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I have been practicing various forms of dream yoga over the years. Some things helped more than others. Heres basic taoist dream yoga principles: Pray to the gods (some talk of a goddess) of the dream world before you go to sleep and after you wake up and remember your dreams. Place a container of water next to your bed on level with your head. (i use a crystal goblet of alpine spring water and drink it when i wake up.) Water is the element connected with dreams. Practice whole body relaxation as you fall asleep. I find that i enter a trance state and it deepens into a dream then later to deep sleep (which can also become a lucid experience) There are a few dream herbs that can help you learn to achieve lucidity. The one i recommend is xhosa dream herb. The shamans traditionally brewed it in some tea. edt:fixed the link

Hey, guys. I've witnessed alot of talk about higher awareness here. One of the best signs of a good and solid awareness is lucid dreaming. I've currently got a frequency of 2 lucid dreams per week, of 10-20 minutes each. If anyone claims to have better succes then that, I would really appreciate some advice on how to increase my awareness during the day/sleep. Perhaps even how to recognize dreams or prepare my mind during the day/night before sleep for lucid dreaming. I find that lucid dreaming allows me to experience the waking life more vividly and with more enjoyment aswell. So, how did you go about reaching that kind of succes? I hope all is familiar with the term "lucid dreaming." It is basicly a dream where you are aware of your surroundings, can use your five senses and have acces to your memory. The experience can be intense, sometimes even more vivid then the waking world. As your mind is the creator of this dream world, your psych can perceive whatever it wants to perceive. If you think you've never had a lucid dream, stick around. Perhaps someone got some interesting words on this topic you might want to hear. I found that meditating on the awareness of the 5 senses, and the dream-like nature of the waking world will increase the lucidity during night tremendously. But on busy days I almost go about the routines, forgetting all. How do you go about doing this? Keeping a meditative mind even during activities that require so much attention and focus.

I've discerned four ways people look at astrology... 1. The traditional way. This is based on the conviction that knowledge decreases and not increases in the human society, i.e. that it's only the illusion of an increase of knowledge we're dished out in modern times, not the actuality. The illusion is created and perpetuated by the technology-obsessed overlords so we are conditioned to believe that because we watch TV and talk to recorded voices on answering machines, we are more intelligent and know more about the world than our ancestors who watched the movement of the stars and talked to the gods. The traditionalist doesn't buy it and looks to ancient knowledge for real understanding, ignoring the overlords' and the conditioned masses' opinion. I am in this category vis a vis astrology. I know a guy who has made it a lifelong quest to collect documentation pertaining to Destroyed Libraries -- there's been hundreds of thousands throughout human history -- I'm a bit like him in that I look to knowledge they eliminated on purpose, not to the kind they propagated instead. Astrology related knowledge was being forbidden and destroyed throughout centuries. Possessing taoist astrology books was punishable by death during the rule of several dynasties. To me it always means the best recommendation of the study material anyone can offer. 2. The new age way. This is based on the conviction that knowledge accumulated by humanity is nothing much compared to what I, personally, can accomplish. Astrology may be right and good, but it's minor compared to what I, personally, can do to overrule it. I am so amazing, so wonderful, so superior to everything that went before that there's no reason for me to pay heed to any ancient knowledge -- I can outknow and outperform it all anytime. All you need is love, tralalalala, all you need is love, trululululu, all you need is love, love, love is all you need. Not that they love their neighbor any more than the average Joe does, but they use this (or some such) approach to establish their superiority to anyone bothering with anything in order to understand anything. Why bother? All you need is... fill in the blank... all you need is to be me, or someone singing my tune, and you've arrived. 3. The dismissive stance. The self-proclaimed "scientific method" aficionados, followers of the doctrine of Biomechanical Fundamentalism, have been told it's all bunk, and won't investigate, because the people who told them so hold degrees. They operate on the assumption that the academia somehow generates the truth. That they themselves may be in it for salaries and positions and tenures and sabbaticals and perks, but certain abstract "scientists" are in it for the truth, that they go to college and then do research and studies and so on in order to produce it, not in order to make a living and hopefully a career. These are perhaps the most idealistic people of them all, for they believe that others ("scientists") are better than they themselves are -- more honest, more courageous, more intelligent -- and so they take their word for anything they will declare about astrology and carry the message to the world for free. They are the overlords' dream come true: they police others and themselves for the sanctioned/prescribed knowledge (minus all the burned libraries and all the burned astrologers) to remain the only kind without being prompted any further -- initial conditioning is enough, they will "maintain" for the rest of their lives. 4. The bogus-astrology way. You know, all those "your horoscope for the month of July" columns published in general circulation magazines, and all those dabblers who write books about "your Sun sign" or "your Animal sign" and the countless websites whose source of study is those very books, and all the rest of it. This is not astrology, of course, but 99% of all consumers have been exposed to exactly this kind and told that that's what asrology is. Some bogus-astrology practitioners are in it for the business only and know it (e.g. the ones who write the columns) while others, having learned a lil' bit, feel equipped and empowered to "really" do it and so deceive honestly, i.e. they deceive themselves first and only then the recipient.

