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What worked for me (note, for me, might not be for everyone, but I'm sharing in the hope something resonates and helps because it's a horrible thing to go through IME). - Get a good acupuncturist - Get a half-decent therapist who won't freak out about the content of such things (if you're unsure that they will, practice telling them what you're going through in ways they understand, I know it defeats the purpose somewhat but Mal mentioned a lot of them have done their own dabbling- funny they don't tell anyone much about it :-)) - I'd look at the biology of kundalini website. I found it very helpful. And even helpful in general. But it probably requires more discernment if you're not scientifically minded, I wouldn't try everything on there, especially all the herbals. A lot of that gets discussed here anyway, in fact most of what we seem to discuss here is related to problems with practice :-) - Eat very good food - Temporarily rid yourself of emo vampires and the company of a44holes (you can always start hanging out with them again once you're feeling ok :-)) - Stay away from gurus and extreme physical/visualization practices - Know it's potentially part of the journey that you chose to embark about by taking up 'practice' (I know this doesn't help much when you're in the middle, but I think that's where the 'once started, better to finish saying comes in) - Know thyself. As Steve says, it doesn't matter what Buddha said, and it doesn't matter what Steve says either :-) Well, it does, but all of that is 'technique' and people sharing what works for them. At this point mr VJ, please do not jump in and say it works for everyone. Because if it does, then something's 'up' IMO. Weedkiller works too :-) - Salt baths - Lots of water (to drink) - Belly breathing - Physical exercise - Don't get caught in the scenery. I know that seeing big red goddess things is supposed to be some kind of marker, but it just freaked me out. I still dream of snakes on my path. You're also not obliged to deal with any of those. - Full compassion for yourself. The last thing other unfortunate people need IMO is someone in the throws of a dark night 'taking care of them' - each person's path is their own and interfering unless you're asked to is IME a bad idea (did I mention I'm no good at it either, but this time you did ask, so take what works and leave the rest :-)) It does get better :-)

omg somebody used the moon for nuclear weapons testing in your dream when you landed on the moon , did it clink? like hollow metal? if the astronauts had 6 arms and 2 legs how can you know if they were the spiders from mars?

The craters from that dream were a vision of Yucca flat. Which is easily found with Google earth. In the tradition of the dancing wu li masters! Working through the stuff from Robert Lazar about balanced thermonuclear reactors that use a matter antimatter reaction to create a propulsion field. The strong force is the force that binds the nucleus of atoms together. Unlike the other forces it does not diminish in strength with distance. Once a distance the size of a Hadron(think proton and neutron) has been reached the strong force remains stable. Any extra energy put into splitting the particles apart only create more force carriers. These additional force carriers are the continued presence of the strong force. Wu wei I hypothesize: The problem with creating stable heavier isotopes is the lack of a supporting mass. All of the particle experiments are doomed to failure because of the lack of the supporting mass. It is the bending of space time that greater amounts of mass create which allow for the heavier particles to aggregate into the heavier elements. It's easier to think about in terms of energy generation and walking in a circle.

The smile on pictures is just because you are closer to a subconcious or dream state while you are waking. Like in dreams, or lucid dreams, pictures form and morph along with your thoughts. So your eyes are scanning a head, and then creating a picture with the data in your bio-computer. Its nothing. Same happens to me when I meditate and then go out and see signs that seem to change words. The ghoulish guy in a forest is probably similar type thing, a pathway created by your subconscious, maybe in childhood, of the fear of being alone in the deep forest. Once the path starts, it will end up at the beast, and the triggers may be numerous. But I am just guessing. Maybe you can pray to a deity to help clear you of any beasties, just to make sure. So you took drugs, and was doing spiritual practise and got accelerated results, and now you are having trouble adjusting to all the energy. What you describe is likely you had an opening, and now the spiritual energies are rushing, helping you as fast as they can to clear out and create your energy body channels to support the new situation. As you can see, the mind can only control a little amount of a certain kind of energy, not the kind thats doing the work in your head. Good thing for that, because you wouldnt be making progress otherwise.

