Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[Leo Gura]

3 minutes ago, Rafael Thundercat said:

Do Anyone here really belive those Guys believed Trump would stop the wars?

Of course they believed.

MAGA are fools.

Edited April 14 by Leo Gura

[mmKay]

Disillusionment is real.

Warning: Wall of text incoming 

https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/103717-who-loves-post-modernism-new-video/?page=5

I thought it would be relevant to re-post something I shared some years ago on the topic 

" What I do know is that when I grasped the true nature of Meaning, Value and Purpose, I fell into a Dark Night of the Soul of pure relativism for a good 2-3 years in my early 20s before trascending it

This relativism stuff is no joke. It can seriously destabilize your mind, your life and your identity.  I have a lot of empathy for why people have a knee-jerk reaction against it.

What if your life is a house of cards that can crumble with a little shaking of your fundations?"

 

"When I first realized the true nature of meaning, value, and purpose, it felt as if the very foundation of my reality had collapsed. Meditation already had begun this process, but your video on understanding these concepts burst my bubble in an aggressive and blunt way. Something which was definitely not the right time for or something that I was looking for at that moment, but I already was aware that curiosity kills the cat when I went down that rabbithole.

 

It was as if knocking over the first domino led to the rapid, uncontrollable, unstoppable collapse of my entire conceptual framework of reality. Once I realized that certain things were mere social, cultural, linguistic or human constructs, it didn’t take long for me to question EVERYTHING ELSE in my life or that I was capable of thinking of, leaving me with a profound sense of absolute groundlessness, and a freedom SO VAST that it was ABSOLUTELY TERRYFING.

 

One of the most insidious aspects of this relativism was how my ego hijacked it for self-serving purposes. When nothing holds inherent meaning, the ego can rationalize any behavior, no matter how destructive or self-defeating. I found myself trapped in this mindset, using relativism to justify my fears, addictions, and self-destructive habits. Even though I knew, on some level, that judgments, rejection, and failure "shouldn't matter," I remained paralyzed by these fears. The ego thrived on the infinite double standards relativism allowed, twisting logic to maintain its grip. I would rationalize that personal development was pointless, meaningless, and biased, making no sense to pursue.

 

 

Growing up, I was deeply absorbed in video games. 10+ years of WoW. 5 years of LoL , besides of dozens of other videogames. The stories, quests, currencies, characters, competition, victories, defeats within those games were incredibly real to me, not just pixels on a screen. They provided real sense of progress, purpose and achievement. Realizing that these experiences were mere constructions was painful. It shattered the illusion I had built around them and took away a lot of enjoyment and escapism.

Some realizations like that my parents gave me my name, and that it could have been anything else, as of today seems so obvious and a surface level insight, but it's actually not obvious. I bet more than 3/4 of the human population is not aware of that and truly belives their name is real and belongs to them. I realized that things don't have names, that we create them with arbitrary sounds and symbols and concepts, and that different things are called different ways in different languages, and we just use this system for comunication. It's not truth.

 

I realized that morality, ethics, manners , good or bad are relative, that the law is groundless and relative ( and why it exists ) , that possessions aren't real but social and mental constructs, that countries don't exist, money is a construct, that time is subjective and age doesn't really exist. These realizations only worsened my sense of confusion and disorientation at the time.

 

 

I was 21 years old and had just started living on my own for the first time, fresh out of school. The world of meanings that had defined my life—exams, grades and worrying about what my classmates thought of me—crumbled away. Academia and the sense of safety it provided revealed themselves to be nothing more than a game and an illusion. The importance I had placed on these things disintegrated, leaving me feeling utterly groundless and foolish, like I had wasted all that time.

 

As this process unfolded, I came to a realization that no matter what happens, everything is "absolutely okay." This insight led me to stop inhibiting my impulses, which inevitably pulled me toward distractions, addictions, and comfort.

