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Yes, and to know that all things at every moment are exactly as they should be; that we are unrealized buddhas, at different levels of awareness, reaching metaphorically toward the sun. That what appears as bad is not bad at all; it is necessary for the evolution and the reversion to the nothingness of the Dao. That we are merely actors playing our part, and in actuality it has already played out and we're merely playing catch-up, as time is not really linear at all. Very comforting, and it places my heart at rest any time I snap into awareness of these realizations. Letting things affect us is part of our humanness, I guess - but we have the option of seeing through this and dwelling in the reality of the unreality of all this experience. It can be done instantaneously if one is practiced, if one is skilled. And to know that our outer manifestations are the evidence of what we truly desire on the inside. If we've manifested undesirable things and events in our lives, then it is up to us to look at our inner mental projections, to make the corrections, to change the habit of our mental judgments and views. I woke up this morning with my heart relaxed and open. It was as though a knot had been there for years and I hadn't been aware of it until it released. It was as a result of a dream I had last night, where I had a long conversation with another woman who too had been the victim of a real Romeo many years ago - he broke my heart and the heart of many other women who worked for the City of Los Angeles - an adept man at romancing women. We lived together for a year. In my dream, I hugged one of the other women who too was his victim. We talked about his adeptness, how many of us were hanging around his neck on a necklace of sorts. When we embraced, me and this other woman, it was so liberating. We forgave him. His name was Bayan, and he was born in China to American parents - but Bayan means A Thousand Eyes in Chinese (according to him) and we realized that he has looked into the eyes of a thousand women, or that he had a thousand eyes for women, and it wasn't his fault but his remnant karma that made him this way. After 40 years, the knot is gone from my heart. I didn't even know it was there. My inner vision is greater today than it was yesterday. I think that was the thing that struck me about the originally quoted passage - mention of the inner vision. Vision into ourselves, as opposed to vision from the inside to the outside. Thank you for getting it.

Stopping all practices is the advice that is generally given. You can't balance it out by doing increased grounding to continued practice-from my experience. Living in a subjective dream world loosens the grip on reality, the more that you break the link between reality and cognitive function, the greater becomes the disorientation. It's not too dissimilar to alcoholism, or other mental addictions. Eventually you either quit, or go on to ruin. Rarely does it get that self destructive, but it isn't impossible. Best to play at the edge of the pool than go so far out that you drown. Keep one limb on the bank by continually grounding. That way you don't overdose. Go too far out and the water gets deep- really, really deep.

So ... there is no plan ... it's just a romantic dream.

Eh. Sometimes a sandwich is just a sandwich, lol. Nicely put, Jonesboy, when you say that the Ten Thousand things are empty. My original point (I think?) was just that; previously when I had read and re-read this chapter from various translators, my assumption that the vision started with the inner and went to the outer. But I now read something more into it; that our manifestations are a litmus test for what our inner condition is. It's as though the lens can be turned around and the universe is viewed absolutely differently by everybody, we can't possibly see it the same way as each other. And that there is absolutely no reality at all, there's no decider (other than maybe 'W') of what reality is. To know the universe, to perceive the universe, is so entirely subjective; and for some reason during this reading of Mitchell's Chapter 12 it just sort of made me laugh. Yes, striving for all of THAT is so ridiculous and merely serves to solidify something entirely subjective that isn't really there at all. And I'm guessing the Truth Beyond Illusion that Kar3n speaks of is that Void, that Dao, that has always been and will always be that resides there within us; beyond words, beyond concept. We are the Void, and this Void is shared with how many other countless universes and buddha-lands? But even that is arbitrary. What makes one feel punched in the stomach, metaphorically, will make another feel smug, or victimized, or happy. So the Truth isn't even what we feel inside. It's only the Truth to that particular feeler at that particular moment in that feeler's state of awareness. What does seem to be constant is change, adaptation, and having to learn this dream's lessons over and over until we finally get the message. That it just Is, that's all. And yet I can't help but feel that the template of the plant growing toward the light is in operation here too. And that the operative principle is truly Reversion to the Void. To drop the baloney, the B.S., the phoniness, the mask, the arrogance, the pursuit of power, of money, of prestige; because pursuit of all those things only serves to prove that something inside us is sorely lacking. Otherwise we needn't try so hard to succeed. Or win. Just ask Mr. Trump. Perhaps we are to revert to the original human being; the metaphor being that Adam and Eve were given the choice of eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge (and I do mean metaphor here; please nobody take me seriously). We may be gods of sorts in our original state; and yet, as much as we think we've evolved, I look at all the needless junk I have around me in my house, all my needless clothing, or jewelry, or whatever. How very far we have devolved if looked at in this way; how very far from the earth we have come, how very layered we are in our houses (speaking of the Western world predominately); and perhaps things will really have to yang out before they can yin back; it would seem to be that way if we look at the current course of our upcoming political choices. What a strange exercise this all is. Perhaps I'll shave my head and do a Buckminster.

I would say: What could be healed is essentially broken - unfixable, a dream character Now its good to heal and evolve the dream character a little, but no need to fixate on that Just leave the dream character in his/her own place like an old man observing children's play

I do admire anyone that shows that much determination though. My subconscious must have been impressed with their determination as well, because I was telling a couple of friends about it in a dream.

"Purpose" is a relative concept. In modern society "puspose" is like "role" or "job". Relative to the objectives of the corporations used to create an entire false culture. Programmed into people by education and media. So it is like asking "what should I be doing for the corporations right now"? They are the ones who need you to do something. If you don't, they are stuck in a dream. So they have a purpose for everyone. To do and be and act as they are programmed. To do the work. To accomplish. The subjugation of Life and defeat of Nature. To render these, and you, unto private use by a few. -VonKrankenhaus

Jox, that sounds much like I do, it's energy, the energy body or dream body, and it is composed of energy. Not black or white or anything unless you want it to be a colour. The feeling I get in this state is pure joy and ecstasy. There is no other way I could describe it, how do you describe pure ecstasy?

