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an example: angry fearful human being peaceful compassionate human being they experience the same world, but completely differently because they have different views. these views are based on conditioning, past experiences. and this conditioning runs very deep. views can also be very subtle such as the need for a source of manifestation, a ground of existence, and a oneness that pervades all reality. these very subtle views distort the perception of experience, coloring and distorting the windshield of perception. right view in Buddhism in fact isn't a view but rather taking away of views. instead of painting another coat on the windshield, right view cleans the windshield. eventually the windshield melts away/ right view isn't just as simple as letting go completely of expectation, surrendering, not thinking, etc. because mental patterns are so deeply ingrained in the mindstream from countless past lives frankly, it is impossible to rest in a viewless state of truth because truth is not a state or an experience. truth comes from right perception of any state: awake, dream, sleep, whatever.

10Y x 365D x 16Hr = most of my life. I think i'll try to summarize my theory. Reality is frozen by excess of structure and technology. A deep mind equals a deep will equals magic Magic controlled by the deep, though always adventure-seeking equals one bright tomorrow. The eternal majesty of dream

Another I thought of is The Fountain by Darren Aronovsky - some folks love it, some hate it, I love it. He also did Pi and Requiem for a Dream which I admired. I think he also directed The Wrestler - haven't seen that one yet.

Sorry, I kind of skipped over this question. No... I have not removed all my obstacles. But, I have had many, many glimpses as to what that's like, to whatever degree I was able to glimpse or another. One of my obstacles seems to be, how to not be stressed out in front of the computer. It feels like this bombardment of really dense and sticky energy from T.V. screens and Computer screens, I don't know how to integrate that too well, except sometimes. The point that all obstacles are removed can be elucidated by this poem. Nagarjuna's Mahamudra Vision Homage to Manjusrikumarabhuta! 1. I bow down to the all-powerful Buddha Whose mind is free of attachment, Who in his compassion and wisdom Has taught the inexpressible. 2. In truth there is no birth - Then surely no cessation or liberation; The Buddha is like the sky And all beings have that nature. 3. Neither Samsara nor Nirvana exist, But all is a complex continuum With an intrinsic face of non-inherent existence, The object of ultimately clear awareness. 4. The nature of all things Appears like a reflection, Pure and naturally quiescent, With a non-dual quality of suchness. 5. The common mind imagines a self Where there is nothing at all, And it conceives of emotional states - Happiness, suffering, and equanimity. 6. The six states of being in Samsara, The happiness of heaven, The suffering of hell, Are all false creations, figments of mind. 7. Likewise the ideas of bad action causing suffering, Old age, disease and death, And the idea that virtue leads to happiness, Are mere ideas, unreal notions. 8. Like an artist frightened By the devil he paints, The sufferer in Samsara Is terrified by his own imagination. 9. Like a man caught in quicksands Thrashing and struggling about, So beings drown In the mess of their own thoughts. 10. Mistaking fantasy for reality Causes an experience of suffering; Mind is poisoned by interpretation Of consciousness of form. 11. Dissolving figment and fantasy With a mind of compassionate insight, Remain in perfect awareness In order to help all beings. 12. So acquiring conventional virtue Freed from the web of discursive thought, Insurpassable understanding is gained As Buddha, friend to the world. 13. Knowing the relativity of all, The ultimate truth is always seen; Dismissing the idea of beginning, middle and end The flow is seen as Emptiness (non-abiding). 14. So all samsara and nirvana is seen as it is - Empty and insubstantial, Naked and changeless, Eternally quiescent and illumined. 15. As the figments of a dream Dissolve upon waking, So the confusion of Samsara Fades away in enlightenment. 16. Idealising things of no substance As eternal, substantial and satisfying, Shrouding them in a fog of desire The round of existence arises. 17. The nature of beings is unborn Yet commonly beings are conceived to exist; Both beings and their ideas Are false beliefs. 18. It is nothing but an artifice of mind This birth into an illusory becoming, Into a world of good and evil action With good or bad rebirth to follow. 19. When the wheel of mind ceases to turn All things come to an end. So there is nothing inherently substantial And all things are utterly pure. 20. This great ocean of samsara, Full of delusive thought, Can be crossed in the boat Universal Approach (Buddhadharma). Who can reach the other side without it? The Twenty Mahayana Verses, (in Sanskrit, Mahayanavimsaka; in Tibetan: Theg pa chen po nyi shu pa) were composed by the master Nagarjuna. May All Beings Be Happy!

