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Hi everyone, I've reached a breaking point. I can't do this anymore. Today I start a new life again. I have a few questions, When I was practicing celibacy still, I felt like I was literally operating in a higher plane, so now that I no longer have that 'clean streak' my mind feels 'lower' to the ground. I don't know, I had these 'rolling epiphanies' throughout every day but now they seem to almost never happen now that I am not celibate again. My vocabulary and general understanding of some things also seem to 'constrict' at times while at others overflowing. Does celibacy have that much influence over brain function? I know everyone has to walk their own path. I've fought this K experience so much. The only time when I can really 'feel good' or content is when I'm helping someone. I think I went through a bit of ego death at a point, more than I realized at the time, so now I feel odd a lot of the time during conversation. I just can't seem to rejuvenate that interest in material things, or even making music (the only thing I cared about). This hurts me a lot. I don't know exactly when it got bad, but at some point I really started wanting out of life. I still don't care at all about television programming, buying new things, clothes, having money, eating, my hygiene(myself), video games, reading, making a living 'american dream'. I've become so dissatisfied with so many facets of my life, that I really don't want to be alive anymore. I don't want any of this. It's really hard to speak to people sometimes, sometimes I'll just go completely blank. Like I care for them but not for anything that they're talking about- a lot of people I've felt take offense to it, It's just so trivial. This is not good. I'll be 25 at the end of the year and society expects things of me, goals that I am fairly far away from- I don't really have any of them accomplished, and all of this 'reflects on my character' every day, and I'm a felon. I don't care about this place. So now I find myself completely at odds with this new life I've started, I can't be 'normal' and I can't even be/do what I really want to, music. I just feel really unmotivated and empty all the time, I don't know if its the same emptiness everyone rants about but it sucks. It's so hard to care about anything 'material' or 'selfish'. This is what scares me more than anything else has, I don't want to feel like I'm so separate from everything and everyone/like nothing matters- for the rest of my natural life. So I'll just throw my life away and help others, my life fell apart somewhere these last months and I don't think it'll ever be anything like I wanted/want. At a point towards the beginning of this whole spiritual experience, my main drive was to help others/be 'saintly'. That didn't end well, although it started off rather nicely. Since nothing is the same, I think I'm going to go for the 'saintly' direction again, that was when i felt the best this past year. I think it'd be good for me and I might as well be of use to someone if I can't even get my own life together, I want the little balance I did have in life, back. I lost all faith. I've gotten my sleep schedule back on, improved my diet and am slowly easing back into some of my previous practices. I'm thinking of incorporating some things from this system. Does anyone have any experience with chrism? http://www.kundaliniawakeningsystems1.com/index.html#.UbiYjZyUdUY I'd also really like to work on my empathic abilities, not only strengthening them but gaining control over it so I can do better about keeping a lid on it in certain situations. I know you can only help people that want to be helped, and I feel like there's times where you can try to help someone and still end up hurting them. I don't know what to do. I don't know. I don't want to give up on life. I don't want superpowers. I just want a life that I enjoy living. **I think a lot of the people who've experienced kundalini that I read about online were liars.

Religious training can be a powerful thing. If a person truly believes that the world is an illusion, that would actually justify a stoic non-reactive response to someone in danger, who is suffering and in pain. Thus, some Buddhists might train themselves to ignore other people who are imperiled, because 1) they argue that other people in mortal danger do not actually exist and should not be helped 2) if the world is true illusion, their own cultivated peace and harmony must take priority. In this excerpt from the Wiki on Reality In Buddhism, the writer confirms that there are two views on the nature of reality in Buddhism: first, everything is actually illusion and second, the concept of illusion only applies against the belief that we are all separate in creation because reality is a manifestation of karmic energy (similar to Taoism's chi-based creation theory). Given the disagreement, I would say that both forms of Buddhism could treat disorder and chaos in the world as illusory and not get involved in movements to stabilize it. Some consider that the concept of the unreality of "reality" is confusing. They posit that, in Buddhism, the perceived reality is considered illusory not in the sense that reality is a fantasy or unreal, but that our perceptions and preconditions mislead us to believe that we are separate from the elements that we are made of. Reality, in Buddhist thought, would be described as the manifestation of karma[citation needed]. Other schools of thought in Buddhism (e.g., Dzogchen), consider perceived reality literally unreal. As a prominent contemporary teacher puts it: "In a real sense, all the visions that we see in our lifetime are like a big dream [...]".[1] In this context, the term 'visions' denotes not only visual perceptions, but appearances perceived through all senses, including sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations, and operations on received mental objects.

