Leo Gura

Don't forget that seeking out pleasure is even more neurotic than seeking out pain. The reason people train in the worst conditions is so that they can handle the entire spectrum of what life has to throw at you. If you always train in gentle ways, your spirituality will be quite fragile.

@Richard Alpert Oh, the arrogance.

Ya'll need to learn to fucking listen, Rali included. A) That entire video he's rebutting was NOT about enlightenment! It was about the side-effects of meditation! Nothing I said there had anything to do with enlightenment. B) I never claimed those side-effects have meaning or value. In fact, I said to stay calm and carry on. C) I never took any ontological position regarding those side-effects. Keep in mind that your mind constructs all of "physical" reality. So to say that a wall is "real" while a demon is not, is rather moot. D) Clearly none of you have very much meditation or altered consciousness experience. E) Watch out for all these projections you make about me. (A rookie spiritual aspirant mistake.) F) Another rookie mistake: nitpicking spiritual explanations to create a false sense of rivalry or contradiction. G) Just because you understand enlightenment logically, doesn't mean you have any experience with all the other aspects of spiritual realms. As a rule of thumb, when you think you have some angle on this stuff that I haven't thought of, think again. You underestimate the depth and diversity of what we're dealing with here too easily. The understandings I communicate to you is maybe 1% of what I actually understand. Some of the things I tell you, you won't understand until you spend years digging deeper and doing the practice, Rali included. There is more to this stuff than merely no-self. You guys are failing the open mindedness test. How am I supposed to talk about demons in the future when you pull out the pitch forks or jump ship at the first uttered syllable? May your mind materialize a big fat demon who bites you in your mind-constructed ass for your arrogance

@Shaz Mushrooms don't raise blood pressure in my experience. Although you could always manage to freak yourself out on any psychedelic.

You cannot effectively change that which you don't first accept.

@electroBeam Organizing a retreat takes a LOT of experience. Many things can go wrong. I wouldn't embark on that unless you've attended at least half a dozen retreats yourself and studied how they work. For example, if someone trips and breaks his leg at your retreat, they could sue you for a million dollars if you don't take proper precautions. So be careful.

I'd focus more on working more strategically vs working harder. If you really get clear about your priorities, you can work half as much with twice the satisfaction and twice the long-term results. I find that people who are gung-ho on productivity are usually frying very small fish in life, which ironically makes them ineffective and neurotic.

Just stay vigilant. A problem that deep isn't gonna be fixed with just a few videos.

@Joel3102 Don't worry, you can fall back asleep very easily, at any time. In fact, that's almost 99% the case unless you make SERIOUS efforts otherwise. You haven't swallowed any pill. You're gonna have to fight tooth and nail for YEARS to break down that ego to the point of no return.

Read your own question above. Cause apparently you don't know it yet. You THINK you know it. But you're not conscious that that's just another thought.

@Xpansion So in other words.... you can -- with lots of careful investigation and hard work -- one day discover that you're not your thoughts

Just start doing meditation & self-inquiry every day, and stop all this ego-drama. There's nothing to figure out. You don't exist and never have. Either you want to become conscious of this truth, or not. If you do, thinking about it will not help. You just need to sit down every day and look at the fact that you don't exist. Don't expect it to feel good at first. You've built your entire life around this illusion. Get comfortable with confusion. It's a good thing here.

@Joel3102 You can do both.

@Wormon Blatburm Egos get scared easily. But the reality is, I've never met anyone who's enlightened who said, "Fuck man! I wish I could go back asleep to how I was." Instead they say things like, "I wouldn't go back for $1 million dollars", or "For the first time in my life I realized I was never happy until now." One of the problems of doing enlightenment from the Western neo-adviata perspective is that it doesn't have any support structures. If you do enlightenment from the Eastern traditions like Buddhism, Yoga, or Tantra, you get a much more supportive framework for enlightenment. Enlightenment is a beautiful and loving thing when seen properly. For the average Western materialistic ego, yeah, it's depressing. Because Western materialism is so stupid. Enlightenment is for people who really LOVE reality. If you hate reality, and love fantasy, then you'll have a hard time with it. From my perspective, there's nothing more beautiful than ego death.

Top reasons for not getting results: 1) No life purpose, no vision 2) No sense of priority or clear values 3) Not building one habit at a time 4) Expecting too much too fast 5) Working on too shallow, too materialistic goals (like money, sex, fitness) 6) No ability to create a practical action plan from abstract concepts/goals

@z2ludgfyyxnz I know a Zen monk here in the USA who travels around the country, living out of his van, from dojo to dojo training in Japanese swordfighting and gives personal massages to pay this meager bills. He seems happy. Very intelligent guy. He has a PhD in astrophysics, and used to work for Wallstreet. There are many creative ways to avoid the system.

@Xpansion So then what are you? Do you realize yet that whatever you think you are, that's a thought!

Good stuff. The ego likes to over-dramatize everything. Darkness only exists from the ego's point of view.

@Epiphany_Inspired Your friend will never know until she tries.

Well, if you expect a single technique to fix all your problems, then 10 hours per day is actually a small price to pay. If you don't want to invest 10 hours per day, then reduce your expectations appropriately. Otherwise it's like expecting to buy a $10 million dollar yacht for $1,000 dollars. The Buddha meditated to the brink of death for over 6 years. When he says not to over do things, that means: instead of meditating to the point of death, make it easy on yourself and only meditate for 10 hours per day. I never suggested to meditate for 10 hours per day. I only suggest it here because John is looking for 1 technique to solve all of life's problems. Meditation is actually capable of doing that, but not at 20 mins per day.

@John If you expect meditation to fix all your problems, A) that itself is a problem because obviously you're looking for an easy way out, B) it is possible but will require MASSIVE amounts of meditation. I would suggest two things: 1) Try meditating 1 week straight for 10 hours per day. Just so you get a true sense of what real meditation is about. 20 minutes per day is nothing. At 20 mins per day, meditation will not solve many of your real world problems. But at 10 hour per day, in a few years, your entire life could transform in unimaginable ways. 2) If you have tangible life goals like buying a house or getting a girlfriend, you work on those IN ADDITION to meditation. Notice how you are looking for an easy way out. Meditation is not such a way. But it is a very powerful way. If you want a remarkable transformation in your life, expect to pay for it with emotional labor. The reason you're depressed in the first place is because you keep avoiding emotional labor.

Those of you thinking that women can't or don't want to do enlightenment work need to read up on nuns. Or women yogi's like this: http://www.yogananda-srf.org/lineageandleadership/Sri_Daya_Mata.aspx#.WAZmGsnz8UI

On tests, do as they want. But for yourself, seek a deeper truth.

Ahemmm.... LP course That's the reason it was created. It's not about the money.

I know MANY women who are into enlightenment work. Careful making stereotypes. My audience is largely male because my approach is rather blunt.