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There is a mistake with the concept of emptiness, nothingness, and the lack of the ego. I will refer to Buddhism to try to explain those terms. In Theravāda Buddhism, Suññatā often refers to the non-self, nature, or lack of an unchanging self. It is affirmed that in the human being there is only one flow of consciousness that varies that is not fixed, since it is modified in the states of sleep, dreamless sleep and in wakefulness itself. Nothingness is only a plane that is accessed through meditation (It is a Jhana) but is overcome by the Buddha, since it does not lead to the final peace of nibbana. In Buddhism, the term anattā (Pali) or anātman (Sanskrit) refers to the doctrine of "not-self": that no permanent, unchanging self or essence can be found in any phenomenon. Similarly, Buddhists speak of a stream of consciousness rather than an unchanging self. In Taoism, for its part, the concept of emptiness is used by the influence of Mahayana Buddhism, and indeed in some Taoist traditions, it is said that this reality has never existed, that it is an illusion, a mirage. Some schools of thought (e.g. Dzogchen) consider perceived reality to be unreal. The dream of the yellow millet is related to the dream that the immortal Lü Dongbin had to suffer in which he rises in political position and then falls precipitously, exemplifying the emptiness of the world of men. Nothingness is also a concept used in Taoism and can be found as one of the stages that the meditator encounters. Regarding the lack of ego or self, in Taoism immortality is sought for the same reason the lack of a self is the property of Buddhist currents.

dream-time

I’m thankful you had that dream and have written such a thorough account of your journey. Reading it gave me a strong feeling of comradery with you. You’ve written with an open heart. Although I have not had a powerful energy eruption like you describe, it all makes sense to me based on my own more modest qi experiences. And I very much concur with what you’ve written about the healing power of shiatsu. I trained and worked as a practitioner in Sydney, Australia back in the 1990s. Learning the meridian / qi-flow model of embodiment fundamentally changed my understanding of health and illness. If I had the difficult task of naming one thing that has helped me more than anything else amongst the many important learning experiences I’ve had on my journey towards some semblance of physical, emotional and spiritual health, the years I spent learning shiatsu would be a prime contender. I trained with a small group of people under the guidance of a gifted master. His comprehensive teachings included qi style yoga (a form of qigong) and qi-based food theory. These yangsheng (nourishing life) methods continue to serve me well as the basis for my ongoing inner alchemical practice. Praise of TCM gets a lot of space on this forum. Nothing wrong with that but it’s far from the be-all and end-all of qi-based healing methods. For many people, shiatsu can well be superior yet, as far as I'm aware, up until your account, I'm the only one who has mentioned it.

