Leo Gura

@Will Bigger That was a rough guideline, so you don't have the silly expectation of getting enlightened after 1 week of doing this process. It can take anywhere from 1 second to never. For most of you, it will probably take longer than 2 years simply because you're not doing it with single-minded focus. I'm focus on business and doing research, for example, so it's taking me longer. 5-meo can speed it up because it will change your priorities, if nothing else.

Of course that can affect your life a lot. I wouldn't call it a vow. It's something else. But still might be highly significant. They're a lot more to neurotic psychology than just vows. Remember that an episode of mine is just an episode. It's not meant to be -- nor can it be -- a comprehensive, exhaustive look at anything. I could shoot 10 episodes on each topic and still not say everything that needs to be said about it. This stuff can get very deep and nuanced. And the nuances can be significant. The episodes are merely meant to be launching points for your own investigations and research. This topic is generally called shadow work. It's the bulk of psychotherapy. There are dozens of techniques and theories for how to deal with it.

@Tibor Fear of suffering. And you making an identity out of it. It becomes part of your life story. Sorta like Westworld characters are defined by their past horrors. Without memories, who would you be?

You're gonna want to strategically shift focus between things depending on your exact situation. If you're undertaking a BIG endeavor like starting a business, or learning pickup, or developing your life purpose, or starting a family, or enlightenment -- you're gonna want to focus on it rather obsessively and exclusively for some significant length of time: anywhere from 6 months to several years. This means ONE thing. Of course you can still have minor projects and habits that you're building alongside your ONE big thing. Learning how to find the exact right balance is one of the KEYS to all success. A rigid, black-and-white thinking mind is not capable of this. Which is why its rare to see a highly successful, well-rounded human being. Don't think of balance as a static state. Think of it as a dynamic thing. Your focus will shift throughout your life, as you finish one chapter and start another.

Don't be so sure about that. Maybe he did see an angel Time to research what angels are.

Firstly, you don't exist. Secondly, cultivate patience and mastery mindset. This is the last thing on Earth to be rushed. Be serious and steady. Be the wise tortoise, not the foolish hare. Thirdly, ego cannot die because it is an illusion. Fighting with ego is just more ego. Notice this. Be careful of building up an new anti-ego ego. That's still ego. See through that whole game. Just work diligently at self-observation, trust the process, and don't stop doing research into spirituality.

@Bronsoval That's one way Reality is much stranger than that. It's absolutely infinite. Every distinction is arbitrary. How else can existence be? It all makes perfect sense once you see it. After all, you did create it all out of nothing Wakey, wakey.

1) It's hard to get activated when you've got no compelling vision for your future, and no clear life purpose. That's why the life purpose course is so important. You're not likely to overcome that laziness otherwise. 2) It takes at least 1-2 years of steady personal development work to build yourself a little foundation and momentum. So keep a 3-5 year time horizon as you do this work. Your results the first year won't be spectacular. But in 3-5 years you'll be shocked at how much you've changed. You gotta keep that in mind so you don't get discouraged 6 months in. 3) Start building 1 good habit at a time. Try to build 1 new healthy habit every 2 months for 1 year straight. That will be 6 new habits in one year. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that alone will be revolutionary. And that's only year one! 4) Get clear about what you want out of life. If you got no big goals or deep desires, you're stuck forever. 5) Backsliding is normal. In fact, I've got a video call How To Stop Backsliding.

Notice, that is a point of identification for you. And what is that? What is "Just a special program in my brain"? It's a THOUGHT! Notice, "my brain" is a THOUGHT! There is no brain in your direct experience. There is also no "special program" in your direct experience. Become mindful of what is THOUGHT, and what is direct experience. Notice that there is a Voice in direct experience that keeps talking and won't shut up. That Voice supplies you with all kinds of intellectual answers. All of those answers are wrong because all those answers are just sounds. And you are not a sound. How can you know if you're a sound or not? Well... just take a good close look. Are you a sound? Maybe you are. Don't believe me. Look!

@Alex K Right, so you're stuck because you think you know something which in fact you don't know. This is the problem of your cup being already full. This is the problem of failing to enter a state of not-knowing. This is the problem of conceptualizing and believing. This is why Zen masters usually never tell you what you are. Because they are afraid that whatever they tell you, you'll believe it. But all beliefs are symbols, and thus not the real deal. You cannot symbolize what you are. So drop this idea that you are awareness. You don't actually know that. And you don't actually know what awareness is. It should be standard operating procedure whenever you sit down to self-observe, to THROW ALL IDEAS OUT THE WINDOW! Pretend like EVERYTHING you ever heard from ANYONE, including Leo, is total bullshit. Observe completely from scratch. Imagine you were just born 5 minutes ago and know nothing about reality. ZERO! Don't use any words, models, or symbols to represent yourself. They are all not you. In this self-observation process, what's you're looking for is a direct experience, not an idea or a word. It can be helpful to apply skepticism and doubt. Why do you believe you're awareness? Maybe Leo lied to you? Maybe this whole enlightenment thing is just a scam? Maybe you're something else? How do you know what you are? This kind of doubt should empty your cup and open your mind. Also, get real! You're not really identified with awareness, are you? You're identified with your body or The Voice, if you're honest. Take a look at what you're ACTUALLY currently identifying with. Get clear about that. "Awareness" is probably just some bullshit word you picked up in a New Age book. Here's another good line of questioning for someone like you: "Why do I believe I'm my body? What is it that owns this body?" ALWAYS look for the answer in direct experience. No theories, no speculation, no guess-work, no philosophizing. The answer is an experience. Imagine you are mute or dumb like a retarded child without any language. Now observe reality and find what you are.

