The Secret Curse Of Being Human

By Leo Gura - March 16, 2015 | 52 Comments

The biggest psychological trap you face as a human being

Video Transcript

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Hey, this is Leo for Actualized.org, and in this video I want to talk about the curse of being human. I don’t know if you have thought about this, but at the very end of your life, if you’re like most people, like 99.9% of people, then you are going to die with one regret, one major regret in your life.

This is going to happen to virtually every human being on this Earth, this one regret, if you are even lucky enough to have a slow conscious death. That regret is the regret of having gone through life and not having smelled the roses, not having stopped to smell the roses. You know, I went out today to run some errands during the day.

I ran the errands. I was so busy running the errands. I came back home. I came back home and right now, it is spring time. The spring is just starting here in Las Vegas. It was really beautiful outside, but I did not see that beauty.

Then, I was listening to some audio tapes and doing my self-help stuff. My mind got tuned to the fact that the present moment is beautiful. My mind just got tuned to it and then I went out a second time to run a second errand. I had to drop off a letter in the mailbox.

This time, I saw the beauty that I was missing the first time that I went outside. The colors looked really crisp. Everything was bright. The birds were singing. It was gorgeous, just like a gorgeous and beautiful day with a perfect clear sky.

All the colors were just sparkling. The wind was blowing. As I was walking home, I could not help but to stop near some trees. There is this giant pine tree and the sun was shining through the needles of the pine tree. The wind was blowing.

The birds were chirping. It was just the perfect temperature and a perfect day. It struck me then how much I don’t connect with that on a daily level. I immediately saw that when I am going to be on my death bed, if I am lucky enough to be conscious, then my biggest regret is going to be this.

It is going to be letting life slip through my fingers and not seeing what was right there, under my nose the whole time. That is what I call the grand illusion. It’s the grand illusion and the curse of being human.

I was working with a client recently. I was coaching her because she was having some relationship issues with her marriage. Things are not going to smoothly there. She is not sure what to do.

But, one of her issues is that she really feels like she needs a relationship to be happy. She needs love. You women are all about this. You need love. You want intimacy in your relationship.

You want that partner who really knows you deeply. There is nothing wrong with that, per say. But, the problem here is that she wants it so bad. She wants it so bad that she almost wants it at any cost. Therefore, it is destroying the relationship.

So, we are talking about this. We have spent weeks talking about this. She has paid me thousands of dollars to talk about this. We are getting deeper and deeper into understanding. We are going deeper and deeper into why these patterns are playing out in her life.

The Grand Illusion – You Don’t Need Anything To Be Happy

Just the other day, what we came to is a very deep and fundamental truth. It is the truth of not needing anything to be happy in life. To have a powerful relationship, counterintuitively and paradoxically, what you need is to be able to let go of the need to have a relationship in the first place.

You can’t fake it. You actually have to be genuine in that. It is not a manipulation. It has to be a genuine attitude towards relationships. You have to see that you don’t really need them. They don’t really have true value for you. When she started to realize this, it was like she was having this “aha” moment.

It was really powerful and it put a glow on my face. Also, the very next question she asked me was this. She said – “But Leo, if you are telling me that this is how it is and that I don’t need this relationship or any relationship for that matter, then why am I doing all of this stuff? Why work?”

“Why build a business? Why have this career that takes up so much time? Why start a family? Why even get married? Why do anything at all?”

That is exactly the question that I have for you. Why are you doing these things? That is exactly the point, that they are not necessary for your happiness. They are not, but the problem is that you tell yourself that they are.

That right there is the grand illusion. The grand illusion is, quite simply, looking for happiness in the future. This is what you do. You look for happiness in the future all of the time. This is how I know that you cannot be truly happy.

Sometimes, people post comments to me and say – “But Leo, I know this person who is very happy. My friends are happy, my mom is happy and I am happy. You are telling people that they are not happy. How can you know if I am happy or not? You don’t know.”

Actually, I do know because I understand how your psychology works and all of our psychologies work in the same way on this point. That is not possible for you because you are living in the future all of the time. This is how I know that this regret that I foresaw me having on my deathbed today when I was outside and looking at the beautiful nature and trees, will be true for me and will be true for you on your deathbed too.

It is because your mind is creating this illusion of future happiness. What this means is that you are not living in the present moment. You can’t appreciate what is right here, under your nose, right now. I’ve got a very simple and shocking fact for you.

What is under your nose right now, what is in front of your eyes right now; whatever it is that surrounds you right now and right this millisecond is reality. That is real. Everything else, everything you believe about your future, your goals, your wishes, your desires, your worries, your frustrations and your fears, whether it is about your relationship, your business, your life, your family, the economy, the country, the world, it is all the construction of the conceptualizing mind.

