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I think I have always been depressed. Or maybe I wasn't depressed when I was a kid, but I don't remember much from my childhood. Easy for you to say that it's not important to have any social life whatsoever, since you have a huge social life. It pisses me off a bit when people who have a big social life say "you don't need a social life". We are social animals, I think loneliness is the biggest contributing factor to depression, and loneliness is also bad for the physical health. Studies have been made about this. Anyone who would be in my shoes would be depressed. I can guarantee that. Actually probably most people would've committed suicide.

This. Really this. This is what I'm looking for. Further demonizing of selfishness will do me no favor because I have already demonized selfishness within me. @dflores321 Yea I understand that asking any question at the end of the day will be considered selfish. But can you please look at this from another helpful perspective rather than a dogmatic one ? Maybe I'm not asking out of selfishness. Maybe I feel trapped. Maybe I'm asking out of the need for liberation. It is just survival. Yes. Survival is selfish But making it look like something wrong is further creating more shadows within me where shadows against selfishness already exist Because of these shadows I'm giving into self abandonment to the point of suicide. Do you realize how dangerous this can be ? So finger pointing at me is no favor. I want to be liberated from my chains of a trapped root chakra like the above user said. Yes there is a huge blockage in the root chakra. I'm largely focused heavily on Spirituality and the crown chakra. This has pushed me away from lower chakras and thrown me off balance. Now I'm looking back at creating this balance so I don't turn into some kind of a suicide poet. Your answer is totally useless. Sorry if that offends you but you do me no favor. Just telling you straight.

Is this some sort of deception, the goosebumps, just sort of swimming around is this cold intoxicating, revitalizing but relaxing lake of inspiration? Am I fooling myself? It takes intelligence to fool someone knowingly, and it takes even greater intelligence to be the one who is fooled. Where does this stuff come from? Intelligence eats itself up. Identification eats itself up, it kills itself. All death is suicide. All birth is... What are you doing? You can't dispel me. You can't misspell be. That was supposed to be me. I misspelled. Something feels off, something feels so deep, so real, and yet I feel bothered by it. It feels indigestible, it seems as if I must avoid it. And the only avoidance of feeling is through though, a thought of what that feeling must be. I don't want Nissargadatta to be right and Osho to be right too. These teachers are eating themselves up like a snake eating its own tail. They're both dead. So am I. Oh you're so fucking dramatic. It's all write.

I don't find Leo's video on death making sense to me. If I commit suicide, or die of old age is the outcome of death any different? Does God judge you by the nature of your Death? When you die do you get to choose what happens next?

nothing is wrong with suicide - something is wrong with society.

It's been 1 year since I attempted suicide...my spiritual journey started with you Leo. Most of the things I've learnt is from you. I took you as my teacher...I think you know about me and we share a connection..I think you've also talked about me in your videos.... It's after awakening of my kundalini things started to go bad, I started hearing things.. doctors said I had schizophrenia...I started seeing things like once while meditating seeing a human shape coming out on the wall which seemed like my own consciousness....things went to hell,the negativity,my mental health and my spiritual journey was at its peak....now it's been a year and my right hand is severely injured,I can't hold things...I know I was ignorant and this incident taught me a lot, I'm changed but it still shouldn't have happened...are you aware of it,are you concious of any of it? If you are let me know because I have to figure it out and I have to know...

Nope. What Eckhart Tolle says isn't automatically true. Try to end suffering by accepting being tortured, not gonna work, no matter how fancy "suffering stops when you accept the situation" sounds. In reality it doesn't work. And btw, there's also a 2nd choice left: leave the situation (suicide). Which I nowdays think about quite a lot. But I don't want to kill myself because it would cause immense suffering to my parents.

Holy shit life is too short don't waste it like that. You are worrying about the amount of likes???? Oh man! Get out now that you can, this can lead to depression and suicide.

I live in Helsinki, and a few weeks ago I went on vacation to another country. During my trip, I turned on dating apps and finally got a match. I said to her that I'm staying in their city for just a few days and we can have a one-night-stand. We grabbed a drink and she came to my home. Even though it was my first sex, it went really well! (I'm 24 and migrated here around 6 months ago). The next day, she texted me and said she enjoyed last night. We slept again that night. After that, I had to return. We've been in contact since then. The problem is that the experience of having sex and being emotionally connected to a beautiful girl was so great to me to the point that I can't stop thinking about her. I feel so down now cuz I can't kiss her again. it was an uncommon experience for me. I believe that in the near future I won't have the chance to meet another wonderful girl that we can go along with each other and have sex so quickly. Now I'm in a state of grief. I feel depressed and life seems meaningless. Spending time with my friends, doing sports activities and talking to my therapist didn't help much. Why is life hard? I'm thinking about suicide here and there as a way to avoid all of the difficulties in life. I know the rational thing to do is to move on, talk to other girls, and find a more wonderful girlfriend. But I'm hopeless and don't have enough energy to even get out of my bed in the morning.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-jeff-foster-recover-from-chronic-lyme-disease Jeff Foster is an American spiritual teacher and is suffering from chronic lyme disease, he is unable to work, so if you can spare a donation, share the page, or send him a message of support and well wishes. The infection reached his brain and he's posting suicidal messages on facebook and instagram, (lyme disease sufferers are more likely to commit suicide than the average population) You can learn more about Jeff's beliefs and story in this interview at 51:11

