Leo Gura

The real danger you should be concerned about is staying under-developed. I know folks who got enlightened in their early 20s. So if anything, you're behind the ball. If our society had any decency, everyone would be fully enlightened before they finished high school.

Probably not, although who knows. I would guess one needs a basic level of intelligent capacity to do this work. One has to be smart enough just understand what is being pointed at. 1) It can be a tool to reach the realization that everything is an illusion. Or you can just do it to function smoother within the illusion. 2) Why wouldn't I? Everyday life is identical to enlightenment.

@laurastarla Good! All of that monkey-mind is part of your process. Stay with it. Keep investigating WHAT AM I? WHAT IS REALITY? Yes, you're in over your head. But that's how it is. Have faith in your intent to discover the truth. If 5-meo doesn't do it for ya, so what? It's just one tool, one experience. Why make such a big deal out of it? You don't need to trust anything. Just keep your mind open as you go through life, and be curious.

@whiterabbit Nothing is a prerequisite for enlightenment. You can get enlightened sitting on the toilet reading a magazine. If you don't like the way I teach it, feel free to do it your way. I am not an ideologue and I am not here to convince you of anything. I'm merely sharing what I've discovered through my own work and 1000s of hours and tens of thousands of dollars of research across dozens of highly experienced sources. Rather than debating, you might be better served by actually sitting down and doing even 1 hour of the practice suggested, to taste the results for yourself. Beware that the one who doesn't get it -- and is the biggest bullshitter -- might be you. After all, you are the whole problem.

@Mattylonglegs Sounds like you're describing classic Kundalini energy arising. It can get intense. Might want to study up on it. But also, don't get distracted by energy arising. Your goal is beyond all that. Energetic releases are a good thing. They purify body and mind, enabling both to operate smoother and at higher levels of consciousness. It works like psycho-spiritual detox. The cleaner your engine, the better it will run. Just don't expect the cleansing process to pretty or pleasant.

@Mattylonglegs All par for the course. Keep working through it. Check out my vid called The Dark Side Of Meditation if you haven't already. Best tip for overcoming sleepiness is meditate after a short nap.

@whiterabbit Sit down and contemplate for 100 hours straight and discover for yourself what happens. Every great master has spent huge amounts of unbroken time in meditation or contemplation. This should be obvious enough if you've done any kind of serious spiritual practice, or hung around people who have. I am not here to make logical arguments. All logic is illusion. Any logic I use in communicating with you is purely for your benefit. I hold myself to no logical standard because all logical standards are groundless and arbitrary. Logic is a game. The sooner you can drop logic and all expectations that people maintain logical coherence, the better off you'll be. I am not here to make a logically coherent model of enlightenment. That is impossible anyway. I am here to practically guide people. Of course the Self experiences the self. The problem is, you're not actually conscious of that when you start this process. That's something you must discover. I framed it the way I did so as to seed doubt in the reader. Yes, your Mom and Dad are you. But that's just an fantasy for you right now. So I'm not going to speak to you as though its true for you. I'm going to speak to you from within your place of delusion. When you actually interact with your Mom or Dad, you DO NOT perceive them as you. If you did, you'd already be enlightened, in which case you'd no longer need guidance for enlightenment.

A visual sensation might influence a thought, but that's not what's being investigated here. We're investigating what is perceiving sensations. Can a thought perceive a sensation? Can a sensation perceive another sensation? Take a close look. How is perception happening? How is it even possible in theory? What would a perceiver even be when all there are are perception? Focus is focus. Yes, focus happens, but this is not what I meant when I said "superior". I was referring to an existential superiority. For example, is red existentially superior blue? No. Is color superior to sound? No. Is your hand superior to a book? No. Is your body superior to a tree? No. How then, can you identify with any one thing over another? Notice, the only way that can happen is if you create a tacit heirarchy of sensations, where you basically say, "Okay my body is above that tree. And my mind is above my body. And I am above everything. I own everything." Except what is that thing which sits at the top of this hierarchy and claims to "own" everything? Could it be that there is no such thing, and that the hierarchy is really a fantasy? Take a look. Is there a hierarchy within the field of sensations? Or the field utterly democratic, everything co-arising from who-knows-where?

