And so what I do at these events overall, the other thing is worth sharing. I should have said this earlier. I sent my book off the book on reverse meditations. Very excited about that. I sent that off before he went on retreat. And so looking forward to releasing that in spring of 2023. So what we do if you haven't attended this event before, is we go through a book, in this case, the Dream Yoga Book. I basically read and do spontaneous riffing based on stuff that I learned so insights, perhaps that I didn't have when I wrote this a number of years ago, and Alyssa and I both confirmed that we're on page 157, the beginning of chapter 13, the practice of illusory form. So this really this seated, this chapter fundamentally seated, the follow up book, streams of light, which is based entirely on this topic. So okay, let's see what I have to say. And again, at the end, I do have I'm allowed, you know, 20 minutes or so 1520 minutes of questions can be anything doesn't have to be on the book. It can be anything. And because I just got back and I've got houseguests now, I kind of have to limit it to just around an hour a little bit more than an hour just for tonight. Okay, the practice some of this reform. So this is definitely right, right off the bat. This is one area where Dream Yoga is separated from lucid dreaming for sure. Because I don't know a single teacher a single book that talks about the practice of illusory form in the context of lucid dreaming. In the context of Dream Yoga. Illusory form is actually the main practice. Dream Yoga is considered as a subsidiary and supportive practice and as we'll see, I think I do riff about this. They're bi directional reciprocating practices, they support each other. But illusory form is the main practice and that's why I wrote dreams of light. Because if people are struggling to attain lucidity, work, you know, lucid dreams are not that easy. And therefore Dream Yoga is not really clicking for them. The practice of illusory form can take you to exactly the same place absolutely positively. The daytime dream. Yoga practice of illusory form has three aspects illusory body, speech and mind. They call it the three gates, right? We relate to the world through body speech in mind, and we solidify experience of the world with our thoughts, words and deeds. Illusory form works directly with these three gates to loosen and dissolve our solid world. So you have to be a little careful what you sign up for when you do this. Practice. Because it's fundamental charter, just like Dream Yoga, is D reification. Right? If there wasn't original sin in the Buddhist tradition, which of course there isn't. But if there was, it would be to reify to make real to project to impute to solidify and we do it all the time at lightning speeds. And so therefore, if reification is the source is I argue all our hardship, all our suffering, really the basis of samsara. De reification is the essence of the waking up path. Both an illusory form injury no yeah. Yes, it helps us develop the penetrating vision, a vision that allows us to see through mirror parents and into reality, cutting through the form sounds and thoughts that otherwise trapped us in the anguish and discontent of worldly life. The suffering of samsara so you develop literally, and I'm quite sure I write about this at least on a footnote in dreams of light. The
five qualities the five sets of divine eyes, which is you know, metaphorically this kind of X ray vision that allows you to penetrate to see through to cut through appearances, whether it's the solidity of a form of thought, a word to actually penetrate through that because if you take it to be solid, lasting independent real, that's the definition of non lucidity. And here's a quote from all Swati. Okay, okay. It is not necessary to use the telescope or bend over a microscope to contemplate the spectacle of the universe. It is sufficient to refuse to perceive it as true. It is it is sufficient, it is sufficient to refuse to perceive as true. All the illusions that bind us. And everything in the world. Nothing exists besides illusions. Everything without exception is illusion. And so here right off the bat, and do I say this I don't quite yet. We really need to reinstate what it means to assert that something is illusory, that the nature of the world is illusory. It's not to say that things don't appear. That's nihilism that leads to all that kind of classic spiritual bypassing problems. Basically, illusion has a very specific definition here. It basically means that appearance, is not in harmony with reality, and that if you take things to be real, that's the illusion that's the mistake. things appear. But they're not in the status that we impute them to be. And so that's the reason we suffer because we take the display of the mind the shine of the mind, the dream, whether it's the nighttime dream, this dream or the dream at the end of time death we take it to be real and that is a colossal mistake. Excuse me, the essence of non lucidity is the basis of all our suffering. So we start with the practice of illusory form cutting through forms so this cutting through thing this is it those of you who may know in Buddhism, this is the cutting through practices are part of a really wonderful rich battery of practices in the junction great perfection teachings called fracture, t r e, K ch o en la which really mean cutting through Cadac fractured cutting through to primordial purity. And so that's what all these practices do. They cut through appearances, sometimes semi wrath fully, to direct you to land you into reality. So it's kind of like Crusher cutting through to primordial purity, which is the nature of the world when you see it properly. perfectly pure. Okay. The practice of illusory body is easy to summarize you continually remind yourself that the forms of this world are like a dream the basic practice is to say almost like a mantra, I'm dreaming. Or this is a dream as often as you can. And to really feel that when you're perceiving right now is a dream. And so this can also be posed as a question. This can be a little bit more analytic instead of just asserting asserting. You can use it as a type of analytic meditation, you know, am I dreaming? Is this a dream?