Dream on brother. I am his mirror more like. And yours too. I am the master of meanings; not their slave. I say what's what in this mind stream. When you internalize authenticity and authority like yours truly, then come talk to me again. So I'll see you 10000 lives from now, if you are very lucky and have been doing your homework. It's obvious you haven't even begun to contemplate, or the words "they" and "actually" would not appear so flippantly in the same sentence! What's actual? Do things have actual representation? Is there ACTUAL meaning of words? Next thing you'll say that there is some substance somewhere and that meanings are stable and are not alive.

First, who was your teacher in Kashmir Shavism? were you raised in India? I am just looking for a background for understanding as there are many schools in the west with an Incomplete understanding of K.S. Such as Siddah Yoga. You experience Dependent origination within consciousness but Consciousness itself doesn't change. You say we were not always conscious but are you talking about Consciousness itself or the present individual content within Consciousness? Before you answer that too quickly, Have you ever had a dream that was amazing and that you wanted to hold but felt it slipping away as you woke up no matter how much you wanted to remember it? Could this be a nightly microcosm of the experience at birth and death? Consciousness Itself does not Change during this experience. Only its content. Oneness which Buddhism seems to deny. Have you ever merged with a lover during Lovemaking, experiencing fully being them...? what about the universe? If there is no foundation of oneness for the unitive experience how can It be experienced? And a bigger question for me again is about the experience of Personal relationship with Divinity. Buddhism cant even come close to Answering this one but the Experience is real. In deep prayer, where does the guidance come from? where does the decent of Grace and the miracles it bring come from? when we listen enough to allow God to speak to us, who's voice do we hear - And we do hear a voice. You cant easily write off these experiences had by millions of mystics within the Theistic traditions. Have you had any of these experiences? For me Kashmir Shavism is still the only tradition I have found that can answer all these questions... Funnily enough I love Buddhism and plan to spend the next 10 years or so studying Dependent Origination and trying to realise emptiness. To me it seems like the most brilliant and achievable system available. I actually have faith now that I can achieve Enlightenment in this life My Kashmir Shavite teacher is too far away for real consistent guidance (in Delhi) even with regular Phone calls and Email. And there is no support of a Sangha here.