OK, so I've talked about and shared some photos of the house we bought. A little more of the story... My mother-in-law currently lives in a retirement community near us because she had some health issues a few years ago. She can't really live on her own at this point but she doesn't need skilled nursing care, just a bit of oversight (help getting to doctor's appointments, someone to fill her pill box for her, a place where meals are provided, etc.) The place she's in is great for now but, as her memory fades and she becomes more unsure on her feet, it is just a matter of time before this very nice senior-living apartment complex doesn't work for her. She can't return to her own home for obvious reasons but she thinks she's going to be able to soon and we generally allow her to believe that as it keeps her spirits up -- we maintain that home for her but she hasn't been there for several years. She can't live with us in our current home when the time comes, though, because it has lots of stairs -- and because she and my wife can only be under the same roof for about three days before someone's life is in jeopardy (probably mine!) Adding to this, my son had a rough start at college because he wasn't ready maturity-wise. He is currently back at a university for a fourth try and this time seems much more promising but we needed to plan on being a three-generation household for an unknown number of years and needed separate living spaces for the sake of sanity. After two years of looking, we found a place that fit our needs at a price we could manage (primarily because it is way out in the country) but it needed work. The detached mother-in-law's cottage needed a handicap-accessible bathroom with shower instead of tub, which necessitated moving walls and remodeling the kitchen, etc., and the kitchen in the main house was basically untouched since the early 1960s (it needs other stuff, too, like some bathroom remodeling and such but that can wait). We purchased in October, started remodeling in November, and hope to be ready to move in late-March or early-April. How is this relevant? Well, remember how I said my mother-in-law thinks she'll be going home soon? Out of fear for how she will react to the whole thing, my wife hasn't been willing to tell her about the house until her cottage is completely finished and the kitchen in the main house is ready, too. This means that, for the last three months and for at least another, we have been making frequent trips back and forth (an hour drive between houses), hauling loads of stuff, painting, cleaning, moving furniture, etc., and "Grandma" doesn't even know about it yet. Wanna talk about a secret plan involving a new house??? Bingo! Oh, but there's more... You mentioned the possibility of a new source of income, too. Well, one of my wife's biggest fears is running out of money. Personally, I really don't care much about money and, as a result, it never seems to be a problem -- but it is a significant source of anxiety for her and those who've been around the forum for a while may remember that she has a significant heart problem (a sudden-death experience about five years ago due to ventricular fibrillation, takotsubo cardiomyopathy, implanted defibrillator, three leaking valves, etc.) and it is stress-induced. Anything I can do to help alleviate, minimize or avoid stress is literally extending her lease on life. So, how is this relevant??? Early last month, despite a lifetime of laughing at people who gamble with the hope of winning (as opposed to doing so just for fun) or who buy lottery tickets, I had a lucid dream in which I bought a lottery ticket. It was so clear that I remembered the number. This was before the big PowerBall run-up. Last week, I dreamed that I got that same number in a fortune cookie. I decided, "what the heck!" and I bought a recurring lottery ticket for the next 26 drawings with that number. Not wanting to hear my wife fuss about throwing money away, I simply didn't tell her. Better chances of getting struck by lightning than winning, of course, but wouldn't that be a nice little secret source of income to announce to my wife? (I'm not greedy -- I don't need to win a billion dollars. A couple million would do just fine...) I'm not counting on winning the lottery, though. I've been saving and investing conservatively for some years now -- "building up something on the material plane in a calm and steadfast manner" -- and will be in a position to retire comfortably in just a few years and could do so now by being very frugal (so I'm not worried about loss of income due to robots taking over the workforce or whatever). All the way through (and in more aspects than what I've mentioned here), your reading is not only quite insightful but it also reinforces some things I knew/suspected. Thank you, kind sir! I'd say you are pretty good at this stuff.

Hmm...I take the following herbal supplements and vitamins pretty much daily: Red Chinese/Panax Ginseng Eleuthero/Siberian Ginseng Gingko Biloba Vitamin D Vitamin B Damiana tea I've had problems with chronic fatigue (at the worst point, before I took the supplements, I'd fall asleep every two or three hours) ongoing for several years, coinciding with psychiatric treatment (which I'm getting out of ASAP; bad experience altogether); apparently I enter dream sleep at an abnormally high rate and that stops me from getting proper rest. But the ginseng helps with fatigue and staying awake and the damiana gives me a slight general motivational boost. Reading everyone else's posts is inspiring me to do away with the other unhealthy stuff I consume. Too much caffeine and processed junk, I think, which doesn't help things either. I've also got a ton of other herbs I keep on hand for other things, but the above's my daily regimen.

A Question for C T further to your post..... "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep ?"

