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I have had what I call luminous dreams (which is just a name I give them not a significant claim) where the dreams are especially bright and also stay with you - you don't forget them like ordinary dreams. They are always very significant and meaningful. But most of my dreams are just rather confused and full of my own metal stresses and concerns. The luminous dreams seem to contain messages which last and are guidance for long periods of time. I've had quite a few pre-cognition dreams where I dream about things which later come true (sometimes many years later). This proves to me that time is not linear and that all that happens to us is interconnected. I think that to rest one's consciousness in the pristine consciousness itself is quite an achievement in itself. But as a goal it is limited as it presents as a separate state - so it is prone to abstraction and negation of life and the world. But it is part of something more complete. That more complete thing engages both the subtle and physical body - and this is where the 'work' is. Whether you work through dreams or not, or through meditation and other processes, there is a task to be undertaken. I think mahamudra and dzogchen do have a fault in that this task is disguised in a lot of talk of resting in the natural state etc. which is very misleading if not fully understood. I am big fan of Karma Pakshi's three kaya model where you engage with consciousness itself, the subtle body and the physical body to form the svabhaivika kaya - but that's a whole other story.

Back in the beginnings of TDBs, @Stigweard did a tremendous amount of work with foundational organization. He has recently been producing some insightful, wise, hilariously dark art, "Stuart Shaw Creations". on facebook https://www.facebook.com/stuartshawcreations and his own website https://stuartshawcreations.com/

Welcome to the Indigenous Traditions sub forum. This is a space for discussing traditional beliefs and practices from old cultures around the world, so we can share and learn from ancient wisdom, myth and method. As ever on this forum please commit to remaining respectful to those cultures and each other - and enjoy the conversation.

I've noticed almost all the fire horse images this year are limiting or eliminating excess fire overtones, which makes sense given the times (that said I love the fiery vitality of Kakapo's horse). But I've seen some interesting brush art that could be a alternative (note: someone should check the characters if we go this route as I just pulled this off the net): Has that vitality / free spirited horse energy without the war undertones. There are a lot of good looking similar ones out there if a more horizontal one would fit better.

Ohhhh , okay then I will draw one up myself then .

I dreamed you were going to delete that.

Whatdaya think?

Perhaps what we need is a water horse to balance and calm things down a bit.

See what you think!

( Not sure if this should be in this general section or the teachers sections ? Mods, feel free to move it ) First, I am not going to try to sell you anything or 'sign you up' for lessons . This about the Tao te Ching ... not the Tao te Ka-Ching! ' Ch 1 . There is this thing . Its also not a thing . Also it is both a thing and not a thing. It also is neither a thing or not a thing. It is all of the above . But it isn't any of them . If you have dont want stuff well - that's a mystery ! If you do want stuff The whole manifested Universe awaits you . let;s say you have two spring rolls both may have the same sauce but they can have different names depending on whats inside them and that can be a mystery of mysteries . Ch 2 You think my sister looks hot but that's because Yo Momma be ugly. You guys can only see either end of the line . But the Sage just sees the whole line . You cant have stuff without no stuff. Stuff is just lines , not ends . Back always follows front otherwise you be chasing your own tail. Ch 3 If you flatter people they will try harder to impress you. If you overvalue stuff you will pay more for it. Try to please people and they will get suspicious. Forget what you know and what you want Stop doing stuff all the time ! Ch 4 If the thing is empty and has no source it cant run out alls it got is little potential n+ s and n- s that make nuthings . Then put your hara in the center of all that . Ch 5 the Universe is neutral Judgement is based on comfort . The space between heaven and earth is the atmosphere It can get windy Stick to the surface or you could get blown away . Ch 6 The valley here is under a 'Big Mom' dome . My teacher said just ask her for whatever you want - you'll get it . Ch 7 heaven and earth last forever Why do heaven and earth last forever ? I just told you it did stop asking questions. If you dont do anything you cant fail at it . Ch 8 be like water then you will be good for all living things and flow along without thinking where you are going who knows where you will end up ? But dont be an arsehole about it . Ch 9 Stop taking and using up all our stuff ! Dont re-tune your lawnmower if it doesnt need it. leave things alone , fer Gawd's sake ! Ch 10 if you can be like a baby woman thats good . (tbc)