from: http://www.theresourcebasedeconomy.com/2010/12/you-never-really-own-anything/ This a great eye opener! Please enjoy! ================================= You never really own anything 28 Dec 2010 at 21:06 Ownership. Property. This is mine. This is yours. Do you think you own anything? You don’t. Ownership is an illusion. So is property. Why? Because all the things you use are only used by you temporarily before they are passed on or thrown away. Be it food, clothing, cars, property, furniture, cell phones, air, water. You never say to anyone ‘Don’t breath here! This air is mine!’. Of course not. Air is still free, and no one claims to own it. Water is also in a large degree free, but is becoming more and more privatized. Food, clothing, cars and land has become utterly privatized. Still. You don’t, and never will own anything of it. You use it. You don’t own it. At best, all you can say about ownership is that ‘this is in my possession now and as long as I am using it’. That is the most ‘ownership’ there is. Everything that you ‘own’ is only ‘yours’ temporarily. It is only borrowed or rented. Your food goes into you and comes out again. So does the water. Even your body is on loan. When you die it goes back into the circulation. Ownership is an illusion. Still, it’s an illusion bought by humanity. But it is no more than an agreement that say’s that ‘ok, we will have a system here that gives some the right to claim vast resources of the planet for themselves, while others get nothing’. There’s no ownership in nature. There’s only coexistence, with every part fulfilling their task, and every part being fulfilled in doing so. In a moneyless society and resource based economy this is how we will look at ownership, since this is the only ‘ownership’ there is and ever will be. Having a paper that say’s you own something doesn’t make it more ‘yours’ in the big scheme of things. Whatever you ‘own’ can be lost in the blink of an eye. Today ownership is almost equal to accessibility. The more you own, the more access you have to things in life. The more land you own, the more cars you own, the more houses you own, etc. The problem is that you are only one person and cannot possibly make 100% use of all the things you own. Even if you only own one car and a guitar. You will never be able to use whatever you own all the time. If, however, you didn’t own anything, but had access to virtually everything this planet and humanity can offer, you would ‘own’ more than the richest people on this planet will ever own. I’ll say this again, because this is the most important thing there is to grasp when it comes to concept of non-ownership: If you didn’t own anything, but had access to virtually everything this planet, and humanity, can offer, you would own more than the richest people on this planet will ever own. The whole planet would be yours to use. Of course, this means that all borders and visas would have to go too. In a resource based economy everyone will have access to virtually everything on this planet. Today we think that if this was the case, everyone would rush to the same places and go for the same things, because that is what is seemingly happening today. ‘Everyone’ seem to run after the same things. And sometimes, yes, some things are more popular than others. But we must remember that a lot of this is due to advertising and promotion seeking a certain behavior among the population fulfilling the profit motive of the capitalistic system. One example of a moneyless system in today’s society is the library. Sometimes you have to wait for books to come back, yes, but more than often the books you want to borrow are there for you. If the whole world was like the library, you might have to wait a while going to a certain beach or holiday resort if it was full for the time being. But, there would be lot’s and lot’s of other places to visit in the mean time, just like there would be lot’s of other interesting books to read while you were waiting for the one you wanted. Maybe you’d find other, even more interesting books to read, and places to visit, in the mean time. The idea of ownership builds on the notion of scarcity. The thought that there is not enough of places and books for every one of us. Therefore, it is best to hoard as much as we can while we can. If we don’t, we risk being without, not having access and having to live a poor life. Not owning anything could be the best experience humanity has ever had. It would result in the most abundant lifestyle anyone on this planet could ever dream of. Not owning anything is a notion built on the opposite of scarcity. It is a thought that when we share, everyone will have many times more than what we would ever have if we were to own everything we wanted. This includes the richest of the richest people on this planet. No one, I repeat, n o o n e, can own the whole planet. Even though someone certainly tries to do just that, it will never happen. In any case no one would ever be able to use the whole planet for themselves only. You can’t swim on all the seas, climb all the mountains or eat all the food. Some people try to own as much as possible, thinking this will bring the best lifestyle for them, not realizing that sharing will bring more to everyone, even them. Of course, we can not all have our own private jet or private beach. But we would have access to more jet’s and beaches than we could ever use in a world with no ownership. So, since we don’t own anything anyway, since ownership is nothing more than an illusion bringing lack to the world, why not simply abandon it. Of course, this is not something that is done over night. Many people are ready for it, even rich people. But just as many people are afraid of it and far from ready. For it to happen this thought has to manifest itself throughout the population and take root. Humanity have to break free from the thought of money, property and ownership and open it’s eyes to the new virtually unlimited possibilities a moneyless society and a resource based economy can offer.

I mentioned recently on another thread, I've been waking up in the mornings repeatedly to a vivid dream where I'm reading ancient scrolls and modern textbooks right in front of my eyes, but I can't seem to understand the words in any understandable sequence. Someone mentioned that it might be somehow tapping into the Akashic records. I'd like to know more about it too. Or someone also said it could be remembrance of a prior life. Either way, it's odd.

Hi there all, I just wanted to add, I do know that there are things going on with OBE and ream sleep work, that have and can be used to cultivate your whole body and mind... There are people out there who have become so good at this it is amazing... I have had people OBE right to my house to look for an unfriendly spirit that was hanging out. And they not only sent him away. They told me things that they would not know if they where not here. Like we had a leak last Summer, and they let me know we had bad mold under our house. This was true... I don't even know who these people are, any more than I know who you are... But I was helped just the same... Now back to the subject at hand... There is also a group of OBE people, who know how to exchange there healing knowledge for Qi or Chi or other things they may need. In your spirit body you can do, and take more from another. Than you can in your human skin. Still there are limitation to this. Such as you can only stay in OBE state for so long before your body wants it back. But I have found dream walking to be a new thing for me. But again your ream sleep only last so long. You can take things to keep it going longer like meletonin, or other things. That I myself haven't used yet, but know of. Like there are some that use. the plant bella to stay in ream. I know little about all of this really next to some, but I know it is growing the knowledge of all of this, and it is going on... Your friend Melanie P.S. I would like to add that a person that takes from another should always have an agreement with the other to exchange something in return. Or you would be hurting yourself more than them in the end...

