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Dear Dao Bums, Here's my experience with Tulku Lobsang (known for doing Tummo in -5 degrees celsius on "Story of God With Morgan Freeman" on NGC). I'll share in 4 parts: 1) Intro and Background 2) Medicine Buddha 3) Dream Yoga 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued 1) Intro and Background I heard about Tummo when I was a child from my dad. He learnt about yoga on a hippie island camp full of naked women burning bras when he was a child, forced to go with my hippie grandmother in the 60s. He had a life changing experience as a child with yoga and mantras, while on this naked women camp. So in his late teens when small yoga and meditation workshops started in the West, he started attending. Buddhism was super famous in my country on the spiritual scene, as it still is in much of Europe with the New Age crowd I would say. While I grew up, my dad told me of naked monks in the snow-clad Himalayas drying wet sheets with their body temperature through magical yoga practices. So now the family saga continues; as an adult, I've also pursued further what my dad exposed me to as a child. This time, I saw Tulku Lobsang with Morgan Freeman. Being able to be comfortable in a t-shirt in -5 degrees on television I took as a "good enough" show of Tummo skill, that maybe I could finally pursue this magical practice myself. However, I still had some doubts. So, when I saw he was coming to my country, I decided to go check him out. If he "checked out" I would be willing to give it a go and fork over my hard earned cash to flight, hotel and the Tummo workshop (when the time comes). With the intro out of the way, let me share how it went! The first day he taught Medicine Buddha. The following 2 days it was one long workshop on Dream Yoga. 2) Medicine Buddha He gave us the mantra and we all chanted together for maybe 5-15 minutes. Then he instructed us step-by-step in the visualisation. After having stabilised the visualisation, we resumed chanting together (we were maybe 20-30 people). During his transmission, I felt a special kind of energy coming into my head center. I felt like it made it easier for me to visualise. I also felt the energy from each of the lights we visualised in all of my body, and felt pleasantly relaxed. Since this day, I've been doing a minimum of 108 reps of the mantra and then the visualisation meditation procedure he explained. Already on the second day of the practice, it's like the energy had increased in power. Now it's growing day by day with my daily practice. So far so good! He's definitely legit. 3) Dream Yoga My dad took me to a dream yoga weekend workshop when I was about 18-19 years old with a Rinpoche visiting my country. I thought the whole idea of lucid dreams and using them for spiritual practice was extremely fascinating, and even at that young age I practiced quite consistently for about 3 months (while also reading his book). However, I had no results whatsoever. Then again when I was in my mid 20s, I picked up the book again and decided to give it a go. I practiced again for about 2 months, but zero results. In my late 20s, I again read yet another book by a tibetan teacher on dream yoga. I tried it again. No results after 1 month. All of the above practices were the usual "visualise a red drop in your throat chakra, surrounded by a white lotus flower with 4 leaves". In this book there was also a tibetan letter on each leaf, and you said them one by one as a kind of mantra for a while, then proceeded to only visualise until falling asleep. However, at the end of this particular book was also a shamanistic bön practice for lucid dreaming. After 1 month of failing with the vajrayana buddhist practice, I tried the shamanic practice. After about 7-14 days, it happened! I was super excited. Then it would happen every single day like clockwork for about a week. However, with each day I felt like I got more and more tired. Like I used up energy while sleeping, instead of regaining it. I remembered a warning from a daoist qigong teacher who had (as usually) dissed buddhist practices, especially their dream practices. He said "night is for sleeping and resting, that's what nature intended". So I thought maybe my bön lucid dreaming practice was sapping my energy and discontinued it. Lo and behold, now I'm in my early 30s, and I was faced with yet another tibetan vajrayana buddhist practice of visualising a red drop in my throat. "Here we go again!" I found myself thinking, however I still had an open mind during the workshop. During the workshop I felt Tulku Lobsang transmitted different states as well as different energies. I also found him to be extremely grounded in Being, never losing connection to himself, even if some of the people were weird or asked weird questions etc. He remained in Being, very relaxed, very present and extremely grounded and Embodied. I was quite impressed! However, no succes with lucid dreaming, neither during the nights between the workshop days, nor during the workshops when we actually slept for 10-30 minutes under his guidance and blessing. I really felt he transmitted a lot of energy during these sleeping sessions on the workshop, but still no lucid dreams. However, now after the workshop, I have actually had 3-4 lucid dreams so far using the typical tibetan buddhist vajrayana practice with the red drop! Something that's never worked for me, even though I've tried it on/off since I was 19. So that also tells me that his transmission is legit! 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued So to wrap up, Tulku Lobsang is legit! He's extremely grounded in Being, in Presence and in his body, and he really does transmit states and energies. There's no more doubt in my mind - I will glady fork over my time and cash to learn Tummo from him when the time comes

