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I'm a big fan of dreams, especially the particularly vivid or strange. As Sloppy says, most is jibberish that people read to much into. I think that this dream tells you of a previous connection with the Dharma, and it is auspicious, and that you can continue reading sutras to see if anything affects you in the same way. Maybe the head off the Buddha is an admonition to stay out of your head, not use your intellect so much. I had a strange dream last night because I was trying to lock my mind onto a certain deity at night as I drifted to sleep ( always meditate before sleeping) , but after I drifted on to dreamland. I dreamt that there was this Chinese dude next to me and he was poking a finger into my plexus, and I was complaining, dont poke so hard and I woke myself up from it due to the pain or my whining.

This is something that I've thought since I had the dream. Maybe a connection to previous incarnations. The weird thing is that the clarity of the dream did not fade as the day wore on, as usually does with dreams. As the hours passed I seemed to remember more.

I recall at the height of the financial crisis when Portugal was being bailed out by the troika and everyone was prophesying doom there was a newspaper article (probably the Daily Mail) that the Royal Navy was ready to send ships to Lisbon to bring the ex-pat Brits home. This was met with hoots of derision by various slightly over weight bright pink types sitting in bars in the Algarve. Just forget everything you read in British press about Brits living abroad and what might happen to them. Its all bananas. True there are a few very unwise people who emigrate without proper funds or on a basis of some unrealistic dream. But mostly people know what they are doing, what they want and get the best conditions for themselves that they can. Why not? Life is short eh? If you are British and have lived abroad for less than 15 years you can vote in the referendum. I imagine many but not all will vote remain. But actually in most cases being in or out will make very little difference as the UK most likely be treated a bit like the Swiss as quasi in but not actually in the EU. I think very few will return because of Brexit - just as very few people will leave the UK who are non-nationals because of it. The effects will be much longer term than the day to day practicalities of life and work.

I think there is great room for misunderstanding this on the Path. Any path that leads into the light and clarity. Don Juan Mateus, within the Castaneda framework, called this developing Impeccability. Impeccability in one's thoughts, in one's intent, in one's behavior, in one's speech,in one's habits, in one's self discipline. the way I know this from experience is that the person I am evolving into and have evolved into has taken a great deal of work. One could call this developing merit. This was done for a selfish purpose; to stay comfortable in sobriety. One cannot live a selfish existence, or an unkind existence, and be comfortable with life. One would have to drink or take other substances to equalize the discrepancy between being a jerk and living within that framework. But to be comfortable without substance? That requires a quantum change of the personality; a change to the positive rather than the constantly critical, negative, and judgmental. I've never felt on this forum that there has been enough attention paid to the inner changes, the ones that are difficult, that must be made to make forward progress on the Path. The above quotation notates a subtle difference between developing merit and developing wisdom; as the difference between a verb and a noun. The verb part (in my opinion) would be to develop the merit; to change one's karma by acting and behaving differently, intentionally. To go out of one's comfort zone and develop qualities that one perhaps didn't have previously, such as generosity or unselfishness. Perhaps humility - that's an awfully big one which takes a lifetime of 'work', if you ask me. Wisdom, on the other hand, as it says above, is more of a point of perception. That's the noun. How one sees one's self and how one perceives the world. A Seer has wisdom because they are self-realized, they have seen into their own character without judgment and therefore sees into the lowest common denominator of the character of all others. Perhaps an ascended Christian mystic would call this developing the 'Christ consciousness', wherein they have gotten out of their own way in the ego department and have cut loose of judgment, hierarchy, cynicism, and the like. To put a Daoist spin on this, I always seem to go back to Yutang's 3 treasures - they are so easy to understand, and yet speak volumes. To never be the First (which flies in the face of excessive ego), Never too Much (which goes not only to ego but also to selfishness and thinking of others), and Love (which I see as a combination of the Merit aspect and the Wisdom aspect in the above quote). To fully develop love, the self must be first loved non-judgmentally. And this is the paper bag out of which I struggle. To love self. After all, we know our own thoughts. We know if they are not up to par, we know if we are judgmental (once we start to separate from the tendency), and I can beat myself up because they can still arise from time to time. And yet, the monster is only a monster when it doesn't realize it's a monster; when it is One with all the negativity. Once the monster is seen, the separation begins, and the spaces between the negative thoughts and judgments get longer and longer. Clarity takes its place. And perhaps clarity can't be rushed. The clarity of non-differentiation, the realization that this truly is a huge dream, which yins and yangs with our night-time dreams for the purpose of steering our consciousness toward the light and toward clarity. There are many in our forum who do not see the necessity for the urge to Merit. This is not the same as 'being good'. Being Good is not even relevant. Once the heart is on the Path and struggles toward the light (in the verb sense) and increases clear perception (in the noun sense) there is no Good nor Bad - and yet there is something that we so futilely call 'Love' which replaces what once inhabited that space. At the risk of sounding oxymoronic, It's All Good. I look forward to Joy. I get glimpses sometimes, my heart swells with it on occasion. I know I've got it coming. Just a little more of the illusion of the Ego of the entity known as Barbara to get out of the way. There's a saying in the old recovery program, started by a stockbroker named Bill Wilson in Akron, Ohio in 1935: "You can't think your way into right acting. You have to act your way into right thinking". How much more meaningful these little platitudes have come to mean to me over the years. And I read the deep and wondrous jewels brought forth by CT and others on this thread, and realize that the truth has been before me for all these years. Only I was only capable of seeing the very surface of the truth, of the true meaning; and it has taken half a lifetime to breach the surface. the beauty of The Truth, of True Wisdom, is that it all ends up in the same place. Within ourselves. The very last place we'd think of to look.

