Great Oh, there we go. Hey me go long time. no see. Yeah, right. How much longer did that thing go with that yesterday? Um, maybe like 10 minutes from when you left. Oh, nice. Yeah, he's great. Well, I love his preparation. Yeah, he's fun. Really good. Yeah, no, I like him a lot. That's amazing. I learned quite a bit from him. He's really got to get the scientific thing down. Well, what a bunch of things here today. So, yeah, they all came in, kind of like, I just saw that. I'm sitting here looking at him now. Click, click, click, click. So I'm gonna look at some of these real quick here. Like, like, a really good so because of that. I'm probably just gonna jump right in.
You just yeah. Perfect. I have to go grab my headphones real quick.
Yeah. All right.
Cool. Okay, that's good.
We got a minute, right. All right. I just learned that.
You Here we go.
Hello, everybody. So we do
Hello everybody. So we do this totally geeky thing. Everybody has to turn on the cameras we all have to say hi to each other in cyberspace. Fantastic. Nice to be back with you all. So we're doing a couple of these three morning sessions for a European community. So I was gone last week, and I think what do you guys do last week, you play the Bartleby coming talk is that right. And so if you're new to this event, what we do is we just get together, we started this over a year ago, When COVID kinda came crashing down. Is it way to just hang out and chat and it's just it's been kind of clicking along ever since then, so if you're new welcome if you're returning visit welcome as well. One and wonderful list written questions were submitted. In fact there's so good and there's so many of. I'm going to use them as my platform riff today. I was going to say something about the relationship of brain to mind, but I'll save that for next week, I'm doing a little bit of research around how brain is just basically I think Huxley said it just this kind of reducing valve, so I want to say a little bit more about that but because there are so many really great questions. I want to turn to those to start with. But as usual, there are a few announcements like things upcoming. Excuse me. We did a really I think terrific interview yesterday with Ian Baker. In fact, it was so rich, I'm going to invite him back to actually give a presentation on hidden lands, he's an amazing scholar PhD anthropologist, author of seven books, and in particular this remarkable book called The heart of the world, which is about hidden lands bail. It's a really breathtaking topics super super interesting. And so we talked for almost two hours, and we could have talked for like six really rich, at least I thought he is amazing. He's a tremendous resource and this material is just so out there is really profound. So I'm going to will Prosit that process that try to get that out as soon as tomorrow, so check that out when it comes out, it was a really good one. Um, we've got one more week with the book study group with my dear friend Joe, he's going to be finishing the mindfulness, Winnie the Pooh book which has been such a delightful romp, that we're going to take a week off. And then at the request of a number of people in terms of what book to do next, we're going to dive in. I think it's the 29th of June on Tuesday, into a complete reading and commentary on my first book in the series of dreams, Dream Yoga, illuminating your life through lucid dreaming and the Tibetan Yogi's of sleep, excuse me, so that's coming up. And I'm really excited about that. Let me just clear my throat here, a little bit, sorry.
Okay, there we go. And the other thing that's kind of fun, for me is my first live event. So this is a chance where I get to put my lemonade stand up. My first in person event is happening at Shambhala mountain center, in fact, on the topic that the talk was on last week, karmic part of becoming. So if you listen to that talk, it's like we're going to add water to that presentation, which would, I think was, if I remember when I did that, that was a little bit concentrated. So this is the entire week is part of the series I'm doing up there. designed to prepare people for death, this really kind of deep, deep dive into the Bartos. And so this one's on the comic part of becoming the third Bardo, which is the one where we spend most of our time, allegedly after we die. And so I'm really excited about this. SMC is a terrific place to do it. It's a really powerful location. And there's going to be a streaming, it's gonna be a hybrid program, I haven't done one of these puppies before. So it's going to be a hybrid program, both streaming and live. And heavy. If you can possibly, I forgot to ask you, my friend, if you can possibly throw up a link to that. That would be awesome. So yeah, that's there's other stuff. But that's enough for today in terms of that, and I want to start in right away with these questions, because there are a lot of them. And again, these are really great. So thank you so much. If you have a live question, I'm not going to do these exclusively. We'll pause. And if you have a question, or if the person who asked the question wants to call on and follow up, just raise your hand and we'll call on you. But I did want to jump into some of these because they were so cool. So here's the way they kind of popped in first ones from Erica. At a time when so many of us are frightened. How can we inspire and support one another with a gesture of giving fearlessness? So this is the mudra of fearlessness. I just assume that's what you're talking about the gesture then Boudreaux fearlessness. Will you kindly talk about the relationship between the Volga city and Tara and the attainment of giving fearlessness? How does this mood signify this concept? Okay, well there's a lot here um, you know, this issue of fear is a big one, right? I mean, it's it's the fears that is the primary emotion of samsara really, because fear is the act of expression of ignorance. You can say that ignorance is the emotion right? But yeah, you know, that's not so easy to identify. So fear, really sublimates the whole samsaric trajectory, so it's a colossally important topic to explore. And it's also if we approach it properly, this time of fear and anxiety let's let's put these kissing cousins together. In this age of fear and anxiety, if we approach this properly with with a kind of alchemical or tantric approach, we can transform obstacle into opportunity. We can use this age of anxiety and fear, really as a way to grow because until we establish a relationship to fear and anxiety, we are going to be dictated by its machinations. So this is kind of a big deal. And so, Erica, really the most important thing to do is to delve deeply and understand the nature of fear underneath understand the nature of fear and anxiety. And this is such a big deal I riff on this a lot. Again, just to show you, you know, we posted a course on my main site, working with fear and anxiety and an uncertain world. So I have an entire program on this. I also write this whole chapter on it, just to give you some reference references, I have a whole chapter on and in my book, dreams of light, chapter on the integral fear how to relate to it. Because again, this is so critically important. But for me, the most important thing here is to actually embrace fear and anxiety and understand it as approximations of open space, seeing from the reference point of ego. And that in itself then becomes really revelatory, because you know, in the minds of like, you mentioned, Tarot and emolga city, in the minds of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, there's no fear whatsoever, because they understand the nature of fear, they understand the nature of reality. And so therefore, we can use fear and anxiety as our teachers, every time we feel, fear and anxiety,
which is like, all the time, you know, we can use that contraction if you pay attention to when you feel either fear and anxiety, you will notice that there's absolutely positively a contraction, visceral contraction that takes place born of self defense. And so therefore, the this this fear thing, it's actually the the center of the samsaric Mandala if those words mean anything to you. Fear is really what we spend our entire lives. Avoiding. It's, it's, we can say life is a protracted and quite sophisticated avoidance strategy to avoid the harsh noble truths of the nature of fear and anxiety. And so therefore, it's really incumbent upon us as practitioners, to establish a relationship to transform these into profound opportunities for growth. So this is a big deal if we can actually do that. These most kind of deleterious emotions can actually become tremendous catalysts for growth. So I strongly recommend diving into this follow your fear. I mean, Pema children has made a career out of this right? Follow your fear. If you really want to grow in this life, follow your fear, because fear is a minion of ignorance, it's the closest thing we can get to usurping, understanding, overthrowing this kingdom of ignorance. And so to whatever extent you're attracted to working with this, I really recommend it. And so what I what I, what I do with this now, in my own experience, is that whenever I feel anxiety and fear instead of capitulating to it, I noticed that contraction, I noticed that reifying tendency, I mean, that's what fear is, along with anger. These are among those most solidifying reifying emotions that we have. I mean, if you really think about fear, Do you ever feel more real, more solid than when you're afraid. And so therefore feel fear has a place, that's the other thing that's super important. It has a place on the evolutionary spectrum. And this is why having an integral understanding of fear is so important. Because if we did not have fear, we would not be here talking about the nature of fear, we would have not never evolved. So we actually need fear to evolve biologically literally. And so what we want to do is transcend but include fear, keep fear and anxiety in the domain, the biological domain to which it was really was to watch it evolved, actually allowing evolution. But evolution flips into evolution, if fear then you serves its territory, and starts to try to overstep its bounds. And so, um, gosh, there's so much to say here, you know, I mean, fear protects form. And ego is the archetype of form exclusive identification with form. So on the path, we're trying to go from ego to egolessness, from form to formlessness.