Hi All, The title says pretty much what I want to express in this post. I had a dream where I saw myself writing this, so here I am, although I had no plan to write my story here. A bit more than 10 years ago, I was living in Paris, and one night I was out in town, when suddenly I had an internal fire light up inside me. It was hot, and sexy, and massive, I felt like I was on fire internally, but I wasn't in pain. Quite the contrary, it was quite ecstatic and full of pleasure. I have strange memories of that night, like everything was luminous, wordless, and radiant, even though I was in the basement of a dark dingy bar. It was the most un-spiritual place I could think of. For reference, at the time it happened, I was not doing any esoteric practices, other than trying (not very successfully) to maintain awareness. I was having friendly conversations with a teacher in the arts every week though. And I had done some kind of meditation on and off and without structure or aim during the past 10 years before that. The days/months that followed I lost weight, toned my muscles, and felt exuberant. Fast forward two years later.... my life was flipped over on its head. I lost a beautiful relationship with someone I loved very much, moved countries twice, changed occupation three times, got offered a full scholarship, and I was in complete pain. Physical pain, all the vibrant energy seemed to have congealed in my muscles, my nervous system was on fire, my joints were swollen, horrible digestion, slept without resting, health was deteriorating. Even my hair and nails were in pain. I had enough money and work stability, I still don't know how I managed to hang on to my job when my mind felt like it was broken in pieces. Clearly, I went to see doctors, I got no hope from them, they could see some trouble in my back in an MRI, but all they could do was give me pain pills and wait for it to get worse before I'd qualify for surgery. Which I didn't want anyway. I didn't take the pills either. The words fibromyalgia, degenerative disk disease, chronic fatigue, brain fog were all used by my doctors. A lot of things kept on happening in my body and psyche, night sweats, feeling of electricity running up and down my spine, sometimes it would take me so and I couldn't move, uncontrollable sleepiness at times, and dreams dreams dreams. Dreams so frightful that I'd wake up feeling shell shocked. The dreams are a whole other story. I started doing extreme sports, pain and all, just to face fear that I felt I could handle. I was looking for honest, clean fear. I went down cliffs, ravines, caves, I camped alone in the mountains in freezing temperatures. I walked ridges, I hiked in up and down in the dark, I walked alone on a glacier at night. I had a need to look at death in the face, physically, on my terms, and not just when it assailed me in dreams. Anyhow, you get the point, it was a dark period. I knew that the energy was active in my body, and it was wreaking havoc, and I also knew that the way out was through the arts. So I started doing what I knew, diligently, and in a disciplined way. I was not doing the right things, I made some mistakes that caused more pain, but I had the right intention. Soon, about a year in, the right teachers appeared. I'll talk about one in particular here, although there have been several. I learned the art of shiatsu from a japanese sensei from the Nippon shiatsu school. Shiatsu is finger pressure on tsubos or meridian pressure points. Similar to accupuncture, but without needles. The school is in a city not too far from where I live. It takes three years to learn the basics, first feeling, then meridians, and then the art of working with internal energy. It was a whole system, including zazen and do-in for the mind-body. As part of the training I volunteered at two hospitals treating cancer and psychiatric patients with shiatsu. After the basic curriculum we learned a zen version of nei dan and we're still learning it (even if the school is hanging on by a thread due to the situation now). Through learning we treated each other. I felt my own body and I've touched hundreds of bodies, and learned how to feel, really feel, feel with my eyes, feel with my ears, feel with my heart, feel with my awareness. I learned to trust the art through the people I worked with, they gave me such wonderful comments, and they also started feeling the energy and asking questions. Especially the hospital patients, I thought I was helping them, but it was them who helped me. They were so raw in their vulnerability, my heart expanded and I started getting feelings of love for random strangers. It took my hard head some time to realize I could turn the teachings toward myself. My teacher, in good asian fashion, only taught us so far, and he left the rest up to us. I think out of the group of students only two or three of us really continued with the internal art. I ran into a book that described a system based on what I learned, it's obscure poetic references made sense to me in a no-sense way. I had to see it from outside, and it all clicked in place. I developed a steady sitting practice, and started working with the energy rather than against it. One day, sitting quietly in my terrace, I bonded with a tree in front of my house, and relief flowed through my veins, the wild energy came to rest in my lower belly. It was the beginning of pleasure, and intensity, again the intensity, but this time so smooth so delicious. Along with beautiful feelings of love, often for random people in the street, or for a plant, or for a bird, or even for a stone. It's often challenging, the energy seems to have an intelligence of its own, and I should listen or else... I still often have the feeling that I'm walking on a knife edge, but it stopped being a problem and became a wonder. The dreams have continued, along with a lot of mystical experiences that just cannot be explained. Now the intense physical feelings are exhilarating rather than painful. I've learned (still learning) to walk in dreams, and make use of them. I've faced my base emotions over and over again. I've had to let go of the idea that things need to make 'sense' or be controlled. I'm still navigating this new world that has opened up to me, I still make mistakes, but now, at least when I make a mistake I know quickly that I've made a mistake. I feel that this is just the beginning, there is so much to explore.... In summary these were the things that make the big difference in working with this energy: -NUMBER ONE: Taking care of my spirit - art, beautiful music, walks among trees, tea with friends, no TV/netflix, careful choice of music, I had stopped fb for about a year (now back, but I curate it often). - Service to others (related to number one above). - Physical exercise that works at the tendon/bone level (it takes at least 1 or 2 years to feel it). - A steady meditation practice with one method. - Handling my emotions through my organs. - Learning to switch emotions at will. - Long periods of celibacy (too long maybe....ugh) - Having a job and physical stability. My point in sharing this story is that I've been reading posts of similar stories here, where energy is running rampant in someone's body. Wreaking havoc in their lives. So I wanted to reach out and connect, and also shed some hope, it CAN be amazing if you're willing to walk the path.