Your mind is creating a conceptualizing future and you are living in that future. Therefore, you are living in this matrix. Don Miguel Ruiz in his very popular little book called The Four Agreements has a very powerful section in the beginning where he talks about how human beings are masters of domestication. He says we have domesticated a bunch of different animals, from dogs, to cats, to cattle and to birds.

But, the greatest animal that we have domesticated is that we have domesticated the human animal. We have domesticated ourselves. I got a really poignant taste of that today when I was outside, because I could clearly see that I am living in a cage of my own construction. My apartment, where I am living now, is a cage.

I mean, in a sense, it is a great place. I love it and I get a lot of fulfillment from where I live. But, in a sense, it also keeps me caged from nature, from reality, from the bigger world, from the open sky, from the trees, from the birds and from the wind. There is something about that.

You go and you travel or you go on a hike, or you go somewhere scenic like a national park. You get in touch back with your humanity. That humanity is somehow very intimately tied with nature. That is very interesting.

When you come back, let’s say, after you have been hiking for a few days, you drive back and come back home. You’re walking in your front door. In a sense, it can be kind of nice because you want those comforts of everyday life, like a hot shower, some food and stuff.

But also, you can see, as you are walking in that front door, that you are walking into your cage. You are a caged animal and you have caged yourself without knowing it. Even once you realize it, you still keep yourself caged. It is not like you leave that cage and say – “Screw that, I am going to live outdoors or something.”

You don’t do that. Most people don’t do that. In fact, it is interesting because I remember hearing that they did some research. I don’t remember where this research came from, but basically, they discovered about the human mind that the human mind finds imagery of nature more appealing on a subconscious level than images of non-natural things.

For example, what they do is they will show a landscape painting with rolling hills and some trees and stuff. It’s a natural scene and the human eye will just fixate on that and find it more appealing and pleasing. It will focus on it for a longer period of time than it will, for example, on some photograph of a city landscape, an unnatural kind of environment.

It has even gotten to the point where you can even get a little sketch or a little schematic on a photorealistic painting, but just a little schematic of a picturesque kind of outdoor scene. Literally, you can just draw a couple of wavy lines for the hills, you can draw a little circle for the sun and you can draw a little wavy line for the river. Because we grew up in this natural environment for hundreds of thousands of years, this is where we evolved; the human mind finds this pleasing.

If you look at a grimy cityscape, then you don’t get that same effect. I think I don’t identify myself at all with new age thinking or with hippie mentality or philosophy. But, I think that one of the things that the hippie, green and peace kind of segment of lifestyle and society understand and that the rest of us domesticated human animals and rational scientific thinkers don’t understand is that they kind of understand the power of nature.

They align themselves with that, whereas we domesticated human beings are like – “That is so silly. That is so new age, hippie and woo woo.” One thing that I notice, a theme through my personal development, is that as I am moving towards more and more consciousness and more and more kicking ass in my life, kicking ass the hardcore way, is this. I am no hippie.

For me, kicking ass means earning more money, getting better relationships, having more sex and improving my business. Those are very concrete and tangible things that most people in society are looking for. It’s more money, more health and more passion in your life and this kind of stuff.

As I am making that kind of progression, I am also becoming softer and more hippie-like. It’s kind of disturbing because I have these negative stereotypes of hippies. I’m like this, I don’t want to be a granola eating and tree hugging hippie. That kind of just doesn’t fit with my understanding of myself.

My identity is very different than that. It is just a way that I perceive myself. It’s my self-image. I think that most people in society are these kinds of rational people, rather than these hippie people. I think that the hippie people have something to learn from the rational side, but I think that the rational side has a lot to learn from the hippie people too.

One of these things is their kind of appreciation for nature and being in the moment. Let’s go back to the grand illusion. The grand illusion is working for happiness. Working for happiness cannot create happiness.

Happiness is right now and right here. You don’t really need to do anything to be happy. You just need to be present. The problem though, is that you can’t do this. The reason you can’t do this is because of the voice.

It’s the voice in your mind that always keeps spinning. It keeps spinning and creating future scenarios, scenarios of the future. They could be great scenarios or they could be bad scenarios. In your life probably, it’s a mixture of both.

Even if they are great scenarios and you become the best positive thinker in the world, then all you think about are great scenarios, all of your goals, future visions and dreams. That is not going to do it because you are still in the rat race. You are still in the grand illusion.

