Search the Community

Good morning Dada-da, Why 'Oh' only? Shouldn't it be 'Oh yes' at least. There is some element of ignorance/surprise in your 'Oh'. It is said that you are only 50% woman. If you want to be 100% woman, dream on and be The Statue of Liberty (also 100% concrete). Cannot imagine. - LimA

Over the years here at Daobums, I've interacted with a lot of people. All good people (even those who have argued with me most vehemently, and I with them). I've had what many would call an "awakening", but it is really a non-event really as there's no separate entity who wakes up. It is just a shift of perspective. This doesn't really make me a "special" individual, rather it makes it clear to me that I am nobody...nothing. The "I" that lived in the material world just dropped it's hold on my attention. And then I realized that I was never not that which supposedly was "realized" in this so-called "Waking up". It was an apparent waking up, like one wakes up from a dream into waking state. Similarly, we seemingly wake up from a waking state into an "awakened" state. But really, all these states are that "awakened" state, just as all the masters and texts state. It is just that the states of "dream and waking" lose their hold...suddenly things fall into "perspective" -- that all the things that we apparently experience are just happenings and have no hold on us, the root of our consciousness is free, empty (of objective nature), non-spatial and atemporal (i.e. space and time don't have any meaning for it). Call it "Atma jnana", Self-realization or realizing the Emptiness of the Self. There are many many insights that arise from this, for the mind-body complex to navigate the complex and suffering-ridden world. Wisdom (Jnana) that arises by just staying with the presence, that is the root of our consciousness. In the Advaita Vedanta tradition, we say that "the knowledge of the Self or Atma Jnana" and the realization of Oneness (Atman is Brahman or Brahma Jnana) are two distinct phases. There is the non-realization of emptiness of mind-body (staying in the ever-present now) and there is the expansion of the Self to everything-ness. We are taught that the "oneness" is a matter of grace, and eventually we get there, when the time is right. @Jeff and I started interacting a while back (a few years maybe) and our perspectives didn't match wrt. what the "end-game" is. I couldn't understand how what he terms "residing in non-local mind" and "expansion of mind beyond non-local" was any different from just the mind just seeing more objects. What I failed to understand that time is that the expansion that Jeff was referring to, is outside the domain of the local mind. Do I know that now? Yes. How do I know? By taking the plunge (sic. dive) and actually trusting the process and the individuals (all kind, loving and wonderful people). I will try to explain how the non-local mind expansion differs from the local-mind experience. The Local mind is very powerful. But it's primary function is to bind a series of stimuli from the sensory apparatus into a "story"...one that the individual seemingly experiences. The story is the story of our lives, that we are "born into" -- with a body, an ego, a sense of individuality and one that experiences pains and pleasures, emotions, thoughts, is inspired to create wonderful things, is driven to do things - good or bad. In a single word, "samsara". Towards this, I'm going to construct sentences that will imply some sort of "special" doing, but as I have explained before, it is not really "doing" in the sense that the local-mind/body is "doing" something. So, kindly bear with me as I elaborate... When we get to the root of consciousness (the ever-present Nowness aka pure Awareness), we realize that all the happenings of samsara (life as we normally refer to it) happens on its own. It has no bearing on any kind of "doing". Until we get to the root of consciousness, there is doing and there is causality (karma). But after, it is just happenings. Like a few here have expressed before, the old habits and patterns start to lose steam and eventually just stop. If you come from a Hindu (or Buddhist) background like myself, you might have encountered a colorful multi-verse that we pass off as mythology (Westerners seem to study this sort of thing with mild amusement in the form of Greek Mythology). In this mythology are references to gods (devas) and goddesses (devis) aka deities, their realms, different realms (lokas), different rules for different worlds, etc. Most of us modern people scoff at these as over-active imaginations of our relatively primitive superstititous ancestors. I am happy to inform you that, such an idea is abjectly untrue. These beings, realms indeed do exist, and there exist "higher" planes. These are accessible when consciousness expands beyond the "local mind" level. There are many things to learn from these planes and our work in these planes inform us in the local-mind state. It is not the emptiness of Self, but an expansion that starts to encompass many things, including things beyond this mundane samsaric existence of the local mind-body. This is the expansion of the mind from local-mind to Universal mind, to get to the "all is one" knowing. How do I know that these states are beyond the "local-mind"? It is because as the mind/consciousness expands, each of these "planes" are accessible simultaneously, while being rooted in the ever-present now. I will halt my post here. I welcome your thoughts and comments. P.S. -- I'm not the person Jeff was referring to in the post about levels of conscious mind residing BTW.

