Leo Gura

@Huz I haven't done it in a while. Focusing on more orthodox methods right now. 5-meo is like a cheat code, hehe. It's so effective it's scary.

@smd It's hard to accurately understand what you'll become without knowing what you presently are. That body is an illusion. It doesn't actually exist as an object. It never has. It's more of a pleasant story you tell yourself, cause otherwise, what would you be? Here's something to ponder about: What if this feeling that you are that body is actually arbitrary, and NOT you?! Imagine for a second that that entire body is just like a coffee table, existing there, but actually not you. Funny enough, that's true! Hehe.... what a ridiculous situation we find ourselves in. How can something SO obvious go unnoticed? And yet, even now, as you look into this, you can't help shake the feeling that that body is you. That's clearly untrue, and yet you still can't stop believing in it.

@Shane Roberts As a therapist you can make pretty good money. And there are many other options for psych majors. If you were an English or History major, you'd have more to worry about. And hey, I was a philosophy major and I never regretted it. And I've made more money than 99% of managers, programmers, or engineers can dream of. So don't let the dumb masses pigeon-hole you. You can earn big bucks with any degree, and even no degree. But you gotta be willing to roll up your sleeves and hustle. Don't expect handouts. Career success has VERY LITTLE to do with degrees. This fact cuts both ways. Math and science are harder because they tolerate less subjectivity and bullshit, and there's more ways to be wrong than right. An engineering degree is definitely harder than a philosophy degree. I've done both tracks. But the difficulty is irrelevant. What matters is what you're passionate about. If your passion happens to be easy, so much the better for you. If it happens to be hard, that's your lot. The harder fields generally pay more and have more positions available, so there is compensation for your effort. Oh, and BTW, a job isn't so much found as it's made. Take responsibility for YOU making the job! Nobody owes you a job. The best way to deal with this kind of fear is to take 100% responsibility, devise a strategy for success, and start taking action on it. You'll instantly feel better.

@LetTheNewDayBegin Awareness is not trapped in the self. The self is an illusion within awareness. Self doesn't remain because it never existed in the first place. The self can NEVER become enlightened because enlightenment is the awareness of no-self. Free will isn't a miracle. It's an illusion (of control) which causes all your suffering and separates you from Truth. Ask yourself this: Why do you want free will? If you have it, you can never be happy, because it means you must always be on-guard. Nonduality is a path of surrendering control. This whole issue is one of power and control. You -- ego -- wants to think it controls stuff. But in fact it doesn't. And to believe that you do control stuff is the chief delusion that causes your suffering. So when you gonna wise up and give up the game? I mean... you can keep seeking power, but at some point you're gonna realize (hopefully) that the greatest power is total surrender. THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF THE SELF IS TO CONTROL STUFF! (But it always fails in the end.) So you're playing a game you cannot ever win.

@Toby Good share! Keep in mind though that asking spiritual masters to opine on a chemical substance they've never tried, can give you a distorted perspective. I doubt any of those folks have tried 5-meo for example. And lumping 5-meo in with psychedelics like mushrooms is a mistake.

That's how I started, and so did many others. You gotta earn your position in life through work and good strategy. Freedom ain't free. Yes, it would be nice if we lived in a society where it was free. Rather than whining about it, the best solution is to roll up your sleeves and get creative. If you love making music so much, why aren't you making enough good music to please people and earning yourself some money? People are making hundreds of millions of dollars in the music biz. If you really wanted to, so could you. Music is one of the easiest fields to get into, because it requires zero capital. You can write amazing music in your Mom's basement.

@somenathpal To reconcile that, you have to get at least a taste of enlightenment. You can't reconcile that through logic. For practical purposes, just assume that you're 100% responsible for everything, but you don't exist and have no free will.

@somenathpal You're not making any decisions because you are an illusion! There is not even a you who's reading this very sentence. Sit down and discover that for yourself.

@rush I explained exactly that in my How To Harness Your Intuition video (towards the end).

@somenathpal Here's a very simple exercise: sit down on your couch, get comfy, set aside 60 minutes, and now start to curl your index finger open and closed. And as you do that, start wondering, "What is curling that finger?" Drop all ideas or scientific theories. Only pay attention to DIRECT EXPERIENCE. ZERO theorizing or speculating! ZERO beliefs. Take a close look at what DIRECT EXPERIENCE reveals. You may be surprised.

@Sano Morphing Who told you you have to cross your legs? Meditate standing on your head if you like.

@Evilwave Heddy What I said doesn't necessarily mean you have to quit your job. If you need your job to pay your rent, then it's probably not a good idea to quit it right now. You can follow through on what I said without quitting. But that's something only you can decide.

@StarfoxEpiphany Nicotine is very physiologically addictive, so you're definitely in for an uphill battle if you're trying to just wait it out. It will probably take more than just a few days. For something like that, it might be helpful to plan like a week-long retreat to a cabin in the woods, where you have no possible access to cigarettes and nothing to do. It's gonna be hard to quit a physiologically addictive substance while in the midst of your everyday routine. Your routine is part of the problem. The good thing about a week-long retreat is that you could pair it up with meditation. So it's like a serious, week-long meditation and self-improvement week. Then you'll REALLY run into the void. And you'll get more growth in that one week than you would during a normal year. It won't just be nicotine, you'll slay a lot of inner demons, so it would be a win-win. Alternatively, you could try doing a 10-day Vipasanna retreat. They don't allow smoking there.