Weird true story that fits into the offbeat of this forum. I have a tendency to natural, mystical experiences. But I have only had one "omen" in my life. I used to think that an omen was just a thing people claimed, like some psychic prediction. That someone saw XYZ, and they thought to themselves, "Oh this probably means such-and-such" or whatever. Or that they were superstitious, so they'd see a certain thing they culturally had been 'trained' to believe meant something, and decide it was an omen of something. I didn't know that a genuine Omen is a mystical experience. When you have it, you KNOW it. You understand a lot about it right then. It is not just a casual feeling. It is not an intellectual assumption. It is a mystical experience that seems very disturbing yet real. OK so here is the experience: It's somewhere in the early 2000's. I am sleeping peacefully. I'm a single mom so I'm living with just my small girl. I have at that moment something like eight cats, a couple of whom don't get along with the others at all so they don't hang out together, and it is wintertime, so it's snowing. The cats have a door in the window of the back room, and leading up to it is a plastic children's slide from a big 'cube' toy I'd had for my kid when she was just a bit younger. The slide and winter = utter hilarity at times. The cats would run up the slide toward the window -- it was covered with frozen snow -- get this fabulous look on their face, extend their claws fully, and then sliiiiiiiide back down it. I know it was cruel, but I swear I used to laugh until I almost peed my pants about it, it was just so funny. Suffice to say that getting back in the house was harder than getting out for them, so most the time they were inside. And the cat door was actually barely big enough for a couple of the big male cats. (When they were outside, one day I was out in the backyard and they all ran across the frozen-snow ground. It was like half a dozen cats "galloping across the frozen tundra." What an awesome sound! I didn't know cats galloped until then.) Anyway all that is just background. I am woken up at some ungodly hour by all this noise I can't understand. Something just outside the back room I thought at first, as I came awake, but then it sounds like it's in the house. It sounds like the cats doing something crazy as that many of them in one house has a tendency to bring on, a few cats in motion at once when playing can knock over anything. I get up, and I'm probably still like 50% asleep, and I stumble to my bedroom door which is half-closed, and I open the door and step into the hall. And I stop and stare. Because right there in the hallway, in front of my door but back a foot, is the largest freshly dead black bird I have ever seen. I am so half-awake that I freeze and spend some time letting the shock wake up my brain in case I'm imagining some of this. We get a lot of crows in Winter passing through, but this is like the mother of all crows, so it's either literally some kind of mutant giant crow, or it's an actual raven. I'm no expert so I don't know, but I consider this as I stare down at it. Then I realize that all my cats are sitting there in the hallway -- all of them, even the ones that don't get along with the others -- surrounding it weirdly, like a circle almost but not quite as there isn't room in the hallway -- looking at me. Then I realize that in order to get this gigantic dead bird into the house, ALL the cats had to collectively work together to drag it UP the frozen slide and in through the cat window it probably barely even fit through at all, and then drag it across the room and down the hall to in front of my bedroom door. However, all these thoughts in series, were only the intellectual part. Because from the instant I stepped into my bedroom doorway and looked down, I had this overwhelming FEELING: This was "a message" to me. It was what my people would call "an omen." This was the first of three messages that I would be given. Each one would be a sign of the continuing 'development' of something in my world. The large probability for it now existed. If the third message arrived, it was sure. And whatever that was, was not a good thing. It was a bad thing. I mean like "the doom of my...." -- country? perhaps -- level bad thing. I didn't feel like the planet or my species would end. I didn't feel like it meant my life or house or even city. But it seemed like a really BIG doom that might fit with how I might interpret "my country" -- given a strong degree of patriotism (early childhood indoctrination in school worked really well for me). And I felt the bird, its size, its death, the cats, everything, were part of some equation, some song, some complex symbol, that could have told me something about this potential except I was oblivious to it, so I didn't know what it meant. Only that it did have MEANING. It wasn't merely a chance, coincidental event. I stood there staring at the bird dead at my feet, at the cats, silently for awhile. Then finally I went out and found a box big enough to fit the bird in, put it in and for lack of any idea what else to do, said a sort of prayer over it, closed up the box, and the next day called the animal control guy who came and got the box. OK so this was really weird, right. But I kinda forgot about it after awhile. I had lived here for about two years at that time and I had worked like 120 hours a week doing programming mostly so I was really living in a cave and didn't know anybody besides my dad, a slightly crazy (rather ditzy) aunt, grandmother and my kid. So it's a long time later. I'm thinking now maybe a year later but I honestly don't remember. Long enough that I had forgotten the incident as far as thinking about it goes, though I'd written it down for online friends at the time it happened. My aunt, whose landscaping team mowed my lawn weekly, stops by to see me. I'm sitting in the living room folding laundry and she sits down and volunteers, "I had such a weird dream last night!" And she tells me her dream. There are these two cats, like house cats, she says. One is very large. The other is very small, and tabby striped, like that grey one you have. Except it's actually sort of blood red shades, not grey, an impossible color for a cat. And something happens, and then the small red tabby literally consumes the large cat. And it's sitting there, and the tail of the larger cat is hanging out of its mouth, like it swallowed it whole. And some part of me I had not experienced since that night in the hall suddenly activated the moment she had begun talking and was telling me: This is the second message you are being given. I understood it implicitly, that this was the 2nd of 3. The probably was still developing. And I felt this kind of horrible lurching in my gut because I really felt that the possibility of something quite horrid was coming closer. And I was surprised because I didn't know that "someone else's dream" could be part of one's own Omen. I guess I never gave the subject much thought, but that seemed surprising. And while she was telling it to me, I had this overlay of the biblical story of Joseph interpreting the Pharoah's dream, and how the seven emaciated cows eating the seven healthy cows indicated seven years of famine. I wondered in some horror what the small red tabby cat represented in my world, compared to the much larger cat. And then the day went on. It's been probably a dozen years since then. I have never had the third sign. Does that mean it's not going to happen? That probability shifted? Or it just hasn't happened yet? I have no idea. I also didn't know that Omens could come in 'pieces' or stretch out so much or be... potentials, you might say. This is not a topic I ever had an interest in. Well that's my story. Maybe a let down since nothing exciting ever came of it! Yet. Maybe that's a good thing. RC

Since a man and woman appeared to you (in a dream, i am guessing)........ could it be to indicate that "you (maven?) are more experienced" than the other person who was working with you (a man i am guessing) ?? Perhaps subconsciously you held a feeling that your knowledge in spirituality and practices is better than the one who was assisting you ? What time of day did you do the visualization ? I am assuming it was during a meditation (or some such) ?

a masochists dream a nightmare for you and me while he snores sweetly.

learning to praise pain as a learning tool perhaps a masochists dream

Cats are obligate carnivore unlike dogs. Cats do not have the ability to make many amino acids and use vitamins the way omnivore creatures, including dogs can. Even if cats have 90 lifes, the cats will die very soon on a vegan or even vegetarian kind of diet. Cats have little ability to form niacin or arginine and taurine, found only in animal protein. They must have meat, preferably raw meat, to remain healthy. So even though the mash I made for birds have lots of vege proteins from the different beans, supplying different kind of amino acids, I need to include a high portion of animal protein into kitty mash as well to make sure they get the amino acids that they needed. And that's only in just the mash that I made for them. And you seen in photos above I went further to add ommp to the mash as well. The Japanese, or anyone, are not going to keep healthy cats feeding them cooked rice and scraps and leftovers from their meals. Cooking for cats and preparing food for cats should not be tried unless you do know. A bit too difficult to get into details here especially as many of my steps were embedded in my sub conscious and therefore I might not even have written on them. On the other hand, I could have lived very healthily on the leftovers of my cats and my birdies. They had a far healthier and better diet than what I fed myself or ate in fine restaurants. Many of the beans , quinoa and cereals were from organic stores that I would never dream of buying for myself and my wife. I never claim much sanity and better known for the idiotic things I do and say. Those food for the kitties were a thing of the past. I used to do that regularly when Ivan was with me. Sieben took advantage to be given same stuff. The most difficult task was on their days to be stoic. Ivan would jump on my lap to tread tread on my tummy and on my back to tread on my neck muzzling me on my cheek. I had very little choice but to cave in to give him at least half portion. It would be so much easier to resist if I was clawed to my marrow by hungry kitties desperate for food. I would happily kick them in the head and tell them to fuck off.. I just could not make myself as stoic as what I wanted them to be. But now that Ivan is gone and in that little porcelain jar, ( http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/37958-can-the-tao-be-found-in-a-66-hours-work-week/page-4 ) and I decided not to have birdie until I find my place to retire in, I did not cook mash anymore. The last was before I went to Riyadh when Ivan was still with me. Sieben now got to remain content with the kibbles my wife poured out to feed him all loaded with ethoxyquin and BHA/BHTs. And yes, she cleaned his shit as well.