MSW meditations definitely impact my quality of sleep and dreams. Sometimes I feel like I'm plunging into a different world and this is the dream itself when I awaken.

I tend to do my quiet sitting practice first thing in the morning, just after getting out of bed, and I find it seems to give a strong "second wind" type effect to the energy built up from the previous day's practice. Just doing basic quiet sitting, calming the mind, relaxing the body and regulating the breath, seems to enhance and prolong the circulation of the FP Qi from whichever practices I was working on the day before. I can't say with absolute certainty that FP has enhanced the effects of my quiet sitting, since I took a break from both practices for so long up until this year (although I suspect that it has - certainly my quiet sitting practice has progressed further than before), but the quiet sitting certainly seems to enhance the FP practice and extend it's effects, as well as those of any other Qigong I did the day before. On a side note, I'm curious if anyone else has practiced MSW1 before sleep and noticed any effect on their dreaming? I've been finding that it induces a very strange state of consciousness when I sleep directly after the practice - not quite lucid dreaming, which would entail awareness off and control over the events of the dream, but more like an "observer effect," where a part of my mind is sitting back from the dream and observing it as you would a movie, while otherwise just sitting and thinking about regular things. It's quite surreal, but not unpleasant. Definitely makes me wonder about the potential for deeper states of consciousness with continued practice of the MSW meditations.

I found this ,, , but I don't endorse its veracity Bubble Bath To dream that you or someone else is taking a bubble bath indicates that you are totally at ease and feel comfortable with your life. You no longer have any anxieties or troubles, and your mind is full of optimism and hope. Alternatively, dreaming of a bubble bath suggests a desire for a loving, romantic encounter.

I had a dream last night that I was talking with Donald Trump while he was taking a bubble bath ( I was not in the bath ). I can't even begin to explain why my unconscious would make me experience that... Does a cringe count as a laugh?

Thank you for your answer Zen-bear. BTW I just woke up and your answer reminded me that last night I dreamt about your book. In my dream a friend read it and really liked it; I think he quoted a passage about breathing but I am not really sure with that, but what I can say is that the book was surrounded by a blue light and I could definitely feel this heavenly energy you talked about in your post and that I feel when doing the meditations. Edit: I think it was you answering me when I was sleeping that led to the dream about your book ;p instant connection BTW2: I also do some other non-fpck meditations that I really like and that have some effects on me, but I am always stunned when I change to the FPCK meditations how much fun they make. This feeling that I have when doing those FPCK meditations or even just thinking about doing them is a perfect expression of this underlying divine energy

I use Absolute (brahman-advaita) more to differentiate it from the relative (maya-dvaita-names-forms). The Absolute/Ultimate Truth mustn't consider the relative, as the relative is only temporary, it can't be an absolute truth, but more of a relative one. If you include "doing pratical things in the dualistic world of names and forms" you obviously have to include every dream you have at night and so on - which we usually call an illusion. We usually call a dream an illusion because it's not self-existent, self-luminous and everlasting. The truth in an absolute sense must not depend on something external for it to exist, which would make it self-luminous, as there is nothing external to it that is aware of it, meaning it is self-existing, as it doesn't need the existence of something else for it to exist (like maya-duality-names-forms need), and is everlasting because it is beyond time (and space). Anyway, I guess both the ultimate truth and the relative truth are only from the point of view of the relative, as in the Absolute sense, there is no relative or absolute truth.. it just is.

Transformations require the mental perspective of ourselves as we were or will be , as opposed to just the reality of things just existing now. Being alive, is a now situation and only now exists . Now is the perspective of heaven ,no fear of death, no actual death , death and birth equally a mystery. there is no call to mourn a death which is just as likely a birth , and so he sheds no tear for the dead but is moved by the sorrow around him secondhand ,but sincerely so. The end of transformations is not then death, but a state of different perspective in which one sees themself as being ok in whatever capacity they are existing , at rest. More simply said, is to say that he has an inner level of peace because he understands flesh and blood reality to be a dream.

