Book Review

Dream YoGa

By: Andrew Holecek

September 1, 2022

Is This Book Right for me?

Summary: “Dream Yoga” by Adam Holecek is a captivating exploration into the intersection of spirituality and practicality, offering open-minded individuals a transformative path to success. Through the ancient practice of lucid dreaming and Tibetan Buddhist wisdom, Holecek unveils the hidden potential of our nightly adventures, revealing how harnessing the power of dreams can give you deeper insight into yourself, understand habits and fears as well as progress further on your spiritual path. With compelling insights and actionable techniques, this book invites ambitious individuals to embark on a journey of self-discovery, where the realm of dreams becomes a gateway to unlocking untapped potential and achieving unparalleled success in both business and life.

The book can be found here: Link

Recommendation: Must read – if you are interested in lucid dreaming this book serves as a great guide. Especially, this book not only introduces lucid dreaming (and dream yoga) but also offers plenty of inspiring spiritual concepts which gives more context in what dream yoga can offer you. In my opinion its the perfect combination of “the Tibetan yogas of dream & sleep” (link; very spiritual angle) and “Lucid Dreaming” (link; very practical angle, e.g. also includes recommendation for nutrition to enhance lucid dreaming)

5/5

Level: Beginner/Intermediate – while this book does not require any background information it refers to many Buddhist concepts. While you can read it standalone I feel that it brings more value the more you know already about Buddhism, meditation and spirituality.

Intermediate
Storyline (not according to chapters in the book)

Part 1: Awakening the Dreamer Within – Adam Holecek invites readers on an exhilarating journey into the world of dream yoga, where ancient wisdom meets modern science to unlock the hidden potential of the mind. Through captivating anecdotes and inspiring examples, Holecek illustrates how lucid dreaming can serve as a powerful tool for personal and professional growth. He introduces the concept of “Reality Checks,” where individuals question their waking state to enhance awareness and cultivate lucidity within dreams.

Part 2: Navigating the Dream Landscape – Delve into the mystical realm of dreams and learn to navigate its terrain with mindfulness and intention. Holecek shares practical techniques for recognizing dream signs, such as recurring themes or anomalies, which serve as cues to trigger lucidity. He encourages readers to keep dream journals, documenting their experiences to deepen self-awareness and gain insights into their subconscious mind.

Part 3: Cultivating Mindfulness in Dreaming – Explore the intersection of mindfulness and dreaming as Holecek guides readers on a journey of self-discovery within the dream world. Through the practice of “Dream Incubation,” individuals learn to set intentions before sleep, directing their dreams towards specific goals or questions. Holecek emphasizes the importance of maintaining presence and curiosity within dreams, fostering a deeper connection with the subconscious mind.

Part 4: Mastering the Art of Lucid Dreaming – Uncover advanced techniques for achieving and sustaining lucidity in dreams as Holecek shares ancient Tibetan Buddhist practices and modern lucid dreaming methods. He introduces the concept of “Dream Stabilization,” where individuals engage their senses to deepen immersion within dreams and prolong lucidity. Through visualization exercises and reality testing, readers develop mastery over their dream experiences, unlocking profound insights and creative inspiration.

Part 5: Transforming Dreams into Reality – Discover how insights gained from lucid dreaming can be applied to real-world scenarios, empowering individuals to overcome challenges and achieve their goals. Holecek shares success stories of business professionals who have leveraged dream wisdom to enhance decision-making, problem-solving, and innovation in their careers. From brainstorming new ideas to gaining clarity on complex issues, dreams become a valuable resource for navigating the dynamics of the business world.

Part 6: Embracing the Journey – In this final chapter, Holecek reflects on the transformative power of dream yoga and invites readers to embrace the ongoing journey of self-discovery and growth. He shares personal anecdotes and words of wisdom, encouraging individuals to cultivate a sense of wonder and curiosity in both their waking and dreaming lives. With a renewed sense of purpose and inspiration, readers embark on a lifelong adventure of exploration and fulfillment, knowing that the realm of dreams holds infinite possibilities for personal and professional evolution.