It's that simple but simple doesn't always mean easy, right? Why? Because of our tendencies to always reify and for those of you who are students of the Buddhist tradition, the these you know, will say Maxim's are are part of the what are called the absolute bodhichitta bodhichitta slogans in the Mahayana tradition, so just a very brief sidebar, one of the classic core teachings of the Mahayana our call the 59. Lo Jiang are mine training slogans. And these are fantastic. I work with them all the time. There was, I don't know, maybe a dozen books on these hemas written really beautifully about it, starting with her book. I think that maybe even when things fall apart or start where you are one of those two maybe when things fall apart or bestseller I think she started planting those slogans there and so there's they're the slogans are fantastically powerful. I actually have them I don't have them down here my study but you can get them in a little card set. And every day, you pull one of them out and you contemplate it. And again, I have so many different texts. My favorite is Trump images book, Mind Training. Study, you'll look at the slogan, refer to the reference text unpack it and realize that you have this very powerful way to use aphorisms Maxim's adages as a way to work with relative and absolute body titsa. And so, what we're talking about here is absolute bodhichitta, which is really the nature of reality, the nature of mind. And so in those, they're in their battery, I think there's five or six of these absolute Bucha slogans. And four, I think four of these six are really completely relegated to these kind of aphorisms. Here's some things you can do to support this practice and ways to elaborate on it. So this is what kind of stuff that I've come up with is a way for me to augment this very simple thing because for a lot of people, or some people I should say, it's not all that effective to just run around saying this is a dream. I'm dreaming. Like, Hey, man, sorry, dude. I don't see the world this way, right. This doesn't really work for me. So these are a number of things that I've come up with. I'm also using some stuff from my teacher, Khenpo Rinpoche, and others that have really helped they've really helped me so number one, say this is a dream aloud not just mentally, saying it verbally strengthens it. Set your watch to be every hour and use that signal as a reminder to say this is a dream any other signal also works for instance, every time you hear a siren or see a plane. This then doubles with the practice of prospective memory. Yeah, this is actually somewhat helpful. You know, the, the, the teachings on karma say the karma gets stronger it takes on more power when it goes from just mental to verbal to physical. And so if you're just mentally reciting it, that's fine. But if you actually say it, write it down, has a little bit more impact. Yeah, this next one, actually, this next one works from a look at the experience of yesterday from the perspective of today. When you were living it yesterday, felt so solid and real like Like now, right? What we're doing right now feels pretty darn real. Well, from the perspective of tomorrow, looking back on it, it's not going to be so real. So this little exercise in perspective can help you d reify. The solidify what you're experiencing right now, from the perspective of today, it seems like a dream doesn't it? Exactly. Exactly. When you were living it yesterday felt so solid and real. But from the perspective of today, it seems like a dream. Now look at today from the perspective of tomorrow. Doesn't today appear more dreamlike from tomorrow's perspective? And so these are really these are wonderful brief contemplations. I do. These are my Dream Yoga programs, many of you know where throughout the day you just pause, reflect and do these types of investigations and contemplations, and when they did a really long retreat. This is the way we practice the stuff we did we did exactly the sorts of things illusory form all day long. And then Dream Yoga all night. And so therefore, using this kind of bi directional reciprocating thing, but that what I mean is these these practices bootstrap each other, they lean on each other. The more you do illusory form the Lord helps you Dream Yoga. The more you do Dream Yoga, the more it helps you with all this reform, so they're reciprocating in that regard, kind of a virtuous feedback loop.
And so it's a wonderful way to bring the art of contemplation, the art of reflection, and the kind of the power of the pause to saturate your mind with this and because you're doing a practice that's in resonance with reality, that's the thing. This is not a you're not doing something that's just like what is like artificial this is like really, no, no, the reason this works is because you're actually engaged in a practice. That's a template that's in resonance with reality. And then eventually what happens this is what's called, there are three types of illusory form, practice, impure, pure and perfectly pure or some translators refer to it as ultra pure sounds like tide ultra pure tide. ultra pure loose reform. Well is impure LIS reformed. That's what this is. It's called impure. Because it's still conceptual. You're still faking it, you're still trying to talk yourself into it. I'll skip over the middle one and come back to it in just a second. perfectly pure illusory form, is you see the world this way? It's not conceptual. That's what makes it perfectly pure. You're no longer faking it. You've made it you actually literally see the world as illusory as a dream. The middle one is called pure bliss reform. This has to do with generation stage practice a little bit beyond our scope here. Also something that we do in stage five of Dream Yoga. So we'll come back to that a little bit later, when we get to stage five. So pure, I'm sorry, impure, pure and perfectly pure. We're working with NPR because it's conceptual. Start where you are with concepts. Number three, look at things as if you were looking at them from the back of your eye, or better yet, from the back of your head. Almost like an instantaneous retreat. Bring your perspective back here. As a way to develop this kind of witnessing awareness. Initially, it helps distance you from the display, you can help you do reified display. This is the deeper, more penetrating gaze one that doesn't get caught up in mere appearance. It's almost as if the gaze of the psyche or non lucid gaze comes from the outermost surface of our eyes. While the look of the clear light mind comes from the very back of our eyes, retreat to that deeper look, this is actually a good one. I do this a fair amount. I would just be sitting I'll be pausing at a streetlight, whatever we're even though it actually doesn't matter. Stop look up backup. Because what what constitutes not in the city? Do you think about it when you're lost in a non lucid dream? It's because you're immersed in it. You're in a certain way you're too close to it, you've become it you fallen into it. And so this kind of instantaneous retreat really brings about the quality of lucidity. Right, because you weren't when you're in the dream, something clues you into the fact it's a distancing. All of a sudden you're witnessing capacity. You retreat from the display. And