dawg

I am posting this in hopes that it might be useful to someone who is actively trying to reach awakening … it is essentially a road map describing my own journey down the last section of the path to enlightenment… From the very beginning, my meditation was focused on one thing only… silencing the voice of my mind (delusion)… then destroying that voice completely… all of my meditation practice was insight meditation, and because I made steady progress from beginning to end, I never tried anything else… my insight meditation consisted of fixing my awareness on my nose, and passively observing my breath as it went in and out of my nose…while repeating “Buddho – Buddho – Buddho”… then when I became proficient in Samadhi (concentration), I started doing investigation of my mind… I first spent a few weeks at a Theravada Forest Monastery in the north of Thailand… I did this several times, but just when I started to get results, it would be time to leave… so I decided that the next time I would stay for as long as I got results… and I ended up staying for a full year, during which time I got rid of my anger and greed and reached equanimity… then I did solitary meditation at a house in the mountains (here in Thailand) for a year… then spent another year at the monastery primarily doing “body investigation”… then again I returned to a house in the mountains to do solitary meditation … after doing “body meditation” at the monastery I had reached a high level of attainment, but was unsure of what to do next…so I decided that I would attempt to reach awakening, or to at least scout out the territory… but I realized that I didn’t really have a clue where to start… so I decided that since the process of meditation and awakening takes place in the mind, knowledge of how the mind works would be extremely useful… so I surfed the internet looking for research and other information to update my knowledge about how the mind worked… after I digested it all, I wrote a short summary of it for my own use (conscious & subconscious mind… see below) which also includes my own observations and insights… with this information I could see how to proceed, and why… so I then wrote a step by step “road map for awakening” for myself that took me to awakening… see below)… then after my awakening, I wrote a description of what I experienced when I awakened… (awakening … see below)… later I wrote an epilogue describing how I felt 6 months after awakening… see below… Dawg CONSCIOUS MIND & SUBCONCIOUS MIND (Summary of my research and insights) The left hemisphere of your brain was generated from your father’s DNA, and contains your conscious mind, which is the male mind (Yang), and seventh chakra… the right hemisphere of your brain was generated from your mothers DNA, and contains your subconscious mind, which is the female mind (Yin), and sixth chakra (third eye)… the conscious mind is “father sky”, the subconscious mind is “mother earth”… …………………………………. THE CONSCIOUS MIND THE CONSCIOUS MIND IS A SERIAL PROCESSOR (with only one image or thought at a time, in a lineal sequence). The conscious mind can process 40 bits (nerve impulses) per second… the conscious mind understands “words” and “logic”, it is very “rational”… THE CONSCIOUS MIND IS THE MIND OF OUR PHYSICAL BODY AND ITS SENSES… “Consciousness” is usually defined as being aware of the physical senses… if a person cannot see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, they are said to be “unconscious”… NOTE... The “conscious mind” is used to survive in the physical world (world of the body’s senses)… The conscious mind is concerned with our personality and the survival of our body… when a person reincarnates, their past personality and conscious mind becomes a part of their subconscious mind, and a new conscious mind and personality is created… When a baby is born, it is taught (conditioned) how to survive in the physical world (physical survival), and how to survive within the context of the culture that it is born into (personality)… The conscious mind is just a temporary superficial interface that allows our spirit to reincarnate in a physical body, and experience the physical world… while our subconscious mind is the eternal spirit that we are, that is connected to, and is a part of the spirit universe …………………………………. THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND IS A PARALLEL PROCESSOR (with many images and thoughts arranged in many different complex patterns and structures simultaneously). The subconscious mind can process 40,000,000 bits (nerve impulses) per second, so it is 1,000,000 times more powerful, complex, bigger, or faster than the conscious mind… and can think hundreds or thousands of different thoughts simultaneously… the subconscious mind understands “visual images”, “emotions” and “feelings”; and is totally “irrational”… the subconscious mind controls our body… it keeps our heart beating, our lungs breathing, our stomach digesting our food, etc… it repairs and replaces the cells of our body… it creates our health or sickness… this is why the Buddha said that “every man is the author of his own sickness or health”… the subconscious mind is extremely powerful, but we seldom use more than a tiny fraction of its power, because we are unaware of it… If you see someone that you know; your subconscious mind “recognizes them” (visual image), and your conscious mind “remembers their name” (word)… this is how they work together… The conscious mind cannot cope with the simultaneous "multiple images and thoughts” in the subconscious mind, which is the reason why the subconscious mind is subconscious to the conscious mind. The conscious mind is simply unable to process and "be conscious" of the complexity of the "subconscious mind”… NOTE... If a “normal” mundane person were to unwittingly make their subconscious mind conscious, they would “think” (a logical lineal sequence of thoughts in their conscious mind) that they must be going “crazy”; because of the flood of conditioned multiple interacting reflex thoughts that would flood through their mind. Clinical insanity is when the subconscious mind of a mundane person becomes conscious, when he has tapped directly into his “spirit”, and neither the mundane person, nor the mundane world around him, understands what is happening… but this is also why some cultures consider “crazy people” to be “holy”, and why some “holy men” appear to be crazy… likewise a meditator who unwittingly makes his subconscious mind conscious, might “think” that meditating has made him crazy, and so be afraid to meditate any more… but if you recognize it as simply the natural state of the subconscious mind and are not afraid, it is no problem… it is fear of it that is the problem… if you ever fall into fear, simply start repeating “Buddho… Buddho… Buddho…” again and again until you feel safe… it will anchor you to something good, and protect you from fear… NOTE… When our subconscious mind becomes conscious, we have the potential to instantly and spontaneously “know” (with certainty) even the deepest and most complex universal knowledge and truths… NOTE… The subconscious mind simply collects information. It takes in every bit of input whether it is positive or negative. It does not make judgments about the information that it collects since that is the responsibility of the conscious mind. Every sight, sound, taste, smell, or anything we've experienced since the day that we were born (and what is carried over from past lives...karma) is stored in our subconscious mind for future retrieval…. Our subconscious mind is similar to a six-year-old child. It is innocent, naive, and wants to help us in any way it can, but has no idea how to help us. The subconscious mind wants to do the “right thing”, but it can only respond with what it has been conditioned to believe is the right thing (“mundane reality”, usually “ignorance”), so that it does not always make the best of choices… NOTE... The subconscious mind is “telepathic” and can hear the thoughts of other people, and communicate with the subconscious minds of other people, without our conscious mind being aware of it… this is what is called “intuition”… NOTE... Psychologists or behavioral change experts speak about writing goals or affirmations. Affirmations are positive, goal-directed phrases that are worded as if we have already achieved these goals… experts suggest we review our goals or repeat affirmations just before bed or just as we wake up… The reason is at these times our brainwaves are naturally in the correct state (the alpha frequency) for communicating with our subconscious mind. In alpha, the conscious mind is in abeyance, and we can speak directly to the subconscious mind… let's say you wrote the affirmation, "I love to exercise and have a compulsion to leap out of bed and exercise for 30 minutes every morning"… If you were in the alpha state, this message would go directly into the subconscious mind, unchallenged. But if you forgot to repeat affirmations just before bedtime, and repeated them while in the beta frequency (normal awake conscious mind) instead? Do you really think you could say this phrase without, at least, rolling your eyes? And most likely, that little voice in your conscious mind would be saying, "yeah, right"… …………………………………. Our subconscious mind is running our life! We have two separate minds that create our conscious mind’s controlling voice. There is the conscious mind that can think freely and create new ideas “outside of the box of our conditioning”. Then there is the subconscious mind, which is basically a super computer loaded with a database of programmed behaviors, that we carried with us from a past life (karma), or that we acquired before we reached the age of six or seven (when we were most gullible and impressionable) and were taught (programmed to believe) what the adults called “reality” (how to think and act)... The subconscious mind cannot move outside of its fixed programs… It automatically (reflex) reacts to situations with its previously “conditioned” behavior responses; it works without the knowledge or control of the conscious mind. We are usually not even aware that most of our actions are subconscious conditioned reflex responses. Studies from as far back as the 1970’s, show that our subconscious mind begins to prepare for action just over a third of a second before we consciously decide to act. In other words, even when we ‘think’ that we are consciously deciding to act, it is our subconscious mind that is actually making the decision for us...the subconscious mind is controlling us 95% of the time! Neuroscientists have shown that the conscious mind of a normal person provides 5% or less of their cognitive (conscious) activity during the day, and 5% they say is for the more aware people, many people operate at just 1% consciousness. It is the subconscious mind which shapes how we live our life… Note that the reason that an enlightened person is said to be “awake”, is because they are no longer in the “hypnotic trance” of conditioned behavior and sleepwalking through their life… they have awakened. Most of our decisions, actions, emotions and behavior depend on the 95% of brain activity that is usually beyond our conscious awareness, which means that at least 95% of our life is conditioned behavior that comes from our subconscious mind. Our life reflects our subconscious conditioning, because the job of the subconscious mind is to create a “reality” out of our subconscious conditioning. If our subconscious conditioning is negative (caused by negative experiences), our subconscious mind will recreate those negative experiences in our life, again and again. The voice of our thoughts, is not our voice… it is the voice of all the people who have conditioned us… our thoughts are all the “value judgments” and “control trips” that our family and our culture have programmed us with, to control our behavior… our awareness is clean and pure… the defilements in our mind are these conditioned “value judgment” and “control trip” thoughts that other people have filled our mind with. Whatever thoughts that our mind keeps returning to, are unresolved issues… If we have unresolved issues, it is usually because we have been conditioned with contradictory behavior… that is to say that we have been conditioned to do something (because it’s “good”), and also conditioned to not do the same thing (because it’s “bad”)… unresolved issues are usually a result of this situation… this situation produces conflict in our mind, so that we like to do something, but we feel guilty about it, and consider ourselves a bad person because we do it… it is a conflict of two conditioned value judgments… to resolve the issue we must make a choice of one or the other… either we don’t do “it”, or we do “it” and let go of our guilt about doing “”it” (assuming that we are not hurting anyone, including ourselves). “Guilt” is nothing but a control trip that someone has put in our mind to control us… we should not be deceived into thinking that it is a “natural response” to the “badness” of our actions. If we have negative conditioning (caused by negative experiences) in our subconscious mind, 95% of the time we will recreate those negative experiences in our life. Most of the conditioning in our subconscious mind is control trips based on negativity and fear that were put there to control and shape our behavior… we have been conditioned by our parents and other family members, school teachers, religious teachers, friends, enemies, books, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, movies, the internet, the government, etc… For example : if we are repeatedly told that we are “bad”, we are “stupid”, we are “worthless”, we are “incompetent”, we are a “failure”, or we fear what other people are thinking about us, or fear that we will not be accepted loved and respected as we are, fear that we are inferior to other people in some way, etc… these thoughts will keep popping into our mind, and this will cause us to have low self esteem, and a negative opinion of ourselves, and to believe that we are worthless. We then hate ourselves so are unable to accept and love ourselves as we are, and as a result we are unable to love others... Our subconscious mind is conditioned by a form of hypnosis that we call “education”… we are conditioned (hypnotized) when we voluntarily agree to believe what “respected authority” (parents & family, school teachers, religious teachers, government, media, friends, etc.) “suggest” to us… they suggest to us what things are good or bad, true or false… how we should behave, how we should think, what is “normal”… what is “reality”… so that the 95% of the time that we are controlled by our subconscious mind, we are in a hypnotic trance… simply reacting to stimulus with conditioned reflex behavior… our conscious mind’s “ego” thinks that it is making all of our decisions, that it is in control of our fate, but in reality it is just a puppet of the subconscious mind… We are taught to be greedy, and to want as much money as we can get… we are taught to chase pleasure and sex… we are taught to get angry when certain things happen to us… we are taught that what we believe is right… and anyone who disagrees with us is wrong… and so on. And as time passes we forget that we have learned these behaviors from other people, because they become automatic responses, so that we think that they are our natural and spontaneous reactions… and so that we become locked into a mundane hypnotic trance state that we consider to be “REALITY”… we are like “zombies”… THIS CONDITIONED MUNDANE REALITY IS THE IGNORANCE AND DELUSION THAT IS CALLED “AVIJJA”… this MUNDANE REALITY is the “DELUSION” that we must see through to liberate our mind… then it is as if we “awaken” from a long sleep, and see the true nature of our existence. But be warned that Avijja (mundane reality) has one last trick… it will try to convince you that you will “go crazy” if you let go of mundane reality… don’t believe it, you will “go sane”, and you will be free… forever and ever… MY ROAD MAP FOR AWAKENING (My strategy for attaining awakening) …………………………………. MY ANALYSIS (1) ………………MEDITATION……………… Meditation… The whole object of meditation from start to finish, is gaining control of, and silencing the voice of the mind… so that we can investigate the mind and purify it… then permanently destroy the voice of the mind by destroying “Avijja”, the delusion that is the source of that voice… when we have destroyed “Avijja”, all delusion falls away and we become awakened… and we clearly see the truth of our existence… (it does not matter what method we use to purify the mind, and destroy Avijja, that is of no importance… all that is important is that the method works)… Breathing during meditation… When meditating and observing our breath, we should not control our breath with our conscious mind, but instead let our subconscious mind do our (automatic) breathing for us, then we should be aware that by observing our (automatic) breath that we are observing our subconscious mind, and get in sync with