This was an amazing event I hear. It sold out quickly so we are fortunate to be able to hear the teachings for free online.

Last night I had a dream that I was having a picnic with a few people. I remember that Snackrabbit and Nikki were there. It was a nearly cloudless day. A giant cloud formed in the sky and started to take the form of some sort of giant machine like form - very difficult to describe. But basically it looked like some sort of anime organic machine. I made a comment about how strange this looked to Nikki and as we stared at it it actually formed this machine thing - a giant - very giant and ominous looking machine. Then it started shooting at us - these blue energy bolts that were like flying barbs. It took several seconds for the barbs to reach us and when they did, they just vanished. Some of them hit me but it felt like a puff of air and they dissolved on contact. I kept thinking that this was very strange and new, but it never occured to me that I was dreaming.

Sooooooo, remember, if a giant organic anime robot machine forms in the air and shoots non-destructive barbs at you it means . . . .

YOU ARE DREAMING!!!

So pay attention and don’t take anything for granted. If something weird happens, do a state check. Read your watch, if the numbers swim, or close your mouth and hold your nose - if you can still breathe, or eat a rock, is it soft in texture with no taste, or breathe under water, if you don’t drown, or close your eyes, if you can still see, or if you can just fly . . .

YOU ARE DREAMING!!!

Want to know more about Tantric Buddhism? Start here.

This is the real basic Buddhist practice - concentration to become ’single pointed’. I also made a little manual for this with some extra details. Here are some of the things that the Buddha said about mind training.

Disclaimer: Okay, so anything with a Title of ‘Journal’ is a journal entry. If you don’t want to be bored by diatribes, then don’t read these entries marked “Journal”. But I am posting them in a public place so it is not quite a personal thing. Maybe it will be more intimate, but it won’t be purely personal.

I rode 8 miles this morning with two friends from Emaho. We rode along the canals in Scottsdale which I have never done before. Its nice because the trails are close by and free from traffic, except to cross streets now and again. Daniel had gone to Tucson to see the Dalai Lama and was in very good spirits and looking forward very much to continuing on the Path. He expressed great optimism that was rather infectious. The Buddhist practices are not just some philosophical structure to memorize and preach, they have deep practical value. I would add that they are truely non-dogmatic, although those of us who are critical of the western approach to spirituality might dismiss the practices outright because of the similar language. But words take on the meanings of one’s own understanding and as I delve deeper into the practice I see that these teachings are for everyone. It is not important that anyone become a Buddhist, only that they direct their lives towards happiness for themselves and others. The only way to truely know this direction in life (called ’safe direction’ in Buddhism) is through authentic and sincere introspection. So it follows that the practices of Buddhism enhance one’s ability to look deeply at his or her situation. The practices are of faith in one’s own basic goodness combined with deep concentration of the mind.

But this probably sounds dogmatic already. I am making a statement that an unexamined life is wasted - so there is that. Of course to argue with this assertion one would have to say that the unexamined life is not wasted - but it would seem that the only way to make a statement like that would be through examination!!!

Anyhow, we rode and rode and rode and I got a headache. We stopped and got some coffee and I ate a bran muffin. We talked about the impending collapse of the oil based economy and good diet along with many other things. My bran muffin tasted like cereal - bran cereal. Oh, we rode up the hill to the Rigley Mansion too! Mansions are big. I wish they would all be converted into retreat centers. RETREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tashidelek (means, ‘may you be perfect, auspicious, and happy in every moment’ in Tibetan) everyone!

I woke up and sloughed off to the bathroom to take a pee. I had my pee and then I looked at my face in the mirror. I have been growing a new beard for two weeks now and I noticed that it was much longer than I thought it should be. It was rather wirey and maybe a half an inch long. Also I noticed that there were two huge streaks of skin running through it - where it had been shaved clean. I felt the smooth parts of my face and suddenly thought, this isn’t right at all, something is wrong. I wonder if I am dreaming. So I quickly did a “state check”, glancing down at my watch to see if the numbers were solid or ’swimming’ like in the move, ‘Waking Life’. Sure enough, they were very blury. “I’m dreaming,” I thought, with a sense of exhileration.

“Chris?!” someone called my name. I tried to answer, ‘Yes?’ but my mouth was sealed shut and as I strained to answer the bathroom faded and my bedroom rushed in. I did a quick ’state check’ and sure enough, I was awake. The sense of exhileration remained, however, a real rush of energy in my body.

Now what is always interesting about these types of dreams is how ‘real’ they seem. That’s why doing a state check is so helpful. If the numbers are swimming then you are dreaming - but that might be your only indication, especially in such a mundane dream as this one seemed to be.