you say, Wait a second, wait a second. Wait a second. This isn't real. This isn't solid. This isn't right. So do the same thing here. Mirror practice. Oh, yeah. This one's This one's awesome. I learned this in my three year retreat. Within the context of the six years of no robot I have to share the story with you. When we are introduced to this this is my kind of public version of it. When I first read the instructions, it was like are you kidding me? Man? My like you want me to do this for like how many months and it my first kind of dismissive attitude as I go, there's just no way I'm going to do this. But then I figured, hey, I got it. I mean, I've got all this time I might as well get into it. And so I have to tell you what I thought was just originally just patronizing silly, because I really got into it and I really did it. It turned out to be one of the most powerful practices it seems like almost just ridiculous. But give it a give her a crack and get back to me in a couple months. If you work with us, religiously. It'll start to work on you. And so this thing that I had so much resistance to when I first was introduced to it has been one of the most impactful see if it is for you. You'll see how silly it is or appears I should say. Stand in front of a mirror and say to yourself that all parents are just like this reflection. And that's not too outrageous. Just a little bit more. So there is no substance to anything that appears in the mirror right? There's no There's no depth, it's just an illusion,
reflected illusion. This is where it gets initially silly and then actually somewhat interesting. And so if you do elect to do this, again, you may want to close your door or at least warn your family members of what you're doing. Because if they didn't think you were crazy before, they're going to think you're crazy now, where are you going to now do this to the mirror and I recommend you just see how it feels how it lands with you. You might be surprised at the impact of this. When I first did it was like whoa, there's something here. So this is again, this isn't a tradition man. This could just come from the Congo tradition they named tradition. Padma Sun bhava, the great tantric Buddha taught this I mean, it's like it's everywhere in the tantric and the Tantra is praise your reflection, which can joins the practice of illusory body with the practice of illusory speech. Point at yourself and say, You're the most amazing person no one can do what you do. Indulge yourself with lavish admiration and notice how this feels. Then look at those feelings and see them as illusory as well, which conjoined this with the practice of illusory mind. And so this is where it gets interesting. You do this you're going Oh God, this is like ridiculous. Well, I'm not making this up. This goes back 1000s of years. See if what these people have been doing for a couple 1000 years or at least 1000 works for you. Praise yourself. Look at the reflection see it as it was really and then look at the words and see that is illusory. And then just pay attention to how elevated the praise can make you and then as we're about to see how the criticism can take you down. Next, blame yourself. Some people actually find this easier to do. It's very interesting. It's revelatory. Some people actually have a harder time praising themselves in the mirror. And they actually had they're much more comfortable criticizing themselves. That's very interesting. It's kind of poverty mentality that we many of us have. Give yourself the finger a point at yourself and say you're a worthless piece of crap. A total loser, some people will say, yep, yep, yep, indeedy. Yep, that's really the way I feel well, you might want to take a look at that. Really? See how that feels, and then look into the nature of those negative feelings. When I did this meditation in the last year of my retreat, I initially found it patronizing, contrived, and silly. For sure. It seems stupid. Since I had to do it for days on end actually weeks. I decided to put my heart into it the practice came to life and slowly chart started to change me. Now when people praise or blame me, it doesn't lift me up or take me down like before. I still feel the impact of the words briefly but I don't give them a place to land. And I see through them more quickly. So it still remains one of the kind of surprising benefits of doing this thing in my retreat. Exactly what I just shared. Somebody criticizes me. I feel whatever like a train of neutrino coming through. But it's just it's just like the words just pass through me. You know, I don't they just they don't take me down. Because I don't take them at all. Same thing, words of praise. That's nice. Thank you. I really appreciate that. But you know, they definitely don't elevates and so my only experience is kind of equanimity, this Aquinas relationship to praise and blame. This basically what this does is it eventually can penetrate what are called the eight worldly dharmas praise and blame pleasure and pain, loss and gain fame and shame of the eight hairs that we basically spend our lives running towards one running away from the other and you can penetrate through what I call the eight worldly concerns the eight worldly dharmas through this particular practice. Has a lot more traction than you might think. Reflect on the analogy of illusion. So this comes this little tip comes from the prajna paramita tradition. This is the great Mahayana school that do I have a picture of her? Oh yeah, here she is. Here's here's Oyo Yeah, so here's, here's the mother prajna paramita. She's considered the mother of all the Buddha's Manjushri as the father of all but it's I've got him like like right over here. So right. So let me show you this. This is pretty cool. So this is and I have my statue behind me. See him up there. Thank you. So here's here's I got Mother and Father of all the videos on the right and left side of me. I got this from His Holiness 17th Karmapa in Dharamsala when I was in India. And this is no small thing. This is where you're gonna go and
just very brief sidebar, the personal power meter the motherboard and that is, is the mother of your awakened mind. She is the innate quality of your mind that you or return to when you die. It's where you go and deep deep meditation. deep deep dreamless sleep is really gonna go at depth into the mother matrix of your mind reality. And so by working with these analogies of illusion, which are classic, you're working from the teachings that come from this vast body of literature teachings from the Mahayana schools called the Prajnaparamita literature. Many of these analogies come from the Diamond Sutra, which is a cutting through sutra, right diamonds can cut through anything. The sutra says quote, so you should view the fleeting world. A star A dog in a bubble in the stream a flash of lightning in a summer cloud a flickering lamp a Phantom and a dream and quote, or hey, you know in 20th century language as a hologram, I mean, that is like that is a fantastic analogy illusion or is a virtual reality setup. There's so many other more contemporaneous ways of working with this. Or my favorite like rainbow rainbows arises to play a light and space form and emptiness. Concealer remind myself that I'm sitting at a rainbow typing on a rainbow