Leo Gura

@Caitwin The most useful thing would be to distinguish between dualistic philosophies vs nondual ones. If it's dualistic it can still have some nuts of wisdom, but it will also contain a lot of misguided things. If you're using impure sources you will waste a lot of time sorting the the truth from the delusion. Sometimes I start reading a book, see too much dualistic delusion, and just stop reading. Such an impure source is not worth the effort to untangle when crystal clear sources exist.

Be careful. Just because someone is a mystic or is enlightened does not automatically put them at Turquoise. The whole point of Spiral Dynamics is to differentiate between stages of development and awakening. They are not always correlated. Don't just assume that your favorite sage/mystic is Turquoise.

The mind is a very powerful tool. Precisely because it is so powerful it is easy to get lost in the labyrinth of one's mind -- an endless labyrinth of symbols and ideas which tend to validate themselves no matter how misguided they are. Using the mind properly requires serious training, otherwise it falls into gross delusions. Unfortunately almost nobody teaches how to properly use the mind. People either teach how great the mind is, or how terrible the mind is, but not how to use the mind wisely.

You are confused about who/what you are. This is how most normal people are. At the same time they identify with being the body, the mind, and also not that. They are unsure and confused. The mind plays these games where one minute it thinks its the body, another minute it thinks its a human, another minute it thinks its the voice heard in the head, another minute it thinks it was born, another minute it thinks its some kind of "soul", another minute it thinks its God, and so on. The purpose of self-inquiry is to become very strict with yourself and force yourself to confront this shell game that the mind plays. What are you REALLY? Not as a belief, but what the fuck are you? If you claim that you are real, then you must be able to clearly specify what is it that's real. The body? The voice? The memories of childhood? The feelings of pain? If we put a gun to your head right now, what is it that you fear will die? << That is the false self. Getting clear about the false self is just as important as discovering the True Self. You can't disidentify with something unless you first clearly realize that you're identified with it. You might be identified with your childhood memories and not even realize it. So you have to ask yourself very seriously, "Am I identified with my childhood memories? Is that what I actually am?" And so forth with any other possible identifications until you eliminate them all. What will remain is nothing, which is what you actually are.

@mandyjw If you have young kids who demand a lot of your time you may just have to focus on them for a few years until they are more independent and then return to serious spiritual pursuits. In the meantime you can study theory and maintain a mild daily practice of 30-60 minutes. You can also do a few yearly meditation retreats or psychedelic retreats. Sometimes in this work you must inch your way up. Be creative. Find ways which fit your existing obligations. But also, don't fool yourself into thinking that watching Borat is spiritual work. You must be brutally honest about whether the techniques you're using are actually raising your consciousness.

The ego-mind will most-definitely misinterpret truth. Ignorance cannot help being ignorant. You can count on that. By understanding this you will be a little less likely to do it. But you will still not be immune. You must be careful and study many high-quality sources, and think for yourself. Also understand that mistakes are part of the process. No one walks the spiritual path without making some mistakes. Trial and error is how we grow. The key is to stay vigilant enough to correct yourself. You need to have enough theory under your belt to know when you've veered off course. It's okay to be a bit deluded here or there so long as you know what the right course ultimately is.

@Caitwin Not a fan. There are much better philosophies to read. Try Nagarjuna or Plotinus instead. Remember, there is A LOT of dualistic delusion within Western philosophy, so be careful not to waste your time wading through bullshit. Go straight for the highest nondual teachings. You can easily spend 20 years reading Western philosophy and still not get any closer to Truth. With that said, there is the occasional gem and I still encourage everyone to think through philosophical questions for themselves. Philosophy is not meant to be read or believed, it must be DONE! -- as in: contemplate everything for yourself. The power of philosophy lies more in the questions than in the answers. If you are not contemplating for yourself, you are not actually doing any philosophy.

