucid deams to open the mind, release habitual emotions and limiting
beliefs. One then arises in an immortal illusory body in the
shape of a deity upon death and gaining liberation. In the same movie
'the Golden Child' the golden child appears in his illusory body to
Eddie Murphy while he is sleeping and shows him the bird guide.
In the Dzogchen teachings the goal is to remain lucid 24-7 and see all
phenomena as a projection of your mind and upon death the matter in
your body, and the energy in your mind turn into a rainbow and you
achieve the rainbow body leaving behind only hair and fingernails
without a corpse.
Quoted from wikipedia: "
The rainbow body is the physical mastery state of Dzogchen of the Nyingmapa and the Bönpo where the trikaya is in accord and the nirmanakaya is congruent with bodymind and the integrity of the mindstream (the heartmind) is realised as Dharmakaya. The corporeal body of the realised Dzogchenpa which is now hallowed, returns to the pure primordial energetic essence-quality of the Five Pure Lights of the five elemental processes of which it is constituted through phowa and the Bardo of Mahasamadhi or Parinirvana. This is then projected as the mindstream through the process of phowa. The realiser of Jalus resides in the 'once upon a time' time out of time, timeless eternal state that is considered a mystery.[citation needed]
According to Dzogchen lore, the attainment of the Rainbow Body is the sign of complete realisation of the Dzogchen view. As Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
(2002: p.141) states: “The realised Dzogchen practitioner, no longer
deluded by apparent substantiality or dualism such as mind and matter,
releases the energy of the elements that compose the physical body at
the time of death”.
More specifically, the rainbow body is
constituted by the Five Pure Lights. When the view of Dzogchen and the
integrity of the mindstream which links the Trikaya is realised prior
to the death-Bardo (Skt. antarabhava), the bodymind of the Nirmanakaya (Tib. sprul sku) Dzogchenpa enters samādhi (Tib. ting nge ‘dzin)[1] and commences Phowa or the ‘transferral of consciousness’ into the constituent Five Pure Lights of the Sambhogakaya (Tib. longs sku)[2] to the Dharmakaya, sometimes leaving the non-living faecal elements of the bodymind such as hair and nails.
There have been a number of documented sightings of the Jalus process
through the Bardo of death which may take a number of days to complete.
The bodymind of the Nirmanakaya in samadhi, all the time decreasing its
dimensionality as the constituent Five Pure Lights of the mindstream
are transmuted into the 'glorious body' of Sambhogakaya.
From the case studies of those who have realised the rainbow body the practices of tregchöd and thödgal are key."
Sounds crazy. It is hard to believe. But there are lineages of teachers
until the present day who are said to have each attained the rainbow
body. The living one now is named Namkai Norbu and he is a Dzogchen and
Lucid Dream Yoga master.
Regardless if this is true or not, or if one is a skeptic or a believer, it is an inspiring reason to practice lucid dreaming.