It's the same thing as seeing someone you know in a dream; you think they dreamed it too, but they didn't.

Ok so I have a much better idea now of basic buddhist practices like Sadhana, Mantra accumulation, vajrasattva and meditations including shamatha, vipassana, mahamudra, and dzogchen I met a drikung kagyu teacher and they were accessible and really cool seeming people, very sincere and caring people, but light hearted too. Buddhism can be so crazy sometimes though. It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago, about like this Island where if sailors landed there, women would feed them lotuses, and then the men would never leave the island and time would pass away like a dream, they'd lose touch with reality That's what buddhism can be, it really takes over your mind, and mind state. Makes you forget reality and mundane activities. Next thing you know months pass and you've disengaged life a bit cuz your mind is always constantly thinking of the dharma, and compassion, and regret, and aversion to samsara, and you read these texts and all you think about is meditating more and getting more into that mind state, or true reality as it is, I won't say I see rigpa, but like the strong aspiration and desire to keep getting at rigpa, letting go into it, getting clearer and more aware every day, takes over your mind and personality. When I started, my worldly activities had strong momentum, and I would also have meditations to energize and engage in my daily life activities. As time goes by though the Buddhist practices keep piling up and taking over Yesterday I couldn't find motivation to engage in life at all. I couldn't find inspiration or interest in doing anything but meditating and reading mahamudra and dzogchen texts, and mantras. All day. Its good, but today I had to force myself to cut out all buddhism, to do tai chi and meditations for health and engaging life, I need to get that balance down again, cuz it got to a point buddhism, and milarepa, and aspirations of love for all beings, and renunciation of samsara was taking over a bit too much. If you meditate on these things and do sadhana's every day, they start habituating even after you are practicing and effecting you all day afterwards.

Hi Everyone, Lovely to connect with you all. I'm an aspiring to align myself to the Tao. I've been interested in spirituality for about 6 years now. In 2016, I was in a very bad state of my life and wanted to find answer to liberate myself from the cacophony that was my life then.. It was as if I lived in a bad dream, and I kept on re-opening my eyes trying to wake up... though from the outside my life seemed fine. I was making 6 figures in my mid-20s, and had some trappings of success in life... In my desperate attempt for answers, I went on a week-long pschyedelic retreat taking Iboga... That opened up my eyes to spirituality rooted in the awareness that life is not what conventional science would have you believe... since then, I've been learning more about all kinds of spirituality materials... and I'm very keen on learning more about Eastern philosophy and Taoism.... I found this forum from searching about Mo Pai... I hope to connect with others on here and maybe meet up with some of y'all if you are in NYC

Hi Jonathan, Thank you for your holiday greetings. You are most welcome to the benefits from refining your FP Qigong practice in the Sunday afternoon classes and the Wed. night (EST) intermediate classes on Zoom. I'm glad to hear that after getting a few corrections through the Zoom lessons that your Long Form meditation practice has been improved--by your own diligent efforts. Starting January 2 of the new year, the combined Tao Tan Pai 31 + Flying Phoenix Qigong course continues on Sundays from 4pm to 6pm EST on Zoom, and the Wed. night Intermediate class continues at 6pm to 8pm EST. As a teacher, I'm always trying to make my experience and knowledge of Qigong relatable to people through all cultural and historical contexts...and the carol about the Good King Wenceslas is a good example. For its telling of warming Qi left in footprints in the snow is typical of the residual energy or aura of a saint or Boddhisatva, whose bed if one were to sleep in after he/she slept, would imbue one with a healing- enlightening energy. Thus I do not doubt that the authentic relics of saints preserved by their disciples and later religions established upon them are indeed holy and imbued with spiritual power-- "power objects", as dubbed by Carlos Castaneda. My story: in 1994, after I used the futon that my best friend and mentor (a non-Chinese spiritualist and master healer) had slept in while staying with me in L.A., I experienced five days of nothing but multiple lucid dreams every single night. (e.g., dreams in which I had "pre-programmed" to visit friends in different parts of the country, dreams in which I met a close friend in the dreamstate after agreeing to do so beforehand, dreams in which I chose to halt at a certain point and then re-enter my physical body with my dream body, a dream in which I saw the illustrated artwork that I had commissioned a close friend of mine in San Francisco to do for a book cover, etc.) At any rate, in Buddhism, which heavily influenced the Tao Tan Pai tradition, heavy emphasis is placed on teaching others the Dharma, as reflected in the "vows of the Bodhisattva": The second set of vows is original to Zhiyi's corpus:[6] Sentient beings, limitless in number, I vow to ferry over. Passions (klesa) which are numberless, I vow to extinguish. The Dharma-gates without end (in number), I vow to know. The supreme Buddha Way, I vow to actualize. The first translation I read decades ago goes like this: No matter how innumerable the sentient beings, I vow to liberate them all. No matter how innumerable, I vow to extinguish all obscuring passions. I vow to find a thousand gates to the Law. I vow to actualize supreme Buddhahood. I look forward to working with you in the new year, so that you get closer mastering the Long Form Meditation and then start experiencing more of the FPCK's unique and wonderful healing Qi. Have a happy and safe new year celebration in Chile! Cheers, Sifu Terry www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html terencedunn.substack.com (for schedule of weekly 2-hour Zoom classes)

