DREAM YOGA (Spanish Edition) by Andrew Holecek

DREAM YOGA (Spanish Edition) Reviews

• 
  Sarah

  I read this last summer and reread it last weekend before going to a weekend seminar by Holecek. The books is so clear and easy, but he is so clear and overwhelming with knowledge in real life that it is hard to rate the book alone now. Holecek is the real deal and suck a pleasure to learn from. Using this book last summer as I guide, I had my first lucide dreams, was able to fly in my dream for the first time, and had two profound spiritual experiences that spooked me enough that I backed off until restarting again six months later. My progress was gradual- I didn’t have an intense experience the first or second or even third night, but as I kep up with trying the different practices I did start to experience results that were undeniable. Happy Sleeping!
• 
  Seon Ji (Dawn)

  No rating dnf 60%
  
  I apparently misunderstood what this book was about... I feel the title is a little misleading. This is not the type of book I thought it was. IMO this is more geared towards those who are philosophers, gurus, Buddhists and others who are advanced spiritually.
  
  There were elements I found enlightening and informative but I do not feel this was the right choice for me to read at this stage of my awareness.
  
  Overall I found it mostly repettitive, mudane and overly complex. Perhaps this is because I am a simple minded person and not very intelligent. IDK.
  
  Not for me.
• 
  Karen

  I have to rate this 5 stars. I listened to the audiobook and it is perfect. I have read a lot of material on Lucid Dreaming, but this says it all. If dreamwork and consciousness interest you, listen to this!
• 
  Robin Tobin (On the back porch reading)

  A comprehensive look at dreaming through the eyes of Buddhism. Excellent!
• 
  Adela

  This is an excellent overview of different kinds of dream and sleep yoga practices, and the spiritual history of these practices. The books is very accessible and gives you the big picture, as well as specific exercises, and is a great starting point for going on to read some of the original Buddhist texts and teachings. I had already read Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Sleep Yoga book, which has a lot more detail on the Tibetan Bon practices, but this book put those practices in larger historical and spiritual context for me. If was also interesting to find out that Western and Eastern dream yoga practices and techniques are different. If you are not into Buddhist type meditation, this book is still valuable, as it provides an introduction to the Western styles techniques, and at the same time gives you and overview of other techniques available. Overall, very readable, accessible, and great for people who are exploring dream yoga or lucid dreaming or sleep yoga for the very first time.
• 
  Ron Garan

  I thought this was a wonderful book. It illuminated not only the world of sleep but also the foundational fabric of reality. I will definitely read it again to pull more from it. Thank you Andrew Holecek for sharing your insights and wisdom.
• 
  May Ling

  Summary: An incredible book for those that lucidly dream. If you are a lucid dreamer and want to better understand how to think about this in the context of mind-self-control, awareness and manifestation, this is def a book to put on the list.
  
  Interestingly, I found this more helpful than the book on sleep I read for understanding the various wave patterns in sleep. This was early on.
  
  I recently met a few people that are lucid dreamers and I didn't realize how to think about this skill. It's fascinating and its power is intense. This is the first book I've ever read, that gave me a sense for the possibilities of it and how to go about doing it. It's practical. And that is so needed.
  
  I'm reading this on Kindle so it's hard to know where in the book, but there is a part that talks about the 'Clear-light Mind." This is also the Buddha mind. The point is that this represents the true self and identity. That states wishes to be happy, this is when we are in unity. "If we examine this longing closely, it's fundamentally the longing for unity, or nonduality. Unhappiness is the result of duality, and manifests as the feeling that something is missing or incomplete. We're not exactly sure what's missing, but something is off. If we only identify with the psyche, something Is missing. Our identity is incomplete, so our longing is accurate. But the sense of what satisfies that longing is not." How profound is that?!?
  
  There is a section where he breaks down different type of dreams: Recurrent, Prophetic, Witnessing, Luminous, incubated. The first is something we are trying to tell ourselves and not listening. The second is a shamen like ability. The third is third person watching your dream. The 4th is the ah-ha type dream. The 5th is something we've been noodling during the day and are using sleep to help us with. I mean, to the extent that you are a lucid dreamer, this really brings another layer in dream control.
  
  There is section on karma and dreaming. Karma in the mental land does not carry much weight except that we keep having the same dream that is attempting to tell us something (our thoughts repeating in some way). Fascinating. Need to think about that.
  
