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Lion Spirit Animal By Elena Harris, SpiritAnimal.com Editor 720 50 35 69.7K In the realm of spirit animals, the lion wins the prize for most relentless fighter in the face of life challenges. The lion spirit animal represents courage, strength in overcoming difficulties. The presence of this power animal could also mean that something “wild” or difficult to control is happening. As such, lions symbolizes emotions that are difficult to manage, such a anger or fear. Lion Totem MeaningThe lion as a spirit animal or totem symbolizes: Strength, assertiveness, personal power A common meaning for the lion spirit animal is predatory feelings, such as anger, aggression directed at someone else or towards you Personal struggle to deal with these feelings Lion spirit animals warn about a threatening situation or event in your life Lion spirit animal, symbol of personal strength and courageThe lion spirit animal is generally associated with a representation of personal strength. If the lion appears powerful to you, its presence as a spirit guide can be interpreted as a positive representation of your self-confidence or personal power. As such, lions point to qualities of strength, courage, assertiveness. Lions are also animals who dominate other animals in nature. Remember as an example the expression “the lion, king of the jungle”. When a lion appears as your power animal, it could reflect your ability to lead others or tendency to dominate in relationships or at work. When lion spirit animals warn about challengesThis spirit animal could point to one of your weak spots or a difficult situation you’re experiencing. The lion animal spirit guide is perhaps showing you the way to deal with the issue and keep going with the courage it also embodies. Lions could also represent an authority that may feel overpowering or a conflicting relationship with power and authority. When you see a lion as a spirit animal, it could symbolize external power, authority, forces that dominate or rule parts of your life. For instance, if you dream about a scar or threatening lion, it may remind you that you need to deal with an overbearing boss, partner or teacher in your waking life. Lion spirit animal, symbol for anger & personal struggleSeeing your lion spirit animal could be an invitation to control your temper or your moderate aggressive impulses. For instance, observe if you could really listen to what people have to say before striking back at them. Or explore how to express your needs or anger more openly and constructively to reduce your level of frustration. If you are dreaming of being chased by a lion, it may represent a situation that brings about personal struggle. Common dream scenarios with threatening lions are as follows: A lion suddenly appears in your dream. You feel threatened by this wild animal known for devouring its prey with no mercy. The lion is now preying on you. You’re trying to escape, but it still behind you, chasing you like you’re about to get devoured. Dream interpretation: Being chased by a lionThis lion dream scenario is classic. Dreaming of being chased by a lion is one of the most common themes featuring this creature in the dream world. The lion chasing you generally connects to the struggle the dreamer is experiencing regarding feelings of anger or aggression in waking life. The dream about your lion spirit animal could point to anger you may feel towards someone or aggression that is directed at you. Being chased by a lion in a dream could be a warning from your animal totem that you’re struggling with these feelings and how to express them. The lion totem could mean that you’re having difficulties dealing with a situation where someone is mean or aggressive with you. Scary dreams about lions Terrorized by your lion spirit animal?If you are terrified by a lion, reassure yourself. The dream is expressing in strong images what you feel inside. It is a symbolic representation of strong psychological or emotional tensions you may experience in your life. Dreaming about a lion in this way is an invitation to examine what’s happening in your life that is causing tension and despair. Most likely, you’re facing a challenging situation or behavior that is hard to comprehend at a conscious level and the lion appears as a spirit animal to help. It may be too hard to deal with or seem unacceptable to you and therefore is rejected out of your awareness, a bit like a protection, a defense mechanism. The presence of your lion spirit animal could be a warning to pay attention to a situation or person who’s creating worries or concerns for you. On a positive note, a terrifying lion is likely indicating that you’re in the process of becoming more aware of the issues at hand. It works as a reminder that whatever is bothering you in your waking life needs to come out in the open to be dealt with. Bring forth the courage that lion totems symbolize. Lion spirit animals in dreams: When the lion bites youA lion that bites you in your dream could be a warning from your spirit animal and signify that you’re feeling overwhelmed in your waking life. The source of worries could be about feelings you or someone else may have or a situation that is particularly challenging. The image of the lion bite is a strong call to look at what’s going on in your life that could feel threatening or dangerous before it really “bites” you. Another interpretation of such lion dream is to ask yourself what is dominating your life these days and see if you can bring more balance. Scary images of lion spirit animals and the “shadow self”When you are scared by the presence of your lion spirit animal, whether it’s in dreams or in waking life, this could be an invitation to look at your “shadow self”. The shadow self is a part of yourself that you prefer to keep “in the shadow” or the dark. In other words, a part of yourself you would hide or reject because it’s not likeable, you or other people think it’s unacceptable, not worthy, etc. Your spirit animal indicates the need to look at these aspects of yourself and resolve the tensions inner conflicts may create. For instance, by just starting to acknowledge parts of your “shadow self”, looking at them, perhaps understanding what they are about, what they are connected with, you can start bringing a better understanding of yourself.

Sure. Let's take a recurring dream pattern for me--- the many vs. the few. I am alone, or with a few other people facing an opposing group of some sort--- it can be a group of criminals, aliens, zombies, a Nazi/fascist government, whatever. My old habits, especially when I was a kid, would be to run and hide. When I take up a martial art, there is less running and hiding. As I practice more, and it steeps into my mind/body, the practices start to show up in dreams. Maybe I'll fight one or two of the "enemies." Over time, as I continue to do MA, I eventually stop running and fight, sometimes an entire group. It can get so intense that I will wake myself up. Now in other circumstances, when I'm working on bodhicitta or compassion, the whole tenor of the dream changes. The opposing group is often an apparent enemy, but I don't see them as a threat. The threat level is usually tied directly to my resistance. If I am afraid or resisting them in some way, they usually become scary and violent. But if I am more open and accepting, they tend to become either friendly or they don't engage at all. So usually my dreams manifest in some way according to the habits I am building during the day.

A great teaching by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso on Guru Rinpoche's "Supplication That All Thoughts Be Self-Liberated". which I originally found here http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/search/label/Mahamudra, the link to the article doesn't work, so here's a working link to the offical website of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso http://www.ktgrinpoche.org/. Tashi Delek! I hope that for you everything is filled with auspiciousness, happiness, and excellence. To meet you all here makes me very happy. Gyatrul Rinpoche is a great friend of mine and I have heard a lot about his monastery here. Today, to actually come and be able to see it, to see what a secluded and beautiful place it is, makes me very happy. I would like to explain to you a supplication that was composed by Guru Rinpoche, a supplication that all thoughts be self-liberated. Guru Rinpoche composed seven chapters of supplications for students to recite to him, and this one comes from a chapter that he taught to the monk whose name was Namkha'i Nyingpo. Before listening to this teaching, please give rise to the supreme motivation of bodhichitta. When we give rise to bodhichitta, it means that for the benefit of all sentient beings, limitless in number as the sky is vast in its extent, we aim to bring our love and compassion to their ultimate perfection, and to bring our wisdom realizing emptiness to its ultimate perfection. We know that in order to do this we must listen to, reflect upon and meditate on the teachings of the genuine Dharma with all the enthusiasm we can muster in our hearts. The first verse of the supplication1 is: All these forms that appear to eyes that see, All things on the outside and the inside, The environment and its inhabitants Appear, but let them rest where no self's found; Perceiver and perceived when purified Are the body of the deity, clear emptiness— To the guru for whom desire frees itself, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate. What appears to the eyes are forms, which are made up of shapes and colors. Everything that is a shape and color is included in the source of consciousness (Sanskrit: ayatana) that is called form. The shapes and colors that appear to the eyes are found in all of the aspects of the environment in which we live, as well as in all of the sentient beings who inhabit this environment. What is the true nature of the appearances of shapes and colors of the environment and sentient beings? It is that they are dependently arisen mere appearances, which do not exist in essence. The forms that appear do not truly exist. In the abiding nature of reality, their nature is emptiness. They appear while being empty; while empty, they appear. They are appearance-emptiness like rainbows, water-moons, and reflections. All of the objects that appear to the eyes are appearance-emptiness undifferentiable. As the protector Nagarjuna writes in his Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way2: Like a dream, like an illusion Like a city of gandharvas, That's how birth, and that's how living, That's how dying are taught to be. The meaning of this verse and the one from Guru Rinpoche's supplication are exactly the same. This is the actual way forms are. They are appearance-emptiness undifferentiable, but sentient beings do not see this because they think things truly exist, and their thoughts that cling to the true existence of appearances obscure the appearance-emptiness that is their true nature. That is why we practice the Dharma—to cleanse ourselves of this clinging to appearances as truly existent so that we can realize appearances' true nature is appearance-emptiness undifferentiable. It is like when you dream and you do not know that you are dreaming. The appearances in the dream are appearance-emptiness, but your thought that they truly exist prevents you from seeing that. Even though the dream appearances are appearance-emptiness and have no inherent nature, they seem to be real when you do not know that you are dreaming. You think that they are real and you have experiences that seem to confirm your belief that they are real. But however much you cling to the appearances in a dream, that does not change what the appearances are from their own side. The essential nature of these appearances is unchanging appearance-emptiness. It never moves from being just that. When you dream and you know you are dreaming, you are free of the thoughts that fixate on the appearances as being truly existent. You are free from that obscuration so you can experience the appearances just as they are: as appearance-emptiness. That enables you to do wonderful things like fly in the sky, move unobstructedly through rock mountains, and travel to pure realms. All that is possible when you recognize a dream for what it is, and in that way, not be blocked by thinking that the appearances truly exist. In our waking life, even though the environment and sentient beings appear to us, the supplication says "let them rest where no self's found." The environment and sentient beings appear, but let them rest without clinging to them as truly existent. Let them rest in their natural state of appearance-emptiness without fixating on them as being real. When we let the appearances rest without fixating on them as being real, all of the thoughts of there being an actual object out there to perceive and an actual distinct subject perceiving it just dissolve. The thoughts that take the duality of perceived object and perceiving subject to be real dissolve. They are purified. When that happens, everything shines as luminous emptiness, clarity-emptiness. At this point, you are ready to meditate on the deity, because the deity's enlightened body is also appearance-emptiness. It appears while it is empty; it is empty while it appears—it is like a rainbow. When you meditate on the deity, everything appears as the body of the deity—appearance-emptiness. When all of the appearances of the physical environment shine as the appearance-emptiness immeasurable palace of the deity, and all the sentient beings in the environment shine as the appearance-emptiness enlightened bodies of the deities themselves, then all desire is free in its own place. It is self-liberated. Thoughts of desire do not come from anywhere and they do not go anywhere. They do not arise, so they do not cease. Since they are free from coming and going, and free from arising and ceasing, thoughts of desire are self-liberated. For this reason the verse says, "To the guru for whom desire frees itself, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay, I supplicate." The second verse of the supplication is: All these sounds that appear for ears that hear, Taken as agreeable or not, Let them rest in the realm of sound and emptiness Past all thought, beyond imagination; Sounds are empty, unarisen and unceasing, These are what make up the Victor's teaching— To the teachings of the Victor, sound and emptiness, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate. What appear to the ears are sounds. What is the nature of this source of consciousness that is sound? In fact, the sounds we hear are like sounds in a dream. Their basic nature is that they are always appearance-emptiness—they appear while being empty, and while being empty they appear. The two main kinds of sounds we hear are those that we find pleasing and those we do not. Both kinds of sounds, however, are equally appearance-emptiness, sound-emptiness, just as the sounds in a dream are sound-emptiness. If we know this and meditate on the mandala of the deities, then all sounds manifest as the natural sounds of the deity's mantra: sound and emptiness. From among the eight worldly dharmas,3 four of them are related to sound—sounds that are pleasing, sounds that are displeasing, sounds of praise, and sounds of criticism. We need to give up attachment to the eight worldly dharmas—the four that we like and the four that we do not. To do that, we can see that we need to realize that sounds are sound-emptiness. Then we will not be attached to sounds that are pleasant and sounds of praise, and we will not be averse to sounds of criticism and unpleasant sounds. In a dream, all sounds of praise and all sounds of criticism, all sounds we like and all sounds we do not, are equally sound-emptiness. They have no inherent nature at all. But when we do not know that we are dreaming, we think these sounds truly exist, and we have experiences of happiness and suffering based on sounds of praise and blame, sounds that we like, and sounds that we do not; all because we do not recognize sounds' basic nature is sound-emptiness. Guru Rinpoche instructs: "Let them rest in the realm of sound and emptiness/Past all thought, beyond imagination." This is an instruction to rest free of clinging to sounds as being truly existent, free of clinging to them as being real. In their basic nature that is sound and emptiness, just let go and relax. Settle into your own basic nature within the nature of sound that is sound and emptiness. Since the enlightened body of the Buddha is appearance-emptiness, then the sound of the Buddha's speech is also emptiness. It is sound-emptiness undifferentiable. When you know that all sound lacks inherent nature in the same way, then all sound is like the sound of the Buddha's teachings and all sound manifests as the resonance-emptiness sound of the Buddha's speech. The last line of the supplication reads, "To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate." Here Orgyen Pema Jungnay represents the Buddha's speech that is the sound-emptiness abiding reality of all the sound there is. To this Orgyen Pema Jungnay, we supplicate. At the beginning of this twenty-first century, everywhere we go there are radios playing, tape recorders playing, the sound of movies and televisions—the world is filled with sound. At this time, then, it is quite important to know that all sounds have no inherent nature. They are sound-emptiness. These days, moment by moment, sounds can be carried across the globe and change so many people's feelings all at once—from happiness to suffering, from suffering to happiness. Just on the basis of hearing a few sounds, millions of people's feelings can change. Also these days it is easy to realize that sounds are sound-emptiness, because if you pick up the phone in America at noon and you call somebody in another country, then for some people it will be midnight, and for some people in other countries it will be morning. So at what time is this sound really being made? In this way, we can easily recognize sound-emptiness. If somebody in America calls someone in India and talks to them on the phone, in America it is noon, in India it is midnight. A daytime mouth is talking to a nighttime ear—at the same time! If sounds were truly existent, that would be impossible. It would be a contradiction for sound made during the day to be heard simultaneously at night. But it is not a contradiction when we know that it is just sound-emptiness. Thinking about things in this way, during these times it is much easier to understand how sound is sound-emptiness. Also, these days a famous person can give a speech that is broadcast all over the world. The people who like that person will hear that speech as something very pleasant and beautiful. The people who do not like that person will find it repulsive to listen to. The people who have no opinion do not have any reaction to that sound one way or the other. If we ask, "What is that sound, really? Is it good or bad?" again we see that the true nature of sound is inexpressible. These days, sounds beam down from empty space. They come from empty buildings and even empty cars. It is important for us to be able to examine these sounds and their sources to see that they are sound-emptiness, because most of the suffering we experience comes from hearing sounds. We need to train in the understanding of sound as it is taught in the Middle Way, which is that in genuine reality, sounds are empty of any essence. In apparent reality, they are dependently arisen mere appearances. As the glorious Chandrakirti wrote, Things do not arise causelessly, nor from Ishvara, Nor from self, nor other, nor both; Therefore, it is clear that things arise Perfectly in dependence upon their causes and conditions. Things do not arise from any of the four possible extremes: from self, other, both or without cause, and there's no fifth possibility. Therefore, things do not truly arise—they do not come into existence; they do not actually happen. Then what is the appearance of them happening? It is just like the appearance of things happening in a dream; like the appearance of a moon shining on a pool of water; and like the appearance of an illusion. It is dependently arisen mere appearance. In this way, since sounds do not exist in genuine reality, and since in relative reality they are just dependently arisen mere appearances, all sounds are simply sound-emptiness. When you recite mantras, then mantras are also sound-emptiness. We supplicate Guru Rinpoche at the end of the verse, because even though we know that sounds are sound and emptiness, we are obscured from realizing that directly by our thoughts that cling to sounds as being truly existent. We supplicate for Guru Rinpoche's blessing so that these thoughts that sounds truly exist may dissolve, and when they dissolve, that we will recognize the true nature of sound is sound-emptiness. The third verse of the supplication is: All these movements of mind towards its objects, These thoughts that make five poisons and afflictions, Leave thinking mind to rest without contrivances, Do not review the past nor guess the future; If you let such movement rest in its own place, It liberates into the dharmakaya— To the guru for whom awareness frees itself, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate. For ordinary beings, mind is discursive. It moves. It moves towards objects. It moves towards the three times. It is constantly thinking about one thing or another. Mind is moved by thoughts of the five poisons. When mind encounters an object it likes, it moves towards that object with thoughts of attachment. When mind encounters an object it does not like, it moves towards that object with thoughts of aversion, thoughts of anger. When mind judges something incorrectly, it moves towards that object with bewilderment. When one's mind believes that one has qualities that one does not have, it moves towards oneself with thoughts of arrogance. When mind looks at somebody else and sees things that it does not have, it moves towards that person with thoughts of jealously. In this way, thoughts of the five poisons constantly move the mind. "Leave thinking mind to rest without contrivances." When thoughts of the five poisons are moving the mind, just let mind rest without trying to fix anything, without trying to change anything, without reviewing the past kleshas (disturbing mental states) or wondering what happened to them; and without anticipating what types of disturbing states of mind one might experience in the future. Do not review the past, do not guess the future. Just let mind relax as it is right now. We do not need to try to prevent thoughts of desire from arising. We do not need to try to stop thoughts of anger or jealously once they have arisen. Do not try to prevent anything; do not try to stop or change anything; just simply do not take any of those movements of mind to be truly existent. That is the instruction because we could not stop the thoughts of the five poisons from arising, even if we wanted to! We could not do that, but we do not have to. All we have to do is recognize that these thoughts lack any essence. How do we do this? Whatever thought arises, look straight at it with your eye of wisdom and settle into its basic nature. When you do that, all thoughts and all disturbing states of mind are liberated within the dharmakaya. They are self-liberated. The whole collection of thoughts is free just as it is. This is awareness, and this awareness is awareness-emptiness. Since this awareness-emptiness is pure in nature, whatever obscurations there may be have no essence. Awareness itself is self-liberated. It is free just as it is. Then we supplicate the guru whose awareness is self-liberated. This is Guru Rinpoche. For Guru Rinpoche, awareness frees itself. We supplicate you Orgyen Pema Jungnay for your blessings so that we may realize, as you do, the self-liberation of awareness. The Lord of Yogis Milarepa sang in his vajra song of realization called "The Three Nails"4: To describe the nails of meditation, the three All thoughts in being dharmakaya are free Awareness is luminous, in its depths is bliss And resting without contrivance is equipoise All thoughts are dharmakaya in their nature. Thoughts are free all by themselves, without having to do anything to them, stop them, or change them in any way. They are naturally dharmakaya. What is dharmakaya like? It is luminous. It is awareness. It is bliss. How do we experience this dharmakaya in meditation? Rest without contrivance. Rest without artifice. This is equipoise. This is the experience of dharmakaya. The verses of Milarepa and Guru Rinpoche have the same meaning. What is awareness-emptiness like? Milarepa described it in the following way in the song "The Ten Things it is Like"5: When you know the true nature of everything to be known The wisdom that's aware of the true nature's like a cloud-free sky With these two lines, Milarepa tells us the emptiness aspect of awareness is like the sky completely free of clouds. Then he sings: When the mud settles down and mind's river is crystal clear Self-arisen awareness is like a polished mirror's shine Milarepa illustrates the luminous, bright, vivid aspect of awareness with the example of a perfectly polished mirror's sparkling shine. In this way, we see what emptiness is like, we see what awareness is like, and then we can understand that the two are undifferentiable. The great pandit Shakya Chokden described the noble Asanga's explanation of genuine reality as follows: Clarity-emptiness, mere awareness, empty of the duality of perceived and perceiver is all phenomena's abiding reality. Knowing this and combining it with a limitless accumulation of merit, the spontaneously present three kayas will manifest. This is Asanga's tradition. In this way, Asanga presents the true nature of reality of all phenomena as nondual luminous emptiness, nondual awareness-emptiness. The explanation that the true nature of reality is emptiness beyond all concept of what it might be is the presentation of the Middle Way Consequence School (Prasangika Madhyamaka). The presentation of the true nature of reality as awareness-emptiness, luminous clarity, is the presentation of the Shentong Madhyamaka, the Empty of Other Middle Way School, and also the presentation of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions. What does the term "empty of other" or shentong mean? This is described in the text called the Gyu Lama, the Treatise on Buddha Nature: The element is empty of that which is separable from it, all fleeting stains. But it is not empty of that which is inseparable from it, its own unsurpassable qualities. "Empty of other" means that the buddha nature, the true nature of mind, luminous clarity, awareness, is empty of that which is different from it: stains and flaws. It is empty of those. But it is not empty of the spontaneously present qualities, the naturally present qualities of enlightenment. These unsurpassable qualities are totally inseparable from the true nature of mind. In short, this supplication is a supplication that we will manifest our own basic nature. We supplicate the guru to bless us so that we can manifest the awareness-emptiness that is the true nature of mind. It is a supplication that all appearances will be self-liberated as the enlightened body of the deity, all sounds will be self-liberated as the enlightened speech of the deity, and all thoughts will be self-liberated as essential reality itself. The last verse of the supplication sums it all up: Grant your blessing that purifies appearance Of objects perceived as being outside; Grant your blessing that liberates perceiving mind, The mental operation seeming inside; Grant your blessing that between the two of these Clear light will come to recognize its own face; In your compassion, sugatas of all three times, Please bless me that a mind like mine be freed. Grant your blessings that all clinging to objects on the outside as truly existent will be self-liberated. Grant your blessings that all thoughts on the inside will be self-liberated. Grant your blessings that in between, luminous clarity, Dzogchen, will recognize its own face. In your compassion, realized buddhas of all three times, grant your blessings that I and all sentient beings may be freed from clinging to characteristics. Grant your blessings that I and all sentient beings may be freed from the bondage of samsara. Grant your blessings that I and all sentient beings may be freed from the bondage of believing that duality truly exists. Grant your blessing that all of our concepts of duality will be self-liberated. My departing prayer is that Gyatrul Rinpoche be healthy, that he live a long life, and that his activity for the benefit of all sentient beings flourish. And I pray that all of you, his students, bring your activities of listening to, reflecting on and meditating on the teachings of the genuine Dharma to their perfection and that, through this, you are of great benefit to all of the limitless number of sentient beings. And especially here at Tashi Chöling may the teachings of the practice and explanation lineages flourish and bring great benefit to all of the beings of this land. Translated by Ari Goldfield. 1 The Guru Rinpoche Prayer is translated by Jim Scott. 2 Translated by Jim Scott and Ari Goldfield. 3 The eight worldly dharmas are what worldly beings strive to attain or avoid. The four not explicitly mentioned in this paragraph are happiness, pain, gain, and loss. 4 Translated by Jim Scott. 5 Translated by Jim Scott and Ari Goldfield.

