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@ Everything Awesome! Yes, I think I am a bit familiar with the states you are talking about. Did you feel incredibly awake, like more awake than you have every been in your entire life? As if the past daily awakeness was comparable to being drowsy? Taste, hearing, and touch were vivid and blissful? Is your heart pounding strongly but very slowly nonetheless? And it seemed as if your awareness was not in your body, but everything was of your awareness, but then you notice that your sense of "I" was just a thought looping around the head and the aliveness you felt was impersonal yet total? You can't induce that state through words. Basically you have to detach yourself from the words like deci belle said, because words are rooted in ideas, and ideas are concrete. The only way is to cancel the words out with words like Nagarjuna would do and make them so abstract you can't even make sense of what is and what is not. And breathe! Put your attention at the heart, and breathe! And let all thoughts happen but as you say treat it all as fake, a dream. Let all these questions go, let go! and Let go! let go until you have have let go of the letting go and just let your intuition of being take over and faith in your own death and as long as you do not disturb the process, everything will vividly manifest spontaneously, the wisdom, the energy, the creativity. Creativity is wisdom! Wisdom is not some analyzing of reality or metaphysics of some deep insight. If you try to consciously develop insight what's going to happen is you are going to just create a reflection, which is false. Wisdom is in the obviousness and how much you open up will reveal that as vividly as your hand. How fearlessly you delve into it is important. Then you won't know whats you or whats not you or what your aim is or whether this is a state or some trance or what not. Let reality reveal itself and do not try to box it in to neat ideas. If you return to these habitual tendencies to construct goals, identities, concepts, inevitably you will be sucked back into your so called "dream" states. And in my experience, that return is literally a crash into the earth like someone abruptly chopped off your wings.

Ah, so its more like freedom of thought. Isn´t control over time Greater? That is for me the Greatest imaginable power for human to have. Beyond time, my mind stops. It is the limmit of my imagination. In lucid dream we have control over time, thus we can change space. Anything is possible in a lucid dream. You open your bedroom door and walk right into a greek castle built on top of a tibettan mountain.

Huh??? I play. You mean, superpowers??? Precognition. I don't just judge people, that's easy because I seem to be able to read people in my dreams. I can sense evil people and their evil intentions in my dreams. I can spot enemies in my dreams. I judge an entire nation. Is one of my superpowers to see catastrophic events being unfolded in a nation. So far, my precognitive power has been accurate dealing with the Ukrainian crisis and Russia...dealing with Israel and the Third Intifada (the Knife Revolution)...and even the refugee crisis in Germany/Europe. Whenever shits about to unfold, I would see fish tanks in my dream. The larger they are, the greater the issues. Few days before the Euro crisis was announced, I saw several apartment size fish tanks with fish the size of a car...in my dreams. It took me some introspection to realize the connection between fish tanks and world events.

Just wanted to add that one thing I'm noticing a lot in this consciousness work is how selection biases work. For instance, in any given day, we could write thousands of pages about the fine details of stuff that happened, if we had no filter. Yet when people sit down to do journal writing, they choose what they want to write about, perhaps unaware of why they focus on those things. Doing journal work is a great way to cross-examine how our ego level awareness chooses to receive and interpret information. Dreams are also good for this because the dream ego tends to react automatically (until it is trained) and those reactions tell a great deal about how we behave in the waking world. Do we react passively or do we take action? Are we leading or following? Are we angry, scared, jovial, apathetic? Do we wait for things to come to us or do we go to them? Is the world offensive or helpful? I believe that a major part of personal progress has to do with perspective shifting. If there is an experience of limitation, then it's because of a limited perspective. It is a linear, personality issue perhaps... because the spirit is fine to do what it does. We can do a simple emptiness practice and the experience of spirit shows us that nothing is wrong. Then we step out of that practice and the discursive thoughts begin, the varied perspectives, and the feelings of dissatisfaction which temporarily arise. Modern psychology makes the mistake of saying... if only we just focused on being happy, we wouldn't be so sad. That's not the perspective shift I'm talking about. I'm referring to the shift that can occur which puts personality level awareness ("you", who I'm talking to) in alignment, cooperation, and collaboration with the Absolute. As a suggestion, maybe all you need is a shift in perspective? Keep asking questions? You can live any life you want but if your perspective is that of pointlessness, then everything will be pointless.

