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I have just finished a gong of over 100 days and while I can't really say much on this thread to contribute to what has already been said many times by different users posting here, and because I already outlined it in my personal practice forum here on The Dao Bums, what I will share here is that I will now try to attempt a year or longer of uninterrupted practice. It was already a challenge to do so for over 100 days, but it worked and had a deep impact on me. Yes, I have more energy, but I find its unique property of more alertness and gentleness, very subtle and still impacts my healing to the point I don't even consciously have to give Reiki to patients before they feel better in my presence. Yes, I dream more lucidly and do forms that impact lucidity, especially Monk Gazing at Moon, Monk Holding Peach, the first two basic seated meditations (5% 60% 80% 40% 30% and 50% 30% 10%) that allow me to manipulate the dream world if I really need to save myself from trouble. And yes, my martial forms are much stronger and alert when doing sensing hands or even defending myself from hooligans attacking me at night. Yes, the plants in my apartment are growing very, very well in the room that I practice Flying Phoenix. All of this I believe I shared before and detailed even more in my personal practice journal. I am thankful again to the Doo Wai family and Sifu Terry for this. If I have anything else to contribute, perhaps I will add, but it's really reinforcing more of what has been said many times here about the benefits, unless it's something unique to my own health and karma.

it sounds like you are describing lucid dreaming - which are truly a separate reality, In fact, Carlos Castaneda wrote a book called A Separate Reality which goes into this in great detail. Dreaming 'masters' can get to the point where they control the dream - Castaneda's nagual, don Juan Mateus, was capable of lucid dreaming and pulling Carlos into the dream so they would share the experience. shamans-in-training will spend years trying to master this, as Castaneda did. For some, it happens on the natch. My personal experience with them is that highly structured people (real left brainers) have a harder time getting into a lucid dream. Too fixed in their opinions. Sometimes people who are a little 'flakier' or easier-going have the required lack of mental 'clutching' that the left brainers possess. There's nothing quite like them, is there? And when they turn a bit erotic, omigod.

Does anyone else notice that these are all subtle references to actual superheroes, like the lamp referring to Green Lantern or fruit communication for Swamp Thing? Also, these powers actually wouldn't be out of place with Doom Patrol with Grant Morrison, if the Brotherhood of Dada are any indication... Examples: Alias the Blur Ilse Krauss, an actress, falls in love with her own reflection. As she gets older, the reflection changes, and Ilse's madness drives her to believe that her reflective lover had been kidnapped and replaced; in retaliation, she scars the mirror with battery acid, before shooting herself. Ilse is left in a coma on life support in a Bremen hospital. The dead, destroyed mirror ends up in a junkyard before eventually it is awoken by the dream-vibrations of Mister Nobody; Alias the Blur awakens, a fractured monster-ghost with the ability to speed up the aging process of whoever looks in its mirror. Alias the Blur follows Mister Nobody on the campaign trail to win the presidency before the battle with John Dandy, when it was freed of its tortured existence and Ilse finally died. Sleepwalk Holly McKenzie was a British girl who had tremendous strength, but only when she was asleep. To avoid waking, she took sleeping pills and wore headphones that played Barry Manilow. She had the outlines of two faces painted around her eyes. This is similar to the Supergirl character in the superhero genre of film, comics and fantasy subgenre magical girl. Number None Number None, also known as the Secret Identity, is neither a specific person or thing. Number None is anything or anyone that can get in your way. As Mister Nobody put it, "Everybody and everything, at some time or another, is Number None." It first appears as a door that Agent ! walks into, signaling its joining of the New New New Brotherhood of Dada. It is never officially killed, because it is unclear if it can be.

hehe the jokes are funny but i think its a pretty cool exercise chidragon. I kinda let my mind go and contemplated what it would be like to make sense of reality without the obstruction of other people's explanations. That alone was a really nice exercise, for which i thank you. I wondered first about the origin of reality, if such a thing can even be said to exist. My buddhist beginningless beginninglessness tells me it can't, but i wondered about beginnings.. if reality came before consciousness, or consciousness came before reality. I decided it was a chicken egg mystery and that i wouldn't know the answer by logical deduction. One could just as well proclaim that they arose simultaneously, a yinyang pair, and maybe some people would believe that. Some people will believe anything as long as it makes sense to their logical minds and someone authoritative says it in their religious voice! hahahah But just waking up on earth one day with amnesia, not remembering anything about anything, i pondered that. I realized that that is (without the actual amnesia) a wonderful zen state in which everything is fresh and new and full of infinite potential, not the infinite potential of entropy, but the infinite potential of the empty vessel; the mind that did not try to explain away everything so that it could nominalize phenomena and then, thinking it knew the name of something therefore it knew something about it. Which is basically what language does on a subtle insidious level that pervades our conscious process entirely until we realize that we might be dreaming, or characters in the divine dream, and all this might not even be what we cling to it being so tightly. So in my imagination i woke up in the grass and saw the sun and just thought it was beautiful and warm. Inevitably, i thought about the conversion of elements in a plasmic furnace, or about solar deities, or UV rays. But i realized that i would just say hello and maybe a prayer of thanks to it and move on to finding breakfast if i were truly amnesiac. I think the best thing i took from your exercise chidragon is the realization that the tabula rasa or "blank slate" is supreme.. the beginners mind of the zen master that doesnt grasp or reject, just acts spontaneously in accord with what it perceives. I am a firm believer that there is something going on here that science can't explain, and that the religions don't perceive, and the spiritual traditions perceive that they don't perceive everything, but they don't perceieve, well, what they don't perceive. So in my own soulbending (and ignorant, and arrogant) attempts to perceive the workings of this vast mystery for myself, i have only seen an unknowable dream, a phantasmagorical mirage of empty phenomenon, some of which are stable enough to be perceived as "real" by the untrained mind, and some of which shift mockingly in front of my face as though the spirit of the All would rather not be seen, and the act of perception inspires it to change into something unknown while the observer watches witlessly. In a sea of time so vast that even a big bang is just a flicker in the ocean of reality, and the end of a reality is no more significant than a dreamer waking up to realize it was just a dream, only to find themselves in another dream, ad infinitum... in a sea of time like that, what we are dealing with when we gaze at the I AM is beyond the comprehension of a silly mortal, a would be seer, basically a charlatan who clings to the idea that they can indeed understand the ultimate reality as if it conformed to ideas and logic.. :D so i have arrived at the conclusion time and time again that the best mind is the empty mind, and that we aren't designed to know or supposed to realize the unknowable and that which transcends realization. The most we can hope for in gazing at the I AM is that we be shocked into the awareness that I AM THAT and just let yourself die its for the best. Anyway if you read all that, i wish i could pin a gold star on your nose, for being so obliging. And chidragon, neat thoughts, thanks again for sharing

I once tried that strange pipe and had a vision of the Raccoon God. In the dream, he gave me a golden acorn. But the initial euphoria quickly turned into a “bad trip” when Nungali came out of nowhere and stole the small nut. He even made a rap song out of it to spite me. Then he buried it somewhere in Australia, never to be seen again. It is said that a 1000 year old tree grew where he hid it, and of the shape of a raccoon. But we’ve since patched our relationship over our shared interest in random critters and various rodents. Although I contend that American possums are superior in subtle ways to their Australian counterparts.