I dont see that character pairing elsewhere in the text, but not being able to read it , that might be misguided, anyway , from the context, the idea of the transformation includes the possibility of ones , death, birth ,or rebirth, or reincarnation, or new dream or return to the mystery from which mind is distilled. The usual idea of death is included in the story ,but a broader understanding or speculation ,is d delineated as the protagonists enlightened understanding.

Yen Hui inquired of Confucius, saying, "When Mengsun Ts'ai's {{A wise man of the state of Lu. Olai (p. 268). A deceitful minister of the tyrant Chow who was put to death together with his ruler by King Wu of the Chou dynasty.}} mother died, he cried without tears, his heart felt no distress, and during the period of mourning he felt no sorrow. Although lacking these three qualities, he was held to be the best mourner in the state of Lu. Can one really attain a name without the substance? I find this to be very strange." "The clansman Mengsun was so thorough," said Confucius, "that he had advanced beyond knowledge. Although he may have wished to simplify mourning, but wasn't able to do so fully, still there is that which he did simplify. Mengsun didn't know why he lived and didn't know why he would die. He didn't know which came first, life or death, and which came last. You see, he just went along with the transformation of things, awaiting the unknown transformation that was in store for him. Moreover, as we are about to undergo transformation, how do we know that we aren't already transformed? As we are about to cease transformation, how do we know that we have already transformed? Perhaps you and I are in a dream from which we have not yet awakened. He, however, had a vulnerable physical body but no damage to his mind, a patched-together lodge but no expenditure of his essence. Mengsun was singularly awakened. When others cried, he cried too. That's why he behaved himself as he did. "Moreover, people identify each other as 'I,' but how do we know that what we call 'I' may not really be 'I'? You may dream that you are a bird and streak across the sky, that you are a fish and descend to the depths. We cannot determine whether we who are speaking now are awake or dreaming. We may be so suddenly delighted that we don't have a chance to smile; we may break into a smile before we have a chance to arrange ourselves. Repose in what has been arranged for you and leave transformation behind, then you will be able to enter the unity of vast heaven.

Place : Wudang Shan Hubei Province China Traditional : Dragon Gate Long Men Pei, Complete Reality School Experience :I have amazing experiences here and this seems like a good place to share a story. The Night I Met the Moon Goddess In a dream a fellow student krishna wanted to show me a special place on the mountain. I followed him over many obstacles and soon lost sight of him, As I wandered thru the mountains I came across a door with krishna's sword through the ring of the handle. I felt great relief to have found him. As I opened the door the room was full of immortals some of which did not even look human and skin tones of all colors. they were all very relaxed and having a great time, laughing,having a celebration. I immediately shut the door as I felt I was intruding. When I reopened the door everyone was standing still like as to properly behave and Invited me in. As time passed all became a party again. When it was time to leave I had no idea where I was and Krishna was not to be found. I left and wandered through the landscape Then I was met by two beautiful women holding hands. The women agreed to show me the way home and for this I was extremely grateful. The beauty of these Goddesses was outstanding but I was only concerned with finding my way home. As we neared the place where I knew where I was one of the goddess turned to me with a face as bright and round as the moon and said .....I might just like men again, I had returned home. Year :September, 2011 a few days before the Moon Festival Which in real life, not a dream is another story and just as amazing

Heheheh...I don't travel a lot. If I do, usually in some nature parks. One time, few years ago, I went to the Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel NY. Supposedly, it hosts the world largest Vairocana buddha. Throughout the whole trip, I could hear my chakras vibrating. I could usually hear them when I am in a location with relatively more quieter. Then, I came to a 7ft tall Quan Yin statue. You see all the coins people left there on the statue. I began to photograph it. Through the viewfinder and looking at the statue's face, I was completely seized and frozen for few seconds...because I felt the statue was smiling at me and sensing massive energy was coming from it. I moved the camera from my face and staring at the statue's face some more and trying to make sense what had just happened. It was like the statue was alive and living. Then, the grasping and seizing sensation was gone. Now, the statue felt like a statue. Duh..... I believe back then I was trying to open my heart chakra and the center channels. Subsequently, maybe last year, I saw a vision (in my dream state) of a Quan Yin like face with golden hue and smiling at me the same way....