It's not something that's possible to "accept". It can only be experienced.

Same thing. The end of you is YOU! There is nothing but YOU. Don't get lost in the semantics. No self = Self = Emptiness = Infinity = Zero = EVERYTHING = God = Nothing = YOU = Brahman = Atman = Shiva = Shakti But for the purposes of this self-observation exercise, you're looking for Shiva (empty awareness) because you're already full of yourself

Of course "you" don't want it. It's the end of "you". Why would something want to die? This is a highly counter-intuitive move, only for those with deep faith. Once you die, however, it's all good. If it wasn't like this, everyone would already be enlightened, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Of course psychedelics bring all your inner demons up to the surface. This was clearly stated and should be obvious to anyone who's done even a bit of research into the field. Anyone not wanting to face their personal demons should stay far away from psychedelics (and enlightenment for that matter). You have to keep in mind that this is very advanced, hardcore personal development we're doing. If you can't handle it, start with less hardcore stuff. For some people hardcore is exactly what they need. For others, they need gentle hand-holding. Nothing wrong with either approach. Just know your limits and treat powerful tools like psychedelics with respect, or they will slap you upside the head. Now that your inner demon has reared it's ugly head, face it. Journal it out. What exactly are you afraid of? What is this fear? Why is it there? Investigate it with precision and it should start to dissolve. Or, if you can't handle investigation, you can always distract yourself back into comfort with entertainment, relationships, food, work, etc.

Yes, good stuff! I'll be covering this in a video in the future. It's an important map for folks on this path. It clearly shows you how much more there is to enlightenment than Neo-Advaita will have you believe. Many folks in the West stop at picture #4: catching the bull. And even all these 10 pictures are is STILL not all there is to spiritual mastery. So buckle in and make yourself comfortable. As simple as enlightenment is, there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. Of course, don't create a new identity around being "on the path". Just do the work with silent diligence and don't stop growing.

Mostly just me.

@Sharpadox That's sorta the wrong question. Don't make it about other people. Make it about your passion. When you select your greatest passion, that IS going to result in you helping society the most. You can't help society by becoming a mediocre psychologist, or whatever else. You gotta LOVE it! If you love concept art, go with concept art. And find a way to OWN that domain. I don't mean own it as in: "be successful at it". I mean own it as in: "make it express your deepest values." Don't just think inside the box. Invent your career, so it fits you, and only you. Then you have no competition. To do this, you gotta get extremely clear about what's important to you in life, and what exactly you want out of life.

7 values is fine to start with. Remember, you'll be tweaking and evolving all this over time as you go out into the real world and take action. Don't worry, you'll find another 3 values with time. Most people have too many values. The less, actually, the better, as you can tighten your focus even more.

@DizIzMikey There's a new Practical Guide To Enlightenment: https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/7360-leos-practical-guide-to-enlightenment/ So you got no more excuses

Dude, just sit your ass down and do the self-observation work. You're wasting your time with all this thinking about post-enlightenment. Welcome back

@Visionary You've been misunderstanding whatever you've been reading. No serious teaching tells you to drop the desire for enlightenment before you've completed it. You drop it only AT AN ADVANCED STAGE, once you've attained many breakthroughs. You're not capable of being in a state of being! That's why enlightenment is necessary. You guys are way too worried about spiritual seeking. You should be much more worried about your lack of seeking. 99% of you aren't seeking nearly hard enough. Not even close! Your efforts are so weak you got more odds of getting hit by lightening than getting deeply enlightened. The reason I say things like, "Enlightenment takes 10,000 hours" is so you understand the depth of the work and effort involved. Most people undershoot rather than overshoot. If you're using very direct methods like self-observation or mindfulness meditation, seeking is a non-issue. You can seek that way for your whole life and it will yield fruit. The problem of seeking only arises when you're seeking in totally wrong areas. Like if you think that joining your local church study group will get you enlightened. That would be a problem. Or if you think merely reading self-help books will make you enlightened. That would lead to the seeking trap. You can seek that way for 100 years and not get anywhere. But self-observation will not lead to a seeking trap, because it is the heart of the work. It is a fact that you don't know what you are yet, so you must invest time looking. The looking will not magically happen for you. If you build a deep conceptual understanding of enlightenment, you will be able to navigate all the traps. And to do that, I recommend studying a lot of diverse teachings. If you only study one teaching, I can pretty much bet that you'll fall into one trap or another. If you study 50 different nonduality teachings, you'll see all the traps and potential Zen devilries. Of course studying alone will not make you enlightened. It's only the prelude to the core work. And if you're tired of studying and what to dig deep into the core work, discipline yourself to sit down and execute the process outlined in this guide. It's extremely direct. No bullshit. In fact, the problem is, it's so direct you will come up with every excuse imaginable to avoid doing it. The first 6 months are a bitch.

Your strategy is rather shallow and short-sighted. Why not find your life purpose and study that?

Don't forget that the Truth is ALWAYS the Truth. It's ALWAYS present! It has nowhere to hide. It's there right now, as you brush your teeth, eat your breakfast, sit on the toilet, look at your smart phone, or browse this forum.

Working on a video about the nature of infinity. Found this while doing research: This is existence in a nutshell. Now go contemplate until you experience it!

@Reality Yes, so many people misunderstand that point and then rail against "spiritual seeking". I call this the trap of burning your ship before using it to cross the ocean.