keypad. I'm living in a Rainbow House in the rainbow world. I like that I like that rainbow image. Put up sticky notes around your house that remind you remember the essence of spiritual practice is remembrance. This is a dream you're dreaming. Place him inside cabinets, drawers or other places to help you flash on the illusory nature of things. I've got these puppies all over my damn house. Open a drawer there it is my glove compartment. There it is. I mean, all over the place. I have to mix them up because otherwise I know they're going to be there. And then I'll return to my ski bag or something like hey, this is a dream. Continually reminds me This is actually kind of been it's almost like an Easter egg hunt. Put these around your house. So then when you come into these, especially these habitually laden places, there's a little memory aid there to say wait a second, wait a second, like up take the characteristics of your dream and transpose them into waking reality. No, this is what I completely I wouldn't say made up but this is what I discovered on my own. I did not get this from anywhere. I discovered this again. I have so much time in retreat. I just started thinking about my dreams because my dreams are getting more and more real as my waking reality was becoming less and less real. And that's actually a central point here. That if you're careful if you use the word properly as you reify your dreams as you make your dreams more clear, lasting stable in a very interesting way. You're actually de reifying this that's kind of the point of these two practices, until you discover that they're fundamentally isomorphic. They're basically the same state. In the mind of an awakened one, there's no difference between the waking state and the dream state. For real, they're not kidding. For example, most of my dreams are highly visual. While there may be sounds and tactile sensations is mostly about sight by wearing earplugs during the day, it's remarkable how quickly my waking reality becomes dreamlike. I recommend those little little silicone plugs, kind of break them up, jam them in there. When you can put just put your fingers in your ear. Walk around your house for 30 seconds. To me notice how quickly the world becomes dreamlike. When you entered this relative sensory deprivation chamber, focusing mostly on sight. This works for me see if it works for you. If I'm in a Dream Yoga Retreat Am I do this for hours for sure. But initially, just try it for a few minutes. To simulate the discontinuous nature of the dreams. Because really isn't a quality look at your own dreams, right? And my dreams. Most of my dreams are parsed they're pixelated, they're stochastic. They're. They're discontinuous vignette here and yet they're mine moments. Mine moments mine moments are very rarely unless the lucid dream is really strongly lucid. My dreams are highly discontinuous in nature. And so when I was looking at that and trying to transpose that experience into this world, that's where this these tips and tricks came from. Move your head and wrapping jerky motions or keep your eyes closed a bit longer as you blink.
So you should do this at the dinner table. And then go upstairs and do all the mirror stuff and then just see what happens to the rest of your family members. They Go Daddy's lost it he's lost his mind mom. When I do this, at the same time I'm wearing my earplugs, my world quickly becomes dreamlike. I do it for too long. However, it actually gets a bit unsettling, almost nauseating, but that itself is revelatory exposes by craving for stability. Play with what works for you. So the idea here is just I don't know what your dreams are like these are my dreams right? So maybe take this a very interesting contemplation maybe write down 567 different qualities characteristics that define your dreams. Maybe they're the same, maybe they're different. Write those down, and then say, Hey, how can I possibly transpose those qualities into my waking world? Yes, it's contrived. Yes, it's silly. Yes, you're faking it. That's why it's called impure illusory form. But eventually starts to work on you. Okay, get my teacher Khenpo Rinpoche, this is he loved doing this next one. We did this sort of thing with him. He loved this sort of thing. Experiment with inexpensive prismatic refractive lenses. Kindly often hang out because a handout of Christmas light shows these lenses especially when worn at night creed halos and remember like images around objects that are very dreamlike, so those who have come to have you been that have been to my Dream Yoga, lucid dreaming. OTs realize that have these kind of goofy things out there. They're helpful. I find them helpful. Go to magic shows great magicians are great illusionists. Look at surrealistic art. I love that I have a right here. This is my mouse pad. You see it? Salvador Dali. All right. I love this guy. He was a classic Bardo artists right. In fact, that's where he got a lot of his art. You know the story right? He, um, he had Edison, Thomas Edison. They would kind of troll this hypnagogic or hypnopompic liminal space. They both came up with the same kind of thing where they be dozing off I think so it's out some version of having a spoon in your hand above a plate or something and then as you're dozing off, right, you lose your grip on the spoon. The spoon falls down on the plate makes a big clatter wakes you up. And then you kind of just troll your unconscious mind as you're dipping in and out of waking and dreaming states. And this is a very highly fertile creative arena, which is like I mean, no surprise that perhaps Dali got a lot of his inspiration from that dreamlike state. And then Edison derive a great deal of creativity. When the mind is opening up. In this way. It's becoming more porous, permeable. Insights on all kinds of very interesting things can happen when you're in this space. Very often people will have insights. I mean, the literature is replete with stories of people working struggling to come up with some solution to a particular problem. Maybe this has happened to you. Then you relax the mind you're going to sleep and Pingel there it is right? We can cultivate this Salvador Dali mero. Thank you. And I read that and the data artists like baritone Pablo Picasso was a master of seeing reality in discontinuous ways. As were the Impressionists and pointless serraj I mean, I love the pointless star. MC Escher Oh, I don't have it within reaching range, but I got a ton of his artwork around. Almost any non representational artists can help you look at reality and new and illusory ways. I also find the optical illusion books are great at tricking the mind into surreal states. I got a bunch of fun right behind me here. And one of my friends Jack Loomis, who's a retired professor of perception psychology. He sent me this link. I can't pull it up. But it has got hundreds, hundreds of these incredibly mind bending optical illusions. They're just off the charts. And so Jack has done he spent so much of his career using the study of illusion and how illusion can trick the brain in our visual apparatus into really exploring reality. By being tricked. We can actually see how it is that we're constantly confabulating constructing our world. So illusions are really optical illusions are really fun to play with.
