Okay, so here's the questions that came in the the range all over the place. Some of them are relatively easy to address a little bit. Some of them are a little bit more involved. So here's one from Hannah. I understand. So this is for the sleep doc, but I can handle this one. I understand regular coffee stays on the body and can interfere with sleep. How about decaf is the small amount of caffeine and decaf still a concern? Okay. Yes, the halflife of coffee is anywhere from five to seven hours. So if you drink something around noon, you get 50% of it in your system five to seven hours later. decaf does not mean non Caf. There's definitely caffeine and decaf. And again, it depends on what you're getting. Is a small amount of caffeine and decaf still a concern? Well, only if you have like a deficiency of a cytochrome which is a particular enzyme that breaks down the caffeine and will keep you up all night. I mean, I know people I'm sure you do. He can drink a little tiny cup of coffee in the morning and they have trouble falling asleep. 14 hours later. I know other people that can drink, you know espressos and a ton of caffeine. Just before going to sleep. It doesn't affect them at all. So is it is it still a concern? It's idiosyncratic it depends on you. And so play with it, see what works for you. But the standard rule is just that half life five to seven hours for regular caffeine. decaf is not non calf. And there was a small amount and that really just depends on you and whether you have the ability to metabolize and process this quickly. Okay. Here's one from Kara. How will I know when it is right to apply for a long term retreat? Nice question. Well, it depends on how long you think a long term retreat is for you. Are you thinking week, month, three years? The fact that you're actually asking the question could suggest Kira that it is time to explore and it's a really powerful thing to do. I'm a huge fan of long retreats. I mean, I've done a three year retreat. I do my annual retreats. And so I juxtapose these long, extended practices. Those of you who know work with me a little bit my big thing these days or has been for years or short sessions repeated often. So I work with both I work with these tiny little practices that you can do with moment of flash, one breath meditation, literally just flashing and then long term retreats and so it would depend on how long you want to go but it's really healthy. I might recommend doing like a week long program either I mean, guys, there's so many centers bare rock. So many places do these types of programs that that 10 centers that are done at Shambala, mountain Shamala centers, those are really cool all the time. It's one of those sessions in the Zen tradition, they tend to be a little bit more rigorous, but depending on where you are and what your aspirations are, long term retreat starting. If you haven't done anything, first thing I would do is I'd recommend a weekend. If you haven't already done that I recommend a week. And then just like anything else where you work your way up, the next thing would be a month. The next thing a three month thing and doing it at first with a group is helpful because you have the group support. I did all my I wouldn't say all the vast majority of my practices until my three year retreat were done in a group setting. So the fact that you're asking the question seems to suggest to me that it might be the right time to apply for long term beauty. If you're here and want to come on. It really kind of depends on how long you're looking for. I recommend it it's just it's a great way to to just be stretched a little bit right. Stretching is good for growth. So depending on where you are, where you live, what your aspirations are I am a huge fan of it. Honestly, it's the single most important thing I do in my life or my practices. If there's one thing I never come out of retreat, I never look back and say gosh, I wish I would have gone to Palm Springs to play golf. I always look back and say wow this was a week really well that this was a month that it was fantastic. I mean, why three years was like this the best thing I've ever done in my life. So I really if you're there, go for it. Go for it. If you want some follow up on that more than welcome to come on and we can talk more okay from rich many near death experiencers describe an afterlife of loving support and reuniting with transition loved ones they do indeed. How convincing are these experiences in describing the nature of the afterlife? How are in the accounts included explained in the Buddhist Dharma okay. How convincing are they? Jeez, Richard, it depends on you, right. I mean, here's the deal with these things. They're, they're true for the person who went through the experience, right? So, I mean, that's what really counts is you read something like Eben Alexander's Proof of Heaven. I mean, I mean, how many books are out there now and the indie literature, it is colossal. There's so much out there. How convincing are they? Well, for the people that experience them, they're really convincing. Perhaps it goes without saying, how convincing are they to me? Does it really matter? I mean, who am I to say, oh, geez, you're just having some type of hallucination and actually, I get a little tweak. When people do this. I was working with some scientists after Evan had his MBE and I mean, I really appreciate it respect these people. So I won't name them. But they just they just shredded. They just they ripped in this whole thing. I was it was he was hallucinating. He wasn't. And I'm going like, I mean, how can you possibly say that? So how convincing are they I you know, who am I to say I'm very, very hesitant to impose my views. And say these are just like hallucinations, who's to say, but the last one is probably the interesting part. The last aspect of your question, how do these accounts? How are they explained in Buddhist Dharma? Well, there's a number of ways principle here which would be the three stages of the inner dissolution or the fifth stage of the outer dissolution. So depending on how fast you are with these eight stages, it stage five, a number of hallucinations commonly take place. And when you read these, they're they're completely resonant with a great deal. Of what are talked about his Andes. And also especially stage six was called the stage of by the parents. When basically what's happening there is the white binder from the top of the head in inner yogic approaches is dropping through the central channel. That's experienced, this is a white light going through a tunnel, right? I mean, how many times have you heard that? And so the stage six, stage seven, the stage of white appearance and red increase, also really resonated with a lot of net near death experiences. So you can take basically stage five, six and seven of the distribution accounts in the painful Bardo nine and they're highly resonant with near the near death experiences. So if you want to explore that further, that's the place to go. Also, that it was called the day lock tradition, d l, o, G. There's a fair developing literature on that took the tuner Rinpoche his book, peaceful death, joyful rebirth talks about, I don't know 678 different accounts of this. There's also an entire book by that title by jumping to Gucci's mother literally called de lock, which is all about this, these they're the death returners, the people that go through voluntarily they voluntarily die. Not die a near death experience. They don't go all the way through the Bardot's because once you go through stage eight, at least according to the Tibetans, it's it's irretrievable you're not coming back. So all the NDAs are basically one through seven of the stages of dissolution. So that's the best I can do. I don't have any personal experience or recollection of this. So I am at this point speaking as a mouthpiece for the tradition. Okay, here's one from generally this is one if you're here, boy, I could use some little clarity on this. Hi, Andrew would you advise one? How would you advise anyone to approach dying in a lucid dream?
Would it be a good idea to recite a mantra or focus one's attention at the crown of the head? Or should such practices be reserved for the time to one's actual death? So what's opaque to me here is how does one approach dying in a lucid dream? In other words, how do you choose to read this? Are you asking how do you approach the end of physical life using lucid dreaming? Or are you asking how do you approach actually working with dying in a lucid dream? In other words, can you actually work with the seeming appearance of dying in a lucid dream? And so if you're asking that, then I would say one of the best things you could do to practice dying in a lucid dream is actually fall back. So your lucid dreams a really cool thing if you haven't done it, it's a really cool thing to do. And you're in a lucid dream. And you literally Okay, dream body, even though there isn't one you think there is but there isn't. You're having a lucid dream and you go okay, what did you want me to do? Oh, fall back. And so literally, whatever, whatever position you're in, and the dream, whatever it is, just try it. It's pretty awesome. I'm not going to tell you what happens because I want you to see for yourself but literally just fall back in the lucid dream. And then and then maybe your dream avatar will disappear. And that's fantastic. Because if the dream avatar dies, it doesn't mean you die. It just means that particular emanation and the dream disappears. And so this is a wonderful kind of analog to what happens when you die physically at the end of this life. This particular avatar which you now think is so real as real as you think your nighttime dream is gonna die. But the real you doesn't. So now if you're asking something like how does one approach lucid dreaming? How does approach a dying and lucid dream? Hello, hello, I'm here. Oh, yeah, so help me What are you asking here? Thank you.