Yes, move within... my lucid dream states and meditative states have revealed a lot. The trip is going to be personal, but the view is very specific when it comes to Buddhism and interpersonal. It's not a all is one type of interpretation, though the cosmos does work in one way and one way only, interdependently. Also, the way one works with the energy specifically reveals different fruits. The energy systems of the different paths don't always agree because we are working with subtler than body energy and formating that as karmic receptacles for specific results which are different dependent upon the spiritual view. Buddhism reveals just how complex it all is and dependent origination does NOT point to nothingness and emptiness does NOT mean nothingness. This is a meditative and mystical revelation that is quite specific in Buddhism. One could call the flow of dependent origination as Tao (as in "The Way)... but one would have to scrutinize to the point of emptiness, which does not mean nothing, but rather no inherent, static beingness. Calling any substratum inherently real and true, Tao, God or whatever, saying we are all one with this... does lead to future recycling. See you didn't see my main point was that Buddhism actually describes WHAT liberation from Samsaric experience is through many ways yes, the final way being called Dzogchen, Ati Yoga, or Mahamudra because it goes right into the expression of the fruit of practice and focuses on that fruit as practice rather than in lower vehicles in Buddhism that mostly just talk about practice and philosophy and not so much the actual experience as Vajrayana gets into. In Dzogchen you engage directly with the experience of what it is to be liberated through transmission from a master and have a liberated outlook throughout the entire cycle of practice that one undergoes to make that glimpse of direct perception of liberation a permanent state of constant cognition. I know other traditions talk about this too, but the view is off so the outcome is going to be different. You asked about Tao, but how can one talk about Tao without talking about those that talked about Tao? How liberated were they, and how omniscient were they before they came up with a term to describe some sort of ultimate nature of things? Other paths are religions. Buddhism is a clear system that offers many different ways to experience directly dependent origination... Emptiness is more of a philosophical term that points to nothing other than the flow that is dependent origination, or interdependent co-origination. Emptiness is not nothingness, but just the fact that I as a perceiver and part of the whole flow have no inherent self, that my self is a coagulation of experiences and interpretations all linked in a chain of causation leading beginning-less in origin. So, according to the Buddhas teachings, the interpretation of a mystical experience as a substantial and self existing substratum that is all and nothing, which is the same descriptions we find about Brahman (the impersonal featureless consciousness that is the mirror that all reflects upon) is all a mis-interpretation of meditative experience. The cycle of Samsara is so deep and tenacious that just because one meditates deeply and has deep mystical experiences does not mean that one knows liberation, just maybe subtler forms of samsara, which was the Buddhas point in setting up the 6 realm system of interpretation with the 31-planes of existence. link to 31 planes of existence. I also grew up getting acupuncture as my mom would trade her art for free sessions and yes I've experienced the benefits. It's not that this stuff is not beneficial, it's just that the Buddha was specific about what liberation from samsara or the emancipation from recycling and unconscious rebirth of one's mind stream and exactly how the entire cosmos works. He's very specific when he say's that, This is the view that liberates and these other views do not, even though they do lead to benefit, they don't lead to final emancipation from unconscious re-birth. When I was a practicing Advaita Shaivite, I saw directly the truths that Shaivism talked of and saw them as absolute and shared by all religions, the one God that expressed as it all and all the religions were just ways that this God in all compassion brought beings back to him/herself. I didn't understand dependent origination and that my experience, though supposedly highly evolved, blissful, merged with the cosmos, powerful, meditative experiences of going to different realms and dimensions, talking with and seeing great Gods of my lineage. I meditated for years in an Ashram for 4 to 6 hours daily also chanting 4 to 6 hours and offering selfless service the rest of the time, sleeping little, eating little and healthy, writing in my journal and reading sacred texts from all traditions from coptic christians, bibles, nag hammadi library, dead sea scrolls, st. john of the cross, st. francis of assisi, miester eckhart, theresa of avila and lisieux, st. hildigard van bingen, etc., Taoist material, tons of Hindu stuff and saints, Jnaneshwar, Tukaram, Mirabai, Janabai, etc., Sufi mystics, Rumi, Hafiz, Mansur Mastana, Rabia, Kabbalah stuff, on and on... Even Buddhist stuff, but translated wrong with misunderstandings of emptiness/dependent origination plastered all over them due to heavy christian influence or hindu influence, mis-contextualizing the teachings of these Buddhist Masters and glazing them over with Hindu substantialist sensibilities. The whole idea of a tea coming from one pot is a very Theistic interpretation, or Monist where everything is a singular substance expressed in different ways. Buddhism does not believe in this but see's this as an interpretation of mystical experience that limits and eventually rebinds, even if it seems blissful for some time, at the end of the cosmic eon it only leads to recycling, even if one enters into a high bliss realm after death, without direct perception of dependent origination, no liberation. These types of interpretations listed above all lead to long lived god realms in refined forms or even as formless pervasive beings of love and power, but not final liberation, and the so called immortals of Taoism don't base their realm on the right understanding of dependent origination, which is a product of direct perception and not merely an expression of logic. So, they are not really immortal, they might just live in a refined realm for trillions of years. Because of the clarity of Buddhism there is a great seamlessness between direct experience and the clarity of explanation that is not paralleled anywhere that I have found.

On of my favorite quotes at the moment at least is from the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick After the character Isidore finds out that the story of the profit Mercer was faked he sees the Mercer before him. After a few events and discussion he says to the Mercer "I didn't like that about the whiskey, that's lowering." To this Mercer replied "That's because you're a highly moral person. I'm not. I don't judge, not even myself."

ever heard of The Four Agreements 1. Be Impeccable With Your Word Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. 2. Don't Take Anything Personally Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering. 3. Don't Make Assumptions Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life. 4. Always Do Your Best Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret. in the path of no more learning ...only the strong will survive... and you will do become your own teacher

I have also heard that the kundalini awakening could be started slowly and in layers. I also heard from a indian tantra and hatha yoga teacher that I visit from time to time that the sexual energy is a part of the kundalini energy. If you read the book "Kundalini the evolutionary energy in man" by G Krishna, then I think you not even dream about asking the question you did ask at this thread, beacase the differences are so huge. It is also an interesting story well worth reading for anybody and especially worth reading if you are interested in energetic work of any kind. Kundalini awakening is somewhat like the maximum energy you can take into your body, I think. And you might be able to deal with it or it might kill you to! F D

It was just a dream so maybe it didn't have anything to do with anything perhaps. But it did *feel* like a negative transmission and I was still on board with the practice so was confused by the negative vibe. In my normal life I don't really have strong opinions about dudes kissing me as long as their hands don't wander.