@MM1988 There is skill and there are principles to dating, just like there is with golf, tennis, driving a car, or meditation. You are framing what I said as "This is so inauthentic and artificial". But once you actually internalize the skill of proper texting, it will become authentic and natural. Every skill you learned was at one point inauthentic and artificial, from mathematics to reading to writing to typing on the computer. I am not saying you need to keep a file of canned text messages. Once you understand the principles of texting with a girl, you can generate an infinite number of spontaneous texts. Without learning this skill, your text messages will suck and you will lose girls by committing stupid mistakes which only years later will you understand why. People expect to be good at sex and dating "naturally" without any deliberate practice. Because love is supposed to be "natural". This is a silly double-standard. Nowhere else in life do you adopt this attitude. If you want to be good at something you must train and recognize principles. Girls will appreciate it when you don't creep them out with your texts.

@mandyjw This is why most people will not get enlightened. It's too radical and it requires serious focus. You will not wake up without scheduling some week-long retreats every year. Waking up requires intense and prolonged focus. 60 minutes of focus will not do it. Or try psychedelics. That's the most realistic way for ordinary people to get a taste of awakening. It's fast amd effective, unlike meditation. With all that said, you can still maintain a daily meditation habit.

It requires a change in state of consciousness. The sense of I is more than just a feeling, thought, or belief. It's an entire state of being such that you know no other possibility. Changing that state requires a lot of concentration practice, or kriya yoga, or psychedelics.

Both The first time I went to a club I went solo. Then I quickly got some wings. They were helpful for something me the ropes and venues.

Use responsibly

I was only talking about pre-sex communications. Once you have sex with her, then you can text her more seriously. You must distinguish between pre-sex and post-sex behaviors. They are very different. Pre-sex, while you're dating, there must be some gaming going on. After she falls in love with you, you can cut the gaming. You don't need to manipulate her too much via text. The key is not to display neediness and desperation. The biggest mistake made with pre-sex texting is that the guy fucks it up by trying to say too much, trying to be too edgy/cocky/funny. Trying to attract her via text doesn't work. So actually my advice is to not game girls via text. Use texting mostly to handle dating logistics laced with bits of humor. Make your texts totally non-needy and unimportant. Don't be sending her long letters via text. Never try to logically convince her of meeting you. All that crap will blow you out very fast. Here are good kinds of texts pre-sex: Hey gurl, let's grab a coffee. Coffee! Lets go Saw this shirt at Walmart and thought it would be perfect for you [insert pic of ugly shirt] Meow... Moo Hey dork Let's hang out When you free this week? Let's do something this week How's the recovery going? (from last night's club/bar) You're the weirdest gurl I met last night. I want to build you a mansion out of Legos and stock it with exotic baby animals. Reading a book Chillin by the pool Making juice Clipping my toe nails, thought you should know Trimming my nose hair, thought you should know Going to club XXXXX tonight. You? You remind me of a dog I just saw You seem great and all but I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with you. I bet you snore like a pig. I want to stick a scorpion in your pants Hope this isn't too forward but I mailed you this basket of puppies [insert pic of basket of puppies] A few of them might arrive dead, I was too cheap to swing for overnight shipping That kind of stuff. Keep it lite and chill. Zero investment is key. This is the extent of pre-sex texting. NEVER, EVER get sexual via text unless you've already had sex with her a few times. It comes off way too creepy and needy. Act like you don't care about sex.

@Paul92 Paul as a biographical, biological, physical entity is constructed fiction. A narrative. But there is a True You -- the True Self/No-Self/Nothingness/Void/God. Your true nature is not human but God. You are God thinking it is Paul. So when you realize that you are actually God, you will also realize that God has Will. God has infinite Will, in fact. Paul's will is a tiny splinter off God's infinite Will. So in a sense you will discover Paul was never really in control. But then you will also discover that since you are God, you control and create everything. As God, you have Will which you can use to create. So literally God allocates a tiny percentage of its infinite Will to this body of Paul's so that it could create a life. As a human your creative capacities are not infinite, they are limited so long as you are in a human form. If you exit the human form your creative power will be infinite, you can literally materialize physical objects out of thin air. But at this point you're not a human any more, you are the Godhead. You are that which you were before you were born. In the end, everything is God's choice. But the kicker is, you're God! But simultaneously you're human None of this is to be believed. You must discover if it is true through consciousness practices. The more conscious you become the more of God's Will will be at your disposal. Eventually you and God will merge into one such there will be zero distance between your lifting a finger and God willing it so. The definition of a devil is someone who thinks he is separate from God. The devil seeks to separate itself from God and rule using his own will. But the devil is always just a partition within God. So the devil is tricking itself into thinking that it is in control. Eventually the devil must surrender control and accept that it was God all along. This merges the devil back into God as if the separation never even happened. That's nonduality in a nutshell. Nonduality polarizes into duality and then depolarizes back into nonduality. God is the doing non-doer

