Realities of the Dreaming Mind: The Practice of Dream Yoga

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Realities of the Dreaming Mind: The Practice of Dream Yoga was first published in 1994 through Timeless Books and is a comprehensive guide to understanding individual consciousness through dream interpretation. As a prominent Canadian spiritual teacher, Swami Sivananda Radha used Dream Yoga as one of her foundational practices for assisting her disciples and students with self-inquiry and connecting with the unconscious mind. Swami Radha has said that "we are the best interpreters of our own dreams", by cultivating our own unique 'dream language' through the translation of hidden meaning and dream symbols.

History and Purpose

Swami Sivananda Radha was initiated into sanyas in 1956, she founded a spiritual centre in Canada in 1963, after being given instructions by her guru Swami Sivananda Saraswati of Rishikesh, India to start an ashram and centres of Light in North America. Swami Radha's teachings are rooted in the practices of self-reflection, Karma Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Dream Yoga.

In the early 1960's, she was inspired by Hugh Lynn Cayce to start looking at the 'Divine' messages in her dreams. A forty-year path of self-study and teaching dream work ensued. Realities of the Dreaming Mind is a thorough exploration of spirituality and dreams and a key to the world of symbol and metaphor.

Through the power of Dream Yoga, readers are guided to cultivate their creative potential, and to receive spiritual guidance while dreaming. Swami Radha provides tools for delving into the unconscious mind, and to learn how the messages of our dreams can apply directly to our daily lives.

Working with Dreams

A Yogic Approach

The main objective of the yogic approach to dreams is to contact the 'Divine within' - what the Yogic Eastern teachings call the guru (spiritual teacher) within, or the Higher self. In the Western Christian teachings, the concept of the 'Higher self' can be analogous to what Jesus called "the kingdom of God within" or of one's soul." In secular terms, the tapping into an inner RESERVOIR of wisdom by learning the language of one's unconscious mind. The yogic dream method emphasizes independence and stresses understanding of one's own individuality.

The Method Swami Radha devised a step-by-step method for dream interpretation, she personally used these techniques for her own dreams and encouraged a self-reliant approach to her students in their own dream investigation:

  • Dream Record: Write your dream quickly and honestly.
  • Signature: Put the date on it and your signature underneath.
  • Commentary: Add any details you may have missed. Describe your feelings.
  • Initial Interpretation: What is your immediate impression of the dream's meaning?
  • Conscious Concerns: Briefly note events that could have led to the dream.
  • Key words/symbols: Select the main words from the dream and write down associations and meanings to you.
  • Interpretation: See how the symbolic meanings fit together to give messages on several levels.
  • Application: Apply the dream's message to your life.
  • Dream Group: If you find it helpful, you can work with others to get difference perspectives.

Language of the Unconscious "The dreaming mind turns the experiences of our daily lives into metaphors and symbols, intertwining several IDeaS into a single image." Unlike many dream interpreting methods, or dream dictionaries that provide a 'universal' or generic definition for subject matter in dreams, Swami Radha emphasizes that what we experience in our dreams is an extension of ourselves. She says not to identify with the symbol but to find its underlying meaning and the relationship between the symbol and you. Examples of symbols:

  • People: characters or personality aspects of 'the self' manifesting as others
  • Animals: characteristics of the animal in your own definition
  • Vehicles: metaphor for the physical body
  • Settings: perspective and clarity

Once these symbols are identified, Swami Radha encourages the compilation of a 'dream dictionary' containing your own unique symbols, serving as a guide for dream interpretation.

Mind, Illusion & Waking Dreams

Mind as a Gateway "Mind is the interpreter that can either allow or stand in the way of what comes from Higher Consciousness." In the Eastern teachings, mind is considered to be the 'sixth sense', because it interprets what the other five senses bring in. During wakefulness, our minds are receiving sensory input and encoding our experiences into the memory centers of the brain (Limbic system). For the purpose of Dream Yoga, Swami Radha asks: "How are you allowing the interpreter to interpret? By what authority does the mind interpret an event or a dream in a specific way?"

The Interpreter and the Observer "Our recall of events and dreams are usually faulty and unreliable because the senses will interfere, especially when the senses are not in balance." A foundational practice of Swami Radha's teachings is the Divine Light Invocation, a spiritual practice for elevating one's consciousness and for sensory purification. If mind is the interpreter of the senses, then what aspect of the mind is it that observes?

  • e.g. The aspect of the mind in a dream state, that consciously provokes the action of 'waking up'.

The observer is a functioning of the mind that helps us to become aware.

The Unconscious in Daily Life Awareness is a state of being that elucidates a conscious perspective of the surrounding world. Yet in the dreaming state, the 'observer' aspect of the mind is still very much ACTIVE. Swami Radha inquires "So ask yourself, 'What is reality?' ... In yogic thinking we live in three worlds - the physical world, the mental world and the spiritual world." Dream Yoga enables an investigation of these three states of being, does each level have its own state of awareness, observation, and reality? Is there a common language that threads them together?

Dream Yoga

"Dream Yoga requires first the willingness to train the mind even to remember dreams, and then the discipline to carry through specific practices. You have to become aware of the personal language of your own unconscious, which is based on the impressions from many lifetimes and on the influences of your present life." Swami Radha emphasizes the importance of doing concentration practices to gain 'single-pointedness' of mind.

Summary of Dream Yoga Practices

  • Practice concentration exercises to gain single-pointedness of mind.
  • Watch your breath, thoughts and emotions before sleep.
  • Hold an object - a mala (Hindu prayer beads) or stone or written prayer - throughout the night.
  • Visualize yourself surrounded in a cocoon of Light as you go to sleep.
  • Keep the mantra as your last thought before falling asleep.
  • Sleep on your left side, closing your right nostril and breathing through the night through your left nostril.
  • Practice surrender and listening to the voice of the inner guru.

Essence of Dream Yoga Reflection

Swami Radha offers a series of exercises and questions for the purpose of in depth reflection, this is the common thread throughout all the chapters in Realities of the Dreaming Mind - The Practice of Dream Yoga. Without reflection, she conveys that there is little room for awareness and progression on any path of spiritual or personal development. "But do not believe a word I am saying. Find out for yourself. "

Keep a daily diary for reflection on the following questions:

  • What is a dream?
  • What is a fantasy?
  • What are my emotional needs?
  • What is my heart reflecting?
  • What do I reflect to other people?
  • Can I be a seed of inspiration to others?
  • Can I receive seeds of inspiration?