Herbert Benson says I should meditate! ;P How do I meditate? When I meditate, for example on a word, I try to visualize that word in front of me and focus on the pronouncing sound of that word. I hear it and see the letters, over and over again, untill I loose awareness over my relaxed body. Any other thoughts in my mind, I let go and focus back on my word. Another way is, let the thoughts run trough my mind, stay aware of all my senses and any input that is received. Even when the dream process begins, I allow my thoughts to enhance that without intervering, simply staying aware of the whole process my mind is going trough, even the thoughts. The first method, I don't really understand. Never found clear instructions about that one. You can do it trough all sorts of ways, like yoga, religious prayer, imagining sounds and focusing on that. Even jogging is a meditation on the repeating movement of your feet? Herbert Benson said something about a relaxation response. No idea what that is. Also, do I focus on the letters of the word, do I focus on the thought behind the word, do I focus on the sound of that word, do I focus on the smell of that word, do I focus on the taste of that word? I don't get it all. How does it feel after you have meditated right? Do you feel without much thought, do you still have acces to that creative self? Are you more aware, less distracted by stress, less distracted by the petty details of your life? Less distracted by your lofty aspirations?

Did i say that? I said Jalus is not an attainment. Just as calm-abiding or contentment is not an attainment. These are fruitions or effects of a spiritual life well lived. One simply keeps practicing and practicing until one day the perception of dualistic forms as separate from one's mind dissolves. How pure the body becomes is directly related to how far one reaches in stabilizing the Non-dual view of Great Equanimity, and most importantly, if this great view can be maintained at death. One can practice in non-dual awareness all of one's life, or cultivate all the siddhis in one life, but if at the point of death, there arises an ounce of doubt, or fear of loss, or that one has not done enough, or regret for losing all the siddhis gained, these become the very mindstates that will hamper the ultimate transference (phowa), which is the basis for Jalus to take place. I agree that simply reading books cannot lead to any real realizations. Yet its foolish to ignore the words of the great adepts who have been there done that. And one of the greatest adepts of all, Longchenpa, has this advice for you: "We should cast aside all childish games that fetter and exhaust the body, speech and mind; and stretching out in inconceivable non-action, in the unstructured matrix, the actuality of emptiness,where the natural perfection of reality lies, we ought to gaze at the uncontrived sameness of every experience, all conditioning and ambition resolved with finality." "Pure mind is like the empty sky, without memory, supreme meditation; it is our own nature, unstirring, uncontrived, and wherever that abides is the superior mind, one in buddhahood without any sign, one in View free of limiting elaboration, one in meditation free of limiting ideation, one in conduct free of limiting endeavor, and one in fruition free of limiting attainment. Vast! Spacious! Released as it arises! With neither realization nor non-realization; experience consumate! No Mind! Open to infinity." "In the universal womb that is boundless space all forms of matter and energy occur as flux of the four elements, but all are empty forms, absent in reality: all phenomena, arising in pure mind, are like that. just as dream is a part of sleep, unreal in its arising, so all and everything is pure mind, never separated from it, and without substance or attribute. Experience is neither mind nor anything but mind; it is a vivid display of emptiness, like magical illusion, in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable. All experience arising in the mind, at its very inception, know it as all-empty!" Longchenpa speaks of ultimate freedom: "Freedom attends reality: free at the core, any effort is wasted; timelessly free, no release is needed; free in itself, no corrective is possible; directly free, released in the very seeing; completely free, pure in nature; constantly free, familiarization is redundant; and naturally free, freedom cannot be contrived. Yet 'freedom' is just a verbal convention, and who is 'realized' and who is not? how could anyone be 'liberated'? How could anyone be lost in samsara? Reality is free of all delimitation! Freedom is timeless, so constantly present; freedom is natural, so unconditional; freedom is direct, so pure vision obtains; freedom is unbounded, so no identity possible; freedom is unitary, so multiplicity is consumed. Conduct changes nothing - our lives are already free! Meditation achieves nothing - our minds are already free! The View realizes nothing - all dogma is freedom! Fruition demands nothing - we are already free as we are!" These words alone will take lifetimes to permeate the conditioned mind which yearns for spiritual awakening, yet if due to meritorious ripening of karma from previous moments or lifetimes, one's wisdom mind at once realizes the profundity and utter simplicity upon reading these words, what is left to do?

