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strangely so this is again a paradoxal showcase of how spirituality functions those who are more in non-duality tend to paradoxally over-identify with others your enlightenment is not another one's enlightenment guru's show the way but they are only guru's to those who are unawakened whats gonna happen when we're all awakened? we'll all be like buddha? nu-uh, life is infinity, it is more, not less you are completely unique now, what makes you think that attaining a higher vibration will make you more similar to anyone? enlightenment means higher vibration, even more unique then ever before your enlightenment has nothing to do with mine or any guru, that is what makes it so exciting and wonderful guru's only show the way to yourself, whats inside is yours to discover, and it seems like you have a divine vision over being enlightenment in a completely new way, thats awesome guru's are merely friends trying to point the way, they are not better buddha is not better, sadghuru is not better, not mooji not anyone else on this planet is better or worth more, only when we know that truth may we start listening to what is being said to help us

Ive just had another moment of awareness, putting things into perspective. It feels like in daily life I am caught up in an pseudo-awakened alter ego and totally clouded, totally filled with concepts and beliefs, so clouded that it makes me depressed. An ego with stories around awakening, feelings and experiences that are clearly mind filtered. That is the default state of my mind. I begin doubting, feeling like I just pretend things happened a certain way when they actually were just mind-distorted so I could put them into words. I look at this self and it is so far away from reality. It makes me absurdly sad, very very sad looking how deep I fell. And yet I am still unconsciously always caught up in it. Pls take me out of it, this realization is very heartbreaking somehow. I have already had such realization where I cried because I realized how unconsciously deep I fell without even noticing it driving me to the point of thinking about suicide. This poor soul just didnt know it better because it got dragged away in the mind's stream of stories. That is probably the reason I have no clear sense of self - it is so clouded and manipulated by the mind.

A lot of great insight and honest perspectives in this discussion. I think it's completely understandable for the OP to wonder -- what's the point of being enlightened? What's the big deal if someone has awakened to the illusion and realized that nothing was there to be awoken? The language used to describe enlightenment makes it seems like nothing really changes -- but the change is simply the realization -- and the realization itself has a snowball effect on every thought and belief that has shaped your entire subjective world. It changes how you relate to the world around you -- and most importantly, in my opinion, -- changes how you FEEL. You won't have the same heaviness, harsh emotions, and psychological baggage you used to carry. Hence, you become en-LIGHT-ened. Keep in mind, this is after a pretty extreme dismantling process of the falsehoods that come into light after the realization. Again, the language that's often used to describe enlightenment makes it seem like nothing changes at all or that there's nothing you can absolutely do -- that confuses people sometimes and leads them to question -- why even bother? As for psychadelics, it's obviously not a ticket to a permanent state of enlightenment, but it can be effective for giving you a glimpse of your true nature without the ego. Interestingly, if you read all the trip reports on Erowid, especially the bad ones lol, you'll notice that the user will come to a point where they lose the sense of themselves and don't even know who they are anymore. If they're not ready for it, they might freak out and call their mom or something along those lines lol. But if you have a notion that you'll experience your ego dissolving while on it, it can be very effective in recognizing what that's like -- so you can better discern the ego and the real you in your normal non-drugged state. - Omar | FreethinkingGuru.com

This is a really significant post. In general, imo, a lot of people (forum wise) are ignoring the pyramid and trying to “be” Turqoise / Nondual / Enlightened, and it is causing a lot of unneeded stress and confusion. Living in your parents house and making arguments for your own ‘having awakened’ when you have yet to attain financial & emotional self reliance, for example. So there is a grosse lack of appreciation & humility in many cases, which detrimentally stunts personal growth by means of frustration. Or to put it simple, it’s like someone pretending they’re a millionaire online for so long that they never actually developed themselves by becoming a millionaire - or a sage, or enlightened, etc. Or someone pretending they are self actualized for so long they never accomplish holding down a job by being able to communicate and work with others effectively. Shadow work, imo, is the most underutilized & under-appreciated work. As if everyone just figures they can skip it. I suppose that’s an inherent challenge of the nature of ego. Or in the biggest picture, it’s like not doing much for yourself, your life, your happiness, because you’re “already” self actualized, having negated all the things you want in life by nullifying, but in actuality having fooled yourself. I wonder if this is an offset of having access to people who are self actualized..?

