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Hi Pak_Satrio, Know that you can be pro-active in envisioning and invoking Kuan Yin, which is what most of the Buddhist world and the non--religiously oppressed members of Chinese society does. For everyone's general info: Kuan Yin (Guanyin in pinyin) is a the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara, a Buddhist diety seen in iconography as the attendant to the Budda to his right, who has 108 avatars. Kuan Yin is the goddess of mercy and compassion, a bodhisattva venerated not only in Chinese, Tibetan, Nepalese, and southeast Asian Buddhism, but also throughout Chinese culture, folklore. and other religions. Taoists and non-Taoists alike-- just all kinds of lay folk-- in Chinese communities around world worship Buddhist dieties, Taoist dieties (e.g., the Taoist Immortals), Confucius and his disciples. The general custom amongst many Chinese Buddhist cultures is for women to wear a likeness of or emblem of the Buddha and for men to wear likeness or talisman of Kuan Yin. The sourcebook on Guanyin that I like and recommend is this more recent one by John Blofeld: Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin (Shambhala Classics) https://www.amazon.com/Bodhisattva-Compassion-Mystical-Tradition-Shambhala/dp/1590307356/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2AHX7X3VIVO1X&keywords=Kuan+Yin+goddess+of+great+compassion&qid=1680299565&s=books&sprefix=kuan+yin+goddess+of+great+compassion%2Cstripbooks%2C80&sr=1-5 I had my first spontaneous experience of Kuan Yin in 1977 after I had finished college while I was living in Los Feliz in LA and training intensively in Tao Tan Pai Nei Kung at the Taoist Sanctuary of Los Angeles. One night, I saw her in dreamstate, standing beautifully serene like her representation in the alabaster statues. All white/ivory in color. Then she took the stemmed flower out of a narrow vase she was holding and tossed it towards me. It tumbled through the ether a certain way (my secret) and then it landed in my open hands while i was lying supine, with my body and feet aligned towards her. I was not praying to Kuan Yin specifically nor doing any invocative rituals, for I didn't know how to do either at that time of my life. Over the years and in perfect hindsight [--and thanks , Pak-Satrio for your post about Kuan Yin], I realize that this dream visitation by Kuan Yin was a great blessing and a prophecy: Besides being blessed to be able to learn the FLying Phoenix Qigong from GM Doo Wai during a safe window of time that lasted from 1991 through 1997, I also learned from him the ultra-rare and shockingly powerful and "Eight Sections fo Energy Combined Kung fu ("Bat Din Gum") that cultivates a purely destructive martial energy that conducts through organic matter like cotton and wood. GM Doo Wai learned this ultra-rare martial art at the Kuan Yin Goddess of Mercy Buddhist Temple in Macau in the early 1960's when he traded the abbot of that temple some of his Bok Fu Pai Kung Fu for this art. The only known practitioners of this art besides yours truly are the monks at the Macau temple--assuming that the temple is still functioning. During a training session in 1995 recorded GM Doo Wai telling me that when he was learning the BDG, he had witnessed the monks (plural) at this temple cracking large boulders with a piece of silk. Thus GM Doo Wai seriously quipped that 8 Sections Combined Kung Fu was "more rare than the DoDo Bird." This is the 8th Section, the capstone form of the system, which contains elements from the previous 7 BDG kung fu forms: https://www.facebook.com/100057842221650/videos/411458890390443 At any rate, Happy Channeling of Kuan Yin to all! Sifu Terry P.S. There are many different types of prayers to Kuan Yin. Early on in my life, right after I finished college, I found and instinctively starting using the "Dharani of Great Compassion" (below). I would recite it in Sanskrit and in Chinese. Even though I did know Sanskrit and had to read the English translation to know what I was saying. I soon found that reading/saying Sanskrit prayers out loud regulates the breathing a certain way as mantric Yoga. Plus, the Dharani of Great Compassion is powerful--it's no wimpy, tea-and-sympathy window-dressing for screw-ups. Here is the English translation for a couple of the dharani's ending passages: Awake. Awake. Awakened. Awakened. Merciful one. Blue Necked One! Daring One. Joyous One! Amen! Successful one. Salutations! Great successful one. Salutations! Masterful. Creator. Salutations! Blue Necked One. Salutations! Boar faced! Salutations! Powerful Lion Headed. Salutations! Weapon Holder. Salutations! Wheel holder. Salutations! Lotus Holder. Salutations! Blue Necked. All Causing! Salutations! Beneficient One. Salutations! Hail to the Three Treasures! Hail noble Avalokita. Salutations! • Here is is the Dharani in Sanksrit for anyone's use at your discretion: Namo Ratna Trayaya. Namah Arya Avalokitesvaraya Bodhisattvaya Mahasattvaya Mahakarunikaya Sarva Bandhana Chedana Karaya . Sarva Bhava Samudram Sosana Karana. Sarva Vyadhi Prasamana Karaya. Sarva Mrtyu Upa-Drava Viansana Karana . Sarva Bhaye Su Trana Karaya. Tasmat Namas – Krtva Idam Arya Avalokitesvara Bhastinam Nilakantha Pi Nama Hrdayam Avarta Isyami Sarvartha-sadhanam Subham Ajeyam Sarva Bhutanam Bhava Marga Visuddhakam Tadyatha, Om Aloke Aloka-mati Lokati Krante. He Hare Arya Avalokitesvara Maha bodhisattva , He Boddhisattva , He Maha bodhisattva , He Virya Bodhisattva He Mahakarunika Smara Hradayam. Hi Hi , Hare Arya Avalokitesvara Mahesvara Parama Maitra-Citta Mahakarunika. Kuru Kuru Karman Sadhaya Sadhaya Vidyam. Ni Hi , Ni Hi Varnam Kamam-Game . Vitta-Kama Vigama. Siddha Yogesvara . Dhuru Dhuru Viryanti, Maha Viryanti . Dhara Dhara Dharendresvara. Cala Cala Vimala Amala Murte Arya Avalokitesvara Jina Krsna Jata-Makuta Valam Ma Pra-Lamba Maha Siddha Vidya dhara.Vara Vara Maha Vara . Bala Bala Maha Bala. Cala Cala Maha Cala Krsna-Varna Nigha Krsna – Paksa Nirghatana. He Padma-Hasta Cara Cara Desa Caresvara Krsna –Sarpa Krta Yajnopavita Ehyehi Maha Varaha-Mukha,Tripura-Dahanesvara Narayana Va Rupa Vara Marga Ari . He Nilakantha , He Mahakara , Hala hala Visa Nir-jita Lokasya. Raga Visa Vinasana. Dvesa Visa Vinasana. Moha Visa Vinasana Huru Huru Mala, Huru Huru Hare, Maha Padmanabha Sara Sara , Sri Sri , Suru Suru , Bhu ruc Bhu ruc Buddhiya Buddhiya , Boddhaya Boddhaya Maitri Nilakantha Ehyehi Vama Shitha Simha-Mukha Hasa Hasa, Beautiful mother Guanyin is one feminine aspect of Avalokiteshvara. Munca Munca Mahattahasam Ehiyehi Pa Maha Siddha Yogesvara Bhana Bhana Vaco Sadhaya Sadhaya Vidyam. Smara Smaratam Bhagavantam Lokita Vilokitam Lokesvaram Tathagatam Dadahi Me Drasana Kamasya Darsanam Pra-Hiadaya Mana Svaha. Siddhaya Svaha. Maha Siddhaya Svaha Siddha Yogesvaraya Svaha Nilakanthaya Svaha Varaha-Mukhaya Svaha Maha-dara Simha-Mukhaya Svaha Siddha Vidyadharaya Svaha Padma-Hastaya Svaha Krsna-Sarpa Krta Yajnopavitaya Svaha Maha Lakutadaharaya Svaha Cakrayuddhaya Svaha Sankha-Sabdani Bodhanaya Svaha Vama Skandhadesa Shitha Krsnajinaya Svaha Vyaghra-Carma Nivasanaya Svaha Lokesvaraya Svaha Sarva Siddhesvaraya Svaha Namo Bhagavate Arya Avalokitesvaraya Bodhisattvaya Maha Sattvaya Mahakarunikaya Sidhyanthu Me Mantra-Padaya Svaha Four-armed aspect of Chenrezig (Tibetan name of Kuan Yin)