While you are looking over there, you are not seeing what is over here. It is really just that stupidly simple, which brings us to the topic and question about enlightenment. Enlightenment is a very simple thing.

I have some deep and complex sounding videos and theory that explains enlightenment. You go and watch those. I think that those are important, but you can also explain enlightenment in a very simple way because enlightenment is extremely simple.

In fact, it is so simple that it is just bafflingly and stupidly simple. It is so simple that you don’t even know what to do with this simplicity. You need a bunch of methods and techniques to get to this simplicity because it is so simple that your brain doesn’t know how to do this. Enlightenment is simply the undoing of this curse.

Enlightenment Undoes The Curse

It is the undoing of the grand illusion. That is all it is. It is the silencing of the voice, so instead of living in the illusion of the future, the future is not real. The future is a concoction in your mind. Instead of living in the mind, you bring your awareness out and into reality.

You live from reality itself. You are like fully integrated into reality and you are constantly smelling the roses. If you’re in the present moment, there is nothing but to smell the roses. Sometimes, it is smelling the roses and sometimes, it’s smelling a pile of shit.

But, reality is both of those things. The grand illusion is that we need to perfect reality to suit us. If we have a pile of shit, we need to convert it to a bush of roses. What the voice tells us is this. Okay, let’s construct the best imaginable environment for ourselves to be happy.

Through this process, we domesticate ourselves by surrounding ourselves with the greatest creature comforts that we can find. In doing this, we don’t realize that it is not going to work. The point of life is to live in reality and not in a fantasy.

Even though you can surround yourself with real cool technology, technology is not a fantasy. We have all of these honest to god great inventions and luxuries such as air conditioning, electricity, toothbrushes and toilets. All of these things are really nice.

They are real, but the price we pay for creating these things is that we are always living in the future, waiting for the next thing. What is the next thing that is going to come along that is going to make my life a little bit more perfect? In so doing, what we do is that we focus on all of the imperfections in our lives and everything that needs to be improved.

Therefore, we cannot see what is already awesome in front of us. So, you can understand enlightenment just very simply in this light. With enlightenment, on the one hand, nothing really changes.

It is not like you have some mind blowing and baffling epiphany that all of a sudden creates a totally new environment and reality for you. That is the caricature version of enlightenment. Enlightenment is actually something so simply stupid that if you ever experience it, what some people report is that they report laughter.

It’s laughter, after the moment of enlightenment. Why is that? They laugh because it is so silly. They spent thousands of hours chasing this enlightenment. They then don’t even want to call it enlightenment because that word makes the actual event too significant.

In the end, all that happens is that your voice goes silent and allows you to be in the present moment. That is it. That is all enlightenment is, just the allowing of your voice to focus off from the future and to the present moment, of course, for a long period of time.

You have moments in your day; everyone does, when you can be present. But, what enlightenment allows you to do is permanently dis-identify with the voice to the point when you can really appreciate everything around you that you take for granted. Everything becomes beautiful.

The simplest things become beautiful. Even the ugly things become beautiful. Even the disturbing, the uncomfortable and the painful things become beautiful. Because of this, on the one hand, nothing changes. On the other hand, everything changes.

Everything changes because your perspective on everything changes. One really powerful saying that I have heard one yogi or guru saying is that perspective is everything. Perspective is everything. It is everything.

It is not changing your environment, but perspective on the environment. That is what is truly important. This is really hard to believe because we grow up in a materialistic society. The whole fundamental association and basis of the society that we are living in, the Western culture at least, is all about changing the environment and that the environment is everything.

If only I had a better wife or a better husband. If only I didn’t have problems with my dog or problems with my kids. If only I was going to a better school. If only I had more money in my bank account.

If only my career was this way. If only I got my promotion sooner. If only I was younger. If only I was less diseased or less sick. If only I could live a little longer, that would make me happy.

But, it turns out to be the case that this is a trap and you can’t win that game. You can’t win that game. One of the ways that you can start to see that you can’t win that game is because you have been playing this game your whole life and yet you’re still looking for the next thing.

The question is this. How long is it going to take for you? How much hitting your head against the wall is it going to take to see that this game has not worked, will not work and cannot possibly work? What is it going to take you to start to realize that perspective is everything?

In the words of a well-known speaker, maybe this will ring some bells for you. “I have a dream.” I have a dream for you, a vision for you of what your life can be like. My dream is that one day, you break the chains of your voice and that you one day silence the voice for good.

It is that you dis-identify with your voice, that you master yourself, that you discover the truth of no self and that you are able to take your mind off of the future and bring it into reality. It is really that simple. I have a dream that you will die without regret because you will have been able to smell the roses, at least for a little bit and without death nipping at your heels just yet.

