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This has been more of the "experience" here: (quoted)......and because of that i do not like the true awakening talk. Awareness of Presence or "Transcendental Consciousness" is the experience of expanded alert awareness along with profound peace and silence, either in the environment in activity, or deep within during silent meditation. There can be the feeling of detachment from the body/mind. It is a fourth definite state of consciousness unlike waking, dream or sleep. It is a precursor to the actual shift to Self-remembrance. Transcendental Consciousness is being awake to the silent peace and stillness that is the true nature of the Self. There can be many degrees of intensity and various levels of witnessing in trancendental consciousness, but the clear recognition by the Self of the Self has not yet occurred. There are millions of people around the world today experiencing varying degrees of presence consciousness.  States of Consciousness 'States of Consciousness' does not mean states of individual consciousness. It means states of Consciousness itself. Consciousness itself is an unbounded field of pure Awareness. There are distinct perspectivess of Consciousness of itself as it becomes more awake its total reality, and there are many levels of clarity of refined perception within each state. These states cannot be missed. Experience, knowledge, perception and reality are completely different in each, even though Consiousness always remains the same One Consciousness. Cosmic Consciousness or "Self Realization" is awakening to being Pure Consciousness itself. It is the first stage of Enlightenment. It is a very profound shift in your sense of being and existing, the sense of who you are. The sense of Self shifts from being the person you think you are, to being the unbounded field of Awareness itself in which the person and all perceptions exist. You discover that there is no separate individual sense of self at all. The separate individual self was an illusion that happened as a result of conditioning and the false identification with the individual body/mind. Your real Self has always been unbounded, infinite and free all along.  It is not an altered state of Consciousness. It is Being Consciousness Itself -- what you really have always been. It is not a temporary experience; it is a natural, permanent state of being. The innermost self awakens to the unboundedness of its Self and finds itself to be the silent source of everything everywhere. Even though this feels like the final step and there is nowhere else to go, it is actually only the first step in the unfoldment of Consciousness to itself.  Refined Perception in Cosmic Consciousness or "God Realization" is Consciousness' refined perception of its nature as the process of experiencing. It is the perception of the flow of divine intelligence responsible for all experience. The underlying mechanics of the process of creation is revealed. It is the experience of the flow of intelligence responsible for all thinking, feeling, perceiving, experiencing, and all form and phenomena everywhere in your entire field of perception. The cosmic dimension of the individual mind/body is revealed. It is a continually deepening process of refinement and unfoldment taking place perpetually within Consciousness, though experienced differently in each state. The shift to unity Consciousness and beyond can happen prior to the full unfoldment of the depth of experience of refined perception. Unity Consciousness or "Oneness" happens when the Self, the subject and unbounded underlying essence of all things, awakens to itself as being the objects and phenomena of experience on the surface of life. It is a transition from being the unbounded field in which everything thing is happening , to being everything everywhere in the range of perception and experience. "Consciousness is everything everywhere, and I am that Consciousness". The unbounded subject has remembered itself to also be all objects of perception. They are One. The unboundedness of the Self has entered into the mind, body, and environment. All objects in the surroundings, while remaining the same from the perspective of the senses, are experienced as my Self. The world is no longer an object in Consciousness. It is Consciousness itself. It is my Self. It is the oneness of experiencer, process of experiencing and objects of experience. All of the apparent boundaries in the world are found to be my own Consciousness in appearance. From this perspective, the world is experienced to be even more real, because it is constructed out of the material of Consciousness itself, out of my own unbounded Self. The environment is now seen as pure unmodified Consciousness in the guise of the objective modifications of body, world and universe. It is not that the world and universe are seen to be an illusion. The illusion is that the world and universe is an objcetive physical reality. It has always been Consciousness itself, my own Self, pure subjectivity. There is no longer any distinction between inner or outer. The outer is the inner, the inner is the outer. Everything everywhere is my Self. "I" am all that there is. Refined Perception Within Unity Consciousness or "Unity in God Consciousness" is a further refinement of perception from the perspective of being everything. Consciousness awakens, with further clarity, to the underlying mechanics of creation and experience. It awakens to the subtle mechanics of its own innate intelligence that is responsible for creating the appearance of all life everywhere. It is the same shift in perception mentioned above, to experiencing the refined cosmic dimension of the feelings, intellect, mind, body, personality, senses, and all objects of experience; but it is experienced from an entirely different perspective now, one of wholeness, of being all that is. It is experiencing the flow of finer flavours and layers of intelligence within the wholeness of Self. It is Consciousness awakening to its internal dynamics as the perpetual flow of itself experiencing itself. It is the experience of the ultimate reality of the depth of the Self, the totality of Consciousness, and it is all Divine.  Beyond Consciousness or "Brahman Consciousness" is a perspective prior to Consciousness, prior to Intelligence and prior to existence itself. It is neither Self nor non-Self, neither Existence nor non-Existence, neither Being nor non-Being, neither Consciousness nor non-Consciousness. It is the clearest experience of Reality. Words like universe, multi-verse, Absolute, Totality, Self, God, Being, Presence, Pure Consciousness cannot touch it. It is beyond description. It is pure Nothingness. From this perspective; the body/mind, the world and the universe are not just an illusion, they have never even come into existence. The ultimate reality of something made from nothing, is nothing, not something. The word "nothing" does not do justice to the supreme peace, perfect equanimity, unlimited freedom and total knowledge that It is. It is truly indescribable. It is exclusively self-evident to itself alone.  Refined Perception Beyond Consciousness or "Refined Brahman Consciousness" is a completely different perspective of the same refinement of perception that is perpetually happening in Consciousness. But, because it is prior to Consciousness itself, there is no perceiver, no perceiving and no perceptio in the same sense. It is perpetually swelling in all the same divine flavours and qualities of wholeness and love as experienced previously, only in a finer more exquisite delicacy and fullness, prior to differentiation or distinction. It is the subtle intentention within nothingness to know itself. It is Pure Divine Power. From this perspective, the effect--Consciousness itself, and the creative intelligence inherent in Consciousness which is responsible for the appearance of creation, is also uncaused; and as such, so too is all creation. It is beyond all understanding. Supreme Reality Another shift to an even deeper perspective occurs in this state when that Nothingness recognizes that divine power as its own pure Supreme Divinity that has been cloaked in the appearance of creation. That supreme divinity is the ultimate cause of all causes. It creates and appears as the sense of Being, Consciousness or Self; all divine creative intelligence, and all creation. It is pure divine radience. Refinement of perception of the universal body/mind continues in this state.

