Bridging the gap between western and eastern views on death.
The Tibetan view is that reincarnation continues after death, and they have vivid dreams of their future lives. If you can be prepared for your own death in a dream state, then you will be well prepared to handle it during waking life. I think this is a very interesting concept, because it suggests that death has no finality to it. I think that the concept of reincarnation is so foreign to westerners that we tend to ignore it as a topic. But there are some people in the west who believe in reincarnation, and this topic suggests an interesting way to reconcile these two viewpoints. Tibetan dream yoga is a practice of lucid dreaming with which the practitioner can become aware that they are dreaming. The goal of this practice is to be able to recognize when one has died and become aware that death merely involves moving from one state to another, like waking up from sleep or falling asleep. Tibetan Buddhists believe that actions taken in dreams have consequences just as those ...