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I like the distinction made by some in the Fourth way Work between acquired conscience and awakened conscience. Acquired conscience is equated with morality which changes over time and between different cultures. Awakened Conscience is claimed to be the same among all who possess it. One statement that frames this is that Awakened Conscience is the intelligence of the universe. Cultures are an enforcer of acquired conscience and is usually what we all are loaded full of in our childhood conditioning to different degrees. Maybe in the future when there are cultures with a center of gravity in tier two SD, this conditioning will be closer to awakened conscience. But now I’m speculating,,,,

Did you get awakened? ( just curios) How do you cultivate that kind of burning desire?

This guy embodies spiritual materialism. He has a big ego and portrays spirituality and sexuality in shallow perverted ways. I'm not saying he hasn't awakened to some degree but overall he isn't recognising just how delusional he still is. it's a spiritual kindergarten. It's a shame he uses word Yoga... and does this... he has no idea what Yoga is...

@GreenWoods When the Buddha taught that "all effort must be made by you", he wasn't referring to the conceptual awakening that people sometimes experience on psychedelics, or in other ways. He was talking about the deeper awakening, which is the opening of your spiritual eyes, and the lifelong journey of letting go of attachments, and manifesting the unconditional Love that is the essence of who we are. I'm reading "Being Ram Dass" at the moment. He conceptually awakened through extensive experience with psychedelics, but it wasn't until many years later that he woke spiritually when meeting his guru, Maharaj-ji, and even then he spent the rest of his life integrating the implications of that awakening. The Buddha had it right. Buddhas, drugs, or any other external processes can only show you the way. Ultimately the path of enlightenment must be walked by you.

Before meeting Ramana, Papaji practiced mantra recitation for 20 years. He had had spiritual experiences where Krishna would come to him and they would talk etc. He was one of those people that Ramana likened to very dry wood - very easy to start a fire with. Gurus can't awaken you if you're not ready to be awakened.

Happy/unhappy and developed/undeveloped are dualities, so these are viewed and understood completely different from the perspective of "enlightened people". However, awakened people function in the everyday life too. They work, have prefrences, engage in relationships and so on. They may even decide that they want to improve in certain areas in their lives. The big difference is that they don't do it because of neurotic and egoistic desires to 'get somewhere' or to 'get fulfilled'. They are already complete and whole (just like everybody else), so the decision is just a simple decision. It's much more free-flowing and no additional stories and certain attachments are involved.

People who have not faced deficits to survival because of awakening aren’t very awake in my opinion. It’s a common thing after full God-Realization for me to throw my phone across the room in an attempt to break it or flat out smash it to pieces. This is just one small example out of many things. If you’re actively trying to preserve your body, possessions, reputation, and pretty much anything else that makes up your ego, you’re still not awake to the fullest degrees. Last I saw Alan Watts drank himself to death. He never claimed to be awakened though from any of the talks I’ve heard. He always referred to himself as more of a spiritual commentator. I wouldn’t doubt that his spiritual understanding and experiences could have contributed to alcoholism or suicide though. I’ve certainly experienced many dark night of the soul problems that have been potentially worsened by awakening.

@Bacher Do you feel awakened after this experience? And if yes, how would you describe your awakening? It's more in your head/heart?

Both are responsible. And both are unconscious to different degrees. Still doesn’t mean the ‘victim’ deserves to be punished for their unconsciousness... they don’t even know they are unconscious. And both had lack of self love. Now the victim has more self love and has awakened more and can see their past unconsciousness.

if you think Sam is real, then you haven't awakened from the dream where he's a character.