worse still is when some individual sets themselves up as such an adviser ... a sort of 'judgmental guru ' and also individuals adopting it to project out onto others ; 'would be Louise Hay's' ; to some unfortunate ; ''Oh, you stubbed your toe ? Why are you afraid of moving forward ? '' I want to shove their judgmental little faces in it ! I remember once , being in our amenities block , we were flooded in , I had a double middle ear infection - terrible and no medication . This New Age bitch walks in and asks what is wrong with me ( as I am obviously in a great deal of pain and hanging on to a sink to even be able to stand up ) I tell her , does she offer assistance , pain relief she might have at home ... any thing even remotely kind ? NO ; '' OH really ( and even in a smarmy , I am smart , look what I know about , voice ) ... what is it you dont want to hear then ?'' Me '' I will tell you what I dont want to hear , some inconsiderate new age, self appointed 'guru' scoring points on my pain and suffering so they can appear clever .' I read once where someone asked their Rabbi about this ; if an accident or sickness might carry a special message for you . The Rabbi said , of course it can , God works in all sorts of ways . The person protested a bit and explained some things , like I mentioned above . The Rabbi was ; '' Wait a minute , I didnt understand you , what I said was true but are you saying some people are interpreting the meaning and significance of these for others ? What ! That's outrageous ! How dare anyone try to interpret or give the meaning to someone else about God's particular and private dealings with them ! ' That is between you and God ! That isnt even the job of a Rabbi ! ''

Friends, After 7 long years, I have finally completed the 2nd book of my trilogy. Please read and support. Best, Dwai https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GLT43ZF8

• HAPPY NEW YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE !!! • May New Year's blessings and good karma come to you with freedom, speed, high intensity, and great and blissful duration!

I've practiced qigong for about 20 years. One thing I've learned is that my expectations need to be realistic. Certainly there are benefits from the forms I practice but qigong has not proven to be a comprehensive and complete system for me. I practice both Shiba Luohangong and Ba Duan Jin and derive valuable and different benefits from each. I have also continued to practice internal Chinese martial arts over that period of time - taijiquan, xingyiquan, and baguazhang. While I no longer compete or train martially with others, these have found a valuable role in my physical, energetic, and mental health. Finally, perhaps most important to me is my meditation practice from a Tibetan tradition. While I do think it's important to stick with a practice for a long time to really probe its depth and potential, I don't know that each one of us can expect to find a single practice or system that does everything we are looking for. Some do and that is wonderful but it hasn't been that way for me. I also think that we need to listen to our body and mind and maintain some openness and flexibility as our needs can change over time.

Agreed. Especially since we had a gallop poll and everything!

Are you saying you wish people would stop horsing around?

They fear this Animal. Well for starters: "Quod es fui quod sum eris" That is "what you are, I was; what I am, you will be." So nothing to fear because WE ALL BECOME A FIRE HORSE starting on 17 February this year and ending on 5 February 2027. Likewise on 2020 and the fear the Metal Rat brought along (pandemic). Humanity lived in fear that year. Rat = Water = Kidney and associated emotion Fear. The Horse is Fire = Heart = Wisdom = Joy Time to look within your Heart and resolve blockages in the organ and associated meridian of energy (unresolved chronic anger, resentment, hatred, restlessness, palpitations, insomnia...) The Horse is the only Animal that entails complete change and transformation, which is a wonderful thing. There will be a new YOU emerging after the Year is over. Enjoy the Fire Horse.

Hi It is time to change the image on the header for the new year ... to Fire Horse. If you have a suitable image please submit it or a link to it in the next few days. @liminal_luke will arrange for the artwork based on the best image- NB. My little pony is probably not what we are looking for

I practice because I can, and it helps keep the mirror of my mind clean from the proverbial red dust of this world.

Your method for dream work is very similar to the method in my tradition for working with any experience, including dreams. Just as you recreate and embody the dream in your mind and feelings, we do the same with any experience or person that generates reactivity. These can be very recent experiences, alive in us at this very moment. They can be remote memories, dreams, people who generate reactivity, future worries, any life experience. We turn to the experience if it is active in the moment, or recreate whatever it is we want to work with as vividly as possible in body, speech, and mind. We sit with that for as long as it is fresh and alive. While we don't engage with it intellectually, we are often taken to earlier times and other experiences that may have some connection, often a connection we were not aware of. The one thing that may be a bit different is that we are working with the sense of a "me" who is being affected by the experience rather than hosting the experience itself. It's a very subtle but important difference in our paradigm. And we rest in the stillness, silence, and spaciousness. This is referred to as hosting pain identities. . It's a wonderful and powerful practice and one way we avoid the bypassing that can so easily happen to practitioners.

