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Had it this morning Now I can not even remember what was going on in that state. Something mundane but it was amusing .... outside stimulus seems to disrupt it. Sometimes I can stretch out the 'between space' but its subtle, sorta got to allow it to happen itself, as soon a s I try to stretch it, it snaps and I am awake. In the past I experimented with it but gave up, being in that state I didnt manage to harvest much ... I was constantly on the edge of grasping or something or reading some amazing text that I couldnt quiet read .... it felt like my mind was doing that thing the body can do in a dream ... have the sensation and brain signals that you are running but you cant get traction or something and you are staying still. A bit like the 'meditative effects' of N2 O - the whole system of the Universe and all its energy and manifestations come together in a balanced whole ... all secrets are revealed ... one realises it was all so simple in the first place ! NOW I can ....... ummmmm ..... huh ... what was I just thinking about then ? ? ? So I gave up on it and went to things that delivered the goods better. Although , if you can plant a 'contented/happy seed' when you are in that space it will help to get you out of the 'right side of the bed' in the morning and can make the first part of your day great ...

One day Chu Chuai Tzu said to his teacher, Chang Wu Tzu, “I have heard Confucius say that a sage does not get involved in the world. A sage does not seek gain or try to avoid loss. A sage does not seek anything, and does not even cling to the Tao (the Way). A sage does not use words and when speaking has nothing to say. In this way, a sage is able to go far beyond this world of dust. Now, Confucius thinks these are empty and fancy words, yet I feel they are much like the mysterious Tao itself. What do you think?” Chang Wu Tzu replied, “I think these words would confuse even the Yellow Emperor . . . The sage floats with the sun and moon and joins the universe, embracing it as one great whole. A sage has no use for distinctions and ignores social status. Ordinary men toil and struggle while the sage seems stubborn and dull-witted. To the sage a thousand years is one, the myriad beings of the universe are but one, forming a great whole. “How do we know that loving life is not a delusion? How do we know that in fearing death we are not like someone who gets lost on the way home like a child? “Lady Li was the child of a border guard who was taken prisoner by the Duke of Chin. When first captured, she wept so much her clothes were soaked. But after she adjusted to her new surroundings and luxurious new life, she regretted her tears. How can we know that the dead do not regret their previous longing for life? One who dreams of drinking wine may in the morning weep; one who dreams weeping may in the morning go out and hunt. When dreaming we do not now we are dreaming. We may even dream of dreaming a dream. Only when we awaken do we know it was a dream. Only after our great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. “And yet fools dream and think they are awake. They pretend to know what is going on, and distinguish between kings and slaves. How stupid! I think both you and Confucius are dreaming. Of course, I am dreaming, too. My words may seem like nonsense, but after ten thousand years, a sage may come along who can explain them and then it will seem like morning.”