one of the great things about Finnegans Wake is you can say more or less anything you like about it and no one will ever argue. A genuine stream of consciousness thread here is elevating the creative qi of the board so that over-literalism runs for the well, after trying to throttle us all into submission, it jumps in cowering, having an identity crisis and finds a sleeping snake who isnt really 'sleeping' but only 'snake - sleeping' which means alert as can be, setting up a dream like dualism that makes wakefulness a mere doze. the snake eats the over-literalism, indigestible and untasty as it is, and the light above the well goes sparkly gold so that all the people who believe what they see are no longer in good relationship with their vision. those shouty american cartoons, I want to call it 'the watsons' but I dont think that is the right name, it's hugely popular but I cannot watch even 20 seconds of it because the voices are repellant and the visuals just so unpleasant. I'd really rather look at the poo and penii of gilbert and george, any day. including monday.

Maybe reincarnation doesn't work like that. At death your ego and personality, are all lost. What remains is the base awareness of existence itself, that finds it's way to a new dream. The universe is a big place, and you wound up here in this world once before. You came from the nothingness, the emptiness, the void. When you die you shall return to it. Everyday millions experience this fact of life. You being incarnated has occurred at least once that we can say for certain, it happens all the time. Is it so illogical and irrational to think maybe it may occur again the same as it has in the past?

My financial enlightenment came from a dream: we cannot eat money. All you have to do is replace the word money with food and water, then you can complain all you want. Don't complain about a lack of money when you have no idea what it even is! People who travel and complain about money I just want to smack their faces and say "enjoy your money, I'm going to eat chicken." Alot of people fear their money is going away, since this is a monetary system. The real problem is food and water, we should fear that people die of hunger and disease because of lack of healthy food and water. Nature is whats real. Worry about food, then money. When the economy collapses, its not becauze we don't got enough food or money, its just that he whole system is one big failure or outdated. Some even believe the system is designed to keep us working as slaves, slaves that house their selves. Ultimate slavery. Soon we'll have to pay for air too. Then people will really seek financial enlightenment. I'm sure they'll have a perfectly good excuse for us paying for air. "Global warming! Now pay for air, because we've got kill some children who are potential terrorists. Bring them food and water for free? Hell no. Thats bad for the environment. Replace the working children in africa with robots? Hell no thats bad for the economy. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to eat my money du fromage. MMmmmm..." People wont protest unless their system collapses. Look at greece and spain. Took so long for the people to notice all the flaws. When a country suddenly goes bankrupt only then do they realize/accept they've become a modern slave.

I've found that neither money nor desire is the most important thing in life. Money is currently equal to debt. Desires change and never become satisfied. I seek that which does not change, it is within. With this inner truth any life is peaceful. So I just continue on pretending I don't know this is a dream. Unless someone asks ofcourse. I'm going to let this one slip my mouth. Sorry in advance Thanks for sharing the video. I've enjoyed listening to it

Ok, I can totally relate to that. I thought you ment follow your heart as in follow your desires. I know that everything out there is fake. Only our senses and present experiences or feelings are real. I practice lucid dreaming and addepting quickly to new realities. This practice has been really fruitful. Or dream yoga its called? Our thoughts are not in the present. Thoughts derive from the memory and hold the concept of past and future, while in the real world we cannot possible comprehend the true nature of time. I think the answer to this one really lies within. I totally overlooked this one though. Motivation has not got much to do with concentration from that perspective. The illusipn here is that some things are more fun then others. It is an ilusion from the memory that comes up while trying to focus on my goals. My ego was in the way here, I'm embarresed to admit. The topic title should be focus vs flexibilty. Let me share the concept here. Its the least I can do. As I said, my weakness is focus. For example: Goal: Reach the next country C. The road has a huge wall blocking. I start driving on the sand beside the road and make a stop at country G then Eventually I end up in country Z. Got flexibility but no focus. While someome who lacks flexibilty Goal: Reach the next country C. The road has a huge wall blocking. Oh my god a wall. What are we going to do now? My focus is on getting on the other side of the road. You try to ride up to the top of the wall and your engine explodes. Not even realizing that you can ride besides the road on the sand aswell. Focus, but no flexibility. Thanks for the great posts Otis. Very powerful advice indeed. You seem to write from a place of much experience. It is generous.

