Hi everybody. Been a while since I've done one of these things I was looking over my, my notes and I've been, I've been a little bit delinquent and remiss, so it's nice to be back online. Something a topic that. Geez, almost to two plus years, has been in the works and so, so we're going to start a series on the stages of actual Dream Yoga practice. And I want to say a little bit, there's a number of preparatory comments about why there's been this, you know, kind of extensive preparation, and then we're going to jump right again. And for those of you who may not have joined us in one of these before. I'll go for maybe I don't know 40 minutes. And then, plenty of time for q&a discussion. It can be about anything, doesn't have to be specifically about this particular stage topic, it can be anything related to what we do on nightclub. Very game everything's very game. But what I did want to say is that there are a number of reasons why we have waited so long to get to the actual stages of Dream Yoga. One is that both lucidity and lucidity come about, you know, kind of systemic or integral approach. In other words, there are a whole bunch of factors that come into play, to bring about both lucidity and lucidity and so therefore it's you know, even though it's very tempting to just like race to the goodies. If we don't honor the kind of systemic yamasa ecological nature of lucidity. It's just not going to work. I mean you're not you know, you're not going to have these dreams so that is that continues to be the number one, hands down, no competition, single biggest issue is, I can't, I am having no luck I can't get these dreams I can't get these dreams. And so that's why I'm is rigorous systematic as I can be because it takes this kind of integrated approach. In my opinion I mean yeah you can have a little bit of hidden Miss lock with a particular technique gadget supplement and the like. But to develop any level of constancy requires a more honest assessment of what actually brings about lucidity, and so therefore there's, it's been a somewhat long laborious track two years. For those of you who've been keeping track. I don't know how many webinars, we are, Maybe 4050 to kind of pave the way for this actual current track, and we're going to take our time with this, this track there there are nine stages in my cartography and mind mapping, which is basically an elaboration of the three classic traditional stages, I'll go through all this in detail, because there's a lot to say here, I'm gonna relax and just take my time and really go through this in some detail. But, you've heard me say this before it's a common aphorism or Maxim. In the Buddhist tradition that the preliminaries, are more important than the main practice. And so again it's just another reinstatement that if you do that, the word in Tibetan is Landro the laboratory practices the preliminary practices, you do that with some authenticity with some rigor
lucidity is a natural consequence of that type of approach and so this cannot be overstated because I still get I cannot tell you how many emails a week, a week, I get from people saying, you know, it's all sounds so great it is not working. And so this is one of the main reasons we have some patients on the West. We don't realize how deeply indoctrinated and well practiced we are in non lucidity, remember, we practice it all the time that's our default that's literally the default mode network is to fall into mindlessness, these are all synonyms for non lucidity mind mindlessness distraction, forgetfulness. That's our default that's just kind of where we go. And so we practice, non lucidity all the time which is why we're so good at it in which is why we don't have lucid dreams on a constant basis. And this is precisely why people who do the preparatory work especially the meditations, in particular, have more and more and more lucid dreams until you get to the point where all your dreams will loose it so that this cannot be overstated. I'm sure until the day I go to my grave. I will be hearing this, why is it so hard to have these dreams. So that's why we've spent so much time on meditation, you know number one single ingredient. Meditation is the practice of lucidity, the main preparatory practice. So again two years basically preparatory work to get to the somewhat official stage. And so some people have a natural, like with any other discipline, we have a natural kind of talent there are Mozart's in this field or meditative Mozart's their dream. Yogi's that have a natural predisposition, and this has to do their number of ways to talk about where this comes from but one way because Dream Yoga remember worse with subtle body. Solo dreaming mind is supported by the Southern dream body, that it has to do in that arena with the way the channels are configured and the noddy's. And so I use this term, not, not the plasticity right this is a play on what the neuroscientists talk about is neuroplasticity. You've heard this I've talked about it, what you do with your mind changes your brain. Well, what you do with your mind also changes your body, and that includes your subtle body. And so therefore, even though some people have these predispositions and I would argue they develop that talent, because if you believe in this sort of thing they did these preparatory practices in previous lives, if that if that works for you. I mean, so they came in, hardwired or in this case soft wired for this
kind of talent, because they worked on it. And so that's where that talent comes from. So, the messages are later, one way or the other. You know the preparatory inner work needs to be done. But the good news is, because the bodies just like your neurons effect are plastic, they're not fixed by what you do with these practices these meditations, you can change the configuration of these Nabis. So this is again a subtle inner body approach to bringing about induction which we've talked about earlier sessions. And so what I wanted to do today because again in the spirit of the preliminaries, are more important. We may not actually get to the stages. Today we'll see. I want to give you four or five six reasons why this aspect of the natural meditations is more advanced, some of this has been hinted at intimated and what I've talked about previously, but I want to be a little bit more bullet point now and talk about why is Dream Yoga, which remember transcends but includes lucid dreaming lucid dreaming as a platform. Dream Yoga goes beyond it but includes it. Why Dream Yoga is considered so advanced. And really, honestly, until the last, I don't know 20 years. This stuff was not taught in the West, it was considered a restricted practice. And so I want to share a little bit about why not not in any kind of like oh you have to join that you know this particular cult or club. No, no, there are reasons for some of the previous restrictions which have which have been lifted for some reasons which I will explain to you, but number one not necessarily an order priority but number one. Some of this is gonna be a little bit of a review, but again I want to put an exclamation point on this. One of the reasons Dream Yoga is considered advanced is because you're working with subtle really subtle dimensions of mind, right. And so, because we're basically mostly living at the level of the gross mind, supported by gross body this is where, mind you can say does equal brain. We're not habituated to we're not familiar enough with the subtle dimensions of mind. And so, really, they're nocturnal meditations for me nocturnal is kind of a code word for subtle, so it has to do with these extremely subtle dimensions of mine which are kind of a bulldozer outward oriented gross level of consciousness. This doesn't have much traffic with, and it's a little bit like shouting over qualities that are whispered in so we don't hear that we don't see them we kind of bowl over them with all our bad habits. And so again just to reinstate well if it's so bloody subtle, why, why bother, why, Why bother because it's so subtle. Well subtle doesn't mean ineffectual right. I mean, all our thoughts are subtle. Everything we do in our lives, mostly is dictated by these extremely subtle processes, including the movement of mind is expressed itself and thought. And so as I said over and over and I want to restate this again using a vocabulary that, that I had this interview, I think some of you may have heard it we posted it. Last Thursday we did