it, and then simply let go, and let it “lead the way”… this helps to set up “investigation”, or set up “communication”, and/or “interaction” with the subconscious mind… Meditation in solitude…To reach awakening, it is very helpful (maybe necessary) to have days or weeks of uninterrupted and undisturbed meditation in solitude… away from the sights, sounds, and constant interruptions of the mundane world, away from all other people… to develop and sustain the necessary intensity of “concentration” and “determination”… the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of desolate unspoiled nature is the most ideal environment for meditating in solitude… (2) ……………NECESSARY SKILLS…………… It It is necessary to have concentration… The action or power of focusing one's attention or mental effort… dealing with one particular thing above all others… It is necessary to be deft… moving or acting in a quick, smooth, and skillful way; clever, showing good sense and skill in ... It is necessary to be cool… in a composed and unconcerned manner… It is necessary to be efficient… expending the least effort for maximum result… It is necessary to have determination… unshakable “intent”… (3) ………………STRATEGY……………… TO DESTROY “AVIJJA” (delusion) WE MUST UNDERSTAND : 1)… “WHERE IT IS” 2)… “WHAT IT IS” 3)… “WHAT IS ITS WEAKNESS” 4)… “HOW IT CAN BE DESTROYED” RESULTS OF MY ANALYSIS 1)… “where it is”… the first major insight on my path to “awakening”, was when I suddenly realized that my subconscious mind was my “Citta”… and since I knew that Avijja (delusion) and the Kelisas (defilements) were in my Citta, that meant they were in my subconscious mind… 2)… “what it is”… the second major insight was that a single conditioned reflex response in our subconscious mind is a “Kelisa”… and that the self reinforcing structure of interconnected conditioned reflex responses in our subconscious mind that we call “mundane reality”, is “Avijja”… 3)… “what is its weakness”… so how do we “fight” Avijja” (DELUSION) and destroy it… we can’t punch, kick, bite, stab, or shoot Avijja, nor beat it to death with a big stick… Avijja is not physical, nor is it even “alive”… so how do we fight something that is not physical or even alive… Avijja (delusion) has no awareness of its own, it is just a system of programmed reflex reactions stored in the subconscious mind that we call “mundane reality”… when we realize this, we have understood how the magician (Avijja) does its trick, (how we are deluded) so we are no longer fooled by it… we have discovered both the strength and the weakness of Avijja… and because we now understand its trick, we have already greatly diminished its strength (its ability to control and deceive us)… 4)… “how it can be destroyed”… It is not possible to “delete” anything from the subconscious mind, it remembers and records everything permanently… But we created Avijja (“mundane reality”) in our subconscious mind by accepting and believing mundane information and ideas, that we were taught were “true” (real, reality)... We were taught how we should respond to every possible situation, what we should like and dislike, etc… so that, 95% of our cognitive thoughts and actions are really just “programmed reflex reactions” dictated by our subconscious mind… this is “Avijja”, the “mundane reality” or “delusion” that we want to destroy… But consider that if we created Avijja (“mundane reality”) in our subconscious mind by accepting and believing mundane information and ideas, that we were taught were “true” (real, reality)... it is possible to reprogram our subconscious mind with a stronger new “awakened reality” based on the “truth of our existence”, that supersedes mundane reality, replacing it as the new default reality… This I now realize, is why the monk who taught me, had me do body investigation… body investigation is just a way to reprogram the subconscious mind to see the truth of our body… the truth of our existence… So it is possible for me to use whatever knowledge and skills that I have, and my understanding of the conscious and subconscious mind to reprogram a new awakened default reality… so starting now, the “middle path” of the Buddha IS my new default reality… I will do this by using “concentration”, “deftness”, “coolness”, “efficiency”, and “determination”… by continuously reaffirming to my subconscious mind that “reality” is the “truth of the middle path”… and by “intently” believing ( having my mind and will focused on this one specific purpose) and acting as if it already was the new default reality” (this is important), and I will even “intently” thank my subconscious mind for making it so (this is important too, remember that our subconscious mind is not only aware, but it has more awareness than our conscious mind)… and by continuously reinforcing the truth of the middle path as the existing new awakened default reality, while continuously reinforcing the idea that mundane reality was just childish ignorance… I can make the new “awakened reality” stronger and stronger, as I make the “mundane reality of delusion” weaker and weaker… then when the new “awakened reality” becomes stronger than the “childish ignorance” of mundane reality (Avijja)”, delusion will break up and be permanently destroyed… that will be the moment of “awakening”… AWAKENING (Written days after I awakened) I had been doing intense solitary meditation for many weeks trying many different strategies to get into and reprogram my subconscious mind, and/or trying to establish better communication with my subconscious mind, without any noticeable results… then one day without warning, and when I least expected it, I awakened… One minute I was listening to a bird chirping, and the wind rustling the leaves on the trees, the next minute I was inside my subconscious mind and could visually see Avijja (mundane reality) like it was a huge dam breaking up, making deep rumbling loud sounds, and also “zinging” high pitched sounds, that seemed oddly musical… It was like a musical earthquake… This was accompanied by blinding flashes of light, like flash bulbs on a camera going off in my face… And then the sea of information and thoughts (my subconscious mind) that had been held back by the dam (of mundane reality) swept out over me, carrying me away... I could hear the devas (heavenly beings, my spirit guides) excitedly cheering me on, laughing and clapping like fans at a football match… So I felt very reassured that I was “safe”, and that whatever was happening was a very positive development, so I had no fear… Instead of trying to get out of this sea of thoughts which was my subconscious mind (remember I had just spent weeks trying to get into my subconscious mind), I kept pushing deeper and deeper into it… I was like a scuba diver systematically descending into the depths of the ocean... I would go deeper into this sea of thoughts (exploring), and then pause for a while observing what was going on and acclimate myself to the intensity, then go deeper exploring again and pausing to observe and acclimate myself again so that my awareness always remained clear and lucid… I did this for about a day and a half, until I reached “the bottom”... I then spent more than a week, day and night, submersed in this sea of thoughts, feelings, and images exploring and observing, and all the while I was in a state of extreme bliss... I laughed a lot, not because anything was humorous (although many things were), but because a zillion volts of pure joy was shooting up my spine (kundalini ?)… Both my conscious mind and my subconscious mind were conscious to me, and I was in both the physical world and the spirit world at the same time. My third eye was wide open… My two minds (two lobes of my brain) talked to one another as if they were two different people, while I was both of them. At one point I could see multiple copies of myself everywhere doing different things, and each of them could see all the other copies, and I could see all the other copies they were seeing, etc… it was like being in a hall of mirrors… My subconscious mind seemed to have no limitations... It could fragment into a multitude of many minds, all thinking different things, and I could keep up with all of them… the subconscious mind “thinks” with moving images (eyeball movies) like the dreams we have when asleep, or drug hallucinations, both of which occur in the subconscious mind… and with words, feelings, and emotions… It is impossible to describe with words, the many different things that I saw and experienced… There are no words to describe it, and even if there were, no one would understand the words, unless they had personally experienced what the words described… It seemed that the whole universe was available, but most of it didn’t interest me any more… I saw the “Akashic Record”, but things like “’past lives” seemed totally irrelevant and uninteresting, and the only thing that interested me was what my subconscious mind was doing NOW in this moment, in this life… I don’t remember sleeping, but one or both of my minds could have gone in and out of one pointedness (total concentration) without me having any awareness of time passing, without me even noticing… or I could have been “asleep” & “awake” at the same time (asleep in the physical world and awake in the spirit world, or asleep in the spirit world and awake in the physical world), a state that I have experienced many times before... My only awareness that time was passing, was that the sun kept coming up and going down, I was always in the “now” (and still am)… I fasted most of the time, not because I decided to fast, but because I never got hungry and my body didn’t seem to mind, but I drank a lot of water... The devas stayed with me the whole time, which made me feel very safe and protected… It took me two full days to come completely out of my subconscious mind, and totally back into my conscious mind again exploring and observing, pausing and acclimating as I did so… The weirdest and most unexpected part of it all, is that with the destruction of delusion, my subconscious mind which now contained my new “awakened reality”, fused with my conscious mind, and now it is a “soul mate” (??? union of yin and yang ???)…whereas before I never thought much about my subconscious mind, I now love my subconscious mind, and I can feel its love for me… in any case it is my spiritual partner and best friend, who will help me in any way that it can… at first my conscious mind felt that it was really very very very strange having this “other person” (other conscious mind) in my body with it (“what now ? who the hell is this ?”)… until it realized that it was the same subconscious mind... (“is that you Dawg ? I didn’t recognize you”)… “Dawg” is the name of my subconscious mind… my subconscious mind adopted the name “Dawg” several years ago, so that it would “know” for sure when I was talking directly to it… I can say “hey Dawg ! listen up, I want to talk to you”… and Dawg listens… Dawg dictates to me what to write, then edits it after I type it… my conscious mind is just the typist)… my new awakened subconscious mind now makes me feel “whole” and “complete”, so that I love everybody now… (even if I don’t even like them !!!)… “you must love yourself, before you can love anyone else”, comes to mind… although my communication with my subconscious mind (Dawg) is now very much improved, it can still be difficult sometimes because the subconscious mind is so unlike the conscious mind… I have to use the right key words, mental images, and keep it simple… for all of its power and complexity; my subconscious mind (Dawg) is like a small child in some ways... or like a very gentle and brilliant simple minded giant with magic powers who knows absolutely everything… and because Dawg is now enlightened, whatever Dwag tells me is totally trustworthy… the absurdity of it all, still makes me laugh with joy whenever I think about it… Every meditation method that I tried in the weeks before I awakened produced results, not only did I awaken, but I raised the Kundalini and opened my third eye, and also unified the yin and the yang… a grand slam… it was awesome… the smile on my face is still five miles wide… EPILOGUE (Written months later) I can say without any doubt that “I am awake”… because if you are awake there is absolutely no way you could not know that you are awake… even if you were dead, you would still know that you were awake… it is impossible not to “KNOW”… if you wonder “IF” you are awake, you are not awake’’… The extreme out pouring of bliss and love has subsided… I feel so different since I have awakened, but in the best possible way… and so many unnecessary things have dropped away that I feel as if my life before awakening is a “past life”… “I feel as if I have been reborn”… The change is permanent… and it seems that there is no longer any “need” to meditate, because my mind is totally empty, and because there is nothing in it to investigate or meditate about… but I can still call up a thought, observe it, and instantly gain insights, then let it go… although my mind is usually totally “empty”, I see and hear everything, it is just that my mind does not respond to anything…nothing arises in my mind unless I make an effort to cause it to arise, and it disappears as soon as I cease making the effort … I’m never bored, or aware of the time passing, it is always “now”… the normal state of my mind is for it to be filled with silence, which I now realize is “the sound of one hand clapping”… My awareness lives in the present moment, the NOW !... my personality and my body are not “me”, they are just masks that I can put on and take off (as and when necessary)… the only thing remaining that I could call “me”, is pure awareness that is simply aware of being aware… and even that is just a part of a larger universal awareness… but I have never in my life felt so totally “normal”… this is obviously the way physical human existence is supposed to be… When I was a small child I saw the world as a very “magical place” where everything that I saw or heard was “real” and “existed”… George Washington, Mickey Mouse, Dinosaurs, Spiderman, Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Sam, Santa Claus, angels and devils, bed time stories, movies, etc, etc… were all equally real… when I learned what the adults called (mundane) “reality”, bit by bit the world lost all of its “magic”… but now that I am “awakened” I find myself once again living in a “magical” world where the “magic” is not only real, it is reality… It is the subconscious mind that experiences awakening (a new reality), not the conscious mind… upon awakening, the conscious mind becomes empty with no mundane thoughts to distract it, so it lives in the NOW (present moment), the only place in the physical world that is real… which is the world of the body’s senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch)… NOTE… As a child you believed that santa claus was a reality who brought you Christmas presents… then one day you realized he was not real (you awakened) and realized that your presents were put there by your parents… so you no longer believed in the reality of santa claus … but you still remembered who he was… you can’t just delete him from your memory… the memory remains, but you no longer believe he is a realityl… in the same way you can destroy avijja as a reality, but the memory of it remains… when you destroy the reality of Avijja (delusion), you no longer create any new karma… but your past karma is the memory of avijja, so it remains active until you die (even if you are enlightened)… then it drops away because you go to the highest heavenly realm, and no longer reincarnate… NOTE… You have spirit guides that want to help and protect you, but they can’t help or protect you unless you ask them to help you and protect you, because they would be interfering… talk to them as friends and allies, and ask them to help you, and tell them “how” if you can (they can lead things to you, and you to things, without you even realizing that they are involved)… and don’t forget to thank them… NOTE… Anyone dear to you who has died (parents, siblings, children, grandparents, spouses, friends) can hear you if you talk to them, most of them can come to you in an instant… call them to come… tell them that you love them and miss them, and pour out your heart to them… they are not “dead” (it is impossible to die, even if you wanted to), they are just someplace else… NOTE… Learn to talk to your subconscious mind, ask it to help you… remember that it is more conscious than your conscious mind… and if you let it, it will love you unconditionally, just the way you are… tell it your dreams and aspirations… it can help you in ways that you cannot even imagine… it has complete control of your body…24 hours a day, it keeps your heart beating, your lungs breathing, etc, etc… your subconscious mind is always aware, it never sleeps, it is always taking care of you, every second of your life… and it is always listening to the thoughts in your conscious mind, and those thoughts create your health or disease…

