Dream Yoga & the Bardos with Andrew Holecek

Use sleep as an opportunity to wake up.

Sleep and dream provide a precious opportunity for spiritual awakening. Every night we drop into the enlightened state, do not recognize it, and miss another chance. By learning how to wake up in our dreams, we can transform sleep into a profound method to help us understand the nature of reality. Dream yoga is also an important preparation for death—lucid dreaming leads to lucid dying. In this extended weekend, we will melt the boundaries between day and night, dissolve the solidity of daytime appearances, and become children of illusion.

Dream yoga evolved principally as a preparation for death. If we can wake up in our dreams, we will be able to wake up in the bardos and take rebirth in a pure land, or attain enlightenment. Dropping into sleep is a concordant experience for dying. One third of our lives is spent sleeping—dream and sleep yogas allow us to transform sleep into meditation. Instead of going to sleep each night, we can practice waking up.

Andrew Holecek has completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditation retreat and is the founder of the Forum of Living and Dying, which offers seminars around the country on death and dying. He writes a column for Bodhi Magazine and his book on spiritual hardship, The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy, will be available in April, 2010.

Extend Your Stay. We are offering a 25% housing discount for additional nights. Come early and relax before your program starts or stay an extra day or more after this program to savor your retreat experience.

Please arrive between 2 and 5pm on Thursday, April 29. Program ends with lunch at 12:30pm on Sunday, May 2. View Detailed Program Information.