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I'm working on a boat in the middle of the ocean. As I type this every now and then the microcosmic orbit will start up. This is after maybe... 3 months retention with a small transgression in a dream (held the lock when I relised in the dream what was happening, lost maybe 1/2 jing). There's nobody here to chat to about practice. In fact, people in general are very unhealthy. The food is free but low quality (oil and meat) so I bring what I can, namely marine oils and plankton, seeds and whey. Next time I'll try bacteria based food. I start my day my stretching my very stiff hamstrings. I then meditate for just 15mins in the morning on the deck of the boat. I have to wear a nylon jacket and headband to keep warm. Chi comes off the wind nicely and I usually get the Microcosmic going instantly. It then cuts out a bit until I relax my mind or think dirty thoughts. I then might do 5mins horse stance (never done KungFu, this is just for core)... and then 15mins on a stationary bike indoors. I don't have any teacher available to me. Not even on the phone. Last year I felt very loving toward someone. After sex with withstaining once I saw dots moving in time with her breath. When I relised what I was seeing it disappeared. I first got into chi when I was at the science museam. Not thinking anything of it I measured the voltage palm to palm before and after basic practice... got 2v higher, which astounded me. That pretty much opened my eyes to it all. Now I think, the body's a battery, so what? Going to try sungazing for short periods next. But really want to build in a healthy lifestyle long term. I can live anywhere with this work on the one hand, but on the other the food isn't easy and a killer for relationships (dual cultivation surely needs true love). Move to Switzerland? Move to a beach and surf? Or get a lower paid but normal job in a nice location perhaps.... hmm... one thing for sure. I love Tao. edit: Also, have been known to do the lung healing sound as there's concreted asbestos in the walls on the boat...

Anyway this morning I tried out those LUCIDITY techniques -- I didn't have the "cook timer" which you're supposed to sleep with in one hand. That's a little too weird. But I focused on staying aware while my body fell asleep -- feeling for the "lead curtain" to cover my body as sleep paralysis set in. Just like lucidity states -- at night this doesn't work because the hormones aren't right. But early morning it worked great -- you get both high melatonin and cortisol levels. I definitely had some great and really psychedelic lucid dreams. I visited Tony Wright and he was showing me these models of civilization from 1,000 A.D. (not quite 100,000 years ago but anyway). Then I was telling him about qigong and full-lotus and then I saw this really bright violet light which I shot at him as energy. Anyway I was later outside with an ex-girlfriend who was running around (as she was a professional athlete of sorts)... but then my dream was lucid so I could run even faster! There was this wild hog and so I chased it down and tamed it - just like in Avatar! And it rolled on its side and I was massaging its gums - - like cats like -- but the wild hog had huge fangs. Still we bonded emotionally together -- it was all warm fuzzies. I had a few other pretty weird stuff that made me realize I was dreaming. Still I tried having an OBE but my higher frequency energy was strong enough -- or maybe my lower frequency. The vibrations weren't strong enough. I'm not quite sure that the lucidity OBEs are the real thing -- but he seems pretty detailed about it -- and he says to make a magnetic ball which then pulls your spirit body out of your physical body. That makes sense as the chi is what powers the spirit or shen body.

Eat more nutritious food to increase your haemoglobin and blood quality. Don't day dream about lusty thoughts. Be active and not lazy (exercises will help). Thats all you need to get stronger erections that last longer than before!

Hi An, I will give you my opinion. Santi can give you his. I was involved for several years with teaching the old KAP version that Dr. Morris created with Santiago. There was also a version that Glenn taught before Santiago became Glenn's student and friend. Glenn was an empiricist who was continually revising and refining the process. I am saying that after the first KAP training, KAP1, Dr. Morris said if the student practiced specific practices...and he gave a practice CD to the student when I was teaching with him that had on it the Buddha Breath, the Secret Smile,(that is not the Inner Smile found in other traditions) and the Microcosmic Orbit...his versions...that your kundalini would awaken in 90 days after practicing two times a day for 20 minutes. Privately me he told me it would be much quicker but he had to make allowances for people who couldn't follow directions or were resistant. Santi's improved version of KAP, of which he just listed the contents, in my opinion makes the process go faster. How much faster...less than 90 days? He will have to tell you the specifics. I have only been working with Santi since June. The other two levels of KAP are great and help and advance one along the Kundalini process but are not needed to awaken Kundalini. They can make the process go quicker and help you become even more adept on the kundalini path. Kundalini, when authentically awakened and mature, never goes back to sleep. The door can never be shut on it in my experiences. If it did...I would say IMO it was never fully awake. Lucid dreaming and dream yoga. I know we talk about it but I don't think it is part of the curriculum.It just comes up for as part of the discussions student have with us. Santi will have to verify. I am still learning the curriculum. KAP will make you an Alpha rabbit among rabbits. Nice pic! Thank you for the questions. I hope I helped. Under promise and over deliver. It's good customer service. We try to give more than is asked for in KAP as instructors. Take once, give back twice as the saying goes in KAP.

