Have a q&a discussion type things. But I do want to say a couple things about events coming up, starting to enter my kind of seasonal spring teaching thing so there's a few gigs coming. Starting tomorrow morning. My first event of the year with a center out of vertical comic chilling. I'm doing my lucid dream yoga event. So you can still register for that, and he's going to put up the link. And this one's a little bit different. I'm going to be riffing on something that I haven't really touched on before hardly at all, which is a deeper dive on this whole liminal dreaming thing in my kind of cartography of the nocturnal meditations which I riff a lot on. There are five of these practices, the classic ones were lucid dreaming dream yoga. Sleep yoga Bardo yoga. But I since inserted, because I've been doing a little bit more research and doing just trying to articulate the structure of liminal dreaming more. And so I've developed this new riff on it. With practices to actually work with it. And the reason I mentioned this is because the reason I'm doing it is because lucid dreaming. Those of you who try it, so much as promised so little delivered because it's hard, I mean lucid dreaming is not easy. And so, liberal training is pretty cool because anybody can do it. It's pretty easy. It's that liminal means threshold. It's that kind of almost like Bardo dreaming, where you're not awake you're not asleep. No Man's Land, kind of thing. And for most people, they go they just kind of crash out not lucidly and then like whatever but with some familiarity with liminal space, and then actually with liminality altogether. The principle of liminality is really interesting liminal beings liminal experiences liminal places, really interesting deeply connected to kind of Bardo stuff. And so, with the research I've been doing. There's a way to more efficiently practice liminal dreaming harvest creativity with which Thomas Edison and Salvador Dali did, I mean they both came up with really cool ways to kind of farm or troll that Bardo space. Kind of phone or perception Pema children and talks about it as a plasma of mine, it's a great description of it. And so you can cultivate a lot of creativity, it can arise when the ego goes offline and so this is what I riff on that, that I think is pretty cool because when we fall asleep. What happens is the, the egoic structure ego narrative. Literally comes down down falls apart and, and that's what actually happens in that liminal space. That's why it's it's gappy and it's like you know you're kind of all over the place. It's just like this, kind of, you know, whatever collage of experiences. And it's a really interesting place to observe the mind into to actually observe how the narrative of ego goes offline. As you quite literally fall apart. And then, the reason that's cool is because when we wake up in a dream. Whether lucid or non lucid then the narrative structure is actually re established. So, by paying attention to this deconstruction as we fall asleep. We can therefore start to glean. A little bit more lucidly was called aha I'm Kara, I I'm making. I the pronoun, I me making how ego is actually constructed. So anyway, this is a new riff I haven't done this before so you can still join us. And you'll put up the link for that. That starts tomorrow. We're gonna be posting, I actually was interviewed by this gal, a while back asleep yoga related stuff Tracy Stanley cool lady, really cool gal. And so she sent me the link from the interview, when she interviewed me on this topic so we'll be posting that probably within a couple of days. We're starting our meditation or weekly meditation study group where it gets a thought of study group or meditation group, this coming Monday and I'm gonna I have to give myself a little bit of flexibility timewise because I,
I'm going to be starting actually another class I'm attending and also teaching and it starts at seven So originally we were going to do this at seven Mountain Time, but because I've got this other class for a little while. We're going to be doing this starting at six o'clock. Mountain Standard Time, this coming Monday. This is a new addition haven't done this before. And so every week on this time either myself or some really gifted people will come online give formal meditation instruction, do a lot of practice together, and then have q&a discussion, only about practice, no other questions will be allowed. Haha, will be taken so I'm excited about that because a lot of people have been asking about it. There's so many different practices that we can go through. I'm going to kind of start at the infrastructure. With shamoto referential shamatha and then progress into a whole different series of practices so I'm kind of excited about that book study groups still going on on Tuesday night. I don't know what we're like halfway, we're more than halfway through the book on that this is on my latest book dreams of light. Actually not my very latest is the one I published in August. And we've just entered my favorite part of the book, the illusion of externality which is all about the science, physics and neuroscience, the cognitive science, anthropology developmental psychology that supports this view that the world is illusory that the world really is dreamlike actually my favorite part of the book, because the the science behind it is kind of jaw dropping, so you can still join us for that, and other little goodies are coming up, but, you know, that's yet. Also my latest new thing here that I think is worth doing. We'll do this again, too, is, you know, it's very easy to take this kind of meditative spiritual stuff, and use it as a form of escape. So my big thing these days is spiritual bypassing spiritual materialism and escapism. And some of the questions were a little bit about that today so this will tie in so I think it's always nice to connect to, You know the world's circumstance altogether. Because otherwise, you know these teachings are really very well off, as I often say they're very precious. They really are, I think, but the near enemy of that is they become too precious and the pejorative sense they become removed, you know, not in contact with reality and ineffectual, and that sort of thing. And so I think it's certainly my own practice every day I do this sort of thing. But we can spend 3030 seconds to a minute. Just doing the sending and taking, it's called tonglen, where just for a minute we just acknowledge what we're doing here. Yes, it's about self improvement in a certain way. Until you improve yourself out of existence. Automatically it's not about self improvement is about self transcendence but you get the idea. You know a lot of this we do for ourselves but we do it for ourselves as a stepping stone to benefit others and so for a minute, it's always helpful to just connect like why are we really doing this. We're doing this to help the planet to help other sentient beings animal forms life forms altogether. So for the next 30 seconds minute. Every in breath. Breathe in all the hardship, the suffering the pain in the world. Every out breath shine out radiate breathe out, share offer all the light the goodness. As a way actually to be a benefit to this planet. Okay.
There we go.