Hi Steve, I think that when people talk about "reality", they're rarely talking about the actual world (even though they think they are); they're only talking about their models of the world. If I say "get real", I mean: get with my version of reality. Reality (as I hear people use the word) is utterly personal, and shared by no two people. It exists only in mind, as you say. Which raises the question: is there even an actual world, something beyond the subjective reality? The only answer that makes sense to me is: it sure seems like it, but I can't say for sure. Since there is absolutely no way that I can be sure that I am not, say, a brain in a vat, being fed experiences, or that I am perhaps part of a simulation or deep in a dream; therefore I must always beg ignorant as to what cause has generated my experience of reality. I know that when I'm high or depressed or angry or horny or self-conscious or preoccupied, the world changes. Things look different; space feels different; pain, events, and people are received differently. Which suggests that my state of mind has a lot to do with how my reality appears. What I think is within my capacity, is to witness how much I add my preconceptions and emotional weight to experience, and then progressively try to reduce the interference of my biases. IME, that alone makes my life a lot easier, more joyful, and more interesting. But I don't see how any experience, no matter how clear, no matter how profound, no matter how "of course", could ever be deduced to be "truth". There's never an objective yardstick of Truth to compare any experience to.

Generally speaking,the higher the way it is , the less it has to touch upon things like levels or locations ( say the three dantians) , or functions / physical entities( the 5 organs) . The highest way , of course,is to start from " no where ", without touching anything ,even the " nothingness/ emptiness"; Some readers likely immediately think of the similar Zen's way, which is something as difficult as what we have mentioned . The result of adopting this way, based on the unpleasant experience that the Chinese experienced in the Zen Buddhism history , is that most of the practitioners are either trapped in the so-called Lunatic Zen "disease"(狂禪)(guys who boasted of their understanding of Enlightenment, Awakening , addicted to philosophical arguments with others , yet in fact are lack of any actual experience in Englightenment ..etc).. or degenerate into Verbal Zen (口頭禪) ( people who relate those daily life matters to and carelessly interpret them in Zen's terms , turning the indepth things into trivials ; which is ,in fact, a vulgarization of something great) . In a word, although not starting from dantian/ postures sound good , most likely,on most people, it doesn't get good results . So, most sifu, nowadays, still talk about things like lower dantian , upper dantian, the five-elements stuff...etc, which do reflect the being-entangled-in- the-post-heavenly-qi status that most people are situated when they start their practice. Of course, there will be one day , after decades of searching, a sifu does comes across a gifted disciple, then he may exceptionally preach a way of starting from nowhere... The more excellent a sifu/master is, the lonelier he is in this world , as Liu Yi Ming's writes in a poem : 看破浮生一也无，单身只影走江湖。 鸢飞鱼跃藏真趣，绿水青山是道图。 大梦场中常觉我，千峰顶上视迷徒。 Having seen through in life nothing real I lonely travelled across lakes and rivers Truth hides in , flying eagles and swimming fish Green water and mountain , where Tao hovers In a big dream , I always find myself alone awakening Like overlooking from top of mountains, I view the people down there, lost

dream yoga. A lot of teaching goes on. Not just in a class in the temporal realm either.

I am just trying to be rational here, I've never seen or heard of an over unity device that wasn't a fraud. Remember steorn's orbo? Fraud. Just about every free energy device that has been put to the test turned out to be a fraud, or didn't work. Now you can dream up crazy conspiracy theories for why there aren't plans for functional prototypes being shared or home brew devices powering homes and businesses all day but frankly it's getting old man. And it's a little silly I think to be honest. I am willing to entertain that maybe these technologies are being suppressed, even so it's irrelevant. The facts are, we haven't seen any free energy proven repeatedly to work, and been independently reviewed to work. Even if they aren't being independently reviewed because they are being suppressed by the government, or corporations, or Illuminati or lizard people is irrelevant. We do have a technology that was proven to work that solves our energy problems for thousands of years. All we have to do is make everyone aware of it, get people angry enough to yell at their representatives every day, and protest in droves and eventually we will have it. Free energy, over unity, ZPE or whatever else is most likely just fraud, I don't care who you have lecturing on how real it is, until they get their heads out of the sand and deliver some functional demo units in mass to engineers and scientists world wide it's BS as far as I am concerned.