Like even the military already knows it, what's hard to understand about "hearts and minds, sir." You don't become a half witt, thinking with your mind alone. You have to think with your mind and heart and become a FULL witt, a WHOLE person. You have to think in alignment with your emotional ability to FEEL the energy motional relativity between the physical consciousness and your greater non-physical consciousness, always here and now. Regardless of whatever perspective you hold about whatever you hold that perspective, you always feel the relativity of that perspective and the perspective of your own soul, which is already being and becoming all that you want to know be do or have evermore here and now. For science to finally once and for all accept that emotions exist, then they simply got acces to the knowing of anything and everything they so desire to know about anything and everything they so desire to know. They will be free evermore to understand anything and everything! AND EVERMORE! They will even become free to become even more stupid than they've ever been if they so wish, in the most intelligent way possible, in the most terrorizing and self contradicting and agonizing way possible, but will their soul join them in their stupidity? No... And that is why they always feel their energy motional relativity between their knowing and that of their own soul's evermore expanding greater knowing. So that no matter how stupid someone becomes, they can always simply let go of that stupidity, ignorance and arrogance, and simply instantly feel better emotionally, and simply instantly release all of that resistant energy and boom. Infinite intelligence, eternal wisdom, unconditional love. Expanding evermore here and now being and becoming all that they want to be do or have. Free to create evermore greater inventions evermore astounding wisdoms and intelligence far bypassing their own minds ability to even comprehend! Because the mind is not responsible to carry the weight of the world on its shoulders. Your soul does that for you. So think with your heart and the knowledge is all out there and everywhere you can possibly look. If you give yourself permission to feel good emotionally more of the time, you can wake up from one dream, and feel juiced up and ready to make 5000 nobel prizes per second. They got no definition to comprehend the kind of intelligence they have acces to. And yet they block it for themselves, because oh science has to be sterile... And emotionless. Everyone knows emotions are not intelligent... Well? All of existance is energy in motion. It is so much in motion that the motion motions itself into existance. What more emotional evidence do you need. And we got all these brilliant minds doing impossible calculations and they get asked, well how do you do it? And they say "Well I FEEL it is just right it feels better it's just right, that feels wrong and so it cannot be and so it is IRRELEVANT, it can only feel very good and not less it can only feel better, that is also the only job that you have as a physical human being extension of your own greater non-physical consciousness to simply enjoy life and be ALL THAT YOU TRUELY ARE PEACE AT LEAST AND EVERMORE JOY AND BLISSFULL NATURAL EVER AWAKENING AND EVER REFRESHING INFINITE INTELLIGENCE AND ETERNAL WISDOM AND UNCONDITIONAL LOVE." it's just the energy motionAL alignment between them and their own greater non-physical consciousness that is their soul and they feel that as joy and anything less than that WILL NEVER EVER DO. It is not relevant it is just a lesser truth and it will never ever become a full truth of ever expanding more being and becoming of all infinite truth being and becoming evermore here and now through the infinite grace of the ever expanding source of all creation, of ever expanding infinite intelligence, eternal wisdom, unconditional love. OF WHICH WE ARE AN INSEPERABLE EXTENSION. So OFCOURSE you're gonna feel emotion when you deviate your perspective from what is true, to let you know, hey! you might wanna know this, cause this is really enjoyable for you to know! UUUeeeeeee! WRONG... Negative emotion. Your perspective is false. Scrap it. Feel better about it first, then you will see the true reality of it. Being and becoming evermore here and now. For the joy of the true life experience that is you. To simply be do or have whatever you want. You just gotta be willing to allow yourself to feel better, that's the only thing you can do and that's the only thing you also need to do. To let go of self contradictory thoughts and allow your natural joyful thoughts to flow again. Meditate, feel better, allow better feeling thoughts more enjoy them more expand more upon them and they will be ENJOYED upon you. EVERMORE. It is simply your normal true normal and natural nature. To flow the energy which creates worlds through you. As you are an inseperable extension of it. So you feel your energy motional relativity with it, emotionally. As your emotional guidance system. To always know you wanna feel better you are ment to feel VERY GOOD. That is your normal truely normal natural nature. You can never get lost, because you can FEEL when you are lost. And so you know you don't like that feeling, it is not compatible with your true nature, your own soul doesn't agree with it. And you know you want to feel better. So uhmmm..... ??? Hmmmm! I wonder what might feel better? Uhmm... Is it "being found" perhaps? Maybe my soul wants me to focus on being found, maybe infinite intelligence is guiding me through my emotional guidance system to "being found" perhaps? Duuh... You want to be found! you want to be knowing! You want the revelations to flow through you! You want to feel EXTATICALLY GOOD! You want to be in evermore greater allowed flow of inspiraling inspirations EVERMORE BEING AND BECOMING EVERMORE HERE AND NOW FOR YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN! A new here and now, unlike any that has ever been before or will ever be like it ever again! and AGAIN! AND AGAIN! AND AGAIN! You got the freaking energy which creates worlds flowing through you. You gonna even wonder about your own ability to come to a real understanding of what life is all about? Then surely you got your heart to teach you otherwise. Because your hearts is always flowing your greater knowing through it, as a guidance to you. So that you may want to feel better again. And allow it to be so! For if you can with that tiny little mind of yours, feel better, you can also feel better again. And again. Untill you simply know that you don't need to do anything to allow yourself to feel better. And then you will allow yourself to feel very good. And better yet. Evermore, being and becoming evermore in greater allowed alignment and realisation of and with the ever expanding source of all creation of infinite intelligence, eternal wisdom, unconditional love. The energy which creates worlds, it flows through you always, you are an inseperable extension of it. And when you flow it through yourself through self contradictory thought patterns, you feel the self contradictory, resistant, energy in motion as negative emotion. And the point is so that you don't have to do that anymore. Do you really need to study 999999999 billion years of science to know that if you touch a hot object and it hurts you are suppose to take your hand off of it, in order to come to a greater understanding of what that hot pan actually is? Seriously, science and their big heads. Once they are happy, they can finally put those minds to good use. Harness its full potential. And the only price you pay is the price of joy. Oh what a awefull price... Full of awe indeed.

