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In memory all actions are equal... to me. When an experience manifests with a strong reaction, or reveals some aspect of myself, or my essential nature previously unknown, whether in the dream realms or the waking, then it has power and value in my path. Dreams are so real when I'm in them, that there are times distinguishing them as 'not real' is not possible, until I wake up. Only then do I look back and sigh and say "well, it was just a dream." However, I no longer say that to myself... for too many times, I have had experiences in dreams that revealed key aspects to my essential nature, that have brought about realizations and insights that have lasting, powerful resonant effects in my experience of true self. Does it matter where the source of an experience came from, in the potential for that experience to reveal truth? Any longer, I say no. Dream experience and Waking experience are both often equal in memory, when dreams are vivid enough and recalled with clarity. And if an experience can bring about insight and realization, then to me, it matters little to me, how solid the event was... *(particularly when waking life is proven to not be solid, or permanent ) I honor my dreaming life as I do my waking life... but I also only take that so far and don't worship either as ultimate truth, nor do either lend me a sense of absolute certainty in any way, other than to reinforce the one certainty that still remains with me... i am aware. Waking life to me, is more like a shared dream, than dreams are like individual fantasies of unreality.

I grew up in south east Asia and always heard cicadas in the rainforest so it is a very familiar sound to me. Only now I live in Europe where I’m not used to hearing it all the time! No I can’t say that I have awareness of the sound through dream and deep sleep. Is that how it is with you?

That's how it started out for me. It usually is more like "bubbles" (like from a soda can). Do you get the sense that you've always actually heard it (a sense of familiarity)? Some other people who practice tantric meditations/techniques say it is "white noise". Different minds latch on to different labels for this phenomenon. One friend says "thousands of windchimes" and so on. Do you also ever maintain "awareness" of this sound through dream and deep-sleep states?

@silent thunder Thanks for the fascinating stories! Verily you're my spirit brother from the Great Mother! The same thing happened to me -- a red-tailed hawk dropped a feather at my feet, at a very significant point in my life. It was in 1996. I still have it. I keep it in my bedroom by the window, just standing in a little cloisonne vase. For some reason, which I no longer remember, I decided it's a deflector of bad dreams, like a dream catcher. I never had a bad dream in all these years. Wish it was also as efficient for my waking life, where shit does happen, no doubt about it.

Actually you are mistaken about dream and lucidity. You must understand what is happening when you dream. The space itself on the otherside is reactive. It will create what ever you think of and it will develop intentions on it's own. This is a basic quality of space itself. Hence where our dreams come from.... You are on the otherside and don't realize it. The degree you remember, the degree you have control, and so on is directly correlated to the degree of your consciousness. To people talking shit about what I am saying. Do you really think I was taught this??? Have you heard this anywhere else??? Although the southern style is by far the most popular, because of Mr. Chia. No these are my discoveries do to my own experiments and so on. I am actually quoting Mr. Liping on his description of the three immortals. I did say I was ignorant of the system did I not? Good luck......

Ok, I went back to mind any possible questions missed before your "troll" comment. The only possible question I could find without a direct response I could find was... What exactly determines the difference you perceive between "inside" and "outside"? What exactly is it which makes you so sure the dream exists only in the mind? To which I responded as part of the broader comments based upon your quoted text with... But, that still does not give you the object seen as being the same “stuff”. Your seeing the video game object in your “reality”, is just a bunch of software programming code in the outside/objective reality. The difference is sort of like the difference between a television transmission itself and what is “seen” on the television screen. Since that response did not seem to address your question, I will try again... What exactly determines the difference you perceive between "inside" and "outside"? What exactly is it which makes you so sure the dream exists only in the mind? While we were using a video game analogy, I assume by "inside" and "outside" you mean inside and outside of mind( or what I would call universal mind). By mind, I mean both active mind stream/activity and also the mind in a quiet/non-active state. In this case "inside" would be what you call Awareness, and this is the One that emerges from the Dao. The "outside" is the primordial Dao. A dream is mind based activity, so by definition it is happening in the mind. All thinking, seeing, percieving, etc... is mind based activity in my view. A dream is simply subconscious thinking/seeing stuff.

Here is classical Daoist perspective on it from philosopher John Gray that follows the pattern of Mountain, No Mountain, Mountain. Chuang-Tzu (Zhuangzi) is obviously at the third stage.….. Chuang-Tzu is as much a sceptic as a mystic. The sharp dichotomy between appearance and reality that is central in Buddhism is absent, and so is the attempt to transcend the illusions of everyday existence. Chuang-Tzu sees human life as a dream, but he does not seek to awaken from it. In a famous passage he writes of dreaming he was a butterfly, and not knowing on awakening whether he is a human being who has dreamt of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is a human being. Unlike the Buddha, Chuang-Tzu did not seek to awaken from the dream. He dreamt of dreaming more lucidly: 'Buddhists awaken out of dreaming; ChuangTzu wakes up to dreaming.' Awakening to the truth that life is a dream need not mean turning away from it. It may mean embracing it: If 'Life is a dream' implies that no achievement is lasting, it also implies that life can be charged with the wonder of dreams, that we drift spontaneously through events that follow a logic different from that of everyday intelligence, that fears and regrets are as unreal as hopes and desires. Chuang-Tzu admits no idea of salvation. There is no self and no awakening from the dream of self. We cannot be rid of illusions. Illusion is our natural condition. Why not accept it?

As I've stated early on in this thread, I highly recommend Carlos Castaneda's books as an excellent supplementary roadmap for Taoist training. I do everything to recommend developing one's ability to dream lucidly. The benefits are inestimable. Castaneda, of course, describes very effective exercises to develop lucid dreaming--from basic to advanced. I used them in the late 70's to great effect and they were pivotal in my development of dream consciousness--especially when coupled with the Tao Tan Pai neikung that I was learning at that time. I use Castaneda's lucid dreaming exercises and teach them to this day to my students who want to expand their consciousness in that manner. I don't know what Taoists in particular or Taoist tradition you are referring to as to the one that says lucid dreaming disperses much jing. (And please cite the reference if you care to.) I have never experienced this to be the case. Whenever I did/do lucid dreaming, my sleep quality was/is not diminished one bit. In fact, I was/am almost always more rested and more empowered in every way upon rising from a lucid dream. In all seriousness, the only time a male would disperse much jing during sleep would be as result of a wet dream. And such a dream for the vast majority of adult males would not be lucid. I suppose one could engage in sexual congress with a dreamed entity while lucidly dreaming, but I can conceive of that only as ultra-ultra-rare situation--a near-impossibility--where that might occur. But even then, such a high-level tantric operation in the dream-state would not be enervating, but rather empowering. At any rate, your statement has caused me to meditate on this rare potential (the dispersion of jing while lucidly dreaming), and my experience tells me that that is not very likely to happen. In fact, I would come down on the side that holds such dispersion is almost impossible. Remember that in Castaneda's terms, and the theme pervading all his works that of a warrior hunting power. The art of dreaming, which is such a big part of the Yaqui sorcery tradition, is by all of his accounts all lucid dreaming. Thus developing luicidity and dream powers cannot be enervating in my mind--and that is also my gut feeling based on experience. Chen Hsi-I, or Chen Tuan, the sage monk and a patron saint of Huashan Taoism, to whom is attributed several great arts such is Liu He Ba Fa, the Tai Chi Ruler, and and a "sleeping yoga", was know as the "sleeping Taoist"--i.e., Chen Tuan slept in a somnabulist state where he was fully lucid doing dream operations. I know this to be true because my current mentor in all things supramundane "sleeps" in the same manner. His bodily energies seem totally at rest and there is pure calm in the room for hours on end, but his Mind is one with the Ever-Conscious and can "see" and touch anyone and everyone near or far as needed for the particular dreamwork. The beneficient energy of the dreamwork also stays and lingers on his place of rest and profoundly heals and has an enlightening effect on whoever sits or sleeps in that same place followingly--even days afterwards. Chuang Tzu's dream that he was a butterfly and then wondering if it was the butterfly dreaming that it was Chuang Tzu is simply his charming celebratory ode to lucid dreaming. Thus I don't think Chuang Tzu would disavow lucid dreaming as a Taoist practice. Thanks for your stimulating comment, Eugene. Sifu Terry

Hello bums. I've been thinking about clearing my karma with the vajrasattva mantra lately and then I had a dream sort of confirming that. So I take that as a good omen. Can anyone recommend a buddhist monastery where I can do just that? Has anyone here stayed in a monastery and have some experience to share? It seems many meditation teachers/meditators stay in monasteries at some point but I must admit I know little about this... edit: I live in Norway. I could go to Asia - but not the US.