See all that stuff you're talking about is based on attachment to form and attachment to sensation and attachment to conception - which is basically the Buddhist Ch'an teaching of going into the Emptiness. The Taoist Yoga manual is definitely influenced by Buddhist Ch'an teachings. The thing is that the energy is really from yin-yang dynamics which means complementary opposites -- and so this is the secret of why the energy can be built up. So I find the Taoist Yoga book to be amazingly helpful for understanding the form, sensation and conception dynamics of energy. Jascha has claimed that the powers don't happen until you get the golden elixir - but that is just where the book describes the powers -- because if the powers are used before that level then the practiser will fall back in the training. So in a worldly context the "powers" are going to be used right away! This is why the Taoist Yoga book focuses on stopping the loss of energy from so many sources. It's just that I can experience this stuff directly - from the "inside out" as qigong master Jim Nance says. So we have to learn to trust the energy masters who can actually see inside our bodies and therefore know us better than we know ourselves!! In the traditional training it is the teacher who chooses the students and most students are not qualified. In the Western modern setting the student acts more like a spoiled consumer and needs to find the perfect teacher. haha. This reminds me of the kungfu movie - is it prodigal son? Or -- anyway the fat spoiled kid getting trained by fake masters who then pay people to pretend to get beat up by the fat spoiled kid. haha. I can't remember what happens - but that pretty much sums up the scene. For example qigong master Chunyi Lin says that when he does a healing it actually only takes him a few seconds to send the energy!! Maybe a couple minutes. But the phone healing time is set at 10 minutes just because people think they are paying for the time. haha. When qigong master Jim Nance healed my mom I asked him how many times he sent her energy. He said that she really needed the energy so he sent it to her several times. So that was the equivalent of several normal phone healings - he was talking to me for over 2 hours but we were just talking and I had no idea he had been healing my mom until he told me he had been "having a conversation" with her. haha. In 2005 Jim Nance was in full lotus and said he was going to continue meditating and I asked if I could join him and he said "maybe later" and so I biked home and I went into meditation and suddenly the center of my brain was on fire so strong that I could not handle the energy!! The next week when I returned to class Jim pulled me into the hallway - "did you feel anything?" Suddenly I remembered when he had said "Maybe later" and realized what he had meant - not physically later but later as when he would visit me. He then told me that when he goes some place to heal - he is really there. And so then when I later reminded qigong master Jim Nance of what happened he said that when he first was learning distant healing he used too much energy at first. haha. Chunyi Lin said he can read people's past lives and qigong master Jim Nance confirmed this when he told me that Chunyi had told Jim about his past life information but stopped telling Jim because he didn't think Jim needed to know. Chunyi said he only tells people when it will help them for a healing. So when Chunyi Lin said -- when I asked him if he had created a yang spirit - another physical body - and this is when Chunyi Lin also said he personally knows practisers achieving the golden immortal body in the mountains of China - and so when he says people told him they saw his physical body outside when Chunyi was inside meditating. So for the power to see past lives - this is after the golden immortal seed has been created -- and so it seems that Chunyi did create a yang spirit but now he is waiting before he continues his practice. He said his dream is to do a year of cave meditation - no sleeping the whole time. So these are real people achieving these goals but in the mean time they are doing miraculous healings and relieving people's sufferings just like is advocated at the end of Taoist Yoga. And so yes Chunyi Lin has relied on the MCO practice to achieve these goals but he also trained at Shaolin and then did long cave meditation retreats - so he was doing long meditation retreats of several months at a time. Also he set up his work schedule so he could meditate all the time and then just work a couple days a week. So this is the type of dedication that is required. As far as just focusing on the lower tan t'ien -- this would be similar to practicing mind yoga or what Bodri and Nan call "cessation and contemplation." This means the process of meditation is also the same as the goal - but it is also the slowest path of meditation. So I tend to think that knowing the yin-yang dynamics is the real key - and of course this includes the lower tan t'ien secret -- but also the left hand as the dragon cavity and right hand as the tiger cavity - and that is the basis for the "moving of yin and yang" exercise that is the standing MCO practice for Spring forest Qigong. Qigong master Yan Xin warns against too much emptiness meditation and not enough of the movement of energy exercises. So I think while going into the Emptiness as the foundation of the practice is the real key but that it needs to be understood as a dynamic of complementary opposites or yin-yang energy transformation. For example a great way to know if progress has been made is from the full lotus yoga position as this indicates the opening of the macrocosmic orbit. So if a person can sit in full lotus in ease for 4 hours - no pain, no movement - that means their body is full of chi energy and so that means the third eye is definitely opened up. That right there is really all a person needs to know - like how qigong master Wang Liping started out his training - 4 hours of nonstop full lotus - and then continued that until he could read the energy in front of him - outside of his head. So the full lotus also means the eight-circuit energy path - and so the secret of why it works is that it is like connecting a battery of the yin-yang energy channels. It is very very easy for the mind to get deluded in this type of training and so if a person can't sit in full lotus then you know