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Take the Backward Step On a forum site I frequent, someone wrote: Even if you have no identity, you still exist. As what? The spirituality that I follow would say “as existence”, or “as pure consciousness”. I was reminded of Nisargadatta, a famous teacher who lived in India in the last century: You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of “I am”. It is without words, just pure beingness. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself. (Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self – Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Direct Pointers to Reality]. Mumbai: Zen Publications. ISBN 978-9385902833) “The consciousness should give attention to itself”—in thirteenth-century Japan, Eihei Dogen wrote: Therefore, …take the backward step of turning the light and shining it back. (“Fukan zazengi” Tenpuku version; tr. Carl Bielefeldt, “Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation”, p 176) That’s a poetic way to say “the consciousness should give attention to itself”. I used to talk about the location of consciousness, but a friend of mine would always respond that for him, consciousness has no specific location. As a result, I switched to writing about the placement of attention: There can… come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence. (A Way of Living) In his “Genjo Koan”, Dogen wrote: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. (“Genjokoan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Tanahashi) Given a presence of mind that can “hold consciousness by itself”, activity in the body begins to coordinate by virtue of the sense of place associated with consciousness. A relationship between the free location of consciousness and activity in the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, “practice occurs”. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested in the activity of the body. Dogen continued: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (ibid) “When you find your way at this moment”, activity takes place solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. A relationship between the freedom of consciousness and the automatic activity of the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested as the activity of the body. I sit down first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and I look to experience the activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. As a matter of daily life, just to touch on such experience as occasion demands—for me, that’s enough.

Good point . The bedrock , regolith and intrusions and mineral seams play an important part in this . Much of the 'energy' in Australia , specifically in the dry interior , is basically so old and eroded its 'skeletal' . We have some of the first cratons ever formed as the Earth solidified here . Many years ago I was fascinated by a dream phenomena I was having ; I would be walking through the forest , up to the back ridge of the property , everything normal, then the next step, I would be somewhere else , as if I stepped though a 'portal' . I had an indigenous elder visiting and asked him about this . He asked me to describe it . I said the spot where things changed is where the old lightening tree is ( a spot that gets hit by lightening sometimes ; one bolt hit a big tree there , blew the outer wood off in four pieces in four directions , the crown got blown to 'smithereens' , the interior upper part got wedged down sideways through the thick, split base making a weird blackened cross on the hill ) . He closed is eyes and sussed out the energy ; " It 'comes out ' down there in the ground .... somehow ( it was night, he had not seen the terrain in daytime , arriving that night . He had pointed out and down at a window . I told him that is right as out there the land drops steeply away and goes down to the river . I told him about the unusual rock formation there and a little yoni shaped cave at water level . he nodded and said, " Yes .... women's place .... probably birthing pool . It comes up here in a line , through your place , over there and goes up steep ." Me : " Thats 'Pyramid Hill ' its pretty 'energetic up there . " " Then it turns, rises steeply , comes near the surface , probably at that tree , goes up, keeps going, leaves the land behind . Thats where you 'step off' in your dream . " I talked to a guy that was into 'magick stuff' that was also a professor in geology , he said it is probably a quartz seam, where they come near the surface they attract lightening . Not many can handle this energy , I like it . I got my place as no one else wanted it . One woman that was thinking of buying before me slept her one night and said she never would do that again . However many people I know (including my indigenous teacher ) like to go to Nimbin and a feature there 'Lillian Rocks ' - I can t go near the place ! Gets weird vibes just doing a drive by . And at nearby Cathedral Rocks , like the place , but stay longer than an hour a bad headache develops . Having two huge boulders either side of the track in that look like two matching big brained alien heads is a good intro the place Also, at the top (if you make it ) there is a step up with a small cave under it . It gives a strong message to put your hand in . Why ? What is in there ? Something good, or a tiger snake ? even so I could not resist the compulsion, had to lie down and put arm in up to the shoulder, then I felt a little rock, picked it up , it was a black smokey quartz crystal . I took it home and told the story. Someone said I should show it to Loris and tell him . I did , apparently he had exactly the same experience and has a black crystal from there too . he said I should talk to Eleni . I did , she had the exact experience but put her hand in plan up and a crustal fell onto it from the roof of the little cave ! The top :

I dont dream about being naked . I dream about other people being naked though ; Taoist Texts , Apech, Steve , Limnal Luke ....