Key Insights & Concepts
  • State Checks for Lucid Dreaming (by all of the below you need to build a habit of doing these things in the waking state so that you will also conduct these action during a dream)
  • Look at your watch during waking time – if you look at your watch a second it will look the same, in the dreaming state is usually changes (size of numbers, colour, etc.); the same actually works for a written piece of paper (maybe you write “Am I dreaming?” on it) or anything else that has enough details
  • Jump up periodically – if gravitational pull still works you are potentially awake; if you float or fall through the ground you may be dreaming
  • Do state checks when a specific event occurs (that can be anything from a loud sudden noise, to birds chirping, to airplanes starting etc.; for example, I am using my apple watch to vibrate randomly during the day to remind me to use state checks)
  • Start a dream journal
  • You will train our brain to remember dreams for frequently
  • You may find patterns in dreams which can be used in the future to trigger lucidity 
  • Insider vs. outsider
  • The word “Buddhist” means “Insider” – practitioners realize that happiness is an inside job, which actually shows a huge difference to other “religions” who believe in an outside force for salvation – this is also a reason why Buddhist practices include dream yoga, you are simply forced to go inside and look what is to be found there
  • Until we start to explore the meditation path we are all considered to be “outsiders” – we usually tend to look for happiness outside, spend our lifetime chasing things, people, circumstances
  • That is why sometimes a crisis occurs, when you have what you think you need to be happy, yet your still not satisfied. You have the job, the car, the family, the house but you are still not happy. That moment offers you actually a grand opportunity to waking up to the fact that outside things cannot create the happiness you search for. “You have climbed to top of the ladder only to discover it is up again the wrong wall”
  • Carl Jung said: Your vision will become clear when you look into your heart. Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside awakens.”
  • Plato said: “The mind’s eye begins to see clearly when the outer eyes grow dim.”
  • Developing the Lion’s Gaze 
  • If you throw a stick away from a dog the dog chases the stick. If you throw a stick away from the lion the lion chase you. The lion’s gaze is set upon the thrower not the thrown. We all have the gaze of a dog, forever chasing the sticks thrown by our own mind. We are constantly running after the thoughts and emotions that are endlessly tossed from within. Train yourself to look at the thrower – your mind – (or the seer, thinker, feeler) and you may be able to become the lion.
  • Dreaming is a supplement to meditation: while we meditate we plant “good seeds” into our consciousness (especially when we meditate for example on love & compassion or impermanence) – in dream yoga we we can consciously work with our unconscious mind – and because the interaction is more direct the transformation can take place more quickly. Below you find the stages how you can use your dreams to transform yourself and go further on the spiritual journey:
  • Stage 1: Fly in your dreams
  • Stage 2: Put your hands through things; Learning: if you cannot do it shows that your habitual pattern to see appearances as solid is still too strong (any failures in your dream can bring you insight because your inability to control aspects of your dream show where you are stuck in your spiritual development)
  • Stage 3: Change things (e.g. transform a car to a flower); Learning: if you cannot do this you your emotional states and conceptual limitations cannot be transformed in waking life (or in easier change your mind)
  • Stage 4: create frightful situations; Learning: overcome your fears
  • Stage 5: see yourself in a sacred (deity) form; learning: change the way you view yourself and others (e.g. you are not a fixed being, others have purity in them as well) + reducing of ego – you are not one self but many more
  • Stage 6: enter the body of another dream character; learning: walk in their shows – compassion
  • Stage 7: create a special dream body and project it to different places
  • Stage 8: meditate in a lucid dream
  • Stage 9: rest in your dream (no thinking)
  • Dreams can also support us in recognizing the dream nature of waking life – in dream yoga dreams are considered to be the “example dream” (a lot of Buddhist master usually compare waking life with a dream state) – they call the waking state the primary delusion and the dreaming state the double-delusion – the goal of dream yoga is to not only wake up from the dream of the night but also from the dream of the day (that is the difference between dream yoga and simply lucid dreaming)
  • waking consciousness is dreaming consciousness with sensory constraint – its the same mind after all that is expressing itself in different venues – the more we improve in dream yoga we more see those two states to be alike and understand that even the waking world is a delusion created by the mind 
  • Lucid Dreaming increases the power of choice: once you wake up in a dream you experience how imprisoned you are by the mind in the dream. Experiencing this strengthens the ability in waking life to see through the mind and break from its captivity.
  • Illusory form practice
  • The mind is usually seeing stability in mere appearances where there is none – cognitive science calls this stitching together of discrete information which generates the illusion of solidity and continuity – “flicker fusion”; our brains make things seem solid or whole based on limited information, we fuse together pixels of experience and fill in blanks with the putty of ego to create a solid, lasting, independent world 
  • The more you look into things the less you find, the less you investigate the more you find (in this sense the more closely you look the more empty the things are)
  • When you investigate you find that we long for stability and we get it by constructing a stable outside world – by examining this world we gradually realize that it may not be as stable which shift the stability inwards (= the inside becomes stable and realizes that it creates the outside -> stability criterion is still met but shifting from outside to inside)
  • How to practice:
  • we relate to the world through body, speech and mind and we solidify our experience by actions, words and thoughts – illusory practice can be done for all three of them
  • body = look at your experiences yesterday from the perspective of today – yesterday they felt so solid and real and now it feels like a dream; watch dreamlike movies; remember that everything that comes from the sensory organs cannot be perceived without the mind
  • speech = remember that solidity of words is assumed – think about the physics of sound words are just longitudinal waves that strike your ear that causes your eardrum to vibrate that transmit impulses to the brain (in the end words are just vibrations not good or bad); listen to your echo – e.g. say something bad and see you react to it (its not the actual word that offends you but the context)
  • mind = strongest of the three although most subtle, everything we say or do start with how the we think or feel – so if you illusify the contents of your mind e.g. regard you thoughts and emotions as dreamlike, your world will soften and your actions and words will be more kind; remember that thoughts are not the issue they are just the play of mind, if left alone they dissolve if taken for real and solid and engage in them we pour gasoline of attention to the sparks of mind and ignite worries, fears etc.; in illusory mind practice you focus on the projector not the projection; just dont buy into everything you think and feel; say “see through it” when they arise
  • Khandro Rinpoche: “when we look back at the time of death the experiences of this life will seem like a dream. and just as with our nighttime dreams it will seem so useless to have put so much effort into it. the fear we experienced in a dream is gone when we wake up. feeling afraid was just an unnecessary exertion of effort causing us to lose sleep. when we look back on our lives at death, the amount of time we spent in hesitation, aggression, ignorance, selfishness, jealousy hatred, self-preservation, and arrogance will seem like an equally useless exertion of energy.”