Well, July 2008 went by without a blog post. Anyway, here is what I've been thinking about lately. Carlos Castaneda's ideas of the double body and dreaming Vajrayana practices of generating an illusory body and dream yoga Castaneda's writings are an interesting resource for getting some ideas--outside of the Buddhist tradition--that might help us understand some of the Vajrayana practices. Castaneda's stories, which are so well-known among Westerners in my generation, bring to life the possibilities which might seem too theoretical from classical Buddhist texts. See Tales of Power , pages 43 - 51, for an anecdote about don Genero showing up in his 'double' body, which: can travel great distances in an instant "Genaro is a man of knowledge," don Juan said dryly. "And being a man of knowledge, he's perfectly capable of transporting himself over great distances." He reminded me that once, years before, the three of us had been in...