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Even the notions of selfish and resistence are concepts of a self or doer or so called perceiver. Go out and poll so called enlightened people, at a certain point you'll realize that there is apparant differences. Some will say selfishness disappears, others will not. Some will say bliss remains, some will say bliss comes and goes like anything else. Ask these teachers what they mean by selfishessness, you'll notice here differences, commonalities and what not. You won't find an agreed definition. This is IT, so called selfish, so called good/bad, so called comfortable/uncomfortable. Even in pain/suffering area's, you poll some teachers or random people, and you'll find out one persons pleasure is anothers pain. I like to poke my gums till they bleed sometimes, others find this painful, I do not. Some like really salty, others feel sick from this. Now you could come up with all pains = pains, maybe mine comes from hot water and yours comes from dildo's in a ass (some like this by the way). But you could say my pain = your pain. Maaaaaybe... but you still don't know what my pain is nor your pain is in relation. All interesting things to consider. From my point of view, you really can't nail down ANY-THING, perhaps because there are ultimately no-things, just existence appearing as things and non-things. Also realizing existence doesn't necessarily mean it will eliminate what you call selfish. Hell you could be mother theresa, but another person may find your driving habits or friendship dynamics selfish. This is their experience, but doesn't mean it defines a real thing called objective selfishness.

That's really a good point & reminds me of the phrase "ignorance is bliss". And what's crazy is although enlightenment is usually described as an impersonal experience, it's simultaneously very personal in the sense that every experience is different. Some seem to have an open receptiveness to it, and it can seem quite ordinary while others experience life shattering or debilitating reactions. Even heard it described as a terrifying realization. It's like a box of chocolates you never know what your gonna get. Here it could be described as shockingly ordinary and simultaneously extraordinary but completely unexpected. In a weird way it feels like death and rebirth yet it's recognized no one is living it. ?

The only thing I wanna know is who I am, the ultimate truth, that alone will bring me bliss Im sure, meanwhile Im just gonna live my life in whatever way I want.

My opinion is that meditation needs to be practiced in an experimental, holistic way - learn multiple techniques from multiple masters and in a sense, follow your bliss. If that means jhana practice for a bit, do that, if that means switching to vipassana, do that, maybe shikantaza is what's resonating now, so go do that. The key is to developing enough skill to where we can reliably follow our intuition. It also seems that true momentum with meditation is impossible without dedicated retreat time, whether in a group or solo. I had a full blown, utterly profound Enlightenment experience using Shinzen Young's See Hear Feel vipassana technique on retreat so I am a bit biased towards vipassana. From what I can tell, alternating between a discriminatory practice like vipassana and integrative practice like do nothing all the while throwing in shamatha/jhana for when things get particularly heavy (dark night of the souls like) seem to be the most powerful. The key though is to practice with the clear understanding that what is true is always true, and no matter where we go, we are never moving towards or further away from this actuality. When the increases in consciousness from meditation are grounded in this actuality... This is meditation. At least, that's how I frame it. It's extremely difficult to even communicate or understand conceptually for myself. So yes, generally I'd recommend: - Deconstructive - Vipassana/Self-inquiry - Unifying - Do Nothing/Dzogchen - Enjoy wholesomely - Shamatha/jhana/loving kindness - Retreats at least once a year, if not more First two have provided more depth to consciousness for me though, as in are more non-dual. And sometimes the mind gets into such a state that the first 3 jhanas are really distracting compared to the bliss of resting as consciousness, directly. And anyways, I'm pretty sure you're beyond my level with meditation so what would be your advice regarding "proper meditation?" @BipolarGrowth

@Breakingthewall the freedom of eternal peace is better than infinite bliss.

what to fight the hair loss or to lose the hair? what's funny is when i had awakenings/or near awakenings i came out of them playing with my hair first went through hell, then came bliss then i was pondering the universe while playing with my hair which was a lot of fun. now playing with my hair kind of reminds me of enlightenment and such

Felt like melting into my surroundings, with intense bliss

@Fkdel 6 years non stop spiritual education and practice. Doing RASA with Ramaji, bipolar mania going full circle, meditating 247 basically for 60 days straight and physically detoxing my body for months at a time on juice fasts and raw vegan/occasional meat. it’s gonna be 1000% different for you because you have different weaknesses and strengths. Follow your bliss and basically listen and take action on almost every single thing Leo says. he’s the highest guru and does not lead you astray. Everything he teaches is verifiable through thousands and at my point, 10K hours of mastery involved. remmber, growth is exponential curve. I’ve been doing this since 15 basically, so 8 years before Leo even.