I see, I remember the reality as a dream being part of teachings in yogas of dream and sleep. I never took it seriously, I'm sure the teachers too would be well aware of the difference of a lion eating a leg in a dream vs reality. It's a useful suggestion during the day for the purposes of having lucid dreams at night though. A suggestion can cause an outcome even if based on false premises, even if someone knows the premises to be false. Eg it's been measured that if a doctor gives a sugar pill to their patients and openly says it may work because of placebo, then , even though the patient knows, placebo still may kick in. If someone believes the statement, suggestion is even more powerful ( even if the statement itself is false ) Bicameral mind is a hypothesis, likely untestable and unverifiable. We probably will never know if it's true or not, unless we find a well preserved brain from that era and also test the hypothesis on it. I wanted to use a non-clinical example to examine how everyone's subjective reality at some point intersects with physical reality even assuming a completely different state of consciousness. I don't believe in miracles of that flavour, ie walking on water. I choose to accept synchronicities as true/believe in them even though they're not subject to scientific testing , so neither probable nor falsifiable. But if something is falsifiable then I won't believe in it. Biblic visions on the other hand could be eg daydreaming+synchronicities. For me spirituality is about something entirely different to miracles, it's about integration beyond parts of self, ie about experiencing interconnectedness.

I once had a dream where I went to work naked, and in the dream everybody was annoyed with me. Not because I was naked at the office, but I was naked at the office on the wrong day. Apparently if someone came in naked on the wrong day, it could jeopardize the chances of an office vacation to Cancun. My real life is far less interesting.

Sort of like an undercurrent of a pleasant, vivid, semi-lucid dream.

Imo it does make a difference, eg if miracles were true, and all humans could do them aka step through the tree, which means physical laws wouldn't need to be obeyed by humans, then there's no need to symbolise the tree. Impossibility of miracles is what makes the tree in your yard real as opposed to a tree seen in a dream. Otherwise reality would be like a lucid dream where we can do all sorts of stuff. We all are a collection of parts, all modern forms of therapy reflect that in one way or another in their personality structure models. These parts were created as we grew up and developed. Integrating these parts is key and a lifelong process, at its core, this is what (longer term) therapy does. Here though what I was referring to is beyond these parts. Perhaps a better way of putting it is, realisation of and integration of ( or to ) a part of us that transcends self. For me that's what spirituality is about, experiencing interconnectedness.

'You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of 'I am'. It is without words, just pure beingness. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself. (Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self - Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj's Direct Pointers to Reality]. Mumbai: Zen Publications. ISBN 978-9385902833) Question is, how to Incorporate that experience in daily life, no? Dogen wrote: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. (“Genjo Koan”, Dogen, tr. Tanahashi) Given a presence of mind that can “hold consciousness by itself”, activity in the body begins to coordinate by virtue of the sense of place associated with consciousness. A relationship between the free location of consciousness and activity in the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, “practice occurs”. The “place where you are”, the “fundamental point”, is “actualized”. Dogen went on: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (“Genjo Koan”, Dogen, tr. Tanahashi) Activity can take place solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. “When you find your way at this moment”, habit and volition in the activity of the body has ceased, first and foremost with regard to the movement of breath. Instead, the activity of the body comes automatically with the free location of consciousness. I sit down first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and I look to experience the activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. As a matter of daily life, just to touch on such experience as occasion demands—for me, that's enough. (hopefully part of an upcoming post of mine) As Neil Young sang: It's hard to make that changeWhen life and love turns strangeAnd cold To give a love You gotta live a love To live a love You gotta be part of When will I see you again? ("A Man Needs A Maid")

When we think of both dream and supposed waking life, we think they are completely different. However they are different in stability but in actuality they are quite similar. I think analysing dream reality and uncovering it's rules helps us better understand waking reality. Those could say that waking reality is also dream reality just more stable. When we dream our minds projects a reality. Our 5 senses still work, we have a dream body. In most cases when we dream we treat the dream as real and experience suffering due to attachment as similar in waking reality. What's interesting is within a dream, when we come to the realisation we are just dreaming and all experience is unreal/illusion, our attachment to our situation is greatly reduced including our suffering. Looking into Dzogchen togal recently I couldn't help but question the current waking reality we exist in. Maybe just like in a dream, our bodies and dream is just a projection, in waking reality maybe it is no different. We are experiencing projections of our own mind, our body and senses are also projections. Maybe reality like a dream will have less of a hold on us if we start to believe it might not be as real as it seems.