Interesting Yes, I saw Sean D's post. Not sure if this Master is accessible or not or if you would have to study with David to get to him or not. I had lunch with a Zen Master a few weeks ago who has a school here and in Berkely. His opinion was Taoists tend to get too attached to energy phenomena and need Zen to balance this. So his School blends Sundo(Korean Taoism) and Zen Buddhism. As impressive as I found him and as much of a dream it has always been of mine to study directly with a bon a fide Zen Master. Being completely honest with myself the path I initiated with Max is really just still going full force 24/7. I mean I feel I am in Max and Jenny's Maoshan lineage. I haven't taken any traditional Maoshan Taoist stuff with Max but my sense is it's all I need. ATLEAST for a good long while. That said..if Sean was able to share a little more about David's Korean Teacher or share info about him privately with me I would certainly make the effort to go see such a being. Why not? If I need to pay a huge sum of money to David to get the info then it's not in the cards right now. Too many responsibilities and other things going. Cam

Your'e welcome. Thanks for putting in the effort to help me too. That's what this place is for. All of this stuff reminds me of who I am too, it puts me in touch with my better nature. I didnt have the connection you found with martial arts teachers and exorcists, if I had then maybe when I could't sleep at night as a teenager, just like you, i could have gotten some help. Instead I got thown out of the house for being a drug addict when i was anything but. You know, I have only been doing this Taoist stuff for a year, but it has made me think back over my life in different ways. I realized I had been feeling Chi in my body for a long time. As a teenager, I would lie in bed sleepless and the room would grow very small, and my body would grow very large. I could feel the gravity field of my own body and other weird stuff. sometime this is called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome or Lewis Carroll Syndrome. These feelings were connected with great heat in my body and redness and itching in my skin. sometimes I would also perceive a liquid chrome sphere that was simultaneously larger than the universe and smaller than a quark. I would lie there with the distorted room buzzing with this strange apparition in my minds eye, very lifelike. when I would go to school exhausted the next day I would get taken to the nurses office and accused of doing drugs. thank you nancy reagan. I mentioned that I have been trying to contact my higher self, But maybe I should give more detail. After I do the fusion of the five elements, sometimes my head is filled with light. I open up my head like a flower, and this white plant with red flower buds snakes out like a vine, and starts searching around the room. I extend it up through the layers of mist and connect with a dark colored marbled rainbow sphere which feeds me energy down through the flower into my body. After doing this for a couple of months, I had a dream where this thing appeared, a large square sectioned bar, also rainbow colored but is searing electric hues. It was one of those dreams where the vision is of an intensity that makes what we call waking reality pale in comparison. It beamed this energy into me and all of these brown insects and spiders started exploding out of me and being blown to pieces. Last night before I went to bed I called this bar down into my body to try and invoke my higher self. Perhaps it worked? dont know.

Erdweir I suggested a book for you in another post of your Vitality Energy and spirit, by Thomas Cleary. It is all you will likely need, for well everything, but know that it is one of those books you will have to read over and over and over, Specifically pay attention to the section call, "Compass Center Directions" to me it is the most direct explanation of the Tao there is, very deep , not easily practiced, but I have been all over the place and when I finally found real Taoists Priests their methods are more or less exactly as this section describes. As far as this experience goes, all I can say is try and roll with the punches, and don't get scared, hopefully it won't be as weird for you as it was for me, but umm yeah you might want to be prepared for something weird, just incase. Fizix, yes this is exactly what I went through, except rather than simply silhouettes they had tangible form and color, similar to the blue greenish blur than remains after looking at a bright light. You Know? you get a shape of that light after wards when you look away right ? It was as if these things were made of that blur, but detailed, like faces and forms and with depth and dimension, what was scary was well they would all be different. You know like different people, and not just people but things. This even happened to me when I was traveling through asia, and you wanna know whats funny ? There faces over there were yes you guessed it asian. These things whatever they are are clearly intelligent at least on some level, not all of them but some were, there would come right up to me look me in the eye, some friendly, even beautiful, but some horrid and frightening. I mhave to say thie first few times were probably some of the most frightening experiences I have ever had, because when this happens no matter where you were sleeping without fail everytime, thats where it happens. If I was on the couch, I would be on the couch, if I was at a hotel I was at a hotel, if I was in my room, well you get it, point is if it were just a dream wouldn't I be somewhere random ? Weird huh ? I think herb might have some opening effects on certain parts of the subconcious, cause I did smoke early on in highschool, but I was clear of it for more than several years before this all began for me. I think for me it was improper meditation, I think the energy wasn't settling enough, either that or it was something like the phase of things waking up, kundalini maybe, I'm not sure exactly. I hope you guys don't mind me deleting this, it has always been somewhat private to me, those of you who read it I am happy to share it with you and for those who didn't oh well I guess. Hope that doesn't bother anyone.