Any awakened being knows there's no wave dah

Hi @Leo Gura Great self reflection in your new blog video! Your insights about the importance of balancing everything in your life dynamically are very valuable. Balancing spirituality with practicality or inspiration with the cyclical nature of creativity are necessary parts of the integration of expanded consciousness when maturing as an awakened, empowered and self-actualized being. I am noticing these themes in my own development and resonate with your messages. We are all in our own unique journeys awakening more into the inherent creative freedom of our true divine nature and I am very grateful for the wisdom and clarity you and many other great teachers reflect to us. This is a short illustration of how that freedom can be experienced by Bentinho Massaro, talking about the concept of 'true simultaneity':

I agree that a narcissist is also someone who doesn't want to hear that they're at fault. Same coin, different side. Sometimes you jab, sometimes you cash in. How do you know when you've transcended it? You see the whole dynamic, and just know. And don't get triggered - or identify with the trigger. I also agree that until you've become enlightened/awakened/mature everyone's got it to some degree and in some situations with different people. It's just ego, in plain old spiritual terms. Calling it narcissism is just the therapist catching up with the monk.

Truth at it's best here. Particularly this: "Paradoxically, a form of ignorance similar to nihilism , is often found in contemporary Advaita teachings (neo-advaita).It is only normal for an ignorant who believes to be realized to tell his students that they are already realized, for he knows no better. This instant form of enlightenment is trendy in our culture of instant gratification.The teacher has ended his/her quest too early, based on a purely intellectual understanding that “form is emptiness and emptiness is form”(i.e., no self). Since he had no revelation of Transcendence (key word here), his teachings lack the poetry, the love, the supreme intelligence and the sense of awe that we find in Rumi, Buddha, Jesus, Ramana Maharshi, Jean Klein, Krishna Menon and other truly enlightened beings." Anyway.here's the full article: Truth is beyond the mind just as the mirror is beyond the reflected images that appear in it. The reality of the images is the mirror, but the reality of the mirror is not an image. The mirror exists independently from any of the reflected images. In other words, this Presence is both immanent in the perceptions and transcendent in their absence. The belief that it is only immanent is ignorance, the experience that it transcends the mind is enlightenment, and the actual continuous experience of both its transcendence and its immanence is self-realization. The denial of the transcendence of Atman was a major heresy of Buddhism. Also known as nihilism or as the Anatman doctrine, it was a subject of controversy between buddhists and advaitins in Shankara’s days. However this denial is not found in the original teachings of the Buddha or in those of the Chan and Zen masters. Atman is what they refer to as “our Buddha nature”, “our true nature”, “our original face”. This heresy is still fairly common in contemporary Buddhism. It originates from a misunderstanding of the saying “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form”. To understand this saying correctly, let us take the metaphor of a white page with a red apple painted on it. The red apple is the form, the remaining white portion of the page is the emptiness. But we can look at it differently, the white portion of the page being the form, the red portion being the emptiness (= absence of white). It follows that “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form”. The transcendence, the Atman, The Brahman, “our Buddha nature”, “our true nature”, “our original face”, is the piece of paper, the support of the red and of its absence. The saying “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form” is used as a warning about a state of mind reached by practitioners during meditation in which an absence of thoughts, an emptiness is experienced. The disciple is simply reminded that this absence of form is still a form, and that enlightenment has not been experienced at that stage, because the transcendence, our Buddha nature has not been revealed yet. Paradoxically, a form of ignorance similar to nihilism is often found in contemporary Advaita teachings. These paths in both cases lead to a “second class” type of enlightenment which is no enlightenment at all. The teacher has ended his/her quest too early, based on a purely intellectual understanding that “form is emptiness and emptiness is form”. Since he had no revelation of Transcendence, his teachings lack the poetry, the love, the supreme intelligence and the sense of awe that we find in Rumi, Buddha, Jesus, Ramana Maharshi, Jean Klein, Krishna Menon and other truly enlightened beings. Because he is not awakened to his own Presence, his presence doesn’t awake the Presence in the student. The final truth there, seems to be “there is nothing to do, your current condition is already that of a realized being”. It is only normal for an ignorant who believes to be realized to tell his students that they are already realized, for he knows no better. This instant form of enlightenment is trendy in our culture of instant gratification. However it doesn’t correspond to the sudden enlightenment the Chan masters spoke of. To them “sudden” didn’t mean “right away”.The only problem with this “enlightenment on sale” is that it falls short from bringing about the peace and the happiness we seek. In some cases it may create in the student a form of resignation, the belief that there is nothing to find. Most disciples will remain stuck with their pseudo enlightenment; others, disenchanted with the whole “truth business”, will revert for a while to their previous life style; the most eager ones will continue the search and find a true teacher whose silence, words, demeanor and actions will take them to the apperception of their true nature and who will guide them on the path until they are established in unshakable peace. This leads me to a final remark. That which matters is not what is said about the Truth, but where that which is said comes from. If it comes from ignorance, no matter how advaitically correct it seems to be, it will never have the incendiary power of a single line of a Rumi poem. And that which is said is marginal compared to the silent transmission that takes place in the guru’s presence, the highest form of teaching according to Buddha (remember the episode of the flower and of the Buddha’s smile), Ramana Maharshi, Atmananda, Jean Klein, etc… And yet this silent teaching is carefully ignored by many contemporary teachers, both buddhists and advaitins, because they cannot speak of an experience which is not theirs, even so they claim to teach the same non dual realization as these illustrious teachers. Ultimately, the truth has to be heard “from the lips of the guru” according to Atmananda’s formula, for it’s apperception to occur. Mere conversations over the internet won’t get the job done. They can at best convey a “sample” of the causeless joy of our true nature, which will resonate in the heart of those who have “eyes to see and ears to hear” the Truth that cannot be uttered. Love, Francis