Just because there is no 'you' doesn't mean you cannot be compassionate for yourself and others. From Virmalakirti Nirdesa Sutra 7. The Goddess Thereupon, Manjusri, the crown prince, addressed the Licchavi Vimalakirti: "Good sir, how should a bodhisattva regard all living beings?" Vimalakirti replied, "Manjusri, a bodhisattva should regard all livings beings as a wise man regards the reflection of the moon in water or as magicians regard men created by magic. He should regard them as being like a face in a mirror; like the water of a mirage; like the sound of an echo; like a mass of clouds in the sky; like the previous moment of a ball of foam; like the appearance and disappearance of a bubble of water; like the core of a plantain tree; like a flash of lightning; like the fifth great element; like the seventh sense-medium; like the appearance of matter in an immaterial realm; like a sprout from a rotten seed; like a tortoise-hair coat; like the fun of games for one who wishes to die; like the egoistic views of a stream-winner; like a third rebirth of a once-returner; like the descent of a nonreturner into a womb; like the existence of desire, hatred, and folly in a saint; like thoughts of avarice, immorality, wickedness, and hostility in a bodhisattva who has attained tolerance; like the instincts of passions in a Tathagata; like the perception of color in one blind from birth; like the inhalation and exhalation of an ascetic absorbed in the meditation of cessation; like the track of a bird in the sky; like the erection of a eunuch; like the pregnancy of a barren woman; like the unproduced passions of an emanated incarnation of the Tathagata; like dream-visions seen after waking; like the passions of one who is free of conceptualizations; like fire burning without fuel; like the reincarnation of one who has attained ultimate liberation. "Precisely thus, Manjusri, does a bodhisattva who realizes the ultimate selflessness consider all beings." Manjusri then asked further, "Noble sir, if a bodhisattva considers all living beings in such a way, how does he generate the great love toward them?" Vimalakirti replied, "Manjusri, when a bodhisattva considers all living beings in this way, he thinks: 'Just as I have realized the Dharma, so should I teach it to living beings.' Thereby, he generates the love that is truly a refuge for all living beings; the love that is peaceful because free of grasping; the love that is not feverish, because free of passions; the love that accords with reality because it is equanimous in all three times; the love that is without conflict because free of the violence of the passions; the love that is nondual because it is involved neither with the external nor with the internal; the love that is imperturbable because totally ultimate. "Thereby he generates the love that is firm, its high resolve unbreakable, like a diamond; the love that is pure, purified in its intrinsic nature; the love that is even, its aspirations being equal; the saint's love that has eliminated its enemy; the bodhisattva's love that continuously develops living beings; The Tathagata's love that understands reality; the Buddha's love that causes living beings to awaken from their sleep; the love that is spontaneous because it is fully enlightened spontaneously; the love that is enlightenment because it is unity of experience; the love that has no presumption because it has eliminated attachment and aversion; the love that is great compassion because it infuses the Mahayana with radiance; the love that is never exhausted because it acknowledges voidness and selflessness; the love that is giving because it bestows the gift of Dharma free of the tight fist of a bad teacher; the love that is morality because it improves immoral living beings; the love that is tolerance because it protects both self and others; the love that is effort because it takes responsibility for all living beings; the love that is contemplation because it refrains from indulgence in tastes; the love that is wisdom because it causes attainment at the proper time; the love that is liberative technique because it shows the way everywhere; the love that is without formality because it is pure in motivation; the love that is without deviation because it acts from decisive motivation; the love that is high resolve because it is without passions; the love that is without deceit because it is not artificial; the love that is happiness because it introduces living beings to the happiness of the Buddha. Such, Manjusri, is the great love of a bodhisattva." Manjusri: What is the great compassion of a bodhisattva? Vimalakirti: It is the giving of all accumulated roots of virtue to all living beings. Manjusri: What is the great joy of the bodhisattva? Vimalakirti: It is to be joyful and without regret in giving. Manjusri: What is the equanimity of the bodhisattva? Vimalakirti: It is what benefits both self and others. Manjusri: To what should one resort when terrified by fear of life? Vimalakirti: Manjusri, a bodhisattva who is terrified by fear of life should resort to the magnanimity of the Buddha. Manjusri: Where should he who wishes to resort to the magnanimity of the Buddha take his stand? Vimalakirti: He should stand in equanimity toward all living beings. Manjusri: Where should he who wishes to stand in equanimity toward all living beings take his stand? Vimalakirti: He should live for the liberation of all living beings. Manjusri: What should he who wishes to liberate all living beings do? Vimalakirti: He should liberate them from their passions. Manjusri: How should he who wishes to eliminate passions apply himself? Vimalakirti: He should apply himself appropriately. Manjusri: How should he apply himself, to "apply himself appropriately"? Vimalakirti: He should apply himself to productionlessness and to destructionlessness. Manjusri: What is not produced? And what is not destroyed? Vimalakirti: Evil is not produced and good is not destroyed. Manjusri: What is the root of good and evil? Vimalakirti: Materiality is the root of good and evil. Manjusri: What is the root of materiality? Vimalakirti: Desire is the root of materiality. Manjusri: What is the root of desire and attachment? Vimalakirti: Unreal construction is the root of desire. Manjusri: What is the root of unreal construction? Vimalakirti: The false concept is its root. Manjusri: What is the root of the false concept? Vimalakirti: Baselessness. Manjusri: What it the root of baselessness? Vimalakirti: Manjusri, when something is baseless, how can it have any root? Therefore, all things stand on the root which is baseless.

