Consilience

The entire paradigm “levels of consciousness” is the barrier to truth. A truth so absolute, so indiscriminatory, so profound, it cuts through even a peak 5-meo experience. This entire framing of your writing points to such profound, astonishing delusion about the nature of this work. This community has devolved into the blind leading the blind.

+1 Psychedelics in this community, for all their strengths, seem to promote one of the most notorious hinderances, perhaps the worst one from a certain point of view - Doubt. Doubt in the path, doubt in the practice. If you cannot overcome this doubt about meditation, you’re really screwed, especially in future lifetimes.

The fact of the matter is psychedelics do not produce the kind of fundamental shifts manual practices produce. After many incredibly, heart wrenchingly deep trips, I always came down. Sit in meditation for hours on end and you’ll discover VERY quickly just how disconnected from God you are. It’s the easiest litmus test. If one is actually conscious of the nature of God, simply being is not only an activity impossible for suffering to arise, but it is one of the most fulfilling activities available. I would challenge anyone who disagrees with Peter to attempt sitting for 2 hours and seeing whether the mind is in complete harmony, clarity, equanimity with the moment by moment flow of reality, or whether your lost in thought, confused, overcome with hinderances. What Peter is talking about is absolutely spot on and a couple of years ago when I still *believed* Leo’s claims, I thought he was a fool. It’s only after at this point multiple thousands of hours of manual practice and I starting to directly realize how right Peter is and the limitations of psychedelics. Leo has a survival agenda, a bias, a sales pitch, an “offering” as the psychedelic guy who shits on other spiritual teachers. It’s just a new ego and he’s consolidated around it, his current brand relies on it. But if you really want to fundamentally, radically change your life and and actually, permanently rewire your mind, psychedelics can only show you the way, but are inherently limited and not it. If you aspire to such goals, hours upon hours upon hours of meditation, contemplation, and silence are the way. The best part - these hours will be some of the most fulfilling times of your life, and only becoming increasingly rewarding and accessible as practice develops.

@The0Self I never replied but wanted to say thank you for such thorough replies man. Your views are very interesting and paradoxical on the surface yet totally congruent in the depths. ❤️ @ardacigin Great additions! Thank you man! I have a feeling many readers on this forum benefit from your perspectives. ?

With high levels of mindfulness reality does take on a perception of being vibratory. Always wondered if that’s where the metaphor came from.

@Raptorsin7 If you don’t see the deulsion of the Neo Advaita movement, I’m not sure anything can be said or any advice given, it’s something you must experientially grasp. After a certain level of attainment, the trap this group has fallen into becomes very clear. They’re still not only identified, but clinging to self in one of the most counter intuitive ways. The tragedy is they’ve fully convinced themselves they’re free. All I can offer is a heart felt warning not to fall into this delusion, and instead, walk the path of transforming the mind until the mind truly, honestly, experientially, sees not only its own nature, but the nature of all phenomena and reality. That is happiness.

A self isn‘t what drives the continuation of practice, purification, and awakening.

Can confirm. Living in a semi monastic SD stage green bordering yellow community has skyrocketed personal development and meditation results. Finding a high quality community you resonate with is extremely, extremely challenging though.

Right. Well this hasnt been my experience. Catching the Ox is only the 4th picture out of 10 in the Zen Ox Herding pictures model. Initial enlightenment is just warming up. Or you could stop there, but suffering and delusion won’t be uprooted. So if your goals are either truth, or happiness/end of suffering, initial enlightenment won’t cut it. If your goal is to see your true nature and that’s that, well great yeah stop practicing.

It does account for the surrendering of doership once the insight into no self has emerged. For those who believe applying a meditation technique contradicts surrender, I would point to a lack of clarity around the dynamics of intentionality and the composition of the self activity and ignorance of the nature of impermanence. The neo advaita crowd, for example, is utterly clueless about what meditation actually is. It does not imply or need a doer, even when intentionally concentrating and cultivating states. Surrender, is in fact, already the case, always. Practically, be careful with throwing the baby out with the bath water. Intentionally practicing with deliberate techniques will eventually lead you into a state of total surrender, but usually this is only after very large amount of practice. In the meantime, enjoy the power and autonomy of intentional practice, and the happiness, bliss, and peace it provides. I would recommend just staying committed and not trying to prematurely jump to the end of the path. If you really feel like you need surrender, the do nothing technique is always an option and is extremely powerful. Make no mistake about it, intentional meditation practice starts to rival and in many ways, surpass the states available with psychedelics.

Im actually not sure what this means haha. In my experience, it was only through voraciously exploring jhanas, the ñanas, developing ridiculous, psychedelic levels of samadhi did the whole thing start to collapse and a truth independent of states of consciousness emerge. Im still exploring consciousness and states but more so out of compassion for other beings; a more purified mind naturally and spontaneously brings harmony to the world. I cannot separate any part of the path from itself. It’s a paradox that although this has always been true, unconditioned, unhindered, empty, selfless, utterly lucid and clear, self-knowing, and most importantly, completely equal and without levels, degrees of depth, recognition, and realization are available. This is why a dog does not, in fact, have buddha nature yet obviously has buddha nature - a crucial koan to understand.