  There is a section on Stability of reality vs. dream and how to consider this in the context of our human experience. There are constraints missing vs. dreams, and yet the practice of mindfulness removes some of the unnecessary constraints. It is good, but we should not go crazy.... I think is the point of this. Still, we got to remove the constraints that are not real. I think this is why he's chosen a different word, i.e. stable.
  
  "Enlightment is the stabilization of Enlightened qualities." Wow! I like this. It implies that we all have it, it's just maintaining and sustaining it. Amazing.
  
  "We forget that non-duality - just like duality - is something we practice." The point is we are enlightened, we practice that. However, we do the opposite too by not trying to maintain that state.
  
  Paraphrasing a section that talks about how those that lucid dream can get a real benefit: The power of lucid dreaming is the ability to overcome the mental duality through a pure mental state.
  
  Regarding the Senoi culture in Malaysia, children actively discuss their dreams. Adulthood starts when dreams move in the direction for which they have full control. Wow!
  
  There is a section that talks about turning "near enemies" into "near friends." This is so true. When you are enlightened, others may seem asleep in comparison. The key is to meet people where they are at. It's hard, b/c just like a room in which you are wide awake and others are napping, you got to pick your spots. If they are in a light happy slumber ready to awaken, it's seen as a positive. If they are deeply asleep, you will have limited affect and even they could come at you quite aggressively. What a beautiful analogy and way to think about what you are doing when you attempt to affect someone else's path.
  
  He talks about the idea that when you are able to be a child of illusion, you become more childlike, not to be confused with childish.
  
  "When your mind becomes more malleable and dreamlike, so does your experience. You may find that you're able to wrap your mind around things that aware previously beyond your stretch. On an emotional level, things still touch you, but they don't get to you. Your mind becomes elastic, adaptable, and resilient." Wow... cool.
  
  There is a section that talks about the idea that many of the most enlightened are all about laughter. "...because they've poked through everything and they delight in the levity of seeing things as they truly are."
  
  The whole book is awesome and if this is your wavelength, I have no doubt you'll take even more out of it than I've listed above.
  
  
• 
  Buck Wilde

  Incomprehensible woo nonsense. Don't call it as a lucid dreaming book if what you're selling is a preachy meditation-retreat memoir interspersed with humblebragging about your skill at savasana.
  
  Get ye gone, witch.
• 
  Megan

  This book presents some really interesting ideas, but maybe isn't always the clearest at explaining them - I felt like a lot of it went over my head, so perhaps it just isn't the best book for a beginner on the subject. I would over finish a chapter and wonder what exactly it was that I was supposed to have learned that I could put into practice.
  
  I have at least started keeping a dream journal as a result of this book, and seem to be remembering my dreams more clearly, which is a plus.
  
  I would also suggest that if you're a fan of David Lynch, particularly the recent third season of Twin Peaks or the film Mulholland Drive, you might find this book fairly illuminating.
• 
  mindfroth

  More like 3 1/2. It's less a manual than a series of essays on the function and meaning of dream yoga (encompassing dream, sleep, and bardo), and while the quality of the writing isn't outstanding (this is clearly intended for a general audience, the way some of the more interesting elements are relegated to footnotes), the content is compelling enough, and effectively articulated enough, to influence one's perspective on the dreamlike nature of phenomenal reality.
• 
  Baroness

  While listening to this audiobook I thought it was a two star bc it dragged a bit but then I went to the beach, as I inhaled the ocean air I had total mental clarity…
  The author’s perspective is legit.
  Reality is a dream, an illusion.
  If you can dream it, you most def can achieve it!
• 
  ghalani Of Greenwood

  i loved the approachable, lighthearted tone and thoroughness of this, especially given the esoteric content.
  
  i didn’t like how it was redundant at times and exhaustingly explicative with certain concepts, using multiple metaphors and sometimes stacking them.
  
  that being said i would definitely recommend this to any practicing meditator, especially those with a special interest in Dzogchen (Tibetan Buddhist tradition), different states of consciousness, lucid dreaming, and death.
  ————————————
  fav quotes:
  
  DREAMS 🌿
  87
  “The stability and clarity of your dreams is nothing more than the stability and clarity of attention itself.”
  
  
  
  NON-DUALITY🌿
  100
  “if you look closely at anything, you will see that it arises in dependence on other things, so emptiness refers to the lack of (empty of) inherent existence.”
  
