G es h e Ten zi n Wan g y a l R i n p o c h e

Venerable Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche was born in Amritsar, India, after his
parents had to flee from their homeland. Since the age of 13, he has studied and
practiced with important masters of both Bon and Buddhist Lineages. He attained
the Tibetan doctorate degree of Geshe in 1986. Upon graduation, H.H. the Dalai
Lama asked him to work at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in
Dharamsala. He was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship from 1991-92 to teach at
Rice University in Houston, Texas. From 1994-95 he was awarded a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct research on the logical and
philosophical aspects of the Bon Tradition. Rinpoche is author of Wonders of the
Natural Mind, The Tibetan Yoga of Dream and Sleep, Healing with Form, Energy
and Light, and Unbounded Wholeness, all of which are based upon the ZhangZhung-Nyan-rGyud.1 He resides in Charlottesville, Va., where he established the
Ligmincha Institute for the preservation of the religious and cultural heritage of
Tibet. He travels extensively and has established centres in Europe, the U.S., and
Canada.

D r eam Yo g a A n I n t r o d u c t i o n
Every single sentient being dreams while asleep. Regardless of
whether one is rich, poor, stupid, sad, or a yogi, everybody dreams.
When one goes to sleep, one dreams. One spends a third of ones
lifetime sleeping. On an average, everybody sleeps 25 to 30 years.
Ever since ancient times and up and until now, especially the
Ma-rGyud, the Mother Tantra of the Tibetan Bon Tradition,2 urges
us not to waste the time we spend sleeping and teaches us to
appreciate the importance of discovering the quality of night-work.
Is there a particular reason why we think? I think that the reason why
we think is the same reason why we dream. The ability to think and
dream somehow shows that there are deeper expressions in ourselves
that we do not necessarily experience in our conscious mind. In our

waking, intellectual mind, differences dominate and determine how

we experience ourselves. Whereas while asleep, the waking, active
and conscious mind dissolves into the basic consciousness, kun-gzhirnam-par-shes-pa in Tibetan (alaya-vijnana in Sanskrit). The basic,
all-ground consciousness stores ones deeper karmic traces, too,
which are a part of oneself. When stirred and awakened, the karmic
traces tell stories and convey messages. People who dont know
about these teachings read very fast. For instance, they tell me, Oh,
your book was so nice. I read it last weekend. This always surprises
me and I ask them, So, you think you understand? Thats not the
way. I used to write down the verses of sacred texts, kept them in my
pocket, sat somewhere, read, and reflected what each line really
means experientially.
Every individual, every ordinary person has the ability to work on his
or her own limitations. First, one needs to notice what kind of dreams
one has while one is asleep and what kind of blockages present
obstacles in ones life before embarking on a higher spiritual path,
i.e., one needs to have a fertile ground in ones life before one hopes
to progress spiritually. Dreaming is a very good occasion that every
being sees - it is an opportunity to see ones own limitations and
potentialities. One develops Buddhist practices after one knows these
things by practicing lucid dreaming, which means that the moment
one falls asleep and starts dreaming, one realizes more and more that,
Its only a dream. What does this do? When one realizes that a
dream is a dream while dreaming, it means that one can change it.
When one asks people, What do you want to change if you could
change something? they usually give answers like, Oh, I want to go
to the beach. I want to meet people I could never meet in real life.
People think like that. Of course, those are samsaric desires, and
dream yoga does not offer solutions for such wishes.
Doing the practice of lucid dreaming, a practitioner learns to steer
dreams from worse to better; a practitioner learns to turn bad dreams
into positive dreams. One transforms the images that appear,
particularly the image of a devil or anger, into the image of the
Buddha of Compassion. For example, if somebody is chasing you in
your dream, you experience that you are running and reach a
dead-end without seeing a way out. If you do lucid dreaming, you can
look back and recognize, Its just a dream. You look back at the
fierce image that you think is a devil who is out to harm you and
realize that the image is only a dream. In that instant you can reflect,
I want to change. I want to transform it into the Buddha of
Compassion. If you can change the frightening image into the
Buddha of Compassion, it will probably be a bigger achievement for
you. Why is it an achievement for you? Because the devil - who
appears in the dream as a karmic seed that exists on a deeper level
within you - has been transformed into a completely other symbol,
another image, another light, another energy. The frightening image
doesnt exist anymore, because it exists in a different form.
Altogether, it then means something different for you. It cultivates
your qualities, not your negativities, and brings achievement in your

spiritual practice through lucid dreaming.

