friends and enemies I don't know why I just get the biggest kick out of that. It's just like so goofy. Oh my wonderful friends and enemies so Andrew Hall Check here if you're new to this thing. Oh is Julia oh my god Juliet and she you forever. Oh my gosh it's so sweet. Oh this is great. I see people here I don't see any other places so sweet I really really enjoy it how awesome coolness so what we do here in case you're new and some people may be new because about one of my big podcasts with Dan Harris he does I don't know if you know Dan Harris's work. I really love this guy. He wrote this beautiful book called 10% happier. I still think it's the best introduction to meditation out there. He's the ABC newscaster. I really like him and he's kind of a really great I'd say it's one of the best podcasts in the country because he's such a skilled interviewer. And so I did a thing with him that was just released I think yesterday. And so there's some new people I just got some responses that listen to that that may be on board today, which is great. Welcome if that's the case. So what we do we started this with COVID I thought it would die, but it just keeps going. There are a few few phenomena that violate the fundamental tenets of impermanence. This seems to be one of them. So it's cool. We get together every couple of weeks. I love it because I don't really have to prepare. I just show up and people ask great questions. And I answer them at least I try. And so if you have a question you want you can put it in the chat column. It's always best to raise your hand and ask live because then we can have some back and forth. But I'm going to start with the questions that were sent in and I always start with a few minutes of shameless self promotion, people other podcasters talk about it as housekeeping and all that kind of stuff. Let's get real. It's basically shameless self promotion. So, so this book just came out this week as well. This is my seventh book. This was just released Wednesday. The reverse meditations. Super excited about this one. This is the first book that I have deliberately crafted for the general public. All my other books have been kind of neat niche little specific type thingies. And so this is the first of two. The second one will be out a year from now. That one's called a little boys a call. I'm mindful my what? Something about meditation in the postmodern world or something, but this is a cool one. Check it out. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. In terms of upcoming events. I've got to I've got a really deep dive events. The drala Mountain Center in Colorado used to be called Shamala Mountain Center. It's where the great stupid is this place is gorgeous. If you've never been there. I'm doing a really deep dive part of my five year series up there preparing to die on what's called the luminous Bardo Dharma TA and so it's a no holds deep dive Buddhist approach to the most profound topics period and I love it because it's it's so deep. It's so profound. So I'm super psyched about that. And then in September, I'm equally excited to do my annual thing with my dear friend Professor Bob Thurman. If you don't know him, this guy's like a living legend. It is such an honor to work with him. I've done a I think 1012 weekends of over the last three years online last year I did my first in person with him. So this year is the second year this was on non duality and the nature of mind. And so these two programs August and September are my deepest programs for the entire year. And so I get really excited about them because they we just go for it. So okay, Alyssa, that's it. We can hit the record button done with the promotion stuff, recording in progress. Okay, okay, so here we go. Let's see what we got. Okay. Oh geez. Okay, perfect. Perfect question from Richard. Should death be feared? Ah, no. Absolutely not, Richard. Because there's nothing really to be afraid of when you understand that. The reason that we're afraid of it, is because we don't understand it. Fear is virtually synonymous with the goal now. And so when we really understand what death is, and boy, this has been a big deal thing for me for decades. My third book, I think 400 Page big thing. Preparing to die. I am big into this topic. I've been teaching it for decades. And so absolutely, positively not. There's fundamentally nothing to be afraid of. The only thing that dies is ignorance. And it's correlate ego dies because you're doesn't really a guess fake news dives. Illusion dies. This limited thing we call the form the most superficial dimension of our being that is released. And so really what the wisdom traditions say the maximum here is die before you die, which is what meditation is about. You can discover all this stuff for yourself. And through the meditative arts. You can discover that which cannot die because it was never born. Let me say that again. You can discover for yourself that which cannot die because it was never born. That's the goal of these teachings to discover the changeless deathless nature of who you really are. This is the part of you that does not grow old, does not get cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's. And it doesn't die. The interval is true is dimension of your being. And if you can make this transition if you if you can die before you die, which is what in Buddhism, that's what Bardo yoga. That's part of the yoga is all about this, then death basically is seen to be an illusion. Literally that death of death. So there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of really. So easier said than done. Because we're so exclusively identified with body with form. That's actually what ego is exclusive identification with form and so on that form gets old, decrepit falls apart and dies. If you've invested your entire portfolio of identity in that, brace yourself, it's going to be rough, because that's who you think you are. But the wisdom traditions radically, unequivocally say No way. That's not who you are. That's a construct. It's who you think you are. So should death be feared? Absolutely not. There's nothing to be afraid of. Fear is the minion of ignorance. We're afraid we don't know when you understand who you are. You understand what death is? In my view, death is just a wrathful form of liberation. raffel. Why because it's non negotiable and uncompromising. You can't do anything about it. But it basically returns you to the true nature of who you are. And so the program at SMC or DMC that I mentioned now the Dharma TA. That's your true big, just a fancy Sanskrit word for who you really are. This thermonuclear brilliance luminosity, emptiness, that's who you really are. So the Dharma Tod Bardo, the Dharma teachings are all about this, this true identity. And then the practices that allow you to release all those superficial dimensions who really know they really are not you. The Hindus talk about it as the cautious the Buddhists talk about it as the kayas all the really wisdom traditions, I shouldn't say all because I haven't studied every one of them, but the most famous ones I have looked pretty deeply at nothing to fear out trust me on this. Nothing. Okay, so Oh, okay. Second question from rich, cool. He's on a roll. What are the karmic results of dying by stopping water and food? I have a friend that is planning this, who has Alzheimer's? Yes, this is a good question. So this is what's called passive euthanasia. And the whole euthanasia business. This is the answer really depends on who you ask. And I have asked, especially when I was doing research for my book, I asked dozens and dozens of teachers all these sorts of what I call the difficult questions. So I have a section in that book about miscarriage abortion, euthanasia, suicide. They're really difficult questions. And the way all where I come down on this again, this is just my interpretation, but supported by great masters like Dan grants or my PJ so Gil, Rinpoche laka Rinpoche others, that passive euthanasia is fine. Honestly, that's what I if I have the wherewithal, if I get Alzheimer's, and I'm heading out that way, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna stop eating, I'm gonna stop drinking passive euthanasia. It doesn't have karmic consequences, least according to most of the teachers that I've asked.
