An introduction to Dream Yoga: Part 1

My friend recently asked me to write a little something about dream yoga. Here is the beginning of that small book. Enjoy!

Translation Vs. Transformation
Dream yoga is a way to use night's dreams-their qualities and energetic nature-to transform our perception and our world. Ken Wilber writes about the two different functions of religion, which he calls “translation" and "transformation.” In school we learned them as the exoteric (outer) and esoteric (inner, secret) forms of religion. Understanding the differences between exoteric and esoteric, between translation and tranformation, is very important when beginning to look into dream yoga. Dream yoga is not interested at all in "translating" the content of the dream. The teachers are very clear about this. Maybe you have heard the saying, “A dream not interpreted is like a letter not read.” This is very true, and reading/translating the world and the dream is a very, very important endeavor I think. But dream yoga (and developing lucidity) is concerned with transforming the world, and the dreamer, into higher and deeper forms of wakefulness.

To quote Wilber:

“There are several different ways that we can state these two important functions of religion. The first function-that of creating meaning for the self-is a type of horizontal movement; the second function-that of transcending the self-is a type of vertical movement (higher or deeper, depending on your metaphor). The first I have named "translation," the second, "transformation."

“With translation, the self is simply given a new way to think or feel about reality. The self is given a new belief-perhaps holistic instead of atomistic, perhaps forgiveness instead of blame, perhaps relational instead of analytic. The self then learns to translate its world and its being in the terms of this new belief or new language or new paradigm, and this new and enchanting translation acts, at least temporarily, to alleviate or diminish the terror inherent in the heart of the separate self.

“But with transformation, the very process of translation itself is challenged, witnessed, undermined and eventually dismantled. With typical translation, the self (or subject) is given a new way to think about the world (or objects); but with radical transformation, the self itself is inquired into, looked into, grabbed by its throat and literally throttled to death…

“Put it one last way: with horizontal translation-which is by far the most prevalent, widespread and widely shared function of religion-the self is, at least temporarily, made happy in its grasping, made content in its enslavement, made complacent in the face of the screaming terror that is in fact its innermost condition. With translation, the self goes sleepy into the world, stumbles numbed and nearsighted into the nightmare of samsara, is given a map laced with morphine with which to face the world. And this, indeed, is the common condition of a religious humanity, precisely the condition that the radical or transformative spiritual realizers have come to challenge and to finally undo.

“For authentic transformation is not a matter of belief but of the death of the believer; not a matter of translating the world but of transforming the world; not a matter of finding solace but of finding infinity on the other side of death. The self is not made content; the self is made toast.”

And one way the self is “made toast,” one way to directly experience “the infinity on the other side of death”, is to simply watch the self that you thought you were die. Witness it fade away and away and away, into the dark void, every night. And if you stay awake for the show, if you remain lucid, you find that although the self dies, the Self remains, always. This is one purpose of dream yoga.
"Recognition and Liberation are simultaneous."
more later