What is a dream but an astral journey to Wyrd? (dreamingdog.multipy.com)
.
Dream Dancer (Josephine Wall)
Lucid dreams, in which people are aware of and can control their
dreams, are rare.
But now scientists have found they can induce this [magical] state of mind in people by zapping their brains with a specific
frequency of electricity.
"I never thought this would work," said study researcher Dr. John Allan
Hobson, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher at Harvard
University. "But it looks like it does."
The results showed that when the inexperienced dreamers were zapped
with a current of 40 Hertz, 77 percent of the time these participants
reported having what were described as lucid dreams.
"They were really excited," said study researcher Ursula Voss, of J.W.
Goethe-University Frankfurt, who designed the experiments. "The dream
reports were short, but long enough for them to report, 'Wow, all of the
sudden I knew this was a dream, while I was dreaming.'
Dream waves
(Bruce Rolff/shutterstock/livescience.com)
A lucid dream can be thought of as an overlap between two states of consciousness -- the one that exists in normal dreaming, and the one during wakefulness, which involves higher levels of awareness and control.
"If I'm aware, if I'm self-reflective, if I'm thinking about myself,
about my past and future, that's normally a waking function," Voss said.
In lucid dreaming, we transfer elements of waking consciousness into
the dream, she said.
Such overlap is also reflected in the brain waves that researchers can detect using electroencephalography, or EEG... More
"Waking Life"
(Waking Life) Dreaming on purpose and with a conscious objective (by Richard Linklater)
(BF) Special thanks to Alison Koellisch and Butt Dial. Rubber hand test is based on research about multisensory integration. Basketball test based on research from Simmons and Chabris. McGurk Effect test based on research from McGurk and MacDonald.
Born Again, and Again, and... How many times can one man [or bisexual Christian pastor] find Jesus? Can Bishop Eddie Long be reborn a second time? The Atlanta-area Baptist megachurch leader accused of sexual misconduct [sodomy, homosexuality, "adultery"] with several young men, announced on Sunday he is taking time off to focus on his family. His church, like many evangelical Christian churches, exhorts sinners to be “born again,” accepting Christ as their savior on the path to redemption. If a born...
Speculation is a wondrous thing with two edges. It takes us further than we can go based on the evidence, and it possibly misleads us when regarded as more than speculation. Once the Buddha said to his disciples:
"Ascetics, there are two kinds of people who slander the Tathagata [the Wayfarer, the Buddha]. First, there is one who explains what was not said by the Tathagata as said by the Tathagata and, second, there is one who explains what was said by the Tathagata as not said by the Tathagata. These two slander the Tathagata" (Abhasita Sutra).
C'ya at the finish line, sucka (hiltonbarbour.com)
Given the risk of this, Is it better never to speculate? Or is it simply necessary to make clear when speculating? Manyteachers, indeed, fear to speculate; it seems the wiser. But in the West, we can be reckless, not realizing why the Buddha held back some times.
"What's the use?" sighed Eeyore
For instance, is world eternal or not or, moreover, will everyone eventually attain the goal of emancipation, which is nirvana? To answer either way is harmful. Any answer is a bad answer. The Buddha explained why. In the first case, if everyone is sure to reach the goal, why put forth effort? Relax like an overconfident hare. If not everyone, why put forth effort? It may not make a difference, so wallow in pity like Eeyore.
Old man and bow (ogijima.com)
More famously, there was a monk, Malunkya-putta, who asked the Buddha all the imponderable polemic questions: Is it this way or that (e.g., is the animating principle and the body one or are they different), are things finite or infinite, and so on. The Buddha more famously answered that he had not promised to answer these questions (which the Buddha teaches do not lead to dispassion, appeasement, direct wisdom, or enlightenment/liberation), but that being asked them was like a person shot by an arrow not allowing a master physician to remove it until that doctor told him who shot it, why he shot it, what he made the arrow out of, and so on.
The person would surely die before these -- and other questions that would arise -- were answered. Yet, that person would not have done what should be done, would not have laid down the burden by developing direct-insight, and glimpsing nirvana (MN 63). If the Buddha is offering a message of liberation, so rare in the universe, and all we would rather do is find out about the universe, are we not being just as silly?