And so, the intention behind it is really the fundamental ingredient because if your intention is to relieve suffering, that's a good intention. There's nothing wrong with that. So the passive euthanasia, the traditions to the best of my ability, and I've again, I've asked the tawny teachers karmically, it seems to be quite okay, and that's hopefully I mean, who knows? That's what I would do. Active euthanasia is a different thing. And again, it depends on who you ask. Some people say that's even fine. But most of the traditional expositions in at least Buddhism will say that should be avoided. And I mean, who am I I don't know. I don't know. The final details is only a fully awakened one blooded and understands the repercussions of karma. But active euthanasia, pretty much across the board is to be avoided. passive euthanasia seems to be okay. All right from Georgia. Oh, this is an interesting one. Not that these others weren't it lucid dreaming happening within the human mind. Yes. So there's a number of questions and fold it here. So I'll ask them as I as they appear. Does lucid dreaming happen within the human mind for sure. It's a meta cognitive process within the human mind. Someone manages to transform themselves into a butterfly. For example, in the I suppose you don't say in a dream, but I'm assuming you're saying in a dream unless you're a really highly accomplished shaman, which would be really cool. If he can do that, shoot a YouTube clip and send it to me. I'll make you a billionaire. That would be pretty cool. Just Just joking. If someone manages to transform themselves into a butterfly, for example, I assume you're saying in a dream. Would the person be able to see perceptions as a butterfly? No. No, why would they? Because it's it's a, it's a phenomenological construct. It's a construct of your own mind. You're not literally embodying the biological matrix of a butterfly. So no, you wouldn't. Or would they see perceptions as a human being with a body of a butterfly the ladder, but again, try it. The best thing I can do is just try it. And then maybe read as much as you can about butterfly perceptions. I played with this because it's actually quite playful. It's this is really I liked it's actually I'm not making fun at with you are you're making fun with you. Read as much about butterfly perceptions. And you might think, Okay, well, where am I? Where can I find data on that? Well, I recommended this book a lot. I read it, it was the number one recommended book in the New York Times bestseller or highly recommended the top 10 books. It's a It's called an immense world, an immense world by Ed Young, I think why yo ing, it's all about what's called goon Veldt in German, the the kind of the world view the perceptual bubbles that all kinds of beings all kinds of animals inhabit. It's a fantastic read, because it really gives you to the best of the scientists ability, and a glimpse of how all these amazing creatures I was blown away by the chapter on ultrasound and bats, and then the whales and how they perceive. I mean, I just love this book. It's a little long, it gets a little academic, but it's extremely well written, slight sidebar, but I highly recommend it. It's a great read, because it talks about the relativistic nature of perception that what we see in the conceptual reality that we know as human perception. I mean, this is just a highly edited filtered wave through biological processes that we see what is fundamentally unperceivable within this matrix. So would you see the perceptions as a butterfly? No. Why would you do that was that doesn't make sense to me. You would probably see the perceptions as a human being with a body of a butterfly. But hey, try it. Make a strong intention to lucid dream. I want to arise as a butterfly. See what happens quite literally see what you see. And then get back to me. I've never tried that. But it's a cool thing to give a crack and there's also this the Chinese little proverb about this right the butterfly that dreams that are human that dreams they're a butterfly, that whole thing baby that's where you got it. Okay, last part regarding lucidity in deep dream. Yes. That's clear light yoga, Nidra luminosity yoga, okay. Does it happen with them? There's a typo here. Does it happen within a human being mind does for us? Or is it in a subtler form? of mine which is beyond human? Well, that's this latter part of the question. This is a good one. Yes, we will proceed but within a human being mind because we don't really have an option. But, but is it a subtler form? And you see my dog crying if he keeps up I might have to bring him down in which case I can introduce you to him Hold on a second.