Hi All, I'm here to learn about the Tao. I've been led here by my inner experiences, in wakefulness and in dream. I come with no background/study in the Tao, so just following my nose. Looking for a way to bring some balance to the energies that are at work in my body. Thanks for what appears to be a great resource and forum for discussion. Peace.

Sounds like a dream you didn't have. Or almost had. Our mind sometimes does funny things just as we are coming out of unconsciousness.

I woke up one early dusk and felt extreme vibrations in my head, (and also my ears were doing that thing when you yawn, does anyone know what that is?) like my brain was 'buzzing?'. It lasted for a very short few seconds or milliseconds. I looked down at my feet and at the end of my bed there was an old lady standing and talking and she kept saying things but i only saw her mouth moving couldn't hear, but I somehow knew or thought she was complaining and ranting. I think my brain related her ranting to the vibration in my head, so i really sternly told her to shut up (i didn;t use the words shut up, i didn;t use words at all but i know i somehow asked her to shut up) and as soon as i did she got startled and ran out of my room. i think the vibration stopped when she was startled, not sure tho. then i proceeded to open my eyes and was surprised because i thought my eyes were open, but they were closed, and i could see the room like i would would if my eyes were open. when my eyes were closed everything in the room was the same except the light coming from under the door. i noticed that there was light after opening my eyes. i thought this might have been a dream, but something in me tells me it was something more than that. any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated-

Was that your dream ? Everything happened very quickly. You must be a rock. ( I mean have the perception of a rock ..... along view over time ; (from 6.00)

I don't see the problem? When you wake up from a dream and suddenly realize it was all just a dream, do you get horribly depressed? What would be horribly depressing to me is if samsaric life is simply as we know it with no deeper subreality free of human preferences and judgments. That one simply lives, works & dies. Why even bother, then? Think about how you love your girlfriend.. Well, what is that based on, really? And why do you not love everyone equally? And what about those who don't get loved much in this world? Conditional love as you know it is great, but only because it is but a smithering taste of the totally unconditional cosmic love that the fabric of our submatrix is made of! And even if you personally have a great life - what about others with horrible ones? How messed up would that be if that is simply how it is...with no deeper method behind the madness?? I personally like the idea of an underlying unity because it means that no matter what happens to us as individuals here, ultimately everything is "ok."

Maybe things weren't going wrong but they are unfolding the way they have been caused. And your expectation of them was incorrect due to your own ego/subject interference. Besides, if your own insight assessment is correct, you would have seen the outcomes long ago. I know I would....in a dream message form.