I've been doing a lot of dream work lately, through the Jungian Senoi process. The more I do the work the more I see that one thing that most "seekers" share in common is that they are all looking to realize that intangible thing, what is nameless. They do it by making manifest in the external world whatever it is that evokes the intangible thing to spring forth... as an olive branch of insight, a sensation, an experience. In other words, we are all trying to realize something that is already inherent. It's like seeing something at the corner of your eye and then attributing it to something in the world around you. It's like a photographer who sees a spec on all the photos, and tries to figure out what that spec is about, rather than looking at the camera lens itself. We are trying to make what is subconscious, conscious. We are seeking integration of what is already realized, with what is unrealized. So what I propose is... trust that your process is unfolding the way it's meant to, if not by Divine design, then by pure psychology. Whatever remains unlocked inside of you is looking for you. It will lead you to it as you seek it. Right now you are experiencing apathy to the external world of seeking... you know, deep down, that there's nothing out there that can really show you what you're looking for. You've explored the abstract world extensively and now you are feeling stuck sitting in one place wondering what the next step is. Your privileges in life have afforded you the opportunity to explore a huge deal of worldly distractions and information gathering. Now you are sitting in place... To me, you are on the verge of a breakthrough, because now that you have explored the world of "things", all you can do is with yourself and turn inward. There is nothing left outside that can satisfy you until it is met by what is inward. In a nutshell - and not to sound totally cliche - what you're seeking is genuinely inside of you. The realization you're looking for is there. You can't be taught something you don't already know. No teacher can lead you to this. It is there already, ripe for the picking. So you're asking what the point is of everything? There is no point unless you create one. Until you realize that essential thing within, you will live in perpetual sensation of disconnect. It's an illusion of course, but it's brought on by a need to integrate. The world cannot connect you to your own source. I know I've given a lot of "answers" here, they're just my projections. As a really fond author of mine once said, answers end reality. Questions keep it open. The problem with so much intellectualization is that we begin to answer reality, we begin to antidote it until we are stuck in a corner. There is no point to reality = Can I create a life that is meaningful to me? There is no next step = What would it feel like to know the next step? There is nowhere to go = Have I really reached the end of the road? You are doing great!

Mechanical time has always seemed like a thin veneer smeared over the surface of my perception of what actual time or relative change may be, if such a thing exists... so I've always dismissed mechanical time as illusory in the extreme. But this persistent experience of the present moment and how long that moment may be and how I relate to it as I observe change in my surroundings and my 'self', has sprouted and taken root for the last how many moments of my life? (five cycles around the sun at least) I guess it depends how I define a moment, or how much I agree with how others and my culture tell me to define it. In sidereal time we can measure a cycle of ~26,000 years, or rather the Aztecs appear to have been able to and our descendants could should they be inclined, we will only record that which we observe, if we're even inclined. Yet there is this sense of time passage, though it's not linear. Some events of my childhood remain seemingly as clear as if they happened yesterday, while I couldn't tell you what I did on April 18th without the aid of a journal. Several of my most intense dream experiences are more vivid to me than my wedding day and my recall of them in the 'now' is as potent as when I experienced them in the present moment all those years ago... It seems to me that memory is tied to how we define time. Mechanical time was a natural progression of this desire once the Cartesian Mechanistic Model took such firm hold of our imaginations. But it's weak and fallible and relative and points up the very fluid nature of time as proven by Einstein. If you've ever been in a stunning accident, or practiced meditation or martial arts to a deep point, or fallen in love in a moment, then you've likely experienced the subjective nature of time... time slowing way down. Samadhi even more intensely gave the very palpable sense of time being rendered irrelevant, or non-existent. So how long is a moment? and where does a moment end? where can we, with any confidence lay a stake and claim that here is one moment and it is separate from the next? or the previous? I recall when reaching for the tea one morning having the crystal clear instantaneous realization of the line of unbroken causal actions that occurred between the moment my mum and dad came together and I was planted in the womb, to me reaching for that cup. It then extrapolated in another heartbeat to the origins of our perceptual universe and whatever that may have been. But where can I draw a line that says, this is one moment and that... another? Any longer to me, it's just one great soup. All connected... and that is rather terrifying and comforting simultaneously. which is just more dualism... and oh look... it's time to sit again