Okay, so I have to introduce you. This is my my wonderful but highly neurotic dog. I love this guy to death. His name is touchy. Touchy, use Tibetan, which means hello good fortune. And he's a complete what we call Rodeo Drive dog. He should be walking down with a Gucci purse. He's such a wuss. And so what happens is when there's a slightest intimation of discomfort, he sits down outside my study and just does this ridiculous of why there is. Maybe I'll have a dream to see how Tashi perceives the world. He's the best Okay, so sorry for the distraction. But we have to be kind to our animal brothers and sisters. Is the clear light mind lucid dream sleep a subtler form of mine which is beyond human. This latter part is really interesting. Because yes, it's actually pre human. Just like the eighth consciousness is pre human. And so even though we don't have an option, but to perceive it within the human mind, because we're embodied in the human maker matrix, but fundamentally the eighth consciousness, the substrate consciousness and even deeper the clear light mind which gives birth to the substrate, this is pre human. This is the quality of awareness that all sentient life because essence. So even when an insect transitions when any sentient life force transitions, they will transition to this pre human pre spatial pre temporal pre causal dimension, which is called the clear light mind. So let me let that last part is that's a really good one. Okay. Okay from Hetrick is the 49 day rule formation set in stone we're all Buddhists. No, nothing in Buddhism is set in stone except nothing, which is emptiness. But even emptiness is empty. There's literally a wonderful book called the emptiness of emptiness. The only thing that set in stone is is emptiness. And in a Zen kind of colon way, trying to wrap your mind around that. But the 49 day rule, I've asked a ton of teachers about this as well. It's comes from the citta garba sutra. This actually comes from the sutra tradition. And I mean who knows, right? Nobody, nobody really knows what the Buddha taught it. Nothing was really written down until at least 200 years after his death. So you can imagine the amount of interpretation slash distortion that happened in those 200 years. So scholars are wrestling with this stuff, like all the time, but the 49 day rule. I mean, it's like, don't ask me. But again, my understanding is, is it set in stone? Absolutely not. You can like a Rinpoche and playfully talks about Bardo VIPs. These are individuals with either really good karma. In other words, really powerful habit patterns, or really bad karma that they don't actually expect at all. The minute they die, that it's called heavy karma. It's so powerful, it's so strong to heaven realm, boom, they're in hell RAM, if you believe this cosmological stuff. For the rest of us the reason it takes 49 days or mostly three and a half weeks again, this is just what the tradition says with this material. I'm just being a mouthpiece. I'm not speaking with any experience with any authority. Outside of some you can like say scholarship authority, but basically what what creates the 49 days or this this indeterminate period, which can last a whole lot shorter and a whole lot longer. You can get stuck in the Bardot's. And if you believe in this stuff become what's called a mono Maya Gandhara where in western languaging, a kind of a ghost so they can hang out, you know, for like, who knows how long right? But for most of us because we're a mis mishmash. of good habits, bad habits, good karma, bad karma in a particular process that don't ask me, it takes about on average 49 days for this stuff to be sorted out. kenzel souls reincarnate before after that period absolutely, positively a Buddhist would not use the word soul Patrick, I understand what you're saying. But soul is literally a four letter word. In Buddhism, there's no reified soul there is an essence that this whole soul thing this you will not find this in Buddhist languaging. There's no autobahn. Okay, how determined don't ask me that's in the citta garba sutra, first rendering that I've ever come across and then the Bardo tantric literature just took it out. So that's, I don't know, any more than what I just shared. I heard of a monk who was such a pure spirit they just saw reincarnating and defy people. Yes. This is what happened to jungle and cultural low dirt high. Okay, so here we go. Here we go. This is where we step into hardcore, Buddhist metaphysics. And do I have any first person verification of any of this? No way not even close. So I'm simply going to tell you what I've read here. I have no personal conviction or success with this stuff. But what you're talking about here is actually not at all uncommon, where a particular mindstream can bifurcate try for k into all these different streams under processes that who knows I don't know what those are. And they can manage not only now check this out, you want to see how wild this gets. The whole teachings on the Bardo, becoming and it was called diversified in your mind is higher or variegated Toku This is where you can check this out. This is what the literature says. It's mind bending. You can come back not only is more than one person, you can come back as an animal. You can come back as any so called physical thing. Because there is no physical thing. physicality and materiality is pure imputation. It's it's an explanatory abstraction on a world of ideation made of mind the world is not made of matter. And that's why the stuff when you hear it, if you're not somewhat spiritually oriented is just bullshit. But when you realize like what they say with emptiness, center, central teaching in Buddhism with with an understanding of emptiness, everything is possible without an understanding nothing is possible. And so, emptiness slash mind, not just this limited finite cognitive spacetime coordinate mind, but the clear light mind this is trans, a pre temporal, pre spatial, trans temporal, trans spatial, this mind can assume any form and the literature is actually quite explicit about this and this is another one of those when I first read about this stuff, it was such a mind if it was such a like what that I tracked it down I asked is many teachers that I really deeply trust really High Lamas high remember jays, I asked him this sort of thing, and they talk just with immediate unflappable conviction. That yes, you can come back is any medicine a bridge a breeze? And when I've heard first heard this with my scientific background, I said bullshit, there's just no way but then I really worked with it a little bit because okay, what's my resistance here? Why is this such an impossibility? Well, because it's exposing my materialistic physical ballistic way. And within that view, this is nuts. But with a world made of heart, mind, spirit matter. Hey, who knows? And why would these literate Why would these amazing teachers why would they lie about this stuff? Like I don't know. But there's a whole literature on this Tulku tunda Brenda J. He wrote an entire book, where this is talked about I think it's literally called Oh, it's in my library just outside the door. What's the title something like? Rebirth or to coup I apologize. I have so many books out like, this is just quartered my library on the Bardo stuff. I don't remember off the top of my head, but Toku tend to purposely run an entire book on this. It's standard fare. So So reincarnating into five people. Yes. Not uncommon. Yes. Is it theoretically possible to reincarnate in more than five people? Yes. They say the Karmapas have the capacity to arise is a billion yen is this hyperbole is this pure metaphor? Is it literal? I don't know. So I'm speaking purely as a representative of what's in the literature. I have no personal experience with this. Is death kind of like is DEF CON, kind of like the latter reincarnation but way bigger. Or reincarnation Infinite Spirit. Well, it's a return is a return of the finite mind into infinity. For sure. So absolutely, positively, or the vast and tropic soup. Yeah, that's a wonderful phrase. That Bernardo kastrup uses. Yes, you return to the vast entropic soup