that they have not even filled up their lower tan t'ien yet with yin chi energy. Most people never get to the stage of filling up the lower tan t'ien with yin chi energy and they are also deluded about how to do this. The book Taoist Yoga by pointing out the role of the prenatal vitality cavity in the medulla oblongata getting activated by impure thoughts to then drain the energy out as fluid - this shows that real Emptiness focus then is on the center of the brain as the cavity of spirit which then causes the energy to descend instead to the lower tan t'ien. But obviously putting the tongue against the roof of the mouth is another key secret based on the yin-yang dynamics. So for example in Islam a person is saying Allah all the time and the word requires putting the tongue against the roof of the mouth! Also if you read the hadiths of the Koran it says how Mohammed relied on the Sun being the right hand and the Moon being the left hand. haha. Amazing!! You would never realize that Mohammed was actually practicing Taoist Yoga alchemy. So basically the purification process at first does require all this conceptual knowledge about form and sensation but the fastest and most real way to build up the energy is to seek out real energy masters! It is very rare to find an energy master with the third eye fully open - and Chunyi Lin is one master. That is why there are so many testimonials of how he has healed people with very serious conditions. Chunyi Lin trained Jim Nance to also fully open his third eye. Now obviously they are not full "earth immortals" as described at the end of Taoist Yoga - but they have definitely had a taste of the advanced levels of this training book. But yeah for me to really study this book is really a treasure since it describes specifically the errors I have made - like the powers developed in this training - like False Fire of the Heart - how when you build up the energy it is then more easily activated but this is actually an illusory agent unless it is only based on going into the Emptiness. And so with worldly distractions when we build up energy then automatically other sources will want that energy as that is where energy flows. So this is part of the yin-yang dynamics -- and really it is not "us" who is building up the energy! We sacrifice our egos by building up the energy -- the more you go into the Emptiness then the more power you have. So it requires submission to the energy masters - and also then recharging the energy from the Emptiness. It seems very frustrating if we lose energy that we stored up -- and this is the focus of the book "Taoist Yoga" -- how not to lose that energy. But when the demonic visions arise - which is really how to describe the modern world - then the best method is to go deeper into the Emptiness. As the book describes - to visualize a blackness and then the evil gets sucked into it and then the blackness is discharged from the body as smoke and then we keep taking in more golden light energy into the lower tan t'ien. So for example the golden prenatal eternal life chi energy can be recharged by taking in this golden light into the lower tan t'ien. But you can also recharge your jing vitality using postnatal sources -- like mainly food. So this postnatal energy normally turns into yin jing energy which is then lost as fluid -- and so it requires more emptiness focus to bring down more light energy which then transforms the yin jing into yang jing as yin chi energy. Then it requires more light focus to transform the yin chi into yang chi energy which manifests as the spirit-vitality in front of the eyes. So at that stage of chapter six - then the eternal life can continue being built up since as the middle tan t'ien increases the yang chi energy then the third eye finally fully opens up as the eternal nature immortality. So this yin spirit ability -- as Master Nan and Bodri state - it is dangerous to get attached to this ability because then as an "immortal" yin spirit you can then just keep cycling through the realms of existence. But this is not the same as being a ghost - because the Taoist Yoga training very specifically is based on creating the spirit-vitality cavity in the lower tan tien so that there is a unified chi energy that powers the spirit energy. If it had just been mind yoga on its own then yes it might be possible to then detach the yin spirit from the body without having enough chi energy to power the yin spirit. Then when the body gets sick then the mind becomes confused about the yin spirit and then it does just turn back into a ghost. So this is why qi energy really is the focus and not the shen light energy which can just be the same as a ghost. And so the cavity of spirit is in the middle of the brain and connects down to the feet and the cavity of prenatal vitality is in the back of the brain and connects to the base of the penis as the cavity of vitality. Those two cavities then have to be connected by the cavity of spirit descending to create the lower tan t'ien which is the purification of the cavity of vitality which naturally descends from the cavity of prenatal vitality in the back of the head. And so it is the MCO that makes that connection by reversing the mind yoga process -- instead of trying to get the cavity of spirit to descend you instead sublimate the cavity of vitality so that it finally breaks into and opens up the cavity of spirit. Of course this process is not one or the other - but it is a cycling of this energy. Qigong master Chunyi Lin has stated that 20 minutes of full lotus yoga meditation is worth four hours of any other type of meditation. Qigong master Jim Nance has stated that sitting in full lotus will automatically purifying your energy - as a meditation practice - and using the prayer mudra in front of the heart is best to do this. This is also what Chunyi Lin teaches - this prayer position - is also taught from Zhong Gong. Finally qigong master Chunyi Lin has stated that the small universe MCO will happen on its own when you do the full lotus meditation. So I would say if someone wants the simple direct approach then it would be to sit in full lotus with the tongue up on the soft palate and to focus your mind on the Emptiness, the source of the I-thought. Taoist Yoga says to keep "one immovable thought" for me the best is the I-thought because it is not like other thoughts - it is the root thought of the mind - the root of the ego.