Yes. So in the last dream group, I shared a dream in which I died or seemed to die in the dream. Yes, in the dream pool. And so another participant suggested focusing one's attention at the crown of the head, or reciting a mantra, if something like that were to happen again, like if I were to have this dream in which I'm dying, oh, there was another participant who had heard that that should be practiced only if you're actually dying physically. Okay. We were like looking for a little clarification.
Got it. Got it. Got it. I would, I would say that is completely fine. This is a wonderful thing to do, not only when you're dying in a lucid dream, but also when you're having any particular groundless experience in life. I would, in fact, practice I would, in fact, do, I would recite a mantra, either on Monday Padme home or on army day, one, three, those are the two principal mantras to say. And then I would focus my attention on the top of my head is a type of emergency POA so I personally you don't see why you have to reserve that for the end of one's life because you want to develop the habit of doing this. And if you can actually do it in a lucid dream, that's a fantastic thing to do. So that's the way I would roll with this. recite the mantra. Bring your awareness to the top of your head. And then I'm curious what happened to you when you died? Did you Did you experience any anxiety, any fear? Or what was your actually your actual experience in that dream?
Well, it was really interesting. What happened in the dream is that I was standing with a woman and then that sort of force came charging toward us and through us backward through the window. And so I knew that I was going to die. Everything was kind of happening in slow motion. And I was just kind of anticipating that moment. And then as I landed, and I sort of like alley behind this building, I could see a brick wall and all these wooden crates piled up next to it, as and I'll add like a flashing light, kind of like a police light, but it was totally colorless. And I just lay there saying staring at this like not sure if I was dead or alive, but I became lucid at that moment. And I was trying to maintain my lucidity by reminding myself I was dreaming and trying to be active, but I found that I could not move my body at all, but I was just stuck there in this alley. And so at that point, I tried to spin I thought, Oh, maybe I need to change scenes to make it a little more interesting. But I couldn't feel my my dream body at that point anymore. I could feel my body lying in bed, but I was still staring out at this static scene except for that flashing green light. And then what was interesting is that as I stayed in that spot, the outline of the bathroom door in my actual physical bedroom kind of merged with the scene of the brick wall and the crates. And then it slowly kind of took over what I was seeing visually, and my eyes were open and I have no idea at what point my eyes actually opened at what point I actually woke up.
Oh, that's an awesome dream. But it doesn't sound like it was a ton of anxiety and fear. Right? It sounds like it was more just a kind of interesting experience. You're not sharing anything about being anxious or afraid. Right?
Yeah, no, it was like high degree matter of fact kind of attitude about it. I was like, Oh, this is what's helped me. I thought back to two people I've known who died in the past couple years, and I was just like, oh, this is kind of what they experienced before they died. You know? Like, they kind of forged this path before me and was kind of the thought that occurred to me. Yeah, and I just, I just kind of went with the flow.
Perfect. I love these kinds of dreams. Honestly, whenever I have them, either non lucid or lucid. I really groove on them. So good for you. And the fact that you're having this kind of bleed through between the dream state and the waking state. That's also not uncommon. You know, you're kind of coming out and having this semi hypnopompic kind of experience. But yeah, I mean, good for you. To paraphrase or to reiterate, would recite the mantra, and I would do the thing at the top of the head. It's just a wonderful habit. And if you can actually practice and exercise that habit in a dream, that's a really good thing. Because that's the type of memory that you can also bring the recall that you can bring when you are in the dream at the end of time, right, the Bardo. And that can really help you so that's the way I would relate to it. Okay, all right. Thank you. And Cara, I see you so I heard your question. I didn't see you there. If you want your hands up, I'm gonna pick you because I think you had the question about applying for a long term retreat, right?
Well, yes, and one of the funny things is when I'm say long term, I mean long and I've been trying to apply for the CCR for Allen Wallace's Fantastic, fantastic. It says that it saves your application, but because it's a Buddhist website, it disappears every time. So I'm like, Okay, well, I haven't. But one. One of the questions is what do you think your biggest impediment to doing a long term retreat was? And I put Well, obviously, HBO, Netflix and Hulu, and that is, I remember you talking about this withdrawal from this from media, you know, because I've been since my husband died. Two weeks before COVID. I, I think, look at first I thought it was a joke. Like, I'll see more people at the retreat. And now I'm like, You know what? I'm looking to spend. If we're not even though we're not speaking time with like minded people. And it would be 10 times more social for me to be in a retreat than to be I mean, I am completely alone for it's taken me three and a half years to feel lonely. But I'm like, what's the next step here? Because so so so that was number one, like, Is that valid that I've been meditating every day for three and a half years alone? And also, or is there some level I need to reach? Before I would enter, say a six month or a year, you know, Ko, Silent Retreat thing?
A really great question. So remind me about the the, how many years have you been playing with a meditation thing? How long have you been doing it? Do you actually work with a meditation instructor or some kind of guide? Tell me
I worked with I just simply do Alan and Eva every single day. I take their online eight week retreats and when I get to the end, I start at the beginning again. So now I'm I'm actually they're doing they're explaining POA. We all know that that's not to be done in earnest yet, but I mean, I'm in the vodka essence. I'm, you know, I memorize you know, the vodka saga prayer. And I mean, I'm like in this every day. So.
I mean, here's what I would do. I mean, life is short. I would go for it. I would just do life is short and plus here, you know, Allen and Eve. I mean, these are amazing people. And through the application process, they're going to be able to figure out like, you know, maybe that's too long for her or maybe she should back off. But I'm telling you, you go in there and you do a six month retreat down there. That's why I go to do my annual stuff that with Alan but in Crestone. I mean, it's it's amazing. And it's it can be a life changing experience for you. So
asking me
Oh, definitely.
Oh, wow. Yeah, that's where I would like to go but yeah, that a lot has happened since like, I had a near death car crash this year, too. So it's like, just all the signs are like, you know,
I hear Yeah. You know, to me, it's like Carpe Diem, you know, what are you waiting for? I had here's the deal. Years ago, I used to have this really nerdy question. Because I'm a nerd. Right. And so I for a couple of years, I used to ask every major teacher I could, if you just had a minute left to live, what would be the irreducible instruction of your teaching. In the first Well, no, no. Well, I mean, what would you share with somebody is like, this is my main teaching to share and so the very first person I asked that of was Pema children when just before she became Pema children. It was a common chilling when I was in fact doing a 30 day retreat. She came in for a weekend were able to join her and so I asked her this question. And I ask these questions, because I always remember the answers because they're so pithy. And what she said was, she said, do it now. In other words, whatever you're going to do, do it now. So I'll share that instruction from Pamela to you. Hey, we're all Hey, we're in freefall. We never know when we're going to hit the ground. And to me, it's like, life is short. You one breath away from death, take advantage of it, do it.