Yeah, so my dear friends, even the bears, this is what he does, if you've ever done the next one, if you ever done a program with him, right? Every single night, you're watching one of these movies. So the next one would watch dreamlike movies the science of sleep waking life, Vanilla Sky, Inception, Mulholland Drive, Truman Show Jacob's Ladder and less Wait, there's how many of these dozens a good movie will suck you in into it just like a good non lucid dream. My teacher kept her MPJ says the movies and video games are wonderful modern analogies of illusion. You even better virtual reality. So I wrote this before I was doing any of my VR stuff. VR takes this up even a notch, big time. So if you have the opportunity to play with VR, go for it. It's affordable. Now Oculus Rift you can get these headsets for like 250 or something now. These things are pretty darn awesome. And they're actually equipping them now with haptics with just saw thing on. I think it was Lester Holt. They're doing this this evening riff on the meta your Metaverse and they are they're doing some really interesting things. about virtual reality. Just stuff has got just tremendous potential and with the price coming down, it's going to really gain even more traction. A movie just like a dream can seem so real, right? We cry, laugh and even scream and all that's really happening is empty images are being projected. onto a screen. I remember that. It wasn't the first time I did it. Four or five years ago at this point, when I first was really, really introduced to VR and I got into it in a huge way and I did this paper with his cognitive scientists, neuroscientists. I had the opportunity to spend hours and hours and hours in a number of different VR labs, just trying out tons of different programs. I remember, I remember one in particular, I really don't groove on like horror creepy things. I find them just stupid repugnant. repulsive. They're just so so terrible, but I figured, okay, I'll see what this is like. So I watched this one VR thing. Where okay, I know I'm in the headset, right? Okay, here I am. I had to keep reminding myself, okay. I mean, I'm in the lab. I know this is a scary thing that's about to happen. And it was amazing how powerful the immersion was and what it was was the VR setup. Was it having a room on the bed? And then is ridiculous as it sounds, it was pretty creepy to put it mildly. Where these these just terrifying little goblins would just pop up all over the damn place on the timeline. I'm laying in this bed in the VR setup. And I'm kind of just you know, like, you know, looking around, and all of a sudden, like, he would just like, like, pop up over here or pop over there. And it just scared the crap out of me. And even here I am. I know it's a VR setup. I know. It's an illusion. I know I'm buying this program. And because of the immersive qualities, it still had this fear eliciting effect, it was really interesting. really creepy. I mean, really, some of the stuff is really creepy. And of course it sells because it's so intense. Right? Okay, we buy into it literally and figuratively. Watch yourself. Get Pulled into movie then step back and become lucid to what's happening. Wake up. It's just a movie. One way to do this is really interesting, and I've talked about this in relation to my experience with the Cavanaugh hearings. Is yes pause literally hit the mute button. Notice what happens when you do that is the small sidebar there. Oh, this next one. This is such a huge topic and I see my different candidates here. We could bring her on and she could talk about this. This is a huge topic psychrotrophic sub psychotropic psychedelic substances like LSD DMT the spirit molecule, an essential ingredient to the Amazonian brew called Ayahuasca. Psilocybin mushrooms and the light can induce illusory experiences it can act as a glimpse at the nature of reality, and shamans have used them for millennia. However, psychotropic drugs can do more harm than good. And I cannot recommend them. Ah, see, this is a total update. When was this published? I now do recommend them. Alright, when was this published? This is an update 2016 Okay, six years later, I've totally changed my view on this stuff. Let me finish this and then I'll rant a little bit about it. I cannot recommend them now I can't. Artificial is rarely done official air you know if there's a new edition I will take this out. The organic approach of traditional looser farm practices healthier and more sustainable. That may be true. But I tell you it's not the it's not the place for me now to really riff on this. Maybe someday I can get my friend kind of in we can
talk to you about these sorts of things. They definitely have a place I've totally changed my tune on this partly after. I mean, it's so I've read it all. I mean, James Kingsland book What am I dreaming? Christopher herbaceous book LSD in the mind of the universe, Michael Pollan. How to change your mind is a whole Netflix series now on that topic. Totally changed my tune on this. This stuff really has a place I see it now actually is a form of Tantra. If you if you relate to that properly, where Bobby is as important as mine. I see it as a marvelous application of neuro phenomenology where big fancy word. Basically what it means is that for every experience, that's the phenomenology part, there's a brain correlate. There's something happening in your brain that's the neuro part. So neuro phenomenology is happening, whether we know it or not, when you have a meditation experience, something's happening in your brain. And so you can work in a very careful way with evoking these particular kind of chemical mysticism, things, whatever you want to call them to actually bring about certain states, but this is because this topic is so big. I'm not going to run with it a ton. Outside of saying that I have definitely changed my tune on this. I have to be very careful, because you know, I'm not categorically endorsing this, this is a public arena, these agents are still mostly illegal. So, immediate disclaimer. But I also am saying that this should not be scheduled one stuff it should be scheduled to psychedelic therapy and Europa is initiating a psychedelic therapy program. This stuff absolutely positively has a place rich arena for conversation because it's so big. I'll let it slide