@rnd I'm also quite cautious about the covid vaxx, check my profile for the thread commenting on Leo's "Social Matrix" video. It's a thread that has been locked by Leo and it seems like an anti-vaxx perspective. Overall though, I'm in a non-biased, neutral position and I like looking at both sides of the coin. Currently I'm not vaccinated. I keep hearing this from the anti-covid vaxxers. I get it, it makes people cautious because they keep pushing it on the news. But from a non-biased point of view, it doesn't really make any sense to me why. They push it because we're in a pandemic and they need everyone to take it to achieve herd-immunity? From the anti-vaxx perspective it seems like they believe they only push it because they're desperate for money and they want to bring forth the New World Order and control the population with 5G or some shit. Sort of seems like some deception going on here.. I'm open to both sides though of course. I definitely agree with the argument that the covid virus only has a 2% mortality rate and so with that information it doesn't seem like its worth the potential side effects of the vaccine. But the pro-vaxxer's argument is that this virus could mutate into a more dangerous variant if many decide to go unvaccinated. Basically the current vaccine is meant to build immunity against the current, less deadly form of the virus so that it dies off and doesn't mutate. If many are left unvaccinated then more deadly mutations would lead to us needing a stronger vaxx? I definitely question this too but, millions have taken the vaccine already and it seems like only a couple thousand had died or had some adverse effects because of the vaxx. But I'd say its because they need to achieve the herd-immunity? Why report or fearmonger the people about rare side-effects? That would only cause more vaccine hesitancy and push their goal of herd-immunity further away. I hear this one a lot too. People say things like suicide or smoking causes more deaths but suicide and smoking isn't on the news. To me its like, um.. Suicide isn't a virus that transmissible among humans. I think its more about how easily and how highly transmissible the virus is. Covid could be spread through a single cough, but other diseases are harder to spread. Like HIV only spreads from blood to blood contact.

@Preety_India I understand what you're saying. I took this "survival vs. spirituality/love" mind-story to a very dark place, psychosis, and almost killed myself. Basically... To the extend I understand it, you cannot "not survive". Even the fact that you judge yourself about your selfishness and survival IS survival and selfishness, only in a very deceptive manner. The "you", the very identity and the "decision maker" you think you are is the one surviving. There is no "a you" to transcend or let go survival. Even to try doing that would be survival. Remember, survival is not just about the physical body, but also mind-stuff, identity. For example, think of those Islamist suicide bombers. They physically kill themselves in the name of their muslim identity. The "you" cannot transcend survival. There is no-one that does that. There is nothing the story-character can or has to do in order to trancend itself, because it is the one that is being transcended. The You simply remembers that it's watching the story unfold, and that it is the story itself. This is the actual no-self. Not the selfless story character you think you are or should be.