a loved one Bernardo RIS, on this one, he says, I really liked this guy a lot. He's a pretty bright guy. And he says one of the one of the contexts where this comes from and I suspect you may have got it from that are me riffing on him. Is it if we were to somehow actually perceive and our physical body reality as it really is, we would dissolve into an entropic soup. I just love that phrase. But anyway, yes, the infinite mind the finite mind dissolves into Infinite Spirit. That's what Buddhism is called the Dharma TA. Fast and tropic can connect to all living beings absolutely positively. Is this how dead monks are able to give teachings and dreams? Yes, for sure. And as my dear friend Bob Thurman talks about there are no dead people. I love this with Bob. I love his languaging this guy is just amazing. He just says point blank and Bob is is effing brilliant, right? He basically says there there are no dead people. So there are no dead monks. The monk is just a is just pinched awareness just like we are. And so when you drop this costume, like you know, one day when she dies, he's gonna drop his puppy costume. And who knows he might take a human costume on mosquito costume. I dropped this human costume I might take on a puppy custom. So this is why I have to be really nice to my dog because if I'm not we could switch places. And if I'm not nice to him, he's gonna repeat the favor when we switch places. So the idea you know, tongue in cheek, this is all like whatever goofy metaphysics or whatever. But the fundamental principles underlying this are actually quite elegant and quite profound and exploring this and in tremendous detail. This is a big deal thing. So this is what the Bardo teachings. I mean, they riff on this stuff a ton. And so Patrick involved with your question here, the three four questions you have in here is a ton of really profound things. But perhaps the take home message with what you're saying for me is realizing the interconnectivity, the kind of connective tissue of all beings, that with a realization of emptiness, everything is possible. This is where miracles come from. This is where all the wonderful things that all the wisdom traditions talk about it seem completely ridiculous from a materialistic point. They only become not only become possible, they become completely tenable. They it's almost inevitable. So I'm going to let that go because otherwise we're going to rip the entire time on that one. It's a really great set of questions. Okay. So here's a couple more that came in though Okay. Ah, all right. So this one really literally just came in. Hi, I'm so excited to be here. Having just discovered you through your fascinating 10% happier Interview with Dan Harris. Well, thank you for that. I really had fun with him. He's a very gifted interviewer. I've been looking for answers to my nightly nightmares for years, I used to be a lucid dreamer. And remember many Recurrent Dreams from My lifetime. Cool. I'm gonna write a little commentary as I go through this because it's a little bit long. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche says playfully and it makes a lot of sense to me. Recurrent Dreams mean you're not a good listener. Unless you have something like PTSD. I would actually maybe challenge a little bit that thing. PTSD, or trauma itself is a different league. But most of the time when we have over the counter Recurrent Dreams is because the letters aren't being opened and read like what did Freud say an uninterpreted dream is like an open letter. So you're not opening the letter. You're not reading it, you're not getting it and so the postman keeps delivering it. And you know, just keeps coming back, coming back until you get it. And Recurrent Dreams can be very effective for working with dream signs very effective for cultivating lucidity. itself. Back to you. In my most recent nightmare. I remember that I volunteer to look after a toddler and a baby with a very dark skin and to my horror I realized I hadn't checked on them for ages. And I couldn't find them. I remember when I last hugged them or changed their nappies and fed them. The background of the dream was a lot of other chaos of me having too many responsibilities and trying to work as a photographer. My job in real life cool. But having many hurdles and many people around me wanting different things. Yeah, like Welcome to the stressful modern age, right. My main feeling was a sense of impending doom is really common, unfortunately. And a questioning of my true self. How could I do such a thing as neglect these babies? It seemed my whiteness played a part that I was devastated about to the themes of the dream are consistent with my normal dreaming life. I wake feeling exhausted from relentless obstacles and traveling and a sense of impending failure in my real life. I'm this age with this particular family situation, or do yoga, meditation, all the things but at night, it's the same every night. Okay, so there's not a question here, but maybe you're wanting a little bit of just commentary on this. Yeah, you know, dreams are truth tellers. It's psychological arenas, it's psychological levels and spiritual levels. I mean, the moniker for Dream Yoga for instance, is the measure of the path. So they measure you, they reveal you and sometimes we don't want to be so reveal. And so in terms of like, maybe like what to do with all that, well, there's one is if you really want to understand and interpret this dream, then approach it from that lens and there's so many different schools of interpretation you need in depth psychology. Fantastic. I particularly like Eugene Gremlins book called let your body interpret your dream. So you can gain a deep understanding of what this recurrent dream may be. Signifying, representing, by striving, write the dream down, write it down, date it, title it, circle or highlight all the recurrent features, and then start to suss it out. Start to work with it. Robert moss has some really interesting things to say about this sort of thing. That some of these dreams it's like, it's like he says in his languaging, he says, My recent interview with him by the way, an edge of mine, you can hear him say it as my recent. He says it's like the gods want to make you sweat. They don't want to make the dream this easy and accessible for interpretation. So you have to work with it. You have to work at it. Sometimes I have dreams like this where I'll actually incubate another dream to help you understand one or I will talk to my dream friends elite, not elite but veteran, experienced dreamers, as my advisors, you know, helped me understand this sort of thing. So that's one thing again, that may be of interest to us, like what does that really represent? What's What does it mean? And then in terms of like purifying it or working with it, this can be done through stress management, you talk about yoga, meditation and things like that. But sometimes yoga meditation doesn't get at this stuff. This one type of spiritual bypass. That happens a lot in the community. It's like all my meditation will handle everything. Oh, my yoga will handle everything. I don't think so. Doesn't seem to work that way. So I roll in an integral world I think that the psychotherapeutic approach is depth psychology. This stuff has a real place on the path of human psycho spiritual development. I would not hesitate for a second to work with a skip a gifted therapist, to help unfold unpack some of these things. And to resolve some of these underlying discords because when you're having this, there's some dissonance, there's some rub, there's something that's not quite right. And your body is sending up constantly, just sending up this vibe. And until that vibe is is somewhat processed, purified, released, and I keep having it. So again, there's no over quantity, but that I would, I would look into therapeutic capacities like depth psychology, or someone who works with this more explicitly. And then terms of dream interpretation, not classically part of Dream Yoga, Dream Yoga, doesn't care about that kind of thing. But that doesn't dismiss it from a psychological point of view. So unless you're here and want to ask a specific, I'll let that go because there's a specific question there. So one last one, and then we'll open it up. I think everybody. For Marie, this one also just came in how do we go back into a dream a night later? Do we simply set the intent and fall asleep thinking about it? Yeah, that's by far the easiest way to go about it. I mean, allegedly, was Descartes allegedly derived some of the main principles of his Cartesian philosophy, through a dream, a dream, contiguous dream that he happened to have had, I think, three nights in a row. I have not had this type of type of him but I know a number of people who have, how do we do it? What you're saying is by far by the best in terms of my understanding, you set the intentionality I want to go back into that dream. I want to pick up that thread I want to develop it.
