DreamBliss

Violence is all in perception. Does the violent person view America as a violent place? No, they do think in those terms. I used to carry a pocketknife. for defensive purposes. Then I realized one day that taking along any sort of weapon means I am expecting to have to use it. I stopped carrying that knife, and at 39 years in the, according to others here, violent USA I have never been in any fight. I think I don't see the world, or am learning to not see the world, as a violent place. The world simply is, and there unconscious humans in it heavily into their role. People literally do not know what they are doing. Even if they recognize the act, there is no awareness or consciousness. Most of the time it is a reaction. Put your energy into the reality, the world, you want to experience. A place where everyone lives harmoniously with each other, nature. and the earth herself. Why invest any energy into the illusions of a violent world, or the delusions of a peaceful one? The world is simply a reflection of our perception.

This actually ties in a little with something I was just about to post. My grandmother and a neighbor I have worked for both watch the news. In my grandmother's case, it is during supper. I have gotten to the point where I simply don't understand how she can do it. Advertisements for erectile dysfunction, with a long list of side effects, and numberless cases of ego on ego violence. With a dash of some corporate agenda thrown in. Americans do not understand (hell I don't think many in this forums understand) that you eat not only your food, but whatsoever it is you are focused on. The energy in the food when it was harvested or killed. The energy of others in the room (like my grandma's constant complaining about how she can't chew something and the stress between her and my mom.) All that (mostly) negative energy is getting digested right with your food! And you wonder how you get cancer, yet some smokers go their whole lives with no ill effects. So yeah, I don't watch the news. But guess what? It is not enough! Facebook probably did me a favor essentially locking me out of my account, because now I don't get bombarded with constant family drama. I stopped subscribing to the newsletters of various petitions, stopped my involvement, because I realized something recently. All this stuff is doing one thing, getting you focused on what you do not want. Maybe the LoA stuff is all garbage like some here seem to think. But throw that out, and how you feel is a part of the equation. Does it feel good to hear about how Monsanto is doing this or that, and you need to sign this petition to stop it? Hell no! If LoA is true, then you have the additional issue of focus, and you are solidly focused, 99.9% of the time, on the problem, not its solution, on what you don't want, not on what you want. Maybe monks don't go into the forests and jungles anymore. But maybe you need to, even more so today, just to get away from all this stuff that is keeping you from placing your focus where you want. Maybe we all need blinders, and going to live in a cave somewhere is one way to get them. You can't just ignore it, because even if your conscious attention is taken away, your mind is still processing it outside a conscious level. If everything is all illusion anyway, why in the world would I want to waste my time in an illusion that disempowers and hurts me? Reality is defined at a societal level through the media. Everyone tells you how the world is, and that is how the world is, according to them and every source they are parroting. Humanity is nothing more than a huge collection of parrots, repeating over and over again the things they have heard or seen, and calling this reality. The only way to experience a different reality is to stop giving energy, in the form of your belief and focus, into the current reality. Like some old viewfinder, you have to select the next picture and leave the previous one behind. The only way to even begin to do that is to throw away the news. So throw it out! Reality is not real just because you can go outside and prove it. If you believe something strongly enough, especially if others believe it too, proof is easy to find. But this proof only proves that this version of reality exists. It does not prove, in any form, manner or shape, that no other version of reality exists.