@Maddie I will share in 4 points: 1) Intro 2) My experiences with evil spirits 3) My experiences with black magic 4) My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc) Intro In my opinion, this is an extremely important topic, that is extremely ignored, belittled and misunderstood by the vast majority of cultivators. Especially those with a western background. Also, even by high level masters who simply don't know about this particular area or haven't trained and studied it. My experiences with evil spirits I have personally suffered many extreme and terrifying experiences, and no matter where I sought help, I was belittled, ridiculed, ignored or misunderstood. I have seen books flying out of shelves. I have seen bagpacks and other physical items dragged back and forth on the floor. I have experienced "wind" indoors, even though it was a closed off room with no windows. I have seen shadowy/smoke like figures physically moving around, experienced physical touch even though no physical beings are there and much more. When I sought help from a hindu monk, he advised me to start japa of my guru mantra when it happened. I did it... Didn't work. When I sought help from a high level "shamanic" qigong master (you would think spirits would be a walk in the park for a shaman), I was belittled and told "not to pay attention to this illusion I am experiencing". There's nothing illusory about physical objects being thrown around by an unseen force. It's pretty much as concrete as it gets. Almighty God bless him, and bring him to clarity and allow him to actually help people with his powers of qi. When I sought help from another qigong master specialised in healing, he told me to say a prayer and do a mudra. When it didn't work, he explained it away saying that "you're just not powerful enough to do it yet, you need to cultivate more. Be my one-on-one student for 2-3 years, meet me on on a weekly zoom meeting priced at 1.600 dollars for an hour, and then in a couple of years, you will be able to do it". This healing qigong master stated that I have a very loving and very spiritual energy, and that's why troubled spirits get attracted to me. They seek help and healing from me. That's why it worsens when I travel to new places or stay overnight at places that are not my house. The troubled spirits in that place see me and come to get help. I actually believed him, and met him 3 times, wasting thousands of dollars. It didn't work! And on top of that, the clairvoyant things he told me about me and my health were flat out wrong (he said I had weak sexual energy, ejaculated in seconds and drank a lot of alcohol which damaged my liver). I am at a very advanced level of sexual qigong and lovemaking, haven't touched alcohol in more than 10 years and make love for hours daily without ejaculating with very strong erection power. So after 3 meetings, I realized he was simply a semi-psychic (he did say correctly that I had a spine injury, although there were so many other things wrong about his psychic reading), yet pretty good healer (I could feel my back getting better when he gave healings), but most of all he was just thirsty for money. So, of course I stopped seeing him. Dear God, bring him to the straight path, let him let go of his greed for money and selfishness, and instead lead him to the straight path, that he may use his gift of healing for good. I then spoke with a highly clairvoyant sufi master, who did a check on me (for free). He related my entire life story regarding troubles with spirits (without me telling him anything), and he also stated that it's because I have a lot of "light" (noor) inside my soul. This is because of all the prayers and mantras I say each day (since I was a child). He said the spirits are troubled where they are (in "bardo" or "barzakh" as it's called in Islam), and seek my help. He said I should visualise putting up spiritual sign posts around my aura, my house, or anywhere I go that says "I am sorry, I cannot help you. I myself need help, that's why I pray to the light and get that light into me. Please don't come to me, I am in no position to help you, I myself need help, that's why I pray so much. You should yourself pray to the light, then you will get help". I tried it for some time, and it helped in my own house. However, when I went to new places, it didn't work. God bless this man, he is extremely loving, knowledgable and powerfully clairvoyant. When I sought help from another sufi (via the internet), he for free did a "spiritual check" on me. He stated that yes, I have some low level evil spirits around me. He gave me (for free!) a one week program of readings of salawaat (prayers to the prophet), and reciting "bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim" (the bismillah, "in the name of God) many hundreds of times in a day. Then blow on water and drink it. I did it for 7 days, and it worked! It was from his heart and soul he wished to help me. He did it for free. I sent him 100 dollars and said that it worked, and asked if I could keep training with him. I must have paid him only a few hundred dollars, yet I spent 6-9 months corresponding with him via email. He would give me different salawaat, dhikr (name of God), verses of the Qur'an and du'a (prayers). Whenever I did a program (e.g. 7 days, 11 days, 21 days), he would tell me how it went. He would give me feedback on the energy, without me telling him anything. He was very good, he helped me a lot, and he didn't ask much in return. However, after 6-9 months, because he wanted to remain anonymous, I felt that to be a bit weird after so long, so when I had completed a big program, I stopped corresponding with him. We haven't been in contact since. What became my go-to after training with this guy, is 5 verses from the Qur'ran. Ayatul kursi (Verse about the Throne of God), and 4 verses called "the 4 qul". They are the last 4 verses of the Qur'an, and they all start with "qul" which means "say". It's Surah Nas (verse of Man), Surah Ikhlas (verse of Unity), Surah Falaq (verse of the Daybreak / rising sun) and Surah Kafiroon (verse about the Unbelievers). You recite each 11 times (11x ayatul kursi, 11x surah nas, 11x surah ikhlas, 11x surah falaq and 11x surah kafiroon). Then you blow on your right index finger, and visualise your hand coming down from the sky, and drawing a protective circle around the 4 corners of your home, and then finally around yourself, or the room that needs extra protection (e.g. bedroom, prayer room). This has been my go-to for more than 6 years. It has been the only thing that worked for me in this area. If you want to keep your house energy pure, you say 21x ayatul kursi, blow on a glass of water, and sprinkle it around your house. The combination of these two readings saved my life. God bless this man who helped me without demanding anything in return! Unlike these chinese qigong masters, just wanting money and doing nothing to help. Lately when I'm learning Sri Vidya, I feel that some of the mantras and rituals from Sri Vidya will eventually be able to give spiritual protection on an even higher level. There are 2 specific "deities" or energies generated from mantras and rituals for the navel chakra (Durga) and third eye chakra (Varahi) which specifically combat negative spiritual energies, including black magic, evil spirits, the evil eye etc. All of the above are my experiences and solutions for evil spirits so far. My experiences with black magic I have worked for the army in my country. One of my functions was as a translator and interpreter. I have been deployed several times to a UN mission in West Africa. On one of my deployments, there wasn't much work. We only worked from 6 in the morning to 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The rest of the time we we're pretty much on standby. Being stranded in a war zone, there's not much to do. So I spent all my free time reading, studying and practicing (mantras, meditation and qigong). I was in a very good spiritual state at the time due to so much practice, so I was seeing auras and energies most of the time. One time, we were training the local special forces to save hostages. The only building we could use was a big fancy hotel, yet no tourists (because of the war). So to survive, the owner of the hotel rented it out as a brothel. One day, in a break between exercises, I saw one of the prostitutes sitting on the other side of the courtyard (they just sat around and waited for the 3-4 hours that we and the local soldiers used it as a training compound). When she saw me, she started whispering something, and I saw a small cloud of black energy generating in front of her face. Then she did something with her hands, and started blowing towards me. This sent the small black cloud of energy across the courtyard towards me. It just landed in the outskirts of my aura, it didn't go in (thank God!). So nothing happened to me. When I was back in my room later that day, I meditated. Then I understood she was trying to do some black magic on me. Maybe she was trying to seduce or attract me. For a prostitute in a war zone, hooking up with a soldier deployed from Europe could be her ticket out of the warzone to a better life. Luckily, the energy wasn't powerful enough to penetrate my energy field (which was pretty charged at the time due to so much spiritual practice). And as I meditated, the cloud was just destroyed and disappeared from my field. One of the local maids cleaning my place actually put my tooth brush up in her vagina when she was cleaning the bathroom. She thought I didn't know, as I was sitting in the living room. I guess it's a primitive form of African black magic. If you ingest some of the fluids (spit, sweat or sexual fluid) of someone (especially if they say mantras while doing it), you can become more partial to liking that person (becaues you will have some of their energy inside your physical body). I bought a new tooth brush! Another woman working in the restaurant spat in my food and stirred it around to hide it. I ordered a new pasta You need to be very careful in many places of Africa, the Middle East, South America and certain parts of Asia. It's rampant with black magic and desperate people. Luckily they are usually not powerful practitioners, but you can still catch something if you're not protected and observant. My second experience is with my girlfriend. She comes from the Middle East, i.e. the vast majority of her family still lives there. When we got