@Endangered-EGO I physicall detoxed my body aggressively for two months, and enlightenment just came naturally as a byproduct of having the energy to follow my bliss. that was my weakness. Drug abuse, trauma, suicidal thoughts. The physical detox got rid of all the limitations of enlightenment from my mind, and now I’m just pure love. Always. Sober or not. however long this lasts, I don’t really care. I’m satisfied at this point in my journey. No more chasing. just enjoying the pleasures of life and sharing love with other sentient beings. im done with the idea of enlightenment and now just living like a child. DM me??

Oh glorious summer lake. Swimming, sunshine, sunsets. Fucking bliss. You're gone. Cold, wind, dead leaves, dark nights. You lied. You're a liar. It was all me. Searching for light while I'm already shining. I stole that line. I wrote it. I'm a plagiarist, I'm the original. I'm unparalleled, completely parallel with all. Spin me, spin me like a globe. I'm tilted, angled, and totally parallel. The whole world is your hands. You don't have any and you don't hold it up. You don't have to hold me up. Outside appearances, I'm drunk. I'm high. I'm addicted. my hero in. in. in. in. I'm insane. I'm in. in. in. I'm so creative I create the worst trash you've ever seen and the masterpieces so you can't compare. And I laugh. I laugh. Unparalleled, parallel. I'll dissolve myself, I solve myself and dissolve myself. Don't you know, it's all for you? Yet to see, yet to realize? You GET to. You GET to be. You get to BE THIS. I'm an unwrapped present. I'm totally naked. My beauty is so perfectly complete, I'm hideous. Hide o us. Oh, us.

Excessive Experience. Excessive Theory. Practice. Mastery. Music is my bliss. Not working at lululemon. Priorities. Anything BUT music and consciousnsss is a distraction. Girls. Anything.

My experience is that everything is bliss. But the desire for bliss creates pain. Thus bliss becomes the seed of pain. The entire universe of pain is born of desire. Give up the desire for pleasure and you will not even know what is pain. Nisargadatta

Oh man. The ox is neither dead nor alive. The ox is pure bliss, the point between the two polarities yet neither. It's like becoming blind, just a blind energy that is Not-Knowing. I'm riding this motherfucker home.

I spin around and spin around looking for someone to praise, someone to thank... for... this. For the spinning, the vortex, the orbit, the momentum and I never find anyone. I'll raise you up to the highest level and flatter you till you're perfectly flat again. One thing leads to another, and they all lead back to Me and I am no thing. I'm so Famous, so Universal, so Celebrated I'm an over-looked cliché that means nothing to anyone. I'm a total hit and a total miss. I'm the bullseye with no center. I'm pure, open, circular darkness. I'm your Pupil, the apple of your eye. I'm the vortex, the waterfall, the rush. I'm the power that sweeps you away, the controller that is the controlled. I'm the flush that appears on your face when you come to close to me and try to hide. You must shed your clothes to enter Me. I'm the door that is not there. I'm pure, utter darkness. The door to the house that is not there, the home that has no walls. I never built them. I'm home everywhere. I don't know where, I'm just aware. I'm untouchable. So untouchable that one touch fills you with utter bliss. I'm warm, I'm so warm I'm a fire that consumes without making contact. I'm so cold, I burn. I'm so distant, I gleam with your own light. So close, you long for me. I'm already yours. And you're mine. I'll mine you for secrets, but I know I planted them there. I'm so wild and free that I was planted right here. I'm so perfectly round and spherical, I'm completely cornered.

