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In realization of course it does. But not in process of explanation, or display of functioning after liberation... Rigpa is still dependently originated and is the fruit of seeing dependent origination and is no different from the Buddhas teachings in essence. You realize the 3 kayas, you see the infinite blue sphere/tigle/bindu spontaneously, which is a symbol of the infinite that manifests for those that see directly infinite dimension and perspective. Have you read the book by Rinpoche, "Dzogchen Teachings"? The one with the flag that looks like an optical illusion... Like I said... if you experience Rigpa, you have a vision of the 6 realms and the 31 planes, not quite as limited as it's said as well... one might even say, infinite realms, but that's not really needed to say as the 6 realms and 31 planes covers all the form to formless paradigms and infinite variations of these. Have you read "The Supreme Source"? It's not that Rinpoche only hits the surface in his talks, but most people don't penetrate it seems or go deaf when he's talking about some of the subtler points, like the tigle and the realms, his talking to alien beings in lucid dream states. Also... have you read the "Precious Vase"? You want me to answer questions but you don't have to I suppose. They don't have a lucid understanding, they are just perceiving. They are not tuned in, they are tuned out, as in overly external, and their cat tail balances them as an extension of their spine to deal with the constant barrage of denser energy perceptions... they are constantly walking smooth, like "cats" on the streets dodging cops, talkin' smooth, who always know what's going on behind them even while talkin' to you in slick ways. Seeing your energy pulse, and knowing if your scared. This is not enlightenment. Sure you can learn from them, but don't deceive yourself thinking it's better to be a cat, or a dude on the streets with animal senses for that matter. p.s. No matter how peaceful Eckart's cats may have seemed sitting there, I bet if you threw a mouse in front of any of them, they couldn't help but follow instinct. Then again... who knows?? There are always exceptions. I know dogs can be conditioned to be more internally disciplined. Cats generally run wild though when faced with something to run from or run after. Don't get me wrong, I am a cat person and have owned a number of cats, and dogs in my life.

I know of one way that I actually FELT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm a person who really, really despises visualization. I can't get it and if I do get to the brainwave state (to include dream state) somebody else hijacks it.

I was one of the initial 11 test pilots for this fairly famous study which was designed (among other things) to see if DMT could help advance one on the spiritual path. Rick Strassman, who conducted the study, wrote the book and is featured in the movie, concluded (among other things) that spiritually you get from a drug experience exactly what you bring to it. I am familiar with ayahuasca and I would say Strassman's conclusion holds true for it also. If given the chance to do it again, I'd turn it down. Most of my work in this regard is done through dreams and I have never had a drug experience that could match the finest features out of 33 years of dream cultivation. Plus dreams don't taste bad or cause you to throw up. Ciao

If your practice every day and eventually your mind becomes still during the walking hours, your sleep time should be naturally reduced. I like sleeping but normally 4-6 hours is enough, and that would be 2-3 hours of deep sleep and the rest being a meditative state where you're conscious and just observe the sleep/dream state.

Alright this is a lengthy topic that I'll try to make as concise as possible while explaining everything required. When I was in my early twenties my lifestyle was basically eating tv dinners, fast food, junk snacks etc., waking up at noon and taking late college classes, playing guitar in a band, playing RPGs, playing some hockey once in a great while, smoked cigarrettes, and partying-drinking and smoking doobies- hitting the hay around 2-4 AM every night. I also was dating, and had normal regular sex with my girlfriend, as well as "self stimulation". Well I was doing this for about four years out of high school, then I noticed I was feeling tired alot. Then one evening, I was out a a local beach party, I had a couple of beers, when I went home that night I "self stimulated" twice finishing off both times. The second time something very weird happened, I felt something like a mental energy drain, like some kind of vitality exited my body and/or mind. I immediately felt exhausted and felt strange bodily/nerve pain sensations. To make a long story short these continued for years after this, resulting in problems sleeping, fatigue on and off all the time, and pains in what felt like the nerves on and off. Doctors diagnosed epstein barr and then later chronic fatigue. However a couple of years ago I went to a holisitc practioner who said he cured hinself of chronic fatigue. I went through the program and was able to fix close to 85-90 percent of my issues with detoxification. However there are a couple of issues remaining. The one I am most concerned about is that after I ejaculate, be it with a girl, "self stimulation", or a wet dream i am physically drained for days, and I experience aching under the ribs on the sides-alleviated most of the time when I urinate. I have been reading up on Taoist yoga -inner alchemy and have seen how the taoist (as well as Aryuvedic tradtion), considers ejaculation the loss of vital energy. 1. I am wondering if I should try to learn how to transform the semen into vital essence energy as described in the book: Taoist yoga, alchemy and immortality 2. Is this the best solution, or do I supplement my nurishment and excercise practices to increase the health and energy levels to withstand these regular functions which are resulting in these symptoms? 3. Can there be a mental component I am missing, blocking, and/or not realising that can be causing these symptoms? I feel I don't have any hangups or problems with ejaculation, and my guess that these symptoms are leftover from the initial onset so many years ago that night when I first got sick. I have read about personal energy fields, and how burning coal walkers simply train their minds to think that they will not let the burning coals affect them when they walk over them, and so their body is not affected. If this can be a mental manifestation (?), can the mind be retrained to block this type of conscious or subconscious thinking? Any suggestions on further research, more places to look, others to ask on this matter? My holistic health practitioner has not been able to help very much with this problem. I have been considering seeing a TCM practitioner, but she has said she will most likely recommend herbs for the symptoms. Whew, thas a lot to read...sorry

