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I was listening to this the other day...what a magical moment...! And we walked the pagan streams And searched for white horses on surrounding hills We lived where dusk had meaning And repaired to quiet sleep, where noise abated In touch with the silence On Honey Street, on Honey Street What happened to a sense of wonder On yonder hillside, getting dim Why didn't they leave us, alone Why couldn't we just be ourselves We could dream, and keep bees And live on Honey Street And we walked the pagan streams In meditation and contemplation And we didn't need anybody, or anything Then, no concepts, being free And I wanna climb that hillside again, with you One more time As the great, great, great, great, great, great, great Being watches over And we repair, repair, repair, shhh, repair, shhh, we repair...

I am transitioning into a new way of teaching-focusing on leading retreats for women so I have about 5 books on that subject. I am also a big fan of kindle. My list on my kindle: Just a few The Pleasure Trap ( about the bio-psychological basics of addiction and the affect it has on our society). Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman (moving to a plant based diet) A Light Warrior's Guide by Michael Lomax Exploring Chakras: Awaken Your UnTapped Energy by Susan G. Shumsky Asanas, Mudrahs, and Bandhas by Yogani Dream Psychology Psychoanalyis for beginners by Sigmund Freud Popular Tales from the Norse by Sir George Webber Dasent (Always good to know the myths and archetypes of other cultures when working with kundalini.) The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit The Woman's Bible by Elizabeth Cady Staton. Written by a suffragette during the time the women's movement was just getting started to bring voter rights to women in 1840s. This book was written by women to challenge the religious doctrine of men's right to supremacy over women by studying the historical languages of the bible and rewriting it. Liberation theology. Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. A woman's letters starting from 1904 who settled in Burnt Fork, Wyoming to become a landowner.( My grandmother was born in 1888 and I wanted to know more about that time. Her great grand uncle, Jebediah Dickerson, retired cavalry colonel, homesteaded a ranch and farm in Missouri in the early 1800s after traveling by covered wagon from Kentucky in the company of Daniel Boone and friends. Or so the family story goes. ) Susan

cat, I'd love too but there are certain topics that shouldn't be discussed openly not because of the memebers that visit this forum but the broader audience online. This is one of them. I hope you do understand. Anyway, when you asked this question you must have had a direct experience with it, right? Glad to see you grasped the idea. It's a shame that karma has been always associated with negativity. In the spiritual path is easier to attain egohood than Buddhahood, so to speak, this leads to an endless karmic dream. Learning to let go of the self will help to overcome desire, wanting things, karma. To me this is the ultimate obstacle (as I already mentioned numerous times) as the mind is what controls the ego.

This post is a bit out there. More and more, I'm coming to the conclusion that upon our death, we will transport to wherever we believe we are going; at least for a while, and then maybe everything enters the collective. Who knows? But I think a Christian will probably have a moment with Jesus at death, perhaps a Buddhist would have a moment with Buddha, etc. As a shamanic type with Taoist tendencies, or vice versa, I'm never sure which - I have a type of afterlife template which involves a green pasture and my horse that I had to put down. All my deceased animals and people I've loved are there. I hope to land there, at least for a while, perhaps a lucid dream in my journey. Okay, I thought....so how does this work for one who believes in a Christian rapture of sorts, where they're physically elevated to a higher level while the rest of us remain behind writhing and gnashing our teeth? Can anybody say UFO?

If the day is just too full there's always some sort of dream/night practice.

Reminds me of the Uriah Heep tune "Circle of Hands" "Today is only yesterday's tomorrow" "Every day sends future to past, every breath leaves me one less to my last" - Pull me under Dream Theater http://www.youtube.c...h?v=cKhfkfnbAMQ Leaves me breathless actually!