I'm having a little trouble understanding the basis for your post. It feels like something that is trying to emerge from the mist. I can almost make out the shape, but not quite yet. I feel you're on to something probably very profound, but it might be at that special 'place' where words can't describe it. I too think about stuff like this all the time. So much of us is filled with space, not matter. And what makes this any realer than a dream which is also projected onto our basic consciousness? I just don't know if there's an answer that we have access to. We are nothing but our conditioning - until we get to the place where we realize that, and at that point we can start thinking and behaving in alternate ways. When I walk the dogs, I have gotten into the habit of trying not to label anything - to realize that the air we breathe is also a type of matter, only not visible to us. I try to look at everything as all connected with no differentiation. Once, about 35 years ago, I was driving across the desert - which is a bit of a mind deadening thing to do anyways. Almost hypnotizing. But suddenly I saw all these concentric lines attaching everything to everything else - surrounding the trees, the houses, the clouds, the people, the cars - everything. It was all the same thing, acting in concert. And for an instant, I was given a glimpse of how it all worked. I remember saying to myself "Aah! So that's how it works!" I truly saw it. And then, the next moment, it was all forgotten. It slipped away - it's still in there somewhere, and I suspect that I get access to it only when needed.

... I don't know how to tell you guys this... *I'm burying my head in my hands on this one*... This isn't a dream. I don't know why you don't get this.. Im not really joking here.. I am a student for a reason. The leader dies every time.

