Dream yoga

Dream yoga or milam (Tibetan: རྨི་ལམ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་, Wylie: rmi lam rnal 'byor, THL: milam naljor; Sanskrit: स्वप्नदर्शनयोग, svapnadarśanayoga)—the Yoga of the Dream State—is a suite of advanced tantric sadhana of the entwined Mantrayana lineages of Dzogchen (Nyingmapa, Ngagpa, Mahasiddha, Kagyu and Bönpo). Dream yoga consists of tantric processes and techniques within the trance Bardos of Dream and Sleep (Standard Tibetan: mi-lam bardo) Six Dharmas of Naropa. In the tradition of the tantra, the dream yoga method is usually passed on by a qualified teacher to his/her students after necessary initiation. Various Tibetan lamas are unanimous that it is more of a passing of an enlightened experience rather than any textual information. In Tibetan Buddhist traditions, dream yoga is often taught alongside the practices of the illusory body (gyulu) and the clear light (ösel). Classical sources such as the Six Dharmas of Naropa describe these as interconnected methods within a single cycle of tantric training, aimed at maintaining awareness across waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states. Contemporary teachers likewise present them as complementary practices: daytime illusory-body training supports lucid dreaming at night, and both practices are considered preparatory for recognizing the luminous nature of mind in clear-light meditation.

The 'dream body' and the 'bardo body' have been identified with the 'vision body' (Tibetan: yid lus):

In the bardo one has...the yilü (Wylie: yid lus), the vision body (yid, consciousness; lus, body). It is the same as the body of dreams, the mind body.

In the yoga of dreaming (rmi lam, *svapna), the yogi learns to remain aware during the states of dreaming (i.e. to lucid dream) and uses this skill to practice yoga in the dream.