Derek White

A Critique Of Actualized.org And Leo Gura

72 posts in this topic

On 10/31/2022 at 4:35 PM, newbee said:

"Online forums and Facebook groups dedicated to endless debate about enlightenment, non-duality, advaita-vedanta, emptiness and more, are largely populated by men. And it’s men who are the most active participants in what often amounts to breast beating to prove who has the right answer or the most enlightened understanding."

She further points out that a lot of these are 'stuck in the head' and she noticed two kinds of 'heady-awakenings':  

"The first is where someone has understood the concept of “no self” and then gone on to live their life as if this cognitive grasp equals true realization. This idea-based version of awakening is most common among online, male-dominated chat groups about enlightenment. (Yes, there are women there too…I’m just saying, it’s mostly guys).

The second is the more rare case of folks who have been catapulted into the emptiness and get stuck there. Some call it Zen Sickness. It looks like apathy and indifference to any real engagement in reality. These sorts of men do show up in chat rooms online, but mostly to correct everyone by pointing out that “Nothing matters, nothing is real, there is no-one here, and so stop debating already.”

 

 

That made me laugh because it's so accurate.

@newbee Thank you, I'm glad that you shared this post!

I find this quote from her post intresting-

One of my favorite awakened women teachers, Vicki Woodyard (author of  Bigger than The Sky,  and A Guru in the Guest Room)  recently openly declared that she is “really tired of the masculine approach to enlightenment and awakening. The masculine approach is sterile…men wake up and say, ‘I don’t have any problems.’ That’s just not true.”

It’s not enough to have the super-chill experience of your absolute nature. That transcendent truth must marry the immanent. You can’t truly be holy without embracing the profane. One pole without the other is simply duality.

The head and heart are both essential divinity portals for the emergence of the shift from ego to essence, or what Echart Tolle calls A New Earth. Adyashanti says it eloquently, “A quiet mind married to integrity of heart is the birth of wisdom.”


Let Love In

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@newbee

Oh. Thanks so much for sharing this blogpost!  It arrives exactly at the right moment in my life. 

Quote

That radically feminist quote by the Dalai Lama is starting to make sense. The world will be saved by the western woman,” his Holiness said at the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit.  When I first heard about these controversial words five years ago, I was steeped in the vastness, percolating awe and stillness in a months-long post awakening bliss honeymoon.

His proclamation did not inspire me nor intrigue me. Nothing back then moved the un-moveable stillness to any sort of emotional up or down, let alone getting caught up in what sounded like a feminist slogan.

But now, five years after my overnight awakening and at least four years into navigating the real life and online non-duality circuit, I’ve concluded the Dali Lama just might have been hinting at the limitations of a masculine approach to God.

Online forums and Facebook groups dedicated to endless debate about enlightenment, non-duality, advaita-vedanta, emptiness and more, are largely populated by men. And it’s men who are the most active participants in what often amounts to breast beating to prove who has the right answer or the most enlightened understanding.

But don’t take my word for it. Go hang out at a few of these groups, where enlightenment is discussed with clinical precision and posturing punditry. The debates can be entertaining, sure. But after a while, they fail to nourish.

Why? Because talking about your view of enlightenment compared to someone else’s is a lot different than sharing your experience of True Nature. The former is like a boxing ring. The latter is like a group hug.

---

If the Dalai Lama was pointing at anything, it might have been his own discernment that women (or the feminine approach) might offer some extra ju-ju and balance to the global consciousness raising scene. Because it seems to me a whole lot of awakened and awakening men are stuck in their heads. (Or put another way, the masculine orientation to analyze has runrampant at the expense of engaging at the level of the mystery).

First, it’s probably a good idea to define “stuck in the head.” My observation is there are two kinds of heady-awakenings (and yes, both men and woman are prone to them).

The first is where someone has understood the concept of “no self” and then gone on to live their life as if this cognitive grasp equals true realization. This idea-based version of awakening is most common among online, male-dominated chat groups about enlightenment. (Yes, there are women there too…I’m just saying, it’s mostly guys).

The second is the more rare case of folks who have been catapulted into the emptiness and get stuck there. Some call it Zen Sickness. It looks like apathy and indifference to any real engagement in reality. These sorts of men do show up in chat rooms online, but mostly to correct everyone by pointing out that “Nothing matters, nothing is real, there is no-one here, and so stop debating already.”

