Lower vs Higher Self

By Leo Gura - July 27, 2015 | 57 Comments

Understanding your two-faced nature

Video Transcript

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Hey, this is Leo for Actualized.org, and in this episode I am going to talk about the lower vs. the higher self.

You are like a light switch. Meaning, that you have, basically, two modes on which you can run. On and off. Or, in other words, the lower self and the higher self.

The Concept of Lower Self

What is the lower self? The lower self is who you are when you’re fearful. When you’re mean. When you’re petty. When you’re untruthful. When you’re selfish. The higher self is when you’re calm. When you’re kind. Noble. Generous. Truthful. And selfless.

And the human organism, if we think of the human organism as a machine, is like you have this switch. And this switch can be flipped at any time. And it can send you from the regular place that you’re at, which is usually the higher self, it can send you down into the lower self. And this is really the difference between the animal inside you and the human inside you.

The lower self is like the animal, the beast. Although, in a sense it is kind of a sleight and a slander on animals to say that. Because it is interesting, with the human organism, the human is capable of being hyper-human and embodying everything that’s the most noble about humanity when you’re in your higher self.

But when you’re in your lower self, it’s like the flip opposite of that. 180 degrees. And, in fact, you’re much worse than an animal. And the things that a human being does from the lower self are really damaging. Both to the individual who does it, but also to the people around that person. And also to society at large, right?

And most of the issues and the problems that we have in society, and the really serious problems that we have in our personal lives, often come from the fact that this switch gets flipped. And we’re not conscious of the fact that the switch is getting flipped. So, I want to talk a little bit about that, here right now.

And I am going to give you two key insights, here in this episode. The first key insight is the following: there is a boundary between the lower and the higher self. And this boundary is something that you probably have never thought about and you’re totally unconscious of. But here’s the insight.

This boundary is being threatened. When you are threatened, you go into your lower self. And the crazy thing is that this happens, for most people, unconsciously. They are not aware that this is going on. And that creates a lot of problems.

And want to give a credit to Evin Pagen for introducing me to this insight here. It’s a very, very powerful and rare insight that most people do not make in their lives. And this creates all sorts of problems, which is why it’s so important. So, think about this.

If you’re making a decision from your lower self, chances are it’s going to be a disastrous decision. Also, if you’re trying to take some action in your life, from the lower self, it’s probably going to be a disastrous action or behavior. And if you’re making some sort of plans for your life, or setting goals for your life, from a position of the lower self, then that’s going to be a disastrous plan that you’re making.

So, why is this issue important? Well, for these reasons: because we don’t want you making bad decisions, bad behaviors and bad plans, right? And people who really screw their lives up, one of the most common ways is this issue right here. Something happens, they get pissed off, or they get really afraid, they get threatened in some way.

They get sent down from their usual higher self, which is nice. And then they get sent down to this mean, petty, brutal person. And then they do something, or say something, that they really regret and can never take back. And then, this destroys their life.

And that can happen once or twice, but it’s really bad when it keeps happening repeatedly and you don’t understand what’s going on with you. And the crazy thing is that you can be a very intelligent person and still not be conscious and aware of the fact that this is happening to you.

So, there’s a distinction to be made here between intelligence, which is one thing — which is not really that important — but, on the other hand, emotional intelligence and awareness, which is completely crucial to the results that you get in your life.

So, when we say that the threat that you experience sends you from a higher self into the lower self, what are we talking about? Well, clearly, we’re obviously talking about physical danger. If you get into a situation where you are in physical danger, for example, maybe you’re driving your car and then, all of the sudden something happens and you realize that, oh shit, you’re really in trouble here, in the next couple of seconds.

Realizing It

You had one of those moments while driving. Even if something bad happens to you, ultimately, still you sense that physical danger, and all of the sudden it sends you into that flight-or-fight response, right?

It’s a physical threat. So, that’s obvious stuff. Or if there’s someone stalking you in a dark parking lot, then you’re going to sense that you’re in physical danger and you’re going to get flipped into your lower self. But, what’s interesting is that there are also triggers that are more subtle. And these are the ones you really got to watch out for. Because, the physical danger stuff…most of us aren’t really always in physical danger. That’s a rare situation that happens to us.

And, actually, a lot of times we respond fine to that. The problem is when you start responding, or just reacting, from your lower self to some of these other threats. So, here are some categories for you. For example, money. A whole category of threats can be subsumed under that. Money threats. There are triggers there that can trigger you, right? So, if you’re going broke, you feel like someone’s going to steal money from you. Or you fell like you’re not going to be able to make more money in the future, something like that.

How about family triggers? The family category, huge. How many of us are triggered by stuff relating to our family, that we don’t like, or we’re going to see that person, or we’re going to have a talk to this person, or we’re going to have to negotiate something there? And those triggers send us into the lower self.

Also, intimate relationships is a huge category. Career is a huge category. Reputation is a huge category. Think about situations where your reputation is on the line — and that’s trigger for sending you into your lower self. Or, also, think about belief systems. Think, about if you hold a religion, or you have religious dogmas. Or if you have some sort of scientific background, and you have scientific dogmas and beliefs.

And you have to defend all that. And whenever those come under threat, then you feel like you have to defend, and when you’re doing that defending, you’re dropping into your lower self. So, the question is: are you aware of what triggers you to cross this boundary?

