"Dream Yoga and the practice of natural light" by Namkhai Norbu

This is an interesting little book (only 128 pages). The main part of the book is Chapter 2 "The Practice of the Night" which seems to have been a transcribed talk given by Mr.Norbu. In this chapter the Dzogchen perspective on Dreaming and specifically Lucid Dreaming is given, which differs not only from the Western Perspective (presented well in LaBerge's books), but also from the Tantric and traditional Yogic perspective.

In the Dzogchen tradition the lucidity in the dreams is seen as a 'secondary' effect, and is more of a nuisance or a side-effect than a real goal. The real goal is continuing the "Practice of Natural Light" during the night, as well as during the day, and Mr.Norbu goes in great length warning the practitioner from being too involved into lucidity and dream play and being led astray from the only true purpose of consciousness in dreams, which is the practice of natural light, i.e. the Dzogchen system for enlightenment.

In this chapter Mr.Norbu also describes many of his dreams, and incidents of dream telepathy and communication with far-away people (namely his master in Tibet, while he being in Italy). He also elaborates on the different types of dreams, which are the main topic of Chapter 1 "The Nature and Classes of Dreams" emphasizing that dreams can be divided in two major groups: Karmic (which have to do with karma accumulated in previous or present life) and Clarity (which deal with lucidity, telepathy, spiritual instruction, clairvoyance, etc.).

The third chapter is a narrative of different dreams Norbu Rinpoche has on his pilgrimage to the Maratika monastery in Northern Nepal, while the fourth chapter is an interview with Norbu Rinpoche discussing material from the second chapter and further elaborating on it. The book ends with the final fifth chapter, which is a first English translation of a Dzogchen text discussing 'the true nature of mind'.

The book is very well introduced by the editor Michael Katz (who also conducts the interview in the fourth chapter) with a lenghty Introduction in which Mr.Katz discusses dreaming and lucid dreaming in literature and science, including the modern research of Stephen LaBerge, though from the content of the rest of the book the introduction seems a little bit misleading, since the rest of the book is concerned mostly with the view of the Dzogchen tradition. Overall, an interesting and different book compared to the classic lucid dreams and dream control fare we have become used to in the West.

Some light summer reading :)

oh, well, I am re-discovering the joy of reading :)