Allinone, Meditate more, and read less… you can’t really understand what the books say unless you have experienced it for yourself… imagine that you wanted to learn to snow ski… you could read about skiing for a year and still not know how to ski… but if you went to a ski slope, put on a pair of skis, and tried to ski for even one day… you would know more about skiing, than reading about it for a year… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is what I was taught by my teacher… it is what Theravada Buddhism teaches.. What is a “BUDDHA”…? What is “AWAKENED”… ? What is the meaning of the word “Buddha”…? Buddha is often misunderstood as the name of a historical figure from India… but this is not the case… his name was “Siddhartha Gautama”, the word Buddha means “awake”… when Siddhartha Gautama was asked by a man, “are you a god…?” Gautama, the person who became the Buddha replied, “No ! ” ... “then what are you?” the man asked again…Gautama answered, “I am awake”… the word “Buddha” is derived from a Sanskrit word that means “awake” …that is why he is called “Buddha”… all awakened people are Buddhas (awake), but out of respect the title “Buddha” is reserved for Siddhartha Gautama… What is a “BODHISATTA”…? The Buddha referred to his past lives before he became the Buddha as “when I was a bodhisattva”… meaning that a Bodhisattva is not yet awake, but will reaching awakening in seven reincarnations or less …Bodisattas are not yet “awake”, they still have delusion… they will die and be reborn in the physical world unless they have reached the attainment of “Anagami”, the last attainment before wakening… then if they are an “Anagami”, they will be reborn in one of the “pure abodes” which are the highest heavens… and reach awakening there, and never be born anywhere else again… or if they are a “Sakadagami” (“once returner”), they will be reborn in the physical world one more time, and reach “Anagami” and go to the “pure abodes”; or reach awakening… A Bodhisatta is a “Sotapanna, a ” stream enterer who has abandoned the first three fetters that bind the citta to the cycle of birth and death, and has entered the path to awakening… he will be reborn no more than seven times, before he reaches awakening… and because his own eventual awakening is assured, he chooses to spend this life, and as much of his future lives as he can, in helping others to reach awakening… What is a “ARAHAT”…? The Ten Fetters to Awakening… There are 10 fetters or bonds that tie us to this deluded world of existence. To become awakened, we need to overcome or cut these fetters… 1 - False belief in Self. 2 - Skeptical Doubt about the Dhamma. 3 - Attachment to Rites and Rituals, including norms, beliefs, concepts, names. 4 - Sense Desires. 5 - Ill Will. 6 - Attachment for existence in the Fine Material Planes. 7 - Attachment for existence in the Fine Immaterial Planes. 8 – Conceit. 9 – Restlessness. 10 – Ignorance. The 4 levels of attainment on the path to awakening A Sotapana or “Path Enterer” has eradicated the first 3 fetters of a false belief in Self, skeptical doubt and attachment to Rites and Rituals. He will have at most 7 more lifetimes before achieving enlightenment. Having eradicated the first 3 fetters, he will not fall back into the lower realms (he will never be reborn in hell, or as an animal again). A Sakadagami or Once-Returner has further weaken but not totally eradicated Sense Desires and Ill Will. He will have no more than one rebirth before attaining nirvana... An Anagami or Non-Returner has eradicated the first 5 fetters. He will be reborn in the Pure Abodes and from there attain Nirvana... An Arahant has eradicated all the 10 fetters. He has attained awakening (enlightenment) in this life. What is ENLIGHTENMENT ? Though 19th century translators of Buddhist texts sometimes used the word "enlightenment" to refer to Gautama's moment of spiritual awakening on seeing the morning star… the first time a large number of general English readers saw the word used as a spiritual term was with the publication of “Essays on Zen Buddhism First Series D.T. Suzuki” in the 1930s’’... Before that time the word referred to the 18th century rationalist movement in Europe that strove to understand the world using logic and reason. ..The word “enlightenment” is just the English language word used in translation to describe the Buddha’s awakening, it is not a different type of awakening… A Buddha..., someone who is Awakened..., an Arahat..., and someone who is Enlightened, have all reached the same level of attainment… they are all the same… spiritually they have all permanently destroyed their delusion and purified their Citta … and have reached nirvana… their personalities my be different, their talents may be different, there may be other differences... but once they die, they will never be born or die again, they are free... Dawg

Taichistudent, The reason I started this forum was to pay back the wisdom my teacher taught me… all I do is answer questions, or give opinions… since you have no questions, I will give you an opinion… You try to use “anger" to control people… a person who uses anger (your righteous indignation is just another form of anger) to control people, is a person with low self esteem… why do you have low self esteem…? It is because your father used righteous indignation (anger) to control you, and conditioned you that way when you were a child… he indignantly criticized every little thing you did wrong, but never praised you for the things you did right… he was always “right” and you were always “wrong”… so all of your conditioning is negative, which is why you have low self esteem, and a negative attitude… then to cover up your low self esteem, you built up a superiority complex, which is your bloated ego… now you have turned into your father… and you indignantly (angrily) criticize other people, to prove to yourself that you are superior… that is why you waste your time being an internet troll, trying to bait people, then trying to flame them… all trolls are the same… they are a psychological type style… Whether you practice Tai Chi as a martial art or mild form of exercise, your anger and low self esteem (negative attitude) will poison your efforts… You are a spiritual cripple… your low self esteem prevents you from being able to “love” yourself… and if you cannot love yourself, you cannot love anyone else… and if you cannot love anyone else, they cannot love you… The first step in breaking out of your negative attitude, is to accept yourself just the way you are, and know that you are no better or worse than anyone else… love yourself and accept yourself… you are not inferior, you are not superior… once you can do that, you can destroy both your low self esteem and superiority complex… and until you can do that, you are wasting your time, if you are meditating… you need a positive attitude if you expect to make any positive progress… a negative attitude poisons your mind and blocks any positive attainment… only you can make that choice… if you flip your attitude from negative to positive, everything else will fall into place… if you don’t flip your negative attitude, your negative emotions will poison your life and be the source of more problems… you create your fate with your thoughts and actions… Dawg

