Tibetan Yoga of Dreams and Sleep

Notes from a workshop with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

Allen Cohen wrote this post after attending the Saturday portion of a Saturday–Sunday workshop at Tibet House on January 29. Thanks, Allen!

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

The session began with a short meditation. The beginning of the workshop had to do with changing “karmic traces.” At any moment we are producing karma. Every experience is saved and has an effect on us in a certain way. WHAT happens is less important than HOW we respond and save an experience internally, and if we work on it afterward.

When we suffer, our greatest problem is identification with “our pain.” E.g., a child is misbehaving; the parent thinks “the child should behave” and judges the child for not behaving, loses peace of mind and openness, expresses anger at the child…goes a little crazy, says things he didn’t want to say, feels a sense of hurt, spreads a message of fear and pressure to the child, who feels negativity coming from the parent and also is not getting what he is missing—love or attention. The suggestion given by Rinpoche throughout the workshop was to stop and go to a place where you can experience stillness, silence, and spaciousness. “Rather than say to yourself, ‘This is a serious problem,’ say: ‘This is a dream.’” People tend to identify with what they are familiar with (connecting with pain), rather than choosing a path of greater openness because of fear of the unknown. In fact, the inner space of stillness, silence, and expansiveness is an active, creative part of us from which we are connected to our deepest intellect. From here, everything is processed differently. From this space a response can emerge that will serve both parent and child.