The more ordinary expressions given to the highest reality known as Citta are Tathata, "suchness" or "thusness", Satyata, "the state of being true", Bhutata, "the state of being real", Dharmadhatu, "realm of truth", Nirvana, the Permanent (nitya), Sameness (samata), the One (advaya), Cessation (nirodha), the Formless (animitta), Emptiness (sunyata), etc. From these descriptions it is found natural for Mahayanists psychologically to deny the existence of an ego-soul or ego-substance in the Alaya, and ontologically to insist that the tragedy of life comes from believing in the substantiality or finality of an individual object. The former is technically called the doctrine of Pudgalanairatmya, egolessness of persons,1 and the latter that of Dharmanairatmya, egolessness of things; the one denies the reality of an ego-soul and the other the ultimacy of an individual object. Superficially, this denial of an Atman in persons and individual objects sounds negative and productive of no moral signification. But when one understands what is ultimately meant by Cittamatra (Mind-only) or by Vivikta-dharma (the Solitary), the negations are on the plane of relativity and intellection. The term "the Middle" (madhyama), meaning "the Middle Way'', does not occur in the Lanka proper except in its Sagathakam portion. But the idea that the truth is not found in the dualistic way of interpreting existence, that it is beyond the category of being and non-being, is everywhere emphasised in the Lanka. In fact, we can say that one of the principal theses of the Lanka is to establish the Absolute which makes a world of particulars possible but which is not to be grasped by means of being and non-being (astina-stitva). This Absolute is the Middle Way of the Madhyamaka school. 1 The conception of the Tathagata-garbha is not to be confused with that of a Pudgala or Atman. This going beyond all forms of dualism, however differently it may be expressed, whether as being and non-being, or as oneness and manyness, or as this and that, or as causation and no-causation, or as form and no-form, or as assertion and negation, or as Samsara and Nirvana, or as ignorance and knowledge, or as work and no-work, or as good and evil, or as purity and defilement, or as ego and non-ego, or as worldly and super-worldly, ad infinitum —this going beyond a world of oppositions and contrasts constitutes one of the most significant thoughts of the Mahayana. There is nothing real as long as we remain entangled in the skein of relativity, and our sufferings will never come to an end. We must therefore endeavour to take hold of reality, but this reality is not something altogether solitary. For in this case no one of us will be able to have even a glimpse of it, and if we had, it will turn into something standing in opposition to this world of relativity, which means the loss of solitariness, that is, the solitary now forms part of this world. Thus, according to Buddhist philosophy, reality must be grasped in this world and by this world, for it is that "Beyond which is also Within". The Lankacompares it to the moon in water or a flower in a mirror. It is within and yet outside, it is outside and yet within. This aspect of reality is described as "unobtainable" or "unattainable" (anupalabdha). And just because it is unobtainable in a world of particulars, the latter from the point of view of reality is like a dream, like a mirage, and so on. The subtlest relation of reality to the world is beyond description, it yields its secrets only to him who has actually realised it in himself by means of noble wisdom (aryajnana or prajna). This realisation is also a kind of knowledge though different from what is generally known by this name. Without a theory of cognition, therefore, Mahayana philosophy becomes incomprehensible. The Lanka is quite explicit in assuming two forms of knowledge: the one for grasping the absolute or entering into the realm of Mind-only, and the other for understanding existence in its dualistic aspect in which logic prevails and the Vijnanas are active. The latter is designated Discrimination (vikalpa) in the Lanka and the former transcendental wisdom or knowledge (prajna). To distinguish these two forms of knowledge is most essential in Buddhist philosophy.

True enough. I know that I'm not experiencing existence the way another being might, and it's possible that my whole life has been a dream of sorts. But if that's the case, who do I listen to when I want to "wake up"? There are a hundred different theories about it on this forum alone... Perhaps.. I'm still figuring it all out. There may come a time when I see something you've already seen. But what if I spent my life chasing it, and the idea of awakening was the illusion all along?

Yes,...belief that nothing is real, would be right up there with the belief that objects are,...neither the commentaries associated to Lao Tzu (and the speculated authors of the DDJ and HHJ), or Sakyamuni, to my understanding, preached either nothing is real, nor that objects are real. Experience for most goes something like this,...experience born of belief can only be experienced through the condition of that belief. All conditions are a product of sleep. One could say that most of humanity's experience is no more real than a nightly dream. Of course, people often have happy dreams. However, "on the off-chance it turns out to all be an illusion," you will have missed the opportunity to have had a direct experience.

i dont think its really cluttering up the board and it is probably a lot easier to find a subject you are interested in by having these sub-forums, especially for newcomers to this site. how may great threads have been lost in general discussion over the years, when basically that was where everything went for so long? "We are a loose knit group with varied interests" it helps to have a compass to find a specific interest rather than attempting to find the needle in the hay field and besides, the sub-forums are already here and i doubt they ever become undone, taoists adapt to change, i have heard edit> dream school sounds cool

* Call it a dream. It does not change anything. Ludwig Wittgenstein *

My intial questions should have gone through my review board as I got carried away mixing some queries I have. Thanks for your answers. I guess I was saying in a round about way (wrong way). This seems like a dream sometimes and I guess there are other 'real dreams' that exist and I can tune into. This is real and unreal. Sometimes emptiness envelops me more and I feel like a veil will be lifted and I can go to other places and or not be here which would then be there, which kind of makes this a dream. The only way I will solve this is by my own experience I guess. Thanks again. ∞