Thanks Cobie i meant to write “spiritual” not “spiral” but i suppose they’re actually the same thing [smile] It depends what you mean by memories. Not discrete snippets based on “my” experience. I would call them heart-based notions or feelings. It’s very hard to put into words, but often things in this life will recall deeper older things - and when that happens it feels like a confirmation. Very natural and unexciting actually. And it’s not so much that they reference specific past lives, although that has happened in a dream once, moreso a place outside of or beyond time. One specific one that is two impossibly gigantic spheres touching, almost grinding against each other. They encompass everything, including me. I have no idea what this means yet, only that it’s a symbol that has been with ‘’me” for ages. And that the meaning of it is very very significant…

I can still remember the samaelian gnostic re-branding of dream yoga in which the master urged the disciples to reach the subtle plains and visit the sacred temples for dream initiation. Over the years, I found the main ideas of dream yoga in different forms and styles and I gradually matured the idea that... it's just a very old scam practice. I think that maybe the idea of sex with dakinis might reflect something substantial... although it's really about power and you may not experience the thing as a sexual act at all.

Where have you seen these? In a dream, or the waking world?

You have a lot of questions! Wasn't it you or no - it was Allinone I think who said I can't claim credit for my "discovery." Indeed - I posted all my research online as I discovered it so anyone could respond to critique it, etc. A lot of that happened on this website - as I started posting here over ten years ago. So for you example you give a quote about "ancient characters" that are "written out of order." Yes - I have posted some research on this - or similar research. I began researching the topic while in high school. And since then my basic premise never changed. I've just had to hone it and unlearn things. This thread is about the "school" that the person I took classes from is part of - in my view. If you want to understand that view I recommend getting a "phone healing" from the qigong master! http://springforestqigong.com Then you can report back on your experience, if you want. But it seems to me your questions are along the lines of a skeptical consumer wondering if you should "consume" the product being offered. haha. I posted the pdf since people kept referring to me referring to the pdf - without the people referring to it actually engaging with the content of the pdf. You seem to want to "vet" me before dealing with the content of the pdf. My view is that if the information is accurate then it should withstand the "test of time" and you seem to want this standard also. And so we have to then consider what time is. You seem to think time is a linear kind of thing or maybe there is something transcendent to time itself? I think that just as Kala means time and Kali means the creator and destroyer of consciousness, so too does time mean consciousness and similarly Kronos and Chronos both refer to time and consciousness. So it's not that there is something transcendent to time but rather we can't "see" time and we can not "pin" time down. You seem to want to "pin" me down as a certain kind of identity and then compare that identity to the pdf and decide whether the pdf is worth reading and engaging with. Again this appears to be a kind of spoiled consumer view of reality that I think is quite common. So my view is the pdf stands on its own. For example it has over 7,000 views but no comments on that pdf link. Anyone could comment on it but none have. Another example is someone turned the pdf into a scribd. That's fine - and entirely the point - the pdf should just have a life of its own. Someone else posted the pdf on their tumblr. Great. Now I can copy and paste the pdf onto this website. haha. Or people could open the actual pdf link. So there are several options. But as far as "standing the test of time" - we need to imagine what is our perception of time when we are in deep sleep? Haiden, the Shaolin master I quote in the pdf - in the documentary I link to on youtube - it says he does not have deep dreamless sleep - for 60 years he justs meditates all night. Now the qigong masters I know - I think they probably do have deep dreamless sleep - but only sleep a few hours a night or maybe 5 hours tops. So when we dream for example the dream in "real" time might last a few seconds or a few minutes but in "dream time" it seems to last a much longer time. If we experience precognition in a dream - as I have done - this is "more real" than being awake! So also when the precognition comes true - months and even years later as it has for me - this indicates that time is much more malleable than we realize. And so we have to ask - if we are actually "dreaming" while being awake and we can enter into a state of consciousness that is "more real" than being awake and yet this consciousness can experience things that happen in the far future - then what does that say about our linear concept of time? We know that light on its own does not experience time nor space and so we can surmise that as spirits we also would not experience time nor space but this does not mean time doesn't exist. So I created an equation to explain this - well it is my application of de Broglie's Law of Phase Harmony. It's not really necessary - it's just a kind of tool I like - I probably mention it in the pdf. So my own views are not really necessary at all but just are tools for me that I have freely shared. Now if you disagree with the views then feel free to post information that engages with the information in the pdf. I have a blog that gives links to other articles and books I have written - it's all free - but since it's not my latest research I don't really recommend the articles and books. It is true that since my "enlightenment experience" my research has been much refined - or as I put it - I had to "unlearn" a lot more. That was 17 years ago that I had my "enlightenment experience" but I began researching this topic since my first year of college - that was 27 years ago. So considering human life is usually not that long - it would seem I have devoted more than enough time for reading and writing, etc. My blog is http://ecoechoinvasives.blogspot.com and my recent blog posts go into more details - although most of them I already posted on this website also. Whether you choose to "consume" my pdf - or how you finally come to that decision - I realize may weigh on whether I have "sold" myself well enough for you. haha. The commodification of nonwestern spirituality is quite fascinating in lieu of the larger dynamics of global Westernization. This thread points out that indeed the Celestial Masters not only charged for their services but also claimed a legal monopoly to certain services. But it seems to me that the original human culture was based on radical sharing - meaning if anyone tried to be special they would get made fun of, etc. I do think there is a method in the madness. What I am sharing is just the culmination of my own research. As for the separation of the author and the product produced - it was not uncommon for authors to not market their work. These days an author is assumed to have to give promotional talks, interviews, etc. Why is that? Because reading is much less of an accepted medium. For example in Mexico people read 1 book a year on average. But what people don't realize is that to be a NY Times best seller you only need to sell more than 3000 copies, plus get favorable reviews and chosen, etc. So reading as a medium is still quite limited in Western culture. Chomsky really emphasizes language as sound - and writing as the preserved form of language is then a kind of secret - as he was raised by Hebrew scholars. So the thing is that humans as primates originated in forests were sound was the dominant form of perception. But that was millions of years ago. Around 3 million years ago early humans - hominins - had permanently left living in trees. And as we lived in savannah more - then vision become our dominant perception. Now we just assume that vision is our dominant perception but as primates, in fact, listening was our dominant perception for tens of millions of years. In the esoteric tradition - "tradition" is a loaded word - but since you used the word "tradition" - I will use it - actually sound is favored as the origin of all other senses - and sound is closely connected to original formless consciousness. So this was the insight I had in high school based on music theory. So the question is - it appears that this principle is universal to life in general and reality in general of the whole universe. Meaning we all are going to die obviously and then it will have seemed like our whole life was a dream. But in our spirit state - I claim that in fact our senses will be improved - at least while we have a personal sense of qi guiding our spirit. So "Yuan Qi" or original qi then is impersonal - and so to ask who the author is appears to be a bit irrelevant. Meaning - let's say I don't store up any qi - and I die as a ghost - this is very likely - and so at first my senses will still be more improved - my "dream" world will be more vivid, more alive - even though I am a ghost. But as a ghost, without a body, I will not have the ability to store up more qi - and so the qi surrounding the spirit will dissipate and the qi left over will just be qi that is worthy of lower frequency spirit energy. Now the qigong master I took classes from - he says people should be careful where they have sex for reproduction - because the yin spirits will then be attracted to the qi energy generated - and that is how a baby is born in fact. So in Taoism (trademarked with proper traditional Chinese spellings and secret character word order) - the Po soul is the yin shen tied to the yin qi of the body - whereas the Hun Soul is tied to when the baby is separated from the womb and begins the first post-celestial breathing. The Hun soul comes from the father at the birth of the baby and with the raising of the baby from the father's energy. So then we can actually say that Westernization has created humans who are walking ghosts - embodied ghosts controlled by the yin qi of the yin shen - and yet the Hun Soul is still yin shen energy! So it is not until a "father" is discovered who can then build up the energy enough to engage with the Yuan Shen and Yuan Qi energy. And this means that even the spirits of dead people need to be healed, just as much as the alive people who are actually walking ghosts, in most respects, in our current modern Westernized times. So if we consider that light is based on the frequency of the energy and so the color of light indicates the frequency of the energy - and yet the more that the Yuan Qi and Yuan Shen is engaged with, the more the light becomes gold to create a new Yuan Jing energy as Yang Shen bodies - what does this mean? The light has to be "turned around" back to the Emptiness which is actually reverse time and this "reverse time" means then that light enfolds within itself at different frequencies - to create a rainbow body. When a water drop is a sphere this creates what's called a rainbow "logarithmic singularity" in Western science - which is essentially a "shock wave" - just as a black hole turning into a white hole is also a "shock wave." And so in terms of Western science we are told that nothing can go faster than the speed of light - because you have a "group phase" of light - and this "group phase" can have a "front wave" that is the shock wave - and so just as it can be faster than the speed of sound, it also can be faster than the speed of light. But the "front wave" according to Western science, in no way can send a signal or message information. Why is that? Because to measure even one photon of light there still has to be a symmetric math statistical conversion of the "front wave" into a pulse with a symmetric spike in it - that defines the photon. And so even if "one photon" is split - as it has been done - and shown to be entangled nonlocally - across thousands of miles - as has been done in science - this still does not mean that a "signal" can be sent faster than the speed of light. But that's just all fancy science - when in fact for there to be a front wave - there does not need to be a group wave since a group wave assumes a boundary condition of space. In other words in pure perception of listening: No One is listening. So we intuitively convert time to a spatial wavelength measurement when in face time as phase is something we listen to. This is something I realized intuitively from studying piano intensively. So I had to memorize Bach's Italian Concerto to perform it. The middle movement was my favorite. I didn't realize it at the time but it creates the Mozart Effect which meant, when I later got an EEG - a couple years later - my alpha brain waves were very strong - so much so the nurse exclaimed in shock at how strong my alpha brain waves were. haha. So the thing about music is that it is the only Western area of study that is proven to create a larger corpus callosum - so it doesn't just rewire your neurons, which any activity will do, with practice, "fire together, wire together" - but rather we are talking about increasing the structure that connects the right and left brains. haha. So someone asked me if I am "immortal" - but the question really should be turned around. Who experiences immortality? Again the answer is NO ONE - because "one" is not a number. Or to put it another way - no "one" is listening - meaning that the I-thought does not refer to anyone. This may be difficult for people to accept but someone got a well paying career based on this truth - the I-thought is self-transcending - the I-thought does not signify anything nor is it the signified. Now then to "listen" to the source of the I-thought means that NO ONE is listening. And so time is indeed immortal or eternal but at the end of the Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality book his Yang Shen body just vaporizes - the golden light vaporizes - back into the Yuan Qi that is formless - it can not be seen but it can be listened to - by no ONE. haha. It has a method, it harmonizes reality and creates energy and matter - and it does so in time - but it also is time as consciousness. So for humans to engage with this reality and resonate with it - there are rules to it, biological rules and psychic rules, etc. and I am not a master of these rules. But rather my interest has been pedagogical. In other words - a person can train to be a master - and many have (although not a lot) - but how many can detail the universal psycho-physiological principles that transcend all human cultures to guide this training? That is my interest and my claim is music theory does this if properly understood. So let's say I die - which I will - but who is not to say that humans will not destroy most life on Earth - even in my life time. Increasingly scientists say this is possible and scientists are considered the arbiters of truth. And so it is like the question - if a tree falls in the forest did it make a sound if no other life can hear it fall? I would say that the mycelium are symbionts with the trees - the mushrooms actually feed off dead trees in order to feed the dead tree nitrogen to the living trees. And shrooms will survive the apocalypse since they feed off nuclear radiation. And so we can ask - are shrooms immortal? Terrance McKenna thought shrooms came from outerspace. But I have posted research - from Dennis McKenna - who seems to postulate that serotonin may be from outerspace - and then more recently a psychologist postulated about neuromelanin being from outerspace. Serotonin and neuromelanin are very closely related. Now if you take a strong DMT-based plant medicine - then you hear the loud AUM sound emanating from the heart, after the third eye cracks open into the Shen realm - I did this with four hours of nonstop full lotus. So the point being that this shen light biophotons are then organizing the harmonization and dissonance - so that an "energy blockage" in the present is actually just the symptom of a future healing - and this is going on at the speed of light that itself does not experience time. But that in itself is not what is immortal - or as my friend asked after he did a double dose than me - "I'm trying to see where the light comes from?" He could see that my body was all made of light though. I had to tell him, "You can't see where the light comes from, that's the point?" haha. He didn't seem to want to accept this. So the plant-based medicine is usually temporary since it's still electrochemical based. And it is the qi energy itself that is immortal - the qi as information-energy that is also pure time, with frequency energy as its inverse proportion or complementary opposite. This resonates from impersonal principles - and there are "tricks" to the training. So sure traditionally they were "secrets" and this means that even many qigong masters might not know the pedagogy since they learned by rote. Or maybe the know experientially but they can't put it into words. This is often the case since words are left brain dominant. Or it might be that they are qigong masters (or insert your fancy proper words so that you can conceptually engage with the language here) - but that the particular approach to the training then limited their mind's interpretation of the experiences. So my argument is that music is what unifies humanity and from some universal biological principles that even apply to beyond ecology but to the secret of reality itself. Taoism (insert fancy proper wording here) - is one of the best, if not the best, lineage of this training that goes back to the original human culture. But this truth is beyond any training itself - these are principles that will go on after the human species is extinct - and they went on long before that - the principles are immortal and impersonal and inherently part of the energy-consciousness that we are always-already a part of as well. So your question is just a holographic reflection of my spiritual ego - and vice versa while it is only the Yuan Qi that is actually real in the sense of being truthful. Anything put into words is inherently hypocritical - and even any shen and jing are hypocritical. But there is a specific process of putting the shen "under" the jing to create and store up more Yuan Qi energy. So for example Poonjaji shared how he saw all his past lives - and where did that take him to? Then the origin of the Universe itself. The qigong master I took classes from described a similar experience. Some might call it experiencing how a star is formed or something. But basically we exist within micro black holes - that is called "noncommutative phase" as the origin of reality. It may be that science is discovering this - mainstream science is now saying that EP=EPR - and this is what Taoism has also taught! But this discovery by science may actually indicate the end of science and with that a radical transformation of reality as we know it. The Celestial Masters actually were apocalyptic.

Universal Messiah Hulagu Khan. The Tibetan schools of Sakya and Kagyu waged a muted, muffled political/religious war behind the scenes, in the shadows of the political vagaries of the Mongol onslaught upon the world. The Kagyu Drikung were caught in the midst of it all for the reason that the Drikung are the same school followed by the Mongol king Hulagu Khan, in the Middle East (and Hulagu wanted to remain faithful to his Drikung creed through thick and thin, but that was not to turn out exactly as he thought.) This is the hair-raising story of the Messiah, the triumphant king Hulagu, the lord of this world. about me: I'm Geir Smith, an American-Norwegian, a scion of the famous families of Norway, (that represent a profile of Modern Norway's builders). A second cousin to Pontine Paus, I'm related to Tolstoy, Ibsen, Wedel-Jarlsberg, Cappelen (great-great-grandmother Inga Sophie Cappelen), Løvenskiold, Munch etc... great-great-grandfather was Thomas Von Westen Engelhart who was Norwegian Minister of the Interior and State Counsel in Stockholm for several years. I'm an original trailblazer and visionary who's family tradition it is to continually forsee the trend and "anticipate the pattern". I am now announcing some hair-raising news. Coming from someone else, it would be totally incredible. But as I come from a very conservative family like mine but who are also innovative builders of the modern society, what I say resonates. I have mastered the Tibetan language through five years of university and thus can speak about the Tibetan Kalachakra and it's mention of Shambhala. I'm also bringing some astounding information too: the Illinois lottery drew #666, the same day as Obama's acceptance speech in Chicago. Being a scion of the famous families of Norway, I'm a ground-breaking force of intellectual prediction, on par with another relative of mine, Thor Heyerdahl, (who re-discovered Tahiti's discovery by the sea), for my part, I project myself instead into Asia and the world." My great-aunt Else Heyerdahl Werring, was the Royal Mistress of the Robes of the Norwegian Royal Palace, and her husband Nils Werring, my great-uncle was on the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group in the 50s. .... Hulagu Khan's brother Kublai Khan came to power in China and Hulagu then came under the influence of the Tibetan school which Kublai followed which was Sakya. Conflict erupted between Sakya and Drikung inside Tibet (between the followers of Hulagu and Kublai). Today China's under the Sakya rule, and the followers of Drikung and Hulagu have been absorbed into the empire of the Middle East, where there's a mix of Christians and Muslims that have drowned out the Buddhists of the founder Hulagu''s time. Buddhism's Apocalypse prophecy is in the Kalachakra text that's being propagated worldwide by the Tibetan lamas. And in that prophecy, is the mention of a mythical hidden land called Shambhala (which is situated to the West of Tibet i.e. exactly where Hulagu Khan's Middle Eastern Empire is.). So let's roll this back and sum it up quickly: there's a Buddhist Empire left behind in Tibet by Kublai Khan extending into China, but his brother Hulagu had his own private empire extending from Pakistan/Afghanistan and the Tibetan border areas, all the way to Baghdad/middle of Turkey, Konya etc...and Hulagu's empire was Drikung Kagyu. And bingo! Hulagu's empire of "Hulagid" Ilkhanids aka "The Ilkhanate" fits the description of Shambhala and the Savior of the world known as the King of Shambhala. It's fitting that Hulagu ruled over a puzzle of faiths, including Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hulagu's own Buddhists. He was thus the savior and god-like figure for all those assembled faiths. It's noteworthy that Hulagu's empire outlasted him by far, with an offspring of successors-descendants of his family lineage that lasted for 80 long years. We're thus in presence of the messianic King of Shambhala of the Kalchakra prophecy. What's remarkable is that he's Drikung Kagyu. Drikung was totally taken over by Sakya during their war, but 200 years after Hulagu's death, a Sakya lama (Kunga Zangpo) arose, who split from Sakya because he was independent and wanted to return to a stricter path than Sakya's own path. So, he totally revamped Sakya and asserted his school of Ngor as the primary force inside Sakya by far, as he actually dwarfed Sakya by his work. Then a split occurred because part of Sakya left it to found a new school the Gelugpas, and Kunga Zangpo couldn't agree with them because they adopted a way of practicing that excluded Tantrism until the latter part of the practice when the practitioners were already too old to do meditation, which "Ngorchen" Kunga Zangpo couldn't accept. He thus retreated to his monastery at Ngor and decided to carve out a niche region for his school far from the "roar and heat" of Tibetan politics. Pondering his isolation faced with this opposition that was rising against him, he sought to find a path outside of Tibet, (because neighboring tracts beyond the borders offered Buddhist regions, as well). That's when he traveled to and developed Buddhism in an abandoned stretch of land to the West of Ngor called Ngari which happened to be a traditional land of the Drikung Kagyus who had temples surrounding the Kailash sacred mountain and extending also to Ladakh. And this stretch of land was a dependency of Hulagu Khan's Empire (meaning: Hulagu raised taxes there). So when the Kalachakra speaks about Shambhala it's a mythical faraway land hidden from the view. But suddenly it comes into sharp focus at very close quarters, because the Ngari region is inside Tibet itself, but relies upon the empire of Hulagu who's headquarters are in Iranian Azerbaijan. Suddenly this monstrously extensive, megalithic empire rises out of the past and crushes everything on it's path. By Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo's strenuous efforts, the Ngari region became completely Ngorpa, of the Sakya school, but it's noteworthy to see that it was a traditionally Drikungpa land and one belonging to the Mongol Hulagu. Now nothing happens by chance, and it's good to note that the Kalachakra itself was written by a Sakya lama called Buton Rinchen Drub , just eighty years after Hulagu's death and was certainly a hidden hommage to Hulagu's protective action towards Tibet and Buddhism versus the devastations wreaked by Islam at that time. Therefore, Kunga Zangpo's decision to take over the Hulagu-Drikung part of Tibet called Ngari came once the Kalachakra had become vastly widespread in Tibet and thus Kunga Zangpo was taking an early investment into the Hulagu Empire which the Kalachakra prophecy announces. Kunga Zangpo was thus buying himself part of the dream and prophecy of the end of the world and inserting himself into the past as the rightful heir of the Kalachakra. In such, I think that the successions of reincarnations of Kings of Shambhala, (which was a lineage certainly written by the Sakya lama Buton), are made up of the Sakya school's founder Birwapa, followed by Hulagu (a combined Drikung/Sakya), then Buton Rinchen Drub and finally Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (among the list of Kings of Shambhala). I see them all as clearly actors in the "Shambhala Saga" and having the status of "Kings of Shambhala". It's good to have proof of things, that's incontrovertible and proof that cannot be denied. I searched for Shambhala on Google and found the land of Bilad-al-Sham, corresponding to The Levant (Israel, Lebanon and Irak/Iran). Then I searched for people called Shambhala. I found two contemporaries of Hulagu which was troubling because I thought they could be allusions to Hulagu. Because indeed, "otherwise why should such people live exactly at the same places (Hulagu's capital was Maragha in Iranian Azerbaijan) and same time as Hulagu?" That's the rhetorical question, which any sleuth like me, researching history, should obviously want to ask themselves. Those two people were respectively called "Shams-e Tabrizi" and "Shams al-Din". They're Muslim luminaries and are rivaling candidates to be the Messiah respectively of the brotherly enemies: Sunnites and Shiites. Seeing the Mongols prospered for eighty years and converted to Islam during forty of those years, it's impossible to not think that Hulagu's heritage was progressively merged into the Muslim heritage. So concretely how did they merge a Buddhist king like Hulagu into Islam via these two "Shams" figures? The answer is perfectly self-evident: The Drikung Hulagu messianic founder of the Ilkhanate dynasty was the future Messiah of the Islamic Sunnites, but also the Shiites. His successors at the helm of the Ilkhanate couldn't let anyone take the role of Messiah from them. Therefore they jealously attributed the top religious role(s) to themselves by using their founder and grandfather Hulagu as their champion and "chosen one". But secretly, Hulagu was and remained Buddhist in their tradition. And in Tibet, many regions remained Drikungpa. Hulagu could thus be named openly as the Messiah in the Drikung regions and temples of Tibet. But that would not have been plausible at all, for one good reason which was that in Tibet also, Hulagu's role as BUDDHIST Messiah was hidden because Kublai's operatives were on guard there. No Mongol such as Kublai would have been ready to grant to his brother Hulagu the role of Messiah and world Savior. That goes against the Mongol grain of one-upmanship among Genghis Khan's offspring's siblings. But over the years, the Sakya realized that they had inherited this surprising, extraordinary and wonder-filled, miraculous war treasure, which was this messianic king Hulagu and they didn't want to let go of it. Thus, the rewriting of the secretive biography of Hulagu in the Kalachakra, left open the possibility for a future resurrection and returning to rule, of that historical hair-raising figure of Hulagu Khan, the Messiah (of all faiths... even sunni muslims, shiites... and jews...and christians of course. Hulagu's quoted in his writings, saying he loved christians. Christians had brought him up. His wife and mother were extremely fervent christians and he had saved the christians in Baghdad when he razed that in the greatest massacre of the whole History of Humanity. The christians in the East had hailed him as the messianic Savior of Christianity: the Messiah). I think I've summed up all the aspects of this multi-faceted Messianic leader, who left his mark upon... and molded all the modern faiths of today, be they Islam, Christianity, Buddhism or Judaism, exactly to his behest and so as for them to come under his boot, his total, rigid and absolute control. Nobody controlled the whole world like the Mongols did, they who are the sole world government that the world has ever seen nor will ever see again in all Eternity. No one put the world under their total and blind control, other than the Mongols/both in politics, war and faith and religion. They totally controlled and submitted the world both physically and in faith, declaring themselves as sole Savior, Lord and God among men for each and every faith inside their domain. (Hulagu's domain was immense, reaching from Turkey's Konya region, to Baghdad, to Afghanistan and as far as Ngari in Western Tibet, meaning a land of a total length of approx. 4500 km, an astounding empire of unheard-of expanse, rivaled only by his Mongol brothers' empires in Russia on one hand and in China on the other.)

