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Despite being a reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian . Clarke seems to have a bit a of a cult following , international school and all that. Thing is she fills the gaps with pretty modern stuff, oh well, gotta fill them with something. However , if going 'neo-Egyptian' I prefer Normandy Ellis ( ignored her for years after checking out her 'ancient Egyptian' cards then re found her via her 'Awakening Osiris' book - very interesting transliterations ; " In seafoam, in swirlings and imaginings I am fish, tadpole, crocodile. I am an urge, an idea, a portent of impossible dreams. I lie between heaven and earth, between goodness and evil, patience and explosion. I am innocent and rosy as dawn. I sleep with my finger in my mouth, the cord of life curled beside my ear. Like a child in its mother's belly, I am with you but not among you. I know no ending for I have no beginning. I have always been here, a child in the silence of things, ready to wake at any moment. I am possibility. What I hate is ignorance, smallness of imagination, the eye that sees no farther than its own lashes. All things are possible. When we speak in love and live by love, truth in love will be our comfort. Who you are is limited only by who you think you are. I am the word before its utterance. I am thought and desire. I am a child in the throat of god. Things are possible--joy and sorrow, men and women, children. Someday I'll imagine myself a different man, build bone and make flesh around him. I am with you but a moment for an eternity. I am the name of everything. I've dreamed the nightmare a hundred times, that old revulsion of bone and flesh, waking in sweat, in a headlong rush toward the world, into the cool certainty of fires that burn in sudden stars, the heat in the body. That I am precludes my never having been. What I know was given to me to say. There is more. There are words that exist only in the mind of heaven, a bright knowing, a clear moment of being. When you know it, you know yourself well enough. You will not speak. I am a child resting in love, the pleasure of clouds. I read the book of the river. I hold the magic of stones and trees. I find god in my fingers and in the wings of birds. I am my delight, creator of my destiny. It is not vanity. There are those who live in the boundaries of guilt and fear, the limits of imagination. They believe limitation is the world. You can not change them. There is work of your own to do. You will never reach the end of your own becoming, the madness of creation, the joy of existence. Dance in the moment. Reach down and pull up song. Spin and chant and forget the sorrow that we are flesh on bone. I return to the rhythm of water, to the dark song I was in my mother's belly. We were gods then and we knew it. We are gods now dancing in whirling darkness, spitting flame like stars in the night. In the womb before the world began, I was a child among other gods and children who were, or may be, or might have been. There in the dark when we could not see each other's faces, we agreed with one mind to be born, to separate, to forget the pact we made that we might learn the secrets of our fraternity. We agreed to know sorrow in exchange for joy, to know death in exchange for life. We were dark seeds of possibility whispering. Then one by one we entered alone. We walked on our legs, and as we had said, we passed in well-lit streets without recognizing each other; yet we were gods sheathed in flesh, the multitude of a single spirit. Gods live even in darkness, in the world above your heads, in the crevices of rocks, in the open palms of strangers. I am a child, the seed in everything, the rhythm of flowers, the old story that lingers. Among cattle and fruit sellers, I am air. I am love hidden in a shy maiden's gown. I am the name of things. I am the dream changing before your eyes. I am my body, a house for blood and breath. I am a man on earth and a god in heaven. While I travel the deserts in frail form, while I grow old and weep and die, I live always as a child inside the body of truth, a blue egg that rocks in the storm but never breaks. I sleep in peace in my mother's lap, a child mesmerized by sunlight on the river. My soul is swallowed up by god. Out of chaos came the light. Out of the will came life.

Orion, I woke up with you fresh on my mind this morning, so I must have had a dream about your situation that I'm not remembering. But I did receive clarity. Please realize that nobody is really "doing" anything to you. We all act out of self interest, including the person you think is torturing you. They are not torturing you because they are thinking of you first, as though their sole purpose in life is to torture you. They are acting out of a dynamic that they can't help, a dynamic of an old imprint of theirs. They are acting out of self interest from their past conditioning, and there is no other way they can be because of this. We are not victims. We are volunteers for all these things that we think are happening to us in life. You know that rich inner life that you have? Please recognize that your counterpart has an equally rich inner life, and they are acting out of some old fear and behavior pattern. They are acting from their own needs. The answer here, as horrible as it may seem, is to pray for them. I don't say this in a godly sense, other than you speaking to your own higher self. What you want to do is clear your heart of resentment, of separation, of fear. In some contorted way, you are seeing this pattern as a requirement for Love, which no doubt stems from your background. The answer is to Forgive It. Pray for the other person. Pray for the very best for them, and really mean it. Pray until you feel actual empathy for them, until tears run down your face. This is for two reasons: it will give you empathy into their situation, therefore releasing your need to remain in the situation; it will remove your victimhood and this tendency in your heart to be a victim and place yourself in situations where you are badly treated. And it will change your own heart to the tendency to love without conditions, to give without any expectation of anything in return. The hardest person for us to love is ourselves. There is a child within you that is hurt badly - not from this particular situation, but from an old situation, and it is creating the illusion that there must be pain with love. This must be reversed, so that you can truly find an equal partner in the future. But right now you are in an unfortunate jigsaw-piece type of love, where you are both hooked into each other because of a particular symbiotic configuration. That's not love. That's a lesson, for both parties to work out so they can continue on to true loving capability. And until we learn to love ourselves first, we are unable to truly love another. Such a Catch-22 life puts us in. But this is our condition, and this is truly your opportunity. It takes much courage to confront inner demons and come out the other side. But you can do it, and you must do it. But do it through much forgiveness - of the other person, of your parents (if that's the onset of the dynamic), and of yourself. Love is the answer. Always.