I don't want to talk to much, but sometimes things should be clarified, for examply someone said being sad and being happy is the same or sad and joy is the same whatever, the truth is it is not. Being joyful and being sad is NOT the same. Happiness brings life, the will to live, the desire to make a good life, to live life and do things. Sadness brings death, desire to hide away, shrivel up and essentially die. When did someone who was truly happy ever kill themselves ? How is this the same ? Happy people build themselves fine careers make good money and live comfortably, they can then meditate all day if they choose, or practice yoga and tai ji all day as they please, eat quality organic vegan food if that is their thing. How are you going to train if you didn't set yourself up well and have to pull 9-5 er's all week long ? When you get home, your gonna just want to watch some tv and pass out. You can still do it this way I guess, but I find it disturbing that people don't realize that those people who made good money earned it, they were the ones that stayed home and studied while others went out and partied, some may resent them for their success, thinking that the way implies we should all be impoverished monks or something, FOOLISH! Nothing but. Make a good life for yourself, then you can do whatever you please, unless you think your hearty enough to go into the mountains and live like a mountain man for the rest of your life, with no electricity or running water, hunting every meal, building a fire for every meal, and simply not to freeze to death. I know survival skills well it is one of my forte's, most people dream of disapearing into the mountains like an immortal, but the reality is, until you are an immortal, you can't do this, you will simply die, if not of starvation, from a wild animal attacking you, or disease from the countless insects which will chew on you threw the night. Those that think themselves so tough in this regard should try not eating for just one week while they hike strenuously, out of ten seven or eight wouldn't make it through a day, and out of those two or three left, only one would make it through the next day. And that one would certainly be chewing on pine cones by the middle of the week. I'm not saying seek fame and glory, I'm saying set yourself up well, and you can train all day or whatever you want, that is the responsible way, the hardworking way. Just sliding by is easy anyone can do that. Throwing everything away is easy, anyone can do that. Running away from it all is easy. Facing life and taking it on and winning takes a true Human, a true practitioner of the Way. I sincerely wish you the best in this regard.

This is common among brainwave entrainment enthusiasts. They use brainwave entrainment tools to achieve specific brainwave patterns of sleep, notably theta and delta. It is said that 20 minutes in theta is equivalent to 4 hours sleep. It is prevalent during REM sleep when we dream. Delta is the slowest brainwave pattern and is prevalent when the body repairs and restores it's self. Practitioners have good results getting as little as 2 hours sleep in the short term, but it catches up to them in the long run. Problem is that we are wired to sleep at night, and be active in daylight. The brain produces melatonin after dark, which makes us drowsy and sleep. When sunlight hits our retina in the morning, it changes the melatonin to seritonin, a hormone associated to feelings of joy and well being. Babies produce a lot of melatonin and the production gradually slows. That is why babies sleep a lot and seniors don't. When you mess with your circadian rhythm, your brain quits producing melatonin like it should. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. That is why shift workers have shorter life spans. I would only mess with my natural sleep cycle if I had to.

So last night I chose to celebrate cinco de mayo with some friends and got in a bit late. I woke up very tired this morning and all day I've been strongly identified with my thoughts/body/ego/etc. However, when I had a good night's sleep a few days ago, I was very alert/aware mentally and even though it was a tough day I was unaffected by the external circumstances. So my question is this: under fatigue is it possible to remain in a hightened state of awareness even though the external challenges may be greater? Or is it essential that in order to not get caught up in the dream (so to speak) the body needs to be well rested and in good health?

I see the way. But as the saying goes, just because the sun is out doesn't mean all the snow is melted. I would say there's no constriction, no holding back. When you see the small mind as the mind, this is clear. How can you be constricted? Ignorant, yes. Forgetful, yes. This seems to be more where the problem lies. Actually, I was not fully clear when I said there was nothing else. There is perceiving. Not a feeling of perceiving, this is a perception. You're just restating what I said. Thus, there is agreement. You're missing the point. The point was, there is nothing beyond perception (and perceiving). Adding more perceptions (i.e. thoughts) doesn't establish anything about perception. The point is, you cannot go beyond perception to talk of crazy things like "essence" or "identity" or "bases." You assume a lot, gih. I've noticed a tendency to take a tiny bit of information, and extrapolate. I see you're misinterpreted what I said, and come to a conclusion based on it. I don't blame the misinterpretation, this is the nature of communication. You're right, my process is not refined. It is easy. It is simple. It is using awareness to investigate. Not concepts, theories, or mental tricks. Just observing, watching, noticing. It's not about smart or dumb, fancy or plain. You can talk about patterns of perceptions, and these are not necesarily perceptions. You see a light. Then it is gone. That is impermanance. But you aren't REALLY seeing impermanance. You are seeing a light, light, light, gone. Well, it goes more like this. Eyes open, tree. There was no volition, no process of selection, coloring, or shaping the tree. It is just there. All that other stuff "beautiful sight" "rain" "thunder" this is just adding thought. Soemtimes there are thoughts, sometimes not. But again, not controlled. As you noted earlier, they arise spontaneously. Now, you appear to say that it arises partly of effort. While I admit that what you say here is interesting (and makes me wonder what your experiences actually ARE), I do say I smell ego. Shape, control, change according to will, this is small mind stuff. Does big mind care? But on the other hand, if this was possible, I suppose it would loosen up small mind's grip, if not destroy it. Let me say this point is deferred. But there is no lucid dreaming without realizing one is in a dream. To paraphrase Gurdjieff, how can you change anything unless first you are present? There is some responsibity, I would hope. If you start a process, you should be around to finish the job. This is another big leap, again based on little information. Read again what I wrote, perhaps with some calm passivity. I wouldn't jump in front of the car, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't either. As any good soldier knows, a battle plan usually lasts about five seconds into an actual battle. Your reaction to my words says more about you than about me. And vice versa. Again, I won't play into your options. It's not either/or, choice A or B. I would keep less in mind than what Lin Chi may or may not have done, and more what we can do hereand now. You seem to profess different things at different times, so who knows? You brought up the Buddhas.