Find the one to whom 'me' occurs. You are creating an imaginary entity with which to do battle. That which you create can be uncreated, there is no 'removal' because there is nothing existent. See, there are not two minds. There is not one mind called 'ego' and another which is 'non ego'. It's just lumpy mind stew. If you create a dream wall, then you will have to create a dream hammer to break it down, but see, you remain just the same. Nothing changes. Will you create and endless supply of walls and hammers like the reflection between two mirrors ? You are as you are, accept that you are, do not seek to find what was never lost, or try break the thing that remains unbuilt.

In some cases it would mean Enlightenment as defined as the end of suffering, the end of fear, the destruction of ego. An abiding presence in intuitive awareness and what some have termed the un-grasped state. A state in which the investment in one’s personhood and egoism / habituations has ceased and Self - Divine Essence - Presence In The Moment has come forth and one is abiding in this awareness. Oneness and Unity Consciousness may preceed this state or unfold during or after Awakening. A deep and sometimes completely incapacitating shift to a non- inertia state - often coupled with nearly complete loss of personal identity / the falling away of self/ego/one’s story/identifications. Often particularly debilitating for 2 years or more in a sort of free fall with no desires or inclinations and often accompanied by intense feelings of gratitude (toward nothing in particular or everything at once). Typically having Awareness 24 hours a day even while the body sleeps if it sleeps at all. The shift may include phenomenal sustained changes in energy, a sort of constant feeling of floating about two inches above the ground while being utterly embodied and intensely visceral. Non-object Awareness, consistent frequent No Thought Awareness and the easy ability to be In no thought. No dreams, expanded inner sight, expanded Unity Consciousness and considerably more. Some residual habituations may remain but may or may not be obvious until they are. All seeking ends completely It is crystal clear that selfhood has fallen away - one’s positions and habituation have largely fallen away and virtually no holding of positions that still have some habituation. It may be that Samadhi can be had at any time - that immense energies unravel in incapacitating but not overwhelming openings from time to time or become sustained. These were just some of my experiences and are frequently cited as full Awakening experiences and abiding Awakening vs “an experience or taste of Awakening”. As as it has been noted - some consider these general qualities to be Enlightenment - I do not - though certainly some of the components are indicative of a more established abiding. Some experience fluquations in and out of abidance in Presence and loss and regaining of personhood and still sleep fully and dream - this has not been the case in the experience here.

I am not familiar with that Sutra. In fact...I've never heard of it until this thread. I've only read a handful of sutras. Some of the Shurangama sutra, all of the Lotus Sutra and Heart Sutra. Also bits of Sutra from In the Buddha's Words - which is an anthology of selected Sutras from the Pali Cannon. *********** My main thing right now is trying to get meditation practice solid (along with Taoist inner alchemy but that's a separate category). Some of the symptoms I experience seem to be similar to what Tibetan Ice insists is cat napping. Except he makes it sound like people are deliberately not being rigorous enough in their meditation and thus falling into a cat nap dream state. That isn't what happens with me. I get swept up in the dream even despite repeated attempts to sustain focus on my lower dantien. If I *could* stop the 'entering the dream sweep' I *would*. It's the fact that I do not seem to have any control over this that ticks me off so much that I've been looking around to see wtf I'm doing wrong with my meditation practice. ****************** Right now I'm reading Alan Wallace's The Attention Revolution in the hopes of seeing where I'm making mistakes in my meditation practice. And I get ticked off at the guys who say "you're trying is what's messing you up". To which my reply is - if you, Mr Don't Try Because You're Already Enlightened - are already so Awakened then quit posting on TTB, and quit giving advice to people to "quit trying".

