Bindi

The Raven (Dreamt by a young German friend of mine) Hannah was walking with her friend on a wide green grass plain where a few trees grew. There was nothing else there and they were walking along happily when suddenly a raven appeared sitting in a tree. Raven said “Watch your step” and Hannah’s friend laughed and said “Why should I watch my step? It’s just a grassy plain here, and nothing else but trees” So they walked on further, when suddenly her friend stepped on a snail. Hannah started crying because the snail was crushed, but her friend just laughed, saying “Silly you, you don’t have to cry, it’s just a snail.” They walked further on when Raven suddenly appeared again in a tree beside them and said “Watch your step”. Her friend laughed and said “Why should I watch my step? It’s just a grassy green plain here, and nothing else but trees and a couple of snails.” So they walked further on, when suddenly her friend stepped on the head of a big white snake, and Hannah cried because the snake’s head was squashed. Her friend laughed, saying “Silly you, it’s just a snake, and they are dangerous anyway.” So they walked further on, when raven appeared again in a tree and said “Watch your step” to her friend. Her friend laughed and said “why should I watch my step. It’s just a grassy green plain here, and nothing else but trees, a couple of snails, and a few snakes. So they walked further on, when suddenly, her friend stepped on a black cat’s tail. The cat ran away but with her tail mangled she lost her balance and couldn’t run fast enough, and a dog came and ate her. Hannah cried, and her friend laughed, saying “Silly you, it’s just a cat.” So they walked on, when Raven suddenly appeared in a tree, saying “Watch your step.” Her friend laughed and said “Why should I watch my step? It’s just a grassy green plain here, and nothing else but trees, a couple of snails, a few snakes, and some cats.” They kept walking, when suddenly her friend stepped on a brown dog’s paws, and the dog couldn’t walk properly. A hunter came along, and thought that the dog was very sick, and that a sick dog was dangerous to other animals, so he shot it to put it out of its misery. Hannah cried, and her friend laughed, saying “Silly you, it’s just a dog.” They walked on, when suddenly raven appeared in a tree, saying “I’ll tell you for the last time, watch your step and I won’t say it anymore.” Her friend said “Why should I watch my step? It’s just a grassy green plain here with nothing but a few trees, a couple of snails, a few snakes, and some cats and dogs. So they walked on further when suddenly her friend stepped on the belly of a black and white Friesian cow, hurting the cow so that she couldn’t turn over anymore, she just lay there with her four legs up in the air, unable to get up and eat grass, and so she died. Hannah cried and her friend laughed, saying “Silly you, it’s just a cow.” They walked further on, when Raven appeared and said “Watch your step Hannah,” and Hannah said “I will.” Then Hannah saw a white seal in front of her. She jumped aside and just missed stepping on it, but her friend didn’t jump aside and did step on it, and the seal got badly hurt. This time, Hannah laughed because she was so happy that she hadn’t stepped on the seal, and her friend cried because he was so sad at what he had done. They walked further on when raven appeared saying to her friend “I really shouldn’t appear anymore and tell you to watch your step, but I will, just for you. So please, watch your step” and the Raven sounded very urgent. They walked further on when suddenly her friend disappeared, and Hannah looked around searching for him. She finally saw him lying down in a ditch, with his bones broken, and he was dying. Hannah sat down by the ditch feeling sad, and waited for her friend to die, and then walked away still feeling sad. She came to a cottage, went inside, and found a fire burning in the fireplace. She sat down and warmed herself up, and it began to feel like home. Suddenly all the animals – the snail, the snake, the cat, the dog, the cow, and the seal, all came inside and Hannah fed them all. Raven appeared and sat on Hannah’s hand eating corn. Raven said “Until your friend watches his step, and begins to realise, it will happen again, and again, and again.”

So his theory is that you are supposed to balance Ida (sympathetic nervous system) and Pingala (para-sympathetic nervous system) to still the mind, which allows energy to travel up sushumna into ajna. Is it valid to associate Ida and Pingala with the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous system? And with the right and left brain? I agree with the concept of bringing kundalini up to ajna, but for me his methods are too mechanical. Does kundalini yoga bring people to enlightenment? Ramana didn’t think so. I think its very unlikely that Jesus was a kundalini yogi, I think its more likely that his wisdom is synonomous with the subtle unchanging truth, captured in the parables. I don’t think the wide road and narrow road are the mouth and the nasal passage. This seems like a case of see what you want to see, hear what you want to hear, an easy trap to fall into IMO. Not to say his kechari method is necessarily without merit, but why does he have to shore it up with a spurious biblical proof? The speaker shifts very easily from the synoptics to John and any gnostic text which supports his position, so not credible for me, but he’s neither the first nor the last to try and make the connection between Jesus and Eastern wisdom. I’ve also read biographies that claim Jesus was in Egypt for those years.