But imagine being rejected from applying for that's the, you know,
that's part that's part of the game and then then you take that legitimately and you back off a little bit and maybe do something and spare rock. But again, most of these centers, you know, the, the ones that are still in business there, they usually have a pretty good deal going with people that can screen and make sure, okay, and plus when you're there, you're supported, right? It's a mandola you've got the guys you've got the people that are there. You're going to be held and nurtured in a way that's really powerful, especially with entities like Allen's so I would say if you can go for it and do it.
Thank you.
Welcome. Okay, don't worry. I'm Datsun. Hana. I'll get to you in a second. I just got to click through these questions. So hang with me. Okay. From Carrie, I have a question about merit. Yes, good topic. In his later years, my father who had dementia donated 1000s of dollars to fake charities to claim to help veterans abused animals, vision impaired individuals, you name it, ultimately, blah, blah, blah. I'd like to believe that since his heart was in the right place that accumulated merit by donating his hard earned money, even though these organizations didn't actually help anybody. 100% Right on Carrie and I share a same a similar type of story. Like 25 years ago when I first went to Nepal. I got taken by In fact, it was a friend of mine, a doctor friend who we still we still spar over because it's actually quite funny. We got completely hoodwinked by this fake Lama. I didn't know any better you know, I'm a dumb Western boy coming into this, you know, here I am. Oh my god, if you have a shaved head and a robes, oh, you know, you must be holy. And so this this Lama comes in and I should have paid attention to some of the intuitions. I was doing clinical work there at the time. And he came in. And basically he he gave us a big, big, convincing riff of like, Oh, we're building this monastery and I knew the area and I said, we want to raise some money to build these statues. And I said, Sure, you know, so my friend and I had my doctor friend and I gave him some money. And then of course, we just got completely ripped off. And it was a really interesting learning experience for me and I asked the capitalise on the lamas that I was working with at the time. Exactly. The question you just asked here. Hey, you know, I got burned. And they both rolled their eyes and said so sorry, we can't tell you how often this happens. And they said exactly what I'm telling you your heart was in the right place, your intention, the mind leads all things intention is the key. So you gain the merit your father gained the merit, even though it didn't help the guys that ripped him off that you know kind of demerit, right. So they're the ones that are in deep doo doo, but your dad's in great shape. So yeah, he's cool. He's good to go. Don't worry about that. Okay. From barrel in another session, I thought I heard it as important after death. So a lot of these death questions are coming in from I'm doing this preparing to die program. And I think some of these questions are coming in from that which is great. So that's why the some of these things I hear I suspect. I thought I heard that it's important after death to leave the dead body with no interference or procedures for at least 20 minutes. I tried to find more information but wasn't successful. Yeah. It depends on who you read. Some people say like Francesca Fremantle, and her marvelous book, luminous emptiness, understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead in that book very clearly, she articulates what the tradition says that the consciousness will be in the body for most people, for the time it takes to eat a meal. I always get such a chuckle out of that. So are you talking about like Thanksgiving dinner? Or are you talking about you know, Subway? I always look for the funnies aspects behind the setting up the time it takes to eat a meal, roughly 20 minutes there. The literature here is inconclusive. There's so much on the Bartle stuff that that is unfixed just like the Bardo experience itself. So, if you're looking for resources here, I mean, I know Francesco I know for a fact because I just recently reread her book that she gives the statement. You will find this in the literature. I can't without going through my library tell you exactly where else you will find it. But basically, yes, on average, unless you're doing organ donation and here's the deal. This is where this isn't fixed. Because if you're doing organ donation, you got to harvest these things right away. I mean, cardiac cessation, brain activity cessation, they start harvesting. And so in that case, is that somehow going to mess them up? No, it's really not because again, the intention to donate to give the bodhichitta thing that supersedes everything. So in terms of actually tracking down the the resources here Well, I know for a fact you'll find this in luminous emptiness. I know for a fact it's a bunch of other resources but without combing through my library, I can tell you more than that. Okay. All right. Almost done with feelings. Are there. This is from Jessica Are there any lucid dreaming practices we can use to help gate get clarity for decision making? Yeah, again, if you're hearing can come on and get slightly opaque to me. If you're trying to if the question is are you trying to get clarity about a specific decision, which is the way I read it, then yes, you can do just a very powerful dream incubation where it may seem facile but you just set a very powerful intentionality. I would like some clarity on this particular decision. So if you're looking for a very specific bit of insight, here's the deal. You don't have to do this merely through a nighttime dream. You can do this through what Robert moss calls Cairo Mansi. I really liked his riffing on this, which is his name, his labeling for learning how to read the sign language of reality of your waking reality. I love this. I thought that I do this all the time. And he has some very specific guidelines in his book active dreaming, where he talks about ways to cultivate this relationship to your phenomenal world. So So irrespective of whether you do this on the lucid dream, if you're looking for a decision if you're looking for some clarity about a particular life course you can work with this practice of Cairo Mansi, which is basically learning how to read your world as if it was a dream, which is a really marvelous practice. I really liked this. It's like Milarepa said, you know, phenomena are all the books one needs. In other words, you're working with what's called symbolic guru. And so there you do the same thing. You can just set a very powerful intentions like I need some clarity. And then you can say sometimes if I remember correctly, in his book, he gives a number of steps but one thing you can say is Okay, the next unusual thing I experience will be some kind of indicator in that regard. But the idea is to is to set out the intentionality into the universe. Keep your antenna open, see what the phenomenal world has to say. But then here's the kicker. You have to be ready to accept whatever it tells you because often what happens is you'll get some indicators. And if it's not what you want to hear, second thoughts going to come in and say Ah, I'll try it again. I'm gonna wait for another sign, right? No, that's breaking the contract. First thought best thought. If you set that intention, and you have some unusual kind of dreamlike experience that either confirms or denies the options, then to fulfill that contract I mean, the strong suggestion is pay attention to what what indicating even though it may not be what you really want. So for nighttime dreams that are very powerful intention during the day I actually work with this more. Just set a really powerful intention. Hey, I need some clarity. I need some guidance here. Help me okay. All right. So a couple more here. That one, a number of hands are up so don't worry, I'll get to everybody here. So just be patient. So this one is listening to your conversation. This is from David listening to your conversation with Robert moss. Yeah, this is the podcast I did with him on that we published our CSA broadcast on my edge of mind platform. Pretty cool guy, really cool guy. I find myself wondering what's the relationship between dreaming and the simple goodbye after death states. Here's another death thing. When I think of the process of death, once I've missed the Dharmakaya realm, from my lack of ability to recognize