What Is Consciousness?
By Leo Gura - June 4, 2018 | 41 Comments
All questions answered
Yann says: The shirt is fine, but the simple black T-shirt was more stoic.
Sam Mardee says: Looking good Leo. Welcome back
Thanks so much for all your outstanding work.
I laughed myself silly when I watched this video called :
Zero & One – A film about non-duality
(by Frank McCaughey)
Great you’re back. Beard: no. shirt: no. You got it right before perfect. what works for you is non-pretentious, simple, clean, pure, smart, virtue. “Realized virtue is then no longer virtue” or something like that. You’re ‘new’ look comes across as ‘doing-being’, not ‘being’ – of which you’ve nailed a bullseye in your videos over the last year or so.
You’re great Leo. It’s all working.
Dee says: Leo you look very rested .
your follower says: Leo,
I am following you for a long time. Gosh, I wish I would have a chance to meet such kind of person like you at least once in my life. It is so attractive and sexy and magnetic when man possess such kind of knowledge and passion towards the Truth. Your gf is really lucky to have you. I am always thinking how cool would it be to date a man with a very high level of self-awareness and counciousness, what this relations look like when partners can have a deep understanding of each other like this. When you can penetrate the other persons inner world like this. You dont have to worry about beard or t-shirt. You are very attractive person with or without it.
an other damn follower says: So True
Ashray says: But then why consciousness tries to be concciouse of itself with life?
Why did consciousness ever create ego? Why does part of consciousness chooses to forget itself?
I mean if consciousness is intelligent, then there must be a reason to forget itself as consciousness and develope ego, right?
And why not come to this world with enlightenment even if it is just to be conscious of itself.
Sinz says: Infinite thumbs up on shirt and beard. Welcome back Leo.
Stephen says: Great shirt, fantastic beard. The new style is very Rockstar.
It’s very easy to get lost in the woods, debating what is, what is not, and what can become conscious/self aware. I believe rocks, trees, computers and even humans are not and can’t become (more) conscious. Only consciousness is conscious. I believe only consciousness is aware of itself. Exotic states of mind, philosophical conceptions/thoughts/sensations, thoughts about different states of consciousness, egos are colouring that occur and ripple through this beautiful I.
Fantastic content, love that you did the month retreat. Look forward to your amazing content in the future.
Sevi says: Welcome back Leo! Such a legit topic to come back!
You look even more masculine and grounded this way; beard looked good on you; nevertheless simple t-shirt and shaving is a better fit to present your content I believe. It’s your signature look for your work in my opinion.
Robert says: Beard and shirt is good, but your way of bringing attention to it and asking others if to keep them or not is very negative for someone like you who teaches us exactly the opposite, and one who pretend to have come to enlignhtment.
Also your asking for likes at the end of videos makes the same negative image.
Robert says: I agree with you, I see God as Emptiness, Darkness and Silence!
Adriana says: Welcome back! You were missed. Your content is always so thought provoking and ultimately life-changing for me. Please keep these videos coming. I look forward to them and cannot imagine my “reality” without them.
Sophie says: You are lovely with beard and black t-shirt. Great video as usual. Merci
Robert says: Love the New Style Leo. You look fresh, more laid back (you repreesent the theme of the “Joker” by Alan Watts , who understands the Game now and is totally relaxed about life), more approachable, wiser and actualized
Keep it up!
Cheers
The German Mystic
Yann says: (Hearing your blog june entries), don’t worry too much about enlightenment. i imagine it’s swell, but don’t forget that, by dreaming avatars, God wants to experiment finitude, to change from lonely oneness. God is dreaming a world, not an ashram (also a world may include ashrams). Even porn is interesting for God, I suppose.
Bjarke says: Motherfucking sexyyy..!
Ahswn says: Shirt is so hot!
outlandish says: Shirt and beard are badass.
Glad to see you back and dishing out wisdom.
steph says: You are letting us know you’ve come to a point where you can claim to know reality. I’m always suspicious of people making such statements. All you do is letting us know “your” perception of reality. I can sense you are still thinking and overthinking. There a million scenarios what the ultimate reality could look like, and psychedelics won’t get you there. How could they, if you are using a tool that is part of your reality? It would just feed into the illusion. Why is it so difficult for people to accept that we don’t know the ultimate truth? We could say…I don’t know and I just have a gut feeling about something, that maybe I’m everything and nothing at the same time? Why make a science out of it? Accept the bliss of being innocent and not knowing and loving life for what it is? Then you can rest in that place and create whatever you desire.