The idea of this entire episode is very simple. It’s just that there’s this boundary and you’re crossing it. And this boundary is just a threat. But you need to actually get mindfulness and awareness around this in your own life. And you need to see: what are the individual, idiosyncratic triggers that you personally have?

Watching The Triggers

Because each of us has a unique constellation of triggers that send us into this fear-mode. The question is: what is that for you? You need to start identifying that and getting more and more clear about it. And one of the best ways is to just keep a journal, or a diary and, any time that you actually do get sent down into your lower self, and you later notice it, you write down the situation.

So, maybe you come home after work and you’re in a conversation with your spouse, and you two are talking about something. And all of the sudden, some issues comes up, and it’s like: that’s the issues that triggers you to go from higher self to lower self. Maybe it’s money. Maybe it’s the in-laws. Maybe it’s the discussion about having children. Or maybe it’s about some religious view.

Usually, what would happen is that you would just get sucked in o the lower self and note even realize that that’s what happened. You just have a big argument, and you’d kind of know what it happened. But, on the other hand, you didn’t really understand why it happened, right? And from that lower self, maybe you did something nasty or stupid, or mean, and that then ruined your relationship.

That’s just one example. I’m sure you can fill in the blanks and come up with your own examples of how this works. So, you need to start to do this work of actually identifying this stuff. Not just taking it as a theory, because, as a theory, this is nice, but when you identify it that’s when it really hits home to you. When you actually see it in action.

And here is the second key insight I want to give you here. What’s the actual mechanism by which this lower self gets activated? Sure, there’s this boundary you get threatened, but is it actually happening? What happens when you’re in your lower self? This key insight came from my meditation retreat, which I just came back from. And what I noticed there was something very interesting.

First of all, I heard the facilitator talking about the emotional body. And he said a very curious thing, that really peaked my interest. He said that one of the most important ways in which mindfulness can help us, as human beings, in every-day life, is to make us more aware of how our emotional body revs up. And that made me very curious.

And, in fact, he said that the way he designed his whole system, and the way that he uses language to explain mindfulness, to make certain distinctions in your mind, his whole model for mindfulness was basically — one facet of it — was designed in such a way that it would help you be able to identify this within yourself while it’s happening.

And I didn’t quite. I kind of, intellectually, understood what he meant, but I didn’t get an experiential sense of what he meant. Until I was meditating, and I was meditating outside for most of the retreat. Next to this little, nice, beautiful wooden chapel. Just like this small, little private chapel. And there’s a bench, and I was sitting outside. And it was this place near the woods, so there’s a lot of insects flying around.

The Wasps Parable

And I was sitting there meditating for the whole week, and what I noticed is that there are a lot of wasps flying around me. And at first, it just seemed like a random wasp, here and there, that’s normal. But then I looked around as I was setting up my bench one morning. And I discovered that — oh, shit — there’s a wasp nest right behind me as I’m sitting on my bench.

And it’s, kind of, near the ground. And I’m sitting on this balcony, and no wonder all these wasps are flying around me when I’m meditating. It’s because I’m sitting in their flight path. It’s like they are flying to and from their home, and I’m right in the middle of it. Sitting there, trying to meditate.

But it was a beautiful spot, so I wanted to keep the spot, didn’t want to move. And what I did is I just said: ok, I’m just going to deal with that. I’m going to sit through it. But the very interesting thing that happened to me is that, see, the problem is that the emotional body revs up of you probably many times a day in your life — but you don’t actually notice it.

You’re not mindful enough. You don’t have enough awareness. This is a muscle that needs to be developed. so, when I was sitting there, I got a really interesting science experiment just fall on my lap. Because I was sitting there, and I was meditating, and I was getting into a place where I could totally calm myself down.

And if you ever get into that kind of meditative place, where you calm yourself down completely, and you get a really clear sense of what’s going on in your body, emotionally — you get in touch with all the different sensations in your body — what you’re going to notice is that there’s a very clear and palpable sense, like: “Oh, I’m relaxed and everything is normal and cool, and I can just be calm.”

And you notice that there’s a lack of any kind of churning emotions, or any kind of churning sensations in the stomach, or in the chest, or any kind of tingling sensations in your limbs, stuff like that. But then, when a threat presents itself — and this is actually the interesting thing here — because usually, when you’re meditating, you don’t get threatened very often.

But this was interesting, because the wasp, as I’m meditating with my eyes opened, the wasp flies by my face and I can’t help but go into an emotional reaction. Even though I’m not doing it consciously. It just happens to me, right? Because, in humans, we’re hard-wired to have phobias of spiders and snakes and various insects.

So, this was very curious, because I was sitting there and I was totally peaceful and calm. But then, this wasp just flies and hovers near me. And all of the sudden, I can see, like: holy shit, my emotional body just lit up like Christmas tree, right? I can see it, it’s getting doing and getting doing and getting doing, right?

And it starts like a sensation in your lower abdomen, and then maybe it moves up to your chest, and maybe your hands and feet get involved, and your limbs get involved, and then your mind gets triggered, and your mind starts flashing pictures to you of a wasp biting you in the eye. Or biting your eyeball out. Or landing on the back of your neck when you’re meditating and stinging you multiple times in a row. Or something like that, right?

