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First of all, I'd like to say that I'm not replying on this to make you waste your time or to bug you in any sort of way. It's just that I think I have the opportunity to repay all the knowledge and aha moments your content have allowed me to get. The spiritual process is, like any other process, in constant evolution. I see spiritual practices as a sort of transcendental technology. Like any technology, it developed through history. Siddhartha gave us Vipassana. Later Buddhist Masters invented Transcendental Meditation, Metta, Goenka Body Scanning, Zen Koans, Strong Determination Sitting and so on. Advaitins tend to focus on Self Inquiry / Neti-Neti methods. Some types of Yoga work through God devotion (Bakthi Yoga), which is very similar to the Christian Mysticism way. There is Kryia Yoga, Kundalini practices, Pranayamas, Asanas, so on and so forth. Shamans discovered a long time ago the "plants technologies", as Terence McKenna liked to say: Marijuana, Ayahuasca, Psilocybe Cubensis, Peyote, LSD, the Toad, Salvia, Holotropic Breathwork - the list is never ending. Of course you know all of this - I am just trying to build up my argument, which is - spiritual practices are no different from material technology, they evolve through time. Some methods being more suitable for some people than others. The problem is that most of these methods are embedded in very dogmatic traditions (blue mythic-literal), which doesn't really allow their practitioners to see the big picture from a yellow integral perspective. For some reason (ego, I know, I know), the spiritual technologies didn't really evolve as much as material technology throughout history. My opinion being that we never reached a point where we could observe the big picture of it. We have internet, we have a lot of people transitioning from green to yellow! IMHO Jeffery's body of work is the perfect missing link between science and spirituality. This is mothafuckin' huge, folks. It's the first time someone is trying (and getting outstanding results) to have a systematic, non dogmatic, integral approach to reaching non-dual states, using modern material technology and "gold standard" spiritual technologies. He even managed to avoid the dark night of the soul in the process, by using positive psychology. To make things clear, I am not being paid to make any kind of propaganda here. Since you are curious to know the methods Jeffery is using, there is a Reddit thread about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/comments/62ev8b/community_the_finders_course_techniques_and/ From my research, it seems that Jeffery already tried to make the course available for free, but in that case, people would not apply enough discipline and could not effectively transition to any PNSE "location", as he classifies. Since that's the case, I felt it was ok to post this information here. Of course there is a chance for it to be just plain BS and Jeffery's course could be a total scam, but following my intuition and research about it, I tend to say this is 100% legit. It's a wonderful time to be alive, my friends. We should be celebrating!

"What am I?" is better. A who is a perspective. A what is a thing -- or no-thing. This is what Neti-Neti gets at. Not this, not that. What am I? Am I this feeling that I am a thing? No, because there are moments of Being where that feeling is absent. Am I this wacky, conceptual Mind? Well no, because there are moments where I experience no monkey-mind or thinking. If Being exists without something, then that something is not me. Stuff that can fall away and leave me be is not me. Get into a state of flow and watch all your distinctions vanish. Notice that you become uncentered too in a flow state -- your boundaries about where you start and end disapear (causing a feeling of expansion, a feeling of one-ness with everything). This is because you have arms-lengthed the Mind-Matrix. Most of the time the Mind-Matrix has you by the balls (or ovaries for women reading this). But get into a state of flow and just observe from that place. It will change your life as it did mine. Notice how much the Mind-Matrix interferes in Being when you settle-out of the natural state of flow -- where you start to want to look at reality as a duality instead of its natural non-duality. Flow gets you pointed in the right direction to see how much the Mind-Matrix rubricizes reality and augments reality. Instead of realizing these are overlays on top of Being, we believe they are Being itself. The Ego uses the Mind-Matrix to paste the illusion of duality over non-duality. When you are in a flow state ask -- what am I? Where am I? What is real? How does the Mind influence what is real by adding in beliefs to Being? How does the Mind carve up Being in arbitrary, human ways? Also ask, Is Being physical? What is physicality? You'll see that the Mind overlays physicality on top of Being. Start to look at reality as it is, not as the Mind is telling you that it is.

Okay this is simple as neti neti method of Leo, who are you , what are you... right? Those are questions you follow.. but what i am gonna share to you is more direct than that.. so of course you do meditation right? You observe those sensations.... thoughts... feelings.. right?? You are aware of you are conscious right?? .. so there are two things : If i gonna remove your hands, arms,eyes,stomach,ears,nose,fingers,body,brain,mind what is left?? Second, instead, ask your self who am i what am i.. direct it ask yourself if who are the one who see consciousness?? Who saw that you are conscious? Who saw that you are asking questions? Who saw the one you use to see and feel things.. who saw the one you percieve.. what is the one see the perciever... that's it if there is a thoughts come out.. ask who see that i see these thoughts...

