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A permanent reality is a dream, an illusion. Getting lost is what we do while being looking for the reality.

What is the color Yellow? I've never seen it. Assuming I've never had any contact with anyone who had seen Yellow before, how would I ever learn to recognize or distinguish the color? I could read about it in books. I could imagine what they might be like, in my mind's eye perhaps I can even paint what the color Yellow might be. But how can I ever know for sure? Now lets say I find someone who knows what these colors look like. Can she set me strait then? Yes, but not with more words. I still need the experience. So what we can do is, when we find something Yellow, she can point it out. Ah-ha, so that's Yellow! Now what's the point of learning the color Yellow? ... If you want to skip right to the end, then yes, Yellow has nothing to do with emptiness. I could become enlightened without knowledge of Yellow. In this regard, words mean nothing, learning means nothing, so why bother? Lets just wallow in the emptiness we began in and never leave the womb! As you've apparently never undergone the practice of separating reality from illusion, I can understand how from your point of view, it's all the same. But rest assured, imaginary phenomenon and real phenomenon are just as different as dreams are from the waking day. And yet, babies and young children have trouble distinguishing the difference. But they learn to distinguish. Why? Because it's useful. Now, yogis say there is no difference, reality is a dream. Are they right? If they are, does that make distinguishing between dreams and the waking day any less useful? ... Now Gold, if I make ask, what is your beef with teachers and learning from others?

You make a good point. My perspective on this subject. The astral level is the level of non-sense composed of thought forms, dream constructs, and disembodied liars. Why in the world would anyone wish to be caught up in this? What we are, the reality of what we are, is multidimensional beings; i.e., we simultaneously operate in many dimensions. The whole thing boils down to raising your energy body vibrational rate through cultivation. When we do (assuming we are actually practicing a method that works), we gain more access to "remembering" (put in "" because the brain will often mis-interpret these experiences because the experience itself is beyond mind limitations) what is happening and a certain amount of control of our dreamtime experiences. But we have them whether we remember or not. Many of the purposeful practices do not account the need of raising the energy body vibrational rate and leave people playing around in the non-sense area of the astral. Can't imagine anyone thinks this is good. There ARE Higher Levels and they are for YOU because YOU are an inherent part of them! I&I&I&I are a part of the whole.

"KAP 15 hours a day" Apologies if I misquoted or out of context. I'd suggest that KAP actually ends up being somewhere around 15 hours a day unless you get into dream yoga stuff. Cause you get a time out when you sleep;-) The idea that the body is the servant of the mind (or the other way around guys;-)) seems to be lodged in (some of) us. For me KAP is a yoga in that it shows off the effects aimed for. With practice, the practice becomes the effects. It's as if we could suggest that after awakening one no longer needs to be aware, nor mindful. One just is those things (or at least tries to be!) So every time you are awake you are just that. Imagine how awful Enlightenment must then be?? Awake ALL the time!? I've been thinking about Full Lotus (if only to pass into this thread;-)) and I think it probably would hurt. Aren't there other, equally effective mudras without them being full body ones? From the limited understanding I have, mudras can be made to create circuits of all kinds with the added acupressure points linking up as well.

If you continue nourishing the kidney, you will have quite often wet dreams, at least once a month. This is a sign that your Yang kidney is overflowing so it's time to balance with some Yin. This is a clear sign you need to cool down a little bit. Drink water. If your urine is dark then you have Yang excess. If your urine is clear white or even turbid you have a Yin excess. The best is in between a yellow clear color which shows a Yin-Yang balance. Yes, the excesive Yang energy that you build in the lower dantien instead of loosing it by a wet dream or by an insomnia, is time to raise up higher to the middle dantien (solar plexus and heart area) and to spread to the limbs (arms and legs). I recommend you the 5 tibetan rites, and also the sixth rite if you practice retention, it should help, but pay careful attention not to overheat the internal organs. Keep the balance of Yin/Yang, Water/Fire. Think about the steam, if you have water in your cauldron with no fire, the water is cold. If you have fire the water will heat and will produce steam, if your fire is too big you end up evaporating all the water and you will burn the cauldron, so be careful allways to have some water in your cauldron and some fire that keeps the water hot and steamy.