That's a candidate death for the ego. And so the very fear that brought us to this evolutionary point then screeches to evolution, to a grinding halt, when you go really deep into spiritual pursuits, and all this stuff comes up. And so if you don't understand it, fear will succeed yet again, in what protecting form protecting ego. And so therefore, establishing a relationship to fear is colossally important because guess what is waiting for you? It's really the very center of your relative sense of self, not your absolute sense. Is that right? Relative core of your being. And so as you do deep spiritual practice, you're heading into this gauntlet is waiting for you. And some of you may have had this experience. When you go really far along the path, you'll start to notice this thing, anxiety and sometimes fear of failure, fear of sometimes insanity fear that you're going to die if you do this, well, you're not going to die as is your ego that's dying. It's just your ego that's kicking and screaming. So Erica, there's so much to say here. I'll probably leave it at that and refer you to some of these other sources, but I really am riffing on it a little bit more here. Because this is a super important topic, the spiritual path sooner or later, you have to establish a relationship to this energetic, otherwise you will forever spend your life relating from it instead of to it and then your entire life, in fact, is an avoidance strategy to avoid the truth that fear is protecting a certain sense. So how does this relate to a mugger sitting on terror? Oh my goodness. Well, these are also somewhat large topics. A mega city is one of the five but as of the five Buddha family, Pantheon, he's the Buddha the karma family. Literally his name means something like he whose accomplishments are not in vain. I'd love to have that name right? He whose accomplishments are not in vain that's a cool name. So he's one of the primordial but is it the karma family the the energy the family of all accomplishing action? And as you correctly put it, on one of his mudras is this this fearlessness on Buddha gesture as it is in fact with the maga city he represents so much it's like I'm not sure you know these are there's just so much to talk about with both of them I think Tara probably is the one to spend a little bit more time with you know, she's she's depending on where you go for references here. She's the female, Buddha, female body Safa. Yeah, who comes in 21 different forms. And these forms, the one you're referring to is probably green Tara, which is one of the most popular forms of Tara. And that's probably the most popular one being white Tara. But the green terror refers to the literal protection from physical danger. And she also holds this particular mudra, the RBI mudra, which is the Moodle of protection. And so, again, so much to say she arose, allegedly, she has an interesting history arose from the tear of the Buddhist, the Buddha and Bodhisattva of compassion Amitabha and I will look at this for her mantra if you want to email her she's really good at responding. Her mantra as you know his own 38 to 30 tourists haha.
If you have a connection to this sort of thing, to deity practice to mantra to sound, she is one of the most accessible of all the deities, and that's why she's so popular. So if you have a connection with her, I strongly recommend it. I mean, in conjunction, just like your question is alluding to, she's wonderful to practice in connection with working with fear, because both Tara and a mocha city will eventually lead you to ultimate protection, ultimate fearlessness, which is understanding emptiness understanding the empty nature of reality. Because if you understand that, as it says in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, emptiness cannot harm emptiness. And so this is the ultimate protection, the ultimate fearlessness is actually discovering the nature of reality. So, Erica, if that's okay with you only I'll let that go for now. Just because, you know, I think the fear and fearlessness part the practicality is perhaps the most important aspect of this, really unpacking a mega city and terror and their relationship is, you know, again, it's just a marvelous, colossal question that starts to chip more fully into Todrick viadrina stuff, but if that's okay with you, unless you have something else specifically you want to follow up on. I'm going to let that go for now just so I can get to some of these other really cool questions. Okay. Okay, from Zach. Hey, Andrew. What were you doing at the age of 25? That's a good one and where where are you? Okay. Would you be doing anything differently? 25 if you could go back now. Oh, yeah, for sure. Okay, so excuse me at 25 was here studying physics. it see you. Because I had this experience I had this this kind of metanoia is this kind of breakthrough breakdown experience. That translated itself Zack in the arena of physics, quantum theory in particular. And so I came, I came out to see you, I finished by a double degree in music performance, classical piano. In biology, I was thinking my med school, took a year off, to think about what to do with my life, and then had this really cool experience. And I think I write about it in. Oh, yeah, in, in the dream Yoga Book, I think I refined it in the introduction. And so this experience sent me out here to Boulder to study physics, because I thought physics at that point described reality, I didn't really know what I was looking for. retrospectively, I was looking for reality. And I thought physics described it, and it does, at what level right describes relative reality. And so it happened for me, Zach at this point is it didn't take long, a couple years of full on study, it's a human physics that I realized I'm barking up the wrong tree. And so I entered the really dark, difficult time, the hardest time in my life, actually, for three or four years in my mid to late 20s, where I was seriously lost. I was practicing Transcendental Meditation at that time, just starting to dip my toes into the Buddhist thing, because Trump rbj was out here in Boulder as well. I was kind of hovering around that community, in the robot, and all that, but the whole scene was so crazy, it was so wild that I was like, Whoa, you know, not quite for me. At least I didn't really, at that point, I really wasn't ready for it. And so I totally bottomed out with the whole physics thing, realize this is not what I'm looking for. And then I just I was seriously lost, I really didn't know what to do. The hardest time of my life, actually. And so I got some great help from some really sensitive therapists. Really cool people, a couple of which were really strong students of Trump, which a Buddhist mat was a lifesaver for me that raft that lifesaver was thrown to me. And then I started, you know, getting into Buddhism really big time. Lots to say here about why that spoke to me so profoundly, but like, what I have done anything differently to 25. Yeah, I probably would have started studying this stuff more, wholeheartedly, as early as possible. So I take it that maybe you're 25 if you are good for you. And if I can give you any advice, you know, look deeply into the nature of who you are, and what you really want. And the fact that I'm alert, I'm just I'm just guessing here exactly. That is how old you are. The fact that you're actually here listening to this stuff is pretty cool, because most people it's a little bit different these days, I guess, than when I was this age. But you know, most people at that age really aren't that terribly interested in this sort of thing.