You can't get enlightened without others. You need others. So we need to stay connected. So, number of really cool questions came in. Some of them just came in, so I'll have to look at those real quick but here's some of the ones that were submitted. I'll respond to the written ones, then we'll open it up for live q&a you can enter your questions in the chat column, or I totally prefer it if you actually come online and ask it live, because then I can kind of connect to you a little bit more. So, I'll get to all these so this is from Kathy is Andrew recommended any books or practices for sleep yoga. I know he said sleep Yoga is not the same as Yoga nidra also Do you know any Lamas in the eastern West who can perform the 49 day Bardo prayer. Okay, so I have recommended books on sleep yoga there's not much out there. The best by far my opinion, the very last section of 10s of one y'all remember Jays book the Tibetan Yoga is dream and sleep. He has a really good section on sleep yoga there. Now I'm going Norbu Rinpoche butcher butcher namkhai Norbu arabba che mingma but mostly he's kind of an independent Nima Lama who died, somewhat recently. He has a book I think it's called dream yoga practice of natural light or something like that. Edited by Michael Katz, it's okay. It's It's okay, it's not great but it's okay, there's very little out there. I have a chapter in my first dream yoga book on sleep yoga. Outside of that, that's kind of it I mean you can find other hits on it not entire books but any book that talks about the six Yogas of Naropa or the six Bardot's has a chapter on sleep yoga or also called luminosity yoga in Tibet. So other books that come to mind where you just get a chapter. Polar privileges book mind beyond death. It's under six Bardo teachings of Pontius Ababa you'll find a chapter there. That That one's really good. Jojo rabbit Shea did a book on the same text by Padma sun bhava called natural liberation. Translated by Alan Wallace, that one's really good. And that's kind of that, that I'm aware of, if there's something else out there I'm not aware of it. So yeah, it's not the same as yoga, nidra, it's the same word need you're asleep. Sounds good. But you'll get nidre and sleep yoga in the Tibetan world they're not the same. Do I know any Lamas in the east or west who can perform 49 a barrel prayer. Yeah, I do. But here's a question I have for you, Kathy is, is why not do the prayer yourself. You have as much, you know, inherent power as the Lamas do. If you just touch into that. So empower yourself and do the 4090 borrow prayer yourself. This is not any way dismiss doing it with having another teacher do it for you for sure, personally, what I would do is I wouldn't condition because usually have to have a teaching offering gift for this. You know, these individuals need to make a livelihood so I can give you some names, but I would have them do a poll I wouldn't have them do the 49 day Bardo prayer, personally, that's my preference. I would commission them so to speak to do what's called the iron hook of compassion. In terms of the 49 to Bardo prayer, I would do that yourself. Seriously, really. In a way it works is you know, here's the trick is I know a ton of Lamas but how you can access them and get them to do it. That's tricky I can't just give you like their backdoor email address or text I can't do that. So I know a bunch of them, but do I know a bunch of them they can actually do that for you that's a little bit trickier. You have to do a little legwork there. londa Bodie polar premises, rinpoches community. I mean any any active llama in the West and I'll just paying off a couple that I have just tremendous respect for can do this. I cannot give you the logistics for how to do it, that's beyond what I can present here. But zones are cancer mpj polar mpj. Sergei ribbit che mujer mpj.
You know, Andy Can you think of any other spot check rubbish j i don't know if he does it probably checking the marimba che contoura the J. There's a lot of people who do this, the trick is, you know, getting them to do it. That's, that's not so easy for me to answer, and beyond the scope I don't, I mean I have these contact informations but I can't, unfortunately can't share them in the setting. So maybe that would help, but you know, really and I mean this, you, you have at the same at the same level of power that they do. You just have to believe it. You have to take refuge in that same quality of mind that they have simply stabilized, it may not be as stable for us as it is for them, but we have the same capacities. And so, especially if you have a connection to someone, kind of common connection you have as much power as a lot of us do. Really. Okay, from Jane, I have taken pain medication is I have a chronic pain condition osteoarthritis, to take Tramadol yeah I know that drug pretty well, big struggle to regain energy. Anyway, looking for advice and guidance, I'm wondering if the drugs can make lucidity more difficult. I'm not convinced they do but maybe there's a bit of a problem from them and want to devote as much time as possible to getting my dreaming back on track and moving to the deeper practices, where to start. I like to venture into sleep and Bardo practices, if you think that's a good idea. Okay, yeah. So you know the Tramadol all these meds. Yeah, this is tricky because they're all idiosyncratic I mean. Generally these meds do have an effect for sure. You can call it a side effect but you know everything's on effect, period. So, generally these kind of agents can in fact suppress Rome. This is where you need to just talk to your to your doc who prescribed it and say how does this drug affect my dreams. And then from there, you know, you have to make some decisions but a lot of agents do, I mean a ton of these agents actually do affect dreams. So then it's a matter of, you know, working with it. Can you get by without it. Can you try something else. Taking these, I always direct people quite specifically back to the prescriber, ask them for specific guides and how it's going to affect your dreams because it absolutely positively can. I want to do it as much time as possible to get back on track that's awesomely cool, lots of ways to do that, Jane you know I mean, there's a ton of literature out there obviously I'm here to, you know, to put a bit about my silliness is. So within the community of what we offer here, you know, joining nightclub is really a powerful way foundations of lucid dreaming course that we have is I think a pretty solid course. The Harbinger press book that I just published in December I think is fairly okay. The car Magellan program that starts tomorrow is okay. There's a bunch of stuff coming up online that I'm offering you know I think those are more or less. Okay, so you know where to start. Those places are really good to start or the work of Steve on the bears Charlie Morley Claire Johnson, Daniel love, there's some really great people out there doing really cool stuff. So, you know, in terms of like having a structure a community, a format step by step thing. I think what night club has to offer with all our guests is actually worth looking at. You'd like to venture into sleep and Bardot I think it's a good idea I think it's a great idea. You know sleeping Bardo practices are part of these nocturnal meditations and they're all working with just really kind of wonderous subtle states of mind so I would you know I always recommend people start slow and easy. Have fun with it, enjoy it. Don't set the bar too high, don't be too ambitious. And then just see what speaks for you. Trust your own experience, and, you know, trust your dreams trust serendipity trust coincidence and see what kind of just pops up as you start to get in. So again if you're if you're on and have a couple more questions around this I'm happy to, to discuss or entertain this further but that's what comes to mind. Okay. All right, so this is from Peter, how, what could help me to cultivate a greater true appreciation for the guru yoga devotional practices. This is a longer question so I'm going to just pause in the middle and answer these little things. As I read them. Uh, well, doing them if they speak to you, bhakti yoga guru yoga.