I apologize but I did not read through this thread. But I feel compelled to speak to the OP. I was a Christian for over 20 years, I can recall at least one time a church I attended got into this last days thing based on some book which was written about things like this. People see Jesus on concrete walls and pieces of toast. If you look hard enough for anything, you will find it. I am reading William Buhlman's, "Adventures in the Afterlife" right now and I love the description we get of where the Christians go when they die. They have these tight little communities around a church. Everything seems so nice, everyone seems so peaceful. But as soon as the main character starts asking questions, like where is Jesus, well everyone turns against him. There is no Armageddon or second coming, anymore than the Muslim version of Jesus is going to come down and tell us to convert or die. No religion has anything more than a fraction of the whole picture. But if you are indoctrinated into a particular belief system, and have been for a long time, as I was, you will not like what I am saying, if you can even read these words, if you even see them. Too many people have fought and died over their version of the truth, and not one of them had even an inkling what the Truth really was. Because the Truth can only be pointed to, at best, and it has to be experienced a well as lived. It is subjective, others may have the same experience of Truth as you, but Truth is always and forever only your Truth, and not necessarily anyone else's. The world you live will give you what you are looking for, exactly, whether you asked for it consciously or not. If you are seeking signs you will find them. I do not know to the extent that beliefs can manifest. There are many who believe in various "end time" scenarios. But there are many, like me now, who do not believe in them. I doubt any of these scenarios will manifest. I think humanity has to be collectively asking for it, consciously or not, for that to happen. But we also have the power to determine the reality we experience by what we believe and think. I want nothing to do with judgment or karma in any form. I want nothing to do with a condemning God that acts more like some medieval king than an all-powerful, loving and wise creator. I spent so many years reading the Bible, hearing the common interpretations of it by others. It is all illusion, none of this is real. Not a thing. What man teaches in the name of Jesus and Christianity is not an illusion that empowers me or brings me any joy. I can well imagine the end result is on a Christian's deathbed they go to their idea of Heaven, and it is little different than the life they lived on earth, because they never grew beyond toddler-hood spiritually. They never questioned their beliefs, never studied the belief systems of others, never figured out the Truth for them. They simply believed what others told them to and regurgitated that same crap on everyone else. I used to be proud of my grandfather, a Christian all his life, a man who was active in founding a number of churches. I was disappointed they would not honor him with a stained glass window, as they had honored other such Christians in the past who attended that church. But there is nothing there to be proud of. A man who can not think for himself isn't even a man. He or she is not much better than a parrot, repeating back what they have heard, over and over again, incapable of thinking for themselves. I have come to understand that perfection is not desirable, it is stagnation. There is no development or growth in perfection, there can not be. Perfection is static, unchanging. It is lifeless and dead. Perfection, the ideal of all Christians, is not really worth attaining at all! Growing and learning are both very good ideals. The man who continually grows and learns, who discovers the Truth for themselves, is truly a man, capable of thinking for themselves. All religions are training wheels until you are ready to remove them and pedal ahead without their support. Until you do you will not travel very far spiritually. Your greatest adventure, after this physical existence, is the afterlife. Because there is an infinity of places and realms to explore. There is no need to be trapped in one place. And if you are looking for Jesus, you will not find him in Heaven, anymore than you will find Buddha, or his energy, in whatever realm the Buddhists believe he exists in. If you want to visit Mohammad, you will have to travel well beyond paradise. Take off your training wheels, stop looking to the world outside for signs. If you are looking for something, start by looking inside yourself. Walk your path, find your personal experience of Truth. Stop following others.

I am a little frustrated right now. I can't attach an image because it is too large (1.1 meg in size, but 1000x1000 pixels.) I also can't upload it to Flikr or my Dropbox account, I get an error saying I can't share an image of that extension with the community. So how do I share an image here? What are the maximum dimensions allowed? What extensions or websites are acceptable, if any, for uploading and direct linking? Thank you for your time.

I tried .jpg and .png, 1.1 meg in size, 1000x1000 pixels in dimension.

I have started a thread to assist with this subject: http://thedaobums.com/topic/39191-my-meditation-journey/

UPDATE OK, so I uploaded it to my blog and that link appears to be working. Why not Dropbox or Flikr?

I just change the sharing link from https://... to http://... Works every time.

