Dream Yoga - Dream Yoga Traditions, Transmissions and Lineages

Dream Yoga Traditions, Transmissions and Lineages

Shugchang, et al. (2000: p. 17) frames the importance of dreams and dream yoga in relation to maya and gyulu of the buddhist tradition originating from Buddha Shakyamuni:

Buddha Shakyamuni often told his disciples to regard all phenomena as dreams. He used many examples, like an echo, a city in the clouds or a rainbow to illustrate the illusory nature of the phenomenal world. Dreams represent just one type of illusion. The whole universe arises and dissolves like a mirage. Everything about us, even the most enlightened qualities, are also dreamlike phenomena. There's nothing that is not encompassed within the dream of illusory being; so in going to sleep, you're just passing from one dream state to another.

Padmasambhava (c8th century) received the transmission he codified as The Yoga of the Dream State from the mindstream of the mysterious siddha-yogi Lawapa (c10th century).