Hari Om, These two verses are the first two mantras in the Kenopanishad. Let us first see the background of the question. A spiritual aspirant or an advanced spiritual seeker who is at the verge of Self Realization asks this to the enlightened spiritual master. That spiritual aspirant or seeker has put the question to know about what actually drives our perceptions, actions, thinking, feelings and life perse. For such a seeker who has put in all the efforts to know the truth, this question is raised only out of humility to confirm the truth of his findings through prior reflection, contemplation and meditation. From the question itself the master recognizes the level of spiritual evolution or spiritual growth of the seeker and promptly gives the answer that can instantly take the questioning seeker to Self Realization (enlightenment). The spiritual seeker is asking about the Truth behind our experiences in life. The Sanskrit term 'Deva' implies the force or the functioning principle that is behind life and our life experiences. Let us now proceed to the answer. This answer which says that it is the Ear of the ear, Mind of the mind, Speech of the speech, Prana of the prana: it is the Eye of the eye and thus detatching from his mortal material aspects of body, mind, intellect and ego, the spiritual seeker attains immortality. As explained by our fellow member dwai, those who lead a worldly life or extroverted life of sensuality, materialism, selfishness, egoistic and desire ridden life, die moment after moment with each different experience. While the enlightened crosses the identification with their material aspects namely body, mind intellect and ego and achieves the transcendent state of God consciousness called self Realization which is beyond the cycle of birth and death. Immortality is achieved by transcending the limited experiences of the life called actions, perceptions, thinking and feeling experienced in the waking dream and deep sleep states, upon achieving oneness with the very subtlest enlivening principle within the core of our personality called God or Supreme Self. Spiritual practices of Karma, Bhakthi and Gnana Yogas help in getting rid of egoism and desires of the mind enabling the individual to freely and easily meditate on the Supreme Self or Brahman or God and ultimately achieve Self Realization. As opposed to the most commonly practiced worldly life of extroversion wherein the individual seeks to know the Reality through the experiences of body, mind, intellect and ego, the spiritual aspirant tries introversion to the seek the truth and Realities of life. In introversion, the spiritual aspirant progresses step step by step to gradually transcend the grosser material layers of food sheath, Vital air / breath sheath, mental sheath. intellectual sheath and the final bliss sheath to finally achieve identification or oneness with the subtlest enlivening principle called the Supreme Self or Brahman or God. This is Self Realization.

there is a doing and a not doing the world is following their mind--of course the mind is a tool for understanding but we all live in the traps of our mind but I can see the simplicity that- one could pound rice and be happy- that is a very miniscule statement but one that says to me even in mundane circumstances----the outer circumstances the business of the world and which by the way sometimes looks very similar to my own thought patterns in a very scary manner---- I have to correspond please. I have to ask. just like this and then I go get my quiet on-as best I can. what is being asked here- ok the narration is my doing but I am to avoid the narrative OR not. either way is ok by me-if I have that say so. because I understand the no thing but I am not sure on the other front in its simplicity I am not making it up that I am painting in the home of sapna and vivekanand that is too funny her name translates to dream and his name translates to someone who also brought the teachings to the west...vivekenanda- what does this all mean to me? it is fascinating -- see today that I went and picked up a check for part of the work in the bathroom and that there is a shrine in that room with lots of stuff...water bowl maybe flowers-- I know that I do not have to be hindu-- but I have fascinating interest and intrigue-- I would ask her when I return for more work- lots on the exterior and more in the bathroom-- I cannot read here today. eventually when I get situated I will check out the gospel of st thomas or whatever is here to read I am a scribbler- so I need to settle with a notebook-several so I can attend to the amount of time to really see what is being said. track it and put it in my mind. going back to the pages of the breathing- recent I get very lost in here I feel that you think that based on my lack of where I am that you are not where you should be. that is a very heavy load. and then I keep saying that I am to stop the narration. and I just don't know REALLY if I am to communicate or not. you could say no-and then I don't give a choice or I could just shut the computer off- but what is the point of that. the war is in my head do you feel like I am ungreatful? I read what you share and I can respond what part needed left I cannot see that. the stamp? do I need to fully let go of any creative idea and ONLY watch the breath as prudent as possible. and then I might not- but I am asking. creativity is here and this is not meant to be the bullshit inc. I wrote a poem in elementary and I think you would like it. it is about a famous day and the spookful night. the famous day will always be the meeting in seattle to me. but then again-maybe the bank teller has vital things for me to learn? maybe this is incorrect in the big picture. I am willing to SEE what IS. I want to close down and not talk but at the same time- I can't. but certainly out of respect. I will stop. overall I feel like that what you continually point at is that everything about me is not true. all along- and I am not going to be ok with that overall- I do not accept parts of this even if it appears such. please show me. and I work hard at the discipline and the serenity and movement I am listening. how I have lived my years is radically different than yours-of course. make changes-yes forgive them for they do not know what they do---- I hear you say. and I am listening. I can't pretend to know to know when to add words to aid in the silence... except= what does ALL of this mean?