About "Falling Water": Several years ago I shared on this thread my experiences of lucid dreaming and the exchange of "dream modalities" with a classmate and fellow FP Practitioner after our group did a guided meditation and exercise at two remote locations under GM Doo Wai in the early 1990's. Thus this comment about mind-control through the dream state is relevant to FP Qigong practice for it is a capability that can be attained through advanced practice. The subject of mind-control through the dream state came to mind tonight while I was watching the pilot episode of the new tv series, "Falling Water." In trying to attract a mass tv audience with the kindergarten hook, "What if your dreams are trying to tell you something?", the show's producers are making much ado and creating hype over a very commonplace theme, precognitive dreams, that just isn't esoteric--certainly not for artists at least, nor for anyone who meditates properly. But that's showbiz marketing. So far, the show appears to be well written, acted, and directed. The one of several story lines where the heavy bearded guy wants to monitor the dreams of the female photographer who he thinks has an instinct for the archetypes of the collective subconscious in order to research (psychic) interconnectedness and then exploit "dream-control" for obviously evil purposes looks stupid and ludicrous to me. For throughout human history there have always been strong psyches with the ability to invade weaker others' dreams or to mesmerize and control the behavior of a person in the waking state in broad daylight. Psychic warfare methods were developed by the two superpowers back in the 80's. If individuals with strong Will and psychic awareness (or "shen" as we say in Chinese yogic arts) choose to use control or influence their subjects' behavior by interfering with their dreams, then they are taking away free will and by definition are committing evil...and buying a ticket for themselves to Hell. As Aleister Crowley put it in Book Four: It cannot be too clearly understood that such is the nature of things: it does not depend upon the will of any persons, however powerful or exalted; nor can Their force, the force of Their great oaths, avail against the weakest oath of the most trivial of beginners. The attempt to interfere with the Magical Will of another person would be wicked, if it were not absurd. One may attempt to build up a Will when before nothing existed but a chaois of whims; but once organization has taken place it is sacred. As Blake says: "Everything that lives is holy; and hence the creation of life is the most sacred of tasks. It does not matter very much to the creator what it is that he creates; there is room in the universe for both the spider and the fly. It is from the rubbish-heap of Choronzon that one selects the material for a god! -- Book 4 by Aleister Crowley (1913) Several of my past high-level Chinese kung fu and Tai Chi masters who can teach their students telepathically across short distances (and usually within line of sight) can also communicate with them through the dream state. Two have done so with me in the past. Another teacher who has passed from this earthplane occasionally visits me in my dream state and teaches me how to handle strong evil adversaries on this plane while he works on them from the other side. The ability to do communicate telepathically with others--in either waking state or dream state-- is simply developed by mastering the Mind through Yoga--any authentic system of Yoga from any culture properly taught by a genuine master. Unfortunately, one of my early kung fu teachers in the 70's (who was mid-level), and one Tai Chi master in the 80's (who was very high level and potentially very dangerous) did use their strong psychic powers to mesmerize and control others for their own ridiculously selfish and perverse purposes. And both have a long stays in a deep circle in Hell as their karma. For no matter how powerful or exalted, no one can escape who they are and what they do. So, as one progresses in Flying Phoenix Qigong practice and experiences the brain activation, the tangible reality of the FP Healing Energy, and the unlocking of latent psychic and healing ability, it is important to take to heart the admonition that Aleister Crowley clearly laid down to protect the Dharma: "If your Work is not 100% given up to the Almighty, then it is black magic." Sifu Terry Dunn www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html

This sense of waking up while already being awake... seems like a hint. My sense of waking up is unique to waking up. And how it can happen that my awareness can experience waking up, when my body and mind are clearly already in the midst of living is... seems like a big clue, to me anyway. Like a key to a map. My body and mind are walking down the street, avoiding obstacles and not falling down... awake, like they do and then suddenly, "I" have the sense of 'waking up' and becoming lucid and present where previously I was not 'awake'. This repeated experience of feeling like I am just waking up in mid-step, while my body (and mind) are already clearly awake and engaging in life stuff... is reinforced in several memories of experiences... usually and at first it was after recovering from weaknesses or tough illness and having being stuck not just inside, but in bed for some time. But other times as well... it occurs in mid-step, middle of the night, while walking down the street and suddenly (just like becoming lucid in the deamstate) I will have the sense of 'waking up' and seeing everything there lucidly for the first time. A tree on my block that I have walked by daily for a nine years is suddenly experienced as never before. There is a dreamlike surreality to this waking up experience that bends any sense of one stable objective realness... like the physical world being concrete and stable is not known to be illusory... I feel it. I simply, deeply experience the malleability and dreamlike quality of every day life, and each time I experience it, it is the same... it is exactly like waking up suddenly and grabbing, or becoming aware of one's bearings. The experience is the same, whether I become lucid on my driveway or in my dream. Ironic too, that a sense of waking up within reality would be reminiscent of dreaming... like mirrored surfaces of ponds. Am I under the water looking up, or on top looking down? How can I be certain? Reminds me that the beginning of my own personal experience of consciousness on this planet, as it mimicks my consciousness in dreams. When I become lucid in a dream, the dream is always already transpiring... it's already in progress when I become lucid and wake up into it. Then i start reacting and playing in the dream, but the dream and the setting of the dream, its whole world, pre-exists my lucidity. And my experience of my own waking consciousness in this body is the same. I don't recall my birth, or the womb, or my first several years on the planet. But at some point, I became lucid in this world, in my family and in this process that was already going on that they all told me is 'the real world'. I became lucid in my body and this life, in the same way I become lucid in dreams. There is an emptiness here that is... a point of stillness in the midst of this... the pause of becoming lucid and 'being present'... that empty pause moment of waking that is like a key to me... it feels more real than anything else.

Hello all I had a dream describing how you could intesify the big draw practise if doing it in a group of quite many people. If you have people at the same level of practise in a row. Then in front of them another row of people that had reached a higher level in the practise. Then having alot of rows with people at different levels. When doing the big draw toghether the energy from the head should project into the sacrum of some of the people infront of you, shaping a bigger field of energy, and strengthening ewerybody in the group. Could this possible work? Regards Fire Dragon

without seeking it, constantly am i reminded how like a dream is this waking life? only it seems, insofar as I can tweak my nose, and yours and we may agree that such has taken place do we seem, or tend to find comfort in proclaiming one real and one false... or that in this collective dream called real, we can count and agree, that there are definitively five trees in this park we sit in together... only here is a caveat as well, for how often in waking real life, do we sit in the same space, read the same book, hear the same lecture and not agree at all as to what is taking place? one shared and one private is more how i experience it. not at all that one is more real... this is just me perhaps. good bad, right wrong, have no place in the discussion for me. is there not an assumption that waking life because it appears not as passing, illusory and mist-like as the dream realms is thus more real? many realizations and experiences of the dream are more impacting and revealing of the natural state than those of the waking manifest flow... when realization arises is it only valid from certain sources? the light of a candle the glare of a flashlight the light of the sun all will reveal, which is best? most real?

I'd like to give a couple points here shared by some students who messaged me anonymously with their views on dream work and questions too. Sifu Terry also gave a very specific clarification as well. Starting with Sifu Terry's point on dreaming and Flying Phoenix: "Consciously doing a dream practice while in FPCK practice AND CONSCIOUSLY BLENDING IN A DREAMSTATE INTO FP consciousness is not wise. FPCK is complete and sufficient." He will clarify this, but one takeaway I see from this statement is to not do dreaming practices while in the midst of FPCK meditations. I keep my own Shuigong practice separate from FP and have been doing dream practice before learning FP, and find that it improves because of FPCK. How it has worked for me personally (and I do not endorse it for others) is that dreamwork, dreamwalking, lucid dreaming--all of it can tire you out a lot because of the mental strain associated with it. The more the mind tenses, the more exhausted we get. With FPCK, the mind expands and is relaxed, and in a more relaxed state, the flow of the dream state is easier to navigate. This is the difference between rowing your galleon ship on quicksand and on water. Another comment from an anonymous FPCK student who chimed in said the following: The Chinese tradition calls mind Xin, which is often more literally translated as Heart-mind. Even though the mind itself is shapeless and unbound and the physical heart not, all the valid religious traditions in the world eventually aim for the _purification of the heart_ which they often explicitly spell out. Purifying the mind and heart are exactly the same things: the heart is the emperor organ that controls our emotional responses which in turn are our primitive thought patterns. Almost all of our thoughts are in response to emotional stirrings as you may well observe. Some are very subtle, which is why total karmic cleansing can be hard work depending on the spiritual methods utilized -- wrathful tantric practices are especially meant for provoking these subtle defilements to surface, hence transforming desires via tantra is a quick path. A completely peaceful and restful heart experiences no emergence of karmic desires such as lust, greed, hate, pride, and fear. This is also why practicing and perfecting De is enough and absolutely mandatory for complete enlightenment as proven by Confucius and other sages throughout the world who encouraged moral perfection. When the Heart-mind remains calm because of correct view or meditation, it experiences no outflows or attachments to the Desire Realm (i.e. manifesting karmic desires), hence it simply cannot lose any vitality. Loss of vitality is always and exclusively because of desiring that springs from an unsilent heart, and the Daoist tradition says this loss happens through the bodily orifices to satisfy various desires. As such, the argument of Antares and Daode school can be an insidious half-truth: it lacks nuance. Lucid dreaming can be very beneficial if you are calm and ethical with it, and then it will work for karmic purification as any other conscious activity in "waking" life. Flying Phoenix should work extremely well towards this end because its energy is inherently calming and rejects unethical behavior. I share this above quote with as much respect to Antares and the anonymous comment from the above student and remind everyone that with all of our experiences and personal journeys, ultimately, the buck stops here with Sifu Terry, who will reply shortly after this weekend.

Definitely has something to do with the light jin in my case. I never had any flying dreams before -- just this one, recently, when I was specifically spending some time on the Double Jump Kick in Chen laojia (in my waking life) trying to get to that suspended/levitating state that requires stepping on air as though it's a staircase. The dream was brief. I found myself jumping so high that I could see the curvature of the round sky, and looking at a mountaintop from above. I saw the figures of two walking humans who had just made it to the summit. I couldn't see who they were but had a sense they were a man and a woman. The mountain was covered with snow, and the sky curving all around it was a milky wintery blue. A voice inside my mind's ear said loud and clear, "On top of the world." That was it. I think I mentioned before, in some dream thread or other, that I have three kinds of dreams: the no-dream dark dream that feels nurturing and recharging and produces no images -- these are my default dreams, but it's not a "no dreams" state (I remember the difference), I do dream that I'm in that dark recharging place, and deliberately stay there. Then there's mundane dreams -- I get them very rarely. And dream-visions -- these are the rarest (a few years apart) and have a real-life-event impact, they change my perceptions, they are like an education to get, what you do with your education is an unknown but you've graduated from some program or other and know what the program was... then you either apply what you've learned, or not. So, this one was one of the dream-visions.

Imagine a magical hat some where on a table. You can pull anything you wish from this hat. Only at night. As soon as you reach day, the hat and the conjured items dissapear. It happens all the time so that you want to live at night and sleep at day, but then the hat only appears at day and no longer at night. Thats how fking frustrating the creative power of our dreams are. I noticed that during the day my creativity is limited by 1. my memory to recall my creative thoughts, images, sounds I imagined during the creative process 2. having to interupt the creative process all the time because it takes forever to translate the creativity into reality. In dreams everything manifests instantenously. It takes forever to compose a music, poem, painting, idea, book, whatever, in the waking hours, plus you tend to fail or give up while so caught up in the process of translating. The translating process in dreams becomes instant. You think about a story and it appears in your mind, the movie plays out in 3d and the background music is perfect all the time. Sometimes I'm so frustrated about not being able to get lucid, I want to stop sleeping untill I can acces the creativity I have in my dreamworld while still remaining consciouss. Funny thing is, when I get sleepy, I loose consciousness. I actually stopped have faith that it is possible to lucid dream all the time. All the lucid dreaming teachers and so called authorities on the subject cannot even lucid dream themselves. It seems that all the succesful lucid dreamers have shifted into the 5th dimension. There's no one on earh that can teach me this, but me?. Unless you tell me otherwise! I tried allot of things, but never drugs. I really don't care for lucid dreaming though. I only care for the creativity I have during sleep! I've never been able to acces it while awake Is a musician, actor or comedian, scriptwriter destined to use drugs? Like Charlie Sheen said, Yes I'm on drugs, but I'm still a winner. Then again, you do have those 100 year old people who finally became enlightened but their brains disintegrated so much that they coulden't teach others how to do it anymore. I compose music in the waking world just as a hobby and I suck at it. The music fragments I've recalled and translated onto the keyboard are my best musical compositions even though they're like 3 seconds of length each, plus I did not recall it precisely. I can put some examples on youtube if you request it. Sometimes I feel I have great ideas and while trying to translate a part of these musical thoughts, it just floats away and its forgotten. Today I've had a lucid dream where I started improvising on the keyboard and recorded it to prove how good of a pianist I am to a projection of mine. This music was so incredible, I could retire a musician right now if I were able to acces such creaitivity I have in dreams all the time or atleast able to become lucid for just 40 minutes a night and remember what music I played or ideas I created. With all my intense effort for years, I've reached two weak lucid dreams of 10 seconds each a week. By the time I manifest a piano, organ the dream has already fades away. In my dreams I don't have to play piano well to improvise great. I just trance into my music consciousness like I always do and start translating. In the real world it takes 1 hour of intense focus and translating just for a small part. In the dream, I can press record and just play the piano without thinking about pressing the right key. The musical creativity is so strong, I composed 3 minutes for a piano piece instantaneously and played the recorded music. It was better then anything I heared from chopin. When I let the recorded music play, I actually remanifested what the music sounded like and made it perfect, just by thinking about it without even touching the keyboard! I became a real music god! When I woke up, I tried to recall something, but I've forgotten everything! My memory is real bad when I'm awake aswell. I've recalled allot of dream music fragments, never cared to record them since it was 6 notes at most. I did try to reconstruct from what I had recalled, but it took too long and I never been able to create music of quality similar to the dream music I just made up in few seconds. Besides, reconstructing from 6 notes? I might aswell start at 0 notes. So the dream music is real! Its not beyond the regular physical audio. Just waiting for another lucid dream to arrive is no longer acceptable. I will have to seriously train this in a structred way and be more persistent in trying out many practices. As you can see, I can just stop my hobby and focus on becoming lucid in dreams and train dream recall. There is no more point in composing music while awake when in my dreams I do it 18374774738281991199283847 times faster and compose 2848575748829291903948488585748839292 times better music. No words can describe the creative power I have in my dreams. Ofcourse I probably woulden't arive there if I never created music while awake aswell, but still... Now that I have discovered this, doesn't that make dreaming one of the most important events of the day? I can't just be content with the creativity I have in the waking world when there is such power within me that I'm not yet able to acces. One dream is equal to 3 years of intense work. In the waking world I can process information at the speed of a donkey, in my dreams I process information faster then the speed of light. The focus has shifted toward the way of internal strength for me today. Perhaps it would be unwise to even waste such creative powers on music... Thats how freakin powerful it is! Either that, or I give music oo much importance to even mention it... Well, thats me! WHY ON EARTH IS THERE NO ONE WHO USES DREAM CREATIVITY AS THERE MAIN SOURCE FOR IDEAS?!? Or are they just not telling anyone about it? Fcking egotistical bastards, you know I love ya'll right? Tell me how to do it! xD If everyone could freely use their dreams to do what they wished, and later recall exactly what they did, we would have atleast 5 milion Johannes Bach's walking around on this planet. How many are there currently? 0... Still good composers alive, but I imagine them to be 50 times better if they did acces their dream creativity. I must either arrogantly conclude that my lucid dream self is the reincarnation of a musical god. Either that or the whole world needs to fcking wake up to way of internal power! If I could just recall one complete musical piece of my lucid dreams I could proove this, damnit. If a musical failure like me can do that, how many creative technological inventions would be created in one day if all scientists had acces to their ineternal creative powers? Whats going on here? Am I the only one who have experience this internal creative power?

