Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[Daniel Balan]

Hi @Leo Gura ! The user @Xonas Pitfall messaged me on twitter saying that he lost access to his forum account! He tried changing his email that was associated with the account, and ended up losing access to the account entirely! Please help him regain access! 

[OMG]

@Leo GuraI have done a couple of Vipassana 10 days silent retreats and I am doing another 10 days in a couple of days and had deep insights such as No-Self, then a couple of psychedelic trips that were very deep such as God-Realization and Oneness due to my mind being very ripped as result of those practices previously. After hearing some of the drawbacks of psychedelics, I have been reluctant to use them more and tend more towards authentic traditional paths such as Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism to increase my baseline levels of consciousnesses and may try some psychedelics in the future. It's all good that you recommend Nisagardatta inquirty technique and others but be mindful that he was taught this by his guru who was a lineage holder passed down from a tradition of thousands of years old. Unless people find a qualified guru no amount of sitting one your own will do it for you. 

[Butters]

On 25-6-2025 at 8:16 PM, fabger said:

@Leo Gura

Should we still expect the Mind course anytime soon?

@Leo Gura can you love the tablespoon in jail? Can you love Trump as much as the tablespoon? What if the tablespoon is a narcissistic parent? 

[Butters]

@Natasha Tori Maru I crave that feminine spirituality in my life. I would love to go to some hippie festival or retreat of sorts. At the same time I can't help but notice how finite and pointless such things are. 

Maybe someday. 

[ExploringReality]

Man, I realized why most people don't get far and get solid results in personal development and self actualization really, is because they come into it with shallow materialistic ambitious desires and then stop or hearing someone say self help is distracting and away from acting, then there's people in shallow genuine self help, but then they get stuck in a house of self help over years, moving between familiar rooms every now and then. 

I think for me the biggest blast for personal development is being drawn to want to face death consciously. Death, once you come close to IT or directly face to face with it, realizing your non self existence, reveals an overarching view of reality, coming to raw terms of impermanence, suffering and death isn't something that most people come into this work with. The only reason I found this work exists is due to me only being interested in learning what reality, mind, consciousness, experience, existence is. Basically metaphysics and consciousness is what interest me, then when I did psychedelics, oh man that's when it was verified, that this work pays in direct first person verifiable consciousness of truth. That's what I'm after, is a direct hit on reality. A strong toke, I want to see inside. I want to go as deep as possible. I want to see clearly.

[Deziree]

What almost no gurus, teachers, teachings, or schools talk about is how to select a valid and good school out of the giant ceasepool of teachings that exist within the larger spiritual marketplace. Virtually nobody talks about the pros and cons of various schools honestly. They all try to sell you on their method, while badmouthing and discounting all the others. Even modern teachers and enlightened masters, who are generally secular and openminded, tend to overlook this point. Because from their perspective they already know what they're teaching you is the truth. But from your perspective, you don't know that! This is a very important point. You can't trust anyone in this business if you want to avoid getting screwed. So you have to stick to a valid epistemic strategy.

[Oppositionless]

@Deziree Great Vow Zen Monastery outside of Portland, OR, has Sesshin (7 day retreat) every month. When I went they had a teacher named Jogen there, he was super dope. 
 

I asked him at one of his talks about something he said earlier. Talking about how loving kindness was powerful enough to change the world. I pressed him on this, asked him for concrete examples of how it could change the world. He said there is no "the world," just "your world." 
 

I already knew this , of course. But in that moment I didn't. 
 

I actually think the most powerful techniques are 1) just trying to earnestly figure out what's true at all times 

2) DMTs 3) retreats 

 

Edited July 7 by Oppositionless

[Rafael Thundercat]

8 hours ago, Deziree said:

What almost no gurus, teachers, teachings, or schools talk about is how to select a valid and good school out of the giant ceasepool of teachings that exist within the larger spiritual marketplace. Virtually nobody talks about the pros and cons of various schools honestly. They all try to sell you on their method, while badmouthing and discounting all the others. Even modern teachers and enlightened masters, who are generally secular and openminded, tend to overlook this point. Because from their perspective they already know what they're teaching you is the truth. But from your perspective, you don't know that! This is a very important point. You can't trust anyone in this business if you want to avoid getting screwed. So you have to stick to a valid epistemic strategy.

The book No Boundary by Ken Wilber is a good introduction. Together with the video What is Actuality by Leo Gura. 

[Leo Gura]

On 7/6/2025 at 4:39 AM, OMG said:

Unless people find a qualified guru no amount of sitting one your own will do it for you.

You don't need any guru. No guru will do the work for you.

There is nothing simpler than sitting and being conscious of yourself. There's no complex method. You just need to sit and focus for weeks on end. People don't want to do the work so they look for ways to complicate it with gurus.

A guru is like a gym trainer. You don't need a gym trainer. You can just go to the gym and use common sense. The gym is not rocket science. And your gym trainer is not going to make your pushups any easier. Lazy, spoiled people hire gym trainers.

Edited July 8 by Leo Gura

[CARDOZZO]

One of the best:

 

[OMG]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

You don't need any guru. No guru will do the work for you.

There is nothing simpler than sitting and being conscious of yourself. There's no complex method. You just need to sit and focus for weeks on end. People don't want to do the work so they look for ways to complicate it with gurus.