I have met once an architect on a beach in Dominican Republic. He was Serbian and he was doing henna tattoos to the tourists there and he was doing that for 5 years and he said he would never go back to architecture. He was changing the hotels or resorts every year and he has been in most of the Caribbean countries, basically he was living in paradise. So totally depends on your dream, if you have a dream pursue it. If you don't have it, explore around and find your dream. Don't do anything you don't like, do only what you like.

Huh??? I play. You mean, superpowers??? Precognition. I don't just judge people, that's easy because I seem to be able to read people in my dreams. I can sense evil people and their evil intentions in my dreams. I can spot enemies in my dreams. I judge an entire nation. Is one of my superpowers to see catastrophic events being unfolded in a nation. So far, my precognitive power has been accurate dealing with the Ukrainian crisis and Russia...dealing with Israel and the Third Intifada (the Knife Revolution)...and even the refugee crisis in Germany/Europe. Whenever shits about to unfold, I would see fish tanks in my dream. The larger they are, the greater the issues. Few days before the Euro crisis was announced, I saw several apartment size fish tanks with fish the size of a car...in my dreams. It took me some introspection to realize the connection between fish tanks and world events.

Just wanted to add that one thing I'm noticing a lot in this consciousness work is how selection biases work. For instance, in any given day, we could write thousands of pages about the fine details of stuff that happened, if we had no filter. Yet when people sit down to do journal writing, they choose what they want to write about, perhaps unaware of why they focus on those things. Doing journal work is a great way to cross-examine how our ego level awareness chooses to receive and interpret information. Dreams are also good for this because the dream ego tends to react automatically (until it is trained) and those reactions tell a great deal about how we behave in the waking world. Do we react passively or do we take action? Are we leading or following? Are we angry, scared, jovial, apathetic? Do we wait for things to come to us or do we go to them? Is the world offensive or helpful? I believe that a major part of personal progress has to do with perspective shifting. If there is an experience of limitation, then it's because of a limited perspective. It is a linear, personality issue perhaps... because the spirit is fine to do what it does. We can do a simple emptiness practice and the experience of spirit shows us that nothing is wrong. Then we step out of that practice and the discursive thoughts begin, the varied perspectives, and the feelings of dissatisfaction which temporarily arise. Modern psychology makes the mistake of saying... if only we just focused on being happy, we wouldn't be so sad. That's not the perspective shift I'm talking about. I'm referring to the shift that can occur which puts personality level awareness ("you", who I'm talking to) in alignment, cooperation, and collaboration with the Absolute. As a suggestion, maybe all you need is a shift in perspective? Keep asking questions? You can live any life you want but if your perspective is that of pointlessness, then everything will be pointless.

I've been doing a lot of dream work lately, through the Jungian Senoi process. The more I do the work the more I see that one thing that most "seekers" share in common is that they are all looking to realize that intangible thing, what is nameless. They do it by making manifest in the external world whatever it is that evokes the intangible thing to spring forth... as an olive branch of insight, a sensation, an experience. In other words, we are all trying to realize something that is already inherent. It's like seeing something at the corner of your eye and then attributing it to something in the world around you. It's like a photographer who sees a spec on all the photos, and tries to figure out what that spec is about, rather than looking at the camera lens itself. We are trying to make what is subconscious, conscious. We are seeking integration of what is already realized, with what is unrealized. So what I propose is... trust that your process is unfolding the way it's meant to, if not by Divine design, then by pure psychology. Whatever remains unlocked inside of you is looking for you. It will lead you to it as you seek it. Right now you are experiencing apathy to the external world of seeking... you know, deep down, that there's nothing out there that can really show you what you're looking for. You've explored the abstract world extensively and now you are feeling stuck sitting in one place wondering what the next step is. Your privileges in life have afforded you the opportunity to explore a huge deal of worldly distractions and information gathering. Now you are sitting in place... To me, you are on the verge of a breakthrough, because now that you have explored the world of "things", all you can do is with yourself and turn inward. There is nothing left outside that can satisfy you until it is met by what is inward. In a nutshell - and not to sound totally cliche - what you're seeking is genuinely inside of you. The realization you're looking for is there. You can't be taught something you don't already know. No teacher can lead you to this. It is there already, ripe for the picking. So you're asking what the point is of everything? There is no point unless you create one. Until you realize that essential thing within, you will live in perpetual sensation of disconnect. It's an illusion of course, but it's brought on by a need to integrate. The world cannot connect you to your own source. I know I've given a lot of "answers" here, they're just my projections. As a really fond author of mine once said, answers end reality. Questions keep it open. The problem with so much intellectualization is that we begin to answer reality, we begin to antidote it until we are stuck in a corner. There is no point to reality = Can I create a life that is meaningful to me? There is no next step = What would it feel like to know the next step? There is nowhere to go = Have I really reached the end of the road? You are doing great!

