Leo Gura

@mandyjw Something like that.

Reality is too massive to have it make sense all at once. You gotta eat the elephant one bit at a time until you realize, "Oh, that was leg, that was an ear, that was a tail." The perfect place to begin eating it is anywhere. Just trust that over the months and years you'll see patterns emerge. If Actualized.org is not comprehensive enough for ya, nothing will be. It's so comprehensive it will take you a decade to realize how comprehensive it is. That's not a mistake. One day you will realize: "Holy fuck this is HUGE! How is this even possible?"

LOL Yes! There is INSIGHT and UNDERSTANDING. You cannot reduce those two to anything more fundamental. You must have an insight into what insight is. You do not understand what understanding is. Just notice that. This requires serious contemplation. It will not be explained to you in words. With deep enough insight you will realize that perception isn't even a thing. Perception is actually Being/Truth. "Perception" is a dualiatic notion, so be careful with just throwing that word around. A good way to contemplate what insight is, is to bring to mind specific examples of insight. For example, an insight was necessary for you to realize that whole numbers go up to infinity. At some point when you were a child you started counting: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... and then at some piont it hit you: This can go on forever!!! That was an insight. Insights are often quite ordinary. I remember vividly when I was a kid the moment when I realized why a penis gets hard. It was a massive epiphany: "Oh, it needs to be hard to fit inside a hole!!! Wow! Of course!" That was quite an insight! Nothing is obvious until you have an insight about it. Your birth was an insight. One day you had the insight: "Oh, I exist!" And on that day you came into being as a human. Insight is a mysterious thing. Which is why we call this mysticism.