Resources related to Buddhist/Bon Dream Yoga. Feel free to recommend your own resources to be added. The resources here are made by members in their individual capacity and is not an endorsement by TheDaoBums. Damdao: This one is from the perspective of Tibetan medicine and has a concise practice of dream yoga and dream analysis. The Tibetan Art of Dream Analysis by Dr. Nida ForestofClarity: Dream yoga is one of the most compelling practices I have come across. Andrew Holocek teaches a mix of modern and traditional styles, a syncretic teachers with a traditional Mahamudra background. https://nightclubcommunity.com Dream Yoga: if you only want one dream yoga book, this is it Dreams of Light: daytime illusory body practice Tenzin Wangyal is a well respected Bon resource. https://www.glidewing.com/twr/dreamyoga_home.html Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep: a traditional presentation Lama Lena is always pragmatic and down to earth. https://lamalenateachings.com/dream-yoga-3-part-series/ B. Alan Wallace's course is a fairly comprehensive overview of Dudjom Lingpa style with a focus on strong shamatha (some say too strong). https://meridian-trust.org/video/333-dreaming-of-reality_d1s1_pm003517a/#:~:text=During this retreat organised by,nighttime practices of dream yoga. Dreaming Yourself Awake Lala Nila: Has had success with: ttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/316781.Exploring_the_World_of_Lucid_Dreaming

Sometimes when I woke up in the middle of the night I would practice the whole of dvd7 and then fall asleep. I would then in most cases have a lucid dream where I knew with 100% certainty it was a dream so no fear or any 'negative' emotion would arise. Very interesting for insight. The whole of FP increases libido I think. There is this deeply relaxing effect of FP which is unique. I sometimes feel like almost falling asleep while being awake while doing the med like GMDW does in his videos. For mental clarity just about any FP med would do since the energy clears away any disturbance in the mind in my opinion. Don't give up, just keep going, the proof is in the results 😊

Usually, confronting dream characters shuts the dream down or takes it off script. However, one time, I encountered some one who claimed I was a character in their dream. I told them no, they were a creation of MY dream. I demonstrated this by flying around. They then flew around also, and we both started to manipulate the dream. Who's to say? A lot of the dream world, like life generally, reacts according to beliefs and expectations. There ARE certain dreams that have a very unique flavor, what my old teacher would call a dream of clarity. In these dreams, it certainly feels like there are divine beings and divine realms. Stephen LaBerge's techniques have been incorporated into Dream Yoga. Nearly every modern dream yoga teacher teaches them because they are so effective. A lot of people like Michael Raduga, but I lost all interest once it came to light that he drilled a hole in his head to implant a "dream chip": https://www.newsweek.com/russian-implants-chip-brain-control-dreams-hospital-1814256

It is an interesting question. My initial experiences with the subtle body had no priming at all and it wasn't until later I discovered it fit along with traditional (Shaivite) Tantric descriptions. With dan tians, I had some basic priming but I was shocked at how real they've felt when I received a boost from a tai chi master. As with all things, it is probably a mixture. Physical reality, in the traditions I follow, is like a collective or shared dream. So I think the basic structures and probably the three dan tians are a part of the consensual dream. So it is not like a personal dream and it is not the independent, physical world modern Westerners take it to be. However, this shared dream is also impacted and shaped by our "own" minds. In Tibetan Buddhism, different chakras have different associations with the colors and elements depending on the tradition, like Wallis says --- I think these are somewhat installed. But working with the Bon model, I worked with it for a while, suspended it, and then started it again after unrelated meditative work and I was surprised at how well my current experiences fit the model --- especially when I had doubts and didn't fully agree with it. But who knows? I like to keep the conceptual net loose to see what can develop.