Premise My beliefs create my reality. Anything I choose to believe in becomes true for me in my experience. I not wish to believe in, and as a result, create, any reality for me of something called ego, pain body, subconscious or unconscious. It could be that these things things exist, if they do, they will exist independently of my belief in them. For the purposes of this post, I am assuming that something called an ego, pain body and subconscious or unconscious exist. I will write this post with that assumption, not with that belief. Post As I meditated today it occurred to me that perhaps part of the reason my musical tastes have changed is that my pain body is no longer as active. That the music I was listening to was feeding my pain body, but as my pain body started dissolving, there was less to feed, so my music tastes changed. I know there has to be something to this because my music tastes have gone to what is normally called “Trailer Music” which is primarily instrumental. Some electronic music, some stuff with more of a classical influence. The lyrics of the majority of what I feel most drawn to do not have a lot of pain in them, or none at all. When I do listen to the kind of music I used to, it is usually when I am feeling alone, angry, depressed, isolated, etc. All negative emotions that the pain body would feed on. Is it possible our pain bodies are influencing what we expose ourselves to, in order to compel us to expose ourselves to things that make us feel negative emotions the pain body can feed on? What do you think? Is this a reasonable assumption, that at times it is not me choosing the music, but my pain body, in an attempt to feed itself? If that is the case, is it better to cut myself off from music, or to take the opportunity when music is chosen that would inspire negative emotions to observe and practice presence? Also, how do you look for music that will not feed the pain body? You can't enter “Pain Body” in your search criteria. So how do I find music that resonates with me and not my pain body? Is that even possible?

My knee injury, although I hate to call it that, seems to flare up if I bend my leg while putting weight on it. If I were to do that you would see that a supposedly spiritual person could outswear any sailor in any port! I will certainly be careful in my experiments. But I have been irregularly doing yoga for some time, and I can lay on my back and get one leg, held straight up, almost on the ground. I have not lost the flexibility I have gained in my yoga practice, such as it has been. The only pose I had trouble with was Downward Dog, trying to bend my knee a little (the birds would have been very shocked had I persisted.) My experiments would be to try these training stretches to the extend my knee and legs in general allow. See if I can get my hip to rotate. I have my doubts, but I also have my hopes. To the original poster per the original reason for this thread... I have found that following Mr. Terkel's advice I can sit rather comfortably in a loose cross-legged position without a lot of back pain, and not using a wall. Get your hips higher than your legs, that is key 1. Key 2 is to tuck your chin in. Keep your head straight and just gently bring your chin in without angling your head. These two things will assist your spine in keeping its natural curve, allowing you to sit more comfortably. Watch Mr. Terkel's videos, they will help you.

Thank you gendao. I think you have made a good point. Found some videos that may help: (This one is really good!) (Also good) It seems that some time is needed in practicing kung-fu or yoga is needed before you can plop down into lotus or full lotus. It appears to be all in the hips. I will experiment and report back. Last video, not working for some reason:

OK, I guess I should rephrase my premise to: Your beliefs create your Action Reality, which is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just the reality you are experiencing right now, in this moment. You can change your reality by focusing instead on your Emotional Reality, which again is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just a better reality that you would like to be experiencing. I have adopted the terms Action Reality and Emotional Reality from, "The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent" by Abraham-Hicks. I don't know if that makes anything clearer, but understand when I say your beliefs create your reality, I mean YOUR beliefs create YOUR reality, the reality YOU experience. Also it is implied that this is YOUR Action Reality. It is Apparent Reality only, reality as apparent to YOU in this moment. It is not Ultimate Reality, and it can be changed. No reality YOU are experiencing is unchangeable. I should probably detail those steps in another thread. With this premise in mind, perhaps you can understand why I am careful about what I believe and refer to as reality. I am not saying there is something called a Pain Body. But, under the assumption, not belief, that one exists, can it affect the things you expose yourself to, in order to rouse negative emotion in you, so it can feed off of it.

I wish to publicly apologize to gendao. I think their advice is excellent, definitely a worthwhile goal, to work towards sitting in full lotus. If there is indeed reason for the posture then it will be of great benefit to be able to sit in it for long periods of time. I do not feel my post was motivated by love. I guess one of my buttons, so-to-speak, is when someone tells you what you should do, or what the ideal is, or what is best, but that's all they do. Like a doctor in a town with no organic food stores and fast food joints every block telling a patient who works 12 hours a day to eat healthy. "Uh, sure, doc. How am I supposed to do that?" For now, I will do the best I can with my physical capabilities at the moment, and advise others the same. I will allow myself to gradually fall into, in the natural flow of my life, any sort of practice or training that would bring me to lotus and finally full lotus posture. But for now that is well beyond what I am willing or able to do. I will certainly instruct others to try it, as it would be of benefit to them. but I would also let them know it is OK if you are unable to sit that way at present.