A guru is like a gym trainer. You don't need a gym trainer. You can just go to the gym and use common sense. The gym is not rocket science. And your gym trainer is not going to make your pushups any easier. Lazy, spoiled people hire gym trainers.

@Leo Gura

Nisagardatta had a guru who taught him this in the traditional disciple guru relationship . You're taking this technique watering it down and adding your own spin on it and expect people just to trust you? 

That's a poor analogy but it would be wise one gets a trainer if you're a newbie to get certain/quick results and avoid injury due to misuse of equipments. Some of us don't want to be eccentric for its own sake and will use what works/worked and not keep on reinventing the wheel and that's a big if if you ever get there with unproven method. 

[Daniel Balan]

@Leo Gura no video link works on your blog! When you share a YT link it shows a error, doesn' let us click on it! Also please restore the account of @Xonas Pitfall

[Spiral Wizard]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

You don't need any guru. No guru will do the work for you.

There is nothing simpler than sitting and being conscious of yourself. There's no complex method. You just need to sit and focus for weeks on end. People don't want to do the work so they look for ways to complicate it with gurus.

A guru is like a gym trainer. You don't need a gym trainer. You can just go to the gym and use common sense. The gym is not rocket science. And your gym trainer is not going to make your pushups any easier. Lazy, spoiled people hire gym trainers.

True, gurus especially online or without hands-on 1-1 work won't get you that far BUT I've found teachers I can work with 1-1 daily on a 1-1 retreat or weekly in normal life and it has accelerated my results 10x. 

The best teachers work 1-1 like mirrors. They explose self deception and keep on course correcting you. This is a dynamic process which is impossible without frequent/constant 1-1 work.

That being said, if you can, just do nothing for 3-6 weeks alone, you will see extraordinary results. Most people can't or will get stuck somewhere. 

If this sounds like too much, build up to it. It's not that big of a deal once you get there. For me the best results come after sitting through the emotional rollercoaster ride that arises in the first 2 weeks. 

The most potent technique for me is doing nothing, not paying attention to thoughts, and opening awareness to your feelings. Because it is only pain and emotions that can hijack your mind and tell you stories about why you should leave but when you touch the root pain that motivates you to move, you can short-circuit that and deeply surrender into the moment. Only thing that could make you leave is resistance to pain or emotion but when you allow these two things: resistance & pain, they will melt and you will dissolve into wholeness. Of course, I probably would never have been able to do this without learning it from a teacher in 1-1 work because pain is the root of self deception and your mind won't let you discover this  

Edited July 8 by Spiral Wizard

[vibv]

On 6.7.2025 at 1:24 AM, Infinite Tsukuyomi said:

Firstly, don't forget that you must deconstruct even Leo, this is what I'm seeing that is being missed with all the questions about what is better, what is worse, what's it going to take, goalposts moving. We're talking about Infinity, you have to try all kinds of shit. It's tempting to lean on him or on anything, the mind is very sneaky and is hiding from all the work whether it be trips or retreats. 

It's also a huge misconception, that this would be about "work" when in fact—it's about facing difficult feelings!

Work can also become extremely distractive, like any addiction.

Edited July 8 by vibv

[Rigel]

17 minutes ago, vibv said:

It's also a huge misconception, that this would be about "work" when in fact—it's about facing difficult feelings!

Work can also become extremely distractive, like any addiction.

What do you mean? Facing difficult feelings is part of the work.

[vibv]

2 hours ago, Rigel said:

What do you mean? Facing difficult feelings is part of the work.

I mean that by using work as an excuse to avoid feeling difficult emotions it easily becomes another distraction.

[Water by the River]

https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-238

"Reach a point where you know nothing at all. This is the closest state to God. God is not known like other things. God is experienced as an infinite mystery."

Chapeau!

Neti Neti

https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=Neti%20Neti&author=Water%20by%20the%20River

 

"The applause of the unprincipled is not only worthless, it is a warning." — John Ruskin 

 

 

[Bittu]

33 minutes ago, Water by the River said:

https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-238

"Reach a point where you know nothing at all. This is the closest state to God. God is not known like other things. God is experienced as an infinite mystery."

Chapeau!

Neti Neti

https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=Neti%20Neti&author=Water%20by%20the%20River

 

"The applause of the unprincipled is not only worthless, it is a warning." — John Ruskin 

 

 

Really like this quote as well. It's a really profound insight.  

Edited July 8 by Bittu

[CARDOZZO]

1 hour ago, Water by the River said:

https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-238

"Reach a point where you know nothing at all. This is the closest state to God. God is not known like other things. God is experienced as an infinite mystery."

Chapeau!

Neti Neti

https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=Neti%20Neti&author=Water%20by%20the%20River

 

"The applause of the unprincipled is not only worthless, it is a warning." — John Ruskin 

 

 

Selling "I Told You" by the River 

[Leo Gura]

On 7/7/2025 at 10:22 PM, Daniel Balan said:

@Leo Gura no video link works on your blog! When you share a YT link it shows a error, doesn' let us click on it!

I don't understand. When did this start happening for you?

I think everyone else is seeing the videos.

Some videos may be region locked by YouTube. That's out of my control.

On 7/7/2025 at 10:22 PM, Daniel Balan said:

Also please restore the account of @Xonas Pitfall

Tell him that I can't restore it right now because the email service on the server is broken. I have to fix the email service first. Once I fix it then I will fix his account. Should take me a few days.