In order for state checks to work, you must check them periodically when you are awake. Do a check anytime something seems ‘odd’ in waking, like a feeling of dejavu, or witnessing a near car accident, or an odd color to the sky - anything like that. A state check can involve looking at some text - carry around a little message with you - something like “Are you dreaming?”. Chances are, if you are dreaming, that these letters will not hold their form. Or you can do like I do and wear a digital watch. In the dream state the time will not hold. Check three times. Each time you look at it the chances of it changing will increase.

Also it is helpful to make note of dream signs. You can keep a journal if it is hard for you to remember your dreams but take note of ‘odd’ occurrences in the dream, like your beard being too long. Teeth falling out is another one. Being in your underwear at school - and on and on. Then state to yourself that if any of these things are happening it means that you are dreaming. Really dwell on that.

My challenge now seems to be keeping the lucid state longer. I always seem to get very excited and blow myself right back into being awake now. I have only had a couple of lucid dreams that were prolonged.

For more information on lucid dreaming, check out the Lucidity Institute.

Don’t try to correct, suppress or cultivate anything.
Don’t try to place your mind inwardly.
Don’t search for an object to meditation upon outwardly.
Rest in yourself without fabricating anything.

Paltrul Rinpoche

This is a wack-a-mole style game - you’ll have to play it to appreciate it. Make sure you take some time to schedule work in though.

Lam Rim Radio is a source of streaming audio buddhist teachings and they have just creaded a new website: www.lamrim.tv that will stream video!

I got my new stainless steel neti pot today. It is much bigger than the pot I use now. It holds twice as much water. There is a ‘nose cone’ on the spout which allows it to fit into any nostril. The pot came with an instructional video for the PC as well as an instruction booklet. This is a pretty good deal for only $15, I think.

A day after I bought the pot I got an email from Health and Yoga making available the name and contact information of a teacher in phoenix who will teach the metho directly for $15. I’m pretty pleased with my experience with this company.

I bought the pot from HealthandYoga.com. They are based in India so anything you buy from them will take a while to arive.

New Edict: Get back in your pods, humans! Linky

Okay, so anything with a Title of ‘Journal’ is a journal entry. If you don’t want to be bored by diatribes, then don’t read these entries marked “Journal”. But I am posting them in a public place so it is not quite a personal thing. Maybe it will be more intimate, but it won’t be purely personal.

When I read my journals (the ones on my bookshelf), it is like I am reading something that a stranger has written down. So, too, will be anything I write here. I will not remember tomorrow what I have written today, but instead will visit with myself as time goes on.

I drank 6 cups of water first thing this morning in order to induce a bowel movement. It works - within 10 minutes there was that old, familiar urge (to sit and shit). Also I cleaned out my nose with a neti pot. Tanya has cleaned the master closet so now we don’t have to dig through piles to find underwear or socks or whatever. There are sock bins . . . and underwear bins.

I listened to a radio ‘teaching’ on Friday. It was by a tibetan practitioner, a lady - maybe a nun. I couldn’t find her name. I will call her a nun, presumptiously. I don’t even know what the teaching was officially about. Usually there is some sort of descriptive title to these things. This is approximately what I heard:

“Always keep your mind in prayer for the benefit of all beings”.

She said that if your mind is always in prayer then it is one with the Dalai Lama’s mind. I would add that it is also one with Christ’s mind or any other great person.

A mind filled with prayer has a pragmatic effect of cutting discursive thinking. It cuts competitive thinking. If your mind is filled with love and wishes of benefit for everyone (everyone includes spiders and cockroaches and Hitler), then there will be less self-doubt, less anger, less selfishness. There will be less room for these things. It is rather like the idea of keeping a ‘clear mind’, but it has the benefit of dealing with discursiveness directly. Fight fire with fire. One’s mind is streaming thoughts but they are thoughts of benefit.

This prayer is called:

The Four Immesurables:
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings never be seperated from the happiness which is free from suffering.
May all beings abide in equanimity, free from both attachment and detachment.

These are immesurable wishes because they are directed at all beings, which are immesurable. You can not count how many beings there are. They are like the grains of sand on a vast beach. Wishing, may they all have happiness and the conditions of happiness, in every moment is the cause and condition our own happiness.

Rinpoche suggests this prayer:
May I bring more happiness to my life and to other people’s lives.

So this goes further and says, may I be a cause of happiness for others.

This has the benefit of cutting self-loathing. Fill the mind with thoughts like these and let go of all doubts and fears.

For those of you who didn’t get to attend these three days of teachings, Lam Rim Radio will be broadcasting the teachings live from their website. They will also archive the teachings for future listening. This is a great site with all kinds of Tibetan Buddhist teachings given by many eminent teachers.

It is your freedom to be miserable or to be blissful,
to remain in darkness or to live a life of light.
This is the prerogative of human beings.

Osho

Here is a java emulator that lets you play the classic infocom text-based games like Zork and Hitchhikers Guide