(Something to keep in mind, this video came out in April 2015. In Leo's blog on Dec 2017 he wrote: “I was wrong about some of my earliest characterizations of enlightenment as the ultimate fix for unhappiness and all your psychological neuroses. That is a half-truth. In reality, enlightenment, strictly-speaking, will not fix all your neuroses. Although it is usually a big leap in the right direction.”) ? 199. Summary: Enlightenment FAQ - Part 2 This is the second part to Enlightenment FAQ - Part 1. Summary is here. 1) “What are the benefits of enlightenment?” -Breaking free from your mental prison. You stop being a slave to your thoughts and to your emotions and you get a deep, meaningful tranquility in your life, which is something you’ve been searching for your whole life without realizing it. You can experience tranquility, regardless of external circumstances (breakups, getting fired, losing loved ones, poverty, rejection, etc.) How cool would it be if you could keep your cool throughout that without getting crazy agitated? -A deeper understanding of reality and truth. Understanding how your consciousness works is the key that unlocks it all. -You’ll still have moments of sadness, loneliness, frustration, anger and annoyance. However, your relationship to these emotions changes completely. These upsetting emotions no longer become a source of suffering. They just become another experience, not really any worse or any better that any other experience. That’s freedom. -Relief from your self-image problems, like shyness, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, worrying about how you look, trying to live up to certain people’s expectations. You get rid of that by getting rid of the self. -There’s a whole video that answers this question. (ep: Benefits Of Enlightenment.) Summary is here. 2) ”Does this mean I’ll have complete control over my emotions once I’m enlightened?” -The truth here is there’s no self. There is no you. So, who’s going to have complete control over his or her emotions? Nobody. If you think that's going to happen, here's some bad news: you have zero control over your emotions because you do not exist. Paradoxically and counter-intuitively, once you surrender yourself to this fact, you get complete peace and calm with your emotions. You get pseudo-control, you get the appearance of control. It’s as though you have total control but, in fact, you have zero control. -The biggest reason you need control is you’re a slave to your emotions. Once you realize that there is no “you” who’s experiencing emotions and no “you” to control emotions, you get calm and cool with whatever emotion is happening. -Enlightenment doesn’t make you emotionless. There will be plenty of emotions, but your relationship to them will change completely. So, you will appear to have complete control over your emotions or a lot more control than the average person. -The reason other people suffer from emotions is because they believe there’s a “them” inside who’s being threatened by the external world. Once that notion is removed, life flows very, very smoothly. 3) “Why pursue enlightenment? What if I’m already happy in my life?” -Well, another bitter pill for you to swallow is, you’re not actually happy. You’re lying to yourself and saying you’re happy, but you’re not. -Currently, your happiness is contingent upon external circumstances. So, even if you’re happy right now, in this moment — maybe your career, relationship and fitness are going great. If we remove any of that, you’re going to be very, very miserable. So, your happiness is extremely contingent. You got to be very careful about saying that you’re “happy.” -It’s not possible to be truly happy without being enlightened. So, unless you’re enlightened, you can’t be happy. It’s psychologically impossible. Why? Because there's a falsehood that you’re living. You’re telling yourself you exist when, in fact, you don’t. -That’s reflected in your entire life. You’ve never been able to have consistent, true happiness. What you’ve had is this rollercoaster ride, because external circumstances change all the time. -Well, you’re happy right now, if we take one snapshot, but how happy are you going to be five minutes later? You’re not going to be very happy. That’s basically your current condition in life. 4) “But, Leo, why don’t I just earn millions of dollars and wait until everything is perfect? Won’t that sort everything out?” -That’s a delusion. Even if you get so much money and power that you’re “untouchable,” you’re still going to face disease, loneliness and death. In the end, your life is going to end in misery, no matter how happy you think you are right now. So, really, you’re not happy. -Even if you have a great relationship, career and great health, on a minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour basis, your mind is driving you nuts. You’re having insane thoughts. You’re sabotaging yourself, you’re getting angry, you’re jealous, you’re fearful. -It’s not possible for you to be happy because you actually believe if you lose these things you will be unhappy. You have a false paradigm in place. You must get aware of how your mind tricks you into a false sense of happiness. -Part of enlightenment work is to realize you’re lying to yourself all the time about how well this egoic paradigm is working for you. The ego keeps telling you it’s working and you should continue using this paradigm. If you look carefully, you can see this paradigm is rotten. It’s not working, if you’re very honest. 5) “Should I stop pursuing goals in my career, relationships, fitness and health and with my hobbies?” -Becoming enlightened doesn’t mean you no longer have any relationships, or hobbies, or an exercise routine. Enlightenment is an inner knowing and a realization, it’s not any lifestyle per se and it’s not any particular external situation. If you really, authentically want a relationship, be in a relationship. If you authentically want good health, go get good health. If you want to live in your house and be able to pay your electricity bill, then you should probably have a job. If you enjoy some particular hobby, like playing basketball on the weekend, or you like sailing or surfing or whatever, those are probably fine hobbies. -The problem is that a lot of people have egoic goals. You’re pursuing these goals because you think they will make you truly happy. So you’re like an addict. You’re a career addict, a relationship addict, a health & fitness addict, and you think that that’s going to be your salvation. Those are the wrong reasons, so you should probably stop. Why? Because