Some people's reality and consciousness is so radically different they might as well be another species. You guys are underestimating just how radically different consciousness can be for humans. This is a common oversight because humans looks similar from outside appearances. But as you've been told, don't judge a book by its cover. This is what's happening with humans. Most humans simply assume that all humans are like them. This is a bad assumption unsupported by science, evolution, medicine, genetics, or other facts. It's as if you walk into a book store and treat all the books the same just because they are books. But there are huge differences between books even though they have a similar form. That similarity is superficial when you really dig into them. Some humans are like that donkey, they will never attain enlightenment. The reasons for this are nuanced and complex. Motivation is part of the equation. Most people do not have the motivation to do it. You cannot dismiss motivation as part of the "talent". Motivation is a huge factor. You cannot just train someone to be motivated about Truth. Yes, training helps, but there's much more to it than training. And who you can train also depends on who they are. Many people are untrainable. There is no reason whatsoever that all humans should be equally spiritually capable given how evolution works. The difference between a human and a donkey doesn't really exist. Brains evolve to become more and more capable of insight. There is no such thing as "a human brain" vs "a donkey brain". There is an infinite spectrum of brain structure -- from worms to aliens -- which allows for greater and greater insight capacity. I don't downplay any of that. That's all good and important. But my concern is not any of that. My concern is accessing the deepest level of consciousness and understanding. For that, training alone may not be enough for most people. That's all I'm saying. Not as similar as you imagine. Nowhere near 0.1% of the population is awake. It's way lower than that. And when it comes to truly understanding the deep structures of God, it's less than 0.0001%. I would estimate that less than 0.1% of awake people truly understand how deep awakening goes and all of its many facets. It's more important in spirituality than in getting women. Obviously if you look like Quasimodo that affects your chances attracting women. Although still not impossible. My biggest concern with the Red/Black Pill guys is that they use genetics as an excuse to not even try. They turn it into an egotistical ideology. Obviously I'm not saying that with spirituality. I'm not making some argument here about how you cannot realize God. I'm just saying your physiology plays an important role. So alter your physiology, alter your neurotransmitters! That is what spiritual technique is about. Yes, you ARE still limited as long as you have a human body. But, that doesn't mean you can't access the Absolute. You can. You can access it deeper and deeper levels and facets. Degrees of depth here do not contradict each other, rather they build on top of each other. It's like this: you can learn some math, it will be valid math, but that doesn't mean you've exhausted your understanding of math. Math goes very deep. As you go deeper into it, the old math is still valid. So in this way you are accessing Truth but you have not exhausted Truth, because Truth is infinite. Your understanding of math can deepen forever. It's hard to articulate that here for you. I have had extensive hour-long conversations with Shinzen, asking him all sorts of nuanced metaphysical questions and his replies did not fully satisfy me. I see him as having gaps in his understanding. For example, he does not hold that enlightenment is Absolute Truth. He still hangs on to aspects of materialism, holding enlightenment as a subjective thing. I do not think he understands what Truth or Consciousness really is. I also don't think he understandings what Love really is. Yes Yes If you think about it for a moment you should quickly realize that it must be possible to lose enlightenment because otherwise humans could not exist. To be human God MUST be able to lose awareness of itself as God. This is how you were born. And no matter how enlightened you get, you will eventually lose it in order to incarnate as a tree, worm, bird, human, alien, etc. You already have direct experience of being unawakened. How did you get there? Only one way: by losing your awakening. Everyone has lost their awakening, even the most enlightened people including Buddha and Jesus. Otherwise they could not awaken. Awakening is only possible because of unawakening. Nothing I said contradicts that. I never said he denies siddhis. I'm not just talking about siddhis in this thread. Trying some psychedelics doesn't mean much. It's a question of what one has become conscious of using them. Lots of people have tried psychedelics and have little understanding to show for it. My claim is not merely that Shinzen doesn't have all the possible siddihis. My claim is that his understanding of Truth itself is incomplete. He's not wrong, but it's not the deepest level. I'm not contradicting him, I'm just saying there's deeper understanding, deeper insight, deep consciousness. How it will help is a question of survival. That's not my interest. My interest is understanding reality for its own sake. Whether it helps or hurts is irrelevant to me. The Truth is whatever it is regardless of how it effects you. Any benefits that understanding of reality offers are secondary and beside the point (for me). The deeper one goes, the clearer it becomes who has and who hasn't gone that deep. The things I've realized cannot be put into words in any way whatsoever nor taught in any way whatsoever. And yet I can intuit that Shinzen Young and Ralston have not realized what I have realized. If that sounds arrogant to you, I understand. But it is what it is from my POV. Shinzen doesn't understand Truth. Ralston doesn't understand Love. To me, those are important oversights. I would not be satisfied missing either of those understandings. Obviously these are my understandings of their attainments. I could be wrong. I'm not saying you should believe me. I'm just stating my best understanding of the situation at this time. Certain things they have told me do not square up with my deepest realizations. And I will doubt all teachers before I doubt my own deepest realizations. If the choice comes down to trusting 5-MeO-DMT and DPT vs trusting Shinzen and Ralston, I will trust the neurotransmitters. And no, that is not materialism. Direct consciousness is king, and that's what the right neurotransmitters facilitate. No human teacher can take you that deep. All human teachers and teachings are to be questioned and doubted. Including of course myself. - - - - - - - - P.S. Nothing I said here should be used to entrench a victim mentality. Keep two things distinct in your mind: 1) the actual mechanics of how humans awaken, 2) any stories you come up with for why you cannot awaken and why should give up or not even try. I am talking about #1 in this thread. #2 is self-deception you gotta be very careful with. When it comes to genetics and physiology you gotta make the best of the hand you've been dealt. Playing a victim is not a smart move regardless of how bad your hand is.

If it helps you good. But it is not required for all people as Martin likes to declare. My point is that people have different requirements in their awakening process. It all depends on how your mind works. If something works for you, great. But be careful declaring that it will work for everyone or have importance for everyone or be necessary for everyone or is "the one and only true way."