I have on several occasions dreamt of something only for it to later happen on real life. The last dream I had like this was a few month maybe even years ago and it was of my current place of employment well before I had ever found anything out about it. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

No, but as someone who is skeptical of all such experiences (even when they happen to me), I would just like to present a line of questioning that you may or may not like to follow further (sorry for bugging you if you've already done this), but what kind of situations did you dream up, and what actually came to pass? For instance, if you are worried about your job shutting down or lots of people getting fired, and then it happens, well, look at the economy. What are the chances of that event happening, how likely is it that it occurred merely in concurrence with your own probability calculations for the future? Was the event spectacular or singularly surprising in any way, or is it an otherwise likely occurrence, it just happened to happen to you or people you know? Etc etc etc.

There are many Sutras that are considered the summation of all Buddhist thought, it just depends on your school. There's the Lotus Sutra, the Prajnaparamitahridaya Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, lots of them that are considered as such. Obviously from your dream and connection, this one is worth studying for you.

Ahh yes, I'm glad you pointed this out; this notion is truly so important... in contrast to rational identification, the automatic, faulty action of the computer-like illusory ego mind sees another and instantaneously judges and compares he or she in various contexts... initially and predominantly that of general superiority or inferiority, "am I better or worse?" often based on superficial and ultimately meaningless aspects such as physical appearance; attractiveness, height, weight, race, age, gender... though the ego knows no bounds as it constantly attempts to fill the void of infinity with self-serving and narcissistic affirmation, though this void can only truly be filled with union with the Tao, infinity itself; how else could one hope to appease an insatiable desire to experience infinity.. through the ego? Infinite suffering instead of infinite love and bliss, ceaseless desiring and greed of superficial status, materialism, drama, superiority, fame and all its decadence... Living as a slave to ego, one is molded by life rather than molding life oneself, reacting instead of acting.... always victim to external circumstance. What if one were mentally trained to see all others as himself? Or even seeing life as just the dream it truly is? What to judge then? The old adage, treat others as you yourself would want to be treated... truth lies therein, in that you are more connected to other people than one might ever know, and it is embracing this connection that allows one to further unify with the Tao, rather than excluding oneself from society, being a recluse, pariah, as if spiritual evolution were only possible in the populace-less confines of the mountains... this is just social fear manifest, subconscious aversion of relationships masked by a practical ruse of training regiment, a guise of dedication to avoid having to encounter those that may judge you, or whom you may judge... but true spiritual development seeks challenge, obstacles in that in order to grow, one must face and conquer his fears and alchemically transform that negative energy to a positive, higher vibrational frequency; through love, by love, for love, to love... the greatest power in the universe, the eternal force behind all creation.. ubiquitous, unconditional, all-pervading...love... therein lies the answer.

I'm not sure what you mean by "flesh". As for how deep, well, see if you can stop believing in gravity. I think if you examine one of your beliefs from time to time, eventually you'll get a sense to how committed you are to it. Try to imagine how your life would be different if you didn't believe it, or believed something different. Well, I was using Todd's word. It's a cool word, but I normally don't talk like that. Normally I would use the word "commit" or "vest". So we vest into our beliefs, or commit to them. As for how exactly, this is best answered in practice. You can try to pick some kind of relatively insignificant and non-contradictory belief, something that you think should be easy to get yourself to believe. It may be a good idea, while you are at it, to pick a belief that is relatively positive and helpful. Then affirm this belief as if you already believe it. At first you'll feel like you're lying to yourself. As you do this, visualize yourself as if you already believe it in your mind's eye. Then each time you affirm your new belief, you might feel like it's less of a lie. This will be true if you're accepting it. If you're not accepting it, then there is no point in forcing yourself. There may be a good reason for non-acceptance. But either way you'll get your answer. You'll see if beliefs are easy to change or not. Whatever you do, the most important thing is to always be honest to yourself. If your beliefs are changing, you'll feel it very clearly. So there is no need to pretend. If your beliefs don't change in this type of exercise, that's valid. So I just described how to acquire a new belief. It's also useful to disempower certain beliefs, such as those beliefs that are holding you back in an way that you consider reasonably unhealthy. To disempower a belief, you'd have to bring it up for examination in your mind's eye. Examine the effects this belief is having on your life. The imagine what your life would be like if you believe something different. Then you may ask yourself is this belief is absolutely necessary? If it has some positive function, can that same function be served by a healthier belief? So when you start to question a thorny belief in this way, eventually it will at least weaken. The key in this process is to always be sincere before yourself. Pretending is a dangerous game when we pretend to ourselves. All beliefs can be changed in a sincere way. So there is no point in pretending. Beliefs can change authentically as a result of an honest change of heart during an honest conversation with yourself, or silent introspection, or during a dream or during an even stranger or more mundane occurrence. It's not a good idea to make anything I say here into some kind of rote practice. If your life is good, don't mess around with your beliefs. If there is a pain point somewhere, then it may be worthwhile to investigate beliefs around the pain point. Sometimes you may also find that some types of pain are not something you will want to eliminate, because you'll realize that to eliminate certain types of pain you'd have to change your beliefs in such a way as to shock your conscience. In cases like these you may choose to purposefully let pain be painful.

