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ROFL! Thank you, i really did nearly fall off my seat there from laughing. But is is weird isn't it just how amoral our dream worlds can be. People dream about having sex with their parents, about murdering someone for stealing their cereal or any number of weird things that may horrify their conscious mind... The important thing is not to jump to conclusions about the dreamer...

I had a flood dream last night. A river spills over it's banks, and floods all the houses in my vicinity. Don't have to be Freud to see that most catastrophe dreams, especially those related to fire and water are about emotional content, or subconscious content being stirred, threatening the ego/personality structure. Sometimes dreams can be the most succinct way of expressing an understanding or a message. I've read about psychics and sensitive people who all seem to have these terrible dreams of things to come, yet I feel dreams seldom are related directly to the world out there. The are almost always tell-tales of an inner process or dialogue, or a messenger from the subconsious. When spiritual practice reaches a certain point, you do not dream. h

For a modern Western take on non-duality (Advaita Vedanta), check out Leo Hartong - "Awakening to the Dream". You could read it in one day, but its quite nice -- http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Dream-Leo-Hartong/dp/0954779215/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334258087&sr=8-1 For more traditional take on Advaita, check out Dennis Waite. This book took a while for me to digest, lots of sanskrit involved and large passages from scripture or quoted from Indian sages, but very thorough -- http://www.amazon.com/Back-Truth-5000-years-Advaita/dp/1905047614/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334258141&sr=1-2 He also has a website with free stuff and excellent "links" section -- http://www.advaita.org.uk/ Hope that helps. I don't know much of anything about the other schools of Vedanta, sorry.

BTW, THIS IS DA SAME CONCEPT AS HOW TO DO DREAM YOGA. THERE BE TWO WAYS, ONE, YA BECOME CONSCIOUS IN YER DREAM, IT WORKS LIKE THIS, YA TRY FOR MONTHS OR YEARS TO BECOME AWARE IN YER DREAMS, BY REPPEATIN TO YERSELF DURIN YER DAY OVER N OVER AGGAIN, "I AM GONNA BECOME AWARE WHEN I DREAM SUCH N SUCH CRAP". EVENTUALLY, YA MAY OR MAY NOT SUCCEED, QUITE BY CHANCE. IT MAY TAKE YA AGES TO ACHIEVE IT CONSISTENTLY. BUT DA SECOND WAY, (DA COOL MAHALINGAMS' WAY) IS NOT TO *HOPE* TO BECOME AWARE IN DREAM (I.E. IN A DIFFERENT PSYCHIC *PLACE*) BUT SIMPLY , TO *GO* THERE WITHOUT BREAK O' CONSCIOUSNESS. SO FOR DREAMS, ALL YA HAVE TEO DO IS *TO BE ABLE TO FALL ASLEEP WHILE MAINTAININ CONSCIOUSNESS* AND VOILA' YA BE THERE!!!!!!! IMMEDIATELY!!!! NO NEED TO TRAIN FOR AGES!!!!!! RJ

THank you all so much for sharing your views. I will comment on some shortly. This thread will hopefully help others who suffere from bad sleeps in future. In fact, {and I could be wrong} , I don't believe my problem lies in my state of mind, and I have forgiven myself all my past mistakes and honestly only belive in making effort in the things that have nasty effect. But when you don't know what it is, you have no chice but to try every angle. I still give myself all day until I feel sometimes I can barely walk by the end of the day and my hamstrings feel like they are about to snap. I can get to sleep easily and still dream but as I said wake with painful diarrehoea and a deep cough. Thing is, I have had good sleeps in the past here, where I only needed 6 hours sleep, had deep dreams, woke with a raging boner and ready to conquer the day. Which means something seems to have changed in the envirnoment, either the walls of floor or windows or paint I don't know. Also, I would like to delve deeply into this, from all angles. I want to understand the thorough, clear way to have an optimum sleep so that I can help others do the same in future. So with this in mind if some don't mind sharing some subtle changes that you made {either physical mental or emotional} that gave you wonderful sleeps. Soon I will write another post which condenses this thread and other threads into some of the most common and effective techniques to at least give a shotgun approach for those not sleeping well. And also some weird questions: I bought an old'-school gas mask recently to combat what I think is the substance in the room that I am reacting to but it was too hot to wear and sleep in {go t a refund}. Does anyone know or has tried a gas mask that could be used comfortable for sleeping in? Is there any cheap method of doing allergy testing for specifuic substances? I.e any way to buy the products somewhere cheaply? I have found some on ebay but they are just for dog and cat hair / hay fever, etc. Regards Gl