you relax into it, and before I anxiously start seeking a warm door to take birth and quote unquote, fall through that milram With a peaceful wrathful deity. So this is a slightly Bardo technical question, but I can handle it. This is how I better understand less simple chiropractic process. I look forward to your further discussion with Robert about this. Yeah. So let me just read read this again and take it apart because it's a little bit long I find myself wondering about the relationship between dreaming in the sample Kaya. Well dreaming is mostly connected some bokeh. So it gets a little technical here, David, but you're using some technical terms. So hopefully this will work with you. When you're talking about some Bolkiah some mocha kayas is phase two of the luminous Bardo of Dharma TA. And draining doesn't work in that array. Deep dreamless sleep does. So some mocha chi is principally associated with phase two of the luminous part of Dharma tah. Dreaming is associated with the karmic Bardo, becoming. And so there's that little difference when I think of the process of death once that missed the Dharmakaya. Yes, you haven't recognize it. That's what will happen to most people. We will miss it. From my lack of ability. Yes. And before I anxiously start seeking a warm door so now you're talking about the karmic Bardo, becoming at the end of that Bardo, where we grasp after another form, because over an inability to stay with the groundlessness and as you put it, yes, you fall through that middle realm of the peaceful wrathful deities Well, again,
the peaceful wrathful deities that's the sound Boca kya. That's exactly what manifests in phase two, again, technical but the question is technical. So mocha chi is phase two of the two phases of the Bardo luminous part of Dermatol. The peaceful wrathful deities arise in phase two of the four stages. Of that Bardo. That's the sun Bulga kya. You enter into the karmic part of the coming, your pastor, someone who kya you're heading rapidly towards nirmanakaya. So in terms of understanding this I'm Olga chi a process if that's your question, what I might recommend, David is I mentioned Francesca Fremantle is beautiful book, luminous emptiness. She has some fantastic sections, if in fact, if I had more time I would read them for you, but there's a number of people with questions, so I won't do that. But I would strongly recommend the chapter on the threefold process of a path or something like that, where she she talks about some book Acharya in really beautiful, exquisite detail. And what I like about her rendering there is she she riffs really quite beautifully about how we experience sunbug Acharya in daily life I mean, this is the as you accurately put here, the sun mocha chi is the bridge from form. I'm Rana kya to formlessness Dharmakaya. So it's this VAs intermediate bandwidth, where you have all this array of partially D reified or partially reified form. And that's why it's often the hardest one to understand because the whole subtle body domain that applies to some book if it's related to properly it's a really big deal topic. But fundamentally, some of the chi is just the energy of communication, the energy of pre conceptual expression and manifestation. And then you had a follow up question here amendment. Addendum to the earlier question, I imagined that the experience of pure land in the after state well, if you're already in the Pure Land, yes, you if you're having an experience of the Pure Land, you've already landed, either in a some Boca kya pure land and again, this is a big question. There's a lot here when you get to the pure lands. There's Dharmakaya pure lands only Buddha's experienced those pure some Buddha chi experiences, only the bodhisattvas experienced those. And then you have these kinds of mix some Bulguksa nirmanakaya pure lands. That's what people like us who aren't Buddhas. And bodhisattvas can experience focusing on that state and Amitabha keeps form from falling into the demonic HYAH plunge. Yes, do I have that right? Yes, you do have that right. And so again, if you're here and want to come on and ask some more targeted questions for clarity, I'll do my best to answer it. But there's there's some fingerpainting here, that it's tricky for me again, without you here to just hit exactly what sweetspot because there was a number of things that are being intimated. So that's my best with what you have and if you hear David and want to come on more than happy to try to clarify this. Okay, I'm gonna get one or two of the wonderful patient people that are live. There's one last one here that I see. I think the last one. Lots of questions today, and then we'll open it up to everybody else. So there's one more but I want to pause and get Hannah who's been waiting very patiently. I had to go ahead and unmute yourself, dear.
Okay. Um,
I asked the question earlier about caffeine. And you mentioned something. You mentioned something very quickly that I didn't catch Okay, something that you can ingest that will help your body clear the caffeine
No, there's no no. There's there's a particular cytochrome I think is what is called an enzyme. That's that's some people have higher concentrations of it than other and that's metabolizes that's what breaks down. Oh,
but you can't like bite at the health food store and but take it
Not that I'm aware of. This is a great question to ask Dr. Ed. I'm not aware of anything like that. Okay. Okay. All right. Sorry to keep you waiting for such a simple clarification, but I'm not aware of anything that can facilitate that. Okay. Thank you. Okay, Prem das fireclay. And then I'll get this last question here from Dan, by the way from the US.
Yes, sir. Two questions. One from your book dreams of light. Chapter Seven, which is titled The eighth consciousness, the foundation of dualistic mind. Yeah. And of course, I I wouldn't certainly disagree. That the eighth consciousness is a foundation. But I thought that the seven consciousness was the real culprit of of dualistic modern. Well, it's
what Yeah, I mean, it's, first of all, once all a consciousness is there, not eight separate entities. There are eight aspects or say eight manifestations of one consciousness. So they centrifuge out just like with the kaios, the trachea, those are basically three iterations or expressions, five Buddha families, five iterations or expressions. And so same with a consciousnesses. They're not eight separate entities. So centrifuging eight and seven out you know, and that's so simple to do, it can be done and things like naroda some opera tea and stuff like that. But But basically, seven consciousness is the bad boy eight consciousness is neutral, but it's still the basis of samsara. I mean, this is why this is what filters so you've got the you've got reg pa Dharmakaya. When that's not related to that, in a certain way creates, or I should say is misinterpreted, is the eighth eighth consciousness then acts as a filter. So that light is then filtered to the eighth the seventh then comes back looks upon the eight mistakes, the eighth for itself, looks out at one through six, six mistakes after other and that's the fundamental bad boy. So you're right, we're both right. The seven consciousness is the most active expression because eighth in a certain sense is neutral. Seventh is the one that's doing all the heavy lifting. It's got an outward and an inward facing aspect. That's what goes in, stirs up the wind from the eighth, throws it out into one through seven, and one through six, I should say and so that that wind element basically is what generates samsara but it wouldn't generate it if it didn't have the basis. All the consciousnesses they all the basis is the preceding level. So eighth is the basis for seven through one, seven is a basis for six through on six as the basis from five through one and so therefore, if you take it back that way, I'm right. But you're also right when you're saying that seventh is the most active implementer of the dualistic strategy, that's what fractures everything fundamentally actively.
Okay, and so the seven is always active, except in dreamless sleep.
No, it's always active even in dreamless sleep seventh and eighth is always active until you enter the eighth Bhumi until you become an AR hot or until you fall into neuro to some apathy because that's that baby is on were characterized the seventh and eighth is constant but unconscious one through six are conscious but in constant, so seventh and eighth until you enter all the way up to the eighth Bhumi. Those puppies are operative even when you're sleeping and dreaming.