By Witness do you mean Higher Self? I perceive my Higher Self as very actively drawing my consciousness up through my chakras, to learn, to be refined, and to clear the path for consciousness and kundalini to ultimately break through fully to ajna chakra. It's a very different path to the one you are on, to stop now and imagine I was there already would be to fall short of my goal. I don't get 'awakened', though I aim for 'enlightened'.

I like your contribution here, more clarity regarding these states and various stages could only improve understanding. Please feel free to expand on this. I agree that the PATH is the real point

With the concept of enlightenment, I am drawn by the very structure of the word to the concept of light. As Gerard posted previously: Semantics, according to the American heritage dictionary, is the scientific or philosophical study of the relations of words and their meanings: Semantics is commonly used to refer to a trivial point or distinction that revolves around mere words rather than significant issues. But if you consider enlightenment to be primarily associated with light and the crown chakra, which is very specific (and so far undisputed), it seems beyond semantics to ask whether you believe this to be separate from awakening, or merely fantasy. Just concentrate on this one aspect, light in the crown chakra. This to my knowledge is not considered to be part of awakening, or part of the experience of being in the moment, or empty. And this light would be unmissable, it wouldn't blend in with the awakened experience. It would be exceptional.

Do you distinguish between awakeness and enlightenment? Or do you see only endless awakeness, and enlightenment no more than a fantasy?

I fully agree that it is your right to ingest whatever you like, especially as it does no harm to any living being and only risks your own sanity. But it is also true that the perception you thus attain is most likely an entirely personal experience which is hard to generalise or authentically compare to the definitions in spiritual literature of being awakened or enlightened. I personally disagree that mind is “typically quite pathetic for most purposes beyond working/driving etc”, I perceive mind as a wonderful tool for emotional and energy development all the way through to the dismantling of persona and ego where to my current understanding it then needs to be subdued in service to a higher Reality, and what I perceive as the real start of spiritual development. And I certainly don't consider myself a sober sheeple

It seems that you've made a study of these synergistic plants/entheogens, do you use any of these herb teas as part of your meditation?

Thanks for responding. Just to clarify, when I asked you the place of feelings, I was meaning the place of emotions such as compassion, joy, anger, sadness etc., and I'd certainly still appreciate an answer to this question. Also, it's not quite clear whether this state is permanent for you?

Bud, how did you go beyond the thinking mind? Is it a place you are in permanently? What is the place of feelings within this way of being?

I like the idea of prajna, because it just doesn't make sense to me to go around in emptiness, but to go around with spontaneous direct knowing sounds entirely reasonable, and practical.

Jetsun, what is the nature of 'prajna'? edit: I looked it up and found this definition... I am curious, because so many say emptiness is the true nature beyond mind, but can this be read as 'consciousness' is the true nature beyond mind, or intuitive experience, or really only emptiness?

One thing that bothers me about much 'Western awakening' is the simplistic formulas often recommended to achieve this state.

I have wondered who the entity is that feels all these things, and for now I perceive the entity who is dreaming, feeling, and resolving these things is my awareness/consciousness slowly ascending through the chakras to join with my Higher Self. I analyse the dream itself, but then deliberately stop any intellectual process and feel the feeling. But it's only to release what might be blocked. Say with fear, if I am caught in that level of being, and unpack the reason for fear in my life through dream analysis, and feel and release the fear that was driving me, then I consider that to be cleared, I can feel fear when appropriate, but I don't live fearfully all the time. I was shown my personal hijackers in a dream, fear, shame, negativity, desire, anger, that took control of me, and this dream showed me removing them one by one. I just believed the dream, and went about removing them over time, bit by bit. I once had a dream which explained how dreams work: There was a big screen in a movie theatre, and on the screen was thousands of unrelated random looking pixels. One of these pixels would be taken from the screen, and played in a projector on the wall beside me, distorting the video scene into caricature because it was being played in such close up. After being played the pixel went back into the big screen and resolved itself into a sensible piece of the puzzle, and it was clear to me in the dream that when enough pixels were resolved I would be able to see the ‘big picture’. This dream explained satisfactorily to me why it was important to ‘resolve’ my dreams, and also why dreams themselves looked so mad sometimes, like caricatures. I read this the other day, the author Leon Rhodes is describing the life review of Near death experiencers after going through a black tunnel: “many experiencers are treated to a remarkable show called “The Life Review.” It has been described in full color, three-dimensional, and shown as if on a wide screen. The review is extremely detailed and does not miss a thing. Some describe what looks like a slow-motion review, yet somehow their entire conscious lives are compressed into an astonishing re-enactment of everything they have ever done. Such a review would take a long time in an earthly theatre bound by time and space; yet within the few minutes of a near death experience, the leading character is shown not only all the events of his or her former life, but can also experience the emotions that were involved.” It made me wonder if dreams are a way to access ‘the life review’ while alive, bound by time and space. From Leon again: “Many experiencers report this fascinating feature of being able to see the big picture. They were shown a vast cosmic view of creation and saw a logic, an order to their lives that made sense. One experiencer said, “When I saw the complete picture, I found myself saying, ‘But of course, of course!’” She finally understood how the many pieces of her life fit together.” I very much relate to this idea of seeing the big picture.