from: http://www.technocracy.ca/tiki-index.php?page=Human+Motivation by: bill Desjardins Human Motivation in a Technate or Why People Will Work for Free /Part 2 So what incentive do these people have for what they do? Very little. There are numerous side benefits, such as status and prestige in some cases (such as programming or art), or some volunteer organizations are able to get special privileges or discounts for their volunteers. But by and large, there is no real “incentive” to do this kind of work for free. So what is left? Only initiative can explain the drive most of these people have for spending their time and energy with little or no material reward. So not only is initiative far more widespread than many people think as a motivation, it exists in an environment that actively discourages it. First of all there is the time trade-off. Time spent volunteering or similar activities can be easily spent attempting to earn money, or other form of material reward. This is particularly true of programmers, who often spend 60-80 hours out of their week programming. All the time they spend on their personal projects is time taken away from a job that may very well be paying them by the hour, or at least by completed projects, which obviously would happen less often if one is spending their time programming free software. I know that many if not most of them would prefer to be working on these projects because they prefer the process, the quality controls, and freedom from economic demands that make business programming a hassle and a strain. These programmers would, if they could, spend all of their programming time on these projects, but they know that they have to earn a living, so they get jobs, or attempt to sell some of their projects. There are also other reasons why such initiative-based work is discouraged. Outside of their respective circles, volunteers and free-product makers rarely receive any recognition for their efforts, even when they are just as deserving or even more so than the efforts of those working for pay. Not dealing with money, there is rarely any success in general advertising and marketing of their products, nor are they often mentioned in the press. Linus Torvalds was one obvious exception to this rule, but how many other free software designers have you heard of in the news? There is also the general unsaid bias in our society towards work that is paid for. It is generally regarded that if someone is working for pay, then it is good, honest work for which they are accountable, otherwise they would not be paid for it. Free products and services, on the other hand, are suspect, since the person “donating” these things has no accountability whatsoever. Herein too lies the major difference between incentive and initiative-based attitudes, and that is that accountability is an external motivator, whereas responsibility is an internal one. Upon closer examination of the communities that develop around such free-products, such as the Linux community, or the readership of a web-based comic strip, one notices that there is indeed a certain amount of accountability on the part of creator; if you don't create good stuff, no one will use it. But largely these people actually just like to produce good works, be it for the challenge, the sense of accomplishment, or even simple self-worth, there are many reasons people may state for the reasons behind their work. So now that we know that there are a fair number of people who have found the time and opportunities to give of themselves in some regard despite living in an environment that actively attempts to prevent it, the question arises as to how many others, if given the chance, would do the same? It is a common enough stereotype of the poor starving artist having to work at a crummy and menial job that drains him of his energy, health, and sense of self worth. Granted, this is far from true of all artists, but how many of us feel as though we would love to be doing something else if only we didn't have to spend so much time and energy earning a living? Very few people are currently working in their “dream job,” or even in a field that interests them. When asked why they don't pursue that field, the most common answer you would likely find is: “but I have to earn a living/enough money first.” There are also other factors that prevent this as well, most prominently the ever chaotic and fickle market. Some jobs simply are not profitable, or even entire fields. The arts is one that often falls under this category. Now ask these people if they would pursue their dream job/field if they were given for free all the education they needed for it, and then every opportunity to achieve in it, and likely many people would jump at the chance. Generally, the only people that wouldn't would fall into three groups. 1) Those who don't know what fields are available, and have thus never found something that really interests them. 2) Those who because of low self-esteem do not believe that they are worthy of any sort of achievement, or even choice. 3) People who have learned that the best way to earn a living is through “socially unacceptable” behaviour, i.e. crime. Each of these three categories are problems that can be solved, for the most part, but that we will get to later. Let us now look back at incentives. The failure on the part of the USSR and western social programs to motivate people indeed did provide a lack of incentive through their guaranteed incomes for people to work. The reason for this is because for the most part, the work that they were either assigned or given a choice of was, frankly, unappealing. Given a choice between destitution and a handy construction job, most people would take the latter. However, not many people find a lot of personal fulfilment in such work, and after a while the reasons to perform any quality of work become strictly external, i.e. fear of punishment or loss of job. However, even the latter motivator is removed when one guarantees the job, and gives birth to the phrase: “What are they going to do, fire me?” Now imagine for a moment what would happen if these people were allowed to attend school again to pursue any career they chose, be it arts, sciences, industry, or services. Do you think that their behaviour might change? Out of all the many groups we have discussed so far, including the artists, programmers, volunteers, etc., how many of them would jump at the chance to do this rather than remain at some menial labour or retail job? Now finally let us look at how the different conditions in a Technate would change the behaviour of people using all the factors just mentioned, in much the same manner as lead does once heated to a high temperature. With all the barriers of scarcity removed in a Technate, the quality of education would be unsurpassed. Every single citizen would receive the best quality education, teachers, and materials from day one, and all for free. Only the latest and most successful techniques in instruction would be used, and would be used equally in every school. They would be assessed at regular intervals, starting in early childhood, to determine each individual's strengths and weaknesses. They would be shown their strengths, how to take advantage of them, and where such strengths could be applied best. They would be shown techniques for overcoming their weaknesses, or working around them. Such information is available to us now today, but it is made scarce, available only to those who can afford it, and scattered, so that no one institution would be able to use them all. Thus the majority of our schools and universities often use outdated teaching methods, either due to lack of knowledge of anything better, or more often, insufficient funds to acquire individuals trained in these techniques, and the materials to support them. Each student would also be given a program of instruction that best suited their individual learning style, whether it be individual work, group work, or large group lectures. They would be given either books, movies, lectures, or even hands on experience depending on how they learn best. Mixtures of such styles would also be introduced in order to ensure that each student also develops flexibility, making them the best learners possible. And finally all such learning would be made fun for the student, something that often facilitates learning. During this process, and more so towards the later years in their education, students would be shown every aspect of the operation of the Technate. Field trips could be taken in mobile classrooms across the continent so that they can experience different places and things first hand. Through all this they would become familiar with all the various types of activity that people regularly participated in, as well as the importance of each. As they grow older, their interests will become more well-defined, and they can begin concentrating their studies more towards those topics which would help them in such fields. By the time the student is 25 years old, they will be fully trained and proficient for at least an entry level position in their chosen line of work. If they showed great talent and/or drive, they might even be started off at a higher position, or even started earlier. The upshot of all this is that every citizen is well aware of his or her choices, everything that is possible to do in a Technate. They are also fully aware of how the Technate operates, and which jobs are essential to its operation. This alone solves many of the problems we've previously looked at, namely lack of self-esteem, and not knowing what is available for them that would fulfil them. The complete lack of poverty prevents the majority of the third of the last list of problems, as few people would grow up in environments where crime “pays,” either by affording them sustenance, luxury, power, or even simple “cool” factor. The lack of crime would also help with this. Initiative would not only be freed up in all those that would have it normally at high levels, but would also be encouraged in everyone, so that even people with little inherent self-motivation would find it easy to participate in socially useful activities, and not simply “leech” off of the system. What we are left with then is a population with much higher levels of initiative than in the Price System, actively participating in the operation of the continental mechanism, and the pursuit of their own dreams. But lastly, what of incentives? Despite the emphasis on personal initiative throughout the Technate, there would indeed be externally based incentives. Things such as fame, respect, greater opportunities to achieve, and greater responsibilities are all external reasons for people to perform quality work in a Technate. Good scientists would be promoted to more advanced and interesting projects, excellent leaders would be placed in positions of greater responsibility (e.g. from Urbanate director to Area Control Director), and artists would have their name and works spread across the continent, perhaps even the world, to be enjoyed and praised by greater and greater numbers of adoring fans. Given all this there are many good reasons why people would not only participate in the operation of the Technate, but learn to excel as well. It comes down to what sort of behaviour does your environment encourage and reward? If that environment gives material and other incentives to anyone who can acquire the most transferable currency, then your system is going to “evolve” people that become better at this all the time, regardless of whether that activity is socially useful (or desirable), or how much you try to “fight” against it with laws and threats. However, if your environment not only encourages socially acceptable behaviour, but also supports it and rewards it as well, then your population will adapt to their new environment in order to become successful in it, and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Only in an environment of abundance can this be achieved, and only a carefully designed technological society can operate the complex of technology that makes such an abundance possible. Technocracy is the only known design that is capable of accomplishing this, of freeing millions of people to finally pursue their dreams, rather than merely a scarce supply of dollars. Bill DesJardins March 9, 2004