Hey, Just last week I started to do self-inquiry, specifically the Neti Neti technique. One week on, and already I feel like quitting, because it's too much work. The reason I hate myself for this, is because I tried to start this habit exactly this time last year, and I quit one week after. I would like to know how I can motivate myself to successfully start this habit, and to keep it for the next several years. Any suggestions are appreciated.

@How to be wise Try doing Leo's self-observation. Whilst i'm sure it is an effective technique, Neti-neti can be a little too rigid at times. Also try cutting your session down to 20 minutes. 20 minutes is easily doable. The key is to get the habit in place. So you've gotta do it for long enough that sitting down just becomes part of your normal daily routine. Also very doable.

Why, sure you can! That's called self-inquiry! Check out Leo's video on the Neti Neti method. Additionally, you can contemplate on what the difference between someone else and yourself is.

If that conclusion works for you, I have no reason to convince you otherwise. You seem to really want to believe in conceptual claims, as do most of us. Your argument doesn't fly with me though. Enlightenment is really good at telling you what you are not, but it doesn't do much to tell you -- conceptually -- what you are, or anything else for that matter. And Neti-Neti certainly does not prove-up all the positive claims that are made about enlightenment. Most of the claims about enlightenment are simply scaffolding, designed to guide you and to be kicked-away at the right time. A big problem I see is that people want to treat the scaffolding like beliefs. This is a huge trap. All beliefs are existentially false. The problem is that nobody wants to remain silent to be the Truth, they want to cling to knowing the Truth conceptually. I hope you see this trap. I do, and I'm not claiming that I don't fall into it either. But I am mindful of it. Thought-stories are not the Truth, they're egoic fantasies. But you've heard this many times before, I'm sure. And if you've not been sold on this by now, I assume it doesn't work for you. And that's fine. I don't assume my role is to twist your arm into my way of thinking about the issue. That would be really arrogant of me. There is more than one way to skin a cat. What enlightenment does tell you positively it shows you, and what you conceptualize from what it shows you it ain't. Boy I hope this makes sense. It is really hard to talk about enlightenment or to write about it I am finding. This is why I like the idea that enlightenment is about BE-ing the Truth. It gets at what I see as the most accurate pointer to enlightenment. Just BE non-dual reality. That's it! Reality is the non-dual whole. As soon as you say anything about it you poo in the beautiful pool so to speak. Let the pool stay crystal clear and just enjoy it without modification. It doesn't need to be anything other than what it is, anything more than what it is. But our monkey-minds hunger for conceptual truth about non-dual reality like a heavy-person might pine for a doughnut. We have a powerful craving to know. We lick our chops to know like a dog with a bottom-less pit stomach eats until it barfs. We're addicted to conceptual knowing. For what it's worth, and I'm not assuming I am right and everybody else is wrong -- clinging to conceptual beliefs about non-dual reality can set you 100 miles apart from enlightenment. Enlightenment is pre-linguistic, a-linguistic, a-conceptual. Just BE what is. I don't know, maybe I am on the wrong track, but it feels so right to me. This is how I practice enlightenment. This doesn't moot conceptual thinking as to other matters, it just moots beliefs trying to capture non-dual reality. Enlightenment is like going through the gateless-gate. (I stole this last sentence from one of Leo's videos haha. It's good.) I'm at this point with my enlightenment where beliefs about enlightenment don't really count for much. The stories are fun to read and get me thinking about enlightenment, but BE-ing reality is where the rubber-meets-the-road for enlightenment to me. But I never would have arrived at this destination without a lot of scaffolding to guide me here. The journey is worth as much as the destination in enlightenment. But I have found that at some point you have to kick away the theory training-wheels and just be the damn Truth. It's so trivial it almost seems like a joke. This is why the journey to get here is so important. The ego will not drop need to believe until it sees the Truth and understands the futility of trying to conceptualize enlightenment, so you gotta go on the journey to see with your entire being why this is True. You gotta feel it in the marrow of your bones -- like damn! this is never gonna work! It's an epiphany that I think Self-Inquiry, in part, is trying to lead you to. But I am still open to talking about and thinking about all these issues. I don't wanna be a dogmatist myself. Beliefs don't count for much from an existential standpoint. But this statement must eat itself. Now you know why I say the statement must eat itself -- all thought-stories stand at cross-purposes to non-dual being. Like the difference between drawing a cat and petting a real cat. The real cat might tentatively sniff at your nifty drawing, but it would probably show no interest in it otherwise.

