Leo Gura

@somenathpal To reconcile that, you have to get at least a taste of enlightenment. You can't reconcile that through logic. For practical purposes, just assume that you're 100% responsible for everything, but you don't exist and have no free will.

@somenathpal You're not making any decisions because you are an illusion! There is not even a you who's reading this very sentence. Sit down and discover that for yourself.

@rush I explained exactly that in my How To Harness Your Intuition video (towards the end).

@somenathpal Here's a very simple exercise: sit down on your couch, get comfy, set aside 60 minutes, and now start to curl your index finger open and closed. And as you do that, start wondering, "What is curling that finger?" Drop all ideas or scientific theories. Only pay attention to DIRECT EXPERIENCE. ZERO theorizing or speculating! ZERO beliefs. Take a close look at what DIRECT EXPERIENCE reveals. You may be surprised.

@Sano Morphing Who told you you have to cross your legs? Meditate standing on your head if you like.

@Evilwave Heddy What I said doesn't necessarily mean you have to quit your job. If you need your job to pay your rent, then it's probably not a good idea to quit it right now. You can follow through on what I said without quitting. But that's something only you can decide.

@StarfoxEpiphany Nicotine is very physiologically addictive, so you're definitely in for an uphill battle if you're trying to just wait it out. It will probably take more than just a few days. For something like that, it might be helpful to plan like a week-long retreat to a cabin in the woods, where you have no possible access to cigarettes and nothing to do. It's gonna be hard to quit a physiologically addictive substance while in the midst of your everyday routine. Your routine is part of the problem. The good thing about a week-long retreat is that you could pair it up with meditation. So it's like a serious, week-long meditation and self-improvement week. Then you'll REALLY run into the void. And you'll get more growth in that one week than you would during a normal year. It won't just be nicotine, you'll slay a lot of inner demons, so it would be a win-win. Alternatively, you could try doing a 10-day Vipasanna retreat. They don't allow smoking there.

@Afonso Sounds like your body energy is twisted up. I would suggest doing some daily practice where you consciously relax your hands and arms and get acclimated to that "empty" feeling of being fully relaxed. Open up your body and try to attain perfect symmetry. It will feel uncomfortable at first, but over time, you should adjust to it. Focus your mindfulness on muscle tension in your body. There's probably a lot of it there that will take some work to notice. Also, try to contemplate the root source of this behavior. WHY are you doing it? What role it is serving? How are you using it to avoiding facing some kind of emotion?

@Toshko There are animals that need saving in Central and South America too.

Good question. I would say there has to be at least a kernel of passion from the start. Don't expect it to be the kind of full-blown passion you'd get if you were already a master in the field with a long track record of success and fame, but the idea of making creative output in your chosen field should excite you a lot right now. Your mind should be swimming in possibilities. There should be an exciting vision possible now, even if you're unsure how to make it real. Think of a young aspiring movie director who has no clue how to make movies yet, but he's already eager about planning out movie ideas. That's what it should feel like when you've found it. A snowball effect will definitely happen as mastery is developed, but you cannot just select any random field and then expect to become passionate about it through mere mastery of technique. If that were the case, life purpose and passion would be irrelevant. Think of it like getting married. Your strategy with marriage would NOT be to select any random girl on the sidewalk and marry her, and hope things turn out well. Your strategy would be to find the RIGHT girl, the one with whom you share values, interests, personality traits. and dreams -- in other words, there's a certain chemistry. You're not gonna get that with every girl.

@Treeves4u Good! You're definitely on the right track. This is what it looks and sounds like when you are starting on your life purpose for real. There's passion behind your words. One thing I would question you on is the part of your vision where you implant artificial intelligence into brains. Now... there's nothing wrong with that per se, but for you specifically, why did you select that of all things? The reason I ask is that you wanna be careful not to put the cart before the horse. Make sure you are first clear on the impact you're passionate about having BEFORE you decide upon the method for making said impact. This ensures you don't confuses means with ends. If what you really care about is raising consciousness in people, then make THAT your top aim, and then whether it's gonna be via implants or some totally different method, that part you leave open to discovery and research. Because what if there's a better way than implants that you haven't considered yet? You wanna be open to it, right? At least you would if your top passion with consciousness rather than implants. But if your top passion is implants, then go for that. So that there is just a little refinement and food for thought. Try to really get to the rock bottom of how your passion for consciousness, being a sage, and medicine are connected (if at all).