in, kind of replacement of the usual Thursday gathering, we played this interview with Kareem. Chaudhary, If you haven't heard it we're going to post it like tomorrow for nightclub members, even though the last 55 minutes I had such a great time with her and she totally moved on. So we're going to do more sessions with her for sure you'll see she has so much to say. So she wrote this really cool book called Sound medicine, She's a neurologist, Western trained medical doctor and also a Siddha Medicine and ru Vedic practitioner, and really pretty savvy with things like mantra subtle body and things like sound and so what she said it really struck me, I've always used it the analogy, or one of the analogies I've used I've used several is that when you're working with the seven dimensions you're working with the roots of your experience right, whatever you do with the roots transforms the tree the trunk, the branches everything independent surface dimensions of life. So even though the roots are below the surface of, you know our lives. They work in unconscious subtle levels they have massive repercussions of what happens at surface dimensions. The image that she used that I thought was really cool was that, you know, when we're working with things like like chemical bonds, this is the analogy, she used like when you break up chemical bonds, you can get moderately explosive results by with things like gunpowder right. But that which is that was awesome. She said when, when you're working with subtle body processes, you're working, and I'm juxtaposing some of my languaging here. You're working with atomic levels of mind. And, you know, instead of just chemical explosions, you can get atomic reactions, you can get atomic detonation. And so what you do down there has vast repercussions and in fact this is the whole trajectory of what her work is with sound, that when you work with mantra sound. The word in the world is made of sound. It is made of light, and so therefore when you're working with this, you know like normal, over the counter sound, that seems so ineffectual. It actually has tremendous power at these subtle levels, So much so that it can change the configuration literally of your DNA, and the structure of your subtle body. And so I really moved on that image that we're working with these practices at atomic level. So this is kind of atomic energy stuff right and so that's one reason these practices are considered advanced, because they're so unbelievably subtle, and the importance of the following thing again cannot be overstated, which again is why I am stating it again, that the vast majority of our lives are dictated by these unconscious processes, and so that's why I get on my soapbox and say this is why you want to be bothered, because 95 to 99% I mean think about those numbers 95 to 99% of what you do in your so called conscious life is actually massively dictated by unconscious processes. This is precisely what it means to be asleep, and both a psychological and in particular a spiritual sense, that we have no idea why we do the things that we do, you know, there's just this massive unconscious apparatus there's at work, dictating everything we do at surface levels and so I wanted to share my other computer. Let me pull it up a quote. This is from one of the books I'm writing now from I've been talking about some of this guy's work over the last year, Bruce Lipton, a really brave iconoclastic biologists and geneticists, he works a lot with his field of epi genetics, which is how environment triggers the expression of gene activity. Besides that a little bit to call read stuff, the, the kind of auditory environment that you're in, actually has a genomic expression in fact it can alter the way your genes are expressed. So this is what Bruce says about this this is, this is so important to me, the greatest problem we face is that we think we are running our lives with the wishes, desires and aspirations, created by our conscious mind prayer of me parenthetical interjection. This of course is where this crazy notion that we have free will comes on, because we feel that we are the ones that dictate everything. Far from it. So back to brews. When we struggle, or fail to obtain our goals, we are generally led to conclude that we are victims of outside forces, preventing us from reaching our destinations or goals. However, neuroscience is now established that the conscious mind runs the show at best, only about 5% of the time, think about that 5% of the time, at best.
It turns out that the program's acquired by the subconscious mind, shaping 95 And then his latest is 95 to 99%, or more of our life experience. We are completely unaware perenne non lucid to completely unaware that our subconscious minds are making our everyday decisions. Our lives are essentially a printout of our subconscious programs behaviors that were fundamentally acquired from others, our family, parents, community. Before we are 60 years old. It's psychologists recognize a majority of these developmental processes and programs are limiting and disempowering where there's a massive understatement. So again, you know, when Christ said, allegedly on the cross. Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. That carries a lot of psychological weight as well. So that's the number one reason this practice, again, not in terms of priority necessarily but the number one reason I'm going to post for you. Why these practices are considered a dance is because you're working with extremely subtle dimensions of being. And so therefore, this is why we work during the day with correlative extremely subtle dimensions of mind who are meditations, to actually kind of resonate meet vibrate with those frequencies that is are expressed in the natural arena. Okay so number two, a little bit much, actually quite a bit more colloquial is one of these practical reasons Dream Yoga is considered advanced is because it's inconvenient. It's inconvenient. You know, I've always said this around these practices, no ego lives in the dark darkness is a code word for ignorance. And so, Ego actually it's unintentional one camera chases this point blank, you know, this is where ego goes to recharge its samsaric batteries, sleep, the darkness of ignorance, whether that's moment to moment, by the way, the sleep that takes place every time we're distracted. Every time we Daydream during the day, that's a micro instance microcosmic expression of the same lust we have for ignorance, basically, this is what I always say with these practices sooner or later. These practices will reveal your passion for ignorance, like I don't want to deal with this stuff, you know, you go puts up a Do Not Disturb sign here it says yeah, maybe you can rouse me during the day, psycho spiritually but do not, do not mess with my sleep. Right, do not do not disturb. Do not allow these arousing methods to disturb my samsaric trajectory. And so this is a formidable thing because it creates a conscious and unconscious conflict of interest that there's part of you. Most of you listening here are probably interested in that stuff that's the conscious part. But then you have this iceberg, you know, using Freud's model the mind, the tip of the iceberg is conscious, massive bulk of the bird below the surface, you have this massive unconscious conflict of interest that says now, man. Can't do it. Ain't got time, not smart enough not good enough to advanced, not for you. And so therefore there's this, there's this a pretty powerful dissonance or clash, that causes so many people to quit to drop out, and with all those reasons, you know, my life to be too busy, I can't do it, it's too advanced it's not for me, blah blah blah. All the infinite reasons to jump out and fundamentally is because you're getting too close. You're getting too close to the inner sanctuary, you know where the flame throwers and the barbed wire in the trenches, all await the practitioner. It's like ego does not want to go here, because you're going to challenge with these practices and this is where Dream Yoga goes beyond lucid dreaming lucid dreaming doesn't do this necessarily but Dream Yoga. This is the point of Dream Yoga to challenge and then overthrow kind of a revolution. The whole ego, structure, and so there's a part of you that just does not want to be here. And so again, I think I've mentioned this over the years puller prepper che one of my teachers. I love this because it's just so point blank direct. I've heard him say on several occasions, you know, most of us just prefer to be stupid.
