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Well, I am new here. I'm mainly writing this to share what I'm going thru. For about 2 years I have practiced hard form breathing while in horse stance. I learned this technique at a delicate time. I will say that I went thru psychosis. So what I say may be delusional. Basically take what I say with a grain of salt. To my credit I have not used any drugs for over two years and take medication. I've recovered to the point where my doctor is thinking of weening me off my meds. The process that I wish to talk about isn't anything that I went thru while under the effect of drugs. Actually, its a few years afterwards. One time while meditating I discovered I could pull a sensation down to my lower abdomen. It was blissful. At this time I was energetically unbalanced due to taking drugs. I would often have vivid dreams. It was about 2 months after I pulled chi for the first time that I met him. I did not meet him physically. I met him in a dream. The first time I saw him he was healing someone. This is in the dream world. Something about him was different. He had a green hue to him. There was a clarity that I cannot describe. Let me go off on a tangent for a bit. Green corresponds to the heart chakra (4th). I think the reason he is green is that most of his consciousness is the higher mental plane or beyond. I met him in the astral as he was healing another spirit. When I saw him he looked at me and said he was alive BC. I can't remember the year he said. He told me multiple names that he used. I don't remember what they were. I awoke that morning confused. Dreams are a series of images with meaning. Some dreams seem more like memories of being in the spirit world. This felt like on of those. There was nothing I could do. At this point I was doing hard breathing in horse every day. Some time passed less than a week. I met him again (in a dream). This time I was in a city. My dream self was very child like. I was recovering from psychosis so I was not balanced to a high degree. In this dream he was watching me play with other spirits. I still am not advanced, but at this time I was beginner of beginners. What I remember most clearly from this encounter was that he used his mental proweness in the dream to create a thought. This was of a tree. I being in my child form starting coloring it. He never spoke to me again in the astral plane. I have found that he often does not come down into lower planes of the dream world. I have not met him while dreaming since then. He never introduced himself as a master. I consider him very adept. I've never been the type to believe that there is such a thing as mastery. To go off on another tangent, I have read two books on Mo Pai. One time I met John in a dream. Again take this with a grain of salt. I asked him how to progress and what chi feels like. He said farting. The man I met in a dream I have suspicions that he is an immortal. Over the past week I have been able to reach him while doing hard breathing in horse. I am still bound in the lower planes, but there is one thing I know. He is almost constantly meditating. When I reach to his realm I often hear him going OOOOUUUUMMMM. I knew right away that he was doing this for my benefit in order for more and more of my consciousness to remain there. He never requires me to train. I think there is more of a friendship than master/disciple. He is simply more advanced than I am. There is more than one way, but I am biased. From my understanding the reason that you train with breath holding in the lower abdomen is to gain consciousness control over muscles that coordinate the breathing since chi flow is most consciously control by breath. There are things that I must infer. There is enough information for anyone to figure out the best way to develop themselves. Because of that he will only stabilize my chi when I reach him in the higher inner realms. There is no interference at all. In the book I read on Mo Pai it mentions that you lower Dan tian will close if you ejaculate or orgasm. I have found this is not the case. I never had a teacher actually directly teach me anything. Yet when I reach him he helps guide. I think the reason there is a stigma attached to sex and energy work is because it clouds your focus. You cannot reach upwards if your body is pulling energy downwards because it is aroused. Pretty simple. I think that what John means by sealed. Well that pretty much covers what I wanted to share I am not sure if there is even such a thing as spirits, immortals or dream world. Since doing my hard breathing in horse I am reaching the point where I can non longer advance without soft breathing. This is joyous to me. Soft breathing techniques can be done with meditating. I think I am probably about 6-8 months out from being able to truly start practicing soft breathing. The thing I notice around some other members is they are so serious. Cultivation to me is joyous and about discipline to sustain the ecstasy you feel when you pull chi. But I am at the level I am at. Progress is so slow. Separating the gateway you open to pull chi is so much work,but infinitely worth it.

You see that's just it - you as much as they want me to believe in a kind of dream - a dream about being richer, a dream about liberty, a dream about this and that. I don't buy any of it. I don't believe Cameroon and I don't believe the others. I want to be left alone with minimum disturbance.

I read your original post earnestly and wanted to give you my personal feedback, sorry I kind of hijacked your post to respond to people who responded to you without really trying to go back. On my side I have always been "weird" so I got used to not telling people. But I found that the "ordinary" persons I spoke to all had some kind of interest in the unseen. Mostly as long as I didn't put labels on it and kept to mainstream descriptions. Like dream instead of OOBE or laying of hands instead of reiki and so on. Now when it comes to romantic partners, it depends what culture you circulate in. I was attracted physically to "white" men but had the same concerns as you. I befriended men of more "exotic" origins and found no problem at all communicating who and what I was, to them. I learnt this way to get attracted to guys I would not have considered before. Now my husband is Moroccan and he knows all about me and though Islam is not favorable of "shirk", culturally Moroccans are used to talk about different dimensions of reality and "djinn" and some even consider that extra-terrestrial life exists. His grandfather was a traditional healer and he is hurt that all his stuff got destroyed even though for the sake of his religion, Islam. So he has tolerance and sympathy and even has his own premonitions and visits from ancestors in dreams. So he is never surprised at me. Have you tried seeing guys from other cultures?