They still haven't exhausted the kind of limitations of the samsaric agenda. So yeah, that was my gig. I wish I would have started Buddhism a little bit earlier. But hey, I'm happy with what I've done. Since then, I ended up using that time in a very rich, fortuitous way. You know, I kind of literally his major mpj writes about sometimes in order to break through, you have to break down. And this is a breakdown period of my life. This is where my entire agenda to be a physician to be a concert pianist to be you know, that the super successful kind of Westerner just came crashing down. It was like, you know, this is just this is an utterly futile enterprise, this is going nowhere. And so I didn't, you know, I didn't really have a full replacement strategy, I was just repealing the samsaric agenda, and I didn't have a replacement for it. And that's what made it really tricky for me, really, psychologically, really slippery territory. And so Buddhism came along at just the right time, to so to speak, save me with an alternative track on alternative, more viable path. And so when I started getting deeply into that, I realized hey, this is this is the path it's leading to reality. This is what I'm really looking for. Physics was just a substitute gratification that eventually because it wasn't the real deal bottomed out for me. And so if you're going to want to say or ask anything more about that, amigo, more than welcome, but that's, that's what comes to my memory a few decades later, so, alright, I'm gonna pop around here. There's some really great one. So Sarah from last week. Did Andrew say that the unconscious is at the center of our being? Is there geography of the cell from the innermost outermost? Yes. And yes. So Sarah, the unconscious, and again, I don't remember everything I said in that talk. The unconscious is the center of our relative sense of being. And it's it's not the at the center of our absolute sense of being, that's super consciousness. That's the awakened mind. But the relative center of our being is, in fact, this ignorance, this unconsciousness. And so a large part of what constitutes the path is transforming the darkness of the unconscious mind and to the full light of consciousness. And connecting it to the Bardot's. You know, Bob Thurman said something really brilliant when we were working on this stuff at a program a couple months ago. He said something really compelling around this, Sarah. And I don't think I said this on that talk, where he says it's dangerous to die. If you still have an unconscious mind, that's an astounding statement. It's dangerous to die. If you still have an unconscious mind. Why? Well, because the unconscious mind is released when you die. And that's what makes the Bardot's perilous. That's what makes them so dicey is because just like in a dream, you know, if you don't wake up and become lucid, either in a dream, or that's what that is the dream at the end of time, that's what death is called. If you don't become lucid, in any dream state, your habits your karma, your unconscious mind takes over. And that's where the danger comes in. And so until you transform your unconscious mind into the light of consciousness, or on a relative level, make that unconsciousness is full as you possibly can have good habits, good karma, then we are basically buffeted around by those unconscious processes. And this is really the beautiful interface between psychology and spirituality. And just to show you the extent of this, and how important this is, you know, the neuroscience community says it 95, at least 95% of what we do. And our so called conscious lives is dictated by unconscious processes. That's a staggering statement. And so you know, when Christ said, Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. We don't know why we do what we do. So yes, the unconscious is at the center of the relative sense of self. Below that, you have what's called the collective unconscious. That's the Young's incredible contribution,
the archetypal nature of the collective unconscious, fantastically powerful teachings. And then you say, is there a geography or topography of the cell from innermost? outermost absolutely sure there is. And that's why understanding this is so incredibly important because, in fact, in relation to the bar to becoming Sara, when we die, that's the journey we actually take. Already, we could say it takes us that we descend in a certain way, from so called conscious experience into the unconscious. That's why for most of us who are not prepared, the death journey is not lucid, because it's unconscious. It's driven by these unconscious processes. And therefore the Bardo, becoming once again becomes really dangerous. However, the parallel is directly proportional to the promise. And so if you attained lucidity, by understanding who you are, then there are just as many opportunities because of the fluidity of the environment for awakening. And so the this kind of geography as you're putting it over the cell from innermost outermost Absolutely. I mean, again, for references I riff on this a ton because it's so important. In both my dream books, the one that we're going to start at the end of the month dream yoga. I have, I think, one or two chapters on this topic. And then in the book I just published last year, dreams of light, I also have one or two chapters, because this is so bloody important. So hope that helps. That's what comes to mind. Okay, so here's some other great questions from the call. Hi, Andrew, hope everything is well. Yes, it is. Thanks for asking. I'm nearing the end of luminous emptiness. So that's Francesca Fremantle is really beautiful book. subtitle understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead. One of the best books out there and Francesca is just a sweetheart, she's a friend, a really marvelous human being. So if you haven't read this book, and you're interested in the Bardot's, this is the book to read and wondering what our purpose should be when approaching the Bardo of existence. I recall His Holiness the Dalai Lama mentioning that he would like to be reborn in a region of the world with the most suffering Francesca suggested we should try to view the process as a play of illusion, as it will help to avoid grasping at the chance of rebirth while on the part of existence. Why is it considered bad to grasp at the chance of rebirth? Can you explain the difference between the grasping consciousness and lucid consciousness where I wanted to borrow a chocolate? Because these questions are just so great, right? I mean, we could do a whole hour and just one of these questions. So I chuckled, because they stopped my mind. It's like, how can I zip these great questions down into bullet point answers? Well, here's the thing here, Nicole. The point is, the point is not to get out of existence. That's not the point in the Buddhist tradition. Unlike other traditions, and again, no judgments whatsoever, you know, many other traditions say who believe in reincarnation, you know, get out of get out of the wheel stop the process of rebirth that's in this tradition. That's not the point. The point is to stop involuntary rebirth. So this ties into serious question that as long as there is an unconscious process, as it were, the the process of rebirth which by the way, is happening right now. So what we're talking about at the end of life, it's happening right now. your unconscious mind forces you in voluntarily into lifetime after lifetime. And so, the Buddhist tradition, says, you know, the point is not to get out of existence, but to get out of involuntary existence, and so on, why is it considered bad to grasp the chance to rebirth well considered bad to grasp after anything. And so what we want to do then is we want to transform again, this tremendously
interesting period of the Bardot's is an opportunity. So the Bardo, becoming sometimes also called the party of opportunity, where we have if we're lucid to it, just like in a lucid dream, we have the opportunity to take on form volitionally, intentionally out of love, kindness, and compassion and wisdom, not driven by ignorance and karmic propulsion. So that's really the bullet point here is is and again, if you're a student of Buddhism, I don't know if I get into this and the talk that was played last week. But this is precisely where we're going to be talking about for a whole week at SMC. So here's a chance to throw in an advertisement for that. This is the 12 links of dependent origination, the the $12, intellectual content of enlightenment, this is what the Buddha discovered on the night of his awakening. This describes this really beautifully. Where what we want to do is, is instead of being in voluntarily propelled out of fear, there's the fear thing again, back into form as an escape, which we therefore then become embodiments of that ignorance, embodiments of that fear. That's what the relative self sense is, we are embodied ignorance embodied fear, literally, through these processes, practices and chemical contract transformations, we want to flip that into voluntary conscious rebirth. Moment to moment. Again, this is an iterative process is happening now. Moment to moment, life to life, we want to form our wisdom, our compassion, or kindness or love, intentionally volitionally. And so that's not done by grasping that's done by aspiration. Grasping is always pejorative, it's always negative. That's just the expression of ego. So we want to replace this grasping at the chance of rebirth with aspirations to take rebirth for the benefit of others. And so when you say at the beginning, you know, wondering what our purpose should be when approaching the Bardo existence, well, the purpose there should be the purpose now, to form your mind to form your life. Now, what is found now is found then for the benefit of others, and so his holiness, of course, you know, with his, he's gonna have a totally lucid Bardo experience. And so he has that power, his consciousness never turns off. So when he dies, he's just gonna go from gross to subtle to very subtle, this ties in to Sarah's question. And so you know, he, his mind will never turn off. And so he he, quote, unquote, will go through this Bardo trajectory with total lucidity, total awareness, and therefore total control, just like in a lucid dream, he's going to have a lucid death experience. And so he has this capacity because he's so awake. And what he says I'm sure, it's not just rhetoric, where he will then take rebirth, the great Bodhisattvas voluntarily take rebirth in the regions where they're the most suffering as a way to be of the greatest benefit to all beings and we should aspire to be like him. And we should do that. Now. You don't have to wait till you die to do that Aspire now, to go into dimensions that are challenging where you can be of benefit to others. You can go into these lower realms, these hell realms. Now and work with this. And so really if you do that now you'll do it then just like His Holiness, the Dalai Lama ferociously suggested we should try to view the process as a playable illusion. Yes. Is it will help to avoid grasping get the chance to rebirth. Correct. So, Nicole, if you have something else to say on that, that's awesome. Otherwise, that's what comes to mind. Okay. Really great questions. Thank you.