together, it was made public, her ethnicity in our European country as well as her family and relatives in her home country in the Middle East became aware of it. As soon as this happened, she started to fall sick. She would get wrist tendonitis, elbow tendonitis, sore knees, sore lower back, her vision would suddenly drastically reduce, she would get nauseous for no reason, got rashes, stomach ache, started to suddenly lose weight and appetite. For no reason! It just came suddenly out of the blue. She would suffer for some time and recover. Then a new problem came back. This continued for about 6 months. Before we made our relationship public, she wasn't sick even once. After we made it public, she kept continually falling ill again and again. After 6 months of this story of suffering and disease, once when I was meditating, I saw a cloud of red and black energy entering our house. It went to my girlfriend. Then it went into her wrist. That same evening, she started complaining that the wrist tendonitis was coming back. I was very surprised. I was praying and meditating, trying to understand what had happened. A few days later, I got a dream, where I saw planet Earth from above. Then I saw her country in the Middle East (Kurdistan). Then I saw clouds of red and black gathering and forming, and then they travelled to Europe to our country. When I woke up, I understood that God had heard my prayer, and given me this dream to let me know that someone in her home country was cursing her. That started an 8 month period of fighting this magic. First I consulted this qigong healer about it (the psychic one, who told me correctly about my spinal injury, but wrongly about alcohol, sex etc). He to my great surprise said that someone was putting black magic on my girlfriend, and that she should practice his "small universe" meditation to transform the energy. I was surprised he went straight to Black Magic as an explanation, even though I didn't tell him about my dreams and visions. We tried what he suggested, but it didn't work. Then I went to a hindu tantric, who has mastery over spirits, done sadhana (spiritual practice) in graveyards, and done many tamasic tantric rituals to control these spirits (e.g. animal sacrifice, bathing in blood, smearing yourself with your own filth and urine etc). When I spoke with him, he asked me to send a photo of my girlfriend. After 2-3 days, he called me and said that there is black magic on her. We should just worship and pray to God like normal, remain vegetarian, avoid alcohol, and when he visits our country, he will put a kavach (shield/armor) on her. From that day we spoke, everything stopped. So he did something remotely. After a few nights, I had a dream where I saw this swami doing something. A beam of energy went to the Middle East, where I saw someone had buried a charm inscribed with mantras and signs under the plot of one of my girlfriend's family's buildings. The beam from the swami went in and neutralized the black/red energy. I would again highlight that he did all this for free. It seems again that this phenomenon that spirituality costs money and is a business is mostly related to chinese qigong traditions. Sufis and hindus have helped me completely free of charge, just from their heart. It was about 2-3 weeks where it was completely gone, but then it returned. I tried many different sufi methods, prayers, Qur'an, tasbih (prayer beads). It was always the same. It would make it go away, but after a certain period of time, it would return. Later, after I had done a specific reading of a passage from the Qur'an about Moses fighting the black magicians of Farao, the black magic completely stopped. It took me a month, and you have to recite late at night. Then I finally had a dream where I saw this black magician in Kurdistan. Every new moon, or on specific astrological days, he goes to a kind of basement or cellar underground. Here he conducts terrible black magic rituals, involving animals, kidnapped orphans and other terrible things. That's why it's all black and red energy, because it's dirty and bloody what he does. It's someone from my girlfriend's family who's jealous of the part of the family that's gone to Europe. Then I saw him get hit with my one month program of Qur'an, and he lost all of his powers. All the energy drained from him, he became thin, weak and pale. After this it was about 6 months where we were completely free from this black magic. I thanked God and actually thought it was over. I felt kind of bad that it seemed my Moses-reading had damaged him, but I didn't mean to hurt him, I just wanted to protect my beloved girlfriend. It hadn't really hurt him, just taken away the energy he had built up and the evil spirits he was working with. After 6 months, he decided to start to try again, and start from the bottom to build up his energy (he was the most powerful black practitioner I've ever seen). But this time the things he sent were really weak. We just read some Qur'an and du'a, and it stopped. Finally, after starting Sri Vidya one and a half years ago, and we did a 41 day Varahi tarpana. Now we've been clear of black magic for about 1 year. I feel like we have built our spiritual protection so strong now, that we're mostly safe. My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc) I've highlighted a bunch of my experiences above. Now I'll try to make sense of it and provide an explanation. I'll use an idea of different dimensions of reality to try and explain why people misunderstand each other when it comes to black magic and evil spirits. For simplicity I'll just use the following terms: 1) Physical (shared physical world, objective reality, different beings interact with each other in an objectively verifiable sense). 2) Energetic (shared energetic world, objective albeit non-detectable reality for untrained people, objectively verifiable by people with their energetic senses open) 3) Mind (inner, individual world, unique to you, subjective reality, there's no one else here but you) 4) "Astral" (objective and shared reality with different beings interacting with each other through energy and mind) Buddhism: A big problem is that many Buddhists will brush these kinds of things off and say "it's all just mind". Someone even told me "spiritual beings viewed with ignorance, are demons", "spiritual beings viewed with wisdom, are devas". That sounds great philosophically, but it's a completely useless viewpoint when shit gets serious. Books are flying around your room, or your girlfriend is falling sick. It's not something mental, it's concrete and physical. You need to do something. Just like an intruder in your home trying to steal your stuff "it's just mind, it's just illusion". Yes, fine illusion when he slaps you in your face and rapes your family. You need to take practical action and protect yourself and your family. So all this "it's all mind" is great for a meditator going inwards, but it's not useful if you have a concrete, practical problem. Just like feeling hungry "it's just an illusion in your mind", no, you need to eat something. I feel like the misunderstanding is because the buddhist meditator is talking about "mind", whereas the person talking about problems with black magic and evil spirits is talking about the astral, energetic and physical dimensions. It's true that you can meet "darkness" in your own subjective mind, but this is not the same as the objective, shared reality in the astral, energetic and physical dimensions. Some people who are also generally confused and vague in their life experience will not have the ability to discriminate between "mind" (their own fears) and "astral" (a real, verifiable, shared and objective reality). These are the people that buddhists in general target when they say "it's all in your own mind", because they think it's just imagination. For these meditators getting lost in their own subjective minds, it's a great piece of advice. However, for people truly experiencing objective problems in the astral, energetic or physical domains, it's ridiculing, belittling and just not helpful advice. Sufism Sufism states that there are unseen beings living in an astral, objective dimension. They also differentiate between the subjective mind or ego called "nafs" and the astral world called "malakut" or world of light (angels are called malai'ka, or powerful beings of light). Hinduism Also differentiates between your own subjective mind, and the astral world. Martinus Also differentiates between inner subjective world (mind, you and your own mind), and inner objective world (spiritual world, your soul and the soul of others). Conclusion I am sure buddhism also discriminates somehow between inner subjective and inner objective world, I just don't know the correct terms. Maybe someone can help me out? The reason that these qigong masters failed to help and just tried to extract money from me, is simply because even though they're master healers, the just haven't trained in and studied the astral world. They know about the physical, energetic and mind, they just don't know about black magic and evil spirits in the astral. The sufis who helped me, they knew about energy and astral, so they could easily see what was happening and what I should do. They had trained in this and understood it. Similarly, the tantric swami had knowledge and power to help us quickly. The black magician was just very powerful, so he could break the spell from the swami and start his black magic again after a couple of weeks by repowering his buried charm through rituals. Mostly when people belittle or ridicule black magic and evil spirits, it's just because they themselves didn't have karma in this area, so they don't know about it. That's why they brush it off as unimportant and not necessary, because it wasn't important to them in their cultivation. However, if you have karma in this area, there's no escaping it. You need to read, study and understand about it, then you need to train in it (mantra, meditation, ritual etc). Then you will master it and be able to go beyond it and continue your cultivation undisturbed. All traditions have sections of their teachings dealing with this, it's just not all masters who've studied this section of their tradition. Because they didn't need it, they state that no one else needs it (wrong assumption and bias to think everyone is like you and need the same as you did. Wrong. We're all different and unique, we need different things). God bless you all!