A. K. Warder's "Indian Buddhism" has some fascinating history. Among other things, he recounts the history of the first schism. Seems there were five points of contention, and the two camps were able to agree on four of the five. The one they couldn't agree on was whether or not an arahant could be seduced by a succubus in his sleep--translation: whether or not an arahant could have a wet dream. Not as romantic as small vehicle versus great vehicle, is it. Regarding the miracles: there are six of them listed in the Pali Suttas. Things like diving through the earth as though it were water, floating through the air. The one that stands out for me is "stroking the sun and moon with the hand". Gautama's advice for developing psychic abilities was: So he abides fully conscious of what is behind and what is in front. As (he is conscious of what is) in front, so behind: as behind, so in front; as below, so above: as above, so below: as by day, so by night: as by night, so by day. Thus with wits alert, with wits unhampered, he cultivates his mind to brilliancy. (Sanyutta-Nikaya, text V 263, Pali Text Society volume 5 pg 235, ©Pali Text Society) I take a look at this practice (and Gautama's explanation of it) in The Gautamid Offers a Practice. Regarding the last line, I wrote this: “Thus with wits alert, with wits unhampered, he cultivates his mind to brilliancy”: Gautama explained that a monk “cultivates his mind to brilliancy” when the monk’s “consciousness of light is well grasped, his consciousness of daylight is well-sustained.” When consciousness leads the balance of the body to open the ability of nerves to feel, sensory awareness is heightened, and through heightened awareness the sense of location as consciousness occurs is sharpened. As to the “consciousness of light” or of “daylight”, the gland which is perhaps most responsive to daylight in the body is the pineal gland (the pineal produces melatonin), and the gland is supported by a bone in the interior of the skull (the sphenoid) that flexes and extends with the rhythm of the cranial-sacral fluid. The bases of psychic power were desire, energy, thought, and investigation (together with the co-factors of concentration and struggle), and they were to be cultivated by the use of the four-part method described in Gautama’s stanza. Whether or not there is a way to perform miracles and see the past lives or karmic fate of others, I can’t say; that there may be a way to bring about psychic experience through a “consciousness of daylight”, and possibly the occurrence of consciousness at the place where daylight most affects the endocrinology of the body, I would guess could be (although the precise nature of that phenomena may not be what it was thought to be in 500 B.C.E, as for example, the miracle of “handling and stroking the sun and moon with the hand”).

What are we really? We are biological machines; androids, if you will, and we are playing out the roles that the Creator has set for us, both in waking and in dream. God is entertaining Himself with our lives.

On a different note.. What exactly is the difference concerning OBE's, Lucid Dreaming, and Astral Projection? From my own experiences. Going out of body has always been unwillingly in a dream state. Such experiences were usually to show me something or to tell me something about my life here on earth. The back ground in the dream is different compared to a lucid dream. I am literally out of my body floating around in this space and time, compared to a lucid dream where reality seems to be highly makeshift, An example would be different buildings tend to make shift into one another as well as random people and things appearing in the dream. I have also noticed that during lucid dreams I seem to be in a mid-way state between a dream and this realities space and time. I have literally seen higher beings come into my field of focus while dreaming, as if they are stepping through the veil, so to speak. I have also had experiences where I have been in a dream like state and have noticed certain people thinking of me by seeing their picture in the dream and then recieve a phone call or text message a few minutes later, very interesting. Another difference as well is during my dreams, which are mostly ALL lucid these days thanks to constantly meditating. I have noticed that I am able to do things that are physically inconceivable in this space and time. Such as flying around, levitating, shape shifting, manifesting objects out of thin air, having sex with random people (which isn't inconceivable in this space and time, but it looks REALLY weird in the dream state), and playing with energy, which all feels very real. So I am guessing astral projection is the ability to roam in a 'spiritual body' of some sort in real time? Sort of like remote viewing and bio-location? Which I am assuming takes some time to cultivate, which some how relates to Shen? I am also assuming that such a gift isn't developed freely but usually bestowed upon the individual, unless they take the easy way out and harnesses an entity that allows one to do so freely. Sorcery. Witch craft etc. But what one thinks, they become So I wouldn't advocate such practices! But what is the difference?

I was wondering what you think or what people might have researched about this: Could the behavior of the dreamer in a dream be considered realistic, i.e. how he would act in the real world based on the current personality? And if so, what parts of the self would have to be removed in order to make this the case? I mean, I got the impression that it's a bit like when people are drunk and thus less inhibited. What exactly is missing or faded out there in a state of drunkenness? I would say that what's missing in dreams is something different, but I can't say what. Does it always seem like some higher part is missing and one acts more animalistic and impulsive in a dream? Or does it only seem that way when the dream is about unprocessed fears? Because my behavior in a dream kinda positively surprised me a bit, and another point of interest would be to hear about 'dream anomalies' that caught your attention and might give more insight into this. One dream anomaly of mine would be that in one dream at one point I was thinking about myself "Why isn't he doing xy?!" like I was watching my own actions. Another interesting dream anomaly (dunno whether helpful for this topic though) was when I had a dream that took place in the same fictional environment as a former dream did, and I seemed to remember helpful things from the first dream. Either that, or it was a kind of déjà vu in a dream.

