Leo Gura

That's not true. Of course Buddhism is not about mastering business or career or family. But it does address many of the other points on the list. And also, Buddhism is mostly designed for hardcore monks, who have no business, career, or family. If you want to remain part of society and live a "normal" house-holder lifestyle, you will have to master many other things. To fully cut the roots of Samsara, you're gonna have to do personal development beyond enlightenment. How can you cut the roots of Samsara, for example, when you aren't even conscious yet of what REAL relationship is, or what REAL communication is? Most of your emotional baggage, neurotic ticks, and bad habits will still be there after enlightenment. COMPLETE ENLIGHTENMENT is virtually unheard of. I've seen people who've had 1 or 2 enlightenment experiences. They're basically as clueless and unmasterful as the average person. They have a TON of emotional shit and their lives are unrefined. WAY shy of the end goal.

Well, you must not be doing your research too well, cause most of the deeply enlightened masters I've talked to or read clearly talk about about cultivation of the psyche far beyond enlightenment experiences. They don't call it "personal development" of course. That's a modern Western self-help phrase that they don't often use. Every major spiritual tradition, from Yoga, to Buddhism, to Zen, to Christianity, to Islam, all contain many aspects of personal cultivation. They are NOT direct paths to enlightenment. They encourage cultivation of compassion, right action, right diet, right speech, humility, right relationships, etc. In Zen they have a concept called "the Zen devil". Which is a person who's had a few enlightenment experiences and thinks he's arrived, when in fact he's just a little devil, using enlightenment egoically and lacks maturity. And just from a physiological perspective, there's no way in hell that having 1 enlightenment experience will rewire your entire brain to act masterfully. That takes decades of work. Like I said, if you want to be a Zen devil, no one is stopping you. When I speak about these things I am always assuming your goal is reaching your maximum human potential. If you don't care about that, then that's your prerogative. And in that case, you're welcome to sit on the couch all day and eat Doritos and watch football.

Yes, it tends to be byproduct, but the brain/mind is strong. It is full of old conditioning that takes decades of work to unwire. Firstly, most people's enlightenments are far from complete from what I understand. True masters are very rare, and if you ever meet one face to face, you will know their mastery, it's simply awesome to behold. That level you will never reach with just one or two enlightenment experiences. That takes decades of work. But even if one is highly enlightened, one could STILL hold all sorts of dogmas, psychological hang-ups, and cultural biases. Shinzen told me that his teacher in Japan was an enlightened "asshole". The Zen traditions seem to like the asshole aesthetic. Seems to be a cultural thing. He told a story of where one of the monks punched him in the nose in the monastry while they were training because it was cold in the zendo and Shinzen had the sniffles while they were all meditating together. The next day he got punched in the nose for making too much noise! So yeah... you could turn into that guy if you're not careful, lol.

@cetus56 Suffering is an illusion. YOU construct it! Actively construct it in EVERY case! This requires high levels of development and consciousness to see. What you're talking about isn't suffering but compassion. A properly enlightened person will have lots of capacity for compassion for the suffering of the ignorant. This is very different than suffering alongside them, which is not necessary.

Just to clarify, the title of the course has not yet been decided upon and the release date is still unknown, as I've been sidetracked with various kinds of research.

Of course, if you want to be an asshole, you're welcome to it. Nothing on this path is a SHOULD. It's all optional. Feel free to go murder puppies as a hobby if that floats your boat.

@Markus You've yet to experience infinite divine love. So much love you want to cry for the entire universe. So much love you would give your life for it without question. The ego cannot fathom such things.

Dude... I study this stuff for a living. What I'm telling you is cross-referenced from dozens of highly authoritative sources. You need to do more research before laying on the cheeky skepticism. The spiritual path is extremely well documented and understood, if you but do the research. Human beings have been doing this for over 4000 years.