Adyashanti says this about the second type: “

Enlightenment does not mean one should disappear into the realm of transcendence. To be fixated in the absolute is simply the polar opposite of being fixated in the relative… To awaken to the absolute view is profound and transformative, but to awaken from all fixed points of view is the birth of true nonduality. If emptiness cannot dance, it is not true emptiness. If moonlight does not flood the empty night sky and reflect in every drop of water, on every blade of grass, then you are only looking at your own empty dream. I say, “Wake up!” Then your heart will be flooded with a Love that you cannot contain.”

---

The type of men who dominate these non-duality teaching circles are inclined toward a heady intellectual, philosophical and transcendent angle to awakening discourse.

It’s not enough to have the super-chill experience of your absolute nature. That transcendent truth must marry the immanent. You can’t truly be holy without embracing the profane. One pole without the other is simply duality.

The head and heart are both essential divinity portals for the emergence of the shift from ego to essence, or what Eckhart Tolle calls A New Earth. Adyashanti says it eloquently, “A quiet mind married to integrity of heart is the birth of wisdom.”

https://theawakeneddreamer.com/2016/04/03/why-i-prefer-the-company-of-awakened-women-over-the-non-duality-manscape/

---

A good way to know whether one is falling into the trap of unbalanced non-duality is to see whether:

Ideas are favored over Reality

Intellect over Emotions

Mind over Matter

Hierarchy over Cooperation

Doing over Being

Growth over Contraction

Admiration over Unconditional Love

Movement over Stillness

Ideologies over Wisdom

Planetary dominance over Planetary concern

Social structures over Nature

Economy over Ecology

Ideal over Real

Individuality over Oneness/Connection

 

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@Etherial Cat thought over Love, Being, Oneness (all the same) is falsehood.  Good stuff.  Thought is ego, Being is Oneness.  Pure Being is Omniscience, which is Love.  Which is lack of ego. 

One can reach this level of enlightenment without psychedelics - so Leo's bias has him in error there - but that's OK...that's only because he couldn't reach it himself that way.  So he's wrong about that - it's not impossible- just because most philosophers never did, does not make it impossible.   He should correct that in his latest work.

Ultimately one should leverage Actualized.org as a stepping stone and transcend it like any other model.  I do think the teachings here are superior to any other that I've come across - but still limited and a pointer, which must be transcended by you becoming God

 

Edited by Inliytened1

 

Wisdom.  Truth.  Love.

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On 1-11-2022 at 4:14 PM, Lila9 said:

That made me laugh because it's so accurate.

@newbee Thank you, I'm glad that you shared this post!

I find this quote from her post intresting-

One of my favorite awakened women teachers, Vicki Woodyard (author of  Bigger than The Sky,  and A Guru in the Guest Room)  recently openly declared that she is “really tired of the masculine approach to enlightenment and awakening. The masculine approach is sterile…men wake up and say, ‘I don’t have any problems.’ That’s just not true.”

It’s not enough to have the super-chill experience of your absolute nature. That transcendent truth must marry the immanent. You can’t truly be holy without embracing the profane. One pole without the other is simply duality.

The head and heart are both essential divinity portals for the emergence of the shift from ego to essence, or what Echart Tolle calls A New Earth. Adyashanti says it eloquently, “A quiet mind married to integrity of heart is the birth of wisdom.”

You're welcome and I also think it's quite accurate and needed to be said ^_^

I'm glad this person was able to see through her male 'teacher' as well.  His name is Igor Kufayev and I'm always surprised how others don't readily see through his massive ego such as his friend Rick Archer seems to be duped as well.  Rick does many interviews with awakened people on his youtube channel 'buddha at the gas pump station'.  But then again, I heard in an interview this Igor guy conveniently redefining enlightenment to mean that it's 'normal' for your ego to enlarge after enlightenment because that's how he experienced it, instead of being aware of the fact that he just had a glimpse and after that the structures of his ego came back full force *thinking* he's enlightened, lol.  These men do need a reminder that enlightenment means or at least involves a permanent loss of ego, if not you may have had a glimpse but nothing more than that.  

On 3-11-2022 at 1:17 PM, Etherial Cat said:

@newbee

Oh. Thanks so much for sharing this blogpost!  It arrives exactly at the right moment in my life. 

---

A good way to know whether one is falling into the trap of unbalanced non-duality is to see whether:

Ideas are favored over Reality

Intellect over Emotions

Mind over Matter

Hierarchy over Cooperation

Doing over Being

Growth over Contraction

Admiration over Unconditional Love

Movement over Stillness

Ideologies over Wisdom

Planetary dominance over Planetary concern

Social structures over Nature

Economy over Ecology

Ideal over Real

Individuality over Oneness/Connection

 

Good points!  Another red flag I can think of in relation to for example Igor Kufayev, is that I saw him talking while sitting on a chair (looked more like a throne) while his female devotees were sitting on the ground.  O.o

A sign of Hierarchy over Cooperation or Equality.