Totoro’s mind is clear and lucid like the moon because he has soft thought. A lot of us, like myself, have a tendency towards hard thought. Well, I’m an engineer, so it comes by the trade of the business, but so do a lot of lawyers or politicians, or anything that requires heavy mental work. Hard thoughts mean tightening the mind and seeing the world and your problems as an equation to solve. Artists, enlightened ones, and very gentle people often see everything like a day-dream. Like Totoro, they enjoy soft thought. The thoughts still come and go in their mind space, but as a soft breeze. There is no strong control or direction applied to them by the thinker. Ask yourself, can you really be a soft person if you have hard thoughts ? Can hard thoughts change the world ? Remember in DDJ, “no violent force can last long”. The symbol of hard thought in the West is “The Thinker” by Rodin - Look at how much tension is in his face. Maybe Buddha or Totoro could be symbols of soft thought in the East. And one last thing. Curiosity is a good foundation for a soft mind. Look at Totoro’s big eyes. He doesn’t say much, but he is taking in so much. He is listening, curious. Open to any possibility. And open to any opportunity to help. This makes his thoughts gentle and flexible. Then his outer actions reflect his inner gentleness. But his actions are unpredictable, they could be anything, even a random weird sound like a growl because he is coming from a deeper place then hard thoughts, deeper than the intellect. But to be like Totoro we need to learn to be gentle with ourselves first. If Totoro was still judging himself with hard thoughts, then I don’t think his spirit could shine like the full moon, like it does now

I don't own any of these, so can't comment on their effectiveness: Daoist Sleeping Meditation: Chen Tuan's Sleeping Gong Daoist Dream Practice Audio CD Eight Pieces of Brocade/Sleeping Qigong It's not specifically for sleep, but I've noticed that the times in the past when I've practiced Pangu Shengong at night, the quality of my sleep seemed much improved, sometimes sleeping straight through the night and waking up feeling refreshed. I should start doing that again! Also, not qigong, but yoga nidra is said to produce effects equivalent to deep sleep in a short period of time. It's certainly very relaxing in any case.

And drove the evil spirits into the swine who drowned themselves. What did the pigs ever do? Oh, and cursed the fig tree for not growing! (That'll teach you to not grow! Now you'll not grow more! So there!) :-) :-) I have nothing against the dude. I'm being light hearted there. Anybody who cares is sometimes irritated, I suspect. I once had a dream where a voice told me that Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. had this in common: that neither were nearly as perfect as everybody assumed they were, and that they both to a great degree lived for what amounted to an ideal and a dream they held. No idea why I dreamed that as I certainly hadn't been thinking of either of them for any reason. RC

I just remembered that I read about the guy who recorded his dreams in a book called "How to believe in Nothing and Set yourself free" buy a guy named Michael Misita. http://www.scribd.com/esdfs/d/39063815-Misita-How-to-Believe-in-Nothing-and-Set-Yourself-Free This is an awesome book by the way. Here is what he wrote: Almost one hundred years since the publication of Freud's classic "Interpretation of Dreams," dream work is receiving widespread recognition as a valuable technique for learning more about the self rather than being dismissed as merely phantasms of the sleeping brain. For example, there are professional dream organizations; movies with dream themes are raking in millions; bookstore shelves are filled with dream books, and magazine articles on working with dreams have become almost monthly fare. During the passionate embrace of altered-state-of-consciousness work in the 1960s, one study paid a young man a full-time salary to record his dreams over the span of a year. He settled into a small mobile home and set out to record his nightly encounters. With some practice, he was recording up to one hundred pages of material a day. What became incredibly clear was that the source of his nightly excursions was the experience of awareness. A particular form of dreaming, lucid dreaming, offers us a direct link to the experience of pure consciousness. The ultimate self-awareness experience in sleep is knowing you are dreaming while you are dreaming, yet this is but another bridge to even higher levels of consciousness. Although dreams are the psyche's deepest imagery generating system, we can also benefit through the conscious application of imagery experienced in creative visualization. Jeanne Achterberg, president of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, draws a line from the image to the immune system to support a neurological relationship between the image and the body's maintenance of health. Pointing to the central role of emotions in both imagery and disease, she states, "Verbal messages must undergo translation by the imagery system before they can be understood by the involuntary or autonomic nervous system and related components. "

hi , good thread.i would be very interested to read what everyone has to say on contacting their guides. im also praying for gudiance and protection .and always asking to be able to truly love. fiveelemtao,ill just relate something i cant work out totaly and wonder if you have any opinon about it. few years ago i dreampt i saw my sister sitting on my bed talking to me in my room quite lucidly as if awake .in dream i woke up and saw that this is not my sister and asked :who are you?why are you in my dream ?she kept pretending for a bit ,i said:stop fooling me and letting me talk to you,i dont belive you,becouse i know im dreaming. so i told her to get out of my room.at that moment i saw this being (male?)totaly white,made of light ,just like a glowing shape.i never saw somebody looking like this even in the dream.and he very politley got out of my room(circeld around of my bed so not to step on me) and exited the room. so now,i still dream of this being taking me some places ,talking to me etc...( so often sometimes daily )and me due to my emotional make up or something else unkonwn to me - i see him as my sister but know its been him again clearly as i wake up and remeber the dream. in a way i thought this is sort of guide at some point, but dont dont feel so welcoming to him. intuitevly im learning to listen and discriminate, not by book and am not ever discussing this with anyone. cheers, sun