If one cannot transform a dream positively, at least one can see that a
dream is just a dream while one is dreaming and then one actually
knows, I dont have to be afraid. I dont know how to transform the
image into an enlightened man, a Buddha, but I can relax. My old
house just burned down. I dont know what Ill do, but Im not
worried about it. Its only a dream. If you are able to recognize that
dreams are dreams while dreaming, at least you have a tool that helps
you work with levels of experiences in dreams so that they dont
destroy you in a deeper sense.
Analysing a dream is not the import of dream yoga. Even though it
may sound important to analyse dreams, they are more meaningful
than interpretations. They are messages from the divine, from dead
ancestors, from hidden spirits, of unconscious qualities within
oneself; they are messages from every direction, and therefore it is
very important to understand them. But, if one looks from a larger
perspective, from the view of Tantra or Great Completeness,3 then
messages and messengers are equally one-taste. One can somehow
transcend messages and messengers and go to the source. From the
point of view of the source, nothing matters it doesnt matter what
or how often one dreams. So, being at the source means being beyond
judgement. Sometimes this is hard for people to understand.
In the end, it is beneficial for everybody to achieve illumination. On
the relative level, it is beneficial for everybody to just pay attention.
Let me go back to a simple example: When people usually go to
sleep, they are really tired. They return home very exhausted, throw
their bags and jacket on the floor, and plop into bed dead. There is
no sense of preparation with such an attitude when going to sleep.
What happens when one falls asleep feeling all the experiences of the
day stress, disappointment, and good experiences, too? Usually
people have more negative experiences. It is detrimental going to
sleep while holding negative memories in ones mind. Thats why
people dont sleep well. Thats why people dont dream well, why
they dont remember their dreams, why they have frightening
dreams, why they experience a great sense of loss in their dreams,
why they have more negative dreams than positive ones. Research is
being carried out on this and it is being discovered that the few
positive aspects in a dream gradually turn into negative aspects, and
not the other way around, i.e., the negative aspects in a dream are
rarely transformed into positive dreams. Transforming negative
dreams into positive dreams has to do with ones awareness, with the
power of ones mind, with ones practice. Watching good dreams turn
into bad dreams is ones karmic energy.
Lets say that one has a phone conversation with somebody who is
very angry, feels very disappointed, and is very confused. One can
suggest, Go to sleep and imagine something good. What will that

do? The activity, the negative energy in your body and mind
influences your dreams for seven or eight hours.
When many people go to sleep, they have some kind of negative, bad
energy. It is so important to first try to change this on the mundane
level. Think about good and inspiring people. Appreciate life.
Appreciate the gifts of life. Acknowledge and appreciate what you
have and do not ponder and dwell on what you dont have. Be
grateful for what was given to you and not scornful about what was
not given to you. Be content that you have accomplished something
and do not be sorrowful about what you havent accomplished.
Reflect upon this. It is manageable. When you begin to reflect in this
way, you sleep and dream much better. And when you wake up, you
feel much happier. You can see the result immediately by just doing
this.
If one only changes ones attitude on a mundane level before going to
sleep and experiences such a positive effect, it will be inspiring and
so much more fantastic when one engages in spiritual practices. What
does one do then? One does inner work, rather than concentrating on
ones relationship to the outer world. Ones inspiration, ones prayers,
ones wishes, ones connection with the master, ones commitment to
the teachings, ones practice one brings those preparation practices
to mind before going to sleep. Then one will see much, much higher
levels of sleep and dream experiences that one does have.
Ever since ancient times, Shamans4 used dreams as a form of
divination. If they didnt know about somebody who looked them up
to receive help or advice concerning the cause of specific problems or
concerning what kind of practice would be best for them to do, the
Shamans asked the spirits, the guardians, and angels. They always
went to sleep with a very strong sense of connection with them. They
prayed to the guardians and fervently requested, Please give me the
answer. They fell asleep with an intense and sincere connection with
their prayers and they came up with amazing answers, like, Maybe
the source of the problem is this. Maybe this is the practice that you
should do.
If one can do this every night when one goes to sleep, its like dying,
and when one wakes up every morning, its like birth. All the
experiences one goes through during the day are experiences of life:
In the morning one feels like a teenager and has lots of energy. In the
afternoon one has less energy and feels like one is going through a
midlife crisis. And in the evening one is really awake for the evening,
which is like realizations people have when they are old. In the really
last moments of dying as well as of falling asleep, the process of the
dissolution of the elements is very similar: earth to water to fire to air
to space. This is what we call the sequence of dissolution.
One way to look at dream yoga is to trust that it is a practice that
actually brings your wake-awareness into sleep-awareness. It is in

your own interest to do this.