You start getting these fantasies of a killer wasp out hunting for you. Or maybe the whole family is going to come join this one wasp, and they are all going to sting you to death. That’s literally what your mind starts coming up with once the emotional body revs up more and more and more.

And what’s fascinating is, if you ever get the chance to just sit there and watch how your emotional body revs up, and then also revs back down, and then revs back up, and then revs back down — then you start to really get this sense, like: “Oh, man, this is a really important skill to develop, this ability to sense when this emotional body is doing what”.

Now, I was sitting there and this was like a perfect science experiment. Because I was sitting there almost like this lab setting, where I could isolate the variables. The problem is that most people in their lives don’t get this kind of opportunity.

And, in fact, just the other day I was sitting and doing some work, and only because I’ve been meditating a lot over the last couple of weeks, after I finished the work I took a little break, sat down on the couch. I realized: holy shit, I was just working for fifty minutes and my entire emotional body was lit up like a Christmas tree.

But I wasn’t really aware of it. Until I just came out of that work session and into my break, and now I’m sitting here trying to practice a little bit of mindfulness. And now I can actually see: Oh, man, there’s all this weird emotional sensation happening in my lower abdomen.

And I can really feel it. And it’s there. And It’s not that easy to just let it all go. Actually, I had to sit there and practice meditation for, maybe, two or three minutes just to start it to get to rev down, and rev down, and rev down, and put me into a really nice, calm, even-grounded place.

Now, that’s something that you get when you do meditation practice, and mindfulness practice, which is what most people are missing out on, right? They think that meditation is just going to give them something, or some calming of the mind. But they don’t understand that they are going to get these critical distinctions than now you can apply to places in your life. And it’s like a muscle that you have to build up, this mindfulness muscle.

So, what I’m talking about here, this insight of the emotional body revving up, I don’t mean that, just as soon as it revs up that, instantly, you’re in your lower self. Usually, what happens is that it revs up and you’re still cool. But then it revs up a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more. And after a certain point, it revs up enough that it kind of becomes this snowball that’s rolling down the hill. And it’s totally lost control. And it’s turned into an avalanche, which is now this powerful thing and it’s unstoppable.

And that’s when you’re in your lower self. When that avalanche…when that snowball turns into an avalanche. And so, why mindfulness is so powerful, and meditation is such a powerful practice, is that you can start to see when the snowball starts rolling. When it’s still a little, baby-snowball. Before it turns into an avalanche. And you can prevent it from becoming an avalanche. Not even by trying to control it, necessarily. But simply by observing it.

Testing Yourself

It’s crazy that just simply observing what’s happening in your emotional body is enough to make is dissipate and go away. Whereas, when you’re not observing it, and you don’t even know that this is happening inside you, what happens is that it tends to be just runaway effect. And you just get blind-sighted by this thing.

So, one thing I recommend is that, if you do have a hornet’s nest near your house, then go try this out. This is a really cool experiment. Go try meditating outside. And make sure that you’re sitting there with your eyes wide pen, so you can see all the wasps flying around you. Maybe you want to even put some food for them, that they can come near you, right? And just see how your emotional body revs up. It’s a really cool exercise to do. But also, not everyone has a hornet’s nest near them, so it’s a little hard to engineer that.

Alright, so that’s the two key insights. Now, you might ask: “OK, I get the theory. Now what do I do with this, Leo?” Well, here are some action steps for you.

Number one is: make sure that you make a commitment right now, and for the rest of your life, to never make decisions when you’re in your lower self. Now, of course, this implies that you have the ability to be aware of when you’re actually in your lower self. So, what that means in practice, if you want to actually honor this commitment, is that you build your awareness muscles, so you can see when that line is actually crossed, and when you do step down into your lower self.

There are a couple of ways you can do this. One way is to just let it happen to you. And you’re only going to be able to tell after the fact, right? So, maybe you’re spouse says something nasty to you, and that sends you into your lower self. And you don’t realize it for a day, and you have this huge, blow-out argument. with your spouse. But then, the next day, in the morning, you realize: “Oh, shit, I got sent into my lower self and I didn’t even realize it. But at least I realize it now. OK, so that’s how it happened”. And then you retrace your steps.

So, there’s that way. That’s kind of the trial-and-error approach. Not the best way. But that one works for people in a pinch. So, you can use that. You got to remember, though, to do that. Otherwise, you’re going to forget. Maybe keep a journal or a log of all these incidents that happened to you of crossing the line.

So, that’s one way. Another way is just practicing more meditation. Another way might be doing this wasp experiment that I told you. So there are multiple little techniques you can employ to do this.

The other thing you should do, as an action step, is make a commitment to disengage from people when you’re in your lower self. We don’t want you making decisions when you’re in your lower self. We also don’t want you engaging with people.

Why not? Because probably you’re not going to have something nice to say when you’re in your lower self. Probably, you’re going to be a dick. Probably, you’re going to be a bitch. Probably, you’re going to say something nasty. Probably, you’re not going to really be generous or magnanimous. Or very truthful or very honest, right? probably, you’re going to be quite selfish.

So, all these things we’d like to avoid in our lives — because there’s a lot of bad fallout that comes from behaving that way — so, one simple solution is just to disengage from people. And actually, you can tell them: “Hey, I’m in my lower self right now, so I don’t want to engage you”.