The easiest way for me is to set an alarm clock for an hour or 2 before you usually wake up...when you wake up to the alarm get up and read some OBE material for about 15 minutes to saturate your mind on going out...then lay back down on your right side and don't move at all...anything as you fall asleep...for me about 1 out of 3 times i will become aware in the middle of a dream and the dream will break up and i will go back to my body sleeping in bed only my mind is fully awake...at this point just twist or roll out of your body and you will go right out. Also, you don't have to get up any read anything if you don't want, but waking up and then falling back asleep without moving anyhting is very key to this to work...if you do this several times successfully pretty soon you will start having OBEs in the mornings without even trying. I find this way much much easier than through meditation.

[This started as a note to a friend, but thought I'd share it.] Ok, here goes. First of all the full lotus sitting position. Its a long and magical road to master it, i personally am in the middle of my journey with it. If you can do it well naturally, I would recommend mastering it (being able to sit for hours with no discomfort without moving) On the other hand, if its not easy, it might be better to take another route. One of my masters NEVER sits in it, and meditates without it. I'm sure this man is at the highest level. So there are no rules I guess. Keep an open mind, but always trust yourself. The great thing about having a real master that you trust 100% is that you can take giant leaps forward by trusting them as you would yourself or more even. Life can be veiwed as a dream, and when enlightenment comes, we can play with waking reality as one does in a lucid dream. OR life can be veiwed as totally real- and when enlightenment comes you can ALSO play with waking reality as one does in a lucid dream! The funny thing is, real illuminated people tend to be the most unassuming relaxed normal people, who never manipulate anything beyond their felt place in life. What a paradox no? -Son

Strange...I came across the Shiva Sutras somewhere yesterday...perhaps in my dream...not sure. The thing with Sutras is that we don't need much commentary if the translation is good...and this is a good translation. Thanks for sharing...

Author's Introduction to the Huiming Jing I, Huayang, was a villager from Hongdu. As a youth I delighted in Buddhism, so I entered a temple and had an awakening. My thoughts were constantly beyond the mundane world, and whenever I saw the monks I was happy. One day, I heard the temple master say, "Before, at the third watch, the Fifth Patriarch used to privately teach the Tao to the Sixth Patriarch, who would blissfully listen with his ear cocked." I awoke as if from a dream, and only then did I realize that those who cultivate themselves must rely on a teacher. Consequently, I searched without stopping, my feet leaving tracks throughout Chu, but through that time I did not meet anyone. After that I joined the Double Lotus Temple [on the River] Wanshui where I shaved my head [to become a monk]. There, I enquired further, and of all the teachers from the three religions there were none I did not investigate. In the end, however, none understood the principles of huiming. As a result I sighed to myself, "Human form is difficult to obtain. Am I to pass my life in vain?" Abruptly, I took a vow to prostrate myself every evening at the drum of the second watch, swear devotion and kow-tow to heaven. I would then surely receive what I sought. Half a year later, luckily I met Master Wu Chongxu, who transmitted the secret meaning to me. With a shock, I completely awoke and understood the Tao of huiming, and that it is none other than my original numinous Substance. I continued on until I reached Kuanglu, and then met Teacher Huyun. I secretly listened to his introductory discourse, and knew this was an extraordinary man. Diligently and earnestly I listened and learned. Because of my continual mournful pleading, the Teacher finally displayed his broad compassion, and opened my understanding of the subtle and obscure and the mysterious centres therein. There was nothing I did not penetrate completely. When I was on the point of leaving, my Teacher instructed me, "Buddhist dual cultivation now has already disappeared. You must maintain its lifeline in order to save those who have the karmic affinity." I secretly journeyed to Jiangzuo. Together with two or three Taoist companions we burned incense and cultivated ourselves, studying in detail, and as a result Bichan, Liaoran, Qiongyu and Zhenyuan attained Sarira. Because I had a wordless understanding with my Teacher, I compiled this book, whose title is the Huiming Jing. The charts and illustrations establish signs that open up the secrets of the ancient Buddhas, revealing the Primordial Inner Workings of the teacher-patriarchs—they are a raft that will truly guide later generations of students. I observe among the seekers of the Tao of the world there are the discourse-records of many schools. In these records there is truthful language and there is delusive language. Beginning students do not know the Tao of huiming of the Tathagata, so they mistakenly become ensnared in slogans and superficial oral Chan, and end up as base fools, repeatedly reaping harm from these records. I have thoroughly examined the various scriptures, and verified this with my Teacher: there are the Surahgama-sutra, the Avatamsaka-sutra and the Platform Sutra, which are truthful language. The discourses of Chan masters and of monks are false language. If the Tao of cultivation and practice is not in truthful language, it is not able to verify the real truth and is not enough to get rid of empty delusion. *If empty delusion is victorious, then evil hindrances arise. Even if you have intelligence, there is nothing to follow or enter into.* The Tao of huiming, which comes down from one hundred thousand years, profoundly secret and transmitted exclusively, is ultimately difficult to peer into and realize. Now, by means of simple, straightforward language, I will pass on the Treasure of the Buddha, offering it as if on a tray to enable followers in the world … As you examine the Huiming Jing it is indeed the same as if I were telling it to you with my own mouth. It is only necessary to rouse your will and dedicate all your energy—you need not go to some other mountain to seek further help—and you will be able to establish and manifest the Buddha Fruit. *This was my original intent in toiling bitterly to find a teacher and awaken to the Tao.* Introduction transmitted in the summer of the year jiayin of in the reign of the emperor Qianlong,37 at Hukou,3S by Liu Huayang of Mount Lu, [written down] at the Temple of Dedication and Purity in Wancheng. / THE HUIMING JING: A TRANSLATION AND DISCUSSION By JAMES MICHAEL NICHOLSON B.A., The University of Victoria, 1993 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Asian Studies)/

