A Trance-formational Journey Through Lao Tsu’s Bamboo Forest

The first 5 lines of Lao Tzu’s The Tao to Power say, “The Tao that can be expressed in not the Tao of the Absolute. The name that can be named is not the name of the Absolute. The nameless originated Heaven and Earth. The name is the Mother of all things.” Think of a personal issue, drive away from the city to a bamboo forest. Meld within the nameless void and return a newly named version of you.

Transcript

A transformational journey through Lao Tzu's bamboo forest.

I will now tell you a meditative story that you can listen to with your eyes closed.

If you are actively using your imagination,

This story may give you a special transformational experience.

I knew of a person long ago who had a transformational experience in a forest.

Imagine that you are him.

There are some aspects of your life that you are dissatisfied with.

Like most people,

You may experience physical sensations,

Thoughts,

Emotions associated with a particular issue and or desire to avoid dealing with them.

Sometimes they seem difficult to shake off.

You want something to change,

Something to change about your life.

It could be a health problem,

An attitude problem,

An emotional problem or some kind of frustration.

You wish you could do something to resolve the discomfort or dissatisfaction and if not,

At least desire to avoid them in some way.

You may not know exactly why but there always seems to be something that frustrates you about this issue,

Some kind of limitation or barrier.

And there also always seems to be something that distracts you from your frustration and keeps you from discovering the barrier.

Perhaps it is the desire for some food or drink or other habitual behavior or the desire for numbness or the desire to be someone else or the desire to be someone else,

To have something else or to reach for some kind of perfection.

Because of your indulgences in these avoidance behaviors,

You may be unclear about what the barriers to your issues are but they always seem to be there no matter whether you get the thing you desired or not.

And the frustration and discontent returns and you end up judging yourself negatively.

Then early Sunday morning,

You wake up early,

Very early,

4 or 5 in the morning feeling bothered about that issue.

Instead of getting a book about it,

Instead of journaling about it,

Instead of trying to deal with it,

You'd rather go for a drive up into the mountains and take a walk around along the roadside or down some trail.

And driving around in the country roads with no traffic relaxes you,

Going from one new place to another new place quite automatically in your car.

So just as the sun is beginning to rise,

You get in your car and you snugly put on your safety belt.

When you start the engine,

You listen and you hear and feel the engine running smoothly.

The air conditioning begins making the air inside fresh and comfortable.

You find a new station on the car radio,

One that plays some rather exotic and entrancing music,

Not the kind you usually listen to,

But exotic and very happy and satisfying for a change.

It is an early Sunday morning in town,

The town's roads are almost deserted.

They are almost all yours for you alone.

And the traffic lights all seem to be green.

You pass by them smoothly,

One by one by one by one by one by one.

As you begin leaving the city and the buildings,

It all seems to shrink and trail away behind you in the rear view mirror.

And you start passing smaller and cuter homes,

Pretty yards and gardens with bird baths and wind chimes.

And you also watch them trail away in the rear view mirrors.

The further you drive,

The greener it gets.

Passing by a farm here and then passing by another farm there and another one over there.

And again,

All trailing away in the rear view mirror.

Leaving that populated area far behind and entering this fresh green world.

You too take a deep,

Relaxing breath in,

Breathing in the green and sighing and releasing the buildings and your life back there behind.

You continue breathing in and out deeply at first.

Breathing in the green and out the green.

And then more and more normally when your body is emptied of the cares behind you and filled with this natural green color of nature.

After a while,

Mountains begin to appear on one side of the road.

And there were little roads leading into the mountains.

You drive past several until one,

You see one that seems to beckon you.

The entrance seems small at first.

You slow down and the entrance gets bigger as you near.

You slow down some more and the entrance gets even bigger as you become closer.

And then you slow way down.

And your entrance shows you that it's a nice sized road.

Yes,

Here you think to yourself,

This one will do.

And so you turn into the road and start following this road very slowly down into a valley into the mountains.

The air outside your car is fresh,

Cool and comfortable.

Smells of green and good healthy dark earth.

So you open all the windows and you pay attention to the air that you're breathing in and out.

Savoring each breath,

Breathing in fresh,

Cool air and the fragrance of pine trees and moist wood.

And you breathe out the city air,

Letting it all blow away,

Blow out the window.

You enjoy the air as it brushes across your face and arms.

And your belly just seems to settle down because it enjoys those feelings too.

It enjoys you enjoying those feelings.

And as you are enjoying these feelings,

You begin to notice the sound of the wind as it blows past your ears.

The sound of your tires as they move along the mountain road.

Each little bump,

Jiggling loose,

Some little knot in a muscle here or there.

And in your mind's ear,

You can even hear your heart give a sigh of relief.

And you hear your heartbeat slowing down,

Slowing down,

Slowing.

It's still very early on what seems to be going to become a sunny day.

At this time,

The morning feels fresh and friendly,

The slightly warming sun coming in from the window touches your arm.

Arms your arm a little bit.

You notice the sun filtering down through the leaves and branches of the trees and reflecting,

Almost glistening off the wildflowers and the plants on the ground and on the road,

Still wet with morning dew.