around the time that I awakened was the time that I experienced the most thoughts, that moment when I really questioned who I am my thoughts were racing I felt I was going mad ever since being on the path of enlightenment, involving meditation and mindfulness in my daily life it would seem that there is more space where I do not think, where I am, this space has evolved to form a galactic ocean and it sometimes feels bigger then the story of my daily life paradoxically I'm realizing I have not been thinking less, on the contrary, never have I paid more attention to my thoughts ever since trying to enlighten, there has been more thoughts, more focus, but in the right direction its as if now I think in a lethal way, multi-threaded, synchronistically, constructs of thoughts, dimensions of thought thought has revealed itself for me to be as physical as throwing a punch a thought is energy, every thought, every projection in the past or the future, it is all so much energy it would seem that I am running out, coming to a stand stil, it takes so much energy to not be who you truly are a thought is a projection in another dimension, when you think you are not here, its like a quantum leap, this is how far we go in our seeking I'm at a point where I naturally go thoughtless at certain moments, actually for most of the day no matter how you seek enlightenment you will get there every effort, every thought, nothing is wasted, everything burns every direction leads to home, eventually the mask will break every single moment of seeking is going on endlessly, every moment of the past burning now, even those moments in the future, the plans you have already made, the efforts you are already doing in a mental dimension, months or years from now, those plans those projects, seeking there now its pure rocket fuel being blasted, in every direction, till there's nothing left, too tired, no will to seek anymore, and then one arrives

Hi @Leo Gura I wanted to clarify some things and report on my progress. When I wrote my last post, the question wasn't implying the Enlightenment was just a hallucination. On the contrary, I recognize the reality of mystical awareness. I was trying to articulate the idea that subconscious programming and intention have us "tap into" a particular slice of reality. That slice of reality says, "Nothing is real. Everything is Nothing. There is no something". If you think of the awareness as a radio tuner, then what I was saying was that various mystical cultures only "tune" into a particular reality. Regardless, that's not what I really wanted to talk about today. For the past two years of my life, I've been highly resentful of people and of general culture because I thought people were devaluing the things that I loved. As a result, I wouldn't listen to people because I felt that it was a way to take me away from those very same things. It's only now that I realize that people were just trying to help me grow up and become more mature as a person. I've already talked about the value that I hold dearly for intellectual life and philosophy. It's the bold effort to secure for human knowledge the satisfaction of piercing into the Mysteries. Thrice that though, is the recognition of the beauty of the elevation of our consciousness through the human imagination. The imagination... ferment to great visions, and the enthralling beauty of that peculiar understanding host only to the play of ideas. I want to give more context... when I talk about this, I don't want to present the image of a very cold person, who only understands logic as symbols. It all started in my literature class. Something awakened in me as I allowed myself to get lost the daydreams of characters, romantic images of wilderness and the gentle passing of time set against what seemed to be paintings in the imagination. The rest is merely the attempt to envision truth, knowing that it is beautiful when put together. No, envisioning the wider reality of the world, knowing that understanding is sublime. What can be the practical value of pure theory seen from this standpoint? I have felt at times as though I have placed myself into a victim complex. I've felt as though I've had to defend my own enjoyment of this. Is this all perverse enjoyment? Or something....noble? More specifically, I have put myself into the mindset as though I was being deprived of the right to love such things if I couldn't see it being shared by other people. It's only now that I realize that the element that I was missing was Self-Love. The rest is my own history. I left Actualized.org because I didn't feel satisfied by this form of spirituality. I wanted to bring to my own attention something... greater. Something able to fulfill my thirst for knowledge. I found the Left Hand Path. I found Magick. I found the Occult. I called to it, it came to me and I came to it. The rest of my development is something I will keep personal, because I don't want to distract this with a discussion on Magick or the Occult. However, I had to mature. I had to grow up. I had to start learn how to take responsibility for my own life. On many levels I am trying to develop myself. I'm looking to develop myself as an entrepreneur. I'm looking to develop myself as a magician. I'm looking to develop myself as a philosopher. I'm looking to develop myself as an intellectual. I'm looking to self-actualize and obtain emotional mastery, and after all this time, I am finally dipping my toes back into Enlightenment practices because I realize something. I realize that if I really wanted to become a true magician, I have to absorb any and every form of knowledge to further my ascent. Yes, that includes the Mystical paradigm as well. I cannot afford to leave it on the table, and yes, technically speaking it's not "knowledge". But the most pressing matter is to develop Wisdom. All kinds of Wisdom, all kinds of mastery from many different people. Life wisdom though, that has been particularly uncomfortable. Leo, I've fallen into the trap of taking my life purpose too seriously. In taking life too seriously, I deprive myself of self-love. I deprive myself of the enjoyment, the pure magic of the things I have passion for. Now, when I think about them in my mind, I feel a contraction in my solar plexus and a raw heat within my chest. I'm also afraid of other people. I'm afraid that I will be criticized and that it will shock me to my core. It's when I begin to look up to all of these masters and people in different areas, I'm realizing all the bullshit I have to clear up in my own life. When I see how you post lately, I see that you've been turning into a wolf, and I don't blame you. I can't blame you. It's the feeling you get when you just feel.... bad, and your heart sinks. Yet, you are slightly terrified. That's where I need advice on self-love. It's not that I don't have confidence necessarily, it's that I feel drained and tired sometimes. It feels like I have to slog it out. I muster my strength to push through, but I only create more internal resistance. I realize that I have to rely on myself to feel loved and cared for, because I can't always control how other people feel. I try to allow myself to enjoy things. Sometimes I just run my hands over the leather of my seat, or I lose myself int the present moment and realize that I am an emptiness devoid of anything. Not staring at anything, but always there. I can't stare at it. I AM it. Leo, I don't have any hard feelings against the forum. I've been curbing my arrogance because finding flaws in others is cheap, understanding is gold.

