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Baldur, son of Odin, was the most beloved of the gods. He is sometimes reffered to as the norse Jesus. He is beauty personified, and also asscociated with easter. The death of Baldur is one of the more famous stories of the Eddas. Baldur had a dream about his death, and when Odin and Freya (his parrents), got to know about this, traveled far and wide and asked every stone, plant, river, animal and an all other beings to promise not to harm him. They all agreed. As Baldr now had become immortal, the gods made a game out of throwing things at him. Loki (trickster and a jotun, but never the less a god) disguised himself, as tricksters do, and asked Freya: did everything promise not to harm him? To witch she responded yes, everything but the mistletoe, but why worry about something so small and insignificant? Loki, still in disguise, approached the blind god Hothr and gave him an arrow with the tip of a mistletoe, and invited him to join the game. The blind god fired his bow, and Baldr died. All beings where in great distress, because they knew that the death marked the (beginning) of the end, ragnarrok. Fimbulvinter (the great winter, lasting for three seasons) set in. The sun disappears, laws and morals falls away. The struggle of survival. Men starve, brothers fight brothers. The forces of utgard march against the Asgard, and mankind joins the battle as well. The midgard serpent and Thor fights each other, leaving both dead. Fenrir swallows Odin and his men, the einherjar (those who died in battle and went to valhalla). All giants, gods and men die in this battle. The world is submerged in water. Baldr, now in the underworld ruled by Lokis daughter Hel, promised to realise him on the condition that the whole world. Lif and Lifthrasir, destined to survive Ragnarrok, ventured out in time and went on to populate the earth. They worshipped Balder as their main god. Now, there are various accounts, a lot of unknown elements and also errors in my retteling of it, but i think its pretty cool. The brave god of beauty, associated with spring, dies on the hands of a blind men, tricked by a Loki and killed by an overlooked/insignificant plant. When the god of easter dies, the long winter sets in, and all hell breaks loose. The world cries, hell sets loose and both the forces of evil and good is killed. Two humans remain, life, and their main deity is the god of beauty and spring himself... And, lastly, there is a deity that we know almost nothing about. We know that he is the son of Odin, will avenge his father and kill Fenrir, the wolf. Fenrir is both the son of Loki, and Loki is at times called Fenris Fenrir. Fenrir (Old Norse 'fen-dweller')[3] or Fenrisúlfr (Old Norse "Fenrir's wolf", often translated "Fenris-wolf"), kind of poetic, no?

Many years ago I was clearly having two sorts of dream. One type seemed contrived (e.g. like standing in the middle of the filming of a James Bond movie) and the other had complex detail involving people I knew that looked a bit different in the dream (e.g. wrong age with somewhat different features) So I learned how to distinguish fake dreams (similar to re-enactments for a documentary) from genuine dreams. I would go back into the dream and test for the presence of the five electricities. If the electricities were not present the dream was a fake. https://www.google.com/search?q="the+five+electricities"&oq="the+five+electricities"&ie=UTF-8

Yoga nidra (also known as yogic sleep or sleep yoga, and not to be confused with dream yoga) is a state of conscious deep sleep. Through yoga nidra one can sleep 30 minutes to an hour and that would equate to 3 or 4 hours of regular sleep. Yoga nidra was not designed to replace regular sleep but since one can stay conscious through sleep onset this means that hypnagogic imagery can be experienced which in turn can lead to lucid dreaming and astral projection. Dream yoga on the other hand is a Tibetan practice with some of the goals being to awaken the consciousness within the dream state or astral travel. Dream yoga and yoga nidra are where the dream practices that sprung up in the west, otherwise known as lucid dreaming, have their roots. My question here is (as asked in the topic title) does the tao contain it's own practice of yoga nidra and dream yoga?

I just had a weird and cool dream which felt like a movie almost. Actually it felt so much like a movie that when I woke up my first thoughts were where can I finish this? This is such a cool story. Now, most of the time movies are just stories of the mind or symbolism or the odd intuitive dream; but this felt different. The level of detail I remember is incredible, and the story of the movie doesn't relate to any idea I ever had. It is really like I tuned into the brain of a writer and watched the story through their fantasy. The story itself was scifi/supernatural and had something to do with going undeground (like 20 stories or something) and being in a world that according to the other person in the dream was described as a "1950's type of world". I remember all kind of weird details, from the cars being stick shift to one of the other characters having something in her right earlobe that looked like 2 big pills. She claimed to be working undercover for the government and she also claimed that people could not stand to spend more then a couple days down here. (reason was not being given). She on the other hand craved being here and felt uncomfortable on top. If any of this sounds familiar and I am just dreaming of a netflix series that exist please tell me. I don't watch any kind of tv. The dream itself was cool, but the creepy thing is; where does it come from? Why is it so detailed and clear and feels like some kind of movie? I know dreams are weird and symbolic and stuff but this seems even more weird and counter intuitive than some of the premonition dreams that I sometimes have. Just because they seem so trivial.