And you feel so,

So relaxed and free.

On such a glorious morning with no one else around,

You can just let go.

Deeply relaxing into a very peaceful and open state.

Sooner or later,

You come up to what appears to be a bamboo forest.

A sign says,

Laozi's Bamboo Forest.

It contains the kind of bamboo that seems to grow in just any place in the world.

But here,

It seems very special.

Imagine a bamboo forest.

And so you slow down,

Slow down and move slightly to the side of the road and stop.

You think here.

Here is the perfect place for an adventurous walk,

A quiet walk in nature.

A very,

Very quiet bamboo forest.

And you can hear every step you make on the fallen leaves below your feet.

And you delight in the chirping of happy forest birds.

There's still some early morning forest mist lingering,

Mysterious like a Chinese painting.

And the sunlight filtering in through the bamboo leaves.

On the floor of the forest and reflecting and dancing on the moist brown leaves.

And you look ahead and see a small sunlit forest opening.

A small sunlit forest opening with a bamboo,

No not bamboo,

A raw tan chair.

The chair looks like it belongs there.

It looks like it has been there for ages and ages.

Like grandpa's old rocking chair,

Like an old friend.

And you sense the chair welcoming you to sit there for a spell.

You look around and there's no one but you in that chair.

And you say to that chair,

Thank you.

I think I will sit down and relax here for a spell.

Thank you very much.

You sit down and let yourself settle in and relax.

Putting your arms on your lap.

And with your eyelids slowly tugged down by the gravity of the forest floor.

You let them drop down halfway lazily.

Your eyelids start resisting at first but eventually you let the forest floor pull them all the way down shut.

It feels so good.

They just don't want to open.

Even if you try,

They resist opening,

They like it there closed shut.

And so you just breathe in focusing on the comfort.

The comfort around those eyes and you then breathe out sending it all the way through your body and into the chair and from the chair into the ground.

You feel a deep connection to the chair and the earth below.

Deeply rooted,

Secure,

Like you belong.

You breathe in the bamboo forest love and you breathe out all negativity.

Filling yourself with it.

You open your eyes a bit to peek as a very wonderful feeling of relaxation gradually drops down around you.

Like that falling leaf.

Like that falling leaf.

Forest Gump's leaf drifting down off a tree and falling onto his box of chocolates.

The leaf goes off the top of the tree and begins to drift downward comfortably,

Peacefully,

Slowly and freely float down.

Making a circle down and then back and forth and down.

Floating to one side and down some more and then to another side and down.

Feeling to float down until it's steadily,

Comfortably lights on the ground all around you.

Again pulling your eyes completely and comfortably shut.

And you can breathe in and double this feeling and breathe out sending it all the way down through your body and out through the chair into the earth.

And you can begin to wonder what it would feel like to be one stalk of bamboo there in the bamboo forest.

And then what it would be like to be a cluster of bamboo stalks.

How that would feel.

And how it would be to be tin clusters of bamboo stalks.

And how it would be,

How it would feel to be the whole forest of bamboo.

You can also wonder how it would feel to sink into your rattan chair.

To become one with it.

To become the bamboo chair.

You can also wonder how wonderful it would be to be the morning dew glistening on the leaves on the ground.

One drop hanging on a leaf.

Ten drops on ten leaves.

A hundred leaves.

Thousands and thousands of leaves glistening at the same time.

How it would feel to glisten throughout the bamboo forest.

And you begin to wonder how it would feel for you to turn into the morning mist spreading throughout the forest mysteriously moving in and out and around a few clusters of bamboo and then around them all.

How it would feel to be the pretty chirping sounds coming from one kind of bird.

How it would feel to be a chirp.

And then another chirp of another kind of bird.

And then how it would become,

How it would feel if you became the chirps of hundreds of birds,

Even crickets and cicadas and other life forms all at once filling the forest.

And like them you resound and echo throughout the forest all at the same time.

Simultaneously you become the rustling of the leaves in one branch and then the rustling of all the leaves in the forest.

You may not have realized that you have already become these wonderful sounds all at once.

But when you do,

Now relax and imagine what it would be like to become the earth expanding under the forest,

Outside the forest,

Into the hills and over the continent.

And the sky above the forest,

The clouds over the forest,

Spreading over the mountains looking down on them and beyond to the horizon.

And what it would be like to be the light stream streaming down through the forest,

Reflecting this way and that way against the different surfaces of the forest,

To be perceived by you,

Become the light that fills you up and shines outwards toward the sun and back.

Can you hear that nameless softness of your warm pink cheeks?

Can you feel the nameless hum of the green in your ears as that green glows?

Whether or not you can,

Just allow yourself to go into an even more profound state.

There you may be able to see the gentleness of the unnamed sounds of the earth because there you might want to listen to the colors of softness or instead might allow yourself to expand into a more,

An even more profound nameless state and relax there.

And there you might want to start feeling the unnamed colors of the sounds of silence.

Or perhaps want to consider time for a moment.

Now the past on one plane is over and the future on that same plane does not exist but as a direction only.

All there is is the present.

Any regrets or fears you might have are only present responses to emotionally altered memories.