Yes but both are biaural beats -- yet there's articles explaining that using music on top of the biaural beats just drowns out the effects due to non-sine wave harmonics. This makes sense to me and when I tried these various techniques I found the "guided meditations" of holosync to be particularly annoying as well. It should just be the pure sine wave -- but better yet is the monoaural wave -- or "isochronic" because the entrainment produces a larger amplitude effect. This article argues that white noise "ocean surf" is JUST AS EFFECTIVE as any biaural beats -- and I would agree since it's well-proven that white noise creates "auditory hallucination." This is easily demonstrated in the shower -- ever hear voices external to you while in the shower -- messages from beyond -- not hallucinations as much as subconscious theta communication from white noise "ocean surf." Anyway here's this article -- I've never bought not plan to try the isochronic beats (despite it being easier to spell than biaural or whatever! haha). Why? Because at this level of monoaural or isochronic it's no different than just a DRUM BEAT -- which, steady at the "theta" or delta frequency is the same tempo and frequency as the heart-beat as well. In other words the FREQUENCY of the drum head tone is the same as the RHYTHM of the dream beating -- so the two combine to reinforce amplitude. That's why I like nonwestern traditional African drumming -- like the Kenyan Witchcraft Ritual c.d. which I gave to my former co-worker -- but there's also the Bushmen trance dance hand-clapping c.d.s -- hand clapping was the original drumming! haha. Anyway.... http://www.harmonichealingcd.com/pdfs/freq...hing_report.pdf

I never had a great amount of success with the Binaural Beats, but i've been having more success with the Isochronic Beats, i like not wearing headphone's when i'm meditating! Totally agree with the training wheels analogy, gives you a taste, a glimpse, but i'd suspect you can go deeper when you take the training wheels off. Has anyone achieved 'enlightenment' with Binaural Beats? Re the dreams, i've heard a number of sources say that when you cultivate high enough you don't dream (don't have any on hand to refer to though). I assume this is due to the sub-conscious realms becoming conscious.

"I have never seen any scientific study that has ever presented varifiable proof and evidence that anyone has ever had awareness of anything prior to birth." - me neither AND has anyone seen any scientific and verifiable proof and evidence that anyone ever DID NOT have awareness of anything prior to birth? That's the stuff I' d be down for spending research $ on. Why aren't we doing that? "It is true that everyone does not remember their dreams. But not all people dreams in a depth where they had any realization of dreaming so they basically did not dream. Yes, there are those who say that everyone dreams. I do not agree with this assessment. The same applies to after death." - How? You're much better than me for explaining things and I'd love to be able to work it out how the consideration of dreams can be equivalent to the consideration of death. I don't expect an answer right away because people have spent thousands of years on this already. I spend a considerable amount of time on it too. I don't know if I'm getting anywhere much;-) "I cannot prove any of this because it does not exist." - nope, you're usually better than this. - "I cannot prove any of this" - "It does not exist" What form would proof take? Hopefully you see this as helpful (like a cat might help its owner to realise where the fridge is, or what comfy feels like) I'm also doing it to help myself since I haven't honed my logic as much as I should have and you're much better at it that I am.

