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yes indeed how can scenery be aware of itself That is just a figure of speech. It is a description of anatta but not shunyata. Everything is mind, everything is like a dream - just like dream is only mind-vision, vividly shown yet nowhere solid or locatable. Scenery, sounds, thoughts are also mind, luminous yet empty, magical, dream-like, like a magician's trick. (I don't mean everything is one mind like substantial nonduality, you can exchange "mind" here for "experience")

Last night I dreamt I was sitting in full-lotus in this basement and I was having this mutual climax with this babe and then I thought this has to be internal so I'll focus on meditation instead and wait for qigong master Chunyi Lin to give me a vision. This was all in my dream -- so I sat in full-lotus and thought he should arrive soon. Then all of a sudden I was woken from my dream by this loud knocking on our front door -- 3 times! Like an Edgar Allan Poe story -- I was immediately frozen pondering this first-time ever disturbance in the middle of the night, say 3 a.m. There's a second door to block the view from the outside window to the inside of the house but I've been leaving the 2nd door open to get more ventilation and I've seen street people wandering our alley a lot recently. But then I pondered the amazing coincidence that in my dream I was waiting for a message from qigong master Chunyi Lin and all of a sudden I woke to a strong message and pondered whether that message was also a dream.

1) metaphysical 1. pertaining to or of the nature of underlying theoretical principles 2. concerned with abstract thought or subjects or of first principles like being or time 3. highly abstract or abstruse 4. pertaining to the philosophical poetry of an early group of 17th-century English poets Shunyata and anatta is obviously not metaphysical unless people are studying it like a theory. It is plain, ordinary and obvious for me. 2) Attachment "To anything -- situations, people, mentalities, places. And views -- of self, no self, all self, both self and no self." The basic fundamental cause is ignorance, thereby clinging to self and things inherently. Even the view "self never exists or self stops existing" is a form of self-view, the view of annihilation (become non-existent) or nihilism (non-existence) Once you wake up from the dream, the view of self, or self is non-existent, or self becomes non-existent, no longer applies. As Buddha said, you can't even pin down a reality or truth of tathagata (self) in this life, how do the four extremes apply to him after death? When this realization occurs, you will always be beyond extremes. Otherwise it is still one of the views of the four extremes, or a view of "no view", which are still all views pertaining to a dream monster, dream self, and those views have no basis once you wake up and realize the basic fact about reality. Then there can never be speculation anymore. In seeing just the seen is a plain fact. When realized the delusion of a seer seeing seen just drops out of the equation forever. It is a direct and irrefutible realization. Words like "self" is an empty convention, label that does not point to a findable entity. For there is in hearing just the heard, in seeing just the seen, go read bahiya sutta and kalaka sutta if you haven't. Self, no self, etc becomes irrelevant. I guess you have not experienced how talking without delusion of self is like. I do. The universe is speaking as this body, then the universe is speaking as the other body, on the same level (not me talking to him) in a single selfless and otherless process of interconnectedness.

Just read this on some guy's blog.. it seems appropriate to share it here: From Jed McKenna - "The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, its just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into brief existence. Enlightenment isn't in the character, it's in the underlying truth! Now, there's nothing wrong with being a dream character, of course, unless it's your goal to wake up, in which case the dream character must be ruthlessly annihilated. If your desire is to experience transcendental bliss or supreme love or altered states of consciousness or awakened kundalini, or to qualify for heaven, or to liberate all sentient beings, or simply to become the best dang person you can be, then rejoice! you're in the right place: the dream state, this dualistic universe. However, if your interest is to cut the crap and figure out what is true, then you're in the wrong place and you've got a very messy fight ahead and there's no point in pretending otherwise."