Because of this, you will die with no regrets because you will know that you have been smelling the roses for as long as you could have until you die. That is my vision for you. That is my dream for you of what you can do if you pursue enlightenment and you take this seriously.

There is really just one catch with this and it is a really big problem. It is a really big problem. Don’t underestimate how big this problem really is here, right now. The question is this. Do you have the balls and do you have the wisdom to give up on yourself, your present way of being, to become the no self?

Very few people do. Before I let you go, while I have your attention now and while you’re in this contemplative mood, I want you to do an exercise for me. It is a really simple exercise, but a very powerful exercise that will show you because I want you to see what enlightenment will actually be like for you.

A lot of people get this idea of enlightenment as some sort of ethereal fantasy state when, in fact, it is the most real state. It is the state of being in reality. Here is the exercise.

The Spiritual Exercise

You are going to go and grab a book off your bookshelf. Try to find a book that is the most plain and ordinary one that you can find. Hardbacks are nice. Take the dust jacket off.

What I want you to do now is this. Make sensory love to this book for five minutes. Find a quiet place where nobody is going to think you are weird and where no one is going to judge you. What I want you to do is to really focus on this book, really see it, sense it and experience it as though you are experiencing it for the first time in your life.

I want you to look at every tiny little detail, every texture on the book. I want you to look at it from all the different sides, to spin around in your hands. I want you to look at how the lettering is printed on it and how uneven it is.

I want you to take a look at corners and how sharp they might be. Take a look at the straight lines. Take a look at any blemishes that are there. Take a look at what the paper feels like. Press on it.

Tap on it and even smell it. Be completely engrossed in this process of observation and get out of your head. Don’t think about the book. Don’t analyze the book, just experience it. Experience the raw data that is here.

This is pure reality. This right here is going to be an experience of true spirituality. People get really confused about spirituality and they think that spirituality is like praying, going to church, meditation or scriptures. No, that is not spirituality at all.

That is bullshit. Real spirituality is what you are going to experience if you do this exercise. I want you to spend at least a good five minutes to do it. Spirituality and enlightenment are the most real things that there are.

It is not some afterlife or some heaven, it is right here. What you are going to notice in this experience, after the fact, don’t notice this before but afterwards, is this. I want you to notice that your sense of self and identity melts away whenever you completely focus yourself on the senses.

You are able to get completely out of your head. Stop thinking about yourself, stop thinking about the future and just focus on these senses. If you do this exercise, what I want you to do then is to tell yourself this. “That is what enlightenment is like.”

That is enlightenment. The only difference is that with enlightenment, you are able to be in this state of presence all of the time. Imagine how beautiful life becomes if you are able to achieve that, that kind of presence. It is not woo woo or spiritual at all. It is really the most grounded that you can be, as a human being, because you are not in the future anymore.

I really want you to do this exercise. Take it seriously. The last point that I want to make is that I am not here to give you some of the advice I hear people saying, which is just be present and be in the moment. This advice does not work.

It cannot work for you. It is not possible for this advice to work for you because you need me here, pushing you and motivating you to go out there and do this exercise. When you do this exercise, you are going to struggle. Many of you are going to struggle a lot.

It is going to depend on your level of mental development. Maybe, you will struggle to stay present. You are going to stay present for very short periods of time. It is pointless for me to tell you to just stay present because it is going to sound nice and you are going to do it for five minutes, but afterwards, you are not going to be able to do it.

Your life is then going to go back to the grand illusion. Instead, the point here is to use this exercise and then tell yourself that this is what you could have. This is the vision and this is the dream of where I could be if I seriously pursue enlightenment.

That is the point. I have discovered only one way to get out of the grand illusion. There is only one way. The only way is by discovering the truth of no self, which means that you have to dissolve the ego so that the ego stops getting in the way, so that the voice is silent and so that you can be fully present and fully in the moment.

This is important for you to do and realize because this is what generates the desire and the wisdom necessary to go out there and actually do the work to get to this state in your life. It takes work, even though, paradoxically, you could be that way right now. There is really nothing to do, but the problem is that because there is that voice inside your head, it won’t shut up.

There is actually quite a lot to do. So, do this exercise right now.

Wrap Up

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

It’s a free newsletter. I release new videos every single week on self-actualization topics. I want to help you to master your psychology so that in doing this, you can be free to create the kind of life that you want.

I am guessing that you do not want a domesticated and kind of ordinary life because you have been living this kind of life, you have seen other people living this kind of life and you know that it is hollow. You know that these regrets on your deathbed are coming. You don’t want this.