Since the universe is consciousness, consciousness is capable of self-understanding and insight into the truth of things. God is able to recognize itself and this ability is present all throughout everyday life, science, and thought. Yes, thoughts can be tricky, but thoughts also can contain kernels of truth. How is that possible? Because the powr of insight is baked into language. Language is not just a bunch of scribbles on a page. Language is made sense of or understood by a much more profound quality of the universe. Perception is not the only game in town. The universe doesn't just perceive, is can also understand. Understanding is how you're able to make sense of the things I say and see the truth or falsehood in various sayings. But it goes deeper than language. You can understand how to turn on a faucet. What do you think that is? Don't take that for granted! You could not turn on a facucet without some level of true understanding. It means that once you become conscious of the Absolute, don't then fall back into doubting it. Like: "Well, was that really God? Maybe I'm not God after all? Maybe I was just hallucinating?" No! You are God! Stop doubting that. Don't make doubt your God. That would be putting the cart before the horse.

A fractal of consciousness expanding in infinite dimensions.

I explain some of that in my video: The Dark Side Of Meditation.

Psychedelics do not cause mental illness. This is mostly fearmongering. If you have an existing mental illness perhaps psychedics can make it worse. Perhaps. But they could also cure it.

In my experience the symmetry is not relevant much. Sure, you don't want to be all twisted up, but requiring some symmetry to realize God is ego itself.

I don't.

Why? You have to consider than even with your difficulties you might still be way ahead of most people on the planet. Just because you struggle with learning calculus doesn't mean you don't have a massive leg up on a donkey trying to learn calculus. Being talented or gifted doesn't mean life is easy. Probelms and challenges are always relative, so no matter how capable you are you will face challenges which will bend you to your limit. A donkey can carry 1000 lbs on his back before it breaks, you cannot. The donkey has you beat there. The donkey might look at you struggling to carry 200 lbs and laugh to himself, "What a whim!" But if you put 2000 lbs on the donkey his back will break. So the donkey is not free of struggle. Donkeys get more loaded up because they are expected to carry more than humans. If you observe nature carefully you will see that every physiological structure has its strengths, weaknessess, and breaking points. That is the nature of form. Every form has its limits. Form also always comes at the cost of flexibility. The more formed you are, the less flexible you are. Only God itself has infinite flexibility. Think of an object which is infinitely flexible. That's God! Ta-da! Notice, it must have no form.

Yes, but it explains things better because over 50 lives a lot of difference between people can accumulate. It shows you that there may be levels of development or consciousness that you simply won't realistically be able to reach in one life. For example, wouldn't it be valuable to know that it took the Buddha 50 lives to reach his level whereas you're on life #3 right now? So, like, don't beat yourself up if you can't actualize his results. And even so genetics and physiology are still a factor. You have to account for why humans are more conscious than kangaroos and worms. There must be a spectrum of spiritual ability which goes from worms to lizards to kangaroos to chimps to humans and far beyond. Humans cannot be at the top. Not even close! There must exist much more conscious beings than humans.

No, it can't. Siblings are often raised in similar environments by similar parents and teachers yet they can come out very differently. One of the greatest unsolved mysteries of developmental psychology and spirituality is why some children and young adults advance through the stages so much faster than others. Practice and environment are certainly factors, but not the most important factor. Past lives are a good explanation here. Most people do not even care about metaphysics. Just to care about metaphysics already requires a certain type of mind/personality. I have cared about metaphysics from the very beginning. Without that, I would be just some regular dude flipping burgers at McDonalds. I'm not a gifted meditator but my metaphysical curiosity is through the roof and came built into my brain from birth. I did nothing to deserve it. At least in this life. Maybe I did something in a past life to earn it. I dunno. Or maybe I just won the genetic lottery. Out of 7 billion humans, surely some will be born will exceptional metaphysical curiosity. Humans are not minted in a factory like widgets. We have unique gifts. It's important that we be honest and acknowledge any gifts we may have. We also have unique weaknesses.

If you think the Buddha was a just your average guy off the street, you're really misdiagnosing how spirituality works. It takes an exceptional person to do what the Buddha did. What that means exactly is a mystery, but something special and extraordinary is happening on the inside. Past lives might be a better explanation. Whatever the explanation, it's not merely lack of effort or training. I want you to start noticing that people's brains and minds work is very different ways. We are not all the same. Some people think very differently by their natural constitution. Some constitutions are more suitable to spiritual work than others. Just observe people carefully and you'll notice the differences in how they think and see the world. It's quite stark and obvious. People do not see the world in the same way. It would be better to say: people live in different realities with some overlap.