"It is just as if one were wounded with an arrow smeared with poison. Friends and companions, kith and kin would find a physician, but that person would say: 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the caste of the shooter,' 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the shooter's name and clan... the shooter's size... color [race] whether dark, brown, or golden... home... the bow type... the bowstring material... the shaft's nature, wild or cultivated... whether the feathers of the shaft were vulture, stork, hawk, peacock... That person would die but those things would still remain unknown.
Knowing-and-seeing replaces questioning.
"Whether the view is held that the world is eternal or not, Malunkya-putta, there is still birth, old age, death, grief, suffering, sorrow and despair -- but these can be ended in this very life! I have not explained them because they are not useful, they are not conducive to tranquility, they do not result in nirvana. What I have explained is disappointment, the cause of disappointment, the destruction of disappointment, and the path that leads to the destruction of disappointment. This is useful, this leads to letting go, to dispassion, to perfect wisdom."
"People vs. The State of Illusion" is a film by Austin Vickers including appearances by: Dr. Thomas Moore, Dr. Candace Pert, Debbie Ford,
Dr. Joe Dispenza, Dr. Robert Jahn, Dr. Peter Senge, Brenda Dunne, and
Dr. Michael Vandermark. It is an exploration into the science of
perception, thought, and imagination. The film was directed by
award-winning director Scott Cervine.
(EF) Dr. Joe's segment from the movie discusses the split between who
we really are and who we
appear to be and why addictions are created.
For
the last decade Austin Vickers, an executive leadership training
expert, has been educating audiences across America about
emotional intelligence, human process, self-awareness, creativity, and
imagination. He a writer, personal leadership program designer, and online
video coach. His series has helped make dramatic changes in people’s
lives. He is the creator of this compelling docudrama examining our illusions and addictions -- as well as the science and power of perception and imagination.
.
Vickers was on The Aware Show today discussing the nature of reality. Through an examination
of our perceptions, beliefs, and imaginations we are both judge and
jury in the most important trial we will ever witness: our own lives. "People v. Illusion" includes, as expert witnesses, some of the
nation’s leading thinkers in the fields of neuroscience, biochemistry,
psychology, quantum physics, and consciousness theory.
(Thushangao) "Stanza of Victory," Jayamangala Gatha, a recital by the Messengers of Dharma. These eight stanzas extol the virtues of the Buddha and are recited when embarking on any venture. They are intended to bring happiness and success.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson (PoliticusUSA.com)Newt's Holy War? It's coming to your town in 2012. It is absurd that we would be drawn so often back to the “War on Christianity” meme that seems to form the heart and core of every Republican campaign in 2012.
Virtually every major Western leader has over the past several years expressed the view that Islam is a peaceful religion and that those who commit violence in its name are fanatics who misinterpret its tenets. This claim, while widely circulated, rarely attracts serious public examination.
Through an examination of the Koran, other Islamic texts, and the example of the prophet Muhammed, this documentary argues, through a sober and methodical presentation, that violence against non-Muslims is and has always been an integral aspect of Islam. Jihad, while best translated as "struggle," when represented in the life of Muhammad, meant organized warfare against non-believers.
Relying on Islam's early texts, this documentary considers the violent, expansionary ideology within Islam that seeks the destruction or subjugation of other faiths, cultures, and systems of government. More
Maya means illusion. In the uniquely Buddhist language, Pali, the word is moha, "delusion." It's the Indian concept that the world is not what it seems to be. The Buddha revealed that what seems like permanent, painless, and personal is anything but.
Maya, according to HeinrichZimmer, manifests its force through the rolling universe and evolving forms of individuals. According to Vedic Hinduism there is a reality, Brahman, behind the illusory changing world. Buddhism considers the world an illusion because it is misleading and, as a result to our detriment, we become attached. Others misinterpret the Dharma that says the "self (composed of form, feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness) is emptiness" to mean that there is nothing. It is not nothing, but rather no substantial "thing."
Apparent "things" are without essence, unsatisfactory, and always in flux. But that is on an ultimate level, not to be arrived at by thinking or believing or faith. It is directly observable through serenity-and-insight meditation.
Not only is it true of mentality (the psychological components of being), it is even true of materiality (the physical components and structures). Not only is it true for every apparent "thing" in the universe, it is true for all the constituents of existence: The self is this way.