To everybody, I'm going to throw an attitude so I'd advice you to read the following lines having that in mind, or just skip them. To OP, I'm gonna be harsh with you, Taoway, and that's because you represent an old part of myself that I have buried a long time ago and I don't particularly like. First of all you sound like a whiny bitch. "Ooh, I have average penis, and I don't feel comfortable with myself. I visited some website out of the millions of websites around the world, and I found that there are some women who like big dicks. And not just big dicks, monstrous, gigantic, veiny ones. The ones that can tear a hole through a wall. Oh, what can I do? I feel so depressed!" Yeah, well, you can't find something you are not looking for, but you can find something that you are. Guess what! You found "proof" to validate your depression. Well done. And not just that, but you've managed to add to your depression and peak it higher and higher. So high that you need us to sort this mess out for you. Yeah, the guys here are all really nice, and most of them speak very logically and supportingly. But will this really help you? How do you know they aren't just saying that? After all, they are just a bunch of strangers on the net. They may even have smaller dicks. They may be just saying that to feel good about themselves by making you feel good. Too many Mays and we are in August. With a grain of salt, that's how you should take everyone's opinion. 95% of the world doesn't know jack shit. We are all talkers. Talking to others the things we don't dare to talk to ourselves. And mother Earth keeps turning. And we are 7 billion people and everything is fucked-up, black and gray and depressing. And the Earth keeps turning. And we are moving straight to hell. And we are all talkers. Talkers make me thirsty. Bring me a chicken. How the hell does that relate to big dicks, you might think. It's simple. We, as a species, have managed to destroy everything around us and now we are up to destroying ourselves, everyone in his own way, everyone through his own insecurities. Ads, movies, the media, and misconceptions in general throw at us a load of crap everyday. And whatever sticks, sticks. To whomever sticks. And guess what, once it has stuck it's on you. Then what do you do? You have to BUY to fix it. Invent a need to sell for the need. Oh, the Mad Man's dream. Wake up and look around you. Have you talked to girls? Real girls? I have. They don't care about size, and those who do care, are the ones who'd been with half a city. Well, duh, if Madonna's Like a Virgin is my sexual anthem I would care about size too. And bravo, by the way. You've managed to find a whole website with those women. Flawless Victory. Yes, I have talked to girls and I quote: "I don't care about size as long as he knows how to fuck." Another girl's quote: "Big penises are cool, make me want to touch them. But I prefer average ones." Final quote, although I have many: "I prefer average ones. I can't deepthroat large cocks." Now, I hope the above quotes make you feel good. But you should consider the possibility that they are fiction. That I have never, in my life, talked to girls about penis size, nor have I asked them if it really mattered. Stop acting like a bitch and go find out for yourself. This whole thread is mental-masturbation. I acknowledge the psychological state you were in, but the guys' opinion, no matter how valid and comforting, will slowly fade away. Their effect will slowly fade away, and then you're back to square one. And then what? DEPRESSION. MORE DEPRESSION. Man up and go find out for yourself. I could submit and whole study of how the nerves inside a woman's vagina only extend to 10-11 cm, and how everything else is just an illusion. Or how penis enlargement pills do actually work, no matter what "knowledgeable" doctors claim. But there is no point. Stop taking strange words to mold into personal experience. It can't happen. No explanation will help you. Stop discussing something you should experience. Life is to be experienced. Get out there and do it. It's not your penis but your attitude. I never expected to find a thread with this kind of issue in here and this really messes up with my Zen. Do some qigong and feel your penis grow to its magnificence. It's that simple. And then go out and see what happens. Don't believe everything you think. And if these lines make you think with your usual grumpy, pessimistic voice: Easier said than done. Then I tell you this: If you want to feel depressed about your size, fine. I am not gonna waste any more time trying to change your belief. But at least give an actual experience a chance to make yourself depressed. Articles, and sites and whatever crap you manage to find doesn't count. MAN UP! P.S. Read She comes first. If you still aren't 100% confident about your size when you finally find yourself alone with a girl, this can be your plan B. This will surely add to your self-confidence. It's just science. Edit (check the 2nd Law): http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/20392-20-axioms/?hl=%2Bholographic+%2Buniverse

I have to agree with that. The whole thing is a charade in which there were supposed to be two establishment favourites flanked by two more extreme outsiders. Obama represented the status quo, Hillary/Jeb the change and Bernie/Trump the extremes. It's the old Hegelian dialectic. The crowd was supposed to choose Hillary or Jeb -it didn't really matter which. The charade has turned into a grand farce in which the media are trying to marginalise Trump out of existence to leave Hillary as the only option, meanwhile the Bernie supporters won't let their dream die even whilst Bernie is committing sepeku in front of them.