I consider Yidam as something different than connecting directly with a higher level being, Yidam involves visualisation while the connection to a higher level being is usually in the form of energy or information, which is usually in an altered state such as trance, dream or meditation. Do I know many people who connect to beings in the direct way? yes some. Do I have examples of people being tricked while doing Yidam practice? no I don't know anyone who does Yidam, but there are examples of people being tricked by spirits and beings throughout most of the traditions. Would you be protected with empowerment? well usually lineages have preliminaries and empowerments for a reason, often these things are worked out quite precisely over many generations.

In case you haven't heard about it, Star Citizen is a first person universe space MMO game, and it is almost entirely crowdfunded. It started with the biggest crowdfunding campaign ever and currently has been funded with over 100 million dollars and has over a million registered people. What I find so interesting and also fascinating, captivating and uplifting is how this project pretty much represents the antithesis to the much-cursed corporate business approach that boils down to greed and thus fear. Star Citizen on the other hand is rooted in the passionate ideas of one person who can call all the shots and has, together with people sharing his dream, gathered a team of very competent people to make it happen. And pretty much everything trickles down from that point. This describes the basic mindset and approach: http://robertsspaceindustries.com/the-pledge I am so excited about this because it is like pioneer work for a necessary turnaround if you will, fueling endeavors with love instead of abstract existential fear. I mean, if you look at the 'big business' world, it's pretty much a club of people with deep and severe issues who build a pampering zone for avoiding to resolve those issues, and thus they succeed in the environment they build and spread that fear via system design. I come from a skeptic and hesitant stance, generally considering "Early Access" games a total "no", yet I found myself spending quite a lot on helping to make this game succeed, a game which is currently in alpha development phase. Not only that, but I very actively help finding bugs and writing reports about them so that others benefit from a better game earlier. This again reminds me of how being involved in something meaningful that helps shape a better future fills me with energy. In my life situation, I should be all focused on taking, not giving, but I don't mind at all in this case, for I know this is worth it. It is nice to see projects cropping up in various areas of life that live the solution instead of fiddling with the problem. You might have heard about things like urban farming initiatives and such, but here you see, even in game development changes are getting really big and indie gaming is no longer something you can associate exclusively to small-scale projects. I'm curious to hear the thoughts from people in this spiritual community about it. Also feel free to ask any questions you might have. I have quickly become somewhat of an expert on this topic by now, mostly effortlessly. :-) Before I keep turning this into a book... A link says more than a thousand words ... or how did the saying go? ^^ General game overview: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-game/spaceflight Current state of the game: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/feature-list

dude be strong and never give up on your dream. u can still become a ballerina if you give your 100%. we all are rooting for ya.

Not quite on the same wavelength with you here, Dream Bliss. If mathematics is mental masturbation, quantum physics must be too, because it is interwoven by mathematics wherever you look which you will be quick to find out once you investigate it a little further than by watching pop science videos.

I've never tried anything, lol. The whole process has been a spontaneous one from the very beginning, I was never looking for it, so I've tended to just let it take its natural course. I do periodically do the microcosmic orbit and I have been doing dream yoga where there is concentration on the side channels. I appreciate your words. Maybe this dream yoga practice will help to get the flow going more evenly.

