Are we clear out of my folder here? Nice to see everybody. This is our I guess our bimonthly q&a that we did with COVID. I mean, three and a half, four years ago, whatever. It still keeps kicking it up. So I still keep showing up. In a moment, I'm going to respond to some questions that were sent in. And if you hear and you want to raise your hand either for follow up, if you did ask one of the questions, or you have an original question that you want to raise your hand and you know how to do that go to the reactions column, raise your hand, always best if we can have some dialogue. If you want to write something in the chat column, that's kosher as well on any topic really. I always start with just one or two words about upcoming events. I've got my annual draw a mountain center retreat center used to be called Shambhala. Mountain Center, a week long program in August Willis is going to post a link to that, by far my deepest dive into the Bardo teachings a full week in the most profound of all the Bartons aluminous part of Dhamma talks. So this is this is for deeper divers, unapologetic Tibetan, kind of classic Tibetan Buddhist approach to the super deep topic, and what happens when we drop into the thermonuclear nature of the awakened mind. So that one's super fun. And then about a month after that somewhat similar related non duality nature of mind with what my dear friend Bob Thurman. This is at Menlo in upstate New York. And between these you know, the dams, he won the Mendel won. These are like my two favorite programs of the year. They're so cool. So we got links to those other events. Last week or so, maybe two weeks ago, my latest book came out this kind of fun, reverse meditation, how to use your pain and most difficult emotions is the doorway to inner freedom. So I'm really happy about this my first book that I've written specifically for kind of general public consumption, not so specialized in some of my other stuff. And so far, we've gotten some pretty decent reviews on that so there you have it, that's the housekeeping stuff on the front end, we do a little pause. recording in progress, and the recording starts. Okay, so I'm just gonna jump right into these. I'm not necessarily in any particular order of priority, but here's one from Jessica, any thoughts on how near death experiences relate to Bartos? Yes, for sure. Lots of thoughts yesichat nd ease where the literature here is enormous. There's so much out there and they relate principally to the inner dissolution gets a little technical here, but they principally relate in the Tibetan Buddhist cartography of the Pardo's or three death Bartos. The people dying of Bardo has eight stages five stages connected to the depth of the body. And then three stages connected to the death of confused samsaric consciousness. And so the near death experiences, it struggled to make complete correlations were called isomorphic correlations between one mapping system and the next. But when you read the indie literature, and you read the what takes place in the three stages of the inner dissolution, white appearance bed increased Black Entertainment, boy sure does sound awful familiar. And just one thing, one of many things to say, people often the near death experience we just talked about going through a tunnel heading towards white light. Well, this is completely correlative to what would be called a stage of white appearance, where what are called the Hindus, the bindu that comes from your father. Again, it gets a little technical, but if you ask the top of your head starts to descend through the central channel. The binder is basically a you can really think of it as a drop of consciousness white, and hey, what does that sound like? Sounds like a white light going through a tunnel. So there's this is a really, really big topic. There isn't any that I'm aware of any overt correlations and the literature, but if you study in particular the three stages of the inner dissolution, you will get a pretty interesting correlation between Andy ease and the Bardot's once you transition through the final stage of stage eight, and enter the luminous Bardo. marmota according to the Tibetan zetz irreversible you're not coming back. It's no longer a near death experience. It's a death experience because non retrogressive so to speak. So the only way the only Bardo of nd ease really relate is is the painful Bardo direct dying and principally the three stages of the inner dissolution so if you if you're on Jessica and want to say something or ask something more about that more than welcome. Okay, from generally Hi Andrew every simply in dipping in and out of Nisargadatta as you know, this is one of the great great books, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj classic texts called I Am That amazing book in this book and it's like a data frequently advices question just to stay in the I Am. Yeah, that's a classic Advaita Vedanta thing. Back to you out of curiosity is there a practice akin to this and Buddhism? Any thoughts on the extent to which this practice might support lucid dreaming? Well, on how it might support lucid dreaming, it will support lucid dreaming in the sense that lucidity is a codeword for awareness. And if you can stay in this particular state of Turia, which is what he's pointing to alluding to the fourth, then this is not only supports lucid dreaming, it also supports yoga nidra lucid sleep. But here's the deal. The Buddhists do not have an analogue. I am because there is no i. And so this is where there's a big difference, at least in terms of nomenclature. When people like Rick Fira, who I really appreciate Ramana Maharshi Street and forget that the Mirage and a bunch of other amazing teachers and the Advaita Vedanta tradition. They talk about I am well the Buddhists would shred that I mean, Nagarjuna would just take that to pieces and say pointed as I when they talk about I am they're talking in Buddhist languaging that's the eighth consciousness. That's that's not true. That's not wisdom at all. That's just the basis of the confused samsaric mind. So in the classic usage of AI and there's nothing like this in Buddhism, because there is no AI and Buddhism. That's completely taken apart. There is no self. However, and this is where you can get really interesting debates. If you look at perhaps the phenomenology of what's actually taking place, and I can't say exactly what Nisargadatta is experiencing when he talks about this. You can say and David Loy makes an interesting argument in his book non duality in Buddhism and beyond where he compares that big ass self I am of Vedanta, with selflessness, with Al Hartman and so phenomenologically they may be completely the same. In terms of nomenclature, there's I mean, there's no the Buddhists would there's nothing like this but again, if you say phenomenologically I am you talking about Tria? If you've heard about nature of mind, then that would be equivalent to rigpa that would be equivalent to resting in the nature of mind and non duality. And parenthetically, this is exactly the type of thing that I'll be discussing with Bob Thurman in the program and manleigh in in September, so it's all about this topic. So again, if you're here and you want to come on and bet that around with me a little bit more than welcome. The closest practice phenomenologically to this would be nature of mind practices, maha mudra adsorption. Anything where you rest in the nature of reality Ripa? Okay. I'm currently enjoying listening to the audio version of your new book on reverse meditation. Oh, that's cool. Yep, there it is. Hey, what a surprise. I just happen to have a just wondering if you have any plans for reverse meditation book club? Yeah, probably in about a year and a half as we go through our next book. We just finished the Dream Yoga Book. We're about to start the preparing to die book, which is my biggest one that's like a 400 plus pager. Since we meet twice a week on that, that's probably going to take about a year to get through and then rewards meditation could well be the next book. So I really appreciate the gesture. Thank you for listening to the book. And the best place to be aware of this is on the Nikon platform. This is where we have a book group fact that alternates what we're doing here. One week, we're doing the q&a, like we're doing here. The next week we do behind the firewall behind the paywall. The book study group with nightclub and so that when we do it would be in the under the umbrella of my club. Okay. Hi, Andrew, you have said that several This is from Amanda you have said that several short. Sharp periods of meditation during the day may be affected absolutely positively effective. This is a classic. Again, Mahamudra absorption practice short sessions repeated often are fantastically efficacious. And in fact in terms of mixing meditation with life with post meditation, I would say they're more effective.