At the waking level, the most solid element of space that one is aware
of is the earth element, which is solidity. Earth is the most visible
element. Im aware of earth. Im aware of my name, too. When I go
deeper, I dont know what earth means. When I go deeper, I dont
even know my name. So, one goes deeper and deeper. While losing
all the external, familiar supports, can one find internal, less familiar
supports of ones energy, of ones beliefs, of ones karmic traces, or
ones bindus, tigles, awareness? Can one find more and more
support? They are connected. When one finds them, then one has
reached the final destination with such awareness. If not, one will
lose when the external, familiar world is lost. If one is not familiar
with the internal world, one will not have any support when
dissolution occurs. This doesnt only happen during bardo after
death, but it happens during life, too. If someone identifies
completely with his wife or business and loses his business and wife
through her death, for example, then that person is lost; if both were
what gave him the feeling that he exists are gone, then he is gone.
When I was little, I went to my teacher Lopon Sangye Tenzin to
receive Dzogchen teachings. I was about 13 years old, and the 15 or
16 other people in class were between 40 and 60 years old. He asked
us, Tonight I want all of you to go to sleep and tell me your dream
tomorrow. I had a dream and didnt know anything about it. In the
dream, I was circumambulating my teachers house while riding in a
bus. In real life there is no road around the house of my teacher, but
there was a bus circling his house in my dream. A friend of mine was
the driver and I was the conductor, the person selling the tickets. I
gave the people a 5-coloured, folded piece of paper. I opened it and
there was the white syllable A. I didnt know much about anything. I
told my teacher, This is what I dreamt. Usually he did not say, Oh,
that is wonderful. This is fine. He did then. While I was teaching
zhi-gnas5 in the West 15 years later and was handing out the A
syllable, then I understood the meaning of my dream. Guiding people
is like taking a journey. The ticket is for enlightenment. My teachers
house represents the mandala for me, all the way to enlightenment.
Circumanbulating in a bus denotes the path, taking the journey. The
means of taking the journey is showing the syllable A, which is
symbolical.6

The good thing for me is that we care. If we become lazy and

irresponsible, in 20 or 50 years our sacred tradition will be gone.
Who loses it? People of the Earth. Everybody living on Earth is
responsible to preserve the knowledge of the Earth.

So, going to sleep with a positive attitude by thinking of good people

is very important and is a way of practicing dream yoga. If you dont
know any specific practice, then think about the best people in your
life, about the most inspiring people in your life. Think about people
who make you laugh, about people who make you happy, about
people who give you power and strength to do beneficial work, about
people who give you energy and inspire you to be creative. All those
wonderful people think about them and then go to sleep. Of course,
you will want to get up and out of bed early the next morning if you
remember all those wonderful people. And, of course, you wont
want to get up and out of bed the next morning if you fell asleep
consciously or unconsciously thinking about all those who hurt you,
who wanted to hurt you, who intend to hurt you, who have been
hurting you. I think thats a very important point. You feel a little
down, a little tired, not inspired, not really happy or enthused when
you wake up the next morning if you thought of those who were and
are not nice to you when you fell asleep. If you are unhappy when
you wake up in the morning, then there is something wrong with the
way you go to sleep. So, you can change that.
Thank you very much.

May virtue increase!

With gratitude to the Bon Garuda Foundation in Holland for hosting this event in
2001, to Kalsang N. Gurung for his very friendly inspiration, transcribed and edited
slightly with explicit permission from the Bon Garuda Foundation (who hold
copyrights) by Gaby Hollmann, June 2007.

