Leo Gura

So, this here is generally the trap of materialism. Which is... buying into the idea that external circumstances can fulfill you. It's really hard to overcome this intellectually. What you can do is try to live out materialism and see that it never actually succeeds. For example, you can go be in 10 relationships and realize that it's still not really what you're seeking. Also you can try contemplating this question: "How will having abundant deep relationships change -- in any way -- the present moment?" If you contemplate that, you should realize that it won't. You'll still be left with only the present moment. And the present moment is always empty, no matter how much you try to fill it with "stuff". The "stuff" is always temporary.

@BeginnerActualizer Although animals don't have a human-like ego, they still have a sense of self. Without a sense of self, the body could not survive. Fundamentally, organisms must differentiate successfully between self and environment. An animal is an organism. An organism is a self-survival machine. That's it's job: to survive. So of course it would instinctively avoid death. Notice though, that animals fear death in a much different way than humans. They fear death only when their lives are directly threatened. So it's part of an immediate survival response. Whereas most humans fear death conceptually by creating fantasies, stories, and worry. Animals don't worry about death. They just avoid it.

It's bad when you do it unwittingly to escape reality or your emotions (which is almost always the case for you). You pay for it 100 fold in ways you don't even know yet.

I wouldn't get too sucked into Gurdjieff's teachings. They are not nearly as effective as more modern teachings if what you're after is enlightenment. Jumping around different teachings is fine, as long as you're jumping between great, direct teachings. And if you seek esoteric powers, that's a whole nother rabbit hole.

The entire self-inquiry process is a process of radically opening yourself up to not-knowing anything. You basically sit down and say, "Okay, let's assume everything I think I know is wrong. Now what is absolutely true?"

@SamEuphoria93 A) Self-inquiry is not meditation. B) Self-inquiry will aggravate you more than anything else. That's it's job!

@Alphard You are an illusion. You never existed in the first place. Try to actually pin point this "thing" called "I" which is going to die. Your current position is as silly as asking, "Mommy, what happens when Santa Claus dies? Who will deliver all the Xmas gifts?"

@Prabhaker That's not Jesus saying it, that's a biblical hack saying something he doesn't understand. It's very important to distinguish between what Jesus actually said, and what Christian ideologues believe about him. Like my projection video said, it's extremely easy to project onto advanced teachers. Which seems to have happened with Jesus big-time. From the historical record, as far as scholars can tell, when Jesus was asked by the judge at his trial: Judge: "So... you are the son of God?" Jesus: "If you say so." Jesus' reply was very revealing. Enlightened masters tend to be very careful with their wording.

I am not aware that Jesus ever said that. I don't think Jesus ever explicitly referred to himself in that way. And even if he did, 2000 years ago that was excusable, because we didn't know better. But now we clearly know a lot more about enlightenment.

@Richard Alpert I should release a book like that: The Divine Ordeal of Supreme Conscious Avatar Leo Samraj The Magnanimous One

Adi Da has the most narcissistic book title ever created by man: http://amzn.to/2fsM4un Lol

@Emptystickfigure Well, you're wrong.

@Huz I'll be addressing that in-depth in the new course I'm developing.

@Emptystickfigure I dunno the details, but there are many examples of highly enlightened masters run amok. Like this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Da Who became so enlightened he told his followers that he was the only human avatar that would reach the highest level of enlightenment (EVER) and that the only hope they had was to worship him as God. He was genuinely very enlightened. But also sounds like a narcissistic prick. This is enlightenment gone awry. There are many similar cases.

@Whoami3 Visualization is an amazing technique. I highly recommend it. Again, it's ONE tool in your toolbox.

@Jonson Affirmations are still good, especially for basic success/achievement related goals. Just don't let them be your only tool. And realize that there are more powerful tools available, especially if your objective is very deep personal transformation. The nice thing about affirmations is that they're so easy and simple. You don't have to spend 100s of hours racking your mind the way you do with something like contemplation.

Good, keep up that mindfulness.

@Zane If you're a creative person, you should know intimately the joys of creative fervor, and sharing your labor of love with the world. It's hard to put into words.

@DimmedBulb Mastery needs to carefully and diligently cultivated over decades to become a successful creative. Creativity isn't something that just happens. You need to devote your entire life to it, and work on it from morning till night. Technical skills need to be honed with 1000s of hours of meticulous practice. That's why having a life purpose is absolutely essential. It's what I found I needed to be successful creatively. Not really possible otherwise. You cannot become a creative genius on a whim. You have to REALLY work at it. This is the case with any big-name creative genius you've heard of or admire. Most people fail at this because they cannot properly motivate themselves to conquer the mastery learning curve. Especially these days, with all the comforts and distractions of 21st century Western lifestyles. But being successful creatively feels AMAZING! Better than an orgasm.

@Reality Yes, familiar with his work. Haven't delved into his books though.

@Peak Welcome to the 21st century, human.

@Live Life Liam You probably couldn't handle that extreme. So no. But if you could, it would probably be the best life possible.

Dude... When you abandon your entire lifestyle and go live in the woods or a cave for 10 years, living off one coconut per day, meditating 12 hours per day for years on end, for 10s of thousands of hours, begging for food, and eating it out of a bowl made out of a human skull -- THEN you can talk to me about seriousness. No TV, no internet, no sex, no jerking off, no bed, no house, no fresh clothes, no money, no friends, no family, no A/C, no heating, no bed to sleep in, no sleeping bag, no tent, no health care. I don't hold enlightenment nearly as seriously as yogis, Buddhist monks, or Zen masters. You say such things not having done your research, and not having done any serious contemplation. Try contemplating for 100 hours straight, non-stop. Then let's see how you feel. (That would still be newbie-level spirituality.) And laughter or playfulness does not preclude seriousness. Those are actually by-products of it. AFTER you've contemplated for 20,000 hours, then its easy to laugh. At that point, ISIS could be chopping your head off, and you could be laughing. You, as you are now, have almost no capacity to laugh. As soon as you experience the slightest discomfort, insult, or even a minor calamity, you vent, cry, curse, get depressed, get agitated, etc. You can't even sit still on a comfortable couch for 60 minutes without serious suffering. An itch on your nose can send you into agony.

@Oneness Why would it assume there are souls? What we generally refer to as "soul" is from what I understand really the Atman -- individualized consciousness. You can have direct experience of this. It's quite magical. But paranormal phenomena could work through a million possible mechanisms. We just don't know the what the mechanisms are. And they are probably non-causal, non-local, non-material, beyond standard physics. Which would be a good explanation of why standard physics generally ignores them. It wasn't that long ago that standard physics dismissed magnetic fields and x-rays as hoaxes. "X-rays will prove to be a hoax" --Lord Kelvin "Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." --Lord Kelvin (circa 1900)

@cactus Well... try open-eye meditation for a while. It's good training. Yeah, the jaw is a HUGE factor people forget. It's almost always too tense. When you meditate, relax your entire face like that of a baby in sleep. Everything should go limp.