Back to you, how long should they be to facilitate neuroplasticity? That's a really great question. This is a question to ask Richie Davidson and all the other neuroscientists Antoine Lutz. People who are studying studying this sort of thing. I don't know if in the literature they've studied this sort of thing, to the best of my ability durations of around 10 minutes or so. But again, I'm shooting from the hip here. I can't speak with complete authority. Really, these short micro instances of opening a short one breath meditation or even just flashing? Does that facilitate neuroplasticity? Oh, no doubt, no doubt. Are there studies on this? I don't know. I don't think so. Okay, back to you. This would presumably be Shama to the passionate. Well, yes, it would be the union of insight and stability shamatha pasta. During meta and Tomlin meditations, the mind is more busy. So this so with this effect neuroplasticity? Or is the outcome the same? Well, depends on what kind of outcome you're talking about. Tomlin and meta are definitely working with neuroplasticity. Absolutely every meditation, right, what you do with your mind changes your brain. Every practice is going to be working with changing your brain via neuroplasticity, the duration of things like Tomlin and that again, I don't know, the neuroscience around this. There's, like 8000 studies, right? I'm familiar with a couple of 100 Max, and there's so much stuff coming out so quickly. I don't know what's actually happening. I used to get a weekly update. I don't get it anymore because it's just so overwhelming. The 20 3040 5060s coming out every month on this stuff. And some of these studies, by the way, are less than ideal. They're kind of pretty sloppy study design and stuff like that. So I'm just not in the weeds and this is where you need to ask these questions. A man is a good question to the neuroscientists who actually studying this and wish each other is a bunch of people who do it. Okay, could I post the article on yoga nidra? Yes, I just need to find it. In the avalanche, is that just my inbox? So? Pardon me? I have to that's something I just have to dig up. Yeah, at the end of the Dream Yoga Book Club in the section by humor, you said you would ask a listener to post some jokes. Did I say that? I don't remember that. Yeah, maybe me I can't make a promise on that one. Because my jokes are so bad. Right. Okay, so here's a couple other questions. Here's some longer ones. Okay, well, we get this one first. i Sorry. So here's some Tim a little bit shorter. I have been pondering a question for a while I understand and can accept the concept that there is a level of quote pure mind luminosity consciousness or total awareness and quote from which everything arises. Okay? It's not just from which everything arises, Tim. It's also out of which everything is made. So it just doesn't arise if it just arises from that that will imply a subtle cosmological dualism. We want to avoid that even though I understand the nature of your question. But it just doesn't arise from it, it arises as it and that's huge difference very important back to you. That makes sense to me. If this is true, however, then why do we perceive such a diversity of separate beings things and thoughts is our as our life experience? How and why is there such a perception when unity is a true reality? Could you share some ideas and thoughts? Absolutely. Yes, there are so many ways to talk about this. The illusion of separation is basically brought about by ignorance my rigpa This is depending on the school, every tradition will have its rendering of what creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion of diversity, the illusion of duality, the illusion of solid, lasting and independent and so I riff on this, you ask are there books that deal with this issue? Yeah, my book dreams of light. We talk about this. And to some degree, but here's what here's what's interesting around this one again, it's a really great question. I like what my my friend Bernardo Castro has to say about this. When he talks about the three principal ways, philosophically, of looking at the arising of the phenomenal world, mind and reality and the problems associated with each one. So very briefly, if everything arises from matter, which of course it doesn't, then you have the hard problem of consciousness. Which will never be solved because it's a false problem. You have what's called pan psychism. Which is then you have the pan then you have the, what's called the combination problem. If everything is has a prehension or proto consciousness going down to the atomic level, then how do those proto consciousness has come together to create what we know is our awareness. So there you have the combination problem. The latter is the one that has the most explanatory power and the one that Bernardo riffs on quite beautifully. And this is the idealistic approach reality isn't made or the nature of mind as you put it Pyramind luminosity consciousness or awareness, all the different terms. Then you have what's the challenge? What's the what's called the D combination? problem, if everything is in fact, unity, where do we get the illusion of separation and what he talks about here and listen, I recommend him you listen to my two podcasts, interviews with him on edge of mind where we talked about this a lot because I press him on this issue. He talks about the issue of dissociation, dissociated alters that we are each of us. Dissociative alters just like he has this really great analogy is very powerful. Using dissociative identity disorder, formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder, where even the mind of one beings are going to logically think of one person who has one mind stream and that person can have multiples. A number of dissociative alters within the same mindstream that are completely separate from each other, even in one mind. And he says, this is a powerful analog to what happens with mind a large mind in the cosmos. And that we you me, I everybody listening here we are analogous to these dissociative alters. We are a dissociative alter, in the mind of God. In the mind at large whatever term you want to append and so he has this wonderful analogy of a whirlpool yeah with stream, stream of mind stream of awareness, and then my highly kind of self referential contracting kind of Whirlpool, temporarily localizes the water around a particular spacetime coordinate locus of identity. And then we say there's a whirlpool, seemingly from the stream. Well, of course, it's not separate. It's just temporarily localized. And so what happens again, parenthetically, when we die well, just to throw that into the mix, the dissociated the dissociation, that that is the end of the dissociation. Meditation is the end of the dissociation, dropping into deep dreamless sleep is the end of the dissociation. And actually moment to moment to moment the dissociation takes place. In lightning fast episodes, every time we contract back onto self which happens all the bloody time. So in addition to my book, dreams of light where I refined this Bernardo, we really rolls with this I might recommend probably his most accessible book he has 11 of them out now. Called why materialism is baloney, and a great cover. I mean, great title, the cover of which is in fact a whirlpool. So a really great big question, but that's where I would roll with this one. Okay. Now these next couple of these next questions, I hope to appear because I just I literally do not understand these questions. So I'm going to start this question. And if John is here, jlm and can come on and explain this question to me, I can run with it. But I'll read the first sentence or two and I'll tell you why. I just don't understand what you're saying. ideas have been coming to me recently about a community which exists across consciousness where lucid dreamers can meet in a sort of in person in dream conference, where the participants meet and waking and sleeping through the internet in person and lucid dreaming to study, learn and share techniques. For developing a practice in yoga is of dream and sleep and Bardo. Fantastic. And then the question goes on, but I'm not going to read it any further. Because if I don't understand the first part, it doesn't make make any difference if I read the rest of it. I don't know from what you're saying here and I read this several times. Are you talking about a physical gathering? Are you talking about a physical conference, of mutuality of dreaming and cognitive space? Or are you talking about a juxtaposition between dream space and physical space? If you're here and can come on and explain your question, I can try to address it. Otherwise, I apologize. I don't understand. The way you have this worded. I don't know what you're saying. Sorry. But if you're here, I'm happy to run with it. In the meantime, here's another one. I hate to say.
