Dreaming, Vol. 9, No.

1, 1999

Dream Practices in Medieval Tibet

Serinity Young1

This essay presents a variety of medieval Tibetan Buddhist dream practices culled from many different sources, such as medical texts, biographies, religious texts, and folklore. Some of this material is here translated into English for the first time. The dreaming techniques presented in these texts bring out religious and philosophical connections between body and consciousness. The range and diversity of the original sources required a broad interdisciplinary approach using literary studies, religious studies, philosophy, linguistics, and other disciplines.
KEY WORDS: dream use; Buddhism; consciousness; religion; interdisciplinarity; lucidity.

There are many dream practices in Tibetan Buddhism, ranging from the simple to the esoteric. Descriptions of these practices appear in various sources, such as medical texts, biographies, ritual texts, and the oral literature of folklore. From a Western post-Enlightenment perspective, these practices cross disciplinary boundaries and, therefore, substantiate the need for interdisciplinary dream studies. As I hope to show, this is especially the case when considering ancient Asian texts that were composed in a world where Western distinctions between the scientific and the spiritual simply do not apply. Most obviously, in Tibetan Buddhism there was and is no absolute distinction between the practice of medicine and the practice of religion. Practically since their inception, medicine has been part of the course of study at Buddhist monasteries.2 Moreover, because doctors regularly pursue spiritual practices and meditate on the Medicine Buddha, medical skill has been intrinsically connected to religious life.3 Tibet was a complex mix of oral and literate cultures, possessing a rich textual tradition while also remaining dependent on oral transmission.4 Consequently, the lines between oral and written texts blur, although one occasionally glimpses a contrast between the elite (written) ideology of the medical and monastic establishments and the popular (oral) ideology of non-elite monks and folk culture. Much of the surviving popular material comes from a biographical tradition that is grounded in an initially oral presentation of a life story that is later written down.
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Correspondence should be directed to Serinity Young, Ph.D., Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University, 420 West 118th St., New York, New York 10027, U.S.A.

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1053-0797/99/0300-0023$16.00/l @ 1999 Association for the Study of Dreams

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In addition to descriptions of particular dreams, these biographies often contain rituals and techniques for promoting certain kinds of dreams or for offsetting the consequences of evil ones. In 1995, during my research at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, both in India, I sought out such dream rituals and techniques in the two vast collections of Tibetan canonical works, the Kanjur and the Tanjur, both compiled during the ninth century. I have now translated these texts for the first time into English. The techniques they present bring out fascinating connections between body and consciousness in dream studies. They also encompass philosophical theories about states of consciousness and constructions of the self. Because the medical literature on dreaming provides a useful introduction to these rituals, I will begin there, using examples from biographies when appropriate, in an attempt to delineate a worldview that broadens our understanding of dream life. Then, in the last part of this paper, I will focus on actual Indian and Tibetan dream practices and beliefs. For the convenience of non-specialists, I refer to English translations when they exist, although, unless stated otherwise, all translations are my own.

DREAMING AND HEALING

As Buddhism spread into Tibet in the seventh century, it brought along other Indian and Chinese theories and practices, including those related to medicine.5 The connections between Buddhism and medicine go back to early and frequent epithets of Buddha as the Great Physician6 and to his teachings (dharma) as the King of Medicine,7 as well as to the actual practice of medicine by Buddhist monastics.8 These epithets, teachings, and practices continued to proliferate in later (Mahayana) Buddhism where healing was valorized in pivotal works such as the Lotus Sutra,9 through the popularity of the Medicine Buddha10 and in representations of the primordial Buddhas as the first physicians and the first teachers of healing.11 Many readers are familiar with the connections between dreams and healing in other times and cultures of the world, such as during the Roman Empire, in early Christianity, among Native Americans, and so on.12 Here I will be presenting evidence for similar connections among Indo-Tibetan Buddhists. One of the most important Tibetan medical texts is the Four Treatises (rGyud bZhi), said to have been written in Sanskrit about 400 C.E.13 and now existing only in Tibetan and Mongolian translations. Actually it is a terma text, a text "rediscovered" through psychic powers in the eleventh century14 attributed to the historical Buddha who is believed to have manifested as the Medicine Buddha in order to teach it. It is, however, consistent with Indian medical texts, such as the Susruta and Caraka Samhitas, in accepting certain dreams as signs of illness and death, and in its use of similar symbols, such as the color red and the direction south, as in the following:
Dreams of riding on a rat, monkey, tiger, jackal, or corpse are a sign of death. Dreams of riding naked toward the south on a buffalo, horse, pig, donkey, or camel mean one will die. Dreams of tree branches with a bird's nest growing from one's forehead, or a

Tibetan Dream Practices tree with thorns growing out of one's chest, picking a lotus, falling into an abyss, sleeping in a cemetery; having a cracked head surrounded by crows and hungry ghosts with facial moles, having black skin that is falling off, entering the mother's womb (e.g., entering the afterlife state of the Bardo), being carried away by water, sinking in mud, being swallowed by fish, finding iron and gold and selling them, being defeated in battle, forcing people to pay taxes on dancing and getting married, sitting naked with shaven head and shaven moustache, drinking chang (beer) or being dragged by the dead who are wearing red clothes and red flower garlands, or dancing with the dead, these are omens of death. If the dreamer is sick, she or he will die. If one is not sick, the outcome is uncertain; so perform rituals [for protection.]15

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This text is also in agreement with other Buddhist texts that say the most relevant dreams are those that occur in the early morning.16 Furthermore, it lists the contents of good dreams:
Seeing gods, great bulls, famous people, a blazing fire in a lake, bodies smeared with blood, people wearing white garments and carrying umbrellas, climbing mountains and trees having fruit, crossing rivers and lakes, climbing on high hills, riding on lions, elephants, horses, or cows, going north and east, getting free of dangerous places, defeating enemies, being worshiped by parents and gods. To dream this means you will have a long life without sickness and you will obtain wealth.17

An important Tibetan commentary on the Four Treatises is The Blue Beryl (Vaidurya sngon po)18 of Sangye Gyatso (sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, 1653-1705),19 regent of the great fifth Dalai Lama, which has been illustrated by a remarkable series of medical paintings.20 Gyatso lists seven kinds of dreams: those corresponding to what one has seen, heard, intuitively sensed, aspired toward in the form of prayer, or mentally conceived; those that are prophetic; and those that are caused by disease.21 The first five are of no consequence for medical diagnosis. Similarly, those caused by disease merely reflect the disposition of the patient and should be ignored by the doctor. It is the prophetic dreams of the patient that are useful to the doctor, and Gyatso uses the examples just quoted from the Four Treatises. He specifies that the most significant dreams are recurrent ones, those that continue to be remembered, and those that occur toward dawn. The importance of dawn dreams is related to the different body humours that influence dreams during different times of the night: phlegm in late evening, bile around midnight, wind (rlung, prana) toward dawn.22 Gyatso brings out the relationship between the wind humour and dreams in his analysis of the origin of dreams. He begins by saying that all the dreams of ordinary and healthy people begin in the kun gshi mam shes (Skt.: aalayavijnana), the seat of consciousness, which is the source of both normal perceptions and dream perceptions.
In healthy people dreams originate in the seat of consciousness situated in the heart centre of the body, where the various sensory consciousnesses [perception and cognition] arise. When they are purified, then clarity manifests . . . . When, during sleep, the defiled mind rises with the impulsive movement of the life-sustaining breath (srog-rlung), dreams arise.23