Just watched Larry Terkel's video on Mudras for meditation. He says that for males, right hand over left, and for females, left hand over right. I am certain I read in one of John Daido Loori's books (I think that is where I learned it) that it is non-dominant hand over dominant. If that is the case, then it would be left over right for me. What is the correct, official, as-Buddha did it position of the hands here? Are you tapping into your feminine side as a male if you place your left hand over your right? Or masculine side as a female if you are placing your right hand over left? Just want to get this right. I trust John Daido Loori, but Larry Terkel guy seems to know what he is talking about too, so I am confused. Thanks for helping me clear this up!

It is certainly easy to instruct people to sit in full lotus. It is much harder to actually take the time and develop a program that will gently bring people into the place where they can sit that way. I have big, muscular legs. Getting my hips raised above them when I sit to meditate is hard enough. Even in a loose cross-legged position blood flow is restricted, my legs tingle and eventually fall asleep, which is very counter-productive to meditating, probably more so than using a non-traditional position. Instead of telling us that full lotus is better, there is a reason for it, and we should use that, try giving us some free video tutorials taking us through the process of sitting in full lotus, some sort of training program for the average American. I hate to say this but most of the Indian people I have seen are stick thin and weigh about half as much as the average American citizen. No surprise, they are seriously malnourished and starving over there. I imagine it is fairly easy for someone who looks like a Holocaust victim to sit in full lotus. Not so easy for a 6' 2" 280 pound man with legs about the diameter of telephone poles. Better to encourage people to meditate and worry about their positioning later. If it truly is important, give them the resources needed so they can learn proper seating technique. I for one wouldn't mind learning how! Getting people to meditate is primary. Nobody will want to if you tell them they have to sit in full lotus! Allowing them to come as they are, with their physical capabilities at the present moment is the best approach.

I get back pains as well. For seated meditation, find a way to raise your pelvis above your legs, such as sitting on a thick pillow or blanket with your legs on the floor in front of you. Don't try the lotus position unless it is comfortable. A loose crossing of the legs is sufficient. Another form of seating is something slightly slanted. Outside I have a thick board over a small rock, gives it about a 15-20 degree slant, the back is higher than the front. You don't want so much of a slant that you start to slide down, very distracting. Just enough to alleviate discomfort. It is one of my favorite spots to meditate, but I can't use it very much because there is a half feral cat that has adopted me, and he seems to enjoy distracting me when I am out there. I sit with my back against a wall when I meditate inside, but that may not be advisable. To strengthen your back you need to learn to sit straight, as if there was a rod going straight down your back from the crown of your head and being pulled upwards. But I use the wall, sitting as straight as I can, for support. A chair should work very well for you, get something with lumbar support i needed, best if it is like a cushion that can be remove, and give yourself some padding on the seat. Feet flat on the floor in front of you. Meditation should be practiced in loose clothing, no jewelry. Barefoot is best. Sometimes, if you can do so without disturbing yourself or others, naked is best. Allows you to tune in to what is gong on with your skin. Hand position, as I just learned today: The general rule of thumb is to be comfortable. Don't try to quiet your mind or relax. Allow these to happen all on their own. All you need to do, if you want to meditate, is show up. Sit down as comfortably as you can, observe your breath or count, gentry return to observing your breath or counting if you get lost in these thoughts of irritation. No criticism or judgment. Your mind is like a puppy your are training. It may want to wander all over the place at first. Yelling at it, at yourself, will not be beneficial. Better to gather that puppy up, again and again, and bring it back to where you are training it to be. Just smile, accept and love yourself, enjoy the process. It really is sort of like a game.