I love the directness, most of us just prefer to be stupid, which means you know, ah, you know, whatever, I'll deal with it later. I won't deal with it at all. I'd rather just be involved in my comfort plan. That's ego at work. Just trying to create this illusion of control, security and comfort. I mean, it's a very powerful regulatory contemplation in my opinion, to actually look deeply at how much of our lives is dictated by our lust for comfort, but yeah there's that that's not to say there isn't a place where that of course there is. But it's this kind of bubble bath mentality right the comfort zone right, the three circle pedagogical approach I talked about that if you only got to spend your life in that bubble bath in that comfort plan you're going to drown in that comfort, and you're going to get more and more brittle and irritable, small minded. As you get older because you're going to try to just maintain your comfort plan. Well these practices blow you out of that hot tub. They step outside and you enter this stretch zone. That's why Dream Yoga is a yoga, stretch, not quite all comfortable not quite so convenient. And that's why there's a little bit of warriorship involved here a little bit of intrepid quality a little bit of like fearlessness and determination, perseverance, all the things that are integral ingredients for success here. I have a little placard upstairs from the Dalai Lama. Many of you have probably seen this where, over and over he says anything of value right. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up. So, as long as it is, if we understand this, then we can gain a sense of appreciation for all the deterrents that you girl throws up through, you know, obstacles, it puts into our face, that says that not for you, not for you and not good enough. And so this practice is advanced along those lines. It takes a little bit of an attributed character, and one thing I should say here that I picked this up from my, my dear friend Bob Thurman, we did a program together and appear Lance and he said something that just really hit me, smack in the face when he said, in relation to the Bardot's, and this is again of why this is going to be what some of the later stages of Dream Yoga that leads into part of the yoga. I'll come back to this later. But one thing that the Bob Thurman said that I want to share with you that's definitely applicable here in relationship to the subconscious mind thing. He said that it's not safe to die. If you still have an unconscious mind. That's an astounding statement. It's not safe to die. If you still have an unconscious mind. What he means by that is that just like it nighttime dream what dictates the dream if you don't if you're not lucid to it. If you don't take control of the dream. What does your unconscious mind, your habits, your karma. And so in exactly the same way this wide Bardo is referred to death is referred to as the dream at the end of time in exactly the same way. What happens in death becomes problematic in a non lucid kind of experience or journey. Is that just like in a non lucid dream, it's your it's your habits, your unconscious mind that controls that experience. And there's, again, so much more to say about this later, but this is another reason why it's so important to understand the vast importance of the unconscious mind. Some scholars say the unconscious mind is a million, a million times more powerful than the conscious mind. And part of what constitutes enlightenment, the whole spiritual awakening process is in fact, bringing all these unconscious processes in to the Light of Consciousness. That's what it means to be enlightened, there's no more in darkened aspects of your main, everything has been brought to the Light of Consciousness, there's no such thing as an unconscious mind, in the, in the mind of someone who's completely awake, and therefore apparent radically and so interesting here. This is why in the minds of the truly awakened ones there's no more dreams, because there's no more sleep. The awakened ones, literally not metaphorically, literally. Do not sleep. Their bodies may lie down for various subtle body
kind of processes, but the, the mind never turns off, it's a 24 Seven type of awareness to schools from gross to subtle to very subtle. And so in the mind of someone who's completely awake, there is no one conscious mind, there is no one consciousness, there are lucid, you know, this way, the Buddha and other awakened beings, literally, the ultimate lucid dreamers. And so for them, there's no such thing as a dream. There's no such thing as a bar to experience, because there's no such thing as the unconscious mind. So, this shows you just how far this maxim goes. And so therefore, understanding the process of this journey. It really is about understanding the power of the unconscious mind, all the dimensions of it. Bringing it all into the light of consciousness, and realizing that that ultimate fruition or journey is in fact what constitutes awakening and I also harp on this a little bit, because this is where we can draw on the resources of the Western psychological traditions. Who ever since really Freud. Freud in a certain way discovered the unconscious mind for the Western world. There's a lot we can learn from the uncut from the psychological traditions in terms of working with these processes at a psychological level, Things like Shadow Work projection all the all the areas where we, human psychological levels are constantly working from the vast influence of the unconscious mind. So, this is again another reason why this stuff is advanced. We're going right to the heart of the matter. We're going it's called the ninja Gerhart essence. We're going right to the core of the whole samsaric agenda which is all these subtle unconscious processes, and therefore, this is super important to understand in terms of establishing the right view, so that if you understand this you won't give up, you will keep going because you realize, one way or the other. This is the journey of the path. This is what happens whether you're working with your daytime practices, or the nighttime practices, period. That's what's taking place. It's just that the nighttime practices do it a little bit more directly, they target the unconscious mind, specifically remember lucidity is a hybrid state of consciousness, a rare state of mind where the conscious mind can meet the unconscious mind directly, and that's where the great transformative effects take place and in the in the interview I did with courage she talks about in her clinical work, she you know she gives these people, these kind of prescribed mantras, they work these mantras work to burn up these kind of karmic seeds, beaches, and then she says in her own clinical experience she has, she has observed, I mean really dramatic, dramatic, rapid transformation. Why for precisely these reasons, you're working really at the core. So if you understand this, it's like okay I get it now I know why so subtle, now I know it's difficult. Now I know why I should just keep at it. And if it's too steep, if this path is too steep to settle, that's fine. Then there are other practices of course, you know, the kind of daytime arena, completely viable as well obviously so okay number three. My third reason, somewhat aligned to this is that Dream Yoga works directly or as directly as one possibly can with the roots of ignorance, the kind of spiritual sleep, that we are all victims of. Yeah, that's what darkness is darkness is kind of a code word for this ignorance, and so one of the things that makes ignorance so challenging to work with is its insidious nature is ubiquitous nature this kind of Omnipresence that's one of the reasons it's actually hard to suss it out because it's so constant we don't have contrast mediums. And so when we're working with these practices where one of the images I have is we're trying to work with something that's so close to us that we ironically don't see it. It's like looking, you know, the analogy that I use, like looking at the inside of your eyelid. It's it's so close to you you ironically can't see it. And so in a very kind of weird way, where we're trying to pull our eyelid away a little bit so we can see what it is that actually keeps us in the dark.