Okay, from Kathy. Hi, Kathy. Why do we train in lucid dreaming and dream yoga? When I heard that dreamless sleep is a more realized state. Correct? That's true. Yes, in the Nima tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, sleep yoga, luminosity, yoga, is the main practice. And so the reason we work with lucid dreaming and dream Yoga is because it is a whole lot easier. lucid sleep is hard for most people. I mean, the vast majority lucid sleep is a really difficult practice. Because you're working with completely formless dimensions of mind. And so if you have Kathy if you have that kind of talent, propensity to work with lucidity, Turia the Hindi language, go for it. But it's not easy. If this is like, that's how you graduate school. This is like getting a postdoc, the lucid sleep practices are among the most advanced practices in all Buddhism, because it's so incredibly subtle. So if you can do it, go for it. Most people can't. And so therefore we work with liminal dreaming, lucid dreaming, Dream yoga, just because it's a whole lot easier. And even then, if you know that, for most people, that's not so easy either. Right? So yes, what you say is true. Sleep yoga, transcends but includes dream yoga. So if you can attain lucidity, and the deep dreamless state, you are automatically lucid in the dream state. So if you can shoot to the top and enter postdoc program, and again, I mean this seriously, some people have this kind of predisposition and tell it, yes, that's your practice. But most people, it's a little bit like saying, jeez, you know, why? Why do we study arithmetic? Before we study quantum? You know, or calculus three? Well, for obvious reasons. So you're correct, but we do it because it's just a whole lot easier for the vast majority of people. Okay, so Kathy had a question. I just our hand raised up, there's a Katie or Kathy, sorry. We can take a live one, and then I'll come back because there's so many other good ones, but we can take a live one. And then I'll return to some of these retinoids. Hi. So, can you hear me? I can? Yes.
Good. Good morning. So, um, my mother died yesterday.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
Yeah. So I don't know what to say, you know, I, I spent most of my adult life interested in studying death and dying. And then over the dead, you know, I've gotten this whole pandemic, in deep dive with you. And so here it is, here it is, you know, it's kind of like, okay, so I remember a few things like, you know, dedicate the merit, you know, cultivate a peaceful space, you know, focus on positive thoughts about her rather than, you know, the other side, you know, you know, so I tried to be helpful to everybody in this situation, myself included, but I just thought it was kind of suspicious that you're doing this this morning to kind of help me because my mind is blown out. I don't know what to say, I am totally blown out. Like, what the hell am I supposed to do? She she's not open. She's not an open person. She didn't want to talk about death, death leads defeat, you know, she's 94 years old. I'm totally weird, like a cult person, you know, so. So what is there more I can do than what I just stated? To help her?
Yes. I mean, the most important thing you can do, Katie is just, you know, maintain your open heart maintain an open mind every time you think of her. Think of her with a quality of love, because there's incredible sensitivity. And the bandwidth of her experience right now. And she can be very highly attracted to what you actually represent, even though she may not have had a connection to it. When she was alive. There's a type of sanity to your mind stream that actually can be very helpful, very attractive to her now. So whenever you think of her, you can append a mantra for instance. That's what I did when my mom died. Attend a mantra every time I think thought of her I said, on Monday had me at home or money, buy my home or money buy me home. So every, you know, mantra speaking of protection earlier the question. mantras are mind protectors. And so this will be of benefit to her. And so very practically whenever you think of her, you can append that mantra, you can invite her into your mind space, I'll just share with you what I did when my mom died. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So whenever, whenever I did my practice, and I practice a lot after my mom died, I would invite her into my mind space, I would literally speak to her as if she could hear me. Okay, I would say, Hey, Mom, yes, why you've passed, but it's all good. I'm here for you. Come join me, let's spend some time together, literally just call out to her because she's in a very fluid environment. And that fluidity can can be perhaps a bit unsettling for her. But again, your stability will be a refuge to her and she can be drawn to that, as I mentioned earlier, and she can actually take a kind of refuge in your mind space. And so you can quite literally practice for her in a in a really deep way, Katie, you can almost mix your mind with hers. And then if it feels right to you this, what I did with my mom, is you can say, you know, we're going to really miss him on but you're good to go. You let a really great life, everybody has to transition, you've made that transition, you're going to be totally fine. Look forward, don't look back and just try to relax. And then to whatever extent if you have, if she had some connection to a higher force, her version of God or whatever, encourage that. If she didn't just say what's happening is completely natural, you're going to be okay, just relax, release and trust, trust what's happening and you like you mentioned, you know, in your so called off time, you can do meritorious actions for her like you know, whatever you do. That is a benefit studying, practicing reading, you can consistently constantly dedicate a merit for her. And then Katie, you know, there's really a lot, I have a ton of stuff in my book preparing to die, where you talk very specifically about other things you can do if you believe in it, things like, you know, sir, offering a bird offering. Some of that may or may not speak to you. But really the most important thing, Katie, what I do with my mom is every time I thought of her, I recited a mantra. I invited her into my mind space. And for the first three weeks, the day that she died, so that every Wednesday for the next three weeks, those are particularly kind of potent times according to the Tibetan tradition, where you can ramp up your efforts, you know, a little bit liturgically if you have a connection to things like you know, the cavity, a prayer and that sort of thing, you can do that. But mostly, it's really trusting your own intuition, trusting your own heart, staying open to her sending her love and just trying to create an atmosphere of receptivity, kindness and openness. And I think if you hold that is the overarching kind of view or tenor. You know, she'll be fine. And so what we could do, let's do this together as a community. This is the power of saga. So for the next two minutes, everybody, what is your mom's name? Harriet wolf. Okay, so, for the next couple of minutes, as a group, we actually have a lot of power.
Your world is not made of man or world is made of mind and hearts and we have hearts and minds and so we can help her and so for the next minute or two, everybody, let's do a little tongue land for Harriet. And if you're not familiar with this practices release, it's really simple. And it's really powerful, where what we will be doing for the next few minutes is we will on our in breath. Breathe in any confusion, any fear, any anxiety that Harriet may be experiencing, we are going to breathe that in. And we in this case, we are representative of the cosmos, so it won't affect us in any damaging way. Not at all. So we're going to breathe in Harriet's anxiety fear. And with every outbreath we're going to send out we're going to radiate out directly to her. You can even mention her name, you can just beam out radiate directly into her quality of stability, of kindness. compassion and love. And this really, this has so much more power than you can imagine. And if we can do this together, for her, this will be really a gift for her. So eyes open, eyes closed doesn't matter, but for the next minute or two with every breath, we're going to breathe in Harriet's. any level of anxiety, fear distortion may have very opera, we're just going to beam out. sanity love, kindness and compassion. Okay.
Okay, the one thing I might maybe just suggest to you is, you know this already, but just allow yourself to feel whatever you're feeling without hesitation. You know, be it like Suzuki Roshi said, you know, be a good bonfire. And so, whatever you're feeling, be fearless in your ability to feel it fully. without reservation, you know, just let those fires kind of burn through you. And the rest of you know, you're, you're a real warrior, you know what to do. We'll dedicate the merit of this session to your mom. And we'll keep your mom in our practice for the next week or so as a way to send or benefit. Our marriage in her direction. And again, we have so much more power than we think. So I'm so sorry, my dear. Best to you and keep your heart open and keep your mind. Yeah, thank you think you can't thank you enough. Just what I needed. And yeah,
I mean, all along. You're not just now but for the last year and a half. Whatever. Thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you all for helping my mom. Thank you. Well, thank you, guys. It's wonderful to feel connected. You know, I really do. I don't feel like you're strangers. Thank you. Yeah.