These dreams then spread from the heart to various parts of the body where different dreams are experienced. For example:
If the consciousness moves up to the crown of the head it creates images of the gods and the sky . . . . If the consciousness descends to the lower part of the body, the dreamer moves through mountain slopes, forests, and dark gorges, and so on.24

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The life-sustaining breath (srog-rlung)'25 is the most prominent of the five winds that together constitute one of the three humours: wind, phlegm, and bile. According to Tibetan medical theory, these winds travel along the various energy channels (Tib.: rtsa; Skt.: nadi) of the body.26 Given the influence of the physical body on dreams in this system, it is no wonder that they are accepted as a diagnostic tool. After all, the source of dreams, obscured consciousness, is believed to travel to different parts of the body, where it can reveal illness. It is interesting to reflect upon this elite and elaborate theory of the relationship between the body, consciousness, and dreams in the context of the biography of Yuthog the Elder (eighth century), a famous Tibetan doctor and saint credited with spreading medical knowledge in Tibet, especially through the Four Treatises. In this text, we find many dreams of the sort that are common in Buddhist biography. For instance, Yuthog's mother has a series of conception dreams,27 and Yuthog himself dreams,28 as do others.29 What is curious is that even though dreams have clearly articulated value in medical diagnosis, and this biography describes many encounters with sick people, there is not one example of a medical dream, that is, the dream of a patient interpreted by the physician along the lines quoted above. Instead the text presents the prophetic dreams that are typical of Buddhist sacred biography. However, the absence of medical dreams in the presence of so many other prophetic dreams does not belie the importance of medical dreams as much as it offers a telling example of popular ideology about dreams dominating elite medical ideology. The biography is first and foremost that of a saint, one who happens to manifest his saintliness through medical skill. As the biography of a saint, it calls for biographical dreams that underscore the inevitability and cosmic significance of events in the text. At the same time, it suggests that the elaborate dream ideology of the medical texts and their commentaries were quite possibly not generally used by doctors in treating actual diseases.30 Another biography shows dreams being used to diagnose and cure illness in a very different way. The monk Paldan Lodo (1527-1596) used his own dreams to locate the source of someone else's illness. The source was often found to be a demon whom he then battled for the health and even the life of the sick person,31 a practice common among shamans throughout this region as well as in other parts of the world. Despite their differences, these two biographies of Buddhist healers show the enduring legacy of imported (written and Buddhist) and indigenous (oral and shamanic) dream practices, both of which indicate that what happens to the dreaming body can influence the waking body, an idea that has existed since ancient times in South Asia. Further, while dreams are an accepted aid to healing, they are also believed to harm existing bodies by prophesying illness and/or death. As will become increasingly evident, Indo-Tibetan dream theory consistently flows along a continuum of the immaterial and the material. BUDDHIST UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE SELF AND CONSCIOUSNESS This continuum needs to be understood in relation to Buddhist ideas about the self. A primary idea is that there is no self, there is no abiding entity that defines

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who we are. Through careful philosophical analysis, the notion of an enduring and isolated self is shown to be a grave misreading of reality.32 The constituent parts of individual being, the five aggregates (skandhas), are used to show that nothing inherent in the individual endures after death. These five are: body (rupa), sensation (vedana), perception (ssamjna), karmic predispositions (samskara), and consciousness (vijnana). Sensation and perception are dependent on the body and these completely cease to exist at death. The transference of karmic predispositions from one life to the next, the process of transmigration, is explained through the simile of the flame of one lamp used to light another: the flame is just energy, completely lacking in personality or individuality. Consciousness, too, lacks any enduring individuality because it is in a continual state of flux, with death being a significant interruption of its continuity. In other words, consciousness does not continue unchanged, but it does continue and it continues to change.33 To use a material metaphor, the karmic predispositions are the woof and consciousness the warp of existence through the ceaseless round of birth, death, and rebirth, but the fabric they weave is without an enduring reality and without an enduring individuality. For Buddhists the self and the world it occupies possess only a conditional reality; their being is conditioned by other factors, all of which are themselves conditioned. Correspondingly, Buddhists postulate an ultimate versus a conditional reality through which we act "as if this world is real but know that ultimately everything, ourselves and our world, is empty of enduring reality. The goal of such analyses is to undermine the dichotomous concept of I-Not I. Needless to say, this is a difficult existential position to keep fully in mind during day-to-day living.34 Nonetheless, South Asian Buddhists tend to live their lives within the conditional understanding of the self. Like other traditional people, they experience the self situationally, as intrinsically part of family, clan, and other cultural constructs, including past lives and many different kinds of beings, both visible and invisible.35 As Anne Klein has said: "Persons do not spring to life in one individual form only, but are embedded in a series of lives, as well as in the social, spirit, and natural networks."36 Hence, the Buddhist sense of self expands beyond Western boundaries (1) by accepting the idea that we have had past lives and will have future lives, all of which influence our present life, (2) by including relationships with spiritual and natural beings of many different sorts, and (3) by forming social arrangements that include family and clan members as an essential part of oneself.37 Consequently, the dreaming self of Buddhism is understood not in isolation but as sharing experiences; in the dream realm, individual dreamers and universal symbols meet and merge. Sometimes this happens quite literally, as in shared dreams where different people have the same dream. But more generally, boundaries between dreams and reality, humans and gods, ignorance and enlightenment, the self and others, are all permeable. Understanding Buddhist dreaming requires understanding the Buddhist conception of an unbounded cognitive universe. In the West, many people half-consciously participate in a similar, though in many ways distinctly different, unbounded universe in which prophetic qualities are attributed to dreams. This may make the Buddhist concept of dream seem familiar to Western readers, but the differences are important.38

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When the Tantric form of Mahayana Buddhism emerged in the sixth century, it incorporated all the earlier notions about dreams and added the important possibility of acquiring spiritual power (Tib.: grub pa; Skt: siddhi) through them. What follows, then, is a deeper exploration of classical Indo-Tibetan dream practices, beliefs, and images. This is a realm where the real and the imagined carry the same existential weight; where medical, spiritual, literary and ritual texts and practices are not separate.

