Leo Gura

@Maycol That requires a very deep enlightenment. Yes, Neti Neti, or self-inquiry, or yoga, or meditation, or 5-MeO-DMT. 5-MeO-DMT is the most direct and surest way. You will experience pure, total nonduality the likes of which cannot be imagined or spoken of. Experiencing total nonduality is not easy. It usually takes enormous work. It took me about 4 years of hard work every day, and the only reason I succeeded was thanks to 5-MeO. Most people here pursuing enlightenment will never realize total nonduality in their lives. It's too deep. But with 5-MeO it becomes very doable. LSD is the next best thing, since 5-MeO is hard to find. But LSD will still not take you deep enough. But it will still give you a good glimpse and knock your socks off if you use it properly.

@hundreth Great stuff. And then there's Father 5-MeO, the king-maker

@Salvijus I like Sadhguru's explanations, but there is actually little evidence that the Pyramids were used as tombs for the dead. It seems more plausible that the Pyramids where tools to boost spiritual practice. The Pyramids may not have been the creations of egotistical kings but just the opposite.

People into Western yoga are generally into self-improvement. Try joining a local yoga class and schmooze with them. They will introduce you to like-minded people. Western yoga classes exist in every city in the world at this point I think. But don't expect people there to be into hardcore enlightenment work. That kind of community is very rare. For that you need an ashram or a spiritual workshop lead by some enlightened guru. As always, be careful with group-think. Even the most enlightenment-oriented communities are full of corruption, dogma, idol worship, politics, rituals, and distractions (see Osho documentary to see how bad it can get). Serious spiritual work is best done solo. 10-day solo meditation retreats are the shit. But for newbies, a community can be useful to start off. Sign up to a Vipassana retreat in your area. You will meet some serious spiritual practitioners there.

I REALLY appreciate homeostasis after a bad trip. You go so deep down the rabbit hole, to the point of madness, and then homeostasis kicks back in and brings you back down to Earth. That's when you say, "Thank God for homeostasis! Otherwise I would be drooling in a wheelchair in an insane asylum." Never forget that homeostasis keeps your ass alive on this mortal plane. Which is why it's so damn stubborn. It's really looking out for your safety, like an obsessive, neurotic mother: "Honey, did you remember to take your sweater? You'll catch a cold!"

@see_on_see Darker stuff probably comes up at longer durations.

Best example would be strong determination sitting or doing a 10 day solo meditation retreat. The suffering experienced there, while you are fully mindful and not distracting yourself with anything, is like Miracle Grow for the soul. The problem with most forms of suffering is that people suffer mindlessly, never looking into the root of the suffering because they are distracted with entertainment or business or relationships. A classic shaman's vision quest in a great example of this. You go into the desert all alone with no food or water for 3 days. You suffer so much you start to have mystical experiences. Jesus supposedly did that for 40 days in the desert. The Buddha basically did that too under the Bodhi tree. He sat there and sufferred mindfully. Retreats create lots of mindful suffering for me and grow me the most. Psychedelics also create mindful suffering, AKA bad trips, which are very healing. It works because suffering is just the ego's unwillingness to surrender to reality. So by suffering mindfully without escape or distraction, you force the ego to die. It is like exposing a vampire to sunlight. The only trouble is, it's uncomfortable and the ego hates it.

Thanks ya'll! It makes my work all the more rewarding to see people getting results and expanding their horizons and having profound insights into the nature of reality. That was the whole point of Actualized's inception.

This is a really great solution to this problem. Also, psychedelics are very effective at disturpting the status quo, which is why they are banned by governments. Also, ego backlash is not necessarily wrong or a bad thing. It is a sign of growth. Nature evolves through oscillation, like a wriggling snake. Reframe every ego backlash you have as: "Ah, another lesson to make me wiser." The key to ego backlashes is to be mindful of them as they happen. Don't necessarily try to force-stop them. Use of force is actaully part of the root problem. Mistakes and failures, when observed with mindfulness, are not mistakes or failures at all! And even failure at mindfulness isn't necessarily a mistake.