taichistudent, yawn ! dawg

taichistudent, yawn ! dawg

seekingBuddha, Please edit your post, and delete “Venerable Dawg”, and change it to simply “Dawg’… then I will delete this request from my post… I am not offended, it just made me smile at the absurdity of it… I am not a “holy man” preaching religion… I am just an ordinary guy who wanted to know the “truth” of our existence… so I followed the path of the Buddha, and found it… 1… Terminology Terminology....Words such as liberation, arhantship, enlightenment are often interchangably used, these days. So, i request all who are posting in this thread to clarify their level of liberation using the terminology of the Buddha, the Supremely Enlightened One whose is the teacher of teachers. The Buddha used the Pali language which was the language of the common people in his day, so that everyone could easily understand what he said… but today, no one speaks the Pali language, and glossaries of Pali words frequently contradict one another and give you different translations… so that you are still unsure of the meaning… now that I have reached awakening and realized the simple meaning of the Pali words, I use simple English language words in their place, so that anyone who speaks English can easily understand what I write… 2… 'There are, Ananda, these eight liberations. What are they? (I) Possessing form, one sees forms. That is the first liberation. (2) Not perceiving material forms in oneself, one sees them outside. That is the second liberation. (3) Thinking: "It is beautiful", one becomes intent on it. That is the third. (4) By completely transcending all perception of matter, by the vanishing of the perception of sense-reactions and by nonattention to the perception of variety, thinking: "Space is infinite", one enters and abides in the Sphere of Infinite Space. That is the fourth. (5) By transcending the Sphere of Infinite Space, thinking: "Consciousness is infinite", one enters and abides in the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness. That is the fifth. (6) By transcending the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness, thinking: "There is no thing", one enters and abides in the Sphere of No-Thingness. That is the sixth. (7) By transcending the Sphere of No-Thingness, one reaches and abides in the Sphere of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception. That is the seventh. (8) By transcending the Sphere of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception one enters and abides in the Cessation of Perception and Feeling. That is the eighth liberation. 'Ananda, when once a monk attains these eight liberations in forward order, in reverse order, and in forward-and-reverse order, entering them and emerging from them, as and when, and for as long as he wishes, and has gained by his own super-knowledge here and now, both the destruction of the corruptions, and the uncorrupted liberation of heart and liberation by wisdom, that monk is called "both-ways-liberated, and Ananda, there is no other way of "both-ways- liberation" that is more excellent or perfect than this.' ....................(Mahanidana Sutta) Since it would be nice to hear from someone who speaks from direct experience, could you expound on the experience of reaching each one of these liberation stations ? The eight liberations… These are not “liberation stations” on the path to awakening… they are a super sure test to see if you are awakened… Ananda did not reach awakening until after the Buddha’s death… The Buddha is talking to his cousin Ananda, who in spite of high attainment had been unable to reach awakening… and Ananda wanted to know how he could test himself and know beyond any doubt that he was awakened… the Buddha is explaining to him how he would know for sure that he had awakened… Ananda reached awakening after the Buddha died… The eight liberations are the rejection of the physical world and the seven types of higher and higher heavenly worlds… the Buddha is saying to Ananda that if he can visit these 8 types of realms without wanting to stay in any of them, he is enlightened… bear in mind that the inhabitants of all of the heavenly realms, even the highest, suffer from delusion (karma), and when they die will reincarnate again in the physical realm… but if he does not choose any of them, he will rise above the heavenly realms and not reincarnate because he has no delusion (karma)… he is free… There is not just one path, there are many… the Buddha mentioned that there are tens of thousands of possible paths, but I don’t remember the exact number he said… 3… You have expounded on your experiences of visiting other worlds. Some in this thread have mentioned numerous worlds that exist beyond earth. So, why is it that Digha Nikaya mentions only 31 abodes (worlds), including the fine-material Bramha/Deva worlds ? (I don't think is this of much use to me, as i focus more on my development, here and now. But, my curiosity is curious). There is an endless multitude of inhabited planets, and their spirit realms in the universe… plus there are spirit realms for animals and all other life… but humans will go to one of the 31 realms mentioned in the Digha Nikaya … so the Buddha only mentioned the realms that concerned us… 4… While i spent many months at the meditation center, i encountered several visitors who would engage me in spiritual talk. And some of these people spoke about their use of psychedelic drugs to attain to the experience of reaching other realms and beings. I still remember one guy who said he had attained Nibbana Some of these people were very happy, healthy, highly educated and successful. So, i neither credited nor dis-credited them, while speaking. But, i started wondering if the use of drugs plays tricks with brain chemistry and if it is easier for drug users (past or present), to reach advances in liberation. If this is possible, I wonder how many in this thread are using (OR have used) drugs to reach their attainments. The ancient Indo-Europeans who swept down off the Eurasian Steppe, conquered India, and founded Hinduism… they built sweat lodges filled with marijuana smoke to purify themselves…and then they drank “Soma” (a psychedelic drug they called the “drink of the of the gods”) which allowed them to see and communicate with the gods… psychedelic drugs were used in almost every tribal religion in the world… it is a tradition that goes back thousands of years… psychedelic drugs strip away “mundane reality” which is “Avijja” or “delusion”… which allows a person to temporarily see and know that mundane reality is not real, that it is an illusion, a deception, a delusion… that there is a higher reality… the effect of the psychedelic drug is temporary, but the memory of it permanently alters a person’s perception of “reality” …but it does not do the work of purifying the mind, a person still has to meditate to destroy mundane reality, but now they know what and why… 5… The power of subconcious could be the influence for the "visions" people get during dreams ? While you have talked about the distinction between visions and ordinary dreams, i wonder how one can be sure that thevisions are not the projections of the subconcious (during deep sleep). Your subconscious mind is your spirit… so it is always in, and connected telepathically to the spirit world… and it communicates with spirits and the subconscious minds of other people, without you being aware of it… your subconscious mind creates “visions”, “normal dreams”, and “lucid dreams… all three are created by your subconscious mind…“visions” are called “Nimitta” and happen when you are wide awake and meditating… normal dreams occur in your subconscious mind while you are sleeping… “lucid dreams” take place outside of your subconscious mind in the spirit world, and are usually generated by one or more spirits (your spirit guides) trying to teach or test you… 6.. Morality: While discussing the numerous reasons why other people praise him, Buddha says "Abandoning unchastity, the ascetic Gotama lives far from it, aloof from the village-practice of sex"....... "Abandoning harsh speech, he refrains from it. He speaks whatever is blameless, pleasing to the ear, agreeable, reaching the heart, urbane, pleasing and attractive to the multitude." I can not question your decisions, but i wonder why you chose a different path, post liberation/arhantship ? Buddha has spoken about how liberated beings lose the strength of their mindfulness and equanimity, due to indulgence… The Buddha is talking about the awakened monks, who have taken a vow of chastity… so he is not warning them about sex… but because I am awakened, you think I should take a vow of chastity… because you think sex is “dirty”… your delusion is showing… Indulgence is anything that you do in excess… you can eat in excess, that is indulgence … but that does not mean that eating food is bad and that you should not eat… there is nothing wrong with eating food… you can spend all your money buying trendy clothes, that is indulgence… but that does not mean you should not buy clothes… you can spend fourteen hours a day reading books, that is indulgence… but that does not mean you should not read books… you can have two hundred pet dogs, that is indulgence… but that does not mean you should not have a pet dog… you can have sex with dozens of women, that is indulgence… but that does not mean you should not have sex with one woman… You said … “Buddha has spoken about how liberated beings lose the strength of their mindfulness and equanimity, due to indulgence”… the Buddha was cautioning about any form of excess, he is not prohibiting sex… Once you reach awakening, you have finished, it is permanent… now if you are not a monk, you can continue the life you had before you started to meditate, and now it is effortless and full of joy… I am not a monk… nor have I ever taken a vow of chastity… and you forget that you reach awakening by accepting the Buddha’s middle path as your new reality… sex is neither good or bad, it is neutral of itself… it just is… only intention can make it good or bad… if you are neutral, and neither seek it, or reject it… there is no attachment or karma… if you are married, it is a duty you owe your wife… Dawg

3Dominicus3, you asked me for my opinion... and I gave it to you... you can accept it, or reject it... it does not matter to me... I will not respond to your post point by point, because you are not serious... instead I will give you my opinion again... When you said that you were playing the devil’s advocate, you were admitting that you were not telling the truth of what you believe, but were trying to bait me… in short, you were lying, and by lying you destroyed the credibility of everything else that you said… What you say and imply about your level of attainment, also shows you were lying about that too… it is all “book knowledge that you don’t understand properly, so that you cannot describe it properly, it is not your personal experience… but you think you understand it… I will not describe the things that give you away, because I don’t want to help you make your lies more credible… A person who tells lies, is a person with low self esteem… why do you have low self esteem…? It is usually because your father conditioned you that way… he criticized every little thing you did wrong, but never praised you for the things you did right… so all of your conditioning is negative, which is why you have low self esteem, and a negative attitude… then to cover up your low self esteem, you built up a superiority complex, which is your bloated ego… now you have turned into your father… and you criticize everybody else, to prove to yourself that you are superior… that is why you waste your time being an internet troll, trying to bait people, then criticizing them… Your low self esteem prevents you from being able to “love” yourself… and if you cannot love yourself, you cannot love anyone else… and if you cannot love anyone else, they cannot love you… The first step in breaking out of your negative attitude, is to accept yourself just the way you are, and know that you are no better or worse than anyone else… love yourself and accept yourself… once you can do that, you can destroy both your low self esteem and superiority complex… until you can do that, you are wasting your time, if you are meditating… you need a positive attitude if you expect to make any positive progress… a negative attitude poisons your mind and blocks any positive attainment… only you can make that choice… if you flip your attitude from negative to positive, everything else will fall into place… if you don’t flip your negative attitude, your negative emotions will poison your life and be the source of more problems… you create your fate with your thoughts and actions… Dawg

Allinone, Yes, what you described above is “Avijja”… when we are little children we learn how to act like the adults around us by watching them, and doing what they do… we also watch children older than us and learn from them… we want to act like adults so we mimic their actions… even when we “play”, we play by pretending we are acting like adults…if adults get angry, we learn to get angry… if adults lie to each other, we learn lie to each other… if adults hit each other, we learn to hit each other… whatever we see and experience around us, we consider to be normal behavior… and our actions and reactions, and the emotions that they generate become automatic… our actions and reactions, and emotions that they generate are no longer controlled by our conscious mind, they are now controlled by the subconscious mind (our Citta)…we then forget that we learned these actions and reactions, and think that they are our “gut reaction” to the world around us…we no longer control what we have learned, it controls us… we have been brainwashed, and don’t even know it… this is what Avijja (delusion) is, and how it controls our conscious mind…this is why we need to purify the Citta (subconscious mind)… before we can reach “awakening”, and why enlightenment is called “awakening”… it is like awakening from a dream…that seemed so real that it deluded us… Dawg

Allinone, Buddhist terminology uses the Pali language, which was the language of the common people at the time of the Buddha… Pali is a corrupted version of the Sanskrit language which was brought to India by the indo-europeans who swept down from the north about 1800 years before the time of the Buddha and conquered India… who then set themselves up as the ruling class, and founded Hinduism… the Buddha was an indo-european… The subconscious mind is in what is called “the Citta” (pronounced as Chitta)… which is usually translated as “mind” or “heart”… “mind” is the conscious mind, “heart” is the subconscious mind… the subconscious mind is called the “heart” because it feels and controls our emotions… the purified Chitta is radiant and bright, and is a state of “knowingness”… a Citta that is not purified is under the power of “Avijja” (delusion)… as long as there is “Avijja”, there is “intention”… “intention” creates “Kamma” (Karma) that attaches itself to the Citta… everything that we think or do, originates in the Citta (conscious mind and subconscious mind)… Dawg