I'll start this I think this is from Patrick's the sounds to be there's some typos in here, some missing words. And again, because of that, I don't understand what you want me to address. I recently was able to my brother's two young daughters for the first time, okay. Do you mean I was reasonably able to be with my two brothers and their two daughters for the first time is that what you mean to say? If you did, you didn't write? Sorry. And then there's this long riff in here. Patrick, if you're here and want to come on, you can help me same thing, this long riff about this beautiful experience that you had. And then something about is just is there something I can say about this experience? Well, if you're here and can help me understand the experience, maybe I can say something about it. But because of the missing words, I don't want to just projecting the people that I think you're saying. So Patrick, if he here and can explain it, I'm happy to do my best taking a shot at it. But basically from what you're saying, I don't know what to say. Sorry. Okay, and then last one here, and then I'll open it up. This is from Penny. Okay, hi. I'm so excited to be here having just discovered you through the fascinating 10% happier Interview with Dan Harris. Thank you for listening to that. I really liked Dan. I think he's awesome. I've been looking for answers to my nightly nightmares for years. Oh, yeah. Okay. I used to be a lucid dreamer. And remember many recurring dreams for my lifetime and my most recent in my most recent nightmare, I remember that I'd volunteer to look after a toddler. Yeah, so yeah. And then you go on a penny. Again, if you're here, these questions are they're really They're wonderful. They're poignant. But I'm not sure what you want me to say with this. You're sharing a nightmare. I don't do dream interpretation. If you're here and you're asking for for like, what is this nightmare mean? I don't work in that world. It's not to say that it's not important. It's fantastically important. Dream Interpretation is great. But it's something I just don't do. Because it just doesn't seem like it's appropriate for me. I mean, who am I to interpret your dreams for you? I might recommend if you have nightmares, looking at the work of Claire Johnson, in particular, her book, or the art of transforming nightmares, I believe it's called. She's the queen on this topic. And so the rest of your question again, if you're here, please come on. If you want to say something about it, we can talk about it. But I generally don't do dream interpretation. Because it's important as it is, and I personally work it work with it in my dreams all the time. But in a public setting, I don't really do that. I'm not. That's just not my thing. I do more lucid dreaming, Dream Yoga, which doesn't really have anything to do with dream interpretation. Again, it doesn't dismiss the validity of working with dreams and our capacity. It's great. But lucid dreaming, Dream Yoga, liminal. Dreaming, sleep yoga just doesn't roll with this kind of interpretive end. And so I apologize for these three bigger questions from Penny from who was it? Patrick? And from John John and Patrick's I just literally didn't understand. So I apologize. If you're here, please. Come on. Help me understand it. And then Penny, I apologize. But I just don't do dream interpretation. I hope you understand. Okay, so hey, I got about 60% I apologize for these longer ones. They're wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing these. This is where if you're here want to come on me and state what you send to me and want to talk about it. I am all here to talk to you about it. Okay. So in the meantime, if there is I saw a hand pop up and then I saw it disappear. Yeah, so Meredith fire away. I'm going to look in the chat column as well. But in the meantime, Meredith, help yourself.
Hi. Um, I was student Sogyal Rinpoche is for many years. Wonderful and during two retreats he mentioned very briefly, that in this was regard to Guru Yoga based on Padmasambhava. That if one did not have sufficient devotion, sufficiently developed erosion when one passed away. Even though one aspired to go to the pure realm of Padmasambhava. One could be instead turned into a Raksha stuff. And he mentioned it twice. And I asked all you know, I couldn't ever speak to him directly. I asked his people and, you know, everybody sort of just fluffed it off. And I was wondering if you had heard anything about that because um, that's really quite an important question. If one is to base squirrel yoga and Padma Sun bhava
Well, let me ask let me Yes, yeah. That's very good.
I realized that I might, I'm conceptualizing too much. But it's kind of
important to know you're articulate. Don't confuse articulation with conceptualization, but you're doing a great job of this. Are you wanting an answer and then I can address what you're saying. Are you wanting an answer because you you're interested in going to PubMed, somebody's copper colored mountain when you die, or are you interested because you want to work with guru devotion and makes your mind with his while you're still alive or both?
Well, you would probably be both but if I'm too you know, if he is that, that girl, and if that is the center of my practice, then it's really kind of important to know. Because who am I to have that kind of that level of devotion? I just don't know.