they are not going to make you happy and they are an opportunity cost. They are taking time away from your ability to do inner mental development and find what would truly make you happy. -Everyone will have to judge for themselves which goals are authentic and which are not. This is a very tricky process. You don’t really know! eg: You might tell yourself that going to the gym is an authentic goal of yours, but you might discover the only reason you’re going is to uphold a self-image as a hot ripped dude. Authentically, if you weren’t trying to uphold that self-image you probably wouldn’t need to go to the gym as much. 6) “Isn’t enlightenment dangerous? Couldn’t it be eroding the foundations of a happy, healthy, normal life?” -The only danger, really, is the current egoic paradigm that you’re living under. All the evils in the world don’t come from enlightened people, they come from selfish people. If you think you can be above the egoic paradigm while still living from the egoic paradigm, you’re kidding yourself. If you think you’re not capable of evil (crime, theft, rape, murder, genocide, bigotry, racism, getting angry at people, and violence of all sorts), it’s only because you’re sitting in a cushy position in life where you’re not being threatened. -You would commit all those evils under the right circumstances. As soon as your ego is threatened sufficiently, you will resort to all those evils. Why? Because, fundamentally, you think you exist and that you need to be protected and defended. How do we overcome this? By removing the notion that you exist. In fact, there’s nothing that needs defending. -This can seem dangerous and threatening to talk about because it goes against a lot of your worldviews and cultural assumptions. It can seem like a negative process. Destroying the mental concepts in your mind can feel like you’re eroding the moral fabric of your being, that it’ll lead to nihilism, insanity or make you anti-social. (clip: Nihilism and Confusion [9 mins]. ep: Nihilism) In fact, all those bad things are just the ego paradigm run amok. That’s who you presently are, but you’re just masking it. The enlightenment paradigm frees you up from all that. This makes you the least dangerous person to yourself, to society and to everyone around you. When you have nothing to defend and protect, you have no need to go out and hurt people, or commit suicide or do anything dangerous. -Insane people, criminals and serial killers have monkey chatter in their mind all the time. This is the exact opposite of enlightenment. Enlightenment is the silencing of the monkey chatter. When you’re perfectly calm, present and happy in the moment, who are you going to bother? What’s the danger? You can easily discover this in meditation. When you’re meditating and very focused, you’re in a totally peaceful, innocent, innocuous state. It’s the ego that tells you this is dangerous. It’s how the ego defends itself. This is a defense mechanism. Watch out for that trap. 7) Is Enlightenment really for everyone? Isn’t it only for a very small segment of the population? -No! Enlightenment is one of the most universal things that people ought to pursue. Things like marriage, kids, a six-figure income, scuba-diving, marmite, cheese and mayo on fries, a Chris Evans film festival, are all particular things that some people might like and some might not. If you want to live to your full potential, if you want to be happy and peaceful, if you want to experience the truth of your being on a profound level, then this is for you. This is not just for monks or hard-core self-help junkies. -Leo feels very comfortable saying: You should become enlightened. No matter who you are, no matter what culture, location, religion, scientific background, age, income, family situation you come from. Why? Because this is one of the most fundamental truths of your existence — understanding your true nature. Your true nature is not what you’ve been told by society. It’s not this entity, this body or this mind. Your true nature is, actually, nothingness, but you need to discover this. Anyone with normal mental health can discover this. If everyone discovered this, society would be completely transformed. It would be the biggest shift that human civilization could experience, bigger than anything we have invented. -This would be more powerful because it would change the whole world’s orientation towards life. This would give you the happiness and peace that you really, really want. So, this is not for radical people. -One thing you can find universally, across all cultures and peoples, is that they have monkey chatter and drive themselves crazy with it. They have emotional, neurotic problems and can’t be happy. Because happiness is the objective of life, this is for everyone. The only reason you do anything, that anyone does anything, is they believe it will make them happy. The problem is that most people do things that will not make them happy, but they don’t realize it yet and they don’t want to admit this fact. 8) ”Won’t spirituality make me a tree-hugging, hippie slacker? How do I stay on the right track and avoid bongo drumming, singing Kumbaya and smelling like patchouli oil?” -This is a stereotype. In fact, hippie tree-huggers are not enlightened. Slackers are not enlightened. Leo’s doesn’t identify as a hippie, New Age thinker. He doesn’t like that sub-culture. He’s not a slacker. He’s very productive and wants to achieve stuff in his life. If you actually go and meet a real, enlightened person, you’ll see that they are not a tree-hugging hippie slacker. These people are productive when they want to be. This hippie sub-culture seems spiritual, but it’s actually a false spirituality. They live their lives incongruently. It’s one of the things Leo doesn’t like about hippies. -If a hippie was really living congruently, they would become enlightened and then counter-intuitively, they would drop a lot of their hippie ways. Hippies are reacting against a certain element of society, and this creates another element, a philosophy, a mind-set, belief systems, and a world-view. Enlightenment is about wiping that slate clean, emptying yourself of those cultural reactions and world-views. It’s just a calm, peaceful neutral. So, don’t worry about becoming a hippie slacker. 