Hey Dawg, Hey Kubba, From your perspective - is it true that arahants do not have sexual life or are impotents? They say in Buddhism it is like that after full enlightenment. Ajahn Brahm said so, but some gurus and teachers have wifes so I don't understand this part… Buddhist monks have taken a vow of chastity… and unless they quit being monks (disrobe), it is forbidden for them to have sex… so they abstain from sex, because they rather stay as a monk… they may or may not be impotent, that depends on their age and heath… Ajahn Brahm abstained from sex for most of his adult life, so he didn’t miss it… __________________________________________ Quote from my reply above, “I never ordained as a monk… but now that I am awakened, I am totally neutral and indifferent all the time… and open and honest… and I never try to pick up a woman… but women try to pick me up… and if I have sex, it is the best sex I ever had… because there is no voice in my mind to distract me, and I am totally in the present moment… but I don’t miss sex, or go looking for it… it is just a “spontaneous unplanned event”… bear in mind that sex is neither “good” nor “evil”, that it just “is”… if you don’t cling to it (consider it “good” or “evil”), there is no karma… I am now experiencing what it was like back in the mythical “Garden of Eden” of Adam & Eve… before they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of “good” and “evil”, and became deluded… delusion is the “original sin” of Christianity… I laughed my ass off (at the absurdity and simplicity of it) when I first realized this, after I awakened… it is so blatantly obvious to me now, that I can’t imagine how I could not have seen it before I awakened… but that is how powerful delusion is, we can’t see what is right in front of our faces… but when we destroy delusion, we regain our innocence, purity, and peace… and the whole world is a Garden of Eden… and our conscious and subconscious minds integrate themselves into this Eden, so that we are plugged into whatever we need… and life becomes fearless, painless, and effortless…” ______________________________________________ Arahants essentially all go through the same process of purifying their subconscious mind, so they are the same in that they have all destroyed the delusion in their subconscious mind… but as a random group of people, they are as different as any other random group of people… their skills and powers vary depending on what they were interested in and cultivated… But I don’t think it is possible for gurus and teachers who have wives, to be enlightened in the sense of being a Buddhist arahant… a married arahant would be like saying… “he has one of his feet nailed to the floor (he is attached to his wife), but he can go anywhere he wants to go with the other foot”… you cannot be tied down, and free at the same time… but the Hindu tradition considers raising the Kundalini using any method, as reaching enlightenment… in Buddhism raising the Kundalini is called a “Brahmin Awakening”, because it temporarily pushes aside your delusion and gives you a taste of awakening, but then the delusion reasserts itself, and returns and the awakening fades away… and you are right back where you started… but with the Buddhist awakening, you destroy the delusion, so it is permanently gone… Dawg

Hey Dawg, Just wanted to reply to a few points: Hey Dominicus3 Sorry to be so long in replying, I was off line… Quote Karma is just the spiritual equivalent of Sir Issac Newton’s “third law of motion” describing one of the laws of the physical universe which states that…”for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”… the universe is indifferent… what you sow, you reap… If you stick your hand in a fire, your hand gets burned… why can’t you un-burn our hand… ? The thing is, the laws of this physical universe has loopholes. You can cover your hand with a special fire-proof gel before putting it in a fire, and not get burned. Also, their is a high probability that there are other universes/dimensions that do not hold to the same rules that are in this one. If you put gel on your hand, you are not sticking your hand in a fire, you are sticking your gel in the fire… You are bound by the laws of this physical universe and spiritual universe… you can’t escape them… Everything you have ever thought or done (all your karma… including your past lives) is recorded in the “Akashic Records” (which is not in your subconscious mind, but your subconscious mind can access it)… I have seen the akashic record myself when I awakened, so I know they are real… the record of your karma cannot be changed, it can only be added to… google “akashic records”, and check out several sites… There are some teachings out there that describe the place within the body where karmic seeds rest (your karma is your conditioning and it is in your subconscious mind… It is also called your delusion), and it is said that an awakened one who has taken Buddhas vows (there is no such thing as Buddha’s vows…! Unless you mean the vows of a Buddhist monk) , can go in and pluck all the karmic seeds out, and is no longer accumulating any (after you awaken, you no longer make any new karma, but your existing karma lasts until the death of your body..). So my question is, what if you haven't gotten or seen this within yourself yet? Cause it may be this way, but if one doesn't know, then they would just say that there is no way to transcend karma. (I know because I am awakened, and now have “knowing”)… “you pluck out the karmic seeds” to reach awakening, not after you reach awakening Quote If it exists as described, normal humans would be unable to experience it, because they still have delusion… raising the kundalini might give you a taste of it for a short time, but it would quickly fade… There are Taoist, Buddhist, Sufi, Mystical branches of thought that say that Absolute Beingness Experience doesn't require kundalini. Others say if consciousness merges absolute, then subconscious is transcended, because it is entirely seen as "Not I" therefore there is nowhere for consciousness to "stick." This makes no sense at all… either what you are reading is bullshit, or you don’t understand what you are reading… So from what I read of your path, via through the Subconscious , some say this is the front door to Enlightenment, and that the back door is just to no longer identify with it, while merging conscious with Unity Consciousness permanently in heart, and then merging Unity with Absolute in the LDT, and this backdoor way will also purify and trasncend the subconscious resulting in it becoming very quiet… You cannot transcend or deceive your subconscious mind… at best you can make it “quiet” temporarily… "Not I"… is only one of the many steps on the path to awakening… you also have to get rid of your hate, anger, greed, etc, etc, etc… and even then after attaining all the steps, you have to have the necessary strength of focus, to hold the focus long enough to break through and shatter your delusion (active karma)… Your subconscious mind IS your eternal spirit which you are trying to purify… it controls your conscious mind and your body… it is impossible to deceive it… it is what is deceiving you now… and there is no back door… I know a Taoist master in India (also claims Enlightenment) who teaches that only by avoiding and no longer identifying with Subconscious, will the central channel and access to unity and absolute open, and that going through subconscious is something you can get stick in for lifetimes with no guarantee, and that it is the hardest path… I repeat… your subconscious mind IS your eternal spirit which you are trying to purify… it controls everything else… there is no back door… it is the main event, you can’t avoid it or deceive it… but it deceives your conscious mind 24 hours a day… which is why you are deluded and cannot tell the difference between truth and fiction… you obviously don’t meditate, you just read about meditating… and unless you meditate, you are wasting your time reading about it… I'm bringing this up, no offense to you, (don’t worry about me, even if you tried to insult me, I would not take offense… ) but to just show that everybody, who (you think) is enlightened, is teaching only what they know themselves through direct experience, and there were only a few teachers (Osho) Osho was certainly not awakened, all of his teachings were run of the mill hindu “feel good meditations” presented by him with the flair of a good performer… who told people what they wanted to hear… you are too gullible (wishful thinking)… don’t believe anything you hear or read until you try it out (take it for a spin around the block) and prove it to yourself, that it is true… who spoke of a myriad of ways to get there, or at least 2 (front door/back door)… All ways lead to the subconscious mind, called the “citta” in the Pali language… Quote Think of “Metta” as having a good attitude, so that you are happy, and wish other people happiness… because without a good attitude, you have poisoned your awareness… and blocked spiritual attainment… so in that sense “Metta” is vital… Don't some of these spirit realm gods feed off metta though? which would mean its better not to feed them with it? “Metta” has nothing to do with the gods… it is simply having compassion and good feeling towards all other sentient beings… so that you don’t poison your own mind with any negative thoughts… Quote Anything that PERMANENTLY destroys all delusion in your subconscious mind will make you awakened… but just temporarily detaching yourself from the delusion is just simple Samadhi (concentration)… it makes your mind temporarily peaceful ; but when your concentration ends you are right back where you started… it is not permanent… Ramana Maharshi taught that to find the source of thought, or the thought 'I', would uproot the main taproot of the entire conscious/subconscious mind, and leave you in complete thoughtlessness permanently along with full awakening, subconscious purged, enlightenment, and so forth. So in that case, it would qualify as your: "Anything that PERMANENTLY destroys all delusion in your subconscious mind will make you awakened." You already know that the source of ‘thought”, and the thought “I” is in the subconscious mind… so are you awakened now…??? Also, obviously it took years to get to this point, so would you agree entering a monastery full time would be the only legitimate choice to achieve this? Considering a monastic life is majority spent on practice without access to family, friends, tv, media, and other worldly distractions, it just sounds like your way there is impossible in the modern day world… what you are saying here is that you don’t want to give up your delusion because you like it, and cling to it… that your delusion is more important to you, than spiritual development… that you are looking for a way to reach awakening, without having to let go of your delusion… I never ordained, I was what is called a “Dharma Guest”… I lived in a monk’s hut when I was at the monastery… ate food collected by the monks on their alms round (had one meal a day)… our group of Dharma guests (2 to 6 people)…were given Dharma talks 2 or 3 times a week, and our Dharma teacher would answer questions… we were supposed to spend most of our time meditating… I also had a house where I lived when I was not at the monastery… when I started meditating, I had the attitude that I would give it a try, to see if I made any progress, I came to Thailand and found the best monastery and teacher that I could find… and from the beginning I made steady progress… so I persevered and the path opened up before me… Also 2 other questions I forgot to ask: 1. What's your take on Lust? It's connected also to the body/subconscious network yes? But there also stories of lust continuing in the spirit realms and some say lust is only part of the body, so I'm trying to figure out the whole Lust complex. Is it also transcended in your case or is there still some partaking in it? The only place in the spirit world where there is physical sex similar to the physical realm are in the lower heavenly realms… the very lowest heavenly realms are here on earth… the inhabitants are the nymphs and satyrs of Greek mythology, so it can get wild… the feeling you get from just being in a realm gets better and better the higher you go… in the upper heavenly realms, just being there is far far better than physical sex… people there are usually married, and live together… sex there is staid, but when the two bodies meet, ZAP, you have a smile on your face for weeks… “I never ordained as a monk… but now that I am awakened, I am totally neutral and indifferent all the time… and open and honest… and I never try to pick up a woman… but women try to pick me up… and if I have sex, it is the best sex I ever had… because there is no voice in my mind to distract me, and I am totally in the present moment… but I don’t miss sex, or go looking for it… it is just a “spontaneous unplanned event”… bear in mind that sex is neither “good” nor “evil”, that it just “is”… if you don’t cling to it (consider it “good” or “evil”), there is no karma… I am now experiencing what it was like back in the mythicall “Garden of Eden” of Adam & Eve… before they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of “good” and “evil”, and became deluded… delusion is the “original sin” of Christianity… I laughed my ass off (at the absurdity and simplicity of it) when I first realized this, after I awakened… it is so blatantly obvious to me now, that I can’t imagine how I could not have seen it before I awakened… but that is how powerful delusion is, we can’t see what is right in front of our faces… but when we destroy delusion, we regain our innocence, purity, and peace… and the whole world is a Garden of Eden… and our conscious and subconscious minds integrate themselves into this Eden, so that we are plugged into whatever we need… and life becomes fearless, painless, and effortless…” 2. Would someone meditating next to you gain any benefits from your own aura or state of Being? There are a lot of stories of monks gaining benefits from the auras of teachers who were enlightened It would depend on how receptive the person was… if their subconscious mind communicated with my subconscious mind, they could “intuitively” understand things that they did not know before… @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ SUMMARY… you want to reach awakening, but keep your delusion because you cling to it… you can’t scam or cheat your way into awakening… it has got to be an honest and sincere effort… and if you succeed, your delusion will be permanently swept away… but you will not miss it… Dawg