Yeah, okay. Yeah. These are interesting questions, and they're there. They're a little bit tricky, because, you know, when you get into this level of Adrianna, tantra, and you start worrying about worrying, you start working with the most important ingredient of Tantra, which is in fact, devotion and Guru Yoga. I mean, Kenzie Rinpoche said everything in the larger Jana basically, is to cultivate Deshawn. Guru Yoga was basically the center of the of the tantric mandala, and so right to work with a deep understanding of that principle. But the trick here is, you know, who am I to say anything about what's your Rinpoche is professing around this? I'm in no position to either contest what he's saying. Or somehow, you know, challenge it. That's it's also I'm curious, did he say this to you privately? Or did he say it to you in a kind of a public setting or was it heard in a public setting? It
sounds like said it in a live setting. He said it in both times in a public setting. It was during retreat at Lera bling. Twice he mentioned and I would also just like to know the historical, you know, the actual situation in which this occurs, you know, I mean, is there some way I can avoid it? You know, arise. Have you heard of this? Yes,
I have. So when you say avoid it, you you're saying about avoiding being born as a rock Joshua and the copper color? No, that would, that would be nice. Well, I mean, there's one way to to work your way around this is and again, I'm just going to tell you what comes to my mind. I'm not in any way challenging. Anything that someone like Rinpoche would be saying is you can either augment or replace these aspirations for rebirth with with a pure land that is much more accessible like de Wacha sukawati. I mean, it's there was created and designed to have the visa the easiest visa requirements right. And so when you start to play around, I have heard what he what he is saying I have heard it before, when you start playing around with copper collar mountain rebirth and that sort of thing. You know, this is full blown, tantric, pure land. The minute you start playing around with that it is filled with some of these kinds of caveats and some of these perils that that is part of literature. I have heard that before. So I would centrifuge out two things. First of all, personally, what I would do if rebirth into a puroland is your aspiration. Again, does it just me Take it or leave it? I would perhaps transition towards aspirations and prayers and practices that are associated with Dr. Chen and Amitabh was puroland in terms of the devotion issue altogether. I mean, if you have a deep heartfelt connection to Guru Rinpoche, and probably starting with Soviet Russia, you did because he was Colossus in in that tradition. And you can work with developing this through the southern lights application through their Guru Yoga is associated with him. I did it my three year retreat, we spent three months doing these these devotional practices around so I knew exactly what you're talking about. And so if you have the capacity to do those Guru Yoga, and they really speak to you, then I would say put every ounce of your energy and Hart into that. And then maybe just let the comments around the puroland. Just set them aside so you don't have to worry about that particular deleterious consequence. So I say all of this with tremendous hesitation and reservation because this is the type of question that is really best address, either towards the teacher, of course, he's no longer with us in human form, or with someone in that lineage, someone who's who maybe is still associated with paper that can guide you more explicitly. So I'm very cautious to kind of dole out these ivory tower soundbites without being firmly ensconced embedded in the tradition that you are trained in. So I just I think you can understand, especially when it comes to tantric stuff and these types of statements from a teacher, I'm very respectful. I want to really be careful what I say and basically speak based on my experience as a representative of the tradition is I've come to understand it. So I'm not sure how satisfactory that is, but I get very nervous when I try and
understand that. Just one quick question is I have also heard that sukawati is only for men. You know,
that's ridiculous. Okay, again, I'm not saying that from you. That is so totally untrue. And I have track this one down, it's gender neutral. This is part of the patriarchy. Okay, don't get me going on this. I really get at this. The patriarchal BS around some of the stuff this is actually I'm gonna say this very briefly. And again, with a little bit of reservation, but I was inspired but what I heard from Lama Paul, don't you know, who? The non who spent 12 years in retreat, remember? Yes, she talks about this quite rigorously and directly and I really appreciate it, where she says, you know, these these rules and these things and the stuff that common even the sutras that were written down, where did all this stuff come from? It came from men. It came from a patriarchal tradition that really started downloading all these sorts of things that that I mean, this is where you have to filter out states of consciousness versus structures of consciousness of happy to run with this is a really important super big topic, where there's a difference between waking up and growing up. But in short, I've tracked this one down myself because I teach on the pure lands. I've heard this I can't tell you how many times and I've tracked it down. I've asked teachers, it's just wrong. You might find some commentary, some shastra that says it's only for women. No, it's gender neutral. And so that one I can say with a fair amount of authority, whoever said that it was just wrong.
I guess we're all gender a gender neutral anyway.
Well, well, exactly. In the ultimate sense. That's, that's exactly right. There was no gender it was on sexuality and interesting parenthetically, and off this is kind of playful. This is perhaps one reason why sukawati is called the land of great bliss, and there's no suffering because you don't have to deal with this whole sexuality thing That in itself is somewhat interesting to me, in terms of in terms of the tradition that the the core sutras that talk about this and the translations, and here's the other thing, even with the translations, I've been to even I work with a ton of translators, I go to conferences. You can get 10 different translators looking at the exact same text and they are going to translate these things in terms based on their developmental structures, whether they know it or not. And so if they bring some of these patriarchal predispositions, I mean talk about lost in translation. So, this one I can speak with some authority on and it really gets my goat, the whole patriarchal thing. The other stuff I think you can hopefully appreciate, I get very hesitant to speak with any authority about such deep, beautiful, profound topics. And so, if you can find someone from rigpa of Christina Longacres still around some of the other people and rigpa for clarity on this, I might go there, but I get really leery to stay home speak something from the outside about traditional viewpoints there.
Well, I really thank you because this is one of those questions. I thought, well just sit with it, and it'll answer itself but it's been 10 years and so you're the first one who came up who gave me an answer at all. So I really appreciate
Yeah, yeah. And I hope you understand my hesitation to go in there and say, Oh, this is the way it is. This is what you should do. You know these I've heard one teacher say within a few minutes to do basically the same question coming from different people. Two completely different answers. You probably have seen this. These types of responses are highly situational, which is why they're so powerful when they're given in a public setting. It really is. It's kind of like you had to be there. And so sometimes the teacher will say one thing to one person and they'll say something completely different to the same question to somebody else. And so how do you roll with that and how do I come in as a third party from the outside and come in with any authority?
I just I don't want to take up too much questions too much time but I just wanted to know if you had any place I could read this in either sadhana or or four books on Guru Rinpoche written by the shoulder, I don't know. But where can I go to actually read about this? Would you know
about the whole rock Sasha issue? Yes. That's a really great question. If you can ping your address, send it either to me at Andrew Anahata dental health check.com I can. I mean, several titles come to mind but I can't say with 100% authority that they're there. I can also ask some some high level translators who who role in this world they might be able to help me but off the top of my head. I don't want to just guess there's a number of texts that come to mind where it could be. Okay. I've definitely read what you've what you're talking about. I have read that. That part is welcome. Okay. Is it Dominica?