 

Thanks for the video, I'll check it out!

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On 11/3/2022 at 7:18 AM, Inliytened1 said:

@Etherial Cat thought over Love, Being, Oneness (all the same) is falsehood.  Good stuff.  Thought is ego, Being is Oneness.  Pure Being is Omniscience, which is Love.  Which is lack of ego. 

One can reach this level of enlightenment without psychedelics - so Leo's bias has him in error there - but that's OK...that's only because he couldn't reach it himself that way.  So he's wrong about that - it's not impossible- just because most philosophers never did, does not make it impossible.   He should correct that in his latest work.

Ultimately one should leverage Actualized.org as a stepping stone and transcend it like any other model.  I do think the teachings here are superior to any other that I've come across - but still limited and a pointer, which must be transcended by you becoming God

Nobody on this forum is God-Realized.

I'm serious.

Edited by Leo Gura

You are God. You are Truth. You are Love. You are Infinity.

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2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Nobody on this forum is God-Realization.

I'm serious.

That might be true, but how do you know that?


Don't wait for things to get better. Take proactive action.

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3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Nobody on this forum is God-Realization.

I'm serious.

???


Foolish until proven other-wise ;)

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On 11/3/2022 at 5:18 PM, Inliytened1 said:

@Etherial Cat thought over Love, Being, Oneness (all the same) is falsehood.  Good stuff.  Thought is ego, Being is Oneness.  Pure Being is Omniscience, which is Love.  Which is lack of ego. 

One can reach this level of enlightenment without psychedelics - so Leo's bias has him in error there - but that's OK...that's only because he couldn't reach it himself that way.  So he's wrong about that - it's not impossible- just because most philosophers never did, does not make it impossible.   He should correct that in his latest work.

Ultimately one should leverage Actualized.org as a stepping stone and transcend it like any other model.  I do think the teachings here are superior to any other that I've come across - but still limited and a pointer, which must be transcended by you becoming God

Looks like someone is going to lose their badge soon.


Foolish until proven other-wise ;)

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12 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Nobody on this forum is God-Realization.

I'm serious.

There's only room for one king at the top of that throne, hey?

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21 hours ago, ThePoint said:

That might be true, but how do you know that?

When you Awaken, you'll know.


You are God. You are Truth. You are Love. You are Infinity.

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You cannot realize your balls is imaginary without psychedelics. 

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1 hour ago, Pudgey said:

You cannot realize your balls is imaginary without psychedelics. 

Stop parroting Leo.

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12 minutes ago, vladorion said:

Stop parroting Leo.

Stop parroting me. 

Better twice, why do I keep hitting feelings about psychedelic? 

Why are people so scared to use psychedelic? 

Edited by Pudgey

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Also, consider this: 

Most of what non-psychedelic users says is a regurgitation. But, they are foolishly parroting themselves.

How many Inliytened1 can you fit on a tractor trailer? 

Some users have also claimed to have experienced God or tripped far greater without psychedelics.

Any person that half-asses psychedelics know that you cannot have 1% of a psychedelic experience with your brain - even if you were monk level of enlightenment. There are serious trip reporters on other forums that don't take God realization or spirituality seriously that is more open minded and understanding about the radicalness of consciousness more than users on an actual spiritual forum. 

It's actually sad. 

It's also boring that the spiritual section gets more attention than the psychedelics section.

It's all rooted into fearing the unknown and not having enough balls. Because you must have some big balls to do it. And if you are scared, you will find a multitude of excuses and why your "brain" is unique and better, when it's not. 

I've come to a realization that most people with less than 500 posts here are more kind and understanding and usually take psychedelics. I'll stick with speaking to those people. 

 

 

Edited by Pudgey

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6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

When you Awaken, you'll know.

Is it because when you awaken, you realise you’re the only person who can be God-Realized? And that others are a figment of your imagination, so “they” couldn’t possibly be God-Realized?


Don't wait for things to get better. Take proactive action.

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On 11/5/2022 at 4:48 AM, Gesundheit2 said:

Looks like someone is going to lose their badge soon.

For what?


 

Wisdom.  Truth.  Love.

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2 hours ago, Inliytened1 said:

For what?

God needs angels, and you're becoming a devil :P


Foolish until proven other-wise ;)

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1 hour ago, Gesundheit2 said:

God needs angels, and you're becoming a devil :P

God actually needs the devil more than he needs angels.   To balance him out.


 

Wisdom.  Truth.  Love.

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