Leo Gura

@blazed That's like saying, I'm interested to see if you will reach a state where you no longer need the use of a screwdriver. You're welcome to screw things in with your bare fingers at any time. Then you can pride yourself on how "natural" you are. While you're at it you can also cut out electricity, computers, cars, medicine, shoes, clothes, toilet paper, grocery stores, etc. A real man doesn't need any of those crutches After all, I know someone who got killed by electricity or a car. QED.

@strwbrycough It is what it is. I'm not sure what you want me do. It's not in my power to be or to think or not think. If you're trying to guide people towards enlightenment or whatever, I'd suggest you actually try your advice out on folks face-to-face to see if simple solutions like: "You're already enlightened. Just be." are helpful to them.

@Steph1988 You'll find this is a general problem with ANY business niche you want to enter. This is the problem of marketing. How do you differentiate yourself in a very crowded marketplace and offer something new and worthwhile? That's THE KEY question you'll have to solve with ANY business niche, be it personal dev, making cars, selling drugs, or running a casino. All worthwhile marketplaces are crowded and highly competitive. And no one will answer this question for you. Only you can answer it. This is what makes or breaks an entrepreneur. You cannot be an entrepreneur with a me-too, I'll-just-do-what-that-guy-is-doing attitude. This doesn't mean it's impossible. It just means it's very challenging, which means you need every advantage you can get, which means you need to be rock fucking solid about your life purpose. You cannot compete when you aren't clear about your passions and you have no spiritual connection to your work. Your work must have a sense of destiny about it. As in: "I will do this no matter what! I will solve every obstacle that comes my way. Nothing will stop me from success in this field because I love it too much!!!" << That's the point of finding your life purpose. That's what the hero's journey is about. It's not a pragmatic calculation about which marketplace is easiest or most lucrative, or whatever is most natural to your socially programmed self (i.e., personal dev). It's about what YOU LOVE MOST. The love is what carries you through the torment of the journey. The journey will be long and treacherous. The stakes are real. So don't screw around and REALLY nail down your purpose now. The problem with personal development is that too many people want to take it on as a life purpose just because it's all they know. They're not thinking enough outside the box. It does you no good to adopt my life purpose for example. That will only hurt you. When I see people doing that, and taking this sort of me-too attitude with personal develop YouTube channels, it makes me sorry for them, because I know they will fail. Because they are doing it like a zombie because they haven't thought of anything better. They are totally underestimating the difficulty. And they're not being authentic enough with themselves. They're not thinking about their purpose deeply enough. Adopting a purpose based on social conditioning is a really huge trap. When you REALLY connect with your life purpose, no competition will deter you. Your love will defeat all obstacles. It will take you some trial and error to connect with your purpose to such a degree. Have patience and really work the issue with faith. Once you have your purpose, you'll be on a path to creating original work which will stand out. No one can out-you you.

@blazed Consider the possibility that there are depths of consciousness you couldn't imagine in your wildest dreams.

@JKG Ah yessss... the good old familiar ego backlash, AKA temptations of the devil, AKA homeostasis, AKA backsliding. It's the only thing that's really standing between you and full consciousness. You can't go to the gym without expecting some resistance. It will get a lot worse before it gets better. The ego will fight enlightenment to its very last breath, with every trick imaginable. You will get fooled into quitting, over and over and over again. Which is why a strong blast of psychedelics can be a good re-energizer. This path is very difficult if you aren't getting any tastes of the absolute for years. It's just too likely that you'll fall back asleep unless you're serious as hell about this. You're gonna have to sacrifice a lot. That's the cost of becoming God. Now you know why so few people do it. On the upside, you will become fucking GOD! So it's really a bargain

What self-expressive creations would you create if you had $100 million dollars and no worries? Start doing that now and forget everything else.

@blazed You won't understand unless you have a psychedelic breakthrough. Words cannot describe it. The thing is, I don't need to draw any lines. I'm not ideological. I am a researcher. I try stuff with an open mind and see what works and what doesn't. It's as simple as that. But people take all this stuff ideologically. I don't care about any of that. It's up to you to discover how to escape the matrix. I'm just sharing things that have worked for me. Make no mistake though, the matrix is far wider and deeper than you ever imagined. You need all the help you can get, and you really don't have time to waste on ideological position-taking.

