Mindful Dreaming takes spiritual principles from Buddhism and applies them to dreams. I found this approach to be highly useful. It inspired me to start keeping a dream journal, while analyzing my dreams according to if they fit categories of suffering such as distraction, control, judgment, or attachment. I found that the journal exercises, and the focus on asking how each of these types of suffering manifested in both dreams and wakeful life to be highly useful in understanding my dreams from a deeper level, as well as learning to apply what I learned from the dreams to my daily life.
In each section the author asked excellent questions that can be used by the reader to reflect not only what each chapter has to offer, but also on the meanings the reader ascribes to life and to the dreams the reader experiences. The author also presents excerpts of dreams that other people had, and how those people worked with those dreams.
Something which was unclear was whether or not these people dealt with these dreams with his help or if he just corresponded with them. The bio for him mentions that he has a private practice. I’m curious as to how much his own background influenced his perception of how the dreamers interpreted and dealt with their own dreams.
Overall this book will provide readers a different perspective on dreams than can be found in most books. I like that the Buddhist belief system is applied to dreams, because it provides a refreshing angle to dream interpretation and any therapy which results from it. I’ve already found it useful for understanding my own dreams, and suspect that other readers will as well.
5 out of 5 dreamers.
~review by Taylor Ellwood
Author: David Gordon
New Page Books, 2007
pp. 287, $14.99