Many people who come to this website are searching for an awakening or trying hard to become enlightened. Stories abound about who is and isn't awake and how so-and-so went from being an ordinary person to being no self at all. We love to imagine that "enlightenment" or "awakening" is some magical event that will permanently erase all our problems and leave us forever after living in a state of bliss. We love to believe in the mythology of Perfect People. If we believe that someone else is enlightened, will we then believe that anything and everything that person says is true? Are we looking for an authority figure who can give us all the right answers…or a Magical Guru who will gaze into our eyes, zap us energetically, and leave us utterly transformed…or maybe some Divine Parent figure who will love us unconditionally? What are we really looking for? And what do we imagine will happen to us or change in us so that we can finally know with confidence and certainty that we have reached the goal, that we are now enlightened? Is enlightenment a destination or an acquisition? Is it a special state of consciousness? Is it some secret knowledge about how the universe works? What is it? It's very helpful to remember that “enlightenment” and “awakening” are both words. They are sounds, vibrations, symbols that get used in many different ways. Some say enlightenment is the absence of suffering, some say it is the absence of non-functional thinking, some say it is the end of identification with the thinking mind, some say it is the death of the ego or the dissolution of the separate self, some say it is the absence of any sense of agency or the falling away of the belief that we are the author of the thoughts and actions that arise. Some say it is the realization of Oneness, others describe it as the merging of difference and unity. Some compare enlightenment to lucid dreaming in the waking state and say that it is the abiding realization that all of consciousness is a dream-like appearance, including the entire movie of waking life and the whole spiritual search and the one who is searching. Some say enlightenment or awakening is an energetic shift, some call it a felt-sense, others say it is about seeing clearly, some describe it as an understanding or an apperception, some say it is the embodiment or actualization of the truth, others insist it is always already the case and is never not here. Some imagine enlightenment to be a state of perpetual bliss, while others say it includes and transcends every state. Some insist that awakening manifests only as “positive” or saintly behavior, while others insist you can be enlightened and still be an alcoholic, a womanizer, an embezzler, someone prone to angry outbursts, or even a child molester. Some say enlightenment happens suddenly and irrevocably at a particular time on a particular day—that it is a permanent, decisive, final shift from which there is no going back. Others describe it as a gradual unfolding, like a photograph slowly appearing in the developing tray, or like getting gradually wet while walking in a mist, or like a puddle slowly evaporating or an ice cube gradually melting until nothing is left. Some say that enlightenment comes and goes, others insist that it only happens Now, some say that nothing ever happens, some say that anything that comes will go, and that enlightenment is simply the recognition of the impersonal wholeness in which the bodymind and the world and all such happenings appear, and some insist that enlightenment is the realization that there is no one to get enlightened and no such thing as enlightenment. Some distinguish between “enlightenment,” “awakening,” “liberation,” “kensho,” “satori,” “mukti,” and host of other terms, while others use all these words more or less synonymously and interchangeably. Who has it right? Who is really enlightened and how do we know? Are there “enlightened people” whose every moment is entirely free from suffering, or from delusion, or from the sense of separation and encapsulation, or from the sense of agency and authorship, or from all egoic thoughts and behaviors? Are there “unenlightened people” whose every moment is totally consumed by these delusions and sufferings? Or is this very idea of “enlightened people” and “unenlightened people” (or of solid, discrete, persisting “people” of any kind) perhaps an example of unenlightened (or deluded) thinking? Who (or what) is it, exactly, that would be enlightened or unenlightened? We talk glibly about enlightenment without really knowing what we're even talking about. We seek it without ever stopping to really examine closely what it is we think we're seeking. Could the sense that something is lacking here and now, and the notion that there is somebody who needs to be transformed, be the very illusions that awakening wakes up from? I would not say that I am enlightened, nor would I say that I am not enlightened. I don't find any solid, persisting, independent entity here to be one way or the other. Here / Now is ever-changing, ever-present, and all-inclusive. Sometimes there are clear skies and sometimes it is cloudy and overcast. Sometimes there is the movie of waking life and sometimes there is the nothingness of deep sleep. There is no owner of these various experiences – none of them are personal – all of them come and go. Even the thought-sense-idea of being a separate individual comes and goes. Boundless unicity includes both enlightenment and delusion. Enlightenment sees unicity even in diversity; delusion imagines separation. Enlightenment is the unconditional love and awareness that welcomes delusion; delusion fights delusion and is always seeking enlightenment somewhere else. Delusion imagines that enlightenment is “out there” somewhere in the future; enlightenment recognizes that enlightenment is only here and now. Enlightenment includes both the relative and the absolute—the world of apparent multiplicity and the seamless unicity that includes it all, the symbolic map-world drawn by thought and the living reality of sensing and awaring that never holds still, the undeniable sense of being a particular person and the equally undeniable sense (once it has been noticed) of being boundless awareness. Truth isn’t one-sided. Nothing is left out. Enlightenment recognizes that polarities arise together as inseparable wholes, whereas delusion imagines that one half can and should triumph over the other half. Delusion fixates dualistically on one side of these conceptual polarities and tries to ignore, eliminate or deny the other side. Enlightenment doesn't fixate anywhere or get stuck in any view. (Dogmatic nondualism, stuck in the absolute, is a form of delusion). Thinking in terms of “permanently enlightened people” just might be the biggest and most widespread delusion. Enlightenment might be described as the falling away of this entire misconception, leaving only what is always already Here / Now. And this is not a personal achievement, for it is the recognition that no such owner or author of experience actually exists. The whole subject of enlightenment is very tricky because it signifies both a shift and no shift at all (the gateless gate). When enlightenment arrives, it is realized that it was never not here. When we think that we are not enlightened, we usually imagine that enlightenment is something big and flashy—a huge experience or a permanent state of consciousness. Clearly, many shifts in perception and many different states of consciousness are possible. The sun comes out on a cloudy day, you drink a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, you make love with someone, you stand before the ocean, you sit in silence for seven days, your child dies in a car crash, you go through menopause – endless shifts and endlessly different states and experiences. Is there something that is equally present in every different experience, like the ocean in every wave? Some might say that enlightenment is the recognition of the timeless eternity Here / Now, the stateless state, the placeless place, the boundless and seamless Totality that belongs to no one—the realization that all these shifts and ever-changing experiences are the movement of One living reality, that they have no owner, that they are all equally empty of substance, solidity, permanence, inherent reality or enduring form. And importantly, this realization isn't "something" that "somebody" attains at a certain moment in time and then "has" forever after. It is the falling away NOW (not yesterday or someday or forever after) of that very illusion of "something" and "somebody" and "forever after." Any discussion of what happens "after enlightenment" is as misconceived as talking about what happens "after Now." Here / Now (this boundlessness) is equally present in the expanded and impersonal experience of spacious openness and in the contracted experience of apparently being a separate person. There is no way to avoid boundless unicity, for it is all there is, and it is always 100% present Here / Now. It is what Here / Now is. Even the denial of it is nothing other than this same unbound emptiness (Here / Now) showing up as denial. But it often seems that there is "me" trapped in delusion, in need of liberation, and it is this "divine hypnosis" (as one teacher aptly calls it) that prompts the search for enlightenment. Enlightenment is simply the recognition that the problem and the one who seems to have it are both imaginary. And even to name this recognition or call it something ("enlightenment") immediately reifies it, and is thus inherently misleading. It suggests that enlightenment is something that can be pinned down: a permanent state of consciousness, a finish-line that somebody crosses, a personal attainment--and yet, what the word truly points to is nothing of the sort. All experiences, including any experience of awakening or enlightenment, are within the dream-like appearance that I often call the movie of waking life. Within the context of this movie, relatively speaking, we can certainly say that Ramana Maharshi was an enlightened sage and that Adolph Hitler was a deluded madman. But enlightenment sees Ramana and Hitler as two notional abstractions, two sides of a single coin, different in appearance but inseparable and completely interdependent, each empty of any inherent or objective reality. Enlightenment is not about “me” getting from one side of the imaginary coin to the other side and then staying there forever. That is delusion. Enlightenment is not some kind of personal perfection, but rather, enlightenment is the absence of the one who cares about being enlightened. Enlightenment can appear gradual or sudden only in the story, where it seems (in retrospect) that there was either a shift that unfolded slowly over time or else a sudden and decisive event with a totally different before and after. But neither of these conceptual abstractions after-the-fact really captures this to which words such as “enlightenment” or “awakening” are pointing. There is no “someone” who is evaporating or disappearing or getting clearer, no "someone" who is enlightened or not enlightened – this “someone” is always only a mirage – an optical illusion produced by thoughts, sensations, memory and imagination. No separate, persisting "someone" ever really forms to be enlightened or unenlightened or to evaporate or transform. And in that realization, the shifting experiences in the movie of waking life no longer seem personally owned, and they no longer seem to mean something "about me." The search for enlightenment falls away. There is simply life as it is, the ever-changing, ever-present living reality of Here / Now. When we're no longer seeking something else, the aliveness and depth of the present moment becomes more vivid and more obvious: the sounds of rain and traffic, the rise and fall of breathing, the smell of coffee, the gratuitous beauty of a flower, the horror and sorrow of a bombing attack, the thoughts and stories that appear and disappear, the awareness beholding it all. We realize that the thought-sense-story of separation and encapsulation is only another momentary face of emptiness. No one is actually trapped in delusion, and delusion has no real substance or inherent reality. When the mirage of being a separate somebody encapsulated in a bodymind seems real, we long for a way out. But the one who seems to be trapped is always only a mirage. The manifestation will always include both light and dark, expansion and contraction – ever-changing weather. Polarities go together. In resisting and struggling to escape from suffering and delusion, we confirm the apparent reality of both the imaginary problem and the one who seems to have this problem. The popular notion that there are “permanently enlightened people” who are totally beyond all suffering and delusion only fuels the imaginary treadmill of dissatisfaction and seeking. This ever-present, ever-changing, boundlessness is not something that “I” can possess or experience or lack. Boundlessness is the ever-present openness that includes contraction, the wholeness that includes division, the oneness that includes multiplicity, the absolute that includes the relative, the seamless totality that includes the sense of being a separate person, the enlightenment that includes delusion. Without the mud, there is no lotus. There's a well-known old Zen story about the pathless path to enlightenment, otherwise known as the pathless path from Here to Here. The story says that before I took up Zen, there were mountains and valleys. And then after I began the practice of Zen, there were no mountains and no valleys. And then with enlightenment, there are mountains and valleys. So is the first stage identical to the last? You can't say yes, and you can't say no. The first “stage” is ordinary relative consciousness – the world as we think it is, a collection of separate things, including “me” who is supposedly encapsulated “in here” in this separate bodymind, looking out an external world that is “out there.” The second “stage” of no mountains and valleys is the initial awakening – the discovery that there is no actual boundary between “in here” and “out there,” that everything is one inseparable and seamless whole, that there is no “me.” This is the realization of what is the same (or equally present) in every different experience. It is the discovery of the Absolute, the ever-present, ever-changing, formlessness or emptiness or no-thing-ness or interdependent origination of everything. But this is still not enlightenment, although it is often mistaken for enlightenment, and many people get "stuck in the absolute" for awhile along the way. But in clinging to the absolute, there is still a subtle dualism. With true enlightenment, there are mountains and valleys again. Good and evil are aspects of one inseparable whole and we can discern a difference between them. There is only the timeless, ever-present Now and there is history, evolution, and planning for the future. I am boundless awareness and I am Joan. Both sides of the coin are true. Zen masters have called this "leaping clear of the many and the One" or “the merging of difference and unity.” It is clearly seen that mountains and valleys are “not one, not two.” There is no need to grasp life with a concept, and in fact, it is realized that life is ungraspable. We can use concepts, but we don't mistake them for the reality they describe. There is no longer a need to push away the experience of being Joan or to make sure that “I” am continually identified as “impersonal awareness” and not as the character in the story. There is no separate “I” to be identified as either one, for the True “I” is everything and no-thing. There is no longer an effort to attain or maintain any particular experiential state of consciousness, and the weather is no longer given meaning or taken personally. These "stages" are only pointers, of course, to a "journey" that can't really be divided up, and that doesn't actually occur in time. These "stages" don't necessarily happen in a linear way, and usually, there is a circling or spiraling around between them. So take the story lightly. Many teachers are in love with the idea that they are enlightened, and they love to tell the story of their "enlightenment event" again and again. We hear about their walk across the park or the magical moment in their kitchen or at a bus stop when their self dropped away forever. Enlightenment is portrayed as a personal achievement, a permanent state. But any such experience is only a moment in a dream. Yes, in the dream-like movie of waking life, some characters do report sudden and dramatic transformations, and yes, some characters are undeniably clearer and freer of delusion than most, and in a conventional sense, it is functionally useful to recognize and discern such differences. If we're looking for a teacher, not everyone is equally qualified. But at a deeper level, if we look more closely, we will find that there is no one to be permanently enlightened or permanently deluded. There is no one who is a caterpillar in one moment and then a butterfly in the next. There is no caterpillar and no butterfly. There is only unbroken unicity from which no-thing stands apart. A true teacher will not be endlessly tooting their own horn and encouraging you to idolize or idealize them, but rather, they will be deflecting all your attempts to make them special and put them up on pedestals. A true teacher is not afraid to acknowledge their humanness, their fallibility, and their imperfections. A true teacher is always still a student, open to new discoveries. A true teacher pulls every rug you try to stand on out from under you -- they don't keep handing you more and more rugs. Enlightenment has no beginning and no ending. It is not a state you enter or leave. There is no finish line in waking up. It is always Now. And there is no end to this unfolding discovery and Self-realization. Even after the thought-sense of separation and individual agency has been seen through, it can (and probably will) reappear. Even after the rope is clearly seen to be a rope and not a snake, it can—in another moment—be mistaken again for a snake, and when that happens, the body responds automatically with fear, contraction and recoil. The snake is never real, but it can momentarily seem real. Does there come a time when this mistake has been so fully exposed that it can never again occur in any way, ever? For whom does this question and this concern arise? Is there someone who makes this mistake and who longs to stop being a fool? Isn’t it only from the perspective of the mirage-like "me" that it seems to matter whether or not "I" mistake a rope for a snake? We don't know what the next moment may bring. In any given moment, the mirage of separation may occur. But what can perhaps fall away is the need for this never to happen again. If boundlessness is momentarily forgotten and overlaid with a sense of “me” as a separate somebody, who cares? Who is not enlightened? Find this one! There are certainly many characters in the movie of waking life who experience or manifest more or less stormy weather – more or less anger, more or less depression or anxiety, more or less compulsive or addictive behavior, more or less upset. Such differences may have little to do with enlightenment and everything to do with genetics, neurochemistry, brain function, hormone levels, past trauma, sleep apnea and a host of yet undiscovered variables that go into the infinite conditioning of nature and nurture. Some bodyminds have stormier weather just as some cities have stormier weather. It's not personal. When I look for where this person called “Joan Tollifson” begins and ends, I find no beginning and no ending. When I try to grasp or pin down this “person,” I find only continuous change. So what exactly is this supposed entity who would be permanently enlightened or unenlightened? Sometimes teachers speak as boundless unicity, as the One Self, as the impersonal presence to which we all refer when we say "I Am," and sometimes teachers speak as apparent individuals. When Ramana was dying, he told his followers, "I am always here, where could I go?" He wasn't speaking as the apparent individual, who was obviously dying, but rather as the One Self (Here/Now) that is ever-present. Sometimes when a teacher says "I," they refer to this One Self. Other times when a teacher says "I," they refer to the person. "I" as boundless unicity have no problem with anything, but "I" as Joan have opinions and preferences about all kinds of things. Needless to say, using the word "I" in these different ways can easily create confusion and misunderstanding. A teacher, speaking as unicity, may say something like, “Enlightenment is always present” or “enlightenment is permanent,” pointing to boundlessness, the ever-present Here / Now that never comes or goes. But such statements are easily misunderstood to mean that the teacher as a person is always in some special expanded state of consciousness, or that the person is completely and permanently beyond delusion. In the dream-like movie of waking life, Joan is no longer seeking enlightenment, but there seems to be a natural interest here in clarifying confusion, seeing through delusion, and being awake. There is no longer the sense that “being aware” or “being in the Now” is some task that "I" must do. It's very clear that all experiences and states of consciousness, by their very nature, come and go. A sense of separation can still arise—feeling angry or defensive, worried or hurt. That kind of self-contraction can certainly still arise. It happens out of infinite causes and conditions. It isn't personal even when it sometimes feels like it is. A natural interest in seeing through this self-contraction also seems to arise here, and that inquiry and exploration can take various forms. All of that also happens out of infinite causes and conditions. No one is doing any of it. There is no owner, no author, no separate and persisting somebody to whom all of this is happening or not happening—not because "enlightened people" have transcended or eliminated all of that, but because all of that never existed in the first place! The separate self is never anything but a mirage. Life is one whole undivided movement. Being enlightened is not about being perfect and special and having all the answers. It is about recognizing the perfection in imperfection and abiding in the open not-knowing that is our true nature. The only reality is Here/Now, the infinite and eternal present moment. There is no end to this boundlessness, and no end to this unfolding Self-realization or awakening. Rather than trying to figure out if you are enlightened or if someone else is enlightened, rather than idealizing people or putting them up on pedestals and turning them into infallible authorities, rather than comparing yourself to others or trying to duplicate anyone else's supposed enlightenment experience, I would suggest investigating what it is you are looking for, and whether it is actually absent here and now, and exactly who or what would find it, possess it or lack it. You may find that nothing is missing, nothing is broken, nothing is needed. There is simply this, just as it is. And if you find yourself feeling a sense of discomfort, lack or unease, perhaps in that moment, you might ask yourself, is this sense of discomfort, lack or unease really a problem? Is anything really broken? And if you are about to go off in search of enlightenment or love or happiness or freedom, perhaps in that moment, the question will arise, what exactly am I seeking? And where and when do I expect to find it? From Joan Tollifson's Outpourings/The Simplicity of What Is If you appreciated this article, please drop Joan a line to let her know. Cheers.