The "unreal" position is really a Mahamudra/Vajrayana proposition, just to acknowledge our Theravada friends who would talk about this in a different way. The relative and absolute proposition is that both are "real", but not in the same way or at the same level. While the relative has its own internal consistency and makes sense self-referentially, it is not how reality absolutely is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_truths_doctrine I have read Ken Wilber pose it as something like: "Absolute reality includes but supercedes relative reality". So the always changing relative is, in a sense, dreamlike because it isn't truly comprised of objects that have any permanent reality, whereas the "emptiness" (or maybe awareness might be a more useable term) is omnipresent. What "we" actually ARE is this "emptiness"/awareness, so "we" also are omnipresent. This is of course a conceptual description lacking massive amounts of nuance and depth of understanding. My observation is that, as insight deepens, reality DOES become less real. "Self" is silent and centerless and mostly no longer internally or externally a referential construct. Time and space continue to lose solidity as an experience. There is a frequent flow of synchronicity (using THIS definition), increases in deeper intuition that are nearly mind-reading, increasing sleeping and waking visionary experiences and more. Having done a little reading on Magick (mostly Chaos Magick), I see how most "spells" only work where there is at least some internal logic for how they might manifest. This is a fundamental recognition of how reality is, in my opinion. My sense of reality is softened in a number of aspects, so there are venues for how certain things might be manifested now. The more these boundaries are stretched, the more some things become possible. I can't walk through a tree, but maybe it is possible to soften things to that degree at some point? I don't know. The more possible walking through a tree seems, the more likely it is to happen? Having said all of that, this doesn't mean that anyone else will be able to see or experience what is experienced by the yogi. The idea of there being a single causal relative reality just isn't real, in my opinion. My experience is that it IS a dream-like and ephemeral as the Diamond Sutra suggests: I think the tree appears as a tree because your "story" of the world (karma) is arising at the moment you view the tree, along with your story about where you live, who you are, how the world is and all of the other sensate phenomena. It is a construction of this moment, lasting as it appears, just for this moment. The trees reality depends on your internally consistent experience of it, whether you can hang from it, climb it, gather olives from it, or walk through it.

why can’t you walk through the wall in your dream- do you have repressed wall traumas?

you guys are so funny with this 'walk through the tree a reality test' business.;) i can walk through air - is air unreal? a radio-wave goes right through the tree - is the tree unreal? i cannot walk through a wall in my dream - is the wall real? hehe;)

I'm looking for a solution to a problem posed by the 'unreal' position in Buddhism, where we are often encouraged to view the world as like a dream or a magic display etc. I find this unsatisfactory although I understand the basis for it. In my view the tree is a real tree as distinct to an imaginary tree - this distinction is perhaps magnified by the modern tendency towards 'fantasy' and the the like and the preference for the imaginary digital world over the substantial 'real' existence - even though the latter may at time be dull and uninspirational. I appreciate that perception is far from the simple camera lens analogy which we sometimes use. Much of what we call perception is interpretation by our brains using a world model built from both our indivaidual experience and encoded experience from millions of years of evolution. In that sense we carry a world in our heads which forms the basis for each actual incidence of seeing. But that doesn't remove the question of whether the observed is real - is the tree real and what distinguishes from an unreal tree. I am not sure about the 'bicameral mind' which I believe has received some criticism in recent years. But I am sure that early man was much more open to what Blake would call imaginative vision. Angels in trees and wotnot. We used to have an access to reality which surpassed what our narrow minds will now let us see. I am sure of this. Well there are plenty of stories of people doing exactly that kind of thing. Miracles as they are called in the Bible or, for example yogis putting their foot and hand prints in solid rock. If a great mystic came and wolked through my tree I don't think this would make it any less real. I just think that this would tell us something about the fundamental nature of the real - something we previously did not understand.

Because trying to step through it will fail, unlike eg in a dream where you can step through a tree. Reality obeys laws that are independent of how we constructed the tree-object inside our minds.

This is a great question for investigation. What does "real" feel like? What is the basis for designation of "real"? What would an illusory tree feel like? How should a tree feel if it wasn't real? The other day, I was touching a mirror with my fingers as a dream state reality check. It was reflective, resistant to my fingers, smooth, and solid to the touch. I tried to push my finger through it, but it didn't budge. It felt like many mirrors I had touched over the course of my life. But in this case, I was dreaming. Sat/asat is usually used in the way we use "real" and "unreal" in my experience.

