Leo's Practical Guide To Enlightenment

[Kloof]

@FirstglimpseOMG

Thank you for taking the time to write that up, Firstglimpse.

On 3/18/2017 at 11:26 AM, FirstglimpseOMG said:

and it seems to me that that everyTHING, all the content of awareness, is only occuring within awareness, as perception manifested by our finite minds.

It's really fascinating, and something I hadn't thought about. I'm very intrigued, and I really want to understand it better.  I've been working on "low level" personal development skills, like how to overcome anxiety, and how to improve my relationships. A part of me is saying, "Don't worry about this difficult stuff until you have your shit together," and the other part is saying, "Understanding the nature of reality needs to be my top priority."

If I may ask, Firstglimpse, what did you do to get to where you are?

[FirstglimpseOMG]

Hey Kloof, glad my ramblings got you thinking. Too much thinking sets you back, I'm finding, but like Leo mentioned 'You gotta start somewhere.' I'm just trying to figure it all out my friend. I have some decent intuition, a bit of an affinity for 'soft and fuzzy' instead of 'hard and prickly', and a big big curiosity that keeps me on the path. I imagine everyone has these qualities. Or is capable of discovering them. I cheat a lot and I'm really rather lazy so far when it comes to meditation and concentration. Working on that, actually started concentration exercises last evening. I'm lucky if I manage a minute as a novice here. It feels good to do it though, like a coach potato realizing his legs are for walking and running and not a platform for a tray of nachos and a beer. Contemplation I seem good at, and I mean sitting comfortably and casually for hours, intensely curious and contemplative, pulling on anything new I've learned from people who seem to 'know', and I guess using self-inquiry to some extent. Lately this often brings in 'Aha!' moments, whether it is a mini aha that is part of the scaffolding to the bigger aha's, or a pretty big sudden understanding or realization. Sometimes a big aha is only an accumulation of little aha's that were swirling around trying not to conflict with each other, finding a common ground of slightly larger truths to build on. Sometimes my scaffolding is so poorly worked, just plain 'wrong' and my apparently elevated being so tenuous, that I have to go back down & dismantle sections so I don't fall on my butt over and over again. 

I know it's time to actually install a regular meditation habit and build on it. Concentration too.. when Leo asserted that the mind meditates much, much better after being 'slapped around a bit first' by concentration practice, it made such good sense. 

I guess with me it's been like this:

Growing and intensifying curiosity about existence, cosmology, physics and quantum theories (thoroughly from a layman's standing, holee), and a general sense at 53 of pissing my life away as a dreamer, capable of so much more, and unsure why I was half-assing LIFE when I KNEW I had every inch of intellect, intuition, experience, and creativity to be rocking it, put me on this path. (Why aren't I rocking it, I know I can do anything I put my mind to, why aren't I, aaarrgh!) Got totally interested in physics and cosmology in the meantime but was just really 'surfacing' it until I realized that some of the top physicists and thinkers of the world had started talking freely about universal consciousness, a unified field, a world, not of electrons, but of 'potential electrons', just dancing in and out of existence, available to form into anything as the observer of the 'material' world evokes it all, nano-second by nano-second, just by being conscious. Or consciousness! Observer-based science is fairly new I think, but it is, hands down, one of the most fascinating areas of study I've ever been exposed to. Intense curiosity may bring you to the path of non-duality and spiritual awakening, and serves well to keep you on the path. All the new ways of looking at things and thinking about things, all the magic and mystery make it seem less like work all the time, and a few little aha's motivate and inspire us to keep going, rather than becoming too discouraged at the daunting challenges ahead. 

Watch for becoming lost in endless concepts and theories though. As a beginning and entry point into this world of spirituality, curiosity and mental hand-wringing and study and educating yourself and watching a thousand videos and using mind mind mind to feel your way around for the first few aha moments, works as initiation and motivation or a while, but then it's obviously time to ACTUALLY begin the empirical investigation. Understand that there is no big heavy goal in the future to set, and no way of progressing very much further until you do a bunch of emotional labour, balanced by the lure of mysticism and the real magic of life. If you neglect the meditation, concentration, self-inquiry, and are lazy about implementing other tried and true non-dual practices, you will bog down like me. I now have to actually consistently begin to master meditation and concentration, and whatever else resonates with me, and quit thinking about it.

But I had to use intense curiosity to fuel the search. 

Man, if you are all entranced and curious about all that you are finding interesting and inspiring in this forum, with Leo's content, and in general within the non-dual world, and are in education mode, watch and read as much Gary Weber, Rupert Spira, Eckhart Tolle, John Hagelin, Francis Lucille, Mooji, Adyashanti, Leonard Susskind, Sahdguru, Wayne Dyer, Dr. Joe Dispenza, on and on. I find that the people on here who may inspire you have an arsenal of teachers and teachings they draw from, and you'll get a feeling for their genuine, excited endorsements of sites and channels and specific vids.

It's a big world of love, discovery and joy, and may be the movement and momentum that saves the world when nothing else has a chance to. At the very least you get to rock your world positively and joyously and spread that feeling and power around. Welcome!