I would add that what we experience is a creation of the minds, plural. Whether you see it as the unconscious, subconscious, and conscious; LDT, MDT, UDT; or the enteric, somatic/autonomic, and central nervous systems, etc. It is a unified axis of minds which can maintain supreme awareness within, regardless of which mind you are most in. Anyways, I used to practice westernized lucid dreaming techniques, and had good results with the following techniques: -wake to sleep: set your alarm early, then go right back to sleep -constantly question whether you are dreaming, all day long...this will ingrain the habit within you, and result in catching dreams. -find cues in everyday themes that trigger a 'am I dreaming check' such as any time you see sneakers, or anytime you notice yourself playing with a ring you usually wear, etc. -tratak exercises -pure intention to wake up in the dream, either through mantra, or direct without words, held strong until one falls asleep -master relaxation technique so fierce, that one can go directly from wake to dream, without losing lucidity. Practice a one hour savasana sometime

I've been using TWR's dream yoga techniques for the past few nights and it has certainly increased my overall dream recall.

In the dream world, it does not matter at all be you a butterfly or a fish, or just a dream. For all we know, the reality that we think we are in are just figment of a vast vast dream.

This what just came to mind 'crystalizes' as I was thinking when we were children our games were of 'play acting and imagining'. What do we do now we're older? Seems we forget to play and thus lose our ability to manifest! The idea of our imagination being a precursor to what we manifest in our life is a powerful idea and one which isn't new. Of course many motivational speakers suggest we use picture boards and mantrams to reinforce what we wish to achieve, change and evolve in our lives. There's also 'The Secret' and the law of attraction which I never really liked but it does have some merit. I wonder how much 'play acting', maybe even role playing, can still be used as a tool of manifesting as we grow older? The will and the imagination are integral parts of the mechanism for manifesting, yes? These functions of mind/consciousness must have evolved with us but have they out grown their use and are now a hindrance? Well obviously I don't think so but perhaps the function, use or goal is now simply different? So: Imagination there's a reason for it and we just need to understand what the reason now is as we begin to understand what it once was! If we dreamed ourselves into reality can't we now tailor our dream?

I definitely feel it was watching me as it was right next to my pillow and if it had eyes im pretty sure they would have been staring at me ! haha , now if it had bright red eyes that would have freaked me ! when it saw I was awake it walked (floated?) off and disapeared, I forgot to mention I had the exact same thing happen about half a year ago , didnt feel any negative vibes from both of them although im pretty sure they turned my dream into a nasty one.

Such a fun thread! I enjoy reading stuff like this. Bruce I would ask you - what do you think or feel this thing was? You said it didn’t feel negative. What else did you feel from it? Was it watching you? Did it have anything to do with the dream you were having? Share your own theories about what *this one* was, just for fun. What does your intuition say?

That's just been my experience in the past...and your dream was negative.

I have felt negative draws of energy before , , and anyone who has experienced this will know what im on about , in terms of this , my dream suddenly turned negative , luckily i can wake myself up from dreams easily , woke myself up and it was there a few inches from my pillow , but in this case , very neutral in feelings. regarding that if you are negative in emotion you attract them i dont believe this is so. again , we would have to know exactly what they are to assume that. I am sure a high level master could identify what they were but at my level far from it.

From what i have read of others experiences with this shadow person, thing, energy, it is not at all uncommon for folks to have an experience with it. I never have, so don't know. But of course I have a story that is kind of similar. (old farts always have stories if they live long enough) When I was about 3 or 4, and my brother was around 5, we shared a room with two single beds. It was night and we were in our beds talking about something. we could see well, as my parents were not in bed yet, and our bedroom door was open, and light was coming from the hallway right outside our room. We were in each of our beds, kind of propped up on our pillows talking, and all at once, all I can explain it as, was a monster hand, complete with pock marked gray skin and long claws popped up from under my bed, right next to me. Both my brother and myself saw it as the very same time and screamed our little heads off. My Pa came running into our room and turned on the lights, and the hand disappeared. to this day, both me and my brother agree on what we saw, but my parents just said that I had a bad dream........... sometimes the universe is stranger than we can know.

Wait I think i might have been misunderstood. I mean like literaly, i had a dream and the next day it happened, sort of. I saw a girl i never met before in my life, in my dream and the next day I saw her at a store. A very old song played in my dream and I heard it the next day while buying a skulbag. How can keep visions of the future coming?