 

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months as time flew by, and I found myself increasingly detached from any sense of purpose or direction. I stopped judging and moralizing my actions, instead choosing to simply observe whatever I was doing and go with it. This approach dissolved much of the internal resistance I once felt and allowed me to sink deeper into the present moment, for better or worse, which ended up just leading me to seek out comfort and pleasure while avoiding discomfort and pain. For weeks, I would lie in bed, utterly unmotivated and aimless. The female attention and aprooval I once craved stopped being meaningful. I convinced myself that day and night didn’t truly exist, so there was no reason to wake up at any specific time. I saw no point in maintaining basic hygiene or even wearing clothes the "right" way. I would go to the supermarket unshowered, wearing dirty clothes, messy hair and shirts backwards and inside out , rationalizing that there was no right or wrong way to dress. When I had a part time job at a restaurant, I remember letting some customers walk away without paying because in my mind it didn't matter.

 

 

My sense of self-importance crumbled as well. I realized I was no more significant than a fly or a cockroach, and this realization left me feeling profoundly insignificant and purposeless. Even ending my own life literally didn't make sense, something I never considered seriously.

 

 

This extreme relativism led me to a state of profound laziness but also access to unconditional happiness. I found that I could lie in bed for months, feeling ecstatic, almost like what I imagine being high on heroin is like, without needing to do anything to achieve this happiness. This was an absolute ambition killer. The sense of meaninglessness was so deeply embedded in my mind that any attempt to take action felt like a distraction, causing emotional resistance. It was as if taking any step away from doing nothing would shatter the fragile peace I had found in this state of inaction.

 

I didn't know who or what I was anymore. I realized that identity, what you yourself identify as, is absolutely groundless and are just meaningless or self-constructed labels. The one thing that didn't crumble was my sexuality. I considered that if absolute relativity is true then everyone is in actuality pansexuaI. But in practice I was just not attracted to men. Period. I didn't need identify as a man , adult or human for the validity truthfulness of my feelings of attraction and preference to whatever I perceived as an attractive female.

 

 

This shift also marked a clear and sharp transition from analytical thinking to a primarily intuitive approach to life. Intuition gradually became my core mode of operation, guiding my decisions and shaping my reality. I began to connect with and respect my emotions in a way I hadn’t before. Emotions became central to my experience, driving my choices and dictating how I engaged with the world. At that time, this intuitive, emotion-driven way of living was deeply ingrained in me, and emotions, feelings, and intuition were the only ground I could rely on.

 

 

The descent into relativism also isolated me from others, as I saw them as characters in a game - NPCs, unaware of the constructed nature of their realities. It was a lonely existence, like living in a "Truman Show" where everyone else was oblivious to the truth. Every person I encountered was locked into their own paradigm of understanding the world, unconscious of the constructed nature of their reality. No one would understand me. I couldn't relate to anyone and actually people would judge me and reject me for thinking or talking in these ways. People said I was depressed, when actually I felt more sane than them but confused.

 

 

This descent into nihilism and relativism eventually pushed me toward "mysticism". As I understood the nature of meaning, language, and concepts, I also deeply understood I didn’t know what anything was anymore; I faced deep not-knowing. I intuitively began practicing "neti neti" meditation and "actuality meditation," which led to temporary heightened states of consciousness and experiences of non-symbolic awareness. These practices helped me trascend the conceptual limits of the mind and connect with a reality beyond words, thoughts and even perception, leading to things like seeing the ox' tail with what I think is a samaddhi experience ( this entire " perception bubble" is made out of the" same stuff" , even "me", the observer, is made out of the same " stuff ") , the insight that thoughts literally APPEAR INTO EXISTENCE from pure nothingness in the most direct way possible, and later some accidental astral projection. I also realized that non-duallity is so non dual it entails duallity, which just mindf*cked me again, and that I was engaging in spiritual bypasing.

 

 

Eventually, though the pass of time, the school of hard knocks, awareness , trial and error and tremendous amounts of confusion and needless suffering, , I began to see that while all things might be meaningless, there is a universal law of cause and effect. Both cause and effect are meaningless in themselves, but they have real consequences nevertheless, and I personally have real preferences toward certain consequences over others. To deny that would be self-deception. It's obvious but it did not make sense for so long. For instance, I would rather be free than in jail. This is a child-mind level insight I had to re-learn.