That's because you think in a collective sense. You can't manage the collective, only your self. The highest reasoning is completely human, it is the apex of being a human being. This is where many will evade, they cannot conceive of it, so they act like they think everybody else does and make the excuse that logic denies humanity, or that humans are irrational anyway. They create a web of justification in order not to know. Instead they believe they can reach utopia by refusing to think, by drifting or inversion. They look for trance states or other levels of consciousness to avoid what seems base and harsh. Tolerance is evasion. It is to say we accept everything, we do not discriminate, we just go with the flow and sacrifice, or do our duty. It is to suppress and deny, to chain your mind, to use false reasoning to convince yourself that this 'isn't it', that there is something more and that this world is falsity. Everyday people wander around in this dream state, it is not because they can't break it, it's because they fear to break it.

Lunatic The rise and fall of an American asylum I just visited the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. Creepy. The building itself is the largest hand cut stone building in Western Hemisphere. I am reading the book now. It spans 150 years and goes as far back as Abe Lincoln time-so for me it is a real history lesson... My son and I took a walk through the asylum-sections were preserved like a museum. We did not take the offered tour-because it is not my thing...we saw plenty walking most of the first floor. A room had shackles so as to lock down in an x shape someone standing.binding the wrists and ankles. A long crib like cage where they would rock people to get them calm after raising it off the floor. Electrocution looking like chairs for some kind of shock therapy. Lobotomies were performed there as well. Framed straight jackets blown up newspaper article of escaped patients/convicts. They had in one room flags with quotes on them from staff or former patients. I took a photo of a few of these. My favorite: Well, see they would glance over at me, but no, I would just watch them and just dream about who they were And I kept thinking, "well I'm the king of this castle, here you know." "this is my home, you know. Come on in. I'll show you around." Fascinating but brutally sad some stories.

No one can wash away our karmic lessons. But we can go thru them without out undo suffering. To do this requires a physical rewiring of the nervous system and this is exactly what so many in the Oneness movement of Sri Bhagavan in southern India are experiencing as the Oneness energy is unique and has the ability to quiet the mind chatter/ego/neurotic social conditioning-unconscious influences of the past by effecting the parietal lobes and increasing the effect of the frontal lobe so that we then can witness events in the hear and now instead of projecting our past conditioning onto events. When in this state permanently it is called being Awakened. Then suffering bounces off of us instead of leaving imprints which block our flow of energy. Oneness works like this for most people and they now have a 100 percent success rate of becoming awakened when someone spends a few weeks at their Oneness University. It all sounds like a dream come true but I am the exception to the rule. I never felt anything from Oneness in th e10 years I have been involved with it. So I am hoping that working with the healer Ooi Kean Hin will change that so I can then become sensitive to the Oneness deeksha.