Maybe your spouse is talking to you, and you guys are in the middle of a conversation, and you’re sensing that it’s getting heated. And you sense that: “I, just crossed the line!” And if you have enough awareness of that, then you can just tell your spouse: “Hey, let’s just cut this conversation off right now. I’m going to go watch some TV for an hour, because I sense that I just got triggered into my lower self. And I don’t want to say or do something that I’m going to regret”. And, just, actually say that to your spouse. And just see what happens.

You’ll probably get a much better reaction than you normally would. Or, if you’re engaging with your boss at work, or with your employees. Same kind of deal, right? As soon as you sense yourself getting triggered into your lower self, find a way just to distract yourself to not have to deal with that situation right there. That you can just take a little bit of time off. Your emotional body can rev down, and then you can come back clear-headed. And deal with the situation with a more powering way.

So, make that commitment too. Also, practice mindfulness of the emotional body revving up. This is a more subtle thing than actually crossing the line. And this is something you can do on a daily basis. Just go work for a couple of hours. And then get off work and come sit on your couch, or sit in a chair at your office, and just meditate for five minutes. And just see. Calm yourself, and see where were you at before and where you are at now.

What you’re probably going to notice is that you’re so stressed during the day, and you don’t even notice that you’re stressed. Because it just becomes like you’re a fish in water. You don’t notice the water. It’s only when you calm yourself down, and actually put yourself into a meditative state, that you can, actually, finally realize, by way of contrast: “Oh, damn! I was stressed for two hours.

And only now I can realize why I was stressed and the fact that it’s happening somewhere in my body”. And you’re going to get more and more experience with that. And then you’re going to get better and better mindfulness muscles. So, that’s a good way top practice that.

Another thing you should do is change the structure of your life, if you need to, to remove the triggers that send you into a threat mode. So, if you’re living in a part of town where there are gangs and violence, then you probably don’t want to just sit there and get accustomed to that. You probably, actually want to go and change your neighborhood.

Or, if you’re living in some third-world country where there are some safety issues, and you feel like you’re in physical harm, you probably want to change your location. Or maybe change where your house is positioned. Something like that. Maybe get some stronger locks on your door.

I mean, it’s ok to actually go out and take some action to fix this stuff, right? It’s not just all mental. But also, beyond the physical danger stuff, you need to get more awareness around the triggers that you have. So, money, family, relationships. All that stuff we talked about. Career. Your reputation.

And once you know those triggers, then you got to actually change the structure of your life to remove the worse triggers. Because, if you’re living your life in this way where you’re constantly triggered by these things, all the time — and that’s just the function of the environment that you’ve created for yourself — then you know what? All the personal development in the world is not going to really help you. Because you do need to work on these triggers.

So, maybe you have a boss that’s always yelling at you and berating you at work. And maybe that’s always sending you into your lower self, because you always feel threatened when he’s yelling at you. OK, well, you probably want to consider changing jobs. Or moving to another department at work, right? That’s what I would call a structural change to your life.

But, before you can do that, first you need to recognize: what are the triggers? So, the last action that I want you to take is — go get some coaching or some therapy. Or, if you can’t afford that, then sit down and really some serious journaling yourself. And ask yourself this question: What are the most common triggers for me that send me into my lower self? That’s the key question for you.

And this might be something you can sit down and think about right now, and come up with some examples. But also, it might be something you have to actually do over the weeks and months. Because you’re probably not going to be aware of these triggers until they actually start happening to you. And now, you know these ideas that I’ve talked to you about, right? Now, you have these distinctions which you didn’t have before.

So, sit down, and slowly, progressively make this list of triggers. So that you know what they are. And you can get coaching on those. You can get therapy on those. You can go buy some self-help books that will help you deal with those. You basically have to un-wire them.

Surviving Through The Game

What you’re going to discover is that, a lot of those triggers, they probably go back far into your past. The roots of that trigger stem all the way back to your childhood somewhere. Maybe to your earliest memories. Or maybe to the dysfunctional relationship you had with your mother, or with your father, or with your sister, or your brother. Something like that. That’s usually what it is.

And you know, those can involve some work to un-wire. That’s why therapy’s so popular. Because therapy does that. That’s why coaching is popular. Because coaching helps you to do that. And it can be difficult to un-wire a trigger like that all by yourself. Because, usually, what happens is that you’re so sucked into the trigger that, again, you’re like a fish in water.

You don’t notice that this triggers is actually not a part of you. It’s like an artificial, dysfunctional part of you. So ,a lot of times it helps a third person to look at your situation, to give you some guidance. Which is why therapy or coaching can be so effective. But, you can do it yourself. If you’re very determined. Alright, so that’s it. Those are your action steps. Go ahead and do this, and I will see you soon.

Wrap Up

This is Leo, I’m signing off. Post me your comments down below. Click the like button, please. Share this video with a friend. And come sign up to my newsletter at Actualized.org.

Beyond the newsletter, which is free, which updates you with all the free videos that I release every single week, I also have a lot of resources there. Some courses and stuff you can take. My life-purpose course is out right now, help you to find your life purpose. That might be a big piece of the puzzle that you might want to solve for yourself.

But, basically, the reason why you want to sign up and stay tuned to Actualized.org is because I’m really excited about helping to release these videos that give you the mind sets and the distinctions that you need to become more aware about what’s actually going on in your life. So that you get the more fulfilling, successful kind of life that you have always wanted, but have been struggling to get.