@Evilwave Heddy Clearly your current job is a dead end and your intuition is telling you to pursue learning. But you're afraid because you have no immediate idea of how learning might lead to something productive or lucrative down the line. THIS is where life purpose work is done. THIS is where the rubber meets the road. If you can't muster the courage and creativity to pursue your intuitions, you've already failed. Now you can appreciate why most people have crappy jobs and zero life purpose. Because they do what you're about to do: repress the muse and settle for practicality. It's not important to know how your passions and intuitions will lead to ultimate success. You will NEVER know that! What's important is to muster the courage to listen and follow your muse with diligence. And your muse is clearly telling you: GO FUCKING LEARN!

@username That approach can work, but you wanna be sure it's truly a relevant skill. Otherwise you might waste 4 years learning that skill, only to realize: "Oh, I'm not gonna use it." And by that point it will be too late. You're gonna have to pay the bills somehow, and so you'll likely get stuck with something MUCH less than your life purpose, out of necessity. It's much better if you can nail down your life purpose now and save years of blind trial and error. Although if you can't, some kind of action is better than no action at all.

@Afonso Now ask yourself, how can some people sit still like that for 5 days straight? That's 5 x 24 hrs = ~120 hrs straight. No food, no water, no peeing, no sleeping, no moving.

Higher consciousness goes WAY beyond flow state. It's more like being high on psychedelics 24/7. "Reality" itself changes.

@Mrkvn8 Why do you want it to decrease? You should be asking me how to increase it. The more shit you purge from your system, the better. Learn to enjoy the purification aspect.

While I appreciate the praise, please don't make this about idolizing me. Thread closed.

@habibi87 Don't forget to love all the evil you encounter every day. Fastest way to cultivate true love.

@Aamir King It's definitely possible to burn out, even if you're doing the greatest thing in the world. Life purpose is best achieved with a steady consistent pace, rather than at break-neck pace. Consistency is the key! You gotta pace yourself like for a double-marathon, not a sprint. If you're working more than 40 hours per week, you're probably doing it wrong. And you will be LESS productive in the end. Create downtime to meditate, introspect, read, listen to music, hang with friends, cook, go outdoors, relax, etc. Creativity is maximized when you are relaxed, not frenzied and overwhelmed with work. Download and read this PDF presentation about productivity: http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html

@Mr Lenny Who? You??? Ask, who is this "I" that's supposed to be aware of awareness. Is there such an "I" at all? Try to point to it. Surely if the "I" is real, it should be easy to point to without restoring to a bunch of vague rationalizations.

@Epiphany_Inspired You can be a sage whether you're a man or a woman. There are examples of women sages/mystics, although of course much less prominent than men, but that's mostly due to bad culture discouraging women from getting involved in anything serious. I can't speak to what it's like to do enlightenment work in a "feminine way". There probably are some more feminine ways. Feel free to seek them out. Become your own kind of sage. Not a cookie-cutter sage.

@Aamir King Probably both

@Aamir King It's normal. Energy is being redirected in your body. The brain must optimize itself to sustain higher degrees of coherence and consciousness. Like I said before, don't be too surprised if one day you have to howl like a wolf. Energy has a mind of its own. Let it do its thing as long as you're not hurting yourself or anyone else.

You do understand that most of the founders of Zen were great sages, right? Zen was founded by Japanese monks who dedicated DECADES of their lives, often risking their lives, traveling by ship to China and even India to study 1000s of original Chan and Buddhist scriptures, copying them, debating them, reconciling them, collecting them to bring back to Japan to transform Japanese spirituality. This was a massive sagely undertaking without which Zen would not exist. Monasteries are very complex social machines that need to be well-managed. Land, funding, and permissions must be acquired by appealing to emperors and sponsors. But how would you know any of this if all you're interested in is sitting on a cushion in meditation? How would you understand these nuances without STUDYING them? Maybe picking up a few books would be helpful? "No, Leo... all I'm interested in is enlightenment! And books are just more beliefs and illusion." This notion that meditation or consciousness work eliminates the need for reading, thinking, knowledge, training, therapy or traditional self-help, career development, business, science, medicine, proper diet, etc. is very simplistic. Don't forget: After enlightenment, the fucking laundry! Not Oreo's and cartoons. And don't forget, before enlightenment, still... the fucking laundry!

Awesome! I'm in awe of their brevity. Perfect for Youtube audiences