Yeah, hi. Thanks so much. So I was hoping to get your thoughts a little bit on Dream Yoga practice. I have a particularly poor aptitude I think for lucid dreaming. Seems like most people if you ask them if they've ever had a lucid dream in their life, you know, they've had at least one. I had never had one spontaneously. And last fall, I decided that I wanted to make a really solid effort of that practice for spiritual purposes. So probably about September, October, I started working with some different methods didn't have any success. Earlier this spring, maybe March or so I got your audio book, your Your Dream Yoga audio book. And I'm working through the physical book right now which has more detail, but I've probably listened to the audiobook like six times and started working with a little bit different of an approach after listening through your program. I really liked what you said about the the sort of fable or parable about the man digging wells and only digging a little ways down and then going over to me, I think that's what I've been doing. And so I got more resolute with the mild method. And within a week, I actually had my first real bonafide lucid dream. Excellent. That was several months ago, and I've not had another one yet. Admittedly, the as I know you you love to mention about how dreamy yoga practices and advanced practice partly because it you have to be your own meditation instructor. You really have to be self motivated. And that self motivation can be difficult when you're not seeing. I'm not even just looking for instant results. I'm looking for any results. And, and, you know, when I say have a particularly low aptitude I mean, I've been a mindfulness meditator for 20 years and, and I never had one spontaneously even after six months of trying to some degree. I didn't have one and it just now I feel like Oh, when I listen to your audiobook and then had one after a week, that was almost just like beginner's luck because I have yet to yet to strike gold again. And so I'm very committed to this as a long term practice, and I'm sure I will have another one eventually. But you know, I thought it doesn't hurt to throw it out there and kind of just sure, get your thoughts on, you know, so someone who's already a mindfulness meditator, long history in the Dharma, but yet has such a poor aptitude for this. Kind of remedial.
Yeah, okay. So Well, a couple things. First of all, this is an incredibly common and I not in any way to dismiss any of what you're saying this is probably the single most not probably definitely the single most common issue challenge around lucid dreaming and Dream Yoga. And so there are a number of things to say here. One is you may be having these dreams and not even be aware of them. So there's a difference between what's called Access and phenomenal consciousness. You can absolutely positively even though, seems to be the exception than the rule, but I also can't say that with complete authority, that people can have lucid dreams. They just don't bring them as the phenomenal apart but they don't bring him in to Access Consciousness. So they don't recall them. That's one thing. But with that said, the fact that you haven't had overt access, lucid dreams, again, is super common. So a couple of things. One is something's happening whether you know it or not. And so the analogy I use is imagine a big vat of cold water. How depending on how big the VAT is, and how cold the water is that represents your non lucid habits, right? I mean, fundamentally, we've been practicing non lucidity from the minute we are born pretty much if you believe in things like rebirth, you've been practicing non lucidity unwittingly from beginningless time. And so this is why we all bear the fruits of our unconscious non lucid practice. We're always meditating we're always becoming familiar with either lucidity or non lucidity. Awareness, are not aware. And so we see the fruits of our efforts in our dreams. That's why the Monica for Dream Yoga is the measure. But what's happening is if you understand, especially like the yoga Chara, I'm not sure which tradition you're studying. But if you if you understand a little bit about the yoga Chara you might want to look at Tecton Hans beautiful book understanding our mind where he talks really beautiful about this. This is important to understand because to cut to the quick you put that cold water having a big vat on a stove well depending on how big it is depending on how cold it is and how much heat you have on energy is being put into the system. There is something happening. It's just happening below the radar, you are warming up whether you know it or not. And so understanding that that's part of what's going on even if you haven't had overt you haven't come to a boil consistently yet. The energy is being distributed into the system. So you I'm curious if you've noticed, perhaps even increase in dream recall, increase in clarity or dreams increase in stability of dreams. Have you noticed any of these sorts of things? In your kind of dream history?
Um, there definitely hasn't been a steady trend in in any direction it's pretty up and down over the course of the past me now it's been more than six months since I started this my my dream recall. fluctuates between remembering three dreams at night with pretty good detail to waking up. So you know, feeling really fuzzy headed and not remembering any. And it's been you know, up and down over time. In general, historically throughout my life, I've had a pretty vivid dream life and pretty good dream recall, I think, probably compared to the average person. But if I might say one other thing one thing that I noticed in terms of patterns of what I experienced in dreams, one thing that makes it a little bit difficult to gain lucidity to have that aha moment. Is that not a lot happens in my dreams. At least the dreams a recall that is categorically different from anything that could happen in real life. My dreams are pretty ordinary, and it's relatively uncommon that anything happens in them that you know, like flying or fourth or something really bizarre. And, and it's very typical in dreams that I'm experiencing some kind of strong emotion or interacting with other people and I definitely find it a lot harder. I suspect I'm not alone in this. It's a lot harder. To maintain. When when awake, spacious awareness of say like illusory form. When engaging with another person, it's easier to remember that oh, this is all like a dream what I'm kind of just in my own bubble. So So direct interaction or strong emotion seems to really cloud that. That's,
that's also super classic. Yes, absolutely. And so, I mean, so there's more. There's so much to say here but a couple of things for take home messages. One is this is a reason why I retrofitted and now emphasize more and more the practice of liminal dreaming, because liminal dreaming is is a lucid sleep onset practice. In other words, it greases the skids for lucid dreaming, but it's also a practice in its own right. And so this is that wonderful pre and post post dream state hypnagogic hypnopompic where you can work with exploring your mind is that transitions from the waking state to the dream state. And so I might encourage that you backpedal a little bit and spend more time working with liminal principles. You might look at the interview I did. I'm not sure if that edge of mind platform but I know it's in the nightclub with Jennifer do PE Jennifer do pair do you when PE are tissue or a book by that title called liminal dreaming, you might want to take a really really close look at that. She also brings in little principles from yoga nidra because this is something that anybody can do every single night when they go to sleep and you start to notice these little micro lucid dreaming is taking place. And you can start to develop some real facilite facility and proficiency in the liminal space. That's huge. So in and of itself, it's a marvelous practice. And then as a lusciously Bonsor practice preparatory for lucid dreaming, it's great. The other thing is exactly why I wrote the second of my three books on my Dream Yoga, lucid dreaming trilogy, the dreams of light book that I mentioned earlier. That