Mechanical time has always seemed like a thin veneer smeared over the surface of my perception of what actual time or relative change may be, if such a thing exists... so I've always dismissed mechanical time as illusory in the extreme. But this persistent experience of the present moment and how long that moment may be and how I relate to it as I observe change in my surroundings and my 'self', has sprouted and taken root for the last how many moments of my life? (five cycles around the sun at least) I guess it depends how I define a moment, or how much I agree with how others and my culture tell me to define it. In sidereal time we can measure a cycle of ~26,000 years, or rather the Aztecs appear to have been able to and our descendants could should they be inclined, we will only record that which we observe, if we're even inclined. Yet there is this sense of time passage, though it's not linear. Some events of my childhood remain seemingly as clear as if they happened yesterday, while I couldn't tell you what I did on April 18th without the aid of a journal. Several of my most intense dream experiences are more vivid to me than my wedding day and my recall of them in the 'now' is as potent as when I experienced them in the present moment all those years ago... It seems to me that memory is tied to how we define time. Mechanical time was a natural progression of this desire once the Cartesian Mechanistic Model took such firm hold of our imaginations. But it's weak and fallible and relative and points up the very fluid nature of time as proven by Einstein. If you've ever been in a stunning accident, or practiced meditation or martial arts to a deep point, or fallen in love in a moment, then you've likely experienced the subjective nature of time... time slowing way down. Samadhi even more intensely gave the very palpable sense of time being rendered irrelevant, or non-existent. So how long is a moment? and where does a moment end? where can we, with any confidence lay a stake and claim that here is one moment and it is separate from the next? or the previous? I recall when reaching for the tea one morning having the crystal clear instantaneous realization of the line of unbroken causal actions that occurred between the moment my mum and dad came together and I was planted in the womb, to me reaching for that cup. It then extrapolated in another heartbeat to the origins of our perceptual universe and whatever that may have been. But where can I draw a line that says, this is one moment and that... another? Any longer to me, it's just one great soup. All connected... and that is rather terrifying and comforting simultaneously. which is just more dualism... and oh look... it's time to sit again