Idiot stumpy wrote 'Other than seeing things, how is this going to liberate you from suffering or finding the the truth' I don't necessarily see it as just seeing images but more a meditative tool to facilitate communication between myself and my unconscious and to then utilise active imagination to communicate with seemingly unconscious aspects of myself / archetypes and or guides. To what end? I guess greater harmony, joy, understanding and love. I am not a great visualiser but the freedom of a lucid dream has and does excite me and this is what draws me to it. Maybe my answer is I am seeking freedom which I guess is liberating but maybe not liberation! And I want to explore and understand my greater self. ∞

You are part of a dream ... however much of it becomes 'your dreaming' depends on how 'in sync' you are with the dream. The are projections from the dream. however much of it becomes 'your dreaming' depends on how 'in sync' you are with the dream. No. You cant . Its not 'you' that wakes up ... it is the dreamer.

There is some interest in it. Dream topics pop up relatively often, this would be a place for deeper discussion on aspects of dreamwork, as well as an e classroom with joint reading assignments and exercises. Perhaps it could be a subforum under Group Studies? Any place it'd fit in without cluttering up the board. If it doesn't have a self sustaining group by the end of a year, we could stash it away.

Sometimes authors make huge mistakes, and actually they call the animal ego as guardian angel. Black magic distorts things and turns them upside down by calling the diabolic intelligence within as divine and giving it a "holy" name. The Gnostic master Samael Aun Weor clarifies: Guardian Angel "The flaming powers of the Guardian Angel are truly extraordinary, marvelous, and extremely divine. I know what the Guardian Angel is from purely Gnostic sources, secretly kept in monasteries of initiation. These bear no resemblance to common pseudo-Christianity and pseudo-occultism which are accessible to the general public." - Samael Aun Weor, The Secret Doctrine of Anahuac, and Dream Yoga Guardian of the Threshold "Theurgy is one thing and Necromancy is another... The internal master of the Theurgist is the Intimate. The internal master of the Necromancer is his Guardian of the Threshold to whom they call the guardian of their consciousness, the guardian of the precinct, the guardian of their chamber, the guardian of their sanctum... The Intimate is our Divine Spirit, our Real Being, our Internal Angel. The Guardian of the Threshold is the internal depth of our animal “I.” The Intimate is the ardent flame of Horeb. In accordance with Moses, the Intimate is the Ruach Elohim who sowed the waters in the beginning of the world. He is the Sun King, our Divine Monad, the Alter Ego of Cicerone. The Guardian of the Threshold is our Satan... our internal beast, the source of all of our animal passions and brutal appetites... The Real Being of the Theurgist is the Intimate. The superior “I” of the Necromancer is the Guardian of the Threshold. The powers of the Intimate are divine. The powers of the Guardian of the Threshold are diabolic. The Theurgist worships the Intimate. The Necromancer worships the Guardian of the Threshold. The Theurgist avails himself with the power of his Intimate in order to perform his great works of practical magic. The Necromancer worships the Guardian of the Threshold for his works of black magic." - Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of Beelzebub

I think there is great value in considering it true and not true. To keep the two considerations like heads and tail of a coin. In the tic toc everyday world it is not true. I am typing what you're reading from a distance. I am not you, I am separate with a long history, as is everyone else. Yet considering the other side of the coin, allows you to take ultimate responsibility for the world. It becomes a Rorschach test reflecting your mindset. You see and interpret it differently. You live a better life, rich in synchronicity. Robert Moss's work is all about seeing'real' life as dream, and taking dreams as seriously as 'real' life. He has some good stuff on the shamanic side of dreamwork.

It may well be that you are just someone else's dream. I'm sure I am. I hope they never wake up.

Well, if this dream is precognitive, there are no ways to make sense of it until the context of the social situation is known. For an example, the upper manager may represent someone I will meet in the future because of some event.. Or his name sounds with Mom or Mont because he is like my mother??? I actually saw his face and could recognize and recall his facial expression. So, an old work place but with people I have never met in my real life. That's odd. Looks like my old work place represents the past while this upper manager represents the future.

