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Hi Affenbrot, of course artists have goals. I'm sure everyone has heard that goals are SMART..meaning specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and have a time component (i.e. 'in 2 months'). Of course if you dream up a goal that is not achievable or realistic, you will feel bad. But another thing you mentioned..about feeling tension..tension is necessary. We need tension. Being spiritual is not about wandering around. I think someone mentioned something about being slothful. I'm reading an interesting book about Genes right now that I should go run up and get the title. But basically this scientist is saying that our Gene expression is not so determined and can change based on our environment..meaning environmental stressors (including our mind and emotions) can bring out talents. But it's very interesting to hear general agreement between the lines that there is some kind of conflict between being spiritual or artistic and being business like. I don't see the conflict. THere are ample opportunities for personal growth and spirituality in the workplace. T

Interesting topic. I know much less on Castaneda life, but I did make up my mind. The story is made up. No doubt about that. But I don't think he did it with ill intentin at the beginning. I do recall reading a site saying how the first book was mostly written as a tongue in cheek joke. But then it had success. And this brings on problems. Because it is not easy in this world to be satisfied with your job. So he might have found himself at different point in his life with no job or dream or guide or whatever. Essentially lost. And if anything like that have happened the memory of the success that his previous books had would have been a grear source pushing him toward continuing the trend. We all need to eat, although not all of us accept to lie to eat. Think about how often have you found someone having success with a book and then writing others, just at a very lower quality. I think the only book worth something is his third book, ... to ixland. And I still suggest it specifying that is the only one worth something and that the facts are actual fiction. If you take that book and you dissect it you have 3 type of experiences. Stories of power his interaction with Don Juan, description of energetic excercises, and pieces of philosophy. The first is probably made up to make the book more interesting and explain his point, the second is not learnable through a book, and it seem that it was mostly taken by his energetic teacher (H. L. Howard Lee?), but the third is really interesting. Where does that come from? Well, do you remember that C.C. was doing a PhD thesis in his first book, right? Well the professor was: Erving Goffman (according to a friend of mine who used Castaneda stuff for some time, before deciding it was pseudoculture and not culture). Now Goffman book titles are: The presentation of self in everyday life; Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience; Strategic Interaction, and others Can you see how they might contain the philosophy that Castaneda was presenting. I have tried to look at those books, but they seem to be REALLY hard to understand. And it is not a matter that it is academic and I am not use to academic, because I work at the uni. It is that 'anthropological academy' is generally written in a very obscure way. Often to obfuscate the fact that some of the things said are quite obvious. And then the whole field followed the trend. So I am sure some (most?) of the meat is there. Just unavailable for most people. Well Castaneda has been able to make some parts of it available so much that other teachers do refer to it. I think this is good, and probably it was part of his ming. But I would love to know more about the origins of his philosophy and where to get that.

I concur,youve summed up both drugs & Watts just fine.Im actually pretty much in awe of Watts & his life,especially considering the personal history & social environment he had to deal with.I just think it was a genuine tragedy that he couldnt deal with the selfhate that drove his alchoholism.Hed got as far as being able to admit it, "I dont like myself when Im sober",but couldnt address it.Everyone demanded that he be this flawless guru,& supporting his family came to depend on that role,He must have been very isolated Its quite saddening,the way we can enthusiastically dehumanise someone by putting them on a pedestal.Still,he was a crucial catalyst,a remarkable trailblazer,and I cant say the same for myself Regards,Cloud. I think I should apologise for my pedantic obsessions here Cam I certainly seem to have got off topic I did have a dream enlightenment about 5 years ago,but unlike you,I wasnt really able to bring it into the waking state & its bugged me ever since So Ill just stew in my own envy for a while longer Regards,Cloud.

