From Knowing to Awakening

[King K]

I've been following Actualized.org since 2016, when I was just 16. Leo's teachings have had an enormous positive influence on my life. I've probably watched 80% or more of his videos, and my entire worldview has largely been shaped by his work.

The interesting thing is that, intellectually, I barely have any questions left. Yet when it comes to direct experience, I'm practically at zero. I'm still constantly lost in my thoughts throughout everyday life.

Back when I was watching Leo consistently, I meditated for an hour every single day for about six months. I experienced significantly more inner peace and less mental chatter, but never anything resembling a glimpse of enlightenment.

Eventually, I stepped away to focus on building my life. I've spent years developing my physique in the gym and, after seven years of trading, I'm now transitioning into full-time day trading.

Now that I've made progress in those areas, I want to seriously return to this work.

My question is simple: What is the most direct, practical, and effective path to experiencing the kind of enlightenment Leo talks about?

I'm not looking for more intellectual understanding, philosophical discussions, or another hundred hours of theory. I've had plenty of that.

I want to bridge the enormous gap between knowing and experiencing.

For those who've genuinely made progress, what practices would you recommend, and where would you start if you were in my position?

 

[Someone here]

8 hours ago, King K said:

My question is simple: What is the most direct, practical, and effective path to experiencing the kind of enlightenment Leo talks about?

It depends upon what kind of enlightenment you are seeking. Because Leo teaches a long list of different realizations.For the realization of no-self , just self-inquiry as taught by Ramana Maharashi . There are numerous resources on it online . Just google it .

For things more complex like realizing how your mind is imagining your life like a dream , there needs to be some psychedelic experience along with deconstructing your every last drop of preconceived ideas about what reality ought to be .  Personally I  don’t like to fuck with these domains because most people misinterpret their trips and draw conclusions based upon their experience. We are barely beginning to understand how the brain functions to be able to understand how these chemicals affect our consciousness so don’t lose yourself too much . But that’s generally seems to be the suggestion for attaining what Leo called God-Realization.

But for peace of mind and awareness , just meditating really . Watch Leo’s earlier videos on enlightenment and meditation.

[Inliytened1]

8 hours ago, King K said:

I've been following Actualized.org since 2016, when I was just 16. Leo's teachings have had an enormous positive influence on my life. I've probably watched 80% or more of his videos, and my entire worldview has largely been shaped by his work.

The interesting thing is that, intellectually, I barely have any questions left. Yet when it comes to direct experience, I'm practically at zero. I'm still constantly lost in my thoughts throughout everyday life.

Back when I was watching Leo consistently, I meditated for an hour every single day for about six months. I experienced significantly more inner peace and less mental chatter, but never anything resembling a glimpse of enlightenment.

Eventually, I stepped away to focus on building my life. I've spent years developing my physique in the gym and, after seven years of trading, I'm now transitioning into full-time day trading.

Now that I've made progress in those areas, I want to seriously return to this work.

My question is simple: What is the most direct, practical, and effective path to experiencing the kind of enlightenment Leo talks about?

I'm not looking for more intellectual understanding, philosophical discussions, or another hundred hours of theory. I've had plenty of that.

I want to bridge the enormous gap between knowing and experiencing.

For those who've genuinely made progress, what practices would you recommend, and where would you start if you were in my position?

 

Well. I think a lot of it must be genetic. Because I was exactly like you.  I stumbled onto his work.  But I started tk experience enlightenment almost instantly.  I started to have enlightenment when listening to the what is a dream video.  What is perception, What is infinity, and several others - a lot being the first ones he put out on enlightenment.  And that happened by sitting on my basement stairs with a blanket. Listening and meditating.  I just sat there.  There was just sitting there. And there was concentrating on an object. But most of all there was self inquiry in the beginning.  But all of that - all three of these techniques probably won't help you if the genes aren't there. You are probably gonna want to try psychedelics.  But obviously I'm not going to offer up any advice there. Becauze not only is it illegal where i live, but i have no experience yet in that area.  I can safely say though, if meditation hasn't worked yet you might be sitting there for years.  Look into signing up for his retreat. You would probably be a perfect candidate.