Who is tub thumping ? I'm simply reacting to things like litmus paper to acid. I do not say this is true, that is true. I only say 'find the truth' . Your reality is your reality. If you dream this or that, then can I say it is not true that you dream it ? No. I cannot. If you say there is a green goblin that I must see, then I shall ask you to prove it. This is all I can do.

2(5) - 3 Yin-Yang (Higher resolutions as 5 Elements) > The Dynamic Product of Yin/Yang is Yuan Therefore if I understand correctly 5 Elements are pre-Yuan and do not include the Dynamic Yin-Yang creativity 1-2 Yin-Yang is a way of writing 1. There is no Yin without Yang ever. The basic property of existing is Purusha/Prakritia or Chalice/Blade or Lingam/Base or Substance/Creativity or Basecamp/Exploration. It is 1 thing with 2 faces. 0 When Prakriti is in samadhi (absorbed/merged) with Purusha it i a singularity 0. But it is only ever part of a Being or temporary or would be oblation and fruitless. Samadhi is the making permanent of this state in part of the Being. -> To Practice First one must unite downstream by realising the 5 Elements. Practically speaking this requires a great deal of work as a human being is a chaos so purification/integration/maturation all required as well as contact with a being who contains part of the lightstream and transmits it to you, otherwise you will remain in the false corruption dream of most humans and will never step foot outside. Then after the 5 Elements one must Awaken progressively further up the stream, from 5 > 2 > 1 > 0, and embody. I have practiced the HT 5 Animals Qigong for 3 years almost daily but I cannot say if it is a good vehicle for merging with the 5 Animals, in the HT it seems not to be done correctly. HT seems to wish to create unusual downstream unions and energy generation of new exciting energies of many sorts but they seem not to be working towards the Source in my opinion. I have recently discontinued the HT 5 Animals, although perhaps a sensitive understanding of it could turn it into a real practice .... possibly. If you work 5 Animals through Emotions for instance you are actually not working through correct centre, you would be working through the Heart, rather than the Dantien so that is defacto disaster because the Bagua relates to energetic manifestation in the Dantien and is reachable through the Dantien. Heart awakening is of a different ilk. So 5 Animals practice, though you might start with emotions or animal movements, should move rapidly to pure energetic movement done from the Dantien and be more like taichi or silk reeling.

I've been practicing 'dream yoga' on and off for a number of years now, and have had only a small amount of success -- most probably proportionate to my efforts... Interesting write-up though, thanks for sharing. I've never considered trying to induce certain types of dreams. I'm curious to know if the Tibetan methods include the use of certain herbs or herbal formulas, like Valerian, Vervain or any other herb listed in popular 'lucid dream inducing herbs' list?

Steve, what is the practice of three doors as outlined in step 2? The Tibetan methods seem awfully similar to those in Stephen LaBerge's book. It's no surprise as the Buddhist methods are what gave rise to the methods we have here in the west. I have taken the methods given by LaBerge and have modified them in order to make them simpler. I will report back on their effectiveness in the months to come. Efficacy and practicality are what I look to achieve. As of right now I'm also studying Taoist Dream Practices (the CD audio set by Michael Winn) and hopefully I will be able to take what works from there. I'm hoping it all works as Michael claims that while the Tibetan methods are supremely powerful, the Taoist methods give equal or better results and are more effortless. Some of the Taoist methods are also similar to the Buddhist methods as well like the different sleep positions (I find the Buddha posture and it's reverse equivalent to be rather uncomfortable so I prefer laying back and facing the ceiling). I will experiment with those methods and also plan on taking a Taoist dream practice course with Juan Li. Eventually I'll learn from the Tibetans as well. This is a topic that interests me a great deal as Lucid Dreams are without a doubt the most pleasurable and exhilarating experiences I have ever had.