Okay, very much second question was from our last session which you said you'd defer it to the next time, okay, toward the end. And it was about I asked about rig BA and how it was analogous. To the fluctuations of the quantum fields. And you said well, it just depends on how we define
Yeah, I would be I would be really careful. So yeah, I would be I would be quite careful. From doubt to to kind of start to do these analogies category dances. Yeah. Because you fall into what I call a category ORs and the closest you can get, you know, the quantum field, the quantum field theory is a wonderful, powerful description of the foundation of physical reality. But even that, even that in terms of a field is still samsaric. It's still not foundational, at least according to the spiritual traditions, the physical materialistic scientific traditions, this is as far down as you can go. Everything is basically everything we know as particles, everything we know as matter is nothing more than the excitation of the 17 fields which are the Standard Model of particle physics. And so, the spiritual stuff goes deeper than that. So the question about rate by remember your question now had to do with something about the, the something about the the continuous or discontinuous nature of it. There are no this continuities in rate by rigpa is continuous. There are no Bardot's and BrainPOP the only Barlows existence Sam in in samsara and that's why when reason it's called the changeless nature so it doesn't abide by these even analogical rules. So I get you know, the whole thing started with Dow, the Tao of physics and Kepler's thing. There's a tremendous tendency, the dancing lemasters on all this stuff from 40 years ago, there's there's a tremendous potential to conflate some of the theories of quantum mechanics to fundamental descriptions and spiritual jargon. Just because similar concepts seem to be intimated but they're fundamentally not. If you really start to fuse just stuff out. You fall, you can fall into a bunch of errors in here, so I wouldn't, I mean, yes, you can use it up to a certain point, but I wouldn't go too far in terms of the shotgun wedding. Where?
Very good All right, thank you, sir.
Hey, the first time you cut me off, that's great. I love it. I didn't mean to. No, no, I'm joking. I'm teasing with you. Okay, before I get to homies, give me one second. There was one last question actually too, so hang with me, bud. Thank you so much for your work. You're welcome in the Tibetan system, how can the practitioner determine whether a dream they have is a dream of clarity or samsaric dream? Okay. In chapter 11, of Dream Yoga, it's always freaks me out when people start quoting me to myself, it's like, Oh, crap, you know, wrote something. And now they're quoting me on it's like,
ah, actually, I love it.
You called traleg Rinpoche is giving three qualities which distinguish clarity dreams from samsara dreams. I wonder if that actually was traleg Rinpoche or Tenzin Wong, y'all, but I'd have to look at the book. Let's see. Number one, they are gripping and persuasive. Yes. The content is weighty and applicable. Yes. And how the dream came to you, and it's usually positive nature. Could you please explain these three qualities in more detail, as well as how they differ from similar qualities of samsaric dreams? IE, how can we distinguish a gripping dream of clarity from a samsaric dream which is also gripping? Well, that last part is easy. I mean, just because a dream of samsara dream is highly captivating and gripping. Dreams of clarity, by definition are intimations of trance samsara, you're starting to tap into the bandwidth of experience that are no longer comically driven. You're starting to have dreams of, of clarity. I'm sorry, that circular dreams of teachers dreams of teaching experiences, intimations of the Divine, that sort of thing. And so short of what I did here, if you want to hang with me for just a second, I did get this one in time to read what hands on one gal says about this? Because he's the one that writes about this most extensively. So let me just read a little bit of this. As progress is made in a dream practice, dreams become clearer and more detailed and a larger part of each dream is remember, this is a result of bringing greater awareness into the dream state. Beyond this increased awareness and ordinary dreams is a second kind of dreams or second kind of dream behind some of samsaric dreams, called dreams of clarity which arise when the mind and the prana are balanced and the dreamer has developed the capacity to remain and non personal presence in other words, egoic awareness. Unlike the samsaric dreams, in which the mind is swept here and there by karmic prana. In the dreams of clarity of dream are stable, though images information arise they are based less on personal karmic traces, and instead present knowledge available directly from consciousness below the level of the conventional self. In the dream of clarity is I'm jumping around a little bit it is as if something is given to or found by the dreamer as opposed to samsaric dreams in which meaning is projected. From the dreamer onto the purity of fundamental experience. So basically, these dreams are just coming from a deeper dimension. And they they have yes, some of the characteristics that you're talking about of samsaric dreams that are really powerful and gripping, but they also carry a kind of a spiritual import. They just have this kind of transpersonal tenor to them. That separates them by definition from some sorry dreams. They're intermediate between that and the highest type of dreams which you call the clear light dreams, but we won't quite go into that domain. And so if you want further clarity on that, again, turns on one yells book. I don't know if this is in the second edition. But in the first edition, he is really wonderful book, Tibetan yoga is this dream and sleep. He has a number of pages on this topic. Okay, so hopefully that's convincing or helpful, I should say and then one last one came in here hold on
wait,
another one came in Oh, they just keep showing up. Hold on. Hi, Andrew. I'm part of the preparing today group and last night you spoke about my cat. Yeah. So I had to put my cat who was dying from large cell lymphoma. We had to put Sweet Little Mac's to sleep so to speak last week, not easy. My cat has cancer and not much time left. How can I help? Oh my gosh, down. There's so much you can do since you're a part of PDP you have a copy of my book preparing to die. And in that book in the section I believe I something called like the challenging issues or something like that. I have a whole chapter on how to work with pets. So since you have that book, I might refer you to that other than that. relate to your pet with as much openness and love and compassion as you possibly can. Depending on how much you subscribe to Tibetan things, you know if you're doing pdpw We're working to recite the umami Padme home mantra the tradition is actually quite clear on this benefit that recited as much as you possibly can around your pet. If you can practice meditation with your pet in your lap or nearby, that's always a really helpful thing to do. But basically everything you can do or willing to do for a human being you can do for your pet because there are sentient. They have Buddha nature as we do. And who knows when that cat drops its cat suit, and you drop your human suit. You guys could swap places he could become the human or she you could become their pet. I think that's a kind of a nice way of looking at things. So relate to the pet with tremendous kindness, compassion and equanimity. On what I do when Max was really getting sick every time I thought of him and actually do this when when people transition and they're dying. Every time I thought of him, I would recite the mantra. So Max would pop into my mind and I'd say, oh, mani padme hum. And so I was actually reciting Omani Padme home a lot. If you're actually going to put the pet down, and I have to say there are some variations in that. But I asked a number of teachers about this karmically, it's okay to put a pet down. You're relieving their suffering. I've heard a number of teachers say that animals do not learn from their suffering. And so a number of teachers have said this. They told me if your motivation is pure, the motivation is to relieve the suffering of the cat. It's okay. And what I've done with the pet that I've I've had to put down over the last number of years is I did this with Max last week. So as they're injecting my medicine, I was I was rubbing the top of Max again, this is super esoteric, inner yogic stuff, but you want the consciousness to leave to the top of the primal router, the top of the head. So as Max is being injected, like literally taking his last breath, I was reciting the mantra. And at the very top of his head, I was I was pressing quite firmly and just almost like almost scratching the top to bring his consciousness to the top of his head. That's in the tradition. as well. I'm not making this stuff up. So I'm just like to say here, my friend, my heart goes out to you. It's, you know, we get so attached to these beautiful furry creatures. They're wonderful gifts in our lives, really. And so if you have the book if you have if you're doing PDP, you have my book. I have a whole chapter on this. And then basically everything else that applies to human you can apply to a pet. Right? So hopefully that's of some benefit. Okay, questions just keep popping in on my other computer. But in the meantime, Hamish, you've been waiting very patiently. And Julian, so go ahead, my friend.