What stands out to me the most is that you're trying to explain something about yourself to "mom". Only you know the answer to that and to all of these symbols. Dream dictionaries all give different answers it seems but if the interpritation deeply scares/angers you than it's probably something you should be thinking about... regardless of it being dream related or not.

Just thoughts... Am I dreaming and does my dream/world reflect me/my vibration? Are all players my projections? Is all their pain my pain, their joy my joy? Is all my pain/joy self inflicted? If it's a dream how do I control it? Even if I wake I will still be dreaming, just consciously? ∞

Like all of my dreams, they are very lucid and vivid. At the moment, I am trying to sort out my career issue. Looking for something long term and meaningful. Basically, in this dream, I was back at my old work place. I was with this company for a long time. But my work location isn't there anymore. It has been moved. Yet, I am dreaming about this same place. In this dream, I realized I don't work for this company anymore. Yet, I find myself going into this old place and getting ready to work. I even have keys to open the front door. While I was getting ready to work in this place and knowing that I don't work for the company anymore. Is a strange feeling. Is like you know what is happening and know how to do certain tasks but you know you shouldn't be there. In this dream, it was a quiet day and not much to do throughout the whole day (another interesting aspect here is that I was experiencing a whole full day of work in maybe 15 minutes to 30 minutes of dreaming). There was a staff with me and I was told that the upper manager is visiting. I got a phone call about he is visiting me. On the phone, I mistook him for someone else, a woman and my first upper manager. On the phone, he asked if either he or me needed a break. I said to him I needed a break since I was at work since the early morning. He finally showed up and his name is Mom or something sounding like Mom or Mont. I don't recognize him. I tried to explain to him why I was here, in the old work place....that I was trying to get a job with the company. At first, he didn't take me seriously until I told him about my work experiences. Is someone trying to give me a "break" in my future career path and I have to prove myself through my work experiences? Is my mind telling me I should go back to work for my old company?? Hahahaha... But the work location isn't there anymore. Or the dream itself is a metaphor for something representing something in my future? Why my mind is using my old work place to tell me something about my future? Obviously, in the dream, I was aware that I don't work for the company but somehow my mind is drawn back to it for a reason.

Also, as far as carrying on the work while out and about, does reversing the light while doing daily activities resemble dissociation? Some days I feel involuted, as if life is a dream, and I feel a real intense inner presence, as if I am feeding the universe back into my self. My body seems to operate as if from a distance, including social interactions. I have a sense as if I am breathing in Reality, or the Universe, and eating it, directing its energies into my being. I understand that everything that is perceived is actually already within the mind, and not really outside at all. I am wondering about the motor cortex and pre motor cortex and how what we give our energies to creates new growth within the brain...does turning the light around create new growth within the reflexive center itself, as well as the source of consciousness within the heart. I am thinking that it would be useful to study the formation of the human embryo from zygote and seeing what develops first, and then perhaps extrapolating from this the pathways of evolution. The term 'Source progenitor' has always enthralled me...I need to look more into that. I want to know these things both directly and indirectly (analytic/theoretic)... Relaxation seems paramount. The opposing force - doing - sending energy outwards is about trying to change the universe. Here is the exhaustion. It seems that by entering fully into presence, true relaxation, and allowing the universe to change ones own self instead, is how growth and rebirth occurs.