And so I have this quote is one of my favorite quotes that comes from a Greek master or gamba. That is worth sharing here in terms of how these practices that dental practices work with this dimension of ignorance. In this kind of constancy of it. And so this is what he says. The Waking experience has been going on since a period of time. That never began, and is never really interrupted except by the additional overlay of dream time confusion. We know that dreams are not real, because we wake up from them periodically. And therefore we have a contrast. However, we have no such contrast by which to recognize the unreality of conventional appearances and quote so let me say that again. We have no such contrast by wish to recognize the unreality of conventional appearances and code. In other words, we haven't found a dimension of mind, and therefore reality, the reality that's disclosed that is more foundational that is more stable. That is more real than this so called waking state. And so therefore, because we haven't found that we are victims of this kind of constant expression of ignorance which manifests itself archetypally in the non lucidity principle. This is really again what it means to be asleep in this deepest sense so one another way to say this is that being asleep, means that we don't look at our ignorance. We don't see it for what it is we don't see that we don't see we don't look at it, we look through it. And therefore, using an another analogy, These are blinders filters, we don't even know we have on these are filters that are so thick that we're completely oblivious to the fact that we're actually looking through them and that add them, and so therefore we think in all the ways I've mentioned in previous conversations we think we're seeing the world properly. Far from it. We're seeing it deeply colored affected filtered by these lenses. And so, in a very real way. Absolutely lucidity and ignorance and non lucidity are synonyms. Both of them have to do, I want to make this a little bit practical, both of them have to do with being too involved too too close to what's happening it's the eyelid thing right so like when you're in a non lucid dream, what is it that constitutes a non lucid dream becoming too involved in the dream. And so, what lucidity brings about is in fact, this perspective, something clicks you in you step back to something that's more foundational more real, that allows you to see the nighttime dream as the dream that constitutes nocturnal lucidity. What I'm intimating here is even more foundational and this is what differentiates lucid dreaming from Dream Yoga, big time is now you do exactly that same process with a waking state. So just as I was saying just a few minutes ago. Now we want to do the same thing with the waking state, we want to establish a state, a sense of perspective from which we can actually look out upon this. And see, in fact that what we're in is a dream right now. And so, yeah. Excessive involvement excessive entanglement, excessive capture by the display of mind is what constitutes non lucidity as it is most foundational level so alright I can do I think maybe one more and then a big, a large part, is our q&a and discussion so let me do one more and then we can open it up and start talking about some of the stuff. So if you're keeping track number four 1/4 reason why this material is so enhanced, and therefore why we've waited so long to really start to unpack it. Is that said, is I was suggesting earlier I want to come back to this is it's so easy to get discouraged. And therefore, it takes an advanced attitude. It takes an advanced attitude,
one that never gives up one that is fueled by determination, patience, fortitude forbearance and therefore this indefatigable attitude is like, I'm never going to give up. I'm just going to keep going and this is why, again, all this stuff about creating the proper view is so bloody important. If we understand why it's so difficult, if we understand the benefits if we understand all these processes. Then we're going to hang in there because we realize what's involved in what these, these natural practices, the opportunities they actually present for us. So what makes advanced practitioners, advance, and also advanced is this attitude of never giving up, you just keep going, understanding that even though the results may not be overt, and this is where patience comes in. Something is happening. We've talked about this before right. Remember this. You're such storehouse consciousness which is your unconscious mind, something is happening down there you're working below the surface, and you're starting to change the structure and eventually the contents of your conscious mind, and eventually things will start to change. So understanding this view of the mind itself. What's involved with the role of effort and how even effort itself starts to change things. That also will inspire determination and perseverance. Because then you understand even though the results may not be as instantaneous as you may like or over as a overt as you like, something's happening, something is happening. There's always this two way street between the conscious and the unconscious mind garbage in garbage out, nourishment and nourishment out, we want to replace the garbage with nourishment and so something's actually happening here whether you know it or not. So, this practice is considered advanced because it's easy to get discouraged. This is why we started nightclub to begin with two years ago was to create a platform for like minded practitioners to support each other to gather and basically realize that there are others who are on the same journey of awakening. Having instruction, this kind of level through the webinars through the interviews, through the discourse platform and the like, is proving to be rather rather fruitful. And so, you know, whatever we can do to create this kind of community sustain it with this sort of support system, then that creates the inspiration or can is. It was it conducive to the inspiration before the to the forbearance is necessary to actually achieve some success. So, um, yeah this is about the 40 minute mark, and so I'll mark on my notes here, We'll pick up on number five, just reason. Next week, or actually probably next week next week at some sorry is the webinar with Dr. Ed O'Malley, that's our sleep medicine track, we're going to continue to do that with him second Wednesday of each month, but then we'll come back, probably in a couple weeks, a little bit longer to continue this journey, and then after that next session with me for sure. Then we'll start to launch into the stages proper. But since a good part of what we do is open this up for questions, comments, offerings challenges and the like. If there's anybody out there that has such a thing to say or ask or offer now's a good time. Fire away. Yeah, we have some raised hands we can start with, we'll bring in Myra, Chelsea and Ed ready. All right.
I'm always ready with you guys.
Thank you again. Hi, um, I think I have asked the same question in different ways. Okay, um, you said something good is, You know how it is that sometimes things just hit you when it's out, although you have heard it many times, is the fact that we don't see it because we don't have something to contrast with to be able to identify and be able to see the true reality. And in that sense, that's where we get lost, but the same concept just shakes me up because as soon as you have something concrete to relate to relate to like when we want to find the right mantra or the right southern now or the right thing. Then we find ourselves, attaching to something instead of experiencing that sense of in between, am I explaining my. I see the fact that we don't, we cannot identify with that space because we don't have anything to contact with us and experience that we is ineffable is indescribable you just know it when you experience it apparently. But don't we attach and enhance your life every time that we find something thinking it's a magic formula that is going somewhere.
Yeah that's a good point. That's the near enemy of the sort of thing. So, a couple of things come to mind HUMIRA is you know when you talk about having something concrete, then nothing's concrete. Oh, the, the challenge here is, again, is you know there are near enemies everywhere right wherever you find light you will find shadows and so the challenge here is is to is several fold one is to realize
the
essential insatiable habit propensity ego has in fact to concretize so in this case what it means is that we are trying to deliver we meaning the wisdom traditions. Methods of liberation and transformation, they can sometimes be rather articulate and therefore helpful but so as you heard me probably say before the near enemy of articulation is reification right. So, don't take these things to literally take them seriously but don't necessarily take them too literally because if you compromise anything, even, even the antidote, the antidote itself will backfire if I'm understanding what you're asking. Yeah, so, so what we need to do there is just be aware that we that we have this the ego has his default mode that's just what it does, you know, it will, it will shift over his reifying tendencies to the liberating teachings and principles even themselves and therefore that's why is you know, in the low John slogans. There's a very famous slogan that says, self liberate even the antidote. So the key is to be aware of it so that's number one. That's it. You have just mentioned you're aware of this propensity to concretize to reify to solidify. And so therefore, what we there, we come there. Therefore, with that knowledge, realizing, realize that there can be a provisional healthy step of transferring a reifying tendencies onto something is a little bit more resonant with reality. In other words, these teachings these liberating practices and whatnot. It's not terribly damaging at first to put your eggs in that basket, because at least you're transferring your eggs, right, that's colossal you're transferring your eggs from the material basket into the spiritual basket. And then the natural tendency exactly like you say my right, we all do it is to concretize to solidify and this is where spiritual conflict comes in and inter sectarian rivalries and inter religious silliness has come take place because he goes just gone from a more gross level reification to a more subtle reification but it's still reification nonetheless. And so what you do is you realize that tendency, you, you can perhaps temporarily appreciate that I need this as a kind of transitional step, because going to the full fully D reified fully D concretize reality may be too big of a step, it's it's too big of a jump It's one reason parenthetically, where I took the three really kind of dense classic stages of REM yoga and kind of expanded them into nine steps, because the three classic stages, the leaps, the steps are so big that for mere mortals there those are really, you know you're trying to jump across the Grand Canyon, right. So, what we do is we start to de reify in bite sized chunks, transfer our allegiance over take refuge in the beauty, the elegance of these things, all the while knowing that we have these propensities for reification of concretization and that eventually, we need to know. You have to self liberate everything. And so again, because you're a student of this tradition, like Arjuna was famous, infamous for these sorts of things. You know he didn't affirm anything. Yeah, his genius was complete negation non affirming negation. He didn't give anybody any place to stand on. Which is why when people read him they have a really hard time with him, because he gives them nothing to hang on to. And so we, we, meaning the tradition the teachings, I'm trying to represent them here, you know, we're not making that colossal leap, we're not going from stage one all the way to stage nine. We're working through all these levels so I'll pause and see if that's landing with you.