@Nahm question for you even though "nothing" ever happened... the current moment of NOW . is that not a way to see that? also. what does the "stillness" which is often mentioned by the masters/awakened souls mean? like does one feel "physically" more still or perfectly still as everything else moves about their field of view?

It is all one. Leo as well as many others have said that whatever you may think the TRUTH to be, it isn't it. I don't say that this video here is THE example of what reality is like but from what I have learned thus far, about reality being groundless and infinite, I feel this video comes closest. hen, what this video is depicting is a snapshot of a single moment in 'time' of reality the part about the infinte intelligence of reality is such that as you zoom in deeper and deeper (or zoom out) there is some form of life or forms in general and it is all connected as can be seen in the video so if this snapshot were a moving live image as it were being zoomed in, then that's what the design of reality is like... and maybe not even then, although it comes quite close but for reality.. not only is it "moving" it is all of the possibilities, all at once, present, in such a way that u can zoom in infintely deeper and out infintely and find form/life and it will be all connected like an elegant infinte clockwork. GOD IS GREAT i firmly believe that the structure of reality is as such (those who have awakened or had a glimpse can correct me if needed) and whats the impossiblity or mind-boggling/fucking aspect of it is that upon awkening, you "BECOME" this whole ineffable object... you literally become all of it. just like right now you have 'become' your whole body... you BECOME the WHOLE OF REALITY and to somehow imagine the taste of intelligence.. just notice how intelligent you as a human being are. intelligent in the sense of your cognition, abilites etc all that you do.. now this infinte object, embodying the infinte object = infinte intelligence... we just cannot phatom that... and also for reality, it includes other thoughts/dimensions which are not even shown in the video.. so it really truly is infinite, in infinite dimension What reality is, is a 'single infinite object' (in a way) now, you can't bind an infinte object into form, but for the sake of understanding, imagine an unimaginably large Sphere - and in it, all of reality is contained.. upon enlightment or breakthrough.. you become that 'infinte object' and it cannot be named because what would you call that structure which is seen in the video? it's just called the ALL, the ONE,

Just because some guy on the internet said that there is no death, no bad and no suffering, doesn't mean that you can just start living any way you please without thinking about consequences. In order to be able to do that, you need to really believe that/ have been awakened. Are you enlightened? Because I for myself can't say, that I truly believe there's no suffering just because everything is an illusion. For me, as long as there are creatures that are not enlightened, their suffering and their pain is real! It's real to them, so I can't act like it is not.

You have to apply what you realized on a day to day basis and integrate, ground and eventually crystallize the energy. Just because your state isn't exactly the same as the highly accelerated state in which you experienced during those experiences, doesn't mean nothing has changed, its a gradual process. Find what works best for you and sometimes just by sitting and meditating and reflecting back on that experience can bring you closer to that state of being, may not be the exactly same because everything changes, everything is changing. Writing things down during and reminding self helps. When people Awaken for example, they experience such wonder, joy, love, peace, freedom ect... which lasts for a while until it starts to become normal or more natural to their state of being thus no longer as "surprising" as it used to be and they mistaken this for "losing" the Awakened or Enlightened state when in reality its always there but people tend because of this to buy into the belief system that they have "lost it". and belief systems = reality you buy into. When in reality its always there, ever-present in awareness, you just have to remember how to let go of all beliefs systems again and see its eternal nature as one with you, ever-present and always in the center of awareness. Let go and step back into the center of being, where pure awareness resides, naturally and eternally.

OK, let's say a Christian monastic meditates 10 hours a day for years and reaches a full awakening. Upon seeing himself as everything and nothing, what would keep him adhered and devoted to Christianity? Wouldn't he see beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bible is just a collection of stories? Wouldn't he see that HE is Christ, Allah, the Buddha and leave religion behind as a matter of course? I can understand how a non-fully awakened monk would likely remain devoted to his religion, but it seems to me that a full awakening would lead them to walk out the door every time. Summed up: do fully enlightened people ever keep their previously-held religion? How? Why?

