Leo Gura

The difference is that you are not being told to take this on as a position or a belief. You need direct consciousness of it. Don't believe anything I tell you. It will only harm you. My words are only here to get you to sit down and do your own work. This is not like school where you can copy answers from another kid's test. You have to grasp everything yourself. Any answer you copy is automatically false. This video tells you the exact method for how to become enlightened: http://www.actualized.org/articles/how-to-become-enlightened Just sit down and start doing it.

Haha, they do! All religious books talk about is enlightenment. You just have to know how to read between the lines. Remember that these religious books were written 2000 years ago. So they aren't designed to appeal to your modern intellect, but to the intellects and cultural traditions of 2000 years ago. Modern mainstream society has misinterpreted the original texts, turning them into cartoons.

Lol, "He" is YOU! Get enlightened and then all your questions fall away.

In practice, yes they do. They have many beliefs. But these beliefs are taken less seriously. And some beliefs fall away entirely, like the belief in a separate self.

It does involve deconstruction and unwiring, but the actual enlightenment itself is being. You become what you actually are, rather than what you presently believe you are. You are an infinite field of awareness within which all of life occurs. This field cannot be seen. It is not an object. It has no shape. It has no location. It is self-aware Nothingness. And you are it.

It's not that simple. Because if you truly knew nothing you would cease to exist as you. Because "you" is a belief. Truth is prior to thoughts, so thoughts cannot be used to access truth. That's right, truth is awareness itself. It knows itself. It is prior to any possible mental examination.

1) Matter is an image and audible sensation in your mind. Everything that occurs, occurs within awareness. Try to think of something which is outside your awareness. Notice that it is impossible. All of reality occurs inside of awareness. 2) You are existence itself. You are being it right now. Enlightenment is simply the recognition of this fact.

@Naviy Good! Now that's on the right track: you cannot describe anything. Sit with that and experience the thoughts without attempting this madness called description. All descriptions are illusions.

The problem is that your expectations are all wrong about this. You did it for 3 days for 5 minutes and you expect it to be fun? Try doing it for 2 years at 30 minutes per day. Then it might get a little fun. Still, don't expect too much fun. Don't be comparing meditation with porn, video games, internet, or movies. << These are all addictions that you need to ween yourself off of. For meditation to get really fun will take 5 to 20 years.

Well... that is a false conclusion. You CAN experience yourself, just not via the mind. You have to open your mind to a radical new possibility. Something other than thinking and other than seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, or tasting. You have to be humble enough to admit that you could be fundamentally wrong.

Firstly, absolute truth is not an experience. Secondly, it is not an understanding and it happens through no mechanism. Thirdly, it is not an answer to any question. Enlightenment is not a knowing, it is a deep un-knowing. The problem you're having is that you're conceiving enlightenment as some kind of additional belief or emotional state, which it is not. It's something totally alien that you have never thought was possible in a million years. It's not gonna be a "thing" that your ego is going to be able to grasp on to in the way you imagine. You have to really think outside the box on this one.

Classic skepticism

THERE IS NO YOU TO DO ANYTHING! You are a fantasy. You cannot even be enlightened.

Jed is an oddball guy. Don't take his hysterics too seriously. His books are way over-dramatized and limited in perspective. He is appealing to a particular kind of audience. If you ever get even a glimpse of truth, it will be the most beautiful thing you've seen in your life. It's better than sex, food, drugs, money, or any other stupid thing that people devote their lives to. Is enlightenment for everyone? No, because most people are just too damn ignorant to be helped. But if by magic they were able to experience enlightenment, they would never want to go back to their old hellish existence.

How can you expect to sit on a yoga mat and not have those issues? Yoga mats offer almost no padding. Buy yourself some serious cushioning if you intend to do long sits.

There is a entire sub-forum dedicated to this topic: http://www.actualized.org/forum/forum/6-serious-emotional-problems/ I never said you cannot discuss Abnormal Psychology. It's simply not the main focus or purpose of this forum.

You're not yet appreciating the absolutely RADICAL thing that enlightenment is. You're taking it as another, just higher, belief or piece of knowledge that you will acquire. But that is not enlightenment. After enlightenment you will no longer think of yourself as a human or even an object. Death will become a fairytale. It's like discovering that EVERYTHING you thought you knew about life and existence is wrong.

This: http://www.actualized.org/articles/how-to-study

A good homework assignment for you is to go meditate for 30 minutes in a very noisy area.

@tryingforfreedom You're not investigating this existentially enough. You're looking at this from some kind of human-social perspective or a psychological perspective. Instead, look at it like a physics problem. What is a thought existentially in your phenomenal awareness?

It can happen. Enjoy it while it lasts.

@Markus Well, I don't want to name names and spread gossip. Just wanted to illustrate that enlightenment and ethics are independent variables and that enlightened people can be sketchy.

I won the case but still haven't received any money.

Now you guys are on the right track. And what is a thought literally? Do not think about this. Look directly at what one of your thoughts is.

I coached a guy in Uruguay