Dream interpretation is a complicated thing. Different symbols and things mean different things to different people. You could say roses symbolize love, but what if you were abused as a child by someone with a rose tattoo? A rose might mean abuse and fear for you, rather than love. For interpretation, I tend to examine what someone was thinking/feeling as the events happened, rather than what events happened or what the symbols mean. What do you mean by "protecting the corruption of the school"? Seems to me like, in general, you were facing people who outclassed you in the raw physicality, and someone looking at the situation would say you would lose to them, but you manage to overcome them anyway, and you accomplished a heroic feat. Off hand, I'd say you seek to accomplish some feat in which you are justified in being who you are, rather than being someone else, because you managed to be the "hero" of the day, despite a perceived disadvantage, which in the end, wound up being a strength, and didn't show itself as such until the situation was really very dire, because in every day situations, you seem to be at a disadvantage.

I had a dream the other day.. the TCM school I go to was being "protected" by big psycho gorillas or apes that looked like huge beastly tigers when viewed from the top, protecting the corruption of the school. I ended up outsmarting them and getting rid of them and "saving" the school. What do you think it means?

I saw most of the great bands back in the 70's. King Crimson, Edgar Winter, Jefferson Starship, Moody Blues, J. Giles, Humble Pie, Santana etc. Robert Fripp was playing a beautiful ebony Les Paul in the King Crimson show. That particular model is around 4000.00 now. That is my dream guitar. I own a single cut PRS which is a great guitar. However, it is not a Les Paul!

In My Arms Last night I had the sweetest dream I held you in my arms I healed you from the sickness And held you in my arms You sang to me of the future dear You held me in your arms We traveled for fun and smoked and drank We held each other long The scent of your hair so right I covered your mouth so small Whispered words of love passed between I held you in my arms I awoke to find you far away Weeping, wishing you were in my arms

If you are going to use math, then a proof is required. Do you have references or did you just dream this up?

My recurring dream when I was a child was of a nuclear bomb exploding in the distance and destroying everything around me in a flash. It was so bad I suffered from insomnia when I was 13. Of course that was the early eighties, things are much worse now. Anyways, I don't think climate change will do in mankind, but rather mankind will be its own worst enemy. That doesn't mean we'll be wiped out, but I do believe, much like the plagues in the middle ages, that a large number, at least half of the population will die due to germs or guns. Anyways, it wont happen for at least a few more decades, if it does. In the meantime all we can do is what we can do. I hope life is treating you well. Aaron

all my life have had two dreams recurring. One is a giant wave going over land and the other standing at the front line of an army of children and teens even little ones standing there against an army in black. There are no weapons. Its a battle of intent and righteousness between those who wish to become one with the earth and those who do not. We win in that dream, by faith and by love