Not an amazingly thorough article, but backed up with sources and quite well-reasoned in the points it does make: https://www.facebook.com/nicholasjohncarter/posts/10153467946496736 Immigration has been in the news a lot lately, especially with the EU referendum coming up. So let's use the tools and data of political science to understand the topic better. Last year, 270,000 EU citizens immigrated to the UK, and 85,000 returned to the EU. So EU net migration was around 185,000 (1). Additionally, a similar number came from outside the EU, so 330,000 in total. That was the highest ever level of EU migration – going all the way back to when we joined the EEC in 1975. Indeed during the 1980s the trend was the other way – British workers moved overseas, particularly to Germany, as their economy was doing better than ours at that time. You might remember the TV show ‘Auf Wiedersehen Pet’. Currently our economy is doing better than many European ones so more people are coming than going. But there's no reason to think that will always be the case. The Leave campaign claim that EU migration is putting unsustainable pressure on our public services, worsening the housing crisis, putting pressure on the NHS, on schools and on our roads. Their latest TV broadcast for instance shows a sick older lady receiving NHS treatment much faster in an imaginary hospital if we leave the EU. Are they right? Imagine that we left the EU and banned EU immigration completely. Nobody else allowed – no footballers, no entertainers, no chefs, no businessmen, no nurses, no cleaners, nobody. And we kept that door shut for ten years. And for comparison let’s say that we stayed in the EU and immigration continues at this year’s record level (the highest ever) for the next ten years. How would that impact our population and our public services? In terms of population, we’d end up with 1.85m fewer people living in our country after the 10 years. That sounds like a lot of people, which it is. But we’re a big country – 64.6m in total at the moment (2). So even under these very extreme assumptions the difference is only 2.8%. Less than 1 in 35. Would you notice the difference if there were 34 instead of 35 people in your doctors’ waiting room? If there were 34 instead of 35 cars ahead of you in the traffic jam? Would your child’s education suffer in a class of 35 instead of 34? I doubt it. And don’t forget that we’re making crazily unrealistic assumptions about how much we could reduce immigration if we left the EU. Because even the most ardent Leave campaigners don’t say that we should stop immigration altogether. They usually talk of using a points system to reach the government’s net target of 100,000 per year. So the difference in population after 10 years wouldn’t be anything like as much as 1 in 35. Let’s say we could hit the net target of 100,000 – half from the EU and half from non-EU countries for the sake of argument. In that case, the difference in population after 10 years would be 1.35m or 1 in 49. And don’t forget that we’re also making another very aggressive assumption – that migration will continue at the same level as last year, our highest ever. It would be more realistic to take the average of the last five years migration (3). If we do that, then the difference in our population after ten years would be only 790,000 or 1 in 82. 1 in 82. I can’t tell the difference between a crowd of 81 and 82 people (even when they were my own wedding guests!). Can you? So here’s the thing: however you feel about EU immigration, even under extreme assumptions the impact on our overall population just isn’t very large. Now at this point some of you might be thinking – “This can't be right - step outside and look with your own eyes! Britain is full of foreigners! The place I grew up is like another country! How can you claim that EU immigration is not significant?”. I live in inner London so I can sense where you might be coming from. A few things to bear in mind: 1) The overwhelming majority of immigration to the UK over the last 40 years has been from outside the EU (3). However you feel about that, it has nothing to do with our EU membership; 2) Whether you like it or not, Britain has been a multicultural country for several generations at least. You can’t tell whether somebody is an immigrant just by looking at them (sorry if this is an obvious point). You might hazard a guess at their ethnicity or race but that’s a very different thing; 3) Historically, immigrants have clustered in particular areas of the country, so your neighbourhood may not be representative of the country at large; 4) British people from all backgrounds have become much more cosmopolitan in their tastes over the last 40 years. We drink in pubs much less, but enjoy wine at home or go to restaurants and cafes a lot more. Instead of just eating British food, we enjoy flavours from all over the world. So the retail and commercial landscape of our country has changed - to reflect our changing tastes, not just because of new arrivals. “But wait! What when Turkey, Montenegro and Albania join the EU? We’ll be swamped!” No we won’t. Mainly because Turkey and Albania are nowhere near being eligible to join the EU, and Montenegro is tiny. Also don't forget there are 27 other countries in the EU to choose from if residents of those countries did fancy a change of scene. And even if in the distant future many other countries did join and we did find ourselves swamped, Britain could leave. We’re free to leave the EU whenever we want. But if we leave and then want to rejoin, we’d need the consent of all 27 other member states. Better to stay and keep our options open than leave in fear of something that is very unlikely to happen. And so far we’ve also not factored in the contribution that immigrants make to our country, and specifically our public finances. EU migrants contribute more in taxes than they use in public services, as they are much more likely to be of working age than the general population (4). So if we used that extra tax revenue to hire more doctors, build more schools, invest in transport and so on, we’d actually have better public services than we would without any EU immigration. It takes time to hire and train teachers and doctors, build schools and roads, and so forth. So it’s true that a sudden influx of people into an area can put short-term pressure on services. But the fundamental reason for the issues we identified at the start – NHS pressure, oversubscribed schools, congested roads, the housing crisis – is not EU immigration. We are now six years into a government austerity programme to attempt to balance the books. So it’s not surprising that our public services are feeling the pinch. An ageing population and new advances in medicine put particular strain on the NHS. For the last thirty years, we have failed by a wide margin to build enough houses in the UK. Interest rates have been at an ‘emergency’ rate of 0.5% for the last seven years. That is why house prices are so high. And this story of decades of underinvestment is repeated for our roads and railways too. All of these issues are home-grown. And all of those policy areas are entirely within the control of our government in Westminster. They have nothing to do with the EU and are not the fault of EU migrants. Finally, there’s been plenty of academic research into this issue, including a summary paper just published by the London School of Economics (5). The research shows, contrary to many tabloid headlines, that 1) Immigrants do not take a disproportionate share of jobs created by our economy; 2) There is no evidence of an overall negative impact of immigration on wages; 3) There is no evidence that EU migrants affect the labour market performance of native-born workers (i.e. make it harder for native-born workers to get promoted, get a pay rise, etc) So it is clear from examining the evidence that fears of immigration have been blown out of all proportion by the Eurosceptic press and the Leave campaign. But what about all that money we send the EU? Couldn't we use that to improve public services? Yes, but it wouldn't go very far, and it would be outweighed by the economic damage from leaving. Our net contribution to the EU was £8.5bn last year (6) which works out at 36 pence per person per day. That is a drop in the ocean compared to our annual NHS budget of £116.4bn (7). And if you’re trying to work out the impact of leaving the EU on our public services, you can’t just look at our net contribution. You also need to consider the effect that leaving would have on the size of our economy, and hence the tax revenue the government can generate. Seven highly respected independent economic organisations have tried to work this out (8). And all seven of them have reached the same conclusion: that the economic damage caused by Brexit would more than offset the saving from our EU contribution. The best estimate suggests that the government would have between £20bn and £40bn less to spend on public services than if we remained in the EU (9). So our public services wouldn't be better if we left the EU - they would be much worse. So if we left the EU to ‘take control of immigration’, and then reduced it as discussed above, we’d still have all the same problems we have today – the housing crisis, an overstretched NHS, oversubscribed schools, heavy traffic, etc. But we’d also have two even more serious problems to add to the list: a recession and the unknown consequences of destabilising the very institution which has secured peace in Europe for the last 70 years. People are sceptical of economists’ forecasts. But you don’t even need to estimate many of the economic problems that will arise from Brexit – you can see them already in the currency markets. The pound suffered