Felecula, Congratulations!--hearing sound(s) that one isn't certain of their source(s). That is one of the sure signs of correct meditation and that the body is truly relaxing. All meditation / yoga traditions have side-effects of telepathy and clairvoyance. My experience in Taoist and Buddhist monastic Qigong systems is that clairaudience is also an occuring and most interesting side-effect. I believe that you are the first to report this phenomenon. So congrats! Not only does FP Qigong facilitated clairaudience enable one to hear sounds and human conversations that are at a great distance and tnat are normally not audible, but it may also open the channel to auditory dreams--i.e. dreamstates where information channels in only through sounds. I myself have had only one auditory dream in my lifetime so far; it came in 1980 and was extremely prophetic, to say the least. About your experience of "carbonation" and the bubbling feeling: that bubbling feeling that's like a churning or roiling is normally first felt in the tan tien, which is a great and mighty milestone to achieve in any system of Qigong. But if you are feeling "bubbling" in other parts of your body or throughout your body in general, that's a phenomenon I have not experienced. And that is not to question nor invalidate your experience of the FP Qi cultivation one iota. Everybody responds to the FP Qigong in their own unique way--on top of the common phenomena that FP practitioners have experienced and reported on this thread. Continue to enjoy your carbonation and let us know your FP practice evolves especially as you practice the Vol.4 Long Form Standing Meditation ("FPHHCM")--auditory channeling and all! Happy New Year! Sifu Terry http://www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html

Potent question. In my case, the answer is an unequivocal yes. I was fortunate in that my first cognizant memory in this life was an out of body experience. It was induced by a powerful dream and resulted in my awareness hovering over my sleeping body and watching it for a time. This revealed, before I even had a concept of death, that my body was not the center of my beingness. Awareness is home. Awareness is not body dependent, but the body tunes the awareness to certain frequencies. At most, the body while awareness roamed free of it, seemed akin to a very loved coat. Special, incredibly comfortable... but just a coat in the end. As a result, there has never been any fear of losing this body, or of this body's eventual decay. This does not result in a longing for death. (that has arisen and faded on its own as my path led to the nights of darkness). But there is no worry or fret over it. The only teeth seemingly remaining in death lies in the passing of those treasured and deeply beloved. So many friends and family lost takes a toll, but even this shines with joy greater than grief. For in their passing, my joy at knowing that throughout the infinite boiling seas of this 14.7 billion year universe... I had the uncanny good fortune to have met, loved and was loved by such hearts and minds. Treasure of treasures.

Hello bums. I've been thinking about clearing my karma with the vajrasattva mantra lately and then I had a dream sort of confirming that. So I take that as a good omen. Can anyone recommend a buddhist monastery where I can do just that? Has anyone here stayed in a monastery and have some experience to share? It seems many meditation teachers/meditators stay in monasteries at some point but I must admit I know little about this... edit: I live in Norway. I could go to Asia - but not the US.