It's empowering the community. Really? Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. You're okay. So. So so I'm very interested in your topic. Please put any resources where we could find them. So yes, so again, I have an entire year. We still slightly hesitant identified my stuff all the time. But this is such a big deal. We put a course on this, working with fear and anxiety and uncertain world. That's my main website. You'll find that Have a link to an entire course on this because it's so important. And again, I have an entire chapter on it and in my book dreams of light on how to go fear. And then of course the work of Pema children, right? I mean, you know, she's written extensively excuse me on this topic. Sonia will the Shambala SMS, will the SMC are going to require wearing masks? I don't think so. I don't think so. But certainly you have to ask them to make sure I don't I don't think so. I think as long as you're vaccinated, you're okay. But I can't speak with total authority on that. So you just just to ask them or reach out to me and, you know, I'll see if I can find out for you. But I don't think so. Andrew, that Sonia has their hand up. Okay.
Yeah, sorry. Hi, Andrew. All right. So much always everything extraordinary. And I'm so grateful. A question. I mean, first of all, I have to drop my daughter off at college at the very beginning of this. I really want to be at your event live at Shambala. Is this the one that you would otherwise have done online with Bob I with tension law?
Yes. But so yes, that's a good point. But But now, you know, because if you did the one that Ben law, you know, I was on for a certain amount of time. Because I have an entire week, seven days, you know, there's like, 3538 hours of material. So, so yes, it's similar to what I would have done live in Manila, we ended up doing it, you know, with Bob over two weekends. So there, obviously, if you did take that there's obviously some repetition, but I literally have twice as much time. So there's a lot more practice, you know, we actually do some little dark type things, it's just a whole different level of presentation than what I did with. So there's a lot more.
That's great, because I can agree that there's far more material than there is a weekend to do it. And if you do it by zoom, well, that precludes some of the exercises,
the only thing that's going to be left out, I thought about that. The only thing that would be hard to cover would be you know, we do a little a dark meditation. And so that's tricky to do. Right? I can probably guide people through that in terms of how they could do that at home. But we're gonna have a specially prepared room like we had for the first week, where, where that's probably the only thing that and obviously, that the sense of community the collegiality? I don't, I've only done. I mean, I've done brief, like short sessions, hybrid programs, in person in streaming, I haven't done a whole week like this. So it's going to be a little bit of a, an experiment around the strengths and limitations around that. But I think you can use your imagination in terms of what would work and what doesn't work. Did you just disappear on me?
I did, but I'm back think. But I, my wife is always spotty I removed around the house. But um, okay, so that would be great. And God willing, going forward? You know, one of the silver linings, of course of COVID has been that so much more Dharma has been available for those who literally can't travel all the time. So hopefully, we can do that hybrid combo, you know, obviously better face to face. And I have another question. I'm reading a book called dialogue journey to the realms beyond death. And I'm sure you've answered this question for many people many times, and probably even for me, nevertheless, I asked it again, they go on and on about how if you say this number of monitors, sort of like cutting kind of like a number for someone, you can sort of haul somebody out of the hell realm. So I really puzzled about how it can be that we could actually activate somebody or dissipate some of these karma, karmic seeds so that we could do something for them.
Yeah, this is a you know, it depends on who you talk to here. This is one of these really tricky questions, and you'll get different answers depending on who you talk to, you know, fundamentally our mind streams. Tip this out, and, you know, whatever you want to call it, Buddha nature and meticulous sigelei depending on their tradition. We do have these individually integrate individuated mind streams, my mind stream was not the same as yours. The nature of my mind is the same as the nature of your mind, but my mind stream is not the same as yours. And so depending on who you ask, you can't really purify another person's karma. And again, different people will tell you otherwise. But what you can do is you can affect another person's mind stream. And this is where in fact, somebody can't do what we're doing for Harriet. We can through the power of this kind of pre temporal pre spatial communication, we can infuse some some levels of energy, in bring, bring benefit with dedication of merit and that sort of thing, but that the very best of my understanding and again, Trump rbj. So many other masters say, you know, even the Buddha, work out your own salvation with diligence. I mean, don't you think that if there if this capacity was there, there with the omniscience of the minds of the Buddha's that we would all be liberated because of that? Well, we're not. But we can still have beneficial results from their blessings from influence. But this kind of ability to just completely come in and remove an individual's karma. And I know other traditions say different things. But to the best of my understanding, we don't have that kind of power. And if again, to me, though, one of the points of arguments is if that power was there, don't you think that the Buddha's would have done that for all of us? Right,
like, medical created God? You know, again, yeah, exactly exact argument we have against that.
Exactly. So we have our own mind strains. But that doesn't mean we can't you know, this is the issue of causes and conditions. So we can create certain conditions, contributory factors through through auspicious coincidence and blessings on the light that can influence but in terms of like coming in and scrubbing out another person's karma, it just doesn't make sense to me. And it doesn't seem to work that way, for the for the reasons that I just mentioned. But that doesn't mean we're completely ineffectual. We can in fact benefit others within certain parameters. The more awake you are, the more power you have. You can direct people especially in embargoed situations, because the environment is a little bit more fluid, but to actually step into another person's mind stream and computer find their karma in the tradition has I've come to understand it doesn't quite seem to work that way.
Thank you, it seems that many many Buddha's go to the hell realms to try and help the hell realm beings change the you know the Colts are this is my understanding. But and I can see it but it seems like the the pain and the suffering is so intense that you forget instantly like you Oh, you might grasp it slippery concept for a moment of escape, but then it's gone, because you're back into, you know, being branded and re rising again, and all the horrible things that happen. That just seem like the day one book, though. It was it is sort of a dreamlike quality, the whole experience it just it,
it's Well, again, it's both and so yes, there is a fundamental dreamlike empty quality to whatever arises, but certain domains especially specifically hell realms, one of the characteristics of a hell realm is its solidity. That's what creates the hellish quality. Hell realms, by definition, are extremely reified, solid states of mind. And so therefore, that's why they're among the most impenetrable because the fear is so high, the contraction is so high, the solidity is so dense, that's what creates hell even now, right? That's what creates hell. And that's why that kind of frequency of mine is among the most hardest to penetrate, just because of the level of solidity. So, you know, the day like tradition is an interesting one. But I've talked to a number of teachers about that, that they lock thing, and just parenthetically, they all take it with a little bit of a grain of salt that they don't dismiss it. But they don't put a ton of credibility, the whole thing. That's why you don't hear about it all that much. The book that I might recommend, in addition to the one you're reading is to cotone to peaceful death, joy for rebirth, he he writes about this quite a bit in that book, if you haven't come across that
I have the book on your recommendation, but just haven't opened it and 100 that you've recommended. Okay.