I realized that being bummed out by meaninglesness is a mental fallacy. Meaninglesness is meaninglessness, not negative.

 

These realizations helped me begin to rebuild my life by recognizing that life itself operates with a deeper intelligence that transcends these constructs, with inherent logic and rules that we discover through trial and error and direct experience. I realized that relativism doesn’t hold up in the practical world; it’s only a limitation of the mind, logic, conceptual frameworks, and language. Being locked in this experience and perspective of being · an alive human being · comes with specific biases and preferences. Something obvious but aparently, not so obvious.

 

 

This going full cirlcle understanding allowed me to see the limits of Relativism and Nihilism : They overlook nature's nature."

 

- - -

 

I'm 28 right now and that experience still affects my day to day every single day. 

Edited April 14 by mmKay

[Rafael Thundercat]

6 hours ago, Ash55 said:

I think a lots of what men/women want is quite simple actually but our modern society + internet make people POV very distorted

Also some of our friends dont help our game at all. Here is an example of how to be a cock blocker.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXEdICLjMxv/?igsh=MWp2enFqNjByc2kyMw==

 

[gengar]

@Leo Gura You've been posting relatively much Yogananda quotes lately on your blog. I've been researching him because of it and his teachings seem very interesting, thanks.

He made claims that his kriya yoga practice made him cured of chronic digestion illnesses that he had since childhood. Do you believe him? Of course it won't work for everyone, but do you believe its possible for a substantial percentage of people to combat autoimmune stuff with yoga?

[Leo Gura]

18 minutes ago, gengar said:

do you believe its possible for a substantial percentage of people to combat autoimmune stuff with yoga?

I think not.

Edited April 15 by Leo Gura

[AtmanIsBrahman]

@Leo Gura contemplating this https://www.actualized.org/insights/you-invented-history I had the insight that time is change. And every change is imaginary because reality is absolute. So when you move your hand, the memory of moving that hand is imaginary, except for the fact that it’s occurring in your direct experience, because change never actually happens.
Am I getting it?

[gengar]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

I think not.

So do you think Yogananda was lying, self deceived, or telling the truth when he talked about his chronic health issues being cured from "thought"?

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, gengar said:

So do you think Yogananda was lying, self deceived, or telling the truth when he talked about his chronic health issues being cured from "thought"?

It is easy to attribute natural healing to anything.

He wasn't exactly conducting a scientific blinded study.

I can break my leg, it will heal, and then I can say yoga did it.

Edited April 15 by Leo Gura

[Natasha Tori Maru]

Direct mechanism of action is one of the hardest things to pin down.

It is the old correlation =/= causation.

And its half the reason why the whole 'wellness' industry can be a phat $$$ deceptive grift - mechanisms of action need hard science and proper method. I would add; lack of understood mechanism doesn't mean no effect - it just means lower confidence. And it's not mechanism alone, but quality of evidence.

Edited April 15 by Natasha Tori Maru

[ZenSwift]

I spent the last 6 hours studying this and making a neat and clean PDF consolidating all of the insights. Expect that in a future post. 
https://www.actualized.org/insights/a-deep-explanation-of-how-women-mate


 

[bazera]

https://www.actualized.org/insights/gaia-ambient-music

This is beautiful, thanks for sharing!

@Leo Gura Do you really do your pranayamas while listening to it? Doesn't it distract you?

[AerisVahnEphelia]

I’ve always said that 25 is the threshold age. I’ve debated it with a lot of people, and over time it just keeps feeling accurate.

I started experimenting at 24 and had my first real LSD experience at 25. Even with a lot of prior contemplation, it was still difficult to integrate. And no, I don’t think anyone younger than that can truly integrate those experiences in a meaningful way.

I keep seeing the same pattern. I’ve never seen anyone under 25 who can take those states and actually weave them into their daily life in a stable, growth-oriented way.

I also think frameworks like Spiral Dynamics or rigid “men vs. women” theories should be dropped. The paradox is simple: grown men and women don’t look for the same things, but there’s no absolute rule either. You constantly see strong women with weak men or whatever, really some mans will date very ugly woman just cause they are kind even if they themselves aren't ugly or anything.