And one of the reasons you’ve been struggling to get it is because you don’t have the necessary insights and distinctions. And these need to be built over time. So, if you like my content, don’t just watch one or two videos. Get on board, and make a habit. Make a habit of doing personal development. Make a habit of every single week: reading a little bit of a book here, or watching a video here, or listening to some audio program there.

Or maybe discussing it with your friends. Or doing some journaling, you know? Turn this stuff into a habit, and you’ll be shocked at how much growth you can get in just a couple of years of maintaining it, building this up. And before you know it, you’re going to turn into a self-help junkie, like me. Alright, I’m out of here. Sign up, and I’ll see you soon.

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Comments
(57)
Tank says:

Good video leo plus i really want to learn about my life purpose and i can’t afford to buy the course

Tank says:

And i been lookin at the one year videos to grow my self to like over and over again

dave says:

Suggested reading”Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat Zinn- mindfullness at its best. Best $16 dollars you can invest on this subject.

Keep up the good work Leo, this is a great topic to explore further.

Lisa says:

Really well done, Leo! Entertaining and helpful. Your videos are never boring!
Thanks!

rob says:

Leo thanks, for these vids, some profound concepts refreshing to hear. Thanks ! Rob

Yashartha says:

Hi Leo, accepting that you are in lower self will help? What would happen if you were sitting next to cobra rather than wasps? lol. I guess it is pretty obvious that you are going to fall into lower self in situation like this because you want to defend yourself first. The real question is, if there is anyway you can switch back to higher self as soon as possible ?

Leo Gura says:

You’re missing the part about mindfulness. The key is to be aware of what is happening in your body/mind as you start to slid into the lower self. The best way to switch back into higher self is through mindfulness of what is actually going on inside you moment-by-moment.

Awareness alone is curative.

Elton says:

no leo awareness doesn’t always help , for three weeks i was in my lower self .. i was aware , but yesterday i had a trigger which made me shift do we have to wait for these triggers ?

annielaurie says:

Hi Leo, I have been practising the mindfulness and living in the now and it has definitely heightened my sense all round as well as everyday awareness. In fact now when driving to work I have switched the radio off permanently and wind the windows down and listen to the birds. Strange but true. It is quite the stress relief needed going to and from work on busy and sometimes congested roads. Also now if I see an accident I meditate for the people who are injured and this additionally stops the anxiety of now being stuck in a road jam with caring for others. Try it. This technique of using the higher self when driving has calmed me down much. Thank you for your videos and for sharing every bodies helpful comments. A )) Happy days!

Ramona says:

You are not at all adressing the real cause for this “emotional body”, or, in other words, the Eckhart Tolle’s “pain body”, wich is our thoughts created by identification with…nonsense. I sincerely recommend you the youtube videos of Noah Elkrief. He is about the same age as you, got enlightened at 24 and he truly knows what he is talking about. Good luck on your journey!

Leo Gura says:

That is addressed is being addressed in the enlightenment videos.

It would take you years to become conscious of the thoughts that create the emotional body rev-up. Before you ever get there, you should first just get basic mindfulness over whether your emotional body is lit up or not.

Baby steps.

Ramona says:

It seems quite easy to me to identify the thoughts behind my emotions. It is not like sending monkeys to the moon…I wonder: your baby steps don’t require a lot of time? Ok, I acknowledge the presence of the emtional body, I observe it and then what? I am just wondering, do not shoot me!

Leo Gura says:

Well, if you’re that good at it, then do you notice that what “you” are is a just a thought? Who is Ramona? Look into that. What are the thoughts creating the entity called Ramona?

TheSkip says:

Hi Leo,

First of all, very BIG thanks for the content you’re sharing
Watching this video (in addition to previous enlightenment ones) made me wonder about what senses human really has. So i’ve asked the question in my mind and began to search.

This is what i’ve found (list from lowest to highest):
– 5x sensory awareness (smell, taste, touch, vision, sound)
– 6th sense: mental awareness (thoughts, imagination, knowledge etc.)
– 7th sense: ego (emotions?, …?)
– 8th sense: alaya (sense of connection with your environment?, …?) – the thing you have after you dissolve your ego
– 9th “sense?”: wisdom, “enlightenment”

Every higher one can “kill” and “respawn” and control the lower ones. And this is why you’re trying to dissolve your ego, to see the higher one, but you must do it multiple times to actually grasp the difference (so disconnect, connect, disconnect, connect…), than i think you have do the same to 8th sense, when u know what’s left outside of ego, to gain real wisdom on the subject of “the nature of things”.

I’m very interest to hear your thoughts on the subject
(PS: sorry if my post is badly written, english is not my native language)

Leo Gura says:

Hehe… You’re creating “senses” out of the blue there. Enlightenment is not a sense. Neither is ego. I would just ditch your whole model cause it’s creating more confusion than clarity.

TheSkip says:

Hi again
Of course you are right, but the problem that i see now is that we (if not enlightened) can only think with models. Every model is wrong by it’s definition (it’s not reality, it only should represent reality). Have you came across some model that represents reality good for You? I have similar mind set to You, so it would be helpfull to me.