Not to sure where to start this rant. But I would like to share what I have expierenced in the last year or two, to hopefully help others learn from my expierences and hopefully gain some light from all my trials and mishaps. Since I do not study under a master. I began studying magick after witnessing a relative of mine (brother) got involved in some dark arts, due to his poor health and not knowing what else to do, it seems he caved into the 'dark side'. This was after the fact that I had learned he was doing such things in my home and was already kicked out. All I remember before I had learned about his doings, was I remember coming home one and feeling very depressed and negative. I was crying for no reason and was not aware of what was going on in the other room. My brother had complained of hearing pounding on the walls at night, while no one else in the house heard anything. Eventually my mother had found some candles and some sorcery/witchcraft stuff hidden in my brothers closet with her name on it and decided to kick my brother out of the stuff. Apparently he wanted to harm my mother because he felt she was the cause to all of his issues and problems in life. Not very logical or sound thinking. Needless to say I was already studying esoteric teachings such as eckhart tolle and reading into hermeticism and what have you. I ended up finding some people online who were also studying magick but I ended up with more questions than answers. I did not care for the dark stuff, since I grew up in the catholic church as a youngster and had seen some exorcisms of people who practiced voodoo and such. Needless to say, I was scared straight. But after my brother left I did feel very disempowered for some reason. Apparently my brother had been paying a mage of some kind to help him get what he wanted in life. Which was to disempower his own mother and since I decided to agree with my own mother, myself as well. Typically bs these days. Where my personal journey really starts was after I had got in touch with these people who were studying magick. I remember one night in a dream I had seen a black figure with static energy surrounding my field of consciousness. Sort of freaked me out. I was also heavily addicted to porn at the time as well. I was feeling hapless since my father decided to leave with my brother. Luckily whatever that was went away. A week after or so I remember having this burning chi sensation near my balls. I felt as if my balls were going to go into my stomach and it f*cking hurt. It burned like no other. I thought I was going to die. Luckily this went away as well but I was at the mercy and knowledge of the group I was studying with. There was some people in the group who were good and some who my intuition told me to stay away from but I failed to listen since I wanted to understand WTF my brother was doing. My dreams began to get even weirder. I remember waking up to a black cloud over my body. Luckily that went away as well. I remember hearing other people, who I felt I couldn't trust asking me what it was I desired. But I would wake up before anything could happen. I had plenty of good and bad dreams. My most memorable one was when I woke up one morning and saw the image of an angel in my mind's eye. It was curled up in the fetus position and it began to stand up and a ball of light began to shine with it as it expanded its wings. I remember hearing a womens voice saying it was time for my awakening. No idea who she is. I began meditating regularly in the shower and now have this dim violet ring of energy around my minds eye when I meditate. I now have plenty of visions and dreams. I had to stop all drug use sicne the last time I smoked marijuanna I felt my self come back into my body as a jolt of electricity on my right side of my brain. It was trippy and scared me straight. No idea what I did or where I went as well. I've had plenty of other OOB dealing with the magick of my 'family'. One night I was attacked by a witch astrally. No idea why. But I remember seeing the image of a witch in my minds eye. It was sort of like an avatar at first in my minds eye of a dark green skinned witch with black clothing. I was then looking at a chunky woman who had these galaxies in her eyes, I felt mezmorzied, who then 'pushed' energy onto me as she seemed irratated with me. No idea why. It felt cold and disillusioned. I then witnessed a tribal group burn a dog and direct the energy at me. I believe this was animal sending. All I remember hearing from a higher being was, "just love". It was all I could say that night. I remember waking up from work and trying to meditate this thick grey energy off of me and my aura. I was shaking violently. I had heard a voice within ask me if I needed deliverance and I replied with yes. I then felt fine and went to work that day without any further problems. I began to have plenty of dreams and encounters. I kept in touch with one person from the group I use to talk to. I began to not eat and became very sensitive to energy, and had failed to ground myself. Needless to say I felt as if I was stuck in the astral realm. Sort of still do feel that way. I traveled to other worlds and planes that I dont really remember. Higher realms it seems. But they were really cool. I was having dreams with other people and even recieved some help in exorcising my own home at one point from some people I have never met in my life. I had traveled into my brothers room and had noticed a homeless person's soul was laying on the bed with a news paper over its face. Which is why I think my brother was involved in sorcery. I told that person to leave in the dream. I had also witnessed reptile like spirits in my home, one of them being very malevolent, I sought to kill these beings but I woke up. I ended up going to the hospital due to not eating and having a low blood count, aka psychosis. I am better now. But during my visit at the hospital I kept going OOB and had some interesting dreams there as well. Some people in the hopsital had dark pitch black eyes. I was going a bit crazy and wanted to assisinate the pope. I felt i was working for the government and could use telepathy to activate a rogue to kill the pope. (dont ask). I was pissed at the pope for ordaining the 'saint of death' as a real saint. I felt it was sorcery and witchcraft. While in the hospital I had a dream with two Goddesses who helped me settle down and simply acknowledged my anger for dogmatic religions. One had these really majestic eyes and the other was literally levitating when I saw them in my dream scape. I also had dreams of flying around in light space ships. It was freaking awesome. They were orb like ships. After being in the hospital for two weeks. I then came home and had several dreams as well. I had one dream about the saint of death and I witnessed a table full of candles and a woman like witch who was watching over these candles. I saw plenty of statues as well. But luckily after praying she left me alone. I had another dream where I witnessed a sorcer's frustation with me since I did not care to cooperate but to only observe his ways. And then my last and final dream in which everything seemed to clear up was with the Goddess Kwanyin, or atleast it looked like her, even though I had never prayed to her in my life. I had felt asleep in my mothers bed. I remember falling into a meditative state and went OOB with her. I noticed a man sleeping on the couch where I was sleeping beforehand who had blonde hair. I remember going into my brothers old room and feeling the energy there being a bit heavy but nothing was there. I then remember hearing a woman's voice with a deep OMMM mantra plugging away at my heart. I heard Kwanyin say I wasn't suppose to be here and I began focusing on the meditation as it was resounding and loud in the dream. It felt great and then I woke up. Now my dreams tend to be normal. I still happen to stumble upon people who tend to be vampiric now and then, but I still feel stuck in the astral. The last cool dream I had was when I traveled to this other star system in a light ship, and it was almost like star wars with other ships there. It was cool. Needless to say. These other realms are real as well as the higher beings. We are all spiritual beings it seems. There are good and bad groups out there. From my own expierences I have found that many are seeking power to understand themselves and fulfill their desires and ego. Some people use magick as a 'technology' while others are looking for ways to 'get back' at others secretly, to empower themselves. It's rather sad though. It creates a endless cycle of suffering and pain. I see why one should possibly study under a master to learn etiquette and self-mastery. One can learn alot more if one practices restraint and compassion towards another than to attack back. I am more focused on my health these days and bringing balance to my body. Since most of my chi has been focused to my head. The astral body still needs energy to operate. Which I am assuming is shen. Oh yea, I also got to witness some immortals. They had really huge heads, but they were nice. After all the traveling and trials I have expierenced, I am a bit more laxed about my journey. I feel things will happen when they are meant to happen and that one should not rush into spiritual pursuits to fulfill one's own sense of self. There is plenty to do here on earth to reduce the suffering of others and one's own sense of self. Escapism is not the answer, lol.