[FirstglimpseOMG]

Oh, and dive into the content of Leo Gura's videos if you haven't, especially the latest year, all the enligntenment stuff, all the sage stuff, all the meta-info he brings. He somehow makes it serious and fun and engrossing at the same time. I learn really well when I am entertained, and Leo's knowledge, style, sense of humour and charisma has helped me take it all in. 

 

[Not a shaolin monk]

@Leo Gura can you get enlightened in ordinary state of mind without having an extraordinary experience except for the fact that you see the obvious thing that there is not you in your experience?

[123456789]

@Leo Gura

On 28.3.2017 at 3:43 AM, Leo Gura said:

What is the thing which is in control? You have no idea.

I do! The thing which is in control is the thing which is conscious of direct experience (whatever that is).

Quote

Notice that direct experience is THE ONLY THING you have of reality.

No! There is also consciousness/knowing of direct experience. Which itself is NOT direct experience! 

[Leo Gura]

10 hours ago, Not a shaolin monk said:

@Leo Gura can you get enlightened in ordinary state of mind without having an extraordinary experience except for the fact that you see the obvious thing that there is not you in your experience?

Yes, that's what you should be shooting for. Fancy experiences are not it.

6 hours ago, Lenny said:

@Leo Gura

I do! The thing which is in control is the thing which is conscious of direct experience (whatever that is).

No! There is also consciousness/knowing of direct experience. Which itself is NOT direct experience! 

You are guessing. In this work, you cannot take anything for granted. Everything must be derived from scratch. You don't even know if there is such a thing as enlightenment.

You have an illusion of control (which is called ego). There is no one in control of anything.

[bobbyward]

I think i am after becoming aware of this no thing, its extremely subtle almost unnoticeable. 

there is a subtle feeling/understanding that i am not any experience, I am what knows experience. a subtle feeling/understanding that experience is surrounded by clear, transparent emptiness. 

based on this experience i would say the most effective way to see this is self inquiry as thaught by ramana maharshi, the experience you have when you ask yourself 'who am i' is almost identical to this seeing

[Leo Gura]

@bobbyward Go deeper! Until it knocks you off your feet.

There is nothing subtle about realizing all of reality is unreal.

[bobbyward]

I noticed it about a week a ago, it was very ordinary like nothing had changed, today the significance of it is starting to dawn on me. Like how experience comes from and goes back to nothing, and that only being exists, there is no such thing as not being (outside world)

[Not a shaolin monk]

15 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Yes, that's what you should be shooting for. Fancy experiences are not it.

why you said is an experience beyond all experience?

[123456789]

Leo, my inquiry feels very weak. How can I make it more powerful? 

[Leo Gura]

7 hours ago, Not a shaolin monk said:

why you said is an experience beyond all experience?

Because we have no words in the human language for something beyond experience. So when we speak of an "enlightenment experience" we mean it very loosely. You have to understand that it's actually not an experience. Even though it may be accompanied by an experience when it occurs. But it also actually doesn't "occur" because it's outside of time.

7 hours ago, Lenny said:

Leo, my inquiry feels very weak. How can I make it more powerful? 

1) Get a guide/teacher who can work with you one on one, who is specifically good at direct pointing techniques.

2) Go to a retreat, workshop, or seminar.

3) Start practicing Mindfulness Meditation with strict labeling, as I explain in the Mindfulness Meditation video.

4) Take some psychedelics.

5) Get more serious. Stoke up a burning desire to know What you are.

6) Spend more time doubting your present belief that you are a body/mind, so you really don't know.

7) Spend A LOT more time inquiring. You need to build up momentum. Long chunks of time are necessary. 1 hour here and there just doesn't build enough momentum. Try spending a whole weekend doing solid inquiry until you're absorbed in it.

[Not a shaolin monk]

12 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

But it also actually doesn't "occur" because it's outside of time.

when you said it's outside time i imagine that has to be like a suspension of my current experience

[Leo Gura]

@Not a shaolin monk If you want to quickly see that time doesn't exist, just try a psychedelic. You will see time is a construct of mind. It will just become very obvious.

[Russell Parr]

17 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Not a shaolin monk If you want to quickly see that time doesn't exist, just try a psychedelic. You will see time is a construct of mind. It will just become very obvious.

Or just take a nap

The existence of time, as with the existence of all things, is restricted to relativity. Time and things do not exist in any absolute sense.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Russell Parr

[Scholar]

Isn't the belief of future the root of our paralysis, the reason for why we think we can meditate more tomorrow, instead of doing it right now? Someone told us how to achieve the end of all suffering, how to expirience true self and how to win the game of life, and yet we sit here, doing anything but what will actually make us happy and fulfilled. Why is that? Why can we not act wisely, why are our emotions so chaotic, and our motivations so fragmented?