9) “I enjoy my vices (sex, alcohol, drugs, food). Sometimes I like to combine them in unique and interesting ways. I also enjoy my career. If I have to give that up why would I want to become enlightened?” -Enlightenment is not a particular lifestyle. It’s an understanding, a realization. Vices aren’t in and of themselves wrong, bad, evil, or even anti-spiritual. They’re not compatible with enlightenment. In fact your sex will become more amazing after enlightenment, if you choose to have it. You’ll appreciate alcohol, drugs and food more. You’re also less likely to get addicted to them. Why? Because you’re able to stay focused and in the moment, and you’re able to get rid of the monkey-chatter. You can perform amazingly well at work, because you no longer worry, doubt or have to protect your ego. You won’t need to look after your self image or be fearful about money. You could just focus on doing great work and be more creative too. So, none of these things need to be given up. -Enlightenment unhooks you from needing these things. So, if you do these things you’ll do it consciously, deliberately, because you want to. Your capacity to appreciate it will be much more expanded than it ever was in the past. Right now, you’re a drug addict. You’re probably going to give up addictions if you become enlightened because you’ll feel less pain all around. -So, you don’t really need to give up sex, good food, money or a great career. Although, Leo doesn’t recommend alcohol and non-psychedelic drugs because they aren’t healthy. 10) “My vices are immoral (sex, alcohol and drugs). Isn’t making money bad and evil too? If I become spiritually enlightened will I have to stop these activities? -Why are you so attached to engaging in these activities? It’s probably for egoic reasons. Even if you think these things are evil, you still probably have a hidden urge to do them. Maybe you guilt yourself for having sex, drugs, or cheating people out of money. The fact is that none of these vices are bad in and of themselves. In fact, this is a really blanket, outrageous statement, but…there’s nothing wrong with any action that you choose to do at all. The question is: why are you doing it? What’s the motivation behind it? It’s always about the motivation. -When you get the motivation right, when you remove the ego and act selflessly, without addiction and clinginess, then you can engage in these things and they will be of value in your life. They won’t have all the negative repercussions that these things generally have. -You can use drugs and alcohol in moderation after enlightenment. You can have amazing, enlightened sex and lots of money if you feel that’s something worth doing. So, don’t worry about losing that stuff, you just won’t cling to it. 11) ”I’ve already had an enlightenment experience using drugs or meditation. Isn’t that enough (mushrooms, DMT, meditation retreats, etc)? That’s the truth of no-self, right?” -Enlightenment is tricky. When you start on this journey you get little moments of enlightenment. Like on a very cloudy day, and the sun starts beaming. All of a sudden, the clouds open up and there’s little beam of light breaking through. But then, quickly, the clouds come back and close up and the light beam goes away. You’ll have mini, brief, tiny moments of no-self, maybe for five seconds here, for a whole hour here, maybe for a whole day, but you’re not going to be able to hold on to them. It’s frustrating. -This is like an expansion of consciousness. Your consciousness dilates like the lens on a camera, it zooms in and out. When the lens dilates up, you get this expansion, but then it closes back down and falls into its default state. So, what I’m really interested in here is not in a temporary expansion of your consciousness. I’m more interested in the permanent removing of the clouds. What I really mean when I say “enlightenment” is: the clouds are completely gone and you’ve just got light shinning all the time. You’re not trying, or holding on or struggling to make it work. You don’t even have to meditate anymore. You’re permanently enlightened. This is possible. This is a real state. Thousands of people have achieved this state, so it can be done. Any normal human being, as far as we know, can do it with enough work, but it takes quite a bit of work. A thousand hours of work is a ballpark figure. -Generally speaking, a drug will never give you permanent enlightenment. I don’t really know of any people who have become permanently enlightened off drugs. It can only give you a couple hours of enlightenment-like experience. -Meditation is more helpful. I recommend you start doing a lot of meditation. If you’re starting to experience enlightenment-like experiences with meditation, that’s great — but don’t just stop because you think you’ve “made it.” You haven’t made it yet. Keep meditating until you get the real, permanent deal. -Don’t assume that because you’ve had a little experience with drugs, you know what enlightenment will be like. In the end, enlightenment will probably turn out very different than you expect it to. 12) “What about my friends and family? Will I stop caring about them after enlightenment because I’m so detached from everything?” -It depends. A lot of people have very dysfunctional families and friends. So, if you’re hanging around in a gang or some horrible friends and you become enlightened, you’ll probably abandon those friends. They weren’t very healthy and now you don’t have much in common. -There’s nothing inherently wrong with family or with friends. If you have a good family and friends who bring you authentic joy, you’ll probably keep them. In fact, your relationships with them will improve. -You keep dysfunctional relationships because you have buttons that those people push. Your ego is involved in those relationships. When you take the ego out, it’s not going to bother you anymore. You’ll be capable of having compassion for them. You won’t need to be mean to them. -Also, if you’re in a romantic relationship with someone, enlightenment will make you independent of that relationship. So, if the relationship serves you, you will stay. If the relationship stops serving you, or becomes toxic, won’t have any hesitation walking away. That is what neediness does — it produces a toxic attachment. Having healthy boundaries doesn’t make you a monster or a bitch. -Living with toxic attachments is very unhealthy. Cutting them out is a good thing, not a bad thing. In general, your friendships and relationships with the right people will be significantly amplified and improved with enlightenment. 