I've thought about how to speak about this subject, but I guess I can't translate it into words, since it feels so much like an inner practice that can't be shared. I do hope someone can relate to this, in anyway possible, so that we can share knowledge about it. Perhaps there are words out there for what I'm trying to describe, but I have not found them yet. So I'll try to describe how it feels like to have this thing, and what happens when you have this mysterious thing going for ya. Some people say it is enlightenment, but I don't think its that. So, sorry for the messy texts here. I'm clearly not educated enough about this subject and over-experienced. So take what you want from it to identify the following experience or state of mind I'm trying to describe. Feels like: Great, joy, motivated, powerful, unstoppable, succesfull, confident. Imagination is rising from all over the place, your own sense of humor makes you laugh histerically, let alone others. So much positive energy, you require a valve to let it all out, wether it is screaming out of joy, or spreading love for no reason all over the place and have people look at you in weird ways, but they like it. Your positive energies are contagious, but do not make any sense at all in intellectual ways and are hard to translate even into words. Only trough a made up story of words made up by me during one of these experiences can someone vaguely experience this intellectually. This happens: Only happened few times in my life, imagination becomes extremely powerfull. You seem to become a genius in everything you focus your energies on. Wether it be explaining a thing in the most beautiful way, coming across attractively, being funny, writing stories that are compelling, creating music that is emotionally compelling and beautifull. Sometimes you think it is simply excitement, but being excitement my imagination is not so powerful and trueful, inspiring, etc. It is some harmony of mind, reaching max potential of mind, the energies can be channelled into all kinds of physical, intellectual or emotional actions. I've tested it, the more you focus it the more powerful it becomes. One thing I've noticed is that it only can happen when I feel great joy, and never when I feel neutral or normal or simply content. Or perhaps it is a side effect to feel joy. The energies feel great. Basicly, what happens is obviously not normal in a way that great things happen effortless and naturally. It is too powerful to call it a regular experience or coincidence. I've tested this specific experience on its capabilities like a scientists test rats in a laboratory. My idea is this: This "thing" seems to rise from not just a deep place, but it is something that is the effect of having your entire brain and consciousness cooperate in a harmonious way, reaching its full potential. Your brain is not on full capacity but on full efficiency whatever you do. Also your mind gets a great sense of timing, when you do something stupid, you do it on such a perfect timing that is no longer is stupid. Weird to explain. It is like turning anything into gold. It only happens when you completely forget your identity, and become whatever you want or feel like becoming in that moment, kinda like not having an ego what Dr. Wayne describes so often. I've always felt like Dr. Wayne Dyer is one person who lives with this thing naturally, all the time, but I can't seem to reproduce it like him. I know it is "something" but I've never been able to reproduce this state of mind on intend alone. It seems to require great luck, and the effects can last a day, or longer as long as you don't sleep or loose the "thing". When focus is lost, the experience is lost aswell and the power is gone in the wind. When you stop using it, it seems to fade away aswell. It is so thin and vague, like a lucid dream. Coming out of no where, going to nowhere from which it came. Perhaps nothingness is the feeling itself. You relate to nothing, and thus everything. I've noticed how Dr. Wayne Dyer is sometimes trying to explain it, thats how I got interested in him for a while. Especially when he talks about forgetting to label things. We all know that labelling is very important for communication and science and stuff, but to get this experience you must forget labelling. Sometimes you filter your own actions because you label the action and then disapprove of the label, thus refraining from the action all together. One time I dropped the fear of letting go of this ego and labelling stuff, resulting in experiencing the thing again. I wrote that down emmediatly when it occured, that it was notable that before it occured I was trying to let go of the fear of not labelling. But it doesn't always work, it is hard to let go of labelling, that requires a practice on itself and alot of courage aswell. Sometimes it requires of you to do something very scary before the fear of "letting go of labelling" goes truely away. I mean, it requires you to follow your heart for no freakin' reason at all, without the thoughts and intellectual minds interfering at all. It is like function from your egoless soul. I've never done weed, sigarets, alcohol or any drugs in my life, so I don't know how the experience may relate to these things. I do remember everything that happens during these experience, I even wrote about it when some occured, for my self, so that I may try to recall it even better. No matter what I do, I can never recall the emotional values that come into play during these experiences. This is one of the most notable things. For example, when I'm having this experience, I feel like another person, a great person. But I don't forget "my usual self" or my "ego self" while being this person. And looking at this usual self from the egoless self is weird. I don't loose my memory functioning in anyway during this experience, so even after it I can recall the experience itself, but when my usual ego self is returned my line of thoughts are totally diffrent and cannot be related to the person or non-person that I am during the experience. The reason I think I become like that during the experience, because I feel like thats naturally the best way to be. So I don't think it is a double personality or something, I recall every moment of these experiences. But I can never recall the emotion, or try to empathize towards this past self. It is nothing. I can't relate to it because it has no ego. It is so hard to explain that you cannot relate to yourself when you are experience some thing that cannot be related to... WTF.. Perhaps a true ego-less state of mind? Are there any more commonly used terms for this that you think describes it best? I know that nothing is what its named after is the way to go for this thing, but labelling this experience will help alot in the communication of it with others, and perhaps even practice to reproduce it more effectively or quickly so that I may return the favor one day and learn it to others. I don't expect much of an answer, so feel free to comment in anyway. If you think I've totally lost my mind, I assure you all is sane up here. Well, I do find it weird aswell... But wonderfull. So I share.