If you have a connection to devotional practices, the way to cultivate them is literally just do them. If they speak to you if they don't speak to you Don't worry about it. It's just, you know, Guru yoga bhakti yoga devotional prayer. It's just one of many different kind of ways to work with the whole kind of spiritual thing. So back to you is a perhaps my Western upbringing. That makes it hard for me to accept that ultimately I won't be able to fathom the depths of the dharmic wisdom, without tying that eventuality to a kind of ultimate reverence in order for a spiritual teacher. Uh, well in all candor Peter yeah I'd say probably, I'd say that's probably true and it was the same for me to totally I mean, I have tremendous I'm not dissing yet I have tremendous respect for the Catholic tradition but I was bruised I wasn't abused, but I was you know it just didn't speak to me. So, I think you're probably a little bit like me that I didn't, you know I had this fierce independent streak like, I don't need anybody I can do this by myself, totally true absolutely true. I mean the Buddha, pretty much did it by himself. Under the Bodhi tree obviously he had a little bit of help on the front end. So here's the idea that the you know the whole guru principle thing. If it speaks to you, super powerful in Tantra of audrianna. You know those traditions, it's critical. You can't really do Badri and I'm a Tantra level stuff without devotion and guru yoga. It just doesn't work, it doesn't work as well. But that doesn't mean you're you know it's a deal breaker. You know what what guru yoga does. It just, you know, hardest is the most powerful force in the universe so that's a small thing right, which is love, you know, blob. The most powerful force in the universe. Guru yoga bhakti yoga and Hinduism, Christian devotional prayer Sufi I mean the all the great traditions have this right. It just harnesses the most powerful force in the universe. So if it speaks to you, go for it if it doesn't really don't worry about it because the ultimate Guru is within you know the provisional guru. That's, these are just training wheels, you know, there are four types of Guru outer guru, physical form person. The Guru is the teacher that the teaching I should say the Dharma was called symbolic guru, which is a phenomenal world. And then the most you know they're all pointers towards the ultimate guru, which is really where it all comes down to you in any authentic, living guru worth their salt will tell you that you say hey I'm just a stepping stone I'm not me I'm not a guru, trust me. But a real guru. They're just a stepping stone to the ultimate guru with him. That's the most important thing is realize you are just like with the earlier question, you already have these capabilities. And so the outer guru just helps you recognize that remember it. But if it doesn't speak to you, you know, you know, fundamentally needed. It's just really helpful for those to whom they relate. I don't mean to sound proud here but, aren't I already the Buddha yeah man you are, but you don't believe it. Just the problem. You're the Buddha but you don't believe it. I'm a Buddha, but I don't believe it. I'm not kidding, they say at the very highest levels, it's an issue of confidence, it was called divine pride the pride of the deity the pride of the Buddha, you are the Buddha. If you have awareness, you just have to recognize that awareness as the Buddha. So you already bought. So you don't believe it. And most of us don't believe it. So, then we have to go through all these things called the path. Guru yoga whatever to someday wake up and said oh my god is, it's totally true. I've been the Buddha, all along. I just never knew it. Really no joke. No joke that I have to share the story, my dear friend Ken Wilber well before I get to know him. He
was teaching a public thing and I asked him this question about you know like with like your Ultimate Teaching kind of thing, it just blew me away because you know he's like the super intellect scholar. I thought he's gonna riff off some like dharmic equation. And he said just, you know, without missing a beat, he said well just hug the person. So what's your, what's the, you know, you're the summit of all your teaching can. Right. And he blew me away said, hug the person on either side of you and realize you're hugging the deity you're hiking you're hugging the Buddha. I was blown away. So it's totally true. What can't so back to you What Can someone bestow on me that I don't already possess that I am not already. Nothing. They can't. I would appreciate an answer that makes sense, that makes use of the analogy apprenticeship. Thank you. Okay. Well, if I can speak with a little bit of candor here, Peter. There, there are three types of containers that when they talk about a student, and again, this is not a criticism. But there are several types of containers for for blessing because there really is something with blessing if you believe in this. Many people in the West. And I was this way for many many years it's like an upside down, cup or take a glass, put it upside down right you pour all the water on top of it. Nothing goes in. So in order for the blessing and the devotional energy to work, it's a two way street man. If you are not open to it. It doesn't matter. You know a nuclear powered guru won't do squat for you. If your cup is upside down. So, then what the what the path is again, if this track feeds you and it may not and if it doesn't then the more scholarly academic but jamocha approach could be your baby. That's great. That's why there's so many different paths. But since you're talking about the guru thing, you know, in order for the guru thing to work, you got to turn the glass right side up. For one thing, because otherwise I'm a No kidding. The historical Buddha Shakyamuni could be living with you 24 seven. And it wouldn't, it wouldn't make a difference, and he wouldn't get through to you and that you, this is generic you, because the cup is upside down. So you got to turn the cup upside up, that's the devotional part that's where you have to be a receptacle for these blessings otherwise no go. And then the other analogy, or the use here is you're not even turning it upside down is enough but you got to make sure there's no leaks in it, and that the container is pure, because otherwise if you pour it in. And there's holes in it, it's just going to pour right out. Or if you pour it in into container that's stained, you're going to stain it. So the path is about the devotional path is about turning the guru the glass, right side up, cleaning it out sealing all the holes. Then you can do is literally called hobby shakeout empowerment, where they pour the blessings into you. But it has to you have to do your part. You know, it's like falling in love with a person, you know, there's a two way street. So, if that doesn't speak to you, then you know bhakti yoga guru yoga, just may not be your thing and that's cool, then you do something else. But if you want to do it, you know this this notion of group, and devotion is a big deal, complicated, so much charged material here because there's potential for so much abuse, this is a real hornet's nest topic but in the briefest sense something like that and ego, important question, by the way, okay for me. Is it normal to have the same dream every couple of years. I had this experience during my childhood. Oh, yeah, it's normal because it's normal for you. Really, this is so important. We shouldn't measure ourselves up against other people. And we don't we always do this, I mean I read like. Aren't we like always measuring, I have this little, I used to have this little kick when I first joined the health club, you know, kind of the health club syndrome right you go into the health club, and you just like you're constantly just like checking everybody out at least, I used to I've transcended that we're always measuring ourselves against other people. So Amy if it's if this is your experience it's normal for you. If you're not hurting yourself and you're not hurting somebody else. I understand what you're saying so I'll try to be a little bit more
kind of normal in my response. But it's normal for you. recurring dreams are super common have many different types. Same, same one over and over days and days week, same time. So what you're saying here. Yeah, it's normally and so I can confirm that you are a normal human being, like, Who am I to say right. Okay. So a couple more. From Anisha a question for Andrew thank you for all blah blah blah. Thank you for that. I completed reading Reggie Ray's book you were talking about last month. Yeah, read so Reggie ray is a cool guy, he's my bud lives 10 minutes for me. He's, he's one of the best writer scholar practitioners for the inner yogas for working with Bodhi on the path. I think his work is brilliant here he's not, he's published four books on this topic, starting with touching enlightenment which I still think is his best. I've read them all. So I completed the book he talked about last month, about how we Western meditation practitioners feel disembodied in our breath is an object of meditation, even after practicing for decades. I was really struck by what you said and wants to know a little bit more Reggie presents some somatic sub presents somatic descent practices that can be done lying down. I'm also wondering if this can be integrated with our dream, yoga, sleep meditations, oh yeah absolutely for sure. Totally. Well, there's a lot to say here when I do my deeper when I do my week long retreat programs. I didn't do it last time. but very often I do a whole series. I really I'm gonna start doing more of it, where I work with these inner yogic practices in a slightly more vigorous way using practices that are called Mind, Body training Lu Jong kind of vigorous motions that are designed as is what Reggie is doing all of it's designed to basically wake up the body. Wake up into the body because it's just not your mind it's lucid or non lucid mind and body are, they're not the same but they're also not different in fact your, your body is your unconscious mind and so by working with your body you're working with your mind whether you know it or not, and as you start to wake up your body with yoga with Reggie's work with, with these more active inner yoga practices. It's, it's, it is absolutely positively way to bring about lucidity not only in the body in it, but also in the mind. So, in fact I hope to get Reggie on, I'd love to interview him about this because the more I read his work. The more I realized oh my gosh this is just so tied into these nocturnal practices because, again, when we work with these subtle dimensions of mind. With these nocturnal meditations. We're entering these really subtle dimensions of awareness consciousness to have subtle body correlates. Right. So you have the outer body supports outer gross mind, that's where mind equals brain, but then you have a subtle body that supports the subtle dreaming mind. And then you have a very subtle body that supports a very subtle sleeping mind. So when we fall asleep when we're doing when we're dying, when we go into these really deep meditation states. We're actually entering these deep inner bodies, at the same time that we're entering the consciousnesses that are correlative to them so your work it's a bi directional process you're working with the same thing. So, this is super important because then when we do these yoga practices outer yoga inner yoga. Super subtle inner yoga practices. You work with that subtle body, you are working to cultivate and support subtle states of mind, for sure. That's what Tantra is all about. Yoga nidra does this, to some extent, to connect it to the other one. But Reggie's work goes a lot deeper. Okay, so a little bit more on the question Do you know of any audio books with such guided semantic meditations yeah Reggie's done them, I mean I'm pretty sure. Virtually every one of his books has a link to where he guides you through these practices. Pretty sure about that. Would you please share any suggestions about how we could go about exploring bodywork. Absolutely. So again, read, I would read all of Reggie's books, four of them.