OK! This is great. Drew, thank you for all the help. Now we have a strong foundation laid down to begin with. I recommend that this be the next phase of this thread: We take the book and boil it down to basic instruction manual. No fancy words, no ambiguous descriptions, no contradictions. Simply Do X (physical/mind practice) in order to manifest Y (fruit of the labor) to achieve Z (the intended result). The process as we know it is such, JING - CHI - SHEN and this will be the encapsulating subject of each phase of practice. My vision for this is as follows (example): Chapter 1 - Filling the LDT Overall Objective - Filling the LDT with JING Step 1 - How to fill the LDT Manifestation: Energetically this, that and this takes place. Lights, vibrations, sounds etc. Result: This phase, does this, prepares you for this, with the purpose of that. Step 2 - What happens when the LDT is filled. Manifestation: Heat, Vibrations, Lights, Sensations, Emissions, Overflows, Du Meridians etc. Result: This phase, does this, prepares you for this, with the purpose of that. Step 3 - How to stop the filled LDT from spilling the JING. Manifestation: What happens etc. Result: This phase, does this, prepares you for this, with the purpose of that. Basically I want the BIGGEST noob, to be able to read this thread and just go oh ok, so in step 1, the purpose is to fill up the LDT with Jing, and i do that by abstaining from sex and emptying the heart through so and so practice, in order to cook the JING and prepare it for ascension up the DU meridian. Hmm.. Oh, it says, I shouldn't watch porn, or play with my twinkie. And it says that, I am likely to experience heat, vibration and maybe even see a unicorn. OK. SIMPLE. Anybody can follow it. No need to know what Yin Qi or Yang Qi or Prenatal Qi or Rainbow Diamond Unicorn Qi is. Simple and straight to the point. I'd like to do this for the WHOLE book. I recommend we start like this. One person will make the posts titled STEP 1, STEP 2, STEP 3 eg. Drew, me, Jascha, joeblast, Dorian. Whoever. So drew posts a new post in this format: Step 1 Filling the LDT Purpose/Goal - Filling the LDT Phase 1 - Practical Application Mind/Body Requirements - .................... Manifestations/Confirmatory Signs - .............. SIMPLE AS THAT. Then, once that post is established, following it. All of us DISCUSS what we interpret that STEP 1 to be, what it requires, what its manifestations are and what its purpose is. ONLY after we reach a majority consensus, does the person who made the post STEP 1, edit the post in order to bring the consensus into the final instruction. Once we are all happy. We move on to STEP 2. Step 2 OPENING THE MCO Purpose/Goal - Leading the JING through the Ren and Du mai. Phase 1 - Practical Application Mind/Body Requirements - .................... Manifestations/Confirmatory Signs - .............. Then the following thread, we once again discuss. This is where all terms are debated and chewed over, until we yet again reach a majority consensus. Once we have. The poster of STEP 2 inputs the information in the STEP by editing the post and so we move on to the next step. Once we reach the end of the book. We create ONE thread as so: Taoist Yoga for NOOBS. Step 1 - Short Title and Post Link Step 2 - Short Title and Post Link Step 3 - Short Title and Post Link Step 15 - Short Title and Post Link For once lets do it right and create something which will help everyone. As remarkable as this thread is in it's current state, it is still NOT organized. Lets organize it. I HAVE A DREAM! That one day, people will be able to understand Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality.....lol I want to eradicate all false understandings of this and do it structurally and systematically, so that anyone can pick it up and just DO. Without being confused. So many people on this thread, THINK they know what the book means here and there, but are often mistaken. So can we all come together as Bums and make this happen?