@Afonso Sounds like your body energy is twisted up. I would suggest doing some daily practice where you consciously relax your hands and arms and get acclimated to that "empty" feeling of being fully relaxed. Open up your body and try to attain perfect symmetry. It will feel uncomfortable at first, but over time, you should adjust to it. Focus your mindfulness on muscle tension in your body. There's probably a lot of it there that will take some work to notice. Also, try to contemplate the root source of this behavior. WHY are you doing it? What role it is serving? How are you using it to avoiding facing some kind of emotion?

@Toshko There are animals that need saving in Central and South America too.

Good question. I would say there has to be at least a kernel of passion from the start. Don't expect it to be the kind of full-blown passion you'd get if you were already a master in the field with a long track record of success and fame, but the idea of making creative output in your chosen field should excite you a lot right now. Your mind should be swimming in possibilities. There should be an exciting vision possible now, even if you're unsure how to make it real. Think of a young aspiring movie director who has no clue how to make movies yet, but he's already eager about planning out movie ideas. That's what it should feel like when you've found it. A snowball effect will definitely happen as mastery is developed, but you cannot just select any random field and then expect to become passionate about it through mere mastery of technique. If that were the case, life purpose and passion would be irrelevant. Think of it like getting married. Your strategy with marriage would NOT be to select any random girl on the sidewalk and marry her, and hope things turn out well. Your strategy would be to find the RIGHT girl, the one with whom you share values, interests, personality traits. and dreams -- in other words, there's a certain chemistry. You're not gonna get that with every girl.

@Treeves4u Good! You're definitely on the right track. This is what it looks and sounds like when you are starting on your life purpose for real. There's passion behind your words. One thing I would question you on is the part of your vision where you implant artificial intelligence into brains. Now... there's nothing wrong with that per se, but for you specifically, why did you select that of all things? The reason I ask is that you wanna be careful not to put the cart before the horse. Make sure you are first clear on the impact you're passionate about having BEFORE you decide upon the method for making said impact. This ensures you don't confuses means with ends. If what you really care about is raising consciousness in people, then make THAT your top aim, and then whether it's gonna be via implants or some totally different method, that part you leave open to discovery and research. Because what if there's a better way than implants that you haven't considered yet? You wanna be open to it, right? At least you would if your top passion with consciousness rather than implants. But if your top passion is implants, then go for that. So that there is just a little refinement and food for thought. Try to really get to the rock bottom of how your passion for consciousness, being a sage, and medicine are connected (if at all).

@Evilwave Heddy Clearly your current job is a dead end and your intuition is telling you to pursue learning. But you're afraid because you have no immediate idea of how learning might lead to something productive or lucrative down the line. THIS is where life purpose work is done. THIS is where the rubber meets the road. If you can't muster the courage and creativity to pursue your intuitions, you've already failed. Now you can appreciate why most people have crappy jobs and zero life purpose. Because they do what you're about to do: repress the muse and settle for practicality. It's not important to know how your passions and intuitions will lead to ultimate success. You will NEVER know that! What's important is to muster the courage to listen and follow your muse with diligence. And your muse is clearly telling you: GO FUCKING LEARN!

@username That approach can work, but you wanna be sure it's truly a relevant skill. Otherwise you might waste 4 years learning that skill, only to realize: "Oh, I'm not gonna use it." And by that point it will be too late. You're gonna have to pay the bills somehow, and so you'll likely get stuck with something MUCH less than your life purpose, out of necessity. It's much better if you can nail down your life purpose now and save years of blind trial and error. Although if you can't, some kind of action is better than no action at all.

@Afonso Now ask yourself, how can some people sit still like that for 5 days straight? That's 5 x 24 hrs = ~120 hrs straight. No food, no water, no peeing, no sleeping, no moving.

Higher consciousness goes WAY beyond flow state. It's more like being high on psychedelics 24/7. "Reality" itself changes.

@Mrkvn8 Why do you want it to decrease? You should be asking me how to increase it. The more shit you purge from your system, the better. Learn to enjoy the purification aspect.

While I appreciate the praise, please don't make this about idolizing me. Thread closed.

@habibi87 Don't forget to love all the evil you encounter every day. Fastest way to cultivate true love.

@Aamir King It's definitely possible to burn out, even if you're doing the greatest thing in the world. Life purpose is best achieved with a steady consistent pace, rather than at break-neck pace. Consistency is the key! You gotta pace yourself like for a double-marathon, not a sprint. If you're working more than 40 hours per week, you're probably doing it wrong. And you will be LESS productive in the end. Create downtime to meditate, introspect, read, listen to music, hang with friends, cook, go outdoors, relax, etc. Creativity is maximized when you are relaxed, not frenzied and overwhelmed with work. Download and read this PDF presentation about productivity: http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html