@Paulus Amadeus most of the people he interviews are not enlightened. Not even close. Granted he does interview some highly awakened people. But very few of them.

You may have awakened to your true nature, but there are still things that you are ignorant of (like I am). You know what you are, but what is the other? What is language? What is thought? What is understanding? What is a 'what'? Just like you can become directly aware of what you are, you can become directly aware of other things as well. In a sense, the original awakening is something that lets you perceive things differently and this perception is something to be integrated with your everyday experience. It's a work that will consume your whole life if you're into it. I am.

@Prabhaker There's definitely something missing there? if they can do all that, they must not known source/self too well and merely partly connected or forgotten the truth from not applying and living by it daily. Its not hard to portray as an enlightened being and manipulate others. All you have to do is rise and tap into a higher vibration/dimension of being/experience then relax down that most other people there still have yet to tap into, thus you appear enlightened to them(which in a sense you are to them) as where many of these so called "enlightened gurus" are at today, but to a being of a similar wavelength as them, they are just another being on a similar vibration/wavelength and merely "awake" to the truth of who they are, but to be truly enlightened is where absolute clarity and truth of oneness resides within them and is expressed at all times in an unconditionally loving and non-judgemental way. I think Jesus and Buddha were good examples of this level of enlightenment. Now, this is all and well, everyone has their levels and paths of teaching/learning but i feel we need to remember to unwind every once in a while as we get far too carried away and caught up with these ideas/distractions which in turn ends up deluding self thus can delude many others of a lower wavelength/vibration especially if you have many followers. We are (in a sense) arguing with creation and complicating its perfect simplicity. In this level of realization of self, all those things you mentioned that those so called "enlightened beings" did are pointless and meaningless to your understanding and beingness in the truly enlightened state. I can see how one can have experiences and claim or portray to be enlightened due to the experiences then eventually lead to other things that not in harmony the higher self-consciousness thus what happened to them was partial enlightenment/awakening or a wake up call and not grand enough to persist on a more permanent level so they come in waves instead. These people are/were not Truly Enlightened, They were merely Awakened. True Enlightenment is eternal, unshakable, indestructible/irreplaceable and lived as an example day by day. This is the one that can and should give advice especially advice on enlightenment and the enlightened state not the ones that are living off enlightenment experiences. The one that lives and is one with the Enlightened Awareness(at least to some degree) on a day to day basis is fit to help and share truth with others and help those arise to the light and freedom themselves. You have to be honest with self, i know everyone is trying their best especially Leo and many including myself are truly grateful for these beings and what they are trying to do and have done thus far but if you cant remain unconditionally loving, kind, compassionate and non-judgemental at all times you are not fit to express truth of the enlightened state/awareness to others which is why i myself am taking a break from all of this until i embody more of the enlightened awareness and unconditionally loving nature of the one infinite creator as i know the highest level of of being is Unconditionally Loving and Pure Understanding. The more we talk about Enlightenment the more it becomes a misunderstanding. All the best ?

Hey all you beautiful ones. I have had my kundalini energy awakened for some time now. What I noticed some months ago, was that I was eating nachos with spicy sauce and my kundalini started going all crazy and my body started blissing out from fullbody orgasms. Then it happened again with spicy food. So I did a real quick googlesearch and it seems that spicy foods dilate bloodvessels. The idea that kundalini energy flows through bloodvessels is a little strange to me, but undeniably it is the case that spicy foods can open up your energy body. So this is just the tip for all of you kundalini yoga lovers. Let me know if it works for you all!! Sending much love <3.

In the end of stage turquoise Leo mentioned that you should read at least 30 books on non-duality if you are serious about awakening. I would like to get some perspective on this. Several teachers I have studied joke/talk something along the lines of "the truth is not found in any (sacred) book". I heard a story from somewhere where Ramana told his pupils to throw their spiritual books into a river. I have had a few experiences myself where I realized how silly it was to look for myself anywhere but within. Early this summer I had an LSD/meditation induced awakening where I basically exploded out of bliss, and at that moment I thought to myself "If/when this has faded, if there is one thing I must not forget, it's this: it is within" I reached a point early on this year where I was practicing quite hard for my level, and studying theory and listening to teachers. I felt like all the knowledge was starting to be really distracting, like my monkey mind was constantly blabbering about non-dual theory. Now I have not read any non-dual books for a while nor listened to teachers and I feel like my mind is clearer and I can focus on my actual experience better. Is this a path thing, or is there some crucial value in books that I'm not getting? I understand that books can point out potential traps of the work, but... I don't know. Anyone here who has awakened and can say that books helped in that process? @Leo Gura is the only person I have encountered who has recommended extensive reading on the topic. Anyone here who has read very few books and has had success just by practicing? I'm not interested in speculation from users who have intentionally read/not read books and had awakening spiritually, sorry. You are all great but I don't think you can give much value here, as I said it's more of a speculation than an opinion from experience.