@Maddie I will share in 4 points: 1) Intro 2) My experiences with evil spirits 3) My experiences with black magic 4) My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc) Intro In my opinion, this is an extremely important topic, that is extremely ignored, belittled and misunderstood by the vast majority of cultivators. Especially those with a western background. Also, even by high level masters who simply don't know about this particular area or haven't trained and studied it. My experiences with evil spirits I have personally suffered many extreme and terrifying experiences, and no matter where I sought help, I was belittled, ridiculed, ignored or misunderstood. I have seen books flying out of shelves. I have seen bagpacks and other physical items dragged back and forth on the floor. I have experienced "wind" indoors, even though it was a closed off room with no windows. I have seen shadowy/smoke like figures physically moving around, experienced physical touch even though no physical beings are there and much more. When I sought help from a hindu monk, he advised me to start japa of my guru mantra when it happened. I did it... Didn't work. When I sought help from a high level "shamanic" qigong master (you would think spirits would be a walk in the park for a shaman), I was belittled and told "not to pay attention to this illusion I am experiencing". There's nothing illusory about physical objects being thrown around by an unseen force. It's pretty much as concrete as it gets. Almighty God bless him, and bring him to clarity and allow him to actually help people with his powers of qi. When I sought help from another qigong master specialised in healing, he told me to say a prayer and do a mudra. When it didn't work, he explained it away saying that "you're just not powerful enough to do it yet, you need to cultivate more. Be my one-on-one student for 2-3 years, meet me on on a weekly zoom meeting priced at 1.600 dollars for an hour, and then in a couple of years, you will be able to do it". This healing qigong master stated that I have a very loving and very spiritual energy, and that's why troubled spirits get attracted to me. They seek help and healing from me. That's why it worsens when I travel to new places or stay overnight at places that are not my house. The troubled spirits in that place see me and come to get help. I actually believed him, and met him 3 times, wasting thousands of dollars. It didn't work! And on top of that, the clairvoyant things he told me about me and my health were flat out wrong (he said I had weak sexual energy, ejaculated in seconds and drank a lot of alcohol which damaged my liver). I am at a very advanced level of sexual qigong and lovemaking, haven't touched alcohol in more than 10 years and make love for hours daily without ejaculating with very strong erection power. So after 3 meetings, I realized he was simply a semi-psychic (he did say correctly that I had a spine injury, although there were so many other things wrong about his psychic reading), yet pretty good healer (I could feel my back getting better when he gave healings), but most of all he was just thirsty for money. So, of course I stopped seeing him. Dear God, bring him to the straight path, let him let go of his greed for money and selfishness, and instead lead him to the straight path, that he may use his gift of healing for good. I then spoke with a highly clairvoyant sufi master, who did a check on me (for free). He related my entire life story regarding troubles with spirits (without me telling him anything), and he also stated that it's because I have a lot of "light" (noor) inside my soul. This is because of all the prayers and mantras I say each day (since I was a child). He said the spirits are troubled where they are (in "bardo" or "barzakh" as it's called in Islam), and seek my help. He said I should visualise putting up spiritual sign posts around my aura, my house, or anywhere I go that says "I am sorry, I cannot help you. I myself need help, that's why I pray to the light and get that light into me. Please don't come to me, I am in no position to help you, I myself need help, that's why I pray so much. You should yourself pray to the light, then you will get help". I tried it for some time, and it helped in my own house. However, when I went to new places, it didn't work. God bless this man, he is extremely loving, knowledgable and powerfully clairvoyant. When I sought help from another sufi (via the internet), he for free did a "spiritual check" on me. He stated that yes, I have some low level evil spirits around me. He gave me (for free!) a one week program of readings of salawaat (prayers to the prophet), and reciting "bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim" (the bismillah, "in the name of God) many hundreds of times in a day. Then blow on water and drink it. I did it for 7 days, and it worked! It was from his heart and soul he wished to help me. He did it for free. I sent him 100 dollars and said that it worked, and asked if I could keep training with him. I must have paid him only a few hundred dollars, yet I spent 6-9 months corresponding with him via email. He would give me different salawaat, dhikr (name of God), verses of the Qur'an and du'a (prayers). Whenever I did a program (e.g. 7 days, 11 days, 21 days), he would tell me how it went. He would give me feedback on the energy, without me telling him anything. He was very good, he helped me a lot, and he didn't ask much in return. However, after 6-9 months, because he wanted to remain anonymous, I felt that to be a bit weird after so long, so when I had completed a big program, I stopped corresponding with him. We haven't been in contact since. What became my go-to after training with this guy, is 5 verses from the Qur'ran. Ayatul kursi (Verse about the Throne of God), and 4 verses called "the 4 qul". They are the last 4 verses of the Qur'an, and they all start with "qul" which means "say". It's Surah Nas (verse of Man), Surah Ikhlas (verse of Unity), Surah Falaq (verse of the Daybreak / rising sun) and Surah Kafiroon (verse about the Unbelievers). You recite each 11 times (11x ayatul kursi, 11x surah nas, 11x surah ikhlas, 11x surah falaq and 11x surah kafiroon). Then you blow on your right index finger, and visualise your hand coming down from the sky, and drawing a protective circle around the 4 corners of your home, and then finally around yourself, or the room that needs extra protection (e.g. bedroom, prayer room). This has been my go-to for more than 6 years. It has been the only thing that worked for me in this area. If you want to keep your house energy pure, you say 21x ayatul kursi, blow on a glass of water, and sprinkle it around your house. The combination of these two readings saved my life. God bless this man who helped me without demanding anything in return! Unlike these chinese qigong masters, just wanting money and doing nothing to help. Lately when I'm learning Sri Vidya, I feel that some of the mantras and rituals from Sri Vidya will eventually be able to give spiritual protection on an even higher level. There are 2 specific "deities" or energies generated from mantras and rituals for the navel chakra (Durga) and third eye chakra (Varahi) which specifically combat negative spiritual energies, including black magic, evil spirits, the evil eye etc. All of the above are my experiences and solutions for evil spirits so far. My experiences with black magic I have worked for the army in my country. One of my functions was as a translator and interpreter. I have been deployed several times to a UN mission in West Africa. On one of my deployments, there wasn't much work. We only worked from 6 in the morning to 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The rest of the time we we're pretty much on standby. Being stranded in a war zone, there's not much to do. So I spent all my free time reading, studying and practicing (mantras, meditation and qigong). I was in a very good spiritual state at the time due to so much practice, so I was seeing auras and energies most of the time. One time, we were training the local special forces to save hostages. The only building we could use was a big fancy hotel, yet no tourists (because of the war). So to survive, the owner of the hotel rented it out as a brothel. One day, in a break between exercises, I saw one of the prostitutes sitting on the other side of the courtyard (they just sat around and waited for the 3-4 hours that we and the local soldiers used it as a training compound). When she saw me, she started whispering something, and I saw a small cloud of black energy generating in front of her face. Then she did something with her hands, and started blowing towards me. This sent the small black cloud of energy across the courtyard towards me. It just landed in the outskirts of my aura, it didn't go in (thank God!). So nothing happened to me. When I was back in my room later that day, I meditated. Then I understood she was trying to do some black magic on me. Maybe she was trying to seduce or attract me. For a prostitute in a war zone, hooking up with a soldier deployed from Europe could be her ticket out of the warzone to a better life. Luckily, the energy wasn't powerful enough to penetrate my energy field (which was pretty charged at the time due to so much spiritual practice). And as I meditated, the cloud was just destroyed and disappeared from my field. One of the local maids cleaning my place actually put my tooth brush up in her vagina when she was cleaning the bathroom. She thought I didn't know, as I was sitting in the living room. I guess it's a primitive form of African black magic. If you ingest some of the fluids (spit, sweat or sexual fluid) of someone (especially if they say mantras while doing it), you can become more partial to liking that person (becaues you will have some of their energy inside your physical body). I bought a new tooth brush! Another woman working in the restaurant spat in my food and stirred it around to hide it. I ordered a new pasta You need to be very careful in many places of Africa, the Middle East, South America and certain parts of Asia. It's rampant with black magic and desperate people. Luckily they are usually not powerful practitioners, but you can still catch something if you're not protected and observant. My second experience is with my girlfriend. She comes from the Middle East, i.e. the vast majority of her family still lives there. When we got together, it was made public, her ethnicity in our European country as well as her family and relatives in her home country in the Middle East became aware of it. As soon as this happened, she started to fall sick. She would get wrist tendonitis, elbow tendonitis, sore knees, sore lower back, her vision would suddenly drastically reduce, she would get nauseous for no reason, got rashes, stomach ache, started to suddenly lose weight and appetite. For no reason! It just came suddenly out of the blue. She would suffer for some time and recover. Then a new problem came back. This continued for about 6 months. Before we made our relationship public, she wasn't sick even once. After we made it public, she kept continually falling ill again and again. After 6 months of this story of suffering and disease, once when I was meditating, I saw a cloud of red and black energy entering our house. It went to my girlfriend. Then it went into her wrist. That same evening, she started complaining that the wrist tendonitis was coming back. I was very surprised. I was praying and meditating, trying to understand what had happened. A few days later, I got a dream, where I saw planet Earth from above. Then I saw her country in the Middle East (Kurdistan). Then I saw clouds of red and black gathering and forming, and then they travelled to Europe to our country. When I woke up, I understood that God had heard my prayer, and given me this dream to let me know that someone in her home country was cursing her. That started an 8 month period of fighting this magic. First I consulted this qigong healer about it (the psychic one, who told me correctly about my spinal injury, but wrongly about alcohol, sex etc). He to my great surprise said that someone was putting black magic on my girlfriend, and that she should practice his "small universe" meditation to transform the energy. I was surprised he went straight to Black Magic as an explanation, even though I didn't tell him about my dreams and visions. We tried what he suggested, but it didn't work. Then I went to a hindu tantric, who has mastery over spirits, done sadhana (spiritual practice) in graveyards, and done many tamasic tantric rituals to control these spirits (e.g. animal sacrifice, bathing in blood, smearing yourself with your own filth and urine etc). When I spoke with him, he asked me to send a photo of my girlfriend. After 2-3 days, he called me and said that there is black magic on her. We should just worship and pray to God like normal, remain vegetarian, avoid alcohol, and when he visits our country, he will put a kavach (shield/armor) on her. From that day we spoke, everything stopped. So he did something remotely. After a few nights, I had a dream where I saw this swami doing something. A beam of energy went to the Middle East, where I saw someone had buried a charm inscribed with mantras and signs under the plot of one of my girlfriend's family's buildings. The beam from the swami went in and neutralized the black/red energy. I would again highlight that he did all this for free. It seems again that this phenomenon that spirituality costs money and is a business is mostly related to chinese qigong traditions. Sufis and hindus have helped me completely free of charge, just from their heart. It was about 2-3 weeks where it was completely gone, but then it returned. I tried many different sufi methods, prayers, Qur'an, tasbih (prayer beads). It was always the same. It would make it go away, but after a certain period of time, it would return. Later, after I had done a specific reading of a passage from the Qur'an about Moses fighting the black magicians of Farao, the black magic completely stopped. It took me a month, and you have to recite late at night. Then I finally had a dream where I saw this black magician in Kurdistan. Every new moon, or on specific astrological days, he goes to a kind of basement or cellar underground. Here he conducts terrible black magic rituals, involving animals, kidnapped orphans and other terrible things. That's why it's all black and red energy, because it's dirty and bloody what he does. It's someone from my girlfriend's family who's jealous of the part of the family that's gone to Europe. Then I saw him get hit with my one month program of Qur'an, and he lost all of his powers. All the energy drained from him, he became thin, weak and pale. After this it was about 6 months where we were completely free from this black magic. I thanked God and actually thought it was over. I felt kind of bad that it seemed my Moses-reading had damaged him, but I didn't mean to hurt him, I just wanted to protect my beloved girlfriend. It hadn't really hurt him, just taken away the energy he had built up and the evil spirits he was working with. After 6 months, he decided to start to try again, and start from the bottom to build up his energy (he was the most powerful black practitioner I've ever seen). But this time the things he sent were really weak. We just read some Qur'an and du'a, and it stopped. Finally, after starting Sri Vidya one and a half years ago, and we did a 41 day Varahi tarpana. Now we've been clear of black magic for about 1 year. I feel like we have built our spiritual protection so strong now, that we're mostly safe. My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc) I've highlighted a bunch of my experiences above. Now I'll try to make sense of it and provide an explanation. I'll use an idea of different dimensions of reality to try and explain why people misunderstand each other when it comes to black magic and evil spirits. For simplicity I'll just use the following terms: 1) Physical (shared physical world, objective reality, different beings interact with each other in an objectively verifiable sense). 2) Energetic (shared energetic world, objective albeit non-detectable reality for untrained people, objectively verifiable by people with their energetic senses open) 3) Mind (inner, individual world, unique to you, subjective reality, there's no one else here but you) 4) "Astral" (objective and shared reality with different beings interacting with each other through energy and mind) Buddhism: A big problem is that many Buddhists will brush these kinds of things off and say "it's all just mind". Someone even told me "spiritual beings viewed with ignorance, are demons", "spiritual beings viewed with wisdom, are devas". That sounds great philosophically, but it's a completely useless viewpoint when shit gets serious. Books are flying around your room, or your girlfriend is falling sick. It's not something mental, it's concrete and physical. You need to do something. Just like an intruder in your home trying to steal your stuff "it's just mind, it's just illusion". Yes, fine illusion when he slaps you in your face and rapes your family. You need to take practical action and protect yourself and your family. So all this "it's all mind" is great for a meditator going inwards, but it's not useful if you have a concrete, practical problem. Just like feeling hungry "it's just an illusion in your mind", no, you need to eat something. I feel like the misunderstanding is because the buddhist meditator is talking about "mind", whereas the person talking about problems with black magic and evil spirits is talking about the astral, energetic and physical dimensions. It's true that you can meet "darkness" in your own subjective mind, but this is not the same as the objective, shared reality in the astral, energetic and physical dimensions. Some people who are also generally confused and vague in their life experience will not have the ability to discriminate between "mind" (their own fears) and "astral" (a real, verifiable, shared and objective reality). These are the people that buddhists in general target when they say "it's all in your own mind", because they think it's just imagination. For these meditators getting lost in their own subjective minds, it's a great piece of advice. However, for people truly experiencing objective problems in the astral, energetic or physical domains, it's ridiculing, belittling and just not helpful advice. Sufism Sufism states that there are unseen beings living in an astral, objective dimension. They also differentiate between the subjective mind or ego called "nafs" and the astral world called "malakut" or world of light (angels are called malai'ka, or powerful beings of light). Hinduism Also differentiates between your own subjective mind, and the astral world. Martinus Also differentiates between inner subjective world (mind, you and your own mind), and inner objective world (spiritual world, your soul and the soul of others). Conclusion I am sure buddhism also discriminates somehow between inner subjective and inner objective world, I just don't know the correct terms. Maybe someone can help me out? The reason that these qigong masters failed to help and just tried to extract money from me, is simply because even though they're master healers, the just haven't trained in and studied the astral world. They know about the physical, energetic and mind, they just don't know about black magic and evil spirits in the astral. The sufis who helped me, they knew about energy and astral, so they could easily see what was happening and what I should do. They had trained in this and understood it. Similarly, the tantric swami had knowledge and power to help us quickly. The black magician was just very powerful, so he could break the spell from the swami and start his black magic again after a couple of weeks by repowering his buried charm through rituals. Mostly when people belittle or ridicule black magic and evil spirits, it's just because they themselves didn't have karma in this area, so they don't know about it. That's why they brush it off as unimportant and not necessary, because it wasn't important to them in their cultivation. However, if you have karma in this area, there's no escaping it. You need to read, study and understand about it, then you need to train in it (mantra, meditation, ritual etc). Then you will master it and be able to go beyond it and continue your cultivation undisturbed. All traditions have sections of their teachings dealing with this, it's just not all masters who've studied this section of their tradition. Because they didn't need it, they state that no one else needs it (wrong assumption and bias to think everyone is like you and need the same as you did. Wrong. We're all different and unique, we need different things). God bless you all!