@Vladz0r It takes several years to really hone in on your values. You don't need to get them perfect. Just do the best you can for now, and then re-evaluate them at least once a year as you get to work implementing your life purpose. Clarity will come as you grow and do work. This course is a launching point. All of this stuff has to be implemented and practiced.

Notice, all of this is just more ego. THERE IS NO YOU! And there's certainly no you to kill you. This is just silly. So stop pretending like you exist to be destroyed. There is nothing to destroy and no one to fight. So if you're gonna pursue enlightenment, do it with a calm manner, without the drama. It will be a lot easier and quicker. The drama is what enlightenment is supposed you relieve you of. So why not start right there, rather than kicking and screaming the whole way? Sit and enjoy your self-inquiry. It's not like you're being asking to go mine coal for 8 hours a day. All you're being asked to do is sit and look. This isn't some sort of epic Hollywood struggle. Finishing high school was harder than getting enlightened. So keep things in perspective, and stay calm and carry on.

@philosogi You have a silly conception of enlightenment. Nothing changes. All emotions remain. All enlightenment is, is the realization that you never existed. Everything else remains. Nothing is gained. Nothing is lost. Enlightenment is exactly the same as non-enlightenment. Enlightenment is a shift in perspective, nothing else. All emotions that ever occurred, occurred without ego. The problem is you don't realize it yet.

The only people who get banned are those who start mudslinging contests or have an axe to grind. Genuine dialogue -- conducted in a civil and intellectually charitable manner -- is allowed. Don't turn yourself into a martyr, as if this place is North Korea. If you're seeking a place with no rules, good luck finding that anywhere on planet Earth.

@Hunter Arrington A million times fewer than have died engaging in default egoic ways of life. The danger is not enlightenment. The danger is your current low-consciousness lifestyle. People too easily overlook the toxicity of the default position. You're like a lobster who's found himself inside a simmering pot of water. And you're debating the dangers that might await you if you open the lid and crawl out.

Red herring! Go work on enlightenment. If you happen to die getting enlightened, we promise to shed a tear for you

Notice what this is: You avoiding emptiness. It's kinda hard to solve a problem by avoiding its solution.

Yes, that's exactly what it means: doing what means the most to you. That will turn into altruism. Don't worry too much about it. That point is now! Start practicing every day to master your chosen domain. As you develop valuable experience, you will be able to market it. Without experience or know-how, you've got no career capital, so you're of no use to anyone, so why should they pay you? Would you pay me if I came to you and said: "I know nothing, I can't help you with anything, now give me money and a nice position!" No. It's a tool. You can use it to feed a superego, or you can use it to develop a great career without being attached to it. I talk about the importance of detachment in life purpose in the course. Yes, it could slow down your enlightenment work. Then again, really think through your life plan practically. How will you feed yourself? Unless you plan to be homeless and begging for food, you will have to do some kind of work, and that work will eat up most of your day. Enlightenment won't excuse you from work one bit. It's not some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card. Mundane reality still matters and it will punish you harshly for not planning accordingly. The pursuit of your purpose must be strategic and pragmatic. If you cannot sustain it, then what good is it? Your mission is to CREATE a sustainable way to do your work. Whatever that means. The path may not be direct. It may be winding. I had to sell my soul and work in a business I didn't like for 4 years before I could get to the point where I was able to do Actualized.org. It wasn't easy. I had to be very creative and insistent about realizing my purpose. As far as making Youtube videos goes, that's a very crowded marketplace these days. You may need to look for greener pastures. I get the sense that you're not thinking creatively enough. You won't generally succeed through imitation. You gotta bring something new to the table. Rewatch the video about The Purple Cow. Where is your Purple Cow? How are you gonna bring massive value to people?

@actualized1 It is a personal preference in the end. I was talking about MY preference for physical books. You might feel otherwise. The biggest problem with Kindle-style books is that you can't flip through them or find the right sections easily. And you have no idea the size of the book or chapter you're reading.