@electroBeam There is plenty of occultism within Christianity too. Even the official church has departments that deal with paranormal phenomena like miracles, saints, stigmata, exorcisms, healings, etc. Doesn't mean all of it is true, but it's definitely not all fantasy either. Jesus likely had some strong paranormal abilities. Which allowed him to draw big crowds and ultimately pissed off the establishment. It would make sense that Jesus wasn't just your regular enlightened guy, but a bit more. And if you study Mohammad, there's another dude with some paranormal channeling abilities. There's a story of the Buddha stopping a raging elephant sent charging at him just by gently raising his hand to it. Just a story? Maybe... or maybe there's some truth to it. Certainly not outside the realm of possibility. So when you follow the breadcrumb trail, all the sudden the dots connect very easily. All of it can't just be wishful thinking and folktales. There's commonly a kernel of truth to many folktales. I recently learned that will-o-the-wisps are a real natural phenomena: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp Of course none of this is to say that you should go chasing will-o-the-wisps and distract yourself from what's most important: liberation and psychological maturity. Although some people are really drawn to the occult. My theory is that some people have naturally high paranormal sensitivity because of the structure of their brains, so they naturally get deep into the occult. And left brained people simply can't understand how anyone can believe in such nonsense. Well, it's cause their brains are different! The logical mind is very limited. Deep intuition is required for this stuff.

The reality is you need it. Enlightenment without personal development work produces enlightened assholes and rubes. Personal development without enlightenment produces polished egos who can never find fulfillment no matter what they achieve. This would be like the Tony Robbins effect (sorry, Tony, my projection ) After enlightenment you still need to master the following things: Relationships Socializing Science Business/career Family Health Bad habits & addictions Bad cultural conditioning like sexism or racism Embodiment of unconditional love Old childhood traumas Ethical behavior

@khalifa Yeah, it irked me too just as recently as a year ago. Without a few years of consciousness work, without some enlightenment experiences, it's really hard to overcome the Western materialist worldview. You actually believe physical reality exists! And you can't help it because you have no alternative reference points. To break out of that, even for just 30 minutes, is HUGE! A whole new world opens up.

@electroBeam That's why this stuff is not discussed in the open. Exceptionally wise people have been persecuted by commoners since the beginning of time. That's what ego's do. They judge and condemn anything that challenges their web of beliefs. So no surprise there. If we had this discussion we're having now 300 years ago, we would all be burned at the stake just for entertaining such witchcraft. That's why occultism existed for thousands of years in all cultures, especially Europe, where anything unorthodox was violently persecuted. It's illuminating to read for example about how the Catholic church created a demonization campaign against mushroom cults in Europe, calling them evil witches, doing the work of the devil, because psychedelic mushrooms are highly threatening to egos who want to hold power. It's so hidden because people are so closedminded they can't stand to know it. Are you kidding? Buddhism is full of witchcraft and sorcery. Look at the Dalai Lama. He has a personal oracle that he consults! Even the Buddha talked about paranormal abilities. It's almost impossible not to have paranormal abilities when you are able to attain high Jnana states of concentration. Most people have such shitty concentration they can't focus for 5 minutes. So their powers suck. It's not at all hard to develop these powers. Just requires training. And most people who become enlightened in the West these days still have very poor concentration abilities. They are not refined or masterful at all. They have one enlightenment experience and think they've mastered everything. But that's just another trap on the path. There's a good reason why ancient mystical traditions are very deep and very complex. They're not just making shit up. They're navigating a very wide and diverse range of nuanced spiritual landscapes. Way more than just enlightenment. Most Westerners don't fully appreciate this. Because Western culture thinks it knows everything.

@rush I want to say, "I wish you achieved that just to realize how miserable and depressing your life would feel." But I wouldn't want to wish that level of suffering on my worst enemy. You are gonna die, you realize that, right? And no amount of money or success will help you with that. Alternatively, the wiser amoungst us will realize we're immortal.

Oh, when I was doing pickup back in 2012 -- before Actualized.org, before I had any knowledge of enlightenment or meditation or spirituality -- I did a 30 day challenge in Austin, TX. I moved and lived in Austin for 30 days that summer. As I was driving down the road I saw a "Fortune Teller" sign and, feeling adventurous, said, "What the fuck? Why not? Let's see how this lady jips naive fools. It's worth the price of admission just to see." So I knocked on the door and paid her $20. As she did my reading in her little spooky gypsy house, I carefully analyzed her, being ever-skeptical, and sure that she was just going to cold-read me. Anyways, I sit down and hold out my hands. She looks at them from a distance across the table and makes several predictions about me. I can only remember 2 of them, both of which came true in the coming 2 years. 1) There will be two girls in your life, one with black hair, one with blonde hair. One of them will cause you trouble. 2) You have an important legal battle ahead of you that's making you nervous. Don't worry, you will prevail. I had told her nothing about myself. Both came true! Just a fun anecdote. Doesn't necessary mean shit. Rather lucky though that she could have guessed that I had a big legal battle on the horizon! And I ended up winning that one: Ugh... I sound terrible.

