On Jan 28, 2009, at 8:44 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
But did you ever encounter "teachings" in the dream plane that just "don't map" to the waking state at all? I've had that experience many times, and it's always fascinating. The teaching itself was always clear as a bell *in* the dream plane. Whatever was being discussed or whatever ability was being taught was no problem to follow or learn. But upon waking, any attempt to remember it clearly or to put it into words or to even describe it in terms of "everyday reality" failed miserably because the teaching took place in a "separate reality," as Castaneda would put it. Some things just "don't map" from astral to waking. There is no *counterpart* for them in everyday wak- ing reality. They cannot be expressed here or even conceived of here. That is one reason why the Rama guy and at least one Tibetan teacher I've worked with preferred to do some of their teaching in the dream plane. They could "get into things" there in a way that they just can't in the waking state.
A number of the things I'd previously described simply cannot be done (as they were done in the dream) in the waking state, but they almost always will have some waking or meditative state counterpart that I had to realize or "flash" to. Occasionally I would tap into strata that I was not ready to integrate across states, despite being elaborate teachings which were clearly relevant, taught important practical lessons, meditative states etc. and the being that revealed them would simply collapse them to a point and reintroduce them into my (subconscious) mindstream. As linear events unfold, I can sense that enfolded mandala providing datum that teaches along a sequence of unfolding waking time (if that makes sense).
Another thing I realized was that sometimes the teaching may not have any value outside the dream or trance state other than to introduce to the mind the possibility that a certain thing, state of consciousness, type of practice is possible. Not only does it have the advantage of expanding the realm of possibilities of what the mind can conceive, but also expanding the possibility of what it can believe. Once it establishes the possibility of belief, the possibility of that thing actually occurring, it automatically removes an impediment to those things occurring. In yet other cases a certain bizarre experience may simply form a passage which creates a samskara or mind-imprint which will create a foothold or seed-form, usually along with other seed forms to allow other experiences and states of consciousness to develop--but an and of themselves they possess no real meaning, they're just "necessary ordeals".