@molosku I link my first deep awakening with reading Martin Heidegger's Being and time. It is a book that gives you tools for self-contemplation and I used this knowledge to explore myself. I did not know that I was looking for enlightenment at the time and I think that it is an important factor that prevented me from distractions. There are benefits to reading, because books are food for thought when you try to re-contextualize them to apply them to your everyday experience. It can be beneficial for enlightenment, but if you do that to read what enlightenment is, it may get tricky very fast. The problem with spontaneous awakenings is that you have no context to ground your experience and it becomes very difficult to integrate it. In my case, proper integration took place a few years after the experience. Only after I learned things from @Leo Gura's channel. By no means I was hopeless on my own, but knowledge helped me a great deal to re-connect to what had happened. The question of whether I'm fully awakened, or not remains open (even to me), so you will have to judge for yourself whether this post is of any relevance to you. If full awakening (whatever it means) is the main criterion for you, you may have a hard time getting responses here, as even Leo seems to be seeking it via 5-MeO.

Are you me? It frustrates me that i have to sleep 9 hours a night to function properly. I used the Runtastic Sleep Better application to find out my sleep pattern, and found out that towards the end of the week i keep going to light state and awakened state of sleep more and more. My doctor said that maybe its the stress, maybe its because i use the application that lies to me (results can lie, trends dont) or that i have been light sleeper all my life and i should not be worried about it. Just in case it is the stress, does anyone here know a method to relieve stress daily/once a week to normalize sleep pattern?

@Mikael89 yes you are right! There can't be any better or worse words with this, at the end they all are what they are - words. But would there be meaning in that communication? When I say it doesn't speak I mean the absolute won't be like hi there, I'm the absolute, I'm nothing so therefore I'm everything and I have infinite intelligence so it is perfectly reasonable for me to be here...blah...blah...blah lol ? "There are many teachers who say that this phenomenal world is a play, a show. I could find 200 quotes for that too but do I really have to dig them up?" Yes and some say it's a dream or a story, yeah the list goes on but what I'm trying to say here is that although these concepts exist, they exist of the absolute not for the absolute. The absolute doesn't need a story or a rationalized idea for it to be. It is what it is. Trust me, that's the last thing I want. Just ask your self why do you have to state that, "I am consciousness" If you had awakened you would be at peace. Seriously, who or what are you addressing when you say that. Nothing is hidden here. I can easily say things that are pleasing for the ego but what would be the point. I honestly love you guys

@Leo Gura Human beings are not robots, however. You people tend to greatly dismiss your humanity, with all the nothingness experiences that lately, paradoxically, transform into a philosophy by themselves. I once heard you in one of your videos saying that we should aim in becoming decent human beings. Humanity, along with its faculties, it's an inevitable fact of our existence in this body. No matter how much you're trying to spiritual bypass, formulating excuses and arguments that move you into other places of yourself (nothingness), while denying other vital parts that require healing (the ego, the human perspective), fragmentation will inevitably appear. Along with it, comes the ego backlash, which happens not because of spiritual progress per say, but because other parts of ourselves require our attention, parts that can't be dismissed by spiritual dogma. We fell goosebumps, huge amounts of admiration and feelings in our heart chakra vibrating through our whole being at the sight of heroes and people who fight and persevere against all odds, trying to change the world for the better, not because we're some delusional robots with a programing called morality, whatever you want to call it, but because we're a part of God itself, but people around here tend to have only awakened the mind, while neglecting the heart, and the retoric is that there's something more divine than something or that living purposefully is stupidly or egoic, which is a huge shame and a common problem I see in spirituality. I'm not pointing fingers. No person can be entrenched in a single philosophy, but that's how I see things happening for the most part. Spirituality, at its most potent and expanding version, should be about having the good will to take care of your specie, all people, "good" and "bad" as a whole, like Jesus used to preach. It shouldn't be something you do in the dark far away from others who are in need of your light. We are more important than we think in awakening others and sharing the experiences a human being can achieve. A fully integrated God would care about its other parts (people) as it they were himself. That is what we should aim for. People now will reply to me that that's just ego and I should just sit in a cave, because having an ego it's some kind of a danger or that I'm in a trap. I hope this dogmatic ilussion will end soon. The lives of Gandhi, Jesus and many others show that a fully integrated ego and spirit cares about its world. The isolated spiritual ego isn't considered being one, for example, well, because loneliness and living by yourself seems cool for some reason. Having certain mystical experiences of my own and experiencing Oneness more and more often, I can say that being God is the ultimate thing. But being human is even more brilliant than that. Just think about it - you try to convince Yourself (others) about your existence and the rules and feelings yourself created in this ilussion while typing on a phone which is still You. Creation it's the most brilliant and captivating joke that exists, because there's nothing else that it doesn't contains.