  171
  “As ‘outsiders’, in a Buddhist sense, we’re always projecting onto the outside world, creating and sustaining our sense of self based on the echoes that come back. it’s a kind of psychological “echolocation”, or finding our way in the world based on the feedback we get from projecting ourselves onto it. These echoes are all contingent on having a solid “out there” to bounce off of. if there’s something solid out there, the immediate implication is that there must be something solid “in here”. Where there is other, there is self. And the more solid the other, we surmise, the more solid the self.”
  
  ATTACHMENTS🌿
  
  91
  “... we spend our lives chasing our thoughts, as meditation quickly reveals. This pursuit of thoughts and things is the basis of materialism and consumerism, and therefore all our suffering.”
  
  223
  “If you identify with those formed aspects of your relative self, you will suffer in direct proportion to that level of identification when those aspects inevitably decay and disappear.”
• 
  Amaia ✡

  Starting from the basics of lucid dreaming and going deeper through dream yoga, sleep yoga until the bardo yoga and the daily practice of illusory form, this book is instilled with wisdom and I'm afraid one reading might prove not enough to even grasp half of it (for the complete newbie that I am). A few practical tips are presented, but this book is essentially an overview of it all and less of a practical guide, going from the western/psychological practices to the old, eastern traditions. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful and useful book to which I will certainly return.
  
  C. G. Jung sums it up beautifully: "Your vision will become clear when you look into your heart. Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside awakens."
  
  "I believe in the night."
• 
  Johnny Cordova

  Based on the Tibetan yogas of dream and sleep and packaged for a non-Buddhist readership. More of a book about meditation than lucid dreaming, though there is some good advice on the latter. Great for somebody looking for a well-mapped introduction to the philosophies and meditation practices of Tibetan Buddhism. Puts lucid dreaming into a spiritual context and draws an interesting path from waking life to dream life and back again.
• 
  Movsar Bekaev

  Too much of the newage nonsense, I was looking for a practical guidance not for a collection of rosy thoughts. 90% of the book has nothing to do with lucid dreaming practices, rather with meditation and relaxation, which of course help lucidity but it wasn't what I was looking for, anyway, I am disappointed for wasting my time.
• 
  Erik

  This is the best book of this genre. The author writes with total lucidity and the power behind his descriptions is obviously anchored in much experience. I haven't gained so much insight from a book in quite awhile, if ever. So yeah, I loved it. Thank you Andrew!
• 
  James Rupert

  Very good as a crash course in lucid dreaming as well as mindfulness. Some great techniques in here for the beginner or the experienced alike.
• 
  Curtis Nash

  This is one of those books I take my time with in order to let the subject matter sink it before going on. I don't know how advanced I am in this area of yogic practice or lucid dreaming, though I know there is much to gain by falling deeper into those practices. I would be more self-aware, more mindful, and a more balanced and secure individual.
  I became excited reading this and finding a connection to an interest I have always had, in terms of this dreamlike alternate universe that is within our reach, when this physical earthbound world is transcended.
  So if you haven't read this, it is not about the yogi stretching exercises, but the yoga state of mind you attain while doing those exercises, and the breathing, transcending to balance or harmony and a more content mindset.
  Well, "Dream Yoga" then is this deeper connection to the higher self that is reflected in this energy field beyond the conscious world which we drag our physical body through, this higher self that we hope to fit back into when our time on Earth is through, or what Holecek refers to as the second state of dreaming, the end of our time (death of our physical body).
  The first state being the end of our day, or when we are asleep. Through lucid dreaming, we can explore this connection we have to that higher self before our physical body expires, or without having to wait until then.
  If you have ever experienced lucid dreaming, you know the benefits to your health and wellness, especially toward uncertainty and anxiety, because as he points out in the book, this state of consciousness has been seen as the way to balance things, the reason we sleep, and to connect these two states brings a whole new awareness to our sense of mind or energy existing beyond our body's life span. This concept I found interesting to dwell on, and it made me happy to realize the connection between these crazy symbols I need a book to decipher (though intuition works better really) and a purpose of balance and regeneration.
  The book is not too long, as is clear in its structure, as the first part explains the mindset and the history, and then different methods are discussed in order to help the reader find their way to consider trying it. I think a lot of people have some experience with lucid dreaming, but knowing the science or the schools of thought on why we sleep and dream, and how we can use this time to supercharge ourselves (for lack of a better term) makes the book worthwhile--probably better if you are a newbie and only a little aware of the concept of lucid dreaming and self awareness. If you are more experienced, you may find interest in the different methods Holocek describes.
  Life is all about learning new paths that explain or illuminate the mysteries we have always had, even if we have forgotten them, and this book takes you down a road of understanding you may not have known was hidden. Enjoy!
• 
  Heidi

  "Just as my experience joined day and night, this book will continue the theme of unity as I join the wisdom of the East with the knowledge of the West in an attempt to bring this wonderous world of the night into the crisp light of day." pg 17, ebook
  
  Andrew Holecek utilizes techniques from both the Western traditions and Eastern Buddhist traditions in this book about how to lucid dream.
  