beautiful! thanks my girlfriend calls me her chickpea after the rumi poem. its a long one but i will post it here The Chickpea A chickpea in a pot leaps from the flame, out from the boiling water, Crying, "Why do you set fire to me? You chose me, bought me, brought me home for this?" The cook hits it with her spoon into the pot. "No! Boil nicely, don't jump away from the one who makes the fire. I don't boil you out of hatred. Through boiling you may grow flavorful, nourishing, and united with vital human spirit. I don't inflict this suffering out of spite. Once green and fresh, you drank rain in the garden; you drank for the sake of this fire. God's mercy precedes His wrath; by God's mercy the sick ones suffer. It has always been so; this is how God creates all that exists. Without pleasure, no creatures would come into being. Without creatures, what could the burning love of the Friend consume? Such sorrow may come that you might wish to be free of this life. yet the Grace of God will overtake His wrath, once you are washed clean in the river of suffering. Chickpea, you fed in the springtime; now pain has become your guest. Entertain him well, that he may return home grateful, and speak of your generosity to the King. Instead of your vision of good fortune, the One Who Bestows Favor may come to you; then all true blessings may be drawn to you. Just as Abraham commanded his son: 'Lay your head before my knife I see in a dream that I must sacrifice you,' lay your head before God's knife, that He may cut your throat like that of Ishmael. He may cut off your head, but only the one that is immune to death. Such submission is the fulfillment of God's purpose — seek this submission. Chickpea, continue to boil in suffering, so that no self may remain in you. Though once you laughed in the garden of earth, you now are the rose of the garden of spirit, you now are the eye of spirit. Once you are torn from the garden of water and earth, you may become food, and thereby enter the living world. Become nourishment, strength and thought! Once you were sap; now become a lion in the jungle! You were born from God's attributes; return eagerly to them. You came from the cloud and the sun and sky, then scattered and ascended to heaven. You came as rain and heat; you will return into the Divine attributes. You were part of the sun and the cloud and the stars. You became soul and action and speech and thoughts. Our victory after the checkmate of death gives truth to the words, 'Verily, in being slain there is life.' Action, speech and sincerity become food for angels; they climb this ladder to heaven. A morsel of food becomes food for humanity, rises from its inanimate state and obtains a soul. The caravan of spirit travels constantly between earth and heaven. Join it gladly and freely, not bitterly and full of hatred, like a thief. I speak bitter words to you so you may be washed clean of bitterness. The frozen grape thaws in the cold water and leaves its coldness and hardness behind. When you endure bitterness, your heart will fill with blood like the grape, and you will be freed from all bitterness. A dog not kept for hunting wears no collar; the raw and unboiled are nothing but insipid." The chickpea speaks, "If this is so, then help me to boil! By this boiling you elevate me. Hit me with the spoon; delight me! Like the elephant, strike me and brand my head, that I may not dream of the gardens of Hindustan. Let me gladly submit to this boiling that I may be embraced by the Beloved. Men and women, imagining themselves free, grow insolent and hostile, like the dreaming elephant. When the elephant dreams of Hindustan, he disobeys the driver and becomes vicious." The cook says, "I was once like you, part of the earth. I drank the fire of self-discipline, fasting and prayer, and became worthy and acceptable to God. I boiled long in the world of time, and long in the pot of this body. From these boilings I grew capable of strengthening the senses; I became animal spirit, and then became your teacher. While inanimate, I said to myself, 'You are running about in agitation so that you might be filled with knowledge and the qualities of spirit.' Now that I have become animal spirit, let me boil again and pass beyond that state." Pray unceasingly to God that you might not be misled by these words, and that you might arrive at your journey's end. For many have been misled by the Qur'an; by clinging to the rope of words, many have fallen into the well. The rope is faultless, O perverse ones — it is you who lack desire to reach the top.