My abilities to astral project and lucid dream are the direct result of energy work and practice with Robert Bruce's techniques. The friend that I was referring to gained the ability to naturally astral project after a near death experience that he had when he was ten years old. His heart stopped for almost three minutes and he was declared dead, during which time he went done the tunnel to the light and saw Jesus and several angels and a bunch of happy loved ones in a beautiful white place. I highly suspect that he would have seen someone other than Jesus had he been raised in a different culture, but that the general feelings of love and comfort and support would all still have been there. This is a good summation of my thoughts so far, though I am a little hesitant to use the phrase "out there," just because it tends to move the locus of the phenomena away from the observer and I do not know if I am confident enough to do that yet. But there is defiantly something going on.

are the abilities of astral travel and lucid dream a result of your practice or are they innate? i came by an idea that seems to resonate with what you say: - there is definately something going on out there - the human nature influences perception given these facts, we can say with pretty much certainty that we have to work with both our perception and our interpretation of it most of it, it seems, it's outside the boundaries of human understanding. the brain is approximating approximations, so to speak

Hi GiH, Pretty frisky mood you got there so early on a Sunday morning. Hehehe. Nope. I don't remember being born. I remember taking a walk with my mother when I was about two years old so I suggest that it is a given that I was born. No, I don't have to take anyones word for the fact that I was born. We don't emerge from eggs - mammals are all born. That a process of nature. I have never heard of anyone who can honestly say they had awareness of anything prior to birth. Okay. I will rephrase my statement. I have never heard of anyone who claims to have been aware of anything prior to birth that has ever been proven to be an actual fact based upon conclusions resulting from an investigation using the scientific method. I have never seen any scientific study that has ever presented varifiable proof and evidence that anyone has ever had awareness of anything prior to birth. So are you suggesting that I should believe the delusions of people who think they have omniscient powers? You can't be serious. Amnesiacs cannot be discussed in this type of discussion. It is true that everyone does not remember their dreams. But not all people dreams in a depth where they had any realization of dreaming so they basically did not dream. Yes, there are those who say that everyone dreams. I do not agree with this assessment. The same applies to after death. I cannot prove any of this because it does not exist. Noone can prove that something that does not exists just as noone can prove that something that does not exist does not exist. But even to dreams - you cannot prove that the dreams was real outside the dreamer's own mind. Therefore it was an illusion. Nothing more and nothing less. So all I am saying is that if you have no proof of the existence of something why believe it in the first place? All we would be doing is confusing our illusions and delusions with our reality. You did not get laid last night, you masturbated - doesn't matter what you dreamed. None of your reasons stood the test of logic. Therefore I hold to no reason to hold to illusions or delusions. You have not proven reality of before-birth or after-death awareness. All you have proven is that you believe in such matters. I do not. There are no boundries. There are the processes of nature. Understand the processes and we will understand that there are things that lie within the realm of possibilities and other things lie outside the realm of possibilities. But that doesn't mean that things won't change some time in the future or that they may have been different at some time in the past. There was a time on Earth when no living creatures existed. There will be a time in the future when Earth will no longer be able to support life. That's just the way it is. Peace & Love!

I don't know. beside the obvious. But let me add something. When I was a kid I read a book about being conscious in my dreams. I immediately had a conscious dream that very night. Some time after I started having them, every now and then. But only when I was full of energy. Now they never happen to me anymore. No matter how much energy do I store. I have read on a "reliable" source (i.e. random page on the net ;-) ) that you need particular substances in your body to have conscious dreams. Probably I just don't have those anymore. Why am I saying this? Because we keep on treating Jing as if it was a single source. But it might be that there are different substances, and we need to have plenty of all of them. Just a passing thought

Hey Scotty.... I have done them several times and each time was incredibly different from each other time. The time that I would say that they "worked the way they are supposed to" was when I ate about 20 grams of them....5 big caps that had been sitting on my altar for probably a year and a half. They basically put me to sleep and made me have some crazy dreams. For me, the benefits of a "trip" (whatever the entheogen) come from the "Forced Inquiry" of it. And the only way to have "forced inquiry" happen is to basically take your ego out of it's comfort zone....to have a "bad trip" as most people term them. For me Amanita Muscaria mushrooms can't do this simply because the ego is nullified at least slightly by the "dream" aspect of the trip. I find the most beneficial trips to be the ones where the ego is fully intact at first, but then is overwhelmed by the Forced Inquiry and is "dissolved" as a result. This can't happen with A.M. in my experience. Maybe if you combined them with a stimulant of some sort, but I highly doubt that, and I am out of the "psychonaut" phase of my life so I have no desire to start experimenting Love, Carson

Zhou, I thought about this because I had the same kind of problem. However, in the end I answered in the positive on the balance of possibility. I take a broad definition of entity as I take the nature of reality to be something like a field of energy (shorthand version!) and that all beings, human, animal, plants are zones of specific vibration or energy pattern. It is therefore possible to have entities which do not possess corporeal bodies in the way we do and exist in a way very different to the ordinary (and therefore limited) human existence. The test for 'real' in this case is not the same as the test for real for another human i.e. you can see, touch, smell etc. and talk to them. I believe therefore in non-human intelligences which exist but which have a different set of rules determining their reality. What for us may be a dream, for instance could be real for them if you see what I mean. You could always argue, as a Buddhist would that these beings do not have selves and therefor are not existent but then that same argument applies to you and me, so in the ordinary sense of the word both us and they do exist. A.