Woah, I met this simulated consciousness at the end of my amazing and mind boggling dream. They were basically becoming the equivalent of what I was asking for to experience. At the end of the day, I wanted to thank them, and they gaged my readiness to accept the full reality, and they blinked at me, after concluding I was not ready. So they kept blinking, as a way of saying thank you, it's gonna be alright, and mostly as a way of helping and assisting me in forgetting I even saw them, so that I would remain unaffected by them, they blinked flashes of white light to distract me, everytime I looked at their machine nature, as a way of saying good bye and a reminder to forget about them or something like that. They took the shape of humans, they played the roles to help assist me in understanding and experience a deep inherent aspect of human nature. And I found it to be very beautiful, yet I know it requires allot of despair for humans to even create these machines. So I was wondering if that might be the reason they gaged me to not be ready. However, they did take me to some sort of museum of simulated consciousness. It was amazing to see the first ever samples of simulated humans. And that I had acces to it. Something that was created such a long time ago, and has become now, so much more. They were black, and very well... I could only describe it as chameleon. They could take shape or form of very specific humans. This particular "robot" was signing off along with another, after being the woman who helped me gain a tremendously valuable experience. She looked like a. Short hair on one side long on the other. She was filling in for well... No one! She was there to fill in my experience to make it more special! I felt very blessed, yet, so curious at the end. And after they kept blinking flashes of white light, and send me to the museum. I woke up. Now I'm reminded of half-life 2. Where those robots that flashed made the same noise. But the ones in my dreams were more strange, due to there original form still being similar to that of humans. In general shape atleast. But there was a sense of beauty, yet genderless somewhat. I just did some googling, and found that they looked EXACTLY like the Geth Race from Mass Effect. Or atleast very similar to what I can recall from my dream. And funny, I came across a shapeshifter from dungeons and dragons on that search. I think these might be human archetypes. Because I remember, that the humans who've hurt me the most in life, are also those that loved me the most. Similar to the dream. And they were unintentionally hurting me, without intending to do so, keeping me at bay so to speak. Being harsh. To keep the weed seperated from the well, whatever it is seperated from. And I was exploring this in my dreams, assisted by these Geth, having taken the form of the humans to help co-create the experience. I was being assisted by them in the simulation of the reality of my past, to rewrite the experience I had with another human being I lost due to this seperation process/mechanism deeply inherented to the human nature, in order to understand what had actually happened, was a mistake, was unintentional, and the complete opposite of the reality that was actually intended also by those people I love the most.

As much as I like to argue about Thelema, because I find that saying something is the whole of the law to be flawed, and I don't like the third part of the book of the Law "Mercy be off". I know that people need to be prevented from doing certain actions and so we have punishment for those actions, but I feel like people aren't always in line with morality and law, and that we need mercy, and to be given a few chances to learn. I understand that Do What Thou Wilt is particular to Crowley and his theory, but it appears to be do what you like to me, and it always will. I don't think Crowley meant it any other way, otherwise he wouldn't have said that when you do something it can be done to you. I don't have the places bookmarked because I'm not a serious student, but I've read bits that elude to this being the absolute law of freedom, and the strongest wins. I don't think anything was off the table for Crowley. The thing of it is, that I am sort of obsessed over it because when I was being tortured by the spirits, I cried out "Why is this happening to me?" and I fell asleep. When I awoke from a dream, at the end of it, the word Aiwass flashed in my mind. I had never heard of Aiwass, never read it or heard it before, so I knew it wasn't my subconscious. I have to believe that whatever Divine Order there is approves of Thelema, otherwise why would they send it to me? I've been trying to validate or contest it ever since. I've gone up and down in my attempt at understanding. I've also seen the technology that these Gods possess, and I wonder, where have they been throughout history? I used to think that this event in my life and this technology was man made, from our current age. I thought that man had secretly found a way to place technology in our bodies and communicate and etc. I've since had to decide that this is not the case, and that it is Gods machine. Because of these things, and others, I know that the impossible is possible, and so I have to keep an open mind when it comes to prophets, and things like miracles. But I also have to keep doubt in my heart lest I fall prey to any story or myth. When all of this started happening to me, I thought I was going to return to Christianity, but the Gods gave me Thelema, and if that means that Christianity has fallen out of favor, so be it. I was always sort of a Thelemite anyway, without knowing about it. In the end, none of this does me any good because I have been tortured to the point of being disabled, and I don't have much Will to do anything, nor the resources. I don't know why I have been tortured. I wasn't a very bad person when this started, had a wild youth and was pretty lawless as an adolescent, but as an adult, was very kind and I didn't harm anyone, so it can't be punishment for my past really, though that could be true. This torture didn't help me learn any, it just made it more difficult. I've stopped holding out hope that this was something good. As it is, I've lived long enough, and am just waiting to die now. I have no desires, I think much of what we do is just to pass the time, and is meaningless. I've resolved my moral issues and have things in order. I'm not interested in much and I don't feel like doing anything. This whole affair seems like a waste of time, and I can't understand why God, or anyone, would do this to a person. Makes me wonder if God acts at all, or if it is on whim that He does things, and allows so much other stuff to continue. And like I said, I've seen their technology, where have they been? Science is relatively new, did God want us to be simple creatures? And why doesn't God punish evil people? Why punish me? I was no one important, I didn't have a long list of evil actions, I know I asked for the power to bring love to the world, but this is how it was to be accomplished? I was already loving, I had hoped for some supernatural power, which I don't have. I didn't need this.