And of course all models are usefull only to some extend and whe should drop them when we gain wisdom, but reality is not black and white, so we can’t really go to “not thinking” without a model. If it was the case than You could just sit and become enlightened but to do that u have to have a model of “not thinking” for trying to realise that, and gain knowledge if your model was correct or not. After some hardcore inspection (like You are presenting with your videos), the only conclusion is that You can’t represent reality with a model. BUT models are really usefull to gain knowledge about reality (and when they teach that in university, they creally state that You can not really represent reality 1:1 in a model), for example machine diagnostics (pipe lines, cnc machines, robotics), all the diagnostics are realised by comparing some discrete data (feedback from processes) to a model of reality and estimating on the (also incomplete feedback) if it works correctly. Why do You think buddhists train so hard ? The reason is just to know if they are right (if their feedback is not random data). And our mind plays hard tricks on us. The fear of doing that sort of work is also very usefull, because without proper understanding of the feedback You can just go crazy.

Dropping all models is a highway to go crazy, cause then You are creating just chaos. “Not thinking” and “no ego” is just a model. This things don’t really exist, is just conceptualised for better understanding. Like in programming you don’t need classes (c++ for example), You can do it in plain assembler.

Don’t receive this comment as an attack from my side or something, it’s just my thoughts. If You are truly further away from me on this path (which i believe), You will think of a good answer to this, and maybe use it to teach others

Best wishes to You, and BIG thank for the work You are doing

TheSkip says:

And one more thought. If one really wants to be free form a higher self and lower self, he should make them a unity, just one self with no flip switch. Integrate (by understanding) all the “switches” for what they really are, which is what you are telling us in this video. Making decisions in our “lower self” cannot be avoided, but we can choose to not act on them and observe, than with conclusions made from observation we can rewrite the response by repetition of taking the new correct action to the “switch”. Sadly our body has a thing called “habits” and we cannot act in alignment with our will (when we are not aware / “sleeping”) if we don’t rewrite them.

And one usefull thing i’ve encountered is that when i ask my self, from a perspective “what i would do in this situation?”, the response is mostly correct. So one useful habit to develop is to disconnect yourself from the situation, make it imaginary, ask yourself this question and act on that response. I’m currently trying to write this to my system

Making the situation imagery helps cause it disconnects all the “distracting noise” from encountered situation.

Leo Gura says:

Here’s a quote for you to ponder, which I like: “The better the model, the bigger the problem.”

TheSkip says:

ah… limits…. thanks!

Danielle says:

This is going to be a good exercise for me. I’ve been stumbling around in my lower self for a few days now. Thanks Leo.

Marjorie says:

Hi, Ever since i could remember, back when a child. I thought it was normal to switch one to the other, because it helped you to grow, (become mature). You see, thinking about how to get what was yours when it was yours, was only necessary for you to switch, because this way people respected you.
Now as an adult, are you saying this is erratic behavior. Because as an adult, you still get persons who; though you can create mindfulness, will try to cross your path, who want to push you around. I mean, for instance, to do something they wouldn’t do, just to measure you down to size, and since they have authority over you, either you accept or go somewhere else. I think this is a problem in society. Persons who will go to the extremes to put you in a category, and in order to defend yourself, either you tell them where to go, and move on, or just be mindful, accept this tolerance and move on. This last thought is like, (taking shit) until you upgrade yourself, thereafter you can avoid this problem from push overs. I hope i am on the same train of thought, merely giving a points view from the typical encounter in certain life experiences. The topic certainly grasped my attention, thank you. You are forever helping me to self actualize.

Leo Gura says:

This has nothing to do with taking shit from people. This is simply about observing yourself.

Pauli Reunamo says:

Wanna feel flip?
Go play some Video games and FAIL HARD.

I’ve failed countless times and i know when i flip to lower self, so i don’t need longer to smash my hands to keyboard.

The worst mistake I’ve made in my lower self was to prove my parents that i am not addicted to gaming so i went and smashed my computer to pieces, and lived 2 year boring life without computer… Did not help anything.

Now i am pretty well mastered my lower self, when in conversation something flips me to my lower self i just stay quiet and take deep breath and wait until i get my head straight again.

But sometimes people don’t understand this, they say why i don’t just say what is wrong than staying quiet all time, but i guarantee they do not want answer from my lower self if i say whats wrong from my lower self it pretty much flips them too lower self and that goes on and on and on.

-big family arguments happens like that, first mother is disappointed from daughters test number, then he blames father not helping her in studying and then father says he has work to do to feed family and then mother says : you just drink and watch hokey, daughter tries to calm them down, but then they say that “don’t you order me around” then daughter pisses off goes to her room and slams door behind- and goes like that.

Raj says:

That is not mastering your lower self, I am sorry. It is ego protection. You are afraid of your emotions coming out, its like putting a big block on a tub of radioactive waste in the middle of your living room. Rather you should go down and clean that waste.

Can’t think of any other analogies. The very fact that people saying things gives you anger means you have issues left to be dealt with. Unless you let them come to surface and deal with it. You won’t find peace. You can still stay in denial.

Good luck

Thanks for weedpack.