I had a dream that trump was deported. When I woke up dreamers where being deported. So am I the dreamer being deported or is it trump that is deported? Who is this trump person in my dream anyway. I had to of seen him on TV or the radio or something because he is not in my thoughts at all, never even met this guy before. So are our thoughts are own or somebody else thoughts made to seem like our thoughts even tho the thoughts have nothing to do with us at all?

“Dependent Arising of Interdependent Impermanence through Designation.” Let’s explore the above quote. Dependent Arising means everything arises from a Cause, so nothing is independent. So, remove “Dependent Arising” and replace it with the word: Cause. “Cause of Interdependent Impermanence through Designation.” What is Impermanence? What is Interdependent Impermanence? Reality. Replace “Interdependent Impermanence” with the word: Reality. “Cause of Reality through Designation.” What is Designation? As it is. Remove “Designation” and replace with the words: As it is. “Cause of Reality through as it is.” Reality as it is? Dependent Arising of Interdependent Impermanence through Designation. Attachment to Impermanence is a Cause of Suffering. As in the above, Impermanence or Interdependent Impermanence are Reality. So, the Cause of Suffering is Reality. So, use the following phrases: “Cause of Reality through Designation.” – The Dream “Cause of Suffering through Designation.” – Self, The Phantom Designation deals with the Senses. So, remove “Designation” and replace it with: Senses. “Cause of Reality through Senses.” “Cause of Suffering through Senses.” “Through the Senses, the Cause of the Reality of Suffering.” “Through the Senses, the Cause of the Dream of Self.” You should be able to see The Four Noble Truths, the beginning of the Path, even The Four Seals. No matter what the Lineage, it holds truth. What use's the Senses? The Mind. What counters the illusions of the Mind? Wisdom and Compassion is Union. If you believe you already know this: Why have you not shared it? Why do you not have Inner Peace? and Why did you read this post?

Maybe the tale was originally inspired by a dream and the answer to Apech's question should be in the realm of ... dream logic. We all had dreams where causal connections make perfect sense while asleep, but they doesn't once you wake up. To really stretch the mysterious reality we live in, I could say that maybe dreams are driven and ruled by laws of attention and intent. To ask a question ( intent) about the grail would move the attention of the dreamer toward the grail and its associations of powers, virtues and effects. Specifically, the grail was a miraculous healing artifact.

Heard that one before. Before "self-awareness", chop wood, carry water. After "self-awareness", chop wood, carry water. That is still dreaming, like a dreamer with awareness that it is a dream. When it's just Awareness, and no one to be self-aware, there is no wood to be chopped, no water to be carried. That is Nirvana.

"Dream-like" to me means the witness of the dream is involved in, and yet, detached from the contents of the dreams.

Would be interested in your definition of dream-like. often dreams seem to be more real to me than normal daily-life

Yes as long as the body exists the world exists. It just becomes dream-like

Small Dream, What I told you was the truth, John did teach that to make progress you need to be in "actual meditation", and that sitting and breathing was approximately 2% as effective as being in "actual meditation" and that meditating one hour per day and not in "actual meditation" would take 10 years to complete level 1. That is what John said, I didn't lie to you about it.