I have used a variety of methods. I bought an OMNI V 3HP blender for raw food intake. I practice zhan zhuang and Chen family chansigong exercises. I have explored some Feldenkrais reprogramming. I practice Inner Smile at an integrated level. Microcosmic Orbit is almost constant now. I take a food source daily multivitamin. I take maca to charge my jing as that is a weakness I inherently possess. I take calcium supplements as well as other minerals and trace metals. I have used colloidal silver as an antibiotic and to help my nervous system recover. I take probiotics. I followed modified bigu for nearly a year. I smoke cannabis and tobacco as needed to deal with the pain and the tics. I practice sleeping meditation and dream travel. I pray a lot. Sufi poetry has helped me to see that servitude and slavery to god is not the same. I chant Sufi and listen to the sinus overtones created. I have been examining my previous experience and many suppressed memories from the post traumatic stress disorder have been brought to fore and explored. I am still dealing with emotional automatic reactions and my own thought process. Sympathy is still hard for me as I find myself apathetic toward most self caused suffering I hear from people. I listen to many different kinds of music, dependent on my mood. I write poetry and occasionally perform. My fiancee is a great resource of emotional understanding as I am for her as well. I have a few confidants who have been able to listen to my spiritual plane experiences even if they don't fully believe or understand what I speak of. I play with my friends' children and try to help them with avoiding the troubles of my own experience of painful upbringing.

You may be describing mankind in general but the chinese are not the poster child for that argument. I wouldn't use the Taiwanese example. They are equal or even more concerned than mainland Chinese with economic success. Taiwan is a highly "westernised" (especially from the US perspective) country. It is still traditional in many regards, but Taiwanese people are obsessed with Japanese pop-culture and the American dream and values. For Taiwan, I was referring to the influence (and role) of Daoism, not Hedonism. But I agree in part with your points about Taiwan.

First of all, it is the whole world, not only China that is extremely hedonistic and materialistic; the only thing is that China is today's world's factory. I wouldn't use the Taiwanese example. They are equal or even more concerned than mainland Chinese with economic success. Taiwan is a highly "westernised" (especially from the US perspective) country. It is still traditional in many regards, but Taiwanese people are obsessed with Japanese pop-culture and the American dream and values.

Stimulated by the recent thread on movies, I just watched Enter the Void by Gaspard Noe. His first two films were absolutely horrific. I think his intention was to look closely at how we are desensitized to criminal acts and force us to experience (as much as you can in a movie theater) some of the pain and degradation associated with the experience. That said - I can't recommend his first two films in good conscience. His latest work, Enter the Void, is brilliant - though certainly not for everyone. It's loosely inspired by the TIbetan Book of the Dead and his own experimentation with hallucinogens and owes a lot to Kubrick's 2001, Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, and yet is completely original. It's very long and filled with audio and visual effects that try to simulate a DMT experience. Some pretty strong subject matter, explicit sex, and violence. Quite an intense 2 hour and 41 minute experience. @ Seth Ananda - I think you might find this redeems Noe to some degree.

Craig, guys, Blasto, thanks for the responses. However i feel that the question can't be answered if the proof is only in the pudding. Ain't it? We must also realize that the systems that we practice and study didn't have much in common with CT as it is understood in the West, because Chinese as a people seem to be using Analogic rather than Logic thinking - and this applies more to mysticism than anything else. So i'm still wonderning about this one. However can we dismiss creationism as non-scientific, and embrace the possibilities opened up by spiritual practice? Many of the effects can be very well Placebos. And i don't intend to use the Placebo word as a critic, au contraire, it's recognizing the great power of the human mind, that can do for oneself's body-mind the same great things that it can achieve outside of it (complex constructions and technology etc). Should we dismiss that power as illusion? Could it be more to it than that? Tonight I had a dream in which i died as a result of an enormous catastrophic explosion, and in the dream, expected to dissolve into nothing. I felt my body die and turn to ashes. It was extremely vivid, vision-like. In my dream i woke up later, i felt i had a body again, and someone was looking at me, some familiar figure. If the proof is in the pudding, would this be a valid experience of afterlife? edit darn 'spells' (not a Native speaker)