This is so simple that people is hard to believe. People would like to pay a lot of money to buy a fake dream and think that let chi go circle around body is to become a Shen Xiang. The most important is 玄關. Wu Liu pai has many big mistakes . But if you do not know what is 玄關，it is impossible for you to understand what is wrong about wu Liu. If you open 玄關 and practice in 玄關 every day. It will be easy for me too tell you what is wrong about wu Liu. If you do not know anything and just know how to make a circle, I really do not know how to let you truly understand the problems of wu Liu. After I saw some replies, it is really .....how to say.... No way to let these people know, I forget these people. I do not try to teach everyone, that is impossible. Too waste time. Maybe one is enough to me. After all my English is too bad.

My impressions from speaking with him but may not be accurate based on my wrong thinking mental filter, was that there was no first cause as all causes never happened, nothing has ever occurred and all that has occurred is a dream and delusion. There is only the emptiness which is infinite mind, qi, spirit or whatever you want to call it, and it is dreaming that it is you, but there is no you, just the dream of you. The best impression I got from him which may be my own mind distorting the meaning of his words was that, emptiness is like spirit, consciousness, mind, observer and it is all that exists period. And we are all it. It was more like nothing was the space in between planets the void in between was filled with spirit or qi or consciousness, and it was full to the brim with that. But from our perspective it was the emptiness in a tea cup, the void. What was unreal was physical matter and phenomenon, they were delusion that had no real existence. Physical matter and physical bodies were just illusions that this empty spirit wore like clothes, but inside us all was this spirit which was also the same thing as the void and it animated all life everywhere but was in and of itself one being and not separate beings. Sort of like the wind blowing the sails of a boat or a leaf in the wind.

I saw teacher of single yang and he do not look young nor like immortal or nothing you talking about - stop selling people dream. He actually is very "decent" looking nothing like you speak off but I will not judge him the way you wanna portray people but to base on your judgement your teacher is not immortal in sense of physicality.

I lie on my back with my hands folded over lower Dan tien until urge to fidget goes away, then i put my hands palm down by my sides until I start to dream, then turn on to my side and drift off.

