Preetom

@Nahm Recently I'm finding Rupert's words unbelievably direct and potent. A 10 minutes video almost produces the same aliveness of an 1 hour self inquiry meditation.

Recently Leo revealed that probably the greatest obstacle to Enlightenment is the deep seated materialist paradigm. I wish I knew it 5 years ago lol. It takes wisdom just to start appreciating what is being said in this statement. Anyway, contemplate on this quote of Nisargadatta Maharaj (from the book ''I AM THAT'') to loosen the grip of materialist paradigm little by little. ''Q: Surely there is a factual world common to all! Maharaj: The world of things, of energy and matter? Even if there were such a common world of things and forces, it is not the world in which we live. Ours is a world of feeling and ideas, of attractions and repulsions, of scales and values, of motives and incentives; a mental world altogether. Biologically we need very little; our problems are of a different order. Problems created by desires and fears and wrong ideas can solved only on the level of the mind. You must conquer your own mind and for this you must go beyond it.’’ Some important pointers (SAVE YOURSELF DECADES of FRUSTRATION): 1) Educate yourself PROPERLY about Enlightenment. Watch Leo's recent advanced self inquiry video and Enlightenment introductory videos dozens of times if necessary until you conceptually 'get' this. One of the greatest dangers is learning about enlightenment in pieces from youtube mini videos, blogs, random books. I remember wasting 4-5 years bullshiting myself thinking that I was getting enlightened when I was reading Tolle's books and other flowery/inspirational words (No disrespect to Eckhart!) all the while not even knowing what I was really after. I think the reason you 'seek' and remain restless is not because you're over conceptualizing but rather you're NOT interested in it enough. If you truly started to get the ground rules of this work, you'd automatically reduce seeking and start the actual practice. If you're looking for temporary solutions from mini clips of various gurus or still think Enlightenment is another trophy to be put on your showcase then just forget about Enlightenment and stop wasting your time. You're only gonna delude yourself more and more. 2) If you're pursuing Enlightenment through Self Inquiry then THIS IS THE HEART OF THE MAIN WORK. Stage 1: The process is called Self-discrimination. ''Right now, who is aware?'', ''Who is the perceiver?''. Inquire into these questions relentlessly both through sitting meditation and all throughout the day whenever you remember it (+ solo retreat). Discriminate between what YOU ARE (the witnessing presence) and what you are NOT (All your experience aka perceptions, emotions, thoughts). Actively negate everything you are NOT. Remember, whatever you can 'point' to is an object and it is NOT YOU, no matter what the state or thought maybe. This is where the REAL Enlightenment work taking place. You're healing your mind from the addiction of clinging/identifying with 'objects' and turning it inwards....slowly 'convincing' it that THE SELF is not an object. Do this for a few 100s of hours Stage 2: Self discrimination becomes Self abidance. It is when you've finally given up the expectation of finding yourself as an Object. This is the advanced level self inquiry where you are NOT searching for anything but rather just resting in Being, resting in total observation...until a discontinuous jump/Enlightenment occurs. ''Am I Aware?'' can be a powerful question to cut through the seeking of object and returning to Being instantly. Be totally interested in the 'experience' of being aware. See through the belief ''I AM This or that'' and just rest in ''I AM''. Its a relaxation of your attention from a particular object. In this stage sudden enlightenment can happen. Might take 1 minute or 1000 hours or more. But have faith in the process. Trust that resting in your being and not seeking to find yourself as an object in 'an objective world' is the best thing you can do on your part to get Enlightened. The rest in upon grace Stage 3: The embodying of your Enlightenment which will continue until the death of the body. In a nutshell, it is the unifying realization that what you negated earlier as objects are nothing but Being and made of the same substance as you. In fact ONLY THE SELF EXISTS. No body/brain/thought/mind/ego/world. Your nature of perception/experience and response will keep embodying the Truth and undergo transformations until the last breath (if you are sincere and open to it of course). Anyway, stop worrying about this stage now. I think the biggest mistake many Enlightenment teachers make is talking from their embodying experience AFTER Enlightenment. They sort of forget what a cunning bastard their own minds were and how much they bullshited themselves and so they forget to warn the students about this. You get easily tantalized by their flowery words and loose sight of the actual Enlightenment work that needs to be done. And then what do you do?? You start 'believing' them and live your life on what Adyashanti calls ''a steady spiritual junk food diet''. And BOOM!! 20 years of life is gone WORDS of CAUTION: DO NOT TRY TO SKIP STAGES. IT WILL ONLY BACKFIRE AND MAKE THE JOURNEY EXPONENTIALLY LONGER. IT WILL WEAKEN YOUR VISION AND KEEP YOU STUCK IN A RUT. If you are new, at first invest few months just educating yourself+building meditation habit. Then start the ruthless Self-discrimination process (Stage 1). When you've started this practice, you're not seeking for more accurate 'theory' anymore. Books/Lectures can only inspire you and keep you on the path. Words of Ramana Maharshi/Nisargadatta Maharaj can be powerful pointers for this stage. If you've been doing self inquiry for a while and can intuit the folly of this 'material world' and fairly convinced that you can't be an object, then move on to the Stage 2 (Self abiding). You should feel a genuine desire for truth by this point. So things like how long will it take to be enlightened or weather it will happen or not will slowly stop bothering you as you get acquainted with Being more and more. Rupert Spira can be an excellent teacher starting from this stage. PS: I AM NOT ENLIGHTENED. Its just that I find totally irrelevant posts made by many people here who remind me of myself. They are totally wasting years of their lives trying to gather the bits of pieces here and there from heresay. I hope this post can awaken at least 1 person from his/her delusion of getting enlightened just through reading Tolle/blogs/videos (Once again! No disrespect to Eckhart. I love him!! ) and playing video games. If not, then it will be here as a reminder for myself