Those weren't your only choices you know I wasn't looking for you to pick any answers. But, IMHO, those are the lines of questioning that you should look at when examining a dream and understanding it's impact. It's far more reliable than trying to decipher symbolism which changes from culture to culture, era to era, and person to person. Anyway, dreams are fun

See this is subjective and you've created a personal dogma around it. In my experience, the more I do the ritual, the more juicy it gets, the more filled with rasa. In fact, it's in the beginning that it feels dry, but as I relax into it, and my focus gets better... it gets' juicier and juicier over the years and not dryer at all. So, due to my own experience as well as plenty of other peoples experience who actually practice a traditional path, there is not an agreement with you. I'm sorry but you are wrong. It has everything to do with your biased opinion based upon your lack of experience with opening up to a living tradition. You might have thought you did for a while there, but because you think this way, doesn't mean that's how it happens for the rest of us who have a living tradition and Guru. The Guru teaches one how to exercise the mind and find ones own power. You're going to say, blah, blah, blah. But for instance someone like SereneBlue needs a Sangham, needs a teacher who lives from the space of deep inspiration, so that she can feel that energy and get it like osmosis. We are not separate individuals, so to enter a pool of liberation, helps one find ones own liberation, as it's not really ones own either. I know that you are wrong. I will say so over and over again too. You are wrong buddy. I think you need a Guru. That's such B.S. Most peoples inner teacher does lead them to lie, cheat, waste money on superficial things, most people are lost in the world of material gain. My Guru's have taught me the opposite, how to really find my inner Guru. This is only because I have the mind of a true student, who is open to learn and not criticizing everything calling it "Critical Thinking." See, but you are projecting your subjective experience onto those that didn't experience this. Sure, what you say happens, but it did not happen to me. I was not exploited, or asked to turn away from my self empowerment. In fact, I learned how to be more self empowered through the old rituals and teachings, and when my teachers spoke these teachings and were present for these rituals, they were ecstatic, coming from that space of inspiration, they were not dry words. The rituals are not dry at all... it's the person experiencing the dryness that's dry, and when you experience your inner dryness during a wet ritual, it's because you're too hard, you're not letting it in, you're shutting yourself off, and it's generally always because one is criticizing waaaaay too much that this happens and not actually doing the ritual. Your just there, but not really, you're just judging. A person is only an authority because that person actually is an authority. If a person is not an authority but acting like one, that's a false guru. But, since there are false guru's it follows that there are also true guru's. An authority can also be a good friend. In fact I consider my Gurus as my best friends, deep friends. In my waking and sleeping life, through dream and video, books and talks. I am more inspired by them than any other person I've ever met. Which is why I call them my root Guru's. I think your view is extreme and I don't think it will help everyone, maybe a few people, but I think these real Guru's, and these old traditions need to just get better and more in tune with the now, and they are! But, to throw the baby out with the bath water like you are suggesting is just a revelation of your biased opinion, based upon your own experience or lack there of. I do respect your ideal though, if everyone was indeed enlightened, we could just all be each others guru's and thus no ones guru, we'd all really be sharing from that open space. But, that's not the way the world is... this is not a heaven realm.