No, the afterthought is not the same as the sound. The afterthought is simply an afterthought, it is not the experience of the sound. The thought is another experience. The sound is awareness due to certain conditions, the thought is also awareness due to certain conditions. But the sound is not the thought. The recollection of the past is simply an arising experience due to conditions. By itself there is nothing wrong about it. However, it becomes delusional when one establish a subject and object duality based on recollection. For example, it becomes delusional when one thinks that one has an inherent and permanent self or existence that persists from the past till now till future, based on that recollection. That is subject and object duality because it presumes that there is a permanent subject experiencing those changes. So, it is not the recollection that is the problem, it is the delusion that arises due to karmic propensity in relation to recollection that is the problem. Experiencing dualistically is delusional. Thinking the thought 'I exist' is delusional, because even the thought 'I exist' is not a truly existing self but simply a thought that arise and vanish according to conditions, no permanent self can be found in or apart from that thought. (Of course everyone uses the words 'I' and 'you' in conventional language but it, but the difference between Buddha and sentient beings is that Buddha sees that it is just a convention but is not true in an ultimate truly existing sense) However if we see that the dualistic thought is just an arising thought that is non-dual, vivid and empty, then delusion immediately ends, or in other words they self-liberate and leave no traces. The key lies not in forcing out thinking, but in seeing that the nature of all experience, including recollection, thoughts, sounds, etc, they are simply arising on its own accord according to conditions without a separate self, thinker, perceiver, agent, self, apart from the moment to moment arising, and that those arising themselves are dependently originated and empty. Recollection of a past experience is fine and even a Buddha recollects, however dualistic thinking is not necessary and causes suffering. Projecting the sense of "I" that has "experienced that" is delusional. If we see the true nature of that thought and all other sensations, they all self-liberate. Again you don't get it. This is not a state of awareness, it is what is always already the case. Even if you think the thought "I exist" doesn't mean it truly exists, as that very thought is not self and is not experienced by a self. It is just delusion. It is just a thought arising, and a delusional one. Always already, there is no thinker apart from thought, no seer apart from scenery, no hearer apart from sounds. In seeing just forms, in hearing just sounds. This is not a stage to attain but an insight to be realised. From the beginning there never was a self to begin with, so how can a self merge with sound? A 'self' is merely fabricated and delusional, how can a non-existent delusional thing merge with the actuality of a sound? There is in reality just sounds from the beginning and not a hearer. The thought 'I hear' cannot hear. A conceptual hearer is just a thought and isn't a real hearer. The actuality of things is that there is just sounds, thoughts, smells, arising without a smeller/thinker/hearer. There's a vast difference between the contents of thought and the actuality of things. The thought "I hear" doesn't mean a separate self truly exists, it just means that a thought of self has arisen. It has no basis. No. Having a temporary meditation experience of nonduality (which is not that rare) is far different from having an insight into the nature of reality as non-dual. The prior is a temporary experience, the latter, is a permanent insight, known as 'enlightenment'. And you cannot lose enlightenment after you realised the nature of reality. You cannot lose non-dual experience once you realise non-duality is not an experience but the realisation of the nature of reality. Awareness cannot become delocalized, it never was localized in the first place. The sense of a 'me center' arising in an unenlightened sentient being is just another sensation and thought arising without a center. Basically the sense of a 'me' is without basis and simply arises due to ignorance of the nature of reality. But what you said is not what I mean. That is why I wrote in post #126: We can talk about this in two ways: All there is is awareness, in other words, everything you experience is awareness. Or - There is just sensations and thoughts and no other thing called awareness, in other words, since there is just sensations and thoughts, those sensations and thoughts are the only 'awareness' there is, there is no separate perceiver or awareness. Both are the same thing. There is a danger however, in reifying Case 1) into a Brahman, something ultimate, unchanging and independent. Though if it is not reified, that is fine. Case 2 is what is more commonly explained in classical Nikaya, original Buddhist texts. Even though it never talks about Awareness as the essence of all experiences, it is implied already that awareness is non-dual because there cannot be a subject/object split in anatta, there cannot be a split when all there is is sensations and aggregates. Reification would be imputing a particular set of sensation as 'Subject' or 'Awareness' while the other set as 'Objects', but in reality, all there is is self-aware sensations and thoughts, if all there is is self-aware manifestation, in other words only sensations and aggregates, and that sensations and aggregates auto-imply awareness, why talk about awareness at all? There is absolutely no reification here, only impermanent dependently originated sensations and thoughts whether they are gross (gross waking dream sensory experience) or subtle (such as dream, astral realms, or the subtler formless I AMness experience). As Greg Goode said, "once experience doesn't seem divided and once it doesn't seem like there is anything other than consciousness, then the notion of consciousness itself will gently and peacefully dissolve." P.S. As to Lucky noticing similarities between Advaita and Buddhism in terms of non-dual, I have to say that the non-dual experience in Advaita and Buddhism is exactly the same. The only difference lies in the view, whereby Advaita makes nondual awareness into Pure Subjectivity transcending and encompassing phenomena, but Buddhism sees only vivid and empty (dependently originated) manifestations and thus which leads to subtler realisation of the Anatta and Empty nature of luminosity in Buddhism. The difference thus lies not in non-dual but in Anatta and Emptiness. There is no hearer, only sounds, hearing is just sounds. No seer, only scenery, the seeing is the scenery. What you call 'awareness' is only just dependently originated phenomena, sounds, sights, thoughts, etc. Absolutely no reification here. Reification would be stating - there is an independent awareness perceiving things, or an unchanging substance, like a mirror, behind all changes. Buddhism's 'awareness has always been so' does not mean a Brahman or an ultimate subject or an ultimate perceiver, rather it means all along there never has been a perceiver, only sensations, thoughts, sounds, sights, just that.