Now, it is landing on I also wanted to thank you because a few months ago I went back into my dreams of with premonitions and you simply told me my regular reifying and he was almost like he smashed me, and I woke up and I, it's been a lot easier, since then, but then I'm liking that beautiful state and I think okay I'm just floating and then you come up with something like a mantra or a system and it just shakes me up like I just, it feels safer to follow a system so that's where I am.
As you know, why are we, we exist, you've heard me say this before we exist along a spectrum of identity and there are aspects of our being that might come up at a certain time, that have the kind of where with all the combination of the fortitude to be with complete openness complete emptiness complete liberation. But you know, that dimension of our being has not yet been, I'm not saying reified it hasn't been stabilized. And so then we call when we fall back to these more reifying tendencies and that's all fine, but if you notice like a caterpillar, you're gradually shifting your load to more and more of these higher bandwidths every identity, and then basically you're titrating your experience into more and more openness, more and more de reified space more and more emptiness, and it just becomes therefore more palatable digestible available for you. But until that happens. I'm sorry,
and simpler. I mean, less, less of a lot less on Germans and less.
I just said did you say the last part again you said I just didn't seem
more simple, less, less systems and methods.
Yes, exactly. Beautifully said beautifully said, you will you will absolutely positively discover that the more advanced, a practice gets the simpler it is, and the less there is to say, I mean look, if you look at the literature you read oh the ABI Darla, oh my god it's so complex. The Yoga Chara or the majestic, oh my gosh it's, there's so much to say it's so complex. Well that complexity is there to match and meet the complexity of the mind. But as you go further and further into the more advanced Mahamudra absorption practices have you noticed, there's less and less, to say the teeth. The texts are shorter, there's, it's just it's just like so much more simple, and eventually of course, what do you say nothing, nothing fundamentally in the Prajnaparamita sutras, that's the way you know that the sutra and 25,000 verses is reduced, you know, to the sutra. You like The Heart Sutra, and eventually that's reduced to the fundamental sutra, which is just one letter A. That reduces the whole thing. And so, that in itself is is characteristic so yes, first complex, all these systems, all these lists all this complexity, but then as you, the more advanced it gets, the less there is to say, the simpler it gets until finally it's like the the de crescendo into ultimate simplicity and silence. And so if you understand that you realize most of the heavy lifting comes upfront, most of the heavy lifting is all the stuff that we're doing, and then eventually it just gets easier, simpler, more and more quiet until fundamentally, you know, you don't have to do a thing you don't have to say anything. And sure we can we can give those absolute teachings and many real masters have done that, but that there's that is so steep. It's so elevated that most of us just won't get it right so we have to kind of go through all this mill this mat, all these machinations all this work does manual labor. And then eventually, like a bunch of training wheels at all just falls away falls away gets simpler simpler, less and less to say. And again if we have the right view and we understand that we go, oh okay that's why there's all these 1000s of books and 1000s of texts, and then the more advanced, you know, little, you know, little sutras they tiny little things, little stanzas, one letter one word. That's it. So thank you. Okay,
thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Okay, well bring on Jesse and then Ed, and have a chat question Tim. Okay.
Hello. Hi.
Um, thank you so much for the lucid dreaming workbook, by the way, enjoy reading it and going through a Katy love and I did it together so that was very
cool thanks thanks for saying that I appreciate that.
It was fun. Yeah. Um, so, something that I experienced bout a month ago now, was I had three nights in a row. Let me start out with this first. I've been doing my lucid dreaming practices, before I go to sleep, meditating in the morning I was kind of like in a really good place with it of being in the middle, not too tight, not too loose. And then I added something on because I've been studying anthroposophy doing sort of like a prayer before I go to sleep, guides and angels kind of a thing. Um, and then I experienced these three nights where I had this buzzing in my body.
Yeah, I'm sorry uh what zany buzzing,
it was like buzzing kind of feeling in my body, there is no sound which kind of makes sense because when I dream, a lot of the time even when people are talking. I don't actually hear anything in my dream, most of the time I just feel it, and like understand. So I had this buzzing feeling, and then I had false awakenings. And the first two nights. The next day when I woke up I was like oh that was interesting, I wrote it down. And then the third night. It was so intense that when I woke up in the morning it's, I felt still like really buzzy. Um, and I've been chalking it up to, like, Oh, that's funny ego, like, you know, thank you, thank you for trying to like scare me like I'm, I'm gonna keep on moving through this and at the same time, it seems like I haven't been able to practice, Dream Yoga quite as much, because there's a little bit of fear there so I'm just wondering if you have any advice on how to like comfort myself because I'm doing it, it when I'm in this state. There's something know about being in the dream state that there seems to be some fear there,
well you when you just said you're doing it, what's the yet.
Um,
so I'm kind of like, I guess I'm logically thinking through it and thinking through the pieces of it and like trying to comfort myself and kind of doing. I've done like even Tomlin with it with my.