So now we have a new factor - the increased alpha brain waves from attention to “non-objects” - again more science corroboration of the Unprimed condition of formless awareness intention! The non-objects were systematically followed by a higher level of alpha than the objects…. suggesting that the alpha level is inversely related to saliency or familiarity of the object and does not directly reflect visual awareness. The reactive alpha rhythm was generated in the parieto-occipital sulcus, [the Bindu Chakra] which in several primate species includes areas belonging to the dorsal visual pathway So when we turn back to alchemy training - like this Secret of Everlasting Life book - translation of the first book focused on internal alchemy in China… We finally discover that indeed that Kunlun image I had posted in “part one” really is the Bindu Chakra…. googlebook link - water flows down from the Kunlun pass in the back of the brain. So that indicates that the secret of the Max Christensen Kunlun alchemy training of the water flowing down is from the Bindu Chakra - for real! But wait - there will be further corroboration! EEG in meditation. Theta rhythm is found mainly in central, temporal and frontal areas. Its episodes (encircled by double line) may appear at the same time when alpha rhythm dominate in occipital and parietal areas. From Moscow University Brain Research Group - spiritual matters ! Now then - what did I just post - about the parietal-occiptal fissure or sulcus - the Bindu Chakra - it is highest in alpha waves when focused on a non-object as the UNPRIMED CONDITION and now another brain research group documents the same thing from meditation yogis that focus on the formless awareness!! But wait it gets better because as I was doing my research, keep in mind, I was “flexing” or “sucking” on my Bindu Chakra - putting my qi intention there, creating pressure on the skull fissue or sulcus….and amazingly generating great Tummo heat in the lower tan tien. I know from my qigong experience that the tummo heat is best generated when the overflowing cerebrospinal fluid is swallowed, after it overflows out of the nasal cavity. I even quoted alchemy texts confirming that truth - as the “front” path of restoring yuan jing energy via yuan quan energy restoration. I did a blog post making that argument after a certain “school” of Neidan claimed you could not restore Yuan Qi…. using fear tactics while at the same time claiming that celibacy was not necessary for their alchemy training! Hilarious. Alpha-band activity is significantly greater when subjects have been cued to attend selectively to impending auditory stimulation. So now we have more corroboration that proper intention is UNPRIMES, a non-object, and on listening to formless awareness. That is what increases the alpha brain waves to be strongest in the back, thereby causing increased theta brain waves in the front - which causes the energy to resonate with the heart theta REM waves. Science has just discovered that contrary to previous claims, it is the REM dream state that are the most coherent brain waves! So now it’s time to go back to alchemy training to dig out further details : In simple terms, Kunlun is described as the Downward Water Flow and Kundalini as the Upward Rising Fire. The path of Kunlun is one where the Water or Kunlun energy is brought down to the heart, automatically causing the fire from the root to rise, resulting in the merge of the two to result in alchemy at the level of the Inner Heart. This results in the generation of what one calls the ‘steam’ or a third magnetic potential, eventually leading to the Great Void (or the Great One – whatever you choose to call), initiated by a magnetic expansion. In terms of Chi, if you would describe Chi as electric, Kunlun energy can be termed magnetic. The other key difference between Kundalini [fire approach I mean; I am yet to find popularly available water approach to Kundalini except in Kashmiri Shaivite schools] and Kunlun is also their doing – burning in the first case, dissolving in the latter. Also, Fire is all about ascension, becoming the heaven; whereas water is all about bringing heaven down to earth, to the human. Are they eventually the same, may be, may be not, assuming there is indeed an eventuality and a common one lol Why magnetic? Well science calls it gravitomagnetic - because the magnetic field is the precession as magnetic moment - it is the secret of “yuan qi” as the “hidden momentum” of turning the light around! I have occasionally heard of a connection mentioned in yoga between the bindu chakra (top back of head) and the vishuddhi chakra. The relationship is connected with the transformation of amrita which is produced in the bindu chakra and transformed in the vishuddhi chakra before descending lower down in the body. When the process is not working properly because of obstructions in the nadis or chakras, then, it is said, the process results in a contracted state of consciousness (the creation of persons), but when it is functioning in it’s pure state it results in divine consciousness. So contrary to the “general” meaning of bindu as point - we begin to discover the secret meaning of the Bindu Chakra - as the secret of the Water path as Kunlun Pass in Taoist alchemy! Bindu holds our life force within. It is the center of where our life nectar, AMRITA, is produced. Amrita is said to help the yogi obtain enlightenment. From there, this nectar drops down toward the third chakra, Manipura.In the Manipura chakra, the life nectar from the Bindu chakra is being used up for various activities of our body. In other words, the fire of Manipura (the name Solar Plexus Chakra is not given by chance) is responsible for burning up and gradually using the nourishing powers of the AMRITA nectar. So far we have these general declarations without much corroboration. It’s difficult to believe - how could focusing on that Bindu Chakra restore your energy? Well I found out…. So finally we get “official” corroboration that bindu really does mean drop of liquid originally. Bindu, (cp. Vedic bindu & vindu) 1. a drop, usually a drop of water Sn. 392, 812 (uda°); J. I, 100; Vism. 531 (madhu°); ThA. 281; PvA. 98 (udaka°).—2. a spot (cp. SBE XVII. 155) Vism. 222 (°vicitvā gāvī a spotted cow). ‹-› 3 So then in the above forum discussion the only reference I could find was this: “Kundalini Tantra” by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. google pdf link Amazingly this book gives great focus and attention to the Bindu Chakra - it discusses the Bindu Chakra as one of the key - if not the central secret of the alchemy training. Just word search Bindu. What’s fascinating about that book is the Bindu Chakra is considered to be focused on by listening as the source of the OHM sound - and you listen to high frequency sounds. Guess what? when I was earlier doing the science research I discovered another “hypersonic effect” study and the alpha brain waves that are increased by the ultrasound hypersonic effect? They emanate out of the parietal-occipital area of the brain! Indeed, the natural environment, such as tropical rain forests, usually contains sounds that are extremely rich in HFCs [high frequency components] over 100 kHz [3] [ultrasound]. From an anthropogenetic point of view, the sensory system of human beings exposed to a natural environment would stand a good chance of developing some physiological sensitivity to HFCs. We also found that some musical instruments, such as a gamelan of Bali, Indonesia, produce a significant number of HFCs over 100 kHz [3]. Deep Brain Activation So that book points out how then the Brahmins have a knot of hair tied at that Bindu Chakra in order to increase pressure on the skull as a meditation focus. There is 2016 research confirming that alpha wave binaural beats are strongest in the rear parietal lobe, and based on attention. Also that when there are competing thoughts as beta brain waves, it is the alpha brain wave the “suppresses” one thought, over another. Finally it is proven that an electrical current applied to the brain at alpha hertz increases creativity, similar to meditation. So I began searching this source for more details….and bingo or Boom! The science and alchemy of Taoist and Vedic traditions merged together: Secret of how the cerebrospinal fluid gets pulled down into the central channel via the Bindu Chakra There is a connection between the Arohan and Awarohan psychic passageways in Tantric Kriya Yoga, and the Conception vessel (CV) and Governor vessel (GV) of traditional Chinese Medicine, and the segmented dermatomes (distribution of spinal nerves to the front and back of the body). In the Bihar School of Yoga publication Moola Bandha the Master Key (1978, Page 122) by Chela Buddhananda, there are correlations drawn between the Arohan (frontal / anterior) psychic passageway and the Conception vessel & the Awarohan (back/posterior) psychic passageway and the Governor vessel. Chela Buddhananda states, that the ancient Chinese must have known about Kriya Yoga, because in one of the ancient Chinese scriptures called the “Tai Chin Hua Tzang Chih (The Secret of the Golden Flower) there is as meditation technique very similar to that used in the Tantric Kriya Yoga. Finally someone from the Kriya yoga tradition - is making the connection to the Small Universe meditation! haha. Unfortunately the Australian ashram of that Bihar school was doing evil sex abuse on youth. So having the proper intention of the Bindu Chakra is all the more important for doing the proper yoga training! What we have discovered is the Bindu Chakra over-rides - it’s a short cut - and focuses the intention or perspective back on the “awareness” to hold the qi back to restore the Yuan Jing as the Water path going down the front of the spine….and as Master Nan, Huai-chin points out when the jing is converted to qi then a loud OHM sound emanates from the heart. In fact I discovered a new brain study of ayahuasca users and found they have highly increased alpha brain waves in the parietal-occipital region! I mention this since when I did a strong ayahuasca test while in full lotus - I heard this loud OHM sound from the heart…. Another interesting point from science is that hallucinations say seen in the left eye are caused by brain damage in the right side of the parietal-occipital region - so again we see how the cross over works for the energy. So by focusing or “sucking” the cosmic Yuan Qi energy through the Bindu Chakra - then the cerebrospinal fluid bypasses the eyes and prevents the qi-shen from being lost out of the eyes - instead the alchemical amrita flows down as the Water Path -down the nasal sinus cavity via the pineal gland and swallowed down to the stomach. 9. The method used by the ancients for escaping from the world consisted in refining away the dregs of yin in order to return to the pure Qian (Heaven ☰). It is just a matter of dissolving the lower self and completing the higher self. Turning the light around is the method of dissolving yin and controlling the lower self. Except for the secret of turning the light around, there is no other exercise to return to Qian (Heaven ☰). The light itself is Qian; to turn it around is to return to it. Just persist in this method, and naturally vitality-water will be sufficient, spirit-fire will ignite, intent-earth will stabilize and thus the holy embryo gestates. And so turning the light around really does mean focusing the shen below the jing - but starting to do that in the brain by focusing on the Bindu Chakra or Kunlun Pass but this is only understood by properly understanding the psychophysiological secret of the small universe meditation, detailed in the book Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality . It’s only by doing a comparative study that this research is revealed. https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/R8e1u4lRnisqHy45GfPrIqtSoIPECH-DStuyRb-GrJcOSJhGR7WcwtYbWJsjWv_CfJUAaBJ5M2aUR5S0hJ-qr1lRhBWXpOqnzq04p2nTpxSk98zIsaf5-GLVapxXJHz7670idvZzsu9aCk309ENE=s0-d So as I recommended to read what for me is the most important book of my life, Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality , I then returned to review it, after having not read the book in many months. I was also given a good comment that was discussed on thetaobums also. Just as I have recently focused on the Bindu Chakra, the book Taoist Yoga states to first focus meditation on the “original cavity of spirit” until you see light and then feel heat in the lower tan tien, strong heat for one day. But this is very difficult on its own and the secret is the “squinting” the eyes on the nose or the rotating of the eyes - called “gathering” the energy: “the cultivation of heart to preserve (essential) nature….If you can not set your heart at rest in order to fix spirit in its original cavity (in the centre of the brain between and behind the eyes)…..” p. 84 “…for if spirit wanders outside, vitality will scatter to become generative fluid the exhaustion of which leads to death.” p. 83 “While sitting in meditation the practiser should never…3, look at external objects, for there the