If you can see the limitations, you can ultimately see how to overcome them as well. That's how cognizance works. How does awareness of a limit appear? When you feel some constriction it's a sense that you COULD move somewhere, but something is holding you back. So the part where you feel you COULD move somewhere is half the answer right there. The other half is to examine the nature of that which seems to hold you back. This involves a certain amount of testing and getting outside the comfort zone. What's the difference between an audio event and an experience of hearing? Can you describe it clearly? I agree. But go further. Even the feeling of having the perception, the havingness of perception, that's also perception. Let's go further. First of all, things outside perception are irrelevant. If something affects perception, it's not outside perception. So either it's relevant and we can perceive it, or it's not relevant and we cannot perceive it. Thus we can relieve ourselves of the worrying about things outside perception. We only need to consider perception and nothing else. This makes the scope realistic and manageable and less hypothetical and less speculative. When you consider something to be outside perception, you enter into a speculative realm in an extreme way. The process of adding is also perceived, isn't it? You do notice the adding right? That means it's also a perception. So if adding is a perception, how can you add something to perception? Adding is a perception. Adding is not something that's not perceived. I agree that nothing can be established, but even in your speculative line of thinking you are not careful. So you reach an agreeable to my mind conclusion via a disagreeable to my mind process. Since the process you use is not very refined, and since the process has not been aborted, it's only a matter of time before the faulty process yields an undesirable conclusion. Of course that's just my evaluation of it. You're missing a little bit of mindfulness. You're not aware of that adding is perception. What's not perception? Can you even discuss something that's not a perception? You'd be talking bullshit, right? You'd be talking about something you have no experience of. When the tiny child knows the difference, as you say, they have a habitual mind-energy. It's a mind habit. What people are not aware of, is that the perception of meaning is a habit. People think that meanings are inherent in the seemingly external objects of the seemingly external world. For example, if you see a tree, you think, that's definitely a tree, that's not a cow, no doubt about it. You don't see that this meaning is being made by your mind. You see that this meaning is somehow implied to you by the seemingly external world, and that you are innocent. You see yourself as purely passive innocent receptacle of meaning, and not as a creator, maintainer, destroyer and transformer of meaning. In reality, the process of perception is not purely passive. It's semi-passive and semi-active, for the lack of a better word. Really it cannot even be described in terms of passivity of activity at all. Meaning perception is definitely not passive. So when you see a cloud in the sky, you know the meaning. You know it might mean rain. You know it might mean thunder. It might mean blocking the light temporarily. It mean might beautiful sight. You're very familiar with those meanings. You can recognize those meanings effortlessly. And since you associate yourself with effort, and some of these meanings appear effortlessly, you think it must be that the meaning comes to you from outside, from the seemingly external world, and that you are seemingly apart from that world and cannot affect it directly via your intent. This is the knot you really have to investigate. Investigation involves contemplation, meditation AND performance of magic. You cannot fully understand phenomena until you make an attempt to, for example, transmute flesh into light, or lead into gold, or cold into heat, and succeed. That can be a tall order, but it's doable. A good place to start, is to learn to lucid dream and try all those things in your dreams first. See how it works. If your memory is not so good, write down what happened. Contemplate it thoroughly. Feel it as deeply as you can while you contemplate it. You can discover A LOT by attempting magic in your dreams. After you learn it in your dreams, and then you realize non-difference between dreaming and waking, you can do it in the waking experience too. When you master the playful appearance this way, when you become a dancer in illusion and not just a ghost of illusion who sits and watches the illusion like on TV... you have to dance in it freely, THEN you will have enough wisdom to equal Buddha's. There is no rush though. You can spend a few lifetimes just practicing sitting meditation without any magic. But at some point you will have to confront your reality-belief, and there is no way to confront it other than to propose a hypothesis: "reality is not how I think it is..." and test it wholeheartedly. That's what magic is. It's a test of a hypothesis that there is nothing beyond mind, that all is mind. The orthodox way of dealing with this is to say that you make no claims, but rather, you only refute the claims of your opponents who claim that there is stability. In other words, if someone proposes a definite and clear view of stable identities, you have all kinds of ways to criticize that view. You don't have to replace it with a better view, because you're a mystic and not a college professor who has to make the kids adhere to a convention as his job. Mystics have a very strange relationship with convention. Don't be an ass. I've done this before and yes, it's empty. Being hit and feeling pain is also empty. I've set myself on fire too. So stop trying to try to out-macho me. I am a bigger man than you and I can tear your head off and drink your blood, understand? My point is, if you want to get into whose dick is bigger contest, you won't learn anything and your days will be short and brutal. So don't offer empty challenges like that. A better approach is an analytical one. Invite me to continue the discussion instead of trying to play off my fear. How do you know I haven't mastered my fear? You will have a very rude surprise if you go around assuming everyone shares your fears and you try to challenge them on based on that assumption. If you want to discuss fear, that's great. But if you want to enact it -- watch out. Are you ready to die right now? Are you ready to be tortured and do you think it's fun? If yes, you're qualified to play that game. If no, then it's more respectable to stick to the analytical side rather than to the side of the wild dance, at least for now. Keep in mind that Lin Chi hit his master straight in the kisser after he got enlightened. He didn't hold back due to respect or deference or the old age of his master. I don't deny appearances. I only discuss the manner in which appearances appear. My goal is to bring more fun, more playfulness, more carefree enjoyment into life. I don't try to create a feeling of absolute certainty about some truth or other. Why "them"? I've done it to some extent. I won't claim to be the best at it, but I've done enough to not have to refer to "them" for authority.