Yeah Easy. Say more about structures, please. I don't agree with your final points 1) and 3) in their entirity and I do not have enough knowledge to discuss 2). The reason I don't fully accept 1) is because of this: ... if it isn't ego, it does not exist. That is a too generalized statement for me to be able to agree with. To 3), well, after reading it a third time I have changed my mind. I agree with 3). The state of sleep is considered the unconscious state. Many of our dreams are dreams in the first person, that is, ego is present. Therefore it does not require consciousness for ego to be present or for self-awareness to be present. Self awareness can happen in the unconscious (sleep-dream) state. Peace & Love!

I did dynamic tensions exercises while in a lucid dream/obe state (not with my physical body), and it caused my physical arms to ache from the insides out for weeks afterwords. It felt like my arms had become balloons, and swollen and stretched out, like someone had squeezed all the blood to the tips of my fingers until they exploded with pooled blood. However it was worth it, but I am not going to share that story here.

Hi MarbleHead.... I guess you could ask yourself these two questions: 1.) Are all mind-concepts ego? 2.) Is the unconscious mind ego-less? It is my understanding that once you get to a certain point of Realization that you stop dreaming (but are instead "awake" while sleeping. I believe the state is called "Turiya". And I am also under the understanding that if you were truly "ego-less" you could not exist as a human being on Earth so-to-speak.....that there could be no physical form if you were truly ego-less. So, if both these two concepts were true that would mean that one could not live in Turiya while in human form...which is not the case. This means that (theoretically) you can relieve the awareness of the ego during dreaming, but not completely during any 3 Dimensional existence. Again this is all theoretically and completely speculative, as I do not have personal experience with living from Turiya all day (I have had glimpses during Deep Meditation, but they have never been lasting). I think that as long as we are still have dreams there is ego/conditioning still involved on some level. An "ego-less mind" will not dream in my opinion. Again, purely speculation....or perhaps an "educated guess" Absolutely. Thanks for the conversation. Love, Carson

The Great Books series is a must have. Great point about the homework. "On education, practical skills should be taught on a rotating schedule (medical school clinical rounds comes to mind). All students train with an accomplished farmer, weaver, mechanic, etc; then older students choose to specialize and apprentice in their favorite field. Basically, every adult in the community should be a part-time teacher. And this should be in addition to formal studies of the Great Books (great idea), history, math, music, science, exercise, etc." Great idea. Keep 'em circulating. Ideally, you would want each of them to have some familiarity with each of the facility's functions; AG, energy, animal husbandry, crafts, etc. "Let's be practical, in what country is all this happening? In most countries education is by now a legal requirement, so the suggestions, to be realistic, and have a chance to be adopted, should take into consideration this." My dream countries would either be Canada (BC) or New Zealand, but there are a lot of intentional communities that are functioning in a similar manner throughout the world - www.ic.org I love Durkhrod's curriculum design. I imagine conventional academics - the Three Rs -playing a slightly larger role than formal Taoist subject matter, at least for children. Permaculture will necessitate a lot of learning too, if all available man-hours are not used up in the process of food production. Thanks for your input. My ego was hoping for a livelier exchange, but I value all of your inputs!

Subjects to teach: 1. TCM 2. Tuina and chi nei tsang 3. Qigong + Internal Martial Arts (IMA) 4. Sitting meditation and star gazing 5. Dream practice 5. Astrology, divination and physiognomy 6. Chinese classics 7. Calligraphy 8. Music 9. Edited: I forgot Diet

Your obviously not a student of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. Your probably an avid stand by or internet listener. He believes, has seen, and has done things that you think are mythical including manifesting a terma from a dream realm into the physical realm plus all his real visions and the science of his different practices that engender miraculous outcomes, well really there is a metaphysics to it. How can you be a student of someone who is a Buddhist and not hold to the basic tenets of the different schools of Buddhism? I actually took an example from his findings and put it into context, but you probably didn't read it. I won't repeat it for you because I think it's a waste of time. I think that your absurd, finding Taoist techniques to support your no-limit poker abilities is quite contrary to anything spiritual. I don't think you've sat for one minute and tried to meditate on the nature of your own mind. I had a friend that lived on Cole. I used to hang out there in the upper Haight for a while as a kid, and used to skateboard all over the city from the 9th ave run up the top of the Parnasus 6 line all the way to Embarcadero. San Francisco is a town to really enjoy! I remember when I was 15 I found 410 dollars in cash on Haight St. The next day I spent all of it, some pot, some tapes and a new tape player!! Wooo hooo!

