I am very sorry for getting this wrong my friend, I assumed based off your old profile name, that was stupid of me (now I feel like an ass, thats the punishment for assuming ). I apologize for my ignorance. For what its worth, I believe some of the most powerful spiritual beings throughout history may have been agender, like Chirst and the Buddha. I also believe if God had a gender, it would be agender.
Here is a ‘transcript’ of the Buddha being interrogated:
**"“Are you a reincarnation of god?” **
**“No,” he replied. **
**“Are you a wizard, then?” **
**“No.” **
**“Well, are you a man?” **
**“No.” **
**“So what are you?” They asked, being very perplexed. **
**Buddha simply replied: ** “I am AWAKE”
I dont think you will be disappointed by this sacred practice. Especially if you do it with your heart fully.
For the record I think AHs books are all total Grand Slams, TWR may have wrote the ‘bible’, but Andrew is able to articulate these highly cerebral ideas and wisdoms in ways I have never seen any other author do. Watching his book videos is a powerful suppliment to his texts, and really helps hammer home these complex topics.
(When TWR’s book arrives, read the first review on the back cover of the book, and look at who did the Forward of the book, I think that speaks volumes of the Angels in TWR’s orbit.)
to be honest, I think it is part of many spiritual paths, more than most people think. Did you like this book by Melinda? Worth buying?
Absolutely, I was blown away the other day by how many details I could remember when I did this. You can even try this as part of your reality checks throughout the day, playing a chunk of the day from start to finish. I definitely think it helps strengthen memory, among other big benefits. This is 1 of the 4 foundational practices TWR writes about (I think in chapter 12), it was also a technique talked about in 1 of the lucidity induction videos from the Dream Team.
Yes this is what I need. I need my dreams to be more embodied. Dream Yoga is in many ways stills conceptual for me.
No worries. I haven’t shared about me being agender yet. That’s why I prefer they/them pronouns, though I also accept he/him. There’s an interesting history nonbinary genderedness in religion: the Two-Spirit people of the indigenous North American religions, Ardhanarishvara in Hinduism, the Greek god Hermaphroditus, the mukhannathun in Islam, the kathoey in Buddhism. In Christianity we have the 18th century Quaker preacher Public Universal Friend who was agender. Very interesting person haha.
I kinda feel like being nonbinary is a physical correlate of nondualism. So makes sense that I’m interested in nondualism, being who I am.
Yes I’ve listened to all of them. Well except the Preparing to Die videos. Mostly interested in his dream yoga work, so I’ve listened to that book and Dreams of Light. I feel I’ve absorbed both thoughts and language about dream yoga pretty thoroughly. Interested to see how Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche articulates the teachings.
True. All the spiritual paths lead to the same truth, and to approach that truth some amount of surrender needs to happen. Surrender helps us let go of our preconceptions which cloud our vison. So it makes sense to me that it is part of other religions as well.
Yes the book is definitely worth reading. Her explanation of Western alchemy and how’s it’s related to dream practice is really insightful and fascinating. And she’s got a lot to say about the passive approach in lucid dreaming. Instead of trying to change things, let events unfold as they will. That resonates with me and my lucid dreaming style.
I used to do memory reviews a few times during the day. Honestly can’t say it helped my recall. I did get lucid through doing the practice in a dream once.
Had not heard of the Islamic mukhannathun before, or the kathoey in Buddhism, or the Quaker PUF, very interesting thank you for sharing this!
That video was very well done, my favorite part was when the Friend befriended the Judge, and was asked to preach on a topic of their choosing! Very impressive.
I loved this quote:
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus .” Galatians 3:28
Amen
I agree. I also believe that people who are nonbinary have a unique advantage in many cultures to be very powerful spiritual leaders. I think like a CIA agent, or high level politician they have the unique perspective to see how the narrative about reality does not fit true Reality. I also think the ones preaching Love and Gods word have some of the strongest souls, having survived so much adversity.
AMEN my friend, very well said!
There is no arguing with Truth.
You are not the first person to recommend it, its been on my reading list for year, but took a backseat to many others. Now I am very excited to check it out.
Very cool it helped with lucidity. It helps for me to not only remember the basics, but also to try to remember the intimate details, how much of the conversations can you recall, what color was the cashiers eyes, can you remember the number of stop lights you had to stop at that day?
I have a theory that when people get really good at this, that can remember every detail of the day.
Which begs the question, is memory 100% in the brain, or also stored else ware…
this is SO true!
I have a saying since 2009:
all paths are heading to…
the heart.
yes, this resonates deeply with me.
I give commands in my LDs but most of the times, they just come naturally. In the beginning I would do my LD plans and it would manifest but with time, it all started happening naturally.
Yes they must have been very charismatic lol. Wonder what they preached about?
Great verse. From a mystical reading, this verse is pointing to the one underlying reality behind everything, what the Christian nondualist Meister Eckhart called the “grund” or ground of being.
Yes, they certainly are more able to see that a lot of what we take for granted is completely socially constructed and that we have a tendency to impose our beliefs on reality instead of letting reality appear for what it really is. Being forced to deconstruct gender roles because you don’t fit into them certainly does give you a head start on the spiritual path where you have to deconstruct literally everything .
Let me know your thoughts when you do get around to reading it! I found the book very helpful.
Ah this is a really good suggestion, I’ll give it a try!
Amen
I’ve found the same to be true. It feels like I’m being guided somehow. But not in a controlling way. I still feel completely in control.
No LDs. Dream recall is getting better though. Just been focusing on that for now.
Started attending a church weekly again. I don’t have a car and don’t drive so I have to walk 3 miles to get there. I enjoy it. It’s like a little pilgrimage I get to do every Sunday.