At the end of the day, real relationships cannot happen between the right people and middle way people. The dormant will never understand the awakened unless they awaken. And for the awakened this society is so boring in every aspect that we tend to have a hermit lifestyle.

Depends on what psychology. Today's mainstream psychology methods are useless for awakened beings. Is only a good tool to form a society as we know it today.

I only see blockages in human beings, I don't call that complexity anymore. The world can only change from within, an awakened world. So those awakened can live with the outside world, but the outside world cannot live without the blockages they have. So maybe if all get awakened, probably 80% of the population will simply disappear in death. At the end of the day, who is willing to sacrifice the old and discover the full potential? The physical/emotional pain is so great that this is the main reason people don't awaken. Don't believe me? Wake up then

I'd like to dive into an interesting topic here. The topic is about how our conceptualization of what a (spiritual) teacher should be and —in particular— act like, can be a great obstacle towards our spiritual potential. Let's take Osho by example. I must admit, I have invested a large amount of time into reading and digesting his teachings, so certainly there is the danger of instead of coming from an unbiased, objective viewpoint about the matter, there is the danger that I'm simply arguing to defend him, which I'm trying to avoid at all costs. That's why I want to start off with the statement: Even though I have invested so much energy into digesting his teachings and identifying myself as "a student of Osho". and having seen him as holy and infallible for some time, I do admit that the possibility now exists in my mind that he indeed strayed off the path, got too obsessed with his image and materialism, with all his Rolls royces. But note, I say POSSIBILITY. Because there are some very valid counterarguments, which I'm going to get into right now. Now what first has to be understood is that even the most enlightened people that ever existed can have blindspots, misinterpretations and delusions. That's why I always want to stress that you don't seek the most perfect teacher per se, but just go with a teacher or teaching you generally like, or even if it's the subject he/she is currently talking about, and learn what you ought to be useful or applicable for you at that time, and you still can discard (or just ignore; to not consider something) subjects or items that you don't resonate with that much. I think it's very unfortunate when people discard the entire teacher if they disagree with some points of the teaching, or in something that the teacher does. Many people have extraordinary qualities to convey a certain viewpoint, perspective or quality in a certain way, but that doesn't mean that this teacher would be infallible altogether. I used to always try gather information based on the few teachers I knew I could trust (or trust moreso), and discard any other teacher (or youtube channel, or whatever) that I felt weren't of a very high level of consciousness. I needed to be able to discern whether this teacher could be trusted enough before I could accept his/her teaching. When I wanted to know about a certain esoteric subject, I always used to google "Osho on [insert my subject of interest]", because I felt like I could trust Osho enough that he would give me an insight deep enough that I could be satisfied. Now I do it differently. When I want to know about a certain subject, now I more often just google it or search it on youtube, see the teaching that resonates with me the most at that time out of the list of results, and open myself up for it. And if I notice start getting bored or my attention starts drifting, or if the information at hand doesn't seem to get to the core, that's when I will probably switch to search information from the teachers I already knew, or just leave it be for that moment. But I'm now open to learn from everybody, and I know that everybody has a certain quality of teaching writing or expressing that is unique, even if the person isn't super "wise" there's still a lot you can learn from that person's teaching. Take both the energetical expression and the information that you like from it and are open to, and discard and ignore the rest. That is my advice. And understand, just because you're open to new input, doesn't mean you will automatically be corrupted or brainwashed by it. To open yourself up and surrender your resistance, doesn't mean you have lost your discerning quality for truth. The difference is that instead of actively judging whether you agree or not with what this person is saying, is that now you are simply listening with no judgement from your conditioning whether it is "right or wrong, correct or incorrect", but that your indicator is now simply whether you are bored or attentive, whether your attention is drifting towards the mind or towards attentive stillness. Attentive stillness, by the way, is not memorizing. Don't think you are not being attentive just because you aren't memorizing. Instead, it is vibing, it is feeling into it. And here's where the example of Osho comes in. Osho is probably the most controversial spritual teacher that has ever set foot on this earth. And I exactly love him for that. Not that controversy is necessarily always "good", so to speak, but his way of creating controversy I absolutely love to death. But that can also be personal preference, that I like controversial teachers. Perhaps because we're both Sagittarius, who knows. Controversiality is neither virtuous or sinful in and of itself. In case you don't know who Osho is: Osho is a spiritual teacher who spread his work primarily in the 70's and 80's, creating a whole lot of drama and controversy with his extremely direct, provocative and confrontational approach towards people and groups, criticizing them in a manner that got directly to the core of the issue, leaving no room for pampering. Or at least, that's the image that he was known for. Was he always like that absolutely 100% of the time? No. It's not a black and white scenario where you either always or never will have to do that, but he certainly wasn't afraid of it. He also very often contradicted himself, because he didn't value logical linearity. Speaking in favour of one argument one time, and going directly against it the next day. He was also very anti-traditional, radical and renewing in his approach. Often going diametrically against what people were trying to make of him or their ideas of what a guru should be or act like. This is where most of the criticism and controversy comes. But I can understand it perfectly well. Take the example of the Rolls Royces. If you don't know, one of the things Osho was known for was having a large collection of 99 Rolls Royces. I often see people, sometimes even very intelligent people and very nuanced thinkers, criticize Osho for his collection of Rolls Royces and his material possessions, and therefore discarding him as an enlightened