Plus you, here's the one I read recently that I tried to get this gal on, I think I might have mentioned it, the book is called sound medicine. It's a double, double entendre on the word sound sound medicines written by cool rich shadowy she's a, MD neurologist IR Vedic physician and also Siddha medical Doc, it This book is really good. She talks a lot about chakras and mantras and inner subtle stuff. And I read it I said oh my god I got to talk to this girl. Because this is that this is the kind of stuff again even using mantra mantra works with subtle body to open the channels and so when you open the channels, you're also opening your mind it's the same. So Reggie's work, I would recommend Most importantly, just do it it's like the guru yoga thing, do it. I mean there's something about the Nike thing, just do it right. Do Tai Chi do Qi Gong do Lu Jong, you know, you will also Yantra is called, that's another dimension or practice, what's called Yantra yoga trunk or massage. I mean, all this stuff. Read the work of Eugene Gatlin if you're a little bit more academically oriented he was a really brilliant body worker psychologists. Very smart guy. He's worked on focusing and he has a really good book on dreams let your body interpret your dreams. David Rome. I love, you know, subtle body stuff. I'm not that familiar with like felon costs and these other systems. But I'm a huge fan of inner yogic body work period. And there's more of that coming out so something like that and Nisha, hopefully that's helpful. David. David w. So, this is another long one I'll try to break it up. How can we do proper, how can we do proper transformation, when our meditations are almost all about people. And our relation to each other. Yeah I read this David I'm not quite sure what you mean here my friend so if you're listening maybe you can come up and say something because I just don't quite know what you're asking here. What immediately comes to mind just guessing, is that you know meditation altogether is about improving your relationship to this to the display of mind, the display of reality. Starting with both inner and outer phenomena so they're, you know, working with self, it's almost a little bit like the body thing, by working with yourself, you eventually may not be doing it directly at first but eventually you will be working with others. Because you realize that when you're working with your mind you're fundamentally working with the structure of the heart, mind of everybody but I'm not sure what you're asking in this first part so if you're on if you can help me with that helped me understand your question so back to David's question What can we do about this as groups. Again, it's not entirely clear what you're saying but what comes to mind is that, you know, you can harness the power of group meditation to benefit others instead. The classic texts say that when you practice. Again, I'm not even sure this is what you're asking. But when you practice with a group, the power of your practices multiplied in direct proportion to the size of the group. So when Sharon Salzberg was last in Halifax at a public talk, I had a question, but in politely but directly challenged her with how she could teach about limitless love when all of her examples are human centric. Yeah, good for you. Yeah, it shouldn't just be anthropomorphic anthro centric it should be polycentric, we should be directing it towards, not just all human beings all sentient forms the planet itself, the universe. But we start with ourselves. That's what comes to mind here, you know, kind of have to start cleaning up here. Before we can clean up the world, because otherwise, how do we know if what we're doing is really a benefit, how do we know, can we centrifuge out our projections, or hopes or fears for what's actually really happening. So that's why you have that the Tera vaada hinayana, so to speak before the Mahayana. That's why that preparatory practice tradition, and that's a tricky thing to say. That's why starting with ourselves is so important. So that you can, you know, kind of clean up your own stuff. So back to David she agree that is a valid issue but she also said that people want teachings, also said that people want teachings about people. When you speak to share and can you please ask sorry I don't know if I did that, when you speak to Sharon Can you please discuss this further with her and with us today and later.
Is this thing really been on the queue that long. I haven't answered this over all these weeks, sorry, David. Andy Why didn't you bring this up earlier. Sorry, David. It's Andy's fault. So actually David if you are there instead of me just kind of stumbling and tripping over over your question that I'm not completely understanding, if you are there, my dear friend, please come on, and let's talk about this because it's just, it is just simply not clear to me. So I will give you a chance to do that I know a couple came in here. And then we will open it up to everybody. Okay. Here's from Sally I keep coming back to the following thought. Even with all the Tibetan Buddhists meditating every day for hundreds of years. They did not stop the Chinese are taking over Tibet. I don't want to leave the discussion, does that mean this discussion group. Not sure what you mean there I don't want to leave the discussion I get a lot out of it but I keep thinking that meditation won't stop anyone wanting to take over this country with violence. Yeah, it probably won't. And is it supposed to. I mean, how's meditation supposed to do that. Here it's a little bit like yes it's a good question actually Sally, here's my take on this. You know it's a little bit of like a little bit of like, yeah, this is a good question, actually, you know it's a little bit like what I mentioned at the outset that my dear friend David Lloyd is always talking about these days. In his book eco Dharma he really talks about this you know that if these spiritual teachings aren't of any value impact today and what what relevance, are they and so this this this question if I'm hearing it properly Sally, I, two things come to mind one is. It's a little bit like the the the container thing, you know, meditation, per se, because it's so subtle. It does not have the power to stop a train. Right. You know, and so these people if I'm understanding you they want to take over the country we have a violence, our meditation will not do anything for them. Because it's like trying to stop a tank with a flyswatter. Yes, we are communicating on very deep, deep subtle levels but they, these people are working and operating out of such loud dimensions that we're whispering and they're shouting, they're not going to hear what we're doing. So on this kind of cosmic level. meditation is not gonna stop a revolution meditation is not going to stop the takeover of Tibet. It just won't. Because you know what you're trying to stop is already so gross so loud so emotion. It's ineffectual.
