Dreams are elusive. Shape-shifting. People and places in dreams melt, become something else. To articulate a dream is often puzzling. Bizarre. In those brief moments after waking, we sometimes make efforts to palpate our dreams. Reaching for a glimpse of subconscious clarity.
Most of my dreams feel conical, like a funnel though which I pour all my anxiety and unspoken fears. Mostly, I am running from something. Or the world has turned liquid and everyone is swimming. Sometimes I'm crossing rivers filled with alligators or mucking through jungles hoping not to meet the fangs of some poisonous snake. Occasionally, I have yoga dreams. Some where I am learning and experiencing. These are the rare ones, full of beauty and the brink of enlightenment. Frequently, though, I dream that I am teaching yoga. Teaching to crowds of students who don't want to listen. Who roam off in clusters, oblivious to my efforts. This must be some deep-seated fear, for it has never happened.
Back in May, at a yoga conference, I decided to survey some of my peers. What were their yoga dreams? This was by no means a formal study and it did invoke a lot of laughter. Below are the tellings of three yoginis' dreams and as you can see, we are all cut from the same neurotic cloth.
I am teaching standing poses at the wall. The students are fairly close together and the lighting is dim. I am concentrating on the students, close-in, they are new. I step back to get an overall look at them and realize we are crowded into the corner of a bar! Now I am aware of loud music, crowds of people, flashing lights, and the smell of beer. It is Friday night and business is at its peak. I am finding it difficult to teach in the midst of this mayhem and make an effort to communicate without shrieking. Then, I realize this is a loft style bar and there is a smaller second floor that can be seen from below... and there are students crowded into a corner up there, too! At full speed, I jostle through patrons and their drinks up the stairs and that is the end of my dream.
Karen's Dream:
A few months before my Intro I/II assessment, I had a dream I was walking with my mother through a beautiful landscape. We walked along a path flanked by old trees with thick trunks and many branches. There was a golden light permeating everything. The path led to a house and the next moment my mother was gone and I found myself teaching in that unfamiliar place. Inside it looked like a gym. I could still see some of the beautiful trees through the windows.
I was teaching a large group of beginners. All of the people in the room where strangers to me. We were sitting in Sukhasana (crossed legs) and as I was looking around the room there was one student in the front row who was doing Eka Pada Sirsasana (head stand with one leg down) instead.
In my dream, I found this quite unsettling and wondered why such an advanced student would be in a beginners' class and how to handle the situation. At that moment a group of people entered the gym who started to practise some kind of sport in the midst of all the yoga students and then all of a sudden the yoga students all disappeared at once and only the sporty people were still there.
Krisna's Dream:
I arrive a little late, finding myself in a room with a large group of yoga "students". Not your typically attired "shorts and t-shirt wearing" students, but people with running shoes on, bulky jackets, and blue jeans with belts. The crowd is waiting for the class to start, but not terribly interested in what they are about to experience. There is a somewhat boisterous group of young folk in the corner, but the age of students ranges from teens to 80s. The room itself is a ridiculous space for me to teach yoga in, but I give it a go. I try to position myself to be able to look around the thick pillars and corners... trying to see and inspire all of the students.
Turns out, I have to rush to one section, give them an instruction, rush to the next and repeat the instruction, and then to the next section, repeat. By the time I get back to section one...they have not maintained the pose, they are standing around or lying on the floor talking again. I try to inspire them, to get their attention. Is this is some sort of test? I want them to see me demonstrate but the vantage points are nil and "gathering round" cannot be done, because each of the 3 sections of the room are too small to have a gathering! After 20 minutes or so of a planned hour, the class slowly begins to disband itself and I am left wondering what else I could have done.
I had a similar dream where I taught in a hockey arena, in the stands...around the tiered rows of folding theatre-type seats that you can barely squeeze between. "You folks, gather here in this little open area off to the side"..."three of you- down one level in the narrow passageway"..."triangle to the right side!" My voice got louder and louder as their attention waned and the impossibility of the situation waxed. Then, I woke up. A big sigh, thank-God it was only a dream. But I sure needed some rest.
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