“These differences arise from collective biases and beliefs embedded in the culture, not from fundamental wisdom. Cultural ignorance is developed and preserved in traditions.”
&
“Ignorance is not bad.
It’s the way things are.
Ignorance is simply an obscuration of consciousness:
condemning it is like being angry at the clouds for blocking the sun.”
page 12
'Suffering is rooted in our minds.
We blame our unhappiness on our situation and believe we would be happy if we could change our circumstances.
But the situation in which we find ourselves is only the secondary cause of our suffering.
The primary cause is innate ignorance and the resulting desire for things to be other than they are.
We carry the root of suffering, ignorance of our true nature, with us wherever we go"
(Pages 12-13)
Also page 12:
In Tibetan there is a saying: “When in the body of a donkey, enjoy the taste of grass.”
Thank you for the video! I wish I could have been on there, I have 2-3 questions that I’ve been struggling with that I’d like to hear from TWR about.
no.
this one:
check this out:
lovely video… thank you for sharing 
Thank you. This is powerful. It (this dissolving the body, dissolving everything into light) is, as I understand it, one of the foundations of @Steve_Gleason’s practice.
the dream was:
I was flying and when I decided to come into the ground, I dissolved myself into flowers to gently merge with the earth… it was… amazing
Anytime my friend
What are the questions you wanted to ask him?
Thank you for sharing you 
He used to post here, and the posts were home runs.
I wonder if he has fully merged with the light…
He pretty much has. I’m in email contact with him still. 4 years (5 now?) non-stop practice starting with 2 years TYoDaS protocols and then 3 years self-researched tummo based meditation, and he says he’s achieved continuity of awareness throughout waking and dreaming. I remember when I was “instructing” him on lucid dreaming back on dreamviews. Now I am the disciple!
Two major things:
Exactly how does one balance “generating the strongest intent possible” while maintaining “openness, ease, a relaxed attitude”. I would like to see TWR-phrased examples of the inner dialogue / feelings used to generate this strongest possible intent while not having it create tension.
He writes that every time one realizes “this is a dream,” that it should not be a mechanical recitation of a phrase, but that one should feel it, and that there should be an immediate, qualitative change in experience. But then afterwards, while one is still in that higher state of awareness, does one continue to recognize “this is a dream?” continuously? Occasionally? And since one is already in the higher state of awareness, there won’t be a qualitative change in experience, since that change has already occurred, and is that detrimental?
This is so AWESOME!
Really glad you let me know this. I wonder if he is off fighting evil, or building pure lands, or both?
I have a feeling he will reward you for your help, if he hasnt already.
Have you thought about asking Andrew about this in the BC Q&A today?
Pick the one thats weighing on you the most.
Have you asked these questions to other teachers?
I haven’t had the chance to ask other teachers. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make the Q&A, and I’m not an active NC member these days…
I mean, at least about the second one, I think I understand the key point: don’t let your practice become mechanical. The first one is something I’m still struggling with. When I build very high intent, I tend to get more lucids, and I also tend to sleep a lot worse because my mind is so wound up with the anticipation and energy and focus of the intent.
Book came. Right away I really like the butter/ leather analogy.
“The teachings can soften the hard skin of ignorance and conditioning, but when they are stored by the intellect and not rubbed into the practitioner with practice and warmed by direct experience, that person may become rigid and hard in their intellectual understanding” p. 5
Every time I encounter these quotes, I think, “that’s so important! How’d I not note that the first time?”. Every sentence in this book, sometimes even a single word, is so poignant and full of deep wisdom and critical lessons, that I think I may never truly comprehend it all. Thank you, this is an incredible quote!
So true! I had the exact same insight when I started reading the book again from the begining chapter:
“How did I miss all this depth the first time I read it!?!?!”
Like any Masterpiece, the more awareness you give it, the more it reveals itself to you.
Brilliant!
I LOVE doing this book club with yall! I feel like TWR is becoming one of my teachers, whether he likes it or not.
Last week I went to the store looking for some highlighters. I was thinking to myself I am going to need a paintbrush sized one for all the gems in the text.
I am going to call a favor from a dear friend @_Barry , and see if he might be willing to submit these questions for you at the future book club meetings.
If not I will do it for you as a Christmas present, or birthday present, whichever comes first. Trying to give myself a long window of time, because I have about half a million other questions of my own I want to ask AH, and the window for doing so might be closing fast.
"The root of our discontent moves with us to our new home.
from it grows new dissatisfactions.
Soon we are again caught up in the turmoil of hope and fear."
page 13
Good choice! You will earn the merit.