And even that I have to throw maybe a tiny little caveat that maybe something could possibly be seated but I think hopefully you're getting what I'm saying. The second thing is what it will do from our side, again, is by doing meditation from our side. We will in fact be able to listen more directly to ourselves, which means that therefore we will be more able to listen to others more directly in a responsive way instead of a reactive way. If we can't do that. That gives result gives rise to war, let you know if there's no communication at these subtle energy immediate bandwidth, then you communicate in the grossest way which is violence. So meditation has tremendous efficacy transformative power, but not in in conventional, you know, kind of thermonuclear ways, it's working at a bandwidth and dimension of being that just operates, you know, kind of below the radar, so to speak, but to say the turn you know to say that it's somehow ineffectual, you can't really do that either you know it's just a matter of. This is why integral approaches to transformation are super important. This is also where understanding the four commas the types of actions that are associated with meditation is so important that you can't fall. This is me. You can't fall or we should be careful not to fall into single action biases, you know, sociologists talk so much about this that oh if I just meditate is going to change the world. Well, no, no. It's meditation conjoined with blah blah blah, the integral approach that's going to change the world, but meditation is going to change you. And because your narrative and your structure is the same as every living sentient being on this planet every other human being their stories are different but the structure of mind is the same. You understand your heart, mind, you're going to understand the heart, mind of everybody. And this is why the Dalai Lama says over and over and over. Everybody just wants to be happy. We all have these foundational human trajectories and if we really understand that then we'll know that people that are doing these really bizarre things are really doing that. I mean they can rationalize it away, they're doing it to achieve their versions of happiness. But those versions of happiness may not be terribly skillful, they may not be resonant with reality, and that's where the problems start. So I'm going to let that go for now, Sally if you're here and want to say more about it. That would be awesome. And in the meantime, I want to open it up. There are a couple more written ones but I want to take a couple live ones. And then I can come back and there's a couple more written ones. Okay. All right. So first we'll bring in, Ted, and then Kenan.
Andrew Ubud definition is are the three fold impurities the same as object permanence
object permanence.
It's something that I, you know, two of my teachers for years kept talking about, oh you've got object permanence. And what what that is is you know I'm sitting here looking at my window, and there's my taho sitting there. Okay. I turn away I close my eyes and you've talked about this a lot. Yeah, right, then I turn you know I close my eyes. And this is where they say that you're stuck on object permanence that that taho is still.
Oh yes. Yes, and that case, true, it's just a phrase I'm not that familiar with. That's called naive realism. But that's the same thing. So object permanence eternalism naive realism. Yes. So anyway now that I understand what you're talking about.
Okay, so, you know, I've been doing this for years and years and years, and I still, you know, that I've done the intellectual tearing down that taho. You know that it's made up of parts and, you know, infinite causes and conditions as brought out there. But still, when I look at it. The first instance, that's my Tahoe. And when I overlay. You know I overlay the intellectual and the contemplate of understanding that that in fact is empty and then it comes back to me. And so, attempt to not to ramble on too long I've written this down, which is leads to this. Okay. You know, There's this is this arising frequently is seems like it's a illusionary battle between an illusionary ego. And my illusionary patience is leading to an illusory sense of discouragement and futility.
That said with tremendous illusory elegance. So what's what's, what's the actual final question there I first of all I grew up with it pretty much everything you said. But what is there a final question like why is it still your taco. No, I
guess it's just, you know, I mean my, my attitude has always been just keep on keeping on. Just doing the practices to the best of my ability and to continue the you know the learning the, you know, contemplations and the meditations, but you know there there's a, there's definitely a times there's a strong discouragement of like, totally,
you know yeah so that yeah exactly so the discouragement comes from the lower bandwidth remember so this is important you know you've heard me talk about this but I've added a little bit more refinement on it you know we we exist member I always used to talk to him about. It's not just me, a lot of people do it. You know we talked we exist along a spectrum of development right. And this spectrum is both vertical and horizontal. This is the add a new dimension that it's not just me at one kind of horizontal development level it's also vertical so it's it's translational and transformational and by that. What I mean is you're going to always get these voices from the lower frequencies, the evolutionary and of your spectrum of being that's going to be defeatist this kind of this kind of whisper in your ear all these sorts of things. You know you're, you can't do this you don't have time for this. You're too stupid You're too, blah blah blah. We all have infinite ego is listening. Exactly. It's all poverty mentality it's all egoic poverty mentality, and it's extremely powerful and insidious because it's so deeply woven into the fabric of our being. And so then what we do, this is why it's so helpful to understand spectrum of spectrums of identity so that when you hear those voices. You don't listen to them. You just don't pay attention to them, you know the path is about what to accept and what to reject reject that or don't, you don't have to reject it, but just don't pay attention to it, realize it oh there's just that there's just that evolutionary Caboose, coming back to play because until you know till we make the transformation and purify all those habits, until we purify all that karma that frequency is still going to be there. It's still going to pop up. That's going to happen all the way to Buddhahood, it just gets weaker and weaker you may notice this it's not as loud it's not as constant, but it's still whispering back there. And eventually, it gets to the point where you don't listen to it enough, it's just that karma is purified, that will stop. So, you know, I think that's the most important thing develop a sense and then also remember the loge on training slogans you know give up all hope for fruition. You know journey without goal, you just do it because it needs to be done. You just do it because it's the right thing to do that by the way is enlightened activity that's enlightened activity, free from motivation for results, free from motivation for applause and other one you know don't expect don't expect applause. You just do it because it's the right thing to do. And then the most important thing is just like you know the gait of the elephant just steady, steady you just keep going. And then eventually the processes work the purification takes place it may not happen on the rapidfire Western speed track that we all want. That's why people say screw this. But something is happening, you know, using a different framework you're emptying out the Alia eight consciousness that transformation is taking place. It just may not happen as quickly as we slash ego expects, and why. Because that ambition ambition itself is driven partly by egoic imperatives. So you get this conflict of interest that type of ambition can actually be ego driven. And so then that'll take you up to a certain point where then the cognitive dissonance those becomes in. So, something like that my friend if that makes sense. But, thank you. Yeah, always nice to see you. Okay, we'll bring in Kenan, and Amy and Evelyn.