Where do I find the four dharmas of dreaming? Yeah, that if you're here, you can ask. I can ask you where you heard that. I talked about the four dharmas. of dreaming. In some of my programs, I don't remember where because I do so many of these. But this is my reformulation of the classic what are called The Four Diamonds have come Popa grant your blessing so that my mind may become one with the Dharma Ganesha blessing so the Dharma may progress along the path. And then the other two. I basically take that kind of structure from Gampopa and Riffat into this for dharmas, and draining, so if you found it Murray somewhere other than me, I'd love to hear where you heard that because not that I'm proprietary about it, but I kind of came up with that just made sense to me. And I apologize. I don't remember where I mean, I write and teach about this stuff so much. I don't remember where I first pendant, I apologize. When coming out of a blissful dream. So this is question three. When coming out of a blissful dream. I don't think about going back yet because I'm in a state of bliss. Yeah. Why would you celebrate the bliss? Why go back in? What can I do to help myself to stay in the dream or go back? Oh, okay. Well, why would you want to do that? I'm not saying it's not a bad idea, but I'm very curious. Why would you want to do that? Why not just bask in the glow in the bliss of the dream. If you want to go back in, you can do mnemonic induction of lucid dreaming, which is a classic four part approach to kind of working yourself back into not just a dream but a dream that then becomes lucid This is Steven the beverages classics called the mild technique. Mnemonic induction to lucid dreams. It's a very skillful way through practice to work your way back into any dream. I recommend his books I write about this in this one I do remember. In my Hubbard depress book called The lucid dreaming workbook I talked about the mild technique in some detail with this is even as evil or bearish is innovation. I can't remember where probably exploring the world of lucid dreaming. That's definitely worth exploring. Okay, so what and when in a blissful, dharmic dream? Do I try to tell myself this is the dream. I mean, you can there's nothing wrong with that, but why not just why not just bask in the bliss? Why not just being in that kind of an effective response. If you want to go back in and tell yourself that it's a dream, which would then imply you're bringing lucidity to it, that's fine. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do. But I probably would just hang out on the bliss. I mean, like why not? Dharma is emptiness true. So do I just remain in the bliss or do I try to remind myself this is a dream? Well, you know, that's up to you. Um, you know, this is an interesting one. I'm not sure I have something that would be like the definitive best thing to do. You might if you have the luxury of experiencing these sorts of things with some regularity, what I always recommend is play with both approaches. See what happens when you just hang out on the bliss. Where does that go? turn out to be what is that end up as? To see be curious if you have the Hashi? This is very sorry. Hey
Pete hit sometimes he just has to express himself sorry. Or do you want to remind yourself that this is a dream? If you have the opportunity to do that on another night? I would play with both options. Is there one that's superior to the other? I don't think so. So this is a little bit of the exploration thing, Marie that one of the cool things about especially Dream Yoga. Yes, there's nine stages. Yes, there's some classic things that you do. But there's also a lot of kind of collateral benefits and a lot of personal exploration that can take place where you just go on there and you just work these sorts of things out. I mean, I would say, I don't know. I don't know what the percentage is but a pretty high percentage of my most revelatory transforming dreams have come about somewhat serendipitously where I just have this intentionality of curiosity and exploration. And just like the most amazing sort of thing happens, it's not in literature, I never read about it and never came across it. And it's like, Whoa, I didn't know my mind could do that. I didn't know I had access to this sort of thing. And so I get a little bit I wouldn't say nervous but just interested when, when there's this kind of question or suggestions about shrink wrapping into the shoulds you know, you should be doing this. You shouldn't be doing that. I'm much more playful and relaxed about below things. They're all wonderfully revelatory, beneficial, interesting, fascinating adventures and consciousness. And so if I were you, if you have these with some regularity, I would explore all the different options, and then just see what floats your boat. Something like that. Does that make sense? Say yes, makes me feel better. Okay,
she's here.
Okay, Marie far away. If you're here, unmute yourself, and I'll be here now my dog is whipping because I closed the door on him. This is my life. It's like remember the Flintstones those new year old enough you remember the Flintstones the cat was in the cat was out the cat was in and that eventually the cat picks the human and puts the human outside the door.
can I get you a muted?
Gosh, I wonder I wonder how he got so spoiled. How did that happen? Because I'm such a sucker. He's got such a such an adorable face like how you gonna discipline something that looks that cute, right? We actually took him to our trainer. Like when when we first got him and when the trainer saw the dog goes, I can't do anything with his dog. I can't train this dog. He's too cute. Right? And so, you know, we take him to the Dairy Queen or the puppy analogue to the Dairy Queen. He spoiled crapless and then I wonder why he's such a neurotic mess. Well, you know, he's made he's made him that way. Okay, very fire away. If you're here. And I think I think I lost him. She disappeared. Well come on back when you can. Okay, Marie asked the question also, who is the author? I apologize. I'm reading the chat column here. And I'll get to Jerry the author of which book I apologize. Oh, yes. Immense world. Yeah, Ed Young. Thanks, Sam. Yes. That book. Oh, yeah. Okay, there we go. Bury a friend recently commented on his nightmares as being like free movie tickets. Okay, that's interesting comment. Okay. Can we use Recurrent Dreams as a dream side? High five. Jessica. Good for you. Exactly. Exactly. So recollecting. You highlight the recurrent patterns, images wherever you memorize those as dream signs. And so then when the dream occurs, you're sensitized to that particular parents. You recognize it? Oh, yeah, there's there's whatever again, I must be dreaming. So that's how you can use Recurrent Dreams to initiate lucidity. From Penny, I'm here, okay. I'm here. Okay. If I work on that dream, specifically tonight in my dream, how would I proceed?