ANCIENT INDIAN AND TIBETAN DREAM RITUALS AND DEITIES

Beliefs about the influence of dream reality on waking reality are demonstrated in the earliest recorded dream rituals of South Asia, most of which are designed to ward off the effects of bad dreams. These rituals presume bi-directional influence between waking and dreaming bodies: what is done to one affects the other. Consequently, hymns and rituals to dispel the effects of bad dreams are contained in religious texts such as the Vedas,39 and in ancient medical texts like the Susruta Samhita. The latter suggests reciting mantras, or spending the night in a temple, and cautions against telling a bad dream to anyone else.40 Examples of such techniques come from a wide range of historical periods. A ritual from the time of the Buddha (fifth century B.C.E.) involved King Ajatasatru, whose ministers protected him from the effects of a bad dream by placing him in a tank "filled with the four sweetnesses,41 thereby washing away any residual effect. After an evil dream, King Asoka (third century B.C.E.) ritually saluted the four directions and implored the gods to prevent the dream's evil effects.42 In a Buddhist folktale, Brahman priests attempted to ameliorate the effect of yet another king's bad dream with an elaborate sacrifice at a crossroad.43 A Tun-huang (Central Asia) manuscript written in Old Tibetan contains rituals for both assuring the outcome of good dreams and removing the effects of bad ones. The former involves elementary purifications and honoring the gods, while the latter attempts to transfer the bad dream to inanimate objects like pieces of wood or bits of earth that are then destroyed or discarded.44 The latter procedure suggests that, since the immaterial dream realm can infuse the material realm of humanity, its effects can be ritually transferred to other materials. Such beliefs and practices describe a fluid universe with permeable boundaries between the human and the divine/demonic, the living and the dead, the material and the immaterial. This permeability is captured in the ritual performed at a crossroad, a juncture fraught with magical and miraculous possibilities in many parts of the world. Such ancient ideas carry over into Buddhism, including the above mentioned Tibetan medical text, which says that the effects of bad dreams can be overcome by prayer, meditation, acts of charity, and so on.45 In addition, amulets can be worn to avert the predicted effects of bad dreams.46 Although various deities are present in Buddhist dream material beginning with the biography of the Buddha,47 Tibetan Buddhists modified earlier Indian beliefs that some dreams are caused by the gods. Rather, the appearance of a Tantric deity in a dream is believed to be a sign of the dreamer's spiritual accomplishment,

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the achievement of siddhi. Other religious traditions also maintain that dreams confer spiritual power. For instance, the first signs of shamanic power often follow spiritually meaningful dreams,48 and such power is a fair equivalent of the siddhi that can initially manifest in Buddhist dreams.49 Such dreams can either immediately transform the dreamer, who then wakes up with a new ability or understanding, or the transformation can occur later in the dreamer's life. Dainis (Tib.: mka 'gro ma), the ubiquitous female deities of Tantric Buddhism, are particularly active in the dreams of tantric practitioners, while dream appearances of the Buddha and other well known saints from the past are also well attested in Tibetan biographies, especially those of advanced practitioners.50 In fact, Tibetan biographies use dreams to mark the stages of development from disciple to tantric hero. Correspondingly, there were rituals for obtaining such dreams, some of which are contained in the Tangyur, one part of the huge Tibetan Buddhist canon.51 One ritual, entitled the Milam Tagpa (rMi lam brTag pa, The Examination of Dreams), is a set of procedures for obtaining two kinds of dreams, one that will generate the thought of enlightenment and another that will bestow empowerments (dbang). The ritual begins with the following instructions: "On a seat of Kusa grass prepare a pillow of fragrant grasses and put on a garland of flowers. Recite mantra52 [in order to consecrate a bowl of] the milk of a young girl,53 then use the milk to anoint your eyes."54 Since the text presumes the supervision of a guru, it does not explain this intriguing passage. Nonetheless, a few comments can be ventured. To begin, South Asian and other ancient peoples use the verb "seeing" a dream rather than "having" a dream. Such language emphasizes that dreams are experienced as given to individuals rather than created by them. This language stresses the external rather than internal origin of dreams, thereby lending them a divine or demonic authority. To say one has seen rather than had a dream is to suggest that "the dreamer is the passive recipient of an objective vision."55 Putting on eye ointment demonstrates how literally this is taken.56 All around the world applying magical ointments empowers, transforms, and protects the body, and that also is the case here. Milk is widely used in Indian rituals (and this was originally an Indian text) because of its positive qualities: unlike any other food, milk can be obtained without causing harm to any living creature, animal, or vegetable. By churning the Milk Ocean, the gods derived amrta, the nectar of immortality; and, of course, a mother's milk is the ultimate symbol of nurturance.57 Further, this ointment, along with the whole ritual setting, affirms that what is material can influence the immaterial; the ointment is used to create the immaterial dream. Such ideas are connected to the powerful and pervasive South Asian belief in the redemptive value of darsan,58 seeing, particularly in the sense that the deity or holy person gives darsan while the worshipper takes it; the devotee both sees the deity and is seen by the deity. The risis, literally the seers, saw the Vedic hymns through an inner vision, an idea that is carried out by the use of the word darsana, in the sense of doctrine, to designate the six philosophical schools of ancient India. Within the Buddhist tradition, what the Buddha saw is foundational, for instance, the four visions that turned him to the ascetic path and his visions on the night of his enlightenment. Throughout South Asia, seeing has deeply religious meanings, especially in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with its emphasis on visualization practices.

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The Milam Tagpa continues by presenting four short lists of dreams predicting four different good futures. 1. Dreams that predict becoming one who possesses compassion: "In a dream [seeing yourself] holding a mirror in hand, seeing the crescent moon, riding in a chariot, wearing white clothes and white ornaments, subduing an elephant with an iron goad." 2. Dreams that predict being able to explain dharma with compassion: You see yourself "finding gold, wetting one's body, putting a vessel on top of one's head, governing other lands, riding a horse to a jewelled island, being lifted up in a palanquin by humans, gathering lotus flowers, holding books in one's hands, blowing a conch, putting on garlands of flowers, and also catching peacocks with a net." 3. Dreams that predict becoming one who is worthy of offerings by all: "Carrying a whip and being victorious in battle, being such a [powerful] king that other kings are in your retinue, converting an army into [doing] peaceful work, sending messenger birds, burning forests with fire, swimming in water without sinking, going in the sky and floating there and using the sun and moon as ornaments, sitting on the Lion Throne, spreading a white umbrella, and erecting a victorious flag." 4. Dreams that predict things will happen according to one's wishes: Seeing "blister water flowing [from one's skin], seeing a crashing heap of fire without being afraid, eating snakes and scorpions, holding vajra and bell, reaching the top of a mountain, your hand surrounding a city, worshipping the lamas and tutelaries deities, writing books and building stupas, walking naked, dancing and singing, associating with the community of monks, putting on good clothes and eating fruits, saying the benedictions of the thathagatagarba, making prophecies, filling up a big pond, and building high mansions.59 The last list is of bad dreams that predict one will have mental torments: Seeing "an enemy take your ornaments, seeing a young lady who is worried, being confined in a dungeon, being robbed of one's wealth and property, being put in iron [shackles], being crushed by bad beings, wild animals striking your body, your body wrapped with threads and covered with stains, eating polluted food, drinking polluted water, running away when you see your lama, teacher, friends and parents, seeing a deep gorge without human beings [in it] or a very wild place where one suffers because you cannot find food and drink, saying 'Alas, I am suffering,' taking off armor and then being struck by weapons, walking in a very thick forest, being attacked by tigers, wolves and other animals.60 The text adds that in the event of inauspicious dreams one should make an offering by burning sesame seeds.61 Tibetan literature contains many lists of dreams that predict good, evil, or indifferent outcomes, but there are very few consistencies between the lists or even within them. For instance, a text from the Kangyur (the other part of the Tibetan Canon),62 the Ratnakuuta Sutra, lists 108 auspicious dream images that appear to one pursuing the Bodhisattva path. Mainly they are images of the Buddha doing things such as preaching, sitting, walking, and so on, or they see his robe or umbrella or bowl, and so on. But some of them are frightening images, such as: "47. an earthquake [the earth spinning]; 48. among an army about to give battle [walking among wolves and jackals]; 49. being sick; 50. falling from a precipice; 51. meeting death [being bound and awaiting execution]; 52. sitting among enemies [walking