That's great. Well
good for you. Yeah, so
a number of things come to mind. One thing that's really important, at least, seems to be important to what you're saying is, you know, this notion of fear is a big deal in the whole spiritual business, it's integral to it, and what, there's so many really important
ways to work with fear and it really is important because sooner or later, you're going to come up against this membrane of fear, because it's really, it's the ground of the relative self sense. And so what's super important around all this policy is to is to understand the dimensions of mind more authentically more thoroughly, and I talked about this in quite some length and both my Dream Yoga books. The first one Dream Yoga. And then the second one dreams of light. The sections there are a number of chapters in there, where I talk about the dimensions in the spectrum of mind for precisely this reason that, you know, this ties in also to what we were talking about earlier, that as you start to make this journey. You're, you are making a walking this inner labyrinth into the center of yourself which means walking through the underbrush of the unconscious mind and this unconscious mind has many different strategies many different dimensions at the intermediate level this is what's causing the disquietude for you. Is all this kind of unsettling stuff, or what I playfully talk about is all the spiders and snakes, great, they're, they're all hanging out there. Why, well, because over this life and many other lifetimes if you believe in this stuff. You've stuffed those spiders and snakes in there. And so they're they're in a certain sense waiting for you. And so, if you think that you meaning anyone that that relative bandwidth of the unconscious mind is, is who you really are. Then, like you're saying, ego will have succeeded yet again, because fear will kick in and all this stuff that you're starting to feel will come to the fore, and you're just going to bolt back to the surface. So if you have a deeper, more authentic understanding of the levels of the unconscious mind that once you drop below the intermediate bandwidth of the spiders and snakes, again by play on words. You enter the domain of the sages and saints because below that more true more real, really waiting for you at the at the real bottom of your mind. Is this divinity this purity this basic goodness, whatever language you want to use from those as the different wisdom traditions. And so if you understand that, then you will have the fortitude, the humor. The lightheartedness, and the understanding that when you're greeted by all this crap. You realize that's not me. That's relative repressed unconscious stuff. Fundamentally, has to be actually brought to the surface. And so, there's so many things you're saying here that are really, really, very powerful, that the experiences that you're having are actually really good news. The fact that you're hitting this matrix of fear is a really good thing. I'm not being smart Aliki here it's a really good thing that you're starting to get closer and closer to real truth. And therefore, the closer you get to it, the more he goes machinations and its defense apparatus comes into gear. It first when you're just window shopping, you know, yeah, there might be a little bit of boredom, a little bit of irritation and a little bit of impatience. But the deeper you get the scarier it gets. If you don't understand what's happening and where you're going, because you're starting to get closer and closer to the truth, you know, to the point where, and I'm speaking with very direct personal experience, you feel like you're going to die. You feel like you're going to go crazy. I mean, you're basically losing. Well what you're losing is your relative self sets, what you're finding is who you really are. And so if you understand that. And again you know the other place I'm trying to throw some resources your way. The course that we posted last year on fear and anxiety and an uncertain world. I read quite a bit about this topic there because it's so bloody important that you know fear etymology of the word fear comes from root that means fair F ar e as in toll. So you're paying the toll, and it's a really good thing I'm not you know it's a really good sign, you're starting to get closer to the truth. So therefore, the first thing I would do is fortify your view, the strength of your view of the understanding of your, of the dimensions of your being and who you are, so that when all this crap comes up in fact I talked about this with Cole Reed and in our interview, we're talking about how within that arena, working with sound and mantra, you're targeting these subtle dimensions, same thing we're targeting with these practices and things can get really crappy and then I reminded her she hadn't heard this code of withdrawal which I said you know, meditation isn't the sedative it's a laxative. And so all this crap is coming up, and you're just, you know, feeling the fruition of really good deep spiritual practice. And so now the question is fortifying your practice with this view, understanding what's happening.
And then just basically continuing to go through this intermediate gauntlet that basically is there to deter you. You are not and I get I speak, I speak with direct extensive personal experience with this, can you know coming in tears to my teachers and saying, I can't do this I'm going to lose my mind I'm going to die in May and May in very warm heartedly just chuckle. You say you're not going to die your ego is dying. And so you're just feeling the growing pains of cutting through this facade and so ego is going to kick and scream, and do everything he can to possibly deter you. So I would arm. Arm yourself with a deeper understanding of the nature of who you are using these maps of the mind, super important to do the buzzing of thing that's also deeply connected because when you start to work with a subtle body, you're starting to work with opening these channels, opening the chakras and allowing all this rest residual crap so now it's just I'm saying the same thing now in an anatomical and physiological way, because the buzzing and the sensation in your body is the physical correlate to the fear that you're psychologically feeling. You see what I'm saying. It's the same thing. One is expressing itself in your in your body, the other is expressing yourself phenomenologically in your so called mine, but it's the same thing. And so when you're feeling the buzzing and all these things. This is energy being broken up and released in your body can buzz, it can shake you can you can get all kinds of really kind of bizarre physical movements. That's the energy, releasing itself, and you may actually know you didn't mention this but you may actually notice yourself more energized you may actually notice more energy being available to you, because those knots are coming on tide, but as they come in TIDE, you think you're coming undone unglued. Well it's just your ego that's coming unglued. And so, just like with what Mayra was saying, Don't reify it smile at it look at it. The only way it can become a problem is if you take it to be too real. And you think that this is like oh my god I really am going to lose my mind. No you're not. This just Eagle this slowly die. And so when you realize this and you realize, whoa this is you know this is the result of deep spiritual practice so is basically a really good side. Another if you don't want to really my, my first book power and pain. It's all about this, the whole book is about that. I don't give the map of the mind in that book, but all the crap show that accompanies deep sorrow practice deep spiritual practice that's why I wrote that first book. So, see I just told you, you have to buy three of my books to understand.
We have two of them. But that's the second time you've told me to buy empowering pain
to get on that,
so pathetic. I say all this because these topics are so important that you know, I've written extensively on it, because it is so important, and if you understand it, the Pema children's work is also a lot about this. Rob priests has written a number of books on this sort of thing. So has John Wellwood I mean there's a lot of people who have explored this with real depth, because when you get started doing really deep spiritual work. It's not all, a love and light show in there eventually. Yes, eventually it will all be loving light, but until you get to that point, there's all this crap that has to be released processed and brought up and so this is why there's so few awakened beings on this on this planet because when this happens, few people are willing to endure this kind of cremation that's necessary, you need to cremate this experience, and the way you're cremated. Another way to talk about this or this some scars are being accessed and release. These are psych exists that are being drained. So that again, I'll come up for air and see if they have anything else to say but this is a colossally important topic, written about extensively, because it is so common with deep divers, not the shockers deep divers, and if you understand it, then you realize this is really good news, you know, like Trump he also said chaos, should be regarded as extremely good news. Well it sounds good on paper doesn't sound so good and lived experience. And that's why fortify your view, really read the stuff study, because then when you go into the blast furnace, you realize, in fact, deep spiritual practice is a blast furnace, and then you'll be willing to be cremated, so to speak, but it's not you, it's your ego this thing fried. And when you understand that you know you'll smile at it you'll hang in there, and eventually all that energy be released and you'll just you know you blow through it so to speak.