@Esoteric I hear plugging is best

From the Orange stage, paranormal phenomena cannot exist. Orange is ego-driven, and paranormal phenomena are very subtle. So the ego cannot discern them, because it dismisses them as irrational, impossible, and "pseudo-scientific", and also paranormal phenomena are very difficult to employ towards materialistic needs or desires like money or sex, in the way that stage Orange envisions (although some rotten mystics still manage to do it). So you're not likely to use psychic powers to win the lottery. The reason Sadhguru -- or any other masterful teacher of nonduality -- do not openly discuss or encourage paranormal development -- is because they know that it can be a path of delusion and distraction. It's like shiny object the ego likes to chase and try to abuse. Also, people who have paranormal abilities do not go around talking about it with random strangers because they would just be dismissed as New Age kooks. But if you think back into your own life, you can actually probably remember meeting a person who told you something paranormal, but you dismissed it as naivete on their part. Well, you might have to re-examine that judgment. Maybe it was right under your nose the whole time, but you ignored it. I've personally met multiple highly conscious/spiritually developed people who have paranormal abilities. But they consider it totally normal. And they're very grounded and rational people. Peter Ralston, for example, used psychic abilities to help him in this martial arts to win the full-contact championship in Asia in the 70's. People got killed in those tournaments sometimes, Bloodsport-style. He told me he could "know" the intent of his attacker prior to the attacker himself knowing it! How can you lose if you know every move a second in advance? Well... he never lost, from what I hear You do not wanna mess with him! Some of his opponents would refuse to even enter the ring after watching him warming up! Lol He doesn't mention it much because he knows its a distraction for your ego. Now you want psychic powers to abuse. But it doesn't really work that way. Almost every highly advanced enlightened person I've met has reported some kind of paranormal abilities or phenomena to me. Not that I explicit try to drag it out of them. Usually it's pretty subtle stuff. And it just gets mentioned as casual aside. As in, "Oh, yeah... by the way, I can heal people." What?!!! In the Eastern traditions, Sorcerer Yogis are quite a common path. Some people devote their entire lives to it. In the West, we have various schools and long-running traditions of occultism. It all makes a hell of a lot of sense if you just study and research broadly enough, practice meditation, and have an enlightenment experience or two. Reality is not a classical Newtonian physical system. It's a mystical, infinite, conscious singularity that defies all logic. But don't believe me. Go discover for yourself what's true.

@Esoteric DPT... that's some good shit. You're smoking my kind of substance! You might be ready

I dunno... somehow I have a feeling I said too much. You might not be ready yet.

@John Flores Sanity is overrated Just look at all the lost and miserable "sane" people around!

@Emerald Wilkins The scientific evidence is basically undeniable. Not to mention that it explains a whole hell of a lot of social phenomena. And of course, you can train it in yourself if you want. The only obstacle appears to be closemindedness. Just be careful what you assume about me (or paranormal phenomena) when I say that. And personally it's not my top priority to pursue it. I mostly just speak of it because my interest is to have a holistic understanding of reality. And you cannot have a holistic understanding if you ignore the paranormal.

@Esoteric If I elaborated fully, you would probably call me crazy But I'll put it this way: I wouldn't be too surprised if I saw a yogi levitating Consciousness is not to be underestimated. Remember to be open. And if you read all the books on that list and maybe snort some 5-meo, you just might start to agree with me.