Quite so, i just dropped out of college (not hy choice) and i always had this dream of becoming a shepherd (i think it started when i read the book The Alchemist), and dropping out of college made me realize i can do anything with my life. Like i have a clear page to write on. I talked with my father about it and he is supportive of it, he said he'd by me sheep and hire a someone to help me. Its either that or join a meditation school, but after some research i couldn't find a school i liked or a school at all.

And this" A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream; A flash of lightning in a summer cloud, A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream." Refers to the Total Solar Eclipse in 2017

I can't speak to AYP as I know nothing about it. I don't know how the Bön practices compare to AYP. I think the most important thing is to think of what your objectives are and focus on tools that will help you achieve them. Also think about how important this is to you. I'd urge you to not give up on something easily because it seems complicated at first. That is just an indication of unfamiliarity. Don't short change yourself. If the practice looks promising, invest a little time and effort and see what comes of it. It's just like any skill - driving, riding a bicycle, addition... it take a little practice, then it's easy. I'll share that when I first looked at this dream yoga methods I was similarly put off. I read the book but didn't begin the practice right away as it seems terribly complicated. Later, I decided to push myself to try it and am very glad I did. It took a few weeks to get the hang of it but the payoff is a practice that you can make your own and can potentially enhance your life in important ways. Making changes that enhance our quality of life generally requires quite a bit of persistence and fortitude over time. These very qualities are cultivated by challenging ourselves to take the difficult road instead of the easy road. A few words about Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoches's practices. They are all traditional Tibetan practices that, for the most part, have been simplified for Western, non-monastic consumption. In general, they are easy to learn and integrate well with one another. The core elements are there so any of his practices can serve as a foundation for major transformation. The warrior seed syllable practices take a little time to learn but are actually quite simple once you get the hang of it. You simply start with one, get comfortable with the basic sound, posture, and so on. Then you can add complexity like chakra and color and so forth. Same thing with the supportive practices like the 9 breathings of purification and tsa lung exercises. Take it slow and enjoy the process, at the end of the day that's really all that matters. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Cat, Thank you. I see both the masculine and feminine approaches as both positive and negative. I value coherency of thought in many situations, especially in communication. However, the drive to coherency can lead to blindness/rigidness. I also value broad and flexible vision and non-contention. This tendency can lead to the accumulation of rotting views (don't know how better to phrase that). I don't see the two approaches as opposed. I actually see that both can manifest in a person at the same time and that they can actually strengthen one another. It is more a matter of how healthy our manifestations of the masculine and the feminine are. GIH, The main place that we seem to differ is that I see coherency as existing most clearly in a level that is more fundamental than beliefs. Contradictory beliefs do not affect this more fundamental coherency. As such, the effort to get all of one's beliefs to match up is misguided, or at least superfluous. If one seeks coherency, it is not to be achieved through explanation or belief. It already is. Most minds don't much like this. Other minds do like it. It doesn't really matter whether a mind likes it or not, since it doesn't have much to do with the mind. Liking or disliking are both ways that the mind tries to avoid the reality of what is. Did you, as you conceive of yourself (assuming you conceive of yourself), choose all of your beliefs? Are you actually conscious of how you chose each one of your beliefs? You suggest that it is difficult to change beliefs, so I suspect that you may not actually remember choosing your beliefs. If you did not choose your beliefs, then where did they come from? It is relatively easy, even for a child, to come up with some story about where his beliefs came from, but if he doesn't actually remember it, then it is just a story. Even if it is remembered, then it is still a story. Where did each of the elements in the story come from? Very quickly we come to mystery. Except mystery is not actually somewhere out there-- it is right here. It doesn't matter what our beliefs are, the mystery is still present. Even if we change our beliefs at a level that greatly affects our experience of the mystery, the mystery is still there. The emphasis on outside and inside comes from giving greatest value to the mind. Since the mystery does not have a location, where is there inside and outside? Also I do not find it necessary to have a belief about people living with or without hearts. I don't really care what you think in this instance and I am open to being surprised by experience. Some things are more probable than others, and as a betting man, I'll bet on the heart in any given person that I see alive. Assuminig I didn't bet too much, I wouldn't mind losing. As an aside, I am interested in your experience of lucid dreaming. I have heard of people who begin to fulfill sexual desires through their lucid dreams, but who, over time, begin to lose control of their dreams, even though they remain lucid in them. Whereas before, they would choose the person and the situation, over time the dream constantly begins forcing itself on the dreamer. My theory is that this is the result of trying to control the dream and is the same mechanism by which our waking lives seem to be outside of our control. Basically, the artifact of consistently trying to control something is that sooner or later it becomes violently out of control. Have you noticed any such mechanism? I suspect that you might say that the dreamer just hasn't gone deeply enough into their beliefs, and so they lose control. Once they get their beliefs coherent then they will have perfect control. But in your experience of your dreams, do you have perfect or ever increasing control? Wondering if I might be surprised.