Dont mention it) If you practice vipasana, you should know Buddha. Buddha talk about 五蘊，色受想行識 (five skandhas /sensory perceptions/, the sensual perception triggers thinking) In 楞(leng)嚴(yán)經(jīng) Śūraṃgama-sūtra and 大般若經 Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra， Buddha talk many things about Ying. I don't know what kind of vipasana you learn. But I am sure the teacher didn't tell you the right way. Maybe he just teach the breathing and how to put your mind. But what is dharma should be more important than vipasana. In 四念處 satipaṭṭhāna，Buddha said 觀身不淨，觀受是苦，觀心無常，觀法無我。(See that the body is impure, the perception is suffering, the heart is impermanent, the dharma is self-less). So vipasana should not only have 觀身和受 (observing body and feelings). Observing mind is the next step. But what is the right way to observe mind? Buddha said 色受想行識 (the sensual perception triggers thinking) What is 行蘊 saṃskāra is the key point. 行蘊 saṃskāra is the illusion what we can see in meditation. It looks like dreams. If we don't relax enough, how can we go into these day-dream illusions? This state is not always day dreams. It is the same with 混沌恍惚渺冥 vague and imperceptible in daoist.

Here's a detail worth factoring in -- the Carter Administration passed out Alinksky's Rules for Radicals as a handbook. The incoming Reagan Administration found pallets of the book when they took over shortly after that deal with Beijing was completed. There was tension between ”Red China" and the Soviet Union because Beijing thought Moscow had sold out on the Marxist dream. Whether he truly appreciated his own action, Carter simultaneously stuck his finger in the eye of the Republic of China and aligned himself with the keepers of the faith.

good to hear from you Mark. interestingly, I locate 'IT'(the mind, consciousness whatever you like to call it) always above the waistline, never in the legs or feet. not sure why. face area, cheeks, jaw,nect is OK. but the brain also seems to be off limits. What are some of the places that you are able to locate it? The only one time, that I located 'IT' towards the back/side of my brain, immediately I had a flash of imagery. I recognised it right away as a long forgotten dream I had almost a year ago. The little snippet of the dream now is part of my conscious memory. i was quite startled by it and felt I was intruding upon IT as it went about its business I would really encourage you to spread the word about your practice, have others share in their experiences. all the best

If you practice vipasana, you should know Buddha. Buddha talk about 五蘊，色受想行識 In 楞嚴經 and 大般若經， Buddha talk many things about Ying. I don't know what kind of vipasana you learn. But I am sure the teacher didn't tell you the right way. Maybe he just teach the breathing and how to put your mind. But what is dharma should be more important than vipasana. In 四念處，Buddha said 觀身不淨，觀受是苦，觀心無常，觀法無我。 So vipasana should not only have 觀身和受 observing body and feeling. Observing mind is the next step. But what is the right way to observe mind? Buddha said 色受想行識 What is 行蘊 is the key point. 行蘊 is the illusion what we can see in meditation. It looks like dreams. If we don't relax enough, how can we go into these day-dream illusions? This state is not always day dreams. It is the same with 混沌恍惚渺冥 in daoist. But Buddha didn't give a specific view. He said we should not stay in any situations. All kinds of staying is wrong. So you need to find a signal when your heart feel pain. It must have something you don't relax enough. I think 'I' is the answer. You need to forget yourself. Not only your body. All of you need to be forgotten. Nothing is exit, include the feeling of you. Most of qigong is yang only. Ying and yang are changing in different situations. So it depends on what we are talking about.

Even if you memorize parts, or the whole of chapters, what do you really understand or know ? I do think there is some value in letting the words sink into memorization. When I was in china a month ago, my wife mentioned to a cousin my interest in Laozi... he walked away and produced several daoist items as gifts... one was a version of the DDJ, only in chinese. I quickly scanned the first chapter to see how the punctuation was set as that is telling for the rest of the book. my wife asked me to read the first few lines. I closed my eyes and then recited several lines. I thought back to the several daoist monasteries or even Tibetan ones. There seemed to be a moment where I was passing through a timeless gate... and then opened my eyes to see them again. Read; Recite; Memorize; Dream...

I would call that a pipe dream.