book was explicitly written for people who don't have facility with lucidity at night. They work with a daytime correlate which is like you mentioned the practice of illusory form. I mean, illusory form is the main practice. Dream Yoga is a subset of illusory form. And so yes, it's great to continue to continue to put energy at the system. Keep going, keep going. But you can also emphasize a little bit more of the diurnal practice of illusory form and the different stages associated with that. And so the book dreams of light is all about this. And so you might find when you're working with that, at a deep level along with liminal dreaming, you may actually find somewhat magically that your lucid dreams start to warm up and start to pop a little bit more. So this is, you know, I'm not sure if you're a nightclub member, but we started a nightclub again, not again, first time I've said this, largely for exactly this type of support, so that you're not alone. You're with a community. You listen to all these get like 5060 webinars on their interviews with dozens of people, 400 hours of content there, and a number of webinars specifically devoted to exactly these topics. So I might refer you to that. If you haven't explored that platform. There's a ton out there. But in short, it's super common. What you're saying is, is actually more common. It's just almost like the rule. And so this is what like you mentioned earlier, lucid dreaming is advanced. One reason it's considered advanced is because advanced practitioners never give up. You just keep going not too tight, not too loose. So you know, if you try too hard, you know, it's like lucid dreaming on one level applies. A plays by the same rules as conventional causality. But it also applies. It has its own rules and it's sometimes I like to think of it these days as like romance. You know, you're romancing a particular quality of your mind and if you call on the like really heavy bulldozing, too tight to direct, I mean, if somebody was hitting on you like that you would run right. And so there's something there's something about this not too tight, not too loose where and this is part of the frustration and part of the elegance where you want to romance the lucid qualities of your mind and you have to see how the mind works. It's very mercurial it doesn't play by standard rules. Sometimes you'll be trying, trying, you give up and then all of a sudden you have the dream, because you've been trying too hard. And so this is part of what makes this so challenging, frustrating and also rewarding. And so when you have a more light, playful attitude that every night you're going to play with a liminal thing. Every night you're going to answer some energy, you're going to try budgeting, you're not going to try too hard. And then eventually, you know, you know how to flirt with this. This quality of your being then starts to click with you a little bit more. But with that said, continue to read the books classic instructions. Take the courses when you can when they're offered by really gifted people, Charlie Morley is one Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is one you know, he's done some really beautiful things I wrote a little bit in this world. And then you jazz keep going supplement that with liminal dreaming supplement that with a daytime practice of illusory form, kind of diversify your portfolio don't put it all in one market right just diversify. And then you may find because lucidity is a dependently originated phenomena it's it doesn't abide by single action bias these targets like one particular technique, it's multifactorial, and therefore diversifying your portfolio. Not only is it more enjoyable, more playful, but it's more functional. So you might want to just relax, open the aperture a little bit and work with some of these other approaches. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Thank you so much. Good question. Really good. Okay, Hannah fire away. In the meantime, I'm going to look to see if I'm missing anything here. Okay.
I have a question about some of the early history of Tibetan Buddhism and how when harden I said okay, oh, okay. Because I know bond the bond tradition was in Tibet when Buddhism came to Tibet. Yeah. Existing. Correct. And so I'm curious about what influences the Bond had and what is the current state of the bond and I only hear bits and pieces and I never really get much of a more information.
Yeah, this is a big, big, rich, wonderful topic. It is called burn because it's, uhm, last year it's been okay. It is the pre existing indigenous Summit, shamanic animistic tradition of Tibet, and it had a monumental influence on Tibet, Tibet on Buddhism as it migrated from the subcontinent of India into the tantric milieu. One of the principal reasons Tantra has I can't say this exclusively because a lot of this was actually influenced by Hindu Tantra. But a lot of the shamanistic animistic magical mystical aspects of it. In fact, we're adapting to the cultural milieu like water flowing into a different container. That's you traveled throughout Asia and it's amazing how different Buddhism is from China. Japan, Mongolia, Tibet, Malaysia, it's really fascinating to see how the cultural container worked with transplantation of this tradition. So there's a great deal to say here. I'll pause for a second to see if you want to take me in a particular direction I might recommend you read the literature here is quite replete. But I like my friend Reggie Ray's book, indestructible truth, and also secrets of the virtual world. These two volumes have a tremendous amount to say about the transplantation of Buddhism from India into Tibet. There's also a book I think, John powers. I can't remember the exact title. There's a lot out there these days. So if there's something a little bit specific you want me to address the cross pollination between these two traditions is amazing. Yeah, why it's so great. So to read 10s on one yells, work, Dan, Dan Brown, who recently passed and now that mantle has been transferred to a dear friend of mine, just under Pirna. Dan was a incredibly facile translator, scholar practitioner in both classic Tibetan and Boone Buddhism. And so there's there's a tremendous amount that that these traditions worked off of each other. And so they're extraordinarily rich, the Dalai Lama embraces the bone is Buddhism as if it was, you know, part of the family. So I'm not sure where else to run with this. It's such a wonderful big topic, but that's where I might go for some resources and some exploration. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Welcome. Let me before I get to Dr. J. Here, let me get this one. Question for Andrew is Chi the same as prana? Depends on who you ask. Sometimes, chi, and then also Chi and Chi Gong, and that's just the Chinese chi of Chinese medicine. It's associated synonymously with prana. Others would say that prana long, is actually more subtle than chi. So that question depends on who you ask more or less, very, very similar, but I wouldn't say they're synonymous. Due to the practices I've been engaged in my awareness of my body has increased greatly good for you. Fantastic. I can feel Qi but they say in yoga class, and yoga circles. As what can be felt in the hand. I feel it all over my body wonderful through your body. Is this the experience of the subtle body? Yes. It's an experience of the anatomical solid body. subtle body is another like prana and she itself subtle body is a multi valen term. Depending on how you define it, I mean, basically subtle body can be any anything that exists from fully D reified formlessness. To fully reified form. That massive intermediate bandwidth between those two can be upended the label subtle and so you have subtle body phenomenologically that's thoughts, emotions, and the like. Then you have subtle body anatomically and physiologically, and you're talking a little bit about both. You're talking about how this relates to your physical body and you're also talking about how it relates to you phenomenologically as something you perceive and feel so you're talking about both. How can I take advantage of this awareness of Mahamudra meditation, okay. For example, Saudi