Dave says: Steph,
I think you make a very good point. I really enjoyed this video, but I found myself having a similar passing thought; I tend to think Leo’s intentions are right, and what he feels about consciousness strikes a chord with me too, but can we really know? How can we know whether our experiences, whether via deep meditation, psychedelics, or another path, just validate our preconceived notions as opposed to point at the absolute truth? It would be refreshing to hear Leo acknowledge this a bit more.
Dani says: Dig the new look!
Johan says: Leo says that you cannot survive unless you are selfish. That is Leo trying to reinforce his own belief so that he feel less shitty about selfishness. What is more correct is that Leo can very well survive being unselfish but he dont want to becasue he want other stuff and this makes him believe that it’s necessary. Soften up and listen. It is actually this function in him (amongst others) that is pulling him back from his wonderful experiences. It might be the nature of drug induced enlightenment experience that creates this very unfortunate state of mind. Leo actually realised that he is everyone and he still use the word selfish to describe himself. Foolish. Please correct yourself and use something like self love, respect or something more suiting for a man with this knowledge. Look how you make yourself into a clown of wise men! See that loving others is loving yourself. This attitude you gained from this is the worst combination there is. I’ve been thru it. It’s hard to find real compassion for yourself (in others) in an unselfish fashion when you already know that all kindness you show to others is love for yourself. Love you LEO!
Anuj says: Leo is right here.You can’t survive without selfishness.
Is there any work in this world which is without selfishness?
Not at all.
If u think, picking a packet from the road and putting it into the dustbin is not work with some selfish motive.Then u r wrong.You did that because u love the cleanliness,u like to be good guy(society’s notion).
Just consider two guys A and B.”A” likes cleanliness and picked that packet while “B” doesn’t like to be good guy or doesn’t like cleanliness and that’s why B didn’t put the packet into dustbin.
Both did what they like.That is selfishness.
It means u can’t get rid of Selfishness.Then what to do??How to make it non existent?
Now try to get the point.
When we say something doesn’t exist,it has two meanings whether the thing doesn’t really exist or the thing exists but it is so big,all pervading,that we ourselves are it’s part but didn’t realize it.
Selfish word is from self.Self means thinking about just own.Problem is when the word “self” includes ‘u’ only,but if it includes ur family,then u r ”Family-ish”.If it includes other persons,then u r “World-ish”.If it includes the whole universe then you are the”benevolent-ish”
Thus, instead of thinking about getting rid off Selfishness,just increase the radius of your swarth.
Christine Kunert says: Hi Leo,
I sympathize with your struggle trying to use words to explain things. But I think you do a brilliant job. I would like to offer a suggestion you might find helpful. When I am explaining consciousness to others, I make a distinction between the medical model and the spiritual model. The medical model says a person is conscious if they are awake, alert and oriented to time, place and person. The spiritual model says consciousness is everything, and all things are a manifestation of consciousness. When a person loses consciousness, they only lose it from a medical perspective. From a spiritual perspective they lose the AWARENESS of consciousness. Consciousness, as you say, cannot be lost; however, our our communication with it can be disconnected.
Jeff says: Is this a test? haha.. “Do U”, my brother! What we think of you is none of your business! That would imply our judgement or expectation of you. Whatever makes you happy, makes me happy. Welcome back. I look forward to further expanding my conscious. Your work has completely transformed my “self” over the past six months. Much love for you, my Brother!
Keith says: For most of my life I lived inside my mind. I became conscious of this and I realized I was trying to process the past without knowing how. When I realized I was doing this I also realized that the past wasn’t real, it was only in my mind. The things that had happened had long been over and I was keeping it alive in my mind. I then asked myself what was real. I knew the past wasn’t real and I knew the future couldn’t be real because they both exist in your mind. That’s when I realized what consciousness is because the present moment is the only thing that’s real. It’s weird knowing what consciousness is and not being conscious to it. It’s like your out of touch with reality. I fear becoming conscious to consciousness but my drive for love and truth is greater than that fear. I appreciate your work because it gives me the knowledge I need to go down the path I was meant to go down.