I update my situation, in order to have a better view of what I'm doing. I finally understood that there was some imbalance and was because of too low yang water. The point is not that my kidneys were ill, but the overall state of my body is changing, and I always have to find a new order In the last month I started eating more kidney food (black beans, black sesame, barley, etc.). Two weeks ago I had some emotional imbalance even with one night insomnia, that drained my kidneys; after that I was kind of starting from zero and but I easily recovered. Last weekend I had a wet dream; anyway I kept nourishing my kidney, with good food, kidney qigong from the book "qigong empowerment" (simple but effective), kung fu, squats and (quite new and very important) some short sessions of taoist yoga, but just the first stage: fixing the spirit. I'm practising semen retention too, but quite naturally: at the moment I don't have a partner and I'm not interesting in porn. This morning I woke up with a great heat in the kidneys and genitals, I was quite thirsty. I did some qigong, without concentration on the kidneys - I just felt like to let flow all this heat with some MCO circulation. I massaged a little my body, but not that much (I actually wanted to massage my kidney channel but I forgot it....). During the day I experienced a pleasant warm in my hands and all through the body, like when I was younger Now I'm thinking about this experience: could be some kidney blockades opening ? Should I countinue nourishing the kidneys or what else ? Should I take advantage of this extra energy and put into the 8 extraordinary channels ? Thank you for your precious advices

You guys should give Dream of the Dragon Pool - A Daoist Quest by Albert A Dalia a shot. It's great, and it's all Li Bo.

Steam -- this is an interesting analysis but should be further clarified: Qigong works because the body's blood and serotonin is overly focused in the stomach. When we do reverse breathing and most importantly, the FULL-LOTUS, then the vagus nerve is activated which then TRANSDUCES serotonin to the BRAIN. So we get bliss from a huge increase of serotonin because we have tons of serotonin it's just in our stomachs normally. Now it's not just reverse breathing, nor is it just posture or body movement but it's most importantly mind concentration which IONIZES the serotonin in the stomach, through ultrasound. That's my own model. Others claim it's because the brain frequency goes down to theta which is also infrasound and the lower frequency enables a higher AMPLITUDE of energy. So that's the classical model whereas the increased brain frequency is the quantum model. Both are just Western analogies. So to answer your first question -- the body stops being hungry because the lower tan tien is FULL OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS -- while the brain is full of serotonin. When the lower tan tien is full of electromagnetic fields then, as Chunyi Lin states, the chi can create all the necessary nutrition that the body needs. Or as Mantak Chia states since the jing comes from sex energy this is literally "stem cell" energy that can then create whatever the body needs. When the jing is full actually the sex energy is primed and ready to go. You WILL be chased after and hit on by females and also by male pervs. Also you will be susceptible to ANY subconscious sex desire -- this is why monks can't see movies. So the avatars on this website are a good example. What needs to be understood is that, as Gurdjieff states, if you can SELF-REMEMBER right when an attachment occurs, then you can DOUBLE the energy gained. So if someone is hitting on you what they really want is YOUR QI ENERGY. That's the GREAT secret of sex -- female desire is actually for QI or male electromagnetic energy. Male sex fluid is MADE from the electromagnetic energy of the brain -- the hormones as electrochemical energy are female energy. So if a person wants your electromagnetic energy then in turn they will also be giving you their electrochemical energy. So if females want to hit on you that's o.k. Now if males want to hit on you -- that's a problem -- because the male sex focus is on ejaculation and when ejaculation occurs it TRIGGERS the STRESS sympathetic nervous system. When the female climaxes it's through the relaxation PARASYMPATHETIC vagus nerve. So the full-lotus enables the internal climax through the vagus nerve and therefore the chi flows into the female and then the female climaxes providing MALE HORMONE TESTOSTERONE back to the male. So male energy is really electromagnetic -- yet this, again, is totally lost with the focus all on "female" electrochemical energy!! As for sleep -- in fact what happens is that in deep meditation, as Chunyi Lin states: 20 minutes of DEEP meditation is worth 4 HOURS of sleep! So people often have trouble sleeping because their mind is racing from too much dopamine! They're stressed out or they ate too much salt or too much sugar -- both causing dopamine spikes -- or caffeine. Sure, as Witch states, this eventually over-stress the system, causing kidney failure and then too much serotonin. No -- the meditation enables over-riding sleep because SLEEP is an electrochemical state of the brain while, again, chi energy and shen -- light -- are electromagnetic. So sleep is actually just an "energy blockage" -- just like food! haha. I mean I can sleep in full-lotus and I do that quite a bit. Here's how it works. I'm in full-lotus and I'm doing healing through the O at a D -- psychic mutual climax. So the vagus nerve is pulsating, the serotonin is transduced to my brain, it goes to the pineal gland, it is transduced INTO electromagnetic fields which are then sucked out and shot into the main YIN source around me -- through walls, ceiling, etc. Meanwhile the yin source gives off the electrochemical energy which I then suck in through the lower body of the full-lotus pressure. O.K. so this is happening and it's through PURE AWARENESS the source of light. But since it's a dynamic that goes through yin and yang (electrochemical and electromagnetic) then my thoughts crop in. My thoughts being: Damn I'm tired! Wow I really want to go to sleep! I'd like to go out of the full-lotus and lie down. But it's too late! Back into the emptiness I go and this time the energy is more intense - this time the brain is MORE magnetized -- with stronger electromagnetic fields. This time the brain fills with light. And so it goes. In other words the sensation of sleep -- the tiredness, just like any other energy blockage, is literally SUCKED OUT OF MY BRAIN. Because in fact the 4th state of awareness -- turiya -- is beyond deep, dreamless sleep. Take another example. I'm falling asleep -- lying in bed. As I fall asleep my mind begins to go into dream state -- what's call the hypnogagic state or something. I'm aware of my dreams though as they are happening but now I'm getting really sleepy and then suddenly the dreams stop and as I go into dreamless deep sleep the brain fills with light and what remains is this: AWARENESS. I'm not asleep -- but I'm not awake. I'm just aware that light is being created in my brain. There's no thoughts -- it's just awareness of light.