its biggest one day fall in seven years when Boris and other MPs joined the leave campaign (10). You can watch the impact of movements in the referendum opinion polls in the EUR/GBP exchange rate. A major bank recently warned that Brexit could wipe 20% off the value of the pound through devaluation (11). Devaluation sounds like a dry and abstract concept. So let me explain what that means: 20% of your life savings wiped out overnight. The numbers in your bank account will be the same, but what you can buy with it will be 20% less, since most things we buy these days come from overseas. Only the other day the Financial Times reported that hedge funds are planning to run their own private exit polls on referendum day to speculate on the currency markets ahead of the official result (12). Just as during the ERM crisis of 1992, the vultures are circling, waiting to feast on our self-inflicted wounds. And here’s another very clear threat: to our jobs. Only last Friday, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, warned his staff in Bournemouth that one, two or even four thousand of them would be made redundant if we leave the EU (13). Imagine how his staff are feeling today. And as a manager, let me tell you: that’s not the kind of thing you tell your employees unless you’re deadly serious. Even leading Leave campaigner Michael Gove admitted just a few days ago that jobs are at risk if we leave the EU (14). Multimillionaire UKIP donor Arron Banks described this economic damage as ‘a price worth paying’ (15). Arron Banks, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage might be rich enough to gamble their jobs on Brexit - but are you? It is quite possible that some of your friends and family will lose their jobs as a direct result of Britain leaving the EU. Do you want to be responsible for that? We took an evidence-based look at the immigration and EU issue above. But the Leave campaign and Eurosceptic press (Express, Sun and Mail in particular) choose to paint a very different picture. A picture which blows these statistics out of all proportion. 'Strangers in Our Own Country' 'Our borders are out of control!'. You know the stuff I mean. Pictures which invite us to eye our friends and neighbours with suspicion and even hostility. Editorial which pins the blame for every problem from housing to wages to traffic to NHS waiting times on immigrants. And it's not even because they don't know any better. The leaders of the Leave campaign and the political editors of those newspapers are clever, well-educated people. They know the facts I set out above just as well as I do. Yet instead of presenting a balanced view, they choose to deliberately whip up fear and suspicion of immigrants for their own political purposes. Shame on them. Why? Because appealing to people's basest prejudices sells newspapers and gathers votes. Just ask Donald Trump. And what greater contrast could there be between the divisive rhetoric of the leave campaign and the noble vision of the EU's founding fathers. Men who, amid the ashes of World War Two, set their national differences aside and dared - not just to dream but to build - a better Europe for us all. A Europe in which war was “not only unthinkable … but materially impossible” (16). Here’s Winston Churchill addressing the Congress of Europe in 1948: “A high and a solemn responsibility rests upon us here ... If we allow ourselves to be rent and disordered by pettiness and small disputes, if we fail in clarity of view or courage in action, a priceless occasion may be cast away for ever. But if we all pull together and pool the luck and the comradeship - and we shall need all the comradeship and not a little luck … then all the little children who are now growing up in this tormented world may find themselves not the victors nor the vanquished in the fleeting triumphs of one country over another in the bloody turmoil of … war, but the heirs of all the treasures of the past and the masters of all the science, the abundance and the glories of the future.” And - against all the odds - we did it. We pooled the luck and the comradeship and achieved Churchill’s vision. Those “little children” are now retired – the first generation in a thousand years to grow up without the horror of war in Europe. Instead of building weapons, our scientists work together to solve the greatest problems of our age. We enjoy a standard of living unimaginable to people in 1948. All the cities, art, history, people, food and culture of this wonderful continent are open to us whenever we want to visit, to live or to work. Hundreds of millions of European people who until only a few decades ago were ruled by dictators or communists now enjoy democracy, human rights, the rule of law and the abundance of the free market. I think that’s worth 36 pence a day. And yet here we stand, about to turn our backs on this great project, thanks to cynical newspaper owners and barefaced lies from the Leave campaign. Forget what the Sun says. Forget what’s good for Boris’ and Farage’s careers. Listen to every current and former British Prime Minister (17). Every other major UK political party leader (18). To Barack Obama, to Hillary Clinton, to Angela Merkel and a host of other world leaders (19). To Stephen Hawking and 83% of scientists (20). To 40 religious leaders (21). To 300 leading historians (22). To the Trades Union Congress and our six largest trades unions (23). To 88% of economists (24). To the National Farmers Union (25). To the Chief Executive of NHS England (26), to the Royal College of Midwives (27) To British businesses of all sizes (28). For there is an overwhelming consensus among experts of all kinds that Britain is stronger in Europe. And what does the Leave campaign say to this? “I think people in this country have had enough of experts” (Michael Gove, Friday 3rd June) What an extraordinary response. If you were sick, you’d want to see a doctor. If you had a plane to fly, you’d want a pilot. So when we have the most important political, economic and foreign policy decision of our lifetime to make I think we should listen to the people who are in the best position to evaluate what to do. And they’re all telling us the same thing – we’re much better off in Europe. It might not be what Michael Gove wants to hear. But it sounds like the right answer to me. So when you’re in the polling station on Thursday 23rd - with that stubby little pencil in your hand –Vote Remain. Not in fear, but with pride – about what we, the people of Europe, have achieved together. Not in ignorance, but with science firmly on our side. And not alone, but with the greatest statesmen of the past three generations urging us on. And then in years to come, when your children ask you how you voted in the referendum of 2016, you can look them in the eye and tell them you were on the right side of history. Thank you for reading (1) https://fullfact.org/immigration/eu-migration-and-uk/ (2) https://www.ons.gov.uk/…/populationandm…/populationestimates (3) http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/statistics-net-migration-…/… (4) http://www.economist.com/…/21631076-rather-lot-according-ne… (5) http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/ea019.pdf (6) https://fullfact.org/euro…/our-eu-membership-fee-55-million/ (7) http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngla…/thenhs/about/Pages/overview.aspx (8) http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/comms/r116.pdf (9) http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/comms/r116.pdf (10) https://next.ft.com/co…/7fa04d70-d911-11e5-a72f-1e7744c66818 (11) https://www.theguardian.com/…/brexit-could-wipe-20-percent-… (12) https://next.ft.com/co…/7e26d896-241c-11e6-9d4d-c11776a5124d (13) BBC Radio 4, 3rd June 2016; see also http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36450460 (14) http://www.thetimes.co.uk/…/i-can-t-guarantee-everyone-will… (15) https://www.politicshome.com/…/arron-banks-%C2%A34300-loss-… (16) http://www.robert-schuman.eu/en/declaration-of-9-may-1950 (17) David Cameron http://www.theguardian.com/…/david-cameron-launches-tory-ca… ; Gordon Brown http://www.theguardian.com/…/inspiring-view-britishness-def…; Tony Blair http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36408239; John Major http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/John-Major-Voting-to-leave-wil… (18) Jeremy Corbyn (Labour) http://labourlist.org/…/europe-needs-to-change-but-i-am-vo…/ Tim Farron (Lib Dem) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Britain-impoverished-backwater… Caroline Lucas (Green) http://europe.newsweek.com/caroline-lucas-brexit-european-r… Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) http://www.thesun.co.uk/…/Nicola-Sturgeon-vows-to-back-argu… (19) Barack Obama http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/as-your-friend-let-me-tell-you… ; Hillary Clinton http://www.theguardian.com/…/hillary-clinton-britain-should… Angela Merkel http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36436726; Shinzo Abe http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/japanese-prime-minister-shinz…/ (20) https://www.theguardian.com/…/stephen-hawking-donald-trump-… ; http://www.nature.com/…/scientists-say-no-to-uk-exit-from-e… (21) http://www.theguardian.com/…/religious-leaders-oppose-brexit (22) http://www.theguardian.com/…/vote-to-leave-eu-will-condemn-… (23) http://uk.reuters.com/ar…/uk-britain-eu-unions-idUKKCN0V517D (24) http://www.itv.com/…/almost-nine-in-10-economists-believe-…/ (25) http://www.theguardian.com/…/british-farmers-uk-eu-nfu-brex… (26) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36353145 (27) https://www.rcm.org.uk/…/royal-college-of-midwives-supports… (28) http://www.independent.co.uk/…/brexit-eu-referendum-what-wi…