Yeah, yes. Thank you. Good morning, sir. It's interesting that you talked about higher romancey because I've never seen it in this in this way. But it seems that both my dreaming life seeps into my waking life and vice versa. So but I have yet to attain lucidity. But I'm not. I'm not falling too much into despair, but I get a little bit frustrated. I try to maintain peasant you know, patience and and and stick to itiveness. But I had an interesting Dream, which manifested in my daily life as well. I was dreaming that I was flying with a 10 headed Swan and the 10 headed swan was caressing me as I was flying along with it. Then about a week later, my wife and I went into Pondicherry to go to the Sri Aurobindo ashram and we walked down the street afterwards, and went into a bookstore. And there was a beautiful big book at the top shelf of this book case and it had watercolor pictures. And the watercolor picture on the front of the book was a four headed swan. And it just struck me at that point, oh, foreheads 10 heads. Maybe my lucidity in real in reality is only at the forehead stage. And my wish is to get to the 10 headed stage which is a little more complete, as my one might say, but I'm not exactly sure. So, you know, I'm not very consistent with induction techniques. I keep forgetting to put my fingers through my hands during the day and, and things like that. And I'm beginning to think well, maybe I should put alerts on my phone so they being off, you know, every hour or so I can try putting my fingers through my hand. But I don't know what might you suggest, sir.
In terms of what increasing likelihood of having lucidity at night or yet yes, yes. Yes. Well, all of that and more. work more and more with dream signs and state checks in addition to the thing that you're doing, putting trying to put your finger through your hands. sensitize yourself to the dreamlike qualities of your experience whenever anything slightly bizarre happens. That seems dreamlike conduct a state check. Do that as often as you possibly can sustain or enhance your capacities for just good old meditation, right. The more you meditate, the more you're actually practicing with lucidity in the daytime state the more that will cultivate lucidity at night. Set a stronger and stronger intentionality throughout the day just really perfume that intention to work with really good sleep hygiene practices at the end of night. All and then really one of the secret sauces here is transition you your intention to do this for the benefit of other people, not just for yourself. It's one of the classic secret ingredients in the tantric traditions. In fact, I was just reading this this this evening I'll pull up Jays book mind beyond death again. And he says that really beautiful in fact, oh, I don't have it down here. Where he says you know, if you want to slow down your practice, do it for yourself. If you want to accelerate your practice, do it for others. In other words, more compassion. If you're a tantric practitioner and devotion means something to you, you can also bring in that kind of secret ingredient. So there's there's a whole host of things you can do probably in summary, one of the most important things is you just never give up. You just keep going. Because something's happening whether you know it or not, that you're you're warming up.
And so I feel it's I feel it's imminent. Its arrival. The lucidity is arrival is imminent, but I just have to be consistent with
exactly exactly and then also work with illusory form, practice more, you know, from das held up my book dreams of light. That whole book was written for people who struggle with lucidity at night, who can gain the same level of benefit and insights by working with the main lucidity practice during the day, which is the practice of illusory form. This is a Dream Yoga contribution. You will find it in the world of lucid dreaming, but it's a colossal contribution. Okay, and basically, you know, not too tight, not too loose. Enjoy it. All successes. Just just keep going and realize it's taken a long time to become so not lucid. It may take a little bit of time to actually develop lucidity. But that's that's one reason the practice is considered a bit more advanced. It takes a slightly advanced attitude to hang with it and that advanced attitude is you never give up. Day in and day out. You're welcome so
much. Thank you.
Welcome so much. Okay, Julian before I get to you let me get another one at least piped in on my other computer. Like a stockbroker here. Okay, from Gabrielle. I have occasional dreams where I'm lucid, but falling downwards beneath the earth's surface endlessly. Oh, I like these kinds of dreams. Actually. The last time this happened, I tried taking deep slow breaths to get myself to stop. Okay, it worked. And I rose upwards and came back up. to ground level. The slow breathing brought me back to my physical sleeping body which felt liquid. I could feel the sound waves of the fan I had on moving through me in a physical way. Then I resumed my lucid dream and forgot about my physical body cool. On one hand, this felt like a breakthrough. Yes, but not another. Colon. If Dream Yoga is meant as a practice for being in the Bardo, would this not be considered cheating since you wouldn't have a body to fall back in? I love these questions. But I would like to explore that state again, the place between lucid dreaming and being in the body. If you've got any insight or advice on it. I'm not sure if you're here. I'd love to hear why you think this is cheating. I think it's a really cool dream. What I might do the next time you have this falling thing is don't don't try to stop the falling. Just see how far we can take you if it takes you to the center of the Earth whatever I would just I would go down as deep as it can possibly take you see if what you feel Do you feel any vertigo? It's like what? What Milan can do right? What do you say the vertigo of eternity? Are you feeling some disquietude as you as you fall? Why did you feel like you had to arrest the falling. So personally, what I might explore just as a suggestion is don't try to stop just just keep falling see how far it takes you let's see here a few Miyagi is meant as a practice or being in the barter with this not be considered cheating. I don't see why you would consider that cheating. Since you wouldn't have a body to fall back in. Well, you don't have a bite you don't have a Oh, I see what you're saying. Yes, you do have a body as a dreamer, you fall back into your physical body. But I don't see if you're here. I'd love to hear why you think it's cheating. It doesn't mean that I wouldn't stay that way. I think it's just a really cool dream. Thank you. Are you Are there Oh, perfect. Yeah, far away. So tell me more and see if I'm hitting your sweet spot on this one. Yeah, no,
I don't really think it's cheating. But I did think that if I were dead, then I wouldn't be able to use that. technique. But I did actually have that reoccurring dream where I'm falling downward and the first time it happened. I just sort of tried to surrender to it and just I just kept falling and falling and falling and well, before I started falling, I sort of set this intention. I said whatever happens I submit to it. I think that's when I started falling and I just kept saying Okay, I accept this and I just kept falling and falling and falling and falling. I just kept falling in. And I got more tenants. You know, I got nervous, like, where am I going? And eventually that happened again, and I kept falling and this time that this happened about three times. And then finally I ended up in this very, very dark and scary place.
So, so let me ask you a question. So when you're falling Do you feel like you're falling through the earth or do you feel like you're falling through space?
It feels like the earth it feels but like it feels like the earth forever like I'll never get like if that makes any sense.
