Leo Gura

But what you're overlooking is that oneness does not require that you experience my experience. You have set up that stipulation. Now you must realize that it's you who set up that stipulation, so undo it. Your fantasies about how oneness must be is getting in the way of realizing how oneness actually is. Oneness includes twoness and all the rest. I doesn't make sense because you're not awake. If it made sense, you'd already be awake and we wouldn't need to have this conversation.

A dark room retreat requires 24/7 darkness. People have done 30 day dark room retreats. Of course not solo. They had help from outsiders.

This is simply the dualistic nature of language & distinction. See my 3 part series about Understanding Duality, where stuff like this was resolved in great detail. "Spirituality" is used in two senses: relative and absolute. In the absolute sense, everything is Spirit. But in the relative sense we make a distinction between those who are conscious of Spirit and those who are not (the materialists). So even though a materialistic scientist is studying Spirit in this lab when he is doing his chemistry experiments, he isn't conscious that chemicals are Spirit. And so we say he isn't being spiritual. He has mistaken Spirit for matter. It is like that man who mistook a coiled rope in a dimly lit room for a snake.

You can't understand it without awakening. And it's too radical to explain to you verbally. You have to stop being a self to understand it. Your self-hood is getting in the way. Self-hood is the illusion. There simply isn't no such thing as a self. It's being imagined. What I'm telling you is: your birth is imaginary. You were never actually born, you simply believe you were.

I love that nostalgia feeling.

Yeah, the devil loves nothing more than to cloak itself in God. That is the devil's cleverest survival strategy.

Fruits and nuts will not be enough to sustain you. You will be extremely hungry and quit. It would be more reasonable to light-proof an entire bedroom plus attached bathroom, so you have more space to move around, sleep, and store food. Right now I pretty much sleep in a pitch black light-proofed bedroom. All the windows and even the door is totally blocked with special thick curtains. That would be the way to go about it. Logistical planning for retreats is very important. You need to address all practical issues ahead of time so you can fully focus on the retreat without distraction. You could even install a small fridge in your bedroom to hold pre-cut fruits, sandwiches, pasta salad, etc. You could stock up on beef jerky.

I was responding to your usage of that label.

Unconscious minds are divisive. Notice something: United Kingdom United States European Union People don't really understand what unity means.

Of course. This is a given. But non-government is even more corrupt. You police the government with your vote and political activism. By being a good citizen. That is democracy. If you shirk that responsibility then we get an oligarchy or monarchy. But then you will start to bitch and moan about being oppressed. But it was your apathy which allowed the oppression. Serious liberals are all about reducing systemic corruption. "Small government" does not solve the corruption problem, it simply outsources the corruption to cartels and giant corporations where they have zero accountability to the people. Corruption is not a government problem. Corruption is an ego problem. Devilry will happen through all possible mediums, public and private alike.

No it won't. You are part of the world. God helps those who help themselves. By shirking responsibility for collective systemic problems, you help cause them. The world only takes care of itself because other people do the heavy lifting for you while you obliviously enjoy the fruits of their efforts. This is why spirituality and politics need to be integrated. Political laziness is not a virtue.

@peanutspathtotruth Sometimes you'll need to take months between trips to fully integrate the insights and shifts. Allowing that time is important. You can't just do 10 back to back trips unless you are very experienced already.

@Bodigger You are taking government totally for granted. Everything you own is afforded to you by government. Otherwise it would be stolen and you would be killed. Government is not here to solve your personal problems. Government is here to set up a good environment for growth.

@ValiantSalvatore Like I said, it's not a function of time. If you try to reduce meditation to numbers like that, you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot, as you will overlook the most important aspect: quality. 10 minutes of quality meditation is worth more than 10 hours of poor meditation. Be very careful about pursuing consciousness mechanically or numerically.

Sorry, I don't buy that. As our environment changes due to technological advancements, the human will be less and less suitable and require further evolution. It's already happening. Natural selection is always culling those who aren't adapting to an ever changing environment. And our environment is changing faster than ever. There is no such thing as the peak of evolution. Evolution is relative to environment. If you move to Mars, you ain't gonna be at your peak. And humans on Mars will evolve accordingly. The geometry of the solar system doesn't need to change for this to occur. Evolution never stops or peaks out. It is relentlessly ongoing every second of every day.

@Truth Addict I'm trying to point you to something deeper that you can realize. But for that to work you have to be willing to open your mind beyond what you presently know. And you have to be willing to take such existential question as "Why is reality the way it is?" seriously. If you believe the question isn't worthwhile to contemplate, then you will get no answer and you will not even know what treasures you missed. It's like there's a pile of flawless diamonds buried under your bed but you are too incredulous to get a shovel and dig under your bed. I'm telling you guys there's a pile of diamonds here which you have not yet discovered.

There is no formula for awakening. You will only awaken if you awaken. No process can guarantee it. Judging from my own experience, 1 hour per day is not nearly enough. But it's not a function of brute time, it's a function of effort and quality of concentration. If you are serious about awakening, you should be doing week-long meditation retreats at least twice a year. And/or psychedelics and/or Kriya yoga.

Wherever you go, there you are. You can't run away from yourself.

Compare the size of a fresh apricot to a dried one.

That's all very natural. Students emulate teachers until they are finally ready to leave the nest and embark on their own. It might take 5 or 10 years for that to happen. But it will happen if you go deep enough into the work. You will become your own authority figure, grounded deeply in yourself as God. Don't expect that to happen in your 20's. Maybe around your mid-30's that will start to happen. It takes a long time for a man to find his grounding in life. It's a slow maturation process, like a finely aged wine.

I would not use them. The whole point of the trip is to face whatever comes up. If your protocol is sound, you shouldn't need them. But then again, if you're the sort of person who might freak out and do something dangerous like jump off a 20 story balcony, then you might want to have some laying around. But even just having them around will change your trip. Your tripping will be sloppy because in the back of your mind you will know that if things get serious you can escape. This can lead you to second guessing yourself and treating tripping too lightly. There's an important aspect of tripping where you know that once you've taken the substance, that's it -- you're all in. There's no escape. This helps the surrender process. It also helps you to think twice before tripping because you understand the gravity of the situation. This is no toy or joke. I would rather not have an escape hatch. But that's me. You might be different. To me, a large part of the growth I get from tripping is the seriousness of it. It's not a toy to me. And of course I learned this lesson the hard way: by going through some rough trips in the beginning. But I'm glad I did.

There is a deeper reason.

Inspiring story man! Keep rocking it. You're doing great for your age. Your desire and intention for awakening & love is the most important thing. As long as you keep that desire stoked in your heart, you will find your way. It just won't be a linear path. Life will have all sorts of twists and turns in store for you. When you find something that's truly important to you in life, latch onto it like a python and don't let go until life relents and gives you what you most desire. The beginning is the hardest part. It will get easier.

I don't know. You'll have to experiment.