yin. men are yang women are yin ..................generally. see what i mean . ? but you can fine tune out the generality of yang and yin . When you do the excercise. Its both subjective and objective . you can fight it , deny it , oppose it and refuse it , all yin. But it wont change the universe one bit . Youll just be swimming up stream . Is it not better to row, row , row, your boat gentally down the stream ? Life is but a dream .... or something like that . typically speaking , dudes will be like , do it bro come on do it !!! and laugh while sistas will be like NO i said NO . Dont do that . key word is typically. girls say yes too and guys say no as well . when you look at the whole universe or as much of it as you can youll see yang and yin every where . Many will say theres more to life than just + and - but they dont see the details . Its ONLY yang and yin . There is no 3rd or 4th . its a binary universe. always has been and will be . No matter how we spin it . you can change your perspective or oppinion all you want but it wont change yang and yin . i did nt dream this stuff up for lack of something better to do . or did I ? im not the only one who " sees" it either. I thought i was until i started looking into the yang and yin from others When i met my wife , her english was not very good. I didnt care . I knew she was a good person . I would use words and pictures and write them on paper for her to read. I made a list of positive things and then wrote the opposites next to the positives. Afte the list got to be about 40 words long in columns , i noticed something very interesting about the list . It answered questions about life for me and for her. Illusions began showing up and vanishing . It gave me a good feeling about life and living. . then i started forming sentences about 6 years latter . opposing sentences. Then longer and longer sentences. all opposing . It was amazing . I was back to zero and the begining of creation of the universe and the role life has with the universe. . life is the only non dualistic in the universe but life is not physical. its spiritual and has no mass , no matter . no location. life is perfection and the only absolute in the universe, but life has no location so its not in the universe and it is in the universe. Its both in and not in . you cant give life a name like i have, because life is not a thing nor a noun nor a verb . life is everything the physical universe is not and the physical universe is everything life is not . Life is what put everything and every one here. Life is who and what runs the show so to speak . Life is who everyone is praying to ( ) when its actually life praying to self, in human for to sprirtual non formed. life is yang , it came first then the universe , yin it came after to oppose yang. we are all life all 1 spiritual being , not sparate beings or souls. you and me ? same dudes and sistas brah. . See that treet frog on the tree? BOTH you and both me . That makes you and me the same dude or sista too holms. You can deny it all you want . That what life does. It propoes and denys self , yang and yin . outside the universe , there is no self and others . only self . LIFE . Life is singular. The 1 but also ZERO . Life exists and does not exist .

For me too. A life safer. Also Western alchemy. One complements the other. (I suspect you'd also like Western alchemy with its use of Christian imagery. It has great parallels with Daoist Neidan.) Yes. But Jung says the unconscious content thrust itself into his consciousness by itself. It almost sent him crazy with its bizarre content. He writes in Memories, Dreams, Reflections: “An incessant stream of fantasies had been released, and I did my best not to lose my head but to find some way to understand these strange things. I stood helpless before an alien world; everything in it seemed difficult and incomprehensible. I was living in a constant state of tension; often I felt as if gigantic blocks of stone were tumbling down upon me. One thunderstorm followed another.” His journal of this time is amazing, published long after his death as The Red Book. It was only after he received a dream message that he looked for parallels in alchemy, and then he had to spend a decade collecting, translating and deciphering these long forgotten works that had been discarded into the rubbish bin of history, before he was able to get a measure of their great value.

With all respect, I strongly disagree with this view. The Yijing's answers are far too specific and accurate in order to attribute them to the kind of psychological projection you are referring to. For me, anyways (I can't speak for others, though). Which doesn't require that they would be repeatable in the way of a modern scientific experiment. I believe that the Yijing can indeed answer a question in more than one way, to be sure. However, I stopped "pestering" it with the same question over and over again long ago. I only did that in my very early days of Yijing divination on some occasions, and then I would get reprimanded by receiving hexagram 4 (Youthful Folly) so many times that I soon stopped trying (just like somebody else posting in this thread has observed). I have made quite similar experiences also with other oracles. E.g., when using Tarot for divination and asking essentially the same question again and again, they often start reflecting the querent's state of mind rather than the topic he or she inquires into. However, if the same basic topic is explored with more composure over a period of time and/or across various decks, typically the same cards show up again and again. However, all that being said, I don't deny the inquirer's own mind playing an important role in the divinatory process, even though this goes far beyond what could be explained by your usual "inkblot psychology". At any rate, there isn't just a receiver (projecting meaning into a basically arbitrary message), but also a transmitter involved, sending the former a very specific message. This is not to say that the latter is not part of yourself too - consider how you are sending yourself a message in a dream sometimes, and more generally, when you make yourself aware of something by way of intuition. Thus, intuition indeed comes into play, as well as the phenomenon known today as synchronicity. This is linked to the reality that is - to some extent - described by quantum mechanics and chaos theory, which are already speaking to there being implicit order in what, on the surface, seems arbitrary. However, these are phenomena that we are just beginning to understand. The study of divinatory methods is key, starting with C.G.Jung and his quantum physical colleague Wolfgang Pauli - but by no means limited to the exploration of this topic that they undertook so many years ago.