spirit wanders thereby harming the incorporeal soul (hun)” p. 117 “However if he can unite the element of metal (male) with that of wood (female) and the sun and the moon in one place….he will see the light of true vitality in front of his original cavity of spirit which will then hold it to prevent it from running away; the longer it is held the brighter it will be. When it becomes stable it reveals the successful union of the dragon and tiger (i.e. the female and male vital breaths).” p. 72 So at first you see light inside the brain but only when the qi energy is built up is the light seen “in front of” (meaning outside the body) the third eye. “which manifests when your body is full of prenatal generative force and disappears when the latter is lacking.” p. 80 “driving the first two [generative force and vitality] into the third [shen or spirit] to invigorate it.” p. 78 But the key point the book makes is that successful focus on the “original cavity of spirit” that is the third eye in the center of the brain, the pineal gland, that emanates “true” or “prenatal vitality” (Yuan Qi), thereby creating the spirit shen light , requires that the heart by empty of passion and over-excitement and anger. If this is not possible then the small universe meditation is needed. Hence the method of correct breathing is to circulate quick [strong] fire up and down (in the microcosmic orbit) and so immobilise the generative force causing the genital organ to retract (thus stopping the draining of vitality). After it has shrunk, the practiser should breath in to drive the generative force into the base of the spine and thence up the backbone into the brain; p. 34 The book Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality quickly (pg. 3) points out that there are two psychic channels that run up from each side of the body to the top of the medulla oblongata - so again that is to the pineal gland, the physical source of the third eye; but those two psychic channels then run to the eyes. “…west of the sun (the left eye)….” p. 4 “The left eye stands for the East whose element is wood and the right eye for the West whose element is metal.” p. 65 True nature is prenatal vitality is prenatal vitality [yuan qi] in its cell [pineal gland] on top of the medulla oblongata. p. 66 “left and right sides [of the third eye] are linked with the pupils of the eyes by (two) psychic channels; and it is also connected with the heart. Hence it is said that essential nature is in the heart and manifests through the two eyes.” “The sun and the moon, when turning round, unite the positive yang with the negative yin so that a glorious light emerges in the centre of the brain.” 64 footnote: the left and right eyes stand respectively for the sun and moon; i.e. the positive and negative yin.“ We can see from my Bindu Chakra research, this most likely is referring to the vagus nerve and the arteries and veins - as the Taoist Body uses the terminology of artery and vein - as the dragon and tiger channels. But the Taoist Yoga book is very clear that "only the two eyes are positive” and the rest of the body is yin qi energy - meaning only the two eyes emanate the prenatal vitality, as the book explains that the two eyes have “one source.” “The left eye stands for the East whose element is wood….” p. 65 “…the female element of moon is the wood….” p. 85 https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/R8e1u4lRnisqHy45GfPrIqtSoIPECH-DStuyRb-GrJcOSJhGR7WcwtYbWJsjWv_CfJUAaBJ5M2aUR5S0hJ-qr1lRhBWXpOqnzq04p2nTpxSk98zIsaf5-GLVapxXJHz7670idvZzsu9aCk309ENE=s0-d So it’s very important to understand the eye energy and what these two eye channels are - and we learn soon in the book, page 3, that the left eye is solar and the right eye is lunar. But here is where the mystery begins because it is not until the very end of the book that the left eye is revealed to be the “positive spirit” energy channel - the yang shen - immortal man - channel that is combined with the negative vitality of the body that creates the golden light. p. 156 “the left eye stands for the positive spirit” The mystery is this - the left eye is solar but it is also the liver hun incorporeal soul or dragon energy and yet the liver is also detailed as lunar and wood energy! A serious contradiction ! But notice above the quote says to “unite” the sun with the wood and the moon with the metal, a serious clue: unite the element of metal (male) with that of wood (female) and the sun and the moon in one place Again this contradiction is not solved until the very end of the book when we learn that the “solar” of the left eye is actually the “positive spirit” as the “yang shen” or immortal man. The golden light immortal man, at the very end of the training, once finally all the yin shen negative vitality of the body is transformed into yang shen, then vaporizes the whole physical body into pure formless qi that is boundless with the whole universe. When the yang shen wants to be in once location it then condenses back into the golden immortal body as positive spirit. The Hun soul controls our essential nature [xing], and hence, our congenital [yuan qi] meridians. http://www.scholarsage.com/the-hun-and-symbolism/ .“..the spiritual [body] is prenatal vitality [yuan qi] …and is our essential nature.” p. 74 So the original qigong master shared at the Level 3 retreat in 2000 that he knows meditation masters in the mountains of China who are developing their golden light aura as the yang shen. And once I had this book with me in class - but hidden in my back pack, I never brought it out, and yet the original qigong master shared how his meditation energy had been very deep lately and he had seen the falling snow in the sky as flowers falling in the winter. This is a direct reference to the end of the training as the golden light of the yang shen is developing. What the book states is that if you don’t open the top center of the head then you just end up with the yin shen - the white light - that others can not see and has less abilities and in the end is not immortal. And the original qigong master even described how the top of the head really does open up and some masters will have something stuck through the opening - like a reed or some thin plant like that. https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/R8e1u4lRnisqHy45GfPrIqtSoIPECH-DStuyRb-GrJcOSJhGR7WcwtYbWJsjWv_CfJUAaBJ5M2aUR5S0hJ-qr1lRhBWXpOqnzq04p2nTpxSk98zIsaf5-GLVapxXJHz7670idvZzsu9aCk309ENE=s0-d So in the very end of the Taoist Yoga book it states that the “four elements” are vaporized - and then refers the reader back to page 31 - and those four elements are the body itself, the breath (post-natal or yin qi), and the Hun soul and the Po soul. Again the Hun soul is from the liver and the Po soul is from the lung and both then go to the eyes - the Po soul is the whites of the eyes and the Hun soul is the irises of the eyes. Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality : The Hun spirit is negative - meaning still yin shen - and so is from the consciousness of the heart - not the true original spirit of the heart. The hun spirit is then powered by the yin qi of the liver but is moved by the heart - it “obeys the heart’s impulses.” The po spirit is then powered by the yin qi of the lungs - metal - passion - it also is moved by the heart’s impulses. “Liver qi communicates with the eyes,” states the Neijing, “and if the liver functions harmoniously, the eyes can differentiate the five essential colors….If the liver receives blood, we can see. The liver channel branches out to the eyes. Both liver qi and liver blood flood the eyes to maintain proper eyesight. A person’s eyesight may therefore also serve as an indicator for liver function. And so to go back to how to open up the Original Cavity of Spirit - it is crucial to understand this secret: ”…the element of fire in the eyes which are above scorches that of the water in the belly which is below, to produce positive vitality whose light manifests in front of him….the white light of vitality.“ p. 122 So if a person is not able to manifest this white light - seen externally outside the person as auras - then the white light seen just internally is the "relative void” that is “useless.” For the cultivation of nature alone ensures only the descent of the positive firewithout the ascent of the (vital) breath from below;“ p. 56 Why? The microcosmic orbit training describes the energy going down the front of the body as "negative fire” or yin qi energy - whereas the energy going up the back of the body is “positive fire” or “quick fire” - that is the prenatal vitality, as it is stronger then the yin qi blockages and yin jing blockages of the generative force - so the quick fire is what activates and creates the yuan qi or prenatal vitality that then expands the energy channels. “the light of the eyes directed downward is positive” p. 123 So the reason that the light of the eyes directed downward are positive is because that is the light seen externally also - the light that manifests when the original cavity of spirit is open as the light of yuan qi or prenatal vitality that later manifests as the “positive spirit” when creating the immortal man, but only after the liver lunar qi energy is build up from the negative vitality! Chapter 11: “the object of [alchemy] which is to realise the full development of positive vitality [yuan qi].” And so not until the generative force is full does the positive vitality manifest to open up the cavity of original spirit with white light seen externally. That means the energy has to be restored to that of a 16 year old!! That is why it is much easier to do this training, the younger a person is. I achieved this “enlightenment experience” when I was 29 years old and I maintained it only for a few weeks!! Since I did not understand the training - the energy “drained” away and then I overused the energy from the “evil fire” of the heart - as the book details. If (essential) nature is still, the incorporeal (soul) lies hidden to let the element of wood return to its source. p. 31-2 So there we finally get the direct connection between Xing as essential nature and the Hun - and the Xing then is the prenatal vitality or yuan qi that emanates out of the eyes via the pineal gland but when is “still” and not lost out of the eyes, then returns to the liver. So this can be used as the reference source for the Neidan entry on Wiki!! haha. I’ve never submitted anything to Wiki and don’t plan to - but nice to solve this secret of alchemy!! The home of qi is said to be centered around the liver[citation needed]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neidan And this: The Neijing comments in its typical terse code: “Hun is that what follows shen going in and out.” So that makes sense when we consider the prenatal vitality or yuan qi is necessary to be built up to enable the shen to go in and out of the body. https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/R8e1u4lRnisqHy45GfPrIqtSoIPECH-DStuyRb-GrJcOSJhGR7WcwtYbWJsjWv_CfJUAaBJ5M2aUR5S0hJ-qr1lRhBWXpOqnzq04p2nTpxSk98zIsaf5-GLVapxXJHz7670idvZzsu9aCk309ENE=s0-d So then now we get the crucial secret of Xing meditation - the focus on essential nature in the center of the brain, the original cavity of Spirit, as the beginning of the meditation: “When the eyes cease seeing, the incorporeal soul is in the liver” Hsing-ming kuei-chih [“Balanced Instructions about Inner Nature and Life-Realities”] of 1615,….If essential nature is still, the incorporeal (soul) lies hidden….“ "Hence it is said that essential nature is (in) the heart which manifests through the two eyes….It is only when true vitality develops and united with essential nature to become one whole that the latter is called the precious cauldron [the third eye opened].” p. 10 So as the original qigong master states only after the liver energy is built up does the heart open up - as the third eye manifesting. Use your consciousness to go into the Emptiness - the universe is the green liver energy and now we know why! The Hun moves upwards towards the Shen and its movement gives the Shen the capacity to extend and project outwards. The movement of the Hun towards the Shen is a psychic equivalent of the physiological ascending movement of Liver-Qi. http://maciociaonline.blogspot.com/2012/11/shen-and-hun-psyche-in-chinese-medicine.html And yet the only way to build up the qi energy is by first building up the lower tan tien energy! My master said: When the generative and vital forces in the lower tan t'ien cavity move away they become liquid but when they return to that cavity they are prenatal vitality [yuan qi].“ p. 59 And so how is this connection to the lower tan tien made! With the eyes closed!! "When he wakes up, and opens his eyes, spirit returns to his organ of sight, thereby disengaging the heart from the lower abdomen which will not reunite even if he starves for a week.” p. 82 So the “true vitality” or yuan qi of the lower tan tien then unites with “essential nature” as the liver qi that powers the heart shen in the third eye. essential nature is “negative breath in the heart.” Yin qi of the liver.

