Leo Gura

@Serotoninluv Enlightenment is not separate from experience. Enlightenment is like the "light" via which all experiences "glow".

You are in The Void right now! THIS! THIS! THIS! Everything you see around you... that chair, that tree, that cat, that body... IS THE VOID! The Void is not a black bottomless pit. Reality is The Void! The Void is the thing you love: LIFE! What you're failing to appreciate is that BEING is far superior to meaning. Once you become conscious of BEING, you'll stop caring about meaning. It's like meaning x10000000, but it's meaningless. Because you are not conscious of BEING, you feel hollow and broken, so you seek meaning, thinking it will fill you. But you don't realize yet that what you really seek is a connection to BEING, which you have become disconnected from years ago. Hell is clinging to meaning, which is why you're suffering here. Everything is the opposite of what you think it is.

But what kind of vegan is the question? It's easy to be a vegan while drinking Coke and eating potato chips. Potatoes are mostly empty calories. They also bog down your body/mind and increase your sleep quota. Health in food comes from concentration of LIVE nutrients and phytochemicals vs calories. Potatoes are mostly just starch & sugars. I do eat them though. They're better than wheat products.

People do trip on Ketamine, a cat anesthetic. But it's not necessarily the same as enlightenment. There are all sorts of odd mystical-like states one could enter. You have to remember that enlightenment is not an experience. All experiences and states at temporary, no matter how nifty or wonderful they are. In fact, the more wonderful an experience, the more temporary it tends to be. So careful not to get seduced by spiritual highs.

College classes is too much. You don't need to go that far. Start with Wikipedia. Then the important thing if you really want to understand all religions, is to start doing self-inquiry and consciousness work. By the time you're done with that, you'll understand every spiritual master who ever lived.

@see_on_see You are a very rare case then. It doesn't come that easily for most folks. And also, let's see how long you can keep that up. The trick with diet changes is that it's very easy to backslide after a year or two.

I thought cool was a being cooler than the mainstream? Mainstream is like luke-warm

This!

Welcome to self-inquiry

https://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/06/what-lies-beneath-the-robes-are-buddhist-monasteries-suitable-places-for-children-adele-wilde-blavatsky/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/bhtuans-buddhist-monks-accused-of-sexually-molesting-boys/2013/06/20/e6f16268-d9e9-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story.html http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/adele-tomlin/dalai-lama_b_3851112.html http://tantrismuskritik.blogspot.com/2011/07/sexual-assault-is-old-tradition-among.html http://guardianlv.com/2013/06/bhutan-buddhist-monks-break-celibacy-vows-engage-in-thigh-sex-confession-video/ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-15507304 http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/20/asia/thailand-jet-set-monk-extradited/index.html https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse_in_Buddhism http://sea-globe.com/holy-sin-child-abuse-in-cambodias-buddhist-pagodas/ http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/07/19/17/former-monk-facing-child-sex-raps-extradited-from-us https://nltimes.nl/2015/05/25/buddhist-monks-sexual-abuse-revealed https://buddhism-controversy-blog.com/2017/06/21/abuse-in-the-buddhist-community-this-victim-tells-her-story-for-the-first-time/ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/i-was-a-tantric-sex-slave-1069859.html

They don't go hand in hand, but you can accomplish both. Just don't start both at the same time. Do one, then the other. Plenty of enlightened people have kids.

@egoless It's not ideal, but better a can of sardines than a bagel with cream cheese. You'll want some items in your pantry that can last a long time and are portable. Fresh isn't always practical.

Yes, mercury is a concern. Wild Alaskan salmon is best. It tends to taste best and comes from cleanest waters. Small fishies like sardines should be relatively toxin-free. Avoid eating big predator fish like tuna, bass, swordfish, shark, etc. They have the most toxins. The only kind of fish I actually enjoy eating is salmon, trout, and sardines.

@egoless Dairy is pasturized and corn-fed and very artificial. It's not fresh raw organic gress-fed unpasturized milk like your grandma drank. Dairy is the leading cause of acne. After eliminating dairy, 95% of my acne vanished! I avoid it like the plague now.

@egoless No, what's left is veggies. The ideal diet is high in fresh veggies. Coconut and almond milk are great. I got nothing against eggs. I love them and think they are healthy as long as they are organic pasture-raised ones. They are pretty easy to digest in my experience. You shouldn't try to immediately change to the perfect diet, but rather gradually evolve your current diet into a healthy one. This takes years. So you need intermediate alternatives like perhaps eggs or fish. Start by eliminating the very worst foods, like all wheat products, all processed foods, all dairy, all candy, all soda, all caffeine. That will take you a few years to accomplish.

Usually, lots and lots of resistance and sufferring.

@Ether Right... and Tiger Woods didn't spend years training, he's just blessed to get holes-in-one. There is big difference between mastering your mind, and thinking you've mastered your mind

@Max_V I understand. I'm fairly tall and skinny too. Learn to love the skinny look. Human bodies are designed by nature to be lean and efficient, not beefy like a hog on steroids. African warriors are lean, not beefy. Note that most ripped men and celebrities use steroids to look that way. The entire bodybuilding culture is basically built on steroids. The whole thing is a ridiculous lie perpetuating a vicious cycle of low consciousness. Being skinny is not going to get you any less girls. Girls care about your personality more.

@Ether The irony is that Noah spent his WHOLE life meditating, since he was like 6 years old. LOL There are no shortcuts here. No one technique is gonna give you mastery over your mind. Do what your teachers do, not what they say.

@Max_V Drop your desire to gain muscle. Nature gave you exactly as much muscle as you need. I haven't eaten wheat for years. You replace it with fruits and veggies and eating less calories overall. Rice is a good source of calories. Or even potatoes are far superior to bread. Or bananas.

Classic yogi diets are highly recommended for clarity of mind. Which means: No animal protein No dairy No sugar No onion, no garlic, no potatoes, no tomatoes, no hot peppers No wheat No boxed or processed foods No caffeine, no alcohol, no stimulants As much raw, uncooked food as possible As much organic as possible It's NOT an easy diet to maintain long-term in our society. You will be hungry a lot and it will cost you about double or triple what the SAD diet costs. If you're gonna eat animal protein, fish is best, then pasture-raised eggs, and lastly pasture-raised meat. The upside is that your clarity of mind will skyrocket! A lot energy is wasted on digesting the wrong foods.

You have to take into account that "consciousness" is a very tricky word, and different people and traditions use it in different ways, which is why there can be lots of surface disagreement.

@arberor Now you can appreciate the need for surrender that folks keep talking about. That's exactly right! Everything you see is nothing, even though its sitting right there. Nothing isn't nothing. It's everything exactly as you see it. Keep going deeper!

@username All par for the course. Just keep at it. Dark Night is only experienced by small minority of people. So don't worry about it unless you find yourself there.

@egoless I am you.