Dream visit.

[icarus]

Two mid-terms back to back on Monday. Yiiiii.

Sanskrit... way behind on memorizations, have translations to do tonight, plus a quiz tomorrow. Yiiiii.

Couldn't sleep last night (darned cold medication) so I started trying a meditation technique to settle my mind, ended up doing a Chen Rezig practice ... and in some state half-way between a dream and awake, Chen Rezig was replaced by the Dalai Lama. He sat down across the dream table from me, two feet away, like he'd been waiting for me to finally ask. He had the answers to everything that was bothering me off the cuff, like it was the easy part of his day.

Questions about wildernessguru? Answered.

Questions about fandom? Answered.

No more worries.

Realizing why it was easy, I made some promises.

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

WG asked me today, "You don't think it was the Dalai Lama, do you? I mean, it was your own subconscious."

So I explained, "That would be egotistical of me to assume it was 'me.' The reason why Chen Rezig was replaced by the Dalai Lama is that Chen Rezig and the Dalai Lama are one and the same. Then the Dalai Lama and the true nature of everything, one's own true nature, wisdom, are one and the same. That's the point of meditatiting. If you couldn't, hmm, recognize that, reach that, in a way, get a hint, there would be no point to meditation. But it wasn't 'me' or 'my subconscious,' no. It was because I was doing the meditation."

WG: "You don't believe what that dream said just because it was the Dalai Lama in it, do you?"

"No, no. There's plenty of room for delusion. But this felt right. Clean."

Icarus

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

*blinky* I have no idea, but I do think that when you dream and when you lucid dream (controlling the dream) you do work stuff out. So, even without the spiritual aspect I can see there could be some merit there. If that makes sense.

Um, a question, if you don't mind. A friend (over here (http://starrylizard.livejournal.com/167114.html#cutid1)) pointed out to me that there are two main types of Buddhism, which in my own little naive way I never realised. Which sort of philosophy do you follow? Mayahana? Something else? *tilts head* Just curious...

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Some people break Buddhism down into three: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. But in reality Vajrayana is an off-shoot of Mahayana; it follows the Mahayana philosophy but there are additional techniques. All Tibetan Buddhism is Mahayana Buddhism (Theravada never became popular in Tibet).

The orange robes of your meditation teacher suggest to me that she's Theravada.

The breathing meditation she was teaching, Shamatha meditation, is part of both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. After you develop some stability with Shamatha, the next phases is Vipassana, or insight meditation. That's unique to Buddhism.

The biggest difference between Theravada and Mahayana is the attitude. If you practice Theravada Buddhism with the idea of wishing to bring all beings to enlightenment, you are actually practicing Mahayana. If you practice Mahayana for the sake of just your own enlightenment, then you are actually practicing Theravada. :)

If you practice meditation for the sake of being born in the same state as the god Indra, then regardless of the technique or the name on the temple door, you're probably Hindu. While if you do the same for the sake of getting as rich as Bill Gates, then you're probably just worldly.

I value the clean sense of tradition that's found in the Theravada. Everything within Theravada is encompassed within Mahayana. I can't imagine practicing Buddhism with just my enlightenment in mind, though. Why would we think only of ourselves? On the other hand, if I examine my motivation closely, much of the time I don't think like a Mahayana Buddhist at all. WG, who's technically not Buddhist, tends to be kinder and more naturally Mahayana than me.

Lucid dreaming or "dream yoga" is a practice common to Vajrayana, various Hindu schools (I'm told, I don't know much about Hinduism), and to the older Tibetan religion, the "Bonpo." There's a whole raft of meditation techniques.

Icarus

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Huh. Okaaay! It's always more complicated... *grins* Thanks for the explanation. I really hope you don't mind me waltzing in asking you random questions like this.

Hmm, I probably use the wrong term when I say lucid dreaming. It's something my mum taught me to do when I was younger and used to get night terrors and anxiety dreams and I probably warp it to my own purposes. I just know that on occasion I can learn a lot about myself from my dreams, which was all that I meant.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I love it when you walk in and ask random questions. *grins*

I hope I didn't over complicate something that's fairly simple. Some differences in religious sects are over political schisms, but in this case the differences are that of view.

Actually, your point about lucid dreaming was very helpful to me. It's something I've attempted but never really done, so when it fell into place almost accidentally the other night I was a bit startled.

Icarus

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

That's good, because I kinda like it. *grins back*

Nah, not over-complicating. I think I get it. Basically you learn the same type of things, but you apply them more to yourself in Theravada, whereas Mahayana tend to be a little less selfish and you apply it to everyone else at the same time. Though I'm assuming they both teach you compassion for others as part of your own enlightenment, so at base they are still fairly similar. Or at least that's the gist of what I got.


By the by, have you ever tried to start a dream diary? It's an interesting exercise. I kept one for years, but I fell out of the habit at some point and haven't bothered to retrain myself.

