Search the Community

The Enlightened Heart contains poetry from many different spiritual traditions and different authors from: Lao Tzu, Upanishads, Rumi, The Bible, Dogen, Wu-men, William Blake...etc http://www.amazon.com/The-Enlightened-Heart-Anthology-Sacred/dp/006092053X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337952164&sr=8-1 I just started reading it but am already enjoying it immensely. I highly recommend it. One of my favorite poems so far: THE UPANISHADS (8TH?-5TH? CENTURYB.C.E) The Golden God, the Self, the immortal Swan leaves the small nest of the body, goes where He wants. He moves through the realm of dreams; makes numberless forms; delights in sex; eats, drinks, laughs with His friends; frightens Himself with scenes of heart-chilling terror. But He is not attached to anything that He sees; and after He has wandered in the realms of dream and awakeness, has tasted pleasures and experienced good and evil, He returns to the blissful state from which He began. As a fish swims forward to one riverbank then the other, Self alternates between awakeness and dreaming. As an eagle, weary from long flight, folds its wings, gliding down to its nest, Self hurries to the realm of dreamless sleep, free of desires, fear, pain. As a man in sexual union with his beloved is unaware of anything outside or inside, so a man in union with Self knows nothing, wants nothing, has found his heart's fulfillment and is free of sorrow. Father disappears, mother disappears, gods and scriptures disappear, thief disappears, murderer, rich man, beggar disappear, world disappears, good and evil disappear; he has passed beyond sorrow.

Here's another one, inspired by ayahuasca. (Don't want to make another thread for it.) "One day I thought I woke up, but then realized that I was still dreaming. Turns out it was just a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream in...

I would guess it was a lucid dream to astral projection.

Wow, I appreciate all the responses ! But first let me tell you guys what happened to me last night. Its really disturbing. I have been doing grounding exercises and trying to get off of gabapentin, a sedative. This is a commonly prescribed and pretty safe med, used for all kinds of things. Its almost like a snake oil, but it makes you slow, and a little dumb. So two nights ago I went to bed with no medication, and got only three hours of sleep all night and was pissed during the day. It was so agonizing that i decided to take a little gabapentin again last night just to be safe. I feel asleep and dreamed that I was on a table with a surgeon operating on me. I felt the surgeon go inside and felt extreme pain, I was like, stop, plz stop! And just at that point the dream was over, but the real event began. I "died" on that operating table. In fact I was utterly certain of death and going into the beyond, the afterlife. Just as this happened I saw that tunnel again, and I was zooming through it at extraordinary speed. And my body on the inside was trembling, jolting ! I felt myself approaching that state of mystical unity, but I did not quite get there. There was still distance, though small, between self and other. Immediately my consciousness shifted from the " I that was laying on the operating table, dead", to the "regular I that is laying in bed, asleep". But I was still in the tunnel. So I started to ask it questions. Whats going on, and what does the future hold for me ? Just as I did that the tunnel dissipated gradually, and I was fully awake with my heart pounding. The whole experience lasted only seconds. And I remember specifically monitoring my body for streams ofenergy or spinal sensations and again I had none. Did that have anything to do with the gabapentin, I wonder? I mean again it's a really common medicine taken by tens of millions. Ppl take it for everything from restless legs to neuropathy and usually at way higher doses than me. I had another spiritual experience on that med earlier but I also took it for two months no problem. I also had experiences off the med. I read about this online and it sounds more like a near death experience then kundalini but obviously without the near death. But some ppl say NDE is the same as k.

I think I might have been abducted, or had a lucid dream about beings coming into my room at night and taking me outside through the walls. I remember levitating over my bed and floating through the walls until I was in the front yard. Then I was just sort of laying there, staring up into the night sky. A woman's voice spoke to me. It was a strange voice. Alien. Robotic. It had a buzz to it. I can't remember what she told me. When I was little I think I could still remember . . . but I've since forgotten. I would have let it be a childhood dream, but I was talking with my mom about my childhood and she brought up an incident she remembered pretty clearly from when I was about three or four years old. She said she was feeding my baby brother in the kitchen and I was cowering behind her--wouldn't leave her side. She wanted to know what was causing me such terror and I said, "Someone's coming to get me." She assured me that all of the windows and doors were locked and I told her, "That doesn't matter, they can come through the walls." She told me about another time when I was even younger when I had wandered off during a party. No one could find me and she was really concerned because some strangers had been spotted driving around our small town. Eventually they found me. When they asked me where I had been I said that I had found a kitten and was trying to ask it where it was from. I don't know why, but when she told me that second story, my initial reaction was, "That was NOT a kitten." I also remember watching a Woody Woodpecker cartoon when I was a little kid. Woody's forest was being invaded by little green men. For whatever reason, that cartoon stuck with me and I've had dreams about it in adulthood. I have no idea what any of the UFO/alien stuff means, but I think it's noteworthy that Terrence McKenna saw something in his DMT trips he called self-transforming machine elves. If I remember correctly, when we sleep, our bodies secrete DMT. Could it be that the aliens encountered in lucid dreaming are the same self-transforming machine elves McKenna encountered in the DMT space?