teachers, because of his "obsession with materalism". Either he was obsessed with materialism, or this is in fact a genius move from Osho. You see, him being so anti-tradionalist, so outspokenly opposed to ideas people had attached themselves to of what a guru should be like, his possession of 99 Rolls Royces can be perfectly understood. It can be seen as a joke or a form of criticism against the ideas people have that a guru or enlightened spiritual teacher should have renounced material possessions or at least not be so obsessed with materialism. Osho's criticism against this was that materialism wasn't opposed to spirituality, but in fact they were synergistically interrelated to each other. In fact, if you fight against materialism, try to renounce it, you by the act of fighting it become once again obsessed with it. So with his collection of Rolls royces, his statement is: I am not concerned what image you make of me, I am not concerned about what you think of materialism; I am showing you that spirituality and materialism are in fact perfectly compatible, and even supportive to one another. Now you could say: Well maybe his attempt to try to create a synergy between spirituality and materialism was just a lousy excuse for him to be indulging in greed and attention, so it would make it seem okay for him to do so. Well... Maybe you're right. Or maybe you're not. Who knows. Like I said, on an intellectual level everything that Osho did can either be praised or rejected. It all depends on the perspective. Maybe he was in fact a very intelligent con-artist, having all these intelligent logical arguments and systems set up to safeguard his greed and need for attention and power. But here I'm simply trying to convey the perspective to be open-minded about that whatever he did was neither an argument in favour or against his 'enlightenedness'. But for myself, there's one thing I do know. And that is that he was, and still is more intelligent than me. Where do you think I learned to argue and write like this from? Where do you think I learned this capacity for very nuanced thinking and adhering paradoxical truths come from? It was for a big part from Osho. So whether he is enlightened or not, he was absolutely more intelligent and affluent than me, which in itself is already reason enough to learn from him. Remember that I said that you don't have to agree with the teacher to agree with the teaching. Remember? But for me that wasn't even the case. I just loved not only his words or actions, however contradictory or paradoxical it sometimes would be, but also just who he was, his entire personality and being. And one thing that also stood out to me was his presence, the stillness in which he moved and acted. Maybe that's the thing that most impressed me: that he never wavered and seemed to get off-balance or intimidated by anything at all, always perfectly grounded. We have to get rid of this idea of how an enlightened being is supposed to be and act like. The reality is: who are we to judge? Are we enlightened? Are we awakened? Are we of a higher degree of intelligence and consciousness then the ones we are judging? Don't delude yourself in this! We can think that someone enlightened is supposed to be like Eckhart Tolle, being very peaceful, relaxed and soothing, and that someone who is in many ways quite opposite to the energy that someone like Eckhart Tolle embodies is completely deluded and full of lust for power and greed. but does that have to be so? Is the expression of an awakened being universally one of a soothing, calming human being? Is a awakened master not able to be provocative in nature? How would we know? You have the archetype of a gautama buddha, someone who is soothing and compassionate, and the archetype of a Bodhidarma, someone who is fierce and provocative. My guess is that both are simply playing their role in existence. You have those who have a primarly feminine expression of awakening, and those who have primarily masculine expression of awakening. In fact, my feeling is that if we didn't have the Osho's or Bodhidharma's, something would be missing. You have the ones who tempt and persuade you carefully to look in the mirror, being careful that not too much egoic reaction is provoked at once, and you have those who basically throw the mirror in your face. And to my understanding, that is exactly how it should be. And perhaps there are also expressions of awakened beings that are neither outspokenly feminine or masculine. And also, I don't think every awakened being has to be a teacher. I feel like you can also have awakened beings working as artists, or as management in companies, or as CEO's, or as farmers, or whatever have you. So this essay is meant to be an illustrations that you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover. What appears to be the case on the outside is not necessarily a representative of the quality of consciousness that drives the surface-expression. For someone who is unconscious, for someone who doesn't have an integrated and developed consciousness, is more apparent. Then what appears to be greedy behaviour is in fact most of the time an indication that this person has a lot of greed within. But with someone who is at a very elevated level of consciousness, things may be very different from what they appear to be. In that case, someone who appears to be longing for power may actually have completely selfless interests and only gets himself in a position in power as to selflessly serve humanity. So based on this, who do we choose to follow? What guru or teacher do we adhere to? Well, if we know that interpretations and ideas of what a teacher should be like can be entirely deceptive, the best thing we can do is to see if we can connect to a guru or teacher by opening ourselves up, by surrendering our resistance and simply allowing energy to flow. Then, instead of using mental guidelines as a basis to choose from whom to learn, we now become open to the direct transfer of silence itself without mind interfering it. Look for that: whether a silence, a stillness, an attentiveness starts arising in you. Do you feel more peaceful and connected when this person speaks? Does he or she radiate something that you can't really define what it is, but you can feel it's there? Search for a certain connection, not that this person can merely supply you with the right kind of knowledge; that would be my advice. But note: This connection starts with you dropping your ideas of whether or not it fits your conditioned idealogy. You have to work on yourself first to become available. You are the primary factor, not the teacher. Remember that. It is possible that the teacher can be very deluded, still deeply entrenched in maya, in illusion, and yet become awakened yourself simply by your capacity to surrender your resistance to him/her. So focus on dissolving your own resistance first and foremost. And if you can't find a teacher whom you will fall into silence with —whether you or the teacher is the primary factor— then simply seek out a teacher that doesn't bore you. Once again, this also depends on you as well.