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through knives and swords]."63 These are not the positive dream images that we might expect; nor were some of the images in the Milam Tagpa that predicted having things happen according to one's wishes, e.g. seeing "blister water flowing [from one's skin], eating snakes and scorpions, walking naked." In contrast, the images predicting mental torments seem appropriate: seeing "an enemy take your ornaments, being confined in a dungeon, being robbed of one's wealth and property, being put in iron [shackles], being crushed by bad beings, wild animals striking your body," and so on. These lists are guides for training consciousness and their apparent lack of consistency is suggestive. Most clearly these lists point to the importance of the guru who interprets whether the disciple's dream is good or evil and thereby establishes her or his authority as a dream interpreter. The stated goal of this ritual is heightened spiritual awareness and power, a process that deeply involves the guru in all aspects of the disciple's life. As we have seen in the Milam Tagpa, the guru is also necessary for receiving the oral instructions that complete the text, such as the missing mantras for the preparatory rituals. And, while the lists come from different places and periods, when we view them from the perspective of their flexibility we can see that Buddhist dream theory, at least on the level of images, tends to be adaptable and inclusive. This may be a legacy of the flexible and adaptive strategies Buddhism developed over the centuries as it incorporated new cultural groups. Another important element in the Milam Tagpa, and one that pervades Tibetan dream theory and practice, is that, despite dream lists and detailed instructions on how to have a dream, this and other dream texts are based on the Buddhist understanding of the world as an illusory place that is essentially empty and devoid of all reality.64 Dreams are excellent evidence for this view because upon awakening from a dream one realizes it was not real, and yet recalls that while dreaming it was as real as waking reality. The lesson to be drawn is that waking reality is insubstantial in the same way that dreams are, and that the experience of both can be manipulated in order to achieve enlightenment. So, on the one hand, ritual techniques foster dream experiences that confer spiritual awareness or power; on the other hand, these rituals can be used to undercut the constricting hold of mundane reality on one's consciousness.

SOUGHT DREAMS AND DREAM YOGA

The Milam Tagpa shows some of the ways in which the Tantric dream tradition blended earlier dream practices, such as seeking dreams and dispelling their negative influence, with later philosophical notions about illusion (maya) and emptiness (sunyata). A similar blending of sources can be seen in the Six Yogas of Nuropa (1016-1100, na' ro'i chos drug), one of which is Dream Yoga. It seems fairly certain that these yogas, as we have them today, were first systematized by Naropa, based on his study of earlier, mostly oral teachings. In other words, Naropa inherited popular, and possibly shamanic, dream techniques.

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The mastery or control of dreams is not unique to medieval India and Tibet. Analogous practices exist in various parts of the world, for instance in the incubation dreams of the ancient Greeks and the sought dreams of Native Americans, among others. But for the advanced Buddhist practitioner, the mastery of dreams means that, just as one transforms her or his consciousness during the day through meditation, one can also transform dream consciousness. Ultimately this means that one will be able to transform consciousness during the all-important bardo or death state, which leads to either rebirth or enlightenment. Waking consciousness, dreaming, and death are all equally illusory states that need to be transcended. Dream Yoga utilizes all three states; so, we can distinguish three periods of practice: During the day, remind yourself that you are dreaming, that everything you are experiencing is a dream, is as unreal or empty as a dream. At night, practice Dream Yoga, first by apprehending your dreams, being conscious that you are dreaming, and then by transforming the dream into whatever you wish, such as going to one of the heavens and receiving teachings from a celestial Buddha. The third period is the after-death state, the bardo, which is just as unreal as waking and sleeping life. This state too should be perceived as empty and transformed into the experience of enlightenment.65 Failure to control these states, especially the after-death state, leads to another birth, another embodiment, without any choice over its conditions and with the possible loss of the spiritual knowledge gained in the present life. In contrast, dying with control means continuing your spiritual practices in the next life, and being able to control rebirth (see Figure 1). The state of meditation is closely related to the dream and bardo states, as well as a key to the continuum of consciousness through all these states of consciousness. Meditation is believed capable of freeing consciousness to roam beyond this earthly realm not only into the bardo but into other realms as well. Changing consciousness is the ultimate Buddhist goal and meditation is the definitive practice toward that end. Dreaming is also a form of consciousness and we can begin to see why dream consciousness became a matter of crucial interest, somewhat to the detriment of dream content. Readers who are familiar with the modern Western practice of lucid dreaming may be struck by seeming parallels with Tibetan Dream Yoga. Clarification of these parallels, however, depends on what is meant by lucid dreaming. In the broadest sense, the practices are similar, in the same way that they are similar to the incu-

Fig. 1. Dream Yoga.

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bation dreams of the ancient world and the consciously sought dreams of shamans. To consciously choose to dream before going to sleep, and to attempt to shape the events and content of the dream, are elements of both lucid dreaming and Dream Yoga. However, these practices emerged from and operate in very different traditions. They have very different histories,66 and they are distinct in their context, content, method, and aims.67 Let me set out the basic contrasts: ContextSpiritual rituals in a culturally and religiously supportive environment with at least a thousand year history versus isolated practitioners or recently formed dream groups sometimes under the supervision of a trained psychologist. ContentCommon Buddhist imagery with specific meanings versus content and meaning that are very individualized. MethodHistorically Dream Yoga has involved working with a guru, a radical alteration of lifestyle by taking religious vows (often living completely apart from the company of otherssometimes for a period of three years), forming an intention to achieve the religious goal of enlightenment, versus working with an experienced lucid dreamer or simply reading a book on the subject.67a As mentioned, these methods are similar in their use of self-suggestion. Both attempt to control dream content by concentrating on what to dream before going to sleep. Once asleep and dreaming, both attempt to maintain something like waking consciousness, to remain lucid, in order to control dream events. For instance, if you dream you are being chased by a bear, you may want to stop running and confront the bear in a way that conquers your fear. This example points to the fact that often one becomes lucid during nightmares or anxiety dreams,68 dreams that are excluded from traditional Dream Yoga practices. Two final methodological differences are that lucid dreaming may begin when awake69 and in Buddhism the time of night one dreams is important. AimSpiritual advancement, reduction of attachment to earthly pleasures versus acceptance of earthly pleasures (e.g., achieving sexual orgasm,)70 and maintaining attachment to them. Additionally, lucid dreaming promises many psychological and practical benefits.71 The distinction is that Dream Yoga is a practice designed to dissolve the notion of an enduring self or of an enduring world, not, as is often the case with lucid dreaming, to enhance the sense of self and make it more successful in a reified world. This is not to deny that lucid dreaming can be used for spiritual practice, but to emphasize its broader range of uses and differing existential base from that of Dream Yoga. Having said this, though, it is important to bear in mind that in Tibetan Buddhism many different kinds of dream practices are subsumed under the term Dream Yoga. For instance, another Tangyur text72 offers instructions on a form of Dream Yoga that leads to realizing emptiness. First, bow down to the celestial buddha Avalokitesvara, take refuge in the Three Jewels of Buddhism (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the community); generate the thought of enlightenment and control yourself. Then, enter a meditation cell and meditate on dreams. The text gives detailed instructions for visualizing Avalokitesvara and then visualizing "the letter hrih as the actual embodiment of mind [and then place it] in the center of one's heart."73 One should then go to sleep like the King of Yogis, in other words pos-