Max Gron says: Why is Leo attacking materialism? What if the materialists are right? It might be true what a materialist thinks. This attacking on beliefs is neurotic, if you want reality then just live in reality and stop denying matter, physical things are real.
I see no basis for psychology at war with a belief, nobody does that, only Leo Gura.
Max Gron says: Sceptical of the large scope of science, to hell with that! I prefer to be a neuroscientist and study the brain/consciousness itself. I’m already conscious, but I can increase my consciousness. Without further ado I learned new things from Leo. I interpret science as explaining and predicting phenomena, rather than describing objective reality. Leo knows nothing about science, science isn’t describing the physical as with the brain, but explaining and predicting, through concept or theory, the phenomena of the brain, that’s how it should be evaluated. I’m a pragmatist in anti-realist philosophy of science, science makes no claim to the physical, it explains and predicts what’s natural and not what’s objective fact. Computer images of a brain predict the emerging patterns of brain activity, not the other way around, it’s reality of phenomena and not materialist paradigmatic science.
Max Gron says: In being enlightened already I stopped the sciency philosophical thinking and the secularist paradigm, which includes philosophy of science, and materialism and physicalism, that automatically not means I know but am capable of knowing how to be good, how to have life all figured out and that’s the thing, my life is mostly eating, sleeping, and drinking wine, how deep can it get? The pseudo-profundities of life is talking merely about my ordinary life of paying the bills, there’s nothing spiritual going on, can’t you see life is relatively simple? It’s just a primitive existence of drinking coffee, showering yourself, keeping the house clean, and grooming. As for spirituality it sounds so plausible! It’s just a dumbed down existence of substance and meaning, it’s not, without contradiction it involves religious dictating or any dictating crap you want to believe. Can you imagine a life of dictators despite your religion being the dictator? It’s dictating against my will that’s the problem and not religion. In all this I’m conscious, I don’t listen to young man’s ancient”wisdom”, ancientness doesn’t apply to me, I’m merely in need of modern philosophy.
Max Gron says: What’s this past of mine of reflection against the teacher? What did I know about anything? The reality is I’m self-aware and from now I learned a little, grew a little from the humble bald man, if I was projecting and I know I’m guilty of this, it was projection on difficult people and on getting in situations and not projecting on the teacher, I’m meaning to speak of my frustrations at me being treated like a traitor and a goblin, why do people think I’m a monster? I’m tired of this pseudo-reality where everything is fine, everything is not fine, pleasure invites people to treat me like worthless vermin exactly like what happened to the first hedonist, who couldn’t see the consequences, since “bodily pleasure’s best and all pleasure’s good even if it arises from unseemly conduct”, am I the only one who wants to be the master of having a good time?
Max Gron says: Nothing’s going to be made better, and even with the possibility of neuroscience going nondual, since this world’s useless and a cause of despair, it and the associated full woke Buddhahood and doctors snipping your brain risk-free and you getting better, without there not being something wrong with your mind or brain or being forced to make such a science or medicine, is pie in the sky, such a thing won’t happen, and no one is going to proceed with these activities, it’s going to be dark clouds of a malfunctioning pill that doesn’t prevent people from being sick but has temporary and fast relief that makes you fast asleep, and these “magic” pills won’t function “perfectly”, nor will be advanced technology, but will replace surgery, just take a pill and it will solve all your problems, it’s going to be a dark, cold, slave-ridden future, there will be a dictator ruling everyone in a huge nation so big it’s the size of half the earth, and because it’s the future, he will do the opposite of what the future holds, e.g. he will be a conservative holding old-fashioned values, and will eat old-fashioned national dishes, dictatorship has always been this way and it always will, do you see that later in time things aren’t going to be better, they’re going to be equally bad to the whole history!? I’ve already overcome my frustration trying to have fun all the time, it’s okay to get upset or angry, which isn’t fun, and it’s okay to go through these sucky things, like paying taxes or an expensive bill. I think fun and having a good time iis a distraction from the large scope of consciousness talked about which is all these things, the fun and the no fun, so to have both would be my consciousness, not just being there to have fun, nobody takes that seriously, and now I finally grasped this abstract talk on the above video, ironically you can grasp consciousness, it’s done by being aware of what awareness is and memorising every word by thinking this teaching through, it’s painstakingly difficult, if you’re below 600 on the consciousness scale you’ll never know what the video’s talking about, thus at 600 I haven’t solved my problem, I need to sear through my awareness to see the other side invisible to the sleeping state. The answer is absolutely yes I’m taking the blue pill, and I’m asking, “why couldn’t reality go back into its beauty as I was when I was on the bus, aged 39, in the first place, and still be this beauty of life aside from the grind it’s become?”, the answer is absolutely not! Once reality’s ugly it never gets back to the same beauty again, instead it just tames itself gradually and adds a tag that if we act in such and such a way from then on, then this ugliness wouldn’t happen again, it’s not going to be the same beauty so beautiful as to not need any rule, it’s never the same again, so no, no surgery in the world is going to evolve to be a miracle work or any “marvel of modern medicine”, it’s going to devolve into a simple pill because people are lazy! They won’t in the future do any work, they’ll just be reliant on a drug to even fix their marriage! A number of people are going to do a lot of work in the future, but a good size of quarter of the world is going to be lazy and use pills for everything!