I thought I add this below as this was the issue that made me create this thread since it was deleted when I first wrote of this elsewhere just a few days ago. I thought Dr Strangelove will be a suitable mention for enlightened movies. Especially so when Peter Sellers was brought up in an earlier post in another thread. Considering Sellers played 4 roles in Strangelove, so I added my take. For those who were born recently as as in 1969 and not known of the wonders of living in a world where red buttons could be pressed to send thousands megatons left and right and up and down, people like me were living in morbid fascination not if, but when that button would be pressed. Strange to say, compare with life now, life that time was an oasis of peace with only proxie wars taking place with no suicide bombings in public. Very civilised then. BUT, the threat of megatons going off made for crazy living under heightened adrenline rush. Even if the red buttons were not pressed, there were very near situations when those buttons would be pressed. DEFCON levels were what the world lived with. Reaching Defcon 2 a few times , just one level short of Defcon 1 and end of everything. Then we also had Broken Arrows of accidents with nuclear weapons. In 1961 a B52 crashed in USA sending off her Mk 39 4 megaton bombs. Five of the six arming mechanisms on one of the Mk 39 4 megaton bombs activated, causing it to execute many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as charging the firing capacitors and, critically, deployment of a 100-foot-diameter (30 m) retard parachute. By grace of the Tao, the sixth and last mechanism did not activate. None of the 5 out of 6 were supposed to activate anyway, but they did. Until Dr Strangelove came. Making us a lot more enlightened and loving the BOMB instead of fearing the BOMB. ***************************************************************************************************************** Back to what I was talking of Director King Hu. King Hu will stand tall with Kurosawa and Kulbrick. Chinese Wuxia movies can be classed as before King Hu and after King Hu. His realism and attention to details was not just like fresh air, it was like a typhoon sweeping into the cinema. Wuxia movies before then were like cartoons and play acting. KingHu appeared like a Master who ting jing and fa jing in a bunch of slow moving clowns thinking of chi and and there and peace and kumbayahing all over. His movie Dragon Gate Inn, or Dragon Inn 龍門客棧 LungMen Ker Jang shown in 1967 before the advent of graphics and Hongkong special effects can still be breath taking even now 50 years later. This contained more than 200 chinese words unlike Touch of Zen. For those who watched Saving Private Ryan, you recalled the realism of D Day invasion on Normandy beaches and could feel the impact of the bullets around you, and into you. This was the first Chinese martial arts movie with that kind of realism that you felt the blows on your head and the sabre cutting into you. Yet it was not just brutal fighting and killing. PlotTsao, the emperor's first eunuch, has successfully bested General Yu, his political opponent. The general was beheaded but his remaining children have been exiled from China. As the children are being escorted to the western border of the Chinese empire, Tsao plots to have the children killed. Tsao's secret police lie in ambush at the desolate Dragon Gate Inn. Martial arts expert Hsiao shows up at the inn, wanting to meet the innkeeper. Unknown to the secret police is that the innkeeper, Wu Ning, was one of the general's lieutenants and has summoned Hsiao to help the children. A brother-sister martial-artist team (children of another Yu lieutenant) also show up to help. These four race to find Yu's children and lead them to safety. Some of the reviews of this movie It’s 15th-century China. A noble minister has been executed and his children exiled by ferocious eunuch Cao (Ying). Despatched to murder the exiles before they reach the border, Cao’s secret police commandeer the isolated Dragon Gate Inn to await their quarry. They are met there by swordsman Xiao (Jun) who seems determined to get in the way. Dragon Inn is a clear ancestor of films like Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Action blossoms from controlled, elegant moves into bursts of superhuman speed and agility. Bodies pirouette across vivid landscapes and through the air, the camera their graceful partner in motion. Its flowing sequences would be reason enough to seek out this wuxia landmark. But what sets Dragon Inn apart is the deadly precision of its dialogue – nimble wit that stalks, pounces and often prevails in tandem with the action, until the final scene, where it finds its mark. The children of assassinated General Yu are being hunted by his political opponents but there are allies out there with the martial arts skills to try and defend them.★★★★★ A keystone of the wuxia genre, this 1976 Ming Dynasty epic may lack plot complexity and period spectacle. But the stand-off in a remote inn is flecked with tension, wit and slick martial artistry. 888888888888888888888888888888 What Hu is the true master of is creating dynamic tension – both during the fights which tend to often be long drawn out duels which go back and forth in terms of who has the advantage (and Hu was not shy about having his heroes die – so the outcome of these fights are by no means predictable) and in the lead up. Hu squeezes out every ounce of tension in the lengthy preludes to the fight. He has the contestants eyeing each other – mentally circling one another in a battle of wits – gaining the measure of each other - testing one another with flying bowls or flung chopsticks. The plot of this Dragon Inn is very similar to Tsui’s - though the mood of the film is vastly different – darker – more serious in tone – no body parts being served as entrees or strip fu duels between women. The year is 1457 during the Ming Dynasty and the high eunuch Cao Shaoqin (Pai Ying) has had the Minister of Defense, Yu, executed and his children exiled to the far away frontier outpost of Dragon Gate. Cao Shaoqin becomes concerned that the children will return some day for revenge and so sends his spies of the Eastern Agency to wait for them at a local establishment on the way to the outpost in order to kill them. Hsu Feng plays the daughter – and though the part is very small - apparently Hu took a liking to her and she became his main actress for most of his future films. Hu had a fascination for the possibilities within the setting of an inn. Here was a special universe – full of intrigue – anonymity – whispers behind closed doors – hidden identities - and different classes and types of characters meeting on common ground. He also loved the challenge of shooting action within the small confines of the inn – often using wonderful tracking shots to follow it. Three of his films had large sections take place within an inn – Come Drink with Me, Dragon Inn to a larger extent and finally The Fate of Lee Khan takes place nearly entirely within the inn setting. The spies of the Eastern Agency arrive at Dragon Inn and wait for the children to show up – but first a stranger appears (Shi Jun) and calmly orders dinner. The spies are undercover – and try to kill the stranger – but he slowly reveals his great martial arts abilities - by holding poison in his mouth – spinning a bowl of noodles across the room – catching a thrown knife with his chopsticks. More reinforcements show up – but they pull back cautiously from this unexpected adversary to wait for a more opportune time – but meanwhile two more itinerant travelers come to the inn - Polly and her brother. It soon becomes clear that the strangers have all come for a reason – to protect the children of the minister against overwhelming odds. They may be small in numbers but all of them are superb martial artists – which Hu quickly establishes with a few camera shots and displays of agility - and willing to die for a cause. Much of the first half of the film is a cat and mouse game – but the action kicks in when the children arrive and continues for much of the rest of the film. In her first action scene, Polly nearly steals the film as she is sent to delay a large force of the enemy to give the children time to get away. With eyes of steely determination – she sets herself in front of them and dares them to pass her – her petite body slicing and cutting and spinning as they surround her. It is a great scene and though Polly’s martial arts skills were far from what they were to become in later films, she is indeed splendid. This film is not only an important film – it is also a very entertaining film – full of courage, heroism and sacrifice – themes that were important to Hu. I did not find it quite as exhilarating as Come Drink with Me or as powerful as A Touch of Zen – but it is a wonderful film and hopefully it will soon be available on DVD with the transfer that it deserves. My rating for this film: 8.5 888888888888888888888888888888888888888 Historical context, interpretation and thoughts on Dragon Inn by James Chang Among all of the Hong Kong directors, King Hu is my personal favorite. The reason is simple. He was the only man who did nothing to defame the Chinese society or Chinese culture --- in his works we find no triads, harlots in Cheung-sam, drug dealers, nerve-racking gunfights or battalions of vampires. Instead, we have the essence of Confucianism and Zen Buddhism. Before we look into the film itself, I think it is better for us to have an insight into the politics of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The first Emperor Hung Wu (1328-1398), the founder of Ming, was a peasant when he was young and therefore he had a particular hatred for noblemen and scholars, who were able to THINK and QUESTION his reign. In order to suppress all resistance, he formed an agency, something like the KGB, to pry into the private lives of his subjects and arrest them whenever necessary. This agency is known as Jin Yi Wei (literally Embroidered Mantle Guards) and they served as the Imperial Guards. A Peer above the rank of a Count and a eunuch were made the commanding officers of this unit but usually it was the eunuch who wielded the actual power. Hung Wu's reign was marked by monstrous cruelty and treachery and over 300,000 people were either beheaded or sent to be 'ling chi' (cut into pieces). In 1449, Emperor Ying T'sung was captured by the Tartars in a battle, and Defense Minister Yu Ch'ien proclaimed Ying T'sung's brother emperor and defeated the Tartars a year later. Ying T'sung was released by the barbarians and with the aid of a eunuch named Tsao Shao T'sin (played by Pai Ying) and Shi Heng, the Marquis of Wuching, he launched a coup d'etat and resumed the throne in 1457.Yu was beheaded and his sons were exiled. They were sent to Xin Jiang, and would inevitably pass through a place named 'Dragon Gate'. The ruthless Tsao Saho T'sin sent a team of Jin Yi agents to assassinate the children at Dragon Gate, however, they were rescued by a scholar who showed brilliant swordsmanship (played by Shi Jun) and a mysterious swordswoman (Polly Shang Kwan in her most legendary role). Finally, Tsao himself was killed and the children were saved. In real life, Tsao was accused of treason and put to death by the emperor himself----like most of his predecessors and successors. It was a simple story told in a straightforward manner. Like most of King Hu's films, it has the following characteristics: The use of an Inn An ancient Chinese inn on a piece of barren land was a very dramatic situation where all kinds of conflicts can break out. In Dragon's Inn, this is the place where the heroes waged a sacred war against the evil power. On the other hand, such a narrow and shallow space can be used by the director to focus time and space into one phase. Another reason for Hu to choose an inn is that this is a place where all sorts and classes of people meet --- eunuchs, officers, swordsman, hawkers, hermits and spies can stay in the same drawing room. Hu can thus create a miniature of traditional society in an inn. Besides, only under such an occasion could a powerful eunuch possibly be slain. The heroine dressed in male costumes The leading ladies in most of Hu's work dressed themselves as males. Their relationships with their male comrades are vague---- they were neither husband and wives nor lovers. They were professional killers and had no interest in love or sex. They were purely 'comrades' and it seems that both sexes have to suppress their sexual desires. Look at Tsao, he was powerful and keen in swordsmanship, but he was a EUNUCH. It seems that he tried to avenge his castration by corrupting the country. Hu has always suggested that sexual desire may corrode one's martial abilities, and as a semi-Zen-Buddhist, he tried to explore the idea of ' The World is Void ' -----so is sex. Influence of Peking Opera in Hu's films In his films, one can always tell whether a guy is good or bad at the first sight. This is due to the Peking-Opera styled make-up adopted by Hu .In Peking Opera, there are only five types of characters and therefore Hu also tends to filter thousands of characters into a few typical ones. All characters in Hu's films were one-dimensional and their character was shown by their outward appearance. Basically, all of them had a purpose to life, but none of them had bones and flesh. The director used them as puppets to represent good and evil. All of them kept on walking and running all the time, why? The swordsmen and their comrades kept on moving, in search of freedom and their own destinies. What King Hu has always stressed that Zen, Confucianism, the fate of China, Chinese politics, history and myths, were only superficial themes of his works. They were only used to support his storyline, the real yet insinuated theme is the search for enlightenment, and the freedom of the soul. However, I don't think these swordsmen can succeed. They only fought against the secret agents, not against the emperor himself or his tyranny. They were sort of like Robin Hood, who was always loyal to the Imperial house. They did not understand that monarchy and feudalism itself was the root of all their sufferings. No matter how corrupt and vicious the government was, they wouldn't overthrow it. They would only kill one or two villains who were actually only lackeys of the Emperor. This is why they went into exile alone at the end of the story. Another important aspect of this sense of motion is that in Hu's film, since the story is so simple, the motion of the characters itself can be considered as part of the film's content. The almost almighty villain Villains, especially the chief villain, were also depicted as formidable swordsmen. Look at Tsao, look at his might. Our swordsmen have to use