Shinzen’s unified mindfulness system is far more complex than “just do mindfulness” and therefore, not simple. This lack of simplicity is both it’s greatest weakness and strength. You should read his articles on Mindfulness and the See Hear Feel technique. If you’re looking to cultivate/manipulate/investigate energetic phenomena, Shinzen’s SHF flow techniques are what you’d want to explore. But it’s all connected. As one becomes more mindful, the entire perceptual field becomes increasingly energetic. The mind can see the moment by moment arising and passing away of all phenomena, impermanence, so clearly, that all solidity, objectivity, and dullness evaporate. High levels of mindfulness are what create psychedelic like experiences during practice. Please note, this is not the ultimate goal and can turn into a roadblock for advanced practitioners. Another immediate and crucial way to improve your practice is to go on a meditation retreat. The necessity and importance of this seems to be commonly ignored on this forum. Which given Leo’s recent criticism of meditation makes sense, the collective ego just adopting new belief systems. If you watch his older videos though, he stresses the need to go on retreat. Ill just say, the liberating power of spirituality has very little do to with energetic phenomena even if in the beginning this direction feels appropriate and helpful. Getting fixated or stuck in the wrong frameworks, such as fixation on energy, is another way to be a seeker for 20 years with nothing to show for it.

@Shambhu Absolutely beautiful, high quality post. Thank you. This too is my understanding, however the teacher I'm training with actually intentionally has me using either noting or following the breath and wants me to do these until I recognize the illusory nature of a doer doing a technique. He knows my go too technique is the do nothing technique or surrender as you've described it in other posts. At the highest level, there is no doer involved in intentionality and the mind following this intention, yet the possibility for integrity and honesty remains. How can one do, act, intend, and be trust worthy while no one is there? How can one directly experience this lack of doer within the doing? Quite mysterious.

Leo has spread this very false idea that Buddhists fixate on stilling the mind. Stilling the mind is not only not the goal of Buddhist meditation, but it is not necessary for entering incredibly deep states of samadhi through mindfulness or even more concentration based practices. The “stilling” of the mind is really the stilling and falling away of the hinderances, unwholesome thoughts and mental defilements that obstruct wisdom, clear seeing, and samadhi. Eventually one becomes so mindful that the activity of thinking is itself seen so clearly that all meaning, attraction and fixation on thoughts fall away. Again, even amidst the activity of thoughts. Thoughts can only have meaning when one is ignorant of the reality of time/impermanence. When one truly sees into the nature of impermanence, thoughts along with the rest of one’s sense of reality, have no ground for existence or for the activity of self clinging or craving to arise. I wouldn’t trust someone who hasnt actually explored Buddhist meditation very deeply on this subject.

I should say it’s incredibly dense and not at all easy to read. But the depth and breadth of the writing is itself a teaching on the vastness of reality, in my view. Ive barely scratch the surface with it. Good luck with it ?

You should look into Mahayana Buddhism and specifically checkout the Flower Garland Sutra/Avatamsaka Sutra. Part of the text describes 10 stages of Bodhisattva development, and towards the upper stages, it starts describing how omniscience is developed and the infinity of the path. Of course the language “God” isn’t used because Buddhism, but as far as grandiosity and acknowledging the absolute, utter infinity and fractal like, interpenetrating nature of reality, it’s unlike any Buddhism Ive ever come across. Reading the book with radical openmindedness is like taking a psychedelic.

That’s your problem. Find real teachers and actually do the work of awakening.

Yes. Going on many meditation retreats and committing to a rigorous daily meditation practice. The degree and depths of self clinging should not be underestimated.

Psychedelics can show you the possibility but it would never be stabilized. Dzogchen masters unanimously recommend practice for this very reason. Dzogchen is interesting in that it’s totally non-dual, liberation from the very beginning, but yet rigorous practice is the path all the way through.

The suffering you’d experience from sitting alone, in silence, and in stillness for 2 hours is how you know the practice is working. If you don’t understand why this is the case, you need more practice.

Don’t need any psychedelics for this realization. Recognizing non-dual unity is a product of insight into the nature of perception which can be accomplished through traditional spiritual practice. ❤️

How many minutes do you practice per day? How often have you stopped and restarted your daily habit/ how consistent have you been? What’s your experience with psychedelics? How often are you going on meditation retreats? What’s your reading and studying of the dharma habit like? Do you work with a realized teacher? Do you surround yourself with other serious practitioners/do you have close friends who are serious about this work? What techniques or technique system are you working with? All of these and more can be used to leverage results with practice.

@Adamq8 That’s kind of you to say. Thank you friend. ❤️ ?‍♂️

@SriSriJustinBieber Horrible advice from someone who’s clearly not spent time with real monks or time in a high quality monastery or intensive retreat environment. @Striving for more If you want fast results with meditation, schedule monthly meditation retreats for the next 6 months with high quality teachers. By the end of those 6 months your experience would be radically transformed and your understanding of meditation and the path forever changed. This approach is extremely risky and will potentially be psychologically damaging you if you aren’t actually serious about enlightenment or meditation. A healthier more sustainable mindset would be to schedule 1 - 2 meditation retreats per year, ramp up daily meditation practice 1-2 hours per day, and ideally find a sangha of serious practitioners and an experienced teacher who’s actually walked the path and done the work, unlike random internet spirituality bros.

Nice. In your understanding, how is his effortless mindfulness approach different than the do nothing technique?