Talk:Dream yoga

Laird (2006: pp.22-23) transcribed and published a conversation with the Dalai Lama, where HH describes a tutelary dream connection with a number of Tibetan people:

Tibetans frequently remind the Dalai Lama of the strength of this link between them and the Dalai Lama. He says that often they tell him that they received precise instructions from the Dalai Lama in a dream. Bemused, he related one example in which "I told them to escape from Tibet on a certain day...or to go to such and such a place and do this or that...and they believed it, and did it, and all went well." The Dalai Lama has heard of such experiences so often that he is convinced that there is a connection between himself and ordinary Tibetans. He said that it exits "in a spiritual way" and that because of this "positive karmic connection, certain things happen. I myself also believe," he said. "I have had certain proof."

The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra

Xuanzang returned to China with three copies of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra which he had secured from his extensive travels. Xuanzang, with a team of disciple translators, commenced translating the voluminous work in 660 using the three versions to ensure the integrity of the source documentation. Xuanzang was being encouraged by a number of the disciple translators to render an abridged version. After a suite of dreams quickened his decision, Xuanzang determined to render an unabridged, complete volume, faithful to the original of 600 chapters.

Sic

Don't put it behind British English, please. If the quotations are originally in BrE then the logical route is to put the entire article in BrE, not just flag British spellings. Leushenko (talk) 13:16, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Proposed merge with yoga-nidra

Do not merge the two. They are different practices--and states of consciousness--entirely. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.14.44.224 (talk) 19:49, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

They constitute complementary but different practices. Both are tantric in origin, but cannot be blended together. Dream Yoga is old, and relates to the subconscious state of dreaming and the unconscious state of deep sleep, while Yoga Nidra relates to the hipnagogic state between being awake and dreaming. Dream Yoga is old, while Yoga Nidra is new. Mixing them in one section would be even worst that creating one single section to explain both the Yoga taught in the Patañjali sutras and the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. At least these last two are similar, because one derives from the other, but in the case of Dream Yoga and Yoga Nidra, not even this similarity is present. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bubusi (talk • contribs) 20:41, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Do not merge, they are different distinctions, one is a type of practice the other is a tradition. Like merging differential calculus and physics. --Jcbohorquez (talk) 22:06, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Do not merge Dream Yoga and Yoga Nidra. While they look similar in name, they are, in fact, quite distinct in terms of origin, practice, and purpose.

What the term "Dream Yoga" refers to is a set of advanced yogic practices that have evolved in Vajrayana Buddhism since at least the tenth century CE, as they are specifically noted in the stories the mahasiddhas Lawapa (Skt. Kambalapada) and his disciple Tilopa. Dream Yoga and several other yogas were transmitted to Tilopa's disciple and are commonly referred to in English as the "Six Yogas of Naropa." Goals of the practice are several, including: bringing the context of one's spiritual practice directly into the sleep cycle through pre-sleep affirmative visualizations and the conscious placement of mantric seed syllables, etc.; the gradual attainment of the ability to engage in lucid dreaming to establish a conscious thread of continuity between waking and non-waking states; and to become familiar with the similarities that exist between the experiences of dreams and the experiences of a "waking" state, so as to aid in the full realization of the nature of mind and awareness.

As for the other, lexically, "yoga-nidra" refers to a state that is half-meditation and half-sleep, or, rather interestingly, the mind of Vishnu resting between yugas or of Brahma during the great "pralaya"or great absorption period between the end of one universe and the beginning of the next. It can also simply mean light sleep, wherein one still has use of his or her mental faculties. In the contemporary context of our times, a Yoga Nidra has been popularized by modern non-Buddhist Indian teachers such as Satyananda Saraswati of the Bihar school whereby it is presented as a tantric yoga to explore, refine, and purify the subconscious mind in various ways through the development of overt and more subtle visualization processes that are applied in the liminal state at the border between wakefulness and sleep. Such techniques include systematic body scanning, so as to actually massage the brain as an instrumental organ through the subtle stimulations brought about through directed attention; the skillful setting and reinforcement of developmental spiritual intentions; free association in guided meditation sequences; and so on. Since the existential place of application is that borderline state at the edge of sleep, the term "Yoga Nidra" is perhaps appropriate, if a little misleading on the face of it.

While it is reasonable to assert that the parts of mind that are being tapped for these purposes are at least partially submerged more deeply into what is ordinarily considered to be sub-conscious—and hence in clear contact with that which is involved in sleep and dreams—Yoga Nidra is not actually about either sleep or dreams, while the "Dream Yoga" of the Indo-Tibetan tantric tradition(s) is quite specifically concerned with just those states. Part of this distinction may even be seen in the different Sanskrit name applied to the Tibetan "Dream Yoga" (mi.lam), namely "svapna-darshana." A "darshana" is a perspective or even a whole philosophical system. "Svapna," while often used interchangeably with "nidra," does not carry precisely the same connotation. "Nidra" means, specifically, "sleep." While "svapna" can be used to denote "sleep," it also would be the preferred term to denote "dream," or a "dreamlike state."

The bottom line is that these two yogas, while certainly sharing some common ground, are clearly distinct, Thus, there is no good reason to conflate the two by merging them into one article on Wikipedia. What would be of value to the reader/researcher would be clear links between the two being provided in the opening remarks to both of the existing articles. Samvitti (talk) 21:42, 11 May 2012 (UTC)Samvitti

I agree that Yoga Nidra should not be merged. In addition to the multiple explanations above, my personal feeling is that the description of yoga nidra is closer to clear light yoga (osel). However I wouldn't combine it with that either as it is clearly not of the same tradition. Liegong (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:17, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

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