Isn't it because we are so attached to the future? We really belief that some day we will reach enlightenment. That all we need to do is wait for the right time, do some work, and hope it will come as soon as possible. But we know that, if we were wise, we would do everything to reach enlightenment, right now. We would meditate as much as we can, we would use all the resources of our brain to be mindful, to investigate the mind. But we don't, because we think we can wait for it. And we think we can wait for it, because there is a firm belief within us that we will expirience another moment. Most of us belief that we will wake up tomorrow, just as we did every single day of our lifes. We are absolutely certain of it, if not ideologically, then emotionally. We are not truly afraid to miss the opportunity to become enlightened, but isn't that fear what would motivate us to do the work we actually need to do?

Humans, when thinking that they have time, will lose motivation to do what is truly important to them. We think we can fix our problems tomorrow, tell our loved ones some other day how much we appreciate them, and we think we can be enlightened in a few years. Only if we are faced with the limitation of our own lifes, we actually do these things. When faced with terminal illness, we start appreciating every second of our existance.

But what if we truly didn't belief in the future. If we didn't belief that even one second from now will ever come? If we were truly skeptical, would we have any other choice but to act right now? When else would we act, if nothing but the moment exists? When else would we get enlightened, if not right now?

I think our ego is attached to the future and past, because without them, where would the ego exist? Everything the ego does, it does to create a certain future. Let's take pain as an example. The human mind doesn't like pain, but what if we are faced with painthat only occurs for a few seconds? If we know that we will feel pain only for a few seconds, and then it'll be gone, we don't really seem to be that worried about the pain. We don't desperately try to make it go away, because after all, we know that, in a future not that long from now, it'll cease to exist. In a way, the belief of a certain future allows us to accept a huge amount of pain and suffering in an instant.

When the mind avoids pain, doesn't it avoid it to have it cease to exist in the future? The moment doesn't really matter, does it? If the mind has certainty for a wonderful future, it will easily overcome the pain in the moment. The irony is that this wonderful future is a construct in the mind that is existing also in the moment, right next to the pain. We don't need the pain to disappear, we just need it to disappear in the thought of future.

But what is the difference between a few seconds of pain, and eternal pain? Both of them happen in the moment, and if you simply see the moment for what it is, there won't be no difference whatsoever. We are so afraid of eternal pain, because, in the moment, we attach and multiply the pain into something greater. One second pain, one minute pain, one hour pain. But essentially, this pain is not happening for any amount of time, that pain is happening simply right now. The belief of past and future is what creates the suffering.

This one delusion, that anything but the moment exists, is what motivates our actions. If we were conscious of the illusiory nature of future and past, on an existential level, what would be the point in doing anything? Why would we care so much about manipulating this moment in a certain way? What's the point?

But more importantly, for our practise towards enlightenment, I think to motivate ourselves we need to work on this matter as much as we can. The problem is we can only work on this matter right now. We can only right now decide to do it or not. I can observe my own mind already making up excuses, of doing it tomorrow, or later.

But these things are complete delusions. Tomorrow is right now, it's literally nothing but the same moment in a different form. So it's quite hilarious, because I can only really do it right now, there is no waiting. I can only right now rid myself of the delusion of future and past, there is no other way. So what the hell does even waiting mean? When I do not act, what does that mean?

 

This is frying my brain, I can't even think anymore. What does enlightenment even mean? It's nothing but a thought in my head. Why do I even believe in it? What is even believing? 

If only the moment exists, how can I be enlightened in the future? I still think about the future, I still belief that there is a future. I can sense how my mind is creating that future, how it is only in this moment that this future exists. It's literally just a thought, a belief, a construct. Even enlightenment is, whatever I belief that to be. Everything I belief is only a construct, what else would it be? It doesn't exist anywhere but in the moment, but even the moment, what I think it is, is nothing but a construction. Calling it moment is so weird, why would I even do that? It's all that exists. But what does existing even mean? This makes no sense. I'm using all these words, but they are completely empty. My life, my past, my identity, what the fuck doesthat even? It's just thoughts, but I don't even know what thoughts are. Why am I even writing this.

 

 

 

 

[Leo Gura]

5 minutes ago, Scholar said:

If only the moment exists, how can I be enlightened in the future?

I cannot be enlightened at all.

Empty awareness is already your true nature. It cannot change. You cannot change into it. You are it already. This just needs to be cognized.

You don't occur in time, time occurs in you.

[Scholar]

17 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

I cannot be enlightened at all.

Empty awareness is already your true nature. It cannot change. You cannot change into it. You are it already. This just needs to be cognized.

You don't occur in time, time occurs in you.

But how do you overcome the fear of going insane? What if I just lose myself after I let go of a certain belief. If my reality just gets broken down in some parts, but is still intact in others, isn't there a chance that I will be just stuck there, because even the act of questioning reality won't make any sense anymore? What if I just lose my sense for time, and then I just become a vegetable because I can't do anything anymore?

How to overcome the fear when being faced with the lose nature of ones own reality?

[Leo Gura]

@Scholar A leap of faith is required. You must love Truth so much that you are willing to surrender your life to it. You must have faith that the Truth will save you.

All fear is overcome by acting in accordance with your higher self, despite the fear.

[123456789]

Leo, am I supposed to do the "thought experiment to open your mind" before I start the self-inquiry?