Basically you keep a pen and paper within easy reach of the bed and then you train youself, so that when you wake form a dream you keep very still and quiet and think about what you just dreamt - getting in straight as you can in your head. If you move you lose it. Then you slowly reach for the pen and paper (don't turn on the light or anything like that) and try to write as much of it down as possible, enough that you hope it'll make sense later, before falling asleep again.

When you get good at it, you wake up in the morning and seriously don't remember writing anything down. It's kinda spooky. I've literally written out whole dreams that read like really strange short stories. Though to be honest, it was rarely enlightening, exept that it sometimes helped pin point stuff that was troubling me. Most of the time, it just reads like, Giant penguin dancing under a tree, wearing a blue hat and singing. Mum was there. and you go WTF?? At least it's amusing though. :P

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, if I can be complicated then...

Basically you learn the same type of things

The teachings Theravada sticks to form the core of both traditions, but Mahayana studies additional texts that Theravada Buddhists say aren't part of canon.

The three core "baskets" of texts:

- the Buddha's teachings on monastic discipline (including discipline for lay people)
- the Buddha's teachings on karma and how phenomena works
- the other collected sutras, stories, lectures, etc., by the Buddha

In addition, Mahayana studies works that Theravada say the Buddha didn't give, such as the Buddha's teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom at vulture's peak and the Uttaratantra teachings.

Then the Mahayana and Theravada study different sets of commentaries (of course), since obviously over the last 2,600 years Theravada and Mahayana have classics by great masters of their respective traditions.

There are also philosophical differences between Theravada and Mahayana. Both follow the middle way in avoiding extremes of nihilism and eternalism, but they have different concepts of that middle way and how it relates to the emptiness of self-nature.

The Theravada believe that all phenomena is made up of particles that can't be divided any further. So the ego is a confused conception placed on these particles, but the particles to have a subtle reality. (There are two different versions, but they're pretty close.)

The Mahayana have two schools of thought, but they both say that asserting in the existence of the particles is a good beginner's step but... this idea of existing particles contradicts the Buddha and falls to the extreme of eternalism. (This debate gets heated.)

School A of Mahayana says that all that one perceives is just mind, nothing else is happening.

School B of Mahayana says that even this has a subtle grasping, "Aha, now you're saying that a mind exists."

Their view is that ultimate truth is empty Buddhanature, but that temporarily appearances arise like a dream. Dreams aren't real, yet they affect us as if they were real. You don't pretend that they don't exist -- if you have a nightmare you want to wake up from it -- but they have no inherent existence.

Like a dream,
Like an illusion,
Like a city of gandharvas (ghosts or fairies)
That's how birth
And that's how living
That's how dying
Are taught to be.

Icarus

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Buddhist canon! *grins*
Well now you are complicating things... particles? *big grin*
It's interesting though. Like philosophy of the mind and perception of self.
Somehow a religion seems more real when you know there are some good heated debates going on within it. :P

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I guess the Buddhists can't resist the discussion "so... just how empty is emptiness?" with its companion piece "my emptiness is emptier than your emptiness." lol

Check this out:

There are many types of meditative stabilisation, but let us explain calm abiding (samatha) here. The nature of calm abiding is the one-pointed abiding on any object without distraction of a mind conjoined with a bliss of physical and mental pliancy. If it is supplemented with taking refuge, it is a Buddhist practice; and if it is supplemented with an aspiration to highest enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, it is a Mahayana practice. Its merits are that, if one has achieved calm abiding, one's mind and body are pervaded by joy and bliss; one can--through the power of its mental and physical pliancy--set the mind on any virtuous object one chooses; and many special qualities such as clairvoyance and emanations are attained.

--from The Buddhism of Tibet by the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications

I have these automatic quote sent to my email: http://www.snowlionpub.com/pages/lists.php

*g*

Icarus

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

"my emptiness is emptier than your emptiness." *giggles* Love it! The sort of debate you can never win.

Clairvoyance huh? *g*

*chortles* I signed up! Enlightenment through email. Who can resist that?:P

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I've heard of doing that, but I've never tried. Many times during Vajrayana initiations students are told by the teacher to watch for indications in our dreams. Ordinary dreams don't tell us a lot, but if you've just received the initiation for white Tara and that night you dream of Tara or a young girl giving you a white lotus (or something like that) it's considered an auspicious sign.

The instructions for dream yoga depend on meditation practice for a foundation, but the theory is that eventually through these techniques you're able to practice your spiritual path 24 hours a day. Personally, I'm still working on not being distracted while I'm sitting on my prayer cushion and simply not getting angry -- but good practioners are able to maintain some form of spiritual practice all the time.

Icarus

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Randomly spams your lj again.

Just found this (http://www.buddhanet.net/ebooks_m.htm) off a gmail link of all things. hmmm.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

There's some great stuff in there. The texts seem to mostly Theravada but there's some very helpful advice.

Icarus