When I was much younger, life was rough for me. I spent my early childhood and teen years in an abusive and strictly religious household. After years of feeling not quite good enough, I decided I'd had enough and I prayed to God one night and although I can't remember my exact words said something to the effect of, "God I'm very sad and I don't want to live anymore. If you can't give me a reason to live I'm going to commit suicide tomorrow." I wasn't expecting an answer, in fact I expected to go to sleep, wake up the next morning and take a bottle of sleeping pills and drink some beer. That night as I slept I had a strange dream, in that dream I was stabbed by a man and I died and my body began to float, well bob is more apt, then suddenly I was someplace else. What I experienced was beyond description, except to say it was a vast empty space, no land, no up and down, just emptiness and throughout this emptiness there were balls of white light floating around. As I looked around, trying to take in what was happening, come to grips with what seemed quite strange, I realized that I was being drawn towards a being that was obscured from my sight by bright beaming light. As I came closer I felt an immense sensation of peace and calm coming from this being. The being spoke to me in my mind and said (to the best of my recollection), "Aaron, everyone is alive to learn a lesson. Until you learn that lesson you will keep coming back here and from here you will return to the world. When you return you are reborn either in the past or future. Once you learn the lesson, you will pass on from this place. If you commit suicide, you are only putting off the inevitable." That's all this being said. He never directed me to what the lesson actually was, nor did he tell me how to learn the lesson, only that there was a lesson to learn. For a young man raised in a strict southern baptist family, it was all so different and strange. Before that moment I'd never believed in reincarnation, in fact I would've thought it to be quite mad, but afterwards there has never since been a doubt in my mind what will happen to me when I die. To say that it changed my life is an understatement. I went from a God fearing Christian to a young man in search of the truth. The reason I mention this is that I can never prove to anyone that this actually occurred, it's my own private experience, a very powerful experience that has never left me. For me to diminish someone else's experience is not only wrong, but hypocritical. If someone says they've seen a dragon, then I believe they've seen a dragon. There's no argument there, nor any reason to argue the point. We each desire something out of life and oftentimes what we desire is completely different from everyone else. If we could accept that it's fine for people to be different, that our differences actually help to enrich our experiences, then I think the world would be a much happier place. I think in a way we are quite lucky to be alive now, because there are many places in the world that are moving towards that acceptance, even if it seems to be coming along slowly. As for my lesson, well who knows if I've learned it. I spent years trying to find out what it was and finally gave up and just gave in to living my life and learning what I could. No one needs to become enlightened, eventually, in my opinion, we all will be enlightened. Sometimes I think we're all just shards from the same great ball and that one by one, as we begin to remember where we come from, we return to there. I may be wrong, and if so, then so be it. I enjoyed everyone's posts on this thread. I was hesitant to post this, perhaps because of my ego, but in the end I thought it might be good to share, since it adds one more experience to the vastness of the human experience, something we are all a part of. Aaron