Define awakening. People can awaken to the unreality of reality on psychedelics alone. Do you want more? Ram Dass took psychedelics for years, but didn't experience a deeper awakening until he met Maharaj-ji, whose love awakened him spiritually. Do you still want more? Even after these awakenings, there is always karma to burn. Attachments to be dissolved. Even-mindedness to be developed. Unconditional love to be realized. Nobody, not psychedelics, nor the best guru, can do this for you. The spiritual work can only be done by you. Why do the work? Because, despite the difficulty of the journey, lucid living is so much better than the inevitable suffering of conditional survival.

What he teaches, the excitement thing is pretty advanced stuff. You could mess up hard playing into that game. Thats like type 3 civilization stuff. I tried a few times and it works but you need to be established in non duality and have a hardcore faith. If you have people around you, they will think you are insane... Just like if you awakened. Same stuff. That teaching will be good to apply in the future or if you have some money back up. He has made a living of that idea cuz of how fantastic and appealing it is to the mind. Imagine working at a Bank and suddenly finding your soul highest excitement is to be a high class chauffeur. My family didnt allow me and just interrupted the process... I think darryl wants to help, but is a joke at the same time. I used to be just as excited as you when I found him, lol.

I really liked what Anna Brown said in one of her video. We are often said "you can wake yourself up" and this can lead to the self/ego thinking it needs to "change" itself into an "awakened self". As if being awake is a property of the self. "Oh my god! I'm not awake right now! Ok gotta try harder! Ok let's go". None of this leads to awakening. I think it seems random because it doesn't happen when you try hard but it happens when you stop trying or stop thinking there is a self that needs to awaken.

I think, the spine should be vertically straight during meditation. Because, any mystical experience or awakening is caused by the passing of atleast a streak of Awakened Kundalini through the central channel called sushumna upto to the top of the head called Brahma Randhra. I once read that there are more than 800,000 different yoga asanas that one can use for meditation. But, may be some of the poses are used for directing the kundalini into different parts of the body so that it can cleanse those parts through its flow. The Lotus position may be the generic one which is suitable for many which is helpful in allowing the kundalini to pass through the central sushumna.

@Leo Gura What if you have both motivations? You want to avoid suffering and at the same time you seek Truth for its own sake? Is it then possible to find Truth/ get awakened?