Yeah... This guy sure is doing a great job of NOT understanding nonduality. 1) Evil is a thought. It doesn't exist in the external world. Nothing is ever evil except in so far as it threatens a particular human ego. This is not a opinion, this is reality. And it's obvious to anyone with sufficient consciousness. Evil can only exist relative to an ego. 2) Solipsism is not nonduality. The guy in the video is committing the classic naive mistake of conflating nonduality with an ideology. It's not an ideology and never can be. To read a book about nonduality does not create any true knowing. 3) He claims that for solipsism (nonduality) there is no objective truth. This is false. There is ONLY Absolute Truth, which is Absolute Infinity. It's not merely subjective. It's utterly universal. So universal the human mind cannot even fathom it. 4) It is a fact that nothing can truly be known. We don't actually know what anything is. Everything is unknown. The mind only spins stories about it. 5) Evil stems from judgments and the kind of mindset this guy espouses. He doesn't understand unconditional love, nor does it seem he's ever experienced it because that requires high degrees of awareness which he doesn't seem to have. 6) This guy is ideological. 7) The woman was just being polite (and compassionate) with him not to flare up his obvious ego. 8) To a naive ego, nonduality appear egotistical, but actually the opposite is true. When I claim I am God, that's actually a very humble position. But the ego likes to attack that as arrogant. It's sad to see modern skeptics executing skepticism so poorly. He would be better off applying his own skepticism to himself. True skepticism means: suspension of all belief or judgment about truth, because it cannot be reliably ascertained through the mind. A real skeptic would be skeptical of judgments of evil. After all, how would he know a thing was truly evil? By what method? Moral judgments are the least agreed upon. 30 mg of 5-meo up his nose would solve his whole problem Nonduality can only be found directly through experience, not theorizing.

The problem is that true not-knowing isn't happening. You're just doing a mental circle jerk. You gotta really doubt what you think of as reality! You gotta really doubt that you are that body. Get serious! Right fucking now! What are you?!!! Do you know? Look at whatever you immediately identify as. Cut all the shit. Cut all the theory or answers you've heard. That's not what you actually identify with. You identify with that meaty body and monkey mind. So be honest about that and start your inquiry there, not in theory-land. You have to inquiry from a place of what actually feels true in your direct experience, not what you've heard is the right answer. When you ask yourself "What am I?", make sure you force a concrete experiential answer, not some vague idea like, "Oh, I'm everything." No! That's not true for you. In fact you identify with a body sensation or a mental image of yourself. So that's your answer. It's wrong, but an honest wrong answer is better than a dishonest right answer. You have to answer honestly, otherwise self-inquiry cannot work. This is why good spiritual teaches are loathe to give you any information or answers. Because they know it will put you in the current trap you're in. Now you gotta be wise enough to avoid the trap. How? Force honest answers. Then question them to see why you hold them and how they're ultimately false. Why do you identify with being a mental image or a body sensation? Who told you that's actually you? Question, question, question until you start to get a dawning sense that your self-image is totally arbitrary. There is absolutely zero proof that you are who you think you are. It's like a case of mistaken identity. The man who mistook himself for a coffee table If you get even 5 seconds of TRUE not-knowing of who you are, enlightenment is a hair's width away! But it has to be REA not-knowing, not pretend. Like -- REALLY -- you have no idea what you are! When you gonna admit it to yourself?

Yopo is actually quite different from pure 5-meo. It's mostly bufotenine, which is a whole nother critter from 5-meo, but still a highly visionary substance. Pure bufotenine, if extracted from Yopo, is some very powerful stuff! Pure bufotenine will make you hear spirit voices in your head, talking to you, telling you things. It's one of the few powerful auditory hallucinogenics. If you just do unextracted Yopo snuff, it won't be that powerful. You'll have to snort a ton of it to get a strong trip. Imagine snorting a gram of powder up your nose until you're throwing up from it. That's what the native shamans are forced to do cause they can't do a proper extraction. Extraction teks for Bufo can be found online. But check legality in your area.

@SBB4746 Easier but not easy. There's a reason people get enlightened and then spend 10 to 40 years deepening their practice. The ego is a tough son of a bitch, and it will still largely be there after enlightenment. You gotta polish it for decades. And just because you've had one enlightenment, that doesn't make the next enlightenment any easier. You don't really have control over such things. And being enlightened doesn't make you a good person. That takes WAY more work than even multiple enlightenments. You could be an enlightened thief, drug addict, molester, and asshole. There have been plenty of enlightened assholes throughout history. That is not the way.