A bit more about the practice - There are four basic components: 1. Upon awakening we review the night's experiences, give thanks for success, be OK without it, and recommit to the practice in the coming day 2. Throughout the day we continually remind ourselves - "this is a dream", especially when confronted with challenging situations and strong emotions. And we try to connect like this at a deep level through the practice of the three doors 3. Before sleep we review the experiences of the day, purify with breathing exercises, and set a strong intention to have clear and lucid dreams through meditation and prayer 4. As we go to sleep we practice different sleeping positions, breathing, and visualizations to induce specific types of dreams related to the 4 qualities of enlightened mind - peaceful, increasing, powerful, and wrathful. Finally, as we begin to see progress, there are exercises to work on in dreams to develop and stabilize the experience further. Really good stuff but not without a fair dose of tradition. It's interesting, Rinpoche is one of the more progressive Tibetan teachers out there but in the dream teaching he maintains a fair bit of tradition. I'm beginning to think that he is actually quite traditional and that what appears to be a secularization of traditional Tibetan methods is really tradition in disguise. Happy dreams!

Thanks Steve. I've had lucid dreams - more when I was younger than now. Last year I made an effort keeping a dream diary and setting intent and achieved a lucid dream but for various reasons my attention moved to other things. So I didn't keep it up for more than about a month. Some of my dreams in the past have been accurate prognostications of detailed events - but without any clear meaning or reason. Very interested in other peoples accounts and particularly methods (I've up read a few different styles). So thanks for starting this.

I don’t want to practice qigong, taiji, neidan, neigong or all the other related practices. All my intention is, and the reason why I am on this forum in the first place , is to learn how to increase jing throughout all the body and its organs. That is all. I’ve read (though I can’t remember the sources) that about 2 months of no sex (I assume they mean no orgasm) is enough to acquire a good amount of jing. But after just a few weeks of this, all I can think and dream about is sex and beautiful women. If I am on youtube and I accidently see a picture of a beautiful woman then I can almost feel my jing or qi pouring out of my eyes, getting a headache, and all the associated things. Getting to 2 months of no sex is so difficult! People who say that they can do it is because they waste away their jing through lots of exercise and weightlifting, so of course it is easy for them. I used to practice celibacy this way, but it doesn’t matter if all the impulses are ignored. As soon as there is a stimulus (like accidentally seeing a beautiful woman) the mind and body react regardless of the intention of the self to not pay attention to beautiful women, and even if there isn’t a stimulus, every night when one dreams there is usually a beautiful woman, or lots of beautiful women, and one wakes up covered in sweat (wasted jing) or at least poorly rested (wasted jing). I don’t follow his system, but I think he has some interesting things to say sometimes. I want to emphasize that I don’t follow any system or anyone. All I want to do is fill my body with a healthy amount of jing (when I mean healthy, I don’t mean just like the common person, I mean how the ancient Daoists would define healthy as full of vitality, every organ in the body is strong and full of jing, etc. And please don’t tell me about finding a teacher - dozens of people have already told me to fibd a teacher, so I don’t want to be told any more. Thanks for reading.

Is beyond lucid if you have a clear light dream. In your dream state, you have reached the non-duality state which is manifested by a clear, luminous white light and it is called rigpa. You are basically meditating in your sleep without consciously knowing that you are meditating.

In the first (original) post, you said "i get nightmare every single night, i scream every night because of nightmares". Now, you said "since i created this topic, i have had 2 nightmares lol". So, you can consider that sharing and asking for help has been useful. You have made progress. I remember reading somewhere that dreaming a skeleton indicates that one is progressing in the PATH/dhamma. But, i am not a dream-analysis expert, so only you will know the real relevance of this dream to your life. But, Have you considered the possibility that the treasure in your dreams is actually referring to the treasure of dhamma that you have lately incorporated seriously into your life (through meditation) ? Consider that alternative too. In fact, this more valuable than any material treasure, if you have serious faith in the PATH. Of relevance would be the question of how long it has been since you have take up spirituality (seriously) into your life and started related practices (like meditation) ?