neat topic yes anything is possible and perhaps they are abducting the dreaming body or astral body in which case things get a little fuzzy cause its like a dream but... there is something legitimate happening with ET/Extradimensional beings. There is something out there that flies around in fast ships and keeps tabs on humans and life on earth in general it would appear... so who can say what they are? they are very good at hiding their identity and motivations from us so its really just speculation. they are lucid dreams, they are from nibiru, they are from the astral planes, they are humans from the very distant future come to study their knuckle-dragging past, they are XYZ etc etc etc neat conversation, and in my opinion a bona fide phenomenon, but really, nobody is sure thats the wacky part

Hi, I have a lot of those ! Not the really dramatic stuff like spontaneous postures, but definitely a lof of twitching, spasms, worse at in bed. And I feel vibrations, buzzing sensations too. I bolded the things I feel: KRIYA YOGA Muscle twitching, cramps or spasms, shaking, trembling, limpness, rigid-contraction, facial contortions. Itching, vibrating, pricking, tingling, effervescent bubbles of bliss. Tingling/throbbing in left foot and leg is one of the main signs that kundalini is active. Hot or cold changes in body temperature. Shooting currents of energy or heat. Zigzag or double helix of energy up the spine. Prana flow in the central nervous system. Pulsating sensation in the sacrum. Involuntary laughing or crying, deep sighs. Abdomen may flatten toward the spine. Contraction of visceral organs. The anus contracts and is drawn up (bandhas). Purging or constipation. Bad digestion. Chin may press down against the neck (neck lock posture). Eyeballs roll upwards or rotate. Eyelids may not open despite effort to open them. Left eyelid flickers, then towards the end of the awakening the right eye may flicker. Tongue rises to the roof of the mouth or stretches back. Repetitive popping sensation in the sinus above the palette. Body may twist in all directions. Body may bend forward or back, or roll around on the floor. Spontaneous asanas and mudrus. Breathing constriction, heaviness or contraction of diaphragm. Unusual breathing patterns, tendency to belly breathe, emphatic out-breath. Racing heart, expansion pains in heart. Feeling of levitation or intensified gravity, radical grounding and associated lethargy, Chronic Fatigue. Body sense might expand to feel huge or small. Strange aches and head pressures, headaches. Clenching jaw. Yawning, excessive sleep. Inability to sleep during hyperactivation; Hyperactivity, need to constantly walk or exercise. Dry throat, great thirst. Feeling headlessness, mindless, giddy, heaviness of head like one is wearing a helmet. Build up of pressure at the head, neck, spine, thorax and eyes. Paralysis during Samadhi or hypnogogic states. Numbness and pain in limbs, especially the left foot and leg. Numbness on the left scalp and down into left face, with drooping of the left eyelid. Years of pain in the throat (thyroid) or in the left foot or shin prior to the awakening. Loss of strength in the arms during rapture and heart expansions. Psychokinetic interference with electrical equipment. Smell of roses or peaches eminating from the skin. LAYA YOGA Inner visions and lights, flames, geometric shapes. Visions of deities, or saints. Dream-scenes. Inner sounds, celestial music, bird sounds, animal sounds. Buzzing or humming in the ears. Inner voices. Spontaneous mantras. Speaking in tongues or foreign languages. Smell of perfume arises. Transcendental vision, everything illuminated scintillating, vibrating. Dreams and visions in transcendental vision. Atom bomb dreams. Temporary loss of eyesight. BHAKTI YOGA Love with no object arises. Devotion. Sublime gratitude. Uncommon compassion and understanding. Tolerance and patience for "What Is." Enormous faith accompanies the bliss. Transcendence of reactive patterns, social conditioning and egoic habits. Intense sexual arousal without provocation. Intensified sexual and sensoral pleasure. Feeling of gaseous bubbles arising from reproductive organs, champagne pelvis. Feeling of radiating ambrosial bliss, an aura of nectar. Heat, sweat. Strange activity and bliss in different areas of the head at different times. Sensations of blissful honey moving through brain, spine and connecting heart to other parts of the body. Traveling bliss, or pervasive bliss, rapture. Spontaneous sexual ecstasy with no stimulation. Increased ESP, precognitive dreams, telepathy. Bio-location of loved one through heart's navigation. Alchemical preparation for future unknown events, ie: translocal transtime development. Linear time transcended. Feeling of entire life reaching a nexus point in time. Heightened senses. Hyper-sensitive. Field of self widens, peripheral awareness increases. Exquisite awareness of one's environment and others. Ability to affect energetic states and promote heart expansion in others via sympathetic resonance. JNANA YOGA Deep questions and answers arise. Spontaneous mystic poetry that writes itself. Important insights, eurekas. Scientific and creative solutions. The Herald of the Muse appearing as a sound or voice in the upper right-brain field prior to the emergence of information. Increased creativity and expression. Intensified understanding. Finer focus on "the most important thing." Compulsive need to write.