Hehehe. See? You gotta' tell me the whole truth when you tell me the truth else I will become delusional. Yes, I can totally understand why the Spanish was there in your dream. Your comments above recalled a memory of mine I will share. I was stationed in Italy. This is after I had spent 4 1/2 years in Germany and learned to speak German pretty well. While in Italy I was trying to learn Italian. Anyhow, four of us were selected to take training at a school in Germany. I drove my car, the others rode with me. We were in Switzerland (where German is the primary language) and it was time for supper so we stopped and the others decided that I would order for all of them as I spoke German. We sat at a table and the waitress came to us. My first statement to the waitress ended up coming out in a mixture of English, German and Italian. We all laughed like crazy. I finally got my mind straightened out and spoke German with the waitress the rest of the evening. Peace & Love!

Its just a dream, boy! It looks so real just like life, popcorn and candy.

Only jesting about the deNiro remark Mud.. Stir fly eh? I'll give it a go... Stir fry beef sizzles.. Whats for dessert one wonders Its just a dream, boy!

Life is absolutely meaningless. All values, goals, structure, the physical world, phenomena, the Buddhas, the immortals, etc. all amount to absolutely no true value or meaning. They are there and you see it because you have given it meaning and purpose. There are no gods, no self, no enlightenment, no end. On a blank space, forms are seen and given life and their characteristics. In this made up dream you create a story for yourself. You laugh in it, cry in it, realize in it. Everything is like thus. Everything has come before us because of this. Ok, now that sounds depressing. But really it isn't. Realizing meaningless unbinds you. Once anything is valued, you become chained by it. See it's very simple. In this meaningless there is great freedom. The Buddhist have decided to make compassion their eternal refuge. And rightly so, there is great happiness there. And this is NO TRUER than valuing anything else. It just leads to great happiness. But it is not any truer, because compassion too has no inherent meaning to it. In other words, you DONT HAVE TO be compassionate. You don't HAVE TO do anything. First understand that everything is really meaningless. Then cultivation doesn't become a disciplinary act, and meditation doesn't become a "Oh I have to go meditate to become enlightened" thing. It's kind of like what the existentialists say. You are the one giving meaning to life, how you create your reality, how you create your experience is all of your own doing. But existentialists think there is an objective world your are giving a false meaning to. But really, there is no objective world. There is only you and your intent traveling the endless path called existence. So yes, the only meaning there is is this meaningless freedom of existence. Don't limit yourself to anything else otherwise. Thoroughly realizing meaninglessness is important to getting you to the next step of "why not?" . Just thoughts today after meditation... ...