Part 5 By: Jacque Fresco/ The Venus Project MOTIVATION, INCENTIVE & CREATIVITY It is claimed that the so-called free-enterprise system creates incentive. This may be true, but it also perpetuates greed, embezzlement, corruption, crime, stress, economic hardship, and insecurity. In addition, the argument that the monetary system and competition generate incentive does not always hold true. Most of our major developments in science and technology have been the result of the efforts of very few individuals working independently and often against great opposition. Such contributors as Goddard, Galileo, Darwin, Tesla, Edison, and Einstein were individuals who were genuinely concerned with solving problems and improving processes rather than with mere financial gain. Actually, very often there is much mistrust in those whose incentive is entirely motivated by monetary gain, this can be said for lawyers, businessmen, salesman and those in just about any field. Some may question that if the basic necessities are accessible to all people, what will motivate them? This is tantamount to saying that children reared in affluent environments, in which their parents provide all the necessary food, clothing, shelter, nutrition, and extensive education, will demonstrate a lack of incentive or initiative. There is no evidence to support this fallacious assumption. There is overwhelming evidence to support the facts that malnutrition, lack of employment, low wages, poor health, lack of direction, lack of education, homelessness, little or no reinforcement for one's efforts, poor role models, poverty, and a bleak prospect for the future do create monumental individual and social problems, and significantly reduce an individual's drive to achieve. The aim of a resource based economy is to encourage and develop a new incentive system, one no longer directed toward the shallow and self-centered goals of wealth, property, and power. These new incentives would encourage people to pursue different goals, such as self-fulfillment and creativity, the elimination of scarcity, the protection of the environment, and the alleviation of suffering in their fellow human beings. People, provided with good nutrition in a highly productive and humane society, will evolve a new incentive system unattainable in a monetary system. There would be such a wealth of new wonders to experience, explore, and invent that the notion of boredom and apathy would be absurd. Incentive is often squelched in our present culture, where a person dare not dream of a future that seems unattainable to him or her. The vision of the future that too many see today consists of endless days of mindless toil, and a wasted life, squandered for the sake of merely earning enough money to survive from one day to the next. Each successive period in time creates it's own incentive system. In earlier times the incentive to hunt for food was generated by hunger; the incentive to create a javelin or a bow and arrow evolved as a process supportive to the hunt. With the advent of an agrarian society the motivation for hunting was no longer relevant, and incentives shifted toward the cultivation of crops, the domestication of animals, and toward the protection of personal property. In a civilization where people receive food, medical care, education, and housing, incentives would again undergo change and would be redirected: People would be free to explore other possibilities and lifestyles that could not be anticipated in earlier times. The nature of incentive and motivation is dependent upon many factors. We know, for example, that the physical and mental health of an individual is directly related to that person's sense of self-worth and well-being. Furthermore, we know that all healthy babies are inquisitive; it is the culture that shapes the particular kind of inquiry and motivation. For example, in India and other areas of great scarcity there are many people who are motivated not to accumulate wealth and material property; they renounce all worldly goods. Under the conditions in which they find themselves, this is not difficult. This would seem to be in direct conflict with other cultures that value the accumulation of material wealth. Yet, which view is more valid? Your answer to this question would depend upon your frame of reference, that is, your culturally influenced value-system. Many experimental psychologists and sociologist have shown that the effects of environment play a major role in shaping our behavior and values. If constructive behavior is appropriately rewarded during early childhood, the child becomes motivated to repeat the rewarded behavior, provided that the reinforcement meets the individual needs of the child. For example, if a football were given to a child who is interested in botany, this would not be a reward from the child's point of view. It is very unfortunate that so many individuals in our society today are not appropriately rewarded for their creative efforts. In some instances individuals are seemingly able to overcome the shortcomings of their environment in spite of an apparent lack of positive reinforcements. This is due to their own "self-reinforcement" in which they can see an improvement in whatever activity they are engaged in, and achieve an intrinsic sense of accomplishment; their reinforcement does not depend on the approval of others, nor on monetary reward. Those children who do depend on the approval of a group tend to be afflicted with a sense of low self-esteem, while children who do not depend on group approval usually acquire a sense of self-approval by improving upon their own performance. Throughout history, there have been many innovators and inventors who have been ruthlessly exploited, ridiculed, and abused while receiving very little financial reward. Yet, they endured such hardship because they were motivated to learn and to discover new ways of doing things. While creative individuals like Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo, and Beethoven received the generous sponsorship of wealthy patrons, this did not diminish their incentive in the least. On the contrary, it empowered them to reach new heights of creativity, perseverance and individual accomplishments. This is a difficult concept to grasp because most of us have been brought up with the value system that has given us a set of notions about the way that we ought to think and behave about money and motivation. These are based upon ancient ideas that are really irrelevant today. It has been stated that war generates creativity. This deliberately falsified concept has no basis in fact. It is government financing of war industries that helped to develop many new materials and inventions. There is no question that a saner society would be able to create a more constructive incentive system if our knowledge of the conditions that shape human motivation were applied. In this new social arrangement of a resource-based economy, motivation and incentive will be encouraged through recognition of, and concern for, the needs of the individual. This means providing the necessary environment, educational facilities, nutrition, health care, compassion, love, and security that all people need. Comments? Thoughts?

Before you move somewhere looking for a teacher have you traveled and spent time there ? A lot ? I've been going to mainland China for about 5 years now. I visit Taoist mountains and temples, make friends, visit with monks and nuns, and of course practice what I already know as much as possible. I have always had the dream of finding some amazing teachers, and have even setoff on some adventures searching for them. It never happened. . But, I just returned from two week trip to China yesterday, and feel that things really fell into place on this trip. I met some amazing teachers all of whom approached me. Maybe it was being in the right place at the right time, maybe I was finally ready to meet them, maybe it was just luck. Whatever happened the foundation has been laid for some incredible growth and learning. My advice - travel as much as possible, don't have any expectations, and learn mandarin !

I've read all his in print books and most of his out of print books. I used to collect them actually! Had so many of his very rare books. I had a really cool dream with Gurumayi the other night... actually... I guess the night of Christmas? It took place on the night/early morning of December 26th though I suppose in our time zone on the East Coast of the USA. I've got nothing but respect for what Baba Muktananda did for the knowledge of Kundalini in the West. He awakened my mother in 76' to a process deeper than the mundane.

I hadn't considered that the dreams are a memory - maybe they are. It would be just like me to spend a lifetime pouring over scrolls and being happy as a pig in mud. But either way, I do have a sense of inputting into my psyche, and the words seem to be only about a foot from my eyes in the dreams. It feels like I'm in a cosmic library of sorts. Wish I consciously knew what all this stuff says. I'll bet it's in there subconsciously and that it's been retained from the dream or re-emerging from the past life memory. It's just odd.

Hello Mrs Manitou! Have you considered your dream to maybe be a memory? I dont know what is taoist stand on past lives and wherther you personally believe in them. But in my opinion there is a lot of remeberances in dreams(as well as posibillity of OBEs and learning in different dimesions ,as we are multidimensional beings ).This is more prone to happen or be noticed once most of lifes likes and dislikes are dissolved and some spaceoussness is reclaimed. I cant remeber ever dreaming scriptures but have had multidimensional expirience and OBE where I learnt something,gained deeper sort of understanding. Anyway I am growing to like and learning a lot about Taoisam through you guys on here.And like your Sage with three tresures"Never too much","Never be the first" and "Love".It seems very relaxed and non imposing.I like anything relaxing.