I also am in the beginning stages of joining a religious order. I’m an oblate right now which is someone who supports the order with prayer and finances. In half a year I can become a postulant. Synchronicity: the pastoral intern at the church I just started attending is a friar of the order I just joined. He was preaching the first Sunday I went to the church, and he was wearing the habit of the order.
I started praying the liturgical hours, which are traditional prayers Christians have been praying for millennia. I find the daily rhythm of prayer to be so sweet and uplifting. Dunno why I didn’t do this before.
I’ve been noticing recently that there is a baseline of contentedness in my life. I really look forward to each day now and continuing my spiritual practices. I’m less interested in playing video games, streaming shows, etc. Maybe my dispassion meter has gone up a bit, I dunno. Or maybe I’m just in a phase and I’ll go back to the video games and other stuff in a month and forget about spiritual stuff for a while.
No Doubt! To be honest, I think these highly evolved spiritual souls could preach the simplest things, or even say nothing at all, and still have their flocks deeply resonate with their energy! I think this is the power of having the holy spirit ‘swell’ in certain people.
Give me 2 months. I will find out shortly if my library can get it from another library. If not, I will buy it off of Amazon. Hesitant to buy, bc my book shelf if about the collapse from all the books on it, lol! Loved the table of contents of the text.
AMEN
This made my heart sing! Very happy to hear this!
I think any congregation would be very blessed and lucky to have you, and I am deeply grateful for your presence on this site!
Love this! Great opportunity to reflect on Gods creation and word, and replay the sermon and sacred text on the way home. Do you have a bike to ride?
This is so awesome! I think you will be a rock star at this, and will be able many souls! Very proud of you
I think when we start to figure out what really matters in life, our desires for distractions starts to diminish. Finding what makes your heart sing, and then finding how you can use it to help the most people, is one of the most beautiful aspects of this life.
LD last night. Some British politician wearing a bullet proof vest was getting arrested and put into a police car. The dream quality was grainy like 80s and 90s television. I realized I was dreaming. The resolution suddenly got so much better, and now I was in a high school walking past all kinds of students. I enter a room and try to put my hand through the wall, but it is hard. The wall resists and my hand makes big dents in the wall. I open up the door so I can see the other side and I see the wall bulging out like putty from the other side. I’m eventually able to push my hand through and make a hole in the wall like punching through a wall of taffy. I feel that I’m losing the dream so I tell myself I am dreaming again. Then I go outside, it’s dark. I see rolling hills dotted with small lakes in the moonlight. I decide to fly, something I have been previously afraid of in dreams, since I have a fear of heights. I lift off and say “not too fast or too high”. I belly flop on the ground a couple times but finally get up. I fly leisurely around, seeing people walking below. I greet them namaste style and I fly over their heads. I meet a kid who is also flying and he begins to teach me some things. Suddenly I realize that that I am riding an umbrella like a broomstick, so I take it and say “I don’t need you, I have my own power” and hold it out in front of me as I try to fly. A gap where I forget what happens, and I’m on the ground talking to the kid who is sad for some reason that I stopped using the umbrella. After this I walk off and try to change the scenery to a beach by jumping and twirling in the air. I close my eyes however and I think this is the reason why I wake up at that moment.
Had brief ludic dream a few days ago. Forget exactly which day. First time I became lucid from recognizing a dream sign. Apparently I got excited though and woke up immediately.
It happened at a good time. Was getting discouraged about not seeing much progress and actually still struggling with dream recall some nights. It’s given me encouragement to keep up my efforts.
Also I’ve been telling myself that illusory form practice by itself is a worthwhile and powerful practice even if it doesn’t lead to ludic dreams. This has encouraged me to keep up the practice even when I don’t see any results.
Oh I definitely feel more aware and my surroundings sometimes start feeling a bit surreal. Similar to the feeling of meditation but with a dreamlike quality. So yes thanks for encouraging me to see this as a result as well.
Interesting NLD two nights ago. I was in hell. Bound in some way so I couldn’t move. A bald woman was hanging from the ceiling by her arms and legs which were also bound, She tried to entice me, to drive me to despair. I said that I knew that I was a sinner but wasn’t bound by sin because of the power of Jesus Christ. As soon as I said this I became unbound and ran up some stairs out of hell. When I got to the top though, I thought about all the people still down there still suffering and decided to go back to try to help them, When I got back however everything had changed and everyone was sitting around a long couch watching a television.
These days I have been getting reminders about focusing inward and how that gets reflected outwardly through routine, compassion and openness with no compulsion to go anywhere or to do anything out of a need to counteract boredom. So when I recently viewed this Japanese movie, Perfect Days, I clicked with the congruence of living everyday life, understanding that expansiveness that Andrew always talks about as something I can control, and it gets easier. It’s never perfect, but that’s the thing, it is!
this is SO amazing! this has happened in several lucid dreams with me, with other sources of inspiration - God, Stars, Light… and this kind of energy. When we remember, it all changes
I don’t know if it’s because of summer and the heat, August has been like this for me. As reading AH’s new book, I already underlined “the entire spiritual path is perceptual, not actual. It’s a path to nowhere, or now-here” + “the open mind provides everything we can possibly want. wanting nothing and lacking nothing.”
). I apologize for my ignorance. For what its worth, I believe some of the most powerful spiritual beings throughout history may have been agender, like Chirst and the Buddha. I also believe if God had a gender, it would be agender.
(Jung’s Crown Jewel)
.
this has happened in several lucid dreams with me, with other sources of inspiration - God, Stars, Light… and this kind of energy. When we remember, it all changes