Funny stuff....I actually had my kundalini energy rising experience when I was 18, after waking up from a dream. Is a shame that some sees sleep is for sleeping, not for mind and enlightenment transmission. I actually entered into a deep Samadhi once during my morning dream vision sequence. Unbelievable experience....it gave me a taste of what is to come maybe when I am about to leave this world behind.....

Yes, of course...it depends on your realization to realize rigpa.... If not rigpa, at least, in the realm of "dream of clarity" in which objective information about the world or yourself is being revealed and conveyed to you.

I'd like to add a caution here - when we dream, we are in a state of duality. The dream consciousness identifies with a self and distinguishes that self from the dream environment. In fact, we generally are not even aware we are asleep. Even in lucid dreaming, there is an awareness of self and other in the dream, hence a state of duality. In sleep we are unconscious, not in a non-dual state, unless of course we have studied and mastered sleep yoga - the sleep of clear light. At least this is my understanding and experience.

You answered your own question but I do think it's important to have as stable a sleep cycle as possible, preferably with no meds, drugs, or alcohol, to get the most out of dream and sleep yoga teachings. That said, it is something we can learn in the moment and apply later when the circumstances permit. In my experience, no matter what the subject matter, Tenzin Rinpoche has a way of connecting to people in very practical ways that sometimes seem to transcend the specific subject matter of any given retreat. Glad to hear you're making progress!