Wow. There is some really good information on this thread. Thank you again to everyone who has taken the time to input your contributions. After this thread started yesterday, I woke up this morning visualiziing a lotus flower. I had the understanding at the same time that the lotus flower is an analogy for our spine, brain stem, and brain. When the practitioner gets to the point where he has no personal foibles left, no judgments, no arrogance about 'being the first', no bigotry, no selfishness, no sarcasm, no ego....this is when the lotus-brain can fully open. The petals are receivers for all data, unencumbered by the jadedness of a particular point of view. When ego blockages and personality defects are in the way, the lotus is only able to open halfway and therefore the reception of data is restricted and colored by preconceptions. Normally, I no longer dream. Or if I do, I no longer remember them. I wish I could. But on three occasions within the last year a strange thing has happened. Twice I've awakened in the morning being aware that I have been reading ancient scrolls in my dream. The scrolls are close to my face, and the words in the scroll flash in front of my eyes, much like the streamer on CNN. I recognize the words, but the part of my brain that can string the words into an understandable sentence is not awake, apparently. This has happened twice, the ancient scrolls. Yesterday I woke up reading not an ancient scroll but a college textbook about something very heady. Again, I remember understanding each and every word (and they were lengthy and academic words in the textbook) but not being able to attach them together into an understandable sentence. In other words, I think the information is getting into my psyche in some fashion, but not with my cohesive awareness. Has anyone experienced anything similar? I say this because of the mention of someone in the thread that one can't become enlightened unless certain things are read, certain truths are known. For those of us who utilize the Sage as our model, and do so earnestly, we haven't studied these particular works mentioned which are necessary for enlightenment (according to some). However, the Sage possesses the three treasures of 'Never Too Much', 'Never be the First', and 'Love'. By reading, studying, and internalizing the Tao Te Ching, is it not possible to develop these three treasures? Is this that different from the concepts of Buddhism that may get you to the same place? To walk around in the mindset of the above three treasures would create a balance that is perfect. The Tao Te Ching is all about how to live life in the most spiritually expedient fashion, the way that works for the utmost balance. If one has gotten to the point where they are truly 'Never the First', there is no anxiety about getting somewhere on time, of feeling that there isn't enough time to do something. If they have internalized the concept of 'Never Too Much', the pig within us has been contained. And selfishness is overriden by Love, if we purge our personality of the selfishnesses that stand in the way of clarity. The Sage can get to the point where he loves others AS himself. He knows that the other IS himself.

Yes.. By comprehending causes and conditions, even causality collapses and is 'unestablished'... http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-ENG/loy10.htm The irony of Nagarjuna's approach to pratitya-samutpada is that its use of causation refutes causation: having deconstructed the self-existence or being of things (including us) into their conditions and interdependence, causality itself then disappears, because without anything to cause/be effected, the world will not be experienced in terms of cause and effect. Once causality has been used to refute the apparent self-existence of objective things, the lack of things to relate-together refutes causality. If things originate (change, cease to exist, etc.), there are no self-existing things; but if there are no things, then there is nothing to originate and therefore no origination... ... In Derridean terms, the important thing about causality is that it is the equivalent of textual differance in the world of things. If differance is the ineluctability of textual causal relationships, causality is the differance of the "objective" world. Nagarjuna's use of interdependence to refute the self-existence of things is equivalent to what Derrida does for textual meaning, as we have seen. But Nagarjuna's second and reverse move is one that Derrida doesn't make: the absence of any self-existing objects refutes causality/differance. The aporias of causality are well known; Nagarjuna's version points to the contradiction neces-sary for a cause-and-effect relationship: the effect can be neither the same as the cause nor different from it. If the effect is the same as the cause, nothing has been caused; if it is different, then any cause should be able to cause any effect. [18] Therefore pratitya-samutpada is not a doctrine of "dependent origination" but an account of "non- dependent non-origination." It describes, not the interaction of realities, but the sequence and juxtaposition of "appearances" -- or what could be called appearances if there were some non-appearance to be contrasted with. Origination, duration and cessation are "like an illusion, a dream, or an imaginary city in the sky." (MMK VII:34) What is perhaps the most famous of all Mahayana scriptures, the Diamond Sutra, concludes with the statement that "all phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble and a shadow, like dew and lightning." As soon as we abolish the "real" world, "appearance" becomes the only reality, and we discover a world scattered in pieces, covered with explosions; a world freed from the ties of gravity (i.e., from relationship with a foundation); a world made of moving and light surfaces where the incessant shifting of masks is named laughter, dance, game. [19]

And what happens if, like martial arts, you do not seek them to show off or domineer over others, but so that, in situations like your dream president example, you can act and know that those who you want to protect will safely be protected? Just because someone might take powers, or martial arts ability, and abuse them, does not mean they are without merit in and of themselves, or that one should not seek them because they can be abused. I must again refer to a film that I find to be a powerful example of the point I'm trying to make, The Counte of Monte Cristo (2002 Film). The man's only crimes were that he was content with his life (he had always been poor), he met with recent success (was a trustworthy sailor and got promoted to captain over his first mate), and was loved by a childhood sweetheart. His colleagues and even best friends, wracked with jealousy, hatched a plot that he was powerless to stop. It was only after he became educated (gaining mental superiority), and learned to fight (gaining physical superiority) that he was able to win in the end. (the film takes a slightly different turn than the original novels did, but anyway) My point remains that humility is good. Non-violence is good. But what happens when you are targeted BECAUSE of that? I think there is nothing wrong with having "power" to protect yourself (and others) against that. Now you might choose to use it defensively or go off and seek revenge or use it to show off and gain social status and all sorts of other stuff, but that's up to you. The powers, in and of themselves, aren't inherently not worth it because of the actions individuals take to have it.

a couple of years ago when all this stuff was new to me, I was a bit obsessed with John Chang's video and as much as I didn't want to admit it, I really wanted powers like he had. Here's why... 1. because then I could show off to my friends and they would be like, "HOLY SHIT!" and then worship me. 2. I could show women and cause them to be in awe over my mystical power which in turn would cause them to want to have sex with me. 3. I'd feel better about myself because CLEARLY I would be better than all those good-looking, rich assholes who think they're better than me. And then I had this crazy dream where I actually HAD the powers. In the dream I saved the president of the United States by creating a wall of QI around my back and then I leapt in front of the president's podium just as an assassin's bullet was about to strike him. Yes, my friends, I saved the president's life by using my qigong powers. And also in the dream was this girl I was digging at the time. She was in my Reiki class but I didn't get a chance to ask her out cuz she didn't take Reiki 3(or i'm a wimp. take ur pick). Anyways in the dream she saw what I did and was like, "wow, you're hot." and I was like, "yeah, that's right, hunny." and she was all into me. Then suddenly the dream went fast-forward and in the future I came to realize that she didn't really like me for me, she just liked me for my powers! And even the people I'd helped, like the president and even some of my friends were there too, and they were all jealous and secretly hated me because I was flaunting my powers and acting like a dick, and of course because I was so intoxicated with power I didn't even realize how much of a dick I was acting like. And then I woke up feeling really crappy about myself. After that I stopped desiring powers - period. After the dream they seemed like cheap parlor tricks to me, but I now realize that they are what they are but it is my intentions behind the use of those powers that cause them to appear that way. My final words of wisdom is this: even though i have no powers, I feel like I have had them and having felt like I'd had them I can reassure you that they're overrated and the glory we think we'll experience will backfire by the very projection of desiring a glorious display of power. Why? Because people don't wanna feel like you're better than them! Booyah!