Edited yesterday at 06:33 AM by Inliytened1

[cetus]

18 hours ago, King K said:

Back when I was watching Leo consistently, I meditated for an hour every single day for about six months. I experienced significantly more inner peace and less mental chatter, but never anything resembling a glimpse of enlightenment.

I was in the same boat as you on this until I had the realization that the ego identity was an illusion. It was at that point that the separate self dissolved and I experienced a major shift in awareness.

*Try watching this a few times until something clicks. WARNING: Very powerful.

 

[Human Mint]

Psychedelics. Even microdosis can have more impact that you can imagine. You'll be embarassed at how poorly you've been using your mind.

[King K]

@Someone here

Thanks for your response!

What I'm ultimately seeking is the kind of enlightenment that would allow me to directly experience and verify the things Leo has been teaching all these years. His teachings have shaped my entire worldview, but right now most of that understanding is still intellectual. I want to actually know these things through direct experience, rather than just believe them. Especially when discussing these topics with others, I don't want to simply be passing along a worldview that I haven't verified for myself.

I also agree with your point about psychedelics. People can easily interpret their experiences through their existing beliefs, just like religious people might encounter their own God during a trip. That's partly why I'd strongly prefer to pursue this through sober practices first, and potentially explore psychedelics later on.

As for peace of mind, I actually feel like I've already reached a pretty good place in that regard. Of course I still have thoughts, but they rarely cause me much suffering anymore, and that's been the case for several years now.

So my main motivation isn't necessarily to become more peaceful or happier. It's to bridge that gap between intellectual understanding and direct realization.

[King K]

@Inliytened1

Thanks for sharing that. One thing I’m really curious about is this: at what point did you recognize that what you were experiencing was actually an enlightenment experience, rather than just a strong feeling, insight, or altered state?

That distinction is really important to me, because I think a lot of confusion can happen there. Someone can have a profound or peaceful experience and then label it “enlightenment,” but how do you know for sure it was something deeper than just a temporary state of mind?

[King K]

@cetus

This was actually one of the videos that had the biggest impact on me when I first discovered Leo's work.

I'm curious, what exactly did you do that led to this realization? Was it something that happened spontaneously, or was there a particular practice that triggered it?

And how did you recognize that shift in awareness? I feel like I'm already significantly more aware than most people around me, but I'd never go as far as calling myself enlightened. So I'm trying to understand what separates simply becoming more conscious from having an actual awakening.

[cetus]

2 hours ago, King K said:

And how did you recognize that shift in awareness?

I can't even fully explain what happened except to say I was literally sucked out of my body. I felt it coming on and it spooked me. Like my awareness was expanding outside of my usual body location. So, I backed off because I felt like I was leaving my body. Then I said to myself "something is presenting itself here. Trust it and go with it". And I did. Then I wasn't in my body anymore.

What did I experience? Consciousness/awareness became focused like a laser and was full of infinite potential and infinite intelligence. I can't even say how long it lasted. Whether it was minuets or seconds. But it was infinite. Time didn't exist. I didn't exist. But yet I was somehow along for the ride. 

After that experience I was totally blown away. I was like "holy $hit I never realized that was possible". My everyday experience paled in comparison to that that level of awareness. I felt like I had one foot in each world. I also experienced a bit of dark night of the soul, as it's called.

I was doing daily meditation for about a year twice a day. I had smoked a little pot right before. And I was watching that video probably for the 10th time trying to have a direct experience of no-self. And boy did I. Actual surrender of the identification to the ego played the huge part. That's what bought on the experience in the first place.

[cetus]

4 hours ago, King K said:

So I'm trying to understand what separates simply becoming more conscious from having an actual awakening.

Conceptual knowledge is NOTHING compared to Direct experience.

But you need conceptual knowledge first as a pointer to get to direct experience. 

For instance, looking at MapQuest. You can know the route well from what's shown on the screen. But to actually travel the road is a totally different experience.

Edited 2 hours ago by cetus