It says "designed directly from second awareness" so it may be true! Seriously though, "second awareness" has yielded designs for some "otherworldly" technological devices in my own practice, so who knows... maybe the entrepreneur had glimpses of some such too, who am I to say he didn't?.. One thing I got this way, in a non-ordinary dream, was a design of eyeglasses for seeing these creatures. They are made of gold and quartz crystal (glasses, not creatures), with rings of gold wire in a rather tight concentric spiral over quartz lenses, leaving very narrow slits of transparency between the rings. I think the wire was somehow embedded into the quartz, like cloisonne, but since quartz is no enamel, it's hard to imagine the technology and the cost for making something like this... In any event, I did buy a pair of antique Chinese quartz glasses for starters, and if I ever have stray money to invest in gold wire, I might try to attach it in exactly the pattern I've seen in the dream (proprietary! don't try getting rich off this idea!)

1) Except we will become a full member of the EU once we vote to stay in. What Cameron didn't announce was what he gave away. In exchange for 'not closer union for Britain' he gave away a veto on changes to the EU itself. We have lost the power of further negotiation because Cameron either never had any intention of us leaving the EU (hence his overheard comment to Merkel that after the referendum he will dock the UK into the EU), or he is such a useless negotiator that he fails to understand the element of time. Hence, if the EU changes dramatically, then Britain will be forced to make changes in order to continue trading. In effect, a veto on ever closer union is like a man who needs a car, waving a piece of paper in front of the dealer saying he doesn't 'have' to buy a car. 2) the effects of NIRP are widely understood by any economist, the exact sequence of consequences are less predictable but the outcome remains the same. If you understand time preference-that people prefer a commodity today than wait until tomorrow then this forward time preference has a value. The result is the destruction of capital formation through saving. Capital formation is the primary necessity for production. It is the driver of productive wealth creation. Break that link- which NIRP does and you have too many people chasing too many goods/assets and the price of goods increases rapidly and the value of the currency collapses. 3) OK 4) Right and left extremism are on the rise. 5) I was pointing out that Schengen is idealism. The reality is that these countries don't work together with open borders. As this is a key plank of the EU along with its failing currency and rise of extremism is the internal destruction of the EU. It's slowly pulling apart and, as it does, the bureaucrats and vested interests will plough ever increasing amounts of tax payer money trying to save their dream. I don't want Britain to be part of that inevitable collapse, or the long drawn out economic and social destruction which will precede it. Indeed there was some role play thing on newsnight where the guy playing the EU made it dead clear that they had no intention of giving Brotain a deal, because that would set a precedent for every other country. 6) Greece is a symptom of 5) it will herald more trouble on successive weak southern/Balkan economies. Greece shouldn't never have joined, as we shouldn't have joined, however, at least we are in a strong position to depart, poor old Greece is trapped. 7) MEPs are representatives of each country, they can speak and vote, but they have little power to speak of. This is how the EU was set up. It was designed not to be transparent or to be tampered with by the people. It is to give the illusion of sovereignty but is entirely a top down and anti democratic. This was to prevent any state ( meaning Germany or France) getting its hands on the power structure. Unfortunately it's grown into a vile monster and it won't be shut down or changed until it collapses under its own weight.

