Tibetan Dream practice

The analysis of dreams and their interpretation have been used in Tibet since ancient time. Tibetan Bon faith healers used dreams to read the relationship between the spirits and humans, and diagnose diseases. ‘Dream tellers‘ were also involved with the government to make predictions to the kings about the politics and prosperity of the country. After Buddhism came to Tibet in the 7th century, the dream analyzing culture developed along with the medical knowledge and spiritual practices. The practice of dream analysis increased with the use of dream omens as a diagnosis in medical practice, according to the Tibetan Medical tantra Gyud-shi, and with Yoga tantra as a ‘dream Yoga‘ and practice for spiritual transformations of the body/mind.

Dream, the secret language

Dream is the secret language of the mind and its phenomena, and a common subject of interest in the East and West. In the West, psychoanalysis is expressed as a ‘big dream‘ and a language of the mysterious. Does an unseen angel or devil play a role of masterminding? Western psychologists neglect the religious and spiritual concepts of the dream and adopt the mode of scientific interpretation. The Tibetan dream interpretation is particular. It is mixed with cultural beliefs and is firmly influenced by Buddhist philosophy of mind and phenomena. Some concordances still exist between the eastern and the western understanding of dreams but there are also huge differences. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is said that the inner mind or Kunshi, ‘base of the mind‘, records all the memories of past and present experiences of the body and mind. The reflections of the memory – that is released or moved by similar experiences that the person earned or will earn in the day or next days – may appear in the dream as premonitory or through dreams, the inner world of the body/mind. To reveal the secret language of dreams and its practice, one should learn them from the tantra and with a master.