Well, I mean, what if you have some facility penny with things like lucidity? Then I would work with with cultivating a lucid relationship to the experience. Because then the your conscious mind can face these unconscious elements directly, to work with them and transform them directly. And so this is actually part of stage four of Dream Yoga, where you work intentionally with frightful circumstances to realize that fundamentally, whatever arises is really out the fabric of mind. And then fundamentally, there's nothing in front of them in there that could hurt you. It's just your mind arising in this particular expression. And with a quality of lucidity, you can do one of two things. You can witness. It was called Pelle lucidity, you can witness that dream from a lucid stance, you're aware that you're dreaming, you watch it, that'll actually add a little bit of extra oomph to the dream itself. That just simply witnessing in the lucid capacity, the dream but in terms of like transforming the contents, then then that's a little bit more involved. That would involve developing lucidity, and then facing some of these unconscious, creepy, uncomfortable states and going directly into them, because in particular, when we're having kind of nightmarish things in yours didn't really talk about situations like when you're being chased or pursued or anything like that. But if there's something untoward, with the quality of lucidity and the confidence born from it, the invitation is actually to go someone in the spirit of the reverse practices. You go directly into that into those shadow elements. You go directly into those unwanted experiences and extract the light within them. So this is a deeper question Penny. One of the challenges with a platform like this is really wonderful, rich sharings like yours, and a really great question like yours. It's challenging for me, in short, clever sound bites. To give you really definitive ways to work with this. This is something where working with a dream interpreter, a practitioner, someone who can actually work this through with you is much more efficacious than me pinging out a couple of soundbites over a two minute period right. So I hope you understand it. The other thing I might refer you to my dear friend She's so dear. I have two interviews with her. I'm a nightclub platform. By the way. She's a PhD actually in lucid dreaming. One of her most recent books is the art of transforming nightmares. I highly endorse this thing. It's a brilliant book. I highly recommend it. Because not only does she bring this about from a psychological point of view, talking about PTSD, trauma stress, because she's a lucid dreamer. She also brings in a lucid nightmare therapy. It's a really wonderful the best thing I've read yet on working with uncomfortable, difficult, difficult dreams from a really savvy seasoned dreamer. So the art of transforming nightmares by Claire Johnson. I highly recommend that book. I wish I could be a little bit more rigorous complete, but I think you understand with the limitations of this platform. There's only so much I can really do. So thanks for your understanding. And thanks for coming tonight. And then there's my dear friend, Dr. Jay. Fire away Dr. J. And if Marie's here and wants to come on mute, we'll get her right after Dr. J. Hi, Ender, anybody? Well, you
know, you mentioned before and actually started this talk of about talking about the 49 days after death. Yeah. Then you said for example, I think in your or someone said that the Buddha after he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree sat there for 49 days. Yeah, I
shared that last week. Yeah, that's what they say. Well, anyways,
the point is almost all religions including you know, the Christian religion, Jewish religion, they assign special meaning to numbers. Why? Section seven is supposed to be very spiritual, and six is bad because it's one less than seven and if you multiply that like 666, that's the number that the Well I was thinking is seven appears as a magic number in many different contexts. And if you square seven, you get 49. Right? So is, do you think that's where that comes from?
No idea my friend. Your guess is as good as mine. You know, the the numerology thing is actually quite interesting. For instance, another really interesting power numbers 100 Nate. It's a curious check it out. Ask the real guru, Google guru, Google it. Google just to see what's out there, Google, the numerology or the spiritual significance of the number 108. And you're going to find like, 108 different reasons why it's so interesting. Right? I actually find it interesting. I don't really role in that kind of world. I'm not a numerologist I'm not dissing it or criticizing it. I just don't really know about that sort of thing. But there are there are power points, just like their acupuncture points there. There are these kinds of particular things that have more impact, like are they completely cultural? To me, that actually makes a lot of sense why why would like 6x Six be such a tragic number, like who came up with that? Again, I just don't know. So I remain agnostic on this. I try to be open minded to it, and not drift into some of the purely metaphysical, New Age conjectures about it. So to me one of my favorite answers that I just love saying is, I don't know it may there's something tremendously liberating about Delphi. John talked about it as divine ignorance. The Zen tradition talks about it as don't know mind. There's something quite beautiful about just saying, I don't know, right, like cool. I'm done. Best I can do my friend.
That's exactly the way I feel. I was just wondering if that's where the number 49 came from. It's not necessarily that I believe in it. I don't necessarily disbelieve in it. It's just something that came up.
Exactly. It's there. Who knows? But I do know the best the earliest I can track it. Down is to the titik. Karma Sutra. That's where they talk about it. Did the Buddha say this? Again? Who knows? I mean, nothing was written down until over 200 years after he died. Nobody really knows. But he said, right.
Okay, one more question. You know, you talked about the word of the six year old because of Naropa. Sure. And I think explicitly one way or the other talked about four of them. Well, I had surgery several years ago on my foot and I had to lay down and keep my foot elevated most of the day, and I went out and bought a book by Lama yesterday who died I think, in 1984 in California from cardiac disease, I think. Yeah, wonderful. gloop. Bah,
bah, bah. And he wrote
the book, I think it's called the bliss of inner fire. It's exactly what it's called. Yeah. He says raisins introduction. Don't try this without a master. I mean, he said that right off the bat, but I have a full book and I had to be laying down close to the day. So I tried it and I really had some incredible experience.