Ive always put a lot of weight into dreams, paid them a great deal of attention. I think because I loved to dream so much- and I tried to make my life like the spirit I got from dreaming. Over the years since childhood Ive held the belief that these dreams are not of my design, and since my initiation I have had that confirmed by being given words and ideas that I had never heard of. Most of my dreams do seem suited for me, and when someone appears in them that I know, I wonder if it is them, or their shadow memory. Ive dreamed of people I don't know as well, famous people- and wondered the same thing. Basing my ideas on the infinity that I now grasp, I recognize that most often dreams are my own design, visited by what would appear to be a sliver of other people, but not them themselves. As my initiation was of Chesed, I have focused a lot of attention on mercy, love and kindness- to an obsessive level. I have observed the world and imagined how it could be were these our true motivators. Not too long ago I was asked by a power from elsewhere whether to destroy the world since it was not living up to this idea of kindness, to which I said no, that would be unkind, and there is enough kindness that it does exist. I wasn't certain until last night that this might have been honestly asked of me, when I had another dream that asked me for advice. In this new dream I was put into a world where my actions began the sequence of how we act and treat living things. I was being tricked into acting violently when it occurred to me that there was deception, and stopped what I was doing, which changed the tone of the interaction with the people there. It was revealed to me that these Gods, or the Gods that governed this realm, like excellence, and they were dissatisfied with the progress of innovation and invention, citing that most people are poor imitations of truly creative people. I misinterpreted what was being said, and thought that there was some judgement being made on humanity, and I suggested that they destroy the lower 3/4s of our species and force the upper crust to carry forward- they stopped me and said "We wont, because there is still money in the others" and it occurred to me that they meant that there is the potential for greatness in all of us- something that I had initially declared on my opening years of initiation. I then saw some of the members of this Heaven and said "You could reincarnate, if what you see offends you, and renew your faith in our struggle for greatness" to which they began to walk out on a terrace to await reincarnation. As they did this I heard great singing voices and recognized that these people were extremely talented folk, and that is when I recognized that the Gods of this Heaven appreciate great artistry.