I'm not chasing anything, I already am an immortal, and I had my enlightenment experience over twenty years ago. You go run along now and continue playing in your dream state with the other bozos @Stosh.

So I've been thinking allot recently.. about my life and the stage I'm in regarding spiritual development.. And I figured that there is a huge gap in my life between me AND The Buddha.. or otherwise the awakened one.. who loses attention not.. and does not hinder away from stillness.. I came to the sober truth that I lose my awareness too often.. in dreams at night.. projections and thoughts during the day.. And I am left with two questions..: Why do we lose awareness when we dream..think and project, remember etc.. And my second question which has two parts is why do we die, and why do we lose consciousness in the bardo thodol? The land of death..?

Some powers came and went, especially the ones I didn't like or had no use for. Others are very handy and quite surprising. 1) the ability to see, as if through a telescope, a far away distance. It is activated by the heart with love. A hole opens up between the brows and in the hole appears the scene or person you are focusing on. 2) third eye or eye that looks like a golden orange eye. You can see people and the scenes in the world through it. You can drive with your regular eyes closed. Most people have a dark flame emanating from their abdomens. Normal reality appears somewhat vaporous and etheric. 3) ability to tell when someone is scrying at you or thinking about you. I usually see their faces on the screen behind the brow. Some times I see people whom I have been thinking about appear at the foot of my bed as I am drifting off to sleep. 4) knowing what will happen two or three minutes before it happens. Freaked me out when I started to know what going to happen 1 hour before it happened. 5) having the Kati crystal channel open up and experience the liquid light first as a gush of luminescent light in slow motion, then as it filled the whole scene, the experience of silence, bliss, radiance, love and the feeling that I was everything. Has occurred 7 times now. This is not really a controllable power, but I wish it was... 6) having people walk by me and then all of a sudden knowing all their thoughts. Yuk. 7) looking at someone and knowing what action they were going to perform next. 8) touching someone and be able to see what they were visualizing in great detail. 9) the ability to float on the ground for longer distances than you'd normally expect while running. Almost like gliding an extra few yards at a time with every step. Result of kunlun bouncing the legs. 10) feeling great empathy for someone and have the other planes become visible, superimposed over top of normal reality as my heart opened up. 11) the ability to start a dream, stop it and pick it up at a later time. The ability to push myself out of the third eye and into whatever scene I could visualize. The ability to turn a vision or third eye scene into a dream and then do whatever I want in it. Eventually, it becomes really boring... 12) the ability to focus behind the brow and experience ecstasy at will. 13) the ability to call the squirrel and let him know that there are more peanuts for his stash by using love and pictures (visualization). 14) realizing that past lives are stored in bubbles near the navel, and they appear when you focus on your heart and your presence while relaxing the lower abdomen. There are a few more but if I told you about them, I'd have to kill you after So, these are the more mundane powers and nothing really mind bending. They are byproducts and didn't lead to enlightenment, but, they do indicate that reality is not quite what it seems.. And am I worried about losing them? You can have them all, I don't care. It is kind of like finally getting that new car and then realizing it just gets dented in parking lots like every one else's cars..