Xabir, Thank you for sharing and sharing your experience. Lately, I have come accross some realizations, experiences. My meditations have been to turn the attention back towards the thoughts that arise towards the left back of the head. I examine a thought and watch it dissolve. I focus on the little space left behind and then try to remain there. Another thought appears and I again I behold it until it dissolves. I do not let the thought proliferate or cause other thoughts. I remain in the space, watching. After about 10 minutes of doing that, there is an energetic shift which takes place. It feels as though the inner body dissociates from the physical. My hands become fields of energy and it feels like my body has fallen away. That is when the visions start. I then proceed to do the same technique to the visions. I don't follow them, but look directly at them while keeping a certain distance from them. Sometimes I receed back into 'that which is watching the consciousness watching.. When the visions dissolve, they always dissolve into rainbows and very small beads of fine light bubbles. As I maintain my perspective, some of the visions that arise are so real, crisp and clear that they appear just like a normal worldly scene would. This is becoming quite common and I am gaining the understanding that this worldly reality appears to be just like the vivid scenes during my meditations. The interesting thing about this type of meditation, in which I am trying to do nothing but remain in the natural state, is not only causing visions but also precipitating nimittas (very bright lights that resemble the sun poking through the clouds. Very bright blinding intense light. Just by doing next to nothing. This made me realize that you don't have to do breath meditation to realize nimittas, it is more based on the stillness/calm of the mind. The other thing I will mention is that a few weeks ago, I had a dream that was so real that I had to really think about it in the dream. I thought that I was really in another reality. When I thought about it, I decided the only way to see if I was dreaming or not was to turn my attention back towards myself. When I did that, my presence became filled with very clear golden light, like the light of pure consciousness and I then had a satori moment, right there in the dream. Then, I woke up. So, yes, I can see that Thusness' comment about it spilling over into other aspects of reality seems to be the case. But mostly, right now, I'm very happy that I've found Buddha's method that he used to become enlightened. I will write about it in another thread. All the best. TI

