Leo Gura

Enlightenment doesn't make you perfect. I read of a modern-era Zen master who sexually molested female students. He was over 100 years old! He would also make advances on the wives of his married male students. It got so bad that after years of this, the students finally had to convene a meeting and draft a formal letter asking him to stop. He was 108 years old and meditated since he was like 12 years old. 100 years of meditation may not be enough to unwire the horny Japanese businessman out of the monk. Lol

There are various levels of Samadhi one can hit during meditation. These are various degrees of merger with external reality.

Morning is ideal because it affects how you act throughout the day. Night is worst because you will run out of time or be so tired some days that you will skip.

@tryingforfreedom Ask yourself what meaning literally is. What is meaning made out of?

Wait... Why are you still seeing him? That's a big no-no.

http://www.actualized.org/articles/what-women-want-in-a-man

The only way to develop social skills is to actually socialize -- with real people -- frequently for months and years on end. Then, on top of that, you can layer in some books, theories, tips, techniques, etc. But without that foundation, you're screwed. So start thinking about how to be around more people more of the time. A common vehicle for young guys to be more social is through pickup. Or college activities. Or perhaps you'll decide that you don't want that, and you just want to remain anti-social. That's an option too.

Your question is extremely vague. Try rephrasing and being 10x more specific about your situation, otherwise you'll get bad advice.

If you have to ask a question like that, then you're probably not ready to start. Business requires a fierce sense of direction and initiative. If you have nothing you're itching to create, then you're dead in the water. Serious business people are always on the lookout for new ideas to create and bring to market. Get in touch with your inner creator first.

Zen has modeled the stages towards full enlightenment as so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Bulls You have a LONG way's to go, grasshopper, so make yourself comfy

What you are is even more primitive than space. Space is in the right direction, but even space is a function of mind. Space occurs within you. So then, what are you?

Emptiness is the quality of the True Self. The True Self is a field of empty, formless, awareness. This pure awareness is what you actually are. Meaning is an illusion created by the overactive mind. Meaning is meaningless and you don't need it. BEING > meaning. Being is true. Meaning is false, because it is actually being masquerading as something it is not. Meaning is ike the mirage of an oasis in the Sahara.

Setbacks usually cause me to re-assess my goals, cut all the fat, tighten my priorities, and get even more serious about my aims. The biggest setback I had was 2 years ago with my legal case in Toronto. I shot a video during that experience here: http://www.actualized.org/articles/staying-hungry I used that event to light a fire under my ass and I accomplished more in the last 2 years than possibly ever. Most of Actualized.org's success was built during this time.

Excuses!!! If I can meditate for 800 days straight, so can you. Noise is not an impediment to meditation. You can meditate while watching TV.

The question can be answered this way: You'd be very hard-pressed to meet a guy who's attained enlightened and regretted it. This question is kinda like a little kid asking, "Is sex worth it?"

If you're seriously interested in enlightenment, I wouldn't try to go for it through Gurdjieff or Ouspensky. Their methods and understanding is very rude compared to what's available. In the end, they were dabblers. For their time period it was nice, but 21st century spirituality has really advanced.

This book is definitely for "heart-centered" emotional people, not computer programmers, hehe.

@Dhana Choko Yes in that "you" can't directly cause the enlightenment to occur, but I really don't see this a being much different than say getting hired for a great job. You can't directly force someone to hire you. But you can certainly take the actions necessary to get hired, if not today, then next week. The practical danger with saying that there's nothing you can do, is that it makes people stop trying, expecting enlightenment to happen through some kind of blind luck. This is NOT how serious people get enlightened. Serious people undertake a serious seeking and eventually the seeking gets dropped and enlightenment dawns spontaneously. But that's not to say that serious seeking wasn't necessary. It's part of the total process. In general what happens is that once the person becomes enlightened he likes to say the whole journey was unnecessary, but I think that's a bit unrealistic and unhelpful to those who aren't enlightened yet. That kind of advice is good for people who have been seeking for 10 years and can't stop seeking. Then you tell them to drop the seeking because it's become an obstacle.

Just focus on your own objectives and what you know is healthy, and the rest will take care of itself. Unhealthy stuff and people will fall away naturally as you get more involved in your own work.

If you're looking for a pragmatic answer, the answer is, it's highly variable. Some people take decades, some people do it one weekend. I've met a lady who got enlightened in one weekend. There are so many variables: your openmindedness, the degree of your intent, the quality of guidance you get, your childhood upbringing, your genetics, and even pure blind luck! With quality guidance, high levels of intent, and lots of sitting, you could reasonably expect something like 2-3 years. But don't let that limit you. Whenever you actually sit down to do enlightenment, intent to become enlightened RIGHT NOW!

I'll talk about this in a video. Enlightenment is what allows you to start doing true self-mastery work, because for the first time in your life you realize what the Self is. The ego-mind rarely dies after enlightenment. The mind is so strong it sticks around for decades after, requiring much work to disassemble. I'll talk about the various types of enlightenment in a video too. These are very deep topics and not easy to discuss.

@Dhana Choko Well, you can also read books about people who've won the lottery. Doesn't make it a wise strategy if you care about increasing your wallet. People who are seriously enlightened have one thing in common: they all invested 1000s of hours sitting. It's silly to assume you can avoid that. There is WAY more to enlightenment than just getting enlightened. So your time will be well-invested. The real work only begins with enlightenment, lol. There are at least 8 different types of enlightenment to be had. Zen masters who meditate for 8 hours a day for 80 years still report new discoveries and insights. It basically never ends.

I've met cool people at spiritual/meditation retreats and workshops. Don't expect too many hot girls there though, hehe. That would be WAY too convenient!

It's shocking how dead-on this description fits me: http://personalityjunkie.com/the-intp/ Lol, check!

Yes, it's a common thing. Just be mindful of it in the moment as it is occurring and observe yourself acting like a chimp. Prepare to feel depressed and pissed off when you realize that enlightenment will be end of that chimp inside you who thinks it's cool or special or better than all the other chimps. That chimp is an illusion. The whole reason you're after enlightenment is a lie. It will never happen. The chimp cannot be enlightened.