We can talk about this in two ways: All there is is awareness, in other words, everything you experience is awareness. Or - There is just sensations and thoughts and no other thing called awareness, in other words, since there is just sensations and thoughts, those sensations and thoughts are the only 'awareness' there is, there is no separate perceiver or awareness. Both are the same thing. There is a danger however, in reifying Case 1) into a Brahman, something ultimate, unchanging and independent. Though if it is not reified, that is fine. Case 2 is what is more commonly explained in classical Nikaya, original Buddhist texts. Even though it never talks about Awareness as the essence of all experiences, it is implied already that awareness is non-dual because there cannot be a subject/object split in anatta, there cannot be a split when all there is is sensations and aggregates. Reification would be imputing a particular set of sensation as 'Subject' or 'Awareness' while the other set as 'Objects', but in reality, all there is is self-aware sensations and thoughts, if all there is is self-aware manifestation, in other words only sensations and aggregates, and that sensations and aggregates auto-imply awareness, why talk about awareness at all? There is absolutely no reification here, only impermanent dependently originated sensations and thoughts whether they are gross (gross waking dream sensory experience) or subtle (such as dream, astral realms, or the subtler formless I AMness experience). As Greg Goode said, "once experience doesn't seem divided and once it doesn't seem like there is anything other than consciousness, then the notion of consciousness itself will gently and peacefully dissolve." P.S. As to Lucky noticing similarities between Advaita and Buddhism in terms of non-dual, I have to say that the non-dual experience in Advaita and Buddhism is exactly the same. The only difference lies in the view, whereby Advaita makes nondual awareness into Pure Subjectivity transcending and encompassing phenomena, but Buddhism sees only vivid and empty (dependently originated) manifestations and thus which leads to subtler realisation of the Anatta and Empty nature of luminosity in Buddhism. The difference thus lies not in non-dual but in Anatta and Emptiness. There is no hearer, only sounds, hearing is just sounds. No seer, only scenery, the seeing is the scenery. What you call 'awareness' is only just dependently originated phenomena, sounds, sights, thoughts, etc. Absolutely no reification here. Reification would be stating - there is an independent awareness perceiving things, or an unchanging substance, like a mirror, behind all changes. Buddhism's 'awareness has always been so' does not mean a Brahman or an ultimate subject or an ultimate perceiver, rather it means all along there never has been a perceiver, only sensations, thoughts, sounds, sights, just that.

Have you read my new book yet? http://www.lulu.com/content/8177540 It's about how the Full-lotus is really just the most efficient practice of the yin-yang ratios -- as a tetrahedron is made up of 8 triangles each 2:3:4 ratios and 2:3 is yang while 3:4 is yin. So it's not just the full-lotus -- all of qigong and even the three gunas of Vedic philosophy are based on this natural resonance revolution. Still last night in my dream Chunyi Lin was trying to tell me about my past lives. haha. Ramana Maharshi has a good response about that old hang up.

There are no established causes and conditions. There is the relationship of A causing B, but the distinctions are made by the mind due to habit, or just spontaneous reasoning if you do not have attachments, as in you don't hold that relationship to be objective. We also have to put cause into the context of time. For example, the desire of ice cream is due to habits, and the cause for that desire can be that you are attached to the experience of taste, holding it to be true abiding pleasure. But upon fully realizing that that pleasure is totally subjective, that it is awareness clinging onto that state of being, taste, you are no longer chained to the impulse of that habit arising and leading you to get ice cream. You have control over it, and it no longer becomes a chaining habit. The cause is changed. I'm not sure that's a good example...it makes more sense when you see that reality is simply a manifestation of awareness intent as are the causes and conditions that govern it. A self existent thing, a self aware awareness simply doesnt make sense. Same with consciousness. You need to be conscious OF something to know you are conscious. You can abide in that state if "isness" or whatever, but you inevitably return to a time frame to reflect on that state. When you dream (not lucid or transcendent dreaming, but...normal dreaming), often the opposite happens. You are often unconscious within it. Events and memories happen, but it is only after you wake up these things become apparent. I thought the poem was very to the point. Thanks Dwai!