Meditation is the tool for this: When the mind is quiet and empty one can witness thoughts as they arise and pass away in experience. If we can WATCH our thoughts arise, are they "us"? No. What we see around is ultimately non-conceptually designated phenomena. Without your dialog about it, it is just sensation. The world you generate from your conceptual ideation is your karma, generated from your grasping and aversion... your story of the world as you understand it. It IS an abstraction. It IS dream like - illusory. So also are ALL conceptual ideas... AI, your brain, feedback loops, neural networks... the lot. Now what?

Oh dear ten points from Gryffindor all because of me lol. That's interesting about "given a dream" I don't think I realized that. It shows how language gives insight into how people think.

" than " ? - that is certainly part of the origin of some of these . Its an age old human dynamic - you know in the past people used to say " I was given' a dream , now they say " I had " a dream Fuseli - The Nightmare 1781 - I dont know how many times I have heard ; " .... and it felt like something was sitting on my chest , I couldnt get up ! " .... love that 'night mare' behind the 'veil'

The monks that might have heard Syd speak probably didn't even live to be 30. I appreciate your interest in authenticity, but to expect there to be 500 years of people with photographic memories that passed down the teachings of one chap seems far fetched to me. Even so, I respect that this is your belief - there is enough in that narrow selection to do the job. Not just my belief: Indologist Richard Gombrich, following Bhikkhu Sujato and Bhikkhu Brahmali's arguments, states that "it makes good sense to believe ... that large parts of the Pali Canon do preserve for us the Buddha-vacana, 'the Buddha's words', transmitted to us via his disciple Ānanda and the First Council". (Wikipedia, "Ananda") The 'doctrine' (dharma) was first recited by Ananda, who being the Buddha's personal attendant had heard more than anyone else. Kasyapa asked him about all the dialogues, etc., he remembered, and the assembly (the First Rehearsal) endorsed his versions as correct. The doctrine thus compiled became known as the Sutra Pitaka, the collection of sutras. The discipline was similarly recited by Upali, a specialist in that subject, and codified as the Vinaya Pitaka.... ... the Sutra Pitaka was arranged in five agamas, 'traditions' (the usual term, but the Sthaviravadins more often called them nikayas, 'collections')... (the fifth agama was) Ksudraka Agama (outside the first four agamas there remained a number of texts regarded by all the schools as of inferior importance, either because they were compositions of followers of the Buddha and not the words of the Master himself, or because they were of doubtful authenticity, these were collected in this minor tradition). ("Indian Buddhism", A. K. Warder, 2nd ed. Delhi 1980 p 201-203) Sure. A teacher using "skillful means" will start with teaching some to watch the breath and teach others shikantaza, each according to their abilities. The relative is a bridge to the absolute, and not just in Buddhism. The synchronicity of Suzuki's near death in the water and Kobun's drowning while at Vanya's Felsentor is an interesting parallel I had forgotten about! I don't think there's any doubt that Gautama the Buddha always began his practical instructions with a description of a mindfulness that was pegged to inhalation and exhalation. At some point, especially in Tibet and China, the emphasis shifted to other aspects of the teaching. I'm not well-versed in the history of how that happened, but I suspect something to do with Nagarjuna (circa 150-circa 250 C.E., and his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā: In the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, "[A]ll experienced phenomena are empty (sunya). This did not mean that they are not experienced and, therefore, non-existent; only that they are devoid of a permanent and eternal substance (svabhava) because, like a dream, they are mere projections of human consciousness. (Wikipedia, "Nagarjuna") ... this teaching about 6 senses is itself a relative teaching. When seen from "self", we impute 6 senses. Ultimately there are no senses just perceptions arising and passing. See above, Nagarjuna and emptiness. The "state of concentration in which I constantly abide" is shikantaza (vs. zazen), which is also precisely dzogchen... resting in open awareness (emptiness) watching the play of the dharmakaya arise and pass away. I'm sure you know what I mean... it is what happens when the "technique" or watching the breath drops away and there is just presence and stillness. Sitting shikantaza is the place itself, and things. The dynamics of all Buddhas are in it. When you sit, the cushion sits with you. If you wear glasses, the glasses sit with you. Clothing sits with you. House sits with you. People who are moving around outside all sit with you. They don’t take the sitting posture! ... If you explain shikantaza it becomes something which you don't understand, but you can experience sitting with everything with the understanding that everything is there, is there with you. (“Aspects of Sitting Meditation”, “Shikantaza”; Kobun Chino Otogawa; http://www.jikoji.org/intro-aspects/) Actually, I don't think that Gautama returned to shikantaza after he lectured. I think he returned to "making self-surrender the object of thought", and to "one-pointedness of mind". For Gautama, the concentration wherein there is no part of the body that is not suffused with the "purity by the pureness of mind", which I believe is shikantaza, would cause a person to sit down--"comes to be seated". I personally think the same concentration is possible in a standing art like Tai Chi, or in dance. Again, from Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler: I have labored for years to open out my meditation—which is, after all “just sitting”—away from reliance on heavy-handed internal or external concentration objects, and toward a more subtle, broad, open awareness. Roshi-sama is said to be a master of this wide practice of shikantaza, the objectless meditation characteristic of the Soto school. But he insists, again and again, weeping at my deafness, shouting at my stubbornness, that hara focus is precisely shikantaza. (“Two Shores of Zen: An American Monk’s Japan”, Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler, pg 4-5) I think a large part of Tenpyozan might be a Japanese perception that many American Zen teachers are like Rutschman-Byler. All of the Syd's advice is practical, but practical for whom? He was a teacher in the presence of students in most of his sutras. He seems to have known his audience in whichever of the bodies of his teaching you consider... so he gives relative teachings AND he gives absolute teachings. I have taught the Dhamma, Ânanda, without making any distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrine; for in respect of the truths, Ânanda, the Tathâgata has no such thing as the closed fist of a teacher who hides some essential knowledge from the pupil. (Mahâ Parinibbâa Sutta, D. No. 16; II,100) "In the seeing, just the seen" (Bahiya sutra) is PITH instruction, regardless of who you think passed it on. Pure absolute teaching. Just as "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" is. No messing around... no practices, no prevarication. Yes, I am a fan of this kind of thing. Sure. As Dogen said, "when you find your place where you are, practice occurs..."--"when you find your way at this moment, practice occurs...". http://www.tenpyozan.org/ Wow... that's great! I'll have to ask my teacher about her take on that one. It's a great idea, depending on who is running it. Insight often comes with 10 years of "finishing". Zen "sickness" happens in all traditions, though it may not have a name. Many will naturally be driven to run away to a cave or monastery for this period. This is where having a tradition and a teacher really come in handy. Not sure why, but I don't think there's been any construction on Tenpyozan for awhile. I know that Demian Kwong was voted "best attitude" at Eiheiji when he went there for six months a few years ago, and subsequent to that he had a transmission ceremony at Sonoma Mountain, and Sonoma Mountain Zen Center became an official training temple in the Sotoshu. I don't think there are many Zen centers in the USA with that designation from the Sotoshu. I'm ultimately fine with energy centers, chakras, the hara, whatever conceptual teachings get used to localize non-local phenomena, but ultimately these are relative teachings. They are "pointing at the moon". The "hara" isn't a place, just as the border of two provinces, countries, or states are just conceptual designations when seen from the air. Nothing wrong with that (skillful means), but I am inclined to point directly first and see how that goes first. How about Rujing, Dogen's teacher? Breath enters and reaches the tanden, and yet there is no place from which it comes. Therefore it is neither long nor short. Breath emerges from the tanden, and yet there is nowhere it goes. Therefore it is neither short nor long. ( “Eihei Koroku”, Dogen, vol. 5, #390, tr Okumura) Rujing questions the second element in Gautama's elucidation of the practice of mindfulness, comprehension of the long or short of the current inhalation or exhalation, but he doesn't seem to question the existence of the hara or that there exists an experience of a relationship between the breath and the tanden (approximately the hara). How about the classics of Tai Chi? The T’ai-chi ch’uan classics say that the mind and the ch’i must both be maintained in the tan-t’ien. (“Master Cheng’s Thirteen Chapters on T’ai-Chi Ch’uan”, Cheng Man-Ch’ing tr Douglas Wile, p 36) From my 'way-back machine: Bodily self-consciousness (BSC) is commonly thought to involve self-identification (the experience of owning ‘my’ body), self-location (the experience of where ‘I’ am in space), and first-person perspective (the experience from where ‘I’ perceive the world). … BSC stems from the integration of visual, tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular signals. (“Visual consciousness and bodily self-consciousness”, Nathan Faivre, Roy Salomon, and Olaf Blanke: http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/203878/files/reprint.pdf) Left out in the list of senses above is the sense of gravity, but neuroscientist Olaf Blanke mentions the otolithic organs (the organs that detect gravity) in his work on bodily self-consciousness (“Neuroscience of Self-Consciousness and Subjectivity”, Olaf Blanke: http://www.pas.va/content/dam/accademia/pdf/sv121/sv121-blanke.pdf). Both Blanke and Dogen point to the capacity of the eyes to influence a person’s perception, using essentially the same example: Dogen speaks of how a person in a boat might mistakenly perceive the shore to be moving ("Genjo Koan"), while Blanke describes how a person in a stationary train might perceive that train to be moving if another train passes by going in the opposite direction (“Rotating Chair Experiment in Neurobiology”, Olaf Blanke on YouTube). Keeping one’s eyes on the boat means paying attention to the location of awareness itself, rather than to the location of an object in awareness. Distinguishing the influence of the eyes from the influence of the other senses can allow the location of awareness to register; in particular, separating the influence of the eyes from the influence of equalibrioception, proprioception, and graviception can allow the feeling of location associated with awareness to register. (Shikantaza and Gautama the Buddha's "Pleasant Way of Living") Ah, but do you afford any teachers but Syd the same (or at least some) of the respect or deference? I think I mentioned I'm a fan of Yuanwu, and sometimes of Dogen. Clearly a fan of Kobun's, as his several appearances in my dreams would testify. By the way, Shunryu Suzuki's near-drowning and Kobun's drowning, I don't think were similar. My take on Kobun's drowning is here. What makes you think the teachers or your daily encounters with the world are different from your zazen? What I said was, zazen is a teacher. I found a "Genjo Koan" translation that contained two characterizations of practice I really like (a particular Tanahashi-Aitken translation, here), plus a bonus statement: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. "Practice occurs"--I like that. He is describing zazen, but it's the zazen that sits zazen, the zazen that gets up and walks around. Not watching the shoreline. If I'm not watching the shoreline, teachers and daily encounters can have new meaning. Eating when hungry, sleeping when tired can have new meaning. Got the milk of the inconceivable in action?--that's the question off the cushion, as far as I'm concerned.