Again, please don't underestimate the power of suggestion. By what you've been writing here you have mostly been programming yourself to be more of what's bothering you. Talk and think more about what you want to be, what you dream of, what strengths you know you have and how you're going to improve on them. You must have some willpower, for instance, since you've been vegan for some time in an environment that doesn't support it. YOU HAVE POWER

lol - Incredible you're still besides the point. Like i said, lifting weights is the "fastest" way to get lean, but not the most efficient. Even if you can clean jerk hundreds of pounds, the quality, efficiency, recovery, formation, durability, strength, flexibility etc. of your muscle is inferior. I don't lift weights, but when i accompany friends to the weight lifting section who have been training for years, i can lift more dead weight than they can, without prior weight training. The only reason i work out for that long is because i love it. How long i work out for has nothing to do with my results. I only mentioned it to prove "Regular" people can do it, since you insisted one would be required to "dream" in order to achieve such results. 40 Minutes a day doing bodyweight training will yield the same results. Also i pretty much only eat fruits, rice, fish and water. It's cheaper, healthier and the quality of the muscle is superior. "No shit a weightlifter isn't going to be able to do a planche push up because he doesn't train to do them.." My point exactly. Weight lifter's muscle formation is rigid and less efficient, due to the nature of their work out. The muscle is like a horse with blinders. A bodyweight trainer on the other hand can utilize the same muscle for task of much greater variety than the weight builder can and with greater efficiency, without requiring specific prior training. Bodyweight training as far as quality, muscle formation, costs and requirements go - is way, way more effective. I and someone else already said in prior post that some gymnasts weight lift, but it is not necessary to achieve those results. Making a post with a link about a weight lifter who weight lifts, after that, is somewhat.... i'll pass on commenting. The difference between you and me in this conversation, is that you are biased, while i am not. If you weight lift, as long as you do bodyweight training, and specific motor programing through movement simulation - You will have the best of both worlds. It's like having a huge block that has to fit through a circular doorway, it won't work. But if you take the block and chisel it, you get the best of both worlds. The circular doorway represents the variety of tasks we use our muscles for in the real world. If you only have a block, then you're just a big bag of inefficiently produced meat. But if you've molded and programmed the muscle with bodyweight and movement simulation, then you've built the best muscle you can. It's like giving that block a brain, instead of just leaving it to be dead weight with minimal productivity. Body builder's muscle formations are rigid. Thats just the way it is : ) You can't only do 1 thing. You're in a Tao forum for crying out loud. I would assume, telling people that results are only achievable through dreams and being totally biased in your opinion, would be beyond you. You have to go hard and soft - for the best results. Soft... just like with the internal arts, is stronger, but takes longer to cultivate depending on your efforts. You may be bigger than me, but don't think you have the advantage with only dead "bulky" muscle. The weight lifters muscle is like ordering a pizza from a menu that doesn't tell you what the ingredients are, for 10 people, all with different tastes. You get a pizza, thats it, and you will not satisfy all requirements. Bodyweight training and muscle programming on the other hand, is asking everyone what ingredient they want on the pizza. Then making the pizza at home while catering to all of those 10 people's requirements. Great power and strength without weights as the title of this thread goes, is best achieved through bodyweight training in combination with some weight lifting, or BODYWEIGHT training only, but definitely not weight lifting only. That's not strength, trust me. : ) - Thats just... lumpyness *giggle

