Leo Gura

The ego is not in control. But life is also not scripted. It's some weird 3rd category of thing. Something mystical, ineffable, and non-logical.

@Wisebaxter Since you're asking, that means you haven't had one yet. Because once you have one, it is very obvious. It's something totally new that lies outside the realm of ordinary material human experience. It's an "impossible" experience. It will seem physically & logically impossible. Just as a hypothetical example: if you were sitting there eating an apple and it suddenly transformed into an orange. That would be akin to a mystical experience. Or, for example, if you experienced what death was like and then you came back to tell about it. That would be another. There are MANY different types of mystical experiences. Seeing the ox is certainly one of them -- and perhaps the most important one -- but it is far from the only one that can be had. The fastest way to have a mystical experience is via psychedelics. Psychedelics guarantee mystical experiences. Mystical experiences are simply experiences which violate the laws of physical reality as you've come to believe in them. You don't want to get caught chasing mystical experiences, but on the other hand, having a few mystical experience is very important in order to show you that there's more to reality than meets the eye, and also to motivate you get more serious about the practices. You're not going to be able to sustain meditating hardcore, year after year, without seeing some kind of results. You will get demotivated and quit. So do whatever is necessary to get at least that first mystical experience. If only just a long session of shamanic breathing. Results in spiritual work are important. Otherwise you will quit.

This is a very tough line to draw. It cannot be drawn conceptually. You must find it through lots of trial and error and failure. You know when you are breaking integrity, violating your own high values. But what makes this so tricky is that blaming and berating yourself only compounds the original problem. Still, as a newbie, you almost can't help but do it. This is all part of the problem of self-control. I have an old video called The Problem Of Self-Control which is pretty profound. You must be both hard-working and disciplined, but also gentle and loving with yourself. Not any easy balance to strike. I also have a video called: The Paradox Of Development Self-Trust, and one called Freedom vs Discipline. They all touch on this topic to some extent.

Sure, ACIM has some great teachings and exercises in it. Its whole Christian angle may be a bit off-putting and non-integral.

Interesting snippet from Wikipedia about Rick and Morty: Therein lies the problem. Classic stage Orange/Green, sucks all the magic and divinity out of life by misunderstanding nihilism. * Facepalm * The emptiness IS the divinity! Is the beauty! Is the joy! Is the meaning!

@zambize One day a highwayman will stop you in the middle of the night in a dark alley at gunpoint and ask you, "Do you know the Kanji symbol for enlightenment?" And suddenly all will become clear

Yes, music can have a powerful uplifting effect. Which is precisely why music is so popular. Most people don't understand that the reason they like music is because it gives them a tiny taste of that spiritual/metaphysical connection to reality which they don't even know is missing. Music is all that stage Orange people know of spirituality. Which is quite sad. But better than nothing. Music is watered-down spirituality for the vulgar and lazy masses. But you ain't gonna get enlightened by it alone. Think of it as a little boost to your spiritual journey.

We had thumbs up buttons but I decided they were too distracting. The ego craves validation and keeps saying things just to get likes. Likes encourage a sort of group-think mentality where instead of evaluating the truth for a statement for yourself you abdicate that responsibility on the herd.

@Joseph Maynor Great resource. I will be talking about chaos theory in the future as well.

Don't try to become one. Just expose yourself to stage Green people, books, videos, ideas, events. You don't want to adopt a New Age identity. You just want to learn from it.

The system is: you take 5-MeO And cope with the aftermath.

Locking because this forum is not a dating site.

Contemplation Using A Journal is a great place to start. I have a video by that title.

@Nexeternity No Vilca?

@ivory Congrats! You discovered what the Buddhists call Anicca or Impermanence. It's a super-important principle of life, the misunderstanding of which creates most of life's suffering. I'll shoot a video about Anicca in the future.

When I say the answer to all koans is Mu, I mean the ACTUAL Mu, not the word or the idea of it. Saying Mu while in ego-consciousness is pointless. You must speak Mu from Mu-consciousness. This is what the Zen master is testing for. Are you speaking from Mu-consciousness? Is Mu actual for you? Only if you are awake is Mu actual. When you are in Mu-consciousness, you will not even need to speak Mu to the master. Just looking at your face, he will know.

Because all that anyone ever really wants, is love. The love of God which they are too scared to give themselves. So they seek shallow substitutes from external sources. Love is the greatest high in the world. It makes the ego feel complete. All you ever want in life is to feel complete. But this impossible for the ego to feel constantly because the ego is partial and incomplete by definition. So it steals love in little bits because it is not strong enough to love the entire world. What the ego misunderstands is that what it really wants is not to receive love, but to give love.

What are you gonna do after enlightenment? Eat Cheetos in your mother's basement?

The answer to all koans is: Mu But for that to be true for you, you must catch the ox.

That's correct. In the end you will be left in a profound state of not-knowing. That is enlightenment. It's counter-intuitive: You expect to gain knowledge, but you end up losing it. What you gain instead is being.

They are pretty silly. In the end you're just better off wondering: What is existence? or What am I? The koans will make sense only after awakening.

Yes, that's a good thing to realize, constantly. You find yourself in an infinite maze without any idea which way is up or down. Now the exploration begins.

You already did. You have existed as all creatures at all times ever. Since there is only one consciousness. And here you are experiencing what it's like to be this particular human creature. Tomorrow this human dream will end and some other will begin.

Determine what you want and then do it.

Depends on how long and how deep you do it. If you do it deep enough, all of reality will dissolve. But even before then, you'll feel more of that metaphysical connection to reality.