In this book the achieved student spends 8 years in his small town, working and supporting his family like anyone else, hidden and waiting for approval from his teachers to share his lineage. This alone is a great lesson - sometimes it is important to allow things to settle and mature. Principle of the Lake trigram ☱. But during this time, others find themselves healed after short chats with WL, though he acknowledges nothing of this. Later, after he is teaching to the masses, a few students approach him saying they all had the same dream - but he denies having any intentional role, saying this is simply what the energy does naturally due to the circumstances. Those students were able to resonate and perceive, so they were the ones to have the dreams. This was possible due to the massive scale of the seminar and due to the high level of sophistication of WL's skill. In Shen Laoshi's translated blog, he describes his first seminar with WL, where he finds his hands forming a spontaneous mudra - again it is suggested that his energy was able to naturally resonate with what was available to all, rather than WL seeking him out deliberately and making his hands form the mudra. When someone reaches a level of self mastery, they heal others by simply being themselves. The higher their mastery and skill, the more widespread the affect. Zhuangzi speaks much on the trap masters fall into by teaching with words and becoming chained to the needs of others as opposed to the freedom and unhindered potential open to those who radiate their healing invisibly. We don't need to intentionally send out instructions for how others need to heal - that is Inferior Virtue. Superior Virtue is in trusting and allowing all to happen the way it needs to - allowing and trusting the tao to operate at its highest level, not controlling based on our own highest level. The power of wholeness inspires wholeness all around it, and operates on myriad layers at once.

If we can get 10 people interested, I'd ask the mods to create a subforum somewhere innocuous to get the ball rolling. I'd envision a weekly live discussion 2 or 3 times a week. A weekly group reading, a free flow of topics people are interested in and if desired a short personal threads where people can journal there own dream work projects. Going back 10 years. An old crazy wise member talked about dreamwork. He said forget technique, its all about intention. Another member here recently said, plans and learning are a neophytes trap. Hmnn 3 parts intent, one part technique, one part relaxation. To me, serious means sacrifice, few things come for free. I envision dream school starting at 4 am (or would 5 am be better?). Twenty or 30 minutes of preparation, then back to sleep and on the clock. Taking advantage of the last one or two deep Rem cycles. Experimenting, figuring out what works individually and as a whole. Cause maybe that's a bad idea. How do we combine the modern neurological discoveries and age old dream traditions to gain skillfulness? Experimentation. I'd want people who were willing to on 3 week experiments.

as I bask in the field of hops, slowly drifting drifting away... I dream of fermenting; soaked in the love making of clear mountain streams, river rocks, moss, particles of gold, geodes radiating spiritual messages from deep below, now permeating into my petals and leaves.... awakened by a gentle breeze softly whisking away that fading warmth of horizon kissed starlight even as twinkles appear to greet my now homeward bound feet.

I have a regular problem of falling asleep when meditating if I am sitting or laying down. I can usually meditate for 10-15 minutes without a problem but whenever I go any longer there is a good chance that i will fade into sleep. Through my Taiji practice I have been able to accomplish effective standing meditation without dozing off to dream land but when sitting or laying I find myself falling asleep while meditating on a regular basis. I have a good diet. I exercise regularly. I sleep a solid 8 hours a night (usually 930pm-530am). I never meditate after a large meal or in the evening when i am tired. Granted, i am fairly new to meditating and some advice i have read on other forums is that this problem will pass with time and practice but i thought that you guys would have a few helpful things to say. Any help would be appreciated.