I have battled with this problem for many years. It seems for me when I don't get enough rest and sleep, my will is weaker and I'm more likely to get caught up in negative thought patterns, resenting the whole world including myself for preventing me from getting enough rest. At least for me, dreaming has much to do with it. We all need to dream but with my 12th house moon there is a certain amount a dreaming that needs to be done every night for me to be emotionally (as well as all levels) balanced. If I go more than 1 night of sleeping less than 7 hours, I'm in trouble. I'm certainly envious of those who can live on 6 hours or less every night and still be happy and energetic. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a prevalent issue among a few close friends as well. I have numerous theories of why but that's a whole different story

She just happenes to be one of many with the same essential message. I have found her writing/talks very accessable. The name is given from her teacher, HWL Poonja, who was himself a well known student of Ramana Maharishi. The story goes that her teacher had a dream of her as the Goddess Ganga prior to their first meeting in India. Her given name is Toni Roberson. The essential message is that there is nothing to get, nothing to attain, nothing more than your current state of awareness and the truth of who you are, emptiness. The message is so simple that it is easy to miss; "Wake up, you are already free, already the all pervading self/awareness." It's a choice essentially and one that is ofcourse hard to accept because it means the end of 'you' and your story. Stopping our story or letting it go because it is an illusion and misidentification. Within the message is revealed the idea that spiritual searching, trying to attain something, be something or get something is just part of the illusion or the story we tell ourselves, and that, in reality, nothing needs to be attained; all we have to do is let go of teh story and the conditioning that comes with it. The hard part is Stopping, but really it's just a choice. I know this topic has had gone through several incarnations here, so I'm not adding anything new to the mix, but felt that partcular video might resonate here. Seems like there is a lot of discussion around reaching some state or raising the kundalini or getting more qi or just getting somewhere other than right here. Interesting? Check out the writings of Ramana Maharishi and others like him. Of course the realization of emptiness is found in many religious and spiritual traditions. For me it was a great relief to let go of striving to 'cultivate' something through a method or a system and trying to attain something and get somewhere. I see a lot of spiritual hunger here when I read through much of the discussion, so I think it's something that can benifit a lot of seekers and their current practice in the sense that it will fulfill that hunger. The Diamond in Your Pocket is a really great book that clearly explains this teaching, also by Gangaji.