Just last night I had a dream about riding a bus. I can’t remember ever having a dream that I was riding a bus, despite having ridden the school bus during my entire public schooling. Immediately before going to sleep I was a little bummed out about something. I had randomly run into a video related to Authenticneigong.com on Youtube, and went and checked on the site. There is a 2-day workshop coming up in just a couple weeks! My automotive insurance payment is due at the end of the year, and it is almost the exact same amount as the entry fee for the training. I don’t have enough money right now to pay for both. I’m at a point in my life where I only use my car a few times per week. First this morning I pulled up the local transit routes and see stops right at most of the places I drive to. Plus whatever extra walking or skateboarding for the last mile to and from the house is surely worth the exercise. Might be time to finally shake up my transportation paradigm. I am stubborn as hell though, so even there’s room for procrastinating until the February work shop.

My spiritual path to this point was through my love of the natural world. I have always loved being in nature. I am told the only surefire way to get me to stop crying as a newborn was to take me outside. A few years ago, I realized I needed some kind of spiritual path, some tradition I could engage with. I considered druidry of different kinds, but it just never clicked. Then I considered Buddhism and for about six months I have been attending a Zen Buddhist Sangha in the Plum Village tradition and it has been spiritually very helpful but something seemed missing. I am sure this is a simplistic rendering of how Zen came about, but when I learned Chan (Zen) Buddhism emerged from Buddhism coming to China and interacting with Daoism, it opened up my mind and heart to other paths. Then I read an English translation of Daodejing a few weeks ago and it was the first spiritual text that completely overwhelmed me. I am now making my way through multiple English translations and starting my way through the Zhuangzi. The famous stories in the Zhuangzi of "a tortoise dragging his tail through the mud" and "the butterfly dream" really struck an accord for me. Nature's indifference and decentralized structure has always been comforting to me, long before I could articulate any of this. Also, a week ago, I started practicing Qigong from YouTube videos. I am grateful to be a part of this community!