They weren't enlightened. But they had some good intuitions and principles and understanding of human psychology, which makes their teachings useful for personal growth. One does not have to be enlightened to have useful and profound insights about how to live a good life.

Quickest way to enlightenment is 5-MeO-DMT. But mindful suffering is pretty good too.

Of course it is also true that unconscious people tend to be much less responsible with their sexuality, driven by 1st and 2nd chakras, so they end up spawning more babies and also infecting their minds with low consciousness beliefs and neurosis. Terrible parenting begets terrible parenting. The devil begets more devils.

That's heavy stuff. Will take some deep work to unwire that. Psychedelics and shamanic breathing might prove very useful for processing that. With awakening, you will realize you are perfect however you are. So chin up. Your courage in sharing that is already a big sign of growth.

Suffering. Deep deep suffering.

That is a great point. For those of you still far from awakening, start by tapping into the beauty in your life. That feeling of beauty is really powerful. Learn to cultivate it and channel it as often as possible. Beauty is all that remains after enlightenment. Just infinite beauty everywhere. The entire universe is one sublime work of art. A perfect masterpiece!

@Otogi Sure you can. It's a legit part of the spiritual domain and people naturally have tons of questions about it. People have started threads here before about all sorts of occult topics. They just don't usually label it: "Occult" Just be careful. It's a DEEP rabbit hole full of many potential traps and delusions. I doubt there is anything sweeter than total nondual awakening.

@Dodo It's one facet of the larger jewel. I've had awakenings which were far more profound than infinite love. But infinite love is great. The most profound awakening I've had so far was pure Nothingness, pure Mu. It was beyond love.

Bashar is a good example of a channeler. To be clear l never said whether channeling is good or bad. It is just a thing. Whether you should pursue it is not easy to answer. Be careful with judging spiritual techniques or methods with which you have no direct experience. From what I currently understand, what you really want is enlightenment. But it's good to know that stuff like channeling is really possible if you care about fully understanding how reality works. There are many facets to spirituality besides pure realization of nonduality. Way more facets than people realize. Like demons, angels, spirits, dieties, entities, astral realms, etc. Just don't get too distracted by all that stuff. Go for enlightenment first. Dabbling in the occult can be big distraction, and poses risks.

I never hated the illusion. I love illusions! Which is why I wanted to be fully conscious of it. Illusions are to be enjoyed for what they are. Like a good movie or video game or novel.

@Empty No, that is not even a glimpse. That is a beautiful, heart-felt experience, but not enlightenment or even a mystical experience. With enlightenment, it is as through you broke your entire perceptual system. It is a deeply metaphysical thing. Physical reality collapses. Life and death become identical. It is such a radical shift in awareness that your mind cannot even imagine it in your wildest dreams. It is so radical that it is beyond all human notions of beauty, emotion, and profoundity. It just leaves you paralyzed in awe, as you realize that you just died.

Enlightened man with access to extraterrestrial wisdom turns to Dr Phil for basic marriage advice. Lol...

Ego loves to fear the unknown realms of the psyche. Wikipedia is the not the best source for spiritual guidance.

Nice insight! The ego's hate is just a sort of twisted expression of love. The devil is a preversion of godliness. When you comb out all of the devil's twisted preversions, he becomes God!

Amen Emptiness is actually the most profound and "meaningful" thing possible. It's a paradox.

Actually, this is probably not true. There is a higher power working through you, even if you are full of ego. A divine intelligence is guiding you, which is why you are attracted to enlightenment in the first place. If not for this divine intelligence, there would be no hope of awakening. Your desire to be a healer is probably genuine deep down inside, it is just hampered by your lower chakra, fear-based, self-preservation instincts. What you need is simply spiritual purification, purging all of your lower chakra baggage. It is like you are a light bulb that has been covered over with so much rust and grime that only a few rays of light are radiating out. As you clean off the grime, you will shine with the infinite, eternal, unstoppable light of God. The ego will be annihilated in this light. And then you will become a great healer. But start with babysteps. This whole process will take years. You are right where you need to be. Follow your heart, it is filled with divine intelligence and will show you the way.