Yep, look at what Nazism, The American Dream and British sovereign rights have done to our world. Even here at TTB's I have had Fanatics tell me that the American Dream is Sacred and Holy The sense of entitlement over others that Nationalism seems to breed is hideous. Then the bleating Sheep cry "We have a right to defend our way of life!" Even when that way of life is murdering Innocents all over the world and sucking the few valuable precious resources owned by third world country's off them for almost nothing in return. Here is an Interesting Timeline: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations

DMT is the hormone in our brain that is responsible for dream sleep. It is secreted by the pineal gland and explains the Amrita phenomenon in kundalini active individuals. Amrita is known as a psychedelic substance naturally produced by the human body after the kundalini that allows the mind to precieve mystical aspects of consciousness. I am currently only taking advantage of my naturally produced dmt. I am practicing dream yoga and meditating. It really gives you a feel for what your made of. It binds with the 5htp receptor like serotonin, Lysergic acid compounds, and psilosybin Dmt is the primary psychedelic substance present in Ayahuasca brews, used by amazonian shamans. Reports of ayahuasca ingestion by experienced users produces more psychedelic effects than more commonly used hallucinogens (acid, mushrooms ect). Ayahuasca vine also contains harmala alkaloids that act as psychedelic maoi-inhibitors. This allows for Dmt to be active by oral dose. Ayahuasca can allow you to experience Dmt for 6+ hours. This is an advantage as normal methods of ingestion usually last only 10-20 min. Anything is possible. Say hi to the elves for me.

For contrast .... years back , when I contacted the group I did my 'stuff' with . I inquired and told them a bit about myself. They said a member would be in my area in a few weeks and would look me up. He did ... he was not what I expected. But it was interesting. He said he would go back and talk to 'The Boss' about it and she would 'check me out'. About 2 weeks later I had this dream that I was in the city, The Hare Krishnas were giving out free food at this table in an ally way along side a cyclone wire fence with a building construction site behind it. YUM ! I got on the line, people were getting a plate of food and waking away. When it wa my turn I noticed that it wasnt just food on the table , a bit of food but all this other stuff, some like ritual objects. They offered me this plate and then I realized they were not Hare Krishnas at all, they had deep Maroon robes on with cowls covering there faces. I took the food, ate it, the person offering leaned over and touched my forehead with their finger and FLASH ! - white light - I was hurled backards, hit the wire fence, bounced back off that into their altar table and passed through and 'into ' it ...... thats all I remember . The next day I got a call on the phone message bank " You in, come on down and we will start the ball rolling ." - Now thats the stuff ! ( When I get there , to get to the place ( around to the back entrance ) , of course, I have to pass this alley, with a wire cyclone fence, a construction site .....

Love is the only thing you will find that is purely objective. Call it a dream or whatever, that is your right. Once you find it, it will cease to be a dream or fantasy. If you think you are truly without an ego then I think it is as simple as: You just find love and cultivate it. Find something you love and feel it. Then feel it for something else, and eventually for everything. Forgo having an individual perspective, but take on a perspective of all humanity. Be one. I am sure you have heard of mettā, as a self-proclaimed buddhist and all, seriously you should know this by now.

Thank you very much dear friends for sharing your views! Andrei, of course nothing is real...but how real is the world we all currently share right now? How different is it from a dream or any other mental state you may perceive? The answer is the same in all instances, they are all a product of our own minds. But two things must be taken into account and these cannot be refuted: 1. There is an undeniable link between the 'spirit-essence/mind' and what it projects from a karmic perspective: our human experience here now. It well could be a deva, animal or hell being in the next life cycle according to ones instinct and karmic force. Doing good equals to good rebirth, doing bad equals a bad rebirth. The consequence does not need to be immediate since karma often (and usually does) behaves in a non-linear manner. For example: you open the newspaper and read about this wonderful young university student loved by everyone and all of a sudden she is kidnapped by the typical psycho who decides to rape her before mutilating her body and burying her in the middle of nowhere. I'm not making this up. I just watched this on the local news last year. You may have come across similar news in your country of residence. This is just plain bad karma striking suddenly people with apparently normal and peaceful lives. 2. A reminder that life is so fleeting and impermanent that is no point paying too much attention to it, instead one should fully focus on removing the main causes of rebirth at the same time as removing all existing karma from one's mind-body. Virtue becomes more and more apparent during this process to the point that one becomes horrified with any immoral acts even the most innocent ones like those 'little lies.' You have gone a long way in your spirit journey that making stupid mistakes is out if question. Nungali, Catholicism is just a name. All religions and spiritual practices are basically the same since they share identical principles especially when it comes to living a virtuous life. Only Taoism deviates from the rest as it heavily relies on an exhaustive and comprehensive analysis of natural laws, something that is missing from the former. Why is the case? The nature of China itself and it's geographical location and it's relationship to the 5 Elements structure of planet Earth. They are a blessed country in that regard. Anyway, I'm going off the tangent, sorry. Yes those hell planes are as real as Samsara itself...imaginary as you will ever get...but make sure your practice is filled with a strong moral perspective because rebirth in hell ain't fun at all!