Had an interesting tai chi dream lesson last night. A teacher (don’t recollect who, wasn’t my master) expounded on the principles of taijiquan. He told me, tai chi is bone, mind and field. By bone i interpreted two ways - the skeletal structure and the bone marrow where jin(g)is stored. Mind is intent - Yi Field is the energy/mind field which forms the surface of our “bubbles”, and it’s surface tension is how our power works. Does any of this resonate with anyone? Would love to read your thoughts on it

The Universe of Absurdity. Realities are constantly changing. Yesterday was one thing, tomorrow will be another. The river of life flows, and the years run by. Once upon a time, in a pioneer camp, I was called for the solemn raising of the red flag on my birthday. I hoisted the flag on the flagpole and gave a pioneer salute. It was the first religious act in my life. Now, however, I pray three times a day to the One and Almighty God. Back then, in my childhood, there were so many things around me that I had to learn. Now everything is known, and there remains only one Creator for me. The Creator dictated His Torah to the prophet Moses. This holy book is immeasurably superior to all the books that have been written or will be written. And since the book is the best, the fee for it must be the highest. What fee did the Most High receive? His fee is the people who study the Torah and fulfill what is written in it. Recently, I was chatting via ICQ with a Jewish person. His friends go to the Netherlands several times a year to take hallucinogenic mushrooms and embark on what is called a "journey" in slang. The "journey" they embark on involves receiving certain tasks that they later fulfill while in a sober state of mind. For example, his nephew was tasked with quitting smoking, and he did quit. The Jewish person I was talking to was also inclined to go to the Netherlands for the "journey." I tried to convince him that studying Kabbalah is much more interesting and beneficial than mushrooms, citing my rich experience. However, he argued that mushrooms appeared before Kabbalah and that the world exists only in the fantasies induced by mushrooms. I became acquainted with mushrooms in the following way. Once in St. Petersburg, I found myself in a bohemian club and met a girl named Anya. She was a bass guitarist. I liked the girl, and I started visiting the club every day. Anya, of course, sensed my interest in her and one day suggested going to a place outside the city to gather hallucinogenic mushrooms and "trip" on them. I had heard a lot about these mushrooms at the time, as they were very trendy in bohemian circles. A few days later, we met at the train station. It turned out that Anya had not only invited me but also another person. His name was Alexey, and he was rather colorless but very accommodating. The place we went to, the three of us, was very picturesque. On top of a hill stood a royal palace, and below the hill was a field called "The Labyrinth," where we were supposed to search for mushrooms. It was called "The Labyrinth" because ditches had been dug, turning the field into a maze. Of course, this was a legacy from the time of the monarchy and used to be entertainment for the aristocracy. At first, we followed the rules of the game and searched for mushrooms, paying attention to these ditches. Then we got lost in the field and started simply crossing over them. We gradually circled the entire field but only found a couple of mushrooms, which was not enough for even one dose. So, disregarding the mushrooms, we went to see the royal palace since it turned out to be a museum. We liked the palace, but there was some dissatisfaction because we couldn't gather enough mushrooms. We left the palace and headed towards the train station. Alexey decided to walk along the road through dense grass. Suddenly, he found a whole cluster of these mushrooms, which were actually amanita mushrooms. A little while later, we found enough for five doses. We decided not to postpone it any longer and took our doses. The effects started after about 15 minutes. I saw the house we were passing by suddenly transform into a beautiful castle with all sorts of whimsical towers. Overall, I felt like I was in a fairy tale. Everything around me was absolutely unreal. I won't describe our adventures, but I can say that we "traveled" until late in the evening. Although this "journey" probably differed from the one experienced by those who went to the Netherlands, as mushrooms can vary. The mushrooms we took are commonly called "fun mushrooms" in the folk parlance. They show the world from a humorous perspective. In conclusion, I will describe two dreams that I had several years after taking the mushrooms. One dream is connected to the prophet Moses, whom I mentioned before. In Hebrew, he is called Moshe Rabbeinu, which means Moses our teacher. The dream went like this: Some people appeared, and one of them said, "Talk to Moshe Rabbeinu. He still has 6,000 matters to attend to today." I saw a very tall and dignified man in front of me. After that, I found myself with Moses in a beautiful garden, and I asked him a question that was personal to me. Moshe answered the question and indicated that the use of narcotic substances has a very negative influence on health and, in particular, deteriorates memory. The other dream had the following content: I found myself in a bohemian apartment and saw a person enter the apartment. I only saw his profile and realized that this person was completely moral. The owner of the apartment was next to me, so I asked him who the guest was. The owner casually said, "Oh, that's McCartney." After that, I walked with the person they called McCartney to the kitchen, and we sat across from each other. He handed me a cigarette filled with marijuana, which is called a joint in slang. I took the cigarette and looked into the eyes of the person who gave it to me. I saw remarkably kind and intelligent eyes. At first, I couldn't see them clearly and strained all my concentration abilities. Finally, after focusing properly, I saw that I was being looked at by boundless wisdom. It was none other than the Lord God Himself.

On this matter I would advise anyone to start by first reading Carl Jungs autobiography, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections". It explains very well the process he went through discovering the alchemical symbology in his own dreams as well as other sacred symbology. The works of Mircea Eliade are fascinating on this matter as well. They will make you realize that there are symbols willing to speak to you that were always present in your life and that you never noticed 🙂 So, if you're willing to sacrifice your sleep for some time and have a dream journal at your bedside table you will learn alot about yourself and mostly that what's sacred and you feel is so far is indeed so near and so aware of you. Some twenty years ago I've kept a dream journal for about two years and don't regret the investment.