all their wisdom, courage and strength, plus the sacrifice of many, in order to overcome him. Tsao Shao T'sin was the first villain in Chinese film history to be depicted as a 'superman' who has gone to the wrong side. His image was copied countless times later. Apart from all these interesting characteristics, Dragon Inn is an almost flawless cinematic piece. The storyline is simple and clear. The cinematography was poetic and exhilarating. King Hu' s knowledge of Chinese cultural history was shown by the authentic sets ---- they were so real as if they were antiques. King Hu must have studied thoroughly the costumes, weaponry and furnishings of the Ming period. I almost felt that I was really watching people of the Ming dynasty fighting upon the screen. In his first wuxia film, Come Drink With Me (1966), King Hu showed too much Japanese influence and the film reminded me of Yojimbo (1961,Akira Kurosawa). In Dragon Inn, everything is purely Chinese. Finally, I would like to say something about the choreography. Although it was not as provocative as that in Tsui Hark's works, the choreography of this film, influenced by the Peking Opera, showed clearly the difference in different people's abilities in martial arts. I would like to make a salute to Mr.Hu, maestro of Chinese cinema who was sacrificed by the over-commercial society of Hong Kong. My rating of this film : 9 88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 A Glimpse Inside The Inn: Context and subtext of King Hu's Dragon Gate Inn By Yves GendronIt's common knowledge that Tsui Hark's Dragon Gate Inn 92 was meant as a paranoid allegory with the titular inn serving as a substitute for Hong Kong itself being threatened and eventually ransacked by brutal exterior forces and that it's boss (Maggie Cheung's unscrupulous, mercenary and fun-loving character) was serving as a stand-in for Hong Kong’s similarly minded inhabitants. In China the tradition of using art to pass subtle or not so subtle hidden/subversive messages is almost as old as the country itself. A large bulk of the nineties martial art/ swordplay revival had similarly thinly veiled subtexts and so in it's own peculiar way did the original Dragon Gate Inn classic by master filmmaker King Hu dating back from 1967. Period films have always been shaped by and in some ways have reflected the contemporary time in which they were made. Since the nineties, swordplay films reflected the angst-filled anxieties brought about by the impending handover of Hong Kong to China. But what the first Dragon Inn reflected in the China of three decades ago was quite different. Back then after all Mao Tse Dong was still alive, his cultural revolution running amok throughout the country and Hong Kong itself was a red-hot kettle of social and economic change on the verge of exploding. Finally, let's not forget that Dragon Inn wasn't even a Hong Kong production to begin with but an entirely "made in Taiwan" film. At its release Dragon Inn became a phenomenal run away hit over the whole of South-east Asia, the very first regional production to outdo the Hollywood-made imports. What was it in the movie that caught the viewer’s imagination that made it such a success? As the era itself and it's social and political context is long gone, it's the intent of this piece to take a revealing peek and explain the surprising context and subtext of this great film. THE DOUBLE SEVEN CONNECTION Way back in 1975 King Hu once explained his interest in the Ming dynasty, and where he picked up some of his ideas for Dragon Gate Inn. "It's a particularly controversial period …< >…. there was a much discussed book by Wu Han about Ming politics. It was on the one hand the period when Western influences first reached China; on the other, it was one of the most corrupt periods in Chinese politics. Most of the Ming emperors were bad; some were drug addicts, some were very young indeed when they came to the throne. Power was effectively in the hands of the Court Eunuchs, who created their own secret services, the "Dong Shang or "Eastern Group". Without exaggeration, you could say that the power of the Dong Shang exceeded that of the German Gestapo. They could arrest and execute virtually anyone, including ministers of the Courts, without accountability or, indeed any legal process. Both Dragon Gate Inn and A Touch of Zen deal specifically with the operations of the Dong Shang." So far so good, but it doesn't inform us of the possible connection between Dragon Gate Inn and it's contemporary subtext. It's at this point however that King Hu made this surprising revelation. "At the time I made those movies, the James Bond films were very popular, and I thought it was very wrong to make a hero of a secret service man. My films were kind of a comment on that." So was Dragon Gate Inn, a Chinese swordplay movie set in fifteenth century Ming Dynasty China, an anti James Bond movie!? Apparently Hu felt offended by the Bond's spy caper glorification of the murderous exploits of someone above the law, so he did a movie, which, yes, featured an intelligence agency but whose men were nothing more than ruthless assassins. "I didn't like James Bond." Hu said on another occasion. "They made him such a super hero but he was just an agent, a human being." With Dragon Gate Inn Hu did a sort of spy caper of his own but inverted it, put it in a historical context and somehow made it more realistic "It was a spy film, but the spies are very human. I didn't want to glamorize them." Interestingly, while Dragon Inn’s main heroic character the knight-errant Hsiao had a vastly different appearance, he does appear to share many trademarks with Bond. In his own way he's quite dashing, cool and witty. He's also able and willing to kill if need be and he's not above cruelly mocking his opponents. Unlike Bond though he's an altruistic hero who serves not a government but a cause and an ideal. For all of his skills he remains quite mortal and remains susceptible to injuries. More than anything though, unlike Bond who can defeat the most devious of schemes on his own, beat the most towering of henchmen and dispatch the chief baddie with a "bon mot" on his lips, Dragon Inn’s knight errant hero needs others to achieve this end. He may single-handedly repulse many assaults against him but in the end team work and collective effort are the key. THE EAST IS RED Beyond the James Bond connection, King Hu never admitted to any other contemporary subtext. What Hu omitted to mention in his interview though, others have pointed out. That Wu Wan the writer/historian whose writing initially attracted Hu’s attention towards the Dong Shang in the first place became on the eve of the infamous Cultural Revolution one of the first victims of Mao Tse Dong's persecution. He was targeted for having written a play set in the Ming dynasty, where a courtier chastises an emperor, a thinly veiled reference to an actual occurrence between Mao and one of his top generals during the disastrously managed Great Leap Forward of the late fifties/early sixties (which had brought a famine causing the death of up to 30 to 40 million Chinese). It's considered that Wu's persecution was the key event that prompted King Hu to do a film with a loyal minister and his family being persecuted by an all-powerful tyrant who is surrounded by devoted followers (the same as Mao's Red Guards) and whose very appearance is even evocative of Mao’s own. THE WHITE TERROR Both the James Bond and Mao/cultural revolution connections are acknowledged parts of Dragon Inn’s subtexts by film scholars. The following idea though is entirely this writers own, who speculates that the secret service element may also have been equally prompted by Taiwan's Republic of China’s own infamous intelligence agency. For despite being called a "Republic", Taiwan was actually a ruthlessly fascist-like one party state. Every square inch of the country was under the watch of the secret service, the "Kuo-Tang Ming" regime watchdog, who were not only into spying but passing disinformation, intimidation, and torture - even political assassination. Chased away by the Communists back in 1949 and taking refuge in Taiwan, the Kuo-Tang-Ming forces forcibly took over the island and conducted an utter purge of it's native political and cultural elite which is said to have been more than 40,000 victims. Taiwan then stayed under martial law for almost four decades during which it was subjected to a ruthlessly conducted anti-communist white terror campaign. It is quite telling that in the late seventies, well after Dragon Gate Inn’s release, the whole family of one of Taiwan’s opposition leaders was murdered in their sleep by a still unknown party. Then in the early eighties the secret service dispatched a triad hit squad to the USA to silence a Sino-American writer who had dared to write an unflattering biography of Taiwan’s then premier. Or that the wife of Taiwan’s current premier, a former opposition leader, was made a wheel chair bound invalid following a still unsolved car assault made in 1985 - at a time when the regime finally started to release it's iron grip. Now unlike the Bond or Mao subtext, there is no obvious track leading to a Taiwan/Dragon Gate Inn connection and King Hu was quite new to Taiwan when he came to make movies after spending twenty years in Hong Kong. Still, the Dong Shang depredations as described in Dragon Inn fits the sort of activities of an above the law Gestapo like secret police such as existed in Taiwan. And the heavy atmosphere of fear, suspicion and duplicity does also fit the sort of society Taiwan must have been like under martial law. Yes, King Hu was a newcomer but not politically naive, and he must have recognized very quickly the island society for what it was, one of fear and whispers where the wrong words or the wrong act could result in imprisonment, torture and death. Under such circumstances it's hard to imagine that King Hu was not influenced in some way, although he remained careful to cover his tracks in order to avoid any trouble with Taiwan’s strict censorship laws. A TOUCH OF CHINA In Dragon Inn the Yu children are sent in internal exile to a far removed frontier outpost. This was a customary form of punishment in ancient China though more for common criminals than disgraced officials and their family. It was considered a fairly dreadful punishment, as it meant that one would be cut off from China's civilized world to live in a remote, hostile and all too alien territory. Exile was also the fate of the Chinese living outside the motherland in the British colony of Hong Kong, Taiwan or south Asian countries; whether they were migrants, refugees or even stranded visitors caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was certainly true for King Hu, as he found himself stuck in Hong Kong when the frontier with the Mainland was closed down shortly after the Communist victory. Exile is not really part of Dragon Inn’s drama, or at least not much of it, but it's undeniably part of the film's context for it is King Hu’s life as an exile that brought him to make films painstakingly recreating ancient China and conjuring-up it's ancient classical culture. It was the evocation of ancient mythical China that seized the exiled Chinese viewers imaginations when Dragon Inn was released. It tentatively rekindled a broken link for those who had or were forced to leave the motherland behind and gave a "touch of China" to their children, those who had left too young or were born outside of it. "People like me" once said Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon director Ang Lee in a tribute to King Hu following his death in 1997, "who grew up in Taiwan, receiving a Chinese education, have lost touch with the Mainland. Because I was brought up as a Chinese but I haven't really been to Mainland China. That's why I sometimes feel strange about my Chinese identity. This identity was obtained from Mr Hu’s movies and from TV and textbooks. It was very abstract, not because of blood relationship or land but rather an ambiguous cultural concept. It was like a dream. You couldn't make sense of everything, but it was a Holistic Chinese influence and it's in my blood". PORTRAYAL OF VALOUR So in the end King Hu's Dragon Gate Inn was just as anchored in the reality of it's days as the 1992 version was. Unlike Tsui Hark though, who made his film into an obvious outlandish allegory with it's politics on it's sleeves, Hu took a much more subtle and haunting approach gracefully brushing like an "evocation" the Chinese peoples tragic condition of endless tyranny, oppression and exile. But that's only the first part of the picture, the tales set-up, for afterwards Hu made Dragon Inn into a "heroic fantasy" with it's valiant heroes taking a stand against ruthless oppressors, challenging them, mocking them even. Something a common Chinese could only dream of. MAGNIFICENT DRAGON Released in Taiwan in 1967, then the following year in Hong Kong, Dragon Gate Inn became a ground-breaking hit that attracted viewers for it's thrilling action, suspense and drama, it's outstanding cinematic quality, and no doubt because it captured with such grace and poignancy both an image of mythic ancient China as well as the inner pain, longing and desire of the Chinese people themselves. Dragon Inn’s success assured that King Hu’s cinematic approach would be imitated by a slew of directors and also gave Hu the commercial clout to make an even more visionary and ambitious work. Unfortunately, by the time he had finished Touch of Zen three years later, the south-east Asian viewers attention had moved to the more visceral, and angst-filled power of the budding kung fu cinema of Wang Yu, Bruce Lee and Chang Cheh. Although Hu would make a handful of truly outstanding martial art pictures during the following decade all would have mild or disappointing receptions at the box office. So Dragon Inn would sadly turn out to be quite a unique event. Still it happened at such a crucial moment in history as to make it even more magnificent and precious than any other box office triumph ever. Indeed in 1967 Mao had triggered his Cultural Revolution, Wu Han the man whose writing and persecution had inspired King Hu was left to die in jail and an entire generation of young Chinese were taught to denigrate their own culture, some even actively seeking to destroy it. Yet outside of China there was this movie Dragon Gate Inn that was giving a taste of mythical China and creating a connection between young exiled Chinese and their Motherland. There can be no greater testimony to the endurance of Chinese culture and the power of King Hu’s cinematic vision than this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Inn http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dragon-inn-long-men-ke-zhen/reviews/ Idiotic Taoist

