Search the Community

Excerpts from The Record of Linji translated by Ruth Fuller Sasaki; edited by Thomas Yuho Kirchner: At the evening gathering the master addressed the assembly, saying: "Sometimes I take away the person but do not take away the surroundings; sometimes I take away the surroundings but do not take away the person; sometimes I take away both the person and surroundings; sometimes I take away neither person nor surroundings." Then a monk asked, "What about 'to take away the person and not take away the surroundings'?" The master said: The spring comes forth, covering the earth with brocade; A child's hair hangs down, white as silken strands. The monk asked, "What about 'to take away the surroundings and not take away the person?'" The master said: The rule of the sovereign prevails throughout the land; The general has laid to rest the dusts of battle beyond the frontiers. Again the monk asked, "What about 'to take away both person and surroundings'?" The master said: No news from Bing and Fen, Isolated and away from everywhere. The monk asked , "What about to take away neither person nor the surroundings'?" The master said: The sovereign ascends into the jeweled palace; Aged rustics sing songs. Then the master said, "Nowadays, he who studies buddhadharma must seek true insight. Gaining true insight, he is not affected by birth-and-death, but freely goes or stays. He needn't seek the excellent -- that which is excellent will come of itself. Followers of the Way, our eminent predecessors from of old have all had their ways of saving people. As for me, what I want to make clear to you is that you must not accept the deluded views of others. If you want to act, then act. Don't hesitate." ... "If you wish to differ in no way from the patriarch-buddha, just don't seek outside. The pure light in a single thought of yours -- this is the dharmakaya buddha within your own house. The nondiscriminating light in a single thought of yours -- this is the sambhogakaya buddha within your own house. The nondifferentiating light in a single thoughts of yours -- this is the nimanakaya buddha within your own house. This threefold body is you, listening to my discourse right now before my very eyes. It is precisely because you don't run around seeking outside that you have such meritorious activities." ... "Followers of the Way, mind is without form and pervades the ten directions. In the eye it is called seeing, in the ear it is called hearing. In the nose it smells odors, in the mouth it holds converse. In the hands it grasps and seizes, in the feet it runs and carries. Fundamentally it is one pure radiance; divided it becomes the six harmoniously united spheres of sense. If the mind is void, wherever you are, you are emancipated." ... "In my view there is no buddha, no sentient beings, no past, no present. Anything attained was already attained -- no time is needed. There is nothing to practice, nothing to realize, nothing to gain, nothing to lose. Throughout all time there is no other dharma than this. 'If one claims there's a dharma surpassing this, I say that it's like a dream, like a phantasm.' This is all I have to teach." ... Someone asked, "What is 'true insight'?" The master said, "You have only to enter the secular, enter the sacred, enter the defiled, enter the pure, enter the lands of all the buddhas, enter the Tower of Maitreya, enter the dharma realm of Vairocana and all of the lands everywhere that manifest and come into being, exist, decay, and disappear." ... "If you want to be free to live or to die, to go or to stay as you would put on or take off clothes, then right now recognize the one listening to my discourse, the one who has no form, no characteristics, no root, no source, no dwelling place, and yet is bright and vigorous. Of all his responsive activities, none leaves any traces." ... Your single thought's nondifferentiating light -- this indeed is the true Samantabhadra. Your single thought that frees itself from bondage and brings emancipation everywhere -- this is the Avalokitesvara samadhi. Since these [three] alternately take the position of master and attendants, when they appear they appear at one and the same time, one in three, three in one. Gain understanding such as this, and then you can read the sutras." ... Someone asked, "What about the 'Land of the Three Eyes'?" The master said, "When you and I together enter the Land of Pure Mystery we put on the robe of purity and preach as the dharmakaya buddha; when we enter the Land of Nondifferentiation we put on the robe of nondifferentiation and preach as the sambhogakaya buddha; when we enter the Land of Emancipation we put on the robe of brightness and preach as the nirmanakaya buddha. These Lands of the Three Eyes are all dependent transformations." ... There are a bunch of blind shavepates who, having stuffed themselves with food, sit down to meditate and practice contemplation. Arresting the flow of thought they don't let it rise; they hate noise and seek stillness. This is the method of heretics. A patriarch said, 'If you stop the mind to look at stillness, arouse the mind to illumine outside, control the mind to clarify inside, concentrate the mind to enter samadhi -- all such [practices] as these are artificial striving.'" ... Someone asked, "What about the state where 'mind and Mind do not differ'?" The master said, "The instant you ask the question they are already separate, and essence differs from its manifestations. Followers of the Way, make no mistake! All the dharmas of this world and of the worlds beyond are without self-nature. Also, they are without produced-nature. They are just empty names, and these names are also empty. All you are doing is taking these worthless names to be real. That's all wrong! Even if they do exist, they are nothing but states of dependent transformation, such as the dependent transformation of bodhi, nirvana, emancipation, the threefold body, the [objective] surroundings and [subjective] mind, buddhahood. What are you looking for in these lands of dependent transformations! All of these, up to and including the Three Vehicle' twelve divisions of teachings, are just so much waste paper to wipe off privy filth. The buddha is just a phantom body, the patriarch just old monks. ... "Therefore, when it realized that these six -- color, sound, odor, taste, touch, and dharmas -- are all empty forms, they cannot bind the man of the Way, dependent on nothing. ... Someone asked, "What about the true buddha, the true dharma, and the true Way? We beg of you to disclose this for us." The master said, "Buddha is the mind's purity; dharma is the mind's radiance; the Way is the pure light pervading everywhere without hindrance. The three are one, yet all are empty names and have no real existence. With the true man of the Way, from moment to moment, mind is not interrupted."