Matter is made up of invisible atoms. They can be divided into electrons, protons, and neutrons. These subatomic or elementary particles were thought to form matter, but hundreds of other elementary particles have been discovered such as mesons, muons, neutrinos, and positrons. Scientists have since discovered that these elementary particles are themselves made up of smaller particles called quarks, hypothetical particles that carry a fractional charge (Quarks Diagram, 4to40.com). Then there are the strings.
They are incessantly arising and passing away. They are incapable of satisfying. They are impersonal.
To understand that secret, to know how it works, and to transcend the cosmic spell of illusion -- simultaneously breaking outwardly through layers of appearance and inwardly through the intellectual and emotional layers of the psyche -– this is the pursuit conceived of by Indian philosophy to be the primary and finally undeniable human task.
If it were ultimately pleasant and worthy of experience, the Buddha would have commended it and spoken in praise of samsara. He did not. Instead, he spoke in praise of nirvana.
Many religions regard the evils of the human condition as a result of ignorance. Being ignorant of the truth about Ultimate Reality and the purpose of life, people's values become confused, and consequently they act unbeneficially. In Buddhism, this ignorance (mithyajnana) leads to grasping after self, and hence to error. In Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism this blindness (avidya) is what binds people to the Wheel of Birth-and-Death (Samsara). Taoist sages condemn knowledge of worldly things as a source of confusion about true values, and similarly many scriptures warn against the illusory goals and vanities that infect worldly life.
This selection of passages is arranged in roughly the following order: the practical observation that ignorance of Ultimate Reality spurs evil and detrimental behavior. Next, according to the religions of India, it is due to ignorance that humans are bound to suffer on the wheel of Samsara, going through continual deaths and rebirths. Spiritual blindness is the subject of the third group of passages, passages which describe ignorance as a veil that obscures insight. Other passages describe humanity's blindness by such metaphors as frogs in a well and moths drawn to perish in a lamp. In our blindness, we are attracted to the vanities of this world which are ephemeral and deceiving, according to the next group of passages. Concluding passages reason that even evil itself is an illusion or a bad dream.
The fool says in his heart, "There is no [Sakka]." They are all corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good. The Lord looks down from [the] heaven[s] upon the children of men, to see if there are any that act wisely, that seek after [Sakka]. They have all gone astray, they are all alike corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord? --This mirrors Buddhist mythology on the custom of Sakka the "king of kings" and the Four Great Kings who regularly visit earth (two to three times a month) to check in on human progress in virtue as summarized in Judaism and Christianity in Psalm 14.1-4
The demonic do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do. They have no sense of uprightness, purity, or truth.
"There is no God," they say, "no truth, no spiritual law, no moral order. The basis of life is sex; what else can it be?" Holding such distorted views, possessing scant discrimination, they become enemies of the world, causing suffering and destruction.
Hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in delusion and clinging to deluded ideas, insatiable in their desires, they pursue their unclean ends. Although burdened with fears that end only with death, they still maintain with complete assurance, "Gratification of lust is the highest that life can offer."
Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings.
"I got this today," they say; "tomorrow I shall get that. This wealth is mine, and that will be mine too. I have destroyed my enemies. I shall destroy others too! Am I not like God? I enjoy what I want. I am successful. I am powerful. I am happy. I am rich and well-born. Who is equal to me? I will perform sacrifices and give gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity." This is how they go on, deluded by ignorance. Bound by their greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled about by a fragmented mind, they fall into a dark hell. --Hinduism. BhagavadGita 16.7-16
He who does not clearly understand Heaven will not be pure in virtue. He who has not mastered the Way will find himself without any acceptable path of approach. He who does not understand the Way is pitiable indeed! --Taoism. ChuangTzu 11
This vast universe is a wheel, the wheel of Brahman. Upon it are all creatures that are subject to birth, death, and rebirth. Round and round it turns, and never stops. As long as the individual self thinks it is separate from the Lord, it revolves upon the wheel in bondage to the laws of birth, death, and rebirth....