You can use lucid dreaming to burn away traces of karma (dream yoga is the precursor to western lucid dreaming practices) - defragmentation if you will. It will generally help your practice by making your mind clearer and removing negative ingrained reactions. Clarity.

I don't dream. I guess I know everything I am supposed to know.

I would be real tempted to go to this. But sleeping has been difficult for me with the Prozac thing - plus trying to wean off the sleepers as well. Do you think this would be a hindrance to getting benefit from this retreat? although when I was doing the practices in Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book on Dream Yoga, I was visualizing the tigles at the forehead, throat, heart, etc. But that was before I stopped using the many sleepers. My dreams were incredible, and there was an awareness of being The Dreamer. I can only imagine how powerful this practice would be without the sleeping pills. I'm down to just one now, and it lets me sleep until 2:30 AM. Although last night, I slept till 5:30 - first time since going off the Anacin PM's to lengthen the sleep time. So there is progress. To go to that retreat, that would be, well, a dream. Rats. I just looked at the date again. I was thinking July when I first saw it. Can't do it in June.

Yes, practicing during lucid dreaming is very valuable in my opinion. There are no restrictions in the dream so you have the opportunity to try some new things and expand your horizons.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is offering a 2 week retreat on sleep yoga starting on 6/19/16 in Virginia. Last year he covered dream yoga. I cannot recommend it highly enough. See you there!

HH the Dalai Lama on Dream Yoga: “Different factors are involved in the ability to recognize the dream as dream. One is diet. Specifically, your diet should be compatible with your own metabolism. For example, in Tibetan medicine, one speaks of the three elements: wind, bile, and phlegm. One or more of these elements are predominant in some people. You should have a diet that helps to maintain balance among these various humors within the body. Moreover, if your sleep is too deep, your dreams will not be very clear. In order to bring about clearer dreams and lighter sleep, you should eat somewhat less. In addition, as you’re falling asleep, you direct your awareness up to the forehead. On the other hand, if your sleep is too light, this will also act as an obstacle for gaining success in this practice. In order to deepen your sleep, you should take heavier, oilier food; and as you’re falling asleep, you should direct your attention down to the vital energy center at the level of navel or the genitals. If your dreams are not clear, as you’re falling asleep you should direct your awareness to the throat center. In this practice, when you begin dreaming it’s helpful to have someone say quietly, ‘You are dreaming now. Try to recognize the dream as the dream.’ Once you are able to recognize the clear light of sleep as the clear light of sleep, that recognition can enable you to sustain that state for a longer period. The main purpose of dream yoga in the context of tantric practice is to first recognize the dream state as dream state. Then, in the next stage of the practice you focus your attention on the heart center of your dream body and try to withdraw the vital energy into that center. That leads to an experience of the clear light of sleep, which arises when the dream state ceases. The experience of clear light that you have during sleep is not very subtle in the beginning. As you progress in your practice of dream yoga, the first experience of the clear light occurs as a result of focusing your attention at the heart centre of the dream body. Although the clear light state during sleep at the beginning is not very subtle, through practice you’ll be able to make it subtler and also prolong its duration." Wiki explains 'Clear Light' from the perspective of Buddhist tantra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sel_(yoga) Here HH presents a metaphorical explanation of Clear Light from the position of the Nyingma school: With respect to identifying the clear light in the Great Perfection: when, for instance, one hears a noise, between the time of hearing it and conceptualizing it as such and such, there is a type of mind devoid of conceptuality but nevertheless not like sleep or samadhi, in which the object is a reflection of this entity of mere luminosity and knowing. It is at such a point that the basic entity of the mind [clear light] is identified. *For further readings, please visit Berzin Archives.

Oh, CT, you are talking about the spirit of the Buddhist teaching??? What have you accomplished so far relating to this spirit?? I can tell you what I have experienced. It was a dream. I dream of Mexican families being displaced by the Trump presidency. Homes destroyed and emptied out, abandoned. They were all forced to live in shadows and in the underground. As I was told in my dream, all of the families are connected to this underground place. I saw and heard women and infants crying. This place was packed and crowded. I sensed suffering and distress. On the wall, I saw pictures of crying African American children. I was somewhat shocked and horrified of what I saw in this vision. For every single US presidency since Bush and his Iraq war, I had visions of their legacies. I hope I am wrong. Otherwise, millions of Mexican families in America will be displaced by the Trump presidency. That's the Buddhist spirit and to have affinity to human suffering...not an affinity to a fool like Karl.... His ego would have to learn its place in this world and is not my job to save his ass...Let Kali deals with him. Buddhist spirit???? Hehehehe..... Oh dear......