@PetarKa A) In the absolute sense, there is no goal to life and nothing needs to be done. When we talk about self-actualization as an important goal, we mean this pragmatically. It's a stepping stone. You can become a heroin addict if you like. But that would be a foolish move because you'd end up hating your life. There is nothing wrong with hating your life in the absolute sense. But in the relative sense, it sucks. B) You're right. If you could just fully let go, you would have no need to self-actualize because you'd already have self-actualized. It's sort of like you're asking, Why should I set a goal to become a billionaire if I'm already a billionaire? Well, are you? Once you are, you can drop the goal. But you're not, so here you are. Life if your chance to grow up and become fully conscious of reality. That's what this whole game is about. It's just a game. But you're gonna play it whether you want to or not. And it's gonna kick your ass pretty hard when you play it poorly.

@Dodoster Hindu and Arab mystics have a long history of hashish use for spiritual purposes. The problem with weed is that people do make it a chronic recreational habit. They seem to get addicted to it.

@mp22 It's good, but it's not nearly enough. You can use it as training wheels, but then you gotta transition to serious mindfulness meditation with noting.

@username Start by planning a 4 or 7 day retreat. That will be hard enough for you.

There are subtle differences which you won't be able to appreciate until you've practiced a lot. For someone in your position, they all refer to basically the same thing: just different forms of awareness. Start practicing. That's the important part. Things will clear up then.

@username Have you done any retreats at all?

No, it's not like that for me. I have a lot of monkey mind still. I'm a very conceptual sort of guy. My brain is always on, being creative. So it's very hard to shut off.

Existence and non-existence is a duality. Infinity transcends and contains both existence and non-existence. It's EVERYTHING and nothing. You're not going to grasp this with the mind. So it's pointless thinking about it. You can experience it though. If you stop philosophizing and get to work with self-inquiry or meditation.

I've used Modafinil. It's pretty amazing. Similar to Limitless. Creativity at genius-levels. But it does cause heart rate increase, which probably isn't healthy long-term. Microdosing LSD or mushrooms is the better alternative. They are healthier and cheaper. Although this also shouldn't be over-done as the full long-term health effects are uncertain. The best thing is go totally clean. Clean up your diet, kick all chemical, develop your mindfulness a lot, and you'll be higher than a kite naturally.

@Outer Of course you CAN. The trick is, you won't. It's very hard to re-create a retreat environment at home, especially as a minor. @Afonso What kind of excuse is this? You're a minor so you cannot travel? There are retreats everywhere these days. Probably some close to you. Many Vipasanna retreats are free. Do your research.

Without noting, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to stay mindful. You're just going to go unconscious. Mindfulness with noting will make you much more aware of individual sensations. It's hard work, but it pays off big time.

Have you even done a 4 day retreat? You're not gonna be anywhere near capable of pulling off 40 days unless you have years of experience doing retreats. This is not something you're gonna macho your way through.

There are many ways to skin a cat. You could do 30 mins of each. Or you could alternate days. Or you could start doing mindfulness with noting while doing your chores, like brushing teeth, showering, crapping, eating, driving, walking, etc. Or you could alternate weeks, or even months. Or you could invest 2 hours per day instead of one. If you've never done mindfulness with noting, a whole solid month of it would do you lots of good.

You're free to do it however you want, but if you're doing a serious meditation retreat, you'll want to avoid journaling. The mind is your enemy here.

That's what happens when you don't have a proper conceptual understanding of enlightenment and its various stages. She went through 12 years of hell, and then quickly died of a brain tumor.

The root problem is that you're disconnected from being. You're running away from the void. The only cure to this is to face the void once and for all. How you distract yourself, whether physically or digitally, is beside the point. You're addicted to excitement. Even very mild forms of it. If you spend 10 days sitting and doing nothing at all, you'll see just how bad your situation is. It's WAY worse than you ever imagined. Go do a Vipassana retreat. It will be a huge eye-opener for ya. The true test of whether you've conquered loneliness is whether you can spend the rest of your life all alone doing nothing and still be deeply satisfied. If you can do that, your relationships will become magical.

Just do it anyway. What else you got to do? You can meditate lying down, or even half-asleep. You can reduce the formality of your technique and just be mindful of body sensations or sounds.

Good chillout music is delicious on AL-LAD.