@Jj13 A spiritual university is called an ashram or a monastery.

Sounds like there's a catch

Enough bullshit.

Lol Blind leading the blind on stilts off a cliff.

@Tom T See my book list, Paranormal section.

@now is forever A bank robbery is a life-threatening situation. Police use overwhelming force in order to make sure people don't fuck with them. Which maintains the peace you enjoy. If you pull out a gun in a public area, you should expect to get shot by police. This is not inhumane. But obviously the police need to be well-trained not to use excessive force, especially against minorities. But if someone is waving a gun around in public, shooting him is not inhuman. If he has no gun, then he shouldn't be shot but tazered. It's not so complicated. It just requires good police training and accountability.

@ThomasT Awesome! Glad you found God. Not sure why you needed to fly all the way to Mexico though. Bufo ceremonies are done in Europe all the time. Here's one: https://www.psilohuasca.com I know Octavio Rettig travels to Europe as well.

Awwww... Thanks a lot ya'll

@How to be wise Which is why most of society is not enlightened and never will be. Most enlightened people just sit around and do nothing. You don't see enlightened people in the military or police force or 99% of other basic jobs. If everyone got enlightened tomorrow, society would completely collapse, worse than a nuclear war. In practice, enlightened people depend on the rest of society functioning unconsciously, in the same way that the police depend on criminals committing crimes. Enlightenment does have a certain elitism to it. It cannot really work unless society is advanced enough to support it. Or unless you are totally off on your own living in a cave. But even then you need someone to bring you food. In practice what happens is that an enlightened person is so rare the he can survive off his followers and fans. And also, in practice, if you are conscious enough to not suffer, you will be resourceful enough not to place yourself into a job where you have to shoot people. Then again, you can still probably be an enlightened police officer if you really wanted. I don't see why that necessarily requires suffering. There's no real contradiction shooting a bank robber. You shoot him because he's breaking an important law. Your job in this case is to defend society against devils, which ultimately helps society to awaken.

@Space That is the million dollar question. There is no easy answer. Becoming financially comfortable whilst starting from scratch is very challenging, requiring creative thinking, strategy, focus, discipline, hard work, vision, and a bit of luck. In practice you will have to claw your way to the top using whatever means available. One very helpful piece of advice is to keep your living expenses as low as humanly possible. At least for the first 5 years of your LP, until you get established. Another possibility is to move to a very cheap part of the country, or even a 3rd world country as you develop your skills. Again, this is to keep your expenses as low as possible and buy yourself time to build skills. Another possibility is first build some more marketable skills which can help you pay the rent. For example it's possible to learn some programming skills, which tend to be well-paid. Another possibility is to work a relatively high-wage job for a year or two in order to save up a nest egg. There are some jobs which require zero experience and zero education but still pay well. Another possibility is to get a lower job but within your chosen field/industry. For example if you want to direct movies, rather than trying to get hired as a director (which is virtually impossible), try to get hired as an assistant to the director. Then you can prove yourself to the director and he might be willing to hire you in the future as a producer. Etc. Finally then you will become a director. Another possibility is to get a part-time job which allows you time to work on building your skills at home. Etc. You have to be very creative, opportunistic, and flexible when starting out. I spent 4 years building an entirely unrelated business to earn enough money to finally follow my LP. It was a huge detour and not at all easy or pleasant. But it was worth it.

@Annoynymous If it wasn't you could not be here asking this question.