So Master Sleeping Dragon tried to plead with Heaven to extend his lifespan but was interrupted and a lantern representing a Big Dipper star was knocked over by a commander rushing into the tent, so passed away. Gradually luck has been slipping away from the Western Kingdom and the remnant of the Han Dynasty... Two cool supernatural events are related to this: A northern kingdom commander who was fighting against Master Sleeping Dragon's Western Kingdom saw some evil clouds while invading the Western Kingdom and assumed it to be an ambush. Indeed, the scouting party sent to check it out suffered a huge ambush but surprisingly didn't lose any troops... they later figured out that this was the area that Master Sleeping Dragon's Temple was established and those were ghost troops. So the enemy commander makes offerings to Master Sleeping Dragon which calms down the clouds. Later, the Master visits the commander in a dream and thanks him for the offerings and tells him that the Western Kingdom and the Han Dynasty is doomed, that the commander's cause would prevail but admonished him to be very merciful towards the civilians which he agreed to do. The other event was that the Western Kingdom emperor calls in a channeler to give him strategic advice. The "goddess" in question gyrates the channeler around and puts on quite a show but the advice was completely wrong and sealed the dynasty's fate. This story fits in nicely with my belief that channelled entities are not to be trusted.

We have a Chinese teacher, but her English said is alright. Some schoolmate, his went to China last year, this year he goes home, his Chinese said very much fluently. My Chinese said too slowly. But I like writing really, studies the character. Is able to discriminate schoolmate, they already knew many Chinese, has the Chinese friend, every day practices with them I hope I was able to translate it.... thanks to babble fish With the advent of computers I don't even attempt to spell English properly anymore perhaps technology will one day make it all irrelevant. I know a small amount of Cantonese and would like to learn more, although I should probably learn Mandarin instead. I have a dream of one day going to china and teaching English as a second language, basically so that I can afford to go there for a few months. The Chinese section idea is interesting and worth thinking about IMHO. If anyone ever has any ideas for TTB just send us an email, always interested in continual product improvement

I always enjoyed his posts, and find his relating dream practice and sexual practice to be interesting and would always like to hear more of what he is up to. Bill

I second the Six Healing Sounds recommendation for the evening (sitting version), combined with a gentle Inner Smile. It is a very good way to de-stress and relax. Also, it is great for preparing the mind/emotions for the journey into the dream realm...

Thanks, N-m-t-n-m-t! Everything you interpreted is perfectly correct, to the utmost. It's rather freeing and amusing- if somewhat creepy- to note that my personality (what I always called I) is so very predictable. Also, oddly enough my grandmother always said that I was 'jowly' (though my big head sort of makes it unnoticeable, besides when I'm over weight). And, yes, my dream job is being a Psychiatrist- though I wouldn't give pills ever, as I don't believe in their use. Also, the esoteric and the humanitarian are of my most valued pursuits. p.s. I've noticed before that I become oddly quiet and shy around new people when they have the potential to become anything more than strangers. If they are only strangers, I am as open as I am with my own friends (as their opinion doesn't affect me). But if I like someone (as a friend or romantically), I close off a little- I guess it's a defensive mechanism or something. When I get to know them and trust them a bit, I open up, and people are shocked by the change.

"All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves." - Bill Hicks http://www.gaia.com/quotes/bill_hicks

Hello DC! Just a couple of questions regarding your observation above: 1) Are you saying that the experience of Enlightenment (if there is such a thing) cannot be discussed? At all? Why? *Jon Doe* just got a glimpse of what profound wakefulness is - Are you saying its wrong to verbalize his experience? This is a curious thought.. 2) Since we are all stuck in illusion, does this mean whatever we experience is also experienced within this illusion? Is it possible to remove oneself from this illusion? If yes, what do you think can help one towards awakening from the dream? Your thoughts would be appreciated. _/\_ Regards.

Well, I am certainly glad that your view is not depressing to you. And I am sorry that you still do not understand my arguement. Words fail me sometimes. But as long as we all remember to live I guess everything will turn our for the best. So you can go ahead and assume that "I", Marblehead, will continue to exist until he no longer exists. I really do enjoy being a physical being. I even get to dream, have illusions and delusions and even imagine myself in other realms and stuff like that. Peace & Love!