@John Flores Sounds like you'd get a real kick out of NN-DMT.

@ajasatya It handles any life purpose. If you're passionate about becoming a spiritual teacher, you can use it for that. That's basically what I used it for.

@ajasatya What does that mean?

Good questions! I'll try to briefly address them here: You'll never know if you can trust your mind. You've always got to stay vigilant to self-deception. This is your work here on Earth, human. Taking the course at 21 can be life-transforming, because once you're 30, you'll still have no idea what your purpose is without considering all the information presented in the course. I wish I had this course when I was 16. I would be killing it right now. Of course that slob has a Zone of Genius deep within. He's just got many layers of toxic habits and social conditioning to undo. Can he undo it? Of course. Would I bet my money on it? Hell no! I would never bet on a lazy person. But if you ARE that lazy person, you've got no choice but to bet on yourself. Not too long ago, I was a lazy, ineffective, TV-watching, sugar-eating, porn-thriving, couch-nesting guy. It's a hell of a thing to outgrow. But it's totally doable. But you need a purpose first. No, not necessarily. Your life purpose might simply be to make the world's greatest candy and put smiles on kids faces. And even if that was the case, the important part is EXACTLY HOW you're going to be increasing consciousness. "Increasing consciousness" is so generic that it has no bite. You need to be more specific. There are 1000 ways to increase consciousness. Well... the course goes into great length on this point, with various exercises. As a quick rule of thumb, if you life purpose can't make you cry when you visualize it, it's probably too weak. But of course, that assumes you're emotionally developed enough that you can actually weep tears of joy. Many people are so disconnected from their emotions they cannot. In which case, that's something to self-actualize on. A lot of this was directly addressed in the course. Your area of master is the thing you could be fascinated enough to learn for at least 10 years. Once you're clear on your purpose, get to work on it as much as you can! It's the most high-value activity you could do besides maybe becoming enlightened. So all time you invest elsewhere is sub-optimal. Your purpose shouldn't be any one project, like exploring a particular galaxy. It should be more general. It's about the emotional impact you want to have on other people or in the world-at-large. So in this case, your life purpose would be something like: "I share new natural discoveries with people." Or maybe, "I explore uncharted environments." And that is something which is technology-independent. You can find a way to do it now, even if you're never able to visit another galaxy. If the opportunity presents itself in 30 years for you to visit another galaxy, then you'll seize on it. Otherwise you will find a way to still fulfill your purpose using current technology. This purpose is flexible enough to allow you to become: A paleontologist An astronomer A naturalist An astronaut A space entrepreneur A biologist A geologist A photographer A writer A virtual reality designer Etc. Your domain of mastery, your top values, and your top strengths will help you narrow that list down a lot.

Be the tortoise, not the foolish hare. The hare will lose in the end. You can't even conceive yet what will be lost. Hares are average. Tortoises are rare.

No, the sneakiness here is the excuses and distractions being made to avoid doing the exercises. Just do the exercises and you will progress very well. All rationalizations for why the exercises aren't good to do, or can't possibly work, are just distraction. Don't get so hung up on avoiding the mind that you fall even deeper into mind. Steady practice is the key. Debating whether or not to do practice is a trap. If you do the practice, you will see results. And enlightenment itself is not the only measure of progress. Your awareness will grow A LOT even if you don't become enlightened here. You should be happy with any gains in awareness you make, no matter how small.

"A finger" is a sensation. "The body" is a sensation. How can one sensation "touch" another sensation??? Look more closely! There is no finger. There is no body. There is no you looking out at the world! And there is no "world" for that matter. All of those are conceptual constructions. Deconstruct them all. Direct experience has none of that. It's just raw, free-floating sensation.

These exercises are part of what I call self-observation or self-inquiry. The newbie mind needs something to start with. These exercises are that. If you're an experienced meditator, you can simply go into one-pointed concentration on the Self and break through that way. Or you can use these exercises to slowly deconstruct your mental models of reality until a breakthrough dawns. It's all just different ways of skinning the same tarsier