I think this is a complex subject. The first point to make is, I think that the mind naturally visualises in dreams or just when thinking of an object and seeing it in your mind. Some people claim not to do this, just as some people claim not to dream. I've met a couple of people with this position which at first I found astounding as I am quite a visual thinker and dream a lot. Since I am sure this is a natural function of our minds I can only conclude that these people either are blocked or just have never learned to notice their visual perceptions. When I first learned meditation I tried visualisation techniques - but quickly dropped them. In fact it was when I dropped any intermediary technique including counting breaths etc. that I made a significant breakthrough. Years later when I started Vajrayana practice there was a lot of emphsis on visualisation - which I must admit I didn't take particularly seriously (at first). I was very casual about it - but in the end I found this was probably the right approach. For instance if someone says think of your mother or other loved one and an image of them comes up - you don't put any effort in. Similarly if say I study a picture of a yidam like Chenrezig for some time - then when I image the same on my head or in front of me the image just pops up fully formed with more or less no effort. I think that Damo and Mizner are mistaking the techniques used with visualisation with 'just imagining'. So for instance just thinking of a line of energy going up your spine or whatever this is unlikely to have any result at all. So they a right about that. In fact the result would be inhibiting because it would block your ability to relate to the energy flow directly. However in meditation generally, the whole of the mind has to be encompassed - and this includes visual thought-forms and images. If as you say you rest your intent - preferably in the LDT - then the mind is released and images can flow in a more distinct and vivid forms. A kind of controlled day dreaming. This becomes important when trying to become unified or whole, since all of your mind/body must be engaged.

I feel inherently, that one moment I will awaken within the 'real world' in the same way lucid I have become during the dream state lucid a multitude of times.

I felt I had to respond to this first, before I go on to the next bit ( as it gives some background to my take on things and hopefully some relevance to my next post : I and many others agree , but in my experience those others have been the indigenous ... that have not had their culture totally ruined . I'd say it's 'point' is to 'continue' . That can be via the 'sacrifice' of individual survival ... actually the the 'survival of life' might well depend on the transience of it's ' units' . We do ... being units of life . Maybe the Universe is a really BIG 'life unit ' ? and being born . Well, like I say about social media and IT ... at least I will be dead before I could see the horrible results . But then again ; https://www.noemamag.com/life-need-not-ever-end/ Well .... eveeeeeeentualy . Meanwhile ...... Thats like saying I am too stupid to make myself immortal . We can be sure of nothing ... for all I know , when I die, thats it .. zippo ... finata ! I still remain grateful and appreciative that I had a chance to experience life , and for the life I had . Its a dream Bro .... when that big snake , asleep underground , dreaming this all up , wakes up ... then the Dream finished ... everything gone .... you and me too ! Yes. I can give you another 100 reasons why as well . Now, hang on a minute Maybe it is already doing that ... but I think it has little to with us ...... teenie little bio-units that we are .

Hey folks.. I had this particular dream about 6 month ago and as a big fan of jungian psychology i take my dreams VERY seriously. It goes like this.. Im in my bedroom and im aroused sexually. Im looking for an objective for my horniness and eventually my eyes rests on the computer screen and there is some pornography running on it. Watching it makes me seek and dizzy to the point i got to push the screen off the desk to stop it as quick as possible. I turn around and outside the window there is a magical darkness, I almost fall inlove with it and it becomes my new objective. I know im about to ejaculate and to my suprise just before i do, all the energy rises to my heart and i have an extremely pleasurable heart orgamsem. The end I was never to much into celibacy before but what i call the "self" has a better purpose for my energy and i belive its in my best intrest to consider its suggestions. I tought maybe some members here on the the DBs can suggest practices or reads of this kind of sort. I mean not only in sexual intercourse or masterbation but also directing sexual energy in general maybe? Thanks in advance. P.S I dont do porn anymore and i masterbate every period of time when it feels right and not as a mean to avoid something. sex daily when i have the option and its exhausting me very much as a 27 years old male. Also i know sex practices in tantra is not what tantra is all about .

@Master Logray Ahh, not sure where I saw this qigong in dream thing, can't seem to find it back in my notes. I read that too that in some schools high level practitioner doesn't dream at all. But it's not the same everywhere. Other schools say that it's a waste of time to not (lucid) dream, so much stuff to do there in your dream. Why waste 1/3 of your day doing nothing. Although there are also some practices connected to being conscious in deep sleep state without dreams. If you have full lucidity I believe you can also change the scene of your dream at will. -------------- Another interesting stuff to do: going back into your nightmare :D, or look for a teacher in your dream to learn from.

Interesting, is this a scenario you have consciously created or did the scene just happen? I'm just relating the symbols in your dream to my experience in sitting. The fruit that drops on the table--a one-pointedness of mind that can shift location and a sense of gravity that pervades the body are the fruit and the table to me. There's no eating the fruit. The striking thing to me about my experience on the cushion these days is that I am practicing some kind of scales, as it were. Gautama outlined the feeling of four states, the initial three and then the “purity by the pureness of [one’s] mind”, the fourth. I’ve described that “pureness of mind” as what remains when “doing something” ceases, and I wrote: When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath. The rest of the scales are looking for a grip where attention takes place in the body, as “one-pointedness” turns and engenders a counter-turn (without losing the freedom of movement of attention); finding ligaments that control reciprocal innervation in the lower body and along the spine through relaxation, and calming the stretch of ligaments; and discovering hands, feet, and teeth together with “one-pointedness” (“bite through here”, as Yuanwu advised; “then we can walk together hand in hand”, as Yuanwu’s teacher Wu Tsu advised). In the months since I wrote my friend, I’ve had some time to reflect. There are some things I would add, on my practice of “scales”. Gautama spoke of suffusing the body with “zest and ease” in the first concentration: “… (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease.” (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93, PTS p 132-134) Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey a sense of gravity, while the phrase “not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” speaks to the “one-pointedness” of attention, even as the body is suffused. If I can find a way to experience gravity in the placement of attention as the source of activity in my posture, and particular ligaments as the source of the reciprocity in that activity, then I have an ease. ("To Enjoy Our Life")