I think you are missing the point here. The idea of a dream or the idea of something illusory or unreal does not come about because something lacks imputed concepts. If a man is stabbed by an unknown object that he does not have a conventional term for, he does not think "ah, this is unreal, because I have no term to impute on it." It is real because it has a profound change on his body and can ultimately cause death. On the other hand, if you are stabbed by a known knife in a dream, you realize that it is a dream and unreal because you wake up from the dream unharmed by the wound. It's effects are not profound but ephemeral. The same idea is applied to cause and effect. A cause is real if it's effects are observed routinely. It is illusory if the effects are inconsistent. Just because something does or does not have a conventional label to it, it doesn't change its reality.

Would you explain what you mean a bit more here? Relative is that which is sometimes relevant and sometimes irrelevant. It is sometimes true and sometimes false. For example, if I say "Today is Tuesday" that's a relative truth. It's true for me, right now. What if 3 days from now I said the same thing, "Today is Tuesday", would that still be true? No, it would be relatively false. That's why we wouldn't say that "Today is Tuesday" is the ultimate truth. Alternatively, if I say, "You have 20,000 pairs of shoes", it might be false now, but when you go to sleep and have a dream, you might actually have 20,000 shoes in your dream, and at that time the same statement will be true. What makes relative truths unstable like that is the fact that their truth depend on various causes and conditions in the mind. Since the causes and conditions are always shifting, and the truth statements themselves are not similarly shifting, the statements either become false or fall out of relevancy altogether. For example, any truth talking about forms is irrelevant in the formless realm (of perception). So if we say that goldisheavy is slightly fat, that's not relevant in the formless realm. And being relevant simply means you're able to make use of it. So, if you know that goldisheavy is slightly fat, you can suggest diet and exercise for example. Or you can make a funny joke. These are some of the ways you can use that truth. But in the formless realm, such truth has no purpose, is not connected with anything, and you cannot use it in any way. When you first hear an exposition on the view of dependent arising, what does it look like? It's a series of statements and maybe questions. It's probably in English (unless you're also fortunate enough to know Pali, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Chinese, or Japanese). Right as you hear the exposition for the first time, it might seem alluring and interesting. But say, the Dharma talk ends and you go back to your girlfriend. You are playing with your girl and forget all about dependent arising. The only truth you need then is how to cuddle and the truth of dependent arising is irrelevant. Let's say later in the day you go to sleep and have a dream where 20,000 shoes appear to you. And let's say you're worried that your house is overflowing with the shoes. You might be stressing over where to put all those shoes and wondering whether or not you need them all and so on. So the truth about 20,000 shoes would be relevant at the time of that dream, but the truth of dependent arising would not be. Assuming when you hear exposition on dependent arising for the first time you're not accustomed to contemplating it yet, as in, the exposition is truly novel to your mind, at that time, the truth of dependent arising is just one more truth competing for your attention with tens of thousands or even millions of other seemingly equally weighty relative truths. Assuming you're attracted to the teaching of dependent arising, eventually you'll spend more and more time pondering various implications of dependent arising. You'll bring it to mind, and start considering this and that implication of it. How it affects your day to day life. How is it relevant to your thinking. How is it relevant to your eating and everything else. As you contemplate it, you may find it more and more relevant in more and more situations. At some point you might even be unable to forget about it for more than 1 hour at a time. Later on you might feel that whether or not you remember it, it is always there, because your very bones begin to carry the consequences of contemplation. As you continue examining it, something strange happens. Your place in the world changes. Your relationships with yourself, other people, Buddhas, and insentient objects change. You begin noticing that your dreams are affected and so on. And, as you keep practicing contemplating the view of dependent arising, you realize there is no substantial difference between ignorance and knowledge, between foolishness and wisdom, between Buddha and sentient being, between dream and waking, between sentient and insentient and so on. At some point you can't even tell if you've ever began practicing this view or if you were always like this. It seems like everything changed and nothing changed. It seems like you've learned so much and at the same time like you haven't learned even one thing. Since I am trying to describe the indescribable, obviously these descriptions do not suffice and do not fully or even partially capture anything. The intention of awakening gathers steam, and at some point becomes unstoppable and unblockable. Then, even if you took LSD, or went to sleep, or lost yourself in meditation, or got knocked out by getting hit in the head, or died in a ditch, or rotted alive in the field somewhere, no matter what, nothing could obscure or block your realization and your realization would even transcend any idea you have of yourself. In some sense it's not even yours. In some other sense you can't be sure if realization belongs to you or if you belong to it, or if maybe there is no difference. Or if there is a difference, that's maybe fine too, because there might be no difference between having and not having a difference. Thus your mind would constantly abide in an open, peaceful, effortless and unconcluded state, but at the same time, there is no way you could identify what state it was, because what would you compare it to? At that point your heart and mind would become free and unimpeded and all possibilities would become open. At that time, your presence, your life, your mind, your conduct, your view would be ultimate and inscrutable. At that time, should the truth of 20,000 shoes arise in your mind, it would have the same meaning and impact as liberation itself. At that time all truths and all phenomena would be liberation. All views would be ultimate and since there will no longer be a substantial difference between ultimate and relative views, your views won't be even ultimate. They will become indescribable. At that time, even if 10,000 Buddhas put their heads together, they couldn't describe your true way of being and nor could they complete the description of your merit, or even properly begin describing it. At that time, should your body be cremated, your very ashes would have the same wisdom as your person before cremation. To give you an example, imagine that your mind is a chunk of steel. The teaching on dependent arising is a hammer. Every time you contemplate dependent arising, the steel of your mind heats up, softens, and the hammer strikes the steel of your mind. After you contemplate dependent arising 10,000 times, it's like this chunk of steel being hit with 10,000 hammer blows by a skillful blacksmith. The result is a sharp sword of wisdom! The sword retains its shape even though it's no longer being hit by the hammer. The sword can even cut the hammer that forged it in half and not lose its sharpness one bit. That's the symbolic sword of wisdom.

This is just a loose thought, but I think for many people nocturnal emissions is a difficult stumbling block, because of our lack of awareness during the dream states. I think that a good practice is to first, start a dream journal, and record your dreams every morning first thing. Then when you have obtained the ability to always recall your dreams (shouldn't take longer than a few weeks) then you can move on to building awareness inside the dream state. Cultivate a habit of questioning yourself about whether you are in a dream or not during your waking life and once you have that as a natural habit, you can carry it over into the dream states. That way, you can control your sexual arousal while you sleep. Once you have this mastered, nocturnal emissions should be less of a difficulty. You can also record your successes and keep track of your dreams, which is rewarding in and of itself. Then when you make that strong determination to retain your vital fluid for the hundred day period, you will already have the tools in place to combat it in sleeping, as well as in the waking states.

Very timely thread with Mercury retrograde in Scorpio at the end of Oct. This is when secrets, or parts of ourselves that we don't know a great deal about come to the surface. I will be rereading Feeding your Demons by Tsultrim Allione and practicing her modified version of Chod. Incidentally, I also had a dream recently where I was hunting for spiders' eggs around the house, which is apparently about unacknowledged or repressed desires and emotions.