Lust can be overcome by the six phases of alchemical sublimation and gluttony can be overcome by a vegetarian diet that also avoids garlic, leeks and onions as they produce generative fluid. Drowsiness is very difficult to overcome so the ancients devised sitting in meditation continuously to stop sleeping. A dream of nocturnal emission is always real while all other dreams are unreal. Consciousness when awake is in the eyes but when asleep consciousness is in the lower abdomen so it drains away at night even with no dream. So put the tongue against the roof of the mouth and take long breaths to get the spirit down to the lower tan t'ien. The other method is to sleep on the side of the body with one arm for a pillow and the other resting on the belly - one leg straight and the other bent. Squint the eyes together for pointed concentration so that the chi energy returns to the lower tan t'ien.

Yeah I understand that after the purification process of the heart to descend the spirit energy to create the cavity of spirit-vitality - that is the process of "Laying the Foundation." I spent five years sitting in full lotus all day long - taking in yin chi through my perineum. haha. But at the same time I was transmitting energy out of the pineal gland. For healing I always transmit energy first before taking in yin chi energy - the main source being females. So that was a dirty tantra practice. The magnetic field of the Earth is very very weak -- the ionosphere resonance -- is activated by the heart synchronization of 7 hertz and that requires mind emptiness!! that is the deep theta (dream sleep) or delta (deep dreamless sleep) level of consciousness. So yes qigong master Chunyi Lin said he buried himself in the earth to take in the earth's yin chi energy and Chunyi Lin also recommends meditating by water since it has stronger yin chi energy. But the Sun and Moon meditations to take in that energy are for level 3 - after the lower tan tien has been filled up. So all of this does not address the purification process - like Taoist Yoga states that when the positive principle is achieved as the alchemical agent - it only needs cleansing when being sublimated because it's already purified from having been descended by stilling the heart. The password - "I am in the universe and the universe is in me and the universe and I combine together" is how to start out the Spring Forest Qigong meditation - it is beyond just saying relying on something "external" - it is really a nondualism philosophy - the Emptiness is inside us as much as we are inside the Emptiness. haha. So you say you don't believe "reliance" on external energy is bad - yeah I totally agree -- but can you still address how to create the lower tan t'ien without purifiying your internal energy? By "dirty chi" I meant actually the energy taken in through the perineum is yin jing energy that then has to be purified again through mind emptiness into yang jing energy or yin chi energy. So yeah I know how to take in external energy - but for example taking in energy from the sun is a lot easier to do after the body and mind has been purified - like if I have fasted for three days then I have a direct opening to the photon energy. My experience of taking in chi energy directly -- yin chi is the moon energy which governs the earth through movement of water -- and yang chi as the solar energy - to take this in directly is only after opening up the central channel of the body which works via the vagus nerves. So do you feel your vagus nerves pulsating - can you see your neck pulsating? This at least means taking in the yin jing energy and then sublimating it via the right side vagus nerve up the back to the brain to then bring it down to the heart via the left side vagus nerve. I mean not the outside of the back but the vagus nerve which is how females with severed spinal cords can still have orgasms. There are tons of books on tantra and again the whole focus of Taoist Yoga is that sex or life force energy is the real key to opening up -- to creating the chi energy. For example to sit in full lotus for several hours nonstop is only because the channels are already open -- so that a macrocosmic circuit is created - the macrocosmic orbit is not until after the lower tan tien has been filled up by purifying the energy. And what I did was wrong from the Taoist Yoga book because I was not storing up my energy anymore -- since again any time there is activating of the jing energy from heart passion then it does not create chi energy! Instead it creates postnatal fluid - and so that has to be purified again by bringing it down the front of the body. Instead I was just transmitting it out of the pineal gland right after it had been sublimated up the back as the negative jing energy. So what kind of details can you provide of this yin chi intake without the need to purify the mind? I have never seen any books on how you can just take in the energy of the Earth to fill up the lower tan tien -- I understand that a gong -- like at Shaolin - doing standing horse stance - it's based on heart purification - on the Emptiness. And so maybe you want to share what you already shared with me privated about your energy experience. haha.

Thanks for posting this Cat. I've only watched part 1, but he has filled in some gaps which teachers don't seem to address. So the responsibility of purging our own bad behaviors and thoughts just don't "poof" away. I've got velcro thoughts velcro acts and everywhere I turn I've made another velcro f-up, and it just gets insupportable because the inner contradictions seem to bring several levels of pain. It just gets more apparent as I continue cultivation. Before watching this video, I often wondered why the kundalini and ascension forums seem to be chock-a-block with people who had stopped working on themselves, or who's comments come from juvenile "dream world" ego, and yet also post all kinds of pithy pontificating facebook "share" type idealisms.