The reflection of a billion-years-long fantasy. The self, the sufferings and pleasures... altruism and villainy; the thousand worlds and their human kinds, the death that walks behind and hope for a better future ahead. It gives us what we want by becoming just so, and then we don't want it anymore and keep on seeking, and the wheel keeps spinning. It is the wish-fulfilling gem. The Jinn in the bottle. Or maybe not! The doubt we all feel is just like seeing something shining in mud, from a distance. Do you keep on walking the beaten path or take a closer look? Sometimes we try to take a step forward and fall on our face, go into a coma and think we've become billionaires after selling a 300-karat diamond on the silk road. But really it was just a dream.

I remembered the thread on Dharmawheel titled 'Turiya vs. Dzogchen' My link mr.marigpa [i think this sn is pretty funny, lol] Turiya or Turya: The fourth state of consciousness beyond the states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep and stringing together all the states; the Metaphysical Consciousness distinct from the psychological or empirical self; the Saksi or witnessing consciousness; the transcendental Self. "The fourth (i.e. Turiya) is NOT a state. It is the background on which dream and wake arises and disappears. Turiya is just another term to describe pure awareness. It is also called the Nirvikalpa." From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiya 1. How does Dzoghcen account for Turiya? 2. How is Turiya different from Dharmakaya and Rigpa? 3. If a practitioner manages to sleep in Turiya, how is this different from clear light sleep in Dzogchen? Malcolm [formerly Namdrol:] mr.marigpa wrote: 1. How does Dzoghcen account for Turiya? Turiya is equivalent to the ālaya, a state of ignorance. 2. How is Turiya different from Dharmakaya and Rigpa? The ālaya is not the dharmakāya: the nature of dharmakāya is rigpa, the nature of the ālaya is marigpa. 3. If a practitioner manages to sleep in Turiya, how is this different from clear light sleep in Dzogchen? The former is resting the ālaya; the latter in dharmakāya. 4. There are Transcendental Meditation practitioners who claim to be aware in dreamless sleep....is this not a case of sleeping in the clear light? No. mr.marigpa wrote:How is the alaya described in Dzogchen teachings? The all basis is described in various ways, but fundamentally it is consciousness. Isn't emptiness the nature of the dharmakaya? Yes, that too. If we are not resting in rigpa, then are we resting in the alaya? Yes. Some TM practitioners claim a stable witnessing in waking, dream, and dreamless sleep. According to Dzogchen, is this just good mindfulness? How is this witnessing capacity (that includes ability to not be distracted by daytime activity and dreams) different from rigpa? If there is a subject and object, it is mind, not rigpa. N asunthatneversets: The state or position of being firmly established in "the witness" is merely being stabilized in the ālaya(kun gzhi). The term "witnessing" in and of itself suggests observing phenomena from a particular standpoint. Stable witnessing is a state of detachment, In being firmly established in the "witness" phenomena appear as they normally do except there's no feeling of it being "me" or "I". The "me"(or 'that' which witnesses) is posited to be something other. So in witnessing, the body and other phenomena appear detached from the "knower". And 'that'(pure knowingness) which is disconnected is then posited to be beyond anything "knowable" because it is that which knows. 'That' which knows(pure knowingness/awareness) is considered to be a substantiated and localized substratum(even though it is considered to be formless) and for that reason it is the ālaya. To describe this state, an analogy of a movie patron viewing images on a theater screen is sometimes used. The witnessing state is equivalent to stabilized śamatha (shiné), once śamatha is stabilized one is essentially proficient in "really good dualistic mindfulness" (as you said). After stabilized shiné, next step is released shiné and once released shiné is achieved and stabilized, one is said to be officially practicing dzogchen. "When you have achieved released shiné and remain in the continuation of this state, you have finally become a dzogchen practitioner." - Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Malcolm: The dharmakāya is endowed with light in conformity with it’s essence, emptiness and it’s nature, clarity. mzaur: I think it would be very useful if you defined emptiness.... I take you do not mean a thought-free state of mind as emptiness is sometimes used. Malcolm: Here emptiness refers to freedom from extremes. asunthatneversets wrote: Rigpa(vidyā) is of a different flavor, in rigpa the localized substratum(or abiding background) is empty and for this reason it(rigpa) is primordially unstained by any distinctive notions or characteristics. Though rigpa(vidyā) can't be accurately described (for purposes of allowing one to get an idea of it's nature) it is sometimes said to be akin to space itself. mzaur wrote: Abiding background is pure awareness separate from phenomena, right? Brahman or Self. Could