What's what's you know?
I'm sorry, go ahead. What's the question but sorry, your experience or have you read it or? Well, I've read it multiple times. But yeah, I'm a big fan of lemon. He I think he's a beautiful teacher. And the bliss of inner fire is the best public over the counter book. I'm TUMO. John Daly the inner he yoga is out there. It's really good. So it's just it's called the main beam. It's the first and the main practice of the six dharmas. The other like you mentioned there what I call the four route dharmas. So illusory form, Dream Yoga, sleep yoga. And then there's a tube the tubes so called supplemental dharmas, which is part of yoga and POA. And so these are also divvied up into waking, dreaming and sleeping state and dying states, right. So basically, they're parsed out that way. So the six diamonds are the crowning jewel in the Karma Kagyu tradition. They are incredibly powerful practices. I practice them for an entire year in my theory retreat. They've been a central part of my life ever since. And the Lama yesterday book, The bliss of inner fire is the best public book on inner healing is out there to date. I still find it quite brilliant. So yeah, I agree with you. It's a great it's a great read. But but you know, certain surgeon here or Doc, you know, surgeons warning, Surgeon General warnings here, right? These these are prescription strength practices, and they may be hazardous to your egoic health. So, you have to be a little careful when you start exploring these really deep practices. There are a number of practices in the wisdom traditions that are dangerous, because they're so powerful. How was one doc retreats, one chonda lays one, because they integrate yoga targets the body, the subtle body and it works directly with opening and releasing all the energy in the subtle channel system. In basically burning up the karmic knot. That's what the inner fire is about. It's completely separate from the Wim Hof performance. TUMO now, I'm not criticizing Wim Hof thing I actually like what the guys doing, but I do raise some eyebrows about the whole performance TUMO that the whole thing is about sitting in an ice bucket for an hour and a half and not like dying. No, man. I mean, that is a complete sidebar. The physical heat is is a complete sidebar to real TUMO. So that's performance TUMO I'm not saying it doesn't have some validity. But to think that that's the essence of of the inner youngest, I mean, not even close. So be careful. You know me issues warning is a good one. Where you start to deal with really charged prescription strength practices. You have to be a little careful because they I just wrote an article for taka magazine. They had this whole special issue on Tantra. And I wrote this little piece on is the West ready for tantra. I extracted it and it's on my main website, you'll find it and your holiday.com is the West ready for tantra. So if you're thinking about playing with this sort of stuff, I recommend you look at that. Because a lot of people in the West hopscotch over the preliminaries that jump into this sort of stuff, and then they get hurt, they get in trouble. So the tantra thing it's like, oh, you know, has a lot of incredible power, and promise. But if you don't handle it, like electricity, really carefully, it's not going to light you up. It's gonna burn you up. You got to be a little careful with this kind of stuff is generally not taught in public for just those reasons, because people come in, they're in a hurry, they're impatient. You know, enlightenment. In one lifetime thing. It's like, I want to I gotta till Friday, can they get enlightened by Friday? Right? And so they jump into these really like Aaron Rodgers doing this dark retreat thing. Hey, I'm on level Yeah, kind of cool. On another level, we'll just be careful. So anyway, that's as far as I'm gonna go on that. Okay, so you're welcome my friend. Maria, if you're there, Mary. Okay, come on back on.
Okay, I think I figured that okay. Can you hear me?
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Yes. Okay. I can Yes, yes. Hello. asking me a question or just good, you answer my questions.
Well, I answered the questions that you submitted in writing to the best of my ability. So if you have something else you want to say
yes, thank you.
Okay, so is there anything else you want to add or how can I help you? Um,
no, no, no, I thought that I thought she brought me on. I must have I must have clicked something. No, I didn't have any other questions right now. Okay.
Cool, man. I do but
Well, nice to meet you. Nice to say hi. Okay. Yeah, so from Jessica. Jessica, what was the name of the article? So? Yes, it's called is the West ready for tantra? And I did posted it's on my main website, and Holly check.com. see it kind of center it's just a way to look at Tantra with more careful eyes. All right. For marriage, what is the process the facts that determine the next form of life? Okay, so this is what Padma Sun bhava said. If you want to know your past life, look at your previous your current situation. If you want to know your future life, look at your current actions. And so, this is also completely resonated with very powerful sutra teaching. This is really great every every legitimate spiritual teacher should memorize. My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand. So you want to know what's going to determine your next life is this life? What type of rebirth do you take place moment to moment? This I'm not kidding here. MindScape leads to landscape epistemology leads to ontology. And so if you're a person, you want to know what's going to dictate your next life and this is control it. If you're an angry, bitter, resentful kind of person. You're practicing rebirth into the hell realms. Because you're practicing hellish states of mind. If you're really kind of greedy, self serving cystic you're paving the way either into the jealous god realms or the Hungry Ghost drones because you're reincarnating in those states of mind now. So the phenomenology of rebirth not only does it take place at the end of this life, it takes place moment to moment to moment the mind the formless mind the clear light mind is always taking rebirth. And usually if we don't take some voluntary control, this is what lucidity principle is all about, and direct the rebirth of our mind moment to moment. Well guess what controls it? Your habits? Habits. You think you have free? Will you think you decide what you're doing in this life? Vast majority No way. Your habits decide for you. Just like what happens in a non lucid dream. If you're not conscious on the dream in your in your mind is reincarnating In other words, taking form in the shape of your dream. Who's making those choices if you're not conscious that your habits it's like Trump or mache again famously said what is it that when he was asked what is it that reincarnates right how did he say it? Your bad habits? So you want to know what your next life is going to be? Look at the type of mind that you inhabit now. And so therefore cultivate the best thing the single best thing you can do. You can forget about all this highfalutin spiritual stuff even though yes, it has a place. You want to have a good rebirth. lead a good life. Be kind, loving, compassionate is going to lay a red carpet for you on the Bardot's and then those good habits and patterns that good karma is going to take good care of you. So what determines the next life, your habits your karma? Habit is just a Western translation for karma. Okay. Alrighty, righty anything else? We're right at the hour mark, which is usually when we start to close things up. So it's like it's like the auction going once going twice. Sold done for today. Anything else before we close? For today? Are we good? If so, got her hands on. Oh, well, I think she's just reading. Are you waving goodbye or do you have something to say? Oh, she does have something to say buckshot. Oh my god, Jessica, something to say. Oh, okay. We'll close the door after Jessica. Sounds good. Oh,
what do you say? It's, it's a wonderful news for me. Because I, when I'm asked, or when I wonder what I'm going to be next live or how you call it. I always say I want to be an artist and that's what I do now. So it means that I'm going to be a not an artist again.
