Practice

The exact origin of dream yoga is opaque in Buddhism. Some scholars trace dream yoga back to the Buddha. Namkhai Norbu, a master of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, says it originated in the tantras (especially the Mahamaya Tantra), which are shrouded in mystery and authorship.

A yantra is a meditative ritual device used in South Asian Tantric traditions. It is a blueprint of energy of a specific field of consciousness. Although yantras are sometimes described as representing a deity, each yantra is more than a symbol. A yantra is a literal matrix of divine consciousness.

Christine Caldwell’s book, Bodyfulness: Somatic Practices for Presence, Empowerment and Waking Up in This Life, pushes back against the current mindfulness craze in the name of “bodyfulness,” a contemplative principle that focuses on attunement to one’s lived experience of the body.

My understanding of illusion is that we are its source. It is our own ignorance, interacting with the reality of existence, that gives rise to illusion.

Most of modern yoga is done with the Advaitic intention of oneness, even if its practitioners don’t know it! And though the boundaries have become so blurry over time that we accept the integration of these two systems without even questioning it, it is important to realize what a huge leap it originally was to incorporate dualistic yoga into the non-dualistic system of Advaita.

Recognizing and embodying our interconnected wholeness within, with others, and with the world and universe around us is fundamental to the practice of iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation.