Everybody, welcome to this Thursday. q&a. We started this back if you haven't done this before, we started this back with COVID when COVID first came on, what, three years ago, and it just keeps going. So just keep showing up. People send in questions, I do my best to respond to them. If you're attending and want to ask a question, you know how to do it, just go to the reactions column down here and raise your hand. Or if you want to just type something in the chat column, you can just as well do that. And I'll do my best to take a crack at your questions. So I always start with a couple of just a little announcement. There's not a ton to announce a little bit slow season. I'm going into retreat starting tomorrow. And then I'm leading a retreat in Mexico. But there's a thing to be posted. That list is going to put up there while this Costa Rica event that we're doing in March, and Lucid Dream Yoga. Pretty excited about that. Actually, I've never been to the center called Blue spirit, but I've heard fantastic things about it. So really excited about that. Our second running of the preparing to die, three month intensive training program that's going to start in February. We don't have a language for that yet. But that's going to be February. Whatever the first Wednesday is of that month. In terms of interviews on the buy, edge of mind platform. I recently posted one with llama pollen. She's a really wonderful female llama teacher, wonderful gal who teaches a great deal on Tara. So I had a great deal of fun and just today just like a couple hours ago, I was able to secure I have haven't done it yet was able to secure a podcast coming up with color Rinpoche which is going to be really fun. So I'm super excited about that. I haven't set a date yet. So that's that's on the docket. So I pause there's the pause, Alyssa recording in progress, recording and progress and then I turn some of the questions and we just do what we can do with them. Okay. So this one came in from Adrian, first of all, thank you nice comments here. Appreciate the nice comments. Currently buried in so much right now as I've only been reading and practicing sleep Dream Yoga for about three months in your book, Dream Yoga, you talk about connecting with the subtle body through the practice of the inner yoga. Yes, I think I do actually say that. I mentioned varje beginning and TUMO. Okay. Can you provide a good resource book website where someone could start to learn and experience and explore practice of the inner yoga is okay, good question. So, yeah, just like their outer body yoga is like hatha yoga. And Ashtanga and Korea and all these others. They're a very targeted set of specific inner yogas that work very specifically with the inner subtle body. When you're actually doing something like Dream Yoga, you're actually working with an inner yoga whether you know it or not, but very specific inner yoga is are actually practices like the body training practice called LU Jiang the were engaged practice cultural core. And so in terms of like, where to go with this, the literature itself you can get a really quite decent overview of the inner yoga is by reading Reggie Ray's secrets of the virtual world. He has a pretty decent section on that. I don't Well Oh, here it is. I'm actually I do have it here. Hey, cool. So another place is my friend. Alejandro tol I just spent a week with him in Virginia. He's a PhD. Wonderful, wonderful guy. This book Tibetan yoga, for health and well being the science and practice of healing your body energy and mind. And I think almost he might be doing it as we're speaking actually at a place called Ling Ling SHA la ngm i n Cha. That was called the serenity Ridge retreat center. So this is where I hung out with him for a week. I think he actually might be doing a week long practice. On that, you know, yoga is like right now. And so he's a guy he's just a beautiful human being. You can maybe get a sense of him was picture I don't know if you can see it. He's just a really sweet, wonderful human being. And he teaches on these inner yoga practices with some regularity. And I really recommend him without any hesitation. He's just a beautiful soul. He is a student of of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche who was hosting this event that I attended a couple of weeks ago. And he writes also in Teach us on this stuff with some regularity. There are other teachers you can find some literature on this. If you look up Yantra yoga, ya and tra Yantra yoga. I'm not gonna Norbu Rinpoche sorry about all these names. If you're not familiar with them, he's written and taught on this topic. But I would recommend actually, in addition to what I just mentioned, in terms of walk yell in his his scene, the whole lean Mincha scene he teaches with on the inner yoga is with some regularity, and not a lot of people do this because the practices are a little bit on the advanced side are considered somewhat secretive. So this is one reason why it's not easy to find stuff out there. But Tenzin Wangyal does it with some regularity. So you can go to his website. Alejandro does it. Like I mentioned he's doing like right now I believe. He teaches with it on a stuff with some regularity. But not but in addition to that Reggie Ray's work sometimes I don't know how much he's teaching in person these days. But his his work on this in addition to secrets of the virtual world. He has like four books on the inner yoga is touching enlightenment is his biggest one. That kind of set the stage during the practice of pure awareness.
hang in there. But
even more, so. Thanks for indulging me. One of the books so here's the here's the first one I think this is the best. This is really quite a decent tone, touching enlightenment finding realisation of the body. Reggie is great because he takes things like via zucchini and introversion, uni and TUMO. And he unpacks it in a Western way which is very, very clever, very skillful. Here's the other one, the awakening body. Somatic meditation for discovering our deepest life. There you go. Somatic descent, how to unlock the deepest wisdom of the body. There you go. I read all of these at least once and then the practice of pure awareness, somatic meditation, for awakening the sacred. There you go. That should keep you busy for a weekend. It's really fantastic stuff. And if you want to get into the deeper end of it, like the infrastructure teachings, before you do the inner yoga is when I was trained. You do you study what are called the profound inner topics that are found in reality in Tibetan the word Zumbo Nandan. This text I'm not sure it's available in public some of these are kind of prescription strength textbook that the profound inner principles by Rangjung Dorje a translated by Elizabeth Callahan. That's the Bible. If you want to know about the inner yoga is in the most comprehensive, complete approach. profound inner principles I'm online and that's the tax. It's not easy, but it is really deep. It is really profound. So that's where I would go. Those are the people those are the main people that work with it. Suddenly Rinpoche on occasion will teach on it through his organization Punta Rica, but not nearly as much as Alhambra. Tenzin Juan Gil, and Reggie Ray. Okay. Okay, this is from George. George singer. In your lectures on the Bardot's you made a brief passing comment that grabbed my attention, because it's something I have wondered about for a long time that comment went by so rapidly. I'm roughly paraphrasing it here you were speaking I believe about consciousness. And you mentioned that there are facets of it that are located or perhaps received or maybe generated by the brain and other levels of it that are outside perhaps above and not in or from the brain. Yes, indeed, I would be really grateful. If you could talk a bit about the relationship with a biological tissue or a physical brain nervous system and the vast unborn uncreated awareness it seems so much greater. I have wondered if death is the resting and reunion that perhaps comes from accepting and allowing the biological awareness to take refuge in the mastermind. My fear of death is somehow tied up with this question. Yeah, this is another good one. This is a really rich one. So first thing is, George is a me again, this goes very deep because there's two ways to look at reality well, two principal rays in terms of materialistic that everything is fundamentally reducible, Tom as my friend Ken Wilber puts it frisky dirt. I love that. Everything comes from frisky dirt. That's fantastic. This kind of perverse pathological reductionism that reduces everything to matter. I mean, give me a break. This gives rise to the so called hard problem which will never be solved, because the fundamental premise of the hard problem is completely erroneous, the massive what they call the explanatory gap. How, how can you get consciousness out of matter? Well, you can't, because it doesn't come from matter. So you have to flip the whole thing on his head. All the wisdom traditions they may not say overtly, but their idealistic tradition. So that's the other option idealism. idealism comes in a ton of different forms well beyond what we can explore here, philosophers going all the way back to the pre Socratics permittees and pedigrees. Even you know that even the West talked about it. Pre Christian BC era, the Eastern traditions have been talking about it forever. That reality is actually the fabric of of mind, heart spirit, and then discovering what that is, is the goal right? And so then you have what's called the D combination problem. So then if everything's made of matter, I mean, sorry if things made a man, mind, then how do you how do you explore individuation of individuality? How do you explain separation? I'll come back to that in just a second. The other approach is what's called pan psychism. And that comes out also on a bunch of different forums, quantum information based pan psychism big fancy term, this is Federico phi jeans view which I think if you've got to subscribe to pan psychism, which is kind of a bridge for materialism to idealism. Pan psychism pan psychism is a healthy step but it's still not quite there. There's called constituted pan psychism. There's a whole array of it and basically here what the fundamental premise is that the you can reduce things to these conscious agents, the work of Donald Hoffman, the cognitive neuroscientists getting a lot of traction these days. Everything can be reducible to these fundamental conscious agents, but then you then have what's called a combination problem. How do these things still combined to create consciousness? So materialism is just is wrong? That came about largely for political reasons, believe it or not, way back when during the time of the Dark Ages and then later with Descartes constitutive and other forms of Pan psychism is an intermediate step but you still have what's called the combination problem. And then the reason I'm talking about this is because with the view of idealism that the world is made of mind, then your answer can be your question can be addressed, that fundamentally the brain does not give rise to consciousness, the brain is correlative to and supportive of a gross level of consciousness, but it doesn't give rise to consciousness. In fact, it's Huxley put it the brain is a reducing valve. And there's tremendous literature about this that when you take high dose psychedelics, you might think that brain activity would be increased to support that higher state of consciousness, it's actually the complete opposite. Brain Activity is reduced when people have levels of syncope fainting, when the brain activity is actually diminished or sometimes see still have these altered states of consciousness that are more in line with the awakened state. There's just a vast literature here that expansions in consciousness are not correlative to expenses and brain activity. They're they're inversely proportional. The less activity you have in the brain, the more the conscious mind to actually expand so, the view that I subscribe to maintain by 1000s of years by these wisdom traditions, is the brain is a reducing valve. It does not give rise to consciousness is basically an outer body correlate to consciousness. And so, boy, the way to look at this in terms of your question is this is the languaging of like what Bernardo Castro has to say about this his form of what's called analytic idealism, probably the most cogent one that I'm diving into in a big way these days. He's a really sharp guy. He has a very interesting approach. And if you listen to my web, podcasts, interviews, on the edge of mind, I interviewed both Federico Fantine with his quantum information based pan psychism approach, and then a three hour interview with Bernardo and so to paraphrase his amazing work is you can think of mind at large this is this is the nature of reality is mind at large. You can think of the individual cell sense is a dissociative alter. And this is really super interesting, the analogy that he gives, it's very compelling. It's highly analogous to what happens with people that have what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder. Now the term is dissociative identity disorder. And what takes place here is that in the mind of one person, right, Sibyl, the member of the movie and in the in the mainstream of one person, you can have a number of completely dissociated alters altered personalities within the host personality that are living out completely different lives within the context of one mindstream. It's amazing. So Bernardo, in a very clever way says well, this is exactly the way we are in relationship to mind at large we are dissociated, alters in relationship to mind at large. And so then what happens at the moment of my of death is death is just the end of the dissociation. It's not the end of mind. It's like you use the image of a whirlpool in a stream. We are basically these dissociated mixing metaphors, these whirlpools in the stream. When we die, it's just a whirlpool that's dissolving back into the stream the spring the stream continues, that never ends is without beginning and it's without end. That's what death is. And then if you're not familiar with that level of identity with mind at large then for all kinds of reasons that probably a little bit beyond we can talk about now. The mind will spend itself back into shape again. Trungpa Rinpoche talked about this as the cocoon. The ego and other dissociative altars picked up later downstream. And so you have the process of rebirth. So let me see if I'm missing anything here. That may be of some interest. This is such a big question.
Yeah, the relationship with the biological tissue, the physical brain in the vast unborn uncreated, awarenesses seem so much greater. Yeah, so I've wondered if death is resting and reunion. It's definitely a reunion. It's the end of the dissociation. And so this is a George it's a such a massive topic that hopefully this will at least send you in the right direction. There's a really big, big literature here, going back all the way to perm entities in the West, into the Vedas in the East. But if you're if you're into the, I think the most cogent current expositor of this, Bernardo has some really clever things to say. I might recommend it recommend why materialism is baloney. What a great title. For the deeper divers, the heart of the world, multidisciplinary argument for the mental nature reality or something like that. That's a masterpiece. Heavy Lifting it's not easy, but it is effing brilliant. So if you hear George you want to come on and ask more. I'm happy to run with it, but the topic is so big. It's been talked about debated in philosophy, spirituality, religion, even the neurosciences. So you know, for a five minute soundbite, maybe that's of some interest. These are awesomely big, wonderful questions. Okay. From Julia in the last q&a, you mentioned that there are nine stages of Dream Yoga, where can I learn more about them? Yeah, the nine stages really are my unpacking of the three classic stages in the meditation texts, to stage of lucidity itself, the stage of transformation, and then the stage of self liberation. And so what I do in my nine stages in my book, Dream Yoga, illuminating your life through lucid dreaming and the Tibetan Yogi's of sleep. I go through these nine stages. So if you really want to see that, that's where you go, okay. I talked about them and also on our website, nightclub. I think I gave 678 different webinars on these nine stages. So if you go back into that kind of archive, and get 400 plus hours of content there, you will find a series of webinars where he talks about every one of these stages, basically, riffing on the stuff from the Dream Yoga Book. Okay, part two of the question, I had an experience of the beginning of a lucid dream where Whitehair was flying in a clear sky but suddenly I realized I couldn't find myself within the dream. Awesome. Fantastic. Because there was nobody there. You couldn't find yourself because there is no self. There's nobody there. There isn't. There may seem to because of habit patterns, you may think you have a dream body you may think that there is a perspective, from a from a perceiver or a dreamer, but that's a total illusion. It's just habit. It's just the power of habit that creates this illusion that there is a dreamer. There is no dreamer. If you look down and you create you know you're looking at what seems to be a dream body, you're actually creating it in the act of perception and the act of looking you're actually enacting that there's no dream body there. So that's why you couldn't find yourself because there is nobody there that's emptiness. That's that's a glimpse of emptiness. That's a glimpse of the empty nature of the self since there is no dreamer there. So good for you. High five. There was no me Yes, hurray. There is no you just like there was no you now a little bit harder because you have this physical body thing, but then we can take that apart, like where are you in relationship to this physical body? We started lopping off all these different parts. It's called the sorority's paradox. You start cutting off an arm, an arm and a leg, leg and ear and take everything away. And what point does self become non self right? There is no self just like in a dream. Okay, back to you. There was an object without a subject well, even the object wasn't there. You can't have an object with or without a subject see the CO emerge it's literally called co emergent ignorance. So there was an object without a subject No, there was no object. It just seems that there was an object there. Just like there seem prior to that there was a subject but there was no object. This is what's called threefold impurity, the unexamined assumption that there's a subject the dreamer, an object, the dream, and something connecting the two consciousness. No, it's all an illusion. That's all a construct. Dream Yoga deconstructs This allows you allows you to see what's called threefold purity. was actually truly there. Okay, I got confused and couldn't sustain the dream. Okay. The Dream collapsed into darkness and eventually I woke up yes, all all dreams will collapse into darkness, which is the blinding luminosity of sleep yoga, actually, the formless dimension of that kind of black light. Black is so cool. I mean, I'm about to go to 10 days of dark retreat. That's where I'm going tomorrow. I go out and do these wonderful really, like every time I mentioned it to people, they go, you're doing what? This is how I spend my vacations. I go into a pitch black cabin, and I explore the fundamental darkness with darkness is the color of non duality. Even more so than light actually. Light comes out of darkness Let there be light. Well, where does the left there will be light has to come from what comes from darkness. So darkness is the primordial color of reality. Prior to the big blank bang, Big Bang allegedly darkness right seeds germinate in darkness you were conceived in darkness when you studying darkness, you're studying origins. So the fact that the dream collapsed and darkness is high five spot on, because it arose from darkness, it returns to darkness. Every dream comes from the space every thought comes from the space you come from the space your entire life, the cosmos. So this is the room in the tomb, the cradle and the grave of all manifest reality. Could you please advise what to do if this happens again? Well first of all celebrate. awesomely cool. And the nice thing I would do really if it happens again, is when you have when you collapse into darkness, see if there's actually an experience of the darkness, or whether the darkness is experiencing itself. Because if there's a perceiver of the darkness that's still slightly dualistic, it's nothing wrong with it. But there's still believe there's a sense of I'm perceiving the dark. See what happens if you can just dissolve even further into that. In terms of the subject, that object thing. Try to look for a hand try to look for a body part when you're doing that. And perhaps notice that in the very act of looking, you're generating that part of your dream body. Second thing that I would explore with this because it's connected to your first question, the nine stages of Dream Yoga, stage eight and stage nine deal with this stuff. So there is a historical doctrinal context with these teachings. This is where Dream Yoga transitions into what's called Yoga Nidra or sleep yoga. So stages eight nine and my exposition or stage three of the classic exposition on the stage of self liberation. That's what riffs about this stuff in great detail. If you want to know more about this, the follow up to my Dream Yoga Book, the second and my dream, my dream trilogy is called dreams of light. The profound daytime practice of illusory form. I have a number of chapters on this stuff as well. Okay. Okay, Amanda, did you ever receive a musical composition in your dreams? No, I have not. But a ton of people have Mozart. Beatles yesterday, I believe came to Paul McCartney in the dream. Michael Jackson had a lot of music come to him in a dream. So a lot of a lot of musicians definitely have compositions in their dreams. I have played compositions I played Beethoven sonata is in my lucid dreams, which is kind of cool. conjure up a beautiful German Steinway. I'll sit down and I'll play a bit joven Sonata in my dream. Wonderful. So much fun. So I've played compositions in my dreams. I've never composed one myself because I'm not a composer. I write words and crap, but I don't write music. If so, would you play for us? Well, I haven't. So I can't if not from dreams, one of your own compositions. Yeah, so I'm not a composer. I mean, maybe someday. Right around the corner. I have my big German stamp grand maybe someday I'll play some some dead white man's music, some Chopin, Beethoven or Bach or whatever, but not tonight. But thank you for the thought. It's very sweet. I am not a composer I am I attempt to write and attempt to be an author but I'm not a composer. Okay, there are a couple other questions and then I'll open it up document. Okay. Okay, there's a little bit more after your death retreat. I'm not sure which one that was. I would like to continue studying. I'm curious if I can email you or someone who has studied about where to begin with your offerings. Well, that's very kind of you. The you know, the best thing to do by far aleni is, is getting involved with our NightBot community. I mean, the way I interact with people, in addition to this format, is we started this platform, I don't know five years ago, which is designed to support people with all this kind of stuff. And so like I mentioned earlier, we've got four or five offerings a week on this platform. It's not just me and some other really capable guests,
hundreds of hours of material, by live programs, again, all the stuff that's listed on my website, that's a way to kind of connect with me. I don't I don't have the capacity. I don't have the bandwidth. To take people on a one on one basis. So unfortunately, I don't have the time to do that. But there are people in communities that do that like like the sukkah city Foundation, which is Loma Paul Paultons group who I interviewed a couple of weeks ago, her organization centered out of California and older people. They're really wonderful, wonderful people. And I like them because you know, they're it's a female kind of lineage. So Cassidy's female, ninguna, llama, Paulding, almond, all the people there. They're just amazing women, powerful female teachers. And so I recommend that organization without hesitation. They're just wonderful people. The other one of there's so many but Tergar I often talk about them. I know the senior teachers there you can get some one on ones with them. But there's a lot you can do on online these days, either through sickle city through Tergar with the incredible online platforms are the stuff that we tried to do through nightclub edge of mind. And then the stuff I offer on my live event so thank you so much for asking. I wish I had time to do kind of one on ones but there's only so many so many hours in the day unless you can meet me in the dream world. And we could do some shared mutual dreaming and we could communicate that way. Let me know. That's an option. Not so easy, but it is possible. Okay, similar one I'm interested in Buddhism. This is for Damian, I'm interested in Buddhism and the enlightenment process. It's the only game in town man. Everything else is a substitute gratification. So if you're interested in this, you're interested in the real deal. I came across your stuff and this is something I'd like to explore. Thank you. That's cool. Due to your experience, I'd like to ask for guidance. Could you recommend to me a Buddhist teacher who would be available online for private and intense teaching on Dream Yoga and enlightenment? Especially the jonang and Cago tradition. Whoa, boy, these are really specific requests good for you. Oh, I wish I could have good news for you. I mean, you know the jonang shantung boy oh boy. One person Hold on. Hold on
give me one second. Eric.
Okay. So very specifically, if you're answered in jonang, slash shentong. Again, that's a pretty specific request a good for you. There aren't that many people that role in this world but here's one Shar SHA our Ctrl K h e n t r u l jump Hal J A M p h e l Lotro LOD er o tempo tempo la Jo. This is his most recent book. It's a it's a wonderful read actually. exposition on the relevance Ambala via the Kalachakra Tantra and he does transmissions of the college chakra through the Joan on color image. I used to do that. And so he would be another one but I don't know this. Maybe this is a question for me to ask him when I interview him. I know his previous incarnation was largely Champa and John tenga Rinpoche as well. But it's going to be tricky with that level of specificity that's not quite so easy, but casual Rinpoche would be the place to start. I don't I've met him several times. I've attended some of his teachings. But I don't have a personal connection with him. So I can't help you more than that. In terms of available one on one private intense teaching and Dream Yoga, whoa. And enlightenment. Again, I wish I had better news for you. That's really hard these days because people are just so busy right? tons on one gal but you never gonna get a one on one on him. You can probably attend some of these teachings and do some online stuff. But the private intense one on ones. I wish I had better news that's not so easy. One of the best things to do is just connect with a community. Maybe it's central Rinpoche is maybe somebody else then you can start to work your way so to speak into the system by being part of that community, then perhaps you have an opportunity to study one on one but to do that on an ongoing basis. I wish I had better news for you there. People are just so busy these days. It's really really difficult. Unless there's somebody listening here that knows other than the communities I already mentioned, are probably the most available and accessible. I mentioned, Sukkah city foundation Tergar. Ponder recurs and other ones are gonna Rinpoche the London body that's pulling up refugees community, they're fantastic. These are fantastic organizations Ziggler cultural Rinpoche Shireen Mangala booty, unbelievable organizations, but the one on one thing that's tricky. Okay, I know that such persons are hard to find. Yes they are and getting into contact is initially rather difficult. Unfortunately, yes, it is. But if your heart is in the right place, your intention is pure. And you really want to do this for the right reasons. And you have the perseverance, things that doors will open for you. You just have to really hang in there. You have to be patient and you have to kind of step up the rest of it is kind of more personal stuff. But Damien I hope that helps you. Wish I had better news to say but it's not bad news. You can work with these people in this way and they will teach you a great deal. But I get it I read get a wonderful, delightful tickle. When somebody has a very specific request about things like Jonah. I mean, that's so cool, right? So anyway, those are all the ones that came in, I will turn to the chat column. See if there's anything here and if anybody here is listening, want to raise their hand and either make a contribution and offering it doesn't always have to be a question. It can be contribution or offerings. So what does Barry have to say always has something interesting Ian Baker, Tibetan yoga Principles and Practice hardcover. Oh, okay, Barry. I have I know en I've hung with him over the years but I haven't read off his stuff. So this is a book where he talks about some of the inner yoga stuff. Cool. Excellent. Berries, Berry. Ian has a really, really wonderful adventure kind of guide. My friend Bob Thurman talks, talks about him very playfully as Indiana ein which is very playful as an Indiana Jones, right? He's He's this Intrepid. I really love it. Yeah. And he's this intrepid explorer. His book heart of the world is incredible book. He's the guy who's doing these amazing journeys into Pemko doing pilgrimage and tracks and stuff. He's just about run kind of guy and a rockstar on these independent scholar has a lot to offer. I've only read a couple of his books, but very if he talks about some of the inner stuff there. That's great. I'm just not aware of it. Okay, from Prem das what is the difference between Lu Zhang and salam, true core Yeah, so a little technical question. So Lu John literally means body training. Saloum TrueCar. Basically, these are just solid means the channels and the winds associated with the inner body and true core are a set of practices deeper than blue jobs. So Lutron practices are generally taught. They used to be secretive, but now you can read about them in public. Rose Taylor's wonderful book, awakening the inner body. I think it's called I have in my library on the corner. She's written a wonderful book. On Lou Jiang. True core goes a little bit deeper. These practices are generally taught in three year retreat context, within the context of the sixth yogas of Naropa. But again, Alejandro talks about it more publicly in the Bumppo tradition as does tons of wonderful, fantastic stuff as those Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche with his Yantra yoga. So talam tro core is a little bit deeper than Lu Jiang. It's a little bit more sophisticated. It's a little bit more vigorous, more challenging. They're both incredibly wonderful and packable practices to do. Lu Jiang is a great introduction to the inner yoga is True course when you get into it in the deepest possible way. So hopefully, that's helpful. Okay. Couple more here, and then I'll get to the live one. And do I remember when you played for us one time during COVID lockdown, did I really learn up? I remember I played a Rachmaninoff thing recording when I interview Krishna Das so if you go to my your very sweet lord to mention this when I did my edge of my podcast with Krishna Das KD the great kirtan guy this guy he's he's I was gonna say he's a rock star but he's a character on Star he's a beautiful soul. I really love this guy. Oh, yeah, there it is. Very much that's it. Yeah, I play a rock minor enough Prelude during my interview with Katie we swapped some music stuff. If I play something live in COVID I don't remember. But maybe someday. Yeah. Around the corner I'll play some Chopin or something for you guys. Okay. All right. Let me get this last one Kimberly, can anyone please give us the link? Yeah suka city that city I like it. suka s u k h a sukkah as UK ha. It means basically bliss is in sukawati the land of Bliss suka city Sid d h i That's the name of that organization suka City, one word run by Lama Palden. And then her other Lamas as she's trying she's fantastic. Tam when you do the duck retreat, is that actually total dark no it is 100% effing dark. It is darker than dark man. specially prepared rooms. It is like beyond dark. It's fantastic. It's totally dark. It's totally isolated. Do you eat or do you just fast no I you know cooking thing and eating thing you have to get used to doing all this in the dark. What do you do you find is the main benefit. Oh my gosh, there's so much to say here. I'm going to come back to this Tim if you want me to say more about it. Because this is a really big topic. The benefits are off the charts. And also there are a few risks. So one has to be a little careful with these sorts of things. But I'll come back to that. To get menorahs question here or comment in a second. And then I'll continue to scroll to get some of these other ones. So unmute yourself here and fire away.
Um, well I have a question at first I want to answer your question from a few months ago you asked if anybody did spitting a lot in Dream Yoga practice, right? Yeah, I used to do it all the time. It was so it worked. So well.
Like so you just added like spontaneously or when something else was. If
I felt like the dream was collapsing, I would just spin and then be back right into the center of it again.
Yeah, that's definitely bearish. I totally agree with you, Stephen. The Bearish came up with this thing he wrote about it. I've used it either spinning like a whirling dervish. The other thing I found that works just as well is spinning your arms like in a pinwheel. Again, even though there are no arms in there, you can create them. Even though there's no body in there. You create the illusion that there is one and there's something about that movement that can help you stay purchased in the dream if the dream starts to collapse. So it's one of the best ways to sustain a dream. And also a really powerful way to suss out whether you're having an out of body experience or hyper lucid dream. So it's sort of several different functions, but good for you. That's really cool.
So thank you, but the question I have is, I had an experience while ago, weeks ago, and you could kind of tell that I've been listening to your talks and this experience, so I'm in a dream, and it's an really intense nightmare and at the peak of the nightmare. Another part of me steps in and says this is an illusory construct. You can let it collapse if you want. Let it collapse, collapse like a book and just fold it into itself. And I don't remember what the nightmare was about that while it was closing. I was coming kind of going. Way I kind of wanted to see what happened with that monster. Yeah, so there was kind of an attachment. So that was one thing like why is the attachment still there? Because it was unpleasant. And then oh, go ahead.
I was gonna say it let me ask you that right away before forgetting because it's entertaining. That was bad. Something bad is better than nothing. So we're we're all at various degrees drama kings and drama queens, because it entertains and we pay for it. And so the reason that we do it is because it really is it is it seduces the egoic mind keeps the mind moving. That's what keeps the ego alive. And so even though it's bad, in a certain sense, something bad is better than nothing. So we buy into it as a way to keep the the winds of the ego afloat, so to speak. Yeah,
well, that makes sense that the second part of that is that now this was a bit but what happens is like the dream will collapse and then I'll just be an open awareness. I don't go into lucid dreaming I don't remember to do that. I just end up in this like stilts place. So I don't even know what that is. I've never heard anybody talk about that particular
or you. Let me clarify. I guess some clarification. So are you still in the dream arena? Or Have you woken up when they
collapse? I'm still asleep, but I'm in some kind of open awareness state.
And so how do you know that you're in an open awareness state if you're not lucid? Is it retrofitted Li is that when you come out of it, and then you say I was in the open awareness? How do you know that you're having the experience without it being lucid?
Hmm. Have you thought of that?
Yeah. So you're resting in that state. You might be what's called Peled lucidity where you're you're involved in a lucid state, but you're not participating. You're simply observing,
not participating. Yeah, exactly.
And so that's a wonderful it's still a form of lucidity. But it's a somewhat formless form where you're not participating. But the fact that you're aware that you're doing that has to imply or does imply some level of reflexive awareness, some level of lucidity.
Well, thank you. Yeah, you're
welcome. Thanks for the contribution and good luck in the world of spinning. That's pretty cool. Thank you there. Hey, sorry, Puja from the US. I'm not yourself. Yes. Sir.