Hi Chirising, Answers to your questions: Are form corrections more suited for one on one sessions? Or do you make these in the group sessions as well? I just assumed that wasn’t possible in a group zoom session. • In every group class, I instruct a round or two of practice where I watch everyone's practice. Sometimes, if I have a large group of in-person students and more than a handful of Zoom students, I may miss a form flaw by a remote student. Thus form corrections are naturally more thorough and complete during one-on-one private sessions. It would be cool if you visited my dream, though I understand you are a busy man, with better things to do than entertain me while I sleep. Not to boast of latent powers, but in some--not all--Chinese traditions, initiated students will warrant dream visitation from their master or from an ancestral lineage teacher through either exceptionally good behavior or exceptionally bad behavior. The comment from the real you about expectations is much more uplifting than the one from my projected Terry Dunn - very, very nice to hear! Enjoy the good and uplifting news from the real me. And since you brought him up, I had to clarify for you that my dream double only makes Kung Fu business calls! Enjoy your practice! Sifu Terry https://open.substack.com/pub/terencedunn/p/flying-phoenix-qigong-workshop-14-fb2?r=5i7g9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html

Powerful observations stimpy. The dream like quality of awareness in the aggregates of life has been with me since earliest childhood. My first conscious memory in this life was a dream so intense, that then led to an out of body experience. It forever imbued in me the dream like state of awareness as it interacts with the five aggregates and the indelible fact that my body is not the source of awareness... rather the body arises within awareness. Awareness is what is... all else arises and shifts within this... The nature of my experience in this waking life seems inextricably linked to the projections of mind, the conditioning and assumptions derived from conditioning. It is all so ephemeral, even the shared dream of waking life. One small insight can utterly transform my experience and interpretation of all that i encounter in 'the real world'. And my experiences in the dreamscapes have been at least equal to my awareness experiences in waking life in their ability to inform me about my own true nature due to how i react to stimuli and what this reveals about my nature. Due to this I have innately been predisposed to see the natural connection between the sleeping dream state and the waking dream that we all share as being layers of one overarching process, not seperate states. Even the manner in which we 'come online' in waking life is similar to how I become aware in the dream state. When i become lucid in dreams... the dream is ongoing, having already begun and i find myself in the midst of a process and then become aware of it. Similarly, the first few years of life are foggy but at some point in early childhood, our lucid awareness 'comes online' so to speak and we begin to form memory and the ability to have what we experience through awareness to inform and imprint upon us. The manner in which i awakened into reality mirrors exactly the manner in which i become lucid in the dream state nightly. Dzogchen was an immediate draw due to its deep, intimate exploration of the waking and sleep states of consciousness. The work of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in particular in his book Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, has been a potent companion to my lucid dream work over the years. If you're not familiar, there is a fantastic film called Waking Life, that explores the dream like nature of waking and sleeping life. My son and i revisit it once a year or so and it never ceases to inspire some potent conversations and exploration. Thanks for sharing mate... this topic is near to my core.

Wondering if anyone would enjoy sharing their alien encounters during the dream state here? I had an encounter with telepathic Nordic like humanoids who called themselves the blues. What was peculiar about the encounter was they were giving certain problem solving exercises and then observing, almost like scientists would design an experiment and record the results. I was not meant to see them and they were somewhat surprised when I firstly discovered their presence watching and then was able to interact with them. Conversation was telepathic. They could hear my thoughts and I could hear theirs. My visual picture of what they looked like was an energetic interpretation through my mind. At no stage did I feel any ill intent or malice on their behalf. I actually felt that they had a genuine caring attitude towards humans. I felt that they were many times more advanced than us. I ended the dream on their ship. The interior reminded me of a hotel with no windows. I understood the intelligence gathering of human beings for them was more of a commercial agreement with whom shall remain a mystery. I tried searching for anyone else who had encounter beings that called themselves the blues but haven't found anything yet. I hope others can share their experiences no matter how weird. After all it was only a dream but an extremely vivid one at that.