“If you prefer smoke over fire then get up now and leave. For I do not intend to perfume your mind's clothing with more sooty knowledge. No, I have something else in mind. Today I hold a flame in my left hand and a sword in my right. There will be no damage control today. For God is in a mood to plunder your riches and fling you nakedly into such breathtaking poverty that all that will be left of you will be a tendency to shine. So don't just sit around this flame choking on your mind. For this is no campfire song to mindlessly mantra yourself to sleep with. Jump now into the space between thoughts and exit this dream before I burn the damn place down.” Adyashanti

Who observes clocks in night dreams? Of all the waking dreams I've observed, no clocks or time has existed. Another observation, were all connected entering this day-dream/night-dream for the fact; I have witnessed my ex going to a Halloween party dressed up as a gay fellow the night before-Saturday. That next day-Sunday, had a hunch to call to apply my insight to him. Yes! This was so, with an amazement of Life's true nature is already fulfilled! Namaste ♥

Hello Tsunami! I have done some work on lucid dreaming and astral projection a few years back, which, coincidentally, was the time that led me to this forum before. However, nowadays I am just doing meditation and qigong for the health benefits. The most I got towards a lucid dream was sleep paralysis and there only a few times where I almost managed to get into a dream from a wake state. One of the things I've considered is that meditation gives me a clearer mind, and since I have beforehand knowledge on lucid dreaming, and astral projection, I'm inadvertently doing this.

If you have a dream re FP, well that happens to me too. As a first timer on chikung, I was contemplating which type of chikung I should learn. Then I dreamt of a man doing a chikung stance, his background was blue energy. Edited as requested.

That's so funny,...thanks for the morning laugh. A Truth Realized person would put it another way,...like this fellow from Canada: "Waking up is not necessarily pleasant; you get to see why all this time, you chose to sleep. When you wake up the first thing you will see is Reality does not exist for you, you exist for it. Shocking as it is when you let it in, there is rest You do not have to labor anymore to hold together a reality that does not exist; forcing something to be real that is not real. You and this life you have been living are not real .. In letting it in, even through the shock... pain... shattering, there is rest. Reality is when all you want to know is what is true ...just so that you can let it in and be true. Reality is not a safe place for you - the you that you have created. It is the only place where you would die; where there is no room for your hopes, your dreams. Once you have let it in, once you begin to re-awaken; to let Reality wake you up, nothing can get it out. That is the beginning of your end. Waking up can be much more painful than the agony of your dream, but waking up is real."

I have been wondering about some stuff that's been happening since I started meditation (only 3 weeks in). I am just going to post it here and hope someone can answer this question as I don't think it is worthy enough to start a thread on it. Shortly after I started meditation, even on the first day, I've been having some strange experiences especially during sleep. The first notable thing that happened was on the first day that I started meditation, I read some basic techniques to start off and did them. That night, when I was trying to sleep, I kept staring at the ceiling. Suddenly, I heard a very loud hiss coming from behind my head. Naturally, I was very startled and found that I couldn't sleep anymore. I checked the time shortly afterwards and found that 2 hours had passed, but I had no recollection of closing my eyes at all. (Also spooky was that the hiss occurred at around 3:33 AM @_@). But as time passed, whenever I go to sleep, a lot of times I can hear noises as I drift to sleep, some loud and some quiet, such as chatter, a sudden banging noise, etc. I have also been getting more vivid dreams (I already have great dream recollection) and lately have been waking up in the middle of the night with cold sweats. Is this a sign of blockages in my body getting cleared? I'd like to note that this sort of thing has never happened to me (excluding one very intense experience from salvia in my high school years, which if you guys would like I could also describe, because now that I think about it, it was the closest that I could describe to experiencing emptiness).

I really strongly suggest getting 'The Attention Revolution' by Alan Wallace. It very clearly explains three popular meditation methods, the stages of meditation, how meditation works and why to do it. It's really very clear, it goes in stage order so a beginner can start with a simple variation of 'mindfulness of breathing' to build a foundation of relaxation, and in time progress through subtler practices and more advanced ideas. Mindfulness of breathing is very popular for a reason - it's easy for beginners to do it focusing on the whole experience of breathing to get started, as you advance you can adjust to focusing on smaller things like the sensation of breath at the nostrils to get further. So it can be adapted for the stage you're at very easily. Also because the breath is a neutral and very simple stimulus, it's possible to reach the highest levels of awareness. And yet more, watching the ebb and flow of breath leads to realisation of impermanence. The other techniques covered are also very effective cultivation indeed. Also the book covers some stuff on dream yoga and the 4 immeasurables. So get this book... the chapters on mindfulness of breathing alone are priceless. Feel free to message me with any questions.