I can't tell you for sure, dear. I bet you said you just said wait. But can I tell you what complete authority. So here's the deal. An artist is a particular expression of particular qualities of mine. So my question would be to you, what is it that characterizes the artists mind? Are you going to come back at a literal artist? I have no idea. But if if you nurture particular qualities that you associate with your artistry, then that could help you lead a particular artistic life was is it going to be the same way that you relate to artists? Principle now? I have no idea.
I don't care. Okay. I just if I have to choose I'm going to be an artist again.
So usually here's the ones might invite just as an exploration, I might invite you to explore the artist principle. And note what is being an artist really mean to you? Is it about freedom? Is it about creative expression? Is it about originality? I would actually do this with with with as a contemplation. Don't worry about specific artists. Like I'm a musician, right? So I'm a musical artist. Don't worry about that. But what am I just simply suggest as a contemplation is write down the qualities when you think of artists principle. What is it that actually qualifies an artist write those down and then you might discover let me
suppose a terminal evolution because when you are 20, right,
then you write that down. That's fine. What I'm trying to point out to you is, be it perhaps be a little bit more articulate in a specific because then that type of specificity can perhaps help you and you may find us like Trungpa Rinpoche, one of his his main things was artists, artistry and everyday life. paint on the canvas of your mind, paint on the canvas of your life, and use your entire life is an expression of your artistry. Not just a particular medium of that expression. See? So to me, I
got it's like that to be an artist. It's your whole life.
That's what I'm saying. And that's what drew me he tried to exemplify with his all the things he did in his life. He basically painted his mind throughout his entire life and so this kind of artists principle, to me is what's more compelling than some of the more specific iterations of that principle? Thank you. Welcome. Okay, Jessica, fire away, and then we'll close the door after you.
I was just gonna ask if you could repeat that quote. About our actions and not being able to escape.
Yes, I can. Yes.
But actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequence of my actions.
My actions are the ground on which I stand the law lot of so called spiritual teachers that do good to memorize this and study it put it on their refrigerator because again, don't get me go on this I get really pissed off a legit spiritual people. You know that then do all these crazy abuse things scandal, things like AI, they miss this fundamental, terrible bottom point. It's all about how you how you act in the world what you do in the world. Not so much what flops out of your mouth, anybody can blow smoke out of their mouth. It's like what you do to help people and that's what you do to help the planet. It's what you do to help others. And so to me, the real you know, this is a beautiful thing. My teacher Khenpo Rinpoche on one shared a story about one of his his senior students that he said, This guy is one of my most advanced students. And then he shared he goes, you know, why don't you want to know why? It's not because he's mastered the six dharmas and done all these highfalutin things. He goes, No, it's because he took he took a year out of his life to die. So you really want to know you want to see the metric the meter of someone who's really accomplished as a spiritual practitioner. Look at what they do on the world. Now what they say yes, it helps, you know, and say cool things. But how do they manifest? What do they do behind the scenes? How are they working for the benefit of others and so with that said, we what when we close our little sessions together, this is a thing that's in the Buddhist tradition is called dedication of merit. If it means something to you, great if it doesn't, don't worry about it. But I'm this is my big rant and everything I do right now, is if what we're doing here with our gatherings, which are I think they're lovely, I love them. They're so cool. But if what we're doing here is not a benefit to the world today. It's irrelevant. We're just New Age feel good. Whatever it is, we're just lost in feeling comfortable and spiritual. So everything really for me, it's like okay, how can we take these incredible lofty principles not get stuck in spiritual bypass, and help this world and help others and animals and sent in the planet itself that is in a heap of hurt? I mean, it was just leaving it listening to a podcast, another amazing, incredibly unsettling podcast about a guy wrote a book fresh air I read or heard it, the heat will kill you first. Again, just you just have to read about what is happening with global warming. really study it, the uninhabitable Earth uninhabitable Earth, read this stuff getting into your system. We're in big serious trouble. And if we don't really honor that really wake up to and then do something about it. What we're doing here, it's irrelevant. Not only will Buddhism go extinct, everything's gonna go extinct. The Anthropocene. We're in it. We're in the Anthropocene and it's big trouble. So again, you know, it's like, Oh, tell me that. I don't want to be uncomfortable. I want to feel good. Sorry. This is reality. And so with that said, Well, we can do here because reality is really of the nature of mind and heart. We gather our merit to whatever extent and we send it off to the planet itself, as a way to share what we're doing here and always remind ourselves that we're doing this yes, we're doing it for ourselves provisionally. But fundamentally, we're doing it for others. Don't forget that. So great to see everybody. You know, the usual gig. I'll be back in two weeks for this. How much time so much fun spending time with you? Questions are great, I really enjoy it. So until next time, not just merely pleasant dreams pleasant lucid dreams. Bye bye everybody.