@MarkusSweden Now we're getting into the heart of the matter! Thanks for the reminder. I can see how I am wasting my time here ''The best teaching is in silence'' But who really buys that?

Further notes on materialist paradigm

@Epiphany_Inspired I think I read this in a book of Shinzen Young. One of his friends told him ''Gosh, its so hard to do this work. But its way harder not to do it.'' Once you are conscious enough to see that what you call 'life' is nothing but a big, fat layer of suffering and lying to yourself, there is really no choice. I mean, what are you gonna return to? Hang in there

There might a 3rd stage called embodying Enlightenment which keeps on refining the nature of experience/perception and response. It continues until the death of the physical body

@Dan Arnautu THIS!!!! Hope these 2 quotes will guide you in the right direction. Being an unconscious hardcore workaholic myself, I can testify that we usually outgrow our routines. From my experience I can tell you that its a critical point of your life. If you try to get back to that same, previous, workaholic routine, you'll backslide even more. The better alternative would be sticking with keystones habits like exercise, diet, meditation, sleep, basic study and guitar practice. Then enjoying the free time of the day contemplating and resting in silence, self reflecting and getting used to the not knowing..all the while being gentle and loving yourself. Eventually new inspirations and visions will fill up those 'empty' moments

The 'human problem' described in less than 10 minutes

Here are some points worth exploring 1) Wim hof breathing sets followed by push-ups provide energy burst right in the moment. The brain/body fog and clutter seems to go away. 2) I think I first heard this from Tony Robbins. ENERGY BEGETS ENERGY. Stay physically active all throughout the day. Don't sit at one place more than 30 minutes straight (expect for contemplation work). Make 5-10 minutes of mini exercise routines. Do that 2-3 times a day. It can keep you energetically active all throughout the day. 3) You are going through a wonderful transformation in your life from inside out. So be patient. The body-mind mechanism is adjusting with the new, healthy inputs you are consciously taking. 4) Cut all unnecessary thought. The more mindful I get, the more I realize how much horseshit I fantasize throughout the day thus deplete energy and go in a downward energy spiral.

