Sunday, September 23, 2007

"All That We See or Seem is but a Dream within a Dream"




This morning, Adam was telling me about his lucid dream he'd had last night. This was interesting because I'd been researching dream-yoga in the buddhist Six Yogas of Naropa for the last couple of days. You can only do Dream-Yoga once you've mastered tummo (kundalini) meditation, so it's getting a little ahead of ourselves, but whatever. It's basically really mastering lucid dreaming, Dream-Yoga is. Buddhists believe there are four states of consciousness: 1) Waking-state, 2) Dream-state, 3) During orgasm, 4) Right before death. In the 2,3, and 4 the mind is in a very subtle state in which it's possible to master and reach full enlightenment and nirvana. In trying to explain dream-yoga to him something really profound hit me: In lucid dreaming, you gain control of your dreams ONLY WHEN you realize you're dreaming; only when you realize, basically, that the world you're in at the moment is a complete illusion; only then can you be in control of your dreamstate and do whatever you want. Well, "as without, so within:" The same applies to our wakingstate. Only if and when we realize that our waking-world amounts to little nothing than an illusion can we be in complete control of ourselves in that state. Things start to taste a bit mystical from here: there are accounts of the Buddha's abilities after he reached enlightenment, some abilities can be attributed to his mastering of energy through kundalini meditation (psychic abilities, reading minds, healing people, moving matter with energy). There's also an account of his being in two places at the same time, which is to say, his consciousness was in two places at the same time. And then there's the usual litany of miracles attributed to Jesus and Co. Whether or not I agree with that area of the subject, I still find it an interesting connection.

The Six Yogas of Naropa are basically precise instructions on how to do it, and can only be taught from teacher to student. These yogas are also called "vajra meditation," and end with the forceful transference of consciousness from the crown chakra to a union with God (a pure Buddhafield), and it's what our friend over in Nepal is doing as we've finished reading this last sentence.

Fin

3 comments:

Mr. Barbarian said...

I feel like I've been on this same frequency. I focus mostly on how my unspoken thought affects others. Mind energy. This causes me to think positively, which feels to have a physical effect.

Mr. Barbarian said...

I wanted to post this idea somewhere. Here feels good.
"How hard it is to look upon racists, greed driven men, corrupters of beauty and justice; and not hate but love them in your heart and mind."

Mr. Barbarian said...

thinking aloud:
I realized that as imperfect individuals we all possess the seeds for such negative attributes, yet in some they are cultivated more than in others. Therefore, from an enlightened perspective I imagine that it is possible to see the potential for transformation within such persons (or at least a remnant of innocence), thereby making it beneficial for myself and others alike to view everyone as being good at heart (to borrow from Anne Frank).
THEN
there are just some people whom you want to just fuck off.
Can someone be completely evil?
Could Hitler ever love a Jewish person?
Could George W. Bush ever love Hugo Chavez? : )