Of course there will be greater Liberty because a democratic sovereign state is far closer to the individual than the EU unelected federation. You can't tell what will happen anywhere, but one thing is certain, when you have an unelected bureaucracy it is far less tolerant of individuality and is open to hijack by any kind of extremism to abuse. Me old dad told me years ago-he was a committed socialist-that he clearly saw a fascist future for the EU and that has become reality. It is a corporate and bureaucratic wet dream with an unelected leadership. It is losing its outward trading significance and introverting. There is talk of ending cash, it already has NIRP and cash withdrawal limits. You vote Britain in and if you wanted a bolt hole if things turn nasty it won't be as easy to find a place to run to. The EU is not only stagnant, but it's economy is failing. It has high unemployment and will face even greater waves of low skilled migrant immigration from cultures alien to western values. Barbed wire fences are going up. Extremist parties are on the rise. The treatment of Greece should make it clear what kind of a thing the EU is. It has become impossible for them to escape. It's likely that Britain will be asked to pay greater amounts into a ailing basket case without any hope of ducking out. Those that sit in the EU gravy train will sip champagne, eat caviar and drive around in chauffeur driven luxury whilst those on the outside work like slaves. These are the facts as they stand right now. We can't know if the EU or Britain will get worse or better, but we can see that European productivity and living standards are in decline. We can see the number of migrants that are flooding in each year and the EU seems unlikely to prevent it. NIRP is a reality, limited cash withdrawals are a reality and the removal of large denomination notes is a reality. Fences have gone up, extremist parties are on the rise and the destruction of Greece is headline news. None of that can be denied.

Usually your physical body dies while the other subtle bodies (emotional, mental, etc) live. You can think on that as losing your body but keep being able to feel and think, only on "other world". It is possible to access other people's memories as well as collective memories, but this isn't common. If you can't recognize your existance there then it may be memories from other people, indeed. Try thinking on how you saw the world as a child. Can you relate your infant self to your previous self? If not those memories may not be yours indeed. You saw them on third person? Most of mine where on first person. It was through my eyes. If you saw those memories in third person than you may have experienced indeed dreams, other people's past (not memories, but actively seeing the past through psychic sight) or been subjected to artificial rememoration. There are techniques were a spirit sees your past through psychic sight and then project an image of it in your dreams or your mind directly. However, that isn't regression. Depends. Some people become insane in the emotional world and can't plan anything. Those may be subjected to forced reincarnation. However, most people do participate in their life planning, including details about their future body anatomy. The degree of participation varies from person to person, place to place and hierarchy to hierarchy. Which hierarchy? The ones you subject yourself. For instance, if you do a vow of obedience to the catholic church while alive, this keeps going after death. You can expect for them do remember the vows of servitude you did, that is for sure. Conscienciousness is indeed one thing. However, the dissociation between mind, emotion and consciousness is a process recognized by psychology. Indeed, it is one of the main objectives of psychoteraphy : To allow for the person to notice she isn't what she feels or thinks. But what is a dream? So far the main use i had for those experiences was regarding problems i had with my mind. Old traumas and psychological issues i had to solve, some of which had roots in previous life. One of the most intense ones was a life i couldn't leave my body after death for a period of time. With my emotional body still stuck on it i felt the deterioration process and the semi-mumification due to have died on a place with a lot of sand and sun. This trauma followed me to the present life in a unconscious terror of getting thin, which brought me to obesity. It was only after noticing that, indeed, the past was in the past, that i could start getting healthy again. It can also be used to recover knowledge, as it has happened to me once or twice so far - recovering knowledge on a certain ritual to help a friend of mine, for instance. However, i do agree with you. If one has no uses to memories of past life, then they are not a priority. They may be interesting to entertain, but just like memories of childhood or teen years, there is no reason to become obsessed with them.