“Buddhas don’t practice nonsense.” ― Bodhidharma Vipassana is a very old meditative technique, which was developed by Buddha, following his own breakthrough while sitting under the Bodhi tree. As Buddhism migrated northward and eastward from India, various schools of vipassana were created. Despite there being some variations among them, they all claim to follow the original teaching of Buddha. Vipassana means ‘insight meditation’. Its purpose is to uncover the illusory nature of existence (defined by the ‘three marks of existence’: pain, impermanence and no-self). Before practicing insight meditation, an adept is supposed to develop mindfulness and concentration (samatha) through, for instance, the practices of anapana (concentration on breathing through the nose) or abdominal breathing. After he has concentrated his mind, he can then proceed either to watching the mind and bodily sensations or to vipassana itself. The assumption underlying vipassana practice is that one becomes liberated through realizing the empty nature of existence. But what is the connection between having insight into impermanence and spiritual actualization? Is there really a relationship of cause and effect here? There is not; the whole thing just doesn’t add up. Although vipassana creates the illusion of being scientific, it is surprising to realize how dogmatic it actually is. A Christian believes Jesus will save him and a Buddhist believes there is no-self (anatta). Vipassana is just another doctrine, another mental fabrication, which doesn’t point to reality at all. An adept can convince himself that there is no-self by contemplating the empty nature of all the elements (the five skandhas) arising in consciousness. Through this, he may even reach the point where he actually ‘experiences’ no-self. But, in fact, the mind experiences whatever it conditions itself to believe in. What these contemplations truly reveal are the illusory nature of lower consciousness and the falseness of the unintelligent contemplator. If vipassana is useful at all, it is because it can make a person more conscious of the facts that he is totally fragmented and incomplete. It does not show us the nature of reality; it reveals to us the emptiness of ignorance. From an existential standpoint, it is true we have no self prior to awakening. But it is wrong then to conclude there is no self in the essence of our being; there isn’t one there because people are simply too unconscious to have developed – or awakened – their higher identity. Their self actually has to be born, not foolishly negated. Why do we enter the spiritual path? What is really missing from our life? What is the true cause of our suffering, our real pain? We suffer, not because it is the nature of life and impermanence, but because we are so miserably lost and disconnected from our pure nature. We suffer, not because we haven’t realized there is no-self, but because we do not have a self yet. Our self has to be brought into existence, actualized, born through our spiritual awakening. As such, the preconceptions of vipassana are in conflict with the very thing that can free us from our pain – the awakening of our soul. The fact that thousands of seekers sit in vipassana retreats contemplating impermanence or observing their sensations instead of actually meditating, is just sad. What it tells us is that humanity is simply very unevolved. A seeker may be clever and may understand the exceedingly complicated principles of Buddhist philosophy, but is this really wisdom? These concepts have been born through excessive philosophizing in overly intellectual environments, where monks apparently had nothing better to do than analyze trivial things rather than find a clear path to enlightenment. To be intelligent is to aspire to gain the right knowledge: knowledge which is directly useful in the task of finding peace and realizing our true self. When people sit in retreat for ten days, they can certainly develop mindfulness as well as some semblance of calm, through creating a sense of detachment from the contents of their neurotic minds. This may be an acceptable practice for unconscious people, or for those who have no real aspiration to know themselves, but it should be made clear that this is not meditation; from a spiritual perspective it is an abomination. While these types of practices may be of therapeutic value for some, they cannot in any way manifest awakening. Moreover, when done to excess they are actually spiritually harmful. For instance, through watching one’s mind, breath or sensations too much, one develops an overly active observer. Many vipassana practitioners become addicted to watching; they cannot enter the state of meditation, because their attention is constantly drawn toward objects. Furthermore, year after year of ‘watching’ turns one into a robot; it slowly kills one’s very life force, passion and inspiration to live, drying up the flame of creative participation. It is better not to meditate at all than to do it wrongly; doing the wrong practice is playing with fire. In order to open the state of meditation, one has to get in touch with one’s pure subjectivity. Pure subjectivity does not manifest from watching anything or through seeing the illusory nature of the mind and existence. From a higher perspective, the mind is not illusory at all. It is what it is, and when we think from our true self, it is real. What is unreal is that very watcher who is trying to gain clever insights without having a clue who he is, and without even having the aspiration to find out. The one who is unreal is the one who wants to have insight into reality, but without first becoming real himself. The basic assumptions of vipassana are not only incorrect, but spiritually damaging. They are obstacles to our awakening, which stand in the way of our path and point us in the wrong direction. They block our potential for actualizing our soul, because they keep us living in denial of our individual existence. In striving to reach nirvana by self-negation, one begins to live in a barren land of negative emptiness, exiled even further from the path back to the light of the self. A true seeker must activate his spiritual intelligence in order to decode his real purpose. He should not just conform to concepts his mind finds convincing. He should see his path from the perspective of his soul, from that very self he is growing into, for he is the seed that is awaiting to give birth to his own future. If he cannot do this, he will fail to realize his potential or to fulfill his very purpose – and that future may never come to him. So, why did Buddha teach vipassana if there is no clear link between this practice and our awakening? Firstly, it seems that as a teacher, Buddha desired to reach out to a large number of people. Being wise, he saw the low level of evolution of humanity as a whole and, perhaps, tried to compromise by devising a system of teaching and practice that even seekers of low intelligence and potential could relate to. It is very likely Buddha also had a secret teaching of much higher quality for his more advanced disciples. As the story goes, at the end of his life, Buddha gave a final discourse where, instead of talking, he just held up a perfect lotus flower. All of the monks were confused, except Mahakashyapa – his closest disciple – who just smiled. Buddha then said: ‘What can be said I have said to you, and what cannot be said, I have given to Mahakashyapa.’ This has been called the Flower Sermon: the direct pointing to reality as it is, beyond concepts. For Kashyapa the flower was neither empty nor impermanent – it was real, a true flower of the absolute reality. One may argue that that one has to go through the process of vipassana first, in order to be able to receive a higher teaching. But this is like walking east when your destination is west. Vipassana might have been a useful tool in its time to help seekers of low consciousness to evolve, but it is not relevant anymore; it is an outdated technology of evolution and meditation. True vipassana – which could very well have been the secret teaching of Buddha – does not lead to insight into the three marks of existence, but insight directly into our pure subjectivity. The objective of spiritual teaching is to help human souls awaken, so they can fulfill the purpose of their creation. The current proliferation of vipassana courses are not teachings – they are the blind leading the blind. But then, if most seekers lack the basic sincerity and discrimination to see this, perhaps it is their path after all. Anadi