Jack, Laugh if you want, but it's true. I try to be open to other ideas, but in the same way I don't care to be told I'm wrong, you don't seem to care for that either. I don't care to have my experiences trivialized, you don't either. Since we began talking about a month ago I have a read more on Buddhism, Mahayana and Theravada than I have in the entire time I've studied Eastern Religions. I may be obstinate, but I try very hard to humble myself, to remind myself that I don't know everything. As Vaj commented earlier, I was saying the exact same thing you've been saying, except I wasn't saying it the same way. The more I learn about Buddhism, the more I understand that my beliefs aren't so far off from what Buddha taught. I understand that my experiences have only touched the surface, that I have further to go, but my point is that when we share our experiences as ultimates, as the final truths, sometimes we cut people off from understanding. I think we could all use a dose of humility. I am finding humility on a daily basis. I had to sell my car in order to pay rent. I took out a loan that I can't pay back, just to try and make ends meet. I have no job and I am having to earn money each day just to eat. This state has made me appreciate those things I took for granted, but it's also reminded me of suffering in very real way. I would love to have an end to suffering, but I have yet to see any real proof that what Buddhism has to offer in the end will really free me from it, rather I think it will only allow me to understand it in a greater way. Regardless I am practicing Zen and trying to remember that it is only this moment that's important, that if I lose everything, my cats, my family, and my home, that it's not the end, that those things do not define who I am as a person. My cup is not empty, but it's not full. I want to be open to new things. I think the worst thing a man can do is shut himself off to possibilities, because when he does that, he no longer has hope. I am finding an immense degree of peace knowing that it is more than just survival, that I am not the center of the universe, that I am not God, omniscient, that there is more to everything than I can ever dream of. I don't hate Buddhism, or Buddha, but I do hate ignorance, or at least the inability to accept that things aren't perfect. Even if Buddha's teachings were perfect, that doesn't mean that those who practice them today are. That doesn't mean that there isn't more than just Buddha's teachings, that someone else doesn't have something else to teach us. I love Vedanta, but I realize that it isn't the entirety of truth, that there is more. Buddha obviously did too. I loved Christianity, but I understand that it isn't the entirety of truth. My point is that I want to be open so I don't miss out on something that might come along and help me to understand who I am more clearly. I never want to get to the point where I say, "this is enough, I don't need anymore." I should have been more open to your Buddhist ideas, but I am forty one years old and I'm just not willing to spend the next twenty years practicing Buddhism alone under the pretense that it may be right. I just don't have the time for that. I have an immense respect for the religion and I honestly think that if all people practiced the eightfold path, that the world would be a much better place. These days I break that path down into one simple phrase, "treat all things as compassionately as possible." Will I always do this? No. I'm human and fallible, but if I commit to doing this, go into it with the idea that I will not try, but I will do, then I'm confident that I can make the world better for those around me, and that's what's really important, not easing my suffering but easing the suffering of others. So I apologize to you and to Cowtao for not being patient and not explaining my misgivings as I should have. I would not discourage you from practicing Buddhism, it's a beautiful religion. I would only say don't close your heart to other things. Be open to possibilities so that if one does come along you don't miss it. Aaron

I don't think I have a divine gift of dream interpretation, but I tend to be able to sort out the symbols pretty well, sort of like interpreting poetry, usually with a degree of success or relevance. I would venture to guess that the understanding of the sutra left a tangible feeling.. this feeling, like Shen, was latently residing to be awakened by its illumination in the sutra. This feeling (perhaps related to "serenity, compassion, and wisdom"?__ qualities of enlightenment/The Buddha) was the seed of the scripture which had been planted. Thus, the Buddha had been broken, for the "statue" of the Buddha was unimportant in comparison to personal experience of The Dharma which will be your true guide [from time to time or when you've entirely devoted yourself to The Path(should you ever Detatch)]. That's my opinion... There's probably others.....

A most auspicious dream, Adept! Sure sign that your practice is moving in the right direction. It sounds so... blessed. Well done As for the interpretation, guess i'll leave that to someone who makes it their path to interpret dreams. I never pay too much attention to mine, cos i seem to have recurring themes in dreams all the time.