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sessing an aware mind as well as virtue and compassion. This may also refer to the sleeping lion's posture, lying on one's right side. The text gives further instructions involving the syllable hrih.
When very close to falling asleep, the syllable h rih should be condensed into two drops, then gradually the lower drop should be condensed into the upper drop, then all the various appearances gather into one body. Then place the single drop in the center of a lotus, and as if placing water into water [they all become one] and one's mind becomes like the stainless mind purified of all the entities and non-entities. One should hold firmly, without moving, in this state of great clarity.74

The goal here is to perceive all phenomena as illusions, without any intrinsic nature. If you are successful, you will see the Buddhas in a dream. The text goes on:
One will see in the sky, like a heap of clouds, the mandala of the Conquerors surrounded by the divine assembly of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, sravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas. Then, without taking much time, one will achieve clarity. Like a lotus rising from the mud, the pure will [separates from] the mind which is polluted by the ignorance of intoxicating duality, isolates itself and like the sun in the sky, spontaneously, independently, and luminously rises. When the dreamer is in the city of dream he should hold both pleasure and sorrow as mere thought, as being like appearances reflected in a mirror, as neither existent nor non-existent, nor both existent and non-existent, as like a rainbow in the sky, or the sound of thunder, or perceiving being born and ceasing. The person who remains in clarity understands [that all things are like] this. When one awakes from sleep one is able to remove one's mind from all cravings. Then one can realize the teaching of this doctrine [emptiness].

A final Tangyur text I want to mention is entitled the Milam Groma'i (rMi lam sGrol ma'i sGrub thabs, the Practice of Dream Tara), a text devoted to the female Buddha Tara that promises to produce prophetic dreams. This text also begins with a detailed visualization practice for seeing Tara and instructions on how to make preparatory offerings and mantras. Then:
washing oneself with sweet smelling water and putting on decorated clothes...make a preliminary offering...Give white foods of yogurt and milk, and so forth, cowry shells, silk, and so forth. Scatter water with a conch shell and then comfortably disperse the deities. In the evening, in the house of a brahmacari yogi, holding a bell, while remaining on a pillow scented with flowers, draw a mandala with five offerings, burn incense that drives away evil spirits, and light butter lamps. Then with rounded clay measured to the size of peas, recite seven times [om kundali hum phat]. Scatter twenty-one of the clay peas to the ten directions to remove any obstacles, and visualize jewel offerings on the mandala [that has been drawn on your] seat. Then pray for whatever you want [to see in the dream] and [prepare to] go to sleep saying Tara mantras. From the sky Tara will spread a cool ray of light rising from her heart and eliminate all the obscurations from one's tormented heart [so that] it becomes pure like a cloudless sky. Her hands are strong like an elephant's trunk, spreading nectar and pouring down streams of nectar which fill up one's heart. Through this power one's body becomes pure like a crystal vessel, cleansed and very beautiful. With a one-pointed and undisturbed mind one should recite [the eight syllable mantra: Om Tare tu Tare ture] to the superb excellent goddess until one falls asleep in the posture of the sleeping lion.75

You will then see auspicious or inauspicious dreams. These last two rituals attempt to purify one's mind and body in order to clear the way for spiritual realization or prophecies through dreams. Both texts emphasize that such dreams are not a given; one must ritually prepare to receive them. The elaborate instructions found in the Tangyur complement the simpler dream instructions that are found in the biographical literature, such as when the famous

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Tibetan saint Milarepa (1040-1123) simply tells his disciples to pay attention to their dreams, which he will interpret on the next day.76 In both kinds of texts, these are sought dreams, dreams that take place when individuals purposely seek a dream in a variety of ways, such as performing a ritual, going to sleep in a sacred place, praying for a dream, or simply concentrating on having a dream before going to sleep. There are many examples of sought dreams in Milarepa's biography, as when Marpa teaches Milarepa and his other disciples to prophesy through sought dreams,77 which prompts Milarepa's all important four pillars dream with its prediction about the future of his spiritual lineage.78 In the Mgur 'bum, the collection of songs and stories by or about Milarepa, he continued the tradition of the sought dream in his own practice and recommended it to his disciples, again within the context of continuing the lineage. When his disciples ask Milarepa who will promulgate his teachings after he is dead, Milarepa says he will seek an answer in his dreams.79 Later he instructs Gampopa and two other disciples, Shiwa 'Od and Rechungpa, in Dream Yoga, part of which, of course, involves telling them to seek dreams.80 This tradition continues today. During the week-long Kalachakra ceremony held at Madison, Wisconsin in 1981, H. H. the Dalai Lama was very clear about how and why dreams were part of this initiation. He distributed kusha grass among those of us seeking initiation saying, this "kusha grass is given for the sake of having unmistaken, clear dreams. It is also for the sake of clearing away pollutants and uncleanliness so that your mind will be clear."81 The kusha grass was to be placed under both the mattresses and the pillows of our beds,82 the heads of which were to be pointed in the direction of the ritual site. We were further instructed to sleep on our "right side in the lion posture,"83 "to engage in technique so that you fall asleep within a virtuous attitude," and to pay attention only to the dreams we had around dawn.84 Since these dreams are believed to predict the effect of the initiation on the individual dreamer, they have to be dealt with ritually in order to assure a beneficial effect. The Dalai Lama offered the following methods of dealing with bad dreams:
the main technique is to meditate on emptiness, but also, in situations of fright and discomfort, it is important to take specific cognizance of the objectthe person or being who is the source of the fright or displeasureand then cultivate compassion and love . .. Now as an additional means to overcome bad dreams, I will scatter water, simultaneously reciting the mantra om ah hum hoh ham kshah. During this, visualize that all bad effects are cast away by the force of the mantra and the wisdom understanding emptiness.85

While the Dalai Lama's comments demonstrate the continuing importance of sought dreams in Tibetan Buddhism, they also return us to the necessity of being able to deal with such dreams if they are inauspicious. As we have seen in the Tangyur texts, although a practitioner may seek a dream for spiritual purposes, this does not guarantee a good dream, and rituals have existed from ancient times to avoid the evil effects of bad dreams.