Beautiful... is something that has always existed and always will.... Love is beautiful.... what man cannot comprehend, what is unknown... often invokes fear, yet in reality when one surrenders, yet embraces the beauty of the mystery, it is so awesomely magnificent and splendid, words cannot begin to describe... the Tao that can be named is not the true Tao. How simple and convenient to believe consciousness is a product of biology; the religion of science. There is no light without the darkness and the emptiness of the illusion of capacity is what ensues wholeness... oh beautiful infinity, oh so much taken for granted. Has anyone ever read The Magic in Your Mind by US Andersen? http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Your-Mind-U-Andersen/dp/0879800895/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1301346083&sr=8-2 A wonderful gem way ahead of its time, I strongly recommend it to all, it is of unlimited value. And 'Way' Taoist . If consciousness predates matter, then undoubtedly we beings of light... of energy, must all be connected, must all be One - soul splinters of the great cosmic consciousness, universal being, the Tao, subjectively experiencing itself and spiritually evolving an infinite times over to reach divine unity, Oneness... we often have moments of strange familiarity, 'deja-vu' as if we've undoubtedly experienced a moment of eternity before... as if reliving a dream, yet awake - awake to the nature that this really is a dream, there is no such thing as death, we are the imagination of ourselves, ego-deluded induced separateness, but there is yet one dreamer dreaming many dreams... and we've all been here before, have had these lessons... and will continue to be taught, to teach, to love, to live as One, in every imaginable angle, shade of light, whisper of wind, forever, in peace, as long as we surrender to love.

But some of the native indians of america and the aborigines of australia probably lived in wu wei alot of the time without actually calling it 'wu wei'. They spent alot of time doing alot of nothing or telling storys, living in the 'dream time' etc. But what happened to them, they got raped and pillaged. Fine, you could argue that they recieved a good legal system, learnt how to build railroads, and recieved all the infrastructure that the west developed over so many years.... without 'doing anything'. But i don't think they wanted it.

Some of my favorites have already been mentioned. And I have to give a big +1 on: Breaking the Waves Requiem for a Dream The Holy Mountain Here are a few more: Life is Beautiful The Whale Rider Slumdog Millionaire Saving Private Ryan Amores Perros Across the Universe (the gospel number made me cry like a baby) Irreversible and I Stand Alone by Gaspar Noe are probably the most intense films I've ever had the misfortune of seeing. The intensity arises from extreme horror and revulsion associated with common crimes. The brilliance of the films lies in bringing the true devastation to the audience that is inherent in crimes that have become so commonplace in our daily lives as to be banal. Can't really recommend that anyone watch them - truly horrific. Images I wish I could un-see. Lot's more that I can't think of right now.

Requiem for a Dream. Holy f*ck. Try it, you'll see. Darren Aronofsky. Haunting and intense film about addiction. Amazing soundtrack, too. Jacob's Ladder. A movie about the Bardo, where the main character played by Timothy Robbins doesn't know if he is dead or not. I have a couple more, which I'll post later. Great topic, Blasto.

wait so this is crazy this totally kill rick strassman the spirit molecule cuz he says dmt is what makes u dream and hallusinate but salvia makes u see visions and it contains salvidorin so theres a lot to be learn