you clarify what the bold means? Advaita defines Brahman as empty of attributes, but I surmise you are using empty in a different way. I think I know what you mean. It's just that I bet some people read these forums and think empty means something different, like how Advaita uses it. asunthatneversets: The abiding background can either be (i)awareness separate from phenomena or (ii)awareness merged with phenomena. In either case there is the faculty of awareness which is assumed to be existent. Advaita defines Brahman as being empty of attributes because it is 'that' which knows(the knower). The "knower" is attributeless because through investigation it is unaccounted for in anything perceivable or knowable. In advaita the term neti-neti is implemented (to discover this faculty) which means "not this, not that". So using this negative approach one disavows every conceivable aspect of one's experience until the "knower"(awareness) itself is all that remains. The process is much like; "I am not the body, because I am aware of the body - I am not my thoughts, because I am aware of my thoughts, etc...", so the process retracts into the realm of the formless observer. Since this formless awareness is posited to be unstained by any phenomenal appearance (or designation), it is said to be empty of attributes, unassailable and eternal. Awareness (then still assumed to be embodied) is the ātman, and upon actualizing the differentiation between the ātman and characteristics which allegedly compose the personal self(jīvātman), and external world, the next step is to merge the ātman with the brahman(universal self). anjali wrote: How is this essentially different than thought-free wakefulness as discussed by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche? Paul wrote: The state of rigpa is the recognition of the empty essence, the natural cognisance, and the union of these - the compassionate energy; the total transparency. Resting in a refined state of awareness, as in the first description, is not the same as it does not have the empty nature. It is not completely open. In fact it blocks thoughts and other kinds of experience. It's frozen. This is the defining aspect of the alaya vijnana. Also, the awareness is thought to be something real and ultimate. The notion of 'thought free' in Dzogchen is something that needs to be understood clearly. There can be mental events in rigpa. There are thoughts, but there is no grasping at them at all. They self liberate. Normal, dualistic thoughts are termed namtok, and in rigpa they are absent by definition. Ungrasped, self liberating mental events are nangwa. Nangwa are allowed by rigpa's openness. But they don't become concepts. You can see that the description of turya states that thoughts are not present, and a state of stillness is the aim. It's also somewhat dull and frozen. Also, there is some effort needed. Rigpa is not still or moving - it's also totally open and unfrozen. And it's not reached by effort. asunthatneversets wrote: Yeah the mirror can be mistaken as representing an abiding background which has the capacity to reflect. But that is only if one focuses on the mirror as an object beholding reflections (which I'm sure is a common error but isn't what Rinpoche was suggesting). It's important to carefully investigate how the analogy is presented... it's not the mind is like the mirror, but the nature of mind is like the nature of the mirror, in that, the void nature of mind is empty yet luminous. So the essential quality (or nature) of the mirror is that it reflects, but is that essential quality or characteristic a tangible thing or suchness? Can you roll or bounce the mirror's capacity to reflect? Is that essence or capacity located anywhere? Is it blue or green? Or any color or shape? No, it isn't, it cannot be identified as 'this or that' yet it is known clear as day. And much like the mirror this innate, empty, luminous, natural essence and capacity of mind, reflects yet does not hold and remains unscathed. The reflections are not inherently part of the mirror's nature, but are product of it and inseparable from it... and "it"(the nature) is an indistinguishable quality which cannot be pigeonholed. mazaur wrote: Thanks for your response. Would it be accurate then to say that there is no mirror apart from the arising reflections, that indeed there actually is no mirror at all, only reflections? asunthatneversets wrote: "All that arises is essentially no more real than a reflection, transparently pure and clear, beyond all definition or logical explanation. Yet the seeds of past action, karma, continue to cause further arising. Even so-know all that exists is ultimately void of self-nature utterly non-dual!" - Nirmānakāya Buddha "All dharmas are like reflected images, clear and pure without turbulence, ungraspable, inexpressible, truly arisen from cause and from action." - (Different translation of the above quote) (And when I say indistinguishable quality I don't mean to imply that it's a qualitative suchness or that the quality belongs to an implied connotative suchness, it's not established or unestablished in any way... being primordially unborn it evades even itself).