That could be a very long answer . Firstly you should be using the mind, the mind should not be using you. The mind is not the driver or the 'master controlling circuit. It is a tool to be used and one of the main 'magical weapons' . From an 'eastern perspective', I ascribe to the 'no mind' concept. Which isnt actually no mind , but ' correct use of mind ' , but here we are back at the beginning again - I feel this is best described by ( and the wrong ideas about this concept pointed out by ) Thomas Cleary in the 'Japanese Art of War ' . The best and briefest way to describe that is , in 'swordplay', to have a clear , relaxed and 'openly focused' mind .... I like to visualise 'clear blue sky' in a match . Hermetically, I ascribe mind - in correct function - to elemental air, and for me, it has to take its place as 3rd position; first is fire, inspiration / aspiration, individuation, connection to 'spirit' * , 2nd is water , how you 'feel' about something, your sympathies and empathies, understandings, intuition, 'subconscious' ( 'dreaming on' something , 'sleeping on it ' - running it through the unconscious , etc ) , connect it to 'soul' ** , 3rd is air ; mind mentation calculation, sensibilities, logistics, achieve/abilities, various pathways to accomplishments, possibilities , etc and 4th physicality , accomplishing, manifesting. MInd is 3rd. Many of us have confused, volatile and disrupted emotional body, and the fire plane is little understood, so they get knocked out and air ' fills the void ' . Problems. Any idea, action, point, etc should manifest out of fire, be qualified by water, run through air and manifested in earth *** . Without fire we are unoriginal and uninspired, without water we lack understanding and compassion, we dont have an emotional connection with what we are doing, without mind we can go off on all sorts of silly and impractical ideas and without earth, and manifestation, what's the point anyway, it was all just a pipe dream. Then there is the whole issue of mind working for you , supportive and critically ... but not working against you critically; one needs to 'make peace' with the mind, one should not have the mind as an enemy or a subversive or dissident in the camp. Maybe more on this ^ later as it is deeper in to air and mind, and probably more important. * one's essential individual unique nature ** one's desire to have imaginative forms expressed in some form of 'outer reality ' *** and each one of these elements needs to be qualified and balanced within itself : The Powers of the Development of the Soul ( An extract from an instructional paper from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ) " Be thou therefore prompt and active as the Sylphs, but avoid frivolity and caprice; be energetic and strong like the Salamanders, but avoid irritability and ferocity; be flexible and attentive to images like the Undines, but avoid idleness and changeability; be laborious and patient like the Gnomes, but avoid grossness and avarice. " So shalt thou gradually develop the powers of thy soul, and fit thyself to command the Spirits of the elements. For wert thou to summon the Gnomes to pander to thine avarice, thou wouldst no longer command them, but they would command thee. Wouldst thou abuse the pure beings of the woods and mountains to fill thy coffers and satisfy thy hunger of Gold? Wouldst thou debase the Spirits of Living Fire to serve thy wrath and hatred? Wouldst thou violate the purity of the Souls of the Waters to pander to thy lust of debauchery? Wouldst thou force the Spirits of the Evening Breeze to minister to thy folly and caprice? Know that with such desires thou canst but attract the Weak, not the Strong, and in that case the Weak will have power over thee. "

