Leo Gura

There are several aspects to balance. Yes, of course you'll have to focus and use a divide-and-conquer strategy for major life goals like family, relationships, career, enlightenment, etc. Which is not to say you can't cook several things using multiple burners. But the diagram wasn't really talking about that. The diagram represents how you will end up reconciling certain dichotomies which will inevitably come up for you in life. For example, how will you reconcile capitalism vs communism? Or success vs spirituality? Or using psychedelics vs not using psychedelics? The problem here is not merely one of how to allocate your time and energy. The problem goes deeper, in that you don't actually know what's right. For example, you probably don't know which areas of mysticism are wrong and which areas of science are wrong. That's gonna require reconciling.

Not necessarily. In this case, it sounds like there's an avoidance of socialization. Meditation could easily become a patching up of stuff too. For example, one might think, "I don't need a job. I'll just meditate all day." And that would be rather irresponsible unless you really know what you're doing. If you take a look at some of the most hardcore yogis, they're great at socializing.

@see_on_see I see too many folks here being epistemically cocky. Gotta humble them somehow. There needs to be a complete submission to EVERYTHING I BELIEVED ABOUT REALITY WAS WRONG.

Good, but keep in mind that 200ug is only the start.

@RossE That was only the tip of the iceberg. You've haven't seen the real God yet.

@Sukhpaal Be more social. But also keep meditating. Don't try to use meditation to avoid real-world action. That's misuse of meditation.

@Thanasi It's like you're trying to judge how great a wine is without ever having tasted wine. Taste a dozen wines first, then maybe things will become clearer.

@Bubba66 The self's purpose is survival, not truth or consciousness. You might as well ask, "Why don't people like shooting themselves in the head?" To pursue consciousness is to voluntarily kill yourself. You're not aware yet that that's what you're really embarking on here. If you become aware of it too soon, you'll stop. You still think it's just a cute metaphor. Wait till you discover that it's not a metaphor.

@unknownworld Go do a past-life regression therapy and find out what it's about. Spirituality is not a thing to speculate about. It's a thing to be empirically done. If you want to know what an apple tastes like, you must go eat an apple. Try taking 1000ug of LSD or 30g of mushrooms and see what happens. Then come back and report it to us. You are an individual right now, so not sure why it doesn't make sense. If you've had some direct consciousness, it's only been skin-deep.

@Dino D You've never seen the dog (because it isn't there). The problem is you keep telling yourself, "I've seen the dog." How do you know you're not a coffee table? Think about this issue of identity real hard. What determines identity?

@unknownworld You're getting lost in theory. You are not going to understand this by philosophizing about it. Sit down and OBSERVE yourself. That is the only way. You believe you exist. Now find yourself! What are you?!!!!!!

Now notice, that's all thought. You actually believe you're a thought. Which is the silly part of your logic. A knife does not know its a knife. A knife does not exist to itself. You say you are the perceiver, and yet when you look, no perceiver is ever found. Which means, you believe in a fairytale. If I told you I had a dog, and you said, "Okay, show him to me." And I responded, "Oh, I've never seen him. But I love him very much. He's in the house somewhere. After all, there's no way he could be nothing. That's silly. Can you imagine a Nothing-dog? Hahaha... how silly!" You'd rightly call me crazy.

Sure, those are all pretty standard facets of spirituality which have been practiced for millennia.

@d0ornokey Dude, you can overcome the fear of DEATH! What you're talking about is shallow peanuts compared to what true growth can conquer. Time to roll up your sleeves.

@d0ornokey What is your specific obsession?

@unknownworld Atman is Brahman, Brahman is Atman. You're getting ahead of yourself. Have a direct experience of Atman first. Then have a direct experience of Brahman. Then things will be clear.

@unknownworld Nonduality includes duality. Absolute Infinity subdivides in infinite ways. Universalized consciousness is individualizing and "living" through specific forms which are different creatures.

Just sit and do nothing. Do that long enough, and enlightenment will reveal itself. Consciousness is infinite. It is everything possible. It can enfold into anything, create virtual partitions of itself, and become anything. Consciousness seems to store memories holographically as part of its infinite evolution process.

@Elzhi Not to get too political here, but if you're passionate about this issue, there are ways to get involved. This could be a life purpose opportunity for some. Wolf-pac.com for example: As long as we avoid nuclear and climactic holocaust (which is iffy), this rise of nationalism should end up being a win in the long run as all the closed-mindedness and corruption is exposed and aired-out. There will certainly be destruction, but from destruction also comes progress and reform. An important part of your growth is to make peace with the possible destruction of the species.

@Mondsee Ideally, aware of awareness itself. Awareness itself is distinct from the things found in awareness. But any kind of awareness is good for a start.

It starts pretty intellectual because that's where you're at. Over the months and years it will become less intellectual and more being-based. That's exactly right, create a daily habit using a timer. Yes, waking up is a chore. You have no idea yet how much of a chore. Which is why hardly anyone wakes up. 1) No 2) Some of them could be. But most likely they aren't fully enlightened. They've probably had some deep mystical experiences and are more conscious than most people. But I doubt they're Buddhas. There is probably a huge range of shamans, from deluded ones to fully enlightened ones. The fully enlightened ones would probably be the ones who've spent thousands of hours just sitting and doing nothing.

@Mondsee Before you start the session, set a background intention of: AWARENESS! AWARENESS! AWARENESS! You're not there to daydream. You're there to be more aware. But in a passive way. If daydreaming, happens, that's okay. Let it be. But have a background intention for awareness.

@Martin123 Of course different people resonate with different methods. Just be careful not to trick yourself. This work is extremely emotionally taxing. So of course the mind will exploit this point to get you to stop doing the work. Your mind will come up with all kinds of excuses like, "Oh, I'm not resonating with this." or, "I'm already enlightened.", etc. But in the end, only you can know what's truly right for you. Just remember, there's a good reason why 99.9999% of the population isn't enlightened. And your mind probably thinks along the same lines as them. You're very likely to end up just like them unless you take extraordinary measures.

This is something you're need to make small bets into and see what develops. And you'd want to keep your mind much more open to the possibilities within this field besides the traditional positions.

@Outer Fun? Self-inquiry is brutal. You should feel like you're going insane. If you expect it to be like video games, you might as well not even start. Ask the questions in whatever language you want. Doesn't matter. They are not complicated questions. You're just making excuses to not do the work.