Good idea . I neglected that . let's add it into the mix as well .... I went through a period of sorta hounding mine for her last few years about that . here is a classic : " You where such a different child , I used to worry about you . I would have strange dreams about you ." "Like what ? " " We where at the snake and reptile show * and there was this earthquake, it was terrible and scary, everyone was running around in terror and the ground split pen into a big hole right over the snake pit and deep down into the ground . I tried to pull you kids back but you broke away and ran to end of the hole .... everyone was screaming and panicking but you where laughing , I called you back but you just turned to me , laughed and then deliberately jumped into the hole .... then I woke up in terrible state . " Poor old Mum ... she didnt have a clue about that sort of stuff , it just generated fear in her . * That place was very significant to me ; we didnt have much money, father would be often finding things for the family to recreate with that where cheap or free . This outside snake and reptile show was one , it was run by some local Aboriginal snake handlers , they would do that , throw some spears and boomerang and then pass the hat around . I loved it ! A lot of tourists , the Aboriginals would like to come up to the English with some huge snake and watch them run . they did it once and everyone was "WHOA!" and backed away from the low fence of roofing tin used to keep the reptiles in their enclosure . But not me , This old blackfellah comes up to me and goes " This little felleh isnt scared " and draped the huge python around my shoulders ... my mother nearly had a fit . then next time round , showing a large blue tongue lizard , put that on my head .. it just sat there with its tail down my neck, its four legs around my head like a hat and its head dropping down my forehead with its tongue occasional licking out, down on my lower forehead . Musta looked pretty funny . Anyway , that was my first contact with Aboriginal shamanism and our reptiles ... something that has continued to this day . Interesting aside ; I have a relationship with the goannas here ( ' Nungungali' - goanna in Bundjalung lingo ) I had a GF that lived here a while , she didnt like them or my relationship . She said she had a 'nightmare' one night ; she wakes up, thinking it is real and not a dream , and I am not in the bed , so she looks outside and sees under the cabin, it has a hge hole in the dirt going down into an underground chamber .... she goes in and there are small chambers in the dirt like little caves , off to the side and goannas are sleeping in them . In the middle are some goannas standing there and I am putting a tarpaulin over one of the goannas heads . She goes ' What are you doing ?' and I turn, see her , and scream at her " YOU GET OUT OF HERE ! ' ... and she woke up freaked out . The underground tunnel / hole thing again Goannas DO live under the cabin , but mostly in an old drain pipe I have stored under there ...... on the physical plane that is . Just as well she still not here , now sometimes they come inside . I like to sit still while they sneak around , right under my nose . Then I suddenly move and " WHAT ARE YOU DOING INSIDE !? ' and they freak out and try to run, but their claws skid on the wooden floor ... a lot of running but not much forward movement ...much better than a dogs do on a smooth floor ... creating all sorts of antics, mishaps and slide outs .

Sorry if I am message bombing you Earl Grey. I have just spent a couple of hours looking at John Dolic's stuff. He looks very accomplished. I also had a look at some of the FP which looks great too. Thank you very much for the links. I would be looking for something to help cultivate chi for health and with specific regards to aiding meditational insight I also have found his dream / sleep yoga to be rather fascinating. Since I have seen you are a close friend and student of John Dolic would you perhaps be able to give me any of your own personal insights as to which type(s) of qi gong he teaches would be compatible/recommended for my needs? Also the FP looks great too ..... are both FP and the type of Qi Gong John Dolic teaches compatible? Lastly, if you have the time or inclination ...Are practicing Qi Gong (say that of FP and/or John Dolic's methods) and Nei Gong compatible or contra indicated? Sorry again for all the questions ....and I will of course be contacting Mr.Dolic directly sometime in the very near future.

Side note: I have always had spontaneous memories of long-forgotten dreams (sometimes after as much as 30+ years or even childhood), during my normal waking state. Yesterday, I had such a recollection, but to my surprise, I went from one to another successively, finding myself in from 6 to 10 different dream scenes. It was great to find again all these dream locations, that had escaped my waking memory. I really enjoyed the travelling and the scenery. Now I won't forget them anymore. Funny, they all had the same "feel" and "look". As if they happened in the same "dream world", even "dream province", I daresay the exact same location, but different parts, even though one was a block of flats, the other a market, yet another a shopping mall etc. I recognised the link by road because some shared the same routes. I repeat, this was in normal consciousness. I attribute this to FPCK. It never happened to me before.

Thank you @Nungali Sorry to hear your friend went through such a bad experience. Past few years. Typically before these experiences begin, I can feel a pulling or sinking feeling, either in my dream body or in the hypnagoic state. After various experiences with meditating and ayahuasca, I was able to release the fear I usually associated with this sensation. This was often enough to enter a brief astral projection phase and I could "roll" out of my body and explore the room, rather than get pulled into whatever was pulling at me. If the experience did escalate, I would try to allow my fear to self dissipate, while reciting the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra. Even if I felt an negative energy presence, the mantra seemed to act as a shield or would scare away the negative energy. I've had a few encounters where I even felt empowered and seemed to scare away what was there through the force and confidence of recitation. When I was younger, in highschool, I used Christian prayer, as this was all I knew at the time, despite not being Christian, and it had a similar effect in that seemed to avert the worst of what appeared to be happening. But last night happened very fast. Even in the dream, my voice felt chocked up before I could get the words out. I've not tried any formal protection practices before. I do read these things can be associated with stress and trauma. Last year was challenging - big health problems. We just moved a week ago, so this is happening in a new place. Moving stirred up some anxieties, and I did go to bed stressed last night. But, the experience seems out of proportion to that kind of stress. But maybe I'm kidding myself and should get to a therapist.

Every time you realize your spiritual pretensions are all bullshit and that you are really just like everyone else, you go back to square one, and start over. Eventually you go back to square one and recognize it for the first time. Home. No need for books, nothing to read. Then beginner's mind can operate. We become three years old again. We laugh a lot, and dream of animals.

It is famous quote from a zen master. You probably wouldn't like: "Eat when hungry, sleep when tired. Fools will laugh at me, but the wise will understand." Every time you realize your spiritual pretensions are all bullshit and that you are really just like everyone else, you go back to square one, and start over. Eventually you go back to square one and recognize it for the first time. Home. No need for progress, nowhere to go. Then beginner's mind can operate. We become three years old again. We laugh a lot, and dream of animals.

Greetings! I also appreciate general discussion with as you say “qigongers”—of varied topics as well, perhaps the common theme of qi gives us a common language or perception of the world that enables greater and more effective communication. That’s cool you are being taught in your dreams. I have had a few very high-value lessons there myself, some of the most profound qigong and taoist lessons in fact. I hope to explore this further. I’ve been trained (in dream) even in the specific system I practice, which was most welcome. The Flying Phoenix is a cool qigong, never experienced anything quite like it. I was also deeply inspired by the Flying Phoenix thread, and Mr. Dunn’s discussion of the inner thigh was quite illuminating. P.s. I commented here especially hoping to connect with newer members of this forum, some of the discussion areas haven’t had posts in years or even a decade—so here’s to a new wave of discussion! Blessings and Luck, Dan

I practice and it is amazing, one of my favorite practices. It is empowering and liberating. Like Luke, I study with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. I’ve done dream and sleep yoga retreats with him, the Glidewing course, and read his book on the subject. The book is excellent but if you can afford the online workshop, it will be far more accessible and supportive. It is a 24 hour practice. The most important parts of the practice are exercises done upon awakening, throughout the day, and preparing for sleep. It takes most people a very long time to see tangible success so few stick with it long enough to benefit. It took me about 18 months before starting to have consistent lucidity but it is worth it to me. The idea is is that if we can become lucid in dream we can change and control the dream at will. We can travel, meet with spiritual masters, practice in our dream, ask questions, learn things, neutralize threatening situations, etc... Most importantly, it cultivates a sense of flexibility and liberation that carries into our waking life. As as my teacher says, we sleep 30% of our lives. That’s 25 - 30 years of our life asleep. Imagine what we can do with all of that time if we can harness it for spiritual growth. Another nice benefit is that it really leads to very nourishing and restful sleep. I never feel better than when waking up from lucid dreams, with one exception - sleep yoga, but that’s even more challenging. I’d start with dream yoga.