fellas soybean burgers must be god dam good I love to read in the article by the Doc: "What soybeans can do for your body are: 1). Enhance the liver function, promote the "good" cholesterol, HDL, and reduce the "bad cholesterol, LDL. 2). Increasing the "Kidney" Chi production and the DHEA secretion for improving the sexual potential and drive for both men and women -balancing the Testosterone-to-Estrogen ratio in the bloodstream, with help of Zinc; 3). Preventing cancer and tumor developments in sex organs for men and women; 4). Giving you a better weight control." wow what a good dream Prince in this beautiful homepage we can read: "Soy contains "complete" protein just like meat, with nine amino acids the body needs to build and repair body cells. Top soy burgers with reduced-fat-cheese, salsa or pineapple slices." http://www.safeway.com/ifl/grocery/Good-to-Know-Meat even when my situation is bad now whit money, i am happy that i live in a country there you can buy many types of food, and that there is always food and liquids to buy if you have money dude i just felt then that the thread it was more than just Taoism, that is why i posted here very good steam that you buy soymilk from a vietnamese store is the soy from Vietnam? good homepage there we can read: "Warning: Over-masturbation/over-ejaculation/excessive-orgasm can castrate your hypothalamus-pituitary-testicular(ovarian) axis by arterial constriction and inflammatory narrowness in your brain and pelvic organs (testicles, prostate, seminal vesicles, penis, ovaries, uterus, vagina and clitoris) due to excessive release of prolactin, norepinephrine, and epinephrine" dude hahaha that link scared me because i opened in the library and the picture there was of sexual organs and people are around me well i closed the link fast

Please don't dream about imposing your will on others.

Hi Nick, thanks for your comments. Nope I don't know how to do either of these things at this stage. Ananda is difficult to reach and his books are not in common circulation. This video dispensation is rarity and summarizes the key points well. I don't know of any similar techniques other than Tibetan Buddhist tantric Teachings on the Jalus, rainbow body, dzogchen, anuttara yoga, dream yoga (all of which are rarely imparted), compassion meditation, ayahuasca journies, Hsin Tao or Dragon Body spins (Gary = Spirit Ape), or Spontaneous Chi Kung forms. Though none renders the vortexijah as Ananda has taught, but provide parallel glimpses. Darkrooms are an important part of the process though I don't have experience with this so I can't offer further information. Xi

Jed McKenna defines enlightenment as abiding non-dual awareness, truth realization or rather un-truth un-realization. Non-dual awareness means that all is one, observer and observed become the same entity, abiding means that it is not a temporary state it endures. Jed has a process for achieving this state he calls spiritual autolysis or spiritual self digestion. It is aptly named, as one views the maps of ego, self, and environment that we create and disassembles each individual piece of it examining it asking the question can I be absolutely certain if this is true or not, if the answer is no it is discarded. This process is continued until only what is absolutely true remains and nothing else. According to Jed, this has lead many of his students into severe existential crises, as they dissemble their own egos, world views, maps of reality, belief systems. Everything that made them "them" is completely obliterated leaving a blank and perpetually empty slate. Jed likens this state to being a vampire amongst the living. Enlightenment, for a wave in the ocean, is the moment the wave realizes it is water. -Thich Nhat Hanh Buddha had some interesting things to say about the subject. Which leads me to believe that enlightenment may refer to the abiding non-dual awareness as McKenna describes. He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye. -Buddha "My uncreated and unending profound Enlightenment accords with the Tathagatagarbha, which is absolute bodhi, and ensures my perfect insight into the Dharma realm [realm of Ultimate Truth], where the one is infinite and the infinite is one." -Buddha I don't claim to be enlightened or have ever experienced true enlightenment, but I have had a few experiences of non-duality, mostly while in a trance type state like right before you wake up. One time when I was meditating, I was so deeply focused I had forgotten my own existence. One of my room mates had come in my room to bother me, and didn't realize I was meditating. As he talked I didn't associate with my own body, instead it was as if both he and I were both the same entity. Both puppets being animated by the same hand. It was as if the driving force behind his consciousness was the exact same force which was behind mine. I viewed the scene just as a dream or a video on a television, except I had no body or sense of self. Instead of me there was only the experience, the happening of me, of that moment. There was no body or physical substance, just an occurrence. I don't really know how to put what I experienced into words but that's about the best I can do. I guess enlightenment in that sense would really be an intellectual or unintellectual state. I think a lot of the taoist traditions seek a more physical form of enlightenment or perhaps liberation from rebirth. I myself am seeking more of a physical liberation from rebirth than I am permanent non-dual awareness.