I don't know if there is infinite awakening literally. But there are many degrees of them for sure. For example, many so called awakened people are not actually conscious of what God is. Because that requires deeper awakening. Exactly! Yup, where else could they come from but your imagination? You are God imagining a world. It's very similar to how video game rendering works, except the computer doing the rendering is also just imaginary! That is the ultimate illusion. That is a fantasy of yours. What I am saying is that you can absolutely verify that only you exist and everyone else is imaginary. This is not a matter of disproving solpsism. This is a matter of proving it. You can do that since you are all there is! See how elegant it is? You don't need to crawl into my head to check, you just need to become conscious that "Leo's head" is a fantasy. Which you can do if you are seeious enough. Yes, it's hard to accept because it's so radical. Yes, exactly. You see, that is how God fools himself into buying the illusion. God fools you with your compassion and care for others. Your desire to help others and comfort them is a huge part of the illusion you have spun for yourself. This emotional hook keeps you locked in the dream. The dream would not feel real unless it had powerful emotional hooks. What is a more powerful emotional hook than seeing your daughter get raped? God is a trickster of the highest order. God uses every emotion against you to fool you. Just a trick of God. Of course not. You don't even have a dog. You just invented your dog right now! Correct Take some 5-MeO-DMT No There is only ONE perspective. Yours. It's about energy efficiency. God saves energy my only creating ONE bubble. Why would God waste energy on others when they are not needed? Seriously. Think about it. Not missing. They were always just aspects of your absolute perspective. No You tell yourself this to stay locked into the illusion. God sees all. What you see now is all that God sees. God cannot hide anything from itself. You are talking to yourself, obviously. Nothing else could happen. Yes, because you resist it. If you accept it, it's so easy. My pleasure Look, what I am saying does not preclude you from visiting other worlds, so to speak. You can get on a rocket ship and fly to Mars explore it and it will feel real. And you might even meet some aliens there, fuck one of them, and have a baby together. But all that will just be happening as your experience. It is a dream, but it is also Absolute Truth -- if you are conscious enough. Yeah, you break free of being lost in the fantastical mind. Spira, for example, believes in other minds as real. He's not conscious that he is imagining them. Shinzen does not understand God or Infinity. Ramaji is deluded as fuck with his 1000 system and his diety worship.