Part of my method for dream work is to “feel the feeling” after the dream has been interpreted to the best of one’s ability, which I did by recreating the dream in my mind and allowing myself as much as possible to re-enter the feeling created by the dream image. Doing this for decades, slowly getting better at it, allows the full force of a feeling to be experienced over time, and really this is what a fully open emotional channel is. Rumi’s poem captures the work perfectly - The Guest House Rumi Translated by Coleman Barks This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

This probably belongs here for reference ; https://www.boandbon.com/

Come to think of it, most words that refer to ideas, concepts, mental constructs, interpretations, all that "vaporware" of human cognition, are similarly problematic. We use them as though they are qualitative and quantitative, whereas they are semantic conventions born of contentions. Often they define what is really indefinite, what barely exist, or does't exist at all. With tangible material things the grey zone is a lot smaller, but still... I sit in an office chair. I bought it as an "office chair," but if I put a dining-room chair in my office instead, in that same spot in front of the computer, will it become an office chair? Will it lose its dining-room chair citizenship? Will it become a naturalized citizen of the office? Will it surrender its dining-room allegiances and swear to fight all enemies of the office, foreign and domestic? And will the indigenous residents of the office -- computer, printer, filing cabinet -- see it as an office chair, as "one of us?" And will it forget all those family dinners it was part of in its native dining-room, all its dining-room mates from the same set still gathered around the dining-room table, still indigenous?..

Thought I’d share this on the Babaylan indigenous culture of the Philippines. I have participated in some of these rituals and found them both powerful and fascinating particularly seeing the connections to Indian and Chinese language, physical and spiritual cultivation and healing cultures that are part of it. My wife’s grandmother was a traditional practitioner of this and the capabilities of her lineage appear to have been passed on to the women in my immediate family. The video talks about the indigenous experience in confronting Christianity and Islam as well as the role of gender including transgender there. My guess is that many indigenous practices in other parts of the world went through similar processes where they interacted with/were changed by outside cultures trying to control them. In the modern era the Babaylan culture mostly manifests as indigenous healing practices like manghihilot which are still widespread in the Philippines but there also still exists behind this those currently following the culture and practices of the Babaylan. My understanding this tradition was not only affected by Catholicism and Islam but also more recently by American Protestant missionaries who carved up the Philippines in the 20th century into areas of authority to proselytize and before Catholicism and Islam by Buddhist and Hindu influences. These earlier Indian influences can be seen in the language, traditional scripts, as well as in the healing practices. https:// 1 justjoseph responded to this Quote Edit

Do not bring external feuds into this website or you may be banned. I’m locking this thread - no more discussion on this please.

Ok Just expressing how I feel about it. No worries (as I said before) I will be fine with whatever the admods decide.

Sending you good vibes and warm friendship @Cobie

This can not be happening .

I think your fire horse looks good. Here is one that includes the heart/mind fire, giving it a bit of alchemical flavor. Not sure this fits the astrological view but it’s a good reminder to not to be emotionally carried away by the changes the year brings. Horse is surrounded by fire but is still pretty chill for a horse surrounded by fire.

There is that saying that if there is something you don't like then its a reflection of what's in you, or a problem of yours. Well I don't quite buy that huge generalization, granted it may be true in some cases but not in others... hells bells does your introspective head hurt ?

Don't allow the energy flow to your head - brain, as that has severe risks of making one smarter, making one realize their destiny and spiritual path, leading them away from scamgong teachings and worthless practices. You don't want that. Stay grounded.

We had to work with the banner image a little because it wasn´t the right size at first. Ended up using a version of the horse with a little brighter colors but the same idea. Hope you like it!

In the interest of rolling out the banner image as expeditiously as possible, the poll is now closed. Horse number Two pulled ahead and is the winner. Thanks to every one who suggested possible images and gave their opinion along the way. Forward!

Someone asked me this question about a year ago and, without thinking much about it, what came out was... I am practicing for my death. It sort of surprised me, and them as well. My practice has become mostly informal, meaning not just on the cushion but in my day to day life, as often and consistently as possible. It's wonderful to sit in a quite, comfortable room and practice but if my practice is not there for me when I am challenged and stressed, when I am suffering; if it is not enriching my life, and the lives of those around me in the moment, making me more kind, flexible, resilient, resourceful, creative... what is the point? (that is a rhetorical question, I am only speaking for myself - everyone has their own path and objectives). So my point is that I continue to practice so that I can be supported to show up fully in my life and to be able to access and bring all available resources to any and every given situation to the best of my ability. Death is likely to present the biggest challenge in my life. How to let go of everything I have, everything and everyone I've known, and everything that I am? And how to do it without too much suffering for myself and for those around me? Of course, it's nice to say things like - I am God, I am the universe, I am the non-local awareness, Buddha, the Nature of Mind. I am birthless, deathless... I have no fear of death. But they are all words... the test comes when there is extreme pain, illness, when the body and mind are close to the end and loved ones are waiting and suffering. What will it be like then? I watched my father die not too long ago and there was so much pain, so much fear. It was excruciating for him and those around him in the last few days. Wouldn't it be interesting to navigate that with some peace, some confidence, some equanimity and directly experience that transition and what lies beyond with as much clarity as possible? Rather than be heavily drugged and hooked up to all sorts of high tech garbage? I think so... at the moment. And of course, circumstances may change my mind when it's my turn. Time will tell! In the tradition I follow, it's said that we should be able to bring all life's experiences onto the path. Life itself becomes the practice. So for me, at this moment, practice really has no endpoint, I guess I can say I am practicing to live and to die.