CONCLUSION The foregoing presentation of mostly esoteric Tibetan dream rituals raises a plethora of methodological questions, so much so that no single academic discipline

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could possibly encompass this material. The rituals keep slipping away, flowing into other uncharted areas. I have tried to provide a context for the rituals by engaging in a broad interdisciplinary approach to the material. For instance, I utilized literary studies, i.e., the Tibetan biographies that also contain dream rituals, and scientific materials, i.e., the medical texts and their commentaries. While the dream rituals from the Tangyur and Kangyur are squarely in the realm of spiritual practices, the literary and medical evidence shows that they were also part of a complex of ideas about consciousness. They cannot be contained by religious studies, because in Medieval Tibet the religious and the philosophic are one. Even linguistics, essential as it is, can only go so far; it cannot unlock the meaning of the mantras that, for the most part, are sounds rather than specific words. In much the same way that dreams cross the boundaries between waking and sleeping, their study crosses disciplinary boundaries; they invite us to move beyond the narrow confines of any one discipline and to enter a world of interdisciplinary openness and exchange that approximates the open spaces of the dream experience itself.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research for this paper was made possible in part by travel grants from the American Academy of Religion to India in 1995 and the International Research and Exchange Board to Buryatia in 1996.

ENDNOTES
2. 3. See Kenneth Zysk, Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India: Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 21-24. See Raoul Birnbaum, The Healing Buddha (Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1979), pp. 3-19. This study of the celestial Medicine Buddha Bhaisajyaguru is essential reading for the understanding of healing in Mahayana Buddhism. His cult was widespread in Tibet, see Anthony Aris, ed., Tibetan Medical Paintings (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992), Vol. I, pp. 17-18, and vol. II, pp. 173-174. The historical Buddha is believed to have manifested as the Medicine Buddha in order to teach healing practices, see The Venerable Rechung Rinpoche, Tibetan Medicine (1973. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976), pp. 9-11. See also the eleven vows required of a doctor, Rechung, Tibetan Medicine, p. 91. This remains true of the Tibetan community in exile. See Ann Klein, Path to the Middle: Oral Madhyamika Philosophy in Tibet (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994), passim. There is a tradition that King Srongstan Gampo held a medical conference in Tibet in the eighth century which included physicians from Persia, India, China, and so forth. See Robert Sachs, Health for Life: Secrets of Tibetan Ayurveda (Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers, 1995), p. 20, and Aris, ed., Tibetan Medical Paintings, vol. I, p. 3. See also Maurice Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, vol. III (1927. Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1977), pp. 665-668, for a discussion of some of the Buddhist medical texts found in Central Asia. For the very interesting and semi-legendary view of how medicine came into the world in general and Tibet in particular see Rechung, Tibetan Medicine, pp. 8-28. This text also contains a biography of a famous Tibetan doctor that includes a semi-legendary record of the origins of medical knowledge and healing plants, pp. 147327, and a lengthy bibliography on studies of Tibetan medicine in Western languages, pp. 98-102. Healing has often been associated with spiritual power, for instance Jesus's miraculous healing powers and the widespread and enduring cult of Asklepios. For these and other examples see Lawrence E. Sullivan, "Healing" The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade (New York: The Free Press, 1986), vol. 6, p. 226.

4. 5.

6.

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7. Birnbaum, The Healing Buddha, pp. 3-19. This study of the celestial Medicine Buddha Bhaisajyaguru is essential reading for the understanding of healing in Mahayana Buddhism. His cult was widespread in Tibet, see Aris, ed., Tibetan Medical Paintings, vol. I, pp. 17-18, and vol. II, pp. 173-174. 8. See Zysk, fn. 1. 9. Discussed in Birnbaum, The Healing Buddha, passim, but especially pp. 26-34. 10. For which see ibid. 11. Rechung, Tibetan Medicine, pp. 8-9. This history of Tibetan medicine shows its Indian origins in the prominent place it assigns to Indian deities in explanations of the transmission of medical knowledge. 12. See the works of Dodds, Miller, Eliade, Lincoln, and Irwin cited herein. 13. Rechung, Tibetan Medicine, p. 3. For a different view, see Todd Fenner, "The Origin of the rGyud bzhi: A Tibetan Medical Tantra, in Tibetan Literature," ed. Cabez6n and Jackson, pp. 458-469, especially pp. 466-467. 14. Aris, Tibetan Medical Paintings, pp. 4 and 14-16. 15. rGyud bzi, A Reproduction of a set of prints from the 18th century Zun-cu ze Blocks from the Collections of Prof. Raghu Vira, by O-rgyan Namgyal (Leh: S. W. Tashigangpa, 1975), p. 10, f. 3 11. 3-6-p. 9 f. 4, 1.1. Rechung Rinpoche, Tibetan Medicine, p. 48, has translated part of this text, although he drew on a slightly different manuscript. Compare these and the good dreams that follow to the excerpt from another Tibetan medical text, The Ambrosia Heart Tantra, in Norbu Chophel, The Folk Culture of Tibet (Dharamsla: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1983), pp. 92-94, and The Quintessence Tantras of Tibetan Medicine, trans. Barry Clark (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1995), pp. 69-70. 16. rGyud bzi, p. 9, f.4, 1,1. 17. Ibid., p. 8, f. 4, 11. 2-3. 18. Even though vaidurya is glossed by Monier-Williams as "a cat's-eye gem," and by the translators of Sangye Gyatso's commentary as "beryl," I am influenced in taking this as lapis lazuli by Raoul Birnbaum's discussion of laplis lazuli in The Healing Buddha, pp. 80-81, and his translations of this term from Chinese texts, passim. I will, however, continue to use The Blue Beryl since that is the title of the only English translation in Aris, Tibetan Medical Paintings. 19. For more information on this extremely important and very enigmatic figure, see Snellgrove and Richardson, The Cultural History of Tibet, pp. 204-208. 20. Aris, Tibetan Medical Paintings. Aris also translates much of what follows somewhat out of sequence with the text I use, and he incorporates material from the rGyud bzi, Vol. I, p. 49. 21. Baidur Snon po, ed. T. Y. Tashiganpa (Leh: 1973), vol. I, f. 222, 1. 5. 22. Another interpretation of the three times for dreaming can be found in Chophel, Folk Culture of Tibet, p. 95, who cites Longdol Lama's Sung-bum as saying dusk dreams reflect previous experiences, midnight dreams are caused by ghosts and other spirits, while dawn dreams are prophetic. 23. Baidur Snon po f. 224 -225. 24. Ibid'., f. 225. 25. Significantly, given the emphasis on seeing dreams, among its many bodily functions the srog rlung maintains good eyesight, Rechung, Tibetan Medicine, pp. 103-121. 26. In addition to the foregoing citations, important discussions of South Asian perspectives on the body are provided by Gerald James Larson, "Ayurveda and the Hindu philosophical systems," in Self as Body in Asian Theory and Practice, ed. Thomas P. Kasulis, et al, (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993, pp. 102-121, and Shasi Bhushan Dasgupta, An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism (1958. Berkeley, CA: Shambhala Publication, Inc., 1974), pp. 146-158. 27. Rechung, Tibetan Medicine, pp. 187-188. 28. Ibid., pp. 210, 235, 256 and 259. This text is very rich in other forms of visionary experience as well. 29. Ibid., pp. 148-149 and 223. 30. See, for example, Tashi Tsering Josayama and K. Dhondup, Dolma and Dolkar: Mother and Daughter of Tibetan Medicine (New Delhi: Yarlung Publications, 1990) which, although it details the medical practices of two well known Tibetan doctors, such as pulse taking and urine analysis, never mentions dreams. On the other hand, when I asked Dr. Lozang Tenzin, the staff physician at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, whether he used dreams in his practice, he said not very much, but that he does pay attention to his dreams for his own health and sometimes he dreams about other people's health. Personal communication, Sarnath, India, March 10, 1997. 31. David L. Snellgrove, Four Lamas of Dolpo (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), vol. 1, pp. 183-230. An example of a monk dreaming the cause of someone's illness can be found in Norbu Chophel, The Folk Culture of Tibet (Dharamsla: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1983), pp. 94-95, where it is said, however, that monks cannot dream a solution to the illness.