Dear Dao Bums, Here's my experience with Tulku Lobsang (known for doing Tummo in -5 degrees celsius on "Story of God With Morgan Freeman" on NGC). I'll share in 4 parts: 1) Intro and Background 2) Medicine Buddha 3) Dream Yoga 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued 1) Intro and Background I heard about Tummo when I was a child from my dad. He learnt about yoga on a hippie island camp full of naked women burning bras when he was a child, forced to go with my hippie grandmother in the 60s. He had a life changing experience as a child with yoga and mantras, while on this naked women camp. So in his late teens when small yoga and meditation workshops started in the West, he started attending. Buddhism was super famous in my country on the spiritual scene, as it still is in much of Europe with the New Age crowd I would say. While I grew up, my dad told me of naked monks in the snow-clad Himalayas drying wet sheets with their body temperature through magical yoga practices. So now the family saga continues; as an adult, I've also pursued further what my dad exposed me to as a child. This time, I saw Tulku Lobsang with Morgan Freeman. Being able to be comfortable in a t-shirt in -5 degrees on television I took as a "good enough" show of Tummo skill, that maybe I could finally pursue this magical practice myself. However, I still had some doubts. So, when I saw he was coming to my country, I decided to go check him out. If he "checked out" I would be willing to give it a go and fork over my hard earned cash to flight, hotel and the Tummo workshop (when the time comes). With the intro out of the way, let me share how it went! The first day he taught Medicine Buddha. The following 2 days it was one long workshop on Dream Yoga. 2) Medicine Buddha He gave us the mantra and we all chanted together for maybe 5-15 minutes. Then he instructed us step-by-step in the visualisation. After having stabilised the visualisation, we resumed chanting together (we were maybe 20-30 people). During his transmission, I felt a special kind of energy coming into my head center. I felt like it made it easier for me to visualise. I also felt the energy from each of the lights we visualised in all of my body, and felt pleasantly relaxed. Since this day, I've been doing a minimum of 108 reps of the mantra and then the visualisation meditation procedure he explained. Already on the second day of the practice, it's like the energy had increased in power. Now it's growing day by day with my daily practice. So far so good! He's definitely legit. 3) Dream Yoga My dad took me to a dream yoga weekend workshop when I was about 18-19 years old with a Rinpoche visiting my country. I thought the whole idea of lucid dreams and using them for spiritual practice was extremely fascinating, and even at that young age I practiced quite consistently for about 3 months (while also reading his book). However, I had no results whatsoever. Then again when I was in my mid 20s, I picked up the book again and decided to give it a go. I practiced again for about 2 months, but zero results. In my late 20s, I again read yet another book by a tibetan teacher on dream yoga. I tried it again. No results after 1 month. All of the above practices were the usual "visualise a red drop in your throat chakra, surrounded by a white lotus flower with 4 leaves". In this book there was also a tibetan letter on each leaf, and you said them one by one as a kind of mantra for a while, then proceeded to only visualise until falling asleep. However, at the end of this particular book was also a shamanistic bön practice for lucid dreaming. After 1 month of failing with the vajrayana buddhist practice, I tried the shamanic practice. After about 7-14 days, it happened! I was super excited. Then it would happen every single day like clockwork for about a week. However, with each day I felt like I got more and more tired. Like I used up energy while sleeping, instead of regaining it. I remembered a warning from a daoist qigong teacher who had (as usually) dissed buddhist practices, especially their dream practices. He said "night is for sleeping and resting, that's what nature intended". So I thought maybe my bön lucid dreaming practice was sapping my energy and discontinued it. Lo and behold, now I'm in my early 30s, and I was faced with yet another tibetan vajrayana buddhist practice of visualising a red drop in my throat. "Here we go again!" I found myself thinking, however I still had an open mind during the workshop. During the workshop I felt Tulku Lobsang transmitted different states as well as different energies. I also found him to be extremely grounded in Being, never losing connection to himself, even if some of the people were weird or asked weird questions etc. He remained in Being, very relaxed, very present and extremely grounded and Embodied. I was quite impressed! However, no succes with lucid dreaming, neither during the nights between the workshop days, nor during the workshops when we actually slept for 10-30 minutes under his guidance and blessing. I really felt he transmitted a lot of energy during these sleeping sessions on the workshop, but still no lucid dreams. However, now after the workshop, I have actually had 3-4 lucid dreams so far using the typical tibetan buddhist vajrayana practice with the red drop! Something that's never worked for me, even though I've tried it on/off since I was 19. So that also tells me that his transmission is legit! 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued So to wrap up, Tulku Lobsang is legit! He's extremely grounded in Being, in Presence and in his body, and he really does transmit states and energies. There's no more doubt in my mind - I will glady fork over my time and cash to learn Tummo from him when the time comes