@Afonso thanks man! I'll cure the shit out of my anxiety with this technique~

@Max_V Some strategies that help me with fear or shock during inquiry. 1) when fear arises, go metta. Ask ''who is aware right now?'', ''To whom does it arise?''. Try to come back to your 'senses' rather than being sucked into a negative thought spiral. 2) Understand that the very fear is arising 'in' awareness, experienced 'by' awareness and 'is' nothing but awareness itself! This whole thing is a strange loop. http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/read/the_way_of_beauty 3) Know that you'll feel a LOT better after this storm passes. I set up a 3 day retreat at home doing over 25 hours of self inquiry. At one point there was tremendous fear and I literally disidentified from it all. There was fear and I was totally untouched by it, sitting there laughing silly, unable to find a 'me'. It lasted for about 5-10 minutes. That was the 1st time I had an actual taste of what it truly means to 'witness'. A taste of self realization. After the mini retreat, my anxiety and the notion 'I exist as a body' diminished to a great extent for a week or so. You'll feel a lot better after these energies are played out. Hang in there man!

@BobbyLowell 1) Stop judging/blaming yourself for judging. See that its not your personal problem but a general condition of humans. 2) After you accept that fact, start observing your judgmental thoughts objectively without trying to stop or change them when they arise. Or, ask ''To whom does this thought occur?'' and shift your focus from thoughts to start an investigation for the 'perceiver'. 3) Conscious breathing or mindfulness practice as much as you can all throughout the day helps a ton! 4) One day, discover yourself without judgmental thoughts. All the best

@Slade Other than his own narratives, in my opinion, Leo's top strength is actually showing the fuck up every single day...for YEARS. If anyone does that, becoming world class at something is only a matter of time. Make your life purpose your whole life. Practice and research a lot... relentlessly...day after day. And one of the most important is to become super openminded. Be willing to go wherever or do whatever your purpose demands of you to do in order to expand your art...things others may haven't ever imagined. If your purpose requires you to run around naked in streets jiggling your titties, be openminded to explore that possibility (just like Leo probably would delve into anything to find the TRUTH or improve his craft) ''There are some questions that no one can give answer for you. Keep practicing steadily and the answers will come to you at the right moment'' - Zen Guitar

@John Iverson Here are some points that I'm yet to grasp the Truth of myself through first hand insight. Try contemplating on them First of all, "The trees, objects, chairs, tvs etc.'' that you mention are 'Thoughts' RIGHT NOW if you are actually NOT perceiving them directly. Of course those Thoughts die the moment you stop thinking about them...long before you physically die. Now, Thought = Mental image/sound or combination of both. Emotions are the feeling sensations generally associated with thought. They have 2 sides. 1) The Story they create and convince 'you' to cling to them. 2) Their ACTUAL Reality..which is 'just' mental sound/image/feel when you are experiencing them NOW. Second of all, Your "The trees, objects, chairs, tvs etc.'' and My "The trees, objects, chairs, tvs etc.'' are two totally different worlds (even if we both are perceiving the same "The trees, objects, chairs, tvs etc.'' ). Your personal world dies with the death of your perception and so is mine. Whatever we perceive is our personal world. There is no objective "The trees, objects, chairs, tvs etc.'' out there. Third of all, what you REALLY are or the SUPREME never dies. Its timeless, birthless, deathless and bvkjlzbgvuazbgdviuBZJVlbadsuvb . So after things come and go, the SUPREME alone exists as if nothing ever had any reality of its own. Hope these pointers guide you in the right direction. And finally I wanna share a very very important principle for enlightenment work that I heard from Leo's video. ''Whatever that is not happening right now, in your direct experience, is NOT real'' Keep this principle constantly in mind and keep doing consciousness work. Your question if things exist or not irrespective of you, cannot be verbally answered. Don't you see the limitation here? Are you here to believe someone else's words for granted? Have a direct grasp of the TRUTH yourself. Happy sitting alone and contemplating

If I am totally honest here then I have no choice but to confess that I only come to this forum when I'm NOT practicing properly (AKA lost my path) If I am at peace...I mean TRULY at peace, at flow state...then things called 'others', 'future', 'world', 'good and bad', 'fear', 'forum ' etc really make no sense and can't induce any attraction. I guess this forum can only be a good entry point and maybe a good place for help in critical, dire roadblocks

@Nahm Thanks each and every one of you guys. I love you!! Life is so fucking beautiful. Yeah I'm confused and feel bad sometimes. Yeah fear overflows my heart from time to time. But it still is awesome. The mystery and mindfuck are the treats. YAY!

