Leo Gura

Mindfulness is your ability to objectively observe phenomena in the present moment, as they arise, without mental distortion. Awareness/consciousness you will not really understand without an enlightenment experience. What they are cannot be described in words. But if one was to try, the best description I've heard is that awareness/conscious is pure empty knowing, and ultimately absolute nothingness. It's the eternal "space" or dimension within which everything phenomenal becomes known.

The ego is like a suicide bomber. As soon as it's threatened it wants to drag everyone else down with it by flailing around and creating all sorts of problems that really aren't problems. It is possible to get enlightened while still keeping your family, if you want that.

It's a good idea to do a few guided retreats before doing one yourself. Solo is much harder because you will likely not have enough discipline or know-how to pull it off. Even just knowing how to handle logistics like food/sleep is important.

Which is why enlightenment is totally different than a meditative state. Meditative states never last.

It certainly works. But just like anything that works well, it's not a magic pill. Takes study and effort to use it. Hypnosis is well documented scientifically. It's not new-age pseudo-science at all.

What business will take care of everything for you? The change the world needs is not external but internal. If you don't transform and raise your level of conscious development, no one else will, and the world will not change significantly for the better in any way.

If you really want to be a revolutionary, sit down and meditate. Discover your existential nature. Then you can be an incredible force of change in the world. Anything towards that end isn't a waste of time. The best use of time is simply sitting and literally doing nothing. Just contemplating and meditating.

You do realize your teenage son curses like a sailor, right?

@Natasha Go for it!

I've thought about it, but decided against it because it goes against certain higher consciousness values. I don't want to sell shit that people don't really need. I would rather invest that time and energy into creating powerful courses that actually will transform your life if you pay for them. Thanks though. It is tempting to sell shit.

This is false. Mind is not responsible for awareness. The mind is not what reaches enlightenment. Enlightenment is what results when mind is stopped. Speaking of Patanjali, the second yoga sutra states: "The sole aim of Yoga is the cessation of mind." That's not an accident. That's the only way. Mind has to stop. And this is not in the mind's power to do. The mind cannot stop itself. Which is why there is no procedure for becoming enlightened. Enlightenment is a spontaneous occurrence that happens outside of mind. Which is what makes it so challenging, because the mind wants to stop the mind, but that desire only activates the mind more.

Yes

The entire universe's collective functioning.

@Saitama No reason why you couldn't. Goals #2 and #4 might drop out though if you get deep enough into enlightenment. Then again, there's no reason you can't do a math PhD and enlightenment. Enlightenment doesn't negate science. It just puts it into proper perspective.

Just all part of the natural growth curve. Stay calm and carry on. The first few years of self-actualization work are the slowest. It picks up after that and only keeps getting better and better with time. The key is to not quit during the slow phase.

@Nomad Of course a poor upbringing affects one's psyche. It makes you neurotic and unable to see the illusory nature of your neurotic "needs". A psychotic person is so screwed up that he can't distinguish reality from fantasy. It sure feels real to him. And a brain scan may verify he's psychotic. He might believe he NEEDS to wear a dildo on his head to protect himself from the soon-to-be invading Martian race. But none of this changes the fact that he's lost in a web of illusions. Did a history of abuse cause him to be this way? Sure. Likely so. The problem here is that you're taking the legitimate physical needs of a developing biological organism and them using that to open the doors for justifying all the adult's petty egoistical "needs", which really aren't needs but confusion based on poor social conditioning. Do note: thousands of abused people have successfully released the "need" for heroin. How did they do it? If you look at your own life, you'll find examples of where you completely released a neurotic need and don't even think about it any more. It's like a joke to you now, but back then in the past it was this giant NEED!

This is flat out false! Green is very much concerned about their development. Green, unlike Orange, has finally realized the difference between fake growth and real growth, and are now focused on real inner growth, which is why people see them as anti-materialistic hippies. All hippies do is talk about inner growth! Try this experiment: go to your nearest Wholefoods and look at the magazines and books by the checkout counter. What do you see? It's all yoga and meditation and healing and chakras and raising your energy and detoxing your mind/body. AKA: inner growth! Your problem is that your mind doesn't recognize this because it's thinking ,"Development & Goals = MY materialistic success". And of course that's to be expected because you're at stage Orange, but that's a very limited understanding of development and goals.

There's no good answer to your question. How can you expect such a thing to be quantified? Here's the simple fix: Implement a 20 minute daily mindfulness meditation habit and you'll never have to worry about it again.

Enlightenment and unconditional love are ultimately the same thing. But it will take you years to realize that, and true love will not be possible until the ego is kicked out of the castle. You can still apply self-love techniques now, even if you're very far from enlightenment. It's sort of a fake-it-till-you-make it approach. It definitely helps. But it's not a replacement for discovering your true existential nature. Nothing big can shift in your psyche as long as you believe that you actually exist as a human character. Why? Because it's a bald-faced falsehood. You can't do something deep and meaningful based on a lie.

You need to do a LOT more study and research to orient yourself within this field. Any new field you enter requires some time for laying the theortical groundwork so that you start to have at least a basic map of what's possible and how things ought to be prioritized. Right now you're like a rat in a maze asking if you should turn left or turn right. The proper solution is to zoom out and study the maze from a birds-eye-view. What does this practically mean? Lots of reading, watching videos, taking notes, and introspection. Don't be afraid of getting a bit nerdy and theoretical. This is a necessary first step to get your bearings straight. In other words, gather your intel.

Ask yourselves this: How does a heroin addict release the need for heroin? Most of your "needs" are not different from heroin. Your mind just tells you they are, and uses scientific studies -- or whatever's justification de jure -- to back it up.

Of course, because for it to "stick" all the 100 billion neurons in your brain have to rewire. Usually takes a decade. Maybe you could speed things up with nano-robots who rewire your brain for you (patent pending ) While at it, you may as well invent a technology to cram 12 years of school + 4 years of college into your brain in the flash of a second.

Just sit for many hours at a time doing absolutely nothing. Suicide will happen automatically after a few thousand hours of this. Don't ask how to sit. Just sit in a relaxed manner and be aware of reality.

If you could do it without destroying the person's brain, similar to binuaral beats, then hell yeah! It would be a revolutionary technology greater than electricity or the PC. Psychedelic drugs do just this. Nothing unethical about them. The unethical thing is banning them.