13) “How does love play into all this?” -What you call love right now, is not true love. It’s egoic love. That’s another bitter pill to swallow. You don’t really have an experience of true love. What you call love now, even in your most sacred relationships, is still egoic love. You love those people, but only on your terms. It’s a selfish love that serves you in some sneaky, underhanded way that you don’t like to admit. You try to change them, manipulate them in subtle ways, to make sure you’re getting the love you want. -If you want real, true love, all you have to do is break down the ego. Without the ego, you can love everything as much as you, right now, love yourself. Imagine how kind you would be to your family, friends, partner, and even people in general if you honestly believed that your body was not separate from their body. That you and them are literally one and the same. That’s the true meaning of the Golden rule. The Golden rule says: do onto others as you would do onto yourself. You can’t do that when you actually believe that you are here and everyone is separate and out there. If you really care about true love, you should definitely want to become enlightened. -You can only live the Golden rule when you truly believe there’s no separation between you and everything. So, you’re kind, compassionate, and loving towards everything. You’re here, there and everywhere, so you treat everything as though it’s you, which enlightenment shows to be true. That’s what real love is. Almost no one knows this practically because of their unenlightened state. 14) “Doing regular personal development has filled me with doubt. It’s created a lot of confusion about my life, my ambitions, my relationships and my business.” -In a sense, that’s exactly what we’re doing here. Because enlightenment is not about building up more of your ego, it’s about cutting out the ego. And this is going to feel scary, threatening and emotionally disturbing. It’s not going to be pleasant. That’s why so few people are enlightened. -Your mind wants clarity and certainty at all times. Your mind hates being confused and doubting itself. You need to get comfortable with uncertainty, because enlightenment is not ultimate certainty. It’s actually getting comfortable with ultimate uncertainty. It’s about realizing that there’s nothing to cling to and that there is no truth. The truth of no truth. Again, very paradoxical and fascinating how this works. -The problem with most people is that they are too certain and too afraid of getting confused once in a while. They’re also too afraid of questioning their world-view. If you’re doubting yourself, good. Stop trying to be certain all the time. This is what an intelligent, open-minded, intellectually honest human beings do- purposefully put themselves into situations where they doubts themselves. This is healthy, this is building you up, not tearing you down. 15) “Isn’t it better to hold off on this enlightenment until I’m older (50s, 60s) or retired? Isn’t it better to spend the first half of my life partying, running a business and traveling the world?” -No! Your ego’s procrastinating! The longer you put it off, the more suffering you will have in your life. Why would you delay happiness? You’re asking, “wouldn’t it be better to spend the next twenty years suffering and then finally be happy when I retire?” -In fact, many people who become enlightened report that it’s the most positive experience they’ve ever had. They wish they’d had it earlier in their life. -Some people become enlightened in their forties and their fifties, but then they have very bad experiences in their twenties and thirties, because they are just emotionally all over the place. There’s monkey chatter going around. This goes back to the earlier question of: Are you truly happy? The answer is that you’re not. -Realize that you’re closing your mind down. You don’t want to do a self-honest inquiry. You don’t really want to put the effort into this process. -Realize that your life is going to end in a very bitter way no matter how successful you are. You're going to die, you're going to have disease, and you're going to have bad relationships. All this stuff is going to disturb you a lot. -What you’re really saying is you’re at the lower stages of your development and you haven’t gone to the higher stages yet. -Normal is a very bad standard. The normal life is really a crazy, dysfunctional life. It might be necessary for you to do some stupid stuff, waste ten, twenty years, and suffer. Hopefully, you have the wisdom to short-circuit all that nonsense. 16) “But, Leo, what if you’re wrong? Are you enlightened? And if you’re not, how can you be talking about enlightenment? Aren’t you being a hypocrite?” -Leo isn’t enlightened, but he feels he can offer valuable information. He’s gone through the initial, early stages: the fight, the resistance to this idea of enlightenment. (This video came out more than 6 years ago). Enlightenment is a long journey. Leo can point out the traps. A lot of these questions in the FAQ are issues he had to struggle through. -Leo’s a normal person you can identify with, not some hippie or spiritual guru or Indian yogi who meditates in the woods for ten hours a day, everyday. He’s not a Buddhist monk, or the Dalai Lama. Those people might be more knowledgeable about this stuff, but those monks live very differently than you. Their lifestyle is probably very incongruent with the way you live your life. You probably live a much more normal social existence. -With personal development, once you move to the next level all the other levels suddenly make so much more sense. It’s so clear when you look backwards on your life and the lives of people around you who haven’t advanced yet, why they’re stuck. -If you’re very advanced, then maybe you want to go to some very advanced teacher. If you’re starting off and you like a very no-nonsense, non-mystical, non-religious, somewhat logical and scientific approach to enlightenment, that’s Leo. That’s his bias and perspective he’s bringing to you, which can be rare to find in a teacher. -As for the objection that he might be wrong: an intelligent person always has to leave room for the possibility that he might be wrong. Smart people are always revising their worldview and growing. Also, the same is true with everyone that you listen to. Whether it’s a scientist, a religious person, the Dalai Lama or the Buddha himself — they could always be wrong. That’s just a fact of life and a fact of communication. Even after enlightenment there’s still more to discover about consciousness. -Don’t believe this on blind faith. Verify it for yourself. Use your intelligence, your rational faculties, think critically but also self-honestly. Not with monkey chatter and ego defenses. Prove it to yourself. That’s how you know what’s real, through direct experience (clip: Validate Absolute Truth For Yourself [10 mins]).