1 In an interview in 2006 (available online), Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche tells us that

the Zhang-Zhung-Nyan-rGyud is the oral transmission consisting of nine stages of
the Great Completeness, Bon Dzogchen (see note 3), and focuses strongly on
experiential aspects of practice.
Zhang-Zhung is the name of the kingdom that existed before the king in
Central Tibet became so powerful in the 8th century that the ancient centres of
worship and the lives of many people were lost. Before then, the kingdom extended
from north-western Tibet, through parts of Nepal, Ladakh, Zanskar, Kinnaur, Spiti,
throughout Afghanistan and Persia, and in the east to the borders of China.
Gangchen Tise, i.e., Mt. Kailash, was the centre of Zhang-Zhung, the kingdom that
no longer exists. Most teachings of Bon, the native religion of Tibet, were
translated from Zhang-Zhung into Tibetan. Some of the outstanding scholars of that
time were Vairocana and Drenpa Namkha, who tried to combine the older tradition

of Bon with the teachings of Buddhism from India. But when the king learned
about these translation activities, Vairocana was severely punished and banished to
the remote area of Tsawa-Rong in East Tibet.
2 The founder of the Bon Tradition was Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, and a follower of
his teachings is called a Bonpo. An ancient term for a master practitioner of
Shenrabs teachings is Shen. After the teachings of the Bon Tradition of
Zhang-Zhung were integrated into the teachings of Buddhism, the new Bon
Tradition was named Yung-Drung-Bon, gyung-drung meaning changeless,
ceaseless.
Venerable Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche tells us that Bon did not start in
Zhang-Zhung, rather it actually originated in Shambhala or Olmo-Lung-Ring, two
synonyms. He taught that, Our Shenrab was believed to have emerged from
Shambhala. However, it was not a mythological belief, because most of his
teachings were preserved by the Bonpos even to this date. () It has now been
18,016 years since Lord Shenrab came into being (in this world). So it is definitely
not an easy thing now to preserve this tradition after many thousands of years from
its beginning. One can neither go to Shambhala by plane, nor by scientific means. It
would only be possible after accumulating virtues in many life cycles. He
continues, The main thing for a Bonpo is the adherence to the texts, the main
teachings of Lord Shenrab, with full faith. We also believe that in the previous life
of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni, Lhai-bu Dhampa Tog-Karpo was one of the favourite
disciples of Lord Shenrab and was instructed to be born in India to spread
Buddhism for the larger benefit of all sentient beings. Lopon Tenzin Namdak
Rinpoche, Buddhist View International, online 2007, in: Buddhistview.com/epage
/8958-225, pages 3-4.
3 Dzogchen, or the Great Completeness, is well known as the most revered system
of thought and practice among the ancient Buddhist and Bon traditions of Tibet. In
these traditions, mindnature (sems-nyid) is at once the goal of practice and its
starting point. Being wholly uncontrived, mindnature neither improves on
enlightenment nor becomes flawed in samsara. Always present in all beings, it is
simply the full manifestation and experience of this abiding condition. Anne
Carolyn Klein and Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Unbounded Wholeness
Dzogchen, Bon, and the Logic of the Nonconceptual, Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 2006, page 3.
4 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche tells us that Shamanism is an ancient tradition found in
cultures throughout the world and that disciples value a balanced relationship
between humanity and nature. Because of the recent alarming increase in pollution
and the exploitation of the environment, along with the consequential negative
ramifications, such as the emergence of new illnesses, it has become even more
important for humankind to recover the principle of harmony central to Shamanism
in order to repair the damage done to the earth, as well as to save people and nature
from negativity and illness. He continues, Bon is divided into nine vehicles, four
causal and five resultant paths. Tibetan Shamanism is found in the first four causal
ways of Bon. They take a very earthy approach to life, healing disturbances and
illnesses in this life without being concerned about the next life. Although their
motivation is the altruistic ambition to relieve others suffering, it lacks the
generation of universal compassion that is found in the resultant ways. Tenzin
Wangyal Rinpoche, Shamanism in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet, online 2007,
in: Bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com, pages 1 & 3.
5 Zhi-gnas is the meditation practice of tranquillity. The Tibetan term means calm
abiding or remaining in quiescence. For readers interested in the Tibetan
language, rmi-lam is the term for dream, and rmi-lam-zin means to recognize
dreams, i.e., to develop awareness while dreaming.
6 Venerable Khentin Tai Situ Rinpoche wrote, The Chu-rin-chen-po-rgyud (The
Precious and Great River Tantra) expounds that the sound that arises from nothing
is A. And the sound that arises from nothing is the source of all sounds that can be
made by animate beings and inanimate things, i.e., every sound that can be made or
that can arise is based upon A. If it is missing, no sound can follow. Khentin Tai
Situ Rinpoche, Chod.