Well, there are 3 ways to look at dreams. Dreams can be the reflection of your daily lives or relating to your daily activities. Dreams can be manifestations of your suppressed thoughts and feeling. In that case, they have nothing to do with your daily lives. Dreams can be precognitive and this is when getting a good interpretation is highly, highly difficult. That's one aspect of dream interpretation I always have issues with. For your buddha statue symbol, I would be very weary of it because it may represent a false sense of personal connections to the Buddha. Buddha taught us that we should not even grow attached to himself or his form. Can you associate any feelings with this Buddha/shovel symbol? If the shovel represents death, well, you may feel uneasy about the dream. If the shovel represents "to work harder," you may experience a sense of anxiety or the urgency to get on top of the situation. Obviously, are you perusing any cultivation practice or experiencing anything remotely "spiritual?"

Sounds like astral/dream plane experiences. I used to get stuff a bit like this when I was in my early twenties and I remember one day the household cat climbing up onto my chest and licking me between my eyebrows! I stopped getting these glimpses when I decided I didn't want to see them. I figure it's the pineal gland leaking a small amount of DMT. Deep controlled meditation emulates the deep sleep which we experience before REM sleep. I suspect returning from voidness, deep sleep, causes the pineal gland to release DMT which electrifies the mind (white field) and as the brain/mind slowly falls back into self-conciousness we cloth our metal patterns with imagery and then emotion. For those that have OBE's you will remember that strong emotions cause you to awaken in the physical. It's also interesting to note the correlation between birth and awakening from sleep. the release of DMT in the foetal brain of a human 49 days after conception which corresponds to the 49 days of the Bardo states (see: Tibetan Book of the Dead) and this together with the release of DMT released by the brain at death is very interesting. Note: 7 x 7 = 49 the rainbow body perhaps? Also we have Blavatsky saying that in future rounds we will live on the upper astrals i.e. Dream planes. Not sure if I buy Blavatsky's view but I can see where she's coming from. As mankind becomes more enlightened we would all move to the next round (beyond our current ring-pass-not) and a more fluid state of conciousness. Of course we can't reach such a state currently because of our lack of clarity but we do understand that all is energy. So I can see why some of you might believe in magic etc but that's in a different round and is only used on the level of mind in this round i.e. On the dream planes. When we move the seat of conciousness to the dream planes in another round we will all have the same power but until then it's better to stay grounded. As Lao Tze says, move with the present.

Habit... karma We have been distracted for countless lives. Like a rolled up piece of paper that you try to flatten after many years, let go and it rolls right back up. We die because all compounded phenomena are impermanent. Losing consciousness (I assume you mean awareness?) in the bardo the same way we lose it in dreams, projections, etc... This is one reason it is good to practice dream and sleep yoga.

Hi Spotless, Interesting to read how someone walks the unknown path before you. As I have only recently woken up to the idea that I am waking up, I'm also wondering about the why do we perceive what we perceive. And I'm not talking about our physical senses. The experience can be subtle, but now and again they are unnerving, to say the least. A couple of months ago, I woke up in the middle of the night hearing someone whisper quite loudly in my ear in a strange language. It sounded like a prayer, a sermon or a spell, and I didn't recognize the language as one of the known earth languages. Needless to say, it freaked me out in the beginning. But, since there was nothing I could do about my perception, I let go of the fear. It lasted about an hour, and I think I may have picked up on someone or something actually praying. Interesting, but it's a thing that I lay beside me, because I can't make sense of it. Recently I also see an overlay of some sort of pattern resembling the flower of life on my normal vision. Or I see a hint of a reality behind this one. I have no frame of reference for this, so I let it rest. And I had the weirdest dream a few weeks ago. In my dream I had a pyramid with the all seeing eye, about 1.20m in height, and put it inside my body, where the all seeing eye converged with my third eye. Upon waking up, my third eye area felt strained. It lasted a week or so. Most peculiar. I might be harming myself in my sleep.