I was, you know, contemplating how the tantric traditions Hindu and Buddhist emphasize the primordial nature of sound. And, however, the Zope Chen tradition really emphasizes light. And of course, I want to kind of degenerate into my physics background and say, well, the you know, sound requires a medium but light is self propagating and all but I don't think that's kind of where they're So is there some significance to central portions of sound is there
is there is and first of all, it's okay and does work with sound. They just don't do it as is March they don't emphasize the primordial nature of sound as they do the primordial nature of light. So you will find in the jokes and tradition of particular toradol working with particular postures and clenching of the teeth and all that kind of thing bring about the primordial sound of the Dharma TA, which is going to be at least in you know, luminous Bardo Dharma ta right. So that's what that sound is revealed. But the reason sight the reason why is emphasized is because we're primary I mean, this is a really big topic, but in terms of sense faculties, right? Were vastly sensory beings. I mean, a third of the brain processing power is devoted to sight. It just vastly out dominates the sensory kind of a brain allocation of resources to the other senses. And so we're awake centric, site centric, photo centric culture. And it's really interesting because it's the most dualistic of all senses, right? We can see farther than we can hear, smell, taste or touch. So it's the most dualistic sense. It's the most superficial sense, because the eyes are so fast, or I was skidding a claw across everything, never really pausing to penetrate through anything. And so because of that, because it's such a dominant sense faculty and we live in a wake centric, site centric, photo centric world all based on the service of egocentricity. The absorption tradition goes directly at that kind of core sensory faculty of samsara. I mean, samsara is the most dualistic, superficial of all senses. That's one reason. The other reason at a deeper, very deeper level than that is that light is is is the nature of reality. I mean, primarily, primarily, all of what we know is manifest reality is just a fantastic sound and light show. It really is. And so, the nature of all appearances is basically just frozen light. This is the light of the mind itself. And so this whole notion of light goes from this more kind of sensory or cognitive neuroscientific thing all the way down to these very deep epistemological ontological explorations of the nature of reality being made of this light. I mean, when you're looking at the phenomenal world, this is basically reified, frozen. Light to the mind. When you see an experience in the dream arena, right? Where's that light coming from? The light of the mind. So this notion of light is a colossal topic, especially in Xhosa. And this is explored in a massive literature but those are the principal reasons. Right there. Thank you. Okay. Yep. Welcome. Great question as always, okay, Kimberly, hold on just a second. Let me just pick one or two more from here. From a different Stephanie. Some weeks ago, you mentioned that Katie Chelsea Bodie intended to start a once a month. Yes, they're still going to do it. Gathering intended to help attendees more regularly induce lucid dreams. Yes, they're still going to do it. I haven't seen or heard anything further about it. It's happening. It just they haven't quite. We need bios. We need photos. We need a date, but is 100% going to happen? 100% In fact, we just had some conversation with him today about collecting some data to make it happen. So stay tuned. It will be coming around once a month. Okay, we just don't have a date yet. Okay, Pema Chodron Rinpoche also as a community, yes. Oh, yes, of course. She's fantastic. Kandra and he is a total rock star. I haven't seen her in a number of years, but she's wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Absolutely. I don't mean to leave anybody out. When I throw these others. It's just that I spend quite a bit more time with them. But Khandro Rinpoche is an amazing human being wonderful, wonderful teacher. There's so many others. There's really quite a few. And not all of them are these kind of big communities. There are a number of like tacos longneck Rinpoche I mean, there's a host of these other teachers that are kind of smaller organizations where you probably do have an opportunity to have more one on one contact with them. But there's just so many almost like I wouldn't say too many to mention, but there's a lot it's really great. Okay, from Jillian, what was the book's author awakening the inner body? Yes, Reginald Ray, sorry. I speak quickly. Sometimes R e g. I N A LD Reggie original re awakening of the inner body to hear Oh, good. Costa Rica. Hi, him. Yes. Excellent. We'll see you there. Beautiful, beautiful. I can't wait. All right, Alyssa says the Here you go. Stephanie. The Dream support group will start in January. January 13. St. Pierre you only ask and you shall receive there it is. Okay. Fantastic. Okay, Kimberly, unmute yourself there.
Hello, i Thanks for seeing me again. So it's kind of a follow up from last week out. You gave me a tidbit of advice not to take myself so seriously. So it's doing a lot of reflection on that and a couple things came up for me. That's very related to what we were talking so I was reflecting a little on this experience I had where I was flying through this black, open space and I was seeking I was searching for something and I was flying for like endlessness was like eons and then I would reach this kind of like just light in the middle of this darkness. And I would touch it and I'll be like, Yeah, I found it. And then I'm like, No, it's not it and having to keep going. And this was a just timeless I felt like I was kind of like a golden body and there was like other golden buddies around that I will touch the light. But it was dark spent and it was time listen. So as I said so I was starting to feel like this kind of anxiety and I was wanting to get out of it. And then I was also practicing the yoga so it's about doing the generation in front of yourself and then it's to then generate yourself the deity. So doing the front generation I have no problem and it's it's good comfortable, but when I try to generate myself as the them that's when i i I just actually get anxious and I don't want to do it and like I don't want to lose myself. Yeah, and so I've realized that actually there's a lot of hindrance in my progression in, you know, kind of just that realization of emptiness within myself is an existential anxiety. And that's the grounds of it, and I've come to touch it now. And it's like, Alright, what do I do with that? Fantastic,
I mean, good for you. And thanks for sharing that. That's just fan tastic. So, so much to say here. Yeah, the existential anxiety runs to the very core. It's actually at the heart of samsara. It's the heart of the relative self sense. And it goes even deeper than anxiety. It basically goes into this fear this kind of ontological terrorism, that you don't exist, because you don't exist. Just like in a dream seems to be a dreamer there there isn't. Oh, I woke up from the dream I'm in reality I can touch my body you know, I must exist. i I'm here. In the physical world. I'm alive. I exist. No, you don't. It's an illusion. And so when you're doing these practices, they are diagnostic and prescriptive, the revelatory, so they will reveal to you so this is fantastically good news. The fact that you're doing deity yoga, and you don't want to transition your identity you know your your you know, criticism we're all this way. And when I say you I mean generic you know how to transition your identity from Kimberly to the Deity, because when they're mutually exclusive, you cannot be Kimberly and the deity at the same time, the empty of Kimberly and so when you're trying to dissolve and visualization makes total sense. When you start to visualize yourself as a deity, your ego goes no effing way. I'm after deity I'm Kimberly. And then underneath it all is you know, Kimberly is whatever. And so then the whole narrative kicks into place. So this is profound revelatory of not just this existential anxiety, but there's ontological terrorism, it's fear. That is the bedrock of your relative self sense. And so therefore, it's starting to reveal that you're getting closer to the truth. So the way to relate to that is like wow, this is just amazing. And explore it like why why do i Why am I so invested in this Kimberley thing? Right? Yeah, right. Again, just explore it. Why do I not want to be the deity? So the fact that you're coming up against this membrane, I just want to give you a big hug. It's just fantastic. So you smile and you go wow, this is let's explore this. What is the nature of this anxiety? Why am I feeling this angst? Why am I feeling this fear? And then really look very deeply. You know, you want to grow in this life. Kimberly. Follow your fear. Yeah, follow your bliss. It's okay. You've heard me say this. If you just follow your fear, bliss, you're just gonna get blissed out. You really want to grow in this life. You follow your anxiety, and you follow your fear. Because anxiety and fear are minions of ignorance. You're coming up against the fabric of ignorance. And so when you're feeling this, this is really good. This is really great stuff. So next time you feel that you'll notice a contraction, you're going to contract away from being the deity and that's going to action will throw you back into the Kimberley costume. You got to identify with that. Why? Because that's what you practice. That's your default meditation. Your default meditation is the Kimberley story, and you're invested in it because you know, it's been a relatively good ROI, right return on investment has been somewhat satisfactory, so you continue to invest in it. So when you do these things, you're they're profoundly revelatory and the fact that you have this insight is so awesome. So you feel it and you go, okay, you know, I have a bifurcation point I have a choice. Do I want to continue to be Kimberly and manifest and practice samsara well, then go ahead and do it. Or do you realize well, you know, what's the end result here? Right? Not such a great outlook and the samsaric agenda right? Kimberly's gonna die. The deity is not going to die because the deity is the nature Kimberly is also empty in nature, but she hasn't recognized that yet. So you feel that now you have a choice. You know, door one samsara door two, which door are you going to choose? You're bringing an unconscious process into the light of consciousness, and now you can make a choice. Racket I recommend you just explore it feel into it without judgment with us. With a smile, with a sense of curiosity and delight and go wow, this is interesting. Why am I so invested in the Kimberley costume? Make friends with that make friends very kind and playful? Don't beat yourself up for doing that. That's just your habit pattern. That's the principal some scar of above us and Scara is that then also, I think would explain some of the anxieties you felt when you're flying through space and you felt a little bit yeah, the around this the same thing? Because there's no room for personal identity in that space, right. There's nothing to press against in that space. There is no otherness so anxious in that blackness and that space because there's no other. If you don't have other you can't have self because they can't merge. And so hence you get anxious because there's nothing to press against see? And that's why relation to real estate is why that's why you want the drama. That's why you want the stories because at least it's something to press against. There's something to struggle with. Absent that central struggle, there's nothing there man. And that that extra emptiness, that nothingness is emptiness but again, it's not nothing. Yes, it's no thingness there's still something there. The Deity Yeah, radiant play of the mind.