Fundamentally, that is why we do personal development because we want to make the most of this short existence that we have. We want to be able to stop and smell the roses, but to do this requires some work. As simple as it is, it potentially requires a lot of work, depending on where you are at.

Most people are really far behind. What we need to do is we need to work on your psychology. We need to introduce new concepts and new ideas, reframing the way you think, showing you techniques, getting you to take action and action is important. You don’t want to just be watching these videos.

If you are watching these videos on a weekly basis and you are going out there and taking baby steps, you will be shocked at how different your life will be in just a couple of years. They start stacking up and eventually, you start getting exponential results. That is one of the most rewarding investments of time and energy that you can make in your life.

It is investing in your own growth. If you are interested in that and you are interested in no bullshit development, sign up right now.

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Comments
(52)
WingWizard says:

I have been following you very closely and have to comment on your brutal honesty and clarity on the workings of life. I have very keenly studied much stuff concerning metaphysics, philosophy and psychology, yet I do not understand the true goal of my life and where does true fulfillment lie. Alongside I would also like to know how you know, all that you know. Could you kindly share some insight?

Leo Gura says:

I study a lot of stuff and work on myself every day.

Steve says:

How do you live in the moment yet plan for the future?

Mark says:

I battled with this question. What I found previously, is that all I ever did was plan or unconsciously plan (which was worse – waste time getting anxious over good and bad events that had not occurred). I spent very little time being present at all – let’s say 98% past/future (conscious and unconsciously) and 2% present (usually accidentally).

I now find myself being more and more mindful “present” each day. This is planned and through accidentally being made aware of things (like the spring day Leo found on this video). Things like mindfulness, meditation and less focus on ‘me and the voice, the ownership, less rat-race’. I find that Im possibly around 85% past/future (conscious and unconsciously) and 15% present (usually accidentally).

What I’m working towards in the next how ever many months is to get to around 20% past/future and 80% present, aware, conscious. I believe at this point is where we find the answer to this question Steve, that is, you specifically stop during your day – set aside time – you plan for future events in you day, week, month, year and try to be as focused in the moment as you can preparation. Once done, you continue your mindfulness.

It’s likely that you will get to a point where you have to force yourself to stop and plan, look into the future or past for something specifically and desperately scurry back to the present moment. How wonderful that moment would be.

Chris Clausen says:

Humanity has the ability to be anything they choose, and didn’t you say that what each of us want is based on our beliefs, our life experiences to this point?

Your whole enlightenment series seems to revolve around limiting as many beliefs as possible, accepting the moment, and choosing to delay the instant reward in the moment for a greater reward later.

Isn’t the emotional, illogical drive for success necessary for us? Dinosaurs had over 160 M-M-Million years on this rock, and all they left were bones. If an asteroid hits earth, but there are humans living across the galaxy, then we are still here. Still going. Still learning and mastering. How do we get there without emotion?

Alex Holt says:

Seems like something you fail to do if you are guarding yourself against being undermined, or losing focus with your goals. It’s part of being loss averse again? Same as not being intrepid or allowing yourself to make mistakes, particularly when you keep beating yourself up habitually and unconsciously for making those mistakes. I see the logic of your advice, use meditation etc.

Peggy says:

I so enjoy all of your insights and shared knowledge. I did your exercise. It was so much fun. I did fall in love with the book. The different textures of the pages. The smell of black ink compared to the smell of blue of the cover and blank page. The feel of each texture on my hands. The taste of each different page. The experience of my fingers feeling a vibration against each page. I considered the effort taken to create the book. The sacrifice of the tree. I understand that all the thoughts I was having were beyond unimportant, but pleasant. I closed my eyes and continued hearing the bird sounds and the ringing in my ears always thoughts about all of it. My mind is so stubborn. So conditioned to explain, defend, analyze, have an opinion of all of it. But it did relax my entire body and I was able to sense the present moment. I love what you aren’t as much as I love who you are.

Annette says:

Since your first enlightenment video I took this challenge to see reality as it is seriously. Desperate to end my suffering I devoted 5 hours each day to study and meditate on what reality is. I searched for the “I” that I used to think I was. It wasn’t there! Something shifted in that moment. I’m starting to understand what you’re talking about. Getting past the ego was hardest initially. I see what you mean by 1,000 hours of study will only be a beginning. Out of my desperation I am on this journey. Thank you for these free videos and for wanting to help. You sure grabbed my attention with video one. I was on pins and needles to hear each word of the ‘truth’! Doing the work myself now is causing the ‘shift’. Thanks again!