It doesn't make sense. Here's what I might recommend. Again, I love these sorts of things and the fact that it has a slight sense of disquietude and even anxiety. I think that makes it even more interesting because it could in fact again, I'm just guessing it could in fact suggest that you're plunging through the deeper dimensions of your relative unconscious mind. And that's the only place where fear can still reside. And in fact, the deeper you go, the more frightful it's going to get. Because fear is the first expression of that leaving the actual clear light mind and so the deeper you go, the more frightful it can get. Because the closer you're getting to the truth, and so what I might recommend with this with this type of knowledge is that when you're going down, down, down, down, down, you start getting towards fear, you're starting to get into some really juicy territory. Always remember when this is happening and emptiness, candidate harm emptiness. Allow yourself to go all the way through that fear. And you might find yourself plumbing plunging through the Earth, the relative domain of the deepest unconscious mind, you may find that that will open up into space, which will mean then you'll fall through the eighth consciousness into rebar. And so the fact that you actually have the fear is a really good sign. It means you're getting really deep. And so with the right view, instead of freaking out about it, you can say well, this is really, really awesome. I'm gonna go all the way through. The other thing that you might try, again, is I suspect it when you're falling, you're just like falling feet first kind of thing. What I might write, I'm sorry. It's sort of like but first, on first Yeah. So here's. So here's what I might try. Is again, I would try if you can maintain these things. One is don't stop keep falling. It's like it reminds me of what to remember he once said beautifully in his Zen Teachings. Remember, this famous teaching? The bad news is you're falling through space without a parachute. The good news is there is no ground. And so this this vertical thing is actually very interesting because it's the panic of this falling that's characteristic of a Bardo experience. And the fear of that falling is actually what creates the effect of contraction that then reifies you back into form see. So it's a very Fear Itself that will create the illusion of a body so this is literally a deeper dive into sleep and lucid dreaming and Dream Yoga that can lead you potentially into sleep yoga into formless dimensions. One thing you can try just for the heck of it is is instead of going but first, again fall back, have the presence of mind to literally just topple back. There's something quite again when I do this, there's something quite magical and really interesting. When instead of falling feet first, but first and whenever I try this thing of literally just toppling over backwards. Just see what happens. But fundamentally when I have here about a dream like this, they're really awesome. And I would just say perhaps armed with this and understanding of mind you know premises talking about the chapters in my dreams of life book where I talk about the eight consciousnesses. This is where it's really helpful to understand the eight consciousnesses. Because you could actually be descending through seventh and eighth and then if you just keep going armed with this, you're losing you're going okay, what would what am I supposed to do here? Oh, I'm just gonna keep going. I'm just gonna keep falling. You may actually find yourself falling through the eighth consciousness and into rigpa and then you're then you're doing sleep yoga, yoga nidra. So I would go for it and then you nothing's going to happen in there. So your dream avatar dies. Big deal. You know, there is no dream avatar in there. The fear is a really powerful indicator. You know, it's the first expression when you leave when you leave rigpa and the self sense is generated. The first effective expression of that ignorance is fear, fear synonymous with ignorance. And so the deeper you go, the closer you get to truth, guess what's waiting for you fear and so if you understand that you go wow, I'm getting I'm getting really close here. I'm gonna go I'm gonna like a gauntlet. You know the etymology of the word fear fer comes from root f a r e toll. So you're paying the fare, you're paying the toll. And so the next time you haven't, man, go for it. Just go all the way through. Nothing you know worse you may lose your you may lose your mind. Yes, you're gonna lose your egoic mind. But you may find reality. So if that if that doesn't freak you out too much. That is that is what I would do. I mean, that to me is kind of cool.
My imagination sort of creates the like, terrible thing. Like I try to work with fear and like my imagination will be like like worst, like scary, scary thing.
That's your ego. That's just your ego. That's that's that's the contractive self defense mechanism coming into play because you're you're falling the structure of the self sense. And if literally, the word is literally in Tibet, it's called rom bop. When the mind falls into itself. It's like Rumi said so beautifully. You know, you want to fall into wider and wider dimensions of being. So this is a classic depiction in the wisdom traditions, the mind falling into itself. And so when you have this is what happens when you fall asleep. And when you fall lucidly like this and you're falling. You're having this wonderful experience of literally self falling rombach and that the mind can fall into itself. And you'll find yourself having an experience of luminosity yoga. That's really cool. Yeah, go for it. And next time we're on. Tell me what happens. Okay.
Okay.
Very cool. Very cool. Thanks for sharing that. I love these dreams. These are cool. Okay, let me see that I get this. Here's that one. They just keep coming in which is cool. Okay, hold on that I get this one. Yes, I got them all. So let me just see if there's anything in the chat call. Or if there's anybody else that wants to ask anything. Otherwise, let me just spin through this real quick.
Yeah, so from joy, I'm a retired dentist. You described Yeah, so we founded this charity. Foundation called Global dental relief about 20 years ago. I don't do clinical work anymore. I work more fundraising and that sort of stuff stateside. Please describe your charitable work. Most of the people in the world will never get to see a dentist but now no kidding. Yes. So yeah, so we have a whole foundation here joy or you can look it up. The website is global donor relief. It's one of it's actually at this point, one of the world's largest charity, oral health care entities. And it's a wonderful thing and we've we've treated again, look at the numbers is pretty darn impressive. I used to do a massive amount of on site, clinical work. I don't do that anymore. But it's still a wonderful, wonderful project that I'm connected with, to whatever extent I can be with my crazy schedule these days. From Barry, my meditation teacher was in Nepal in the early 20s. Finally, remember as Andrew was working Oh, that's cool. No kidding. Very, I didn't know that. Yeah, so I spent a year setting up this thing I worked at the American Embassy clinic and also set the stage and clinic up with Roger I remember Jays monastery actually can't say refugees monastery. I started that. And then I worked for a number of different foundations. Until we had our own foundation that worked throughout Nepal and then you know, Tibet, and now we're in Guatemala, Laos, Cambodia, Africa, in India, and Ladakh. So it's a wonderful thing. It's really cool.
Can't remember Jay told Robin Corman not to play around with some of these things. I'm wondering Karen, which which of those things if you're here I'd like to hear what Trump MPJ told Robin in and around what set of topics because I don't remember at 619 what we were talking about. So if you hear Karen and want to make some clarity on that, I'd love to hear more about that. Can you use the eaching? Absolutely. There's a lot of sources of divination. eaching is one of the most elegant one Tarot. I mean, these sorts of things, but I particularly like this kind of cartomancy thing. Using the world as your teacher. That eaching is incredibly viable, right. From Tam, Andrew in your opinion to really seriously follow the path of Jimmy alga, is there any approximate minimum average number of lucid dreams we should be able to have to be able to succeed on this path? You know, Tim, I'm super hesitant to create any metric to say okay for you, yes, you should have 30 lucid dreams a month or give it up. I'm not going to do that. So these are I'm really hesitant to say X amount of
of
lucid dreams or whatever are mandatory because I think it's the spirit of lucidity. That's the point a little bit like ambitious thing. Working with lucidity principle working with illusory form. And so I'm always really reluctant to say yes, you should have this particular number or not. So hey, Karen, fire away. Please share with us. What do you recall from Chase? talking to Robin Carmen about?
Robin was trying to ask him about saying
to let go. And Rinpoche said,
don't just don't keep doing that.
So you mean the power the pet thing? What do you mean? Yes. That's it. I actually would agree with that. So we didn't really talk about nirmanakaya POA? And so when you're talking about that, if I'm hearing you properly, then this is yes, this is something that should be done. Is that what you're talking about? Or yeah, this is something that should be done with a trained legitimate teacher. There are a lot of people who profess to teach this type of POA that are charlatans in my opinion. And so you want to find someone who does it that has real integrity that's part of lineage that can give you the support. Because there are a handful of practices in this tradition that are what are called forceful methods of liberation. They're dangerous. And if they're done properly, they're incredibly powerful. Like chemo pola chandauli Dark retreat, if they're done inappropriately is I'm sure the admonition or the warning from Rinpoche to Robin is probably in their spirit, they can be somewhat dangerous. And so that's why you'll never hear me talking. I mean, I don't talk about nirmanakaya pull in that regard. I sure as heck don't give instructions for it. In some of these other things are like prescription strength meditations, they really shouldn't be played with flippantly. And so if that's the caveat, I 100% agree. And I thank you for introducing that.