If you read the Heart Sutra from the perspective of realization it is as clean and clear as a mountain stream. I don't know of any non-dual expression that is more concise and to the point. Another in the same league (IMO) is the Tsin Tsin Ming by Tseng T'san, not written by the Buddha but rather a Ch'an patriarch much much later. Dharma is being penned by living beings every day, all over the world. It isn't important if the Buddha said it, or if the guy that runs the hardware store down the street said it. There have been countless enlightened beings since the Buddha, all Buddhas themselves. They walk the streets of your town, tip their hats, and frequent the aformentioned hardware store to see their dharma brother. Even their simple kindness and patience is dharma.

Lovely post. Thank you for the clarity of it and sharing your experience. You should stop listening to metal if it stresses you.

Tell me about that, in the place where I work most of my colleagues are from Kerala and Nigeria. That staffroom at lunchtime... Start cooking, mate. Learn from the best. These days I rarely go to restaurants and pretty much cook 80% of what I eat. Food wise, it's all poison out there.

In my mind, indigenous people are those who are rooted by blood to communities that have protected them, more or less, from alienating and spirit-fragmenting modern influences. (This is, perhaps, an overly romantic definition, but whatdaya expect -- I´m not a very indigenous person. )

I am wondering where the horse got them cool sneakers for his front feet from .

My aunt is one. I’m no expert in the slightest of their spirituality, and sad part; it seems to be mostly dead to them as well. Lived realtivley peacefully together until the 17-1800s when some good souls decided to give them the one and only truth of the one true God, and save them from an eternity of hellfire. So some were burned alive instead, to compensate uknow. But in pre Christian times escpecially there was great respect, perfect fear, for their precieved magic ability. I read this book called tracing old Norse cosmology a while ago. Hardly remember anything, but there seems to have been quite a bit of mutual influence between the two world vies. Only natural, considering how long we lived alongside each other. I also think we have a little bit of a biased move about how various regions connect to each other. If you look at a map and the rivers and terrain you will see that traveling/trading etc. with the steppe and the east is just as accessible as any other direction. Anyhow, the time prior to being showed the light (17-1800s) they refer to simply as the age of the drum. Here is pic of one of the shaman drums: This would have been beaten rythmically while chanting, very possibly with the aid of the Amanita mushroom 🍄 filtered trough reindeer urine in order to enter the spirit realm. The design on each drum is unique and is believed to represent the personal experience of the shaman trough the spirit realm. Curious that Santa is dressed in red and white and travels on flying reindeers delivering gifts, no? Anyhow, enjoy: edit: The above is called joik. Sami chantig that is. No words, just sounds. Throwing in some folk music from the faraoes (settled by Norwegians, their language however is believed to resemble old Norse to a significant greater degree than the Scandinavian ones). Here words are used, but rhythmic drum and chanting as well as you can hear:

Indigenous traditions.

I made significant and extended contributions to that discussion. In the past two to three years I have done more work on the matter and have discovered that the Guardian Angel is only part of a more complete system. I don't have time right now to describe this in detail, but since I have been thinking for sometime about post this information on Dao Bums, this might be a good time to start that project. I will post more later as time permits. ZYD

I read the part on Damo Mitchell and just a couple of minor comments. I agree that visualisation is an important and useful technique but perhaps not with certain qi related practices so much. And in England at least it would be common to reduce a name like Damien to Damo ... so this doesn't actually necessarily have anything to do with the Bodhidharma.

My favorite

I am supposing it needs to be simple and able to be pasted like the snake is and also facing to the left ? Something like

Like a cool shaded rain forest river pool ?

I´m generally not inclined to write posts that crawl right up to the boundary of current events and do a little na-na dance but, what can I say, ya pulled me in. So, in the spirit of Mods Gone Bad, here´s what I´d say... Stubbornly perhaps, I continue to believe that most people are "good." Some of us are confused and misinformed, but even the most thoroughly bamboozled retain a spark of human goodness. Mostly. Yes, some evil ones exist. But for the most part the evil ones aren´t who we think they are, which is to say they aren´t the people who disagree with us. The people who disagree with us want happiness for themselves and their communities just like we do, they just see life through a different cultural lens.