Leo Gura says:

Good work. Stay with it. I’ll have more videos covering the nuances of the self-inquiry process in the future.

Sarah says:

Leo! I’ve watched many of your videos, some multiple times, but this one really stood out to me. I felt you were being very real, although your other videos are profound and full of wisdom this one was particularly relatable. When you openly admit to being in lower level consciousness states yourself, it reminded me that we are all the same and that i should accept when Im making mistakes too. I think that I have been counterproductively viewing my personal development journey as future events and allowed my mind to worry about it. “Oh, no! I haven’t updated my goals today”. Hahah, I hope that your too busy being in nature to read this.

Leo Gura says:

Thanks!

Carolyn says:

I loved it. Not easy,but simple. No ego,but engagement.No worries,just work.
And play. Like the age old song,”Tis a gift to be simple;tis a gift to be free.””Tis a gift to sit down where you oughta be.”And when we find ourselves in a place just right, twill be in the garden of love and delight”.

You’re right about the work of enlightenment,because our scheming brains are
waiting for the ambush,the disease,the fall,the boogeyman.As we look at beautiful nature,we’re fearful of the lion who is about to eat us,the man who will not love us,the broken safety net of comfort and protection,the threat of loss of our ego.

A young mother asked her pediatrician,”why do I always worry about my children?” He said,because it is your job.

Can we be enlightened? Yup. But its not easy. Just simple.

Michael Bowditch says:

Thanks for these videos you are putting out and really enjoying then .

What I have been working on over the past three months is working on my what I own and what I am carrying
Almost like the things left will be the things tghat will support my life , opposed to me working long and hard to support the things I have in life that are not giving return .

Minimalism is another word for it , but it is a mind set and gaining the correct level of belongings . Think it is going to be a life long struggle prying myself away from the consumption of western society

Like you to cover this in a future video . It in away carries on from this one . As humans it is unnatural for us to be weighed down physically ,mentally , emotionally

Keep it up Leo
Michael

Mark says:

The practice of mindfulness has been an enormous part of my personal development. I was told that spending 5 minutes being mindful each day is better than doing 2 hours once a week. This is true to me. What you actually find is that by doing this, you form a behavior and you naturally start becoming more ‘aware’, it sort of snow balls into this more present state.

The most insightful part of this video (for me) was the part around “what is enlightenment”. After performing a 30 minute body scan, I found myself in silence and it was if I was looking into darkness smiling. Almost as if I woke up and found myself in a safe place but had no idea where I was – this made made me smile. It was as though “the voice” had been locked away, a long long long way away. It actually took time for the voice to come back. It was a safe and wonderful place that I would like to reside.

Often I will stop and put my hand on the trunk of a tree, close my eyes and sense it for a few minutes. Highly recommended if you’ve not done this before. Id be keen to hear from anyone who gives this a go.

Leo Gura says:

Good work. Keep on looking.

Rufaro says:

oh well !
I cant grasp some of your words (may be because of rawness ) , But I’ll sure work hard to realize my present through mindfulness ! also I’m daily sowing good seeds into my subconcious mind !

I’m much Blessed to comment in between these impressive peoples !

thankyou

Shankar says:

Leo, This is one of THE BEST videos I have ever seen.

My mind talk which was silent when I was listening to this video, closing my eyes.

Brutally honest, spot on. Thanks once again LEO.

Leo Gura says:

Thanks!

Arun says:

I have a doubt!!
Is there any probability of getting back to the old state with having self/voice even after enlightened??!

Leo Gura says:

That’s an egoic question.

Bukaca says:

Hi leo! I have a feeling that after enlightenment my life be just nothingness, void and all people that i love now it just go away. When i disappear are than i want to do workout, read book, playing guitar, be with my friend and family, love my girl…? Are there dark side of enlightenment?
Please answer Leo.

Leo Gura says:

That’s an egoic question.

adam says:

I liked reading the word, “curse” in the post’s title because it provoked me. It feels very old world in form. It was just enough to shift my modern focus and get more present for the message.
I liked the book exercise. There was enough details to take my attention for about 10 minutes. The details were interesting to behold.

steph says:

Because I know and really feel a part of all things, I cannot be of feel caged as nature is a part of me and is in my apartment.