Well, throughout my whole life some 30 years+, I have encountered 3 beings which have been responsible for my own cultivation advancement. First, 2 Han warriors greeted me in my dream, in a dark forest and I woke up. I then began to experience my first kundalini energy rising. For the next 3 weeks, the Kundalini energy was rebuilding my mind and body whenever I meditated for 20 minutes before sleep. People spend their whole life to try to experience this energy...I had avalanches of kundalini energy rising experiences without even trying... To be fair, I did penetrate the first skandha of form (took me few years) before the dream. Next, I encountered a blue eyed monk dressed in some modern clothing. A Buddha has 32 marks on his body to show the accomplishments or rewards resulting from his enlightenment. I saw this monk working in the registration office of my old college. He has a pair of blue eyes but look artificial or somewhat self induced. I don't know how you can make your own eyes to look like light cloudy blue.... He said that I should learn knowledge for myself. That's all he said. We had a Zen moment there. This happened few months after my first kundalini energy rising experience. Finally, when I left this college on a very bad circumstance, in my sleep or vision or semi dreamy state, I saw a blond hair, blue eye, young man standing next to my bed. He was radiating in golden light. When I saw him, it was like I expected him. I wasn't alarm. He extended his right hand to me and I grabbed it with my left hand. I could feel the rough texture of his hand. He looks like my age back then, in his 20 something. After our physical contact, I was transported to another scene in the dream and there he was transmitting some transcendental wisdom to me via putting me in some situation and causing me to act in certain way. I woke up and freaked out afterward because I thought he was in my room. I have also encountered some lesser spirits but I don't want to get into them. These 3 beings really changed the way I see myself and the world.

I wish you would have joined a couple days earlier. We are currently doing a study of Chuang Tzu and we just finished that section: Mair 2:14. There are many who believe as you suggested. I am not one of them and almost always argue against this thought. But for sure he does speak about dreams. For me he is speaking about our illusions and delusions. Others feel he is talking about reality as we understand it is only a dream. And he does say that perhaps we will wake up from our dream (illusions and delusions) and realize that they were all dreams. We can even relate this to life today. So many think they are living a life but in reality it is someone else living their life for them; just doing what they are told, following the herd, allowing society to take away more and more of our freedoms.

Happy New Year everyone! Tao Meow this is so intersting you posting about black water dragon. Incredible really! Becouse I wanted to post a thread on dreaming or visions of such creatures but dissmesed at the end . This may be my answer that I posted into mental web. Becouse a night before Christmas I had a lucid dream at the lake directing the dream , so this woman (who is an aspect of me)gets into water reluctantly becouse it is cold , but ends up enjoying a swim , when this big black snake/loch ness/dragony like creature appears under water. I am thinking: oh no, this is wierd creature ,who is this? - it is going to be a hard core battle ,prepare. So I am preparing scenario for a battle in my dream (gathering my force)but for some reason a woman gets life on her own (I am not influncing the dream anymore)and dives under the water and greets the creature and rides under the water playfully and joyfully as if seeing an old friend. Creature had a glowing light on top of the head and amazing presence. I was perplexed at the outcome. For me this answers so many things on different levels. Just had to share this.

Quietly, comes the Buddha (Vajrayogini) http://www.diamondbodyyoga.com/ Is that you I've been waiting for you Quietly, comes the Buddha wake up all along awake in your dreams wake up quietly she watches you sleep gently,...sweetly In your lucid dreams awake Quietly, comes the buddha all along inside of me Suddenly I wake from the dream lucid reality yes she's smiling at me Singing laughing at me dancing with me ...singing I had a dream oh my dream finally, I've become the buddha All along awake in this dream finally compassion is real it's lessening the open-hearted reign Laughter reigns laughter sings glistening Your heart, it sings written and sung by Jenn Howey

"Forget everything and become enlightened" is extremely difficult for most people , it is like asking a bug which is living and moving on a 2D world, wholly fixed in it , to jump out of that 2D plane, entering into an unknown space ; it is nearly impossible because that bug just doesn't sense and understand what that extra 3rd dimension can be . Similarly , although our consciousness and analytic mind give us very powerful ability to analyze , imagine, dream , even an intuitive ability to grasp the core of things at one stroke, Enlightenment as another dimension* of our 3D world and always described by Taoism as something capable of 'breaking open a primordial hole ' (' 鴻蒙竅' ) in emptiness , is still too difficult for our attaching-to-the-3D-world mind to understand . We are fully trapped in it through our senses ( '法執' ) and our entanglement of its inward projection , our pseudo-egos ('我執') . However , the seemingly Buddhist way of forget-everything-and-become-enlightened can be combined with Taoist jing-qi-shen as we get the famous saying ( in fact , a way ) from a Taoist master : "忘形以養氣，忘氣以養神，忘神以養虛 " (" Forget forms , jing or physical stuff , so as to nourish qi, forget qi so as to nourish shen , forget shen so as to nourish emptiness " ) . Of course, we have to be capable of mobilizing qi first in order to forget it , and it can be done step by step , or at one stroke . So, it is something practical , not necessarily elusive . * Most people refer time as the 4th dimension of our 3D world , which I prefer to leave it aside for future exploration ; however , I do think that maybe we can explore time along with qi , see my previous post on such issue.

The energy body that was perceiving this red sphere was your dreaming body/astral body. This means that even if your physical eyes are open you can use "another self vehicle" to dream directly but of course only if you realize that you can be double. The part that was making conclusions and thinking about the red sphere was your dreaming mind and the part that saw the energy was the body aspect of the dreaming body/astral body self. If you grab hold of this energy it will be done by the aid of your dreaming mind but contact will be made with the energy body. Overall this dreaming astral body is the dreaming aspect of our regular mind energy body that we use while awake but when it comes to seeing energy while you are in astral it means you are seeing real things and real beings opposed to mental projections people usually dream about when asleep. The value of the dreaming/astral body is seeing energy and sometimes it might get weird but the universe is also full of surprising wonders worth exploring.

When a human being wakes up in the morning he enters a waking state, like the other animals on this planet. But this is not the state of "Awareness" or the state of "Consciousness" that is spoken of in the Eastern traditions. Is it good to die ? Of course not. Buddha's story is very concise. He encountered death and disease and decay when he left the walls of the palace. He was shocked at the suffering. He had lived in a comfortable dream but now the stark reality shook him. Then he returned and a banquet was in progress; but he was no longer hungry. He felt there was something insincere in banqueting in a world of suffering. And for him, this game was over. He then sought an answer. And he found one. Should you do something ? It's up to you. Who knows who anyone is, or where anyone is, or what anyone should do.

In night-time dreams? Or the samsaric dream? I may not have expressed myself well but no, I don't mean to equate dreaming with the Nature of Mind. I meant to compare the process of awakening in the night-time dream to awakening in the daytime (samsaric) dream. As I think about it there are many levels and subtleties that could be explored. For example, looking at awakening in vs awakening from, and what that means and so on… I think there is an analogy there of some value but take all that with a grain of salt - my own dreaming practice is in its infancy.