Update: In my first week of practice after the retreat, out of 7 nights, I've managed to have 3 nights of lucid dreams. Overview 1. Night After The Retreat - lucid dreams one after the other (about 3-4 in a row during morning time) 2. Night After The Retreat - no lucid dreams 3. Night After The Retreat - lucid dreams one after the other (about 2-3 in a row during morning time) 4. Night After The Retreat - no lucid dreams 5. Night After The Retreat - lucid dreams one after the other (about 3-4 in a row during morning time) 6. Night After The Retreat - no lucid dreams 7. Night After The Retreat - no lucid dreams So 3 out of 7 nights something happened since the retreat, pretty good actually. Still not as good as a couple of years ago with the bön method where it was every single night like clockwork for a whole week, but let's see how it goes. My first preliminary observations and conclusions 1) all my lucid dreams from tibetan dream yoga have only occured in the morning hours, e-g. 5-8 in the morning. I usually wake up once or twice in a night to turn over (I sleep on my side). The last time I wake up to turn before actually having to get up, after that turn is usually when I get the lucid dreams. So either it's because I have actually rested quite a lot already, and the built up energy is what allows the lucid dream to happen. Or it's because of the environmental energy shifting from yin (night) to yang (day) with the sun rising, which boosts the lucidity. Or probably it's both. 2) In all lucid dreams in my life, I've never been able to change the environment. I am simply lucid in a set of surroundings, people and objects already present, and then I can move myself around and choose how to react to what's going on, but I can't change it. Only once did I have "power" over the environment back when I did the bön method. This is something I always pondered, how come I am lucid, but cannot control the dream? Because when reading about lucid dreams, control of the dream environment was one of the things most people spoke about. However, now I think it's to do with how strong one's dream body is. In my case, my dream body was the weakest of my bodies, so it's going to take some time with continous medicine buddha as well as dream yoga practice to build it stronger. Maybe I will get a further boost to my strength when I learn and start practicing tummo. 3) My sleep quality was worse, and I would wake up not fully rested when I did dream yoga earlier. This was also the case the first 3-4 days, however, now I feel it normalizing more and more from day to day. My sleep quality is returning to normal, I also fall asleep more naturally (whereas before it took me longer because I focused too hard on the visualisation while falling asleep) and lastly my level of feeling rested and recharged when I rise is also very close to normal now. This is a huge thing for me, and I feel it to be related to my dream body strength growing, as well as of course finding the balance between visualisation effort and letting go while falling asleep. "99% sleep, 1% awareness" is what Tulku Lobsang kept repeating during the retreat. I was probably more like "100% awareness, 0% sleep"! Now I'm more relaxed, that helps a lot with falling asleep. Where To Go From Here Tulku Lobsang gives several progressions for dream yoga: Level 1) Stabilise your ability to have lucid dreams (have lucid dreams every night) Level 2) Start traveling around your environment in your lucid dreams every night Level 3) Start changing yourself in the environment (shift your own form) every night Level 4) Start changing the environment (multiply objects) every night Level 5) Start doing spiritual practice in your lucid dreams every night (this creates a "special dream body") Level 6) Create a "special dream body" (now you no longer travel within your own mind during dream yoga with your ordinary dream body, now you actually travel in the real, objective universe with a "special" dream body - more similar to what's normally called astral projection) - however, how to practice at this level he didn't elaborate on So I'm clearly still at the most basic level, level 1. It's probably going to take quite a while to complete each of these levels, so I'm arming myself with patience. Just stabilising lucid dreams every night would be a huge achievement seen from my current perspective. I'm going to keep on keeping on, and we'll see if learning and practicing daily tummo from next month or so will boost my dream yoga. Lastly, an underrated day practice that supports dream yoga is a kind of mindful attitude with everything that happens during the day, by saying to yourself "this is a dream, I'm dreaming". I've heard this from several lamas. I've not really taken it seriously, but I've tried to do it a few days. I feel like it actually let's you work out your dream body in your daily life. So it's like a "cheat code" to level up your dream body much faster. Now your dream body builds itself stronger BOTH during your daily life AND during your dream life. Each time you say "it's a dream, I'm dreaming" your start experiencing from your dream body, thereby feeding it experiences, working it out, and slowly building it bigger and stronger.