Hi, Andrew. Hey, bud. Just a quick question I think earlier you were talking about karmic. The way we relate to people is is somehow karmic and I had a question about that, particularly in the context of family and people I know that I've been observing. For some time how each relationship is very specific the way I relate. And the way there are certain needs and that and that is somehow. It's hard to rationalize sometimes so I just wanted to buy rationalized I mean like, just thinking about it that in the past this and this happened and that's why there's that connection it's gotten pretty obvious for me in certain relationships where I just honor. The, the, not so obvious contract, and try to navigate the best way of how those certain needs can be fulfilled. And I guess my question is, do you have any thoughts or ideas on how best to relate. In these contracts, one last thought that I have is that I've been trying to sense in certain familiar relationships. What is the need that needs to be fulfilled and how best. Can I relate there, and not necessarily come from tendencies or established ways of off relating so I'm trying I'm trying to discover what what are the needs that need to be filled in what is the best way to go about that so any thoughts about Yeah
Yeah, totally. Yeah. So a couple things. One is that yeah you know, a couple of things come to mind. One is it
somebody can't attend question that, you know, this these sorts of things are very interesting to me. It's a little bit like one of the stages and dream yoga, where we work in the dream state to alter our manifestation. And the reason we do that is because we want to develop an increased flexibility and identity, so that we in fact are highly chameleon creatures we, you know, we are always manifesting either overtly or covertly in dependence on external circumstance. That's, that's part of life but what we want to do is transform that usually unconscious process because most of what takes place there. And this is where buttons get pushed. I'm really interested in the button pushing thing right now. Like why, why, why do people press my buttons, why, why does this particular event press my button. Well, if I look at certain things very closely I realized that the first time I encountered this person or the situation there were no buttons being pressed because there was no history, there was, there was no unconscious predisposition. I was relating to the experience in a pure beginner's mind. Nothing was being pressed I was just there. But eventually with history and relationships, more conditioning is brought about more amputations hopes, fears, and then more and more the experience becomes unconscious till it gets to the point and this, this, this fact alone is extraordinarily regulatory and humbling. That 95% of what we do is driven by unconscious processes, I mean think about that. Less than 5% is actually fresh. 95% is stained by conditional histories, you name it. And this is why the tiniest little tweak can send you off the rails, because there's, there's so many buttons that are being, you know, things that are being really so what we do there is first of all Holy moly. Have I completely polluted. All my friends all my relatives all my whatever with all my hopes and fears and histories and so they're, these people are pushing all my damn buttons because I have given them the power to push those buttons. So the first thing we do is just this amazing humble pie. It's like, Oh, I am so sorry that I continue to just vomit all over you with my 95% of I know now what I do, right so that alone is, first of all, it's so pathetic it's hysterical. And it's tremendously humbling right for me. And I do this all the time now, because I have a lot of people that press my buttons. and my buttons are being pressed all the time and so it's it's painful it's humbling it's like oh my god, I am just project I've projected this entire world. And that's why you know that projection comes back to haunt me. And that's why all these people they don't have that power. They're pressing my buttons and so now I use that I use Okay, Lord. This poor person, they don't stand a chance with me anymore, right, I've so infected them with my unconscious projections. I can't even see that underneath it is this hurting human being. I can't even see that underneath it as a person just like me. hurting wanting to be happy because I've completely plastered them with all my junk right so that alone is colossal. That alone is really humbling and revolutionary and so now when somebody presses my buttons or whatever they get like does this happen like every day. I take ownership for that I take responsibility, you know it's like I often say, pardon the play on words. We're constantly pinching ourselves and looking elsewhere for the prick. Well, we're the prick double entendre intended, right, so let's work with a little humility, psychological purification spiritual purification take the ownership return the projection that's what Shadow Work is about owning up the projections. Everything is a projection until your Buddha. So that's one thing. The second thing very practically is that one cart, you know, general rule is instead of being so self centric we all are. I'm not blaming you. As long as we have a body we have an ego as long as we don't identify with I mean mine. We're, that's our default. So one way to do that is, is start putting other people in front of you. You know, it's actually one way to gauge progress on the path, it's no longer slowly starts to shift from this okay you know what can I get out of this person and how can I profit, you know this meanie meanie mentality. When you start to grow up and wake up on the path that starts to shift from, what can I get out of it to, how can I help. What can I do here. What can put the other person first. Shut up, listen to them, be there for them serve them. And then when you talk about needs to be fulfilled. Well, at a certain point you know this is where Maslow's hierarchy of needs really comes in, you know, at a certain point you pass the threshold of the deficiency needs spectrum where it's not about me. Biologically has to be on one level to grow survival instinct oh this is where you know the hierarchy of needs is super helpful. At a certain point, when all your needs have been fulfilled. Then you enter second tier Hierarchy of Needs where it's abundance needs it's not deficiency needs, because there's no deficiency anymore. Now everything you do because you're living not from a poverty mentality, but from an inherent wealth mentality, you realize hey I really am the Buddha, or whatever, then everything is, there's no needs for you because there isn't a you every need so to speak, is to help others. That's, that's the abundance hierarchy, then you just share, share, give offer give offer so great question is usual amigo something like that.
Okay, but thank you so much.
Appreciate it. Okay, so a couple written ones and then we'll come back. These are quick. Good question as usual. So from the coal is vajrasattva Yoga guru yoga. Well, Nicola depends on what level of Varsha suffer. Are you talking about loss yourself a yoga can be a guru yoga. But it depends on which one you're talking about which one you're doing as yourself is a unique yeah DOM. This is a celestial, kind of, you can you can look a little bit technical for your country because. Where's your Safa is is that sambhogakaya level presentation, you know, deity. You can look at it as a guru, no doubt. But this is sample gokaioh level it's not physical harmonic high level guru so if you're if you're doing yourself a guru, yoga, you can look at it as a guru yoga. That's not, its kind of overt specific kind of bandwidth, but it has that you know basically on one level as they say. Virtually every tantric level has a top level practice has a guru yoga component. So I would have to get you online to see which guru yoga that you're actually doing I mean which files or partial software that you're actually doing. Usually Varsha Safa is what's called the yidam practice, and there's a slight difference even though they're all fundamentally the same. There's a little difference between the DOM and the guru. And so, I'll let that one go, unless you want to come back on because I think it gets a bit technical, but everything to become can become the guru I mean take not Han is this beautiful, I think it was taken as this beautiful image that in a certain way he relates to everything that way that he actually he will bow to bow to a tree he'll bow to a car, I mean he's like bowing to everything, again, I think it's taken out on I'm not 100% sure where he he basically relates to the entire world. as symbolic guru. So on one level. And it's kind of beautiful in its own way right, you can relate to every phenomenal arising in this capacity, but if you have a more technical aspect to that you're welcome to come back on. So from Tim and then we'll go back to a live one. Why do you think we experienced the three states of waking dreaming and deep sleep as separate distinct states is lucid dreaming a hybrid state of two of them and which one is the most important. Yeah, good question, Tim. Well we experienced the three states of waking dreaming and deep sleep as separate because we're not awake enough. We still have not attained the kind of foundational lucidity awareness that allows us to see the inseparability of all three states. So from an awakened perspective there's no difference from an awakened perspective waking sleeping dreaming dying. All the same, no difference. So we experience these things as distinct, simply because of of somewhat tied into some of the earlier questions because of our egoic developmental structure. Our wake centricity, or photo centricity or site centricity there's all kinds of sent TriCities all in the service of egocentricity that, you know, so to speak, forces us to see these faces in as distinct because we're just not sensitive and open enough to realize they're not. The reasons for that are huge but I'll let that go. Is lucid dreaming a hybrid state, it is depending on who you talk to you my friend Steve on the bearish hates that term. I know a lot of other people say lucid dreaming is a hybrid state where the conscious mind can meet the unconscious mind waking dreaming together. So, I personally am okay with talking about it as a hybrid state, Stephen doesn't like that term, which one is the most important to us. They're all the same. They're they have this you know fundamentally, they're all equally important. We for a number of reasons. Just kind of reify impute strengthen one state over the other for all kinds of developmental purposes, actually. But fundamentally, one is not more important than the other. They're fundamentally economists in nature. Okay, so there's two more but I'll pause again and and take a couple live ones before I get these two written ones. Okay. Okay, so bringing me and then.