The need for physical experiences is a dream. It is a nice dream, one can grow and expand from tasting the variety and abundance of human culture and the Earths natural environment, but from what place do you desire this? For myself I love the oneness I feel in meditation. Reality becomes soft and malleable, and I feel like I’m on a cloud. This peace is what I seek beyond any physical experience for I know that most of not all my desires right now are not rooted in oneness, which is why I meditate with such passion so to speak. I want my mind to be purified of all beleifs it has rooted in separation; so that the oneness of my higher self that I am can shine through my heart in every single moment without an obstacle my mind imposes. I want to be that free, powerful creator; to have but everything to embrace with love, and nothing left that I reject in myself. And I know in my heart, that surrendering down into my heart purifies, heals, and releases all ancestral lineages, all karmic ties, and any deep wounds in my being in the most soft, gentle, and accelerated way that I deserve. How can I live my life without thoughts? Is a common fear that arises when I am thoughtless. Yet it’s not thoughts that guide us, it is feelings. It is the higher self within the heart. It has always been that way, but the mind sometimes ignored this guidance, or thought that such guidance care from itself. The heart is the true master, much stronger in influencing even those with a strong ego than the ego itself. We can fall off track from the heart, and we start to feel something other than love, but never can we dwell too far, because the heart is more powerful than our egos. I trust my heart now to tell me through feelings when to eat, sleep, “do”, or be. If in doubt I meditate. Now my beloveds take this knowledge and put it into your life. Don’t read this for entertainment, don’t come here to serve your addiction for spiritual knowledge which I had too, and do the inner work. Focus on your heart, or your breathe, or the awareness as much as possible. Choose one, and stick with it until you awaken to the infinite within. All are equal in power, and all will lead to everlasting happiness. There is little more for me to write, just focus on either of those 3. I use my chest, the sensation of air filling my lungs, the feeling of it rising and falling, even the pulsing of my heart, and the energy of love in there, all which I focus on 24/7. Even when I dream now, I still gently focus on my heart! The heart is the beginning and the end of the spiritual path. It can take you to the highest dimensions of reality and beyond that. This love is more than infinite, because even the infinite will return to source. It is pure bliss. It IS. This world we live in dosen't matter. What you do dosen't matter. What you know dosen’t matter, or learn. Only your connection to your heart matters. The rest is fun and play, and can only be fun and play when connected to the heart. Therefore it is so simple, there is no confusion, or exception, or a “but wait, there’s more!”; it literally comes down to how connected you are to your heart through focusing on your heart, breathe or awareness; and perhaps expressing love, smiling, complimenting (although this is not necessary at all). There is no judgement, love from the ego if that’s the reality you want to create, or live from the heart. But ultimately, we will all return to our hearts, thst is the natural state. We just have amnesia, and are learning to focus within. In time we shall be awakened and be free from a false idea in sin. sayōnara.