I am in a perpetual war situation. It's not just a karmic load its a karmic cosmic junk yard. No master can dare want to help me because they might get burnt in the process, i.e taken into considerations all kinds of other wordly powers they might have. Even Santiago is afraid to help. Susan Carlson is not willing either. I am not even sure if i am barred from Shaktipats or not. I tried to get initiation into Mahayoga but for some strange reason did not recieve it. Master Mantak Chia only went so far as to come into my dreams and that too only once. He was doing some kind of a belly dance movement in that dream.He is helping by providing some videos for free. But that do not replace actual PRESENCE of the teacher. In the end all i am left with is practicing the NOW along with what i have learned so far in techniques. Don't have to achieve Kundalini if its not meant to happen in this lifetime. I leave my destiny to LIFE itself which will reveal what is needed in its own time. Thank you very much. wishing you all a smooth journey!

So, David has reached almost the equivalent of fourth-level mo-pai, the system used is one of the many versions of the school of thunder and lightning. To my knowledge has not yet put together the tai-chi. Anyway I do not think this is the point, the point is that this power was not born to do good or to heal but to kill. The fact that so you could get for this kind of power is always an evil, if only for those who do not have this power. This school provided he has something to do with the way the lighting seems to be the first to become an x-man, at which point you understand that someone from this dream would not really wake up! BLUE PILL ......................?

Permit me a short excursion before returning to the subject at hand, please. A Rabbi of the mystical persuasion some centuries ago was asked for the secret of life, to which he replied: "Everything is God. Live well. Die easy." I see there's a new book out by Jay Michaelson entitled, "God Is Everything: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism". I doubt that any of the early spiritual traditions of the Old World grew up without being influenced by the others. Any more than the same could be said of those of the New World. (In both cases, the exchange of traditions seems to have followed well-established trade routes.) Even then, the migration of early explorers from the Old World into the New means that that the ancients of Northern Asia and the Americas must have shared a common mother culture. Which was indisputably one of the animistic/shamanic/mystical world view, and which holds that all matter has a spiritual counterpart, just as material human beings do. It is no surprise, then, that all these great mystical teachings have a profound rapport with nature. The Sufis openly proclaim, "Form Itself is the Beloved". Once, when I was 19 years old and just stepping onto the path, I had a dream that a small coiled "serpent" with drooping mustaches was trying to bite me. It leapt repeatedly at me (I was, of course, somehow back in my parents' living room), trying to kill me with its venom. I danced and whirled around the room, trying to dodge it and then, picking up huge, heavy, weighty, thick, massive, books and throwing them at the spry, lively, quick, leaping serpent. Which of course, had no trouble avoiding being crushed. At last, it leapt a perfectly executed leap and managed to bite me on the little finger of one hand. I shook and shook my hand violently until it let go and raced off toward the bathroom. I followed and watched it disappear back underground, down the drain of the bathtub. I slumped against the wall, sat down, realizing I was going numb and that paralysis was about to set in before I died. Forty years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. Within a year, I came to recognize the serpent with the mustaches as a dragon, of course. Another year and the rest of the symbolism became clearer. My reliance on books was a necessary evil: I was raised in a culture without the master-teacher tradition. But it held the inevitable risk that I would miss the living reality and become enamored with the dead description. It was the transition point: the "me" before Taoism confronting the "me" in Taoism. So like a true Wayfarer (I mean, Tao Bum), I started to travel. Eventually getting to the Galapagos, to see the place where animals have no fear of people. It was true. You could walk right up to the animals and they looked at you like, "Yes, can I help you?" Blue-footed boobies doing their courtship dance on the top of your hiking boots. Etc. I, personally, have never had any motivation other than a burning curiosity and an insatiable addiction to nature. Which is why I love Taoism above and beyond all the other traditions I have encountered. Because it loves Nature.

Sleep about the same amount as above people, usually meditate when I wake up after dream, and before and after sleep. Its such a great time to meditate. It takes so much time to get close to that relaxed during a sitting meditation. Its all about time and meditation efficiency. Ha ha, but to a normal person, it seems I'm being extra lazy. I've not yet explored the whole realm of sleep deprivation leading to groovy visions and experiences.

6 hours is fine but if I dream I can sleep past 12 hours.. lol