Hi V Thank you for the reference to Paul Brunton. I did a search on that page for 'hope', and guess what I found.. Is it true? The Long Path quenches hope? Enough about that. Paul Brunton? He was 'enlightened' by Ramana Maharishi. Advaita Vedanta! Now we are on the same page. Nisargadatta, "I AM THAT", David Godman, Sailor Bob, John Wheeler, Rodney Stevens, self-inquiry, awareness watching awareness, seeking the self directly, Yoga vs Vedanta, oneness, non-duality, luminous essence of mind.. the short path. Ok. My library contains most of their books. The first thing that jumps to mind is that Advaita points directly to the source. It requires a certain amount of ripeness. If the pointing succeeds, well that is great. If it does not, then one should proceed down the ladder to a lower rung and do what is necessary, be it training sustained attention, developing mindfulness and detachment from thoughts, or even bhakti and mantra repetition.. But, you kind of evaded the question. I asked you specifically what kind of meditation you did, that does not shut off your senses. Do you move around when you meditate? Are you sitting there asking the question "who am i?" and engaging your mind continually? What exactly is your practice? For example, this afternoon I meditated for 1 hour. I sat in easy posture with my hands upturned resting on my knees. I prayed and dedicated the results from my efforts to all sentient beings. I did 3 minutes of bhastrika, 2 minutes of spinal breathing and then watched my breath for a while. Then, I started my meditation. What I do for meditation now is to abide in the self. The rule is this: If I can see it, I turn my attention around 180 degrees and try to sink back into "who is watching". If a voice in my head sounds, I turn my attention around and try to feel 'who is hearing'. I keep doing this for every sensation, nada, thought etc. After about 10 minutes, my body dissolves and I pass through the dream state. Visions and scenery appears at the third eye, and I turn my attention back and try to become the perceiver of the scenery. I try to focus on the feeling and sensation of 'me'. Not the egoic self that is centered in the medulla, but the very subtle feeling of me that sits in space, somewhere close to the physical heart, but at a deeper depth. Doing so produces a kind of luminous etheric shell-type of feeling. Usually I can stay there for a few minutes and then the mind kicks in and produces a bunch of thoughts. So, I withdraw from the little storm of thoughts that arises, check the body and relax any tense parts (as in Anapansati) and then I go back to to sensing the 'me'. Gradually, as the meditation progresses, the little storm of thoughts dies down and I spend more time abiding in 'me'. Towards the end of that meditation, a wonderful nature scene by a dark blue lake with some mountains in the background appeared. The scene was much larger than visions or scenes that appear at the third eye, and it was crystal clear and quite brilliant. I did really want to go check it out, but I did not enter. Instead, I pulled my attention 180 degrees around and then down and went back to abiding in the self. The bliss was tremendous and very peaceful. I could not feel the body, nor could I hear outwardly sounds or worldy stimulus. After the meditation I sat in the living room for quite a while. As I sat there, I noticed that images that I had seen while walking to the living room, like the picture on my cigarette pack, the door, the hallway carpet, the living room, all appeared as a slice of consciousness in my inner vision. It looked like multiple tiled glass panes, all with their own slice. The slices were very clear. Actually, it kind of freaked me out because they weren't dissolving away like usually happens with normal mental snapshots.. I quickly tried to ignore that and instead, just basked in the blissful sensations. So, I don't understand how your '6' senses are still active during your practice of meditation. Have you ever heard of Zazen? Just sitting perfectly still in perfect posture will cause the senses to drop off after a while.. Could you please explain? TI In "I AM THAT", Nisargadatta said:

Jack, What do police sirens mean to you; what do you associate them with? Have you ever done something illegal or something neutral that you feel guilty about? Do you feel something is coming for you, like karma or a big bill or something? I'm no expert, just trying to get the ball rolling for you in terms of trying to understand what this could be. Must be quite unnerving and even annoying for you, all these sounds! Perhaps you have taken lsd/mushrooms before and your sub-conscious is open to suggestion somewhat; just thinking because when you stopped the qigong/meditation the sounds went away just like other poster suggested (sorry cannot recall who it was now), or maybe not. If your sub-consious is really quite open and in touch with your conscious mind then these sounds could well have a metaphorical meaning that only you can understand. There is actually a whole therapy practice for psychosis based on the theory (a sound one-no pun intended lol) that in psychosis the right hemisphere is stuck in rem sleep mode and thus is taking waking experience as if it was a dream. Hope this is useful, and interesting perhaps if not useful. Take care dude! hope you get to the bottom of it soon **edit** link to the theory i mentioned: http://www.hgi.org.uk/archive/psychosis.htm Peace Ed