Okay, that's really helpful that all landed as being really accurate so I'll buy your other book. Yeah, that's the whole point.
That's really important. You have to buy my books, doesn't really matter.
The best thing we've
been around the feeling of being blown apart and the where I was frightened was the idea of losing, losing my mind and the on the third day when it was happen happening, I felt like I was a container. And then inside of me was just this buzzing and at any moment I was gonna break apart, and I kind of thought of that as losing my mind or losing connection to this realm, but really it sounds like it's getting closer to releasing.
Absolutely, absolutely. And then the what I would say is armed with this, you know, armed with these teachings and then underlying all of this of course in the teachings on emptiness. This all is, is taught in the traditions to bring about this indestructible quality of view in mind, so that they are fundamentally you realize, emptiness cannot have an emptiness, nothing can touch you. sure at the superficial levels where you're reified, and you'll notice by the way, this is something you can really pay attention to. You will notice that when you feel that sensation. This is an invitation, maybe a little even practice for you really pay attention to your body and notice, if there are levels of contraction taking place. Because usually what happens is prior to the fear, there will be some kind of openness, there'll be a sense of space release and then sooner or later, ego will come barging in and say something about Well, wait a second, how do I fit into this, you know there, There'll be a kind of a red alert warning signal coming from ego saying hey wait a second, where do I fit into this and that's where the fear actually is generated. And when you feel that you will feel a contraction. And so when you feel that now the invitation is to go do exactly the opposite of what you would do go directly into it. Just fearlessly, just go directly into that. And then you realize it's like the Wizard of Oz, there's nothing there, there's nothing there. The fear is brought about it's directly proportional to you your egoic bandwidth reifying the experience because basically you're starting to glimpse emptiness, there's no place for personal identity there, which feels like a death threat, it feels like you're going to lose your mind. And if you actually take that and go reverse your attitude and go directly into it, it'll just blow the doors open and you realize, oh my gosh I've been spending my entire life, living off of this bed of fear so you're what you're accessing is is the bed of your relative dimension of being. This is the unconscious strata, from which you and everybody else lives their entire life. So you're getting down to that relative bed, not the absolute bed relative bed, and so therefore it's a really good thing it's a super good time. And now you just continue armed with this information, so good for you.
Thank you Andrew.
Welcome, great questions and comments Thanks.
Hey, we've got Dr. Ed and I got a check question, Dr. Ed, and then Lisa lot, same as Mr. Ed.
No, don't go there with that please. No Mr. Ed, For the folks here everybody will laugh. I took me my whole childhood to get through that, let me tag dreams. Yeah, exactly. It's one of the great series of all time, actually, to even connect with Chelsea's perience, you know, and there's a sort of a mundane portion to that, coming out of REM sleep and this this has happened to me many times too with this buzzing sensation, And it's almost like you're the study paralysis, the muscle paralysis of REM sleep, as you re enter your body and you we, you know, there's some of that that hangs on. And I've noticed that if I stay with the buzzing, I can go back in and go back in between, you know, it's this, it's this little place where, and understanding that or knowing that it has some physical component to it sort of makes it easier like sleep paralysis, will wake up, and they can't move at all they think they're dead. No, and it's really scary, until they understand, Oh, it's just I'm partly back I'm not fully back okay okay I get it anyway. But that leads me to like I've been having more, you know, I just love your teachings on all the Dream Yoga and lucid dreaming, and I've been having more, you know, doing more meditations and finding more lucid dreams happening. And so I want to look at it the other way, without it going without inflating my ego, too far. Having more lucid dreams becoming more lucid more lucid regularly and having longer ones. Could we use that as a sign that I am getting closer to the truth, I am progressing along without you know getting, like, I don't want to pat myself too much on the back but does that reflect sort of an advancement happening. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, you know, again, pression statement because we'll be coming to this,
I think, next, next time I'm with you. Well, yeah, I remember that the moniker virgin Yoga is the measure of the path. And so it's regulatory, it will show you where you are. And some people again don't want to be so shown right, they don't want to be so revealed, and so on the negative side, that again, none of this is negative, if you approach, even the so called negative revelations with his view, even that is curative because it's regulatory, you know, and therefore it takes an advanced attitude when this stuff comes up to say oh my gosh this is a really good thing because now I'm seeing where I'm stuck. I'm seeing my blind spots I'm seeing my neurosis I'm saying my unconscious mind again polarimetry most people prefer to be stupid, they don't want to know that they would prefer to live in the dark. So on the positive so called positive on the, on the more positive end of it is exactly what you're saying. That is one progresses, you start to notice some of the classic things are bad dreams lesson. Bad dreams, nightmares lesson, eventually they disappear altogether. No more nightmares, bad dreams become rare, why because your unconscious mind is being purified, that transformation is taking place and it's being revealed and in the medium with the dream. But then eventually what the dreams become may last longer, they were more stable, they're more clear. And that's where the more advanced practices come into play. And so absolutely positively again and we also need to be advanced. On the other end here, Where are we don't, that as you said at the beginning of this question comment is that we don't inflate ourselves with that. So that's also takes an advanced attitude, so that when you have a hyper lucid dream, and you think, Okay, I'm on the 10th Bhumi, right, right, you realize, oh, Okay, this is just a nice metric is, as you know with the story of Gampopa Miller right but neither good nor bad, you just continue right, neither good nor bad. You just continue, but what you can do, and I've asked my teachers about this is you can carefully pat yourself on the back and say well, you know, things are happening, I'm starting to see this manifesting in my dreams. And that's actually a very encouraging thing for for sensitive on AI robots, you know, you start to notice that the, the authenticity of your mind is actually being displayed. and as you know as a scientist, you know, though, the prefrontal cortex the executive parental function of the brain is offline. That's why dreams are so regulatory because usually the controlling machination, it's it's offline and so therefore, the mind is really revealed. And so we it takes an advanced attitude to watch that revelation without either be taken down, or lift it up. And so, you can still look at it and say wow this is really cool. No more nightmares longer dreams, you know, more clear, more lucid more stable, more dreams with teachers, more and more hyper lucid dreams more dreams of whatever clarity clear light dreams, absolutely, positively, and therefore you can use Dream Yoga for really what it was meant to be used for as is an authentic metric of your path, a measure of where you really stand. So in short, just like with Chelsea but, you know, I wouldn't say on the other end because it's not the other end.