for now. Really, really rich stuff. Okay, let's reform songs. How are we doing? Ooh. Okay, because I have to leave let me just do let me do these and then maybe we can see if there's discussions, because I had tonight has to be just a tad bit shorter because I'm hosting guests. So let's see form songs. These are awesome. These are really cool. I again, especially if you're like musically inclined, or you'd like songs very often. Especially on the Tibetan tradition they called Doha is are songs of realization. There are these amazing distillations. of wisdom often put into verse and my teacher Campbell Rinpoche, who was allegedly an emanation, reincarnation and Milarepa, who taught basically in verse form. We were constantly singing all the time. And so I got into it in a big way. And so there's a there's a vast array. I wouldn't say Spotify because I don't think you can get these on Spotify yet, but there's, I'll see if I can pull up some official recommendations for texts that you can get where you can really get the melodies get diverse. In work with these they're really fantastic because they're somewhat in the spirit of the Mind Training slogans. But now what you're doing is it's not just an adage or a slogan, it's actually a whole song is put into a melody and so you know, instead of lead zipline, Led Zeppelin running through your mind you are the greatest rock band ever, in my opinion. You have the songs of realisation, running through your mind. And we we sang these for endless hours with Khenpo Rinpoche and I got to really groove on this stuff. So you can sing the following verses from traditional Buddhist texts throughout the day, as a way of joining the practices of Lewy body, speech and mind. Put them to your own melody or and I have to do a little homework to see where you can get this online but I bet you note to self. Let me write this down. These are actually kind of cool. So let me just write this down songs for next visit. There we go. If you're musically inclined and you'd like to hum things, these are cool. From the knowledge fundamental to the Middle Way, the Mulan Angelica karaka is like a dream like an illusion. So here's the melon. You want me to sing it for you? Now's the time to hit your mute button. Like a dream, like an illusion. Like a C T. Gun. That's how Ober fun that's how living. That's how dying are taught to be. I can play the piano, I can't sing. But that's the verse for this one. Every one of these has a melody I should say. That's the melody that one. I won't sing all these I'll just read them.
Again, from the guardian of the king of illusion. There are two ways of seeing everything the perfect way and the false way. So each and every thing that can ever be found holds two natures within. What is perfect seeing see it sees the suchness of all things Dharmakaya false seeing sees the relative truth. This is what the perfect Buddha said from the Guide to the Bodhisattvas Way of Life. This is Shantideva the Bodhisattva cheerio Vitara this is probably in fact when I talked with Bob Thurman. He taught to three days excerpting from different chapters in the Guide to the Bodhisattvas life pretty much saying this is one of the most important books ever published. Then wanderers, the dreamlike beings, what are they analyzed? They're like a banana tree. So this is very interesting. Like a banana tree doesn't really mean a whole lot to me, right? So this is where translating these into contemporaneous terms comes into play, but the idea here allegedly, is it if you look at a banana tree or taking a banana tree apart, there's like layers and layers of a banana tree. I don't know I don't live on a banana plantation is analyzed like a banana tree. Okay, if you say so. One cannot make definite distinctions between transcending misery or not. And then from the Samadhi of illusion, from the jewel ornament of liberation, this is compelled by Thank you. First verse knowing the five skandhas are like an illusion. Don't separate the illusion from the Skandhas it's countless of the five aggregates are heaps that in the Tera Vaada tradition and the Abbe dharma, that constitute the provisional self sense as you take the self sense apart. You see these aggregates don't separate the illusion from the scandalous for your thinking that everything anything is real this is perfect wisdom was conduct at his best again, perfect wisdom conduct that's part of the parameter. The second verse all the images conjured up by a magician the horses elephants and chariots the I don't live in horses, chariots and elephants, right? Whatever it may appear, there are no that none of it is real. And it's just like that with everything there is. So that may be the perhaps the less impactful of what we've been riffing on today. But there's definitely places to go to learn these verses, learn the melodies, get them into your head, and have those things running in your subconscious mind instead of your usual replay loops. And so because I do have a little, some social responsibilities for today, since I'm holding people, I'm going to stop here. So this is my team. And then if there are questions, comments, more than welcome, and then when we pick up again, I'll be able to go just a tad bit longer. But these things you know, they may seem I'll just say one last thing about these. They may seem at first like oh, he's a genius. You know, this doesn't really speak to me. Well, that's fine. If it doesn't, that's totally cool. But like I experienced when I did my long retreat, these things are there. They're in the traditions for a reason. And if they do have some resonance with you, really working with them. It's a wonderful way to work with the principles of Dream Yoga. In the context of your daily life, and you may discover, the more you do them, the more you'll augment your capacity, your proficiency in lucid dreaming and dreaming of all together because these are definitely working with the same kind of dimensions of mind. So with that said, questions, comments, offerings, I'll check the chat column and in the meantime, if there's anything live there sure. Was it muted Marianne? Was it I forgot to I'm sorry, I forgot I forgot to mention the listeners fault. One of the one of the low John's slogans is drive all blames into one that would be one me as tribal brains into Alyssa. So
no wrong.