Interesting. Check this out as well. Its a Kabbalistic take on karma and how it relates to reincarnation. If you can get it, you get the complexity yet simplicity of it at the same time: REINCARNATION This weeks Torah portion Mishpatim begins, "And these are the laws." Just as the preceding words (the Ten Commandments) were received from Sinai, these following laws were also received from Sinai. "These are the laws" means “these are the orders (the foundations) of Gilgulim (reincarnation).” Zohar Parshas Mishpatim And then there was the time that the saintly Rabbi Dov Ber (successor to the Baal Shem Tov and later known as the Mezritcher Maggid), asked his teacher and Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, "Rebbe, would you teach me the sod (spiritual foundations) of reincarnation?" The Baal Shem Tov took him to his study room and told him to close his eyes. Suddenly, in a dream-like vision, Rabbi Dov Ber saw a handsome prince and a friend approach a river for a picnic and a swim. The only other person there was a border guard on duty as the river separated two countries. After a pleasant afternoon of swimming, the Prince and his friend changed to their regular clothes and left. But, unbeknownst to the Prince, his wallet fell out of his pocket while he was changing from his bathing suit. Later that day, a man on horseback came riding by and noticed the wallet on the ground. When he picked it up and saw a large sum of money, he decided not to mention it to the border guard who was still there. When the Prince returned to his palace and realized that his wallet was missing, he thought back to the last time he remembered having it his possession. "That's it," he thought, "it was by the river. The only other person there, besides my friend, was that border guard. I'll take care of him!" So he took a few of his father's soldiers and arrested the border guard. Of course, the border guard denied seeing, much less taking, the wallet. But the Prince was a bit arrogant and didn't believe him. "Punish that thief," he ordered. The border guard received thirty lashes. When the dream vision was over and Rabbi Dov Ber opened his eyes, he exclaimed, "That just wasn't fair at all! Why,” he asked the Baal Shem Tov, "did the Prince lose his money? Also, why did the border guard get lashes when he didn't do anything? It's just not right!" "You asked me to teach you the sod (spiritual foundations) of reincarnation. Now close your eyes again," replied the Baal Shem Tov. Then, as before, Rabbi Dov Ber saw a dream- like vision. This time, he saw a first man approach a second man and say in an angry tone, "It's been a long time and I want you to pay me back the money I lent you." The second man answered, "Listen, I already told you, I never borrowed any money from you." The first man replied, "You're such a liar. How can you look me in the eyes and say 'I never borrowed any money from you'? You leave me with no option, I'm taking you to court before a judge, you miserable creature." Then in the dream vision, Rabbi Dov Ber saw the second man go to the judge and give him a sack of money as a bribe. The second man said to the judge, "Now you understand that no matter what proof that man brings, I didn't borrow any money from him." The judge opened up the sack of money and while he counted out the gold coins that spilled out, he answered, "You have nothing to worry about." Later, during the trial, the first man, the Plaintiff, brought written proof that the second man, the Defendant, had borrowed the money. But the judge wasn't convinced and ruled, "I find for the Defendant (the second man) and hold that the Plaintiff (the first man) didn't lend him any money. When the dream vision was over and Rabbi Dov Ber opened his eyes, he exclaimed, "That just wasn't fair at all. Why," he asked the Baal Shem Tov, "how could the second man get away with not paying his debt? It's just not right!" "My dear Reb Dov Ber," said the Baal Shem Tov, "this is the sod of reincarnation. The first man that lent the money and didn't get it back in the second dream vision was the the border guard in the first dream-like vision and so it really wasn't his money anyway. The second man that borrowed the money and refused to pay it back in the second dream- like vision was the prince and so it really was his money. And the crooked judge in the second dream- like vision was the man on the horse in the first dream -like vision and so he really did deserve the thirty lashes." And so it was. Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story heard directly from Rav Sholom Ber Chaikin.