Welcome to TTB I think you present a truncated history. There was shamanism, and a spiritual and energetic prior to the more philosophical methods; you simply mention the Religious methods which come later. There have been plenty of discussions on this but my point is always going to be that whatever box someone wants to put around what is Tao[ism] is a box of their own making. Remove any boundary (including historical ones) and then one will be more likely to discover what is Taoism. Yes, I'm aware of its shamanistic history. But you must see the period in which Tao itself came into its own. You cannot present Taoism in any sort of singular form, but rather accept it for its form at the time in which one refers. The shamanistic period is not Tao, it is a predecessor of Tao. It has many of the same or similar energetic systems and even shares similar beliefs. But as it came unto its own definition after people left "the wild," to put it generically, and it became a philosophical method, combined with energetic practices which set it apart from its shamanistic past, and distinguishes it from its religious offshoots and evolutions later. Though I do agree. Putting Tao in a box is like puttin' Baby in a corner. You just don't do it ;-) But that's actually my point. I see that many people on here bog themselves down with factors of Tao that are unnecessary or just flat don't actually belong. Tao fully accepts any practice... but if in this "dream" of Tao, I decide I want bigger pectoral muscles, I cannot practice watchmaking to get them. While in the dream, we must follow its rules to get results we want. Those results do not matter, and our wanting them is unimportant. But we, the one source, play this game for the sake of the thrill of individuality. And so one cannot achieve "awakening" with an incorrect worldview. Hence, those being awake, and those not. We acknowledge there is at least an illusory difference. And while the habit of putting Tao in a box is something Tao is all about ridding oneself of, we realize that there is what works and what doesn't on a practical level. I simply make a point for others to understand that I practice the Tao of Laotzu and Zhuangtzu. The kind they practiced, which was a philosophical Tao, meant to alleviate suffering and to explain the universe. Something that it does beautifully if understood correctly and implemented correctly. However, what I also attempt to do is cut through the bullshit that these early writers muddied their works with. It was a secret, and it still is. And I don't like it. But, the ancients didn't like giving away their insights without making the subject work for it. I think that is something that came from a time period that no longer exists. Or rather, many of our current societies provide a secure enough atmosphere that the walls of secrecy can come down. And I like to try to make the Daojia (not Daojiao) more accessible to the average person. To realize that the Tao that Laotzu and Chuangtzu speak of is not meant to have used Yogic practices until we leave our bodies and so on. We can do those things, and I think they're an important part of spiritual development. But Tao is not meant to be spiritually escaped. We are meant to see the beauty of everyday normal consciousness, the "miracle" (I don't like words that smack of divinity) of our existence, and the strangeness of reality... and just how lucky we are to be here. The enlightenment I have received has been a glorious re-interpretation of the world around me. And all of my insights have been of a "physical" nature, one could say. The allay of my suffering was found in literal, physical relaxation inside my body. Everything I have achieved follows strictly by Tao principles of Yin and Yang, and my Taiji being "internal," it also follows this guideline as well. It's very strange, the irony I have experienced. I have continued my practice over the years, always expecting one thing, only to get the result I want but for a different reason! I never expected these insights, but they have been revealed to me nonetheless. And so, I give them freely to others who would like to benefit from them. I offer an eminently practical and accessible Tao with all the fruits the "internal arts" have always promised- martial ability, health, and the keys to a happy life.

No problem, I made this thread on my smartphone so I tried to type the least possible. I was living in Florida (I had been living there for the past 10 years) and I was planning on relocating to where I currently live (Massachusetts) to get a job working with my uncle (where I work now). While living in Florida I had a dream in great detail of what it looks like inside the building I currently work at which I have never in my life seen/been inside before. I realized this while at work I just got a kind of "click" and that was proceeded by a mental holy shit when I noticed I had dreamt of the same exact scenario/place in my dream many months beforehand. This also happened to me when I was in 2nd-3rd grade (I cannot recall exactly which grade it was). I had a dream of some girl I had a crush on giving some sort of speech at class and a week or two later she did exactly that when she was called up to the front of class to receive her report card.

What will go on after the death of an individual is the Tao, and because each individual (whether he "follows the Tao" or not) is a manifestation of the Tao that aspect (the Tao) of the individual will never die and wasn't even born with the individual. That is the kind of immortality Chuang tzu recognizes. Not the magical and ritualistic practices that aim at extraordinary things or capabilities. At least that is how I see it, and I haven't seen anything pointing in another direction. But Chuang tzu does indeed leave open the hypothetical possibility that an individual might live on after death. The thing isn't further developed though, so it seems rather like an expression of Chuang tzu's philosophical scepticism (comparable to the dream of the butterfly).