3Dominicus3, So what's your take on Intuition? It is also connected to Subconscious, but cannot be wrong? I've seen people on the path argue about who was right when they were both going by intuition, but choosing different. TELEPATHY… your subconscious mind is telepathic, and can communicate with all other subconscious minds… (this is the “collective subconscious” of the psychologist Carl Yung)… your subconscious mind can pick up ideas and information from other peoples subconscious minds… this is what your intuition is… and your spirit guides are with you 24 hours a day… they are telepathic… they work by planting thoughts, ideas, and actions in your mind that you think are your thoughts… this is what your “intuition” is… EQUANIMITY… there is no right or wrong, everything just is… everything is neutral… when two people argue about which one of them is right or wrong, they are both “wrong”… if they both agreed that the other was entitled to believe whatever they wanted to believe… both would be “right”… Why can't karma be transcended? The seeds completely uprooted and just transcend the whole karmic system so as to not play out what's left? It seems unfair that stuff done in ignorance, and because of it, then has to be tallied up after ignorance is snuffed out. Karma is just the spiritual equivalent of Sir Issac Newton’s “third law of motion” describing one of the laws of the physical universe which states that…”for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”… the universe is indifferent… what you sow, you reap… If you stick your hand in a fire, your hand gets burned… why can’t you un-burn our hand… ? 3. Can one navigate the spirit realms to get to the Highest heaven by whatever modes, stealth, love, thought-less awareness with intention, or even some mystics say you have to keep repeating that "you are from the first and highest pre-existent realm," and that it acts as a one way ticket, then Enlightenment can be gotten at that highest realm. No…, the highest you can get in the spirit realm by stealth is the ghost realm… and that is beneath the lowest heavenly realm… anyone who says otherwise is conning you… The longest continuous time you can spend in the spirit realms is seven or eight days, or your physical body will die… Many shamans extend their life as long as they can… (with rapidly declining quality of life) then go to the ghost realm leaving their physical body to die… they do this rather than die in their physical body… they do this to avoid going to a hell realm… (and the ghost realm is visually very much like the physical world)… but they are stuck in the ghost realm forever, unless they go to a hell realm and get rid of their bad karma… then they are reborn in the physical realm… 4. Can you speak on Absolute Beingness, it is the state on which Unity seems to rest on, yet is prior to it, unborn, unmanifest, and seems to be linked to the Lower Dan Tian as a doorway to it. The only context in which I have ever heard the term “Absolute Beingness” used, was in a religious context, to describe a god, or gods… it implies that the mind knows and contains everything… including the unborn and unmanifest… (but everyone in the spirit world still has delusion, even the gods… so only enlightened beings would be able to experience it)… Absolute Beingness is a unity, it is complete, it does not rest on anything... IF it exists as described, normal humans would be unable to experience it, because they still have delusion… raising the kundalini might give you a taste of it for a short time, but it would quickly fade… The lower Dan Tian is a door to many things… if it is a door to “Absolute Beingness, it is a metaphor to imply that using the Dan Tian to raise the Kundalini, will allow you to experience a taste of Absolute Beingness… but it will not be permanent… 5. Which brings up next question. 3 Dan Tian System, or Chakra system, or are they united? They are interconnected, but not the same… both are invisible body systems… that western medicine is not aware of… they are both controlled by the subconscious mind… 6. Also what about radiating Metta to all beings? Is this vital, as it is in a number of Buddhist branches? Think of “Metta” as having a good attitude, so that you are happy, and wish other people happiness… because without a good attitude, you have poisoned your awareness… and blocked spiritual attainment… so in that sense “Metta” is vital… 7. Also, it seems Adviata Vedanta can do the same as a mantra, by constantly detaching from and no longer identify with any thoughts/thinker/body, access to the source of Thought manifests, and in that source, there is no thought. So are there other legit Paths to manifest Enlightenment in the manner of what you have reached? All the gods including Brahman, were born and will die… and they suffer from delusion… the hindu path to awakening is based on raising the Kundalini… when you raise the Kundalini, it cleans out the six lower chakras, which includes the third eye (subconscious mind…) but it does not destroy the “delusion” in the subconscious mind, it just suppresses it… this is called a “Brahman Awakening”… but a Brahman Awakening is not permanent, it slowly fades, and the delusion takes over your subconscious mind again… and replaces all the blockages in your chakras that the kundalini removed… you are back where you started… you have to continuously raise the kundalini to maintain the awakening… even then you will not reach nirvana when you die, you will go to a Brahman Realm (a group of high heavenly realms) for a long time… then to a hell realm to burn up your bad karma, then be reborn again… Anything that PERMANENTLY destroys all delusion in your subconscious mind will make you awakened… but just temporarily detaching yourself from the delusion is just simple Samadhi (concentration)… it makes your mind temporarily peaceful ; but when your concentration ends you are right back where you started… it is not permanent… 8. What is left for you now? Any more cultivation of any additional aspects? Once you reach awakening, it is permanent… delusion is gone forever, you have finished the work… you are free to do whatever you want… life is effortless… nothing bothers you… you are never bored… your heart is at peace… you are permanently happy … you continue to have deep insights on whatever you focus your awareness on… so you can know whatever you need to know… your spirit guide protects you from harm, warns you of any danger, and helps you find whatever you need… Dawg

Tibetan Ice I follow the tradition of Ajahn Mun… (but I translate the Pali language words into English)… the abbot of the monastery where I meditated was a student of Ajahn Mun… both were enlightened… I followed the meditation instructions of the abbot, who followed the meditation instructions of his abbot … Ajahn Mun died around 1950… the abbot where I meditated died in 2011, age almost 98 years…he appeared to me shortly before I awakened… and smiled at me… the first time he ever smiled at me… he knew…! I know what jhanas are but was strongly discouraged from doing jhanas… and the few mediators that passed through the monastery where I was , who did do jhanas did not seem to have much attainment… they still had all the defilements in their subconscious mind that would prevent them from reaching awakening… the whole point of the meditation I was doing, was to get rid of the defilements in my “Citta” (subconscious mind) step by step by sitting in Samahdi” (concentration)… so I could reach awakening… I see the jhanas as high states of concentration that are useless unless you have already reached awakening… and even then useless if you are living in the mundane world… Dawg

Infinity, When you awaken all of your active conditioning in your subconscious mind is destroyed and drops away, and you make no more karma…both your subconscious mind and your conscious mind are squeaky clean, all defilements are gone… but there is a record of your present life and all of your past lives in the Akashic Record (which is a permanent record of everything in the universe… so you still owe karmic debts… (if you are not familiar with the Akashic Record, Google it and read up on it… I think you will find it interesting)… using hypnosis, it is possible for a hypnotist to regress you to past lives, and to see your past lives… access to the Acashic Record is from your subconscious mind… your conscious mind goes into your subconscious mind …which is always in the spirit world… normal dreams take place in your subconscious mind… lucid dreams take place when your conscious mind leaves the subconscious mind and goes out into the spirit world… that is to say that “lucid dreams” are you experiencing the spirit world, in your sleep… that is why you can fly in lucid dreams… the goal of breath meditation is “ to stop all thoughts… when you stop all thoughts it is called “concentration” ( “samahdi”)…(samidhi is said to be a taste of nirvana…) when you are in samahdi you frequently see visions that are called “nimita”… you might hear music, or singing, or see beautiful different colored patterns of colors, or bright lights, feelings, ecstasy, etc… Once your awareness was focused on the nimitas, your concentration was destroyed… if you had ignored the nimita your concentrate would have continued… No...I am completely unified now… but I don’t see my personality and conscious mind as being “me”… my subconscious mind is “me, the spirit that I am… ”my conscious mind is unified with my subconscious mind… and the physical world is unified with spirit world… sometime when I get in my bed to go to sleep, and close my eyes, I find myself in the spirit world… so I lay myself down in the spirit world and go to sleep… sometimes I (my spirit body) wakes up in the spirit world… and I have to open my physical eyes to see the physical world… don’t forget that your subconscious mind is your spirit body… You should experiment with it… record several tapes to hypnotize yourself… then try them out and fine tune them…and since hypnosis is aimed at the subconscious mind and what it believes to be true… it could be a very effective tool… you could go to another hypnotist, and have him do a past life regression… if you do it, let me know how it turns out.. Each person is unique… some people could meditate all their lives, and never reach any attainment… other people meditate and reach attainments quickly and easily… it is possible that you are such a person… if you meditated seriously, you might progress quickly... Dawg

Hello ! I feel like I already “know” many people here, because I have been reading the threads for months. But I have just registered as a member, and have spent a couple of days looking at everything trying to figure out how things work. I am an American and I am currently living half way up a mountain in the north of Thailand, just south of the Mekong River… I just spent a year meditating at a Buddhist monastery in the forest east of me. At the moment I am meditating alone in solitude. But I will return to the monastery when my dharma teacher returns from Europe and Australia. The internet connection of the computer I use to get on-line, is “flakey”. It is a satellite dish aimed at a satellite owned by a government monopoly. The service is over subscribed, so it is sometimes impossible to get on-line, or I am suddenly bumped off-line. If that is not bad enough, it will crap out if there are too many clouds, or if it is raining… and it is presently the “rainy season”… But thanks to my meditation, nothing really bothers me anymore… I just tell myself that its’ my karma, and go and do something else… As a result, my presence in the discussion forums might be very irregular. I registered as a member, because I wanted to start a discussion forum with the topic title… “Eye witness accounts of the spirit world”… I have been to the spirit world more times than I could count (I once spent more than three weeks when I could see and roam off into the spirit world every time I closed my eyes, no matter where I was or what I was doing)… I shall describe realms and spirit beings that I have seen and interacted with (also any conclusions), and would like to hear other people describe their “eye witness” accounts of realms and spirit beings that they have seen and interacted with (and any conclusions) in the spirit world… Spirit World & Physical World The "Spirit World" and "Religion" are two completely different things. The "Spirit World" is what "is", "Religion" is what we "imagine" the spirit world to be. The "Physical World" and "Science" are two completely different things. The "Physical World" is what "is", "Science" is what we "imagine" the physical world to be ... The Spirit World and the Physical World are unassailable Cosmic Realities... Religion and Science were created by men, so are riddled with flaws and mistakes... Our spirit lives eternally in the "Spirit World", and we are born with a physical body into the "Physical World". When our spirit leaves our body in the "Physical World", we are still alive in the "Spirit World". We never die… it is impossible to “die”. When we are physically alive, we are living in both worlds simultaneously. Our spirit inhabits and controls our physical body, which is what makes our physical body "alive". When we are awake, the physical world of physical senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) totally engages our spirit, so that we are unaware of the spirit world, but when we sleep we return to the spirit world. That is why we need sleep, and why it refreshes our body. When we are asleep and dream, our dreams take place in the spirit world. If when we are asleep and dreaming, and we are aware that we are dreaming, we can take control of our dream (by simply walking away from whatever is happening in our dream), and use our awareness that we are in a dream to explore the spirit world... This is what is called "Lucid Dreaming". This is the "Dream-time" of ancient cultures like the Australian aborigines, and of the native American tribes, that knew the spirit world as a normal conscious part of their everyday lives. (Note: a person can meditate and sit in “Samadhi” for days without “sleeping”, because “Samadhi” is essentially a form of “lucid sleep”). Our religious beliefs, or affiliations, are totally unimportant in the spirit world... It doesn't matter whether we are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Agnostic, Atheist, etc, etc, etc... There is nothing contradictory in being an atheist, yet believing in an afterlife in a "spirit world". Believing or not believing in a God or Gods, in no way determines our fate in an afterlife in a spirit world. We will go to a heavenly realm if our "thoughts", "words", and "actions" were motivated by "good intentions"; or go to a hell realm if we had "bad intentions". No one "judges" us except ourselves. In the spirit world, our thoughts are “actions” and create realities. Our own mind knows everything that we have done in our life, so that our own thoughts send us to whatever spiritual realm that is full of people like ourselves (we end up there for the same reasons that other people ended up there). This is why religion says that it is important to, "Do unto others as we would have them do unto us"... Because the other people in that spirit realm that we go to, will do to us what we have done to others while we were alive... "We will reap what we have sown"... Our "actions", "words", and "thoughts" in the physical world, create realities for us in the spirit world that effect our "mind", "body", and "spirit" (and so our dreams) even while we are still physically alive. Then when our physical body dies and drops away from our eternal spirit body, and we find our consciousness back in the spirit world, we will then have to live with these realities that we have created while our body was alive... The physical world and spirit world are places of simple "cause & effect"... The "intention" of our thoughts, words, and actions in the physical world are the cause, and the realities that they create will first determine what happens to us in the physical world... Then when our body dies, the spiritual realities that our intentions have created while alive in the physical world, will determine what happens to us in the spirit world. No religion can "save" us from the intentions of our thoughts, words, and actions... They determine our fate in both worlds... Only by having "good" thoughts, words, & actions can we "save" ourselves, because our intentions create our reality (fate) in both worlds... We "are" the "intention" of our thoughts, words, and actions. The Spirit World or Universe is a Cosmic Reality, beyond the understanding of man... Religion is a simple childlike description of the spirit world, invented by man... The various Religions are based on the individual experiences of different highly spiritual men (prophets), who tried to describe and explain the Spirit World or Universe, as they saw it, with words... words that were later interpreted by other men who had never seen the spirit world, or talked to spirit beings. But there are no words that are really capable of describing the actual experience of the spirit world. If a person has not experienced the spiritual world for them self, all the words for describing it have no meaning and are empty... It is like trying to describe to a blind person, what it is like to see with your eyes, and to watch a beautiful sunset... It is like trying to explain to a deaf person, what it is like to hear, and to listen to beautiful music... No religion "owns" the "Spirit World or Universe", any more than any country "owns" the "Physical World or Universe"... The Spirit Universe, and the Physical Universe just "are", and "have been" in existence eons before man and religion appeared... Religion and Science are just man's limited attempts to describe the cosmic reality of the Spirit Universe and Physical Universe. "My teaching (Religion) is like a finger pointing to the moon (Spirit World)... Do not mistake the finger for the moon”... Buddha Everyone is familiar with the "Physical World", because it is the world of senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch), the world that our physical body lives in. This is the world that "Science" studies. This is the world that science "observes" and tries to "describe" in logical terms. It is because "Science" is so focused on the Physical World of our senses, that Science is so blind to the Spirit World. The Spirit World is too ephemeral and intangible for science to "measure", "weigh", or do any of the things it does with the Physical World. "Scientists" are usually so focused on the world of the senses, that they have no awareness of the Spirit World, and because they are unable to experience it, they dismiss it as non existent. And because no one can give them tangible (physical) "proof" that a Spirit World exists, they then think that the Spirit World, and Religion by association, are just a lot of nonsense. But for scientists to demand "physical evidence" for the existence of the spirit world, is as clueless as asking scientists to provide "spiritual evidence" that their science is real. Both the Spirit World and the Physical World have "natural laws" that explain how they work, both are based on simple "cause and effect", but they are totally different...

