How to be wise

I recently discovered that in order to become a real master of consciousness, you need to put in around 10,000 hours of work. If I carry on my two hours of contemplation every day I will become a master in.... 14 years. What! I can't wait for 14 years. It looks like the only way to achieve mastery soon is to become an ascetic and to contemplate for 10 hours a day. What's your plan? How will you complete your 10,000 hours whilst living in a city? And pursuing your life purpose. Impossible.

I think asceticism is the solution. It's practically impossible to meditate for 10 hours a day if you live in a city in a family. You need to go off into the wild, abondan all material goods, and spend your whole day meditating. At least for a few years. Quite dangerous, but very worthwhile.

In theory, yes. But it's impractical. We don't have the mental capacity to be mindful all the time.

@Shin it's not easy watching your thought patterns '24/7' trust me. You can do it on and off for a total of three hours and tell yourself it was '24/7'. But I don't think watching thought patterns is enough. You need real deliberate work put forth.

Leo has talked about access concentration, but there are lots of other concentration states. I'm not exactly sure of the process of how you move from one state to another. In fact, Ingram said that he knew someone who was lost in the first jhana for 20 years! What are the other eight states in great detail, and how do you transition from one to the other?

The past month I've done self-inquiry by the observation method instead of using my thoughts to contemplate. I personally prefer using my thoughts to contemplate, but the question is does it produce enlightenment. I will have to research that question a bit more, because if I can become enlightened through trying to generate insights directly, then I will return to that method.

I've started contemplating about the self, and will be posting insights that I get during the contemplation. Today I was contemplating the question 'Why do I think that I exist?'. Obviously, my first excuse was that I am seeing my room, feeling my body, hearing sounds. If I didnt exist, then I wouldn't know that I was feeling hungry, or that there was a chair in front of me. But then, I asked myself: 'do I really have to exist for my experiences to happen?'. Do I really have to exist for 'me' to be seeing that chair. I then realised a life-long belief that I was holding, which was that when I am looking at a chair, there must be 'somebody' who is perceiving that chair. I am now asking myself whilst looking at that chair, 'what is really happening right now?'. Is it really the case that 'I'm looking at the chair', or is something else happening? I'm guessing that some more beliefs will have to be dropped during my next contemplation.

Make sure your not bringing shrooms to make your time easier. If that's the emotional reason, don't bring it. According to Leo, one meditation retreat is far better than one year of meditation of one hour a day. So expect some good results. I personally don't think that journaling requires a retreat. Use all your retreats to supercharge your meditation or self inquiry in order to get a breakthrough. You can do shrooms at home. Focus on pure meditation or self inquiry.

@Martin123 A lot of people practice kundalini yoga. If you go to YouTube you'll see all sorts of people practicing it. But clearly most of these people are not enlightened. In their YouTube videos they tend to be highly materialistic and have never mentioned the concept of no-self. So why is that? Does Kundalini yoga really produce enlightenment? You've been practicing it for two years. Are you enlightened? Did you reach enlightenment with Kundalini or with another method?

Why is kundalini so dangerous. What risks does it pose medically?

I remember shinzen young saying that he went to a therapist recently despite having become enlightened long time ago and has been doing zen meditation and contemplation for decades. Why does he still suffer from the mind? Is emotional mastery really possible?

I understand that enlightenment isn't enough for emotional mastery. But this guy has been doing serious consciousness work for basically his whole life. It kind of demotivates me from carrying on this work.

@Pierre @Joseph Maynor I'm using Byron Katie's self-inquiry to achieve emotional mastery. In the inquiry, you first ask the question 'is it true?' So that's what I was trying to answer. By concentrating on the thought, I was hoping to get insights into that thought and to answer that question. But does it work is the question, or should I be contemplating it instead. @Nahm That thought has been causing me a lot of suffering recently, so I wanted to resolve it.

What's going to happen if I concentrate on the thought 'The teacher doesn't like me' for a long time? Am I going to detach from it, or is it just a waste of time? I've been concentrating on that thought for five days with one hour each day, and I basically got nothing. I usually feel better in the meditation, but I had no insights, and I usually feel bad soon after I finish the meditation. Is concentrating on thoughts a bad or long way of detaching from the thought. Is it better to contemplate the thought instead?

I was amazed to have found this. Nisargadatta shares his knowledge on enlightenment.

That guy always looks angry. Even when the translator told a joke, he was still angry.

Will it slow down my growth if i have been doing self inquiry for three months and then suddenly change to mindfulness meditation. Will it be slower to get to enlightenment if you keep changing techniques.

Skip to 18:35. Byron Katie describes how she ran off to the desert after her enlightenment to get away from society. But I noticed that this was a common theme for enlightened people, Ramana Maharshi comes to mind. So why do they decide to do that. Why do they run away from society after spontaneous enlightenment?

@Leo Gura A while back you released the episode '10 important things you don't know you want'. Ever since, I have used that as my life map. Do you think more should be added to that list? How many of those ten things do you feel you attained?

Yeah I noticed as well. He did a speech in oxford, and in the speech he asked a few rhetorical questions, and he expected people to reply. For example, when he says 'isn't that so?' He kept repeating it till people replied. Then he got so frustrated and was like to the audience 'are we in talking terms or not?' But Byron Katie actually achieved full emotional mastery. It's quite interesting because she said she worked on and achieved her emotional mastery whilst she was in the desert by herself, and not in her enlightenment experience.

No they don't. Ramana Maharshi spent the rest of his 54 years on that mountain. By the way, what is vasanas? Her own words were: "to get away from people." Actually, a lot of people in the moment of their enlightenment leave society and never come back in their entire lives. Think of acestics.

I know he's the most famous. By the way, he's not alive. Unless you think he was revived.

Just curious. Who do you think is the most enlightened person you're aware of alive today or 100 years ago. I want to be inspired.

How about the insight that absolutely nothing is true. Have that one first. Then I'll see you in the Tibetan caves.

Become enlightened first. You will probably run off to the Himalayas.