... I think that's a great dream! Entering the mind drive. Keep on keepin' on bro! As to breath and so on, yes I think you are undergoing changes of some sort. Aren't you? Yes, stuff can be damn scary. Whassamatter? Come on man. Feel the fear. Do it anyway! Why is sleep becoming so problematic? My own sleep is often troubled with bad dreams, but they are generally easy for me to interpret. I sleep less and less. Sometimes I think doing one hour lying down meditation ("death" meditation) would be better than a night's sleep. Sorry, I'm rambling. Everything connects. Don't worry. Keep observing. Remind yourself that fear and doubt are to be overcome. ...

Oh for goodness sakes Bagua and Hsing I. Cameron asks "Which art is best?" Lets have some definition of the terms of your question please!!! or, never mind just do Bagua and/or Hsing I. Funny. I haven't done Bagua training for a while. Had a dream last night where I was doing circle walking in the millstone position while my teacher and old chinese lady in her 70's was teaching some other female disciples as I did my circle walking. Seems to have been taking place in a park in China. Later I demonstrated my coiling and releasing power to a white guy (might have been Mike Patterson) while walking down the street. What does it mean? IF I had a high level, or even a medium level Bagua guy to study with I would do it in a second. Meanwhile, I will do my best to download what I can from the dream state.... ramble, ramble. Zhaobao Taiji for now is good enough. Cheers Craig

This is actually a subtle point I've run into again and again over the last few months, and each time I leave myself 100 notes trying to explain things, but I always foget eventually and start hoping again, haha. Practically speaking, hope itself is the enemy. If you are hoping, that means you believe something needs to change. I can totally understand your point of view here, though, and I know my own reaction would be, "Well, then, what's the point of doing anything? Aren't you just saying you can't escape, and whatever you feel is how it is?" The answer is so simple it's almost impossible to grab hold of - I've felt it slipping through my fingers so many times - surrender itself IS contentment. It's actionless action. Whatever you are doing RIGHT NOW is the action. To make it actionless action, all you need to do is accept it completely. Look around in your head at any feeling or thought and, once you see it, leave it exactly as it is. What causes our stresses is that we are always trying to make bad feelings go away or good feelings stay longer. No feeling is bad or good, though, they are all simply sensations. What makes something feel good is letting it do it's own thing. Even the worst anxiety can be contentment. I wouldn't type it if I hadn't seen it for myself. The word "rest" has actually taken on a new meaning for me, too, haha. It's the one note I left myself that always hits home. "What is the opposit of restlessness? REST!" Just rest within whatever state of mind presents itself. Edit: I should note that this is all my own interpretation of things, too. If I'm using the terminology wrong (probably) the content is still true in my own recent practice. I can empathize if I don't seem to be making sense, as well. It all seems so simple when you're going through your day in perfect equanimity, then you wake up the next morning and wonder if it was all just a beautiful dream.

It has abhisheka/direct introduction which is a shared feature between all tantric systems. It employs methods which work with tantric anatomy as these are classifiable as 'tantric practices' i.e. togal, guru yoga, semzin, rushan, dream yoga, karmamudra, phowa, etc. Many Dzogchen tertons also revealed mahayoga and anuyoga terma revelations which are a part of such nyintig cycles such as the Longchen nyintig cycle.