I can’t remember exactly or which inspiration came first or in what order but I do know that ironically, one of the reasons I got into it was for purely egoic purposes. Like I thought how cool it would be if I got good at sitting like a statue for multiple hours on end. So I started doing that and it worked. Just by sitting perfectly still and keeping your attention on the breath everything slows way way down and it gets easier the more you practice like with anything. I got into yoga for similar reasons. On a side note, doing asanas regularly is super helpful if you want to get good at strong determination sitting. I also found out it can remove a great deal of suffering and get you super high if you practice enough so after learning that I was pretty much sold. After my first ten day vipassana, I felt like I was fifty pounds lighter and my raging mind was a whopping 50-60% quieter for weeks after, no exaggeration. And the peace kept on growing the more I maintained the practice. The bliss grew so strong I almost didn’t know how to handle it all. Easily the closest I’ve ever been to full enlightenment. The danger with me saying all this, however, is that the recipient will hear it and say hell yes, sign me up! The natural tendency is to expect to feel blissed out from all the meditation but that expectation actually blocks you from making progress because spirituality doesn’t like greed. So you have to be very patient. You can avoid that trap by finding the right technique. Vipassana has stood the test of time but it can be ridiculously difficult to get into. After my second retreat, I didn’t get anywhere close to the same result like I was expecting to. So it goes to show just how deep this work actually is.

@BenG these are great questions , happy to help through sharing my subjective experience (p.s. I don’t claim to be a guru nor do I want to be) There was certainly doubt at the beginning. But the key is not halting your inquiry after your mind comes up with doubts for the sake of protecting your worldview. A key here is being skeptical of your skepticism. Ask yourself this question: “If me (and by me, I mean your human name, body and history) never existed, how many problems would I have in life?” What you’ll realize is that most, if not all, of your suffering comes from your identification as the human you think you are. Ridding of this suffering, which created by your Mind, happens when you are able to let go of your human construction. What is left is what I would call bliss…you don’t take life personally, which means you get to play. God realization is the key to getting to this mind-space The sheer fact that no one in society, including people and institutions, is spreading this to the masses. The realization itself would fix 99.999% of the issues we see in the world today. Even further, it is surprising when one expressing Truth, how they are aggressively demonized…as you can see throughout this thread. Something so beautiful to God is very threatening to human Egos. This is the great challenge that all sages and mystics have faced throughout time. We should be very thankful to Leo and Actualized.org for literally putting their life and reputation on the line for teaching these things. Hope that helps.

Ya, I suppoze it's possible. It's interesting since I find, in these moments, I often get more "aroused" when just staying in the subtle realm and "staying with" the awareness or practice or sensations etc. Rather than start physically touching myself, deliberately creating sexual thoughts, etc., which tend to bring me away from the bliss or arousal you speak of. Not always perhaps. But it seems similar to what you describe.

@Shin Unity or letting go of thoughts that seem to feed the illusory sense of separation from complete and utter okayness or bliss. Sex, drugs and rock and roll are just good excuses to be what you already are. Then after the experience more thoughts can come in that say "that felt amazing and now it's gone" which strengthen more thoughts that say you're not ok, and you NEED such and such, which feels awful because that's not true. Then addiction is thought to be a problem had by a separate someone, when in reality, it's all a huge misunderstanding.

We often associate bliss with sex. The body often isn't used to interpreting bliss, passion, arousal as being uncaused.

It can go a million ways but here's how it can go, and it's perhaps not very likely that it will be this way for any particular individual. The stages are largely concurrent but the order is somewhat meaningful. 1. Mystical experiences -- transcend ego to a small degree. Insights such as "through me, reality imagines it is judging itself." 2. Bliss on demand -- relax clinging 3. Relax awareness of any particular object; totally detach from objects -- panoramic figure ground reversal -- Witnessing 4. No separation; field syncs up with itself and there is no hidden sensation appropriating itself as a knower -- there's only wholeness and nothing can be done to get closer or further away from that. 5. Entire field is a philosophical zombie in a sense -- nothing is needed for the empty appearance to be what it already is. No more mystical experiences.

@Bazooka Jesus lol, you mean to day that you feel at bliss at times and then your mood drastically shifts?

I think your mind is using this to trick yourself out of going for what you want. In actuality, being famous has nothing to do with pursuing your passion / art. It's complete irrelevant, you could become famous or you may have very little following, the important part is following your bliss and ignoring any negative self-talk. There is no guarantee that you'll be well known. There are many artist who are underground, the creativity itself is what matters, not the number of fans.