This perhaps ; "Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song" Love unrequited, robs me of me rest, Love, hopeless love, my ardent soul encumbers, Love, nightmare like, lies heavy of me chest, And weaves itself into my midnight slumbers. When you're lying awake with a dismal headache and Repose is taboo'd by anxiety, I conceive you may use any language you choose to Indulge in, without impropriety; For your brain is on fire, the bed-clothes conspire of Usual slumber to plunder you: First your counter-pane goes, and uncovers your toes, And your sheet slips demurely from under you; Then the blanketing tickles, you feel like mixed Pickles, so terribly sharp is the pricking, And you're hot and you're cross, and you tumble and Toss 'til there's nothing 'twixt you and the ticking. Then the bed-clothes all creep to the ground in a heap And you pick 'em all up in a tangle; Next your pillow resigns and politely declines to Remain at it's usual angle! Well, you get some repose in the form of a dose, with Hot eye-balls and head ever aching, But your slumbering teems with such horrible dreams That you'd very much better be waking; For you dream you are crossing the channel, and Tossing about in a steamer from harwich, Which is something between a large bathing machine and A very small second class carriage, And you're giving a treat (penny ice and cold meat) to A party of friends and relations, They're a ravenous horde, and they all come on board At sloane square and south kensington stations. And bound on that journey you find your attorney (who started this morning from devon); He's a bit undersiz'd and you don't feel surpris'd When he tells you he's only eleven. Well you're driving like mad with this singular lad (by the bye the ship's now a four wheeler), And you're playing round games, and he calls you bad Names when you tell him that "ties pay the dealer"; But this you can't stand so you throw up your hand, And you find you're as cold as an icicle; In your shirt and your socks (the black silk with gold clocks) Crossing sal'sbury plain on a bicycle: And he and the crew are on bicycles too, which they've Somehow or other invested in, And he's telling the tars all the particulars of a Company he's interested in; It's a scheme of devices, to get at low prices, all Good from cough mixtures to cables (which tickled the sailors), by treating retailers as Though they were all vegetables; You get a good spadesman to plant a small tradesman (first take off his boots with a boot tree), And his legs will take root, and his fingers will Shoot, and they'll blossom and bud like a fruit tree; From the green grocer tree you get grapes and green Pea, cauliflower, pine apple and cranberries, While the pastry cook plant cherry brandy will grant, Apple puffs, and three corners, and banburys; The shares are a penny and ever so many are taken by Rothschild and baring, And just as a few are allotted to you, you awake And with a shudder despairing You're a regular wreck, with a crick in your neck, and No wonder you snore, for your head's on the floor And you've needles and pins from your soles to your Shins, and your flesh is acreep, for your left leg's asleep, And you've cramp in your toes, and a fly on your nose, And some fluff in your lung, and a feverish tongue, And a thirst that's intense, And a general sense that you haven't been sleeping in clover; But the darkness has pass'd, and it's daylight at Last, and the night has been long, ditto, ditto my song, And thank goodness they're both of them over! ?

I am more interested in how you can perceive chi outside of yourself and in another person's body. I can perceive chi within my body and can also see my own internal organs while in my own dreams. Apparently, my third eye becomes powerful enough in my dream state. And to do this while fully awakened, literally, is something....quite amazing. To grasp certain chi illness alignments through your third eye...meaning you can grasp it intuitively or you first visually see the alignments with your third eye???

Any body experiencing inner sounds while practicing? Which direction do you stand while practicing and do you have a practical reason for that? Do you also feel that practicing - and life- is like a game of tennis ?😄 You pray, conceptualise, believe, dream and always miss the ball. The wisdom of hitting the ball correctly only comes within your experiences with tested beliefs while practicing, and always in facing the ball thrower.

Agreed on opinions being personally important. I'm not sure the brain functions on duality, it does a lot of things at once. It is our little slice of brain we call me, that can be said to function in a perceived duality..but even that us just outmoded. If it's given thought, the duality of the mind is no longer a realistic view of the human cognition, though in old cultures it might have been but we've mutated an grown collectively since then. People seeking only positive really miss me off, they deny the other side of the coin and don't realize that all they are doing is building a wall up that will eventually collapse on them or those around them. The best points of view are a realistic view of what is there from a unbiased perception. It takes training but anyone can reach it and make it as functional as seeing with the eyes or smelling with the nose. I don't think much unless I need to calculate things. I had an experience an my mind stays calm all the time, unless I deliberately put it to use. Quick example, say your name in your head. Then ask what is your name. The you saying your name is your deliberate consciousness. When you ask the question a second time, if you get any reply back, that's the subconscious mind. Most random thoughts come from the subconscious mind, mine shut up years ago. Not reviewing your life, leaves lingering subconscious biases. If you unravel them by consciously delving into yourself, your mind will be free and clear and you might even retain consciousness after death instead of becoming like most dead people. Kind of weird incomplete beings, who don't retain all that they are. Very similar to Alzheimer's patience, which I've had experiences with them both. Death is like when you dream,except it's more perma. Where you blast off too at death, you stay there til your 'juice' runs out. Five years of five hundred, depends on your bioenergy that's seeped into your spirit at the time you die. Anyhow it's a weird world we live in.