CEUs: 2

Instructor: Sensei Mui, DBS, PhD

Whether we remember dreaming or not, we all dream. We dream as infants and continue dreaming until we die. We enter unknown worlds where we may be our ordinary selves or someone different. We meet people, friends or strangers, living or dead. We fly, encounter non-human beings, and experience the entire gambit of emotion. We generally pay little attention to these experiences. Although those interested in Western psychological theory often use dream in their spiritual life, they usually focus only on the content and meaning of dreams. The nature of dreaming itself is rarely investigated. When it is, the investigation leads to the mysterious processes that underlie the whole of our existence, not only our dreaming life.

To begin, one must recognize the great potential dream holds for the spiritual journey. Normally dreams are thought to be “unreal,” as opposed to “real” waking life. There is nothing more real than dream. This makes sense once it is understood that normal waking life is as unreal as dream. “Dream Yoga” applies to all experience: dreams of the day as well as the dreams of the night.

About the Instructor
Shaku Mui, Sensei, was ordained in 1971 as a forest monk in Thailand. Since then he has studied and been ordained in Sōto Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Esoteric Tendai and Pure Land Buddhism. He was awarded a Doctor of Buddhist Studies (DBS) degree with a psychology specialty and PhD in literature and languages with a specialty in psycholinguistics. He is currently a teacher with Hongaku Jōdo, an organization of Buddhist teachers and clergy in the Western tradition. He also works as a Buddhist counselor and therapist utilizing cognitive and meditative therapies. Sensei Mui’s style is to clearly present the teachings found in the early Buddhist scriptures as well as the writings of the Mahayana traditions making even the deepest concepts accessible to people in the 21st century.