Paul I hope you know Mantis well enough to allow him to sleep on yr brain- I realize yr too old to ask yr mom if you can have a sleep-over date but be advised... numbing ones' brain can become as adictive as any opiate ... I had a dream a few nights ago where-in I did a sort of "I am one with everything meditation" and I had an instantanious rush of feelings that were very much akin to being opiated - & I'm talking Thai-pure/dream-land bye bye for now high... more intense than most of my meditative highs-tho not all of them... But when it was over -oh so very quickly... I had the feeling/thought that my "being all with one" as a philosophy had become a sometime thing and the dream was telling me to try to make it more permanent... The best way I know to do that is continued meditation on being one with all... I shall report back later if I can carry this forward to some lasting & affective state... But since I am now working in a deli- (cutting/slicing meat for customers much of the time) -it is kind of hypocritical of me to try so very hard in that effort.... It is the only job I was offered and had to take it ... Ironic NO?!

And I thank you for your thoughts, Todd. Well of course I have a general theory of everything of sorts, but I know it's incomplete, so I don't have a complete response to the "what the hell is going on" question. I use taoist arts, sciences and practices and some other goodies from other sources as tools to help me fill in the gaps in my perceptions, cognition, and -- most importantly -- memory (not my personal memory, which is decent, but the collective memory of the human race, and of life on earth in general, and of life in the universe in general.) For there's no understanding today from looking at today. What is going on is usually what has been going on for a while, and the closer to the origin of this process one can get, the better one's chances to understand the present picture. Of all the things that the Ten Wings (e.g.), the oldest surviving commentaries on the I Ching, call "the virtues of tao," I am presently trying to focus on the one virtue completely overlooked by most seekers who seek elsewhere: Heng. Endurance. Duration. Reliability. Tao's virtue is that she isn't new-age-style flaky. Tao is Heng, you can count on her. You can count on tao to finish what she starts, to deliver sense when a promise of things making sense has been made, to not call you and cancel on you at the last moment when you're all set to go to the show. Dreams aren't like that. Dreams are flaky. Now you dream this, now you dream that, I once dreamed I was a character in The Simpsons cartoon, totally 2-D and kinda grokking it -- I painted myself onto a wall when I wanted to hide from another character, e.g. -- so, yes, it was possible to be something else in a dream and totally perceive yourself as "real" for a while... the litmus test for telling this kind of real from the real real is, the unreal illusory dreamlike-real doesn't last, it has no Heng, it has no glue. And therefore is devoid of the main virtue of tao. Tao has glue, once it starts you as a 2-D character of The Simpsons, you last, as Bart or Homer or Mr. Burns -- and once it starts you as a 3-D character in your present material life, you last a bit (or a lot) longer and in a more comprehensive fashion if all goes well. All going well so that such a project of tao's as "my personal this-here life" can last for as long as she intended it to was probably the main concern of the "holy sages" of taoist classics. They didn't get much more ambitious than that. A good life with reliable Heng is good enough. Pending that, nothing else is, far as I'm concerned. Life has to be taken care of as though it is absolutely real and absolutely matters -- because it is, and it does.

I actually saw this in a dream recently. Unfortunately, it was only a dream... AWESOME explanation of "double emptiness" my friend!!! Thank you so much for this wonderful explanation and dialogue!!! *standing applause* So, basically there is no (inherent existence of) subject or object and both must be transcended.