Creativity and Sexual Energy are like husband and wife. Together they are life's "secret sauce". I hope this will stimulate the flow of your creative juices.... Dear Lovers of Life's Creative Secret Sauce, In this letter I will share with you my three Simple Secrets of Creativity, and how they relate to the pulsing yin-yang forces of sexual energy. But first, let's notice how Nature itself is creative. I hope you had a wonderful summer and are already absorbing the Metal /Gold Element of Autumn. In Chinese thinking Fall season began on Aug. 6 and is will peak on Sept. 22 with the Fall Equinox. Please take the time to honor this powerful portal with your own Equinox Ceremony. I suggest you align to Nature's cycle with a focus on Letting Go of your resistance to change. Autumnal change is symbolized by leaves falling off the tree to expose the strength of its core trunk and branch structure. Autumn is time to shift focus from the rich sensory flowering of summer to turn inward, to our branch-like Qi meridians. Each season had its own special Creative Qi (or Chi, both pronounced "chee"). Nature shifts the quality of its creative force from season to season. Humans can do the same at any time, if they are tuned in. Metal season is great opportunity to discover your true creative strength. Michael Winn performs Red Fire Dragon of Souith Summer Solstice ceremony, at Healing Tao USA summer retreats near Asheville, N.C. Summer program first week's dates are planned to coincide with Nature's solstice cycle. I had a very creative, Qi-filled summer. In May we had a fantastic China Dream Trip. It stimulated creative response in the 30 Dream Trippers that made that journey of spiritual adventure. Folks are still writing to me about the creative changes in their life that are still unfolding as a result of our "eating" China's Deep Earth Qi using forms like Primordial Tai Chi/Qigong. The next Dream Trip will be in August 2016. We'll visit the Healing Tao's lineage root mountain, Mt. Changbai, where the Taoist hermits One Cloud and White Cloud spiritually achieved themselves. I found it was super easy to do internal alchemy when supported by Changbai's deep lake waters being alchemically steamed by the fire of an active volcano. The Qi Field itself was incredibly creative (If you want to get on my early notice list, hit reply to this newsletter, put China in subject line). Meditating around a simple floor altar at summer retreat on Medical & Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1-4. The methods in this course offer the major Qi circulation and grounding skills needed for nearly all creative Taoist energy work. Taoists Study the Life Force as Creative Process In June & July, many lucky folks enjoyed a virtual explosion of Creative Qi at Healing Tao University's 20 summer retreats. The Taoist energetic arts and sciences reveal an amazing range of creativity with every possible Qi application one could dream up. Qi for self-healing, medical Qi for healing others, alchemical Qi for longevity & immortality, sexual Qi for loving relationships, Tai Chi Qi for self-defense, Taoist Yoga Qi for relaxing and opening the body, Fusion Qi for managing negative emotions. That's just for starters - Qi is infinitely creative. It's the very medium of Creation. We had a new presenter at the retreats who was a big hit -- Michael Gelb. He's a world-famous author whose focus is Creative Qi itself. He's written fourteen books, mostly on creativity. Guess what he says is the secret sauce behind his own creative flow? Q-I-G-O-N-G. He's been studying qigong with many masters over the past 40 years. I loved Gelb's seminar. He felt like an "old soul brother" running on a parallel path that finally intersected with my own. He has left no stone unturned in his quest to maximize his creative enjoyment of life. But in the end, he came to the same conclusion that I did: if you want more Creative Qi in your life, doing qigong is one of the most effective places you can start. As you get good at qigong, everything in your life can become creative Qi Play. Gelb created a special "Leonardo da Vinci Qigong" to enhance creativity, which he shared with us - a very lovely form, and of course, very creative! This form is included in his new book, and shown for free on his site http://michaelgelb.com. His book is called Creativity on Demand: How to Ignite and Sustain the Fire of Genius. Michael Gelb's book is really about Qigong - available on Amazon This is a book that I would have been proud to have written myself. It's Gelb's magnum opus on creativity. He interviewed dozens of creative people for the book, including many qigong masters. This added fascinating breadth to his thesis that "creativity is a choice, not a special gift". Here's the testimonial I wrote for the book jacket of his new book: Michael Gelb belongs to my Curious Souls Tribe - no stone left unturned on his path. His conclusion? The secret sauce underlying ALL creativity is the medium of Qi, the Life Force itself. Creativity on Demand is his masterpiece, a guide to playfully shaping the Qi Field. His methods are fun, practical, and ingenious -- applicable by anyone - even if you think you already mastered tai chi or qigong. It will juice up the creative success of any healer, therapist, athlete, or