Reading Nisargadatta, what I understand is that... BEING = The sense of 'I AM' Now this 'I AM' is a bit tricky. The 'I' here is a thought/fiction. But the 'Am' is Truth here..your very presence so to speak. You can never think/feel yourself to be ''I am not''. Cause there is always the 'I AM' Now this 'I AM' is not enlightenment. Its the highest state in duality before you shift into enlightenment. This is the whole game of self inquiry...whatever arises, you question ''To whom does it occur?'' and you come back to this sense of 'I AM'...you sense the Awareness that is aware of this 'I AM'....then one day/now BOOM! I don't know shit after that ^^'' PS: Someone please correct me if I am misunderstanding here

SELF INQUIRY!!! I will elaborate it on a new post after a week or so. After I finish my home retreat ^^

Due to karma or whatever, some people have some sort of built in 'wisdom' from their birth. These people seem to see the folly of 'consumption'. Nothing in this world seem to satisfy them. So...after years/decades of running around like a hungry ghost...desperately trying to fill the inner void with objects and ideologies..and failing countless times..they finally give in to the path of enlightenment. On the other hand, rest of the people take the carnal cravings as their highest priority in life and they chase after them...not seeing/admitting the folly of them..until their death approaches and there is really nothing left to do. So yeah, enlightenment does take an ounce of spiritual wisdom to initiate the path. If all your cravings and curiosity ends with the pleasure and pains of life, then there is no room for a possibility of enlightenment.

@Dan94 Man you gotta follow @Nahm's solid advice, If you are really serious about your life purpose (Being a successful musician) and care about producing quality content until the death of your body. From my experience, I can say that there is no shortcut in the long run. I remember practicing guitar blindly for 6 years and making huge momentum. Then all of that crashed and burned in 1 year due to a series of addictions, health issues and depression. Discipline for discipline's sake is the legit way to master your craft and sustain that over a long timeline. In case of your life purpose especially in some very technical field like being a performing musician, there is really no other alternative than solid discipline and practice routine. Cause you know how skipping just a single day of practice disturbs your form. And about enlightenment, I think being a disciplined musician itself is a solid path towards that higher consciousness. I'm sure you know many virtuoso musicians (In many genres), who have practically surrendered their whole life to their practice and craft. After some good years, they are not really looking for anything particular. Their solid discipline carry their flow state. That goalless, dedicated practice itself consumes their ego, pride over time. Some of these people are extremely grounded and you can almost feel their aura (the way you feel in front of a guru) After a while, practicing those scale runs, chords and songs get mechanical anyway. Start practicing 24/7 awareness on breathing while you practice to keep it fresh and conscious. NEVER let your daily practice become mechanical even if you are doing it for 50 years. Cause it WILL come back to bite your ass. When you are mechanically doing stuff, all sorts of things go on in your mind (mostly unconsciously) which inevitably depletes your mental and physical energy that leads to low conscious behaviors. Every single day counts! How about this for a strategy? 1) 8 hours of solid, conscious music practice (after a while this will become your meditation session). Start block time practicing in 30 min/1 hour chunks instead of planning and grabbing all 8 hours by the balls at the same time (It will seriously demotivate you to practice that day) lol. 2) 1 hour meditation. 1 hour breathing techniques + exercise/yoga. 1 hour PD stuff (visualization, affirmation, journaling, reading) then you got 5 hours still left in day to rest, maintain relationships, do other stuff, enjoy nature, studying more etc. (24/7 mindfulness goes on ) even if you sleep 8 hours. Make a routine that suits you most at your particular life situation. Then maybe take 2 vacations every year for psychedelic/solo retreats. Consider trying this out. I think you can discipline yourself easier as you already got solid meditation practice going on. I know it may sound like a very tough and mechanical lifestyle, but remember a musician's life can be either a very fulfilling one or a very miserable one depending on how you build it. Yeah it will consume all of your personal agendas and low consciousness cycle. Yeah It will consume your whole life. But wouldn't a hardcore lifestyle solely towards full enlightenment and understanding do the same thing? Finally, I will attach this link of me playing guitar at almost my peak performance level. Not to brag but to verify that I'm not just throwing 2nd hand knowledge at you. A musician got a HUGE road in front of him. Gotta figure a lot of stuff out and it's very easy to get lost somewhere. That's why staying conscious and strategic in everyday life is the key. All the best! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQs9_M8gc5U