You apprehend what you are, by seeing what you're not (Neti-neti). In seeing what your not, you see its unreality/falseness, then you can "BE" what you are. Beliefs need not apply.

@Costa7 There is nothing to say about Neti Neti. You either do it, or you don't. It's like a mathematical proof. You must do it to see the truth. There is no trick to it. You just sit and do it for many many hours, very patiently. Do not expect quick results. You're gonna have to burn through a lot of beliefs, paradigms, and assumptions which you never even knew existed in you. All of it will come up as you just do the method. Psychedelics can help a lot in clearing out your false attachments. Them plus Neti Neti make for a powerful combo. My version of Self-Inquiry is very similar to Neti Neti. You cannot get a leg up on self-inquiry or Neti Neti by talking about it. Only by doing. The truth is, you don't wanna do it. Nobody wants to do it. Hence all the questions and blah, blah, blah...

Neti-neti is essentially mindfulness... There may be other descriptions on how to do it, but what worked for me is neti-neti, practiced as mindfulness in each and every moment, in spite of what I was doing... When you are mindful about your thoughts, emotions, feelings etc, as you watch them with awareness, you would often have to remind yourself that what you are observing is not you... Neti-neti, means rejecting everything that is observed as 'not this, not this' (not me, not me, in other words)... It is not that you have to mentally repeat that thought, but realize the truth of it. Sometimes when I got stuck at mindfulness, and deluding myself, I had to often make a discrimination between the witness and what was witnessed, and realize that what was witnessed was not me.. This is neti-neti. You keep rejecting every thought, feeling, sensation as not you which will actually reduce the thought waves in your mind. Finally it will help you narrow down to what is essentially you and remove the dual notion completely.

@Arkandeus What I tried to say is that the neti neti method is failing me. I found a thing that I could be and I cant disprove to myself like all the other stuff like senses that its not me. Im getting stuck thinking im this part of my brain, how do i get unstuck?

@Joseph Maynor Here is a very important point to understand why Buddha said there is no Atman. It is also from Shankara's commentary: "Objection : "Is not even Atman denoted by the word 'Atman' ? Reply: No. for there are Srutis like 'From which words fall back', 'That in which one sees nothing else'. Question: How then do texts like 'Atman alone is below ... .' and 'It is Atman' reveal Atman ? Reply: This is no fault. For, the word (Atman), primarily used in the world of differences to denote individual soul as distinct from the body it possesses, is extended to indicate the entity which remains after the rejection of body and other not-selfs as not deserving that appellation, and is used to reveal what is really inexpressible by words". - Shankara - Ch. Bh. 7-1-3, p. 542. ................................................. Buddha directly denied Atman as it is used by the people in the world (an individual soul existing in the body) . Upanishads extended the word Atman to mean the absolute (and changing the meaning of the word Atman).. Read the following Buddhist Sutta, it looks like the neti-neti method: "So, bhikkhus any kind of form whatever, whether past, future or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near, must with right understanding how it is, be regarded thus: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not myself.' "Any kind of feeling whatever... "Any kind of perception whatever... "Any kind of determination whatever... "Any kind of consciousness whatever, whether past, future or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near must, with right understanding how it is, be regarded thus: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not my self.'" - Anatta-lakkhana Sutta

Something strange was happening to me these last few days... I felt like the search was almost over. I have been searching for enlightenment these last few years. But over the last couple of days I felt like I was almost there. I felt it but I didn't believe it. I thought it was just my ego being stupid. But something kept me searching very intensely these last few days. I was looking for enlightened people on the internet. I found this this list: http://www.poehm.com/en/list-of-enlightened-people/ I was looking for video's of those people talking. Yesterday, all I was doing was watching video's and reading this book: https://www.amazon.com/Search-Talks-Ten-Bulls-Zen/dp/3893381163 I was watching video's of Sadhguru, Tolle, Mooji, Gangaji, Cairns, Leo and others. Then my mind became 100% quiet while watching this video: Then I watched this one: And then, at the end, I got it. What I was looking for was already there. It has been my entire life. I went back to the book, and I found out there were only a few pages left. Before, the words kinda made sense to me, but now, I got it all. It was like reading a book about how to drive a car, while already having a drivers license. When I listen to any enlightened person now, I feel like I truly understand everything their saying now. Over a year ago, I also got it, but it lasted only about half a second, while watching Leo's video about the Neti Neti Method: But now, it's still there. All the time. My mind is quiet. All the time. It's like i'm meditating all day long. It's marvelous. The mind still creates thoughts and feelings, but they are so small compared to the presence of my true self... One could say that I am now enlightened, but it feels so silly to say that, because the truth is so ridiculously simple. It's like all my life all I did was look around, and never look up. And then suddenly I notice the sky is there. "Ohhh! The sky! I wasn't looking up to see the sky! Hey guys! I'm enlightened now! Because I can see the sky!" It would feel like that. Now I also understand why words cannot describe it. My best definition would be: It is that, which cannot be found, because it's already there. That's it! My whole life feels upside down now. I was trying to grow my business, but it seems so silly now. I was meditating every day for half an hour and doing self-inquiry. But now I know who I am! And i'm in a meditative state all the time! Time will tell, all I know is that everything is going to be very different from now on. If anyone wants to know more feel free to ask.