* This age of skyrocketing technological advances has probably left most users like myself, feeling that everything just happens with the merest click of a button. These stories below, however, are done in a rather time-consuming way, (largely because my computer skills and savvy are very limited indeed). They are all taken directly from my own collection of books, and individual pages of each story are then put through the OCR, (Optical Character Reader) on our home scanner. Perhaps because ours is a pretty basic model the process of correcting the scanner’s inaccuracies then takes me many days to complete. So, I think quite carefully about what I add here. This one I have chosen below is again from John Blofeld’s magical stories of his years spent in China in the 1930’s, before Communism changed that country forever and virtually eradicated its past. Perhaps unsurprisingly, (since this is a Taoist Forum after all), the most seemingly appreciated stories here have been either accounts of spiritual seeking in Asia during the last century, or of daily living as experienced by Tibetan people during that same century, (again, before the tidal wave of Chinese Communism engulfed their country.) So, since giving the reader whatever he or she enjoys the most should be the major decider,… today I’ll bring out for you another of John Blofeld’s accounts of his extraordinary encounters with Taoist recluses in ‘Old China.’ I don’t know if this information will add anything worthwhile to anyone’s approach and subsequent experience reading of this story, but it certainly has not been a mere five-minute ‘copy and paste’ job involved in bringing it here. For me, the time and effort involved is a kind of ‘paying homage’ to a most extraordinary man whom I deeply respect. John Blofeld was consumed by an inner for spiritual truth and for experiencing the last living remnants of ancient Chinese culture. All of his books are now out of print, and some quite hard to come by. The extracted chapter below was taken from his book : “The Secret and Sublime : Taoist Mysteries and Magic” * * Stumbling Upon Taoism: (Some Taoist Recluses) In my early twenties, I was fortunate enough to spend some years in Peking. In those days, arriving there from the West was like travelling back to another century. Everything was different - streets, houses, gardens, people, costumes and household objects, as well as language, food, and manners. Within the battlemented walls of that ancient city a large measure of China's traditional culture still survived; the old ways had not yet been shattered by modern innovations; the devastating Japanese occupation was still to come; as for communists, they scarcely, if ever, entered people’s thoughts. Innumerable rays of the past splendours of the imperial capital continued to shed their light. With so much beauty lying about me, I was seldom tempted to venture beyond Peking's outer gateways, but now and then I would visit a lovely range of hills rising to the north-west of the city; and once I happened to pass a night there in a small Taoist temple that lay securely in a sheltered fold. It was autumn. The trees cascading down the hillside presented a gorgeous display of scarlet, crimson, copper, bronze and gold, interspersed with the dark-green foliage of ancient cedars noted for their silvery- white bark. The aged temple showed signs of neglect, but its mossy tiles and weathered grey-brick walls still resisted inclement weather after five whole centuries of existence. It was inhabited by a solitary recluse, a dignified figure clad in Taoist garb who looked about eighty. His lace was a network of wrinkles, his grey beard was flecked with white, but his movements had the grace and alertness one comes to expect of elderly Taoists, whose extraordinary exercises preserve health and youthful vigour for many decades. I admired his antique clothes - a long robe of bronze-coloured cloth with enormous flapping sleeves resembling the wings of butterflies, and a curious stiff hat from the centre of which protruded a topknot of grey hair secured by an elaborately carved peg, A pretty ten-year-old child, long-haired and wearing a sky-blue robe, appeared; it was impossible to determine whether it was a boy or a girl. This child served us with pale-green tea in thick earthenware bowls, and some saucers of pine kernels, melon seeds, and sweetmeats made of rice flour. My host, whose name was Ch'ing-t'an Hsien-jen, (the Immortal of the Limpid Pool) soon called for heated wine, which the child brought in a narrow porcelain jar placed in a bowl of warm water to maintain its temperature at a higher level than is common for Western-style wines. Yellowish-green in colour, the mild wine tasted delicately of herbs. At first our conversation followed the usual stilted lines, host and guest courteously requesting details about each other; but when he perceived I was eager to learn something of Taoism, the recluse became less formal. Between the first and second jars, he persuaded me to don a padded Taoist gown as a protection against the evening chill, and led me into the main courtyard where he showed me several curious objects, including a rockery composed of fantastically shaped stones brought by some long-departed emperor from close to the frontier of Burma. This cunningly fashioned landscape, complete with mountains, grottoes, pools and winding river, produced the illusion of a distant scene. Half-closing my eyes, I could imagine a great range of mountains with contours pleasingly grotesque. 'And this !' he said, pointing to a plinth on which stood an oblong basin of dull-coloured earthenware containing a landscape created on a truly minute scale ; clearly the work of a gifted artist, it was perfect in every detail. Idly I asked why the plinth was so tall and his answer plunged me into a world of fantasy. 'You see, it is not just an ornament, but the present dwelling of the Great Master Po Yun who was abbot here three hundred years ago. It would be disrespectful to place it closer to the ground.' 'You mean his spirit lives here ?' 'Certainly. His body, too. It is his whim to be tiny and he is generally invisible; but, as you see, the Immortal eats and drinks like humans, though very little and not often. He chose to assume the stature of a very small dragon-fly, so they say.’ I gazed at some of the tiny dishes and at three empty goblets no bigger than daisies, noting that one of the dishes contained finely chopped minced vegetables and mushrooms. Naturally I could not make myself believe in the existence of that minute, invisible being; but out of courtesy, bowed low before his ‘dwelling', thus winning from my host an approving smile. This fantasy was the one irrational feature of his otherwise admirably sane and lucid conversation. With Taoists one had rather to expect such anomalies - a sure taste for beauty and a capacity for profound mystical or philosophical thought mingled with the most puzzling ingredients. I was sure that the old gentleman was not joking but I have never known what he really meant. Shyness prevented me from pursuing the matter further. Leading me back indoors, he broached a second little jar of heated wine; its contents gave me the courage to ask him why he, too, bore the title, ‘Immortal’. 'My disciples are foolish,, he smiled. ‘They choose to think I shall live forever in this body. Such simple-minded people ! When the ancients spoke of the possible transmogrification of the human body, they were hinting in guarded terms at a much more subtle reality.' 'And yet, Your Immortality, I have heard that certain learned Taoists do believe they can transmogrify their mortal flesh into spirit able to fly through the air and endure for aeons.’ 'No doubt, no doubt !’ he answered, by no means disconcerted. 'It would not do to contradict them. I spoke thoughtlessly.’ He fell silent and presently we turned to other matters. 'Tell me,’ I said, when for the tenth or eleventh time we had completed the antique ceremony of rising from our seats, carrying the tiny wine-cups to our lips with the fingertips of both hands, quaffing them solemnly, bowing low to low to each other and resuming our seats, 'what exactly do Taoist recluses do ?’ 'Such a question !’ he roared in mock indignation. ‘Be very sure we do not.' 'Do not what ?’ For a moment I thought my understanding of his Chinese was at fault, but suddenly he laughed and said: ‘Wu-wei (non-action) is our cardinal principle. You must know that asking a Taoist what he does is like asking a Confucian how he sins !' 'I beg Your Immortality's pardon,’ I replied, joining in his laughter. 'Perhaps I should have asked what exactly it is that you do not ?' 'Much better my young friend. I like you. Chinese youths these days mostly treat us as if we were innkeepers with nothing better to occupy us than looking after travellers. I shall tell you a secret. We do as well as don't, but then, you see, it is a special Taoist kind of doing. Not to do at all would make a recluse as useless as a dead pine-tree. Do you know the meaning of the Sublime Tao ?' I nodded. 'The Sublime Tao is what we Westerners call Ultimate Reality. At least I think so. Is it not the totality of being, the beginning and end of all existence? From the Tao we come; to the Tao we go - something like that? ‘Something like that,’ he repeated. ‘You may be - forgive me – a barbarian, but you do apprehend a fragment of the meaning, which is more than can be said for those -noisy undergraduates from Tsinghua who visit these hills at weekends. Permit me to expound wu-wei. It only appears to mean “action rooted in not-ness”. What it really means is “action rooted in non-being”. And what is non-being ? It is the Great Non-Being, a name for the Sublime Tao which is the formless matrix of a myriad forms. As I interpret it, wu-wei simply means “action rooted in the Tao”. What we shun is calculated activity, which can never be spontaneous, harmonious, free !' His voice had taken on a liturgical solemnity and this lapse into a priestly role seemed to amuse him, for he smiled deprecatingly and went on more softly : ‘Activity in itself is not harmful, but it must be just an instinctive response to immediate needs. Calculation or self-interested forethought leads to demon-action. Only activity proceeding from a mind that resembles a calm, deep pool of stillness can be free from undesirable results. Therefore I rise two hours before dawn and sit in meditation until noon, cultivating perfect inner stillness. When no thought moves, I feel the pulsing of the Tao. Then I am one with the plants whose sap pulses through their leaves, one with the stars pulsing with the glowing energy of fire. Because my thoughts are stilled, the Tao flows through me, its movement unimpeded. My words and actions are a natural, uncalculated response to present circumstances. A tree growing in the shadow of a wall does not think “in order to live, I must bend my leaves towards the sunshine and drink the water with my roots". It does those things spontaneously. Its spontaneous activity proceeding from stillness fulfils its needs.' 'Does the Tao resemble Shang-Ti, the Supreme God of the Christians ?' 'Certainly not. The Tao does not declare : "Let this or that be so" or "I shall do thus and thus". Nor is it separate from spirits, people, animals, rocks or plants. It is not just the source of being, but the being of all beings, the fullness and the nothingness of all things. Acting spontaneously, exerting no will, it acts gloriously. By according with its action, I, who am eighty-three years old, may hope to live perhaps for another thirty years - another fifty even; but not many people attain that great age in their fleshly bodies. Flesh must die, for the Tao, though changeless, is ever changing and none of its myriad creations endures long.' 'Why then do Taoists think so much in terms of immortality?' 'By personal immortality is sometimes meant relative immortality, the ability to endure a few aeons in some bodily or spiritual form. What arc aeons in comparison with the everlasting Tao ? Only the Tao as Being-Non-Being is truly immortal; the entities it forms never cease to change. Their constituents must ultimately dissolve.' 'Could a Taoist achieve even relative immortality if he were living in Peking or some other great city ?' 'It would be more difficult. What is needed to prolong life even by a few decades is perfect serenity, the result of freedom from restriction. How is that possible in a city where man-made laws and man-made custom compel us to behave like demons ?' It had grown late. Before leading me to my bedroom, he offered to give me some yogic teaching in the morning, breaking his meditation to explain its principles. Such an opportunity was too rare to be missed, even though it entailed rising hours before dawn and though autumn nights in those hills were, by my standards, bitterly cold. When he came to call me, I was asleep on the hard wooden bed, wrapped in a cocoon of wadded quilts. Teeth chattering, I donned the robe he had lent me, throwing a quilt over it like a cloak. As for the Immortal, he seemed scarcely to notice the cold. Wearing nothing over his robe, which was but lightly padded, he led me to his own room, where the image of a youthful deity enthroned behind a simple altar gazed down on us. The painted eyes seemed fixed on mine with a disconcerting expression of faint surprise. Lighting incense and candles, my host signalled to me to join him in making three full prostrations. Then he stood chanting melodiously the words of a sacred text lying open on the altar. To mark the rhythm he tapped a mallet against a hollow block of wood identical with the wooden-fish drums used in Buddhist temples. When this short rite was finished, he ordered me to sit on his bed with a second quilt about my shoulders and made sure that I was comfortable. Taking up a position cross-legged on a cushion placed on the ground, he embarked on some curious breathing-exercises so that the ch'i (universal psychic vitality) would circulate freely through his body. At the beginning he made violent motions of the arms, his sleeves flapping like wings. The next stage consisted of a rotating movement made by the muscles of his abdomen; despite the cold, he lifted up his robe to reveal his stomach, which looked as if it might contain a writhing python. Presently he grew still and his breathing subsided until no sound was audible. Simultaneously all movements of his body ceased. To all appearances, I was alone with a corpse sitting upright on the floor. How long this endured, I do not know. Barely able to keep awake, I saw the room grow light, and presently noticed that his eyes, long shut, were open and fixed on me. 'So you see, my young friend, how it is done. The preliminary exercises were designed to induce circulation of the ch'i. Later, I grew calm and my breathing became imperceptible even to myself. Meanwhile, my consciousness was directed to my nostrils, to promote awareness of the rhythm of my breathing. Next I concentrated on the Mysterious Gate of the Square Inch, which lies midway between the eyes; there it normally stays unwaveringly until noon.' 'What do you feel at such times?' 'I have no feeling. Though bliss arises, it is not my bliss, but an attribute of the Tao shining through that ghost, my body.' 'And then?' 'What else ? Go now to have your breakfast. I shall re-enter absorption in the Tao and so remain until midday. If you are obliged to leave earlier, pray excuse my not seeing you off, for, when you come to think of it, I shall not be here.’ Dismissing me with a wave, he resumed his meditation' When the child came in to serve my breakfast of millet-porridge and pickled bean-curd, I was still doubtful whether it was a boy or a girl. In answer to my question, came a high-pitched giggle. 'A boy, of course. Can't you see ? Grandfather will laugh when I tell him.' 'So you are grandson to the Immortal of the Limpid Pool ! You must be proud.' 'Yes, yes. I'm the lucky one of the family. All my brothers and sisters go to school to learn nonsense, but Grandfather keeps me beside him to learn real things. I'm going to be an Immortal with a body of pure white weightless jade. I shall be able to fly like a bird - no, an airplane, all over the world.' 'Did your grandfather tell you that ?' 'Oh, no. Everyone says so, though. Grandfather just smiles when I ask him. He knows it's true, but he's afraid of my being proud, you know. Still, I'm a Taoist, so I'll never be proud. Pride's just silly. I shall love being able to fly, but then anyone could do the same if he had Grandfather to teach him - even a girl, I should think.' 'What do you know about the Tao ?' I asked with deep interest. 'The Tao ? Oh, the Tao is big, big, big.' He spread out his arms to show me. 'Everything you see or hear or touch has the Tao. It's everywhere - in me, in you. No, that's wrong. Grandfather says it is me and you. I can fly from here to the Dipper Star, but not get away from the Tao. Do you know what Grandfather said yesterday ?' 'What was that ?' 'Someone rode up here, you see, and his horse left its yellow droppings outside our gate. Grandfather was pleased when I asked if those droppings were the Tao. He called them beautiful. I said, "Grandfather, they stink," and he said, "Yes, Little Five, they stink of Tao." I was shocked, you know, but Grandfather says if I keep my nose clean, everything will smell as sweetly as flowers.' I grinned.'Why do you laugh at me ?' he asked indignantly. 'If Grandfather says so, it must be true. Perhaps your nose needs cleaning, too.' 'I’m sure it does, Little Five. If your grandfather became my teacher, I'd learn how to make it clean once and for all.' I left soon after breakfast, climbing further into the hills so as to reach a large Buddhist temple which was the real object of my journey. The sun-dappled ground was carpeted with leaves and the birds were chorusing Taoistic approval. Following the narrow pathway, I reflected on what I had learnt, already wondering whether certain aspects of Taoism could be woven into a non-Taoist's way of living, and very curious about the whole subject. * Visits to other Taoists followed; the more I came into contact with Taoist recluses, the more I found their beliefs to be an extraordinary mixture of lofty wisdom and what struck me then as laughable or even puerile fantasies. This is well illustrated by my meeting on Mount Nan Yeo with a certain Pien Tao-shih, and so I shall relate the story in some detail. Nan Yeo, most southerly of Taoism's Five Sacred Peaks, is in Hunan province. Monasteries and the cells of anchorites cling to its precipitous slopes in profusion; buildings on the upper slopes are, as often as not, veiled by mist and clouds or, as some would say, by the breath of dragons. While making for a celebrated temple about halfway to the summit, I lost my way; a thick white mist descended, causing me to take a wrong turn and follow an undulating path curving round to the cold north face of the mountain where habitations were sparse. Unlike the route I had diverged from, it led past no shrines or buildings, but was solitary and wild. Presently the mist deepened and I wondered uneasily whether I should find shelter for the night. Stories of bandits, wild beasts and demons came flooding into my mind, so that I was overjoyed to find that the path stopped short before a low grey wall. There was a moon-gate with panels of faded scarlet lacquer beneath an oblong board bearing in gold calligraphy the legend: ‘Yun Hai Tung (Grotto of the Sea of Clouds)'. I was just in time. One of the gate's two leaves stood slightly ajar, but already a Taoist greybeard was preparing to bolt it for the night. 