ALL KARMA IS NEUTRAL TO THINK THAT THERE IS “GOOD KARMA” AND “BAD KARMA” IS DELUSION Karma is Karma… there is no such thing as “good Karma” or “bad Karma”, there is only “Karma”... “Karma” is neutral, neither “good” nor “bad”… Karma is neutral “cause” and “effect”… our intention is the “cause”, Karma is the “effect”… we call some Karma “good, because we like it, and want it… we call some Karma “bad” because we don’t like it, and don’t want it… but all Karma is neutral… it just is…! It is “delusion” to call Karma “good” or “bad”… if you cling to “good Karma”, you are also clinging to “bad Karma”… they are the two sides of the same coin… you cannot have one without the other… if you cling to good Karma, you will not reach awakening… the highest level you can attain is a high heaven called a “Brahmin Realm”… it is not good Karma that gets you to awakening… it is destroying delusion that gets you to awakening… Dawg

allinone I appreciate your concern, but it is obvious that your spiritual attainment is not high… and that you have no knowledge of the path I took to reach awakening… nor do you understand how consciousness or delusion works… When you speak, your ignorance shows and gives you away… I reached complete awakening when I destroyed my delusion… a person is either awake or not awake, you can not mistake it… there is no in between, and it is permanent… end of story… if you ever aspire to reach awakening, you will need to understand why I say what I say… Dawg

Tibetan Ice most people think they have only one mind, and that the voice is their one mind thinking… and believe they make the descisions they make… and they don’t realize that they have two separate minds, a conscious mind and a subconscious mind… and that their subconscious mind totally controls them, feeding them conditioned responses that it has been programmed with…once you realize this, the only tool you have to regain control of (to liberate) your subconscious mind is your conscious mind… unlike the subconscious mind, the conscious mind can think outside the box of its conditioning… Yes!... it is a method to silence the voice of the subconscious mind… The subconscious mind controls the 5 lower chakras… you could say they are extensions of the subconscious mind… but we feel the emotions of the chakras where they are located in the body, not in our subconscious mind… Yes… it is not “controlling the subconscious mind, but destroying the delusion that controls it… then your subconscious mind becomes your best friend and soul mate… (the conscious mind can process 40 bits of information per second, but the subconscious mind can process 40,000,000 bits per second, and it keeps our heart pumping blood, the lungs breathing, etc…the conscious could could never ”control” the subconscious mind… it is liberating the subconscious mind… Yes I agree ! Dawg

Anoesjka, The sixth chakra is our subconscious mind (and our third eye)… the sixth chakra controls the five chakras below it… but our subconscious mind has been programmed with “mundane reality” which is “delusion”. So it is controlled by “delusion”, so it does not make good decisions… and it creates blockages in our lower five chakras… when we raise the kundalini, it sweeps away the blockages in the lower five chakras, and the sixth chakra, opening the third eye… but it does not permanently destroy the delusion in the subconscious mind, it just temporarily suppresses the delusion… so the delusion creeps back in, and recreates all the blockages to the lower five chakras, that the kundalini swept away… so that raising the kundalini gives you a temporary taste of awakening, but is not permanent… Dawg

Tibetan Ice, For the first four days, after about 5 minutes in each session, a kind of wave occured and in the background, behind the focus on the sound of Buddho, I could see visions and what appeared to be dreams occuring. Actually, I recognize them as dreams because if I grasp at any one of them, I find myself in a lucid dream.. And it is typical to feel that "wave" take place which usually anounces that REM is about to occur. The visions are just another attempt by your subconscious mind to distract you… Note…your subconscious mind is in the spirit world… ordinary dreams take place in your subconscious mind.. lucid dreams take place in the spirit world, so can be used as portals into the spirit world… you go into the lucid dream, then don’t follow the flow of the lucid dream, and walk out of the lucid dream into the spirit world… Note... it is the delusion in your subconscious mind, that creates blockages in your chakras... For the last couple of days the dreams/visions no longer occur. Instead, I'm seeing abstract patterns of lights in the background, beautiful colors and patterns. Nothing like I've ever seen before. I suspect that by maintaining focus on the breath and the mantra it is stirring up winds. I think that performing a mantra (even silently) is kicking in the throat chakra, which then creates the dreams and visions (these types of visions). I do admit, it is easier to maintain consistent focus on the objects of awareness (the breath and the Buddho) when they are combined because each new breath brings a new batch of thoughts, but if you are focusing on the sound of the mantra, the new batch of thoughts comes in and then goes out because you are not grasping at them. So, in a way, you are precipitating the natural dissolution and release of thoughts and visions too (when not focused on them). This is sort of like Dzogchen's remaining in the natural state. Is the point of this Buddho practice to purify the subconscious? You use the bhuddo practice, observing the breath as a way to strengthen your concentration…The point of this buddho practice is to keep your concentration strong enough to systematically destroy delusion… (1)… to silence the voice and gain control of the conscious mind… (2)… to then use the conscious mind to purify the subconscious mind starting with “anger”… (3)… then to reach equanimity… (4)… doing body investigation to understand that there is no “us” except the subconscious mind… (5)… destroying the delusion that controls our subconscious mind… and attaining awakening and nirvana… What is the next stage past the abstract light patterns that I am seeing? Will they gradually slow down and fade away when I achieve shamatha? Will I need to drop the mantra at some point? Everybody is different… some people see and hear nothing… some people see visions… some hear beautiful music… or see beautiful patterns of colors… You do the mantra and observe the breath, to keep your concentration strong enough to destroy the delusion… but after you destroy delusion it doesn’t matter… …………………………………………. The only way to permanently purify the subconscious mind (6th chakra) is to destroy the delusion that controls the subconscious mind… and only the conscious mind (7th chakra) can do that by systematically turning the delusion into neutral awareness… 1)… First by “learning to control the “voice of delusion” in the conscious mind, and developing the strength of concentration so that we can turn off the voice” so that our mind is quiet and empty… allowing us to rest our mind… this is simple concentration (Samadhi)… One pointedness is total concentration… the first time I reached one pointedness, I was staying in a Buddhist monastery, living in a monks hut and meditating… I sat down with a clock in front of me, the time was 8:30 AM and I closed my eyes and started meditating… a few minutes later I heard loud noises outside my open window and opened my eyes to see what was going on… it was some workmen throwing some boards in a pickup truck to haul them away…I glanced at the clock, and the clock said 11:15 AM… I thought the clock must be broken, so a got up and got my watch… when I looked at my watch, it said 11:15AM… nothing made any sense… I couldn’t have been meditating for two hours and forty five minutes… I had only been meditating for five or ten minutes at most… then I started looking around, and was amazed at how beautiful everything was… and how peaceful and rested my body felt, and how much energy I had… I went outside and started walking around, gawking at everything because it was all so beautiful… the next morning after breakfast, I went to do some walking meditation on a walking path that was about seventy feet long, and shaded by trees … it had rained all night. so the leaves of the trees were wet and dripping drops of water… I stepped onto the beginning of the path, and paused to empty my mind, and the tree I was standing under dropped all of its water on me… then as I slowly walked down the path, each tree dropped its water on me as I passed under it… by the time I go to the end of the path, I was soaking wet, but laughing with my heart full of joy… the monk that was my teacher said it was the “devas” (heavenly spirits) congratulating me on reaching one pointedness…for the next two weeks, it was like I was walking around in a Walt Disney movie where everything has little sparkles on it… then came the ceremony to mark the midpoint of the “rains retreat”… it started at dusk in the sala (big open air hall) and lasted for about 2 hours… I was not going to go, but everybody said that I should go, so I went… I got there when it was supposed to start and there were not many people, so I sat in the middle of the hall… but people kept coming and coming, so the hall filled up… but people kept coming, so it got crowded… and more people came so the sala was jammed with people… you could not even see the floor…it was so jammed that to leave, I would have had to walk on peoples bodies… I could hear every little sound in the sala… I could smell every little smelI in the sala…I was sitting in a meditation position… and could feel the knees of the people behind me… there were three fat women sitting in front of me who kept wiggling around and trying to scoot back, pushing against my legs (I could smell that one of them was having her period)… to the right of me two women kept talking in wispers… to my left was a mother who kept trying to silence her petulant child… and the abbot’s very large english bulldog was walking around “on” the sea of bodies, drooling on people and trying to sit in their lap… while some woman in the front was offering 5 gold bars to the abbot who was sitting up front…this is when my concentration crashed and burned… I spent the whole night in my kuti sitting with my back against one wall, facing the abbot who was sitting against the opposite wall with the woman offering the five gold bars over and over again… with the two whispering women on my right… and the mother trying to silence her petulant child on the left… while the abbots english bulldog ran about the kuti… I finally got rid of them and regained my concentration just before dawn… and it has been solid ever since… but I learned a lesson… I had not allowed my own delusion to talk me into going to the rains retreat ceremony… but I had allowed other peoples delusion to talk me into going…never again…! 2)… Then by investigating, understanding, and “letting go of anger and greed”… so we never get angry again… (righteous indignation is also anger)… If you get angry, it is your fault you are angry… because you decided to get angry… no one can make you angry but yourself… it is the conditioning in your subconscious mind that causes you to get angry… because you have been taught (conditioned) as a small child that if people say this or that, or do this or that, you should get angry… your subconscious is already preparing your body to get angry, before you even decide to get angry… there is a split second just before you get angry, when you can decide NOT to get angry… in other words, you can turn off your anger by simply letting go of it when it starts to arise… if someone is angry and being rude to you trying to make you angry, and you get angry, they have stolen your energy… if instead, you calmly look at them and say something like; .”whoa man, how long have you had this problem”.. (making it their problem, not yours)… then look at your watch and say “i gotta go now or I will be late, see you later” as you walk off… as they shout, “I don’t have a problem”…!!! You have simply refused to get angry… and if you have to deal with this person, you do so later when they are not angry…anger is a negative emotion… it is a defilement that blocks your spiritual development… and when you get rid of anger, greed falls away too because it is the other side of the coin that is anger… 3)… Then by “reaching equanimity”, and accepting other people and their beliefs just the way they are… their business is their business, and our business is our business… and we never have another argument… we are all the same… it does not matter who we are… it does not matter if we are a man or woman, rich or poor, smart or dumb, beautiful or ugly, young or old, etc., etc., etc…. we are all the same…we are no better, and no worse than anyone else… so we should respect other people as much as we respect ourselves…thinking you are better or worse than others, blocks your spiritual development… that means having respect for other people’s beliefs and way of living, because it is none of your business… if you mind your own business, you will not have the time and energy to mind other people’s business… you must accept other people and their beliefs, just the way they are… and if someone tries to bait you and argue with you that they are right and you are wrong… just tell them that “neither opinion is right or wrong… they are just different… and if you were minding your own business, you would not have the time and energy to try to mind my business”…if they still try to argue with you, just say “you are wasting my time”, and just walk away… it takes two people to have an argument, don’t be one of them… 4)… Then doing “body investigation”… and realize that we are a “spirit (subconscious mind) with a body”, not a “body with a spirit”, and realizing that our “body” and “personality” are not “us”, they are temporary just for this life… that our spirit (subconscious mind) is the main event… because it is the eternal “us”… Most people think of themselves as being a body and a personality… and they think of their awareness as being a part of their body… they consider that their body and personality is their self…so they think that when their body dies, their awareness dies with it…they are scared of death, and want to live forever, but don’t realize that their subconscious mind does live forever… that the subconscious mind is the self… the body investigation is a process of analyzing the physical body looking for a self… you can only realize and conclude that the body is a non self that will die and rot away… that your mind is the self… and since your conscious mind can’t remember your past life, but your subconscious mind can… that your subconscious mind is your “eternal self”… and that it is full of delusion, and needs to be purified… 5)… Then by “holding our conscious mind in “neutral awareness” (the middle path) until our subconscious mind accepts it as reality… causing our delusion to shatter amid loud rumbling noises, and flashing lights… and we feel as if we have just awakened from a long hypnotic dream… and now the delusion seems so obvious, that we wonder how it could have fooled us… Delusion is entirely a result of the concept of “good” and “evil” (bad)… labeling everything as good or bad is delusion, because the only thing that is good or bad is the intention of our actions…everything else just is, and is neutral in itself… the world must be seen entirely as neutral cause and effect… our intention (good or bad) is the “cause” and “karma” (good or bad) is the effect… if our intentions are neutral, we make no karma… this is why an awakened person makes no karma… and this is why we need to hold this mind set in our conscious mind until our subconscious mind accepts it as reality… in order to reach awakening… 6)… We have purified our subconscious mind (sixth chakra) permanently and destroyed the delusion in it, so there is no longer a voice of delusion… so now our conscious mind (seventh chakra) is blissfully empty, serenely peaceful, and all we can hear is silence…the sound of one hand clapping… Once you destroy delusion, your subconscious mind is permanently purified… Dawg