I forgot to mention Marianne. Marianne is doing her dream sharing group. I think it's a Saturday right?
Yeah, this Saturday, nine o'clock mountain time. Yeah,
totally spaced that out. So thank you for coming on to jog my pathetic memory. So anyway, nice to see you. How are you? Yeah,
yeah, I was just gonna say come and share a dream and it's a nice intimate way. We're gonna go off and breakout rooms and I think it's a nice addition to the nightclub because it really gives us a lot of one on one time with each other to share about your nightlife, this kind of nightlife. Totally. And so, in that vein, Andrea wanted to share with you. My lucid dream journeys been pretty interesting. I hope maybe this will be helpful for somebody but I was getting really discouraged because I hadn't had a lucid dream and three and a half months. I'm like, Yeah, you know, I can't do this. And so last week, I thought well, really, you know, what's happening here? It really took some discernment, and I figured out what happened. And then I had a lucid dream. Oh, awesome. So what happened? Well, so I think my mind sort of did like this double entendre because I do see my waking life is dreamlike, I would have all these dreams, and I would say, See anything is possible. So like I would have something that wouldn't be likely to happen, like walking through a wall. And I'd say see anything is possible. You know, so I was seeing my dreams as dream like thinking that they were real. You know, so, like, I, I went through, you know, this wall and I was like, I gotta go tell my ex husband that this stuff can really happen. This is really real, it really happened. And so, I took a look at that last week. I'm like, I wonder what Andrew would say about this. And so I just imagined, you know, like, Well, I think maybe he would say something like, This calls for a little discernment. Or a little discernment. Like yeah, maybe anything is possible because our waking life is dreamlike. And so in that way, that's kind of what was tricking me. Um, and so a few nights ago. i Well, it was interesting because I had a non lucid dream. I sort of picked my last lucid dream was when I started to turn into the blue Medicine Buddha.
I remember that what a great story. Yeah, beautiful. And so
interestingly, I had a non lucid dream where my hair turned blue. And then I woke up and I thought, wow, that's kind of cool. You know, that's sort of Medicine Buddha ish, but it was non lucid. I went back to sleep. It was almost like I thought, you know, I usually don't have lucid dreams after it's light. Maybe I've missed my window is about 545 anyway and went to sleep. I was having a non lucid dream where I was in an airplane looking out the window, and the plane is about to land. And the plane is about to land and the plane is about to land and it's like, I see water. And then I see a village in Costa Rica and then I'm in New York City and then a plane just about the land water. And instead of going, Hey, anything's possible in this world. I said, the plane isn't landing because I'm dreaming.
There you go. That's awesome.
And that was the magic moment. And then I had this amazing lucid dream. I don't know is it possible for lucid dream to last an hour? I think it was.
Oh, absolutely. Oh, I've had it for lunch.
Yeah, it was amazing. It went on and on and Yeah.
What did you end up doing? Or anything where you work? Was it a witnessing type thing or what did you end up doing during that time?
Well, it was really interesting because so I just sort of since it's been a while since I had one. I went through my basic list. Okay, I'm dreaming. What am I going to do? Well, I'm going to fly and I so I waited for the plane land. The plane finally landed because I knew I was dreaming and went through the airport. I wound up in my garage as a kid growing up. And it's like okay, well, I guess I'll start out flying and I you know, I have some chronic health issues and feeling well, and I'm standing there going, Man, I think I feel too weak or too tired. To fly, but I'm gonna bring my courage up and I'm going to try it. So I gave a leap. I thought you're just gonna land in those bushes. I flew over the bushes, and I started flying, flying, flying. All my weakness went away. All my fatigue went away. All my pain went away. And as I said, it was a long dream. So I don't have time to go into it. But one thing I did do was I, I flew by Amir and I didn't see my reflection. I thought, I think Andrew says, you know, it's good to try to look in a mirror. So then I started looking for other mirrors. And I went, I sort of flying down this long hallway and I saw a mirror. So I went and I and I sort of came in at a diagonal. And I'm looking at my reflection and I'm like this 50s businessman with like, back hair, and a three piece suit on it, like I smiled and he smiled and I tilted my head. He tilted his head. I'm like, wow, I would have never thought that up. And so then I went to go to another mirror, you know, and there was no reflection and then I went to another one and I saw it was me.
That's awesome. Wow, great dream. Congratulations.
It was just kind of one of those really fun dreams where I just played a lot. Yeah,
yeah, that's cool. I mean, you know, you have these little droughts totally normal. And then you have one drive. It's like hitting a, you know, 300 yard drive on a golf game, right. Your game sucks, sucks sucks. And when you get lucky you just smack it. That's what keeps you coming back. Right. So you have a great dream like that. For me, it always just supercharges the blockchain for future with solidity.
Yeah, yeah. And I just want to appreciate you kind of drilling into us, you know, like this discernment. And this reflection is important.
