There are three types of dream that form a progression in dream practice, although not an exact one: 1) ordinary samsaric dreams, 2) dreams of clarity, and 3) clear light dreams. The first two types are distinguished by the differences of their causes, and in either, the dreamer may be either lucid or non-lucid. In clear light dreams, there is awareness, but no subject-object dichotomy. Clear light dreams occur in non-dual awareness.
SAMSARIC DREAMS
The dreams that most of us have most of the time are the samsaric dreams that arise from karmic traces*. Meaning found in these dreams is meaning that we project into them; it is imputed by the dreamer rather than being inherent in the dream. This is also the case with meaning in our waking life. This does not make meaningful dreams unimportant any more than it makes the meaning in our waking life unimportant. The process is similar to reading a book. A book is just marks on paper, but because we bring our sense of meaning to it we can take meaning from it. And the meaning of a book, like a dream, is subject to interpretation. Two people can read the same book and have entirely different experiences; one person may change her whole life based on the meaning she has found in the pages, while her friend may find the book only mildly interesting or not even that. The book has not changed. The meaning is projected onto the words by the reader, and then read back.
| Ordinary dreaming | Non-lucid |
| (Arises from personal karmic traces) | Lucid |
| Dreams of clarity | Non-lucid |
| (Arise from transpersonal karmic traces) | Lucid |
| Clear light dreams | Lucid |
| (Non-duality) | (beyond subject/object duality) |
DREAMS OF CLARITY
As progress is made in dream practice, dreams become clearer and more detailed, and a larger part of each dream is remembered. This is a result of bringing greater awareness into the dream state. Beyond this increased awareness in ordinary dreams is a second kind of dream called the dream of clarity, which arises when the mind and the prana are balanced and the dreamer has developed the capacity to remain in non-personal presence. Unlike the samsaric dream, in which the mind is swept here and there by karmic prana, in the dream of clarity the dreamer is stable. Though images and information arise, they are based less on personal karmic traces and instead present knowledge available directly from consciousness below the level of the conventional self. This is analogous to the differences in the rough karmic prana of the white channel, which is connected to negative emotion, and the wisdom prana of the red channel. Just as they are both karmic prana— energies involved in experiences of dualism—but one is purer and less deluded than the other, so is the dream of clarity purer and less deluded than the samsaric dream. In the dream of clarity it is as if something is given to or found by the dreamer, as opposed to the samsaric dream in which meaning is projected from the dreamer onto the purity of fundamental experience.
Dreams of clarity may occasionally arise for anyone, but they are not common until the practice is developed and stable. For most of us, all dreams are samsaric dreams based on our daily lives and emotions. Even though we may have a dream about the teachings, or our teachers, or our practice, or buddhas, or dakinis*, the dream is still likely to be a samsaric dream. If we are involved in practice with a teacher, then of course we will dream about these things. It is a positive sign to have these dreams because it means that we are engaged in the teachings, but the engagement itself is dualistic and therefore in the realm of samsara. There are better and worse aspects of samsara, and it is good to be fully engaged in practice and the teachings because that is the path to liberation. It is also good not to mistake samsaric dreams for dreams of clarity.
If we make the mistake of believing that samsaric dreams are offering us true guidance, then changing our lives daily, trying to follow the dictates of dreams, can become a full-time job. It is also a way to become stuck in personal drama, believing that all our dreams are messages from a higher, more spiritual source. It is not like that. We should pay close attention to dreams and develop some understanding of which ones have import and which are only the manifestation of the emotions, desires, fears, hopes, and fantasies of our daily life.
CLEAR LIGHT DREAMS
There is a third type of dream that occurs when one is far along the path, the clear light dream. It arises from the primordial prana in the central channel. The clear light is generally spoken of in the teachings about sleep yoga and indicates a state free from dream, thought, and image, but there is also a clear light dream in which the dreamer remains in the nature of mind. This is not an easy accomplishment; the practitioner must be very stable in non-dual awareness before the clear light dream arises. Gyalshen Milu Samleg, the author of important commentaries on the Mother Tantra, wrote that he practiced consistently for nine years before he began to have clear light dreams.
Developing the capacity for clear light dreams is similar to developing the capacity of abiding in the non-dual presence of rigpa during the day. In the beginning, rigpa and thought seem different, so that in the experience of rigpa there is no thought, and if thought arises we are distracted and lose rigpa. But when stability in rigpa is developed, thought simply arises and dissolves without in the least obscuring rigpa; the practitioner remains in non-dual awareness. These situations are similar to learning to play the drum and bell together in ritual practice: in the beginning we can only do one at a time. If we play the bell, we lose the rhythm of the drum, and vice versa. After we are stable we can play both at the same time.
The clear light dream is not the same as the dream of clarity, which, while arising from deep and relatively pure aspects of the mind and generated from positive karmic traces, still takes place in duality. The clear light dream, while emerging from the karmic traces of the past, does not result in dualistic experience. The practitioner does not reconstitute as an observing subject in relation to the dream as an object, nor as a subject in the world of the dream, but abides wholly integrated with non-dual rigpa.
The differences in the three kinds of dreams may seem subtle. Samsaric dream arises from the individual’s karmic traces and emotions, and all content of the dream is formed by those traces and emotions. The dream of clarity includes more objective knowledge, which arises from collective karmic traces and is available to consciousness when it is not entangled in personal karmic traces. The consciousness is then not bound by space and time and personal history, and the dreamer can meet with real beings, receive teachings from real teachers, and find information helpful to others as well as to him or herself.
The clear light dream is not defined by the content of the dream, but is a clear light dream because there is no subjective dreamer or dream ego, nor any self in a dualistic relationship with the dream or the dream content. Although a dream arises, it is an activity of the mind that does not disturb the practitioner’s stability in clear light.