Dreaming and Dream Bodies

Well, July 2008 went by without a blog post. Anyway, here is what I've been thinking about lately.

• Carlos Castaneda's ideas of the double body and dreaming
• Vajrayana practices of generating an illusory body and dream yoga

Castaneda's writings are an interesting resource for getting some ideas--outside of the Buddhist tradition--that might help us understand some of the Vajrayana practices. Castaneda's stories, which are so well-known among Westerners in my generation, bring to life the possibilities which might seem too theoretical from classical Buddhist texts.


See Tales of Power, pages 43 - 51, for an anecdote about don Genero showing up in his 'double' body, which:

• can travel great distances in an instant

"Genaro is a man of knowledge," don Juan said dryly. "And being a man of knowledge, he's perfectly capable of transporting himself over great distances." He reminded me that once, years before, the three of us had been in the mountains, and that don Genaro, in an effort to help me overcome my stupid reason, had taken a prodigious leap to the peaks of the Sierras, ten miles away. I remembered the event, but I also remembered that I could not even conceive that he had jumped.

• is a subtle body

"Would it be possible then to say that it is made of flesh and blood?" I asked. "No. It would not be possible," don Genaro answered.
.... [and don Juan explains,] "The double is the self; that explanation should suffice. If you would see, however, you'd know that there is a great difference between Genaro and his double. For a sorcerer who sees, the double is brighter."

• like the illusory body -- is related to the dream body

"A double is the sorcerer himself, developed through his dreaming," don Juan explained."

• is able to move about in the world, interacting with people

"... in the years that you've known him, you've been with the original Genaro only twice; every other time you've been with his double."

• is able to perform supernormal feats (what Buddhists would call 'siddhis')
  

"In the style of stage magic, the assistant set up the props, which in this case were the few items on the dirt floor -- rocks, burlap sacks, pieces of wood, a milk crate, a lantern and my jacket -- then the magician, don Genaro, would proceed to find an object, which he would throw away as soon as he had attested that it was not my pencil. The collection of objects found included pieces of clothing, wigs, eyeglasses toys, utensils, pieces of machinery, women's underwear, human teeth, sandwiches, and religious objects."

Information about the illusory body can be found in the following texts, although these are restricted to initiates:


The Six Yogas of Naropa: Tsongkhapa's Commentary (Paperback)
by Glenn H. Mullin (Author)


Highest Yoga Tantra (Paperback)
by Daniel Cozort (Author)