If you can top it, I'll be impressed. The Kunlun range starts in Kashmir... Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear Oh, oh. Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain't no denyin' I've been flying, ain't no denyin', no denyin' All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land Trying to find, trying to find where I've been. Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir. Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear Ohh. When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when I'm down... Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I'm down, so down Ooh, my baby, oooh, my baby, let me take you there Let me take you there. Let me take you there

I already lived my dream hike, which was to take several days' walk in the foothills of the Himalayas, in Nepal. I did one loop around Kathmandu Valley, and then the following year I walked around the Pokhara region. We only got up around 9,000 feet, but the scenery was jaw-dropping since the huge peaks loom over you. My hiking buddy and I hired a guide, porter and cook (you had to have at least a guide as foreigners weren't allowed to go outside the settled areas alone) and we had an amazing time. Back home in the States, I did some hiking in Maine and in New Hampshire's White Mountains over the years, but would like to get to BC and the PNW in general.

mrs. x. crying said to me last night that what she fears most is that after death she won't know me. I told her that there is no me and there is no her, just the dream of you and me. There is only the Tao. And after death you will be re-awakened in the Tao. And know all. Including the dream of you and me. I reminded her of The Buddha's Remembering: "In recollection all former births passed before His eyes. Born in such a place, of such a name, and downwards to His present birth, so through hundreds, thousands, myriads, all His births and deaths He new." "So will you know." I told her. Then we made, ahem, something to remember

(I hope the formatting holds up) i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the suns birthday; this is the birth day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any-lifted from the no of all nothing-human merely being doubt unimaginable You? (now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened) e.e. cummings 1894-1962

... Dream on, dreamers. But would you believe I couldn't find a decent version of Supertramp's "Dreamer?!" I love that song. Still, I got these instead. ...

... I might be interested in assisting with conducting some remote viewing experiments. For sometimes when we dream we wake, To take the grail our thirst to slake.. ...

This is what the Dream Yoga is all about. Here is a question for you all. Do any of you really understand what it is that you are experiencing when you are 'in the body', that you can really frame any meaningful questions about what it means to be 'out of body'? The question is rhetorical and an invitation to self examination, to ask yourself what you believe and why you believe what you believe, about your being right now. The only important answer is your own. Don't bug me about it.

I've had so many incredibly realistic and vivid experiences in the dream scape that my suspicion is that the awakening buddha speaks of and the tao intimates, is akin to becoming lucid during 'waking life'.

I will have to say here for all general disbilievers out there( no one specific ) , that I am very sceptical if someone who consider themselves to be serious cultivator and has no idea what their dreams are about and how they connect to waking life . Further more sceptical if someone is not at least sometimes awake/aware to some degree within dream as this is just natural continuation of being aware during waking state .

hey now, no apologies and no shit, ok? You were either led astray by people who credit Richard Bach with writing the Laozi, or you were thinking about the 'butterfly dream' from Zhuangzi. So what? Caterpillars and butterflies are sweet

If you're going to be delusional, its probably better to be hyper-delusional. To be hyper realistic, may be to close some important doors and avenues of experience. The people who believe OBE's are the one's most likely to master the phenomena. Whether its traveling astrally, dimensionally or within a lucid dream, they'll gain an experience a nay sayer won't approach. I trust Rawn Clarks work. Not that he teach's OBE, but according to some of his old writings he had consistent astral meet ups with a group of other high level hermetic magicians. These meetings were preplanned with real people and they'd later talk about it online or over the phone for confirmation. Does he have any proof of the meetings, no. Does he have any interest in proving they're possible or existed, no. Still, there's a large amount of evidence such a phenomena exists. High level stuff, and a telephone is much easier, still.. fascinating..

... I believe I left my body. When I "died." Perhaps I spontaneously do it in meditation, but I am not truly aware of it. It's all most strange. Also, for a time in my teens I experienced lucid dreaming. By that I mean when I dreamt, I knew I was dreaming, I could determine events and so on in the dream at will with a certain omnipotence, limited perhaps now I recall. I could also wake at will. It would be nice to attempt some conscious dreamwork/astral travel, perhaps attempting to connect with some of the members here. I did download that free e-book by Michael Raduga, "Teaching out of body travel and lucid dreaming." Did anyone else take a look at that? Funnily enough, in the fiction work I reading at the moment, Julian May's "Intervention" a group of parapsychologists and "functional meta-operants" have just demonstrated "excorporeal excursion" (astral travel) in front of television cameras broadcasting to an astonished world. ...