Kathy Germany says:

Everytime I see roses I have to smell them, I stand still to see what kind of bird is chirping (I know some species), every time I see the moon I feel happy and some of my friends laugh at me but most were very thankful that I show them the beauty of nature they just pass by…

I was climbing a tree in italy with a friend who’s a good climber and he put a route on it with grips… We were 12 meters high and I hugged the white poplar and I heard it living and I felt this infinite connection with nature and it was overwhelming me with love and luck…

After few days I fell in pity-mode that I have to return and can’t stay in the tree forever… xP

Marciano da Silva says:

Hi Leo,

Thank you so much for sharing with us on how live in the present and technique to live life full of enlightenment. Yes, I agree that the future does not exist and only the present is real time.

I appreciate you comments and hope your comments have help change the life of millions of people in this planet earth.

Thank you.

Marciano

Amanda says:

Your videos have changed my life. This information is so powerful I have shared it with other people. I can hardly thank you enough.

Leo Gura says:

My pleasure

neil byrne says:

hi Leo I have to ask you are you a vegetarian or a vegan? I get emails when people have posted comments here I wish this did not happen, can you stop this from happening?

Leo Gura says:

I am not a vegetarian. There is an unsubscribe link in the emails.

neil byrne says:

I do not want to unsubscribe from your videos I just do not want to get emails every time someone else posts a comment, I would only want to be emailed about a comment if it was you replying to my comment? I am surprised that you eat meat because you are so smart that I thought that you would have been smart enough to understand that it is disgusting to put the corpse of a dead animal in your mouth and it is so wrong how humans treat animals.

Leo Gura says:

The unsubscription from comments is not the same as unsubscribing from the newsletter. You will still get the newsletter.

Life is disgusting. And animals do eat each other. Even as a vegan you are still killing a life-form for your own selfish survival purposes and you still put out a huge carbon footprint, so you can’t escape entropy of life. Factory-farming is disturbing, I agree.

Bukaca says:

Leo are you read a book Haunted universe by Steven Norquist? If you had read what is your opinion about the book?

Aviv says:

Hi Leo,
I have been doing some work, thinking on “Who am I” and all of those questions that regards enlightenment.
But the deeper I go, I found out that there is one question really bothering me and I just got stuck. That is the question of “Why am I me?”.
Why did I got the Ego/”Voice” suddenly and got stuck in that body, thinking all those things about myself in the first place??

Thanks a lot for the Vids BTW

Ryan Fisler says:

Leo can you go back to teaching me about mastery and mindsets to adopt that will achieve success. About how to have better relationships, how to attract females and all of this wonderful stuff other then enlightenment.
I have seriously tried to get into this but the more I do the more i don’t want to anymore, if that makes any sense. I don’t want to be enlightened. It seems some of the most successful people have the biggest egos, so i don’t really want to kill mine just yet. Let me get that Lambo first homie, then we can talk about this shit again.

Milos says:

Hi Leo, Thank you for great vid! I’ve been thinking about free will and i have two questions.
Are we have little bit of free will and are we after enlightenment have free will?

English is my second language.
Thank you!

Ninette says:

Hi Leo,

Firstly …I’m a huge fan… Been spreading you around like warm butter on toast!! Great work you do!! Love this excercise on enlightnement. I have read a lot on enlightenment and never heard anyone give actual ” how to ” instruction!! It’s brilliant simple and clean understanding!!
I am so appreciative…
Keep them coming please!!

;-D Ninette

Witchypoo says:

Oh, Leo! Stumbled across one of your videos a couple of weeks ago and am just getting to know your site, etc. but wanted to let you know that I got a real kick out of this post. It reminded me of various ‘aha!’ moments and struggles I’ve faced, as well as some of the sources and concepts that have helped me along the way.
Especially enjoyed what you had to say about perspective being key and that, while reality can bite, allowing it to is a ‘choice’ thing.
Something I’ve often pointed out to friends is that we all go periods in our lives when we lose things we think we need to be ‘us’… to be ‘me’… and that its often stressful… even traumatic! In most cases, however, even without these things that we thought we needed, we are still the people we’ve always been. Location, circumstance, etc may have changed, but I am still ‘Witchypoo’… you are still ‘Leo’.
If a person can see that, and if they can understand that each so called ‘trauma’ has presented them with opportunities to learn, change, grow… then they can also sometimes see that these so called ‘losses’ are really benefits, and that its all a matter of how you look at it.
As someone who’s too often allowed my ego and the fear it generates to taint my perspective and affect my choices, I’m glad I’m finally learning this lesson and choosing to see the daisy in the manure pile. I’m also glad I stumbled across your site and can’t wait to see more of your videos! Thank you very much!

Joseph says:

I thought you were going to kill this ego? 10,000 hours of staring at a book might do it!