An overreliance on theory often leads to more self-deception than having no strong theory at all. And the irony is that if you keep stacking theories, you eventually reach a point where your “best” theory explains why all those theories are, in the end, totaly hollow of realities.

please drop spiral dynamic attachment too, especially hoe maths, this guy is as enlightened as my chatgpt can be, he is mind poison in so many ways.

I m not saying there is no power to seeing "level of consciousness" but those things can barely be "explained" it needs embodied knowledge through talking to a lot of people from different place.

---

for once good relax music leo, I don't like your others playlist, but we at least agree on the relaxation.
 

Edited April 15 by AerisVahnEphelia

[bazera]

19 minutes ago, AerisVahnEphelia said:

please drop spiral dynamic attachment too, especially hoe maths, this guy is as enlightened as my chatgpt can be, he is mind poison in so many ways.

Like in what ways? I found his video useful. 

Dating advice doesn't need to come from an enlightened guru.

[Leo Gura]

44 minutes ago, bazera said:

Doesn't it distract you?

No

[Leo Gura]

6 hours ago, AtmanIsBrahman said:

@Leo Gura contemplating this https://www.actualized.org/insights/you-invented-history I had the insight that time is change. And every change is imaginary because reality is absolute. So when you move your hand, the memory of moving that hand is imaginary, except for the fact that it’s occurring in your direct experience, because change never actually happens.
Am I getting it?

Doesn't sound like what I meant.

[integral]

Double blind studies cost hundreds of thousands to run.

Edited April 15 by integral

[AerisVahnEphelia]

4 hours ago, bazera said:

Like in what ways? I found his video useful. 

Dating advice doesn't need to come from an enlightened guru.

Advices won't help you with embodied knowledge.

Our culture/western matrix value for instance certain traits, they are not as universal as we might think.

Maybe some mimicking attractive factors also only exist in a "capitalist" society.
Some girls don't value money in man, some girls don't value badboy/power at all.

it's really so case by case. . but sure in a bubble maybe those advices "might work".

Some power PUA in america would fail miserably in Japan ( even if we assume they spoked perfect japanese )

that's just a crude exemple, theories always come from minds and imaginations.

 

It's not that "spiral dynamic" vibe isn't real, is that it's real in vibe, completely false in interpretations.

but also completely true in certain cases.
But mostly, it won't be true at all.

Especially when people use romantic language like "strenght, power" the fuck this means, even a worm is powerful in his capacity to wingle in the dirt while looking for nutriments.

 

Edited April 15 by AerisVahnEphelia

[Davino]

On Quote 545, I'll add another one:

Reality is uncaused, self-caused and infinitely-caused.  ~ Leo Gura

[Rafael Thundercat]

4 hours ago, AerisVahnEphelia said:

please drop spiral dynamic attachment too, especially hoe maths, this guy is as enlightened as my chatgpt can be, he is mind poison in so many ways.

I also have the same feeling. His way of seeing sounds like true but is to reductive, and I think that the situation is that people who are afraid of complextity will find this ways of construction of theories to avoid uncertaintiy. Their minds can cope with the ideia that reality if complex and nuanced so they will built ways to simply it with schemes. 

[Rafael Thundercat]

7 minutes ago, AerisVahnEphelia said:

Advices won't help you with embodied knowledge.

Our culture/western matrix value for instance certain traits, they are not as universal as we might think.

Maybe some mimicking attractive factors also only exist in a "capitalism" society.
Some girls don't value money in man, some girls don't value badboy/power at all.

it's really so case by case. . but sure in a bubble maybe those advices "might work".

and that apply to everything

True. I am in Bahia Brasil and here although women still value strong men, the locals are dating men that in the eyes of capitalistic society would never have luck with the level of beauty some women they are dating have. Some hot brunnetes here can care less for me a white dude. They like to date guys that are natives even if they just own a bike and have a simple job in a supermarket. Hoe Math calculations dont apply universaly.