Yeah, couldn't you develop what's called a Critically Reflective attitude. I mean, ultimately, the German researcher coined that term. And then it was used as you know how to riff with conducting state checks and all that kind of thing. But that discernment that literally discriminating awareness, wisdom is critical here because that's going to be the intelligence, the discernment that allows you have exactly those types of insights. So working with that, and having success that that's just awesome. High five,
high five and y'all come and join me Saturday morning. Let's share dream stories.
Thanks for me. I'd super appreciate it. Cool. Say buddy.
Yes, sir. Andrew, your your melodious rendition of Milarepa is no ha, Rob Sinatra and Kenny Rogers don't don't have anything to worry about. Yeah, right. Exactly. But anyhow, you know, the, in the Kagyu tradition, it seems and that's what you know, Milarepa reminded me that this Dream Yoga and all that is presented in in sort of a package of the six dharmas of Naropa. And so how do you feel about about that presentation and sort of they're also Milas emphasis on TUMO as the foundation of his practice.
Yeah, that's a big question. You know, for the really, really deep divers, the super serious people, it's indispensable. Because then you're doing it within the context of one of the most sophisticated set of practices and teachings ever devised, right. And as you just started with Milarepa there are six of these Jumeau Chanda Ali the inner he practices. The first is called the main beam and it brings a whole different level of preparation because you're working with completely opening and purifying cleaning up the subtle body that's what the inner he practices do. And so the way the logic is behind that, and again, if you don't do this, and it doesn't speak to you, oh, my gosh, you're you're not a lesser practitioner. Just don't worry about it. But for people who really want to fully go into the six yogurts or without Pierre, so the reason you do it and since you brought Milarepa up is that softens, works up makes pliable the whole inner body, the subtle body system, which is what Dream Yoga is working with, right so once you have that all prepared, pliable, workable open, from the from Timo, then when he gets to the Dream Yoga and you're working with the inner subtle body processes, it just has a whole different level of efficacy because you've done all that preparatory work. So remember, in the tantric teachings, the preliminaries are more important than their main practice. And so I'm wondering one respect, basketball your loose reform is a magnificent preparation period. But for people who want to go into the deeper yogic approach than the six yoga is or their the ultimate, but for a lot of people, it just doesn't work. There's a lot of training involved with that. It's a semi Big Deal thing takes a lot of work. But it's it's, in many ways, at least from the Kagyu tradition, the best way to do it, but again, don't worry about it. If it doesn't speak, it's not available to your center problem. So I'll pause here for a second see if that's what you're asking.
Right. And the follow up question will be was in your formal three year retreat and all that was was that approach emphasized or not?
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way I learned it. That's, that's when things really took off for me. Yeah. Thank you. Welcome. So let me go through these real quick here. Netflix series. Yeah. How to change your mind Yes, Andy from Linda fundamental psychiatrist who has studied many 1000s of brain scans says most dogs in Korea and healthy brains he shows the scans of them and the damage of visible Yeah, Linda that again, this is such a big topic. Yeah, there are wherever you find that you find shadows right and so work on that's why I'm not categorically endorsing these things. One has to do so with due diligence. There's so much involved to really make this stuff really work. So your point is well taken. I'm not going to gloss over that. Oh, again, a response. Okay. You guys read this? Yeah, yeah, that's really good stuff. Yeah, fundamentally, it's very interesting that with these agents, very this is also very interesting to me. Very often so called spiritual experiences, experiences of opening, just as a sidebar. are very, very frequently I can't say 100%. I'm just not informed well enough to make this this proclamation. But they're brought about by diminution, sometimes. Even cessation of brain activity, not enhancement of it. So anyway, lots to say here. Lordy, lordy. Okay. Direct Message to me. I'll get to that one later. What are the cards you were mentioning? Yeah, the low Jiang berry again, it comes to the rescue the low Jiang Mind Training slogans. You can get them as cards. I have the most cards. I also have them as a placard where all of them are listed. And then I have probably I least 789 commentarial treatises on them. So many and some of them are really great. We'd love to have the links that are listed form signs we're gonna see if I can find those. I have to see if those things Dennis actually made those available online. I really just don't know. So, okay, I'm gonna stay on line to answer Tim's direct private message to me. In the meantime, unless there's something else it's perfect. timing for me. Sorry, I have to go a little bit early today. But I will be back. Let's see. What do we got so we have Saturday with Maryam meditation group. I think I'm taking this Monday I'm not 100% Sure. And then we started I kind of usual cycle things. We get Dr. Ed next Wednesday. Blah, blah, blah. The usual things coming up. But anyway, great to see everybody. It's great to be back. I'm really glad to be back to whatever this world is. I haven't figured that out yet. I'm still haven't totally reentered. But Alyssa if you can leave this on for just a second so I can respond to Tim. Otherwise everybody thank you so much for hanging with us. Bob Thurman when we did this thing Amenda he was really pretty just deliberate about this, that after every session, he made an effort to dedicate whatever to whatever extent he speaks to whatever a value we've accumulated here we dedicated to all sentient beings. That way, we're not just doing this first off, we're not just having a little entertainment party. What we're doing here can actually have an impact on the world. So dedicate the merit of that speaks to us, everybody. Otherwise, have a pleasant evening. If you want to turn your camera's on and open your speakers for just a second to do this really sweet, geeky goodbye thing more than welcome to do that. But otherwise, you know where to find me. I'll be back around the block nice to see everybody. Cool you Andrew. You and I Andrew like Barry. Thank you everybody. Bye bye. recording stopped Yes.