But that's what I was fun. So I was just finding a lot of like, you know, there's this, I've talked to you about it before it, you know, there's my sense of purpose and meaning. So, you know, that can reemerge as the DD coming out, you know, through me and just in the Samsara kind of thing, but I can't shake this idea of purpose and meaning versus, you know, kind
of embeddedness any more about that, that if you are you intimating that if you experience emptiness there is no purpose and meaning is that what you're intimating well what I'm what
I realized was this place flying through there was an endlessness. Also, aka dead point, like it was a dead zone, because you just come up against nothing, you know,
that empty zone for what? For what? For everything Yeah,
it's a dead zone for confusion. It's there is no dead zone, because it's beginning and listen, it's endless. And that's why you were flying through space endlessly because it ends because it never started.
Yeah, but that's what I realized. Actually, there was nothing to grasp on. To the grasping self to reify the self. And so therefore, I was thinking is, so if there's nothing to grasp onto, I'm grasping on to meaning and purpose, as so if there's nothing but then what is there? Like? I feel like remember how you were saying you had that dream that you falling through space and you calling out I'm still falling? I'm still falling?
Yeah, that was actually really fun, though.
Like, I feel like you know, you if you had a grasp onto a cliff, you would have been grasping onto something. You know what I mean?
Well, I wouldn't, ya know, that's what made me yelling up to the top. I'm still falling such a delight. Because there was nothing to grasp on to and I wasn't freaking out. I wasn't panicking. By the way, this is exactly the freakout and the panic in the Bardot's. That's gonna throw you back to a form because in that space, the rug of my reality was completely pulled out from under my feet. And I just kept falling, falling, falling, falling, and instead of freaking out the very freak out of which contracts that space into reified form, brings me back into existence. I just kept falling and shouting back up with total delight. I'm still falling. It wasn't like, f I'm still falling. It was like, Wow, I'm still falling. That's a that's a Khandro that's, that's a sky dancer. This is dakini someone who learns to fly in space, the sky dancer. So when you have these experiences, first of all, thank you for sharing them. These are fantastic, beautiful, beautiful experience, delight in it, realize the total joy of having this brought to your awareness and then maybe start to explore like we're doing here. The so called etiology, like what is really going on here? Why am I feeling anxious? Where's the sense of anxiety coming from? And they lean into that go into that allow yourself to dissolve into that? Because then you'll realize that what emptiness cannot harm emptiness, and then you'll be falling through that space and you'll be flying through it. You're soaring instead of falling and you won't panic. So just celebrate your your fly. Cool. Okay. All right.
Thank you so much. Love.
You got the greatest things to share. You're so cool. Thank you so much. Okay, sure. And maybe one more. Appreciate it.
Hi, hi. Monday, when I was at work, suddenly my mind just shifted into this. Steam everything around me for exactly what it was. And then all day long. It was like a projection of a movie in front of in front of my mind of projections and storylines and thinking, and it was almost like a ghost like, like a, like a ghost film, presenting itself all day long. And it didn't have a whole lot to do with my essence or me at all. And when I saw this whole thing all day long, I just, I got really down. I got really sad about it. And I just I just seem to get really kind of depressed over over what I saw happening. And and I My question really is how do you keep from how do you keep from getting so down about it when you're seeing like this ongoing mental suffering that continues to go on? I don't know. I don't know exactly what to say. I just know that it just made me so sad. I was so down about seeing this all day. And now that I'm aware of it, there's choices about whether or not I participate. And I backed off quite a bit, but still. It was disheartening. Yeah. Okay.