Now that's a good dream! Take it as a sign to keep up the practice, that's for sure. Other interpretations? My Mom is good at that stuff... but, she's not here, so I won't go for it. It's your dream. I wish I wrote my dreams down like I used to. I'd suggest writing them down and re-reading them later, like years later. It's a good practice. I'd definitely read the Flower Garland Sutra, that's a good Sutra to dream about. I'll say this, it's a sure sign that your subconscious is deeply connected to the Dharma, based upon it's level of clarity and detail.

I also had quite strong trips on shrooms earlier. What you described is a peek into reality. My definition of reality here is something that cant be doubted. But now back in normal state, it is again imperceptible. What you are left with are fragment of memory of altered state. Dream re-continued with a confusing memory. Also as there are no individuals, there is no one to like or dislike. But Awareness of liking/disliking is there as pure affectivity. In dream, it will drive the dream to make dreamer like or dislike.

By unique and exist, I mean that other people have their own thoughts, feelings, memories, and experiences, which in turn shape more thoughts, and feelings, and memories. I'd like to believe that there are ways that it feels like to be my girlfriend that no one else has ever felt. That when I see her make a certain face I can almost recognize these ways of feelings that she uniquely has, and know that I'm with someone who feels the way she does. I take your assurance that you are not a clone to mean that this is not a dream, which is what I thought you were saying wouldn't be so bad. In a dream I do know what everyone is thinking and did last week, which is nothing, since characters in a dream do not have thoughts or histories.

We will have to disagree on this point. I think that the reaction we see from some folks, the raised hackles, is evidence that they feel as if their experience is being invalidated. For people who have known only duality, to hear that there is no need to do anything, there is no one to wake up, all is just as it should be... all of that makes no rational sense and negates their direct experience. They feel a powerful drive to do something, to change something, and yet they are not seeing the progress. It can be terribly frustrating, especially when others seem to be dangling this very special carrot in front of them and it stays just out of their grasp. Even doing nothing isn't working for them, they try for an hour, for a month, and nothing... I was first alerted to this by the fellow I quoted in the other thread, Peter Fenner, who cautioned against sharing these ideas without some degree of caution and sensitivity. They can create more problems than opportunity for some. I wonder if this is, at least in part, why these teachings were very secretive in some cultures? Do you really recall no time when you were living the dream and it was tangible, frustrating, and completely real? When you were searching intensely for something that was lacking? A time when the experience of non-duality was just an elusive idea that made no sense? While there may have never been a moment when you were not fully awake, there was a time when you did not realize that you were awake. You said as much in the other thread. It's not a matter of what is real, it's more a matter of what one can connect with and relate to. It's a matter of whether one has a basis for such an understanding, the proper perspective. Thinking about the meaning of being always, already awake is of little use, IMO, one either has the frame of reference to understand or not It is either there or it isn't. It either happens or it doesn't. And I can see how hearing that can be frustrating. All the work and study on Earth may have no effect. And yet it can dawn for no reason in an instant. For that reason, I consider it a Blessing, perhaps a matter of Karma. And for me at least, there was definitely a before and after. The after didn't negate the before, rather it informed the before from a new perspective that didn't previously exist in me. I also appreciate the conversation. Warm regards

My dream.i was in a school and felt that I had lost Dylan(my 9y son).I walked around getting more worried and anxious.i came to a big room with people in it.then I had a vision of a little golden budha inside a big mountain.then I was back in the room and there was a dark cloud in the room.i saw it as the tao.then I attuned to the energies and Dylan appeared!

I had a good dream and want to post it.im not sure where

I challenge the title of this thread in the following sense. While there is the experience from the perspective of waking that no one was asleep, the experience prior to waking is very real and every bit as valid. Furthermore, this sort of comment invalidates life experience and can lead to negative feelings towards self and others. A good analogy is lucid dreaming. The non-lucid dream experience is every bit as “real” as the experience of lucid dreaming although upon awakening we may look at the non-lucid experience as not being valid. Just some food food for thought. Not to give the wrong message, I am enjoying this discussion.