Yeah, it's an interesting stuff. But every time I've talked to masters about this, I wouldn't say they give it a hand wave. But but they say, you know, take take the dialogue tradition a little bit lightly. Again, not to dismiss it, but just put it in more of this kind of cultural context. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. So here's one from Steve, how are we doing? timewise here, okay, a few more. Oh, somebody interesting connected. I love the way these kind of discussions are somewhat connected from Steve, my experience is that the dream is both illusory and real. Yes, isn't that depending on the way you look at it? There is a such ness about my strongest dreams that when observed with clarity can definitely impart wisdom. Cool, very good. When lucid It is as if I'm experiencing that suchness even as I am seeing through the illusion and gaining clarity and understanding from both Bravo, my friend that's awesome man. I have of course co opted the terms such as for my students study. But I'm not sure if I have a right feels like an important concept. Can you help me? Yeah, it is. It's a super important concept. the tournament's in Sanskrit is taught that I love it Tata, it's like baby talk, which is you know, such as is this data connected to other terms like Dharma ta dharma. datu, fundamentally refers to the ultimate nature of reality. It has a slightly more positive connotation than emptiness or shunyata. In so in, it gets a little technical here, my friend, but that the title refers more specifically to the actual union of luminosity and emptiness. Hence, the title of Francesca Fremantle, his dazzling book, luminous emptiness, so her book is actually about them. So the luminous Bardo of Dharma TA. And that languaging is the luminous Bardo of such as illness. And so it's fundamentally you know, the eternal nature of reality that is ever just so ever Thus, it is that domain that is free of conceptual proliferation for poncha. It's, it's like the whole shebang. So when we talk about suchness it's another way to talk about the enlightened state, things are just that cut that out that that this is, or sometimes even in the Hindu tradition, when they say go data. Maharaj says, you know, or the tradition itself says, you know, Tommasi, thou art that. That's what that tradition is referring to, that you are that fundamental reality. And so, ways to explore this, Steve, you know, if you have a connection to it, and it seems like you to this, these are Apex level teachings, so mahamudra so Chen, teachings on the part of Dharma TA, anything that deals with Buddha nature, is dealing with this term suchness. So, because this is, you know, another one of these colossally beautiful, enormous terms, maybe I'll let that go for now. Unless you do a little follow up on that. But I would bark up those trees. Dharma datu Dharma Tod, kata. I love that term. mahamudra Xhosa? This is the kind of the apex stuff. Okay. Cool. All right. Okay, here we go. So from errors Hi. And you are really enjoying Winnie and mindfulness. So this is Joe's and Nancy's wonderful book Winnie the Pooh. Joy, Nancy, you're doing a great job. I think so too. I'm loving it. Although when he says I am kind to myself first. Yes, that's my tree matter. Do you practice metta Bhavana for yourself? Absolutely. Others and people you dislike? Oh, absolutely, positively. Yes. So okay. Let me finish the question. I guess I have looked through the meditation. Is it possible to do a meditation metta meditation on Monday? Yes, absolutely possible. So this refers to a Monday meditation thing that we started a couple months ago. errors we just haven't got yet to to the better practice to the four brahma viharas, which are usually the liturgy that's associated with it. We just haven't gotten to that beautiful practice yet. This is a really powerful, big deal event. loving kindness. My tree is so amazing. To practice and share together. I totally agree. So stay tuned, we will get to it. We're just not there yet. My last question is can you say more about deity yoga.
Again, another one of these Yeah, do you have a week? Just joking, like having Tara for example, as well. Okay, so yes, DFT yoga, also called a year down practice, also called generation stage meditation is a really big deal practice both in Hinduism and Buddhism. It's colossal, a tantric Buddhism, arguably 1/3 of audrianna tantric Buddhism is devoted to deity yoga. There's a lot to say here. But you know, in the briefest possible way, Eris what, what deity Yoga is about is it's a form of elevation ism. In fact, your alumna, yes, she has the beautiful word for it. He calls it evolutionary yoga. I never heard that translation anywhere else. When I read it, I said spot on evolutionary yoga. And so what this practice is, it's about visualizing yourself, do you do yoga, even did yoga itself comes in several levels. There's the more kind of Mahayana deity yoga This is where Terra comes in. Tara is probably the most popular Mahayana de The yoga and then there's a little bit more charged by Giuliana or tantric deity yoga that transcends, but includes the Mahayana component. And so in the briefest possible way, and again, I can give you some resources here. deity Yoga is about visualizing yourself using the powers of imagination, to invoke the archetypal nature of who you really are, you are the Deity, you are Tara, you just forgot. Tara represents a certain bandwidth, a certain archetype, archetypal expression of who you really are. And so when you engage in deity yoga, it's a fake it till you make a practice, you visualize yourself as the deity. You recite the deities monitor the sound of the deities minds, like a Torah, you know, the mantra that we talked about earlier, you recite that as a way to create this kind of resonance, just like tuning fork, that then serves to invoke this energetic within and without, that lifts you up into a more accurate frequency domain of who you really are. And so therefore, that's why there's so many different deities, all the deities that essence are the same. They're all like with Steve's question, I love the way these come together. The essence of all the deities is such This is this durotar. That's the essence of all of them. So that's why the tradition says if you accomplish one deity, you've accomplished them all. But on a more relative level, each deity in their yoga, you get them get them is binding deity. So they're binding you to your true nature. Each deity represents a quality of the awakened mind. So we mentioned, Chen razie, over looking at this fire up, that's the deity of compassion, you are crazy. When you express unconditional compassion, you have become 10 raizy. When you express unconditional, all accomplishing action, you become a local city. When you accomplish or work with wisdom, you know, depending on your preferences, you can become like jushi, or prajna paramita. So there are dozens and dozens of these deities. There are some very classic archetypal ones, like Tara, for example, but there are many, many others. If you have a connection to this, these, this is extremely sophisticated spiritual technology, if we're careful using that word that is designed to really rocket fuel your evolutionary path. That's why it's called evolutionary yoga. So it's a little bit like a kid, you know, when a kid is, is acting childish, you actually invite the kid to act to grow up to act more like an adult to act more like whatever. And that's, that's a way to, to help, you know, bring the child along on a relative evolutionary trajectory. So the deities apply in that regard. I might recommend that there's a vast literature on this Reggie Ray's book Secrets of the virtual world. He has a wonderful rich section on deity yoga, creation and completion. It's a book Translated by Sarah Harding is really good. There's a lot out there these days on this lovely he his books, riff on this. So it's a beautiful, rich topic areas. And again, it's one of the great challenges. These questions are so big. Maybe that's enough for now. Okay. It's a bit of a challenge. And really, these questions, they're so rich, there's so much to say. I hate to just speed through them. But I think you understand for purposes of time. Okay, so from Marta.
Thanks for your work. I have a few questions. In your book, you recommend that people who don't have a sense of reality, stable mental health shouldn't induce lucid dreaming? Yes, that's I'm going to this is a longer questions. I'll take it apart, so to speak as I go through it. That's a general recommendation. And I'm not the only one that talks about this Steven, the bearish others people who are really legitimate I think teachers are always a little bit interested concerned about people who may have any kind of depersonalization dissociative tendencies, because, you know, the practice itself is is a transition of identity, identity identification. And that kind of dislodging of identity sometimes can be destabilizing for people who don't have an established platform. I mean, Mark Epstein, no, I'm sorry, jack Engler. The Buddha psychiatrists famously put it with a jingle, you have to be somebody before you can be nobody. And this means that without a solid platform, instead of differentiation from identity, you get dissociation and so yes, lucid dreaming is not for everybody. It tends to self select people. Do it who have a kind of predilection predisposition, and they're usually ready for it. But every once in a while and we do a little surveys when I do my deeper dives, if people are having any questions, they should consult with their mental health healthcare provider. I've never come across a problem in my programs, because, again, people tend to self select. But you can you can run into some issues, anything that has this kind of power to transform. My friend Ryan Hurd writes about this really elegantly, you know, it's, it's not a panacea, anything that has this kind of transformative power. If it's not used properly, judiciously, it can backfire on you. The skillful means are not for everybody. So yes, you have to be just a teeny bit careful. So back to you. But some advanced, Buddhists affirm that they have arrived at a point that they don't distinguish between daytime, Daydream, and nightrain. That's true. But those advanced Buddhists are those who are able to transcend and include and not transcend, and exclude. And so in other words, they have enough of a stable identity structure. Or you could almost say at this level, the capacity to the structure where they don't have an issue with these kinds of transitions and realizing the dreamlike, fundamental, dreamlike nature. But you know, again, if you're not careful with it, Artie Lange, another very sensitive mystic, psychiatrists famously said, the mystic swims in the same ocean where the psychotic drowns. And I have a little bit of personal experience with this, you know, me, my sister is an institutionalized, schizophrenic. And we, when I grew up with her, I was probably closer on disposition to her than anybody else. I mean, my sister and I were super close. And I think when I had some of the issues that we're sharing, was ex question, am I, in my 20s, I actually was able to find locate, have a community, whatever that in a certain way really did save me, my sister didn't, and my sister lost it. And maybe I found it, I have to be very careful saying these sorts of things. But we're talking about really powerful transformative means here, and we have to be a little bit careful, especially when you enter things like Tantra virginiana, which dream yoga, by the way, is a subset. And so therefore, we have to be a little bit go into this with a little bit of openness. So the people who do this, as you say, there, they don't distinguish between they and dream. That's because they're stable enough, they don't have an issue with it. Here's another case in point, another example, there's actually a syndrome now with virtual reality. And I've experienced this a little bit, it's called alternative world syndrome. I experience it, when I've spent hours in VR, when you take the VR set off, it's really unsettling, you know, I just spent two hours in this alternate reality. And I take the headset off, and it's like, I'm scrambled for a while. And, you know, I came out more or less, okay, but there is this thing, now a diagnosis alternative world syndrome, where people can get lost in these alternate realities, if they don't have a fundamental self relative self sense. And so therefore, this is super important. Fundamentally, there's nothing wrong with ego. Ego is just a particular form of development. What happens with ego and again, this is connected to the fear issue, that's ego and fear are connected, and they have a very viable place on the path.