Spiritually gifted folk. You can meet them in various spiritual circles. Healers, psychics, masters, yogis, sages, prodigies, shamans, witches, channelers, saints, etc. It's a combination of factors: diligence, discipline, willpower, passion, focus ability, existential curiosity, openmindedness, baseline level of consciousness, appropriate personality type, and more. Notice, it's much easier to stick with a technique when is produces immediate significant results. Some people sit down to meditate and start having mystical experiences within days or weeks. This of course makes it much easier to stick with the habit compared to a person who meditates for 3 years and doesn't have a single mystical experience. I've met people who've sat down for one weekend, did 2 days of self-inquiry and awakened. That's totally unusual results. The average person can self-inquiry for 5 years and still not awaken. And it has to be this way. Otherwise half the people on the planet would be awake, but less than 0.0001% are. So you need some explanation for why that is. The explanation cannot just be that they're lazy or uninformed.

@electroBeam Of course environment is very important. Genetics/physiology + environment + training/effort = all important The most successful people do well in all 3 categories.

That's very humbling to realize. Yes, consciousness is capable of experiencing intense suffering. By experiencing some of that yourself you become more compassionate, loving, tolerant, and understanding. Try to imagine what it's like to live as a little child in Syria whose entire family was killed in a bombing. Yeah... that's some hardcore suffering and it goes on around the world by the millions every day. Makes you appreciate how good you have it in this life. Most people are totally ignorant of who deeply humans can suffer. Which makes those people arrogant and callous. Only through deeply suffering themselves will they come to realize their callousness and arrogance. 4-AcO-DMT is a very powerful substance. Be careful with it.

He would likely discover new realms, depths, and aspects of consciousness. They certainly take you beyond what would be natural for most humans. Of course even then there are still limits to what the body/mind can handle. Even the strongest psychedelic does not totally free you of human form. Some humans are like naturally high all the time because their brain chemistry is that way. This is quite rare, but still, not that rare. You can find such people. They probably are somewhat gifted. But also, the psychedelic catalyses that by 100x-1000x. Which would be hard to do any other way. A psychedelic is similar to Jesus spending 40 days in the desert with no food or the Buddha sitting under the tree for 2 weeks straight without moving. Only it happens much faster and easier, not requiring so much suffering.

@AlwaysBeNice I feel pretty confident that a kangaroo is ignorant of metaphysics. If you have evidence to the contrary, please share.

@Schahin Practically speaking you can make choices and steer your life. Using your intention properly is critical to personal and spiritual development. You are the CEO of your life. God has delegated this power to you, so use it well.

Ha! If only life worked so easy. This is one of the best forum softwares available. Months of work went into setting it up and getting to function well. Lots of money was paid to customize it for our needs.

Sidhhis do not remove all limits. Many limits still exist even if you are Jesus. It's very much like Neo in The Matrix. He learns to bend some of the rules but he is still constrained inside The Matrix. There are still many things he cannot do.

The key is how you understand the word "self". That's an extremely loaded word. If Self is understood in the widest possible sense as God, then all of life is self-imposed and self-created. But that does not mean you as a human body are not bound by constraints. You as God have imposed constraints on yourself which you do not know how to undo without physical death. For example, God constrained itself to be that bird, but that bird has no idea how to break the constraints of bird-ness. That is the whole point of death, to escape one's self-imposed constraints. But you can't have it both ways. You can't be alive in a body yet totally unconstrained. The body is a serious constraint. Life itself is a constraint. All form is limited, whether you're a rock, a tree, a bird, a kangaroo, Albert Einstein, Jesus, a DMT machine elf, or whatever. Whatever you are is what constrains you to be less than infinite. You are lost in the labyrinth of your own consciousness and your only escape is death.

Try to hatch an egg. Post on YT when you succeed. Like I said: madness.