Dream Bliss, there are a few avenues of confusion you might not have considered! A Course in Miracles, The Urantia Book, and Vedanta Science. All joking set aside, if you want to get down to the essence of Christianity, do yourself a favor and get the book,'A Course in Miracles.' It is a psychology and Is considered the pure teachings of Christ and what he was trying to convey 2,000 years ago. It even states that in the forward somewhere. The whole book is considered to be compiled by an atheist scientist and her co-worker in New York. She maintains that the 'voice' came to her in her sleep. Whether one believes the ascertion that the information is really from Christ or not is beside the point. It is truly one of the most powerful teachings on spirituality I have ever come across, if not the most powerful. And when I read it I get an overwhelming feeling of peace. It's well worth the money. And you can really see the weaknesses in the Bible. It's lacking sooo much. It's definitely the most important book on Christianity to my knowledge, and should be on the shelf of any seeker's library. The other one you should consider on Christianity is 'the Urantia Book.' (Compiled for over 12 years before and after W.W.ll by Dr. Kellogg and associates from a man in his sleep that was channeling spirits-I.e. Arch angel Michel, etc.)Don't laugh at it until you've read a good deal of it. This makes the Bible look like paragraph 1. This book goes into detail on the relations of energy of different realms of matter. The relationship of the human species, the (Urania mortal) to the archangels, the divine Creators, the eternal Creator, the son of God. It goes into the nature of the Eternal Island, or the different levels of Paradise, as seen from this book's point of view. It goes into the 'real' story of Adam and Eve, which does make more sense than the Bible's version. It goes into the life of Christ. The story of the ark, etc. It claims to set straight the watered down version of the Bible, what was left out, etc. It goes into detail the history of the earth(Urantia), the universe, etc. from the aspect of a collective conglomerate of spirits. A must read! A few brief excerpts, if I may: "Jesus founded the religion of personal experience in doing the will of God and serving the human brotherhood; Paul founded a religion in which the glorified Jesus became the object of worship and the brotherhood consisted of fellow believers in the divine Christ." And:" He (Christ) taught men to place a high value upon themselves in time and in eternity. Because of this high estimate which Christ placed upon men, he was willing to spend himself in the remitting service of mankind. And it was this infinite worth of the finite that made the golden rule a factor in his religion. What mortal can fail to be uplifted by the extraordinary faith Jesus has in him? Jesus offered no rules for social advancement; his was a religious mission, and religion is an exclusively individual experience." I'll finish about this book with this: "And God consciousness is equivalent to the integration of the self with the universe, and on it's highest levels of spiritual reality. Only the spirit content of any value is imperishable. Even that which is true, beautiful and good may not perish in human experience... The father is living love, and this life of the father is in his Sons. And the spirit of the father is in his Sons-mortal men. This last excerpt sounds uncannily like Taoism. If I haven't lost you yet, please consider Vedanta. In terms of Hinduism, it makes the most amount of sense in regards to the relationship of God with material manifestations ( the how and why of causality). The science explains how and why God is too infinite to effect finite causal relationships. Brahman – the ultimate metaphysical reality. Ātman / Jivātman – the individual soul or self Prakriti – the empirical world, ever-changing physical universe, body and matter Over time, Vedanta adopted ideas from other orthodox (āstika) schools like Yoga and Nyaya, and, through this syncretism, became the most prominent school of Hinduism. Many extant forms of Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism have been significantly shaped and influenced by the doctrines of different schools of Vedanta. For some good compilations on Vedanta, watch James Schwartz on YouTube. He has a comprehensive 15or 16 lessons that he taught in Germany. He makes a lot of sense. Maybe check out his website, too. He's written a couple of books. So, there a few links to the puzzle. All things are possible that can be perceived by the mind. I enjoy reading everything I can get my hands on. I haven't gone into Alice Bailey's books yet. She compiled information from aTibetan monk. This person is only known as the 'Tibetan.' They discuss the relations of energy rays that effect all life force, intuition, sex, metaphysical psychology, human spirit, etc. I do, however see a similarity between all these teachings, Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. They are all simply pieces of the great puzzle of existence. They are simply chapters that some smarty discovered and compiled either through the intuition of Akashic records, channeling through spirits, or awareness of existence. Or possibly a gift from the heavens, Christ? Who really knows or can say...I keep coming back to Taoism. In Urantia there is a sentence that says something to the effect that when you understand energy, you understand the universe. One aspect of Taoism is just that, the practice of and cultivation of energy. But as I understand it all ways lead to the Truth, eventually. And it depends on grace, practice, being ready. A fast track is being around enlightened beings, with readiness, grace, and spiritual practice and if the time is right then it will be your time for the confusion to lift. In the mean time read everything you can. That's why I read all these crazy tomes. A scientist must have an open mind to all things.