The "rule" (which it is not) is to keep you from your own frailties - the frailties of fear and also judgement from others and all sorts of stuff we dream up. It is fear that often has us running off at the mouth - trying to gain acceptance or have someone judge something for us or to trump them with our accomplishments. But one of our greatest frailties is to label. As you talk of something you have achieved in practice it very quickly moves to an explained story and then it is a packaged caged dead thing in a sense. It is easy to come up with all sorts of voodoo reasons for not telling others and their is a ring of truth to all of the above - but in the end it is simply best to stay in the now with what has transpired - you can bring your presence to it from time to time - zero need to classify it, label it, find meaning in it - just being with it allows so much more. And there will be times you may wish to bring it / them up and some will be appropriate - it is not some cryptic secrecy thing - none of this stuff is cryptic secrecy stuff (though some price their info/workshops/seminars as though it is).

How do I work or study alot and still be able to increase my consciousness troughout the day? When I study for example it feels like I go on autopilot, automatic mode, low on awareness. I want to have extremely high consciousness no matter what my activities are and this activity of studying hard really puts my into a low awareness mode. My body just dissapears and I'm sucked into the study material. There is no other way I can study, I don't know how! I notice it in the quality of my dreams. During workless periods where I have no worries or stress on my mind I am very aware of my perceptions during the day. During sleep I often get lucid and get very vivid dreams with alot of interesting events. For example, hungry cats and wolfs rage and bite me really hard. I fear that I loose my hand, then I recognize its a dream and I change the reality by summoning some food and shelter for these beasts. The rain stops, the sun arises and trees and flowers blossom. The wolfs pull my pants and lead me up the beautifull hills to an ancient indian shaman as a reward for my kindness. This indian then talks about the oneness with nature, etc. While studying allot during the day I become really low on awareness. I have little time to meditate as usually spare time is spend on other ways of relaxing and also socializing. When I do meditate, the effects don't last long as soon as I go dwelling into the studying material again. Its like my spirit leaves my body when I don't focus on my body enough. As if it gets bored and just leaves and takes my awareness and consciousness with him. Then I dream vague crap about find a toothbrush and constantly dropping the insides of my pocket for 30 minutes in a row. It is madness, the cycle of insanity. So again, how can I study alot yet still remain more aware and have higher consciousness? I don't want my studies to also rob me of my dreaming time. I hate it when I'm just so asleep all day and night. Low on awareness and consciousness. My fakeness detector is just completely turned off that way. What can I do about this? Surely alot of hard working people in our society must have suffered from this lowered awareness from hard working?

Following on from Xabir's post above ~ Longchenpa's commentary on 'Why Beings Wander in Samsara' - "If you think that it is incorrect that the wandering in samsara occurs from the Buddha-essence, the primordial state which does not exist as samsara, it is wrong. Even clear, unpolluted and unhindered water can become ice, hard as stone, because of the winter wind. Likewise, because of the arising of apprehended and apprehender, from the primordial state (divisions arise) delusory appearances appear in various forms as being solid. In the Dohakosa-nama-caryagiti it is said, 'By being blown and stirred by the wind, even soft water becomes hard like stone. Stirred by thoughts, the non-existent but delusory forms becomes very firm and solid'. In the Mind is present the state of ultimate body, which is primordially pure essence, called the ultimate universal ground of union, with the attributes of form bodies, Buddha-fields and wisdoms. But when one is distracted from the (ceaseless recognition of) Buddha-essence, those attributes (of Buddhahood) will be obscured because of the unenlightenment of seeing these attributes from the standpoint of apprehended and apprehender, thereby sowing the seeds of various delusory habits from beginningless time in the universal ground of habits. Thereafter, depending on the strength of various habits, beings will experience the happy and inferior realms, and so on. While beings are wandering in samsara as in a dream, they apprehend (the perceptions as) "I" and "self", become involved in the various poisons, and accumulate karma and more habits. They become deluded without substantial reasons and indulge in various types of attachment (perceiving them) as real, and they wander continuously in the round of delusory appearances, day and night, without end. But this continuity of wandering in samsara has no basis (as the grounds of habits and appearances are all empty, arising from mind, which is itself without solidity). So, although it seems that they are distracted from liberation (or from Buddha-essence), they are wandering with happiness and grief like in a dream." Longchenpa explains 'How Beings Wander in Samsara' - "Beings are wandering in samsara through the twelve links in the chain of interdependent causation. From the two unenlightments arise the formation (of one's life process) in samsara, and from this arise successive becoming, name and form, and so on. Then, after the completion of the body, starting from the stages of aquatic creative to birth, they experience contact, feeling, the six sense entrances, sickness, old age, and death, and this continues the cycle of wanderings." ******************************************** Explanation of the Two Unenlightenments - At the time of distraction into delusions, the aspect of one's not realizing the wisdom which dwells in oneself is called innate unenlightenment. The aspect of perceiving self-percepts as others is called imaginative unenlightenment. By not realizing that the delusions have arisen from the natural/primordial pure ground, and by clinging to the apprehended selfhood of the percepts as objects, beings are deluded by them as the external world and internal beings having individual bodies (created by) the maturation (of their karma) and habituations, and minds with the five poisons. The root of delusion is unenlightenment. In the Prajnaparamita-sancayagatha it is said, "All beings of lesser, middle, and excellent intellect arise from unenlightenment. Thus said the Buddha." Concerning apprehending duality, the condition of delusion, the Prajnaparamita-astasaharika says, "By apprehending "I" and "my", beings are wandering in samsara."