Good for you, you know, because things are also being revealed along those lines as well. So yeah, the dream, the dream that that did that, that really pushed me over was like an hour and a half long dream. I'm just gonna share one portion which told me that I was that I was not only lucid, but lucid that I was lucid. And that was, I became lucid in the dream, and I'm saying this is really cool, I'm gonna do this yeah I can do that great I can do it yeah I could do that. Great. And I said, But you know, there's a really interesting story going on in the stream, and I'd like to check it out. So I would back into the dream, checked it out, and then we're cool. Wait, don't go too far though because I'll lose my lucidity so back back out and it was really cool. It was awesome. Yeah, that's like meta metacognition right,
I mean that is awesome. And then again is part of the the beauty of what we're doing with our community, where we're we're in a safe enough environment where you can share a story like that and I get super inspired by it, as I know this is just awesome and Chelsea can share her story, and I get excited about that because Chelsea is doing some really kick ass work, and she's having that come into fruition and so, you know, this is the beauty of samba community where we can share these sort of things in a safe environment without gestures of self aggrandizement, but really is offerings to each other, to support each other, and to realize that, you know these awesomely cool things happen in this arena of the mind and we can share with each other and learn from it, so that's great, my friend. Yeah, I'll see you next week doctor it is next week so we'll see him. Okay, thanks. Okay,
I've got this chat question from Tim.
Hi, Andrew, why is it that we can seem to be making good progress intellectually, understanding the concepts more and more, and yet seem to be making much slower progress, and actually increasing my lucid dreams and attaining actual realization. Yeah, there's
a number of reasons for this Tim, you know, I mean, just to give you again some reference way back in November where on the series we had a number of webinars about obstacles and antidotes. So you might want to look at some of those I usually list some of the things we talked about. So, it has to do with a number of things. One is that, if again, if I'm understanding you properly, if I'm not come on live. We can bat it around. But when we have intellectual levels of understanding is important because that is, and it really is important. It's just the first step, right, that you know we go through this understanding experience realization phase also connected to the hearing contemplating meditating pedagogical approach. What this really means is that you can have intellectual understandings, you know, a real sense of clarity and deep understanding. But, but that the, the train of your being hasn't been a certain sense, much of caught up as the right phrase, but hasn't been integrated completely. And so they're still, they're still the you know the kind of the caboose, or though the rest of the train of your being. That has to be kind of brought along or using the image in the other direction. You have to now take that intellectual understanding and further incorporated quite literally incorporated into your body, and then eventually these transformative processes will start to mature. It just takes time. You know because we can have very very clear, powerful views super important. But it takes time for that then to really kind of download to effect transformation in your body to effect transformation therefore in your dream life. And to bring things to fruition. Again, these are all the reasons why understanding all this stuff is so important, so that we just don't give up, we just keep going even if you ever never ever have an intense a long y'all writes about this beautifully at the conclusion of his book, you know, he's talking about sleep yoga but he says if you try it one time 100 times, and nothing ever happens 10,000 times 10,000 times, something is happening. It just hasn't kind of, you know bubbled yet it has, you haven't come to a boil yet. So if you're on Tim and want to come, come and chat with me a little bit about this. I'm happy to discuss it further. But based on what I'm hearing from the written question that's what comes to mind. So while they're welcome to come on and pursue this further if you'd like. But otherwise, we'll go on to the next one and I've got about five minutes. Okay, perfect. So we'll bring in Lisa, a lot.
Hi, Andrew, I'm very blessed to be with you. I know you're a bit from the, from the integral. Oh see Marie. And also I did some, a lot of Buddhist stuff but that's not important now. I just wanted to add a bit to what Chelsea said from superflo, from a more superficial level, as I had an experienced yesterday and it was about the same. I, you know, to see the ego, not so much as a thing, and as process, or as a doing more than a being. And I had this experience of being very open hearted and relaxed in my heart area and it was really really wonderful and beautiful in our meditation. And then this grasping came in, how can I, yes, you know, the ego wants to learn, or this grasping wants to learn and to know how I can can make it more stable or something. And then what I did was to relax again, and then this fear came up, you know, this fear of letting go again. And opening again. And that's just what I wanted wanted to add is, and I started to talk to myself and say oh yes you know you want to learn it and you want to stabilize it and be understanding with this drive to do that. And that made it easier to relax again but I think this is, this contraction and opening all the time and going from the surface to down to the turtles, you know, all the turtles. That's what just us, as I experienced it yesterday and it came to my mind when Chelsea was talking about it.
Yeah, That's really terrific. Thank you for sharing that. I could really just agree completely, you know, it is this kind of oscillation this pulsation of opening to whatever degree we can. And then, history, you know, we're okay with that for a while, but then it gets threatening, and we can track, who we you know that gets whatever and then we open again we can track and then eventually, we, we relax more and more we find ourselves more and more open, and then eventually this kind of Caterpillar approaching more and more openness less and less contraction, and again this is the other thing that's throwing we're throwing into the mix, contraction in and of itself is not necessarily problematic contraction is part of, you know in Kashmir Shaivism, they have an entire body of teachings, the spawn the Kawika teachings on vibration and contraction and expansion. That's just the pulsation literally represented in respiration represented in our heartbeat represented in the Big Bang. The Big Crunch. This contraction expansion archetype is central to the whole play of the cosmos and so contraction in and of itself is not necessarily problematic. Initially provisionally, we make a little bit of an excessive allegiance towards openness, simply because most of us are too much contracted. But eventually, you know we have a slight preference for openness, initially as spiritual practitioners, but eventually we have to be able to reconcile and see them both as expressions of the same play. So because otherwise then you become addicted to openness, you become to the antidote. And so this is the delicate dance that we open we can track we open the contraction. All the while knowing that fundamentally contraction in and of itself is not necessarily problematic. It's just part of a play, but if we over identify with it. If we over emphasize it then that's in fact the problem, but what you shared is a wonderfully supportive and so thank you. Yeah, glad to hear from you and nice to have someone to go.
If I may just want to add one one thought. I think this opening and contracting is encompassing, more and more of the totality, so to speak, and the opening is is goes with this fear, partly, yeah, and that's what I wanted to point out that when you, you expand the limits, then this fear comes up, and when you understand it, it's easier to bear
muslin. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that it's a great contribution.
Thank you.
Okay, thanks everybody, I got I got three thing at 330 I need to run off to, so good to be back on track with you all. Well, Dr. Ed is with us next week we do the second Wednesday of the month on the sleep medicine, science track. We started last time and it's so cool, I'll be with ad for each one of these so we'll be back next Wednesday. And then I'll be back with you, maybe two or three weeks we'll see, to continue this track that we've just started down the stages of doing yoga, so hang with us on that great to see everybody. Until then pleasant dreams, and see you in the dream world everybody. Bye.