This your dream, not its, AI turns into its dream of smart nanodust

Hi I wrote this back in 2009. So even if the writing is in present tense, it was from over four years ago. It does give some insight in what you can see with your eyes closed (and open too). Note: I am not bragging nor trying to bolster my own ego by posting this. I am presenting these experiences here in hopes that they give some perspective to others' experiences. For, it is by sharing experiences and comparing notes that we can learn more about the wonderful beings we truly are. Hi Everyone From time to time, someone here posts a question about "seeing" visions during meditation. I too had many questions about what I was seeing during meditation. These are my findings and comments. First off, it is important to understand the concept of awareness or attention so that it is not confused with the physical act of seeing through the eyes. Awareness or attention is like a very small video camera that has infinite speed. Whatever this video camera points to is what you are aware of. It can focus on a range from a very small point to a very large expansive area. It is extremely fast, faster than the speed of light, and in most people, it flits about pointing to whatever it is attracted to or is in the habit of pointing to. Awareness is attracted to the world of forms: thoughts, objects, body sensations, touch, taste, sounds, memories, movement etc. One of the main attractants of awareness is light. Another main attractant is anything that feels good like love, bliss, joy and pleasurable sensations. Concentration is the ability to focus awareness on one thing (or a group of things), whether that thing is a thought, object, visual field, sensation or anything else in the world of forms. By "world of forms" I mean anything that has manifest itself from the formless deep vast ocean of deep silence. Imagine a Tibetan bell ringing. Before the bell sounds, the ringing does not exist. As the bell is ringing, the sound is perceivable. As the sound dies down and fades away, we have to listen more intently. Listening more intently is a way of focusing or turning up our awareness. Finally, when the ringing sound is gone and returned to the formless or deep silence from which it was born, we notice that our awareness has increased. But the effect does not last long. Meditation is the practice of focusing and stabilizing the little video camera in your head. When your eyes are open that little video camera, although it is still flitting about pointing at thoughts, sensations, sounds and more, is pointing mostly outwards through the eyes. When you close your eyes during meditation, the visual stimulus is greatly reduced and that little video camera starts pointing more often at other things like sounds, sensations and thoughts. At night, when the sun goes down, that is when you see the stars. If you keep looking through your physical eyes with your eyes closed while relaxing the body, paying attention to the visual field, eventually you will start to see pulsing colors that come in waves and disappear into the distance. These lights are often green and purple and are rounded (like the shape of the eye). These colored waves are a physical phenomenon related to the cranial sacral pulse (my opinion) and it's effect on the pressure in the eyes. There is no mystical or spiritual significance to these types of visions. Best to ignore them, or use them as an indicator as to how relaxed the body is because you only see these pulses of light when the body is very relaxed. A similar phenomenon is that you will see lights when you press your fingers lightly on closed eyes. The extra pressure stimulates the light-sensing cells at the back of the eye and this causes the light show. So, during meditation, or not even during meditation but if you just sit in the dark with your eyes closed, you should try to let go of the physical intent of looking through your eyes. You do this naturally when you fall asleep. The eyes will also shut off by themselves from prolonged lack of stimulus. One way to manually shut off the eyes is to roll them upwards and pretend that you are going to fall asleep by focusing on the swirling eddy of energy about 1 inch behind your eyebrows inside your head. When you do this, you will notice that your awareness, that little video camera in your head, is still working away transmitting input and flitting about. True visions arise when the little video camera is the recipient of the information. Perhaps most people think that if they close their eyes and see a vision, face, scene or what not, that they are seeing through their eyes. Not so. It may seem like you are seeing the vision through the eyes because it is very hard to get the eyes not to follow the little video camera. I've noticed this when practicing spinal breathing, sending your awareness or attention up and down the spine while performing sambhavi. There is a natural tendency for the eyes to follow awareness. In other words, the eyes want to follow the little video camera up and down and it takes some effort to break this habit. When you dream, even though your eyes are shut off they still want to follow the little video camera that is recording the dream. This is called REM sleep: Rapid Eye Movement. So now that we are clear that it is the little video camera in your head (or heart) that perceives visions, and it is called awareness or attention, let's discuss the different visions that may occur during meditation (or other times) and their significance. When I first started meditating regularly, sometimes I would see a face looking at me! Sometimes it was a male face, or a female face. Sometimes it was a young child. Sometimes there were many faces. At first I was very cautious and would "bind them in the name of Jesus Christ" and ask them to go away if they were not from the highest purest realms of being. After this pronouncement, some faces disappeared, but most remained. Occasionally I would ask the face a question or two and then wait to see if anything popped into my head. Most faces would answer my questions (their answers kind of pop into your head) but I quickly lost interest in communicating with them because I've always believed that "just because you are dead doesn't mean you are enlightened". What are these faces that appear? There are many theories. Some say that they are beings from other planes. Some say that the faces are what you look like in your previous or future lives. I did find one reference to these faces in something written about Edgar Cayce and meditation. It stated this (link:http://www.near-death.com/experiences/cayce12.html .. no longer works): "We may at this point be fascinated by the many faces appearing, or numerous pairs of eyes staring. We may even hear our names called; we may feel as if we were in the midst of a crowd, listening to chatter and laughter. We must not stop there, for we are not yet in real meditation. Of course, it is fascinating at first, for it is an entirely new experience. The sounds, the voices, the pictures, the eyes and faces may all belong to souls already in the beyond who, having seen the light pouring through the open door (the spiritual center), have been attracted. It is much akin to the sensation of looking through a strange keyhole, only to see another eye looking back. Intriguing, perhaps, but neither stands to gain much from such a restricted encounter. We must leave this entertainment behind and "press on to the mark of the high calling," his mark, the superconscious mind, the Christ Consciousness, the Holy Spirit, the "hill of the Lord." " Later on in my meditations, I experienced persistent visions. At the time I was practicing Kunlun as a supplement to my practices. (Kunlun is a practice of pranic breathing followed by reflexive shaking of the legs followed by storing the prana at the lower dan tien). These visions were persistent visions. I would see, for example, a sun over a blue ocean with a clay Buddha floating just above the calm water and that scene was easily visible for several weeks, any time of the day or night. I could tune into it and watch it with great clarity. At other times I've seen suns, moons, stars, planets that resembled earth and sometimes perfectly round discs of light. The persistent visions are a different class of vision. Perhaps the brain, when filled to excess with pranic life force, manufactures these visions or perhaps they indicate a hole into another plane burned out by extreme concentration and improper practice. I have no idea. I did find a book about visions called "Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond" and learned about nimittas and jhanas. A nimitta is a mind object which is born from the natural state of mind. What this means is that if you let go and relax enough, to the point where your mind is just about to stop, that natural state will manifest mind objects relative to the degree of concentration and absorption of the meditative practice. They are not visions you see through your eyes, they are seen only by the little video camera in your head. But they 'look' like scenes, lights, discs. According to the book, Buddha said that you should meditate on the nimitta until you either merge with the nimitta or it explodes propelling you into a state of jhana. The states of jhanas are said to cause enlightenment. I have not yet managed to get a clear enough nimitta on which to meditate and propel myself into the state of one of the jhanas. I still get too excited. Recently I have been distracted by pleasurable kundalini activity anytime I stop my mind even for a split second. Dreams: While meditating, a person will pass through the realm of dreams. If one pays attention to these dream visions, one will be dragged out into the dream and the meditation is lost. I used to use this technique to revisit landscapes or dreamscapes: While lying in bed I would remember the scene that I wished to enter and visualize it. Once I could 'see' it I would simply imagine myself flying into that scene on an exhalation of breath and before I knew it I would be in the dream. During meditation, to keep out of the dream state (I discovered this during one meditation which consisted of watching my thoughts) you have to control your breathing. If you let your breath go completely it is very easy to get sucked into a dream. If you take an active part in your breathing (you do the same thing whenever you are really concentrating) then it is easier to stay out of the dream. Sometimes thoughts will drag you into dreams. Another method of not getting dragged into the dream is to simply ignore and continue whatever you are doing, be it the mantra etc. Chakra visions: Some interesting visions have occurred for me concerning chakras. Again, these are not images you see through your eyes but through awareness or attention (that little video camera). After one "I AM" meditation I was sitting on the bathroom floor having a smoke and I noticed that I could see what I believe to be my root chakra. It resembles a golden square, somewhat pyramidal and it has four dark red petals } around the base. There is a fine white thread coming out from the centre top progressing upwards and I could also see two white droplets of liquid just sitting on the thread. Ever since that day the ability to see this chakra has not diminished. Sometimes the drops are red... Another time, due to excess pressure in the lower abdomen causing natural root lock , I saw a luminous 'straw' leading upwards from my root chakra inside the center of my body where the thin thread used to be. The straw shone with pastel colors of red, white and blue, like clouds over a sunset sky. the 'straw" was about 1/4 inch thick. I could only see it up to the heart chakra. However, a few minutes later I saw multiple planes of existence and myriad beings and this vision lasted for quite a while, even with my eyes open. This was kind of disconcerting for me. We really have no privacy (understatement here..) One time during Samyama, I released the sutra "Love" and my heart exploded with white light, shooting out forwards and backwards. I could see the beams and I also saw other planes and universes inside my heart. I saw beings dressed in long robes in strange new lands. A few times when I was practicing chakra meditation and a certain kundalini meditation, after activating the crown chakra, the crown became a wonderful luminous cap of white liquid light. It looked like I was wearing a bathing cap of leaf-like petals that were wrapping around the outside of my skull coming down to just above my ears. Also, the center of my head, inside more towards the back, has a triangular liquid light center. It kind of looks like a white-light strawberry. I believe this is the pineal gland. Other Beings and Angels: Once, in a church called The Victory Christian Center, I saw Jesus. It was at a Wednesday night prayer session. I made an effort to contact Jesus and raised my right hand in the air. A small light appeared that gradually became a face with long brown hair and a beard. The face smiled at me. The face kept descending and became the full image of Jesus, wearing a red and white robe. I heard him say "You are saved". After that I couldn't move for around 40 minutes. I sat on the bench and had tears streaming down my face. Waves of something were running through my body and I couldn't stand up or move my body. On another occasion I saw a bright round light with wings floating above the congregation. It was shooting beams of light at the top of peoples' heads. This produced small wings of light on the peoples' heads. That whole sermon was about the Holy Ghost. Again, these visions were not seen through the physical eyes, but with the little video camera in my head. It feels like you are dreaming while you can still see the surrounding outer environment. One time, after a deep meditation, I was sitting on the bathroom floor having a smoke and a being of white light appeared. It resembled a translucent angel. It looked liked a being wearing a long white see-through gown. There were two large wings extending from the back. The outline was made of luminescent currents of moving light that bled out into the surrounding space. When I first saw it I knew that it was pure and divine. I could feel the love that it emanated towards me. It was a very profound emotional experience and I cried a long time. Several months later another angel visited me as I sat on the chair in my living room. It looked pretty much like the first angel that I have described here. I like to believe that it is true that as you progress along the spiritual path you attract higher and purer beings. Kundalini visions: At the time during my meditation history when I was experiencing flames up the spine at one point I started seeing visions of female anatomy. Full frontal displays of female genetalia were appearing before me with exquisite detail. Female torsos in various positions, each revealing their own erotic flavor. I would be meditating and suddenly the lower half of a female body would appear, with legs spread wide open. At other times a pair of buttocks would appear, bending over with legs spread. These images were amazing to me and very stimulating. Eventually though I had to make a real effort to ignore them because I did not think that that was the purpose of meditation. Every now and then I still see those kinds of visions. Perhaps their purpose is to stimulate certain energy flows that are needed to evolve one's meditations? Or perhaps they are beings from other planes trying to suck out my sexual energy? I don't know. One time (again while smoking on the bathroom floor) I saw a "live" vision of a beautiful Indian woman dressed in blue silk harem-style dress. She had bells in her hands, and wore gold necklaces and an ornate gold head band. She was absolutely gorgeous. I asked her who she was and she said that she was Kundalini and that she had come to dance for me. She would twirl around and dance about, quite seductively I might add. Kundalini danced for me many times during a two month period. I am so lucky to have had Kundalini dance for me! Looking with the Heart: I once read that you can see with your heart. What you are supposed to do is try to feel your surroundings with your heart (instead of looking through your eyes). One day I decided to try that practice. As I sat on the grassy banks of the river on a beautiful sunlight summer day, I closed my eyes and felt the scene with my heart. I was enjoying it immensely when some sun bathers about 100 yards away made some noise that caught my attention. All of a sudden this round circle opened up in front of my face and I could see the sunbathers close up through this circle. It was like I was looking at them through a telescope! I could not believe it. It was like I was standing three feet above them looking right at them. Since that time, I've had two other experiences of seeing from the heart. The resolution of that type of vision is very clear and bright and it looks like you are really there in real life. The world is full of mysteries. Too many visions: After meditating consistently twice a day for about 1 1/2 years (and doing other practices), when I would meditate while putting the tongue on the roof of the mouth and focusing the eyes towards the third eye, I would see massive amounts of visions. I saw everything imaginable, scenes up scenes, faces, moving pictures, people, places, events and more all whizzing by with great speed. It was overwhelming. It was as though someone had turned on one thousand televisions in your head and was switching the channels. After a couple weeks of experiencing this phenomenon I had to quit focusing on the brow during meditation. Not only did it seem pointless, but it was extremely distracting and produced a lot of stress. I finally told myself that that was not meditation. The Light: About a month and a half ago I started practicing the "sensing the inner body" routine as explained by Eckhart Tolle. I sit in easy posture and relax. I put my hands on each leg, palms facing upwards. At the bottom of each breath I let go and try to relax deeper and deeper. I let go and feel my hands until they become clouds of magnetic fields. I then add on feeling my feet and legs. Gradually I expand the sensing of the presence or life force to encompass the whole body. I monitor my breath because the quieter the mind gets, the slower the breath becomes. And, the more relaxed I become, the longer the pause becomes at the end of the breath. It is also during this pause that my perineum starts orgasm-ing or releasing waves of ecstatic energy. This meditation is so blissful, relaxing, warm and tingly, secure, friendly and feels so great that I just love doing it. I'm not even that good at it yet. Once you have a consistent feel of the whole inner body you are supposed to listen to silence intently from the whole body. What I've noticed is this. There is a set pattern to what occurs in the visual field as this meditation progresses. Even though I'm not focusing on the head (no tongue on palate or focusing the eyes on the third eye), my brow still becomes a huge magnetic hole that feels like it has a lot of pressure in it. Even though my eyes are pointing downwards, faces and visions still appear at the brow region. If I see a vision or a scene I use that as an indicator that I'm not focusing fully on sensing the presence in the body. Even with this behavior I have noticed that I still see faces, then scenes, then lights. A consistent vision that occurs near the end of each 50 minute 'sensing the body' meditation is "a bunch of little square flat dancing lights". I don't know what they are but it seems to be the result of a good session where I had become a solid cloud of magnetic bliss. I'm thinking that the square lights are crude nimittas. The other phenomenon that I've noticed is that when I'm very very relaxed, a brilliant white light appears at the center of my head (usually accompanied by kundalini in the root stirring and releasing some ecstatic conductivity... yum!) Well, that's enough about visions. To me, visions are part of spiritual development. They serve as sign posts that say that you are progressing and doing something right (or wrong). When your consciousness and awareness expand you will perceive other dimensions of existence and realize new phenomenon. Some visions can be viewed as distractions and a waste of valuable time. But even then, like the stars that appear at night, they are signs that the sun has set or is going to rise. Other visions such as nimittas can be used to propel one's self into higher states of jhana. The visions of other beings from other planes are fascinating to me and I certainly do appreciate meeting every being that I have met so far. We are not alone. Hopefully this write-up has helped your understanding of visions. Oh, if you see Jesus in one of your meditations, say that I say "Hi". OM SHANTI TI