written by T. Luis Cox (posted with permission) Canto Thirteen: A Consort's Arrival Wherein Yeshe Tsogyal first encounters Padmasambhava, the glorious Lotus-Born One So vast, how phenomena stretched out before him, centerless, his own form occupying the radiance of space like a music taking shape, a tongueless bell- he'd become what he'd always been, the humming clarion of atoms breaking into fire, an unborn appearance, a mist of ice and light veiling the Himalayas. He took in her long shadow through eyes the width of space itself, its undulation up snow an avalanche frosting his eyebrows. His khatvanga, tipped with icicles, glowed with a forge's iron, each of its three prongs sporting a dismembered head, one freshly severed, another desiccated, rotting, the last a bleaching skull. The shadow of a woman fell across snow in a lingering sunlight, a cold made of iron. It had a mountain's countenance, how it obliterated the moment between her stride and her arrival, a frost- bitten girl turning blue in a Himalayan gale, warming in the heat of a khatvanga drenched in steam and blood. 'Are you he?' she asked, remembering the long road behind her, touching and bowing her forehead to his feet burning away the snow. 'I'm the queen of Tibet Trisong Desutsen saw fit to offer to you, great Master. Will you have me?' Padmasambhava's lungs filled with a mountain's flanking gust, for a moment his legs draping over a Hell realm's battlefields, where hell-beings not quite human yet with legs and arms and faces pitched with a rage of murderers and tyrants, swung axes and blades, spinning and hurling themselves, a blackening foam of lava underfoot, a dream of appendages scattered across a horizon's infinite event Yeshe Tsogyal lifted her head from the shale of a mountainside and saw for the first time the irises of eyes that boiled with suns, a face that fell away into caverns and peaks as though there were no sky, no earth, no night, no grieving, no happiness, no day to measure with sand. Her body sang with a dakini's luminescence, in each grain of soil under her feet the very fire of her heart, an eddying maelstrom opening up under her - and she fell! fell until she caught against what seemed to be branches, thorns tearing at her until her clothes were rags, until she was naked and sprawled across a volcanic landscape. She was there, among them, in Hell, its sky gleaming starlessly, as though a sun about to explode filled its diameter, its light searing into her eyes with a diamond's perfect hardness, burning up and melting away the many limbs and torsos and skull-fragments of those condemned for kalpas heaped upon kalpas to this groundless furnace, this realm made by anger. She couldn't stand. She lay in a crumpled fetus, the taste of carbon staunching her lips and tongue, her knees sharp against her rib-cage, her nerves like phurbas into her heart's veins at the stench of an atmosphere made oxygenless, fetid by the blood sizzling in every outcropping and molten depression, alive with an awareness of pain so acute it defied sentience, reason, life. Even blood suffered here. Even what raised itself up vanished into fire's edge. 'Revive, revive, revive!" resounded a voice overhead, and suddenly Yeshe Tsogyal found herself upright, transfigured, as though she'd been given a new form, and all around her lumbered ten-feet high hell-beings, their necks and arms corded with blue veins pulsing in a network stemming from their hearts, each beat a curdling tympanic pealing of ten thousand drums so large any other world would have been dwarfed by their echoing alone, a percussion of tissue contracting, expanding, the ground lurching with their reverberations. They stood momentarily still, taking in their sentiences. Yeshe Tsogyal looked off across a field rolling away, no more than ten feet between each of them in a mosaic of skin swimming with fire, hairless, rippling; she grew bright, incandescent, where they began to wield their blades against each other, blood fountaining, in every direction; and the screaming, the boundless pain, more sharp than any suffering throughout all six realms, filled her ears with an agony that broke down sentience itself, had her grasping where there was no air. Arms, legs, fingers, hands writhed with a life of their own, again melting away, again taking shape around her in multitudes, again a war overtaking all thought. She stood there for a hundred million kalpas, all in the instant of her first glance into the motes of Padmasambhava's eyes, where she saw herself rising again to her feet to meet his immutable gaze. * And what a height it was. The roof of the world fell far below, the slight ridges of mountain ranges swelling along the skin of the earth like an old warrior's scars, while her feet sank into lava's intemperate corridors, a hungry ghost's ashen landscape, an animal's suffocating den. Her breath blew across continents, calming the oceans. Her eyes were space itself, the breadth of appearance in each atom's fluctuating retina, dissipating nexus. Matter melted in her mind like ice, her cloud-lungs growing heavy with moisture, flocks of geese and duck migrating across her sternum-horizon, a blizzard mounting its wings from the rooftop of the world. She felt for her face and her hands disappeared into the storm beginning to whip snow around them, the shapes of snow lions emerging out of drifts, a wind's voice containing the register of all mantra, a lattice of dorjes woven together by fire in a canopy over their heads, a wide-brimmed parasol, ornate with lotus blossoms and dharma-wheels, spanning the gulf between mountain ridges. Night was falling when Padmasambhava opened his cloak and walked out onto a plateau overlooking Tibet, taking from behind its folds a golden phurba enclosing them in a sphere of light, uttering in a voice made of talons and iron forges, "Om Vajra Kili Kilaya Sarva Bignan Bam Hung, Phet!" He flung the phurba up in the air, where it broke into lightening, and there Vajrakilaya, a blue, three-headed, six-armed, in a mandala of fire, careened and stamped, a light-body dancing in a blizzard's spiraling snow, his roar melting the frost along Yeshe Tsogyal's hem. He turned to her, glowering. His blue cheeks puffed out and a wind swept up a mountainside, nearly throwing, her to her knees, and he rose up like a mountain's precipice, rolling into his lowest pair of hands a phurba cut from ice, holding aloft a clutch of fire, a scepter, a pair of dorjes, a garuda arcing overhead in a mandala to seal air to stone. Padmasambhava held Vajrakilaya in his palm. His forehead grew smooth with the fire of a wrathful deity's vanishing descent into Yeshe Tsogyal's crown. * When the air had grown calm again, and the sun had begun its ascent up a ladder of stars shining with snow, refracting in each flake a source's vagrant singularity, Padmasambhava smiled. Here was the vessel he'd been waiting for, a stainless ivory, a milk's conjugal mingling with its container as it was about to be poured from one pitcher to another, a sunlight grown in liqid in its ripening into amrita, a sun resting on the meniscus of a horizon like an egg waiting to crack and fill all sentient beings with an endless expanse. She fell to one knee, clasping her hands at her heart. 'I am a simple girl from Kharchen, whose only wish is to abide in you, O great Guru! I offer you the coure of my body, speech and mind, until all beings have passed from all the realms into your groundless Light!' Padmasambhava looked out over Tibet, a conch held to his lips with the slenderest of gravitas, the stem of a lotus trailing through its coiling spirals, petals emerging out of its mouth into morning light suffused with Om Ah Hung, thickets of orchids and kusha grass, galaxies in thistle seed securing the breath of the wind that blew and blew a pure note, a sun's deliverance.