I would be careful with statements like this. Many people here have based their conclusions on personal experience, but that does not mean that you or they have in any way fully unveiled truth or come to the 'correct' conclusion in relationship to said personal experience. Really? what about traditions that see the divine as entirely inactive, sort of like being without mind, vs traditions that see the divine as having volition and intelligence? Not to mention the many subtle differences that can be found... Why? {or who's rule is that?} and how do you know that it isn't? Say 'unconscious' has been incorrectly named, and is not actually the opposite of consciousness. If consciousness was the screen everything happens on, could it be that 'unconsciousness' is really just a temporary experience of a 'lack of sensory and cognitive processes', mixed in with all the other experiences that are normally 'full of stuff' and thus normally called 'conscious'? Or what about dreams? Can you say with absolute certainty that you can remember every dream you ever had? Do you recollect a dream ever slipping from memory as you wake? How do you know that in an experience of 'unconsciousness' you are not perfectly awake and aware but just in such a grand or 'other' scale that your waking mind simply can not contain it and thus in memory gives you a 'blank'...? You sound so sure of yourself here... How do you know? And consider the fact that in these experiences, people generally describe the fact that they have stopped thinking, at least with conceptual reasoning and linguistic phrases... Mind thinking about mind... lol Why does a stone have to think? Could it exist as it exists, and we exist as we exist, in a way that is bigger than your narrow range of rules allow? Is there room for possibilities outside of your current conceptions? Does it? What about the possibility that it creates only a seeming separation? Is there a way ignorance could exist within awareness and not distort it? Your conclusions are too rigid, with too many unexamined assumptions hidden within them...

Great thank you Silent Thunder. I will definitely check it out!! I live in Arizona, so not too sure of any authentic teachers being out here since its pretty hot lol My dream however is to be trained by a real life master like Master John Chang!! but im sure everyone wants to lol

exactly my fear.. i dont want to put time and effort into a system thats only going to produce negative results and hurt me or worse. i wish to actually excel using some real deal type of training. i would have loved to practice Mo'Pai training, it would have been a dream to achieve this. But unfortunately the doors are closed to me since im perceived as a westerner

My understanding is that there is deeper meaning here : whether we think it is Zhou dreaming of a butterfly , or a butterfly dreaming of Zhou ? 認周以為非蝶，是未能忘我也。 ( Think that it is Zhou dreaming of a butterfly are those who stick to their ego/ selves) 執蝶以為非周，未能忘物也。 ( Insist that it is a butterfly dreaming of Zhou , not Zhou having a dream, are those who entangled by things) In either case, the commentary thinks that it is one-sided.

Of course not,...thinking such stuff is a delusion. However, once you cease thinking,...because thinking can NEVER be in present,...you become aware that the life of thinking is actually a dream, and yes, a lie,...as in false,...the way things are not. When you cease thinking, and become aware of the Tao, you simultaneously are aware that this is a dream. You CANNOT become aware of the Tao while in the dream,...the dream has nothing to do with Tao,....except in that the dream effects its motions upon the Tao,...like a lever effects its motion upon a seesaw fulcrum. The fulcrum does not make the lever move,...nor is the lever part of the fulcrum. Of course, one must wake up as to the illusion of the lever first.

I hear you, you're talking about illegal drugs, drugs on society's naughty list. I'm talking about anything that has a cascading stimulus on my system. It's semantics, but for me, I can't divide them too far. Anything that impacts me, has a 'drug-like' quality as related to my system, as I perceive it. Anything, especially anything with a clear 'cascade effect' can boost or hinder experience. In the end, all experience is applied to practice as practice is all of my life. I just don't shut myself off to certain experiences because I was told to, or learned it in a book. I've been compelled to explore certain things that weren't and aren't sanctioned by my culture, because my system resonated positively to it. I used to think that a drug was a plant or chemical I had to ingest. I now perceive that every interaction is a drug of sorts. Side note: related to practice being all of life... I've been intending to run MCO in my dream state recently. Last night, after about a week of sending intention before I sleep, I became lucid during a dream in which I was part man, part tree, running MCO through a large transparent egg in my trunk. I woke up from that so high lol... pure awesome!