body has not talked about very much, actually it is. Most of the work is at the level of thoughts. Well, yes, in the cause of vehicles. There's a lot in the Mahamudra tradition I might recommend. This question is anonymous. I don't know who's asking it. I might recommend you look at the four or five books by Reggie Ray. Touching your light mint is his first big one on it. I highly recommend it. He talks a ton about this and then he has four other books. I can't remember all the titles but Dr. Original Ray he's also the the gentleman I talked about earlier the other two books on indestructible truth, the secret to the virtual world. He has his his riffs on the subtle body here are great. The other person who actually works with this a lot is Mingyur Rinpoche. In fact, he just did a program for Tergar te RJ AR you might be able to track it down on on their online site. I'm not entirely sure if it's still available, but maybe he gave us seminar precisely on this. Anything in the inner yogas is it's part of Mahamudra it's part of the Tantra. And this is talked about a time it actually constitutes by some accounts 1/3 of tantric teachings and practices. So solidbody is actually talked about a lot deeper divers read the profound inner principles by rongcheng door J. Translated by my dear friend, Elizabeth Callahan. That's the Bible here is one of the three most important books in all of Vedanta Buddhism. So for starters, recommend Reggie's book, touching enlightenment and then the three others that came after that they're all really quite helpful. Because Reggie does a kind of a cultural translation of subtle body processes and practices for the Western world. And he's quite skillful at it. So there's a lot there, the literature is actually quite replete, talking Rinpoche is another one to SOG and why I he's another one who teaches with some regularity about subtle body processes prophecies, so it's actually there in the Dream Yoga literature. It's really big deal. Um, the inner Yoga is a really big deal. So that's also in that literature as well. Okay, so we'll see if there's anything else before we get to Dr. J. Yeah, what is rock Shasha, cannibal demons? That's why you don't want to be born as a rock Sacha. Right? Yes, it's a form of evil spirit. You could definitely say that. Yeah. That's why I didn't want to mention anything because I didn't want to have you give you nightmares tonight. Yeah. And Barry to Dominica Galantamine. Or read what Barry has written here. He's he's really savvy with this stuff. He's a solid nightclub member. And what he's talking about here is a great way to work with bumping up lucidity in America Galantamine is super effective Galantamine conjoined with a wick to back method conjoined with a mild technique. Boy, that's where that's where I would put my bang for the buck. Okay, yeah, a bunch of stuff on Galantamine. I'm going to pass on that for now. Okay, so Dr. J. And then if there's anybody else we we usually run about the hour mark. So we're getting towards that, Mark, but far away. Dr. J.
Well, I've got a couple questions. But let's address the one we just talked about Galantamine. You know, Galantamine, I've been watching your program for months, if not years, and I went out and you know, to help restore and Galantamine.
It never had even the slightest effect. Right? For some people, right?
Much to my surprise, I found out a couple of months ago. Remember, these are health food stores and it's not FDA approved
is a completely unregulated industry.
But much to my surprise, I found out two months ago, that there is a fully FDA approved form of galantamine. It's called Galantamine hydrobromide and it's been around for a long, long time. And when you read what the indications are for it says Galantamine should be used for people who are having early dementia or early memory problems.
Totally 100% Yeah, excellent. Absolutely. Yep. About that. Did Yep. Yep, that's, that's where I think it comes up under another are a couple of other trade names as well. It's used for dementia, memory loss and the like. It's a nootropic. And so it has been in the prescription categories I think scheduled three probably
for oh, no, no, it's completely on schedule. No.
I thought you just said it was. I thought you said it was prescription what your target?
Yeah, prescription drugs are divided into scheduled drugs. Like you need an FDA license, you know, an unscheduled drugs but you know, diuretics and stuff like that scheduled drug you don't need a DEA license for I guess you would say narcotics.
For something though I take a look deeper because if you think it's still researching, there's a couple others that are prescription strange. I know that for a fact, but I don't remember the names because I don't work in that world anymore. But bottom line is Yes, it's been around for a while in the medical community use for cognitive decline for memory loss for dementia and the like, indeed. And then you have and then you have like what you're talking about the unregulated over the counter stuff where you never know what you're getting. Because if you have no idea. And so for some people Galantamine works it works really well for me, for other people. It does absolutely nothing. And there's I mean, there's other stuff out there now some people have been approached me with a Zoroastrian blend, which I'm going to be exploring, they're going to send me some of that and I'm going to say, you know, I'm willing to try whatever as long as it's not like going to fry my brain which bite but there are you know, read read. David J Browns book dreaming wide awake. He has to really rich chapters on all the supplements around this, of which there are a ton, Thomas you Shaq wrote a book, he's a mysterious kind of guy, disappeared. The book called advanced lucid dreaming, and he has all this it's not studied, it's all anecdotal stuff. Scientists really quiver. You know, they have a real issue with this kind of stuff. But he also riffs on a bunch of these kinds of agents that can be used. They have a place for sure. I use Galantamine, sparingly, but those of you who attend my programs, you know, signed with a waiver. I do explore it in my Dream Yoga programs, because I personally have had tremendous luck with Galantamine this stuff. Really works. And studies have shown that it works. studies by Benjamin Baird, Stephen, a bearish Ryan Hurd and a couple of other people have really shown this in my personal experience, and then also in, you know, informal polls in my classes. This stuff is pretty effective. So what was your second question Jerry?
This is kind of off topic, although it related to ethics, the first conversation with Meredith you know, I've noticed over the months and years watching these programs, that and like even tonight, you know, I'll go up to the top of the screen and see who's you know, who's watching and I've noticed that something well, like 70 80% of everyone who seems to participate, for you can identify if they're male or female, are females.
You have any as a classic demographic in this
in the Western culture, I mean, you know,
I say, classic, every program I do, that's the same. What you're saying here. I've heard this from countless people who work it's my experience as well. I think, honestly, I mean, this is again, this is the opposite of patriarchy is matriarchy. I mean, I think the this is a little bit of perhaps an indication of the sensitivity and I would dare I say the greater intelligence of the female species. You know, they're more in tune with their bodies. They're more subtle things. They're not so caught up in kind of patriarchal enterprises and the like, I have to be a little careful with all this. As you can imagine, these kinds of generalizations are ripe for sniping. But this is classic in my world, every every program, this is probably I'd say 60 70% female. It's great. I mean, it's wonderful. So women seem to be just a little bit more open, sensitive again. I have to be extremely careful making any kind of generalizations. But the literature, not the literature, the data, at least informally in my world is definitely supporting what you just said. For sure. I think that's because they're superior beings to us, Jared.