To everybody, I'm going to throw an attitude so I'd advice you to read the following lines having that in mind, or just skip them. To OP, I'm gonna be harsh with you, Taoway, and that's because you represent an old part of myself that I have buried a long time ago and I don't particularly like. First of all you sound like a whiny bitch. "Ooh, I have average penis, and I don't feel comfortable with myself. I visited some website out of the millions of websites around the world, and I found that there are some women who like big dicks. And not just big dicks, monstrous, gigantic, veiny ones. The ones that can tear a hole through a wall. Oh, what can I do? I feel so depressed!" Yeah, well, you can't find something you are not looking for, but you can find something that you are. Guess what! You found "proof" to validate your depression. Well done. And not just that, but you've managed to add to your depression and peak it higher and higher. So high that you need us to sort this mess out for you. Yeah, the guys here are all really nice, and most of them speak very logically and supportingly. But will this really help you? How do you know they aren't just saying that? After all, they are just a bunch of strangers on the net. They may even have smaller dicks. They may be just saying that to feel good about themselves by making you feel good. Too many Mays and we are in August. With a grain of salt, that's how you should take everyone's opinion. 95% of the world doesn't know jack shit. We are all talkers. Talking to others the things we don't dare to talk to ourselves. And mother Earth keeps turning. And we are 7 billion people and everything is fucked-up, black and gray and depressing. And the Earth keeps turning. And we are moving straight to hell. And we are all talkers. Talkers make me thirsty. Bring me a chicken. How the hell does that relate to big dicks, you might think. It's simple. We, as a species, have managed to destroy everything around us and now we are up to destroying ourselves, everyone in his own way, everyone through his own insecurities. Ads, movies, the media, and misconceptions in general throw at us a load of crap everyday. And whatever sticks, sticks. To whomever sticks. And guess what, once it has stuck it's on you. Then what do you do? You have to BUY to fix it. Invent a need to sell for the need. Oh, the Mad Man's dream. Wake up and look around you. Have you talked to girls? Real girls? I have. They don't care about size, and those who do care, are the ones who'd been with half a city. Well, duh, if Madonna's Like a Virgin is my sexual anthem I would care about size too. And bravo, by the way. You've managed to find a whole website with those women. Flawless Victory. Yes, I have talked to girls and I quote: "I don't care about size as long as he knows how to fuck." Another girl's quote: "Big penises are cool, make me want to touch them. But I prefer average ones." Final quote, although I have many: "I prefer average ones. I can't deepthroat large cocks." Now, I hope the above quotes make you feel good. But you should consider the possibility that they are fiction. That I have never, in my life, talked to girls about penis size, nor have I asked them if it really mattered. Stop acting like a bitch and go find out for yourself. This whole thread is mental-masturbation. I acknowledge the psychological state you were in, but the guys' opinion, no matter how valid and comforting, will slowly fade away. Their effect will slowly fade away, and then you're back to square one. And then what? DEPRESSION. MORE DEPRESSION. Man up and go find out for yourself. I could submit and whole study of how the nerves inside a woman's vagina only extend to 10-11 cm, and how everything else is just an illusion. Or how penis enlargement pills do actually work, no matter what "knowledgeable" doctors claim. But there is no point. Stop taking strange words to mold into personal experience. It can't happen. No explanation will help you. Stop discussing something you should experience. Life is to be experienced. Get out there and do it. It's not your penis but your attitude. I never expected to find a thread with this kind of issue in here and this really messes up with my Zen. Do some qigong and feel your penis grow to its magnificence. It's that simple. And then go out and see what happens. Don't believe everything you think. And if these lines make you think with your usual grumpy, pessimistic voice: Easier said than done. Then I tell you this: If you want to feel depressed about your size, fine. I am not gonna waste any more time trying to change your belief. But at least give an actual experience a chance to make yourself depressed. Articles, and sites and whatever crap you manage to find doesn't count. MAN UP! P.S. Read She comes first. If you still aren't 100% confident about your size when you finally find yourself alone with a girl, this can be your plan B. This will surely add to your self-confidence. It's just science. Edit (check the 2nd Law): http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/20392-20-axioms/?hl=%2Bholographic+%2Buniverse

I have to agree with that. The whole thing is a charade in which there were supposed to be two establishment favourites flanked by two more extreme outsiders. Obama represented the status quo, Hillary/Jeb the change and Bernie/Trump the extremes. It's the old Hegelian dialectic. The crowd was supposed to choose Hillary or Jeb -it didn't really matter which. The charade has turned into a grand farce in which the media are trying to marginalise Trump out of existence to leave Hillary as the only option, meanwhile the Bernie supporters won't let their dream die even whilst Bernie is committing sepeku in front of them.

Hi Karl. Ok, you seem to speak about reality as if it is something that you think is clearly identifiable. If so, what is it to you? My personal view is that 'reality' is maybe not so clear cut as we might think. 'Dream' or 'vision' are just labels to certain types of experience. In my view this in no way determines whether something is or isn't part of 'reality'. We can arbitrarily define that dreams and visions are not real, but that doesn't mean that our definition is necessarily wholly accurate. If a person has a dream that has strong influence on them, then it seems it may hold some degree of 'reality', even if it may be hard to pin down. Those are just some ideas on the matter. I don't hold to any strict view on the matter. Just throwing about some views for consideration.