Yeah these healing reports are pretty intense. Once through was enough for me! haha. I've been having these amazing dream conversations with Chunyi Lin -- two of them this week. Last night I asked him to read my past lives and he said he couldn't read them. I said why not? He said that I first needed to tell God or talk to God about them. Just silly dreams but they're fun -- and maybe there's more going on. What gets me is the precognitive dreams which come true a year later or so. That happened to me a couple weeks ago -- freaks me out -- always.

Tanks a lot for your guidance What a pithy qoutation, it is similar to 'the state of sleeping without any dream' which is the highest degree of being Universal Man in the Vedanta as is in the Upanishads and Hinduism. Now this term (jun ren) is as much as strange for us that is in the most familiar mode for Guenon. He tell about it easily and in different places as such and always reagarding to Daoism. Anyway Junzi (君子) originally is not a Confucian term but in the Yijing we see it all over of the book. zi (子) can be translated as 'Master' and oldest pictographs of jun (君) refer to a person who has a rod in his right hand. I guess that junzi in the Yinjing is higher degree of man who is not man yet and then we should not use ren (人) for jun. Also I saw a renjun (人君) which may be the same and refer to one who passed the human states. Anyway I dont know if any of these gusses be true. Thank you very much.

Hey, exorcist_1699, your English is really good! Thanks for your contributions, here. The Gautamid, later known as the Buddha (after his death, I believe), always started his description of setting up mindfulness with mindfulness of the body. After the suicide of dozens of his followers (they were practicing the meditation on the unlovely, which he prescribed), he taught that his own practice before and after enlightenment was "the intent contemplation on in-breaths and out-breaths", in sixteen points. Pretty physical. Myself, I think the difficulty with his teaching was two-fold: first, it's not possible to comprehend the long inhalation as long, the short inhalation as short, the long exhalation as long, and the short exhalation as short without some kind of awareness of involuntary cranial-sacral fluid activity; and second, it's not readily apparent to most people that equanimity in mind is a necessary component of activity out of stretch. There's a sermon in the third Majjhima Nikaya volume on the Great Six-fold Sense (Field), in which the Gautamid declares that anyone who experiences as it really is sense-object, sense-organ, consciousness arising from contact between sense-organ and sense-object, impact as a result of consciousness, and feeling in connection with impact has already done all that needs to be done with respect to the eight-fold path, and develops all the various components of enlightenment. That's pretty physical. I'd like to throw my two-cents in about the 500 years. I believe I have read (maybe in Warder's "Indian Buddhism") that the 500 years is not explicitly stated in the Pali Canon. Very interesting to me, though, that the teaching was only written down (in Ceylon) because the monks realized that the oral tradition was in danger of losing a few volumes; that was about 500 years after the teacher. Yes, there is a discussion in which the Buddha declares he was against admitting women because it would shorten the life of the order; he made an analogy about women and bandits, stating that just as the strength of men better enables them to survive bandits, so too the order would survive longer without women. something like that. Tao Meow, the canon was carried into Tibet and China, as well as Ceylon (and Burma, and Thailand), so it survived the Moslem invasion. According to Warder, Buddhism was already on the decline in India at the time of the invasion; the Hindu faith was reclaiming the majority. Warder made a point of comparing the extant pieces of the sermon and discipline volumes between the Thai, Tibetan, and Chinese editions to study the history of Buddhism in India. It's in Warder's volume that I learned that the original split between Theravada and Mahayana was due to a disagreement over whether an enlightened individual could be "seduced by a succubus" (could have a wet dream). As Shunryu Suzuki said, "life is much too important to take seriously", or something to that effect. good night, all!- Mark p.s.- I see above that the Muslims you refer to, Tao Meow, were much later than those I'm referring to. Delay in post posting!

I like a lot of what you're saying here. I am constantly updating my opinions. Currently Vajrasattva has gone up in my mind by many notches. So I don't think Vajra is a bad guy, or I don't think he's as bad as I thought he was. I think that Sufism is like a bridge. It's a bridge between Islam and non-Islam. However, like all bridges, it can be crossed both ways. You can take the Sufi bridge from non-Islam to Islam, and this is bad. Or you can take the Sufi bridge from Islam to non-Islam, which is good. I appreciate Vajra's opinion that Koran and hadiths might be corrupted, but let's be realistic. What are the chances of Muslims agreeing that Koran and hadiths are corrupted? The prospect of that seems, shall we say, slim (more like zero percent). Personally I have some respect and maybe even some love for at least some individual Sufis. Nonetheless, Sufis do not own Islam in the real world. Sure, sure you can always say Sufis have the real Islam, but we must deal with the facts as they currently stand. Is it possible that Sufis will eventually own the Islam in the future? Maybe. But I don't think we can say that today Sufis define what Islam is. Islam is an all-embracing ideology that encompasses all spheres of life, including financial and government spheres. Buddha has never made statements about who should marry who, or who inherits what, and so on. Neither have Jesus or Lao Tzu. You can argue that Jews have Talmud which does make such statements, and I will say that orthodox and Hasidic Jews are definitely backward. But a lot of Jews were smart and realized that Judaism needs to keep up with the times and have created "Reformed Judaism." That's important, because there is no such thing as "Reformed Islam" currently. So at least a lot of Jews have moved into the 21st century, and I am certain that no Reform Jew takes Talmud seriously or dreams of replacing the USA Constitution with Talmud. This is unlike Muslims, who dream of one day replacing the USA Constitution with Sharia. And finally how many Jews are there? Very few. But Islam is the world's fastest growing religion with a lot of adherents. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3835 So, while we could say that Orthodox Judaism is backward and stupid, I do not feel threatened by it. I do feel threatened by Islam. I am not scared of Islam. I simply worry that Islam seeks to attack values that I hold very dear, and I am going to protect those values. Vajrasattva is of course pretty important in all this, because he calls himself a Muslim, but not only that, he also acts as a teacher. So what he says and does is going to decide a lot of things. I don't know if he even realizes that. I think I would feel a little better if Vajra stopped calling himself a Muslim and just called himself a Sufi. That's because I don't think Sufis define Islam in the real world as it currently presents itself.