Well, that's kind of supported in the scientific you know, the psychological or neuroscience literature that, you know, they're, you know, because they take care of babies and stuff like that, that
you're touching their bodies and more in touch with the planet, their options, they're less cerebral. They don't get blown away by logic and rationality and right, and just parenthetically, and then I'll let this go because I didn't want to get in trouble. But in, in Tantra, the feminine reign supreme I mean, it's, it's, they actually talked about in Tantra. One of the characteristics is that it's the theme that traits the male, and so that energy of wisdom is is actually emphasized in kind of tantric ideologies. And so I'm just again, like the earlier question, I'm going to tread somewhat cautiously here, for obvious reasons, but I hear what you're saying. Okay, thanks. All right. I'm gonna get these last two and then we're going to call it so Luke and then Hannah. And then that will be enough for today.
Hi, Andrew. Thank you. And I guess this was just a really simple one. I was curious if there were any Tibetan formulas that were that have been specifically indicated by menopause and in the Tibetan medical tradition, specifically for lucid dreaming. I know that beam Allah and Agra 35 are typically used for general, you could call mental health but I'm just curious if you know, if any Tibetan doctors have encouraged or suggested for general use Tibetan formulas I began.
This is an absolutely perfect question for Dr. Anita. I don't know if you know who he is. I if you go, I think I have him on both platforms, nightclub and edge of mind. I've taught I've taught with him. He's amazing. He's a Tibetan physician. teaches one of the few people that teach with some regularity. Dream Yoga, he's written a book on it and he is the perfect person to ask. You can get in contact with him through a period called Pure Land farms. It's in the Topanga Valley in LA. His I can't remember the name of his main kind of assistant person there. But this is a question to ask directly to Dr. Anita. I'm sure there's something but you know, it's interesting in the times that I bought before I started teaching with him. We've done some things together. I took classes from him years ago, and he's never mentioned them. So I would be a little surprised if there isn't something but I don't know. In fact, it makes it piques my interest so I may reach out for for my own edification and see if there's something but I would start didn't need that Chetan song. I never know how to spell his last name is CH e n t en esa ng or something like that. But Dr. Anita will get you in if you listen to the podcast with him. look him up through his contacts. He lives mostly I think in Italy. But he does pop up in LA now and again, and he does work with a puroland firearms. You could probably get some communication to him and
I'll read I'll ask and I do know Christiana puroland Christiana thank you it means that I have studied with Dr. Anita and I mean, my principal teacher Chogyal Namkhai. had recommended be Milan and Agra 35 but not specifically for Dream practice. And he was a real profound dreamer. As you may know, he did write a you know, an early book on Dream Yoga that was edited by Michael Katz, mainly was talking about those two formulas for folks that had difficulty sleeping, right, but not necessarily for improving lucid dreaming or working towards, you know, do more Dream Yoga practice. And I guess that's kind of where I'm curious, because I'm interested in the Galantamine and then I'm like, I should just try it actually, should just
I've had really good luck with it. So have you tried these agents yourself? I mean, have you tried the ones that you're talking about?
You know, I'm for someone who has like, I'm just gonna speak in the because I've been trained in Ayurveda. And it's a formula like V Mala is a formula that was developed from Bheema Mitra and it's better for folks who run high and long and perhaps pagan or in or in the your Vedic speak in vata and Kapha. If someone has a lot of Pitta in their, in their constitution, the mala might be too heating so typically when I've seen Tibetan doctors, and they haven't prescribed it again for dreaming, they've indicated for me at are 35. So that's the one that I have taken and it just came to mind when Jerry was speaking and then I was like, I bet there's probably, you know, members that have spoken more specifically, and I think you're right, Dr. Anita would be the person to ask.
I would definitely ask him and and on the slight interesting note, I've been in contact with Tony basils who's the New York, NYU researcher on psychedelics that he uses towards the ends of life and he sent me some really interesting papers. Slight sidebar, about the use of psychedelic agents in classic vodka. I mean stuff I wasn't aware of. It's like really eye opening and just really interesting literature search of how these agents were used going back, you'll find this in a bunch of other traditions. I was a little bit more aware of those. I wasn't aware of the tantric engagements with these agents, but he there's this stuff is definitely there. And to me, it's like hey, why not? I mean, body is just really gross. Mind Mind is just really subtle body. And then Tantra body is as important as mine. You're working with what's called neuro phenomenology with every particular experience. As long as you're in a body. There's a neurological correlate, there's a neural signature. And so when you're working with these agents, you're working with very subtle body as a way to affect very subtle mind. And so they definitely have a place and that's why some purists say I, you shouldn't be using these agents and I'm going I think that's really limited. I think that's myopic. These agents have a place and we all have different pharmacological, physiological signatures. And that's why Galantamine really works for some people does nothing for others. And this is where exploring and playing with these agents cautiously with the right intention, with some supervision can actually be fruitful. So I'm a little bit more open minded about this kind of thing.
I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Yeah. Nice. Nice to hear from you. Okay, are we good for today? Yes. Let's say yes. We all say yes. Hey, everybody, nice to see you. Those of you who are familiar with what we do here, we get together like this every two weeks, like I mentioned at the outset. If you're not club members, obviously we have three or four sometimes events going on every week. But outside of that the usual propaganda I mentioned at the outset, great to see everybody if dedication of merit means anything to you in whatever capacity, whatever we have done here we just send out for the benefit of all sentient beings. So we don't think that we're special that we're doing something elite, what we're doing here if it's if it's not a benefit to others and to the world. It's irrelevant. So we always have to remember that what we're doing here Yes, we can learn a few things. We can perhaps wake up but we always wake up for the benefit of others. So let's never forget that. So I will see you around the block so to speak, and see you back here in a couple of weeks. And we also do this kind of geeky fun thing where if you want you can unmute yourself, turn your camera on. And we do this little cyber hug in space just saying hi nice nice