Reality - what is it? We all likely have at least some concept in our mind about what 'reality' is, even if we might not be able to articulate well this concept or concepts that we hold about 'reality'. So what is reality actually? Is there 'really' even such a clear cut thing? It seems to me that 'in reality', it is not an easy topic at all to address, all things considered. A dictionary definition of the word reality will probably give something along these lines: re·al·i·ty rēˈalədē/ noun noun: reality 1. the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. 2. the state or quality of having existence or substance. Also, for consideration, I don't think anyone can deny that wacking your thumb with a heavy steel hammer will probably do some damage to your thumb, and will probably hurt a lot unless you have some paralysis in that area, whether a person 'believes' or not in the reality of heavy steel hammers and their properties. Generally though when referring to reality, at least in a modern Western view, a widely held view is that it is something that can be *physically* confirmed to 'exist' whether people may believe in it or not, but there is maybe some room in there to at least allow that some 'things' might possibly be real which are not physically observable or physically confirm-able. In modern physics, I believe there are theories of other dimensions beyond what we consider to be the three physical dimensions and time. However, I don't think the concept of reality necessarily needs to be limited to the concept of dimensions. If a person has some sort of an experience that has a noticeable impact on them to any degree, then does that experience hold 'reality' no matter what the nature of the experience was? For example, a person can have a dream or vision of some sort and potentially be very noticeably influenced by the dream or vision to some degree or other. If something does not hold any 'reality', then how could it influence a person in any way? The clear lines of what 'reality' is may begin to break down a little bit if viewed in this way. A dream or vision may not at all be part of 'consensus reality' in any way, but it can still potentially have strong impact on the individual having the experience. Another example is a given person may focus on something or some activity that is important to them and which has a lot of influence or meaning for them personally, and which can potentially elicit strong change in that person, but which to someone else seems pointless and meaningless and empty. So, what then is 'reality'? Even within the concept of 'consensus reality' there can be seeming 'cracks' that appear from time to time if a person is paying attention, so even the concept of 'consensus reality' is maybe not so clear cut as we might like to think. Related to this, it seems to me that as long as we are inside a particular 'reality bubble' of some type or other, whether we are talking about 'physical reality' or something on a smaller scale, it can seem very 'real' and consistent; but, if a person pays close attention, they may sometimes notice things occurring that just don't quite fit the 'mold'. A bit of a 'crack' may have formed on the surface of the reality 'bubble', at least momentarily. I believe all people have built-in mental 'protection mechanisms' that help us to block out or dismiss these inconsistencies which we may encounter from time to time, which helps us maintain a more stable sense of 'reality', but we can learn to bypass or at least reduce the influence of these mental 'protection mechanisms' with observation and intent. Certain types of 'cultivation' practices may focus on or make use of similar observation approaches to help us observe or temporarily bypass or reduce the influence of some of our mental filters. Such approaches can potentially help us to see that 'reality' is possibly not what we may think it is. The question may then begin to arise in a person's mind, if reality is not exactly what we think it is, then what is reality? Is there really even some clear cut 'thing' out there called reality? Personally, I don't think the question can be easily answered, if it can even be answered satisfactorily at all in logical or rational terms, so I am not really expecting answers to such questions. Really I am just expressing some of my own current thoughts and ideas and personal observations on the matter here for consideration, in case anyone might be interested. :-) Some notable thoughts by some others on the matter: Descartes said to the effect, "I think, therefore I am." Robin Williams said, "Reality. What a concept!" Popeye said, "I am what I am." I think these are all views equally worthy of consideration as well, and much more aptly said.

For contrast .... years back , when I contacted the group I did my 'stuff' with . I inquired and told them a bit about myself. They said a member would be in my area in a few weeks and would look me up. He did ... he was not what I expected. But it was interesting. He said he would go back and talk to 'The Boss' about it and she would 'check me out'. About 2 weeks later I had this dream that I was in the city, The Hare Krishnas were giving out free food at this table in an ally way along side a cyclone wire fence with a building construction site behind it. YUM ! I got on the line, people were getting a plate of food and waking away. When it wa my turn I noticed that it wasnt just food on the table , a bit of food but all this other stuff, some like ritual objects. They offered me this plate and then I realized they were not Hare Krishnas at all, they had deep Maroon robes on with cowls covering there faces. I took the food, ate it, the person offering leaned over and touched my forehead with their finger and FLASH ! - white light - I was hurled backards, hit the wire fence, bounced back off that into their altar table and passed through and 'into ' it ...... thats all I remember . The next day I got a call on the phone message bank " You in, come on down and we will start the ball rolling ." - Now thats the stuff ! ( When I get there , to get to the place ( around to the back entrance ) , of course, I have to pass this alley, with a wire cyclone fence, a construction site .....

"Andrei, of course nothing is real...but how real is the world we all currently share right now? How different is it from a dream or any other mental state you may perceive? The answer is the same in all instances, they are all a product of our own minds." I am not saying nothing is real, I am saying everything is real as you perceive it but there is difference between reality and dream. I was a dreamer all my life and I struggled with this, I tried to figure it out what is more real? The dream life or real life? The difference is that the reality is stable while the dream is unstable. The reality will be here the same now as it will be in one million years (it will not be quite the same it will change too, but still more stable than your inner world). It is a matter of time scale. By the way time is a measure of change and reality changes but very slow, while the dreams change very quickly and without any logic or a different logic than the outside reality. By the outside reality I understand a consensual reality of all the minds outhere in the universe. You can have your own mind with your own reality but it won't take you far unless you contact other realities and create consensus with them. This is how it works, people with different realities create a consensual world to live in it as a larger reality than their own mind. To me this reality is just like a computer game, it has its own rules and limits and we are trying to figure it out hiw this game works. Now what logic means? We are trying to make correlations in our minds between events. This is the "cause effect" relationship or karma as it is called that we are trying to understand how it works. To be honest I wish to believe in karma and reincarnation-rebirth but I started to have doubts about that and now I am building a case against it just to see if I can prove it. The story of the girl in the paper is just a random event that happens to everybody. I mean not everybody is raped and killed but randomness occurs in everybody's life and we try to make sense, we try to find logical explanations, what are the causes and effects to avoid such occurrences. These random events appear in certain instances with greater probabilities than others so there are for sure causes and effects but not necessarily the ones that are obvious. You may say it is obvious that girl "deserved" to experience that because it is an effect of her previous behaviour that produced the causes that lead to the effect but even so I don't see here any "previous life or incarnation". So I don't accept easily anymore this theory. Most of the time we are accepting an easy explanation and many of those are inherited culturally. These are the "superstitions" that are propagated in popular culture. But I am not sure I believe anymore in karma and reincarnation. To make karma to function you need some kind of medium to record the behaviour, the good and bad deeds, right? So for this purpose there is the "soul" that records this, a separate entity form the body that survives the death of the body and preserves the mind. This is the belief that I challenge, again I wish to believe in that but I have doubts. What I observe is that the information is carried forward only through these two paths the DNA in all living matter (the genes) and the culture that is inherited outside the genes.