Trunk, I'm sorry I wasn't trying to say you were wrong. I was just trying to say to Cameron that he is right too. I can only talk for my own path here, I don't and can't understand anyone else's path, so please forgive any mistakes. My path is very simple, I have two meditations which I do everyday, then I do tai chi chuan. So for me the article makes no difference, it will change nothing for me. I will still do my two meditations everyday, and I will still do tai chi chuan everyday. If I were doing many meditations as with healing tao practitioners then an article like this may encourage me to tune the time I was spending doing one meditation, or maybe I would make some other sort of changes. I am not walking that path, and do not understand it. I gave it up because it didn't work for me. That isn't to say it is wrong, I just can't handle it... I remember a time when I loved to read articles like that, but now I can't... For me simple practice that I don't even have to think about is what it is about. I have found with nothing in my head (but awareness?), knowledge presents itself, I don't go anywhere for it, and I have the benefit of having a teacher who if there is anything that I must know, he will just give it to me at the right time. Sometimes in meditation a question will arise, then either be answered or dissolve and I will know it is unimportant. People practice dream yoga, sexual practice, this that... I practice two seated meditations, and the sexual practice has come on its own, and I am starting to regularly have strange experiences waking up in dreams, or waking up in my body and finding I can't move, I've had an experience of falling into my body from sleep, but these things are all just side effects of the path I've been walking. I have found the only compromise I've had to make is to give myself up, and let the dao live me. But I haven't fully realised that, in fact my realisation of it is extremely shallow. To me the more simple the realisation the more truth it has for me. Please don't assume from any of this that I am far down the path, because I am not. I'm experiencing a few beginning stage things, and my teacher's realisation is so far beyond me I cannot comprehend it. The further I walk the further I realise he is ahead. Let me reemphasise that I don't understand anyone else's path. A lot of guys here seem to walk an intellectual path, and I think that can work too, it's just I've never met anyone who has realised themselves by working on details and goals, but I'm sure it is possible. My path has just been letting go of anything too technical, making the meditation my own, and letting it be, letting myself be. I won't say anything about your path, except that I don' t understand it, and I hope you forgive any lack of humility. Before I was walking my path I had a bit too much psychic sensitivity I guess, when I walked in crowds I became very uncomfortable picking up on other peoples feelings - I became shy, I could tell a lot about a person from looking at them, and I had some strange meditative experiences when I was young like feelings of movement and space in my body, strange sensations, strange tastes and feelings that have only started to present themselves again now. (My teacher has said I practiced in my last life, but he has a great sense of humour and I have no idea whether he was joking or not.) This is why I work to keep energy grounded and lower in my body, my sensitivity and vulnerability is greater than a lot of people, so I work to keep my energy down. Thinking too much would cause too many troubles. Thinking too much is part of my makeup, and something that through my meditation work has improved significantly (though I have so far to go). Allan

