Leo Gura

Just keep practicing consistently. Allow the spiritual purification process to happen. If you sit daily, you should see the process working on a weekly basis. Emotionall crap will surface, and then pass away, in cycles. The key is to not get fed up and quit. Trust the process. Give it time to work. Strong negative emotions means progress. Don't judge your results by how happy you feel. Happiness is a long-term by-product.

Of course. Skepticism is often used as the ego's greatest weapon. Rather than active skepticism, the much better position is to admit that you really don't know. That is actually what's the case. You just don't know what the truth is. So just stay with that, and try not to let your mind entangle itself in speculation. Speculation is very tempting, but it is a tool of the devil. Not-knowing is a VERY counter-intuitive move.

As I've said before, mastery in this field takes 20-40 years. But that doesn't mean you need to wait that long. There is a big difference between mastery and one enlightenment experience. You can have one experience quite quickly. And you can grow a lot along the way. None of the work is "wasted". You life will be improved by leaps and bounds even if you don't go all the way. Yes, of course enlightenment is rare. Most folks here are just getting started on their spiritual journeys. Don't expect to find enlightened masters hanging around on a forum. Once you have an enlightenment or two, you'll quit this forum. BTW, I have seen people here having awakenings. Can't tell how deep they are, but people are doing it. Or at least getting glimpses, which is still an epic and life-changing thing when you have it. This ain't no Usain Bolt situation. The only problem here is, you don't really want enlightenment bad enough. So a lot of time is wasted beating around the bush. If you just discipline yourself to self-inquire, you will make quick progress. You'll feel it.

@goodwig You're right about that, it's very not good for YOU That's enlightenment. The issue is that you don't really want it. You're searching for goodness, not Truth. So don't be surprised if you never find it. Yes, of course psychedelics can give you a deep glimpse in just 15 minutes. It also helps to go to retreats. Lots and lots of retreats. This issue requires massive work for most people, and for some, extra extra massive work.

@goodwig How much self-inquiry have you done? You could easily meditate for 30 years and not get enlightenment. Many people are in that place. Enlightenment requires a lot more directness if you really care about it. Meditation is generally too indirect, although it can be a good launching point. Ultimately, you gotta be laser-concentrated on wanting to know what the true nature of reality/self is. You need to cultivate a very deep existential desire to know What is Absolutely TRUE?

Rali has been banned from this forum multiple times for unethical self-promotion. The reason he was banned was simply because his behavior has been totally obnoxious and disrespectful. If he tries to return and self-promote again, please report it immediately. Not only is he self-promoting and leeching off Actualized.org, he does so in a manipulative way by trying to stir up a stink with pointless controversy. I am not interested in debating enlightenment. Nor arguing about Rali's behavior towards Actualized.org. I have no ill-will towards him. But when a person tries to get attention at all costs, manipulating and leeching off of others, and claiming to be enlightened, that's a big red flag right there. So be careful who you listen to. I am not interested in arguing whether he is or is not enlightened. I don't really care. Enlightenment doesn't mean jack when one still behaves like a troll, and one's self-proclaimed purpose of teaching is to get rich quick. Any posts made with his content/videos here will get deleted. I don't care what content he releases or what he says, as long as he's not shamelessly leeching off Actualized. With his own audience, he can do whatever he wants and I don't care. The problem arises when he tries to increase his audience at my expense. I've had to spend hours of my own time cleaning up his messes. I hadn't ever brought it up before because I thought the issue was settled. And bringing it up only rewards him with publicity. Frankly, the whole situation is preposterous. I wouldn't care about it if he wasn't misleading and distracting people over and over again, trying to stir up a fight. We are not Fox News here. If you're serious about spiritual growth, be very careful who you listen to, and don't ever settle on one perspective, including of course mine. And remember that actions speak louder than words. Spiritual mastery cannot be faked. It's very obvious who has it, and who doesn't. And I'm not claiming I have it. The whole point of our work is to keep our eye on the ball and not get distracted with human chimpery and drama.

@Beyond Words That is NOT 5-MeO. Don't screw around with such sloppy information. You can get people killed.

@Sky Hence the emphasis on radical openmindedness, mutliperspectivalism, holism, and studying many different sources. And of course you gotta field-test all the theory to see what works for you. I've spent over 5 years trying out various diets. It's a lot of work. The best diet seems to be live, raw, organic 100% plant-based. No meat, no dairy, no wheat, no starchy veggies like potatoes, no packaged foods, no sugary foods. Try it for 30 days and see how you feel. In this case, saturated fat is a non-issue. The problems with meat go way beyond saturated fat. Nutrition science is still in its infancy. There are hundreds of variables, all over which are important to consider. But science does a poor job of dealing with many variables because it has a bias to slice and dice the issue. That's why we have all these contradictory diets. And people have different goals for their diets. Most people just wanna lose weight or get jacked. They aren't really concerned with optimizing health or consciousness.