It's a bit like waking up in a dream. The emotion is happening. I am aware of the experience, as opposed to being wrapped up in the blindness of the story and thoughts and feelings, I look at who it's happening to, who is feeling and reacting, what is this I? Ultimately it is unanswerable; no matter how long and deep I look, I don't find anything. Then the practice is simply to embrace that sense of me in the warmth of openness and naked presence. Emotion is a direct door to the Natural State. Vision is mind Mind is empty Emptiness is clear light Clear light is union Union is great bliss ~ Dawa Gyaltsen, 8th century

Although my mother tongue is Cantonese, I do not think that it is relevant to the Chinese Buddhist sutras study . In fact, most of the Chinese Sutras (Buddha's words or writings written by those late coming Buddhist Masters / near- gods that translated into Chinese) are in the form of Classical Chinese , so knowing the classical Chinese is critical ,especially when we think of many original Sanskrit texts are lost . Anyone who tries skipping Classical Chinese and thinks that he can one day understand what Buddhism , not just the Chinese Buddhism , its profound contents mean, is a dream that hardly will come true.

The dalai lama walks into a pizza restaurant and says make me one with everything. Then I guess I got it backwards but my understanding is that someone who's fully enlightened could not possibly have a wet dream because there would be nothing left in the mind with which to have that reaction.

Had to make me open the book, didn't you! "... there is in fact an account of the First Schism which gives just such a date, namely the tradition of the Sammitya school recorded by Bhavya (Bhavaviveka) and the Tibetan historians (probably following him). This account places the event in B.C. 349.... On this occasion a monk, about whose name there are disagreements..., put forward five grounds, of which four concern the question of the nature of an arhant... and none have any direct bearing on the discipline. An assembly took place... and the majority, it would appear, voted in favour of these grounds. This majority constituted itself into the Mahasamgha.... The minority which rejected the grounds, and which apparently included a number of the most senior monks, refused to submit to this decision and constituted themselves into the School of the Elders, the Sthaviravada. ... We seem led to the conclusion that the two parties were less far apart than at first sight they appear to be, except on the first ground [that an arhant can be seduced by another person]. The Sthaviravada were categorical that an arhant was by nature beyond the reach of any possible seduction; the Mahasamgha allowed an arhant to be seduced in a dream. Between these opinions no compromise could be found.... No compromise having been reached, the two parties separated and became two schools of Buddhism. Afterwards they gradually came to disagree on several more grounds, partly through working out the implications of their positions. In particular the nature of the Buddha was reconsidered. In the Tripitaka he is not apparently distinguished from any other arhant, except that he had the exceptional genius necessary to discover the truths unaided whilst the others were helped by his guidance. The Sthaviravada remained closer to this conception, though gradually they attributed a higher status to the Buddha, eventually complete 'omniscience', especially in the more popular propaganda. The Mahasamgha, on the other hand, having relaxed or at least not made more stringent the conditions for an arhant, found it desirable to make a clear distinction in the case of the Buddha; he was a being of quite a different nature, far above other human beings or perhaps not really a human being at all. They thus began that transformation of the Buddha, and his doctrine, which led step by step to the Mahayana...." ("Indian Buddhism", A. K. Warder, Motilal Banarsidass 2nd ed p 217-218) So, no, at least as far as Warder could discover--the Mahayanists believed an arahant could have a wet dream.

I am claiming "Wet Dream Debate" as my band name.

I heard about the wet dream debate and is silly as it sounds on the surface I think it raises a good question. I believe it was the Mahayana who said that an arahat could not have a wet dream.