It's an interesting debate. Since you mentioned Ueshiba, I was fortunate enough to learn from some of his direct disciples on and off for several years(I no longer practice Aikido and switched to BJJ). From my experience, his direct disciples had a quality and presence/energy etc that was totally unique. They sometimes would tell stories about daily life with the master that went beyond what a 'normal' student that only goes a couple classes a week or whatever would do. For example, I remember Chiba Shihan once gave an interview where he talked about how one of his best teachings with O'sensei was when he would carry his luggage around Tokyo. He said O'sensei had this abilty wherever he walked, even on a busy crowded Tokyo street, the crowds would magically open up before him. It was this quality of presence that just seemed to make others either get out of his way or adjust themselves. This extra exposure is probably one of the benifits of studying with a great master. I don't know if it is so much getting the 'secret teaching' as much as just being around the guy more, seeing how he interacts in everyday life etc. Probably those other 'special' teachings just come about naturally from having a direct, personal realationship with another human being(in this case a spiritual or martial arts master etc). Actually, Pietro's teacher Bruce has just about the most amazing story of anyone you can read about it in his books how he was a strong 'external' karate champion then came into contact with O'sensei in Japan and was like " Fuck! What is that!" Then(from what he says) studied with O'sensei a couple years. When O'sensei died Bruce says none of his students had his level of chi or whatever(having studed with several of them I would say they had poweful qi but I never met O'sensei who was probably on another level) So Bruce went to China for like 10 years or something and trained with alot of top internal fighters until the amazing story of meeting Liu who only taught him because he had a dream! in any case, whether this is 100% true or not Bruce certainly was deticated and basically committed his life to finding a true master, which it sounds like he did. Maybe becoming a 'disciple' or whatever invovles having this deep desire to learn more. Or maybe it is completely unneccisary but just a fun/interesting personal karma conenctions.

Talking about being awake when asleep, we're also asleep when we're awake. In a good article on Waking Sleep (The structure and dynamics of waking sleep) Charles T. Tart cites Gurdjief's premise that we're asleep all the time. "WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE IN A STATE OF WAKING SLEEP? We can say that "Man is asleep" in the overall sense that an individual in an ordinary, culturally "normal" state of consciousness is: a) unaware or only partially aware of important objects, people and processes in his or her immediate environment. b. unaware or only partially aware of important, sometimes vital talents, processes, and events within his or her own being. If this were all there was to our initial definition of being asleep, we could more simply call it "ignorance", and straightforward efforts at education would be the remedy. Therefore we must add: c) man habitually and automatically spends an enormous amount of time in daydreams and delusory belief systems about himself and his world; that is, man walks around in a kind of waking (day)dream; d) man is strongly and emotionally attached to and defends many of his dreams and delusory belief systems; and e) man significantly distorts his perceptions of his world and his self, usually in a manner that subjectively supports his daydreams and delusory belief systems. As a consequence of being asleep in this sense, of usually being in what I have elsewhere termed consensus trance we undergo an enormous amount of suffering." So delusion has active aspect to it then?

We have such a funny connection, Max. I was sitting in a hot bath after I wrote this thinking, dammit! but there are eg. Zen masters who achieve enlightenment from the sound of a pebble hitting a bamboo shoot, that doesn't mean listening to pebbles hitting bamboo shoots will lead to enlightenment! It's a good point. Still, I go back to my "conditions vs causes" point. Perhaps emptiness practice is the most important condition, but many schools like the six Yogas of Naropa and the eight limbs of classical Yoga have many branches of conditions that support, balance and arguably accelerate emptiness practice. From my research I believe Dream Yoga can be utilized as skillful means and not merely addictive entertainment.