Hello Chirising, I'm glad to hear that you've been doing Vol.1 of the CKFH DVD series for 5 months now. However, I want to recommend that you do what both "Miffymog" and "Pak_Satrio" have suggested above: that you start concentrating on practicing Bending the Bows, a cornerstone moving meditation of the FP system, and practice it in complete sets of 18 repetitions, and also do "Wind Above the Clouds". Although FP Qigong has 3 stationary standing meditations in MGM, MHPeach and MHPearl, this powerful Qigong is ultimately a moving meditation system...because the goal of training is to (A) attain proficiency in the Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Chi Meditation (aka, the "Long Form Sanding Meditation" taught on Volume 4, which subsumes all the preceding standing meditations), and (B) memorize at least 8 of the 24 seated Monk Serves Wine Meditations. I’m wondering if I could get some input on what I could do to troubleshoot? My guess is to seek out a teacher in person. But if that’s the case, can I find any in Europe? • I don't have student-instructors in Europe yet, nor in the U.S. for that matter (--because attaining certification to teach FP Qigong is a very long apprenticeship that requires one to learn the Bok Fu Pai Kung Fu and the BFP Tui Na and Energy Healing skills, plus herbology-- that enable one to handle/treat any form of "internal energy sickness" that can arise from practicing the FP Qigong incorrectly--or from an attack by someone using martial Qi. Or is my best bet to save up for a trip to see Terry himself? • Short of coming to the U.S. in person, you can get form corrections from me, thorough feedback and advice as to how to perfect your FP practice by doing a private Zoom lesson or by taking a few of my weekly Zoom classes on Sundays 4-6pm EST, which is even more economical. But most effectively and efficiently of all, you can participate in my next 3-day, 14-hour immersive FP Qigong workshop on May 24-26 via Zoom. [ ** You can verify with FPCK subscribers "Tao Stillness", "Fu_Dog", "Earl Grey," Pak Satrio, "Astral Butterfly" (a Theravadan Buddhist nun), and others who have taken my online classes and workshops] A. Details about this May 24-26 workshop plus registration info are on this issue of my free monthly Newsletter: https://open.substack.com/pub/terencedunn/p/sifu-terry-dunns-tai-chi-and-qigong?r=5i7g9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true B. This is the May issue of my Newsletter with the schedule of my weekly classes in: Qigong for Health for 1st Responders (1 hr. of FP qigong following 1 hr. of Taois Elixir Method 31 Meditations), Intermediate Class (in Qigong and Basic Kung Fu), and Yang Tai Chi Chuan --during which all participants can ask questions and get form corrections and sufficient feedback to move forward. https://open.substack.com/pub/terencedunn/p/sifu-terry-dunns-tai-chi-and-qigong?r=5i7g9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true •• BTW, your dream of me on a swing came from your own mind. It's what we experienced hypnotherapists call "an early morning venting dream"--i.e., one that results from your own mental housekeeping--i.e. your mind resolving issues that you had not resolved during waking hours. And these venting dreams occur in the morning before you awaken. When I do visitations through dreamstate (very rarely), it is to initiates who are in the psychic and spiritual "groove" or "trunk" of Flying Phoenix Healing Qi from having cultivated a super-abundance of it through correct and diligent practice. And those advisory--or corrective--dreams come in the middle of the sleep cycle--during or right after REM sleep. Plus, in my 44 years of teaching, I have never had occasion to tell any student that their expectations for the Tai Chi, FP Qigong, or Tao Tan Pai Kung Fu they were learning from me were too high(!!!) Furthermore, the arts that I teach and preserve, such as FP Qigong and Taoist Elixir Method Nei Kung , HAVE NO CEILINGS as to their healing, restorative, and--I dare say-- their spiritually enlightening potential. So you can hold even higher expectations from this FP Qigong system than you alreadty presently have. And I will make certain that you experience this truth about these two arts (as well as the Tai Chi I teach)--if you work with me either in person or via my Zoom classes/workshops. Keep on practicing, Sifu Terry www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html