In Hermetic philosophy (as I understand it), what you have described as "negative" things are really just negative expressions of certain qualities. They may be an excess of that quality, or a deficiency in that quality. Take your hurt, rape, and pillage example. Those all are considered to be negative things. But what positive things do they represent? Your ability to hurt someone reflects your own physical strength, rape also physical strength but an ability to control, and pillage your ability to take what you need. All of those qualities can be used positively- you can use physical strength to protect and defend someone. You can control a situation or another person for the greater good, and you are a provider. Those qualities, I imagine, were even more necessary historically- where your ability to survive depended a lot on physical strength, and your status in society was partially determined by how you could exhibit your ability to dominate and control others. Nowadays it's much more likely for us to consider such acts as "violent and bad", but keep in mind they are just one side of the coin. As a side note, I find these things really helpful in terms of dream interpretation and lucid dreaming (discounting the fact that many dream signs are unique to an individual), especially with nightmares and other sorts of bad dreams- by analyzing what qualities appear to you, you can see what you have problems with and perhaps even means of expressing them. I was reading somewhere about how the word "evil" evolved, and I think that one of its forms from back in the day was "something in excess", which is another way to look at things. Now, motivations and your reasons for doing those things arise from imbalances. A need to hurt a sibling, or rape a woman, or steal something, all reflect a feeling of inner weakness that you perceive, and you are acting out to try and compensate for that imbalance.

Heh. Interesting idea about those folks coming by to check folks out. When I first started meditation and hit a rough patch I had some Tibetan Buddhists who seemed to be helping me out from their temple HQ. I'm very grateful for that and at the same time I have no idea how to explain it. I wasn't "into" Buddhist stuff prior. I had some kind of multi-armed red goddess swing by to say hi not so recently but I found her a bit scary so I flared myself up into something freakier. Then I remembered to take no notice as I was making it all up anyway. I looked up "red goddesses" online and found several. Mostly Buddhist ones. Fascinating stuff. Then a week or so ago I had a strange dream within a dream of being a sparkling golden body that was leaving my physical one. I didn't think that was a desirable thing to be happening so I "came back". I've also had a couple of quick "chats" with some folks from here (who as far as I know aren't ascended anywhere yet but who knows??). All of this happened in relatively altered states (meditation, just before/after sleep/dreaming/daydreaming) I actually have a preference for keeping it earthbound. More than enough to contemplate!

hi , good thread.i would be very interested to read what everyone has to say on contacting their guides. im also praying for gudiance and protection .and always asking to be able to truly love. fiveelemtao,ill just relate something i cant work out totaly and wonder if you have any opinon about it. few years ago i dreampt i saw my sister sitting on my bed talking to me in my room quite lucidly as if awake .in dream i woke up and saw that this is not my sister and asked :who are you?why are you in my dream ?she kept pretending for a bit ,i said:stop fooling me and letting me talk to you,i dont belive you,becouse i know im dreaming. so i told her to get out of my room.at that moment i saw this being (male?)totaly white,made of light ,just like a glowing shape.i never saw somebody looking like this even in the dream.and he very politley got out of my room(circeld around of my bed so not to step on me) and exited the room. so now,i still dream of this being taking me some places ,talking to me etc...( so often sometimes daily )and me due to my emotional make up or something else unkonwn to me - i see him as my sister but know its been him again clearly as i wake up and remeber the dream. in a way i thought this is sort of guide at some point, but dont dont feel so welcoming to him. intuitevly im learning to listen and discriminate, not by book and am not ever discussing this with anyone. cheers, sun