I wasn't deliberately directing my awareness at all - both times I was just nodding off. I was jolted back awake, thought "WTF was that all about? What was THAT doing THERE?". I'd never seen things like those (in that state) before, and just wasn't expecting them. But I didn't dwell on it too much & was able to go back to sleep. If I was directing my attention inadvertently, it was likely at the point on the upper lip just under my nose. I've spent several hundred hours focussing on that point & there's sensation there more or less continuously, so my attention may rest there out of sheer habit. This seemed to contrast quite clearly with the other two types hypnagogic experiences I've had* - which seem to be relatively commonplace - and that was why I was wondering if the 'incongruity experience' was familiar to anyone. Fortunately all these experience have been rare and generally not unsettling. (*The entity experience was VERY scary. I'd read about building psychic barriers somewhere, and spent quite a while throwing one up, & couldn't sleep for a couple of hours. (Funnily enough, around the time of this experience I was woken up by a huge cockroach gnawing on - or possibly doing something unmentionable to - my finger.) Dropping into lucid dreams I'd either just wake up inside the dream (sometimes repeatedly) or sometimes stay conscious as contact with my senses shut down. I mistook this for dying the first time it happened, so I did have a sense of not wanting to 'go there'. But my breathing and pulse were both imperceptible by the time I realised what was happening, so I thought my death was well underway, & there was nothing I could do. It was quite a relief waking up in the dream.)

I've had an entity visit (scary), & I get lucid dreams now & then. This wasn't like the former (too visual) or the latter: visual in a much more intense way, without a sense of dissociation from my body, but with a strong feeling of incongruity. Funnily enough, despite the fact that the pre-lucid dream dissociation often comes with a sense of impending death, I found it easier to surrender to than these bizarre images

I have had similar experiences. The imagery wasn't even that shocking, it simply came on so suddenly, and as soon as I reacted to it, it disappeared. It would come back shortly, but the cycle would repeat. I think a significant amount of "surrender" is useful with this. I tried to relax into the imagery (a woven basket spinning like a gyroscope), yet the experience dissipates. Hypnogogia was a fascination of mine, but recently I've been focusing more on dream yoga and lucidity in waking life, and eventually in the dreams of sleep. OBE seem truly fascinating, as I'm sure one would have to go through hypnogogia yet remain conscious until their body is asleep and they can exit it.

Hi Mark, this will certainly stretch me, its good to get questions that make me think and process, I am a feeling centred person, so thinking is not always easy, "I feel therefore I try not to think" The brain is the command centre of the entire body, every body site has a corresponding nerve site which is its supervisor so to speak. When a person loses a limb the corresponding site on the cortex (outer surface of the brain) becomes vacant land, and is slowly portioned off to other body sites. Thus if you lose your leg, when you touch the side of your nose it might feel like you are touching your little toe, because the side of the nose has now taken residence at the old vacant little toe site on the cortex. The language centres are all located on the left brain, or dominant hemisphere, for a simple reason, expediency, they are close together and can communicate so much faster. Dyslexics use some of the right brain to help process words which is very inefficient and why they struggle so. We have the left occipital lobe to recognise letters and words, it goes to the left temple for auditory sounds of the letters and words, then to the left parietal lobe to process meaning then to the left frontal to process a sound and string of words in correct grammatical form as a verbal or written response. What we know thru research of elite athletes, artists and performers, is that when they enter the "Zone" they shut down almost all of their brain activity except for the areas responsible to perform their action - perfectly. Their brain becomes super efficient with all these extra resources to perform one single action perfectly. Thru EEG sensors attached to their heads we can see an elite pistol shooter aiming, then slowly the left hemisphere shuts down dialogue, no words, no self talk, the limbic system in the mid brain shuts down, so no anxiety or fear of failure, and the whole brain moves into what is called "synchronous alpha", the whole brain is basically on 'calm alert' with just the premortor cortex wired to send the signal to the finger to pull the trigger. Novice shooters cannot do this. Meditators do the same, quietening their mind and going into the zone. But meditators can stay at synchronous alpha, calm alert, or move into synchronous theta, which is deeper and is where we OOB, astral travel, remote view, lucid dream, gain insight, reach the spiritual heavens so to speak, etc. This synchronous theta is very deep, you must basically go to sleep to get there as it is right on the edge of consciousness. Using EEG we can see the exact moment when this occurs, amazing it sure is. Getting to your chakra question, basically the Dan Tien, from my understanding, is a nerve centre, nothing more nothing less. We have many nerve centres or clusters and we can charge them up with chi breathing, you can go to your elbow for instance and charge it up to work like a Dan Tien, basically. So the chakra is connected to the brain, because every body part is, but it is not specifically connected to anything special. Non-thinking is very important in almost all spiritual pursuits, by stopping our internal dialogue we 'stop the world' as Don Juan so nicely says. To do this we have to practice doing it, quietening the mind through dedicated practice, be it kicking a soccer ball against the wall 1000 times a day, hitting a tennis ball a thousand times against a wall each day, or meditating or tai chi or a kung fu kata. I do not recommend mantra meditations, it can put you back into beta (thinking), I go straight to the theta synch, passing thru alpha synch to the unconscious. This is 'deep state meditation' and where taoists can "touch the void". Thanks for getting me to think Astralc