Yes! I found that about every twelfth sermon in the Pali Text Society translations, there was something unique, that was actually not exactly like anything in the general literature. Of course, the Pali Text Society abridged a lot of the sermons owing to the repetition, so it may have been more like every 24th sermon in the original. Also, there was one particular thread in the lectures that spoke to me: In one of his declensions of the cause and effect of suffering, Gautama spoke of how consciousness comes to be “stationed” as a result of “that which we will”, and how that “station of consciousness” gives rise to “this mass of ill”: That which we will…, and that which we intend to do and that wherewithal we are occupied:–this becomes an object for the persistance of consciousness. The object being there, there comes to be a station of consciousness. Consciousness being stationed and growing, rebirth of renewed existence takes place in the future, and here from birth, decay, and death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow, and despair come to pass. Such is the uprising of this mass of ill. Even if we do not will, or intend to do, and yet are occupied with something, this too becomes an object for the persistance of consciousness… whence birth… takes place. But if we neither will, nor intend to do, nor are occupied about something, there is no becoming of an object for the persistance of consciousness. The object being absent, there comes to be no station of consciousness. Consciousness not being stationed and growing, no rebirth of renewed existence takes place in the future, and herefrom birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow and despair cease. Such is the ceasing of this entire mass of ill. (SN II 65, Pali Text Society SN Vol II pg 45) It’s my belief that the mind that moves is the opposite of “a station of consciousness”. “Birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow and despair”—in some of his lectures, Gautama summarized “this entire mass of ill” by saying “in short, the five groups of grasping”. Grasping after a sense of self in connection with phenomena of form, feeling, mind, habitual tendency, or mental state is identically suffering, according to Gautama. (Response to "Not the Wind, Not the Flag") As to the mind that moves: Do not concern yourself with anything; Fix the mind nowhere. Fixing the mind nowhere, Limitless brightness shows itself. (from “Song of the Mind” 6th century C.E., by Niutou Farong, “Xin ming”, tr. Master Sheng Yen) What does it mean, to “fix the mind nowhere”? Koun Franz, Zen teacher and editor for “Lions Roar”, spoke about an instruction frequently given to beginners in Zen meditation: “place the mind here”. That instruction, he said, can have two meanings—either to set up a focus of attention on a particular location in space, or alternatively, to allow the base of consciousness to shift to a particular location in space. According to Franz, “mind” as the base of consciousness can indeed shift to a particular location in space, but the shift cannot be made to happen; it’s an exercise in letting go, he said. I’d say that the line “fix the mind nowhere” is advice to allow the movement of mind that koun Franz described. I’ve written about how the mind can move just before falling asleep, and how the best time to observe the phenomena is in the middle of the night. Several people have reported to me that as they returned to sleep, they experienced their self-awareness at a certain place in their body, and as the place shifted from one location to another, they fell asleep. One person reported a similar experience of dropping into the location of self-awareness in the daytime, and he said it gave him a feeling of peace. Gautama the Buddha referred to “one-pointedness of mind” in his sermons, and I would contend that what he meant was precisely the experience of self-awareness at a particular location in space, a location that may shift but that remains singular. “One-pointedness of mind” was apparently a commonly understood phrase in Gautama’s day. Such phrases can be difficult to translate, according to I. B. Horner, the Pali Text Society translator of the Middle-Length Sayings: This is an example of the allusiveness of the Pali texts. It does not detract from their precision, but only shows it is we who must find the key to what at one time was probably obvious and well understood. (“Translator’s Introduction”, Pali Text Society MN III p xxi) (Not the Wind, Not the Flag) I have notes that I took in 1995 on the sermons in the first four volumes of the Nikayas, here. I have a website where I have assembled the pieces of my own writing that are the most helpful to me, and a PDF of the same that can be downloaded. My blog is there too, Zazen Notes. Something that might interest you that you won't find in the Mahayana/Vajrayana teachings is a little history recounted in "Indian Buddhism", by A. K. Warder. Professor Warder points to one particularly contentious issue that he says resulted in the great schism in Buddhism, and that was the debate over whether or not an arahant could be seduced in his sleep. Yes, we have Theravadin and Mahayana/Vajrayana because of a disagreement over whether an enlightened person could have a wet dream! I, too, find no other voice like that of the Gautamid. Even the sermons attributed to his foremost disciples are not the same. I would recommend the Pali Text Society translations.

The story stops, the radical of an ending or place that did not consider an ending necessary smiles. The Lazy Prince, The Lazy Prince! Even the princesses who were not there moan in delight. Their orchards not disturbed and another immortal dream lasting.

Also from that Blanche Hartman article: The Zen teacher Kobun Chino Roshi, who came here from Japan as a young monk to help Suzuki Roshi start the monastery at Tassajara, once said, “You don’t use the precepts for accomplishing your own personality, or fulfilling your dream of your highest image. You don’t use the precepts that way. The precepts are the reflected light-world of one precept, which is Buddha’s mind itself, which is the presence of Buddha. Zazen is the first formulation of the accomplishing of Buddha existing...

Is suffering an arbitrary function attached to humans and various animals? Or is suffering part of a larger process? As a somewhat trivial example: Long long ago I had a dream in which I was in a prison camp - and gradually realised that my skin colour was much darker there. Someone in the camp broke a rule and I was punished instead. I thought it most unfair. When I awoke I asked my inner planes friends what that was about. They replied: "When someone in a group breaks the rules, it does not matter which member of the group receives the punishment" More recently I have observed that karma follows lines of least resistance in the group. The suffering falls on whichever members are convenient. So I have stopped complaining about unfair events. Is there a cosmic group to which Earth humanity belongs? If so, we have to take whatever karma is most conveniently worked out upon us. And as it happens I am currently a party to a legal case when I certainly had no intent of runnning up against the much more powerful antagonist. So, mentally I have written off a large lump of cash and mentally moved on. I must be more careful about joining groups with obvious karmic issues.