The Lord supports this universe, which is made up of the perishable and the imperishable, the manifest and the unmanifest. The individual soul, forgetful of the Lord, attaches itself to pleasure and thus is bound. --Hinduism. SvetasvataraUpanishad 1.6-8
By reason of the habit-energy stored up by false imagination since beginningless time, this world is subject to change and destruction from moment to moment; it is like a river, a seed, a lamp, wind, a cloud; like a monkey who is always restless, like a fly who is ever in search of unclean things and defiled places, like a fire which is never satisfied. Again, [thought] is like a water-wheel or a machine: it goes on rolling the wheel of transmigration, carrying varieties of bodies and forms... causing the wooden figures to move as a magician moves them. Mahamati, a thorough understanding concerning these phenomena is called comprehending the egolessness of persons. --Buddhism. LankavataraSutra 24
Intoxicated by the wine of illusion, like one intoxicated by wine; rushing about, like one possessed of an evil spirit; bitten by the world, like one bitten by a great serpent; darkened by passion, like the night; illusory, like magic; false, like a dream; pithless, like the inside of a banana-tree; changing its dress in a moment, like an actor; fair in appearance, like a painted wall--thus they call him. --Hinduism. MaitriUpanishad 4.2
Owing to delusion, one again passes through cycles of birth and death. In this unbroken chain of births and deaths, delusion keeps cropping up again and again. --Jainism. Acarangasutra 5.7-8
Few see through the veil of Maya. --Hinduism. BhagavadGita 7.25
Long is the night to the wakeful; long is the league to the weary; long is Samsara to the foolish who know not the sublime Truth. --Buddhism. Dhammapada 60
This world is as a juggler's show, Wherein various disguises he assumes. As he puts off his makeup, ended is His expanse [of creation]. Then is left the Sole Supreme Being. How many various guises has He assumed and cast off? To where have they gone? From where did they come? From water arise innumerable waves; From gold are shaped ornaments of various forms; Many are the kinds of seeds sown: As ripens the fruit, again is left the Sole Supreme Being. Into thousands of pitchers falls reflection of the one sky; As the pitcher is broken, the sole Light remains. While thoughts of Maya last, doubt, avarice, and attachment are found; When illusion is lifted, only the Sole Supreme Being is left. --Sikhism. Adi Granth, Suhi, M.5, p. 736
Within the Essence of Mind all things are intrinsically pure, like the azure of the sky and the radiance of the sun and the moon which, when obscured by passing clouds, may appear as if their brightness had been dimmed; but as soon as the clouds are blown away, brightness reappears and all objects are fully illuminated. Learned Audience, our evil habits may be likened unto the clouds; while Sagacity and Wisdom are like the sun and the moon respectively. When we attach ourselves to outer objects, our Essence of Mind is clouded by wanton thoughts which prevent our Sagacity and Wisdom from sending forth their light. --Buddhism. Sutra of Hui Neng 6
Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking themselves wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. --Hinduism. Katha Upanishad 1.2.5
Confucius said, "In vain I have looked for a single man capable of seeing his own faults and bringing the charge home against himself." --Confucianism. Analects 5.26
Blind is this world. Few are those who clearly see. As birds escape from a net, few go to a blissful state. --Buddhism. Dhammapada 174
On a certain occasion the Exalted One was seated in the open air, on a night of inky darkness, and oil lamps were burning. Swarms of winged insects kept falling into these oil lamps and thereby met their end, came to destruction and utter ruin. Seeing those swarms of winged insects so doing, the Exalted One saw the meaning in it and uttered this verse of uplift,
They hasten up and past, but miss the real; a bondage ever new they cause to grow. Just as the flutterers fall into the lamp, so some are bent on what they see and hear. --Buddhism. Udana 72
Men think much of their own advancement and of many other worldly things; but there is no improvement in this decaying world, which is as a tempting dish, sweet-coated, yet full of deadly gall within.... It is as intangible as a mist; try to lay hold of it, and it proves to be nothing! --Hinduism. Yoga Vasishtha
The Tathagata [Buddha] knows the polluted minds of beings for what they are. For he knows that the minds of ordinary people are not actually polluted by the polluting forces of perverted views, which, being nothing but wrong ideas, do not really find a place in them. --Buddhism. Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines 12.3
The power that is not good--that is, the power that causes misfortune--is, after all, only a bad dream. The life that is not good--that is, disease--is, after all, only a bad dream. All discords and imperfections are, after all, only bad dreams. It is our bad dreams that give power to disease, misfortune, discord, and imperfection. It is like being tortured by some demon in our dreams; But when we awaken, we find that there is actually no such power, And that we had suffered at the hands of our own mind. --Seicho-no-Ie. Nectarean Shower of Holy Doctrines
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