Great list, thanks for posting these. Often times during a lucid dream I don't quite know what I should be doing and I end up just travelling around, usually in my own neighbourhood. I'd like to actually accomplish something worth while (spiritually beneficial, problem solve, etc). What is your opinion on the people that you meet during lucid dreaming? Some of them appear to be lucid dreaming as well, others sort of NPC type characters. I had one lucid dream in where I was being interrogated by someone. They knew I was lucid in the dream and began asking me who I was, why I was there, where I learned to lucid dream, etc. It was really weird and aggressive. My first foray into getting a taste for lucid dreaming was via the gateway tapes, but over time the recordings made me feel uneasy resulting in nightmare-ish type dreamscapes. I became extremely distrustful of the material after that and dropped it. I have the Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep somewhere. I'm going to start reading it. Thanks again for this list! Though neither of the links below pertain to Buddhist dream yogas I've had pretty good success with this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/316781.Exploring_the_World_of_Lucid_Dreaming

It may be of use to distinguish the brain from the mind. For example, awaking (returning to the body) from a dream usually results in very little memory of the dream. Is the dream in the mind and the physical memory in the brain?

I have similar sleep issues. The methods I use are a combination of dream recall, daytime illusory body and reality checks, and mnemonic and dream induced lucid dreaming. So the first thing is to work on dream recall, by thinking about it first thing and/or using a dream diary. The second thing is to implant the suggestion as you are falling asleep. The third thing is doing "reality checks" through the day to test whether you are dreaming. A few common examples is jumping, looking at the hands; reading something, looking away, and rereading it; switching lights on and off; blinking too long; asking where you were before, etc. Finally, we should have a lot of confidence that it happen if possible, and refrain from dwelling on the negatives. Eventually, this will culminate in doing a reality check while you are dreaming. This is the basic pattern set out in the resources. Doing these things without any lucid dreams is also very helpful IME. It gets more difficult when the dreamlike nature of the waking state is more revealed, and the mind creates more solidified dream states. For instance, I used to use the reading one, but now I can read in my dreams.

This is an interesting topic and one that is very relevant to what I have been exploring in my life and practice right now. As much as it saddens me as a recovering chronic daydreamer who probably would not have made it in life without being able to spend most of my formative (and later) years lost to imagination, I think unchecked imagination is actually at the heart of a lot of personal and societal problems. Illusion is a huge problem, and our ability to imagine is at the root of illusion. Without an ability to imagine, you can't fall to illusion, it's just not possible. Now from a cultivation standpoint, looking at what you tend to dream and day dream about is an excellent window into the psyche and where you have unresolved issues. We often daydream for comfort / self-soothing so what we see is often a reflection of what we need or feel is missing. For example, all my daydreams involve me doing something "impressive" and always with other various other people real/imagined/from media that I respect present and helping. I still struggle with my ego, needing to be SEEN, and to be GREAT. It is helpful to know where my issues are, but those daydreams just soothe things I feel I lack, rather than dealing with the root of why I feel that way in the first place. I guess if I were charged with supercharging the collective imagination of the world I would wait for a time when society was less lost to illusion and better equipped to handle the responsibility of enhanced imagination. Don't get me wrong, I prize my imagination over almost everything, but I am also in the process of recognizing that to really move forward in my journey I probably have to let it go. And I don't say that lightly. In my life I spent time homeless living in a car that didn't run with literally not a single person who would even notice if I died, and would I go back to that in a heart beat vs giving up my imagination, my lifeline, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that it is also what is holding me back. And much to my fortune and dismay, the universe has assisted this process by making my imagination duller and less enticing, despite how desperate that still makes me feel. Oh well, one day I will get there. Hopefully someday I will find a healthy balance of creativity and reality. IMO our issue isn't creativity or lack of solutions/imagination, we already have the means and technology to end most of our problems, world hunger, stop climate change, build a society of equality and kindness, end most diseases - we just choose not to. At its root, for various reasons, we don't WANT to do the things it takes to fix our problems. I mean we can put a person on the moon and carry all the worlds knowledge in our pocket, and we yet can't figure out how to see people who look different than us truly as equals. I mean, guess there is no money in being kind, but geez. We say we need to care for the planet before it is too late, but then we build huge data centers and servers for crypto and AI that are quickly becoming the most resource draining and damaging activities over even manufacturing, oil production and shipping, and neither of those are necessary for our survival or ability to thrive as a species or as individuals. IMO we don't need more ideas or creativity, we need more authenticity, we need to be less caught up in illusion, we need to learn how to face and accept the hard things about ourselves and reality that we would rather destroy ourselves than admit exists. We need to let go of "needing" to be the best or most important, and instead make space for everyone else around us to be just as great. We need to recognize that we already have everything and we are squandering it by thinking we need more and more.

In the end dust is dust, whether you are a king or pauper, and greatness is a long forgotten dream.