'Ho there, Distinguished Immortal,' I panted. I was hoping to find shelter.' He pushed open the gate, and, peering at me curiously through the wisps of cloud, hurried forward to make me welcome with elaborate courtesy. Raising and lowering his clasped hands effusively, he addressed me in archaic manner. 'Welcome, sir. Welcome to such poor comforts as our humble dwelling can offer. Night is upon us. If you will deign to accept frugal meals of coarse vegetables and cold spring water, we shall endeavour to make your visit bearable for as long as you care to honour us with your illustrious company.' 'No, no, this humble person dare not put you to such trouble,' I answered politely, but a chilly rain was falling and I hurried towards the ancient wooden gates. Stepping over a high sill, I entered a courtyard with rows of one-storey dwellings to left and right and a medium-sized shrine-hall opposite the gate. The greybeard shouted to make my presence known and an elderly man hurried out of a doorway to receive me. Dressed in a simple robe of blue cloth, he wore a most peculiar hat, tall and rectangular, which hid his topknot completely. Despite his years, he possessed a certain youthful grace of movement and eyes of extraordinary brilliance. To my relief, he did not keep me standing in the icy rain exchanging compliments, but seized my hand and pulled me under the broad eaves, calling for someone to attend to the 'distinguished guest'. Later I discovered he was the Abbot. Meanwhile a couple of young boys, also in Taoist garb, came running out to lead me to a guest room. The hospitality of that hermitage, though less than luxurious, was heart-warming. My room, which adjoined the shrine-hall, was small, but it was furnished with heavy old wooden pieces, including a great bed boxed in on three sides and curtained on the fourth. I noticed a couple of wall-scrolls, one displaying fine calligraphy in the ancient seal-style, the other depicting an elderly sage apparently feeling quite at home, though seated on a cloud-girt rock. On the table near my bed stood a porcelain vase containing a few branches of some sort of fruit-blossom. One of the boys brought me a copper hand-basin of pleasantly hot water. Bowing low, he urged me to wash quickly, hinting that delay would mean keeping everybody from their dinner. As soon as I entered the refectory, eight or nine recluses converged upon the round table, insisting that I take the seat of honour facing the doorway; however, in view of my youth, etiquette required that I accept it only after making a great fuss, and so at last the Abbot seized my arm and literally forced me to sit where bidden. The food consisted of some five or six dishes; as they had certainly had no time to prepare anything special for an unexpected guest, it was clear that these recluses did themselves fairly well. Rice was not brought in until the close of the meal, as the serving lads kept refilling our wine cups from heated pewter containers, and it was a rule not to serve rice until all had finished drinking. From what I remember, there was little difference in the appearance of my hosts, except as regards age. All wore the traditional Taoist habit, but there was a pleasing variety of colour, and the Abbot, who had changed his strange hat for another with a hole at the crown) now displayed a hair-peg of heavy white jade. We drank a fair amount of the darkly yellow wine, but it was so mild that I felt no effect beyond a comforting mellowness. The food consisted largely of vegetables, but there were slivers of meat which could not have been the case in a Buddhist monastery, and the pumpkin soup, served in the vegetable's thick green rind, contained the flesh and bones of a whole chicken. Following the usual custom, my hosts kept apologizing for what they described as the execrable food and each time it was up to me to find new ways of declaring that it was a veritable banquet. It would have been bad manners to ask erudite questions at table; even so, the level of conversation revealed that these were not innkeeper-type recluses of a kind sometimes found in more accessible monasteries, but men well-versed in Taoist literary works. Indeed, my coming upon that little hermitage proved a great piece of luck. By the end of the meal I had decided to stay on for several days so as to learn more about the Tao – the Mysterious Womb of the Myriad Objects. It turned out that the Abbot was a serene but rather taciturn man; however, when I sought him out the following morning, he kindly sent for a relatively young colleague called Pien Tao-shih, whom he ordered to remain entirely at my disposal for the duration of my stay. My new mentor's cell was furnished with little more than the barest necessities, but I shall never forget it. To relieve the room's austerity, he had laid out a few treasures on the top of the bookcase, including a piece of stone shaped like one of those fantastic mountains in Chinese landscape paintings; this rested on a finely carved blackwood stand. There was also a small bronze ox fashioned of creamy jade, but what held my eye was the strangest kind of picture I had ever seen. Mounted elaborately on a strip of fine grey silk and brocaded rollers, it consisted of a vertical panel of off-white paper, completely blank. Watching my expression, Pien Tao-shih said smiling : 'No, it is complete. The best of paintings hanging from one’s wall becomes so familiar that one doesn't notice it for days on end and its beauty seems to wane. On this picture, I imagine whatever scene I choose. Today it happens to be a pine-shrouded waterfall; tomorrow I think I shall decide on a tortoise or a crane. On your last day here, there will be a portrait of you riding away on - what is it to be, a horse or a camel ?' 'An elephant !' I cried. 'Magnificent ! A snow-white elephant with pink eyes and a pale-grey tail. You will be wearing a purple robe with an exceedingly wide black hat and carrying a paper parasol.' ‘Thank you. I am eager to receive some teaching about the Tao. Before we get down to it, I wonder if you would care to show me the sights of your distinguished hermitage ?' He led me through the shrine-hall, an oblong building running the whole width of the courtyard. Grasses were sprouting from cracks between the .green tiles on its heavy upward-curving roof, which was supported on faded red pillars of wood. Three of the walls were of dark-grey brick: the fourth, which faced the courtyard, was composed of a long row of wooden doors, their upper halves latticed with translucent rice-paper. As only one of the doors stood open, the interior was gloomy. The three statues and their altars had a shabby look. In the centre was an effigy of Hsi Wang Mu (Royal Mother Residing in the Western Heaven), her gilded flesh shrouded in robes bedecked with seed-pearls. To her right was an effigy of Lu Tung-pin, a Taoist Immortal regarded as the hermitage's patron deity. His painted face, lightly bearded, looked calm and benign, unlike the fierce red face of Kwan-Ti, the deified warrior, enthroned on the left. Pien Tao-shih bowed perfunctorily to the effigy of Lu Tung-pin and we walked through a small back-door that led straight into the grotto. Here, too, it was gloomy. The water in a pool at our feet looked almost black. On the farther side were some rock-formations with niches containing demonic figures of mud-filled plaster in various stages of decay. Altogether the effect was dreary; yet, for a reason that escaped me, the grotto's atmosphere inspired a notable feeling of serenity. 'Is that surprising ?' inquired Pien Tao-shih. 'This is our meditation cave and has been so for centuries. Who knows how many gifted sages - Immortals even - have given it something of their peace ?’ Feeling chilly, we soon returned to his cell and one of the boys brought in a brazier of glowing charcoal complete with tripod and kettle. Pien served tea from a very plain but quite attractive old teapot which was never washed, so that its porous interior, encrusted with the deposits of many thousand brewings, gave even quite ordinary tea-leaves an exquisite flavour. When we were settled comfortably with our tea-cups, he talked and talked with a kind of gentle enthusiasm. Of the many things we discussed on that occasion and during the rest of my stay, I particularly remember the story of his life, which had already embraced many aspects of Taoism. His father, though deeply immersed in Taoist learning, had been strictly a Tao-chia, an upholder of Lao-tzu’s philosophy, who avoided all commerce with invisible beings, since to approach gods would be presumptuous and to approach demons, dangerous. Young Pien, however, had become intoxicated by the contents of the library in his ancestral home, which contained hundreds of treatises on magic, alchemy, exorcism and similar pursuits. At the age of fourteen, he had run away from home and implored the first man he met wearing Taoist robes to accept him as a pupil-servant. Unfortunately his new master had turned out to be a married man living at home with two wives and a brood of children, whom he supported in luxury by operating a shrine dedicated to an Ever-Rewarding Sky Dragon situated in the heart of the city. There he practised magic, divination and the concoction of medicinal potions for his clientele. 'The man was a charlatan?' Pien Tao-shih reflected. 'That could be so. In some ways undoubtedly, yet not altogether. He had made himself truly invulnerable to steel and poison. A charlatan could not do that. Also his charms and predictions worked when he really took pains with them for his wealthier clients. I disliked him only because he was unprincipled in perverting sacred knowledge for commercial gain.' Saving up his wages, young Pien had one day slipped away and travelled up the Yangtze River to one of the great temples built close to its banks. For a while he had been content there, living in a community of over a hundred recluses, some of whom were monks whereas others were married and went home to their families for a few months each year. The monastery had departments where esoteric studies were conducted - a system of medicine combining herbal remedies with magic charms, alchemy, the evocation and casting out of demons; various kinds of divination including the use of spirit-possessed human oracles and a very small department of chess where a game with three hundred and sixty pieces was taught. Some of his colleagues specialized in attaining psychic powers, but Pien was not very informative about this. 'It sounds a wonderful place,' I remarked. 'What persuaded you to leave it ?’ 'He looked surprised. 'You can see such things in most big monasteries, I suppose ; though, for an outsider, it might be different. Sincere followers of the Way are not fond of display and false ones soon cease to be impressive. I left because none of those things is important. Most of my colleagues were frittering away their time on the pursuit of trifles, don't you think ?' One day luck had come his way. A visiting recluse from his present hermitage had described his community as a congenial little band dedicated to the uninterrupted practice of Taoist yoga and meditation aimed at achieving healthy and serene longevity that would culminate in nothing less than immortality. Living on an unfrequented part of the mountain, they were visited by enough travellers and pilgrims to contribute to their support without constituting a continual distraction. 'And so I followed him here,' Pien concluded. 'It is a perfect life, you see. Living without women is difficult at my age; living with them is even worse. So some of us have reached a compromise, going off to Hengyang city for two or three months a year, but otherwise living as recluses and pursuing worth-while goals.' 'Isn't it expensive? You say you don't have many visitors.' 'Oh, you are wrong. On the Festival of Hsi Wang Mu, pilgrims come in their hundreds. It is true their donations are small, but then most of us have private incomes. At first I did some clerical work for the Abbot in return for my board and lodging, but presently my father died and I inherited a portion of his property with which I bought a permanent place in the community that leaves me free of such duties.' 'Can you summarize the beliefs, the philosophy of this community ? I mean, what is the theoretical basis of your yogic practice ?' 'Naturally we revere the teachings of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, ordering our lives accordingly. As you know, Lao-tzu’s Tao Ti Ching is the foundation of all. It teaches us to submit ourselves to nature's promptings, once we have learnt to distinguish them instinctively from self-will. And from Chuang-tzu I have learnt how to deal with needs as they arise and leave all else alone, quietly according with the Tao, whose spotless, undifferentiated unity suffuses all. The key to inner serenity lies in three words: x"Make no distinctions."' Pien Tao-shih tried his best to instruct me in the essentials of the higher Taoist philosophy, hoping to make it clear that the Tao, besides being the matrix, the plenum of the myriad phenomena, is also the Way in the sense of a path. Whether because my knowledge of Chinese was inadequate or my powers of perception too poor, I could scarcely follow him. While dealing with such subjects, he struck me as an unusually erudite scholar; yet when the conversation turned to his conception of immortality he seemed to descend to an altogether different plane. There were moments when I could barely hold back from affronting him with laughter ! 'Immortality', he announced forthrightly, ‘has nothing in common with Buddhist notions of reincarnation, although many Taoists do confuse them. It means exactly what it says - no death, at least not for many aeons. I myself fully intend to transmogrify my flesh into a shining adamantine substance, weightless yet hard as jade. That is the only sure way; for, suppose we were - like so many recluses - to aim at creating a spirit-body to inhabit after death, imagine the frantic scurryings of the ghosts of those who died in the mistaken belief of having completed that difficult task in time ! How they would rush about, seeking in vain some vehicle to save their hun and p'o (higher and lower souls) from gradual dissolution into nothingness ! How pitiful ! Whereas, by" transmogrifying my present body, I shall leave no room for error.’ Literal belief in transmogrification? In the twentieth century? I could scarcely credit my ears. To doubt the loftiness of Pien Tao-shih's intelligence was no more possible than to impugn his sincerity and dedication; but surely a ten-year-old school-boy would have sense enough to ridicule the notion of transmuting flesh and blood into a physical substance able to exist for aeons ! Was it possible that poor Pien had such unswerving faith in some tattered old books and deluded teachers as to accept at its face- value this incredible interpretation of whatever the sages had really meant by immortality ? At any rate he continued : 'Our Abbot, the Immortal of the Onyx Cleft, and most of the recluses here seek spiritual immortality. They practise the inner alchemy in order to fashion spirit-bodies that will be perfected before they die; whereas my own dear teacher, the Dawn Cloud Immortal, is instructing two or three of us in the secret of secrets.' Eyes shining, voice betraying reverential awe, he bent forward and whispered: 'Within another three years or so, the transmutation of our flesh will be complete !' Hastily I dropped my eyes; yet, though sensing my scorn, he met it not with anger but with pity. 'Oh, why can you not believe, you and the rest of them ? Why, why ? On what grounds ? We have sacred texts that set forth clearly the alchemy of fleshly transmutation, and everyone knows that Lu Tung-pin, the patron of this hermitage, achieved it. Then why not me - or you ?' Fortunately Pien, like all true Taoists, was incapable of being disgruntled. Gazing at me fondly, he hurried on: 'Dear friend, stay longer on this mountain and free yourself from those worldly obscurations that have, if I may say so, dulled your mind. Mount Nan Yeo is a strange and holy place. The air is impregnated with the effulgence of legions of accomplished sages who have lived among its peaks and grottoes since time began. There are times when you can sense a palpable effulgence emanating from them. By rare good fortune, you may even meet one, for they occasionally appear to travellers in the guise of mortals. Surely you have noticed something of the mountain's atmosphere ? No streams in the world are so limpid as ours, no rocks so evocative of mystery. Standing alone of an evening on these sacred pathways, you can feel the pulsing of the Tao. From our teacher, we learn secrets once known to every living being, until man by his rude busying and bustling disturbed the natural harmony. Stay here and clear your perceptions of the ugly nonsense taught in schools and cities ! Learn to see things in perspective . You will admit that a tiny seed you can barely see when held in the palm of your hand has the potentiality of becoming a great tree; is transmutation of the flesh a greater marvel ? Free your mind of useless calculated thought and I shall petition our patron, the Immortal Lu Tung-pin, to instruct you in a dream.' 'Pien Tao-shih,' I answered gravely, 'I doubt if the Immortal will bother with a barbarian from the West, but if he does deign to visit me in a dream I shall of course be highly honoured.' At this point, a serving-boy came in to call us to the midday meal. Afterwards, as we were strolling across the courtyard, I remarked: 'This morning, while speaking of many things, you mentioned alchemy. Do Taoist sages really practise the transmutation of base metal into gold ? Some say the true alchemy is something more subtle.' His smile broadened. 