The Path to Mastery: Energy Efficiency and Effortless Ease If you want to get anywhere on the spiritual path , understanding energy efficieny and effortless ease are absolutely fundamental. Let’s call this dysfuntion of physical and mental tension that pervades each moment as ‘The Spiritual Block’ – TSB. There are highly unconscious aspects of TSB which is manifested as mental effort without awareness and physical tension. In simple terms, this is why you feel chronic fatigue. Especially the deep sort where no amount of ‘detox’ protocols or diet changes have any perceptible effect. This is why you can’t look people in the eye. Your shoulders and body tense up and feel this anxiety that appears to have invaded your DNA. This is why just the act of going to the fridge and getting a soda is such a tiring and ‘high effort-no reward’ activity filled with aversion, boredom and lack of motivation. So how do we deal with it? TSB is a form of complex suffering that certain forms of art has tried to address in order to optimize performance. Martial arts is a very clear and masterful sport that incorporates deep spiritual systems in its core operating system. You use the momentum of the opponent to conserve as much energy as possible while only utilizing muscles that needs to be contracted for the completion of the movement and completely relaxing all the other muscle groups that is not necessary for the task at hand. Which in turn conserves more energy and increases efficiency. When you look at any master at any field, you see that they have this inspiring energy efficiency. Not loose relaxation but the perfect levels of tension and relaxation dancing within. Relaxed Alertness is a requirement to the path to mastery. So here is a very tangible practice regimen to practice relaxed alertness. 1- When you are doing any form of passive acitivity (watching TV, Youtube sitting down, laying down etc), make sure that your entire body, especially shoulders, arms and torso are completely relaxed and restful. Not even a little bit of tension should be allowed. Drop them down if you tighten up. 2- When you are doing any form of active movement-related activity (having converstion with someone, playing video games, typing on keyboard etc.) make sure that only the muscle groups that is required for the activity is used and all the other muscle groups are fully relaxed and restful. Not even a little bit of tension should be allowed. If you can drop it, then practice dropping it. In active movements, energy efficiency and tension becomes a deeper issue that requires careful investigation. Here is an example: When you are typing on a keyboard, you don’t want to unnecessarily spend energy with shoulder tension, legs, stomach convulsing as you are thinking about a complex topic. The only muscle group that needs to be used is fingers, hand and elbow. Even then, you should make sure you are not tightening the shoulders to hold the weight of your hands. This is an example when even when you are using the required muscle groups, you need to utilize as much efficiency as possible. Efficiency is defined as the least amount of effort and energy needed to complete any given task. When you see the ‘efficiency’ switch in your nervous system, integration of this efficiency to all life activities will get easier. To see this switch, you need to practice much more physical relaxation. You need to see tension in each movement. And you need to see that 'you' are generating it. Not the external circumstances and people. If you think ‘Oh yeah! I’ve heard of this a million times. I’m doing it but it is not working so well’, just accept that you aren’t practicing any of this to the level that you need to experience any of the benefits that this practice offers. You need to develop this continuous introspective awareness of tension and relaxation and that will lead to positive feedback loop. Let the masters of their respective fields provide you with inspiration. Always attend to how such a high level they’ve mastered energy efficiency and relaxed alertness. Meditation is actually the deepest form of mastery where you can bring this relaxed alertness axiom of mastery to all activities of life. To all young people, ask yourself the question: Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could play Red Dead Redemption 2 like Mozart playing the piano? To all adults, ask yourself this question: Wouldn't it be amazing to attend that social event your boss forces you to in a state of bliss and joy? Not dreading what you are going to say if you see this or that person. Well, you can do that with spiritual training. Do the process I’ve described for all passive and active states in daily life for as much as you can do, slowly your conscious power and awareness will heighten to extremely impressive levels. To such a level that your aura in life will tranform and people's perception of you will dramatically change. Take this very seriously and practice it with resolve. Much love, Arda

When you shift your identity from the puppet or human avatar to the empty space (puppet master) that everything appears in you'll have more realizations and bliss continues and constantly. Practice by seeing your human body as an it and as a hollow thing that is extremely loyal and does whatever you direct it to. Out of body experience will be a normal state of being because your the entire experience of whatever is happening and that's fact.

Excellent question. I would say there are many factors that contribute to this, being on your purpose, lucky circumstances, love, (gratefulness-)meditation or psychedelics. What this really boils down to for me though is Emotional Mastery. Because when you do Emotional Mastery work, that means investigating(changing) your beliefs, healing and releasing emotional wounds/pain-bodies and practicing acceptance, your emotional state will rise naturally. Emotional highs are always fleeting, that is why they are highs. But because you will have less shit that is dragging you down you will be able to enjoy these grateful moments for much longer. Then just be open to whatever comes and set the intention to experience bliss. ❤️