Category Archives: Personal Growth

Dream Yoga

Posted on by
Reply

In August, when I visited the Shambhala Center in Davis, I picked up the book of Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light .  I don’t usually read popular literature, but it was laid out for free and lucid dreaming has been something I had some limited interest in and thought I might pursue.  I had some limited experience with lucid dreaming and wanted to learn if this might be a tool to clear some of the trauma residues that I still carried in my subconscious and that seemed to manifest in my dreams.

This was my first contact with the author, Namkhai Norbu, but I was pleased to find that he was a recognized Tibetan lama with an excellent Dzogchen teacher.   Both his teacher and paternal uncle achieved rainbow body.  His awareness of ultimate reality and the path to enlightenment came through in the book.  For instance, he clearly understands that dream interpretation or focusing on the content of the dream are not useful activities for one aspiring to liberation.  In fact, pursuing lucid dreaming was not a goal at all.  He says:

dzogchen symbol Ah

White symbol of the Tibetan letter A. (Pronounced Ah) Copyright Paul GNU free

In the Dzogchen system, it is not necessary that one commit oneself to working on dreams.  That will arise naturally out of the practice of the natural light.  The most important thing for this practice, as I have described, is to do the particular visualization of the white “A” before sleeping.  In doing this visualization we use the working of the mind in order eventually go beyond the mind.

I started doing the practice on December 11, 2014 with the idea that I would commit to it for a month and then reevaluate.  His instructions are quite simple, as many effective spiritual teachings are.  The key part is to practice.

I appreciated Namkhai Norbu’s presentation of the nature and classes of dreams. In it he demonstrates a good understanding of dreams.  First, he divides dreams into two broad classes:  Those arising from karmic seeds or traces and those arising from the clarity of the mind.  Those arising from karma can be due to the current state of the persons body, energy and speech or tensions in their mind or they can be due to karmic traces from an earlier time or from the recent past.  Clarity dreams provide insight that allows the practitioner to progress towards liberation.

I highly recommend the book.  You can borrow my copy or your purchase using the link below support TESLI.  Thanks!


Healing

Posted on by
Reply

 

I’m in the hospital and the main doctor walks in and eight other doctors in white coats surround my hospital bed.  Ten minutes before I had almost choked to death because I was so weak.  I was 83 pounds.  I could hardly breath.  The doctor says to the other doctors, this young man has a 1% chance of living through the night.  All my family is in the room and they are crying.  And I said to myself at that moment, “Oh my gosh.  This was my worse fear.  I cannot believe I created this.”  The epiphany was this.  A split second after that I said to myself, “Wow, if I created this, then I could create my wildest dreams.”

–Seth Sinatra (The Grounded 2)

Just finished my most exciting ThetaHealing® Basic Course yet.  I certified three new amazing ThetaHealers.  The weekend was extraordinary!  One woman was in constant pain before the workshop – especially her feet which had been an issue for years.  With a healing and some belief work (done by her classmates – that’s how fast you learn) she was able to leave pain free.  I am truly blessed to witness beautiful and talented souls expand into their fullness and heal from the past.  My next course is in March 2015 or check out Lynne’s offerings at Desert Jewel Institute.October Theta Class

Renunciation

Posted on by
Reply

The standard dictionary definition of renunciation (the formal rejection of something, typically a belief, claim, or course of action) does not adequately describe the process of a spiritual renunciant.  In fact, as we shall see, it actually is contrary to true renunciation in one subtle way.

The actual state of renunciation is better expressed in positive terms, because this is how a spiritual renunciant experiences it.  A renunciant has decided that the only thing they want is liberation or enlightenment.  They spend every moment of their day focused on that and carry in their heart a sweet wish for their goal.  They are centered on the goal of spiritual fruition and from that place they often experience a peace that comes with surety.

We can also describe renunciation from the negative point of view.  I used to call it “disgust with the world” but that seemed offensive to many people.  Another way of talking about it is that it is having no interest in worldly things.  This is less harsh.

Renunciation is a natural outcome of investigating the things of the world and finding they are less than satisfactory.  I know my job, my garden, and even my great friendships do not completely satisfy me, so I have turned to a path that offers me and end to dissatisfaction.  Renunciation is simply shifting ones attention to the one thing that promises satisfaction, peace, and bliss.

I, perhaps like most people, originally thought renunciation was about giving up things in the material world.  The idea was that one had to renounce or reject worldly things in order to gain spiritual attainments.  This is an old school belief that is not true.  While the spiritual renunciant has no real interest in worldly things, they also do not consider them evil.  You do not have to clear out your house (although this actually does benefit your practice).  Disengaging your energy from material objects is a natural outcome of engaging in spiritual practice.

When I first came upon the teachings of enlightenment I was extremely excited.  I was so ready to get out of here and began to work wholeheartedly for liberation.  I was driven by severe childhood trauma and did not want to take a chance that anything like that would happen again.  Since it seems cyclic life (samsara) is unpredictable, my only option was freedom from cyclic life.  I was rejecting cyclic life, and since that is the only life I know, I was rejecting life.

Rejection is the part of the dictionary definition that I believe may be inaccurate.  While I believe I did have renunciation when I was rejecting the world, I now believe that my renunciation has matured.  Or perhaps my world view has matured.  With enlightenment comes an abiding in non-duality.  If I am rejecting anything I am reenforcing duality.

With my mature renunciation I have the same preoccupation with enlightenment (I think about it day and night) but I no longer have the same drive to reject or escape life.  Perhaps my calming down is due to a shift from wanting enlightenment and knowing it is imminent.