Thank you again for your answer, @Nungali! I'm not at all tuned into this, I'm quite blind concerning those subtler levels. Just on few days, - where there's some astrological transit emphasis on my natal Neptun etc. - I do get different dreams at night than usual. Else, those outer planets effects (and levels) are mostly hidden or - well overshadowed by the others. (Although dreams have usually always been helpful to me, those times now I sometimes have to check, - oh yes, it really was just a surreal dream - - uff! ). That's why I prefer psychology, science, proof, perceivable cause and effect, laws of nature instead of tricks and - for me - unexplainable, might those be simple manipulation or subtler. However there's times, when I feel intuitively that I'd have like to have an explanation for some of the things I do not understand (...) as there's something that's going wrong, and it's not wrong because of me or my perception. Like the cases I wrote about, and some other experiences. My mind strongly overwrites those as figments of imagination and oversensitivity of the senses. Maybe Occam's razor is the best solution here, - unaware stupidity (like the assault case) of people is simply awful! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor) Worse might be only aware stupidity and hurtfullness. It might very well be all there, but you cannot fight with monsters you don't see? And the occult isn't really my choice of playground. For now I go with Ronald Weasley, - I'd rather like to chase butterflies than spiders (if I have to chase anything at all) and so I'll stick with the advice in 1 + 2 try to deliver it to those I have in mind as far as that's still possible ...(preliminary research and getting to know self better). I might get back to you about that topic at some time, thanks!

Thanks, @Nungali, - - to speak in the terms of spells and magic, rather than NLP and anchors, hypno'therapy' etc. etc. ... in your words... (trying to summarize) it would take a "white magician" (with some experience like that they strive for in the eleusian mysteries) to break the "spell" of a "black magician" or egoistic unaware manipulative wicked bastard, so to speak? Or the "spell" didn't even result there but was there all along? Irritating! How would one ever know the intent...? How then trust...? --- Well, in the case of the assault I was mentioning, - the woman mentioned, she couldn't mumble a "NO!" but was strongly unwilling to intercourse when it happened, and let it happen, - happened when she was still half asleep. I found that pretty shocking reading this today... (shocked not by the sexual assault, that happens often, but that she couldn't or didn't express her explicit will. - and she wasn't the only one there saying this... oh no...) So never mind, if it is black tantra, NLP, hypnotherapy or else... without the realization of being manipulated into something you initially don't wish to do and the will to do something against there's no way out for those? (Asking because there's another, who didn't get what the matter over the outcry was, as her boyfriend would usually take her, when she was still asleep / not conscious and often couldn't say if it was reality or a dream, - even though building of a will is not possible in that state and it is prosecutable!) Not sure if I understand this correctly... do you mean - like the average consciousness is a near type of hypnotic programmed trance?

Similarly, I tend to classify SLD as a simple subset of LD. While there is certainly great merit in being able to turn LD into spiritual practice and ‘networking’ they are not necessarily more vivid or significant than LDs. Lucidity has varying degrees in dream and in dreamless sleep, as well as in waking dreams or visions. I think there is a continuum of lucidity throughout all levels of waking, sleeping, and dreaming states.

In my experience, there are actually three categories of dreams (could be more, but these are what I've encountered). Normal dreams (ND) -- where one isn't really in control but is a dream character going through a dream universe Lucid dreams (LD) - where one IS the dream character, in control of one's actions and depending on the level of lucidity, the dream universe itself. It is still all "made up" (Pratibhasika Satya). Spiritual lucid dreams (SLD) - where one is the witness of the dream characters, universe and often interacting with deities or other beings. There is complete clarity that this is a dream, and the contents of the dreams are often spiritual teachings/transmissions being given. I found that SLDs are most vivid, and are similar in nature to Astral/Causal travels.

Yes. Not all vivid dreams are lucid, and not all lucid dreams are vivid. But when a dream is lucid AND vidid, that is something.