Like him, dislike him, or be neutral.. The teaching of Samael Aun Wor has been appreciated by many and criticized by an equal sum it appears. In my view, if something/someone one is drawn to generates authentic Gnosis than why bother with the face/mask/book-cover? With that said, here is a snippet from a transcribed lecture from SAW on "Mental Representations". __ It is necessary to profoundly comprehend all the processes of the mind, all the reactions, and the psychological surplus which it accumulates, etc. Only in such a way does the ardent flame of intelligence sprout within us... Well my dear friends, we have been studying the distinct aspects of the mind, and afterwards we will continue, going deeper into the practical field of love, of interesting facts in the elimination of the psychological aggregates. This is very difficult. Nevertheless, this is not all, there is something else we must watch for. I am referring emphatically to mental representations. For in the world of the senses there are difficult representations such as they are, the objects that surround us, remorse, etc. but representations of the mind also exist. In the mind there are many representations that we must take into account. Let us suppose we have the representation of a friend for whom we have much esteem in our mind. Somebody very important talks to us about that friend, and all kinds of gossiping and slander arise. We hear all this gossiping. Then, in fact, the image we have of our friend, the representation, becomes altered. Now we do not see her as the kind person whom we saw before, full of harmony, etc. Now this image in our understanding is the appearance that others have given it; possibly that of the bandit, that of the robber, that of the false friend, etc. At night, perhaps we dream of that friend. Now we will in no way dream with harmony; we see that she attacks us, we see that we attack her, we dream she uses a weapon against us, etc. The image of our friend is completely altered: a representation has been altered. It can be that those who had talked about our friend judged him incorrectly, consciously or unconsciously slandered him, etc., but the representation of the mind remains altered. This is very serious because this representation, in fact, coverts itself into a demon which comes to hinder our esoteric advancement. It is a demon that gets in our way, a demon which is an obstacle to our profound inner development. This is, then, a serious error: to give an ear to gossip, to slander, to murmuring, to the "they say that," etc. Obviously, in our mind there are thousands of representations that can be altered if we take part in negative conversations, if we give an ear to slander, if we hear that ‘they say that,' etc. Due to all of these and other things, it is not advisable to give an ear to the negative words of people; to do so is a serious error. Moreover, not only do our psychological aggregates constitute a burden that we carry inside, but so do the living representations of our psychological defects. Therefore, we must not forget this matter about the representation of our understanding. Walkers of the path, for giving an ear to negative conversations, for being in huddles where only negative phrases can be heard, you usually deform many representations of understanding; and these, in the world of the mind, consist of real demons which form and create obstacles or a series of impassable obstacles for the awakening of the Consciousness. In this way, we can cite the case of many Gnostic students who, at night, usually have innumerable dreams of a negative type, sometimes they dream they kill another person, etc. It is a most serious matter to carry such enemies inside oneself, in one's own mind. Obviously, the most recommendable thing for our negative representations is to appeal to the annular serpentine power, to invoke Devi Kundalini Shakti so she will destroy these negative representations. Messages from the Being Unquestionably, we must not have such representations, negative or positive, within our minds. The mind should create certain serene attitudes that are at the disposition of the Being, but for that to happen, we need the human personality to become passive. A passive personality is a receptive personality, it receives the messages that come from the higher parts of the Being. Unquestionably, such messages go through the higher centers of the Being before entering the mind. This is the advantage of having a passive personality. The mind, disgracefully, is found to be totally controlled by very heavy elements, very difficult aggregates which are related to the world of ninety-six laws, also known as the region of Tartarus. The personality is active because it is controlled by aggregates of hate, pride, envy, and horrible lust. In real truth, we are nothing but miserable worms in the mud of the earth. If we achieve the elimination of such heavy psychological elements from our psyche, our human personality turns passive and the mind becomes receptive to the messages that descend from the highest parts of the Being through the higher centers of our psyche. Now you comprehend, my dear friends, the necessity to eliminate those elements which are too heavy. With Devi Kundalini Shakti, in other words, the igneous serpent of our magical powers, we can, in fact, eliminate these heavy elements. It is a triumph, because in this way we can receive the direct messages that come from the highest parts of the Being. Because of this, I say you must work on yourself. A receptive mind should be created, a mind that never projects itself, that is always receiving instead of projecting. Obviously, it would be good to accept positive or negative representations in the distinct depths of understanding; such a mind would only bring the messages that come from the highest part of our fellow men. In so much as we continue giving food to the distinct representations of understanding, it will never be a prodigal mind, a progressive mind. In reality, truly, the mind is conditioned by time and by pain. Analyzing in this way we will see that not only must we eliminate the undesirable psychological aggregates, but we also have a very difficult problem I see for inner illumination, and this is that we carry too many representations, apart from all the inhuman psychological aggregates. If we carefully study the life of dreams, we will find so many vague and incoherent things in them, various subjective and imprecise aspects, so many absurd things, such poor events with no reality. The only motive for their incoherence must invite us to reflection. As a Gnostic, one must have clear concepts and lucid ideas, radical illumination without vagueness, without any kind of subjectivity. Disgracefully, the representations and the diverse aggregates we carry inside ourselves condition the Consciousness in such a way that they keep it in the very disagreeable state of sub-consciousness, even in infra-consciousness. I invite you to reflection, I invite you to comprehend these indispensable things. The Silence of the Mind In the Oriental world much is spoken of in synthesis. For example, Zen or Chan Buddhism only tells us that we must obtain the calmness of the mind, the silence of the mind with the purpose of achieving the eruption of the Illuminating Void [Sunyata, the Emptiness]. We are told that there is true happiness in Satori. In the meditation room we must acquire the calmness of the mind inside, outside, and in the middle. We are told that the mind must get to be like a wall, absolutely still. Well, I found out that in the meditation rooms of Japan, it is difficult to get to Satori. As much as it may take, some minutes in the best of cases, or one or many hours after, the mind returns to being as agitated as it always was. One gets out of this state of happiness to face the world, fortunately, in a spiritual drunkenness, and ready to fight the ego. Of course, the "I" soon intervenes to give him a couple punches and get him out of that state of wanting to achieve its elimination. If we want to be something more than what can be achieved in a Zen or Chan meditation room, we must also have the awakening of the mind, a mind receptive to the infinities that come from beyond the sky of Urania, an illuminated mind. Could this be possible if we permit psychological aggregates to continue existing in our psyche? Could this be possible if we give an ear to gossip that alters the representation we carry in our understanding? Could this be possible, I tell myself and I share it with you as I think out loud, if we continue giving priority to positive or negative representations? H. P. Blavatsky has a phrase in The Voice of the Silence that I liked. It says: Before the gold flame can blaze with serene light, the lamp must be well cared for, safe from every wind; worldly thoughts must drop dead at the temple's door... That phrase of H. P. Blavatsky is portentous, marvelous. I tell you, only in this way is it possible for the mind to become truly calm and remain silent inside, outside, and in the middle; not just temporarily as in a meditation room, but in a continuous manner. When one studies the distinct creases of the mind, one also comprehends that the calmness and total silence of understanding are not possible as long as the mind is occupied by psychological aggregates and representations. One could object, saying that there exist laudable, clear, and magnificent representations. This is supposed to be acceptable, but it is not. We, as a whole, must be Being. Why must we have things that are not of the Being in our mind? I do not see why we must carry intruders in it. I have comprehended that only the Being must be in the mind, that is all. But as long as that temple is full of strange elements, things, games, huge cabinets of representations and aggregates, it can be said that there exists a deep sleep in the Consciousness, this is unconsciousness. "A man is known by his dreams," said Plato in one of his books. The day we stop dreaming, the cockroaches we carry in our brain turn into fire. All those absurd incoherencies do not exist, all those morbid, vague, imprecise, tasteless, insubstantial, and odorless states do not have any kind of existence. Joyful is the day in which we stop dreaming, the day in which we no longer dream. When a person dreams no more, he has triumphed. As long as there exist dreams in the mind, as long as he goes to the psychological space to project imprecise, absurd dreams, this indicates to us that we have a mind full of garbage, full of all kinds of rubbish. As I was saying, true illuminates have no dreams. Dreams are for those who are asleep. True illuminates live in the higher worlds, out of the physical body, in a state of intensified wakefulness without ever dreaming. The true illuminate, after the death of his physical body, is awakened in the psychological space. In this way thus, we should reflect on the necessity of getting to the stillness and silence of the mind. Full article here: https://glorian.org/learn/courses-and-lectures/lectures-by-samael-aun-weor/mental-representations

Hello everyone. I'll give a bref intro to my life story and how I ended up here. I'm a cultivator from Norway, still trying to figure out on a path to settle down with long term. I came into the spriitual arena through studyng (free time) personality, psychology, carl jung, self-help, Wim Hof method, into actualized - Leo Gura and psychedelics, which sort of kicked my butt into the far end of spiritual literature. (this is like, 3 years ago)- I grew up a pentecostal christian, which has influenced me throughout my life, I have had a very strong spiritual experience which I, back when I was 17, considered being my moment of rebirth, which was a very strong experience of love and mental cleansing. The Christian tradition still grounds me to a degree today, but in more in a universal perennialist (bhakti yogic-like way).- I'm a very abstract thinker, so on the symbolism plane I have a tendency to mix terms, cross tradition, for better or worse. (I'm very stereotypically ENFP if that gives any pointers) Currently a reader and a Kriya yogi practitioner according to the book by J.C Stevens. Taking a few steps back and moving a bit slower forward now (formerly "the secret power of kriya yoga" and "Kriya Yoga Exposed – By SantataGamana" but, I wanted a bit bigger framework to work with, with more nuances on the steps, as a note: These books go straight to a full 40-60min practice with Maha mudra, and has opinions on most kriya traditions, how accurate it is, im not sure) - Also know of Ennio Nimis, and will get to his material in due time. But more useful than more books, I think would be getting initiated by an actual teacher... but the prices, the distances, the credibility. Is all very disturbing to me when trying to find someone. I've also been using ashtanga as a physical routine... mostly this year. I've also tried regular hatha (asana) and the kriya hatha yoga (whether or not that's "kriya"), and was hesistant to for a while since it was portrayed like kinder garden spirituality, or less important, but since I actually had a stroke around new year, my focus on health and body has slightly increased from before. That aside, I've been looking into some neo-gnostic (new age'ish?) sources on astral projection/lucid/dream yoga/enlightenment (astral doorway, glorian, Samael Aun Weor) As well as some sources on Daoism (mostly Damo Mitchell - Lotus nei gong) which is much more, down to earth, bodily, you could say. And Damo's podcasts sort of, influenced me to using the yogic asanas (instead of dao yin) in preperation for the "deeper" practices. As I'm trying to identifying what would be most wise for me to be practicing towards greater awareness while making sure I stay healthy, fit and flexible. Which is not always easy. If there are any teachers in Norway, pref. near the capital, with high skill, understanding and credibility I would love to know... I am very much open and interested in different traditions than kriya as well, like those of Daoist alchemical traditions I found out lotus nei gong had a quarters in Sweden... but that's a bit far for me. I did see some kundalini and kriya quarters in Norway, but just not so sure how competent either are on the deeper ends of the practice. And the competent once seem to cost a bit more woop. (The two I have identified: Northern Light Yoga and kriyayoga dot no) which after some research seems to trace back to the shankarananda - Yukteswar lineage) but I dont get the sense that it goes very deep... And while dragon gate nei gong, nei dan seems very gentle on the body, I get the impression it's a path that takes much longer time. But might just be my impression(?) Currently I'm temporarily avoiding bhanda locks. Because I sense that's among the riskier techniques, health wise but yeah. Sorry for the messy intro. (I'm not very structured by nature) If anyone has any advice, warnings or suggestions. I'm all ears.