Dusum Khyenpa reached enlightenment WHILE doing dream yoga, not because of it. You can read more about all the training he had here: http://www.kagyu-asia.com/l_kar1.html

Fair enough, challenge accepted. I learned this from Bruce Kumar Frantzis. He is a taoist master and lineage holder. He learned (actually relearned) what he teaches from Liu Huang Ching, who was a well known figure in Bei Jing, Master, Lineage Holder and head of a Taoist Sect. He also was both a Confucianist and a Buddhist, but this is irrelevant to our present discussion. When Bruce got to know Liu, Bruce was already at an advanced level and Liu only accepted to teach him because of a dream he had that night. When they went to speak about standing Liu asked Bruce what he already knew. As Bruce described the various element he has gathered from teachers around China, Liu finally conceeded: Ok you have all the pieces, but you do realise that this is an extreemly uneducated way to learn? Yes, but did I had any choise No, but would you like to relearn everything in the correct sequence and the correct way? So Liu reteached to Bruce all the elements that compose the standing practice. Accoding to Bruce there is no one outside of China, in this moment that teaches the whole set of the 200 postures. Bruce knows them but he does not teches them either. To us the psychic channels elements were given as an en-passant information, just telling us how far did the rabbit hole go, and why asking to know the full set was not an option. the fact that your teacher did not say nothing about them does not necessarily mean that they ignore it: also Bruce did not spoke about "standing postures to open the psychic channels" for more than a decade. But he often spoke about how in Taoist meditation it is possible to connect various points in the brain, how that is extreemly dangerous as (he said) some combinations would give you 'powers' but all the others would make you mad in a way that no one could recover you. I am just repeating what's in his books. There are 30 points. This makes for about 2^(15*30) combinations. Of those maybe 10 or a 100 are ok. This makes 1 on 3*(10^133) circa. If you want to try you do it FULLY on your responsability. And no, I don't think that Bruce himself knows what combinations are feasible. I don't think I can help you much with this. You know how Chia has the ethical position of keeping nothing for himself, and teach everything? Well Bruce has the ethical position of teach pubblicly only material that is safe. Since I only took public courses I was not exposed to that info (only to the fact that it does exist). If I were exposed to that kind of info, I probably would not tell you pubblicly too, as this might have prevented me from learning more from Bruce. But, when I started standing every day I soon was standing with the hands above my heart in the classical tree position. I developed a blockage in the heart, and Frank Allen, told me to go back and stand with the hands by the side. After 6 months the blockage was totally gone, and measurement taken with that computer that measures your aura (or so it claims) gave a fully white energy for my heart. While we were learning standing we were briefly told about how by twisting the tendons around the arms it is possible to open (or was it, it helps open) the skull plates. Skulls of practitioner with skull plates not perfectly sealed have been found. Chia has one in his meditation center, too. To show all this Bruce sometimes moves his skull plates. Before he always asks for the doctors in the room to come near and then tell if they skulls are effectively moving. I have seen this 2 times, and both times the doctors said, "yes it is happening, it shouldn't but it is". I suppose this is the kind of technique you don't want to teach around. Now let's go to Xing Yi. I have a book (not here, you have to trust me on this) about one of the main master from Xing Yi. At the beginning of the century he changed the hand position in San-Ti, from extended out, to fingers pointing up. This because he said the first is better for fighting, but it disperse too much energy. Since people were now practicing San ti for health, the change made sense. Speaking about how to develop Fa Jin. Yes he showed us that position. It was at the end of the fifth day and I was cooked, and not particularly interested in that. It was a sort of tree position (oh my god, now you will assume that everything is a modification of the tree position ), but the hands were twisted. I am not going to describe the way the hands were twisted, but if we meet or you IM me I shall be happy to tell you were you can find a picture of it. The info was given as an answer to a question from an advanced student: Ralph Herber, who was hosting the event. If you contact him you could probably ask more details, as he was suggested from Bruce to actually try this out. For me it was all way above my hair. When Bruce teaches spiralling he usually takes the students one by one and assigns to each a personal position that is supposed to balance his personal imbalances or just bring the person easier to the next level of the practice. I haven't done the course (is considered not a basic one) yet, although by now I am eager to do it. But I have seen people practicing in their personal postures, and believe me, you do have a wide variety over there. I hope you realise, sir, that science is based on reproducibility and measurability. In standing this would mean having a statistical significant set of people willing to stand for about an hour a day, for many days, if not months. All this while you need personal corrections OR you need to take a group of people who already practice taoist arts and know how to stand. Those people would make the whole test fairly inconsistent as any 'unaverage' result might be attributed to their strangeness. Also when you make a double blind you need to have an equivalent body of people who are not doing the practice, but believe they are. This is not easy too, as if you take practitioners, they know how to stand. And if you take non-practitioners, and place them in a wrong standing position for 1 hour a day they would probably develop a structure too. So you would only test for the specific effect of a posture and not for the general effects of standing. Of course you could measure Bruce or other masters before and after a session of standing, and this has been done. I remember the measurement taken on Chia before and after doing the sounds. But what does this tells us? Just that this particular person had those measurements. Considering the level of control that those people have on their body even I wouldn't sign that the reason is in technique alone, unless I personally trusted that they would not alter the state of their bodies in other ways (also physical, like squeezing an organ). So we would have to stand on trust. A fairly unstable base for a scientific test, you would agree. And not significantly different from where we started. Does all this say that standing has no scientific base? Yes, indeed, for now it does. Does it say that standing will never have a scientific base? No, maybe one day we might find a way to test for all those things. And then we will know. In the meantime we have to use anedocte and instructions from people who supposedly are more knowledgeable than us in it. And to conclude, and I am speaking here as a scientist, Science does not cover the whole of reality, and never will. And I have no problem with that. Do you? Thanks, Pietro Edited to add calculation.