  "This book is like a tour into your innermost self." pg 24
  
  It's been awhile since I read a non-fiction book about dreaming. Years ago I read:
  A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming: Mastering the Art of Oneironautics, which introduced me to practices that assist the dreamer in becoming lucid.
  
  Some of those appear in this book like doing dream checks where you jump up and down and if you float that obviously means you're dreaming.
  
  I've had mild success with those techniques. But because of my prior reading, the most interesting parts of this book were the Eastern techniques which I'd never been exposed to.
  
  "In this book we're going to talk about how to strengthen the world of dreaming as a way to weaken the world of daily appearance, so that worldly things don't have as much power over us." pg 33, ebook
  
  In addition to meditations and visualizations into lucid dreaming, Holecek shares some practices that can be done while dying. I thought that was fascinating.
  
  I haven't had much success with either the Western or Eastern practices... yet. I'm hopeful that progress will come in time. Holecek suggests using techniques for weeks before going on to something else, which gives you time to master whatever you're trying.
  
  So, we'll see. Until then, friends, happy dreaming!
• 
  Anna

  The meditations and exercises in this book are useful even if you're not practicing yoga or even if you're not familiar with Buddhist concepts. Holecek does not assume anything about the reader's experience aside from their desire to meditate while asleep and seek some form of enlightenment and release in doing so. As someone who has lucid dream experiences frequently, the exercises and theory of lucid dreaming and sleep yoga in this book have helped elevate my experiences and perception of illusory thought. Holecek's methods apply to both Western and Eastern ways of thinking and he cites philosophers and developments in the field of psychology as examples of concepts in lucid dreaming and sleep yoga. He utilizes tenets from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to form a basis for dream yoga from a secular perspective. Highly recommend this book for developing one's personal wellness.
• 
  Nancy

  If you've read a bit about lucid dreaming but want to take it to the next level, then this book is the one to read. It is well written, clear and fascinating, but it digs a lot deeper into the Buddhist ideas of dream yoga and even touches on the difficult-to-achieve bardo yoga. But the author never alienates the non-Buddhist, and all of the practical advice he provides is achievable.
  
  I read this book in conjunction with attending a meditation retreat which was focusing on lucid dreaming. I felt that the book dove-tailed beautifully with what I was learning and our instructor recommended it highly. It is a book I'd like to go back to again.
• 
  Gabriel J. Clark

  This book is a guide for Dream Yoga, the ancient Tibetan Buddhist technique for maintaining consciousness in your dreams (lucid dreaming). It also explains sleep yoga, which is the practice of maintaining consciousness during dreamless sleep, and bardo yoga, which is the practice of maintaining consciousness during death. It is very enlightening to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs of consciousness, reality, the afterlife, and so on.
• 
  Chad

  This all takes so much focus and dedication. This book has inspired me to start keeping a dream journal in pursuit of more lucid dreams. I have had about a dozen lucid dreams in my life, some of them still extremely vivid in my memory even decades later. Could take a while (like years and years) to get enough lucid dreaming under my belt to atttempt dream or sleep yoga, so I might as well start now.
• 
  David Clapper

  This is a very useful book. I have read Tenzin Wangyal's very accessible book on Tibetan Dream Yoga, as well as the less accessible book by Namkhai Norbu. I have also read Alan Wallace's and Gyatrul Rinpoche's books. However, although all of these authors provide a lot of really useful advice regarding the Tibetan practices of dream and sleep yoga, they don't structure it the way Andrew does. I think that that is what's most valuable about this book. Not only does Andrew describe the various ways of becoming lucid in your dreams, he also gives a step by step path leading to realization of the clear light. He presents the various lucid dream activities in increasing order of difficulty. Andrew also describes his own difficulties with the practice, which makes it a very human book, and one that actually encourages you to persevere because you know that others have successfully surmounted the various obstacles that can arise. Nowhere does he write like the all-knowing, all-powerful guru, which only served to make me feel dis-empowered when I read the previous author's works.