Thanks, I've read the core text which I think is excellent but have never read Roth's book. Would you say some of the insights provided by Roth outside of the core text are relevant for practice and hence worth reading? Thanks, this is something I've heard before and it is something to keep in mind, but my reasoning here isn't based on merely a desire or logical conclusion but based upon some dream messages I've received which, to my mind, has informed me to go abroad for these purposes. Actually I have multiple goals to be fulfilled by trying to go abroad (I plan on trying to get a degree in Mandarin as a second language in Taiwan to allow me to master Mandarin and acquire the qualifications necessary to teach English abroad, another goal of mine. I am also interested in learning the guqin and finding a teacher for that purpose as well.) Hopefully with right effort, mastering the language, and a bit of luck I will find some legitimate teachers who won't pigeonhole me as just another Westerner but will be able to see my sincerity (though before all that I will need to succeed in getting accepted into the degree/scholarship program I am looking into.) Thanks. I learned zhan zhuang from a mixture of video and book instructions, and while not ideal I hope that this will be effective until I find a teacher (I think there may be some in my local area so will have to look into it.) My current daily regimen is to do seated meditation in the morning for half an hour and in the evening if circumstances permit, to do zhan zhuang two or three times a day for 10 minutes at a time, and to do a series of qigong/neigong exercises, namely Bone Marrow cleansing/healing sounds that I learned from Cohen's video, Damo Mitchell's "Ji Ben Qigong" and his instructions on Wuxing qigong, and finally Feng Zhiqiang's Hunyuan qigong. Aside from this I practice abstinence, try to eat healthy, study, and use art/music as a means to have aesthetic and/or contemplative experiences (such as guqin mentioned, but also others) which I see as a useful aid in purification and toward the path.

I have no idea why, but I would like to meditate in between the dream and waking. This blackness and senselessneas. Just your consciousness and thoughts. To translate that into a location: deep black cold pitchdark floating soundless space. In the middle of nowhere. Away from the earth to infinity. I find that idea peaceful. It is like my own core being shines brighter in such a place. In a lucid dream I was meditating while riding a bike and I entered this nothingness where I could hear my self thinking, continue dreaming or lying in bed. It is like witnessing the dualities, the relativness of reality. This detached mindset was powerful for me as it allowed for more emotional resilience. I could just block out all the negativity by making it conscious. Then refocus on the positive or diffrent more promising set of potentials. Without this detached mindset, the bigger sub conscious picture is not seen and the infinite potential of each moment just flows by like river, where it continues to form an endless waterfall, without you ever noticing this from happening.

Maybe a dream meditation spot is the very spot where someone wakes up suddenly and realize that life is nothing but a dream after all?!! Seriously... there are plenty of places that are very conducive atmospherically for deep contemplations. Personally, since coming over to Europe, i have been captivated by the serene, palpable energy found in old chapels and ancient stone circle sites.

Concepts like that can serve as a spiritual metaphor and help'our intuitive understanding of spiritual concepts. Certainly they can be considered true at a certain level. However, the problem with this concept is that Life is not a dream, Matter and the physical plane is not exactly a dream. It is real. So many spiritual seekers and people who study religion can not resolve the seeming seperation between matter and mind. So they go to extremes, they deny reality, they deny matter, they give up everything, no desires, no thoughts, no mind even! Some give up their very Life. They think this will bring them awarenes, however in their search for enlightenemnt, it may end up actually numbing the mind.

The problem with the theory that all the commonalities thorughout different traditions is a metaphor, is that I find it unlikely that they all are using metaphor to say the same thing. I find that unlikely, and I also find it difficult to prove. The best explanation is that flood stories around the world, are describing actual events. Some may be describing localized floods, however that doesn't explain why so many say the same things and explain similar events. It doesn't explain how they are all connected. The best theory is that Flood Myths around the world, are describing the Great Earth Changes that occurred 12,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. http://www.grahamhancock.com/underworld/underworld1.php Now, that being said, you are certainly right that some traditions use symbology and metaphor, in explaining the nature of the Mind. In fact, you may not know that the original Meaning of Lucifer, or the LIghtbearer, was the Human Mind. Lucifer is Mind. From the Teachings of the Science of Being, The Dream- http://www.atlantis.to/dream.htm

as an analogy, if you are experiencing a nightmare of seeing monsters coming after you. Thinking I don't know if the monster is real or not, won't free you from suffering. It is not a path from freedom and won't free you from clinging and fear. Waking up from that dream, seeing it is just a dream, a thought, seeing there never is a monster... That is liberation. Waking up frees you from clinging, thus freeing one from suffering

When you wake up. You clearly see the dream you had last night of santa claus or unicorn as simply a thought, a dream. Waking experience is undeniably manifest. But you simply no longer are under the delusion of there being a real unicorn in your life. Or a real self. Only life flows, not a live-r.