entrepreneur and ground any spiritual seeker. It will clear the cobwebs for everyone - from couples seeking renewal, to a worker feeling life is a boring routine. Gelb unleashes the mystery of Creativity, frees it from the cabal of artists. He delivers it to anyone brave enough to read this book and open the flow of Creative Qi. - Michael Winn Gelb is a very thorough researcher. I was amazed at how many people in different fields he dug up who are using qigong to ignite and sustain the fires of their creativity in their profession. Mainstream therapists, life coaches, athletes, artists, many others. Simple Secret #1: Inner Smile Opens Space of Creative Play I got to experience his creative focus first hand. Gelb's interview with me for this book lasted over 3 hours, as he drilled deep into my creative process. He only had room to condense a few pages into his book about what I had to say. I told him one of my favorite Qi tools for enhancing creativity is the Inner Smile (on pages 92-93 of his book, if you are curious). I shared with Michael Gelb my three Simple Secrets of the Tao of Creativity. I summarize them here. The Inner Smile is the first secret. It is one of the simplest yet most creative forms of meditation ever discovered - there are literally an infinite number of ways to do it. It need never to get stuck, mechanical, dry and boring like many seekers I've met who sit for years, waiting in vain for total emptiness or enlightenment to smack them in the third eye. Many meditators feel like they somehow failed. Inner Smile is about process, not end goals. When you focus on process, there's never a failure, just the success of infinite learning. During our discussion of the Inner Smile, we discovered that we both share a love for the world's most famous painting -- Leonard da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Why is the Mona Lisa so famous? Because of her mysterious Inner Smile! Leonardo's Mona Lisa with the mystery of her soul's radiant Inner Smile. She's asking, "Can you feel who I truly am?". Contrast it with the modified Mona Lisa showing her personality's socially available Outer Smile. Which painting draws you IN more deeply? Which Mona feels spiritually more secure to you? The Outer Smile is our social self reaching out to test and secure psychological safety with people around us. These social connections are important, but very transitory. The Inner Smile is our soul's essence radiating its truth from the core of our Being. That permanent connection to our Deep Self is what we really live for. When we connect our ordinary mind to our soul, our Inner Smile lights up. That flips on the Creative Qi switch in our life. Gelb describes in his book the creative response of school kids when asked what Mona Lisa is smiling about. He got answers like "She knows the secret of what goes on between boys and girls". Gelb wryly notes that when he posed the same question to a conference of Wall Street types, he got the cynical remark that Mona Lisa's smile was the result of recent dental work. Kids vs. adults - very different types of creative play. I use the painting of Mona Lisa in my 120 page ebook, Way of the Inner Smile: Tao Path to Peace and Self-Acceptance. (If you don't have it, or lost it, please go back and signup again on my home page and download it for FREE from http://www.healingtaousa.com). It's never too late to activate your Inner Mona Lisa!!! You might even invite her to become your Creative Muse, as she smiles internally within you, blessing you to activate the flow of Creative Qi that is everyone's birthright. Simple Secret #2: Sexual Qi Boosts Our Creative Fire One of the things I confessed to Michael during our interview was how, in my youth, I perceived myself as "UN-creative". I was not born with any special talent. My brother David got all the music lessons. Yes, I was intellectually very bright. But internally, I considered that kind of smarts to be little more than a monkey-like cleverness, the ability to read something and feed it back to a teacher. My clever mind got me into an Ivy League school. But I when I graduated from Dartmouth with Senior Fellow honors, I still felt like a over-educated monkey without a creative bone in my body. The only time I felt truly creative was when I made love to a woman. S-E-X - now that felt to me like creative energy at its best. Love-making defined my highest creative moments, it was a kind of religious experience for me. But unfortunately sex was somehow mostly trapped at a deep unconscious level of biology - I could not quite reach into the root of its creative power. I didn't have the skill to link it up at will with my emotions, my thoughts, my power to manifest what I needed in life. Orgasm felt super spiritiual, but how to integrate it with my spiritual process? Later I moved to New York city and started a successful career in publishing. That started loosening my creative juices. I was also full of myself, as the youngest Publicity Director in the field. Then I got fired from my job. The reason my boss gave me? "You're too creative for this corporate world". That was actually flattering, given my negative self-image of feeling UN-creative. But she was right - I was not born to work for someone else. Today I am eternally grateful