Leo Gura

I may post some content once in a while, but my time is limited and mostly committed to improving the weekly videos and creating new courses. My job on this forum is mostly to make sure it's running smoothly. This is primarily a sandbox for you guys to share your own ideas and contribute valuable content.

My focus has always been self-actualization, never relationships or sex. But that's just me. Even when I did pickup, I did it first and foremost to improve myself. Not for the girls. Actualized.org Maybe. Not sure about that yet. I think relationships are great, if you can find the right match and if you know what you're doing. Are they are distraction from finding your authentic self? Absolutely. I'm not really passionate about either. (Which should not be interpreted as meaning they are bad or wrong or useless concepts.) I talk a lot about it in the life purpose course. I like teaching people. Will I always be this active? Probably not, so enjoy it while it lasts It's not the activity, it's the chimp behind the activity that's the problem. All the things mentioned on the sales page of the course. Most importantly: your life purpose! Perhaps in the future. It's nothing fancy though. So you wanna know what's in the secret sauce, eh? Perhaps in the future.

Sorry, don't let me intrude on the chimpry.

This! Best way is to demonstrate a strong value for meditation yourself. She'll naturally get curious why you sit every day for 1 hour. Then you can tell her that this the most single most important secret to all of life (which is true!) and that only ignorant people don't meditate

Do nothing meditation is usually done while seated. So I'm not sure what you're asking. You can also meditate while walking or doing mindless chores. But this takes more practice.

Step 1: Speak often and regularly in front of people or a camera. Step 2: Repeat. Step 3: Success! I highly recommend joining a local Toastmaster's club in your area. Check their website for club locations around the world.

Charka Test Software??! Lol... You're guys are too much. Cut that escapist shit and sit down and do the real work.

Mindfulness is a big key. You need to open yourself up to the fear, surrender the ego it, observe it objectively. Also, getting dead-set on your life purpose has been very important for me personally. Keeps the worst fears manageable.

I question it too!

Hehehe... welcome to happiness! Surprise! Takes courage to be happy. Most people will think you're weird cause they are miserable and would like you to keep them company.

@Emerald Wilkins That's the one! I guess the Sufi's use it too. Seems like it's Hindu in origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

Yes, sure, I don't disagree. But why would you assume Jed has a monopoly on that? And Shinzen is excluded?

@Pinocchio What exactly are you claiming Jed understands that other enlightened people don't?

@Pinocchio I have not read his theory of everything. BTW, Shinzen Young did not get enlightened through meditation, but through 4 years of self-inquiry. I asked him about it personally. The distinction between meditation and self-inquiry is rather bogus. The two tend to blend together after a while. In Zen, a popular Koan is, "Who am I?" << Which is essentially self-inquiry.

It makes a huge difference if you actually believe you have any control over reality. If you do, from this one belief comes all your emotional suffering in life. The next time you experience a sharp pain or disappointment or fear about the future of your life, remind yourself that you have no control over it and notice how differently you relate to the pain or fear than if you believed you did have control over it. Believing you have control over something which you actually have no control over is literally insane. And it's ruining your life.

Here's a paradox for ya... You actually DO exist (as Nothingness) and you ARE the source and creator of all reality, so in this sense you control and will everything into being! Of course, this is a very different "YOU" that we're talking about than the present you you believe you are. We are now talking about you as God. And "God's" will is a very different sort of thing than your personal will (which is basically just monkey mind imitating God).

@Pinocchio You are mistaken. You should listen to him more carefully and to more of his material. He talks about many things, but he talks about no-self a lot and he's certainly realized it himself many times over. His descriptions of the activity of somethingness arising out of Nothingness are profound and clearly come from direct experience. He's actually gone far deeper, I would guess, than most other enlightened folk like Jed. Because 40 years of mindfulness practice will develop in you a resolving power that no ordinary enlightened person will have. Not only will you realize no-self, but you will actually go much deeper, seeing how form arises out of Nothingness on a micro, moment-by-moment level.

@Emerald Wilkins No, Zen

This entire thread is just the old Zen parable about the 3 blind men describing the elephant. Ever heard of that one? Go read it. All this talk about who is right and who is wrong is a distraction. Sit down and discover for yourself what you actually are. From my own experiences, and having studied under half a dozen different highly enlightened masters from various schools, each with 30 or 40 years of experience, it all leads to the same place, just in different ways.

1) Because I've had an experience of it. 2) Jed over-emphasizes the burning-your-ego-to-the-ground aspect of the journey. That part is painful and frustrating of course. But the end result is heavenly. You can clearly see that he himself is living in heaven, describing to the read the hellish path he took to get there. And, btw, not everyone's path is hellish like Jed's. His path seems to have been exceptionally challenging. This doesn't have to be the case. And in fact for most people it is not that bad.

@Pinocchio Shinzen Young is not enlightened? Hehe... why would you think that? His understanding of enlightenment is very deep. I've seen the man in action. I've spoken with him for hours. If he doesn't understand enlightenment, I don't know who does. He is definitely enlightened. He doesn't directly hit you over the head with enlightenment theory because his style is to teach the technique of mindfulness. That's actually a sign of a very good spiritual teacher: one who teaches techniques rather than theory.

@A way to Actualize Haven't watched that one. But Matt's teachings appear like a great addition to cut-and-dried self-inquiry, sure.

Sure, you could look at all the schools and all the different teachings as ultimately being one. That's just a matter of how zoomed-out of a perspective you want to take. Practically speaking, there are a lot of differences though between schools. Some schools are far more effective than others and the actual techniques will feel very different to you when you're doing them. It also all depends on your goals. Some people want purification. Others only want truth. Others only want to see God. Others want all the above. Others want special healing powers and psychic abilities. And others want something else entirely.

Sit down and ask yourself what is it that this fear is hiding? You can intuit that it's hiding something important, right?

@A way to Actualize I don't know what you mean by "teaching of self-love".