Lucid Dreaming, Lucid Waking: Tibetan Buddhist Imaginal Practices
University of Oxford, UK
This workshop explores how the imaginalcapacity of mind is mobilized via specific Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practices across the spectrum of sleeping, dreaming, and waking. We begin with a discussion of the Buddhist philosophy of dream and illusion in conversation with analogs in cognitive science. Drawn from Tibetan contemplative sleep manuals, the workshop details the discrete lucid dreaming practices of dream yoga (rmi lam) and emergent experiences. Practices of lucid waking to cultivate mental imagery and imaginatively simulate are discussed in relation to illusory body (sgyu lus) practices of embodiment and world-making. The workshop crescendos with discussion about deep dreamless sleep on the clear light nature of mind. We conclude with a report on current empirical research on dream yoga, the use of Virtual Reality to simulate dream yoga experiences, and future-casting imaginal practices.