There you go

@AleksM Thanks a lot for writing up this post. I wonder how come I didn't find it earlier. This post made a lot of sense to me. 24/7 mindfulness that you suggested sounds like a legit and quick strategy. I have some direct insights about mastery because of 10k+ hours of hardcore guitar practice in 6 years. I think if someone deliberately practices something 16 hours a day for a year (Like focusing on breathe), I don't think there would be much left in his psyche other than the practice itself lol. Its shocking how people trash talk about a claim so quickly without even trying it out. And also talking about woowoo or crazyness, Enlightenment itself is the ultimate mindfuck. "There is only God and I'm that", this statement itself is the most crazy thing. Compared to it 3rd/1000th eye, light body, deity, galactic counsel, 500th dimension etc pales in comparison. So I don't get why people pursuing the most crazy thing which is enlightenment, still get offended by some of these things you mentioned. Now It would be really helpful if you clarified some of my questions. 1) When you started 24/7 mindfulness, did you just focus on breath(sensation in nose) strictly or on the feelings of body at the same time? 2) I've really struggled holding this focus while studying/memorizing, using computer/mobile, talking with people, reading a book. During these activities, things continuously pop up which demands your thinking/attention. While activities like walking, eating, sitting alone, brushing etc are monotonous and easier to practice mindfulness simultaneously. How did you become successful in bringing unbroken focus on breath while those technical activities? Did you keep on trying again again million times a day until you reached a break through? 3) Have you attained complete and permanent dis-identification from mind/ego/karma/self image? 4) If so, how do you look at all this spiritual evolution/higher dimensions/guides? where is this stuff actually going and whats the point really when you can't cling/identify with anything but just observing. 5) Do you have any experience or researched seriously about kundalini? 6) Did you have a serious crisis in your life that led you to such hardcore spiritual commitment in the beginning (Like addictions/breakup/depression etc) or you just embarked on this path out of love for Truth and mystery of life? and finally... 7) How are you man? PS: Sorry if this is too long. Hoping for your answers. And you write in English just fine. All the best And I love how you say that our present reality itself is a psychedelic experience. Just beautiful!

What do you do when you become enlightened? Answer: You go fuck yourself. (cause there is no other) (Sorry if this is too cringe. OP/admin can delete it. Savage reply to zendevils and enlightened role players tho)

I once saw a video of a monk speaking something along the following lines: All human problems/suffering is basically a result of 'Mis'-Perception. We suffer because we don't know how to perceive properly. We generally perceive everything with our labels and projection. We are actually coloring a blank canvas then crying about the color. The moment we learn to just perceive things as they really are which is nothing but pure being, all other aspects just auto correct and get into complete harmony. That's basically the main job of meditation/mindfulness training. Setting our perception right. All our notion about us, others and things are just a complete joke when you actually perceive things right. But its a very miserable state which binds us into this self-perpetuating prison when we Mis-Perceive

@ajasatya hey brother, can you pray for us lost, confused fellas please? Your words always have a potent healing power. I genuinely feel that. Thanks for your contribution on this forum. Your posts are one of the reasons I try to be here regularly. Please consider writing a book someday that will heal the world. with love and gratitude, Preetom