Recently some things were said in a recent thread of mine that really threw me for a loop. I was all set to reply, then decided not to. Now I am trying to work it out, work through it. I thought I would share what I have so far and see what happens from there. Theory Everything I experience is exactly the way I believe it to be. Points - Source does not speak through anyone unless I believe it does. Most likely what I will hear will be my own fears and doubts reflected back at me. - Source does not warn through circumstances or people. Things happen or do not happen, people say things or not, and it is only my belief and perception that causes me to take these as a warning. Warnings are given by humans primarily out of fear, out of a desire motivated by fear (usually disguised as caring or love) to change behavior. That is conditional love, based on the idea that I will be happy or feel better if... Source doesn't issue warnings. Source does not criticize, judge or love conditionally. - It is only because I believe and/or desire at some level that I need to be directed, guided or warned that I receive guidance, direction and warning. I receive these exactly the way I believe they will be received. If I believe it will come from others, then that is from where it will come. If I believe it will come from my gut, heart or intuition, then that is from where it will come. - There are no rules by which the Universe operates. Everything is based on belief (subjective?) Gravity only works because people believe in it. People used to believe the world was flat. How many ships were lost at sea or wrecked beyond what humanity collectively believe to be the edges of the world? More than now certainly, can argue technology, but probably less ships were lost or wrecked before the collectively believed edge of the world. - Source is abundance, constantly and consistently. You believe you will receive direction and guidance from others, that you need it, so you get direction and guidance from others. You believe Source warns you through circumstances or people, so things will happen and people will say things that you will interpret to be a warning. Deep down you are looking for a reason not to do something, a way out, that is what you are asking about, and that is what you get. You get whatever you ask for, whether you want it or not (Abraham.) - What it boils down to is that you are on your own, to create your life experience, whether you are aware of it or not, whether you consciously create or unconsciously react. Whatever you believe to be true will be true for you. Whatever it is you are really asking for, whatever is at the root of any request, that is what Source constantly and consistently provides. The way your life is experienced is completely and totally up to you. - The only way the beliefs of others can affect you is if you buy into them and believe them yourself. You are only ever bound only by your own beliefs, as long as you choose to be so bound. Example When I see a tree branch or trunk at night all I can see with my physical eyes is a flat black line. Yet to me it seems rounded. Why is that? There are no graduations or anything that would lead the eye. When I see it as rounded, I am not seeing it as it is to my physical sight. I am seeing what I expect, based on what I know or remember, that branches and trunks are round. That means what I see is through what I believe, expect, know or remember, not through my eyes. What I see is what I believe or expect to see, based on what I know or remember, imposed on what is. In the same way I do not interact with "reality" directly. I interact with what I believe and expect "reality" to be, based on what I know or remember. "Reality" tells me that I can not walk on water. I know this because when I enter water I always sink. But water can kill someone jumping into it from a great height. To them instead of merely sinking into it they slam into a surface very much like concrete. If I have studied physics I can spout a bunch of stuff that tells why this is. But when the filters of what I believe and expect are stripped away, I see that the water has in it the potential to be solid (ice) semi-solid (the physical body) or non-solid (air.) It has the potential of many different states within it. If I knew how to access those states on a moment-by-moment basis, I could create solid water under my feet that I could walk on. However as long as I believe and expect the water to be experienced as a liquid I would sink into the moment I step onto it, that is what water will be. I do not experience the water as it is. I experience my belief and expectations about the water, based on what I know or remember. When I attempt to walk on water, I am not really interacting with the water at all, only my beliefs and expectations about it! Thoughts When someone said something in that thread I mentioned and it threw me for a loop, I entered into a time of depression. Because if I am solely responsible for my life and my experience of the world, then there are no rules that, once finally discovered, figured out and understood, I can create the life I wish to experience. I thought I had to uncover the truth about reality, to unlock that mystery, because once I knew the rules, I would know exactly the process of creating my own life. But if there are no rules, if I am, consciously aware of it or not, creating my life and my experience of the world on a moment-by-moment basis, well that just seemed too big. Too much. Too difficult. Too hard. It overwhelmed me. But I am coming back out of it now. Because as heavy as it sounded initially, there is hope in it. If there are no rules, if my life and experience in the world is nothing more than what I believe it will be, if nobody's beliefs can affect me the slightest unless I let them, if I am in full control, then I can create the life I want to experience right now. There is nothing stopping me. I now understand one way to do this, how to get into that feeling place of whatever desire I wish to manifest. Of course this will only work if I believe it will, assuming the conclusions I have drawn are valid. I just acknowledge my action reality, what appears to be reality right now, what I am experiencing in this moment. Then I choose my emotive reality, what I choose to feel right now, in this moment. I just have to choose what feels good. I do not think, or maybe do not believe, that the change will be instantaneous. If I were to go to the lake with the action reality of sinking if I attempted to walk on water and the emotive reality of how amazing it would feel to walk on its surface, I would probably still sink. It would seem to prove all the science that says humans can't walk on water. But my guess I would sink because somewhere in me, at some level, I believe and expect I will. Until I have no such beliefs or expectations I can not walk on water. Even when such beliefs and expectations are thrown out, if I were walking around on a violent sea, they may come back, and down I would go. So for now at least walking on water is probably not something I can do. But I can do smaller things, take smaller steps, practicing this theory, and see where it leads. It is one way to allow Source to manifest into my life experience the things I desire. For now I will make this my practice and see what happens.