I have experienced this personally and agree with both your statement and the merit of the method. In reflecting on these posts, I suggest faith is what is there before knowing, be that through seeing positive changes through practice or self-realization. Once we experience or realize, it is knowing that drives us, not faith. Knowing which engenders trust. Faith is no longer necessary. It seems to me that all faith is necessarily blind. If one is not blind one would see, and know or not know, faith is unnecessary when knowing is there. I do not disregard or demonize faith. It is good to have faith in your cancer treatment or your buddy who’s got your back in the shit. Good to have faith in parents, partners, teachers, coaches, etc… Faith is only a problem when we are too identified so as to fail or refuse to see truth when it shows itself and act accordingly. The biggest danger of faith is that it can make us vulnerable, susceptible to influence and abuse. It’s OK to feel faith if it is truly there, it is simply already there, a feeling, an idea, a hope, or a dream. There is nothing wrong with any of that and it does not present a threat if we are aware and responsive. Disappointment is Ok too, if it is there. It is important, however, that it doesn’t become a fixed part of our identity. All of this comes and goes if we don’t hold on. I think this is the key or me. These three words - belief, faith, and trust are interesting for me to sit with and to investigate. What counts more than these words are the concepts with which we associate them and our relationship to that, I think. In practice, all three have a similar function in directing and motivating action, whether religious, spiritual, political, martial, material, and so on. Some words and concepts make us more or less comfortable as individuals, eg regular faith is Ok, blind faith not so much, or belief is bad but trust is good. At the end of the day, for me there is knowing and not knowing. In between the two are these shades of conceptual grey where I feel we often dance and it’s interesting to me to observe and explore. And as powerful as “knowing” is it is also always the experience of a fallible human not as different from faith as we might like to believe.

there's something to it. Emotions are like a compass - without them you are lost and without goals. Focusing on own empirical sense data and calm (instead of in depths concepts) might enlarge those to some degree, - I will watch that for a while, thanks. @manitou, thank you, yes, I hope so, yes, maybe I get stuck in the analytic part and don't get to feel or the aware part This part seems difficult, when you strive to live a 'functional' life and have to 'work' with this. It did get better lately with some approaches, again, habitual feelings might just get enlarged even though there's no reason for it. @Apech, yes, I mistook her first name for her last name, - Mr. Byrons poems however are a classic! Something you mentioned about 'overwhelmed' reminded me of a dream of my own, - - thanks. @blue eyed snake, something you mentioned, about intensified energetics in the body via 'practice' (I never practiced, it was a current) resembling a feeling of 'being in love' recently, somewhere (cannot find it right now) rings a bell and explains - some - for me, thanks. @Mark Foote, I am sorry, that there was a scam on the site, - I hadn't visited it, and I don't use google chrome. I'm glad you find a better sense of timing through meditation, however I get confused about the difference of 'the cessation of doing' and 'the cessation of breath' (which is not a thing one should get confused about) and I admire your dedication to the classical writings. @snowymountains, thanks, the link might be of help! thanks @all for the input!

Another thing I'd like to mention is that nearly everyone who has ever written about or practiced what is being described in this thread began with other practices, and often concurrently engage in other practices, that do involve effort in a variety of ways. It does irk me a bit when people speak of releasing all effort as if it is something that is easy to do as that tends to push people away who have tried and struggled with this or makes them feel bad about themselves or the practice. This is very simple but not at all easy until one has had appropriate training and lots of practice. Simply stated, we need to exert as much effort as is necessary for us to come to the point where we can genuinely let it go and rest into what is already always present without distraction. I also like this quote from Peter Fenner, "If we didn't do what we didn't need to do, we would never know that we didn't need to do it!" One of the more important aspects of teaching this stuff is to acknowledge and respect the fact that different people need different things to support their practice. This is constantly changing for each of us over time. For some, it is essential that varying degrees of effort be engaged to stabilize the attention. Otherwise they will simply day dream or doze throughout a meditation session and make no progress at all. For others, a simple pith instruction or the sound of a bird call may be enough to put them right into that open, clear place of spontaneous presence. It is critically important to be aware of what we genuinely need in our practice and to be honest with ourselves about that. Otherwise we are far more likely to waste our time than cultivate skill and experience in meditation (especially so with non-meditation, which is a very precise practice). In my own training, and when I guide or teach, I begin by giving people something to focus on. The first step is to be able to get some control of the attention to keep it from running wild. This takes some effort and time. It is called zhiné in Tibetan (or shamatha in Sanskrit). My teacher once described the effort when we begin this practice as being like an old person with poor eyesight trying to focus on something they are having trouble seeing. Very focused, very intense, lots of effort and often frustration. Gradually, as the mind begins to settle and wander less, we can incrementally release the effort until we are able to release entirely into the unfabricated present moment and simply abide without distraction. For example, one practice I engage in is resting the attention on silence. In the beginning it takes a lot of effortful concentration to first recognize and then keep the attention focused on silence, partly because we are so used to engaging with what is filling the silence and so unfamiliar with silence itself. Little by little we are able to release that effort of listening and simply hear and feel the silence. As our practice continues to deepen over months and years we can even release the very subtle effort associated with hearing and simply be silence itself. This is tough to describe in words and may sound far-fetched but is very clear to one who practices and has this experience. Once we gain some skill and familiarity with this it becomes easy to rest and open the attention under a variety of circumstances utilizing little or no effort and being free from distraction. It's little more than a shift of attention combined with stability cultivated through practice. At this stage, the practice is no longer limited to sitting on a meditation cushion in a quiet room. We can bring it into our lives and engage this practice under the most challenging circumstances imaginable. This is what it means when dzogchenpas talk about 'bringing all experience onto the path.' Ultimately this is intended to be a continuous practice that is beautifully described in Namkhai Norbu's book, The Cycle of Day and Night.