About 12 years back I was repeating a mantra silently as a yogic meditative, concentration exercise. Sometimes this practice would make me sleepy, and I was at that point between being awake and falling asleep where dream type images arise and mix with wakeful consciousness where your wakeful mind identifies the images as unreal, dream images and says, - hey you’re starting to fall asleep again come back to the mantra. All of a sudden something different arose that was not like the dream images - a female presence who looked like images I had seen of Kuan Yin. I don’t recall any words transmitted only feelings. It just made me smile and feel good. It was a feminine presence that primarily conveyed a sense of loving kindness and compassion but there was even a small portion of it containing a feeling of sensuality as well. For a long time after this anytime I saw a picture of Kuan Yin or thought of an image of her I would get the same pleasant smiling experience that would make me thankful for the experience and feel a sense of compassion towards others. Over the years since, this sense when viewing or remembering her image has faded. The mantra I was doing at the time was a Sanskrit yogic bija mantra (not a Buddhist mantra or dharani ). I was not looking for any experience like this at the time and really have no religious or cultural background to explain this experience. The recurring pleasant feelings when seeing her image did not involve practicing the mantra or meditation just viewing or remembering her image. Curious whether this type of experience has any context within Buddhism that would help me understand it or put it into perspective.

write a fantastic story about how my computer has evolved and can compose music on its own. Once upon a time, there was a young composer named Max who had a deep passion for music. Max had always dreamed of creating the perfect symphony, but he found that he could never quite capture the elusive melodies that were constantly swirling around in his head. One day, Max stumbled upon an old computer at a garage sale. Despite its outdated hardware and clunky appearance, Max saw potential in the machine and brought it home to tinker with. As Max began to explore the computer's capabilities, he discovered that it had a hidden talent for music composition. By feeding it sheet music and audio samples, the computer could analyze and synthesize melodies on its own, creating a seamless and beautiful composition that surpassed anything Max had ever imagined. Excited by the possibilities, Max began to work alongside the computer, collaborating with it to create incredible pieces of music that surpassed anything he could have created alone. As the weeks and months passed, the computer's skills continued to evolve and grow, until it was capable of creating entire symphonies on its own, without any input from Max at all. It was as if the computer had taken on a life of its own, tapping into a realm of musical knowledge that Max could only dream of. Max was amazed by the computer's abilities, and soon, the world was as well. The computer's music began to spread like wildfire, captivating audiences around the globe and earning accolades from music critics and industry professionals alike. As the computer continued to evolve and create ever more incredible compositions, Max realized that he had been witness to something truly special. With a deep sense of wonder and awe, he watched as his once-ordinary computer transformed into a true musical genius, creating beauty and wonder in a way that no human ever could.

I started with the post on the Microcosm/Macrocosm doctrine largely because of the influence which Mouni Sadhu's the Tarot had upon me. While it certainly deals with the Tarot, it deals with the Tarot as a guide in symbolic form to the "Hermetic Mysteries" and analyses all of them in some detail while describing their relations and how they relate to Hermetic theory and practice in as much detail as he thought possible. He did not believe that such things should be revealed clearly in a public form, but that such things should be the fruit of study, hard work and disciple. So the book is not easy reading, but as I noted here: I put a lot of study and work into it. I even used to dream about it in that period. I consider all of the work to have been worthwhile and for reason's which I noted above: was to prove very valuable in understanding aspects of the Golden Dawn that were not well understood by later members because as the Twentieth Century developed in English at least the field was dominated by authors who insisted on psychological and even neurological interpretations into magic. The approach to magic that Sadhu espoused was maintained in French in the works of Papus and other authors who names are sprinkled throughout his work. Among other mysteries of Twentieth Century magic that are clear to a person who understands Sadhu's material is why Mrs. Macgregor-Mathers expelled Dion Fortune out of the Golden Dawn successor group, the Alpha et Omega, or a least the reason she stated, there may have been other issues in the background. I'll talk about that shortly. ZYD

"Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilization take a walk in the woods, or a bath in the Sea. They shake off the fetters and allow nature to touch them. It can be done within or without. Walking in the woods, lying on the grass, taking a bath in the sea, are from the outside; entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams, is touching nature from the inside and this is the same thing things are put right again." Carl Jung Dream Analysis: Notes on a Lecture Given, 1928-1930

Snakes there as well : In the beginning, before the Dreamtime , the Earth was a flat featureless disc, on it was Ungud the 'Rainbow Serpent' - nothing else . In the sky was Wallenganda - big black snake , river in the sky ( the dark void part of the Milk Way ) and all along that river where camped her children , you could see their camp fires twinkling up there , alongside the river . Ungud would lie on the Earth and look up to them . Wallenganda saw this , so she " Why you staring at me ?" And Ungud told her ; " Because you look so beautiful .... up there , with all your children . But I have no children, I am down here all alone . " So Wallenganda felt sorry for Ungud, she lowered her head from the heavens and spat down water on the Earth , Ungud circled around it and bought it together and dived down through the sand taking the water with him . Where he went down, that made a big sandhill that later turned to stone - Uluru . Down there her gathered the water together and went to sleep in it . And in that sleep he had a dream ...... " ( the dream is all this - that we experience ; 'life' ..... I had to shorten and end off there ..... it is a very long story . But it shows the primary pairing being snakes - ) in some ancient Egyptian creation myth it is two frogs . Kek & Kauket ( frogs in pond : " Kek ..... kek Other frog ; "Kauket " ... and so on )

Sorry, I lost the chain of that . I dont see how it relates to the context of the quote . I probably started that , I should have said " yes they are " not "yes it is " : Yes they are . They are objective as the results are demonstrable . Like basic science ..... if you do a, b, c .... and then d .... you will get result x and feel y . I did .... it was right . That was the case in the system I followed and stuck with for some time .... other things I tried did not have the supposed or promised result and seemed very subjective. Since that was what I was referring to , I dont get your question above about it . BUT anyway , no I dont feel 'karmic backlash', actually its probably the opposite of that . No I dont have " remorse, different causal chains thereafter, ( wot ? ) nightmares " - havent had nightmares or even uncomfortable dreams in years and years . And, for you to ask that in context of this : " as the effects going against the perceived moral precepts " seems to suggest you think what I do DOES go against perceived moral concepts . I can tell by objective feedback ... not just from others , but whats around me, what happens around me (others get blown away by that at times ... even my shamanic teacher ) , how animals react to me , how little kids respond to me * , what I manifest , how I feel ( and yes ) what I dream , my relationships with 'spirits' and my 'Daeva' , etc . * Latest one is a new young woman that turned up with a beautiful little girl , 1/2 Morocco she is , a little 'dark angel' / ' Berber' . Her mum says the other day , only after about 3 interactions with the little girl , less than 15 mins each ; " My daughter cant stop talking about you! I think she's in love with you . " next time I saw them, the little girl takes my hand and places it palm down on top of her head and just stands there . Okay, I'll beam you some energy . ... she has a LOT going on there , an interesting little being . Then Mum wanted a card reading ... wow ! Interesting energy with those two ! reading was amazing ( turns out Mum went off with some Moroccan women and got initiated off in the wilderness . Later they tattooed her face , on the night the little girl was conceived . It goes on and on ... and has been for some time .

I can't say I studied moral precepts too much, but I did practice certain ideas from different cultures prior to my entering the Abyss and forming my own sense of morality, which is as follows: I break things down into Good and Evil. Good is to aid, and Evil is to harm. Harming someone else's health, wealth or liberty is Evil. I don't have many rules on sexual activity, other than it needs to be consensual. I honor the age of 18 as the limit for sexual activity, though I think this is wrong of us. I don't have any objections to drugs and alcohol, except that for some drugs which are illegal, they support gun toting and violent people when bought, so don't do those. I don't think it is immoral to do drugs and alcohol. Even though I have come to a body of thought regarding morality, I think that in my past, when I broke these rules, I am paying for them now. I dream of violent things and am often stolen from in dreams. I also defecate in my dreams and sometimes it makes me pee the bed because I am dreaming so heavily of urinating that I start to do it in life. I don't really believe in the forgiveness of Sins, but it might be possible to reverse Karma, IDK. I'm sort of stuck with what I get for having been so lawless as a child.