When I could not walk, I would play the old Kung Fu forms in my mind, first as a way to alleviate boredom and to escape the constant pain. Eventually I continued because it was the only way I could still play the forms. While the muscles would not be worked, it turns out the pathways of energy did not realize it was 'fantasy' and responded accordingly. For some months a couple of years ago, as I would lay down to sleep every night, I would work a form in my mind as vividly as I could imagine, with the intention of playing Qi Gong lucidly in the dream state. Some weeks into the practice, I became lucid and had this experience. * I became lucid with the realization that energy was flowing freely and with strength along the Du/Ren channels. After some time in this state, I became disassociated with my dream body and yet maintained full awareness and sensation of the flowing energy within my dream body. I realized I was now looking at myself from outside. I was staring at my own body (even as I could feel the MCO flowing in it), my dream body was seated inside an egg, that egg was housed in the trunk of a friendly old tree.* Dream work is invaluable in my experience. I have learned things of myself in the dreamscapes, that are as impacting, enlightening and valuable as anything I have experienced in what we collectively call the 'waking life'. I wish you vivid journeys.

Very nice suggestion, EP. This is not a work that I am as familiar with so I welcome the opportunity to get more acquainted with it. As Michael pointed out, the diagram depicts a "wake up call" for man. The angels are descending from the subtle realms and making an effort to rouse us from our slumber. We ordinarily come closest to spiritual consciousness when we dream... but even then, we are usually capable of exercising no personal volition and merely experience the internalized forms of our physical consciousness. The image depicts not one, but two angels, and thus implies cooperation... a chain of beings extending their hands from sublime heights down almost to our level. The angels have no ability to wake a man who does not wish to be woken from the mechanical routine of everyday life. Michael summed up the diagram nicely so there isn't much to add from a purely internal perspective. However, I will add that each internal interpretation has a corresponding outer (lab) interpretation as well. For instance, the Biblical quotes about dew and grain are enigmatic to an extreme, yet they are clear from a lab perspective. The next image offers one of at least two possible interpretations, the first being that of the alchemical "dew": In the upper half is shown the alchemical dew held by two angels. Above it, we find the Sun, emblem of fire. Within it, we find the Sun and the Moon under the arms of Neptune (water). The corresponding lab work is shown in the bottom half of the image ("As above, so below"). We encounter a typical difficulty of emblematic descriptions of the work, that of determining the exact process is being depicted (there are at least three possibilities that I can see). In this first possible interpretation, the dew is contained within a digestion furnace. Below that is a funnel, symbolizing purification. And below that is a small flame, the alchemist's first degree of heat. Tending to the operation are the classic alchemical embodiments of man's physical consciousness: Ruach and Nephesch, corresponding to the divine consciousness of Neschamah and Chiah shown above. Note that Nephesch is nearly touching Neschamah's foot, while there is a greater division depicted between Ruach and Chiah. Now there is another interpretation, perhaps a more obvious one. Instead of dew, we are being shown a special type of Hermetically sealed flask with the three principles contained within it. If this is the case, then it represents the latter half of the work. It is not uncommon in these old texts for the plates to be intentionally placed out of order, so this is a possibility. Perhaps we will find out which as we continue to investigate the remaining images. Right now, I am leaning towards the first interpretation due to a couple of curious details as well as the quotes which Michael shared previously. There could be other interpretations I haven't considered as well. I rather enjoy this image as it masterfully depicts both physical and spiritual processes occurring simultaneously. The author of this work did not experience the same division between inner and outer that we are indoctrinated into as moderns. UFA

Newgrange - A Dream of Angus Oge by George Russell There must be a reason early, independent, Irish religious colleges built over older druidic institutions were renowned for producing 'Saints'... Is it something 'gold' resssonating through the ancient stone? Goodnight.

Its funny how we talk on this forum about 'humility' yet we are all bowing our heads to the most arrogant group of misguided idiots. Objectivism wouldn't suit the types that believe that it's only a matter of getting people to 'believe' in their debauched pragmatism, in order for it to work. If they just keep telling people it will work, then it will, and it's only the people's lack of belief and constant questioning that is stopping it from being so. It's that old adage 'build it and they will come' from the idiots guide to running a business. Most people are half way between altruist and hedonist which is a million light years from where they should be. They are immoral, unethical and mostly down right bloody evil. The worst are the technocrats running the show who haven't a grain of rationality, never did anything productive and rely of political pull to make their living. They went to the best schools, lived priviliged lives in the shelter of academia or micro political bubbles. They learned Keynesian economics and the Hegelian dialectic, they believe they are omniscient; that they are the only ones who can run the system, that they were born to it and no one else-especially the free market or indibpviduals-can be trusted. They run it like a university, with a vast bureacracy of buildings, paper and people marking out the great dream they believe. The bigger the dream, the bigger the bureacracy and the construction becomes a concrete edifice of the power of their dream and ambition. The humility they require is to see that this vast, sprawling edifice has not been created by their hands, but by the production of the people they are robbing blind in order to build it. "We built a tower of stone, with our flesh and bone, just to see him fly, so many died" "We watched him fall, now what will we do"

Hello, I am here to expand my knowledge of the dao. I have a few years of internal martial art training (Yang tai chi,xing yi,ba gua) and a fan of daoist philosophy. Recently however, I have been looking into religious daoism and the call to pursue priest training has been echoing. It has been my dream for years to train at Mt. Wudang and walk the same paths as great sages and warriors have done centuries before. If I could I would like to receive my training there, however I would be willing to travel where ever if I felt the teaching was what I am looking for. Thank you for your time, I hope to learn many things from all of you in my path of cultivation. AL