This one is from the perspective of Tibetan medicine and has a concise practice of dream yoga and dream analysis. The Tibetan Art of Dream Analysis

Not physical but what precedes physical manifestation. If your yuan jing is leaking you can't even dream about " spiritual unfoldment"

Yes, I have seen this creeping vines and the never ending narration of my life. Also, how the posture affects the mind. This only makes me know that trying to go forward without a teacher is not going to go well. Twenty to thirty years of practice and still stuck with the creeping vines. So, I positively understand this. Being 66 years old, I think I might have another twenty or so years left to life. And it still won't be enough time. But, I keep trying. When there is such a block that I can not even sit for a minute, I rest and day dream and then I try again. Sometimes, I try to focus my mind and cut off the creeping vines with a mantra I learned long ago. Gate, Gate, Paragate, ParasamGate, Bodhi Svaha. That will get my mind to focus. Then later, back to paying attention to my present with silence. Sometimes, I feel the weakness in my bones and I can not sit. Other times, the peace I feel with the mind quiet, it lets me sit for an hour without realizing the time passing by, I don't expect change and I don't really want a benefit from just sitting. I just want to feel the quiet and be present. I don't think I could be called a watcher, just sitting, cause there is no sense of time or change. Trying to grasp these moments of quiet make them vanish as quickly as thoughts enter and the mind chases these thoughts. But, got to focus the mind. Then hopefully, will one day drop this mind.

Dear Dao Bums, Here's my experience with the Simplified Kundalini Yoga by Vethathiri Maharishi. I'll describe my experience in 4 parts: 1) Overview of the system 2) My personal experience 3) Summary 4) Conclusion Overview of the system: Simplified Kundalini Yoga is the creation of Vethathiri Maharishi. It includes the following: a) transfer of energy from the master through touch, through the eyes and through the mind to open the chakras of the students (sparsa diksha, chakshu diksha and manodiksha) b ) meditation (on the chakras as they're opened progressively, the stars and planets, the 5 elements, the senses and finally the universal energy field and the universal absolute space) c) tratak or gazing meditation (on a ghee lit earthen clay lamp and later on a mirror) d) simplified physical yoga postures (asanas) and breathing exercises (pranayama) e) transmutation of the sexual vital fluid through simplified kaya kalpa yoga (breathing and postures) f) introspection and refinement of character (analysis of thoughts, moralization of desires, neutralization of anger, eradication of worries, self-realization, sex and spirituality, and finally how to achieve harmony in the family, workplace and in all relationships) My personal experiences This is the best spiritual system I've ever tried. I've tried everything under the sun: mantra meditation, pranayama, tibetan and buddhist tsa-lung and meditation, dream and sleep yoga, physical yoga exercises, sexual qigong, qigong meditation, standing meditation, sufi mantras and meditation, rituals (praying, fasting, giving food and charity), pilgrimages to holy places, vedanta, jnana/gyana yoga, psychological self development, sexual transmutation, semen retention, daoist lovemaking, gazing on the sun, moon and stars and much much more. However, SKY still rules supreme as to the simplicity, power, effectiveness and practicality in all aspects. From the very first day, from my initiation into the system (where your lifeforce is transferred from the root/muladhara chakra to the brow/agya chakra) my life was never the same. That very first evening when I meditated after returning home from the initation, I had the deepest meditation of my life. My mind became still and peaceful, no thoughts or emotions, just pure and deep peace. After the meditation I was extremely energized and full of power. Furthermore, my sleep became the best it's ever been (and I've had life long issues with sleep). Every single initiation (brow chakra, root chakra, crown chakra, the universal energy state, lamp gazing) keeps surprising me as to its power. It just works. It's easy and simple, yet profoundly powerful. Summary SKY has been the best I've ever tried, and it keeps improving with every initiation. Furthermore, it's a complete system. It has everything you need: physical, breathing, psychological and energetic exercises, improvement of character, meditation and transmutation of the sexual vital fluid. Conclusion If you're into meditation, definitively check SKY out. It has changed my life. When I went to the first initiation, several seasoned meditators who've been meditating deeply and going on retreat yearly for the past 20+ years were also surprised at its power. They thought it sounded too easy... Yet it worked SO! Check it out Be blessed