Nobody commented on unicorns? Not one person had anything to say about that? Man! Tough crowd here...

I don't know what a serup is, but fine, if you really want there to be an Absolute Truth you can have one. All you have to do is believe there is an Absolute Truth, and as long as you believe in it you will find proof for it in your life experience. When you get bored of Absolute Truth you might try releasing and letting go of that belief, and believing in something more challenging, like unicorns. The world could always use more people who believe in unicorns, and they are a lot more fun than Absolute Truth!

I was thinking along those same lines, but have since released those beliefs and let them go. Because to believe that the "majority rules" when it comes to beliefs is not empowering. Better to believe that everyone's beliefs affect only themselves by default. However others can adopt similar or the same beliefs if they choose to, aware of it or not, conscious of it or not, and if they adopt such a belief it then affects them as well as the person they adopted it from. Children adopt the beliefs of those that raise them, and forget any knowledge they brought with them from their time before. It is likely that as children the idea of flying, walking on water or through walls was not so preposterous. But in emulating their parents, who do not do these things, they forget that they know they can do that. They see a wall, remember that the other day when they ran into it they got hurt, and from that point on a wall is solid for them. Like me and those branches at night appearing rounded. It never occurs to a child to question what they know or remember, so from that point on they navigate the world the same as everyone else, traveling through supposedly empty space and not through walls. I think perhaps my path to my personal Truth is one of keeping things simple and empowering. The simplest, most empowering belief to have right now is that I am indirectly experiencing the world through my beliefs. This is neither good nor bad. If I desire a more direct experience of the world, I must release and let go of any beliefs between me and it. This is what I am in the process of doing. When I am experiencing the world directly, as it is, moment by moment, outside of any beliefs about it, those are the same moments that I can fly, walk on water or through walls. Those are the moments when the things commonly called miracles are performed.

WOW! I have received, and gratefully accepted, an abundance of viewpoints! While I do not initially like Seeker of Wisdom's, it is an interesting point of view, so I am going to have to be with that for a while. Good questions from gendao. I have no answers, only guesses. My best guess is that the child developing in the womb experiences reality through its mother. For some reason babies can't swim either, yet they have been immersed in fluids for almost a year. To swim they have to learn how. So some sort of change is occurring between exiting the womb and entering the world. Following the teachings of Abraham and others it would seem that a baby is the individual manifestation of some aspect of Source that chose to come into the physical world for the experience of contrast it would provide. That would imply there is a conscious, intelligent knowing, so maybe the rules, as they currently stand, are passed at some level onto the eventual physical form. If someday humans are flying around, walking on water and passing through walls, my guess is that the baby would have the ability to do these things from birth, although it would have to learn how. Maybe we all come into the world with default, factory settings, to make it easier on our parents, because babies floating, swimming and walking through walls could present a problem... Regarding thelerner's signature... There is no absolute Truth, just a pointing in its general direction. Everyone has to follow, or not follow (whether they are aware of this choice or not), their own path to their own personal Truth, which may not be the same as anyone else's. I agree that feelings and intuition are the best signs to follow as each person walks the road to their personal Truth. I think I have more to say, but am done for now. Thank you for all your replies.

