Leo Gura

@TruthSeeker It was explained sufficiently. Awareness has difficulty seeing itself because it has no form or objective qualities, and the human mind is addicted to thinking in terms of visual objects.

If you're serious about getting enlightenment, it would be a good idea to go into a period of seclusion. Doesn't have to be a cave. Could be your vacation time, could be a holiday, could be a retreat or workshop, could be camping in the wilderness, could be reducing your full-time job to part-time. Get creative. In modern society, seclusion is in a sense easier than ever because foods, water, and shelter are cheaper than ever. And you could work at a job for 1 year, save up some money, then quit for a year and get your enlightenment handled. Then find a new job. Realistically you will NOT get enlightened without spending dozens or even hundreds of hours of time in continuous isolation. You need to be able to take 100 hours off straight and just sit there and do nothing. Without this, it will be very hard. Ralston told me he stopped keeping track of time after he did 5000 hours of contemplation. And that's only when he stopped keeping track! Lol. He's done WAY more I'd bet. You're gonna need INSANE amounts of time if you want to pierce to the very depths of Truth. The first enlightenment experience is much easier though.

It's hidden in the same way that water is hidden from a fish. You must have missed the part in the video where I explicitly said: Nothing is hidden.

@TruthSeeker The missing piece of the puzzle is your enlightenment! You're trying to understand non-duality by staying in duality! This cannot work. It's absurd. You're not going to make sense of this sitting where you're at. Become enlightened first, then return to your question -- if it still even makes sense to you.

The conception of enlightenment IS nonsense. But the reality of it is undeniable. Do the work yourself and see.

One good exercise you guys could try is the following: Select any object off in the distance in your visual field. Now, take your finger and VERY SLOWLY draw a line in the air from it to you. Stop at the point where the line terminates at YOU. Does it ever terminate at YOU? Then who in the hell is seeing that object?!

Society exacerbates the problem a lot. Many decades of bad conditioning have created a monster. And much of that conditioning has been seared into your brain between the ages of 0-15 years old, while your brain is gullible and soaks up dogma like a sponge. And now it's very difficult to undo.

If you're gonna do something like this, start soft-core, because if you go full out Bear Grylls without prior experience, your mind and body will likely just not be able to handle it and you'll run back home with your tail between your legs and a sour taste in your mouth. The realities of survival in the wilderness are harsh and stressful enough without a full day's meditation on top of it. Start with babysteps and build your way up.

@Guczo You should study epistemology to get a very clear understanding of the limits of science. Science does not make any objective assertions about external reality. Science is just a set of diagrams for how to manipulate reality. What that reality actually is, science has no clue and never says. And all the diagrams are ultimately false because the diagram is not the thing itself. Science does not tell you what anything actually is. It only gives you as diagram of it. Classic trap of mistaking the map for the territory. Most scientists haven't studied epistemology and aren't aware of the assumptions and limits of their own field. Don't be so sure about that. Be open to the possibility that all your thinking and all your knowledge is ultimately groundless speculation.

You are God! All these teaching are pointing to the exact same thing. Your existential nature as pure empty awareness (God). When you experience it, it will have divine flavors and you'll immediately go, "Ohhhhh!!! Of course! This is what all the religious people call God. Duh! How silly."

@Khin I got nothing against good Buddhist teachers. I'm sure there are many good ones. If they are non-dogmatic about their teachings then that's great.

Sex no, porn yes

@TruthSeeker There is no I as "TruthSeeker", as you presently think of yourself. So there's no solace for you. You don't appreciate how dangerous this enlightenment thing is. It will nuke you out of existence. The only thing you care about is you. And that you definitely doesn't exist. The True You that does exist isn't going to comfort the little you that thinks it's making these decisions of being a chimp or not. The danger with me telling you that you exist is that now that chimp you will say, "Oh! Phew! That's was a close call. I'm so glad I actually exist!" << And that's wrong. That chimp you doesn't exist. So you may as well go back to being a chimp.

Of course it isn't real! That's what non-duality is. Non-duality is basically idealism or solipsism in practice. There is no evidence whatsoever of an external reality. That's a fiction rendered by the mind. This is a RADICAL paradigm shift. This is not something you should believe. But actually realize for yourself.

@shouldnt What would you select if your success was guaranteed?

I don't think Elon Musk is a psychologically healthy guy, or a good role-model for how to live your life. If life is an RPG, he dumped all this skill points into the career/achievement skill tree. And while that looks cool from the outside, from the inside is feels like shit. And he's gonna have much suffering and regret because of it. You should seek more balance. You can still be very passionate. Whatever you decide, the life purpose course is the best way I know for how to realize it. You just gotta decide how hard you want to it. If you went full-out with it for 20-40 years, you could do some really HUGE things.

@tropicana All the methods are very similar. They all involve sitting in mind-numbing boredom for 100s of hours and concentrating on direct experience. There are many individual techniques for how to do that. And most of them come in a giant pile of dogma. Here's one cool way: Sit with your eyes closed and just focus on the sounds around you. Do this for long enough until you realize that there is no you hearing the sounds, but that you in fact are the sounds! BAM! Enlightenment! You could use this one technique to reach full enlightenment. The trick is never in the technique. The trick is simply motivating yourself to actually sit down and execute it. Every fiber of your ego will resist it.

Here's exactly how: Step #1: Have an enlightenment experience on Who am I? Step #2: Have an enlightenment experience on What am I? Step #3: Have an enlightenment experience on What is another? By the end of that process, you will have realized that you are nothing, and so is everyone else. You = Other = Nothingness Figure yourself out first before trying to unravel the puzzle of Another.

They are all VERY well-known. Just not to regular folks. There are actually probably more than 20 that I know of. I'll shoot a video about the various paths to enlightenment at some point.

It's a great idea! I will be doing one myself soon. Although I would avoid camping because it will distract you from your true aim: self-observation. You're gonna be too busy worrying about food, water, toilet, cold, heat, comfort, etc. You want to eliminate all those distractions. Either do the 10 day retreat at home. Or in a motel room on the edge of town, or in a rented cabin in the woods somewhere. Make sure every logistical issue is planned and taken care of ahead of time, so you can focus 100% on your true work. Stock up on food, water, supplies, etc for 10 days worth. Disconnect all distractions like cell phones, TV, and internet.

It's not childish. It's reality. The people calling it childish are themselves the children. Of course reality offends and appalls the ego.

To even understand what the Buddha was actually talking about, one would have to do some very heavy research. Modern day Buddhism has little to do with what the Buddha actually did himself. And there are many branches of Buddhism. Buddhism has basically been turned into a religion. So following it blindly isn't a good idea if you're seeking truth. That said, you could certainly dig out the core essence of Buddhism and follow that to total enlightenment. All the Buddha did himself was just sat for very long periods of time in stillness and mindfully observed experience arising. That was his technique. It took 7 years to work. With more modern teachings and techniques, you could cut this time by 2x to 5x. But let's also not forget that there are about 10 or 20 different equally valid paths one could follow. And no one path is best for all people. You have to find the one that resonates with you. For some people Buddhism will work great. For others, it will be a dead end.

Enjoy your chimpdom.

Absolute consciousness acts through an individual organism.

What would help you is my Do Nothing meditation video and the Free Will vs Determinism video. The next time you sit down to meditate, try this: Don't manipulate your experience at all. Just sit and allow everything as though you had zero control over life. Because, guess what? You have zero control over life. All your manipulations during meditation are delusions. There is no you to manipulate anything. You just feed the delusion when you *try* to do stuff. Just sit and allow EVERYTHING.