But what happens is ego becomes an arrested form of development. So you have to have an ego before you have to be somebody before you can be nobody. You have to have an ego before you become ego, unless, otherwise you become psychotic, you don't attain enlightenment, you attain insanity. So you have to be a little careful here.
Yes, so there's a lot here. I'm going to skip some of this just for the purposes of times, that's okay with you. I've decided to do a doctorate about dreaming. Good for you. And I'm still not clear. But it's still but I haven't still clear the subject. And a council Yes, talk to my friend Claire Johnson. Reach out to her. Tell her your friend of mind, especially if you live in Europe. That's cool, because she teaches in Portugal, you're in Barcelona, reach out to Claire and get some counsel from her because she has a PhD in lucid dreaming. So Kristen lamarka is another one you can talk to people who've actually done this sort of thing. So to get counsel from someone who's actually done it, those are people that I would turn to and their friends and I'm sure they would be happy to talk to you. What else is here? I tried to technique you described in your book and had a lucid dream where I decided to meditate and experiment with a kind of transition to death cool. I woke up feeling so weak and tired and A few hours I just recovered. How could you explain that? Oh, Martha, this is tricky. I'd have to bring you on and ask you a bunch of questions. It's really hard for me to dissenter view gel from what you're saying what that was really all about. So I'm going to let that one go, because I don't want to just shoot from the hip without having more information from you on that one. But maybe the other parts of what you were asking are of some benefit. Okay. All right, I got a few more minutes here. These questions are just so good. Okay, so here we go. I've just read Mark Epstein's book on desire mark is great. He's another one of these psychiatrists, psychologists, Buddhist practitioners, there's a bunch of them out there now. And Mark is one of the really great ones. Also, that I think you're, I mean, he's written a number. I've read a number of his stuff. I like him a lot. He talks about desire as a way to become enlightened if you stay on the gap between desire and grasping. Have you any experience with this? Yeah. For sure. And the way to really look with this, Judith is what I would really explore here, the 12 links of dependent origination, the 12 the Donna's because what you're talking about fundamentally, is the incredibly important transition between the seventh and the Donna and the eighth Madonna. And so I don't know if Mark goes into that in this book. But that's exactly what it is, is that if you can, again relate to your mind instead of from it when you know, you can use the actual this gap this bar to the space, which is exactly a space between the seventh and eighth links. This is what the classic place to stop the chain, the chapter stop the chain of causation. So you feel the impetus This is ties into the earlier question. All these questions tie in beautifully today about the Bardo of existence. So this is exactly what the Bardo, becoming teachings are helpout is that you have this particular desire that if we don't relate to it properly, then transforms into grasping, craving, becoming in the rest of the links, and that gives birth to samsara. But what we want to do is transform this kind of passion or desire, it resting in that space, asking ourselves when we feel it. It's like impulse control, like grid desires, a type of impulse. impulse control is birth control. And so we can work with this and exactly the way I suspect mark is talking about that you'll feel the desire. And then there's a space, that's this gap between seventh and eighth of data where you don't have to go there. Or if you aren't going to go there, you will pause for a second in that gap. And you ask yourself, what's my motivation? Why do I really need to say this? Do I really need to do that? Am I really doing this for the benefit of myself? Or am I doing it for the benefit of others? So I have experienced with this it's actually Bardo practice. So that gap is Bardo. And so that Bardo, between desire and grasping is a type of Bardo yoga. This is exactly a micro instance of the entire Bardo of becoming, it deals precisely with this gap. So this a great kind of question in terms of how the Bardo teachings apply, not just at the end of life, but right now, between this type of experience, so thank you for sharing that Judit, that's cool. Okay, a couple more, and then there's a live one, we'll take it or two, and then maybe it's slowly time to wrap it up. These questions are so great. Okay, so here's
from Joanna, what are your thoughts about Socrates? Allegory of the Cave and dream yoga? I'm finding great similarities here. For sure. Yeah. It's more Plato, actually, Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Socrates really didn't riff on anything. I mean, Plato, Socrates, you can think of them as is almost inextricable, but this is Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from the Republic. It's one of the classic images in all Buddhists for all of Western philosophy. In fact, you know, I think it was Alfred North Whitehead once said, all the Western philosophy is just a set of footnotes to Plato. Plato was a colossal influence in Western philosophy, Plato slash Socrates, again, they're they're virtually synonymous. This is Plato's Allegory of the Cave. And so the idea is, it has tremendous similarities to what we're doing, where the image is the following. These prisoners are chained in a cave. There's a fire behind them. There's a light behind them, they can't turn around and see it in all these these shadows are projected out to the wall of the cave. And the prisoners think that that constitutes reality. And so what what Plato's Socrates then talks about is how the philosopher is the one who can liberate himself herself from the chains of taking the shadows to be real. And then you know, returning to the actual source, the light, that sort of thing. So, so yes, you want it for sure, there are tremendous similarities here that we live fundamentally just like the prisoners in the allegory of the cave. We live last in the shadows, and this has double entendre, this is multiple levels of meaning, are one is mistaking the shadows to be real. But on a more psychological level, then, of course, you can see all the literal kind of Shadow Work elements taking place in the Union sense. So the shadows here, again, it has kind of multi level, multi layered levels of depth that I don't think even Plato was aware of, because he wasn't really working with projection at this level. But that's the fundamental idea. This is it has tremendous connection to lucid dream, the dream yoga, they were always projecting, always getting lost in the shadows always getting lost in externality. And so all I can say is spot on, there are tremendous similarities to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. And what we're doing with this inner work, for sure. Okay, so there's one last one here, I think, unless there's another live one, and then we'll let it go for today, we try to limit it to an hour and a half, and we're close. So there's one from john, but john said he's probably not going to be here. So I asked that I'll come back to that next week when he probably is online. But here's one from China. Do you have you could you explain a little more about who exactly are all other people in this shared dream of life? Oh, yeah. Okay, so Okay, let me just finish through this. And then we'll see what we can go. Are they separate souls? Or are they my own dream characters? Oh, the questions again, in case of child abuse, are the parents separate souls who have their own karma? Are the two or are the aspects of the child's higher self? that the child dreams to give herself a life lesson? I wouldn't say that now. I'll say compassion and forgiveness. No, it doesn't seem to work that way. Let me let me read the rest of it. I'll try to tease it apart. Also, am I dreaming you right now? And am I the only one who exists? and creates all this life characters? Do you exist in my dream as a dreamer himself? Oh, yeah. chuckling because oh, my god, these a colossally beautiful, big question. So okay. Let's start from the top. Can you explain a little more about who exactly are all the other people in the shared dream? I wish I knew. They're all expressions of this mind. But it's not even one mind. It's not your mind. So this ties into your last question. Are you dreaming me right now? No, you're not. That's all absurdism that's the error of thinking solipsism is ultimate self ism, that somehow you think you're dreaming me the world is not solid cystic you're dreaming me only in the sense that you're projecting onto me. Your aspects, certain unconscious elements, some shadow elements, and that sense, you're dreaming your version of me. But you are not dreaming me up into existence? That's solipsism. And that's not what this is about.