Otis- great thoughts, and nice example Now see that's a good way of looking at it, but in my humble opinion, that's only good if you're talking about theory. Let's say that you want to have a lucid dream, for instance, and you trust it to happen spontaneously and then.... it doesn't! What then? Let's take it a bit further, let's say you are practicing an IMA, let's say that you are giving into wu wei or however you want to phrase it, and you need to perform the right technique at the right time, trusting that it will spontaneously.... and then it doesn't? You might argue that finding a way of doing something takes away from its spontaneity, so why bother trying to find a way to do it? But I do not agree with that viewpoint. You can do something consciously, but also be able to do it spontaneously. So how do you, not only do something spontaneously, but have a way of finding out that you CAN do it should the circumstances arise in which you need to do it? And then, taking it further, subsequently practice so you know how it works, and know that it can work and in what ways in can work when you do so spontaneously?

All righty, so I've been pondering a few things recently, and I'd like to share. I'm sure most of us are familiar with things like emptiness meditation, meditation following the breath, meditation focusing on the dantien, all while letting go of thoughts and things like that. And that's all well and good. But at the same time, there are things which involve something being done. Take lucid dreaming for example. In order to lucid dream, you have to become lucid during a dream (bit of tautology for you ). Yet if you go to bed and just decide to empty your mind, you may or may not become lucid (in my humble experience), yet even if you do go to bed thinking, "I am going to become lucid", you might not necessarily become so either (in my humble experience). Same goes with energy work (the topic of which has, I know, been kicked around some)- if you just empty your mind and do some of the above practices, will energy circulate, or do you have to do a specific energy circulating practice to do any effect? Yet if everything is one/empty/whatever, (and I think the above types of emptiness meditations are quite nice), and you practice emptiness meditation and your practices involve that, how (if at all), do you get stuff done/have stuff happen?

Love- make love, love your neighbor, love yourself Harmonize- learn to communicate with others, make music, be at peace with yourself Have fun- what's the point of being alive if there's no passion and joy Enlightenment- get in touch with your spiritual self, dream, These are only a few of the reasons why we have decided to be alive

I was just saying that knowledge is like a hallucination*, and I am especially referring to concrete and specific knowledge. Our knowledge is valid for us right now and we shouldn't ignore it. At the same time, there are two important considerations about what we concretely know right now: it's not permanent and it's not "how it always was, is, and will be", and also it's impossible to gain ultimate certainty in any knowledge that pertains to concrete and/or specific things. As knowledge becomes more abstract, it's possible to be more certain. By the time you can be 100% certain, the knowledge you are certain of is so abstract that it cannot be expressed in terms of any specific concrete thing or statements. People are always caught up in the specifics. For example, computers, keyboard, fingers, street names, up, down, Boston, London, and so on. Even things like breathing, sitting, standing, all these are concrete and specific forms of knowledge that aren't as abstract as say knowledge of space or love. When you know the nature of experience, how all meanings arise in interrelations and yet how nothing specific can be taken as ground out of which everything arises, in other words, no knowledge can be proven to be ultimately first or ultimately primary knowledge, that's a very very abstract kind of knowing. It's almost like not knowing anything. In this knowing you can be very certain. *Hallucinations are real in the sense that they do occur, but they're deceptive in the sense that if you make conclusions based on what you see, you will be either wrong or disappointed. So for example, in the desert mirage you see water. It's real in the sense that the vision is occurring, but if you try to drink that water, you'll be disappointed. So that's the quality of illusion. Illusion is not something that's completely fake. There is some truth to it. Inside an illusion there are its own rules and habit energies playing out, but if you try to take things inside an illusion at face value, there is disappointment. So things in an illusion do not exist in the manner they appear to exist, but the fact that an experience is actually occurring is not a lie. For example, if you pour some water into a pot and set the pot on a hot stove, it will boil. If you snap your fingers together, you'll hear the sound of snapping. There are roughly two kinds of views about the nature of this dependency. One view is that such dependency is hard, established, and always true. This is the view of the physicalists. The physicalists believe that the universe with all its laws is always there and it's always the same and stable. Thus, what you intend has no affect on the water temperature, for one example. Another example, if it takes 10 minutes to get water to boil now, it will also take 10 minutes on the same kind of stove to boil the same amount of water in 100 years from now and in 1 trillion years. So there is the assumption of perpetual immutability of these kinds of dependencies. And phenomenal laws are assumed to be disconnected from our own minds. So physicalists take what they see at face value when it comes to waking experience and they dismiss the dreaming experience as irrelevant and uninformative. Now there is another view about this. This other view explains that what we observe with water is not an immutable law of physics that's inherently established in and of itself, but rather it's a condition in the mind. We can call this condition habit, or habit energy. So why does water behave as it does? It's the habit of mind. With a lot of work it's possible to change the habit of mind and thus make the water behave differently. It's very easy to understand this if you think about what happens in the dream. In your dream there is physics too, right? You walk around in your dream and so you don't float in weightlessness. So there is gravity in dreams. If you learn to lucid dream and pay attention, you'll notice that light in your dream throws off perfectly formed shadows. So how is it that dreams look perfectly physical like that? Do our brains model physics while we dream? Of course not! The answer to this is much simpler. There is no physics. There is no brain. All that exists is mind to begin with, and the experience of stability and reliable predictable patterns is nothing other than habit. Habits come in degrees. Some are more ingrained habits, deeper habits. Some are shallower habits and easier to influence or change. Thus, in your dream even though there is gravity, if you know you're dreaming, you can fly. So all phenomena in dreams and in waking have this kind of psychological quality. What we experience is based on our beliefs, on habits we've accumulated and consented to over long time, on our intent and so on. Psychological factors like confidence and sincerity play a role in how we move and in whether or not we're successful in the illusionary "real world." So the non-established nature of phenomena doesn't just talk about impermanence in the sense of constant perishing, it also talks about intentional malleability and endless renewal. But our intent still has to cope with habit. Or in other words, our intent has depth to it, and what we normally call "intent" is only the surface layer of our true intent. A lot of our intent is committed to maintaining our habits but this is not obvious to the uninitiated. We think our intent is just that which makes us run around and do things. But our intent is far deeper and has far greater scope than that.