I confess to not knowing much about Vedanta. Only came across it because someone here said I sound like I talk Neo-Advaita clap trap - so here goes more lol To me the above comment is a step removed from "Truth"...While I agree there is only one reality - which is both form and non-form, I do not agree that it is consciousness aware of being conscious, or that something realises itself. This is a step removed from how things is. To me, there is only Presence or being. The things we think of as being 'things' are an 'it', where nothing beyond 'it' exists. When we are aware of 'it' or think of 'it' this (in our thinking but not reality) creates distance from 'it'. Our natural state, which is the state of 'it' is not conscious of itself, it just is. In other words there can not be an awareness of awareness as this creates an 'of' or 'about' something. This is kind of like being caught in Self once it has been noticed by the little self. There is still distance for there is a mind thinking about Mind. So for instance when we day dream, are absent-minded or are sleep (but not dreaming) we are That-Which-Is, where there is no self awareness of self or Self. There only is. If humanity remained as intellectually advanced as a baby there would be no thought of consciousness or awareness, or even realisation...this is the natural state: being without aware of being. Hope I've managed to convey what I mean! Heath

Hail all masters and students of classical/literary Chinese! I'm in the process of translating a 13th century Zhuangzi commentary and need help with a few sentences. What I'm currently working on is a treatise on the famous butterfly dream and the problematic passage runs thusly: 認周以為非蝶，是未能忘我也。 執蝶以為非周，未能忘物也。 I'm confused about who's the subject here and what 認 and 執 refer to: 周/蝶 or the fact that they don't think they are 周/蝶? Any help is greatly appreciated! Peace out!

"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." 1 Corinthians 15:40 "The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory." 1 Corinthians 15:41 This gets into the topic of glory, which is interesting to read about. Mormonism being one of the newest religions in the last 300 years focuses a lot on this. Joseph Smith wrote a lot about the higher worlds as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_glory Paul wrote about the heavens but didn't say a whole lot and Enoch was a traveling man concerning the heavens in the Book of Enoch as well as Moses, in the book of Moses. Apparently they needed to be translated to realize these higher states of existence as well as Joseph Smith. It is very interesting to read about. They are plenty of parallels concerning these higher worlds in almost every other religion as well, Buddhism and Hinduism. I am sure Islam has some reference as well. I believe I once visited one of these worlds that seemed to be very rich and fine in detail in a dream. But I ended up descending because I felt the need to steal a pair of shoes. I didn't understand that I didn't have to steal or covet said shoes. I realized that if I wanted to keep exploring these worlds, I needed to change 'inwardly' to maintain a sense of belonging in such higher states.

WOW! YES! This is exactly HOW I SEE people when I dream at times. For some, they are not concerned about anything, they are simply existing in the life they have created for themselves and quite honestly it is strange some times because it seems some people never truly found what they were looking for, as if they never had enough time to find all of the Truth. They settled for whatever it was that they were living at the time and sometimes these 'self-creations' are very dark or they are very benevolent. This place beyond yin/yang is what I believe to be the Kingdom of God, or nirvana. Beyond duality. I guess that explains this verse very well, "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24 What truly matters in this non-dual state is who we truly are on the inside, what qualities we have cultivated on the inside. Hence, alchemy. Whether one was seeking to live certain standards or even practicing The Dharma. What we think, we ultimately become. Religion does not matter, unless you understand WHY you practice your religion. Then it is all the same. If one's religion is simply to ease the ego from being annihilated at death, one still has a lot of inner-work to do. If one has yet to experience the vast profoundness of the void and what is possible there, my words are probably in vain, because it is something that one must experience for themselves. Where 'mind over matter' is a simple truth to understand and experience. Where one can fly, levitate, teleport, shape shift, etc by simply believing or having 'faith' that one can do so. Where the God's play and create world's innumerable. Another fun verse for the Astral surfers to ponder... "He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."" Matthew 17:20 The only thing that 'scares' me about death, is did I love enough? Did I give it my all concerning this time on the merry go round? Did I reach my fullest potential? If I were to die today, I could go willingly, but it seems my heart would not be satisfied knowing that anything is possible.

And what about caffeine, cigarettes, ibuprofen etc.? I had 3 coffees today (I quit for a while) so this sent me wild. On consecutive nights of 5 hours of sleep, lots of coffee and sugar, I noticed radical differences in my experiences during my days. Dream like, if you will. Surely this observation in itself is successful and meditative? Let's not forget that it's extremely hard to find ANY pure air these days too...