Tim R

As Fearless Bum said, it's different for everybody. You can't really put your finger on it. Ultimately of course, the only thing "it is", is: not real. It's a mixture of identification, misunderstanding, illusion, fear, thoughts, beliefs, stories, attachments, likes/dislikes, psychological idiocracies, etc. That's "you". That's "ego".

@Javfly33 Awesome!! The day after microdosing can still be a very good day, you can feel a kind of after glow which lasts for the day after - that's how you know you've hit your sweet spot dose.

I don't think selflessness is the right cure to social anxiety. Rather repair yourself than get rid of yourself.

There are different ways of understanding what is meant by "reincarnation". The Hindus will tell you one thing, the Theravada Buddhists will tell you another thing and the Zen Buddhists will tell you something else altogether. The way I understand reincarnation is that every time you identify yourself with a particular form, you are being reincarnated. You believe there was a past "you", don't you? And you also believe that you will go on into the future, no? If you think that there is a continuous "you", you are being reincarnated. Because you identify with a certain pattern. This pattern is the foundation of your illusory sense of self, it's what you identify with. Imagine a river. This river is constantly flowing along, never the same. You could say "there is no such thing as 'a river', there's only the continuous flowing pattern". And if you think there is "a river" (even as "a continuous pattern of flow"), the river is being reincarnated, you see? Just in the same way, if you think that there is a flowing form that "you are" (i.e. you identify yourself with) and that is in some way fixed and continuous like the river, that is your reincarnation. But if you see through the illusion of time and you stop identifying yourself with any particular form, you're liberated from reincarnation (Samsara). You see that you were never born, you're not alive now, and you will never die. Edit: That's much rather a Mahayana Buddhist understanding of reincarnation. The literal sense of a soul being reincarnated into a body is both the Hindu and the Western understanding of it, but both are founded on the belief of a soul being inside a body.

Probably a whole bunch of them

Imagine that you were present at a Mondō, and one of your fellow students asked the master something, and the master gave him a rather long-winded answer. Would you in all seriousness stand up and tell the master, "You should have kept your mouth shut! Stop confusing your students by telling them fairy tales about Buddha-mind, you should have sat on your Zafu in silence for two minutes and everything would have become clear!" Of course not, that would be ridiculous. And extremely dogmatic.

@sir meowski I used to think that way too. I was rather heavily influenced by Zen Buddhism (mostly Sōtō, some Rinzai). Many people I met have the exact same attitude like you, including some (but not all) of the masters. But sitting in silence for 2 hours is only one way of coming to an understanding of Buddha Nature. It doesn't do you nor anyone else any good to be dogmatic about how we ought to practice. Zazen is only one way. Not all ways are suitable for everyone, and not every way will lead to the same results for everyone. Every good master understand this. In fact, they know their individual students so well that they wouldn't even dream of telling everyone to practice the same way. They have something called "Mondō " (which is essentially like a Zen Satsang) where the students can ask questions and the master will give them an answer. This answer can be a spoken word, it can be laughing, it can be throwing something at the student, it can be sitting in silence, anything. Sitting in silence is only one way of sitting in silence.

To say that the ego is God is, for the most part, misleading.

Lmao didn't expect this here??

Yeah.That's exactly why we use words. To make you go beyond words. There's nothing wrong with using descriptions and words, so long as you understand that they're not "it".

From comedian to clown...

The point of those words is not to be a replacement for the truth, but to be a pointer. One who understands this, doesn't use them as directly representative of or equal to Truth, but as hinting at what must be experienced for oneself. Of course, the Truth cannot be told or communicated, but that doesn't mean that we can't use pointers - knowing very well, that they don't point at the thing itself, but which must function as an incentive to look for oneself. Mistaking the pointer with what is pointed at is fairy tales and phantoms, but seeing the ineffable for oneself is not. And then it's perfectly fine to talk about God and Love and whatnot. Thinking that one mustn't use words shows just as much attachment to the word as one who mistakes the word with the ineffable. @sir meowski Don't be dogmatic.

I think it's so interesting how people who subscribe to the new age want to make connections between their jargon and the scientific world, especially the world of physics (given that people believe physics to describe reality in the most fundamental and truthful way). It's like they try to accommodate their views to mainstream ontology in order to make it more accessible and more easily digestible to the mainstream. I think that's both admirable and at the same time not always quite necessary. Assuming the mask of scientific rigor isn't always appropriate.

@asifarahim That has nothing to do with Leo's understanding (or lack thereof) of addiction. You weren't even addicted for God's sake, you can't blame anyone but yourself for starting to smoke cigarette. That's just plain foolishness.

@Psych2Awak3n Sounds like you got to realize for a brief moment that "your POV" is an illusion don't worry, it's perfectly normal to get scared by that. Guess the cat is out of the bag now, but I'll say it anyway; you are much rather "everything in sight" than "behind the eyes". If this happens again and you get frightened, remind yourself that nothing actually changes. Become deeply aware of that, ground yourself in that. The colors, the shapes the sounds, your body, your ability to control movement and do whatever you want to do - everything remains. Realize, that not being behind the eyes is not actually something new. It was like that the entire time and you were able to function, weren't you? So you really don't have to worry about that. The reason you got scared is because it hit you in the grocery store, if this happened during meditation it would be quite a different experience because you'd be situated in a context where this sort of thing is allowed to happen (unlike in the grocery store?). Ground yourself in breathing if it scares you. Your breath is your anchor.

I love how it gets more and more cryptic believe it or not, but this is my favorite part on your website... was quite happy to find it there.

Nope, no discord. Please familiarize yourself with the guidelines. ?

Nobody's getting banned for this... But I will have to lock this thread because "global elitists trying to take over the world and install a socialist utopia" falls into the category of conspiracy theories (which is against the forum guidelines). If you want to discuss these sorts of things you will have to make a less conspiratorial thread about it. And yes, of course there is a somewhat arbitrary line between what is a conspiracy theory and what is not, I'm not infallible, but I'm doing my best to maintain a certain level of mental hygiene in this forum and I advises you to attempt the same.

@EntheogenTruthSeeker ??

Right

In a sense. Knowing "the future" would not make it "the future" anymore. Once you would know the future, it would thereby become the past.

@TruthSoldier The answer is no. Apart from his YT videos, his blog and forum posts, there is no content from Leo The "meta details of him as a teacher"? What exactly do you mean by that?

Locked for low quality

Question in the title; who had or still has the most influence on your spiritual development? If you don't want to limit your answer to a single teacher, that's perfectly fine of course

@TruthSoldier