What a vision, Thelerner! Terrariums? And "preferably nothing magical?" Well, you can't fool me -- your non-magical terrariums are a very transparent allusion to what you really want to do magically: terraforming! In which case we have the same dream. I used to fluctuate between two visions. Terraforming the earth back to what it was for the last million years BB ("before bullshit.") Restoration is what they call it when they are resurrecting a damaged piece of art... I'd want to do that for our planet. And a more ambitions vision still. I used to want to be the author of the cat. The one who originally created the cat. The Creatress of the Cat. All cats, of course, the pussycat and the sabre-tooth and the Sphinx. So I would be sitting there playing with various designs. I would probably want this animal I'm in charge of creating to be made not exactly in my own image and likeness, that's for total narcissists, but not entirely unlike me either -- they say that all real artists ultimately paint their self-portrait no matter what they paint, landscapes or battle scenes or animals. So I would make it very lazy yet capable of bursts of most efficient and productive activity. I would make it very carnivorous, with no sweet tooth to speak of. I would make it very flexible and adaptable, capable of living as part of a community or alone, as a completely social animal and as a completely self-sufficient one. I would... well, I would have to work on it for a few million years. It's not the easiest protect, the cat. But It would keep me interested.

Overview I've been thinking lately about how much the porn industry and media impact our life. Just taking a look about the most used websites in different countries, the porn websites holds the top 5 most visited websites. which means that a lot of people use the internet to access porn and sexual contents. The majority of porn users are men and youth according to some statistics. in other words, the porn industry have a very big impact on our daily life and affects the way we feel, we see ourselves, the opposite or same sex and sexualize our social life. Of course, with porn comes masturbation, and it is the addiction of the century, it is the technique used by the mind in order to escape feelings and emotions that arises, ending up with a need to release the dopamine and not deal with these deep issues. Masturbation makes you blind. Most of us, when we were young, we laughed at when we were told that masturbation will get you blind, because we thought that blindness meant to describe the inability to see with our eyes, and it was proved that none of the people who mastubate became blind because of masturbating. but blindness, is not referring to the eyes vision, it is more of consciousness and awareness of our own selves, our own emotions that point us to the deep traumas and issues registered in our subconscious and body. and that masturbation is an escapism due to the dopamine that is pumped in our brain due to orgasm make us avoid dealing with our internal issues. Energy and cultivation According to my observations, i did notice that porn affect a lot emotions in terms of making us objectify other people and enhance separation and decrease the ability to understand the person beyond the physicality. Also, masturbation does render the focus/intent very loose, it can be noticed if someone practices vipassana meditation, (where you scan the body and feel it with your focus) focusing and sensing of the body parts becomes very hard and superficial. Also, in masturbation Jing gets depleted and it is known that it is one of the 3 treasures of Traditional chinese medicine. all of my male friends, watch porn a lot and have developed fetiches and want to get into a relationship to experience all of those positions and fetishes that are extreme and have gained a lot of weird sex beliefs and seems like how the majority of people think and believe. Also, i have noticed that the body by itself doesn't get turned on sexually, a person becomes horny due to thoughts that were activated due to stimulus: porn, media, pictures, imagination or a dream. Also, Porn industry has added a lot of exotic values like "you must lose virginity before a certain age" "you should experience this fetish, that kind of person, size, height...." "jerking off is a must and healthy" "sex is very important" "size matters" .....etc of other values and ideas. What do you think about what is going on in our society and how the people are being programmed into a society that is primarily motivated by sex through the encouragement of mastubation and porn? how is it affecting our love life, spiritual life and our ability to think clearly, focus and make progress in our life.

Great question. Dreams are just a projection of our Mind that arise from undigested thoughts of the waking state of consciousness. Normally as we evolve spiritually, our dreams become less in number since our ego and desire ridden Mind starts getting reduced gradually. In Vedanta philosophy, our waking state itself is considered a much realistic dream, not the absolute reality. the absolute Reality is the God within us and our spiritual quest is finding that God within ourselves through the spiritual practices that I have explained. As we evolve spiritually, we would be free from disturbing thoughts like stress, tension, worry, anxiety, depression, anger and also dreams. This can be taken as a mark of spiritual development.

an "individual mind" is the dream...which is realized upon waking up