Thank you very much dear friends for sharing your views! Andrei, of course nothing is real...but how real is the world we all currently share right now? How different is it from a dream or any other mental state you may perceive? The answer is the same in all instances, they are all a product of our own minds. But two things must be taken into account and these cannot be refuted: 1. There is an undeniable link between the 'spirit-essence/mind' and what it projects from a karmic perspective: our human experience here now. It well could be a deva, animal or hell being in the next life cycle according to ones instinct and karmic force. Doing good equals to good rebirth, doing bad equals a bad rebirth. The consequence does not need to be immediate since karma often (and usually does) behaves in a non-linear manner. For example: you open the newspaper and read about this wonderful young university student loved by everyone and all of a sudden she is kidnapped by the typical psycho who decides to rape her before mutilating her body and burying her in the middle of nowhere. I'm not making this up. I just watched this on the local news last year. You may have come across similar news in your country of residence. This is just plain bad karma striking suddenly people with apparently normal and peaceful lives. 2. A reminder that life is so fleeting and impermanent that is no point paying too much attention to it, instead one should fully focus on removing the main causes of rebirth at the same time as removing all existing karma from one's mind-body. Virtue becomes more and more apparent during this process to the point that one becomes horrified with any immoral acts even the most innocent ones like those 'little lies.' You have gone a long way in your spirit journey that making stupid mistakes is out if question. Nungali, Catholicism is just a name. All religions and spiritual practices are basically the same since they share identical principles especially when it comes to living a virtuous life. Only Taoism deviates from the rest as it heavily relies on an exhaustive and comprehensive analysis of natural laws, something that is missing from the former. Why is the case? The nature of China itself and it's geographical location and it's relationship to the 5 Elements structure of planet Earth. They are a blessed country in that regard. Anyway, I'm going off the tangent, sorry. Yes those hell planes are as real as Samsara itself...imaginary as you will ever get...but make sure your practice is filled with a strong moral perspective because rebirth in hell ain't fun at all!

The "rule" (which it is not) is to keep you from your own frailties - the frailties of fear and also judgement from others and all sorts of stuff we dream up. It is fear that often has us running off at the mouth - trying to gain acceptance or have someone judge something for us or to trump them with our accomplishments. But one of our greatest frailties is to label. As you talk of something you have achieved in practice it very quickly moves to an explained story and then it is a packaged caged dead thing in a sense. It is easy to come up with all sorts of voodoo reasons for not telling others and their is a ring of truth to all of the above - but in the end it is simply best to stay in the now with what has transpired - you can bring your presence to it from time to time - zero need to classify it, label it, find meaning in it - just being with it allows so much more. And there will be times you may wish to bring it / them up and some will be appropriate - it is not some cryptic secrecy thing - none of this stuff is cryptic secrecy stuff (though some price their info/workshops/seminars as though it is).

Most of it is highly guarded. There used to be a recording with all 9 steps but I haven't seen a copy of it, nor heard it in years. Sometimes the recordings will pop up on EBay, but members of the IYXQA buy them up quickly (or try to prevent the sale of them). Plus Dr Yan told us at one point it would take 60 years (not a typo) to master all 9 steps, so step 1 will suffice for everyone for quite some time. ;-) I also talked to a few people that had learned step 2 spontaneously; while practiting, they heard or saw the 2nd step at some point, kind of like a dream state.

The structure is similar, but the content is different. I wouldn't be put off of Strovolos just because you didn't like Java. As I remember it, that was the purpose of TMOJ. The problem was, it was supposed to be part of a wider project to bring the concept of Qi into the fold of Western science, including a website (which I think existed for a time), further video documentation and proper scientific testing and publication. However the project was nixed when Chang pulled out early in the process after allegedly being instructed to do so by his master's spirit in a dream, at which point he cut off the Western students and withdrew from further public exposure. Personally? Not really. I found them an interesting read and they inspired me to get my own practice off the ground when I was first studying meditation and qigong, and I know they've done the same for others, but I think the people who take a dogmatic approach to the content of the books are allowing their insecurities to overpower their inquisitive nature and in doing so entirely missing the whole point of what Danaos' was trying to convey.

