There is a rather sad but unfortunately very common tendency amongst westerners today to think of yoga purely as a set
of exercises, stretches and breath control practices.
Yoga has become a very popular hobby across the whole world, with classes and schools now a ubiquitous addition to the
health clubs and other institutions in every major city, and many small towns and villages. There are literally tens of thousands
of books, dvds, ebooks and websites taking this ancient Asian system to an ever widening audience.
Everyone today is familiar with the many health benefis of practicing yoga, its ability to increase strength, fitness
and flexibility, combat stress, prevent illness, increase feeling of wellbeing, and even prolong lifespan. This has got to
be a good , but true yoa is so much more than that, and much of the richness and diversity of the tradition, along with the
psychological and spiritual benefits it can bring, can often get lost in this tendency to boil everything down and reduce
it to a simple set of exercises.
The actual physcial exercises loved by so many are actualy just one part of a very broad philosophy. One other aspect
of this philosophy which I think deserves greater attention is dream yoga. A popular method amongst traditional Tibetan yogis
the purpose of this system is the same as the ultimate purpose of all types of yoga: enlightenment and self-mastery. But in
case anyone gets put off by talk of 'enlightenmnet' it is worth noting that this does not necessarily imply any kind of religious
belief system, and nor does it contradict and religious belief that you may alread hold.. By enlightenment I mean simply increased
understanding, clarity of mind, and objectivity of perception.
The practices of dream yoga are based on simple principles: 1 - That the illusion and misperceptions we all carry
around with us in waking life are essentially othe same kind we experience during sleep, and in learning to recognise and
control the latter, we can ttech ourselves to overcome the former. You can think of ordinary consciousness as being on a single
continuum, at the mid-point between sleep and enlightenment. 2 - That by learning to control the subconscious part of our
mind which we only experience in dreams we cgain true mastery over ur own nature and fate.
These are the same reasons that many people practice 'lucid dreaming', which is the first stage on the path
to whitelight dreaming, but dream yoga goes much further than this modern western aproach.
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