Joseph says:

Will giving an orgasm to a woman help? Hehehe

James says:

Reading a book without “the voice”… is proving challenging! An interesting exercise though.

It seems logical that being able to switch the voice on and off at will might be more beneficial than eliminating it permanantly. The use of Mneumonics for filing memories for example… also, if we don’t visit our memories here and there, do they not decay?

Conceptualising is integral to certain kinds of creativity. Filling in the blanks here and there can aid your spacial awareness… visualising what is behind you or the distance of a sound almost like sonar reference perhaps…

I’m going full force with my ego death but it seems reasonable that the voice should be fully mastered and only conjured when necessary instead of permanently silenced.

James says:

I understand that when the voice is totally silent, your awareness peaks and the oneness is realised. That in this constant state, the way becomes intuitive but to thrive in today’s society, we need to be updating our information constantly…

It occurs to me that Spiritual Enlightenment in today’s society is best achieved by harvesting all of the simple truths of existence we can, ability to reason, psychology, language, etc and putting all together like a big puzzle… The more pieces you fit together, the bigger the picture you see… then we kill the ego, learn to switch off the voice and be present with our full understanding. If you have extensive knowledge of science for example, you could be enraptured by the beauty of a tree or flower and understand every principle of it’s physiology at the same time.

It only struck me earlier how “The Matrix” movie was a huge metaphor for this… The Agents being the ego. Petty and Spiteful, they exist to maintain the illusion. That code vision feels like a reference to true knowledge layered on top of/ unanimous with Mindfulness/ Awareness.

Thanks for offering us all the red pill… or the blue pill… or whatever colour takes you down the rabbit hole!

Micheal says:

how does one actually become smarter and recognizes that he is smart because many people say if you think you are smart,there will be always someone who is your age and who is more smarter than you

Paz says:

That book exercise, magic!

suzanne says:

Hi Leo,I watch and listen to you practically everyday.You are the most amazing person i know.Thankyou for sharing your incredible knowledge.Suzanne

Leo Gura says:

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you like the vids

eva says:

i watched the law of attraction , and then saw your vedio, and then subscribed, and then keep watching and still learning on a day by day basis. thank you Leo Guar.
i am a Chinese, and english is a little bit poor, but i just want to write something to let you know people around the world can see it and it affects people life. Thank you .

Billie Jones says:

Leo, I’ve spent my life in search of enlightenment from a deeply religious upbringing, where it was something only the mystics and legends were capable of.

About a year ago I started experiencing it as a simple and practical phenomenon but dismissed it as being too easy. I had spent a lifetime of study, and most of that time the language involved was so impractical, and my doubts about myself were so deep, how could it be so easy?

Thank you for confirming that it’s that simple. Watching your videos has become a morning routine and I appreciate your practical approach to things. You’ve helped me make great positive changes in my life. Thank you.

Hengame says:

Leo, i am just started watching Urteil Videos for about 3months compare to our Friends i am a beginner. But i try to listen and review all ur Videos everyday Morning on the way going to work and again the same back home. I can not imagin one day without listening to ur Videos . It is like air and eating for me. In this short time i feel a lot of changes in me which i am thankful for that because of u and i am so happy and feel lucky that i found ur Website. Every monday i am focusing on my mobil to get ur new video. I wish one day i can feel like u but when ? 10 years from now! Ur amaizing, great respect. What u say nobody, never said or thought me.

Harrison says:

Leo your right about the nature thing. Sitting at the top of mount hay stack gives the natural prospective like you were saying. Your post is great, thanks. But it pretty much sounds like drifting through life with no plans at all. How is that supposed to work? Like I need to think about ways to become financially independent. I would regret being homeless, because I didn’t take the steps to becoming financially independent, because I live in the moment to much.

Lee says:

Everything is beautiful. Beauty and ugliness is a human judgement. Everything just is. No animal thinks anything is beautiful or ugly. Only humans have this concept. Everything is beautiful. There is nothing that is not beautiful. From the smallest subatomic particle to the largest galaxy, everything is beautiful.

Everything is just an experience. Experience the flower. There are good experiences and bad experiences. If we experience everything, every moment with full awareness, we have succeeded. Most people try to distract themselves from living and at the end of their life they feel cheated. They never really lived. People are proud that they can multitask. But when you multitask, you experience nothing fully. When you single-task with full awareness, you experience everything fully.

Sevi says:

This video enables you to merge with reality in a heart beat. It’s not a talk about it but a real making at the moment. That’s one of the major dominant characteristics of your work Leo, thank you for all that you do for us. The only equivalence of your stand is oneness and it is very well deserved.

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Replying To: Leo Gura