'So even you strangers from the West know the gold-cinnabar pill is not a drug. Wonderful !' Full of enthusiasm, he hurried me back to his cell, where he produced from among some piles of books kept in ivory-hasped boxes a ragged volume finely printed on flimsy paper. It bore the title Ts'an T'ung Ch'i, which I took to mean something like The Ts'an Agreement or perhaps The Agreement of Three. Below it, was printed the subscription True Original Text of the Taoist Immortal Wei Po-yang of the Han Dynasty, from which I calculated that the text had been in existence for close on two thousand years. Leafing through its pages, I found I could not make head or tail of its contents. 'What is it ?' I asked. 'It is written in a cryptic language. Call it a book of philosophy or of ideal polity and you will not be wrong. Call it a detailed manual of alchemy and you will not be wrong; everything is there for the mixing of the elements that produce the gold and cinnabar pill. But look at it another way and you will see that it is a case of White Tiger and Green Dragon.' My blank look seemed to disappoint him, for he said: 'Perhaps I should not tell you. After all, you know less than I thought.' Falling silent for a while, he presently announced repentantly: 'White Tiger is lead, but also semen. Green Dragon is cinnabar, but also the woman's sexual fluid.' My comical astonishment restored his good humour. Metaphorically my hair was standing on end. Nothing I had read or heard so far had prepared me for such a disclosure. In Buddhist monasteries, though none of the monks would be likely to share the attitude of those Christian clergy who see sexual joy as positively sinful and allow it only grudgingly, even to married couples, it was always taken for granted that chastity is essential for those dedicated to rapid spiritual progress. 'The lead and the cinnabar', Pien continued, 'must be properly blended. Their product is not literally a pill, as you seem to know, but a kind of tiny foetus that grows within the male (or female) recluse's body. Rightly compounded, it has miraculous properties. How old would you say I am ?' 'Rising thirty ?' 'I am forty-five, and no one knows the age of my teacher whom you have seen and probably took for a man still in his early sixties.' Pien Tao-shih did not seem capable of lying; so I was impressed. 'You see ? I have been on the Way a mere twenty years, and already -- ! The gold-cinnabar pill is the great preserver and rejuvenator of youth. Doubling man's life-span is the least of its properties. One who can find devout ladies to help him, especially if he embarks upon the task while young, can quite easily achieve transmogrification. You must know the old legend of the Royal Western Mother, how she attained the stature of a goddess at the cost of a thousand young men's lives ? Unwittingly she deprived them of their entire stock of vital energy. That, if true, was monstrous. But male recluses need not be deterred by compassion for their female partners, since a woman's supply of vital essence is inexhaustible.' All I could gather from Pien's explanation was that the sexual yoga involved conducting sexual intercourse as often as possible within the limits of special times and seasons of the year, using a technique based on carefully numbered thrusting movements and rigid abstinence from orgasms. Without permitting his own yang-fluid to leave his body, the adept must cause orgasm after orgasm in his partner, so as to absorb her yin-fluid and, by uniting the yin and yang, create a sort of cell or embryo within himself ; and there was something which had to be drawn up to the top of the head. It would have been wrong to think of Pien Tao-shih as a laughable character. He had mistaken the nature of the final goal, confusing mystical union or spiritual immortality with literal transmogrification; but I did not suppose his devout practice would necessarily prove fruitless. Of those Taoist recluses who, at a very advanced age, possessed extraordinary strength and vigour, there was no means of knowing what proportion of them, if any, had achieved this result by sexual alchemy rather than by other means. Nor can Pien Tao-shih be reasonably accused of licentiousness. Nothing, I am certain, could have been further from his mind than mere physical satisfaction. He was joyful because he believed he had found a yoga that would surely lead to the transmogrification for which he longed. Before leaving the hermitage, I plucked up courage to ask on which part of the mountain the recluses housed their female partners. Pien's eyes shone with laughter. 'No, no, there's nothing like that. The local peasants would think us devils and have the authorities imprison us all, don't you think ? I am married, you see. The Abbot sends me back into the world during certain months every year to enable me to practise night and day. My wife co-operates to the best of her ability, realizing that pious girls, happy to devote their lives to donating energy to recluses, are rare these days. I did not really understand much of this, nor did I pursue the matter until some years later. Towards the end of my visit, there occurred what seemed to me a mildly extraordinary incident. The Immortal Lu Tung-pin appeared to me in a dream as Pien Tao-shih had promised. Unfortunately, though the dream was both vivid and long, by the time I saw Pien, I could recall no more than one brief fragment. This was of a handsome lightly bearded youth, easily recognizable from the statue in the shrine- hall, greeting me with a burst of laughter. His gaiety had proved infectious. I, too, had burst out laughing. Though unable to recall what language we conversed in, I was left with a clear recollection of a few seemingly inconsequential words. 'You have come,' he said. 'Yes, yes, but how did I get here ?' 'It doesn't matter, does it? Especially as you ought not to be here at all.' Again our laughter exploded and then he added: ‘It’s simple, isn’t it ? Everything seen from here is simple ! My advice is to take the longer route.’ Before breakfast I ran to Pien Tao-shih in great excitement and asked for his interpretation, only to discover how little I remembered of the dream. Reproachfully, he strove to think out what the Immortal's advice had referred to, but in vain. The most sensational moments of my visit resulted directly from that dream. Early in the morning on the day before I left, Pien, looking at once secretive and gay, suggested a walk. The rain and mist of the last few days had cleared and a watery sunshine pierced the white clouds surrounding the peak; but his choice of route quickly dispelled any lingering supposition that the weather had anything to do with our expedition. Instead of making for one of the interesting hermitages, shrines and temples on the other faces of the mountain, he kept to a steep path overgrown by weeds and nettles, that led straight upwards. Presently we emerged on a broad ledge sheltered by rocks which really did resemble what he described as living beings emerging from the uncreate, though personally I should have called those beings monsters. With some imagination, one could see the rocks slowly writhing in strange contortions from which the heads and limbs of these monsters were imperceptibly emerging. Turning a corner, we came upon a small hollow where stood a solitary pavilion, dilapidated yet seemingly inhabited, for smoke swirled from a lean-to adjoining the main structure. 'Dear friend,' announced Pien portentously, 'you are about to behold a youth already regarded as an Immortal – Hsuan-men Hsien-jen (Fairy of the Mysterious Portal).' Among Taoists, the title rendered Fairy or Immortal may generally be taken to imply a degree of wishful thinking, and so I was quite unprepared to meet a truly extraordinary being. An elderly servant, running from the lean-to kitchen, ushered us into the pavilion which, though it comprised but one room, surprisingly contained no bed - just a heavy square table, a few chairs and many shelves of books. Facing the door was a shrine enthroning a benign deity whom I could not identify. As we entered, a youth rose gracefully from a meditation cushion before the shrine to bid us welcome with the antique courtesy to which I was growing accustomed. By the time I had finished returning his elaborate bows, half-ashamed of my untutored awkwardness. I was, as it were, caught up in a dream. The youth, whom I judged to be about eighteen, was perhaps the most beautiful human being I had ever encountered. To see him was to love him. I doubt if there was anything sensual in this strange attraction; I had no inclination to touch or embrace him, just a tangible joy in his presence and a longing to win his approbation. It was a feeling not far removed from worship. Smiling charmingly, he waved to us to be seated and, while the servant was preparing and serving a pot of very delicate green tea, we exchanged the inevitable Chinese preliminary courtesies - name, age, place of birth, profession, etc.; whereupon Pien Tao-shih, fearing that our host would be too modest to talk of his own achievements, intervened with a recital of some of the young man's austerities, which included never touching flesh or wine, never lying down but passing the nights seated upon his meditation cushion - during which he slept not more than two or three hours in an upright position - and undergoing rigorous physical yogas. Gradually the conversation drifted elsewhere, leaving me to enjoy the role of fascinated listener, and so I was able to study the youth at my leisure. His face was exceptionally pale and there were deep shadows under his eyes, but these marks of his austerities added to rather than detracted from his beauty. The more I gazed, the more I came under his spell and was dismayed by the prospect of having to part from him. Being in his company was more than a pleasure; it was a source of warmth and joy. Presently Pien observed : 'Here in the presence of the Fairy of the Mysterious Portal, does the goal of immortality seem so utterly unattainable ?' The question was embarrassing because I did not grasp the connection and, in any case, had by no means changed my mind about the folly of seeking transmogrification. The youth sat regarding me with lively interest as though eager to hear my views. Though Pien had given him no explanation, I felt sure that this strange young man fully understood my state of mind. 'Frankly, yes, Pien Tao-shih. You cannot mean that the - the Fairy of the Mysterious Portal is very ancient or has already achieved fleshly transmutation !' Pien looked disappointed, but the youth laughed delightedly. ‘No, no, dear friend from beyond the seas. I am exactly what I seem. Born in the Year of the Ox, I have still to reach my twentieth birthday. But I must not waste your time. You have come to consult the oracle.' Completely at a loss, I stared at him blankly until Pien put in quickly: 'I have not told our visitor about your powers, but it happens he has need of them.' Glancing across at me he added; 'The Fairy of the Mysterious Portal is an infallible oracle. Unlike other oracles, his attainments are so high that our patron, Lu Tung-pin, communes with him directly. Since you were so remiss as to forget your dream, I decided to bring you here, although as a rule we avoid troubling the Fairy by allowing strangers to approach him. Were his powers generally known, he would be importuned by crowds night and day.' 'Please, please do not trouble,' I said anxiously. 'I would much rather not impose myself.' The marvellously sweet smile expanded as the youth replied: 'You, a guest from a distant land, have been gracious in coming to this poor hut to afford me the pleasure of your company. Since I have no suitable gift to offer, I beg you to let me be of some service. What was the dream vouchsafed by the Immortal ?' It was as though he had read Pien's mind. The recluse now related the remembered fragment of my dream. The youth's smile faded. 'Dear friend, we cannot presume to inform the Immortal that his message has been forgotten ! Such a thing could not happen once in a thousand years. It would be best for me to say you have come to express your gratitude for his condescension. It is possible his reply will enlighten us.' So it was arranged. We took our leave immediately, promising to return after evening rice. At the appointed time, Pien and I, donning thick robes, slipped out into the cold darkness, A gibbous moon riding high among the clouds gave but little light as we clambered up the rocky pathway; thorns tore at my legs and several times I slipped, sending a shower of earth and pebbles clattering down the slope. Coming to the place of monsters, I felt glad of Pien's company; in that faint light, the rocks seemed more than ever like fearsome creatures struggling to emerge from a cold grey mass. Instead of going to the pavilion, we climbed to the rim of a kind of rock-bowl situated some distance above it. In the centre lay a broad, flat stone surmounted by what I took to be an image of a deity depicted in an attitude of meditation; but it proved to be the Fairy of the Mysterious Portal himself, sitting motionless as the rock beneath him. Suddenly spots of fire appeared and something moved in the darkness beside me. Startled, I grasped Pien's arm, but it was only the old servant. Silently he pointed to a heavy bronze tripod placed in front of his master. Clearly we were expected to pay our respects. Respects to whom ? The Fairy of the Mysterious Portal ? Or the invisible being with whom he sought communion ? It was an eerie thought. Following my friend up to the tripod, I watched him plant the incense-sticks in a mound of ash and bow to the earth three times; then he stood aside, motioning me to do the same. Thanks to my long robe, I imagined I would look reasonably dignified as I performed this ancient rite, but its skirts almost caused me to fall ignominiously on my face. Somehow I managed to do what was expected, struggling not to appear ridiculous. Afterwards, as I stood gazing at the motionless figure, a lovely serenity overwhelmed me. Not knowing what to expect, yet feeling it might well be moving, I did not regret having quitted the warmth and comparative comfort of the hermitage. When Pien took my hand and led me off behind some rocks, I felt bitterly disappointed and begged him to allow me watch whatever was going to happen; but, for some reason, my pleading inspired him to drag me still further away. Even so, we were still within earshot of the high, pure notes of a voice intoning an ancient hymn of impressive beauty. Never had I heard a voice or melody so sweet. Even the Fairy's servant) who must have been long accustomed to such lovely rites, shared our rapture. Peace and serenity shed their balm like moonlight flooding the landscape from a clear autumn sky. I had closed my eyes, the better to allow those exquisite sounds to float into my mind when, all of a sudden, I felt a pang of dread. A moment later the song was cut off amidst harsh, discordant laughter. A prolonged silence followed, during which my companions stood as though petrified. Presently a dialogue began, the youth's sweet voice alternating with the deep threatening tones of some intruder who seemed to be whipping himself into a fury. The marvellous peace had been swallowed up in an atmosphere murky with evil, and my being was invaded by an animal-like perception of danger. 'What is it ?' I whispered, wondering why we had not tried to run to the youth's assistance. Instead, Pien and the servant, shouting to me to keep close to them, began running and leaping down the mountain, away from the rock-bowl and straight towards the young man's lonely dwelling. Soon I was breathless and stumbling at every step, whereas my Taoist companions seemed able to pick their way effortlessly past even the most difficult obstacles. For one sickening moment, I thought some dangerous pursuer was close upon us; but it proved to be the youth himself, running swiftly and smoothly, as though his feet were but skimming the ground. Somehow I sensed that, though an interruption as dreadful as it was unexpected had most certainly occurred and had perhaps endangered the young man's life, he alone was untouched by panic; that, far from fleeing whatever evil threatened, he had joined us to give the feeling of comfort and protection which his presence immediately conferred. On reaching his pavilion, I made to follow him inside, but Pien was still in a state of consternation and, scarcely, sparing time for some hurried farewells, he pulled me away. Once again, we were running and slithering downward as fast as he could make me go. It was not until we were safely through the hermitage gates that he regained reasonable composure and embarked on profuse apologies, begging me not to allow one dreadful incident to spoil the happy memories of my visit. 'You see, you - that is to say all of us - might have - but, forgive me, it is worse than imprudent to speak of such matters. Please, please put this evening out of mind before you leave tomorrow.' Burning with curiosity, I begged in vain for an explanation; the harder I pressed him, the more his distress increased. Had I been able to prolong my stay, perhaps I should have received an answer in course of time. As it was, to this day I have no idea what caused our headlong flight. It would be easy to attribute it to the sudden appearance of a ruffian who posed a physical threat, but a conviction of our having been threatened by a much more terrible and impalpable evil remains vividly in my mind, though whole decades have passed since then. Besides, it is impossible to believe that fear of mere physical violence could have affected Pien as it did, to say nothing of the servant. Undoubtedly they would have rushed to aid the strange youth who inspired such love even in the hearts of newcomers. To my mind, the explanation is so fantastic as to invite ridicule; therefore I prefer to maintain a Taoistic silence. The following morning, Pien Tao-shih kept a promise made on the day of my arrival. Taking me into his cell, he pointed to the blank wall-scroll and described in great detail the painting with which he had now mentally endowed it. My white elephant had its back to him, but its head was turned as though watching him out of the corner of its eye. Its tail hung down disconsolately. I, its rider, was enveloped in a purple robe that descended to my ankles. Only the back of my head was visible beneath the wide black hat he had decided I should wear. An open fan fluttered in my hand and on its leaves were inscribed the words: ‘Thousand-league distance, friendship illimitable.' Pien Tao-shih looked sadly forlorn as, standing deferentially behind the senior recluses, he joined them in bidding me farewell. The rocky path leading down from the hermitage was now slippery and deeply puddled. Thinking fondly of the elephant, I wished it had been real. *