Most of it is highly guarded. There used to be a recording with all 9 steps but I haven't seen a copy of it, nor heard it in years. Sometimes the recordings will pop up on EBay, but members of the IYXQA buy them up quickly (or try to prevent the sale of them). Plus Dr Yan told us at one point it would take 60 years (not a typo) to master all 9 steps, so step 1 will suffice for everyone for quite some time. ;-) I also talked to a few people that had learned step 2 spontaneously; while practiting, they heard or saw the 2nd step at some point, kind of like a dream state.

Maybe the present moment is perfect as it is and things will change naturally and balance out naturally when we gain full acceptance in the moment, perhaps gaining acceptance in the moment will result in us dropping our non productive intentions and maybe it is our minds tendency to always try to improve on things and create better circumstances for it which creates the biggest barrier to this natural process unfolding. Some teachers I study stress the importance of observation and awareness without any interference in the process, while others say you need to sow the good seeds and use your intent to create more productive circumstances and start to dream a better dream for your life. I am still trying to work all of this out as you can probably tell, but a lot of my previous practice which tried to actively improve things often left me feeling like a fish caught in a net thrashing around trying to escape rather than accept where I am .

The structure is similar, but the content is different. I wouldn't be put off of Strovolos just because you didn't like Java. As I remember it, that was the purpose of TMOJ. The problem was, it was supposed to be part of a wider project to bring the concept of Qi into the fold of Western science, including a website (which I think existed for a time), further video documentation and proper scientific testing and publication. However the project was nixed when Chang pulled out early in the process after allegedly being instructed to do so by his master's spirit in a dream, at which point he cut off the Western students and withdrew from further public exposure. Personally? Not really. I found them an interesting read and they inspired me to get my own practice off the ground when I was first studying meditation and qigong, and I know they've done the same for others, but I think the people who take a dogmatic approach to the content of the books are allowing their insecurities to overpower their inquisitive nature and in doing so entirely missing the whole point of what Danaos' was trying to convey.

That is a difficult concept to deal with for me. Many years ago I had a dream and I was somebody else and I was watching myself as that person. But then I don't see that anywhere close to the topic of meditation. Can we be aware and yet not identify ourself as separate from what we are aware of? I think that is possible. Kinda' like I am one of the pedals of a bicycle. (But then, with my ego I would likely see the rest of the bicycle as extensions of "me".)