Hi Hello Andrew, and everyone.
Hi. Beautiful Tonka cars. Oh,
thank you.
I can't quite
make it that person apart and
not to worry, much more about your story. Yeah, I
couldn't see the sword up there.
Yeah, you can see the go there right, you can go because Madri, he like gold. Yeah,
that's yellow yeah that's exactly.
Yeah, and it's a four arm for arm, not just two arms Oh
wow, very special, I love it. Thank you.
Thank you. So my question is to you is about, knee drop in yoga. And, yes, and the dream yoga. I know sometimes we say neuro yoga some like sleep yoga. So, I want to know the difference between these two costs one. So, about one month ago, I just have this new droid yoga and poor performance by my teacher, and that is induced by a guided meditation. Yes. So, yeah, so, So, in that needle, yoga, I feel relief suggests, and is also like kind of hypnosis stage. So, but I know that it's a different because hypnosis is reducing awareness right.
What's reducing awareness Yoga nidra. No, no.
Happy gnosis or hypnosis. Yeah.
Oh okay yeah that part.
Yeah, so, so, my, my, my question is, is. So what's the difference between this nidra Yoga, and also the dream yoga,
what is different. Yeah, there's a pretty big difference, actually. Yeah. So, first of all, yoga nidra classically comes from the Hindu tradition, it's a beautifully powerful practice. And again, it gets confusing because nidre means sleep. And so you sleep you hear about yoga nidra you think it's the same as sleep yoga. It's not. It's the same word used in two different ways. So, yoga nidra is a really beautiful and I've done it. I have dear friends who teach, like Richard Miller and his Iris teachings fantastically powerful stuff in our schema. The way I present it and the way I you know from that kind of Tibetan approach. Yoga nidra is actually the most closely aligns to liminal dreaming so the very first thing I talked about over an hour ago. Yoga nidra is more about liminal dreaming than it is any of the other nocturnal practices. So it's a very beautiful, powerful guided meditation, relaxation thing. That is, is connected to what's called lucid sleep onset, which is also connected to liminal dreaming. It's it's not the same as dream yoga, it's definitely not the same as sleep yoga. So, what what is common to them. Here's the commonality is that Yoga nidra at least up to a certain point, is actually designed to help cultivate awareness, more sensitive refined awareness to this kind of descent into this pre sleep state. And so in that regard. It has it it's a wonderful preparatory practice to dream yoga, because it helps maintain a thread of awareness as you go through this kind of diminution of awareness, but it's definitely not the same as dream yoga, what you can do. And again, this is where the stuff all gets interesting is that even though these practices are, are separated for practice purposes for for teaching purposes. They also have a lot of interrelationship because you're basically working with mine, so you can't just slam the door shut and say that Yoga nidra has nothing to do with dream Yoga has nothing to do with sleep yoga, that's a little bit too extreme. They do have connections. But, by definition, they're not the same. They're talking simply about different bandwidths of experience in this kind of nocturnal arena. Does that make sense.
So, so for the dream yoga, we have the deeper awareness or consciousness, could we say that.
Yes, absolutely. So that's a that's a really good point. So one way to look at it is that in this you know in my system. There I have like five steps that progressively go deeper. The first step. The and again I don't mean it in a negative way. I just mean it in a descriptive way. The first and shallowest step is, yoga nidra or liminal dreaming, then a little bit deeper is lucid dreaming a little bit deeper than that is dream yoga a little bit deeper than that is sleep yoga, a little bit deeper than that is Bardo yoga. Okay, so you can say, living or you can say, yoga nidra is on one end part of yoga is on the other. But with that said, there are you know little ways that they do obviously all interconnect, but in terms of like mapping them out for practice and teaching purposes, that's one way to do it. Okay.
Okay so much. Okay.
All right, next we'll bring in Evelyn.
Andrew. I'm wondering if I can get a clarification on the schedule for the lucid dream workshop tomorrow. Oh, yeah. So, the email that was sent out to the registered students, I am one of them says that we're starting at 10 o'clock eastern. But then on Andrew havlicek.com, it says that we're, we're starting at nine o'clock eastern.
Oh well, we have to fix that that's a boo boo on our part.
Okay, so it's gonna start at 10.
Yeah, we want it to start at nine. And then I said well think about the people on the East Coast that's six o'clock. That's too early. So I made them bump it up. In fact, I think, yeah, so we bumped it up to 10 o'clock eastern, that's the correct time and I thank you for telling me that because I need to get that corrected on my site.
Okay. And can you also say if we're going to have breaks, so I roughly can plan.
It's gonna go for for 36 hours. It's gonna be like the old ask programs No, of course, so we're gonna go, the morning session which will be about three hours with a half hour of q&a at the end. At each hat, we will never go longer than an hour and a half, every hour and a half, we take a probably a 10 to 15 minute break. So the morning sessions from 10 to 130. And then we come back and do another three hour session. After that, depending on where you are timezone wise. Okay.
yeah can I also make a quick comment on on buttons earlier, yes I really yeah I was really enjoying the conversation you were having with Kenan about how certain people come into our lives and push our buttons and I was reminded of the a quote that's like, how come your family knows how to push your buttons, and it's because they installed them.
That's it. That's it. Bingo.
Yeah. And if I'm wondering, so I work in geriatric care, mostly sort of private home care and I observe. A lot of these kind of dynamics going on, especially around Alzheimer's patients where, you know, children of patients with Alzheimer's, they'll really have their button push but as an outsider and someone who's not assembled. It really just seems like you know the the patient is asking for something totally and.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yeah. And I'm just wondering like how much of this button installation has to do with our samskaras, because it doesn't seem like you know like a patient can ask me the same thing, like 100% 8%,
the button push thanks thanks for bringing that up. The button pushing in the installation of the some scars some scars are basically the same bloody thing. Yeah. Yeah. See this weekend. Cool. Okay, so another live one and then I'll get another written one. Sure. Now this is a crow Yeah. Okay. So that right there.
Hello.
You're unmuted but we can't hear you.