Thanks ! I will have a look . I read a book years back , whose title or author I can remember , it was very good and tracked the changes in human early technology through to modern and correlated them with changing over time in religious , philosophical , metaphorical imagery used in those times , very interesting . Two nights back I had a revelation into 'what it really is ' ... WOW ! But it was my own 'really is' - something I saw , not a jellyfish . But I was determined to find out 'what it was' . The weirdness was also due to the timing and other things occurring at that time . It was not in the dream world though wide awake , so if Stimpy will forgive me : It was at the end of a three day 'Cultural Revival festival' I had helped organise on our riverside festival site , to bring forward the local indigenous culture . It was a very significant event ( whose significance was lost on most people - but not the indigenous - they where blown away - an elder took me aside and ' You know this is the only time and the first time anyone has invited us back to our land, asked us to stay on it for a while and teach them our culture and ways .. ever" . - there is a recent history here regarding massacres of the indigenous ) and the energy was pumped up , as it is in every festival we have had here , but this had some interesting indigenous energy input ( eg 300 people being shown how to do the 'Rainbow Serpent Dance ' and then doing it in unison with a huge 300 person 'snake' winding its way across the field ... and other similar things) . ANYWAY ... At the end I am sitting in a shade structure talking to a group of elderly Aboriginal men .... for some time . I got up to stretch , took a step out from under the structure and looked up and saw something that I somehow knew, from its trajectory and flight was on a re-entry path (or an 'entry path' ? ) ie. dropping down while angled nose up , that looked like a huge metal eagle or bird of pray (from my pov) - I never seen anything like that before . I called out for others to come and look quickly but they missed it . Some of the old Aboriginal men asked me to describe it , its direction, etc . They seem mystified and a bit spooked .I searched for that bloody thing for ages ! Scanned sites UFO forums etc . People offered lots of things but nothing fitted . Then after 15 years or so, the other night I saw it on tv s 'Impossible Engineering ' Its a friggin re-enty pod 'air boat ' thing ... supposedly an idea from the 60s that was never used ???? , But I saw it years back , way after the 60s , it gets lift from fuselage and not wigs It detaches into two bits It may have been the 'underpart' with the stabiliser fins attached - there are a few different modified versions of it . But what the hell is doing coming in for a landing around here ? I calculated roughly from its path where it might be heading ... we do have an air base there somewhere , so I looked up ... yep, that would be it . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Base_Williamtown#Units

What a profound dream! I follow a progression like this in my sitting, for awhile now. I drive, I'm at a tree with a trunk, there's a man and woman in the active and receptive aspects of my effort, there's a taste of action by virtue of the placement of attention rather than volition, then there's no trunk but just a recognition of something that I have already partaken of. Forgive me if you've already read this, from a post of mine last fall: Although attention can be directed to the movement of breath, necessity in the movement of breath can also direct attention, as I wrote previously: There can… come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence. There’s a frailty in the structure of the lower spine, and the movement of breath can place the point of awareness in such a fashion as to engage a mechanism of support for the spine, often in stages. ... Foyan (12th-century Chinese Zen teacher) spoke of “looking for a donkey riding on the donkey”. The degree of “self-surrender” required to allow necessity to place attention, and the presence of mind required to “lay hold” as the placement of attention shifts, make the conscious experience of “riding the donkey” elusive. (Shunryu) Suzuki provided an analogy: If you are going to fall, you know, from, for instance, from the tree to the ground, the moment you, you know, leave the branch you lose your function of the body. But if you don’t, you know, there is a pretty long time before you reach to the ground. And there may be some branch, you know. So you can catch the branch or you can do something. But because you lose function of your body, you know [laughs], before you reach to the ground, you may lose your conscious[ness]. (“To Actually Practice Selflessness”, August Sesshin Lecture Wednesday, August 6, 1969, San Francisco; “fell” corrected to “fall”; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) Suzuki offered the analogy in response to the travails of his students, who were experiencing pain in their legs sitting cross-legged on the floor. In his analogy, he suggested the possibility of an escape from pain through a presence of mind with the function of the body. The difficulty is that most people will lose consciousness before they cede activity to the location of attention–they lose the presence of mind with the placement of attention, because they can’t believe that action in the body is possible without “doing something”: ... When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention can draw out thought initial and sustained, and bring on the stages of concentration: … there is no need to depend on teaching. But the most important thing is to practice and realize our true nature… [laughs]. This is, you know, Zen. (Shunryu Suzuki, Tassajara 68-07-24 transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) (Shunryu Suzuki on Shikantaza and the Theravadin Stages)

Uhhh....I don't know about 'aliens...' but I do dream a lot about weird monsters. But I haven't had one recent enough to be able to describe vividly. I remember having one nightmare about really tall faceless humanoid things...that their skin looked like it had been burned by fire, sloughing off...it was creepy. Their faces were just, nothing but peeling skin. There was one where there was a weird small fox-like thing, but when I picked it up, it had billions of eyes, and I was startled and dropped it. I don't think that one was bad, it just scared me. There was one where there were more dog-like things...They were gray with weird buggy eyes, long snouts, and they didn't really look canine-like, they kind of reminded me of opossums or some kind of rodent...The teeth were wrong. In that one, they weren't hostile, until I picked something up to look at it, then they turned on me. I felt like I did something that I wasn't supposed to, haha. Those, big faceless things, are the only humanoid thing that I can recall dreaming about.

It was an early summer night in the dream, just like in real life, and a number of police cars were speeding up and down the street with lights and sirens, in a somewhat haphazard manner, so I went out to find out what kind of emergency they were having this time. And over the street, hanging quite low and very close to the house, I saw a jellyfish UFO "parked" in the sky, huge, with many lights all over its tentacles, which were moving as though it was staying in one place the way you would stay in one place in the water, by adjusting your movements ever so slightly. I could tell right away it was a vehicle that was alive -- there was no mechanical anything about it. It was very beautiful. For some reason, I said as though I got my answer from some prior knowledge, "oh... and there's the UFO." I then found it amusing thinking of the cops in their cars trying to figure out what to do about it, something "needs to be done," but what?.. I shrugged and went inside the house. And from inside the house, three aliens who were already there by now, in my house, walked briskly toward me. They looked like ordinary people -- a black woman and two white men. The woman extended her hand, smiled broadly and said, "There you are! And we were looking for you in Guangzhou!" Later, in my waking life, I found out, to my surprise, that I did spend about 2 hours in Guangzhou at one point, at the airport -- a layover which would be so short as to rush from point A to point B. I knew the layover would be in Guangdong, but it didn't occur to me that it would take place in a specific city, which I never saw. And the aliens were looking for me there three years or so after the fact. Weird. Then I thought some more about it and realized that their counterpart of our GPS, given the vastness of spacetime, must have homed in on something "close enough" but not exactly, just like ours sometimes do. It must have noted my approximate location at some "point in spacetime" -- "slightly off," but corrections were made with the same ease with which you drive around the block to find the correct spot instead of the "close enough" one.

My experience is the opposite. I dream about people, then wake up and the world is full of aliens. : ) Turns out, my alien family and friends are pretty cool though.