Extreme neuroticism confirmed

I have some Blue Lotus but haven't tried it yet. You can buy Blue Lotus extract on Ebay. It's not a true psychedelic. You're not gonna trip balls on it. Perhaps there's something the Egyptians did to potentiate it. Phalaris grass, which I think grows in Egypt and many other places, contains tiny amounts of DMT and 5-MeO. Perhaps they found a way to extract it. I'll have to try mixing Blue Lotus with shrooms. The issue I have with her theory is: shrooms are way more powerful than Blue Lotus. So why didn't the Egyptians directly worship the shrooms instead of the Lotus? You'd think they'd have a mushroom goddess.

@Sevi In that case, no meditation, no self-inquiry, no Actualized.org. All shortcuts. A real man becomes fully enlightened watching Saturday morning cartoons!

@onacloudynight Life's a sandbox. You can do whatever you want and enjoy it. Why be bummed out about this? You have total freedom. Nothing about spirituality says you should stop enjoying life. Just the opposite. Enjoy it all, including the horrible stuff. Learn to have great sex and enjoy the hell out of it. You'll be dead soon, so why waste time moping?

@Socrates Up to you. The key thing you need to realize is that you ACTUALLY don't know what reality is, or what you are. Grasp this! Deeply. Then natural wondering should occur. When you think you know the essentials, you can't be bothered to actually inquire into them. See? Read the top books in the Consciousness section of my book list if you haven't already. They should help you understand this. Read them over and over until you start to grasp that you don't know. Or just eat some mushrooms.

@Socrates Because you're wasting time lost in thought. Or psychedelics.

@wingsofwax Creative intelligence is baked into existence itself. It doesn't just come from rational thought. That's what Tolle means. Tolle is referring to INSIGHT.

@harisankartj There are many levels of depth in realizing this truth. Sounds like you just scratched the surface, if that. The ego can twist the truth around into something negative or depressing. But that's just another trap of this work.

Just replace your concept of "physical reality" with emptiness/awareness, and there you have it. Everything happens spontaneously. By magic. That's why it's called mysticism. You're gonna have to throw out your notions of linear, Newtonian causality. Mind is a concept within awareness.

@Not a shaolin monk Those expectations of orgasms and God are the very thing keeping you from seeing God. God is not like anything you imagine. That is the whole problem here. You need to be smart to realize that, or you'll waste years chasing fantasies. Any experience you have, is not God. And keep in mind, God may not even exist.

@abgespaced Great! Happy for ya.

@nahtanoj The Lion King is a classic hero's journey movie. Worth a re-watch. I have a whole book that explains how they wrote The Lion King using the Hero's Journey structure.

It doesn't really matter in the end. You could self-inquire while walking outside or peeing or cooking. But if you're a newbie, or doing some really deep inquiry, you'll want to just sit and be in total focus. Don't force SDS. It will come about naturally as you focus a lot. You'll get a sense when a movement is disruptive, and sometimes when it isn't. Like if I get a nasty itch on my face while inquiring, I'll scratch it, just so I don't have it in my way. Then again, sometimes the inquiry is so deep that even a nasty itch doesn't bother me. When self-inquiring, my attention goes on the inquiry, not on formal meditation postures or any other external ritual.

@harisankartj Of course. But how deeply have you experienced it? When you say, "just emptiness" << that's a sign you haven't really grasped it.

Life is the ultimate sandbox, open-world video game. Unfortunately, most folks are COD gamers, so they can't appreciate the infinite richness. It's overwhelming to them. They want it dumbed down. And so religion is born.

@Pinocchio NTO-Dingu God's way of making sure one doesn't become an astrophysicist is by giving one a low IQ

Your cognitive style is... Intellectual Your organizational style is... Focused Your energy style is... Introverted Your stress management style is... Resilient Your interpersonal style is... Collaborative Your Scores on All 30 Personality Traits Openness Traits Your level of imagination is high. Your level of artistic interests is low. Your level of emotionality is low. Your level of adventurousness is about average. Your level of intellectual interest is high. Your level of liberalism is high. Conscientiousness Traits Your level of self-efficacy is high. Your level of orderliness is high. Your level of dutifulness is about average. Your level of achievement striving is high. Your level of cautiousness is high. Extraversion Traits Your level of friendliness is low. Your level of gregariousness is low. Your level of assertiveness is low. Your activity level is low. Your level of excitement-seeking is low. Your level of positive emotions is low. Neuroticism Traits Your level of anxiety is low. Your level of anger is low. Your level of depression is low. Your level or selfconsciousness is high. Your level of immoderation is low. Your level of vulnerability is low. Agreeableness Traits Your level of trust is about average. Your level of honesty is high. Your level of altruism is low. Your level of cooperation is high. Your level of modesty is about average. Your level of sympathy is about average.