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32. See, for example, Naagasena's simile of the chariot in the Milindapanho, V. Trenckner ed., (London: Williams and Norgate, 1880), pp. 25-28. An English translation is available by T. W. Rhys Davids, The Questions of King Milinda (1894. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965). 33. See Steven Collins, Selfless Persons: Imagery and thought in Theravada Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, 1990), pp. 213-218, for his discussion of the transmigration of consciousness, and pp. 242-248 for consciousness in the death and rebirth process. 34. This is perhaps seen most clearly in Buddhism's involvement in the death ceremony anniversaries of South and East Asia. See Donald Swearer, "Folk Buddhism," The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987), vol. 5, p. 376. See also Gregory Schopen, "Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism," History of Religions, vol. 31 (August 1991-May 1992), pp. 13-15 for archaeological and epigraphic evidence of Buddhist belief in a continuing self after death. 35. Sudhir Kakar has wonderfully captured the East-West distinction when he says "The Indian injunction 'Know Thyself (atmanamvidhi) is related to a Self other than the one referred to by Socrates. It is a self uncontaminated by time and space and thus without the life-historical dimension which is the focus of psychoanalysis and of Western romantic literature." Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and Its Healing Traditions (1982. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 7-8. See also Alan Roland, In Search of Self in India and Japan: Toward a Cross-Cultural Psychology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 7-10 and passim, who distinguishes betwen the "I-self' of the west and the "we-self' of Asia. 36. Anne Carolyn Klein, Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), p. 44. In Chapter Two Klein offers an interesting comparative discussion of the notions of the self in Western and Buddhist thought. 37. Collins arrives at similar conclusions, but his analysis is based on what he sees as the dichotomous discourses about the self of the little and great traditions, Selfless Persons, especially pp. 147-154 and passim. 38. For a thoughtful essay on the importance of such differences, particularly in relation to the notion of a self, see Collins, Selfless Persons, pp. 1-26. 39. Rig Veda, 2.28.10, 10.37.4, 5.82.4-5, etc. See also G. M. Boiling, "Dreams and Sleep (Vedic)," The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), vol. 5, pp. 38-40. 40. Kaviraj Kunjalal, trans. and ed., Bhishagratna, The Sushruta Samhita (Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 2nd ed., 1963), p. 282. 41. Etienne Lamotte, History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the saka Era (1958. Louvain-LaNeuve: Institut Orientaliste: 1988), trans. Sara Webb-Boin, p. 92. A Tangyur text dealing with dreams (vol. sha, f. 88b) instructs that the "three sweets of sugar, honey and molasses" among other things, should be offered to Tara in order to have a good dream. (This text is discussed below.) 42. John S. Strong, The Legend of King Asoka (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983,1989), pp. 274-275. 43. The Mahasupina Jataka, in Jaataka Stories, ed. E.B. Cowell, 6 vols. (1895. London: Pali Text Society, 1957, 1973), vol. I, p. 187. 44. Tun-huang was an important junction on the Silk Route under the control of Tibet from about 786 to 848. See Antonella Crescenzi and Fabrizio Torricelli, "A Tun-huang Text on Dreams: Ms Pelliot tibetain 55 - IX," forthcoming in Tibet Journal. I am grateful to the authors for allowing me to read an early draft of their paper. 45. Rechung, Tibetan Medicine, p. 49, and Tibetan Medical Paintings, vol. 2, p. 207. 46. Rene de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u.Verlagsanstalt, 1975), p. 503. 47. E.g., with Brahma interpreting the dreams of the Buddha's family in the Mahavastu. 48. Jackson Steward Lincoln, The Dream in Primitive Cultures (1935. Reprint, New York and London: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1970), p. 68; Lee Irwin, The Dream Seekers: Native American Visionary Traditions of the Great Plains (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma, 1994), passim; Mircae Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, trans. Willard R. Trask (1951. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972), pp. 67 and 102; and Weston La Barre, The Ghost Dance (New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1972), passim. 49. Mkas Grub Rje (1385-1438) mentions this role of dreams in revealing the approach and withdrawal of the deity in his "Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tantras," translated by F. D. Lessing and A. Wayman as Introduction to the Buddhist Tantric Systems (1968. New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1980), pp. 202 and 203. Tucci also lists dreams as one of the ways the tutelary deity (yi dam) is revealed, The Religions of Tibet, p. 97.