I recall at the height of the financial crisis when Portugal was being bailed out by the troika and everyone was prophesying doom there was a newspaper article (probably the Daily Mail) that the Royal Navy was ready to send ships to Lisbon to bring the ex-pat Brits home. This was met with hoots of derision by various slightly over weight bright pink types sitting in bars in the Algarve. Just forget everything you read in British press about Brits living abroad and what might happen to them. Its all bananas. True there are a few very unwise people who emigrate without proper funds or on a basis of some unrealistic dream. But mostly people know what they are doing, what they want and get the best conditions for themselves that they can. Why not? Life is short eh? If you are British and have lived abroad for less than 15 years you can vote in the referendum. I imagine many but not all will vote remain. But actually in most cases being in or out will make very little difference as the UK most likely be treated a bit like the Swiss as quasi in but not actually in the EU. I think very few will return because of Brexit - just as very few people will leave the UK who are non-nationals because of it. The effects will be much longer term than the day to day practicalities of life and work.

I think there is great room for misunderstanding this on the Path. Any path that leads into the light and clarity. Don Juan Mateus, within the Castaneda framework, called this developing Impeccability. Impeccability in one's thoughts, in one's intent, in one's behavior, in one's speech,in one's habits, in one's self discipline. the way I know this from experience is that the person I am evolving into and have evolved into has taken a great deal of work. One could call this developing merit. This was done for a selfish purpose; to stay comfortable in sobriety. One cannot live a selfish existence, or an unkind existence, and be comfortable with life. One would have to drink or take other substances to equalize the discrepancy between being a jerk and living within that framework. But to be comfortable without substance? That requires a quantum change of the personality; a change to the positive rather than the constantly critical, negative, and judgmental. I've never felt on this forum that there has been enough attention paid to the inner changes, the ones that are difficult, that must be made to make forward progress on the Path. The above quotation notates a subtle difference between developing merit and developing wisdom; as the difference between a verb and a noun. The verb part (in my opinion) would be to develop the merit; to change one's karma by acting and behaving differently, intentionally. To go out of one's comfort zone and develop qualities that one perhaps didn't have previously, such as generosity or unselfishness. Perhaps humility - that's an awfully big one which takes a lifetime of 'work', if you ask me. Wisdom, on the other hand, as it says above, is more of a point of perception. That's the noun. How one sees one's self and how one perceives the world. A Seer has wisdom because they are self-realized, they have seen into their own character without judgment and therefore sees into the lowest common denominator of the character of all others. Perhaps an ascended Christian mystic would call this developing the 'Christ consciousness', wherein they have gotten out of their own way in the ego department and have cut loose of judgment, hierarchy, cynicism, and the like. To put a Daoist spin on this, I always seem to go back to Yutang's 3 treasures - they are so easy to understand, and yet speak volumes. To never be the First (which flies in the face of excessive ego), Never too Much (which goes not only to ego but also to selfishness and thinking of others), and Love (which I see as a combination of the Merit aspect and the Wisdom aspect in the above quote). To fully develop love, the self must be first loved non-judgmentally. And this is the paper bag out of which I struggle. To love self. After all, we know our own thoughts. We know if they are not up to par, we know if we are judgmental (once we start to separate from the tendency), and I can beat myself up because they can still arise from time to time. And yet, the monster is only a monster when it doesn't realize it's a monster; when it is One with all the negativity. Once the monster is seen, the separation begins, and the spaces between the negative thoughts and judgments get longer and longer. Clarity takes its place. And perhaps clarity can't be rushed. The clarity of non-differentiation, the realization that this truly is a huge dream, which yins and yangs with our night-time dreams for the purpose of steering our consciousness toward the light and toward clarity. There are many in our forum who do not see the necessity for the urge to Merit. This is not the same as 'being good'. Being Good is not even relevant. Once the heart is on the Path and struggles toward the light (in the verb sense) and increases clear perception (in the noun sense) there is no Good nor Bad - and yet there is something that we so futilely call 'Love' which replaces what once inhabited that space. At the risk of sounding oxymoronic, It's All Good. I look forward to Joy. I get glimpses sometimes, my heart swells with it on occasion. I know I've got it coming. Just a little more of the illusion of the Ego of the entity known as Barbara to get out of the way. There's a saying in the old recovery program, started by a stockbroker named Bill Wilson in Akron, Ohio in 1935: "You can't think your way into right acting. You have to act your way into right thinking". How much more meaningful these little platitudes have come to mean to me over the years. And I read the deep and wondrous jewels brought forth by CT and others on this thread, and realize that the truth has been before me for all these years. Only I was only capable of seeing the very surface of the truth, of the true meaning; and it has taken half a lifetime to breach the surface. the beauty of The Truth, of True Wisdom, is that it all ends up in the same place. Within ourselves. The very last place we'd think of to look.