Thanks @Daniel That sounds like a helpful dream interpretation heuristic. My dreams in the past have been centred around the unconscious trying to ignore the major problems, and also giving me wrong info so I'm inclined to think this was more of a fake out. Thinking about the dream more, the folio had a special blackness to it. Like it was charred black from being in a fire or made in a fire. When faced with the issues my dreams would be about time travel and thus avoiding said problems

Dreams with meaning are tricky. Sometimes the message is straight forward, sometimes it's the complete opposite of what is perceived. IF the dream is straight forward, it sounds as if you have the knowledge you seek already, it was given as a gift, and that others with less intellect ( the bad comedian and the stupid girl ) have the knowledge, the answer to your dilemma already. And the dream is your subconscious reacting to the frustration of not following the simple solution, what the others already know. In this case, the answer to your dilemma is the simple solution that you already have at hand. BUT it could be the opposite, the knowledge contained in the folio and the books could turn out to be empty pages, thus making it a bad joke played on you by the comedian and a worthless info possessed by the stupid girl.

@BindiI've tried and have not had success. @Danielya that sounds about right. Why is it giving it to me like as a gift in the dream though? I need to know the unknown. This will solve my very complex problems.

@Danielthat sounds like its on the right track. I'm always amazed at getting dream interpretations from other people. Sometimes its things that seem so obvious but I can't see myself. What I don't follow then is what the symbol of a book means here. The basic level it seems to indicate knowledge. @BindiI would agree with that as well. In terms of vehement rejecting, I guess that must be the case. However, the quagmire of a life situation I've been dealt is such that I have to do certain things in a specific order to get out of the situation. These things preclude me from accessing emotional stuff and just anything that would get me close to feminine 'things', let alone a physical embodiment of feminine. So I'm trying to figure out if my dream is just trying to agitate me or poke fun. Lately my subconscious and dreams have been very rude and unhelpful.

I am wondering what possible connections are between them. Got any experiences or extensive studies in this? Because long time ago I read about people saying they became able to control what to do in their lucid dreams, like watching movies on a screen and such. And this control aspect is very interesting to me, because I have had dreams where I became aware that I was dreaming (and typically leading to waking up shortly after), but due to them not being vivid dreams it always felt to me like just part of the dream script. You know, in normal dreams you seem to be acting from a less higher-intellectual point but just to some degree on autopilot or such. But is this actually so? I would assume based on common sense that in order to truly be able to do whatever you want in your dream, you would have to transcend that vague dream consciousness, and that would inevitably lead to vivid dream state, basically I would theorize that that very deliberate willpower enactment and control is what is creating the vivid perception, kinda like an inevitable effect of it. But people who have had vivid dreams should be able to clarify this easily: Are there vivid dreams where you are still only in that 'autopilot script mode'? Is that even possible?

I think your dreams are saying the thing you consider to be ‘inferior’ is actually beautiful and valuable, and I imagine that thing is most likely to be your female aspect given the context of your dream. Black, which is being equated with good in your dreams, is a Daoist symbol for Yin/female. I wonder if you are being presented with your female side in waking life through the circumstances around you, and if you are vehemently rejecting that aspect when it comes up.

I was a bit rushed yesterday . Of course , the best person to analyse our dreams are ourselves as we are the ones that know the most detail about our lives and the particular meaning of any symbolism to ourselves . However there are generally accepted meanings . a large body of water can represent the unconscious. Floating up through it towards the sun can represent a link being made between consciousness and the unconsciousness or communication between 'Superconscious' , 'self' and unconscious self . Going underground is one , which , of course, represents the 'underworld' . IMO - Some basic dream interpretation of major symbols , some mythology study and put in the context of your own experience would be a lot better than anyone else interpreting the meaning of your dreams for you .

Perhaps the dream is expressing frustration at being given an unwanted or undeserved difficulties from others? You mentioned that you're going through a difficult period in your life? Maybe these difficulties are represented by the set of black books?

One I had a while back was so classic 'dream world' (and funny ) it stayed with me ; I am riding my old Triumph motorcycle but down the road I used to have to walk to go to school . The residents of the houses are the nurses I used to work with and they where sun baking in bikinis on sun lounges on the road . I have to swerve in and out of them, but loose control and drop the bike . It splits in half lengthways and is hollow, like those model aeroplanes I used to make as a kid. Then my mother comes out one of the houses and yells at me .