acheiving through retirning is losing everything the psychlogixal mind grasps for in desperation to keep itself Id ego self concept alive ideas make up most environments humans inhabit simulacra and simulation being the hallmarks of writing history the seperatists of the story are lifted and float or are exciled and troden under foot what lies above returns below what is below can be lifted up and completely released to return. within three inches of where you are right now lyLes a doorway thru that door is a hall w many doors thru each door is a dream the hallway leads to an ocean of dreams mind movement through direct exposure; safe passage is granted to that which survives the elemental tests. Wuji nothing blank page womb darkness origi n yang sumthing in nuthing a dot on the page of wuji yin rewraps in around and thru yang the page falls in on the dot the dot expands to form two intertwined teardrops at it's apex the whole process is reborn Iwithinitself the circling eddies form eyes and the two fish intertwine what is learned in the time it takes to feel wuji relationship w the rest of lifes movement reveals the deeper realms of peace and stillness within fantastic realms of movement in which we all eat sleep move and breath

obe`s, ASTRAL TRAVEL, lucid dreaming, dream yoga.... all these take place in the astral realm..... the astral realm is your next stop after youy leave the physical realm..... the astral body is the emotional body..... we have seven bodies..... while in the physical realm we function basically with the lower three..... emotional (astral body), mental and physical.... the mental realm is higher above the astral and more difficult to reach during sleep.... the key to mastering astral travel is to save emotional energy.... that is to avoid arguing and getting into situations that put stress on your emotions..... the next step is to begin practicing on a regular basis..... getting into the astral realm while mentally awake is an energetic operation..... it requires chi..... the best time is at dawn when all three bodies have rested and your energy is good..... what you do is get up, drink a cup of water and go back to bed..... meditate yourself to sleep..... with the intention of being aware of the dozing off process..... tibetan lamas practice this because it is similar to the death process.....(bardo thodol) dying is similar to falling asleep..... remember fear is an emotion and you must not let it bug you when you practice astral travel..... the first experiences you will get are vibrational sounds and sensations..... this is because you are beginning to consciously operate your astral body..... with time they will disappear and other different ones will take their place.... if you practice with earnest you will gain mastery and eventually you will get your full conscious astral trip..... the trick is to permit the physical body to fall asleep while mentally being aware of it..... it can be done.....i`ve done it a hundred times....it becomes automatic as time goes by.... once you are in the astral realm....you will see different things..... what will you see? that will depend on your current emotional state.....because you are seeing things with your emotional body..... if your aura is dirty....it will be difficult to see through it.....hence getting and keeping your aura clean and clear is a constant goal..... there are several methods to clean the aura (bathing in sea water, etc)....but it requires a thread of its own.... the astral realm has seven planes..... you won`t reach the higher ones unless you have mastered your emotions..... the lower astral planes are full of confused entities who refuse to leave the physical plane and its sensual pleasures...... (the lower planes are closer to earth...the astral realm is a type of purgatory ) it is not a good idea to do commerce in the lower realms........ the most likely place that you will find yourself on the first trips is your bedroom..... once there....you simply walk out the door and you are now in the astral realm...... if you have any problems while in the astral realm....put your hands on your chest and ask your higher self to guide you or help you....(mentally shield yourself with a blue shell followed by a white shell for protection before engaging in astral travel)....... if you are sincere your request will be fulfilled.... at the beginning you can choose to walk.....but you can also fly if it is your wish..... avoid coming into contact with astral entities in the lower planes.... (the lower planes are dark...the higher planes are full of light...that is the distinction) most of entities in the lower planes will want to tag on to you....to try and leech energy from you...if you get scared or emotional they feed on that energy.... in the astral realm you can contact people who have passed away.... you can also contact spiritual masters and ask them for advice etc,. etc. but since the masters only visit the higher planes.... you need to maintain a very pure level of spirituality to contact them.....

Franko760 - i have the same thing! Very often it's like i'm doing something, totally random, and this very direct feeling appears like "wait a minute! i had this exact same scene in my dream few months ago! identical! what to heck?!"

Dreams are awesome. A lot of different theories, traditional interpretations, and other interesting study and research on dreams. Some people say that it's nothing more than your brain firing randomly in your sleep, which accounts for the jumbled and (seemingly?) random nature of dreams. Others in that same vein say it's your mind processing information after it "wakes up" but before your body wakes, or that it is your subconscious processing information/screwing around. Others say your mind or astral self wanders around and meets whatever happens to be in the local area, and maybe even meets with things from further away. And then there are all kinds of methods of lucid dreaming or initiating out of body experiences from lucid dreams, which let you do some pretty neat things. I personally think that it depends on the person, depends on the dream, and depends on the situation. I've found all of the above to hold for me, and not one theory (that I've heard of, at least) works across the board.