@kieranperez Watch every video Leo did with enlightenment or enlightened in the title. And watch the Neti Neti video. There's like 10 videos you gotta watch. And do the exercises as Leo guides you in the videos. This will give you some solid context. Also watch Leo's video on Contemplation. That one is right up your alley.

How'dy! Self-Confidence Nothing to add here. Meditation I have been doing affirmations. I feel they are fortifying all my self-development skills. I repeat each affirmation 10x. 30 minutes sessions. Awesome! Work Had a new student today, and he thought the price of my class was the double of what it actually is. I almost let it be, but I told him the truth. Hehe. Dude. It was hard. I kind of regretted later, but I know that I'd overthink this either way. Comfort Zone Challenges I got a new student today who seemed very stressed out from work, really overwhelmed. So it was a challenge to tell him about the 1 minute of silence that I like to do before each class. Eating I love what a friend told me about feeling like you're pregnant due to overeating. I feel like that sometimes. Been eating quite a lot. White bread, lots of peanut butter (it's natural, but I add some cacao and brown sugar), and lots and lots of papaya. Random Thoughts I feel relaxed. I have noticed that an addiction I have is holding tension in my body. So I have put on a rubberband around my wrist to remind myself to relax my jaw, drop my shoulders, and stick out my belly. To-do: > Neti-neti > Vipassana retreat (it's for free!) > Prepare each language class with care

Instead of theorizing about how long it is going to take, which is basically the first error because it probably not attained through the accumulation of time but rather the dissolving of it, simply sit down and take the first step by doing the guided Neti Neti. Then see what happens and move further from that place.

1 - Learning and improving your skill set is part of generating a sharper mind through physical changes in your brain There is no reason to create a separation between the two. One is part of the other. 2 - “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” Basically every single problem you have ever faced has already been faced by another version of you in a previous lifetime. Books are a Time Machine that transport you into the mind of a wiser, more accomplished version of you. Books are also like sitting down with a mentor who has taken the time to choose his words as wisely as possible so that you grasp insights that took him years to reach. Most importantly, Books are like a cheat sheet for life. You can bullshit around trying to reinvent the wheel ... Or you can just read how another version of you did it and then adapt they solution to your problems. I could try to come up with the neti-neti method all on my own after years of meditation and then begin practicing it. Or I could read about the Neti-Neti Method and practice it years earlier because it only took a day to read about it. So lets say reading wasn't going to make some "physical change" to your ability to think: the lessons reading gives you would make you "sharper" in that you would solve life's problems faster than a version of you who didn't read. Because again, you already know the answers to the problems you're solving since you read the answer in book somewhere. 2 - Books are a form of meditation thus they sharpen your mind Let go of the idea of meditation as something you only do sitting with your eyes closed and legs crossed. Anything that exercises your ability to concentrate + contemplate counts as a form of meditation. And if you didn't guess it by now, books require a ton of concentration and they raise your ability to contemplate by giving you new perspectives. More specifically, reading can be seen as a form of mindfulness meditation. Instead of watching your breath, trailing off, realizing and going back to the breath, you read a book, trail off to consider what the book is talking about, and go back to reading the book. Seriously, just do strong determination sitting while reading and you will see just how difficult it actually is. I have added this to my daily regimen and it's done wonders for me. So yes reading in and of itself gives you a sharper mind because meditation gives you a sharper mind. Overall, stop looking for excuses to not read. You should be reading far far more than you currently do.