Lysergic acid compounds and other tryptamines have been used by shamans around the world since the ancient times. A shaman should be full of life and egoless. I may be stepping on some toes here but i think anyone who considers themselves a spiritual teacher should be able to handle some tripping. If they cant then they havent even given up their egos yet. enlightenment is a human birth right. If you are actually willing to confront your shadow, forgive your self, have fun, and do an occasional alchemical workout then spiritual development is a piece of cake. LSD, magic mushrooms, and dmt, molecules are all related. they are tryptamines. they arent inherently bad or good. they are a mirror of your soul. Dmt is called the spirit molecule. It is the molecule that makes us dream. It can be found in any plant or animal on earth. It is our most precious link to our spiritual selves. It is the physical manifestation of our spirit-body connection. Dmt is the most potent tryptamine. people who use it recreationally report astral travel, divine visions, and kundalini activity. We literally trip several times every night when we sleep. Lsd, and mushrooms produce similar dream like hallucinatory trances. Would you trust a spiritual teacher who has bad dreams every night and is afraid of his own shadow. However a word of caution. if you havent found your center, then psychedelics might drive you insane. Its not for every one, but don't diss shamans because we aren't afraid of being human beings. peace and love

How do we "know"? How do we "know" what this moment is? That there is a me, or rather "thisness"? Or that this is now and there was a past, and that there will be a future? How do we see movement from one point to the next? How do we know that there is a person sitting in front of me, that it is a person and not a statue, a dream, an imitation? Where do we delineate between this moment then the next, from one thing to another? How do we know if there is or there isn't a universal consciousness, or whether if we are the only consciousness, or that there are separate mindstreams? How do we know whether or not the person in front me is a hallucination, or whether or not I am the butterfly and not the dreamer? Xabir, How is there the knowledge of dependent origination, of Maha? Of interconnectedness if in sitting there is JUST sitting, that in hearing there is JUST sound? If in thinking there is JUST thinking. Where do we draw the boundaries of that "just beingness? Where is the boundary of the experience of hearing and then to the experience of smelling? We can't draw any boundaries... Gold, what you seem to be saying is that we cannot know; there is never a certainty. We cannot know that we know, so we know that we don't know and then there is nothing established and nothing to be negated! Establish the unestablishment, negate negation! Empty the emptiness! Hence the right view takes us to the brink of collapsing everything into uncertainties...and even that view is unestablished...! The entire process of Thusness's stages is the stripping of establishments: the I Am deconstructs our materialist universe, the first stanza strips away an inherent dooer, the second stanza deconstructs everything down to momentary experience! But this is not enough, because even this very experience cannot be grasped because sound is never JUST sound, there is a potential to it, a context to it. Tarin can say all he wants about just feeling the senses..but does he not write about it? Doesn't he return with a perspective on it? It still leaves him imprints, tendencies...there is never JUST experiences of "sound"....to Tarin there is no such thing...there is still an establishment of a view or the real way to experience, and a false way... But, and I think this is very very important, this sense of interconnectedness does NOT arise from establishing a universe, a background, or anything. We do not think universe or a set of causes and conditions and say "A + B + C = D"...It comes from a sense of uncertainty, of ungraspable nature of things. Hence the word dependence is used. Dependent on WHAT? If this sound is not inherent, unestablished, it must arise from something, somewhere, from a cause, from a condition, but Xabir as you said, We don't know! There is no way of knowing because the new moment of "trying to know" arises. Dependence breeds dependence...so we say it is dependent, uncertain, unknownable! Thus the very presence is deconstructed to the uncertainty, uncertainty of this very moment itself! Where does it come from? Where does it go? But then it's GONE! Ungraspable, no boundaries...we are completely and totally OPEN to anything... BUT! the mind, no mind-phenomena-luminosity... still appears through delineation...it works through concepts...It draws the boundaries of "here" "now""sound", when stripped to its very bareness, the "non-dual" experience of things...and it MUST...it must because that is what experience is...we never really, truly experience movement, we experience an impression of a movement, we don't experience space...we experience the impression of space...a THIS...insight is into its ungraspability, D.O, emptiness, whatever else, unsubstantiated.. So they say the union of emptiness and luminosity..the uncertainty of certainty...viewless view.. So I get it! I get it now when Xabir, you asked me months ago what it meant that sound liberated sound, that touch liberated touch...just as the Buddha upon enlightenment touched the earth as a "witness" to his enlightenment, the arising and passing away fo experience certifies from moment to moment its own very uncertainty! Everything in a let go...let go..let goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :lol: .

The article is really just an overview and not meant to be used as a practice manual. he doesn't really go into specifics... A really good book I have that does is called The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Even if you regularly have lucid dreams, I think the book would be helpful since the book has methods for accessing rigpa while in the dream state and how to work with obstacles

The word "link" is where it gets really really tricky in my point of view, because it's not as if there is this one thing being linked to the next, but rather only the impression of a link via imprints of memory. There really is no link besides that, the whole world is linked via abstract "delineation" as Gold put it anyway, so no need to stress a single link above another. But think about the context in which the causes and conditions produce that dream. It is infinite as in, it is not only the waking state that conditions that experience, but the position you are sleeping in, the temperature of the room, a memory from a very distant past or just yesterday...one upon another, an infinite regression of dependence upon dependence...which includes the karmas, actions, deeds of all sentient beings in the very moment of that dream! And then the next moment, then the next and so on...a grand process but with nothing to be defined! All in one and one in all, Indra's net! Nothing is continuing but the sense of continuum is what I am trying to say.