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50. A modern Tibetan teacher, the Venerable Deshung Rinpoche, described the dreams of a successful tantric meditator to his students as follows: "Your mind is so purified that the Buddha appears in dreams and teaches you, you have auspicious dreams of turtles and the like, you dream that you see the sun and the moon, that you take a bath, that you color white cloths, and so forth." The Venerable Deshung Rinpoche, The Three Levels of Spiritual Perception, trans. by Jared Rhoton (Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications, 1995), p. 480. 51. These volumes contain discourses by famous Indian and Tibetan teachers, commentaries and ritual texts. 52. The author does not say what these are, they would be given as part of the oral teachings. 53. Presumably a nursing mother. 54. Tangyur, Derge edition, vol. tshi, f. 130a. There is no full Enlgish translation of this multi-volumed canon. Stephen Beyer, The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1974), lists magical eye ointment as one of the eight great magical attainments of Buddhism, p. 247, and explains that it is believed to enable one to "see the entire triple world." p. 252. The Atharva Veda 4.9 mentions using an eye ointment (anana) as protection from troubled dreams. 55. See E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1951), p. 105. 56. This idea also finds expression in the medical literature when Gyatso explains the origin of dreams through the srog rlung, one of the five winds in the body (Aris, Tibetan Medical Paintings, p. 49), while the Four Treatises states that one of functions of the srog rlung is to maintain good eyesight (Rechung, Tibetan Medicine, p. 45). 57. See its medical uses in Rechungpa, Tibetan Medicine, pp. 61-62. 58. This topic has received its definitive discussion in Diana L. Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (Chambersburg, PA: Anima Books, 1981). 59. Tangyur, vol. tshi, f. 130a. 60. Ibid., vol. tshi, f. 130b. 61. Ibid., vol. tshi, f. 130b. 62. These volumes contains teachings ascribed to the historical Buddha. 63. Kangyur, vol. Ka, text 48, f. Bracketed material refers to the Chinese translation. I am grateful to Natalie Hauptman for giving me a rough copy of an English translation. 64. Ibid., f. 130b. 65. Chen-chi Chang, Teachings of Tibetan Yoga (New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1963), pp. 88-94 and 101-115. See also Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche, Ancient Wisdom: Nyingma Teachings on Dream Yoga, Meditation, and Transformation, trans. B. Alan Wallace and Sangye Khandro (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1993), pp. 104-119. 66. Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: The Power of Being Awake and Aware in Your Dreams (1985. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986), has a chapter on the history of lucid dreaming, pp. 21-41, and also pp. 55-77, though he never mentions the important research in G. William Domhoff, The Mystique of Dreams: A Search for Utopia Through Senoi Dream Theory (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985), especially regarding Kilton Stewart's highly questionable research. See also Harry T. Hunt, The Multiplicity of Dreams: Memory, Imagination, and Consciousness (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), pp. 80-81. 67. I am grateful to Dr. Antonella Crescenzi for helping me to clarify my thoughts on this topic. 67a. Recently, in answer to the question of a western dream scholar, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that dream Yoga could be practiced "without a great deal of preparation." Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness with the Dalai Lama, ed. Francisco J. Varela (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1997), p. 45. However, in his formal presentation of Dream Yoga he presented it within the context of very advanced tantric practices. Clearly, there are different traditions about Dream Yoga, and it can become an extremely elastic term. Here I am arguing for Dream Yoga as historically understood within the tradition of the Six Yogas and Naropa. 68. LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming, p. 121. For more on the cognitive relation of lucid deaming and the nightmare, as well as to meditational states, see Hunt, Multiplicity of Dreams, pp. 118-127. 69. La Berge, Lucid Dreaming, p. 127. 70. Dreams with a sexual content seem to be very well represented in lucid dream experience, ibid., pp. 89-95. Wendy Doniger is particularly elegant and witty in her comparative discussion of South Asian and western, especially lucid, sexual dreams, "Western Dreams about Eastern Dreams' in Among All These Dreamers: Essays on Dreaming and Modem Society, ed. Kelly Bulkeley (Albany, NY: State University Press of New York, 1996), pp. 169-176. 71. Ibid., pp. 167-196. 72. vol. nu, ff. 176b-177b. A virtual duplicate of this text appears at ff. 152b-153a.

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73. vol. nu, f. 176b. 74. Ibid., f. 176b. 75. Tangyur, vol. sha, ff. 88b-89a. I owe a debt of gratitude to Geshe Lozang Jamspal who helped me fill in the lacunae of this and other texts translated here during various meetings in 1995 and 1996. 76. Mi la'i mgur 'bum, ed. Gtsan-smyon He-ru-ka (Delhi: Serab Gyaltsen, 1983), p. 650. Translation by Garma C. C. Chang, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa (Boulder, Co: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1977), p. 489, 77. J. W. de Jong, Mi la ras pa'i mam thar ('S-Gravenhage: Mouton and Co., 1959), 91-.2-5. Translated Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, The Life of Milarepa (Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1984), p. 82. 78. Both this incident and Milarepa's dream are also contained inTsang Nyon Heruka, The Life of Marpa the Translator, trans, by the Nalanda Translation Committee under the direction of Chogyam Trungpa (Boulder, CO: Prajna Press, 1982), pp. 181-188. 79. Heruka, Mgur 'bum, p. 625; Chang, p. 467. 80. Heruka, Mgur 'bum, pp. 650 ff; Chang, pp,. 489 ff. 81. The Kaalachakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation for the Stage of Generation, ed., trans., and introduced by Jeffrey Hopkins (London: Wisdom Publications, 1985), p. 192. 82. Dodds refers to a similar use of a branch of laurel in the dreambooks of antiquity. See The Greeks and the Irrational, p. 110. 83. Namkhai Norbu distinguishes between women and men for this posture, recommending women sleep on their left side. Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1992), pp. 52-53. The Dalai Lama, however, made no such distinction even though there were many women present. When I questioned Geshe Lozang Jamspal about this position he said one sleeps on the right side to avoid pressure on the heart, thereby assuring a sound sleep, one that presumably would not cause dreams to arise because of physical discomfort. Conversation August 18,1995, New York City. See also Gyatso, Guide to Dakini Land, p. 29, where he elaborates on the symbolic meaning of sleeping postures and attitudes. 84. Hopkins, The Kalachakra Tantra, pp. 201-202. 85. Ibid., pp. 207-208.

REFERENCES
rGyud bzhi, A Reproduction of a set of prints from the 18th century Zun-cu ze Blocks from the Collections of Prof. Raghu Vira, by O-rgyan Namgyal (Leh: S. W. Tashigangpa, 1975). The Kalachakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation for the Stage of Generation, ed., trans., and introduced by Jeffrey Hopkins (London: Wisdom Publications, 1985). Kangyur, Derge edition. Mahasupina Jataka, in Jataka Stories, ed. E.B. Cowell, 6 vols. (1895. London: Pali Text Society, 1957, 1973), vol. I and Pali edition Mi la'i mgur 'bum, ed. Gtsan-smyon He-ru-ka (Delhi: Serab Gyaltsen, 1983). Garma C. C. Chang, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa (Boulder, Co: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1977). Tsang Nyon Heruka, The Life of Marpa the Translator, trans, by the Nalanda Translation Committee under the direction of Chogyam Trungpa (Boulder, CO: Prajna Press, 1982). J. W. de Jong, Mi la ras pa'i mam thar ('S-Gravenhage: Mouton and Co., 1959). Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, trans., The Life of Milarepa (Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1984). Milindapanho, V. Trenckner ed., (London: Williams and Norgate, 1880). T. W. Rhys Davids, The Questions of King Milinda (1894. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965). Kaviraj Kunjalal, trans, and ed., Bhishagratna, The Sushruta Samhita (Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 2nd ed., 1963). Tangyur, Derge edition. Anthony Aris, ed., Tibetan Medical Paintings (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992), 2 vols. Stephen Beyer, The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Berkeley, Ca: University of California Press, 1974). Raoul Birnbaum, The Healing Buddha (Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1979). G. M. Boiling, "Dreams and Sleep (Vedic)," The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics , ed. James Hastings, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), vol. 5. Jose Ignacio Cabez6n and Roger R. Jackson, "Editors' Introduction," Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1996).

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