Those techniques, conscious dream, poly sleep, Poly relationships , are all much easier if you have no internal dialogue & if you live the life of a monk (tao monks are great in poli relationships! ) . One of the thing that came out in the blog I refered to, is that babies are naturally polyphasic. We learn night cycle later. And much of the work in taoism is about going back to when we were near the tao, like babies. So no doubt that if you are there, all those techniques are just doors that automatically open. The question remains, how much can you open thos doors... before you have reached that level. And each thing might help you to progress or hinder you.

Barry Long's Men are Evil View Barry Long writes: "No matter how much a woman loves her man and wants to give her love to him, she will not and cannot give up all her divine energies if he is not yet himself, fully integrated or aligned with love." I agree that if you don't feel truly safe with another you aren't going to fully open to him. Barry Long writes: "A woman is only ever less than her true nature because of man’s lack of love." It's not a secret that women are more heart centered then men; and if she doesn't feel fulfilled from the primary perspective which she moves from (the heart) then yes she will feel less than fully satisfied. If a man doesn't feel like a woman is accepting of his physical affections then he too will be less than his "true nature" because of a woman's lack of affection. If a woman really does accept a man's way of expressing affection, it will lead him to give her the love that she craves because he will love her for accepting his gift of himself. Barry Long writes: "She went off into her dream of love to escape his sexuality." His theme that the male expression of sex is bad is tiresome. Barry Long writes: "Her babies have long been a substitute for his love." I've seen women who have stronger emotional ties with their children then their husbands and use their children to find some sense of emotional fulfillment, so he has a point there. On the other hand men seek outside sexual relationships because their wife doesn't give them what they need. Barry Long writes: "Unlike man, a real woman can exist without sexual intercourse or masturbation. She waits for love, not sex." Here we go with men are bad bad bad because they like sex, and only misaligned women like sex ... again because of that bad man who won't love her. This is a very negative view towards male sexuality and implies that only good girls want to be loved and don't want sex with those bad dirty men. jeeesh how long will it take for people to accept the whole person? You could ask "Unlike woman, a real man can exist without relating every detail of his day. He waits for a physical connection" Barry Long writes: "It is man’s world and he built it on the strength of sexual aggression. Male domination began in sex and in sex it continues unabated." Here we see his real view of male sexuality as an act of violence. On the topic of violence, just because men are physically violent, and it's easy to see it's affects, doesn't mean that women are not just as violent. If a man is hurt he lashes out physically. If a woman is hurt she tends towards withholding herself and lashing out emotionally with personal attacks when she feels she has the upper hand. It's more of a siege warfare mentality geared at personally destroying him. Just because the violence is more subtle doesn't mean it is any less vicious, and I would go so far to say it is more personally destructive than physical violence. Barry Long writes: "It means to know inside herself what is right and true and stick to that, even if it means the man leaves her. Woman is love. All she has to do is realise that, by giving up her self doubt and fear." If a woman doesn't understand the "language" of how a man primarily perceives and expresses himself she will never get what she wants because she will only accept a man that acts like a woman. So if she follows Barry's advice she will never find a man. What is needed is an understanding of how men and women give and receive love, which by Barry's description man only expresses his sexuality as animal lust and domination. This obsessive focus on one type of sexual expression is just plain wrong and denies the full expression of male sexuality. I am frustrated that Barry has bought into the lie that the only good man is a neutered man. I am also frustrated at the portrayal of men in the media, and society in general, that men are sex and alcohol obsessed idiots that couldn't get through the day without the oh so much superior woman telling him what to do. How many positive male roles are shown on TV? Not many. If that isn't destructive enough the feminists push a male model of approaching the world on women that just causes them to move away from their authentic selves. No matter how much you want you can't get away from the yin and yang energy that colors how men and women primarily experience the world. Understanding, patience, and kindness will go a lot further than trying to push people into being something they're not. Barry does have some good points but they are colored by a negative view of being a man.