So when you said practice was some of these things were?
What part were you talking about? Practice blah, blah, blah.
You have to refresh my memory because it's 619. When that came in, I don't remember what I was. Talking practice. What was that was riffing on
the monitor and then you could
monitor is fine, right? Oh, oh, I see the good the emergent thing is on obviously what you're talking about. Yes. This comes from onion Rinpoche and this is public. And this is different. This is different from mnemonic iPod. analogy. We're talking about what Ania Rinpoche writes about in his book dying with confidence, is he talks about when when you're dying if you're if you're about to be smacked in a plane crash or a car accident. He says raise your gaze, literally look up and recite one of those two monitors because that brings the wind energy up. It is a type of my languaging he doesn't use this word. It is a type of emergency power. But it's not like spilling the beans on the type of practice that you're talking about. So this this I got from onion Rinpoche from his book dying with confidence Okay, okay. Yeah, you're welcome. I appreciate that. Okay, almost done here. All mommy they will create this mantra is relates to which deity Yes, it relates to the Dharmakaya Buddha Amitabha so it's the Tibetan nembutsu on AMI day we're Cree relates to Amitabha Oh, here we go. Dominica got it. Perfect. Thank you, dear. How can one find more about Kira? Mansi Yeah, it's KIROMA and see why. So Jessica, Robert has an entire book. I think it's by that title. First time I came across it outside of our my interview with him was in his book conscious dreaming which is still one of my favorite of the 15 or so books. Excuse me that he's read. Oh, yeah. So is it with a ch en mi with button button with a que but you'll find it I'm pretty sure he has a book on this topic. Okay, last one here comment. This is in regards to illusory forum this afternoon. I worked something happened in room and it was an illusory form is that
yeah, this is a if you're here, Marie. And want to ask something about this. I'm not quite sure what to say unless you have a specific question about what you entered here. So if you're here and want to say something, I can try to address it. Otherwise unless somebody or something that comes in we tried to keep this around the hour, hour 15 Mark. Anything else from from you? Any final comments, questions? Oh, be unmuted. Okay?
You should be unmuted now.
Alyssa is she having trouble getting on there?
No. No, I am. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, right now is when I'm dealing with this and so I thought I'd ask you because this with the illusory farm when the experience was happening. I have been practicing keeping things in illusory form. And so it went to like automatic kind of, and I didn't spin with it, which I have. I tend to do in the past. But now it's like there's a residual effect from it. And I've I feel like I have formed it into a solidity inside of me. It's no longer it's no longer losery and so now I'm having a hard time like in my gut with reaction Tory motions. I'm not sure how to take that back into the illusory farm or what? Do you have any suggestions?
So you have to backpedal a little bit for me. So say a little bit more. Are you talking about something that happened in the dream or are you
know, in real life? I mean, in life,
tell me a little bit more if you're comfortable with what that experience was?
No I'm not comfortable because it deals with the Darmok thing. And so I'm not comfortable with that.
That's fair enough. Here's again without that and a little bit tricky, but here's some general rules is the practice of illusory form is really one are fundamentally looking very closely, very deeply at whatever arises. It's not the imputation of some Oh, I'm going to kind of superimposed and think this is like, cartoonish or like an illusion. truelist reform is is penetrating through what what seems to be the reified status of whatever is appearing. So I don't know what the experience was, again, on one level doesn't really matter. Yeah, I don't know whatever the experience is, it only has the power to adversely affect us in direct proportion to how much we impute a reality. upon it. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take whatever happened seriously, but definitely doesn't imply we have to take it literally. Because everything that arises is fundamentally self liberating. That's ultimate what's called perfectly pure illusory form, whatever arises, if you look very closely at it, it has no reified status. It's just arises is a luminous display of the mind. And so in that regard, what I would look what I would do as a practice is whatever that is, just look at it really closely. And try to find out, you know, like, what is it made of? Where is it coming? From? Where does it go? This is a classic and analytic meditation that will take the experience in a certain sense and hit it in the solar plexus and take the wind out of it that otherwise creates a kind of a particular status that it doesn't inherently have. So nothing has the capacity to adversely affect you, unless we give it this status. And so real loose reform practice in this regard, again, just to reinstate to make it practical, is whatever this is, whatever the feeling state that you're left with the you're appending this label that somehow disquieting or otherwise unwelcome, really look at it and look at it really, really closely. And in so doing, mixing metaphors will take the legs out from underneath it, something will be there, but it's no longer as solid and therefore it doesn't have the capacity take you down you'll be left with this kind of energetic kind of symbol gocar quality, this energy, and that in itself is pure. So the adversarial the part that creates this unwanted aspect. That's an imputation you're already coloring it. So really this reform, look at it really, really closely. What is it made up? Where is it coming from? Where is it going, and then you'll find in so doing, you're kicking your legs out from underneath it, something's still going to be there, but it will no longer have the power to affect you.
So do I look at what happened and
No, no, no, cut the storyline. You're not you know, exactly. Okay, this got to storyline. And this is that's a really good comment, because that's when you know, you're not that's when you know you're not doing it. Yeah. When you start to psychologize it and you start to rationalize it and you start to bring it I'm not saying that's not valid in a psychotherapeutic arena. But when you're working with illusory form, you're going deeper than that. It's like it's a little bit like I heard as you go contra Rinpoche once say, in a public setting, all these people were talking about these issues, wonderful sweetener, rubber students, and they were saying, Oh, we have to process this. We have to do that way to do that. And at a certain point, he said, you know, he goes stop all the processing, just cut, just got a and so you know, you're not doing it when in fact, you start processing. You start thinking you start Oh, this and that's no cut and look right directly at it, and under the gaze of your awareness. It will self liberate because there's nothing there. Okay. This will create a very powerful, indestructible relationship and it's no it's no small thing. So, something like that. Okay. Thank you. Welcome, everybody. Let's see here. This is great things. Just keep pouring in here, which is conservative and come to us how does wrong Bob relate to what happens in the central channel? You asked the greatest questions, my friend. It's connected to what can happen in the central channel, but at this point, you're conflating inner yoga with Auntie yoga. And so this is a rombach is a Maha Mudra. Hatha Yoga approach. I wouldn't don't worry about bringing it to the central channel. Yes, that's valid. It's a wonderful thing that you can do. But the practice here is just letting the mind fall into itself is it connected to the central channel? For sure. But I would keep the central channel out of this just let the mind fall into itself. Okay. Yeah, sidewalk Oracle's I think that's it. I also think there's another book. There it is. You guys got it. You're the best. Okay, everybody. Nice to see you. So if it means anything to you, we dedicate merit. If merit means anything, gathered all together, whatever value we have done here. It's not for us, it's for the world. Send it to the world which needs our help. And then otherwise, you know what happens? I'll be back in two weeks. The usual things that happen around the block you know, you can find out other things that we're doing here and there but great to see everybody. Always Thank you, Alyssa for being here and helping thank you all for showing up. Really find rich questions today. I really love hanging out with you all. So thanks, everybody. Until next time, Ciao. Ciao.