Truffle oil over hamachi, I am looking for the place, someday maybe I will find myself there. Peculiarly human, who can say what we are here for, in our moment-to-moment dream of life- or what our actions mean, in the vegetable garden of the universe. Thanks for the story of the cucumber plant. Do animals think in pictures, how do plants think then. Can I think in pictures, can I relate to creatures that think in pictures or those who think some other way, apart from heart and mind? Apart from the soil of heart and mind? Night time in the big city, and all who come this way are in the middle of a saki punch, and I'm looking to try nigori sake now, with a friend online. Ha ha!

So I am progressing, but at a slow and bumbling pace. I am talking about seminal cultivation or retention or whatever terms are used. I can go for a few weeks, but here is where I would like some comments. I get so full when I deposit the sexual energy in my stomach( tan tien). If I even have a couple bites of food after 6 oclockish I get so full I am gaurenteed to have a wet dream later that night when I am sleeping. Also It gets to the point, where it's somewhat manageable, but I get so full from the energy it seems like I'm not digesting fast enuf and as time goes by I have more and more energy that needs to be moved, deposited and digested. I would like to finish this by saying that I am deeply in love with seminal cultivation. The feeling is indescribable. I do have some guesses as to how I should proceed but I would also like to hear from you guys. I would appreciate no comments about desire and lust, as I am not having trouble with those, only with the digesting of the energy. Also it's just nice being able to talk to the t bums about this as I don't have anyone else to chat with about it. I appreciate ur guys' support!!

Lol i gotta say, I havn't been breathing any green light! Maybe I didn't get there yet. It is working really well for me, I am meditating with the Tibetan A each morning, and am trying to truly experience the dream like qualities of reality. Most of the concepts were kind of alien for me too, but I found if I took it slow enough they would start to make sense. For some reason this book just really struck a chord with me, and throughout the day I think about concepts from it, which I think help me to assimilate them into the day to day. Probably the most rewarding and motivating factor about this book is...well, my dreams. I dream practically every night now! Most of them are vivid when I remember them, and although they arn't lucid yet, the amount of lucidity is growing every night. In the past two days I have begun dreaming in color, and I have never before dreamt in color. Such a break through. Practice helps alot, and with this book a lot of the practice is with your mind, being conscious and lucid, and really using your imagination to experience that this reality is a dream. Is there any way to know which threads you post on? Because I wish I would have gotten back to you sooner, I just never know what I post on.

Exist has nothing to do with standing alone, where did you get that? (my guess is you AD HOC'd you own definition, as you do with most Things). a : to have real being whether material or spiritual <did unicorns exist> <the largest galaxy known to exist> b : to have being in a specified place or with respect to understood limitations or conditions <strange ideas existed in his mind> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exist Yes dreaming requires something to precede the dream. Dreaming is an action(if you will) that is performed by something. Lao Tzu was referring to both the thought and the thinker, did he say the thinker is false? That is what you are insinuating, and that is not what he said. He said the thoughts are false and that "YOU" are thinking them. (What "You" are is not only the body, unless you are ignorant of samsara.) In the same sentence he says there is a truth underlying the falsehood. The truth is the self-evident and subjective truth that Cogito ergo sum is pointing at, Which is parting the veil. By your token there is no "truth" at all, because any truth requires a thought to be considered. The context in which Lao Tzu said the previous statement should also be presented, because it makes little if any sense to be a cherry picked aid for your argument. He is pointing towards meditation, that was his intention imo. For without thought there is meditation.

Well I assume you have experienced time travel yourself? with your AYA experience? the experience seems forever? but only an hour has passed? Ive heard people who astral project, the further away they get from the earth time seems to stop... from an earth perceptive? or mental space time awareness perception perhaps even a dream seems to go for some time and you wake up and only 1/2 has passed time + level of consciousness I totally believe it would be possible to master time and space / once one masters consciousness the more dense reality the slower time? (vibration) the higher vibration the further time becomes meaningless say 1 hour on earth maybe 100 years (feeling) In realities vibrating at a faster rate then ours when you take aya or like or meditate consciousness is vibrating at a higher level = less time constraints so i assume to time travel physically one would need to become light move into higher realities... choose path from there and then descend / slow your vibration into the time frame space reality of choice