Wonderful. So it's me. Two things. To jangles Okay. Feel it, but don't feed it. See it, but don't see it. Right, as if you're simply perceiving it. That can be highly revelatory, it can actually show you and develop they'll cultivate and from that space will naturally cultivate authentic, healthy renunciation slash revulsion for samsara. samsara is effing depressing. Have you noticed it is a total crap show. But the issue is you want to make that kind of diagnosis. But without taking it too personally. Again, that's a subtle gesture of self aggrandizement. See it but don't see it, feel it, but don't feed it. Let it come at. You recognize it as a sense of Wow. I'm actually saying the relative construct of reality is a crap show. It's full of pain. It's full of suffering. It really sucks. Well, you can do a couple of things you use that to seize your renunciation and say, You know what, I don't want to participate in this game anymore. I want to basically create a new sense of identity. I want to transition my vector from conventional proceeds of happiness to unconditional unconventional proceeds of enlightenment. So use that as a way to say I want to really do everything I had to wake up from this nightmare of samsara. Now in terms of working with the depression itself, this is also very interesting. There's a number of ways to work with it, but my just briefly one of my latest brands because of my book, reverse meditation, is trying to feel that depression as fully as you possibly can. So when you leave that space, you will notice something very interesting that that depression can only be sustained if you feed it back to Central Headquarters. That feeling itself and biochemically the neurological correlates of that kind of emotion are purified by your body within 90 seconds is gone. So if you're in a depressed funky mood, you're the one that's doing CPR on this energy that's keeping it alive long after it should be dead. So one way to sort of speak kill it is to feel it fully. So I'll see if I can remember this line. So this is like this is the header code my book. What is the the monk the monk says In fact, we have it here, Monk says to the dungeon master, heat and cold descend upon this. How can we avoid them? Dong Chan says why not go to the place where there is no heat or cold or depression? dung, chances are the Hmong says where is the place where there is no heat or cold? Dung John says one cold Let it be so cold that it kills you. When hot. Let it be so hot that it kills you. It's an effing amazing one. When depressed, be so depressed that it kills you. You become that emotional energy 100% You're gonna purify it, something's still gonna be there. This thing called the empty nature that energy some thing is still going to be there to which you previously upended the label depression. But this is how you can deconstruct depression by becoming 100% depressed, then you'll actually try it you'll actually take a little bit of courage. That's why I wrote the book. You can completely deconstruct this thing called depression. And you're going to be left with this ineffable amazing thing to which we append the label depression. It's fundamentally an energy and what makes it depressing in the conventional sense, is your flickering, you're referencing that experience back to self. It's coming back to Sharon. And Sharon then says, I'm feeling depressed. Again. No, you're not. You're creating that depression. So I just recommend it right. I mean, those those are the two things that come out come to mind. Feel it 100% Sometimes what I do share and I just try it isn't you kind of comical see if you can make it worse. Try to make the depression is bad is you effing possibly can make it and then by doing realize we got this whole thing is a makeup. This whole thing is a construction thing. So by actually making it worse intentionally, I'm going to I'm going to try to make this as bad as I possibly can. You're gonna find yourself laughing. Oh my god. I am pinching myself here. I am the one that's pinching myself. And then blaming others the situation subs or whether there is no samsara out there, right samsara is the state of mind. There is no Nirvana out there. And nirvana is a state of mind. And so by doing the reverse of what you would normally do, amplifying it, become one with it make it worse. You're going to radically transform the thing you're going to deconstruct depression and back into what it really is just as raw, intense sensory awareness. Give it a try. Let me know how it goes. Okay. Okay, from that last one. By the way, my friend just
had a question about
how appearances
arise from shunyata. So we, we say that everything is an appearance. But is there some sort of dynamism within shunyata? That sort of call its creative power? It's even even the even that is an appearance.
Well, a couple of things. First of all, things don't you can look into emptiness in two different ways and I wish somebody had told me this 20 years ago, because it's so confusing. You can look at emptiness in an imminent way or a transcendent way. You're referring to it in a transcendent way. That somehow you have to return to this thing called emptiness and out of the emptiness arises this thing called a parent's and that is, that is one way to look at it. That's a transcendent way to look at it. The expressive power that gives emptiness form is called Sol, some Bolkiah. That's the energy that is a projection of emptiness into form. But a much more non dualistic way of relating to it is things don't arise from emptiness, they rise as emptiness. They arise as emptiness. This is much more empowering. This is much more immediate. I mean, this means you only have to wake up and look at what's right in front of you right now. And you realize the open, ungraspable nature whatever is arising that is emptiness. So things things don't arise from emptiness, things arise as emptiness. That's luminosity. That's a light. So that ties into your early question. That expressive power, the light, that's the luminosity. So it's a self cosmological dualism when we say everything even even when literature writing, you know, essence of thoughts is Dharmakaya. As is taught, nothing would ever but everything arises from it. Well, provisionally, nothing would ever but everything arises as it and that means that therefore you don't have to return to some state that we call the Dharmakaya slash emptiness. That the Gnosis cosmological dualism is one of recognition that return you have to simply recognize the open ungraspable nature, the empty nature, whatever arises and then you realize Form is emptiness. luminosity is emptiness. How to track this is emptiness, man. doesn't come from it comes as it.
Okay. And then you promised a few words about dark retreat earlier.
You know what I'm gonna I'm a liar. It's like, it's like the Zen teacher says, you know everything I say is a lie. You know what, let's just say if I if I speak, I tell a lie. If I remain silent, I remain a coward. Well, I'm a cowardly liar. here's the here's the only reason from that to get into the dark retreat thing. This is a really big topic. And I already go pretty quickly through the stuff I get, you know, I don't I wouldn't say I'm skimming. But in order to get these wonderful questions and give even a semblance of credibility, I have to go somewhat quickly. And to dive into something like took all the dark practices quickly, I'm doing real injustice to the subtlety, the depth of this practice. I don't want to skim across that one because otherwise it's really it gets misunderstood and we get confused and whatnot. So with your permission, I'd rather pass on that because when I when I try to talk about some of this stuff, I've already was pushing the membrane by talking rather quickly about some really deep issues. And so to talk about dark retreat in five minutes, has doesn't do it justice. So maybe some other day. Okay, just a couple of last ones here and then really, I do have to close the door. So I'm going to go from here. So if there was something happening in the reified so called waking reality life, like a natural disaster being trapped, would it be totally possible to go into it as deeply as to dissolve the terror in the moment? Yes, it is. This is absolutely this is one way to dissolve the terror but this is also where we have to always balance Carol, the the absolute with relative truth, that there are things that happen in real life that are effing terrible. Look at Ukraine, look at Gaza. I mean, there's so many things that are true. So one near enemy of these kinds of absolute level teachings is this kind of spiritual bypass. So yes, fundamentally, you can indeed dissolve the terror. But we have to be careful that we don't become disaffected. By doing these sorts of deconstructing practices and say everything's empty. Everything's an illusion. Everything is a dream. It doesn't matter. No, no, no, that is not at all what's happening here. But if I get you right, I think maybe what I said could be of some interest. Okay, drama to melodrama. Yeah, no kidding. Awesome. I think I got everything else here. Cool. Well, then remember, to whatever extent dedication of merit. It's not just for us because we don't exist. We appear to exist. When we take a close look, there's nobody who can we do this for the benefit of others. So that we never forget. Otherwise, what we're doing here just becomes a little spiritual comfort plan. That's not what we're trying to accomplish when we engage in these particular endeavors. So I'm going to be off in the dark for the next 1012 days. See you on the other end if I come out otherwise much loved everybody. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We're going to take that evening off we would normally be doing a book study group that night but because it is Turkey Day, that evening will be open for consumption of food and good family affairs. So dedication, buddy, see you in a couple of weeks when I get back to our