I am not afraid of letting emotions out.
I am afraid of what can happen if i let my emotions control this body, (Like mashing computer )

Also, some of you know that shouting some people that just wont make understand you doesnt make any good, makes things worse, atleast i life alone now, and thats all loooooong ago. i dont know hatret or grudge, but sometimes i see bad dreams about how injustified everything is towards me. (maybe because i got no understanding from family when i tried to explain my problems to them).

hehe, weedpack…

Pauli Reunamo says:

My ego got outrageous from your comment, because ego doesnt like advice.
Should i release my emotions?
Its not like im adding some radioactive waste if i just let this go?
It was just ego anyway.

Elton says:

try meditation instead of suppressing your thoughts like that , find the root cause of your anger , notice your ego was threatened when they called you a gaming addict see some videos on emotions and make note of it …understand blame vs responsibility (its one of leos videos in emotion category) i’m sure they will help.

Pauli Reunamo says:

Those issues was long time ago.
I dont have any those problems now.
I wont smash my computer.
-taking deep breath and getting head straight is type of meditation.
And you know that arguing people that wont understand you will get things worse (Like in Leo’s video of “science vs religion absurdy revealed” people are in different stage and cant understand each other if they arent in same stage.
.Of course i talk to people when i am my upper self again, but not those people that wont understand. or just dont simply want to. (Like i want to talk about my depression to my family but family just keeps saying i am lazy.) so i REALLY rather not.

In fact the ego got angry because you gave me advice that something needs correcting in my ego. (but thats ego, dont worry im not mad at you. im glad someone tries to help)

The ego gets very sensitive when someone gives it advice.
Even the person knows that one that gives advice to the person doesnt know that he/she knows. so the ego goes offensive defence mode.

(that blue link in my other comment is not me, link got corrupted or something when i tried to link it to my page first time)

Thanks for weedpack.

Toralf says:

Where did you go for your meditation retreat, and where can I sign up for it?

Kim says:

Great video Leo as always!. Really needed this one

today, a mindfulness nudge on the lower self. Thank you!

Ramona says:

All that follows the “I AM” is a pile of shit existing only in my imagination. It took me a while to admit this and I feel relieved. Not enlightened. It happens that some of the thoughts that were witten in my memory by others, turned into beliefs and, unless I addressed them, I feel like hiding the dust under the rug. Yes, I observe the emotion coming towards me, but before an emotion, there is always a thought.
I have no idea about anything, I am just contemplating the info that you and others provide and put it to test through my experience. And, for me, simple mindfulness does not work.

Ramona says:

Just for the sake of logic: I don’t have a concrete idea about anything…

Leo Gura says:

Tsk, tsk… you’re not being very honest. You have a very concrete idea about you. Otherwise you wouldn’t think of yourself as a you! Find out what that idea is.

Ramona says:

Whoever answers you right now, I can observe it, so it can’t be the the ultimately I. The same goes for you, isn’t it? And whatever idea I have about me, it exists only in my imagination. I can also observe this I that has concrete or fragile ideas.
Be joyful that I am as honest as I can be right now. Why seeing the empty part of the glass?

Elton says:

hey be little opened minded its not so easy as you think , it gets really complex as you open your mind to all this .. seriously this is the highest stage you need to go through the lower levels first…try meditation you will realize that you are just a dream figure in your own mind as well as in some one else’s mind , and is completely different from actual physical reality …

Madhusudhan L G says:

Hi Leo,

This is the second video of your’s I have watched after the one on meditation.

I am benefited by both videos and thanks a lot.

Madhu

Todd Hirsch says:

Anther great video.

I however do not see this topic in such a black and white way.

Sometimes our EGO can be threatened and we actually can use that as fuel to do some bigger things that we normally would not accomplish.

It is like the people that do things just because someone else says they can’t do it…

It is FIGHT or FLIGHT and sometimes you need to FIGHT to get things done and that is not always from a “lower self” position…

Good stuff though, you know I will always challenge everything you or any teacher preaches to me…

keep it coming…

Alice says:

Wish your videos were PG – 13 so anybody can watch them. You have so many wonderful points and practice ideas! I like to watch Marie Forleo too. We start experiencing life early and if people can learn the important things at a young age their life could develope differently. Some people I know are very good at things and seam not to have any self issues because they learned while still being young.
Also I noticed that people from big families don’t have the same self issues and a single child situation. It would be an interesting topic for you to explore.
Thank you for helping people with your videos!

Leo Gura says:

They are PG-13!

Alice says:

Na-an There’s some here and there I wasn’t just mentioning this one. Anyways really appreciate the description of what triggers lower self to take over. Makes perfect sense how you do or say something and a second later think “What in the world happened just now!” Learning how to snap out of it “flip that switch” is such a perfect comparison! Also I always thought meditation is a process of relaxing your body and mind. One day met this person and he was from the country where it’s a part of their culture and he said yeah you guys call it to pray we call it to meditate. You bring out great topics that improve lives and it’s a very brave thing to do when you add your personal input to it! Great thing I learned is to be able to let go right away. Something happened that affected your happy state, drop it. If you can’t fix it now don’t mess with it till you can. And when that moment comes simply fix it wisely. It’s easier said than done and theory behind it always helps that’s why I love watching your videos. Keep up the great work man! You rock.

Leo Gura says:

I was referring to all of them!

Karakondzula says:

Hi Leo! Excellent video. I want to try Ho’oponopono technique but is sound like hocus pocus… What do you think about Ho’oponopono? Are you try this technique? Thank you!