The article on Ni Hua Ching is by Mark Johnson and is entitled 'Ni Hua-Chings Americanization of the Eternal Breath of Dao'. It can be found in the 'Journal of Daoist Studies - Vol 3' as YMWong stated. Mark Johnson has a more detailed account of his experience learning under Ni Hua Ching in his book: Life Is Divine Play: My Life and Training with Enlightened Masters According to this article, Ni Hua Ching was a doctor of TCM and martial arts teacher and he also taught daoism in Taiwan. Mark Johnson was initiated into Ni Hua Ching's daoist sect in Taiwan before returning to California to help set up Ni Hua Ching's new center there. Here's an excerpt: "His lineage was called the “Union of Dao and Man” (Daoren heyi 道 人合一) while his particular sect went by the name of the “Eternal Breath of Dao” (Da Dao hefeng tang 大道和風堂). It was an eclectic mix starting with his father, Ni You‑San, a well‑respected physician from southeast China who taught Master Ni most of his medical knowledge. Master Ni’s earliest ties with formal Daoism came from a temple near his hometown where he trained as a teenager. I once visited that temple outside Wenzhou (see Fig. 1). The abbot told me they had strong ties with the White Cloud Monastery in Beijing. Master Ni also claimed an unbroken succession through various later teachers to the medieval Highest Clarity masters Sima Chengzhen (647‑735) and Tao Hongjing (456‑536). He certainly knew innumerable styles of taiji quan, gongfu, and bagua zhang, and had unrivaled knowledge of acupuncture, herbal medicine, Chinese astrology, and the Yijing. He also believed in a strict daily regimen with high ethical standards. Our practice in Taiwan was punctuated by a slew of psychic phenomena. Master Ni would regularly intrude on our dreams and on several occasions was seen in several places at the same time. Once he killed a rat by just pointing his sword of exorcism at it. And once a turtle arrived in the mail, sent by a construction worker who had never heard of Master Ni but he sent the turtle because the turtle spirit told him to do so in a dream. Then there was the time when I fell asleep on the floor after editing for nine hours and had a vivid dream of Master Ni leading me to a high spiritual realm and putting me on trial. After many arguments back and forth, a decision was handed down that I could continue training with them. When I woke up, I saw Master Ni was standing over me. He said: “You were allowed to stay with us by the skin of your teeth.” With that, he turned, went into his room, and never mentioned that incident again. Having completed the basics of our training, we were finally ready for initiation in the spring of 1975. It was a very formal event. We started the ceremony at 2 a.m. since it was the most auspicious time astrologically. We brought flowers, food offerings, and spirit money to the altar, where we offered them with numerous prostrations. Then we entered the altar room on our knees with a letter of petition on our heads that evoked a host of deities. Master Ni touched each of us on top of the head and we walked around in an altered state for a few hours. After our initiation, we began a new regimen that involved daily exercises; the reading of incantations, and participation in a formal weekly ceremony. Soon thereafter, we returned to the U.S. to prepare a medical clinic and spiritual center for him. This resulted in Master Ni’s main center, the “Eternal Breath of Tao” in Malibu near Los Angeles."

At one time I lived between two towns. There was a two lane dirt road connecting the two towns. I think it was an unicorporated area because it seemed that no one took care of the environment surrounding this two lane road. Eventually someone paved it and it seemed safer to travel between each town. More and more people used this road to get back and forth between each town. Now I do not know who made the decision to pave the road, but I would suppose that someone had a future in connecting the two towns. Since each town seemed self sustaining, I would guess that the paved two lane road was invested in by a private party who had and invested interest in bring more people into their perspective towns. Maybe an invester from town A got with invester from town B and worked a deal where both would benefit from the two lane road being paved. Maybe the investers had plans to build homes, more businesses, gas stations, food franchises, better schools, and more infrastructure. Maybe these investers went to their local commercial banker and borrowed money to fund all of this on a renewal note. Maybe the investers said to themselves, why don't we build using other peoples money, thereby building a network of other investers from other unincorporated and corporated areas. Then they started to think about building an airport, and wharehouses. They set the tax rate and raised it according to their personal financial desires and dream to be in control of statewide, and interstate wide commerce... Now here comes a governing body with elected officials that are already benefiting from this network...they made sure laws got passed and people got prosecuted and sentenced. They made sure taxes were collected. And they made sure that they benefited financially, and had the best medical insurance coverage, and retirement plan that they could create with their vote. They even had legal immunity and great vacations, and spent most of their time tearing down their opponent(s). What would it take to change things where there would be an equal distribution of goods and services, a standard tax to support a new government, and an overseer to make sure that this new government continues to do their job according to the wishes of citiizens of this unincorporated and corportated population. Is it a Socialistic government. No, someone would emerge as the decision maker. How about Autocratic? No, same problem. How about a dictatorship? No! How about a Democratic government? Well, it might work if we fired all the people who make up our government, and started all over again by hiring a Philosopher King. It might work "we the people" produced its own goods and services, isolated ourselves from the influence of the outside world, had the strongest military in the world, fed its hungry, took care of its sick, housed its homeless, stayed out of regulating people's lives, and criminalized drug and alcohol abuse as it were in the 80's, enforced the Constitution without deviation from the letter of its word and intent, quit arguing precendents when it comes to jurisprudence, and bring back public execution.