Memories in the past and memories in the future both do not exist or no longer exist.

They're only memories in imagined time that you can in fact alter to your liking.

And that's a matter of time and space.

Here and now,

Both a million light years or mile years to and from,

There and then.

The universe exists in every atom of your body and your auric field.

So your life experiences memories and thoughts in the beginning feel as though they merge to later seem to separate and expand.

Expand into sound energy and light consciousness and disappear into the void.

Can you imagine between each breath in and each breath out where in time and space does that breath vanish to?

Can you imagine when colors including whiteness and darkness disappear?

Where in time and space do they disappear?

Can you imagine when all sounds including silence disappears?

Where in time and space do they disappear?

Can you imagine when feelings including the feeling of no feeling disappears?

Where in time and space do they vanish?

Can you imagine when walking between lifting and placing your foot?

Where in time and space does the step disappear?

Can you imagine when imagination disappears?

Where in time and space does it vanish?

So I invite you during these next few moments to experience eternity and experience eternity in a moment without words.

Congratulations you have experienced a quantum world of potentiality.

You can return here anytime you hear my voice or sit in a meditative position and chant the words,

The sounds,

Om ah hong.

For now let me quote the first few lines in Laozi's Tao Te Ching,

The Way of Tao.

And I quote it in translation,

The Tao that can be expressed is not the Tao of the Absolute.

The name that can be named is not the name of the Absolute.

The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth.

The named is the mother of all things.

You can come out of your meditative state now feeling refreshed or if you want you can give birth like that mother to something new in yourself by naming the change you desire in yourself.

So before you return think about what kind of person you might want to come back as today.

For example I want to come back as a more professional woman who knows she's okay the way she is or I want to come back as a guy more confident that he can do that thing he wants to do,

Anything.

But the first positive change that comes to your mind is always nice.

You can always come back to this meditation again.

You have seven seconds to formulate it.

I want to come back as.

.

.

Now as you chant Om Ah Home I invite your unconscious mind to go back to where things disappear and review the times in your past when you or someone else you know has exhibited the positive qualities you want in that change.

It could be as simple as learning to walk or tie your shoe or ride a bike.

From the time you were born until today just imagine already having the resource as you consciously chant Om Ah Home and let your unconscious do the searching and finding the experiences when that resource was clearly evident in your or someone else's behavior,

Clearly evident and working.

Om Ah Home.

Now in a moment we will continue to chant Om Ah Home but first I would like you to know that your unconscious mind will in a moment take one of those memories or experiences hidden in that place of disappearance and make it compelling.

It will make that memory more inspiring,

More invigorating,

More colorful,

More persistent as quickly as you chant Om Ah Home four times and once it is done your unconscious mind can make the other experiences instantly become just as compelling,

Inspiring and invigorating and persistent as quickly as you chant your next Om.

Then as you chant one long Ah sound your unconscious mind can take you from the time you were born until today to re-experience each one of those experiences absorbing all of those positive feelings as you pass through and carry them with you as you move forward through each of them until today.

And when you chant the sound Home you can look out into your future and see that changed you to the count of five.

All of this done at the unconscious level where conscious thoughts disappear and the unconscious mind plays.

Let's begin to consciously chant Om Ah Home as these occur collecting positive experiences in the past.

Om Ah Home.

Om Ah Home.

Om Ah Home.

Invigorating one of the positive experiences.

Om Ah Home.

And invigorating all of them Ah.

And finally beholding the new you.

Home.

Good.

Now relax and let the whole experience repeat lightning fast because that's the way your unconscious mind likes it.

Let the whole thing repeat lightning fast unconsciously while you consciously focus on chanting again.

Let's begin.

Om Ah Home.

Om Ah Home.

Om Ah Home.

Om Ah Home.

Om Ah Home.

Good.

Now before you return,

Place that image of the new invigorated you in one place in your bedroom so you can see it while lying in your bed.

Place that image of the new invigorated you in your bathroom mirror,

Knowing it's there behind you as you look at yourself.

And put that image of you on the nose of one or two of your friends,

Knowing that when you look at them,

That image is looking back at you,

Invigorating you.

And put that image in some place at work,

Some place at school or the gym.

Know that each time you look in that direction,

That almost invisible image,

Barely perceptible,

Will be there compelling you,

Inspiring you,

Invigorating you,

And making you more and more persistent in the expression of that trait in yourself.

Until one day,

You stop.

And suddenly feel pleasantly surprised that one habitual avoidance behavior or addiction has lost some of its attractiveness and that you have been being that knew you without even noticing it while meeting the challenges in your life.

Now continue to chant Om Ahong until your unconscious mind knows what to do,

How to do it,

And agrees to do it in a way that is just right for you.

And only then can you come out of your Om Ahong chanting in your own time and your own way feeling more positive about your life today.

Now continue to chant Om Ahong.

And now continue to chant Om Ahong.

And now continue to chant Om Ahong.

Reviews

I am sharing this on socials as it is a love letter from source made with a collosal love. Ohm ah hung!!!! Love light sound and space are within u thank you for cultivating the pearl.