I guess I'm referring to a very specific process in terms of re-feeling the feeling, I purposely re-enter the feelings brought up in dreams only, and allow myself to fully feel them after analysing the dream itself. In fact with this system, the longer I can re-enter the feeling, the better. After doing a 'session' of this, I don't usually have to revisit it, unless a dream brings it up again. The feelings are always uncomfortable, but to consciously feel that particular feeling seems to effectively release it. My dreams have their own program about what to work on at any point in time, I just go along with them, feeling whatever they want me to feel, sometimes just understanding what they want me to understand. For me dreams are like a personal guru leading the way, and after 30 years of doing this I can honestly say I'm happy with the outcome.

I think one of the best statistics for Australia though is that there have been no further mass shootings since 1996 when gun restrictions were introduced.

More or less this is also what I am saying, "let the emotion roll through, like a wave of energy." I wouldn't equate resolving emotions with justifications, more with re-feeling, and releasing them. Re-feeling might mean re-experiencing the past in that moment, but really that is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. I agree that in this way no energy needs to be expended on trying to stifle unpleasant emotions, and by not stifling emotions in general, it also makes sense that pleasant emotions flow unrestricted. Regarding energy, I will say with some certainty that I haven't released my kundalini, but i do see 2 levels of kundalini activation, one awakened, the other released, and imo awakened kundalini energy would be part of bringing subtle energies up (after a certain level of emotional clearing) which i would see as clearing the way for kundalini to be released proper later, after work has been done on detachment, instead of kundalini energy being used to do the clearing and detaching. From what i have read and heard in most cases, approaching kundalini in this order is likely to save many potential problems that are experienced by people with 'premature' kundalini release.

I don't personally agree with staying in the now, nor emotional control. I want to resolve my emotions, and most of them (if not all of them) were created in the past. So I am happy to live briefly in the past, feeling the feeling, to resolve the source of an uncomfortable emotion. Then I get back to the present, with less need to control. Caught up in emotions may be just stuck in a block, and when the block is resolved, emotion flows freely, so caught up can't exist at that point. Letting go of attachments is a very tall order I agree, and it's a challenge I certainly haven't yet accomplished, but that won't stop me from trying. Regarding my reference to subtle energy, I really did mean dantian energy, but it brings up the question, what is the difference between dantian energy and kundalini energy - there are similarities, and if they are separate energies how do they work together? I'd have to think about the similarities/differences/how they co-ordinate for a while before I could answer your question.

In my mind I was referring to dantian energies being brought up, when appropriate, after a certain level of clearing is done.

Resolve issues and allow energy to flow, which at its highest point allows "the Christian notion of charity, or the buddhist notion of lovingkindness, or the more general notion of unconditional love", where there is no need to try to be kind, but just energy flowing that reverberates at this level. This seems to me to be an end point. "Much confusion,irrational thoughts,delusions manifest from emotions," and therefore my need to resolve them. I have long believed that the blocks are just feelings that haven't been expressed, and I have spent decades feeling these unexpressed feelings, one by one, and it's never been fun, but they do get released over time, and energy flows a little more freely each time. For me detachment comes later, after energy is flowing mostly clear, detachment from money, from self, from ego, from egoic love, and after this process, it must clear the way for unconditional/transpersonal/universal love.

I think it would be interesting to explore this more. What is meant exactly by mental and physical Brahmacharya? I've googled these terms but haven't found the sense of this sentence. Why purity in thought, word and deed? I have read that kundalini magnifies negative emotions, is this the reason? What are the benefits that can be enjoyed that cannot be enjoyed if these preconditions are not met?

Am I correct in thinking that the Tibetan Rainbow body is something that usually occurs after death, though in highly accomplished people it might start occurring before death? Does it still end in death soon after for these people?

Referring specifically to the "sex pecking order... born to the great vehicle we inhabit" that is beyond enculturation, can you explain more about how this difference appears to your subtle sight, and how this might show itself in life? Or do you mean that the pecking order is inevitable because of physical differences?