Very good post. I know it is a bit late now, just missed it when you first wrote it. When you start practicing Bagua and Vipassana then you realize about how deep the rabbit hole goes when cultivating the Buddhist and Taoist paths. I have seen in dreams the depth of Taoism and circle walking to the point of being in a higher astral plane where the practice was much higher than down here. I shared this dream with a very well-known IMA guy that happens to live in another continent (I live in Australia) even though we never met in real life and never discussed this topic either in public or using private messages.

Greetings.. The comedy is nearly overwhelming... two, or more, unique manifestations of the cosmos.. some aruging they 'exist', others arguing they don't exist.. and, in either case, it is a 'mind-game'.. there is the certainty that a uniquely manifested being is reading the posts of other uniquely manifested beings. The contrasting opinions contained in the posts are clearly formed by beings with differing perspectives.. somehow, linguistic and semantic word-games have been cobbled together is some fashion sufficient to convince rational beings they 'don't exist'.. the humor, however dark, is overwhelming.. Is there any doubt that there are individual physical bodies, humans, existing on this celestial body we call earth? Is there any doubt that no two of these uniquely individual humans will interpret any experience in an exactly identical manner? (hint: they won't).. Examine your 'dreams', do they return nightly in a flowing stream of related events, no.. they are fragments of glimpses into the 'non-local' you, the Cosmic Mind.. each day you wake to the actuallity of existence, a streaming continuum of inter-related events.. to equate the streamimg continuum of inter-related events to random fragmented and often unintelligible 'dreams', is a leap of faith unsustantiated by any measure of reason.. Yes, there is an 'I'.. no, it is not the constructed image of thoughts and beliefs.. it is that unique manifested being, the unique perspective the being generates simply by being unique.. it is the necessity of 'relationship', and.. it is relationships that drive this whole existence, the whole Cosmos.. the Singularity, in order to 'know' itself, set the process in motion that result in 'its relationship with itself.. the 'I' is also the Singularity, it evolves through interactive relationships with itself.. we/us/Life ARE those relationships.. we (a bunch of 'I's) construct the personas that reveal to the singularity what the Singularity IS.. This whole process is called 'Evolution', the principle of self-organization choosing its natural direction and revealing the nature of the Singularity to the Singularity.. Evolution is without design or constraint, the only way the the Singularity can experience its own 'truth'.. While the mental image, the thoughts, you believe about yourself are not tangible.. their effect is very tangible.. 'You', the unique being and its unique perspective, are quite real.. if not, simply cease your manifestation.. stop posting, stop the 'dream'.. you want a really good laugh? watch one 'not real' being trying to convine another 'not real' being they are 'not real'.. it's a hoot! AND, it's a pathetically insincere game.. i have not met even one of the proponents of the 'not real' existence that conduct themselves in manner consistent with their statements, nope, not even one.. and, i know a bunch of them.. what i see is people that think it's really cool to insist that they don't exist, i mean 'how cool is that'.. to look another human in the eye and say.. 'we don't really exist'.. that, my 'non-existent' friends, is precisely what P.T. Barnum was referring to.. Be well..

In the arena of spiritual cultivation , it is always difficult to claim anything clear cut . Our daily trivial mind is full of ups and downs , sorrows and ecstasies ... people are not accustomed to any status that they can assure themselves that they are in safe, they are in grasp of their own future , free of worries of aging ,accidents , illness and death . Maybe the only clear-cut status they are sure is that they are awaken , not in a dream ? Yet what Taoist cultivation gives us is totally different , anyway, what I claim "clear- cut " are in the following senses: 1) Relative to some Buddhist ways , which ask people to contemplate on problems such as "Who am I? " , " What is a mind neither thinking of evil , nor good ?" , for years yet without giving concrete criterion for what can be said to be accomplished , Taoist jing-qi-shen way of course is clear-cut. 2) The completion of each step in Taoist way is always clear : For example ,stop menstruation or stop of ordinary way of breathing , the practitioner herself clearly knows what she has achieved and its effect on both her body and mind.There is no ambiguity . Besides, what happen first and what happen later is so clear that there can't be any doubts or mixed . 3) The emergence of the pre-heavenly way of breathing or a much condensed and clearer Mind , for example , is always abrupt , not a continual process. At that moment, you fail to grasp it , you have to wait patiently for the next moment ...Yet once grasped it , you then know that a quality jump has happened in your life .