One thing that I am still strongly identified with is my self image. Its this dark, amorphous, subtly changing image of my physical self. My contour, my face, my head. It's always shadowy but there and it's as though it has a hook in my awareness. Even questions like 'who am I?' seem to unfold on top of it.. There is so much resistance. I did Leo's guided neti neti method and found myself grasping for some experience. Some massive bliss and relief.. of course that did not happen and I was left with anger and frustration and that stuck to me like glue....

I always forget how powerful the neti neti meditation is for me. I wasn't this deep for a long time. If I would have been more concentrated it could have been even deeper. There was almost just no self. I am nothing! "Everyone is a mirror image of yourself - your own thinking coming back at you." - Byron Katie My mother is truly a beautiful woman when I think of her this way. My father is truly a beautiful man when I think of him this way. When you think bad things about others, bad thoughts and emotions come back to you. When you think beautiful things of others, beautiful thoughts and emotions come back to you. Why isn't this common knowledge? It's so supidly simple. "Violence teaches only violence. Stress teaches stress. And peace teaches peace." - Byron Katie Its good to do no programming for some days. On Sunday I was away, on Tuesday I was away, today I was away, and tomorrow I will be away. So much stuff But in the back of my head I think often that I am so unproductive. Friday I will finally again have a relatively normal day.

I liked neti, neti for that.

So please remember: it's not about tolerating. And by the way: the Neti-Neti method has helped me BIG TIME with my emotions.

I thought about the question "Who am I?" and did the Neti Neti guided meditation by Leo with great effect. I thought I knew the answer, but knowing that enlightment isn't rational knowing, I started my first session of self-inquiry. My thought process in a nutshell: I very quickly scanned through the body and with the knowledge of if my body parts were changed piece by piece I would be still me (sort of a Ship of Theseus story), I realized that I am not the body, with the exeption of my brain which has to have the same neuron connections as "my old" brain. With a very similar process of thinking I discovered that I am not "my" experiences. I found one experience which I couldn't say I would exist without: my birth. Here I wasted around 5 minutes thinking that this birth experience I am looking for is the one when I experienced the "real world" for the first time. I realized that the moment I am looking for is when I started experiencing life in my mother's womb. What can I pinpoint? - I asked myself. I am not the human being - this thing could experience life in a body of a turtle, any time, any place, so I am not linked to time and place. I am not the first sound - I would be still alive without it. I am not the "touch" - I could exist without it. This is where I started becoming frustated. What is it that makes me me? I believed the answer before: consciousness, awereness, or presence. The breakthrough was this question: If there is nothing sensory to experience, what would I be? "I created" a term for it: ability to experience. Again, I believed what Mooji said: "You are awereness without the concept of awereness". I asked myself the question: Would the "ability to experience" exist without the concept of it? "My" answer was a definite yes. Here is where I am stuck. Thoughts can only work in concepts. Without a concept, I couldn't know myself. I am looking for an experience with which I can "shut off" my mind and become one with the experience itself, so there is only the "ability to experience", which I can only think is the true I, remains. Did I fuck up? What should I do next? Namaste: Torkys

Can you state exactly the technique you're using please? I understand "leo's technique" to mean his neti-neti guided method (which I have on mp3), but not sure Im right. And do you close your eyes? thanks

feel free to develop and use these basic ideas as you please yell at me if I'm crazy, too. first is - like the neti neti method, the not this not that - but instead, "and what?" - hold something in your mind, some thought or some sensation or whatever, and say "and what" to ask your self, "sure that is This, but what else is also This?" The second is - "what duality?" where - oh, it's self explanatory. Just try asking yourself "what duality?" - it's fun like, wait, what duality? there is no duality! be careful, meditation may lead to confusion. wait - what duality?

Neti Neti is a Sanskrit expression which means "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that" "Who am I?" is not really a question because it has no answer to it; it is unanswerable. It is a device, not a question. It is used as a mantra. When you constantly inquire inside: "Who am I? Who am I?" you are not waiting for an answer. Your mind will supply many answers; all those answers have to be rejected. Your mind will say: "You are the essence of life. You are the eternal soul. You are divine," and so on and so forth. All those answers have to be rejected:neti neti -- one has to go on saying: "Neither this nor that." When you have denied all the possible answers that the mind can supply and devise, when the question remains absolutely unanswerable, a miracle happens: suddenly the question also disappears. When all the answers have been rejected, the question has no props, no supports inside to stand on any more. It simply flops, it collapses, it disappears. When the question also has disappeared, then you know. But that knowing is not an answer: it is an existential experience. Nothing can be said about it, or whatever will be said will be wrong. To say anything about it is to falsify it. It is the ultimate mystery, inexpressible, indefinable. No word is adequate enough to describe it.