I know. Damn family members and once in a lifetime ceremonial events. Reminds me of the weekend I had to skip Winn's dream practice retreat to do one of my other sisters graduation. I guess I can get the flow fit DVD atleast.

I'm thinking of putting together something for the article section about the teachings of RJ. And I'd like to brainstorm some of his contributions to our forum. Here are some of the things he taught that come to mind: retention to intensify energy mco during/after sex practices and as a formal practice to redistribute energy. three finger technique for emergencies running and exercise for processing energy mco/Mco during exercise. importance of mco in dream practice importance of direction of gaze to influence direction of energy importance of resting after x number of thrusts, or his 10 minute max stim rule. During the rest, switch to cunnilingus and do mco. Or just chill in solo, of course. That's the list that comes to mind, any other pointers anyone can remember? -Yoda

Sign up for the course, then login .. go to the common room and then the course material page. I learned just a basic overview of the astral realm and how it interfaces with the dream world ... how it's a really ideal place to cultivate, etc. I've stumbled onto the astral plane a few times and really enjoyed my experiences there and I love sleeping, so ...

I don't remember the exact quote or story from RJ, but its something like, If you're doing this much (spiritual exercise) work then how will you do it when you're dead. I don't know if our path ends w/ death or its a detour or road block. But energy/consciousness exercises, bardo, dream yoga, etc. point to things to do while ^less corporeal^? Michael

EYE POWER: DA EYES BE YANG, DA REST O DA BODY BE YIN. MAN CAN ONLY ARISE ABOVE DARKNESS N DEATH N OBLIVION BECAUSE OF DA YANG POWER O DA EYES. DA EYES BE LIKE A THIN CANDLE FLAME AT FIRST , BUT THEY HAVE DA CAPACITY TO IGNITE DA WHOLE BODY. AT NIGHT, DA VISION POWER RETTREATS INTO DA LIVER, WHERE DA DREAM ACTIVVITY TAKES PLACE. THRU DA POWER O VISION, ONE CAN ACHIEVE LUCID DREAMIN AS WELL. So that pretty much wraps up the highlights of Ron's Philosophy as recorded on taobums. Simple and sweet.

Here's another aspect of the tao of Ron: one seriously focused practice--retention and circulation. That's it. In the waking and dream state. A focused intention and a simple practice go hand in hand. To catch the vibe of RJ, these three works are helpful background: Chia's Taoist Secrets of Love, The Golden Flower, and Luk's Taoist Yoga. Chia's book goes over the basics of retention, Golden Flower discusses the principles of building the immortal fetus that Ron was way into, and Taoist Yoga discusses the microcosmic orbit in a spirit close to RJ's presentation. That is ground zero. He also had many misc. teachings--bennonite (sp?) clay for brushing the teeth, penis ballooning and enlarging principles, practices like running while visualizing your ancestors running behind you, running while mco/Mco, his chemtrail thing, his diet theory toggled around a bit but there always was something going on, trigger point theory for overcoming physical injuries, hindu squats for knee health, bridging practice, one arm pushups, boxing, lots of running. Well that's a good basic overview of the basic structure. Maybe I'll dig up some quotes here and there. One quote perhaps sums it up best: "IF YA DONT CIRCULATE THE ENERGY YOU WILL ERUPT IN A GEYSER OF CUM!!!"

