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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.

I consider it an invitation and an opportunity. I do buy it in that sense because over time it has proven itself to be true... for me. If it doesn't seem to be true in a particular instance, rather than write if off as wrong, I allow the possibility that maybe I just didn't discover the connection... yet. The way I approach it is this - When something elicits reactivity in me, I turn not toward the thing that I "don't like" so much but toward what I am feeling - in my body, in the inner and outer words and stories, the feelings, memories, expectations, and so forth. Almost invariably, I make discoveries that show me something about myself. I find a lot of value in that process. YMMV

Enlightenment, the end of the spiritual path. I also want to live a skilful life that helps make the lives of others easier as opposed to being a burden.

Meh...that's like the endless DDJ translation debates. It doesn't change anything. I am a practitioner, not a scholar. But, thanks for the side-note.

If I have an emotional reaction to someone or something and it’s a painful emotion or just something I’d prefer not to feel, I will catch myself tightening against it and remind myself to allow myself to fully feel it, so I agree there’s more than just dreams to do this with. The thing about dreams is I see them as a programme that a governing part of myself, some very broad knowledge part of myself, an overarching consciousness, is running over time, designed to undo reactive history at the root, both the historical emotions and stories that have conditioned us. I did identify with the feelings, I did see them as me, but there came a time when I started to shift my primary identification from being my thoughts and emotions to different aspects of myself. From all the information I’ve gathered the thought/emotion level is the paired side channels, the emotional channel going up and the mental channel coming down, creating a circuit. I see it as my consciousness travelling up the emotional channel (which took thirty years or so) and down the mental channel (which took a couple of months), removing all blocks as I went. Completing one circuit of the side channels allowed the consciousness’s of the central channel to activate, and my identification as being my emotional/mental level is diminishing. But in my paradigm though emotions and thoughts dont not drive me like they did, they remain as valid informants giving my whole organism important information. Energy still flows through them, they’re part of my subtle body, but they’re not the governor.

My take on this is, first there are different types of dreams ; what you call the luminous dream ( great name ) seems the 'highest' . I have had them and a friend described one well to me ; it had a certain quality of light , she felt transformed afterwards . It was about her going out into the garden and seeing a peacock there , in full display , colors , light, and other qualities .... I put her onto the 'Peacock Angel ' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawûsî_Melek I think they are communications with our 'higher aspects' / tutelary spirits / Guardian Angel / 'Super-consciousness' . Normally when awake, they most often communicate subtly into the unconscious and we get communication to the consciousness via symbolism . When we are asleep and this is happening .. and we are getting a significant 'download' we have a 'luminous dream ' . The opposite 'lower forces ' give us the opposite type of dreams , as you describe ; like lower 'astral' all sorts of gumbo-jumbo mixed up together and flash backs . Then there is another type that you describe , where 'non-local' aspects of consciousness come into play . DR Wilson Van Dusen ( the 'Evidence of spirits in madness ' guy , the one that worked in the psychiatric institution and di clinical trial on this ) when talking about patients 'hallucinations ' / ' possessing spirits ' observed and noted the good qualities of the 'higher hallucinations' (although rarer ) and the same with the 'lower order hallucinations ' and also noted ; '' The higher ones seem more like Jung's 'Archetypes' , while the lower ones seem more like Freud's 'Id ' .

if you’re told that spaciousness and stillness is what we should be looking for, and you find spaciousness and stillness, then you can think you have arrived at what you believe to be the destination. But what if this as a destination is more like a model of consciousness, and as with all models they fray at the edges, and new comprehension of consciousness dawns. You believe your achievement is absolute, but it might be as primitive one day as the belief that rain gods needed to be sacrificed to to cause rain. You are working within the model you believe in, but in the future that model might have advanced significantly. From my perspective your model is incomplete because it doesn’t create flow in the subtle nadi’s, ie. the side channels and the central channel, it doesn’t activate chakras, it doesn’t build dantians, it seems mind based as opposed to subtle body based. My end point is direct seeing, resting upon one’s subtle body reality, of measurable, ascertainable things, within all levels of the body.

I think the images that are used in dreams are very much based on conditioning and experience, but the plot of dreams is the objective part, I have found that dreams mirror the state of our psyche, subtle body and physical body without our subjective sense of our selves interfering. For instance ten people see a movie about a boat, a few of them have a dream of a boat, and all of those write it off as just the movie affecting them. But in each dream the boat does something different, one boat sinks, one loses its steering, one is moved by waves running parallel to the shore, one is speeding along a river. I see dreams as an incredible resource, but they come without an operators manual, at this point I think some of us are trying to write that manual. I’ve been at it for forty years so far, and I’ve found it to be a fascinating journey into all the levels of me. The objective reality I’m referring to is this objective mirror, the dream plot is delivered to my conscious mind without interference from my conscious mind. This is the most objective I can be about the nature of my own reality, which is what I’ve chosen to examine.

The problem is Lairg, you expect others have the same capabilities as you. You ask things of others like "see where the white light goes" or "go back on the timeline" not realising that just because you can do these meta-physical experiments doesn't mean everyone else can, so your method becomes less like a helpful person saying things and more like a guy just saying odd things.

My comment was about your comment about dreams not about absolute truth. Dreams are a good tool for self-development because they mirror a deeper truth than the bs we tell ourselves. Regarding absolute truth I just don't believe in that anymore or concern about it. It is my experience that what we believe to be true rooted in deep material or spiritual experience can vanish in a moment. Truth doesn't settle anywhere, ever.

Many are, many aren't. If you start a dream journal you will realize that. You can deny your true feelings to yourself and your unconscious will show you otherwise, just like you can deny your attraction or aversion towards someone and your body will show you otherwise.

Hi Tommy, I would say whatever "knowledge" I might have, is built with bricks of silence. So, empty space indeed. Some basic intellectual understanding of core teachings of the Buddha has been helpful. But, in the end, our karma is unwound through silent practice, in my case, looking at the question "What am I?" You have described a very pernicious trick the ego does. The idea of a self, the ego, has only two jobs. 1. To try and be happy in a world where lasting happiness is impossible. 2. To not die. In order to accomplish 2, it will stop at nothing. That's why we have to let go of absolutely everything. Nothing remains, our true nature shines brightly. Or something like that. I don't know. Practice and see what happens. And, when something unshakeable appears, help others to see that too. We all "know" more than we think. Every human being on this planet has innate Buddha Nature. Yet, most of us, including me, are trapped in mind prison created by thoughts. Thanks for your kind reply. _/|\_

You are assuming there are any adults.

🤣 I was kidding about the poll but … 🤷‍♂️ I still like Taomeow’s horsey best.

If not you can put up a post and get people to either like it downvote the post

I even like this one better!

For your consideration..

I like this one best so far. I think we should make this one the new logo. For real, no joke. If you all agree I transfer this to the banner

Changing government here. The new ones say we must prepare for war and they will increase spending for arms massively. I don’t think fire horse energy will help at all. I propose we skip the tradition this year and post something peaceful on the banner like this: 鸿鹄之志 (hong2hu2 zhi1 zhi4) the will of the swan; lofty aspirations