Hi Li . Some things 'jumped' out at me when reading your posts 1. " (female, 28) ' and 'going through big changes ' and this gem ; " How do I get back to self discipline? Do I have to get carried by the flow " THIS is the issue at 28 (astrologically ) and 'discipline ' ( and other Saturnian delights ) / going with the flow' and similar issues are being re-arranged and sorted out . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_return 2. "Is there something like uncouncious tantra?" IMO definitely ! - Now, you are going to ge all sorts of definitions , 'corrections' and 'traditional denials ' here , but I think I know what you mean , and that comes from your own associated experiences ; " Kind of like a car crash, filters blowing out like from a blast wave, motion stuff and something like being unconscious (like in a car crash) but rather the opposite, as its not getting dark but light and very comfy still, as the senses are kind of relieved. " If it isnt 'Tantra' let's say you definitely had an experience with someone that shook up your 'energetic body ' . Now, about 'unconscious' (tantra) ; IMO we have large and full lives in areas we are often not aware / conscious of , and similar interactions . Two experiences come to mind ; the first with J. - we had been good close and comfortable friends for some time , we did have sex once or twice, but that was not the focus of our relationship . Then one night , I am having an 'lucid dream' experience and J comes floating through my window , sitting in lotus and hovers over me while I am lying on my bed and well , I'll leave out the details, except that there was no actual connection between our bodies, but our 'energy fields' interacted . Sorta like this, but without the touching ' OAD ... at a distance ' ( sorry , thats a bad Daobums private joke ) Thng is, it wasn';t just a 'horny dream ' , I could tell from the energetic effects afterwards and the changes that came about on the physical plane. And we had sex before and nothing like that happened . And curiously, we never mentioned it , when we met after that we both had a wry smile, but never mentioned it , we both knew something had happened 'in the other word ' . Similar occurred another time or two, but then it faded ..... and that morphed into the second experience a while later - more conscious and deliberate as far as getting into a sexual relationship , and knowing the chemistry was good / volatile / powerful , but, I would say 'unconscious' of its results ( so maybe this is more 'ignorant tantra' than 'unconscious tantra ' ? ) Anyway, with A. it 'went off' to a crazy extent , we where rejuvenated ... shining , and not just us, other people noticed , I mean, we even got stopped in the street , more than once by people, and including once by a total stranger that wanted to know what was going on between us ... and could they have some ! It was just a touch , they sort of rubbed both our arms , some people asked for an embrace , it was all rather unusual . Energy like that can be directed and used , it doesn't deplete as its constantly being generated - 'magick stuff' . However , it turned out A was rather reckless with her energy and a bit destructive with an unbalanced streak . We started to work on that , she ended our relationship , went through a whole lot of stuff (yes, now that I think of it, she was coming out of a Saturn Return as well . Happy to say through , after a few years of perseverance and patience, ( and supporting her , her 3 kids and herself through some crazy relationships she had , and a marriage and another baby AND then the death of her husband (all in 18 months ) we are friends again and she has continued her 'course of development ' - and is doing well. - although living in another location farther away . Regarding this ; " Frankly, I cannot say for sure if the man was or is aware of any than the obvious interaction between us or if there is anything other than correlation (not sure about causality). (...) " - I think it depends on how in tune people are with their 'other life' some have not a clue 'what they get up to ' others a hint and others know , so it depends on what he is 'tuned into' ( me, I got a huge dose of Neptunian natal energy reflecting of Mercury, so I virtually live in that other world , but have been driven 'nuts' by it - a balanced mercury helps there ) . Things is , when things are understood more the other and even both , need not know whats happening , as long as 'the work is accomplished '. But for those of us with a more magical approach - we might want to move the conscious and the unconscious a bit closer together . To finish off, I might address this ; "I'm okay with developing myself, but would be horrified at the thought, that I had or would have any undue influence on someone around me. " You will have to get over that a bit , we are all in it together to an extent and cannot help but influence things around us . however there are rules and parameters , and that applies , magically, very importantly with issues such as these very ones . In a sort of obscure explanation. I will reference one of my 'stories' . ( Damn search engine here ! I was going to link to where its posted here, but the search engine hasnt worked since 2011 so I will just tack it on the end here ;