That is a difficult concept to deal with for me. Many years ago I had a dream and I was somebody else and I was watching myself as that person. But then I don't see that anywhere close to the topic of meditation. Can we be aware and yet not identify ourself as separate from what we are aware of? I think that is possible. Kinda' like I am one of the pedals of a bicycle. (But then, with my ego I would likely see the rest of the bicycle as extensions of "me".)

At one time I lived between two towns. There was a two lane dirt road connecting the two towns. I think it was an unicorporated area because it seemed that no one took care of the environment surrounding this two lane road. Eventually someone paved it and it seemed safer to travel between each town. More and more people used this road to get back and forth between each town. Now I do not know who made the decision to pave the road, but I would suppose that someone had a future in connecting the two towns. Since each town seemed self sustaining, I would guess that the paved two lane road was invested in by a private party who had and invested interest in bring more people into their perspective towns. Maybe an invester from town A got with invester from town B and worked a deal where both would benefit from the two lane road being paved. Maybe the investers had plans to build homes, more businesses, gas stations, food franchises, better schools, and more infrastructure. Maybe these investers went to their local commercial banker and borrowed money to fund all of this on a renewal note. Maybe the investers said to themselves, why don't we build using other peoples money, thereby building a network of other investers from other unincorporated and corporated areas. Then they started to think about building an airport, and wharehouses. They set the tax rate and raised it according to their personal financial desires and dream to be in control of statewide, and interstate wide commerce... Now here comes a governing body with elected officials that are already benefiting from this network...they made sure laws got passed and people got prosecuted and sentenced. They made sure taxes were collected. And they made sure that they benefited financially, and had the best medical insurance coverage, and retirement plan that they could create with their vote. They even had legal immunity and great vacations, and spent most of their time tearing down their opponent(s). What would it take to change things where there would be an equal distribution of goods and services, a standard tax to support a new government, and an overseer to make sure that this new government continues to do their job according to the wishes of citiizens of this unincorporated and corportated population. Is it a Socialistic government. No, someone would emerge as the decision maker. How about Autocratic? No, same problem. How about a dictatorship? No! How about a Democratic government? Well, it might work if we fired all the people who make up our government, and started all over again by hiring a Philosopher King. It might work "we the people" produced its own goods and services, isolated ourselves from the influence of the outside world, had the strongest military in the world, fed its hungry, took care of its sick, housed its homeless, stayed out of regulating people's lives, and criminalized drug and alcohol abuse as it were in the 80's, enforced the Constitution without deviation from the letter of its word and intent, quit arguing precendents when it comes to jurisprudence, and bring back public execution.

Thanks but no, I'm not deeply interested in it. Yeah, I will change my "hypothesis" to "theory". And yes, there has been a lot of professional, scientific work done and I'm sure it sill continues today. But you know me, I have never seen a ghost therefore ghosts do not exist. I don't recall dreaming therefore I did not dream. But back to meditating before this gets moved to "Off Topic". Hehehe. When I attain full empty-mindedness during my meditation I have no thoughts. Now, it really can't be said that my brain was empty. It is just that I was conscious of anything it was doing. Therefore I had no thoughts. Different forms of meditation are used for different purposes. If we get what we were after then it's all good.

I think it goes a bit beyond hypothesis. When people engage in practices to improve dream recall, it works. Their brain activity in REM sleep doesn't change but their recall does. I don't think methods to improve recall are creating dreaming when none existed before. I'm sure there are other things going on in the brain during sleep but failure to recall dreams does not mean that you don't dream. That's fairly well established in sleep science but I'm no expert. There's good research out there if the topic interests you.

Perhaps Buddhism resolves my issue though, by cultivating compassion in this particular way - 'Equalizing self and others’ means recognizing the equality of yourself and others in wishing to find happiness and wishing to avoid suffering. ‘Exchanging self and others’ means giving your own happiness to other sentient beings, and taking their suffering upon yourself. ‘Considering others as more important than yourself’ means setting aside your own benefit and accomplishing the benefit of others. Then compassion can be cultivated. But it becomes 'skillful' compassion, without sinking into ego strengthening. BTW, I'm not Buddhist, and my interest in compassion is not from a particular perspective except perhaps it is buddhism that has seen a way through this issue. I had a dream a long time ago where i was sitting in between 2 twins, the one on my right said 'when i think I think of others, the one on my left said 'when I think I think of myself'. I looked towards the one on my right and said 'I'm trying to be like you' and edged a bit closer to her. This seems like a personal version of the Buddhist practices above which T_I pointed to in his link, and something for me to contemplate on further to resolve my question.

Not making an argument, just sharing my experience regarding the restfulness aspect. With respect to dreaming, it consistently occurs in REM sleep and sleep studies give us an idea of how often people dream on average. REM sleep comprises about 25% of the sleep cycle. Edited to add - I've read that people forget >90% of their dream on average.