I like to add some outlooks on lust from a gnostic forum. http://gnosticteachings.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=1400 Samael teaches that if the image of a beautiful woman (or man) were to reach the mind (impression), to imagine the woman growing old, wilting and dying, just as the beautiful flower wilts and dies. Our bodies are contructed from, and composed of, the matter of the four elements of the physical plane (Malkuth) and will return through the process of decay like any other physical being...this deserves reflection. One can take this a step further and reflect on the body itself both internally and externally. For instance, if the woman (or man) in your dream was to have all of the skin peeled off of her body, exposing all of the muscles, blood, etc. you may be less likely to identify with, and desire that image. Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Santideva and others within the Buddhist traditon give powerful antidotes for dealing with lust and transforming the images and impressions associated. These meditations are designed to reflect on the body as it is, within and without. Some of the teachers describe the body as a sewer filled with excrement, snot, urine, etc. Reflecting on the body this way in meditation can dispell some of the ignorance that lies at the feet of lust. Reflecting on the body in this way, when confronted with images and impressions of "attractive" bodies or bodies we desire is repulsive. Repulsive is defined as, "to drive away or repel." In this case one can "drive away" lust and identification by reflecting on the body as it truly is... ....an organic sewer made of the four elements that produces excrement, urine, and snot that will decay into mud.... Obviously, if we are identified with our own bodies then we will be identified with other's bodies. Additionally, if we are identified with the physical plane then we are subject to the associated ignorance and its consequences. (See writings on SOL and awakening the consciousness) If we are identified with images as realities rather than representations or reflections then we will suffer the consequences of our ignorance, the sleep of the consciousness. (See the Dream Yoga course) The impression that triggered the lust must be comprehended also. The relationship between external event (impression) and the internal state (reaction) is a must know. This reminds us of the wonderful teachings of dependent origination. (See Karma course) One must also comprehend Kant's "the exterior is a reflection of the interior," in relation to internal states and so-called "external" events. (See Revolution of Dialectic and others) One must comprehend sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. Meditation on the 5 senses is necessary to transcend physical identification with images, forms, bodies, and is the ground work that leads to not identifying with internal images as well. "The clairvoyant falls into error when he or she takes the image for reality" - Rudolf Steiner The Buddha, in the Sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, goes through meditation on the body's repulsive parts, meditation on the four elements, meditation on the senses, as well as the Charnal Ground Contemplations associated with death and decay of the body. These teachings and meditations are essential...and beautiful...and absolutely practical and effective. I have found that egos associated with lust and identification with the body don't like it when the antidotes are applied...which is a good sign. They will resist, tell you stories, and generally make it feel uncomfortable to do so. Therefore it is important to expect and calculate the inevitable resistance. Lust has roots in ignorance and identification. The seemingly harmless manifestations of lust that you spoke of: QUOTE Should I instead begin meditating on the more seemingly harmless manifestations of lust, like perhaps looking at women or thinking about them? ...are feeding the egos of lust that are associated with the near falls and falls in the night. The reactions in the three brains caused by those impressions need to be photographed and then cancelled. We can't afford to allow them to linger and waste energy or perhaps strengthen existing egos. We obviously fornicate emotionally and mentally with those impressions. Additionally, the impression that triggered the lust must be comprehended. Therefore one must comprehend sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste...as well as memory (untransformed impressions). Those impressions need to be transformed before you go to sleep. Do not allow the sun to set on your lust. Samael states in the Revolution of the Dialectic that, "One is devolving if the digestion of impressions does not exist." I suggest studying the book Revolution of the Dialectic, particularly the chapters on rest therapeutics, transformation of impressions, and the mental stomach. Samael's writings on Awakening the Consciousness and Subject Object Location (as in Perfect Matrimony, Lamasery, etc.) are also a necessity for the transformation of impressions, with respect to comprehending identification, fascination, and sleep the of the consciousness, as well as awakening and non-identification. The Buddha Sakyamuni terrifically walks us through these issues and antidotes in the Mahasatipatthana Sutra, or The Greater Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness. He is teaching non-identification, mindfulness. Santideva speaks simply and directly about this in A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. These resources and reflections have assisted me greatly...Perhaps they will be helpful for you.