Leo Gura

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Posts posted by Leo Gura

  1. Posted

    10 hours ago, Mary said:

    I've reading around here that all you guys had some good insights in the early start of your meditation habit. I've had none till now

    That's your problem right there.

    Your expectations are totally off-kilter.

    If you watched some of my earlier meditation videos, I clearly tell you to make a life-long commitment and to not expect any results for 1 year. I said that for a reason. Because you would psych yourself out otherwise with silly expectations.

    When you undertake a serious life change, you CANNOT do it for the purposes of the result. That almost always leads to failure. You have to do it for a higher purpose -- as a matter of principle. Then you are almost guaranteed to succeed.

    The only thing stopping you from experiencing the life-altering benefits of meditation is your improper expectations. That is all. That's the only obstacle.

  2. Posted

    @Baul Sorry, that was a typo. It takes you OUT of empiricism when you think of somethings has empirical or rational. That's rationalism.

    True empiricism is so empirical it has no name or category or opposite.

    You can also call it phenomenological.

    No, most modern everyday knowledge is HIGHLY empirical. Which is why it's useful. Science is effective because it is highly empirical and sticks close to the facts. Well... within the confines of the limited scientific paradigm.

    When it comes to nonduality, we are talking about ABSOLUTE TRUTH, not scientific everyday knowledge. ABSOLUTE means that you get to realize the very structure of existence. Which is infinite and impossible to grasp in any intellectual way whatsoever. You will NEVER grasp it with mind alone. This is a TOTALLY different endeavor than you've ever encountered. So throw all your ideas and beliefs out the window. You need to kill all notions of understanding or intellectualizing. They are all false (despite being useful for everyday life).

    Start questioning the foundations of everything you believe, including science, space, time, self, world, others, dreams, and life. All of it is NOT what you think.

    We are talking about RADICAL stuff here. Things like: there is no time, there is no space, there is no death, there is no big bang, there is no evolution, there is no Earth, you are not a human being, and existence and non-existence is an illusion. This is totally mind-breaking stuff. You cannot think it.

  4. Posted

    @Telepresent Exactly right.

    It would help you to draw a sharper distinction between awareness & thought/belief.

    Ask yourself this, What exists outside of awareness? Anything? How could it be known? If it is known, awareness is employed.

    All thoughts only come AFTER awareness. For there to be a thought, there must first be awareness of it.

    So it is impossible to think your way out of this problem, because you're trying to use thought to reach under awareness when in fact awareness is all there is, and it's the bottom-most thing!

    A thought is actually just awareness that not aware of itself!

    THERE IS NOTHING BUT AWARENESS!

    Everything single fucking thing is awareness!

    Test this in your direct experience. Attempt to find something -- anything -- which is not awared first.

    It's not possible. It's not even conceivable. Because anything you conceive will first presume awareness that renders it knowable.

    And then you just gotta realize that there is nothing behind awareness. There is no YOU or I looking at awareness or being aware. Awareness is the end of the road. There is nothing outside of it. (Well, except for The Void.)

    If you're stuck intellectualizing these things, try a heavy dose of do-nothing meditation or mindfulness meditation with labeling. It really helps cure intellectualizing.

    It's very hard to create awareness with thinking. Much easier to do it through long do-nothing sits. That's probably what you're missing.

  5. Posted

    On 7/15/2016 at 1:39 PM, Ozzy said:

    5 years is  a very arbitary number, from my experience it can take MUCH less. The key for me was doing concentration meditation for 30-60 minutes DAILY and being ruthless when it comes to proper technique. That's like saying that it takes 5 years of lifting to bench 225lbs, if you do 10 pushups daily you won't even get there in 5 years, if you take smart approach it can take much less. Leigh Brasington has a lecture on youtube on Jhanas which I highly recommend to anyone interested in this topic.

    That's exactly right. For those who are serious, it can happen much sooner. But for most people, it will take a LONG time. Who the hell is going to concentrate for 60 minutes a daily for a year? 0.0000001% of people.

     

    On 7/15/2016 at 3:47 AM, cetus56 said:

    @Leo Gura  Can Samadhi be experienced with everything in the field of view or just one individual object? This I'm a bit unclear on. Or is one object used  as a practice and than expanded to the entire field as the practice improves?  When oneness or union is experienced in meditation, isn't that also Samadhi?    ** I found this just now. Thought I would add it here if anyone is interested. Apparently there are different levels of Samadhi.   http://selfknowledge.com/109718.htm

    There are various kinds of Samadhi possible. You can even have a Samadhi without any object. A Samadhi of awareness or nothingness.

  7. Posted

    The dirty secret is that you can't help but be aware 100% of the time. Notice that you are always aware! It's impossible not to be aware unless you're dead.

    Past and future cannot exist without awareness.

    Nothing can exist without awareness.

    So you are already 100% aware all the time.

    You just need to sit down and be quiet and you'll notice it.

    That's why do-nothing works.

    And why distractions and addictions make up your lifestyle.

    If you remove every single distraction and addiction in your life, you are pretty much guaranteed to become enlightened automatically.

    But you're not gonna do that, are you? ;)

  8. Posted

    Yes, you can think of it that way, although that's takes you out of empiricism and right back into rationality.

    It's so empirical you can't even call it empirical.

    It's so empirical it goes full-circle, beyond all the 5 senses and the mind to pure Truth.

    And this fact cannot be understood by the rational mind. The rational mind hates it! It's like poison to philosophy.

  11. Posted

    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.

  14. Posted

    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.

  16. Posted

    4 hours ago, Travis said:

    What are some exercises/contemplation questions that have pushed you through this

    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.

  21. Posted

    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.

  22. Posted

    8 hours ago, Time Traveler said:

    I just looked "Breaking Bad" for second time an Walter is an example of man who has abundant  self governance. 

    Could it be that criminals have more  self governance  than law abiding people  ?

    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.

  23. Posted

    @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.

  24. Posted

    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.

  25. Posted

    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.