Yasjua To answer your question, all that I am prepared to say at this moment, is that if there is no intelligent energy from which everything derives, I.E. Source, then I am nothing more than a chunk of feces in the fart cloud of the Universe. In other words, if we are all simply products of random chance and evolution, there is absolutely no point in living at all. If there is no purpose or reason, there is no point, as far as I am concerned. The only thing that keeps me going is the empowering (to me) knowledge that I am an individual manifestation of that originating energy, I.E. Source, and I can create the life experience I desire through my beliefs. Otherwise I am powerless to change anything, I am nothing more than a scrap of flotsam on an infinite roiling sea, tossed about on the waves. I have shared this sentiment before, even used some of these same words. My feelings have not changed in this regard.

Just curious to see what others think. I feel myself drawn to what I guess could be called the "Green Way." I consider myself to already be a Shaman. I feel this to be true, despite the fact I don't hold any sort of degree from professional training, because I have interacted with what I am fairly certain were spirit animals. That is how I feel I should refer to them. But the terms animal totems and power animals may also apply. Now I find myself drawn to Druidry and having a strange desire to talk to plants. I also feel drawn to return to my Shamanic practices. I stopped out of fear, which should be ridiculous, because when my first spirit animal came to me it was in a Dream Re-entry and I was still new to all of this dream stuff. I was still a Christian. You don't expect a fox t come out of the forest in a dream you have actually re-entered, a fox that was not there before, and furthermore you don't expect to be able to communicate with it. At least not if you are a Christian. So I was certainly surprised, but not afraid, and I enjoyed my adventures with a fox, dolphin, and briefly, a wolf, bear and a Native American in full, I think, shamanic dress. Then the whole tulpa thing happened, which also took place through my mind's eye, and I guess I just avoided all of it. Hardly have done much visualizing since, with the exception of my time spent using self-hypnosis. Maybe I am afraid that I can't trust myself, the validity or “reality” of what I am seeing? Or maybe I am afraid of pain? Or maybe there are just too many painful memories associated with seeing through the inner eye? Well it is time to work through the fear. Admit, Allow and Accept. Release and Let Go. That is the process. Exploring Druidry, pursuing my interest in communicating with plants. But wondering what the differences and similarities are between Druidism and Shamanism. Wondering if it will work out for me to be both. Also a follower of the Law of Attraction. Which, strangely enough, fits in very well with such Druidic and Shamanic teachings as I have encountered. Also wondering if there are any others walking the Green Way, on singular or multiple paths. Any other Druids, Shamans, or Druidic Shamans, or Shamanic Druids around here? Reading, “The Path of Druidry” by Penny Billington right now, and listening to Shamanic Visioning by Sandra Ingerman. Always open to other recommendations.

I am focusing on the Pacific Northwest here in the USA. Specifically on "pay-it-forward" places like the Vipassana retreat centers, where the 10-day course, while required before doing anything else, is free, and food and lodging are also free. Hopefully this is not like Fight Club where the first rule of Fight Club is you're not supposed to talk about Fight Club... These retreats exist solely on the donations of former students, which I think is a really good system. I have always thought that a more spiritually evolved community of any kind would have to have some equally spiritually evolved solution to keeping the lights on, so-to-speak. What I would like to know is if there are any other spiritual retreat places like this? Here in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon, Washington and California, with free programs, food, lodging? If you are allowed to talk about them of course.

The Vipassana retreat centers (https://www.dhamma.org/en/locations/directory) provide free food and lodging. Old members, as they are called, can donate, giving the gift of the course to others. Teachers have to be self-sufficient - they are not paid. The whole thing is a nonprofit. I wasn't aware of such places either and didn't think they existed until I was told about this. I will look up this Cloud Mountain.