1. Was Lao Tzu, Hui Neng, Saraha, or even Paul Brunton sages? They were all listed above. reportedly scolded his monks for spending too much time sitting in meditation....He said that meditation is unnecessary, and warned that such practice can easily become a narcotic. 2. Let's be anal,...what is "exist"....it means to Stand Alone. What Stands Alone? Let's say you're sleeping,...in the dream the dreamer is thinking. Does that mean the dreamer exists? What's the difference between a dream while sleeping, and dream of being awake? Who is doing the dreaming? The Thinker? LOL Lao Tzu said, "Recognize that eveything you see and think is a falsehood, an illusion, a veil over the truth." So,...is "thinking" true? It is actually quite simple to prove that thinking is always false. Just try to think in the present,...it cannot be be done,...never, ever. LOL Thinking is always false,...so then how does "i think" therefore I Am? No authority is needed except you. Not the you that you "think" you are, but the you that you are. Stop making it complicated,...it's not. V

Already stated by the Buddha and previous Buddhas. So nothing new really. Also ChuangTze's butterfly dream. You believe because you've seen me. Blessed are those who haven't seen me but believe (John 20:29) Trust the ancient sages and keep practicing!

I wouldnt dream of it.

My brain had decided that energetic healing was something that might be possible for a select few and then probably after years of practice. During the second day of the Stillness-Movement workshop I attended a couple of weeks ago, however, I experienced a tangible shift in my vibrational energy. Michael talked some about sleeping qigong so, as you might expect, I gave it a whirl that night. We left Terre Haute (my wife went along for the ride) after the workshop and I practiced Stillness-Driving for a couple of hours before we stopped for the night. Practiced sequential energy center activation while laying in bed and then tried to maintain awareness on my dantien as I fell asleep. Didn't remember falling asleep but I guess I did. I woke in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat. My hand was on my wife's shoulder and she was twitching like a dog dreaming of chasing rabbits (or whatever it is dogs really dream about...) I had put her into movement. Not surprisingly, the moment I focused my consciousness on what was happening it all collapsed. The next day, we drove the rest of the way home. I practiced stillness most of the trip and we stopped to pick up our dog from the kennel (a really nice place that partners dogs for "play dates" so he had a pretty good time, I think). I did S-M and then GOT I before bed and then was out like a light. About 5:45 the next morning, my wife woke me. She had been up with the dog for more than two hours. The dog had apparently picked up kennel cough and had been hacking & weezing half the night. My wife had already taken a shower and woke me to tell me she was going to take him to the emergency vet clinic before starting her day (she had a telephone installer coming "any time between 8 & 4"). I learned all this in less time than it took me to write it so I was still half asleep and more than a little disoriented. The coughing dog walked up to my side of the bed as I swung my feet to the floor. Without really giving it thought beyond something like "Poor boy! I wish I could help you feel better", I reached out and put my hand on his back. He coughed maybe twice more. After about two minutes, he walked away, crawled in his little bed next to ours (which he rarely uses) and went to sleep. Wife & I decided to give it until lunchtime and see if he needed to go to the vet -- I would take him if her phone guy hadn't shown up. Called her just before Noon and she told me the dog slept for about thirty minutes and then barked his fool head off at squirrels the rest of the morning. Did I "heal" him or was he just having some sort of panic attack or hayfever? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that he now comes up to me every time I am doing S-M. He traditionally wants attention in the form of petting or chasing him around while he holds a squeeky toy. Now, however, he is very content with letting me either "brush away bad chi" or point fingers at him with the intent of flowing chi into him and displacing bad chi. I generally acknowledge his request for attention by opening my eyes and holding out one hand in a "stay" gesture. I then leaves me alone until I have finished (unless he needs to go out!) After finishing my S-M, I spend a few minutes on him. I make sure to place some awareness on two spots (near the middle of his back and his right hip) that I know trouble him. It may just be in my head but it seems that I feel a twinge in my body in areas that need attention in his body and sort of work that spot until my feeling goes away, if that makes sense. I'm not really thinking about "fixing" anything as trying to be calm and holding my awareness on my dantien while letting energy flow through me with the intent of it flowing into him. My wife has a few aches & pains, too, and I've been practicing on her without calling attention to it. So far, I'm having better results with the dog...

Sure, there are illusions and delusions, but also perceptions. The Lojong say, view everything you perceive as a dream. While I lived in Virginia, I noticed that during sunsets I could see translucent faeries around wild Lady Slipper and Jack-in-the-Pulpit flowers. So from deep in the woods I took samples of these flowers and transplanted them in a magical-like area closer to the house. In the early evening I would sit on a rough wood bench placed nearby and watch the faeries. But within a week, I witnessed a pair of deer browsing through the woods,...and being raised on bambie propaganda, I watched them with pleasure. However, as these deer approached the flowers and faeries, to my utter shock, the deer began eating the faeries. It was devastating! I never seen anything so horrably destructive as these deer eating faeries. I blew my hiking whistle, which hopefully gave the faery killing deer indigestion as they fled. The point being, that no honarable Taoist would possibly own a deer. V