All right, she can type it in. Yeah. Yeah, you can type in your question type it in, and nothing else queued up and Oh cool. All right, so there's a couple there's a couple written that maybe she can come back on. So from Virginia, since we're taking a conceptual approach to learning what is ultimately non conceptual. And since our ability to become awakened beings depends on causes and conditions, ie forces beyond our control intentions and practice. And since we live in what I have heard you as the age of decline, where I've heard also that enlightenment is impossible. It's not impossible, it's just hard. How do we practice and keep ourselves uplifted and committed, despite all the obstacles along the way. This is a very, very challenging world to be living in at this moment. Yeah, boy that's No kidding. Huh. Well here's the deal. Great question, Virginia, Ray comments. Yeah, there's a whole lot of forces of the dark side right working against us. I mean, that's evolution. That's just the way it works so we can approach this in several different ways. I personally elect to live in practice, under the kind of the Maxim's of both the alchemical and the tantric traditions, which both proclaim.
You can transform obstacle into opportunity. Hence the alchemy right lead to gold kind of thing that yes this is a very challenging time. But it's also an extremely opportune time, it's the same thing that applies towards the Bardot's that death and dying is a very challenging time. But the traditions are radically unequivocal that there are more opportunities for rapid psycho spiritual development in the Bardot's than there are in life for a number of reasons. One is, in fact, there it's in direct proportion to the level of the challenge. So the question is are we up for the challenge. And so if we maintain the right view, this is where right view Virginia is so important. If we maintain the right view, which is the anti physicalist materialist reductionist view, which is the view of divinity purity, goodness, right view that fundamentally the nature of whatever arises is in fact if it's seen properly if you're lucid to it, just tied into the earlier questions, it's already. The Buddha, what you're saying and what you're saying is already the Pure Land. So the challenge is not to be swept away by the power of the inculcated wrong view that it's like it's hopeless I can't do it. There's so many things going against me. If we capitulate to that, then it's it's kind of somewhat sad affair. But we don't have to. This is why right view is the first and most important of the Eightfold factors of the awakened space of the awakened tap is maintaining this, this, this, proper view of things and if you do that, then you realize, I mean Bruce Lipton was riffing about this a lot these days. This guy's a pretty sharp cookie and, You know one of the fathers of the whole epigenetic movement is really, I think, pretty brilliant biologist. He's talking more and more about, you know, again this is not him he's just articulating it you know crisis sparks evolution. Let me say that again. crisis triggers evolution. And so, we are in a crisis. And so this is the way evolution works you know look at dissipative structures. There's so many ways where you can gain support with this view that before things transform into a higher dimension, you have to exhaust, the translation of the existing dimension and so before you can, you know, move up you have to break down before you can break through you have to break down. And what's happening now is is a lot of breakdown. And we can, we can capitulate to the negativity around it. That's literally what Trump mpj called negative negativity. Or we can transform it. And so that's one reason I love the tantric approach that if you look at these things properly. There are actually more opportunities now than if things were all kosher and running smoothly. That's when everybody just falls further further in the sleep when we just drip off into our God realm comfort plans. It's really when things are falling apart that things get really tricky, that we have a chance to really look at this collective deconstruction, and actually see you know maybe I'm going to create a new narrative maybe I'm going to grow in a new way. Maybe I'm going to take this and really grow with it. So I'm not at all. Sometimes they get a little discouraged about what's happening to the planet. That's really heartbreaking and all the animals that's really heartbreaking. But I maintain to the best of my ability. This, this view of the inherent goodness of the world the inherent inherent purity of reality. And I fundamentally have elected to abide by those principles. Yeah, so that's just me that's my wrist. So one last one for Vanessa and then, then we'll call it for today. Oh perfect timing. Okay, so last one. There is something that has been happening for a long time and I haven't really given it much thought until now, where I am giving my dream life a lot of attention. My non lucid dreams will have a consistent look and feel in terms of visual and auditory sensation. But what has happened many many times over the years, which is a little unsettling is right before I wake up, I will hear sound really loudly, and really clearly, as if someone is talking right by my ear, as if it was real. The thing is I live alone so no one else is there, and there's no other sounds happening in my room in my bedroom.
That my brain could be interpreting and weaving into the dream. When this happens, I always wake up a little shocked by how loud and clear the sound was, and that there's no one, and that there's no one or nothing in the room with me that could have made that sound is there maybe a misfire in my brain or auditory system that is mistakenly translating dream images into waking life sound, or is this an auditory version of projecting dream sound into waking world sound like where people who sometimes wake up very quickly project the visual aspects of their dream onto the waking world for a second or two I think it's the latter. I think it's the latter. Because if you think it's the former, you can put a recorder on. You can actually see, let's see here. Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's the form because I've had experiences like this as well, where you can have, again, you don't have to have an ear to hear. You don't have to have eyes to see. You don't. In fact, I just have to throw this into the mix this is pretty cool total sidebar. Leading us reading a little bit about the you know whole chakra system and the third eye thing. And there's reports of people who literally when their third eye is so open they can literally blindfold them completely blindfolded and these people can read. I mean, how cool is that I want to be able to do that at a cocktail party, that's my hope here my motivation is silly sidebar. I have had these experiences Vanessa where you do not have to have an ear or external sounds to hear. I mean you can have thunderous sounds in the dream state, just like you're gonna have Thunder sounds in the Bardo state after death, there's no physical ear there but these sounds still appear. The phenomenology is not always reducible into these kind of neurological terms it can have a different kind of substrate. So I have had these I've also had, you know, visual experiences similar to what you're saying at the end that seem to kind of bleed through into the waking state. So, I personally wouldn't be too wigged out about this is mostly unsettling like when sleep paralysis takes place it's unsettling because we generally don't know what it is. But these types of kind of hybridized spaces and again this this happens. I'm usually in that liminal space in this case it would be a hypnopompic liminal space, you know, after the dreams of space entering into the waking state, that's a hypnopompic space. You can get these kind of bleed through experiences where you have a trailer from your dream, you know, kind of hybridizing into this kind of intermediate dimension of mind. So my intuition is that's what it is. I wouldn't be terribly concerned about it. With that said, however, if it does get worse and you are concerned and I always put this as a disclaimer. You could always visit with an audiologist ear, nose, throat person or neurologist, to see if in fact there is something organic taking place I never rule that out. It doesn't sound like it to me and I'm very cautious I'm not making you know kind of clinical diagnoses here. But if these if these things tend to happen like tinnitus or, that's a different beast. There are very often are organic circumstances brain issues on the light doesn't sound like it to me. So in short, with the information I have here that's my best guess. I think what you said at the very end sounds like what's really happening here.
Okay.
Hey thanks everybody. Appreciate your time and attention until next week or until tomorrow or until, whatever, pleasant dreams. All the best, and we'll, we'll touch base again next week.