Thank you, Sensei 🤺 see god in the darkest things in the quiet of night i hear villages sing "there's a demon in that dragon purge it out." in my second third world on a motorbike i learned a waking prayer so i could sleep at night then i took my chances and realized many dreams. wild dogs tumbling along rice fields and i asked hanuman take away shield i am loud and reckless this is how i play you are loud and reckless thats no way to play i fear nothing, no thing fears me justice has different hats for different days release my anger, love thy neighbor put that pain to some good use anyway teach me honor, must remember don't be selfish with all your love anyway tilt my head back howl like you said in the end my body's spirit anyway i will do things i've never done before cuz i'm powerful and i'm not afraid no more i feel god in the slightest wind at the rate i manifest every dream deepens and i know i never want to stay the same on a day of silence while the island slept i cast my demons out at the feet of ganesh said, "remove the obsticles bravely with grace." in a past life i cut throats and scalps and in this life i mend the wounds i dealt maybe by my hands or by my words alone.

That’s quite good though. I kept a dream diary for a couple of months which culminated in a lucid dream of standing at the edge of a forest looking out at what was essentially complete blackness. I found that any techniques aimed at developing lucidity just ruined my sleep and gave me insomnia. Quite frustrating really- I’d love to be more competent at it. Do you have a good method?

Anemoia. From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig, comes a word the language badly needed but never had until 2021. It's the feeling of nostalgia for a time you've never known. A wistful longing for an idealized past that exists only in imagination or secondhand accounts. When I first came to the US, to New York specifically, it was a different city from what it is today, and far as I'm concerned, a better one. But back then my older female co-workers, native New Yorkers, would often tell me about New York they used to know in their childhood and youth, and it was nothing like the city I was witnessing... it sounded like a dream, an urban fairy land. On more than one occasion they actually shed a tear telling me about that lost city. And they gave me anemoia. That's just one example. I'm massively afflicted by that feeling for many purposes. Some of it overlaps with nostalgia for the worlds (sic) I knew in this life, some must be genetic memory, and some -- possibly -- memories of past lives. I wonder how widespread this anemoia thing is.

Of use ? I think the distinction is of supreme importance . The brain is like a flock of birds , it just supplies the hardware for the mind to operate 'down on ' this polarity . The mind is that multi dimensional field that allows the 'bird / brains' work like this ; The dream is in the brain and the mind . The physical memory is in the body ... as the genetic memory is in the genes ... the ancient physical memory is in the reptilian brain - or hind brain , down into the brain stem . The higher functions are 'blank memory' circuits , yet to be programmed , or in some cases being programmed . - see Exo-psycholgy - the 8 circuit brain .

"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed into a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness- experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves." (Bill Hicks) row, row row your boat gently down the stream.... *disclaimer: drugs are bad mmmkay and not needed for this kind of realization (takes a slow sardonic drag of a cigarette)

I too have now come to the conclusion that we are having a collective (as well as individual, how is that for non-duality) dream. A friend of me showed me that a sleep walking doll had been put on (manifested? 🤔) the roof of his house a few days ago. I’ll try to take a pic next time I walk by.

yes, I keep a dream journal. Immediately after waking up I record any dreams I had, the associated emotions, anything that sticks out. I try to recall as much details as possible- everything I can recall, even silly details. I write them down and then later at night I type everything in my daily practice journal. Hmmm, as in the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra? It's interesting to me that was immediately invoked within you, did you see those symbols in the minds eye? As in the womb shedding phase representing the red eye (Solar) and the luteal phase representing the white eye (lunar)- a microcosmic representation of shedding/oscillation from red to white, creating cosmic balance? Solar/lunar balance. Lunar having more connection to dreamscape and the unconscious. I'm not well versed in Egyptian lore, I should get on that. You might be on to something the more I think about it, especially the finer details about synching with the lunar phases (new moon, full moon, etc). Thanks

That sounds good. Did you keep a dream diary? Are there any books which helped you work out what to do. The menstrual cycle thing makes me think of the Egyptian red eye white eye thing. Maybe there's a connection.

I am not. If I work full bore, I may have 1-2 per month. Another way to work with it is to lay in bed and drift in and out of sleep during the liminal phase. It won't necessarily be a lucid dream, but seeing different states of waking, sleeping and dreaming arising and passing is very helpful as well.

The old Kunlun craze was something--- the Lama DORJE THUNDERBOLT movie/website where he walked around in vaguely Tibetan robes evidently channeling qi into screaming women. That armies died in order to learn the mysterious Red Phoenix technique. People looking for dream initiation. Horror movies. Clones. Conspiracies of the highest order. I agree with what Sahaja said, but would add that involuntary movements are widely known across traditions and tend to pop up even during intensive concentration and Vipassana retreats.