I now am being put in the position of surviving the suicide of someone I love. Loved? Love. I got the message last Sunday. I felt nothing. The Monday after is when it hit me. I played her favorite Spotify playlists, and scrolled through pictures and videos of her, on her Facebook profile.

I learned a lot from watching this video. First, I felt empathy for this guy. Some people have a genetic polymorphism that makes the methylation process of the body harder. Thus, it makes it harder for these individuals with this polymorphism to detox heavy metals as the body's detoxification process depends upon methylation. What is Methylation and Why Should You Care About it

I have been on the edge of insanity and suicide. If one says death is imaginary, they should have no problem showing me there is nothing to fear.

I can see how this may apply to the majority of men who start the initial interactions with a sexual intent, but trust me when I say if a man doesn't establish a romantic intent with a woman they're interested in from the get go, there are two huge issues. 1) The likelihood of a woman placing you into the friendzone is exponentially higher. There are ways with slowly ramping up attraction without starting out as friends. A first date is going to have A LOT of opportunity for platonic development, it would be attraction suicide if a man came in to a first date raging with sexual intent, constantly trying to physically escalate, etc. While it is possible for a man to build the attraction of someone they've established platonic relationships with, the odds are VERY unlikely. 2) This is even more important - If a man is physically attracted to a woman and isn't honest about that attraction, this is extremely beta. Your strategy seems to be geared towards attracting a man. This issue is that men know within the first couple of minutes, for sure within the first interaction/hangout whether they're attracted to a woman. So if you, as a woman, are going after a man who you've established a platonic relationship with, either a) He's basically been lying about not having any attraction for you which is a huge red flag; you want a man who is HONEST, authentic, vulnerable, and un-apologetic about their attraction and sexuality. b) He wasn't very attracted to you in the first place, otherwise he wouldn't have let things play out as "friends." A man with a strong masculine presence won't accept the friendzone if he's attracted to a woman. If she's not into him sexually, s'all good, but friendship is not an option. To comprise into friendship would be dis-owning one's sexual interest and would be a direct lack of congruency. If that man is only in it for sex, possibly yes. But as a man who is high value, not dangerous, and not only interested in meaningless sex, a woman would be losing out with me if she followed this advice, and to her detriment. That may sound quite conceded, but it is what it is. "I am the prize" afterall. Besides, there are plenty of high value woman who would not only NOT have an issue with things starting out romantically, but would appreciate the fact that the man isn't going to hide their attraction. It's quite attractive for women for a man to not hide their intent. The masculine purser mode is more about chasing after goals, their life purpose. Feminine energy is more about the pursuit and creation of relationships, family, and all of that jazz. A man who is overly concerned with this type of pursuit I would argue is more in their feminine which is very unattractive. A woman will start dropping signs when she's ready to move into a formal relationship. A man should pursue of course, but I would vehemently disagree with the idea that 1) woman like men to chase them (every woman I've "chased" has either strung me along, or it's killed the polarity and therefore attraction. Many many many anecdotes confirm this is not just me) 2) it's a masculine role to chase/pursue after relationships. Just because a woman is doing the same amount or even a higher percentage of the pursuing does not mean she'll automatically question the man's interest. Giving a high quality man this amount of space is a recipe for letting him go, because for better or worse, there is an abundance of women out there who have no issues actively pursuing men who reciprocate that pursuit with facilitating dates, romance, and a love story. A high quality man living in an abundance of woman, looking for that high quality woman, will not be tripping out over the aloof woman. He'll be too busy living his life purpose and getting hit up by enthusiastic high quality women to keep up that level of effort. Or he'll move on and find a woman who's more enthusiastic.