Dmattwads, No matter what anyone "claims"... you can never reach enlightenment by reciting a mantra... all it will do is make good karma for you... to reach enlightenment you must destroy the delusion in your subconscious mind... otherwise you are still creating karma, and if you are still creating karma, you will continue to be born and die Dawg

Dmatts, Does doing meditation to quiet the mind build good karma and/or reduce bad karma? Meditation gives you good karma, but a lot of good karma will only get you to a high heavenly realm… then when you use up you good karma, you will go to a hell realm to get rid of bad karma… then you will reincarnate… good karma will not get you any closer to awakening… "you have seen and confronted the monster of delusion that has controlled you all of your life… you have flushed it out in the open, and confronted it… it is no longer an abstract concept… it is real, and you have seen its nature… " Is this awareness that you speak of what makes the voice of protest that I experience during meditation so "loud"? If the voice doesn’t like what you are doing, keep doing it… ! you don’t want the voice to like what you are doing…! If your breath is uncomfortable… don’t try to link it with the Buddho… just let your breath be whatever it wants to be… let it be free… Don’t think about the voice or respond to it in any way if you can… just keep doing the Buddho… and think of the voice as “childish ignorance Send me a personal message and describe the voice in as much detail as you can… what it says, tone of voice, does it sound like a thought, or does it sound like someone talking to you… whatever your impression of it is… this might give me some useful information… Dawg

Edward, The subconscious mind is your sixth chakra (and third eye) which controls your five lower chakras… so when you “release dense energy blockages” in the lower chakras, you feel it in your subconscious mind… But to purify the subconscious mind, you must destroy the delusion in your subconscious mind…because it is the delusion in your subconscious mind, that is causing the dense energy blockages… If you raise the kundalini , it will temporarily purify your chakas and open your third eye, and it will temporarily push your delusion aside but not destroy it… your delusion will still control your subconscious mind, and will create the same chakra blockages as before… ………………………………………………………………………….. The only way to permanently purify the subconscious mind (6th chakra) is to destroy the delusion that controls the subconscious mind… and only the conscious mind (7th chakra) can do that by systematically turning the delusion into neutral awareness… First by learning to control the conscious mind, and turning off the voice of the subconscious mind…. Then by investigating, understanding, and letting go of anger and greed… and we never get angry again… (and righteous indignation is anger too) Then by reaching equanimity, and accepting other people and their beliefs just the way they are… their business is their business, and our business is our business… and we never have another argument Then by realizing that we are a “spirit (subconscious mind) with a body”, not a “body with a spirit”, and realizing that our “body” and “personality” (conscious mind) are not “us”, they are temporary just for this life… that our spirit (subconscious mind) is the eternal ‘us”… Then we hold our conscious mind in a state of “neutral awareness” (the middle path) until our subconscious mind accepts it as reality… and when we least expect it, delusion suddenly shatters amid loud rumbling noises, and flashing lights… and we feel as if we have just awakened from a long hypnotic dream… and the delusion now seems so obvious, that we wonder how it could have fooled us…We have purified our subconscious mind (sixth chakra) permanently and destroyed delusion, so there is no longer a voice of delusion… so now our conscious mind (seventh chakra) is blissfully empty, and all we can hear is silence…the sound of one hand clapping… Dawg

Dmatts, My guess is that you have not been sitting in Samadhi for a while because of other activities that take up your time… so that your Samadhi (concentration) has dissipated… if you start sitting in Samadhi again it should quickly return to its previous level… The delusion in your subconscious mind is trying to regain control of your conscious mind… because the Samadhi that previously held it at bay has dissipated… in a way this is a good experience for you, because you have seen and confronted the monster of delusion that has controlled you all of your life… you have flushed it out in the open, and confronted it… it is no longer an abstract concept… it is real, and you have seen its nature… (I copied and expanded this from the post on page 1… but it is still relevant … and this is what I mean when I say “be indifferent”… don’t respond to negativity with negativity )… realize that those thoughts (the voice in your head) are not you… that those thoughts were put in your head (subconscious mind) sometime in the past by someone else, to control you… forgive that anonymous person (or persons) for putting those thoughts in your head, and send them some “love”, whoever they are, and wherever they may be (they probably need some love)… then forgive yourself for accepting the thoughts, and feel some love for yourself, for all the good things you are… hug yourself, and say to yourself, “I love the goodness of the spirit within me”… (your subconscious mind itself if good and is just trying to help you, the problem is all the conditioning that other people have dumped in it)… then let go of it all, and breathe deeply and freely… You can try using the sound tapes I posted for you near the bottom of page 1… all of them still play, but the sound of the whales needs to be clicked on twice which takes you to Utube… Focus your awareness on them, to block the voice of delusion… use them instead of the “Buddho”... think of it this way… if one person is talking to you, it is almost impossible to not hear them… but if two people are talking to you, you can focus your attention on one of them and ignore the other… just sit and passively observe the sound washing over you… but don’t follow it (don’t think about it)… just relax and empty your mind… Be totally indifferent to the voice of delusion, and dismiss it as “childish ignorance”… you only need to think it, “the voice” (your subconscious mind that has the mentality of an irrational child) can hear your thoughts in your conscious mind… and whenever the voice says something, indifferently brush it off with the thought, “childish ignorance”…! See if that works until you can build up the strength of your concentration (Samadhi)… Dawg

Iain, If you do Sandhya at dawn and dusk, it puts your mind in a good spiritual place for the day, and a good spiritual place for evening and night… it will help you to make good karma most of the time… the feeling it gives you is like a tiny taste of the heavenly realms… When you die you will go to a heavenly realm, but still have samsara… All the people in the heavenly realms still have samsara… even the gods in the god realm have samsara, they were born and will die, and have made good and bad karma, and will reincarnate… only a few realms at the very top called the happy abodes contains people who will not reincarnate, but will experience awakening in that abode, and reach nirvana there… None of the gods own or control the spirit world… our subconscious mind which is our spirit is the part of us that goes to the spirit world… it sends us to a place full of people like ourselves, who will treat us like we treated other people when we were alive… that is why it is said that, “we will reap what we have sown… In the spirit world you speak to others by using telepathy… everyone can hear your thoughts, and understand exactly what you mean… it is perfect communication… and it is impossible to lie... if two or three of us spoke different languages, each of us would hear the other two in our own language… if I used telepathy to speak to a group of people who speak different languages in the physical world… all of them would hear me in their own language… I would be doing what is called “speaking in tongues”… The heavens are amazing, and not at all like anything I imagined… everything is solid like in the physical world… I have seen snow covered mountains… 17th century sailing ships sailing on a sparkling sea… day and night… I have driven around in a car through what looked like the leafy surburbs of Los Angeles… there are building of every period and date… castles built in the clouds… buildings that change shape and color as you walk through them… buildings that look small on the outside, but on the inside there is a maze of wide corridors with doors on both sides, and each door opens into a couple of rooms that opens out into a different world… I have even seen the Elysian Fields, the high heaven of the ancient Greeks full of people who lived more than two thousand years ago… the happy hunting ground of the American Indians, and the dream time of the Australian aborigines, and every other heaven is somewhere in the spirit world… the spirit world is vast and it contains many things that are not obvious… The heavens were created by the people who have lived in them… you can create things with your thoughts, so you sometimes see strange things… You can travel about in three ways… you can walk, you can fly, or you can instantly jump to any destination… I won’t describe a hell realm, or demon realm, or ghost realm, because from your words, I assume you will go to a heavenly realm when you die, then when you have used up your good karma, you will spend a short time in a mild hell realm to get rid of bad karma, then have a good birth… Dawg