Leo Gura

I try to update the book list very quarter with the best stuff I come across.

@DizIzMikey Notice that belief is not required for shitting and eating. Every important life function happens without beliefs. The body would not be so stupid as to entrust life-support functions to arbitrary egotism.

Most of Maslow's subjects (if not all of them) were not enlightened. They were just more aware than the average person. More awareness means you're closer to what an enlightened sage or an ideally self-actualized person would generally look like. But enlightenment is such a rare thing, that self-actualization is much more realistic as a goal for most folk.

Truth is definitely not a belief. It's not even something you can access with your 5 senses or the mind. You literally have no way of accessing it. But there is one possibility: remove the "you".

Concentrate on any object for 30 minutes straight without wavering your focus even once. And you'll have Samadhi with it, more or less. The trick is, you can't do that, because your mind is too distracted. So it takes 5 years of daily practice, or something like that.

You guys are totally underestimating enlightenment! You should be more interested in becoming of aware of the fact that "right side of the brain" is a thought inside nothingness. When you say "brain", you say it as thought it really exists. Might want to question that assumption. Where was the brain before you were born? Did it exist? No? Then what possible significance could it have to you or to truth? All this brain-talk is shallow, shallow, shallow. You need to look 1000 miles under the surface.

Study Spiral Dynamics. Lots and lots of spiral dynamics, until you see all the unawareness inside you as you judge & get emotional about these vast social structures.

Umm... THERE IS NO YOU! Like really! Why the fuck do you assume you exist? It's a totally groundless assumption. Check it and see. "I" is just a sound + an image + a feeling arising in an empty vacuum. There has NEVER EVER been a YOU! You are a total fantasy. There is no you reading this sentence right now. There is just a sentence floating in a vacuum with a bunch of other colors, sounds, and feelings.

Studying a lot of diverse high-quality information, contemplating it, and being in a very relaxed state tends to produce the most insights for me.

A good couch is my favorite cushion.

I will talk more about curing introversion in the future. It's a more important topic than it seems.

The best toilet paper money can buy! http://amzn.to/29GH6Hm (affiliate link)

It's all just one giant distraction from doing serious inner growth & living life. If you were conscious, you'd feel so good you wouldn't need it. But since you're not conscious, you use it because that's the best shortcut you can find. And of course because you're not conscious, you're not conscious of the rationalizations your mind concocts, which keep this whole thing in place.

Walter is an example of someone how DOESN'T have self-governance. He's a slave to his neurotic mind, and ultimately it gets him killed (spoiler alert). So... yeah... You don't wanna be Walter. Dysfunctional characters are fun to watch on screen, but you don't want their life.

@Huz Sure, because Truth technically has nothing to do with morality or proper conduct. One could know the Truth and nuke the entire planet, just like one could know that 1+1=2 and then murder their family. Knowing 1+1=2 isn't necessarily connected to any particular mode of behavior. Just because I know 1+1=2 doesn't necessarily mean I'll be nice to you. Many spiritual aspirants make the mistake of conflating Truth with moral behavior. The reality is that immoral behavior is equally as true as moral behavior.

An egoless person would see the truth of the matter behind the concept of ownership: there cannot be a "thing" that owns another thing. That entire structure is silly if you really think about it. What is the thing doing the owning? What establishes ownership? What are you really saying when you say, "I own that thing over there"? Ownership is a convenient fiction we've created to make our lives easier. There's nothing wrong with using this fiction. It is handy for everyday living. Just understand that there isn't really anyone doing the owning, and that ownership is a completely arbitrary relationship. I could claim that I own you. It would be no more true than saying I own the Moon or that I own a car or that I own my body. Now, does this mean I don't use a car in everyday life? Of course not! I have a car and I use it, and if someone tried to steal it, I would make an effort to stop them.

Yes, this is one of the wrinkles commonly encountered on this path. Traditionally you would be beaten and yelled at for questioning a head monk in a Zen temple. And that tradition still runs through many spiritual teachings. But also there's something to it. Because many people who come into spiritual work are sooooo off-base that they need a good slap across the face to sober up from all their fantasies. The trick is in finding the right balance between harsh truths and compassion for the clueless newbie. Some teachers are more compassionate than others. Some teachers are less mature and self-developed than others. Some teachers are straight up assholes.

@Katiee The title of this thread is the title of the video with the technique.

@Dragallur Do NOT be having conversations in the middle of meditation! What nonsense is this? When you meditate, people around you should know not to approach you. If not, make it known! And be strict about it. Treat meditation like it's the most important aspect of your life.

What you want is REAL yoga (basically meditation), not the physical yoga you see at your local gym. Nothing wrong with physical yoga. It's good for the body & mind. But it won't get you enlightened. Not even close.

Sit down and be aware. Words will not help you here. They will only confuse you. You need to just sit and struggle to be aware and see what happens. You will not get a short-cut to the "answer" by asking others. That misses the point.

They can be used to aid one another. Use both! You can use illusion as a tool to help you find the truth and embody the truth. As long as you're alive, you're in the playground of illusion. So learn to play with it. But also seek the Truth.

This forum is mostly for you guys. I don't make much money off it. It mostly costs me money and time to manage it and host it. If enough of you don't like it, or you turn it into a pit of unconsciousness, I have no qualms about shutting it down. Use it as a resource for sharing useful ideas, not to gossip about shit while avoiding real-life self-actualization work. This is a problem that every community faces. Especially one in which doing hard emotional labor is required to progress. Why do you think religions exist? Exactly for this reason: they are a way to gossip and avoid the real work. That's what collective unconsciousness does. It breeds.

Depends on how wise you are to start with.

Yes, it's pretty clear McKenna doesn't give a purely objective description of enlightenment. It's highly dramatized. But also this has value, as what the ego sometimes needs most IS a dramatization, not a scientific, clinical description. McKenna's work is designed to light a fire under your ass, to punch you in the gut, to shock you awake. I do the same thing sometimes with my videos. I sacrifice truth and accuracy for an emotional punch to the gut. Because if I was truly objective and scientific, I would just come up without emotion and say: "Do whatever you want with your life. Nothing matters. Even truth is meaningless. Any action you take will be eclipsed by the ocean of time and long forgotten. Bye." But that wouldn't be very helpful to you. Most people basically have to be hoodwinked into the enlightenment. It's a delicate balance. In a sense, this is a deep problem about marketing. For marketing to be effective, it has to be a lie. That's the current state of society. No enlightenment teaching is immune to the marketing problem. Because enlightened people want to create more enlightened people. Somehow this shit needs to get marketed. You can't stop it. So then it becomes a question of... what's the best way to market it? And there are a thousand different answers. The Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Yogis, Buddhists, all have their own ideas about that. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Enlightenment is in a very unique position because ANYTHING you say about its necessarily false. So in a sense, the most clinical and scientific description is no more accurate or useful than a story from the Bible. Because like Ralston says above, there is NO WAY! And what that effectively means is... it's up for grabs. People will spin it in their favorite way. And everyone has a different favorite way. You can read Ralston's book or McKenna's book, and neither one will really help you. Hell! Every minute you're reading a book, you're further from the Truth. Or both will help you! (If you're wise )