Who exactly are all these other people? Well, you know, there's relative and absolute ways to address this question. On an absolute level, everything that arises is just the shine the radiance, the expression of mind. But it's not one mind it's not my mind, it's neither the same as my mind or different from my mind. So they're all you know, expressions of this fundamental radiance is called idealistic modernism in Western philosophy, through all expressions of this one radiance, in in again, more relativistic ways or terms, each one has its individual mindstream. Again, the term in in, in Buddhism is called Chitta. Santa Santa is mainstream individual mind streams that are like tributaries of this this kind of collective mind. So who exactly are all these people? their people, their, their, their iterations of, you know, again, these I struggle with this stuff, because these are not easy questions. To answer in a bullet forum, forum fashion. They're all iterations of particular karmic mind streams created by karmic propensities, habits. We share this commonality because of karmic similarities, propensities, and who they are, you know, ultimately It's something that really constitutes large aspects of what the spiritual path is all about discovering, like, what is the relationship of me to all these other beings? What is the relationship of all of us to reality itself? Are they separate souls? Well, again, you have to be very careful by even use the word soul. In Buddhism, that's a four letter word, there is no soul in Buddhism, there's no debate, again, depending on how you define that term. There's no fundamental reified, independent anything. There are individual continuums Yes, but that's not a soul. This is a word you will never find in Buddhism, there is no Ottoman in the Buddhist tradition, so they're not separate souls in that regard. But they're separate streams, separate propensities, separate momentums. The tricky thing here is we start to enter domain when we work with levels of absolute truth, where language itself just completely falls apart. In fact, when I was talking yesterday with Ian Baker, we had a little conversation about the tremendous limitations of language. This is a colossal topic in Western philosophy, and linguistics, language is a monumental factor in the way we perceive reality and even think. And so, you know, when you start talking about this sort of stuff, you shift into metaphorical language, you shift, when you start talking about suchness reality, language can even approximate it. And so right off the bat, you know, even the the words we use, the language we use is actually very important, because it's already sets the mind in a particular direction. So when you use the word soul, again, this is not a criticism. It simply already implies a host of things that are based on certain assumptions and axioms that fundamentally according to the Buddhist tradition, are not true. So even the languaging here becomes really delicate. And that's what makes this stuff so interesting to talk about, you know, these subtle, subtle Questions, comments like this, you have to really tease this stuff apart. Are they separate souls? Are they? Are they my own dream characters? No, they are not your dream characters? Again, that's all a system? That's an easy one. They are definitely not your dream. In case of child abuse, yeah. Are the parents separate souls who have their own karma? They definitely have their own karma? Or are they aspects of a higher child's higher self? I wouldn't say that no. So that, to me is I know that the child dreams to give herself a lesson. No, it doesn't seem to work that way doesn't have that kind of specificity, this kind of pedagogical specificity. There are certain lessons that can be derived from life experiences, but I think we have to be a little careful to think that, Oh, I'm going to choose these parents, because they'll give me a chance to work this out. I it doesn't seem to work that way, at least based on my understanding. So these are wonderful, beautiful questions, pardon me for stumbling and tripping over some of them just because there's so much to say, in a relative limited period of time. And so I'm always wrestling with, do I just speed across these? Or do I try to give you a little bit of information that can be of some benefit? So unless there's a live question on board, we're reaching the hour and a half mark. Yeah, Rhonda has a last question.
Few days ago, a very dear friend of mine died. And I see the desire of dying in me actually. Because the more I miss that person, the more I wish, I will go there. But and then I thought maybe that is really all about so we get ready. by losing a dear one, we get ready to give up all attachment in this life and get ready to go.
Well, that would be the beautiful way to use that experience on a really beneficial way that it's another painful reminder of the truth of impermanence, which again, is an expression of emptiness and so beautiful for you to even have that level of recognition and to actually, you know, kind of use that experience in that way as a harsh reminder of the noble truths of impermanence. What that's why the truth and Buddhism are called noble because they're, they're rugged, they're true. They're not easy to digest. And so I completely that's the way I relate to these sorts of things that you know, until we are slapped in the face by the truth of emptiness, which expresses itself as impermanence we live in this illusion of immortality. And so I do exactly what you seem to be doing is whenever something is lost, taken away, I allow myself a little bit like Katie was saying to stay on those fires. Completely feel the loss, feel the pain, feel the grief, and then use that as that, you know, in Obama's beautiful languaging as a teachable moment that this is another painful reminder that I am I too am subject to this. And so it's like they say in their traditions, you know if we don't contemplate impermanence and death in the morning, the morning is wasted. If we don't contemplate impermanence and death in the afternoon, the afternoon is wasted. So we want to remove the waste. And so what we do this is what I do is whenever these painful reminders come into play, I use them to jog me and back on track, and say, like, what really matters if I was to die today? What What should I be doing? What How should I live my life. And so I all I can say is, I support that use these expressions of the harsh noble truth of impermanence and death, as reminders that this is where we're all going. And therefore, it can bring us out to the path where we can actually die before we die. And so if we do that, and you know, jumping all the way to the end, we can use these things to actually propel us deeply into the path, until we come to the most extraordinary conclusion that death is an illusion. The death only exists in the world of form. And so on one level, your friend is gone physically, this ties into the question earlier about, you know, the geography of the spectrum of identity. But there's a dimension of this person who was not dead, and you will never lose that connection. You know, death is the end of a body. It's not the end of a relationship. Tick, not Han writes really beautifully about this, read his teachings and intervene, that this person that you love, they're still on a very real level, in fact, a more real level because they're no longer limited to the body. There's they're still there. They will always be with you in that regard. And so, you know, use these painful lessons is painful reminders of the fragility of our own life, how we should breathe every breath as if it was our last. And as Don Juan said, you know, the teachings of concussed Haneda use death as your advisor, use death as your advisor, to reframe your life to what's really important. So that when you reach the end of the life, at the end of your life, you will look at your life with tremendous appreciation and even celebration. And when brought to full fruition, you realize that death is a joke. It's just an illusion. Death only applies to the world of form. So your friends body is gone. But their heart essences and destructable that never dies. And so you want to, you know, use that as a way to access that domain of your own experience now, and therefore, your friend will have left you with a really beautiful gift. Okay, okay, maybe one last one from Zach. Oh, my 25 year old. Do I can I assume that you're 25? You can assume that? Yes. Yeah. How can I help you? he go? Well, I don't have a question. I just want to say thank you, Andrew. And thank you everybody else for the so open and so eloquent. And you've been such a help for me. I've studied a lot bunch of your stuff for a while and I'm gonna keep studying and I hope to meet you someday. That'd be really cool, too. But love to all of you to love to everybody here. Thanks, Zack. I really appreciate that everybody. So thank you, my friend. So this is what we do this totally geeky thing. Right? So we turn our cameras all back on. We unmute we all unmute ourselves. We say bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we have to we have to we have to do something for her her mom. I mean we