You didn't give a source, on your quote. As to "born to the rulers of the Sakyan clan": I know that while my father, the Sakyan, was ploughing, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, I entered on the first meditation, which is accompanied by initial thought and discursive thought, is born of aloofness, and is rapturous and joyful, and while abiding therein, I thought: ‘Now could this be a way to awakening?’ Then, following on my mindfulness, Aggivissana, there was the consciousness: This is itself the Way to awakening. This occurred to me, Aggivissana: ‘Now, am I afraid of that happiness which is happiness apart from sense-pleasures, apart from unskilled states of mind?’ This occurred to me…: I am not afraid of that happiness which is happiness apart from sense-pleasures, apart from unskilled states of mind.’ (MN 1 246-247, Pali Text Society Vol I pg 301) I'm thinking the rulers of the Sakyan clan didn't plow fields much, and Gautama was therefore probably not born to a ruler of the Sakyan clan. His aunt raised him, as his mother died at childbirth. Can't give a source on that, but I think it's commonly accepted. It was his aunt who, many years later, appealed to Gautama to admit woman to the order--or rather, Gautama's attendant Ananda appealed to Gautama on her behalf. Three times Ananda asked, and on the third Gautama relented and admitted them, warning that it would shorten the life of the Order from a thousand to five hundred years ("The Gotamid", Pali Text Society AN vol IV p181) One of the most amazing events in the history of Buddhism was the first schism, when the order of monks couldn't agree on whether or not an arahant (an enlightened individual) could have a wet dream (could be seduced by a Succubus, in their sleep). I believe that split was the beginning of the distinction between Theravadin and Mahayanin traditions (this from "Indian Buddhism", by A. K. Warder). A strange religion getting stranger. Gautama put forward a way of living that he said was: … something peaceful and choice, something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living too. (SN V 320-322, Pali Text Society SN V p 285) That way of living, Gautama said, was his way of living both before and after enlightenment. The fact that he recommended a way of living that could be realized without enlightenment gets lost, in all the hullabaloo about enlightenment. A favorite passage from the Pali sermons: But when walking along the highway, Nagita, I see nothing whatever in front nor behind, it suits me, even over the calls of nature. (AN VI, IV 42 Pali Text Society vol 3 p 243) Buddhism is a strange religion!

so what some don't get imo is that unconditionally throwing out all the babies with the bathwater is also a form of being or having a spiritually destructive and obedient (dis) belief. btw Spirit will try and use any form as a vehicle to get through our thick skulls, evil will try to do the same with any form to corrupt and destroy... btw I'd say that what is REAL in the vastness of all the upper, middle and lower astral realms or dimension's and or "dream time" worlds does not lend itself well to what is only known and understandable per human intellectual reasoning...thus being able to step off a "hundred foot pole" would at least be problematic!

A few comments fwiw... Visualization practice and daydreaming are closely related as both involve fixing the attention in imagery, one spontaneous and the other contrived at first, ultimately becoming spontaneous. As we sharpen our familiarity and degree of focus in generating a mental image, it is no surprise that dreaming (day and/or night) may become more vivid and more pronounced. Headaches, as mentioned, are likely a sign of too much tension and effort. In the Bön paradigm, violence in our dreams suggests activation of (or fixation on) the throat chakra which is related to the asura (demi-god) realm. Characteristics of this realm include a tendency toward endless violence related to pride, wrath, a sense of lack or need, and related emotions. Our day (and night) dreams reflect whatever is affecting us in life at any given moment. This includes suppressed and repressed psychological content, memories and so on, but also whatever we are exposed to in our day to day. Are we watching or reading news (violence), are we playing video games (violence), practicing martial arts (violence), watching films and series (so much violence)? Is there repressed/suppressed violence in our past or that of our loved ones and ancestors? It's certainly present in our societies - we are immersed in and pervaded by violence if we are not cautious consumers and this will undoubtedly be reflected in our dream life. What to do? If working with deity visualization, deity yoga, mantra and so forth, I think it's very important to have some expert guidance. This includes transmission and permission to practice. In Bön and Buddhism there is a practice called the Six Lokas practice. This is a way to purify and transform negative emotions and interrupt dysfunctional patterns related to being stuck in one of the six samsaric realms through visualization and mantra. Dream Yoga is another wonderful practice for addressing when we are stuck in samsaric patterns and experiences. These are just two examples, not intended to be personalized recommendations. My own practice focuses much more on a dzogchen approach at this point. I think it's important for each of us to find what fits and works well for us. Finally, doing whatever we can to address the psychological variable and our relationship to external stimuli are critical pieces of the spiritual puzzle.