Ramona says:

@ Elton
Why meditation to experience the truth, wich is simply presence, the conciousness of this presence? Maybe for maintaing this presence, but not for discovering the truth. Who says that you need meditation, or retreats, or certain techiniques to do self inquiery and discover and experience this obvious truth? Come on…

Elton says:

meditation is compulsory . you need self inquiry techniques because only when you do them you realize what you know about yourself , you will be shocked to know the results if you actually try . if you don’t read , you won’t have any vocabulary,similarly if you don’t go for retreats to different places your vocab about presence and existence will not increase (my perspective )(which is not really mine but i have adopted from one book ) the magic of thinking big he says going to diff places is like mind food . even i understand the obvious truth logically but not physically … experience is the truth ! when do you experience great sex ? when you learn about the techniques and practice it … this also i know logically only … lol so that’s why meditation its like practicing pure existence . are you from India by the way ?

Ramona says:

Meditation takes you 20 minutes to an hour per day. Life happens the rest of the time. Why doing the first thing when you can simply feel your presence during the day? Do the shit you have to do being aware of it, not identified with it. Sometimes, the attention will go towards the thoughts, but it’s not the end of the world, don’t beat yourself up for this. Anyway, who beats who? Something watches all eating popcorn, or so I hope…
Me? From India? I am from everywhere, man…

Elton says:

are you living a stress free life ? do you have unlimited focus and concentration on whatever you do ? do you have internal peace and calm ? can you sit by yourself not doing anything and yet feeling good? are you aware of the emotions inside you ? if the answer is yes then you don’t need meditation but if the answer is no meditation can help you achieve all that , its there for more than 1000 years .. its just an advice for your well being take it or leave it the choice is yours

anne newman says:

What do you think of the idea of becoming mindful and watching emotions once they have been triggered. It’s something Scott Kiloby talks about and he had a profound awakening through this method. It’s what he calls suffering consciously. Basically what one does is whenever someone is triggered and allot of anger or fear arises one just stops whatever they are doing (if that is possible and sometimes one is in a situation where one can do this) and lets go of any thoughts and just turns ones attention onto the emotion and sensations in the body. One can do this for a while but every now and then one is dragged backed into thinking again and when that happens one just notices the thoughts lets go of them and comes back to feeling the emotion in the body. Often if one does this for long enough the emotion just dissipates on its own. This doesn’t always happen but I don’t think that’s the point the point is to get into the habit of observing one’s emotions in the body rather then reacting to them and getting lost in allot of thought about how to get rid of the situation that caused the painful feelings in the first place.
Just wonder what’s your thoughts are on this.

Jason says:

I want to know how you deal with people with low awareness. Does it not become tiresome and irritating for you to listen to the ideas of people who do not share the same values as you? What do you do when you come across such scenarios?

Ramona says:

@ Elton

sounds like a commercial to meditation
question: how can I “achieve” someting that is my true nature: peace and happiness, or this holly enlightenment? When you were 3-5 years old, you were doing meditation to happily be in the present moment? Why do we have to do meditation, anyway? Perhaps, to remember what it was like when we did not have any stupid concepts about this piece of life?
greetings from India!

mary morris says:

please do a video on addictions, if you have not already. thank you Leo.

Paula says:

OH Leo you are so funny sometimes

neil byrne says:

this is the most helpful video I have ever seen

Val says:

I really enjoy this video cause I have been practicing mindfulness and help me a lot to find hidden causes I react with my lower self. In my personal case I have the theory that the lower self is not the emotional body that you say. Is our reptile brain functioning and is not only triggered by thread, also sexually triggered. Related with this reptile brain is the emotional part of the brain, if we can allow us to feel all our emotions and recognize them, we can better control our inner reptile.
I don’t see my ideal state like a switch lower/higher self I see it as an aware person with a tamed reptile in the hand.

Hengame says:

Hi Leo fantastic video helps me a lot to manage my emotion at least nie i am Award of that, thank you so much for all your efforts to help People like me,

Tia says:

Hi,
You say here that one shouldn’t make a decision from “the lower self” or when one’s emotions are overtaking them. However, isn’t being in emotional pain the catalyst for growth? For example, if someone is suffering from pain, that is a message that their spiritual “higher self” is sending them to trigger them to make a change, right? I’ve heard you talk about that. So if one is mindful of that pain, thats good, but it won’t end the pain or suffering until some sort of action is taken. Everything you are saying makes sense, but I am having trouble reconciling when to take action.

Elton says:

Hey Leo,
I have written down the triggers that send me to the lower self over the last few months, two of the triggers are when someone rejects me and when someone tries to establish control over me .. now as i’m writing this i experienced the control trigger and although it may be my fault because of lack of communication i could feel this trigger to my bones i let it flow through my entire body, tried to let go of resistance but it makes me sooooo vindictive and it connects to my life purpose, this convinces me that i do want the money and power and fame so that not me but all that will rub on to the face of those who tried to control or reject me .and if i would ever undertake the hero’s journey i will never come back to this place most of the people here should burn in the fires of hell.i can clearly see that all this is in my head and external situations are affecting me but i can’t help it . reality is not changing but my internal reality feels like shit , its so dam difficult to stop being a victim to my moods

Tony says:

Very good video. Made me think a lot.

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