Hello, Yoda, eventually I started my own version of a Tao Wiki. I called it the Tao Te Wiki. I made a page on it with your post, and I intend to add any other contribution that comes up. Personally I would add: the importance of having a straight intention. That is, you REALLY must want not to ejaculate. This links to dream practice to avoid having wet dreams. P.S. Have you got Al email address? Pietro

Language is such a tough thing. if you don't think you are already "awakened" or "enlightened" and look up to certain people as "enlightened ones" or "masters" you probably will never find that pot of gold for yourself because you've already defined it as something that someone else has but you don't. i can deal with "awakened". For a spiritual term i use "awaken in light". whatever that means. but really i detest the term "enlightened" as refernce to a certain person as "enlightened" like yoda pointed out it's a bit too much end game. so you say this person is enlightened and this one is not is such b.s. but as a single or even lasting experince i can deal with "enlightenment" as i've so many light experinces now and more and more look out to the world from the center thru a spectical of vibrant, multidimensional light. isn't a native american thing, "to awake from the dream" means to die. and be reborn... there's certainly light involved there. oh sorry to ramble on, thinking on this i often talk of this "event" or vibration as a "cosmic opening" .... expanded inner and outer awareness to express my own experinces. but really for the awakening of psi or clarvoyant, claraudiant etc. experinces all of the above terms are quite inadequate! in our light, Jeremiah :-)

It is very difficult to say as I have a very "out-of-balance"-style of living at the moment. Sometimes working during daytime, sometimes at night... currently when working at daytime I get up at about 6 or 6.30 in the morning... this time seems to be the most difficult to handle the monkey mind. It seems like still being in a dream state where it does what it wants and my "real me" just having to live with all that chatter... then at about 8 o'clock it seems to naturally calm down for several hours without me even noticing any real chatter... the rest of the day is too busy to notice... by the way. Have you ever figured out which is the "real" organ time? I mean: it is said to swap every two hours, but we in Germany for example change times 2 times each year: winter & summer and the clock gets either turned forward an hour or back again... I assume the body isn't really interested in that shift and hardly adapts to it... does it? & maybe you want to try that "I am"-meditation... I honestly feel it to have real potential in the long run... and just yesterday I started that Zhunti Mantra & it really helps to continue a mantra over and over again I feel. Just in the morning minutes getting up it is really tough to stay on track... Harry

Hey, Thanks, That avatar & all my stuff is made in Photoshop cs on a Mac G5. It took 70 hours, there are about 50 layers in a 5 gig file. The colors and design came in a series of lucid dreams transmitted from a 400+ year old white oak tree that sits only a few feet from my bed. A golden dragon also helped. It was spining in my dreams. I made it for myself at the same time i made the much simpler healing tao / kan & li logo for michael. oh and a note on the bugua for you alchemists if you notice on the healing dao one & mine that it is an inverted early heaven bugua. it originally had it in the normal way but one night michael email and said he had a dream that it is inverted and when we flipped it woow it was very powerful that way. That's what happens to the bugua (and you) after do too much kan & li so watch out! take care mike :-)

Sean. I'm being intentionally opaque. And I'm giving you a hard time, since much of what I wrote is a bit rethorical. Now I'm probably dangerously close to being a wise ass. But so is Zen. If I continue to give you a hard time now, it's because I recognize so much of my own way of looking at things in your post, it's uncanny, and I do so respectfully. There is no such thing as magic, from the perspective of practice. You come to class, tune in, dream with your eyes open, see yellow mists, take a cup of tea, go home and watch Magnum P.I(I dig Higgins), and maybe have a fight with your girlfriend. Nothing special. I just sensed i your posts a trace of dualistic thinking, and if I may try to dissect it, it boils down to a reaction to an overly instrumental, rationalistic society, where all the good stuff is replaced for "sound common sense" and a paycheck at the end of the month. I may be wrong, and if so, I apologize. There really is no separation between the mundane and the sacred. I am not trying to say there is no such thing as magic because it's bogus. The way of looking at reality as either "we're all just another brick in the game" vs "Santa Claus really exists" is bogus. Santa Claus really exists. I probably confused you even more now.... h

Hi Cameron, Did you ever think of setting up a blog where you would discuss these dream matches and possible outcomes? Have your friend pay for advertising on it and start getting other schools to do the same..that would be cool and could lead to things. Thaddeus

My dream job is making those artistic intro sequences that you see in some movies. Like all the James Bond movies have them, "Seven" had a great one that was really industrial and had like this man's hand cutting out pieces of dollar bills and making strange collages, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had one if I remember correctly, Catch Me If You Can, both of the Spiderman movies ... It's not really a "job" though is the thing, because there is not just one person who does them or even anyone known for doing them (as far as I know). I imagine they are each done by different people that are very close to each particular film that decides to have one.