The above article unintentionally provides a distinction between the attitudes of Western “lucid dreamers” and the Eastern approach of dream yoga. Lucid dreamers often make the mistake of giving no attention to dream characters while lucid–even treating them like toys at times for their own ego’s satisfaction. I remember hearing about a lucid dreamer who would kill his dream characters just for fun because “they aren’t real.”
This perspective lacks the wisdom that you literally are the dream characters in your dream, and it also discounts the realness of our dream reality. If you haven’t yet seen it yourself, the dream reality is as real as the room you’re in right now. Actually, look around for a second–how do you know you aren’t dreaming?
Rather than torment or even murder yourselves, a more compassionate approach to your dream characters stems from the nondual wisdom of Dream Yoga. Recognizing dream characters as aspects of your own self, you are practicing self-compassion when you give your dream brother a big hug. This attitude toward the dream environment and characters within it is indicative of your attitude toward your own self. For example, if you’re having a lucid dream in a dark forest, summon some sunshine into the trees. From this perspective, lucidity can be used to literally bring light to those dark places within yourself.
If you practice the Golden Rule in your dreams, “Do unto others as you wish they would do unto you,” don’t do it only because you learned about it in church. Practice the Golden Rule in your dreams because you quite literally are the “others” in your dream. Perhaps then you’ll see that there’s likewise more to this ancient rule in waking life.