Maxiwrong says: Of consciousness, whatever that is, it tends to be being awake and feeling, with awareness, your body, not unlike being an ascetic, which is conscious, it takes a lot of energy to be “conscious”, stuck at a 990 I need to crank that consciousness to 1,000, narrowing my mind with meditation, contemplating which is something I do, as well as awareness based on love to love the torture, the holocaust, I know this stuff, this’ll make you 1,000% conscious for sure, I’m even “conscious” of eating the best foods, like a fancy beefburger, which only costs around $10, not the $1,000 of a shit burger with quail eggs, the burgers are not better at Hungry you know what, the burgers are better as gourmet burgers, at that burger shop on Waterloo Corner Rd, that’s where you get good burgers, to which I’m conscious what I eat, and “health”-conscious, gourmet food is healthy food, food that doesn’t make you sick. If there was nuggets of information of wisdom for the mod cons, I’m in, people pretend old wisdom is suited to our pampered modern lifestyles, come on, I’m a modern guy, I need modern wisdom. As it goes I’m not some dumdum listening to videos and winding up a Puritan or some idiot eating at McDonald’s, I’m a sensible down-to-earth guy who, through a custom fit of Leo’s teachings, takes all of this seriously.
Max Raoy Gron says: My higher consciousness/awareness only seriously grew on September 2024, still that dial’s stuck on a 999, and I’m trying to crank it to 1,000.
Max Raoy Gron says: Leo used to be an idiot, as the writer of first Corinthians (which I ignore) is an idiot, but trying to understand this stupid concept, it’s not thinking and reasoning, and it’s not understanding, abstract thinking, learning, or applying knowledge, therefore conscious people are idiots, or maybe not, I’m through with this concept, I’ll just be low consciousness like I used to be and do Leo’s stage orange and stage yellow low-consciousness videos, do you think I’m arguing? I’m not, I’m making a counter-argument to preserve my intellect. Furthermore, unexplained, Leo’s not like this anymore, thank goodness, he’s evolved to being more wrong to an atheist than ever, and I think God is a bearded giant who only exists forever in people’s minds, and is real.
Max Raoy Gron says: I have the awareness, and the awakening now to try again to understand this non-intellectual consciousness in Leo’s vid, I can still understand it, thus using my intellectuality over it, but not if it’s d’uh d’uh anti-intellectual, I want no part in it, anything that frustrates the intelligence or intellectual or intellect should all be thrown in the incinerator, my consciousness is at 999 1/2, so it really is taking that many, say, two, years for my consciousness to be 1,000 in the future, it was up to 98 before and even that took a long time for it to go to 100, then it was 600 if you can remember, then 900, then 999 as I was conscious enough then from September last month to do the practices and do the thinking, and the writing, and the worksheets, at 999 1/2 it’s even better, when I can with the only vid I wasn’t conscious of be aware of the “What Does Awakening Feel Like?” vid for the first time, yes, it’s not just idiotic being conscious and no, I won’t go back to my low-consciousness life. To make me even slightly more conscious I need the vid “Outrageous Experiments In Consciousness” to awaken me.
El Rio says: Somethings don’t lend themselves to being described by words.
But, perhaps instead of saying; “Consciousness is nothing” it would be more descriptive to say “Consciousness is No Thing”.
The difference is slight in wording, but widely different in meaning.