to my boss for firing me, and forcing me to move on. Thank you, Anna Borgerson. I soon became a free-lance war correspondent in Africa. My creative juices began to flow because my survival - both physically and economically - depended on it. Kundalini: Multi-dimensional Sexual Orgasm What kicked that creativity into higher spiritual gear was a kundalini awakening in Africa when I was 28 years old. The kundalini experience was a kind of whole-body orgasm. It was sex elevated to a cosmic level. It made me aware that creativity was a multi-dimensional affair arising from my soul. That my soul was generating the sexual energy that I needed to expand my awareness and creativity into all of my subtle bodies. It wasn't until I immersed myself in 1) Taoist qigong, 2) sexual energy cultivation practices with a partner, and 3) Taoist inner sexual alchemy meditation that I ultimately was able to sustain the creative flow of sexual Qi arising from the very root of my soul. This took me beyond my youthful obsession with physical sex. Learning how to tap my Sexual Qi was like pouring gasoline on the fire of my creativity. Thus the Taoist methods both sparked and sustained my experience of Creative Ignition. I realized that Taoist Internal Alchemy is essentially a process of capturing our sexual energy and putting it to highe work. It allows us to crystallize our biological impulses into a spiritually pulsating inner pearl, so we can ground our otherwise intangible soul. It's a method to make our soul both conscious and creative. The benefits flow into our worldly life and good physical health, as well as quickening our highest spiritual destiny. Now I cannot stop the creative flow of Qi (ever notice how long some of my newsletters are? . But how is this Taoist sexual-spiritual process different from ordinary artistic creativity? Artists are focused on outer expression, which directs them to tap into their inner psyche. But often they cannot sustain a balanced flow of creativity. Some exhaust themselves (deficient Qi) and feel blocked creatively. Others, like Van Gogh, go mad (excess Qi), and put it into destructive behavior. This is why many who achieve fame in film, sports, or politics cannot handle the intense Qi flow and try to disperse it with sex, drugs, or booze. Most artists don't have a scientific, i.e. systematic way to manage their Creative Qi. That's what qigong and inner alchemy meditation gave me - sustained harmony and balance while at the same time liberating the flow of sexual energy tranforming into Creative Qi. Everyone has a different destiny, meaning a different place to focus their qi flow. The creative challenge I've taken on is to explore the possibility of consciously creating a physical body in the Present Moment. Once we manage that, we've conquered death. It is this flow of sexually-charged Creative Qi that has sustained me over the past thirty years as I've evolved One Cloud's Internal Alchemy Formulas for Immortality, to make them accessible to Western adepts. Simple Secret #3: Flexible Energy Body = Youthful Physical Body I feel I've enjoyed some success. The qigong and sexual energy recycling practices have kept me young enough to enjoy starting a family. I've got the creative energy to consider having a second child (I turned 63 last week). I hope to accelerate my path of "reverse aging" now that I have an 8 month old expert teacher in Creative Play. Emerald is changing so fast that I have to dtop all rigidity in my Energy Body to match his level of play. Rigidity is what kills our adult Creativity and ultimately causes our physical death. A rigid Energy Body is caused by having fixed ideas, stuck emotional patterns, limiting physical movement habits and posture, fear of embracing novelty. All of these act as constrictions on the flow of Creative Qi between the spirit realm, our soul, and our physical body-mind. When our resistance to allowing new Qi to flow in becomes greater than our love of creating our Highest Destiny - we are ready to die. So please don't do IT. I mean don't slowly commit spiritual suicide by killing off the flow of your Creative Qi. Keep the juices flowing in whatever passion you pour your Qi into. Consider keeping your Creative Qi pump primed with a regular practice of Qigong. The especially brave will alchemically charge up their Creative Qi with that super fuel called sexual energy. My study of Taoist energy cycles inside our body, within the planet and Cosmos made it clear why people express their Highest Creavity in different ways. It's because they have very different elemental constitutions. A Fire Type will exhibit creative flair in a very different way from a deep feeling Water Type. An Earth Type will create beautiful gardens, a Metal Type will have a sharp and discriminating mind. Everyone has all five elements within themselves, and true creativity arises from their interaction. You can find out your dominant and weak elements by looking at your Chinese astrology chart, free on my site:http://www.healingtaousa.com/astrologycenter.html Read More Here

any rate an independent scotland is all just a faded pipe dream now. it would be refreshing however if there were at least some romantic rather than all practical in this world. at least there is iceland and ireland to admire