One's incapacity for recognizing the dream is like that of a child who believes the reflection of his face to be his true face; while in recognizing the dream, one is like an adult who knows the reflection is unreal although it appears to be his actual face. This example is an illustration of the underlying principle, and is a good one to express the principle of the Voidness-as-Reflection (literally the Voidness of the face-like reflection in the sense of the nonexistence of the "true" face in the reflection). According to this principle, one should know that all Dharmas are Void in their self-nature--self-nature in the sense of real self-existence. One should also understand that all Dharmas are dream-like and have no substantiality whatsoever.

With this understanding definitely in mind, the yogi should acquaint himself with the nature, manner and characteristics of the Clinging-of-Existence, and also himself with the reasons for the non-existence of this (illusory) Clinging. With such an understanding, the yogi learns that all the visions, objects, and subjects that he sees in the dream are identical with (Buddha) and the Two Mandalas; they are void in nature yet manifest (freely) as conjurations. Further, the yogi should understand that all these visions are absorbed in the bliss-void, as one has experienced during the daytime.

(4) The Practice on the real nature of dream: This is a teaching combining the Light Yoga with Dream Yoga. In the practice of this teaching, the yogi clearly visualizes (in the dream state) the self-body becoming his Yidam. From his heart, the Hum word emanates rays of light that gather

all the visions in the dream and draw them back into the Hum word. Then both the lower and upper part of his body melt and become absorbed into the Hum word. Then the Hum word also vanishes into the non-discriminating Light, upon which the yogi should concentrate his mind.

The perception-of-mind[r_nar:86] of the dream state is much easier to absorb than the perception-of-mind of the waking state. In the dream state, when some portion of the very coarse kind of Prana dissolves itself and gathers at the Heart Center, the dream will vanish, and one will fall into the sleeping state. This is the time in which one may recognize the Voidness; if not, through repeated practices, one will definitely be able to see the Voidness of sleep clearly. If the absorbing process[r_nar:87] and Void-holding become stable, this will greatly help meditation--Prana exercise, visualization, Mahamudra--in the daytime. 1f the yogi cannot recognize the Voidness-of-Sleep at the beginning stage when he first falls into sleep, he will be able through the power of recognizing the dream, to see the special Voidness.