Of course, hindsight is 20-20, but I would say this is far from 'jumbled' and infact shows clearly that he was entertaining dangerous concepts. Of course at that point, there was no protocol for dealing with users who express such leanings so it can be forgiven that it wasn't dealt with appropriately. I've seen you make reference to these 'edited comments' a few times and I wonder, do you have any evidence to suggest that any meaningful edits were actually made to these comments, and not simply cleaning up spelling errors and such? The insinuation I get from your claim is that any reference to contemplating suicide was added in much later, so you couldn't have been expected to notice any warning signs. It seems to me however that the entirety of this comment relates to the question of "if I die, will I respawn?" which is something Leo has clumsily claimed to be true before.

@OneHandClap It didn’t offend me. I’m trying not to let you make it out that’s it’s just my opinion when these I’m saying things that have factually cause problems. It’s not like shouting in the middle of a political rally because it’s not just my views. He really influenced a suicide and really influenced my friend to go homeless. That’s not just my opinion.

@OneHandClap Okay this is another problem. You’re saying this is just what I believe. It’s not. My friend went homeless and he’s factually influenced a suicide. And other people have come out saying he’s ruined their life. It’s a problem and all he does is smart off about it.

@OneHandClap Well I feel like you get understand me then. The thing is me saying something can help, even though it isn’t going to stop him. If that person that committed suicide would’ve seen someone questioning Leo, it may have helped him reconsider.

@johnlocke18 You agree that you see teachings giving recklessly which this whole thread is about. He never adjusts Or takes criticism, them even after a suicide, like making a dude feel like he has to choose 5meo over his family. It’s a problem and saying “that’s just the way it is” And letting the same things continue is why so many horrible things happen in the world. Even another person posted not too long ago about considering suicide, and instead of suggesting a psychiatrist, Leo just gave his unprofessional opinion knowing he influenced a suicide just recently.

Uh yeah it is his fault if he advocates it multiple times with very few warnings and smarts off when multiple people tell him to be more careful. He literally said you have to physically die to awaken fully and even Said it again after influencing a suicide. This is why people stay in abusive relationships, because they are constantly told it’s their fault that their partner is getting angry or whatever. Leo’s careless wording to an audience with a heavy amount of vulnerable people, which he constantly gets evidence of, is no different. You are responsible when you know you have influence.

So one guy in my past relationships was someone who scammed me financially. I mean he would cry to me that he was in big trouble financially. And I would help him by paying his way out. I always had this instinct where I would jump to help people if they were in need. With this guy I had a long term relationship and at the end I discovered that he was lying to me and he was living well with absolutely no problems. In fact he was using me and exploiting me financially to get stuff for himself. And I was naively believing his lies. In the end I found out that literally everything he ever told me was a complete fabrication. I felt duped and scammed. I felt hurt, betrayed, exploited. I lost quite a lot of money and he disappeared from the scene so I could never get money back The money is really not the issue. It's the hurt and betrayal and all the long list of lies that hurts a lot. I felt like my feelings of compassion were being misused. I wasn't good at spotting his lies He would even give me suicide threats. So that's when I began to get suspicious of him. What are ways to avoid getting scammed when you want to believe what your lover says but at the same time you don't wish your trust in your lover to be taken advantage of ? How to know if your lover lying to you ? Especially being in love makes it harder to not trust.

What's up people, I thought I'd share something that may provide a tiny bit of relief to others aswell as it has for me. I've come in contact with a spiritual teacher (Artem Boytsov and his works on https://true-freedom.net/) who really acknowledges the issue of (sometimes obsessive) suicidal ideation on the spiritual path. He went through it himself and states that it's not uncommon, since the crazy ego mind deep down just wants to die. I'll link some of his stances on this here directly: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-position-of-Vedanta-regarding-suicide https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-biggest-mistake-you-have-ever-seen-caused-by-ego/answer/Artem-Boytsov I also got to talk to him live in a yt broadcast about this and some issues, I'm on for the first 20 minutes or so: So, the bottom line I want to bring across is: If you happen to be dealing with suicidal ideation on the spiritual path, know you haven't necessarily "fucked up" or are necessarily heading in a totally wrong direction. It's all going on in the mind, the body has nothing to do with it. If you don't do anything about these thoughts, you'll be fine, sooner or alter.