They aren’t talking about any specific type of suffering. It can be emotional, existential, or any other kind. Ultimately suffering is eradicated by living in a higher state of consciousness. Once in a state like what some awakened people might have made permanent for themselves, likely through meditation, I was taking a shit at my friend’s house. His bathroom smells like a rancid overdose of cat shit as he always leaves them closed in that room. Instead of experiencing suffering due to perceiving this smell as bad, I actually could kind of enjoy the aroma. I had no more judgment around it. It was merely a sensation like anything else. Higher states of consciousness = more love and acceptance for experience/existence, especially those things you wouldn’t normally tolerate at a regular level of consciousness.

Why suffer unnecessarily? The only reason people suffer is because they have not awakened to the reality of who they are. They chase after happiness in a transient world that, by its very nature, can never deliver what they want. The look for security in insecurity. They crave love, without realizing that their essential nature is love. It's important to distinguish between suffering and pain. An enlightened person is as vulnerable to pain, dissolution, and death as any other human being. But they no longer suffer, because instead of denying reality, they realize and embrace it. The quality of their existence and their interactions with others is more refined. Their love is unconditional, and that makes all the difference.

@Leo Gura Ok, let's use that analogy to say that we are in a dream where we believe this dream is all there is. But isn't waking up the process of realizing that there is more to reality than the dream we were in? In the same way, I am in the dream now saying that there is more to reality than this dream I am. If there is no reality beyond this dream, then there is no waking up. You cannot be awakened without being first a dreamer. What is lucid dreaming without the context of a dream and a reality? If life is only a dream, then what is the context of waking up? I am restating my point in the hope that I am making sense because it is difficult to explain. I am basically trying to go from being a bubble to becoming the entire sponge. From that analogy, I got that the sponge represents the external world or the entirety of the universe and each of the bubbles represents the infinite perspectives, dreams, or consciousnesses within the universe's existence. In other words, the sponge is the holder of all of the perceptual bubbles in the same sense that the circle holds the yin and the yang together. The sponge analogy to me seems to suggest that there are other worlds contained within the field that are outside of my experience while at the same time being connected to my experience. This suggests to me that there is "an imaginary" "external world" that has all the bubbles contained for which I am only conscious of experiencing each one at a time. It really feels like there is more to this world than my own perceptions, which is also the same thing as me saying in my dream that I think there is more to life than what I am experiencing (which of course is a correct assumption; hence, waking up). If there was nothing, but the dream, then what does it really mean to "wake up?" Are we just waking up to another dream? If that is the case, then it wouldn't really be waking up. Having a lucid dream has to have the context of a reality vs. a dream. Otherwise, it would be just a pure dream with no context of a "waking up." Thanks for your time.

Hello awakened peeps! I noticed a pattern that everytime i go into non dual awareness, I get sucked back into duality and get identified with the body again. This happened about 3 times now, each time its always the body that i attach too. how can i stop attaching to the body? its like i can be either inside or outside of nothing. if i am inside of nothing, i am inside but attached to the body, which is nothing, but now is something due to the identification if that makes sense lol. but when i am outside of nothing, it is literally nothing. And no im not high hahahaha just meditated my ass off this month any advice on how to fix that would be kewl! ❤️