Wonderful ! The whole post is good, but I want to focus on this bit ^ . 'Disassembling' .... exactly - thats why many psychic visions of the Sahamn's initiation ( where he actually becomes a shaman) is about the disassembling of the physical body and organs. This has nothing to do with an ego approach and entering the experience this way , one is doomed to failure. The Shaman that successfully passes his tests and trials (initiation) will be in a type of compliant, dream like, or 'impelled' state. Much like UFO abductees report ... they are relatively helpless and compliant. How many times have you heard one of these 'abductees' claim 'Then the big one approached me with the probe. so I jumped off the table, kicked him in the nuts, grabbed the probe and .... ' 'That is the ego / hero approach .... just like in the myth of Hercules; trying to navigate through the 'Mysteries' by taking ego with him. he failed miserably ... but this is a very popular approach with the masses ... actually so popular, the whole Hercules failure ( of his initiation into the mysteries ) story brought about the concept of 'The Lesser Mysteries ' ... a type of mystical 'best achiever award ' But they do make popular heros ... I think we all know how popular the guy is that jumps off the table and snatches the probe 'Yo ! Alien ! You wanna see my arse ? Here ! Take a close look ! " [ " Here's the idea Will ... you leap off the wall and land with an elbow between the aliens shoulder blades... can you do that ? " " Of course I can ... here - Oh Christ ... my baaaack ! " ]

This advice is a bit different than my own experience. Mainly in that Salvia is nothing remotely like shrooms (nor is any plant like any other IMHO), and pure DMT is not the strongest by any means, I find it milder than many plants, particularly impure DMT that still contains a bunch of yet unidentified plant psychoactives (sometimes referred to as 'jungle spice'.) Pure DMT is neat, but the complete set of compounds the plants include offers a stronger experience IMHO. Trying jungle spice with no DMT in it is a deeper ride than pure DMT in my experience, your results may vary. As humans don't understand the technology of the mind or body or plants, the best we achieve is some stumbling in the dark assigning arbitrary labels to what we bump into. All that you dream of drinking will not quench your thrist. Unlimited Love, -Bud