I think your quotes regarding Zhuangzi capture non-doing quite well. It is not 'non-thought meditation' really and it also not quite correct to say it is not engaging the thinking mind in activity. It is not silencing the mind either. The mind can still be used for practical affairs. It is most definitely quite special. By special, I mean that it is a very subtle and tricky business and it is very specific and unambiguous. I also mean it is priceless and such a gift that we have access to these teachings which were once quite rare and secret. The quotes you shared about Zhuangzi are wonderful for me. While I have been slowly seeing deeper and deeper into the similarities and connection between Dzogchen and Daoist meditation, these quotes have really struck a chord with me. I've not previously seen this precise usage of the word spirit and it really opens my eyes to understanding the Daoist concept of spirit in a deeper way that connects with what I'm currently practicing. One of those AHA moments... So thank you for that! I'll try to describe the non-doing principle. Please forgive me for any errors, I'm a beginner and am constantly trying to refine my understanding. In the Dzogchen tradition, the first step is to recognize and develop absolute certainty in what is called the Nature of Mind. One of the most important functions of the teacher is to help the student develop this in a very precise way. If you don't get it right, everything else is just a waste of time. A commonly used metaphor is water - The mind is like waves and swells in the ocean, currents in a river, sweat on your skin, snow, and morning dew. The nature of mind is the essence of water that is common to whatever form the water takes but transcends form; characteristics like wetness, fluidity, flexibility, and so forth. This is just a metaphor and there are lots of them used in the teachings to describe the three basic characteristics of the Nature of Mind. The other thing worth pointing out is that it is often described in terms for three characteristics - the empty aspect (or space), the aware aspect (or clarity), and the arising of dynamic energy from the inseparability of these two (warmth or bliss). Once the student develops certainty in this, she needs to develop stability. In the beginning, this connection or what is called "resting in the Nature of Mind" is quite fragile. The Mind is constantly entering in and carrying the awareness away. With practice, stability is possible. Once stability is cultivated, it is possible to remain in this state of resting while beginning to engage in activities. This is taught in the context of body (physical activity), speech (words, concepts, communication), and mind (thought, emotion, imagination, creativity). So in each of these 3 categories we exercise our ability to rest in the Nature as we engage in these various areas of physical and mental activity. With enough practice, the accomplished yogi can maintain this resting in the Nature throughout the day in all activities, during dream, during dreamless sleep, and, most importantly, during the transition of death. This resting is very much analogous to non-doing but I prefer to think of it as non-interference. It's not that you don't think. Thoughts come and go but at an advanced level do not disturb this rest. One can engage in activity and still maintain this "non-grasping awareness," also referred to as naked awareness. This is called integration and is the next step after cultivating some stability. I don't know if I"m making sense, it gets easier to understand as we actually experience it. It's not quite the same as mindfulness. In mindfulness, there is the observer. In these practices, the observer and that which is being observed merge, this is the non-dual experience. Our relationship to thought, in fact our relationship to all life experience, is referred to a "rang shar rang dröl" which means self arising and self liberating. The accomplished yogi is like the sky in which anything at all can freely arise and spontaneously and effortless liberates since there is no grasping. It's likened to writing in the air or throwing a bucket of paint in the air - nowhere for it to stick. The shine that is being referred to in your quotes is the spontaneous arising of what is referred to as dynamic energy. It is considered the source of all creativity. It is the source of true compassion. Whatever needs to happen does so effortlessly and what arises from this pure openness is always precisely what is needed in the moment. This is analogous to Wu Wei and the unimpeded flow of Dao or what may be called "merging" with Dao. Merging is probably not the best word either here or when I used it above referring to the non-dual experience. I think it's better to think of it as self liberating. The one who tends to get in the way, the thinker, or perhaps better to say the thought or tendency that claims itself to be thinker is allowed to liberate and the Dao simply is as it is. I hope that makes some sense.