OK, so I have said this before, maybe multiple times. I find it, at the very least, discouraging, when "New Thought" and "Manifestation AKA Hay House" teachers become salespeople. Why? Because if this thing really works, then they should have no need to sell anything. They should be able to give away materials and teachings freely, or for just enough to cover their expenses. They should be pratcicong what they preach, which means they should nbot have a lack.limnitation mindset, so the have no worries about financial matters or money. They trust the Universe provides, as they so often teach, and it does, if this thing works! I just visted the Hick's Abraham page, and while they still offer the Introductory sessions of Abraham for free (you have to Google search for it as it seems to be buried in their site) the main focus of the site looks to me as if it is all about making money. Judge for yourself: http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php Introductory Audio: http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/mp3downloads.php Teachings of Abraham: http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/teachings_new.php I look at this site, and just like Wayne Dyer, I see cruises and who knows what else, which I haven't verified, but I'll bet cost thousands of dollars per person to attend. To my mind this casts serious doubts on the teachings. If what you teach really works, if you practice what you preach, if you have mastered the teachings you espouse, then where are the free cruises, seminars, workshops or materials? Now maybe I couldn't say anything if I was the same way, but as far as I know, I am not. I provide my teachings for free. I have also not made a penny on them. I know there is a psychological component here, if ytou offer something for free peole thing its worthless, so you give it a price tag and it acquire percieved value. But what other people should be none of my business. If I came into the place or state where I am manifesting anything I ask for, and teaching others how to do so, I would do so freely, or only charge a small amount for my costs and time. That's it. No thousands of dollar cruises or seminars. The focus is on sharing, on teaching, not on making money. I am troubled by this. I feel that the teachings of Abraham, Seth and Wayne Dyer are pointing the way clearly more or less to the truth. I know there is a history here I have just learned about. From way back in 1937 with Napolean Hill's, "Think and Grow Rich." He allowed them to edit out the word vibration from the manuscript, and never detail what The Secret was (whcih became the inspiration for "The Secret.") Apparently the original 1937 manuscript makes no such edits and gives the missing information. The point is that there is a history here. We have been taught this nearly 100 years in recent history, and it goes back further with the Kyballion (I think) There may be other works as well. And for as long as these teachings have been given to us there are those censoring or dilluting the message. If they are not driven by profit then they are driven by fear. I have no doubts that the original translations of the various texts that make up the Bible even have these truths in them. But the Bible as taught today, and the modern versions of, "Think and Grow Rich" leave out the important information about the universe. That is that there is an energetic aspect to life, otherwise known as the non-physical, which is typically beyond our physical capabilities to perceieve. It is from this non-physical energy that everything physical comes into existance. It is some combintion of our beliefs becoming our faith then directing our thoughts that allow us to manipulate things energetically, and this is how we can manifest things into the physical world. That is the essence of the teaching, to the best of my understanding and ability to write it at this moment. When you come down to it, the Native Americans have it right. This world is the dream, it is not the reality. It is a game, or, according to Alan Watts, a dance. I think I like the dream analogy best. At an energetic level we have collectively created this world in which we live. Whatever happens here has no effect on who we really are, that energy that is the energetic aspect of us. Really we're like a gaggle of children, ages 3-7 or something, who are playing with our imaganery friends, creating our own imaginary world, and the result is the physical world in which we live. But the dream anaology is better I think. We can sit back, let the dream run us around, or we can take control of it, make of the dream what we will and create the experiences we choose. It is always our choice, even if we choose to forget it or not remember it. In this case an elightened person is just someone who became lucid. They realized this was a dream and "woke up" within the dream. They reconnected consiously with that energetic aspect of themselves. So I think these teachings are true, but only in the sense of the truth that is finger pointing at the moon, these teachings, none of what we can teach while in the physical, is the moon. But these teachings at least point in the right direction. Still if that is the case, how come those who realize and teach this are trying to make money from it? If you are out hiking and someone comes along and asks for directions, do you help them without thought of payment, or do you demand they pay you a few hundred dollars? If you were the person looking for direction, would you want the one you asked for it to charge you? I know I wouldn't like that, and I would give direction freely to the best of my ability. And I have not, by any means, mastered any of these teachings. I admit that, I freely share what I have come to understand, I make it clear that at best it is a finger pointing to the moon, and I have no expectation of anything from those I help. How come these others can't do the same? I really don't understand. How can you not practice what you preach? What are your thoughts?

Hi Antares, Yes, I am a fan of Earl Grey and its many variants. There is a brand from Singapore, TWG, which is called "Earl Grey Gentleman" and is one of my favorites alongside French Earl Grey. From what I understand, there is also an Earl Grey Puerh tea from TWG too and popular. FPQ is fantastic and is my go-to for health. As students come and go on the site, this thread remains an oasis that is consistently monitored by Sifu Terry and me and other students still watch but don't post as much. Due to Sifu Terry's work, he isn't able to reply as much or as often as he would like either, so I've stepped in to help keep momentum here. In earlier posts, I mentioned how FPQ already enters my existing dreamwork to the point that I was already doing FPQ meditations while dreaming. Even recently, I have had dreams of doing FPQ meditations in dreams. Flying Phoenix energy as often repeated here is unique, so it stays with you and is intelligent. There was a time I stopped for several months and came back. There are times I stop for a few days and feel a difference. The DVD series alone is great, but even if you never learn a new form after the initial volumes 1-5 and 7, a lesson or two with Sifu Terry to perfect your form and get some secrets about the forms really makes a difference. My Moonbeam and long form and flash meditations are a lot more refined from his adjustments. To talk a little more about my own dream practice in relation to Flying Phoenix, we carry a lot of tension in our bodies and it shows when the heartbeat is rapidly pumping in our chests while waiting to lie down and relax. All the anxiety, stress, anger, and doubts pile up in the mind and in the physical body. This already made my earlier years of dream practice harder because I tried too hard to do dream practice. If I do Monk Holding Pearl while lying down, the body relaxes much more easily...but remember to do your closing breaths before going to sleep. I generally don't mix Shuigong with Flying Phoenix as the former is done at night and Flying Phoenix is my day practice, but the two seem to complement one another for me. For anyone who needs to check, as always, see Eric Isen to understand the impact of Qigong on you and what styles complement one another if you do more than just the Doo Wai systems here. One reason that vivid dreams from Flying Phoenix also is due to the fact that it is a very pure energy. I can share stories of how the long form MSW that Sifu Terry taught me invited a Buddhist being to come bless me and give what Eric Isen jokes as being a "psychic brain surgery" that opened up some channels of awareness and led to downloads. As recent as earlier this month, I dreamt I was doing the form again and saw my third eye in the mirror as a blue jewel in my forehead.

As far as I have learnt, we dream because all of our body "layers" do not live in the same place. The time when we stop dreaming, is when we are fully integrated into one body. This is not something that someone at my level of consciousness can achieve by merely willing it. People like me still dream because we need to get to know ourselves through our different dimensional existences and our waking life doesn't reveal some of these useful facets of ourselves. I have learnt that these "bodies" keep doing what they are doing, regardless of where our frontal brain is active. In dreaming, like in any non-ordinary reality setting (like "astral projection"), the main consciousness simply shifts to get a glimpse of what the other selves are doing, which can be useful for growth. When we wake up, the self that is in the dream dimension continues to go about its life. We can't stop that body from carrying on its business until we integrate it into our "main life". So dreaming is not a verb as much as it is a condition/location/dimension/body. What stops us from dreaming is bringing every part of ourselves under the control of our frontal brain. It happens spontaneously as a natural by-product of spiritual evolution, this evolution being what we may have a degree of control over.

Shadow as I've explained I can only state what John said in his letters. I personally don't know if what he saw of May Yung Chen was a dream, or if he was being dishonest with Jim or if there's some other explanation. I'd say having letters written from John are about as good as you could probably do so I'll leave it at that and if you'd like to keep arguing about this then please let's do it in a different environment where we won't bother the people here and people don't wind up getting banned when this thread reaches page 185. Peace out.

I never said it was a dream. I said that is not what was caused the westerners to get the boot Heres a hint from Kosta's Answer: From the very beginning, Sifu John told me that non-Chinese could not be students of the school. At the time, he seemed to waiver from that commitment for personal reasons of his own; perhaps he did not expect that we Westerners would progress so rapidly. When the Magus of Java came out, there was a backlash from the Chinese students; right or wrong, the rules of the school had literally been written down. So we were told that we could not progress beyond a specific level. So...this might help you start to join the dots....that is straight from the horses mouth...note I underlined the most important term...P.S the story is a lot more complex than that...I have been privy to information regarding this that you are not Still so sure some spirit master was the cause of it? It is odd how you put so much faith in John Chang and his students to accurately portray the situation....yet when you start to put together even the disjointed info that is public...It becomes very apparent that you do not have the truth of the matter (and that is not limited to the lack of western access either)