Never. If you want something to focus on: Pick an organ and feel into it. See it. Hear it. Smell it. Taste it. Let it grow in importance and become all-important. Try listening to your liver. That's what Zhuangzi would do, if he weren't busy breathing through his heals. Or a muscle. The diaphragm is a good place to start. Not a bad place to end, come to think of it. Still curious about that caterpillar reference. Do you mean the butterfly story? The butterfly "dream"?

In other words: She was only halluzinating, her brain was producing an illusion/dream and there is nothing "real" to so called "out of body" experiences! D-BUNKED!

According to the Prajnaparamita's, consciousness does not exist in the universe (aka duality). Science can only observe motion. There is no consciousness in motion. The perception of consciousness in motion is a simulation,...perhaps a dream of consciousness. Hawking's has said, their is no time,...and thus no singularity, no big bang, no creation, nor a creator. For most, science is more diversion, than serious path. The only way to understand Buddhism and Taoism,...is to let go of physical 6 senses. "the ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle; totally fascinated by the realm of the senses....if anyone threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go...." Lao Tzu 　 "the only way to understand the Tao is to directly experience it." Lao Tzu It is impossible to has a direct experience through the 6 senses,...all experience born of the 6 senses can only be experienced through the conditions of the 6 senses. Prajnaparamita points to a 7th and higher levels, which, according to alleged enlightened beings, is the only way to see things as they are. A short version of this is the Heart Sutra. If the Heart Sutra is untrue,...then the whole of Buddhism and Taoism is untrue. Thus, this would be a much better place to begin than science (aka sciential mind).

but I think it would be really cool to dream and talk to people and discuss things etc does anyone do this.. that way you can sort of check up on loved ones etc this is astral projection/being a stalker right

Dream Bliss, That was laying it on the line... and with a lot of serious experiences and reflections! First: If manifest reality is already written in stone then think of the "stone" as infinite and malleable in a liquid like flow... Thus in a way (and yes) it's already all written, as in the past, present and future all being rolled into one giant 'right now' and one can flow to any place or time in all of that time and in all of space by mastering their own mind - for the past, present and future are the mind as part of the most complete definition of that word. (which is not limited to just a linear and veiled flow via a 3d framework or only a physical reality) Second: The next big question - will controlling your own mind be enough, as in being able to flow any where in the mind that you want, or to a state of mind that is of great happiness yet is still conditional on its opposite? In other words will somewhere in some various mental state be enough or give you final satisfaction? (and granted mastering the mind is greater than a Mt. Everest type of achievement ! ) I think you probably answered 'no', that such will not give complete and lasting satisfaction. Thus is complete and lasting satisfaction to be found? Can it be realized and actualized? I'd say only if and when that which thinks it is mind - even with all of the vast and cosmic aspects of the mind - can find and know its true Self as Spirit then will it be truly happy beyond the conditional yet not rejecting or being reactive about the place that manifest realities in flux have - yet such can no longer take over or enthrall its true identity resulting in separation and suffering - that is because it is Free, Free in the Spirit that it is. Good fortune to you.

Zeros, by dark dragon do you mean the green on that's kind of shaded out? Since I was recently pondering this question of color, before getting the answer, I thought green was my favorite ... but I usually wear black. I was wondering about the color and right away a new student volunteers they had a dream about a dragon coming to town, (I hadn't told him about dragons) so I asked what color it was and that's how I learned the color.

The cool thing I have noticed is that since beginning Kunlun I have been more in touch with my dreams. I am not saying that this is an affect of Kunlun per say, but likely just a natural side effect of meditation. Another thing is that I seem to be much more able to keep my umm desires in check. I have gone a few weeks without ejaculation and it doesn't seem to bother me much. Maybe I should say I have not been going as crazy as I normally would since I have a pretty healthy sex drive. In any event, last night I had a really intense dream. Basically something similar to the orgy scenes in Eyes Wide Shut, but the XXX rated version. I was about to take part and then it was as if my higher self (or whatever you want to call it) said "wait a minute, I know what's going on here and I am not going to indulge". I realized it was just a dream, and I was able to wake myself up. Ironically enough last night was the first night I had not practiced in weeks. The whole non-ejaculation thing is hard enough without dreams like that. It reminded me of Buddha's temptation by the daughters of Mara. I think Cam got hit with this too, and got sucked in.

What if the memories are a manifestation of a negative entity? You are unsure yourself if the memories are real. Treating the manifestations as you would a dream, you regain your own power. This is a very good webpage with information. https://www.istss.org/RememberingChildhoodTrauma.htm