Naughty marblehead, making people feel they are not welcome.... that doesn't sound like you.... Isn't this question the same as the objective/subjective world question? You mentioned 'universal consciousness' above and that you don't subscribe to it, by universal consciousness do you mean essentially 'God' or something else? Otherwise it's difficult to discuss because I'm not sure what certain words mean to you. In answer to the above question in the quote I would say that there are many levels of consciousness and it's difficult to define which one your'e in unless you become conscious of another level and can kind of look backwards at the other. I still remember what it was to feel like a child, I can remember my level of consciousness and although at the time I couldn't have known, later as I grew, I knew how little I knew, yet, there was also something quite perfect in that, which I attempt to return to with the awareness intact... if that's possible in fact(I think/feel it is). I think there is a certain 'dream within a dream' thing going on, the brain has its functions but also acts as an inhibitor.... so I've seen you do believe in chi(surprised me actually), I probably shouldn't say believe, I should say experienced.... so there are some who say they can see chi, usually having got that ability through 'stopping the mind'....lowering the brain waves..... so I guess the question is can you consider that possible? If you can then it stands to reason the brain acts as some kind of inhibitor, covering up one level of 'the dream/reality'. edit/ps: my my, I just took a look at that thread...you have been busy

Yeah I was studying Robert Bruce Astral Dynamics on this. I determined some interesting things. 1) He said his first OBE experience was when he was dreaming as a child. 2) Later he trained himself to do "waking dreaming" -- OBE while awake but he said this was actually not the astral body, rather it was the etheric body. 3) He says when he does an OBE while awake he gets the tingling sensation. This is the jing energy. When you have the OBE etheric connection or what's called "Fa Jing" in martial arts -- you are aware of information that is in the area where your etheric body is connected while at the same time you maintain waking awareness in your physical body. 4) Robert Bruce says that at first his heart would get major pulsations -- but in fact it was not his heart only his heart chakra. This has been studied in OBE lucid dreaming tests. It's been determined that in a lucid dream as an OBE a person has the physiological reaction of REM sleep which means your heart rate speeds up. 5) If you learn to have a REAL OBE as astral projection this is actually much much more advanced. The same study on OBEs as lucid dreaming determined that if someone trained through meditation they could consciously register in their sleep the experience of an OBE but they could then maintain a slow heart rate and pulse. In fact real astral travel is only after all the chakras open up and nirvikalpa samadhi is achieved -- it's a very advanced state of yogic meditation. You can begin to have astral OBEs but usually there is confusion about "who" is traveling and then you wake up. Sounds like this is what happened with you. I've had this as well. 6) So what is called OBEs in the West is what is called the "Astral Tube" in the East versus Astral Travel. The Astral Tube is when you have an open third eye but it's not fully activated -- there is a long distance connection but it's more through the jing or electrochemical or etheric body rather than the chi body or the shen body. Still in the Astral Tube you can have precognition -- once I had a precognitive dream which came true in great detail -- THREE YEARS LATER. Also when you have a dream that is precognitive it is like a samadhi vision -- it's MORE REAL THAN BEING AWAKE. 7) So being awake is also a type of holographic dreaming. This is the final state of dreaming. I highly recommend you read a book called http://transcendentdreaming.com by Dr. Christine Donnelly. In this state reality is holographic so that external travel is actually a reflection of internal body energy in the chakras. It's also called the rainbow body of yoga or the rainbow vortex of reality. It's a post-death state -- very advanced -- and from this can be telekinesis and eventually the yang body or other physical body is created.

Hi All, This is a post by CowTao in a different thread to me and I thought that his words are worthy of consideration. Hello MH, You ought to get a smack on the head because you have made me feel like i am not welcomed here on TTB! (But i know you did not mean for it to be misunderstood in that sense, so all's well...) ....... ........ ........ Attempting an answer, i'd say mind is not on the dark side of the moon, and neither is mind on the bright side of it. Where is mind? When you hear a sound, there you will hear mind. When you see a pretty girl pass by, there you will see mind. When you taste something sweet, and call that honey, thats the taste of your mind. When you smell the fragrance of green-ness after a short rain shower, that is the smell of your mind. When you feel the heat of the summer sun on your face, that is how the mind is felt. The 5 senses function to complete the make-up of what we label as a human being. The mind is always the king. Why? Even if you take away one, two, three or even four of the senses, this we call a 'human being' can still function, although not as completely as one who has all the senses intact, of course, which is what most people have. But the mind, ah, the mind -- it can never be erased from the picture. Since that which we label as the objective world is nothing other than that which can be sensated, hence the allusion arises that all phenomena are but radiant displays of our own mind. Why radiant? Because even if we were to lose one or more of the senses, we still retain the power of imagination, and this, as you know, can be a source of all kinds of weird and wonderful possibilities. But where do all these possibilities reside? Its quite obvious i think. Rather similar to when we are dreaming, actually. Sorry for the interruption. I'll go back to my Haiku Chain now... Bye! I realize that there are many people who believe in a universal consciousness of some form or another. Some like to give it names like God, or Goddess, or Grandfather, etc. And then there are others, myself included, who do not hold to this concept. I have oftentimes said that I need to take good care of my body because my body is the only thing I have to carry my brain around in. I do agree with the concept of 'mind'. That is, our logical brain as well as other means of perception. So I guess a question at this point would be: Is our 'dream world' the same thing as our conscious interaction with reality or is there a difference? Peace & Love!

As snow fell softly... Waking from my dream I find my toes are purple!

Anymore experiences, inputs, recommended books and techniques regarding lucid dreaming and planes of reality? @YaMu Can you expand on the concept of bringing these various "identities" or scattered "energies" together? Or do you begin to exist simultaneously? How is Dream Gigong different, if at all, from lucid dreaming? More info would be nice. Thanks.