PT89

From Leo's last video, he points out that different teachers are at very different levels of awakening. What teachers do you guys feel are some of the most deeply awakened (also direction this question to @Leo Gura)

The past year I have seen my self deteriorate into a fraction of my former self. I was once excited to wake up for work because I loved helping patients each day and seeing them recover with an appreciation for the opportunity to do so. I felt a deep connection to everyone coming to see me. Unfortunately throughout COVID, this motivation and passion was gradually replaced by a complete lack of energy and desire not only in my work, but also in my every day life. And it’s only gotten worse despite taking numerous vacations in an attempt to mitigate this fatigue. From my research, I’ve come to understand that burnout is extremely common in my profession and also in my many others. Aside from my overall lack of energy and apathy towards the world, one of the most noticeable effects of my burnout was the amount of time I started devoting to reading the news and trying to figure out the truth with regards to everything covid related. My daily meditation routine was soon overridden by hours everyday researching the situations of many countries worldwide, trying to find patterns, and listening to opinions from as many perspectives as possible. Each day trying my hardest to discern what the correct perspective was. Never in my life have I seen issues emerge that are so captivating, thought provoking, yet furiously polarizing. A degree of polarization that has seen many mentors, healthcare professionals, and spiritual teachers that I look up to completely divided. And in my mind, some of these people had to clearly be right, and some people had to be wrong as rigid lines between the two were being drawn. Which side should I be on? Then came the knowing that I needed to detach entirely from these issues and the plethora of narratives around me if I ever wanted to feel myself again. I could finally feel my energy returning after a small amount of time spent in quiet relaxation and coming to an understanding of my own. The understanding that it is/was completely futile and energy wasting to spend my time trying to make a relative perspective into something absolute (people should do this, people shouldn’t do that). The egoic attachment to a belief on either side of the fence fueling the battle between groups of people now known as either “covidiots” and “sheep” is the very attachment preventing every individual from feeling what they desire. Both groups have those reacting to fear or loss of control. And it’s the extent of this fear/loss of control that permeates and perpetuates the mass division within our populations. I’ve lived the immense repercussions of analyzing a never-ending number of perspectives that has led me nowhere aside from chasing my own tail, having every viewpoint challenged by some form of new information or perspective. The only way I’ve been to feel myself again, to feel centered, to feel excited about life, was to let go of identification with any form of rigid belief, any form of attachment one way or the other. To let go of my need for knowing the truth, and to rest peacefully in not knowing. Paradoxically, it’s in this space of not needing to know that I’ve felt most capable and trusting in whatever decisions I would make in each moment. If I could share any advice for anyone feeling exhausted and uncertain, burned out and lacking control, know that you’re not alone. And know that it’s okay to not know the answer. I doubt if anyone has the full answer but I do know that it’s fully be possible for people to continue living joyously and compassionately even amidst the most difficult of times.

Thought I'd see if there's any like-minded people in the area who have been doing this work diligently for a while

@Leo Gura Regarding that video yes that's what the kundalini transmission looks like. I've been doing it for 8 months now and attended an immersion weekend of it after which I developed the capacity to transmit myself. For anyone living in vancouver that's interested in experiencing this, feel free to send me a message as I'm trying to bring it to Canada.

I love this travel report, a lot of it resonated with me. This need to do certain things, take/post pictures for validation, wasting precious time outside of the daily personal development routine. From my experience, the deeper you go with this stuff, the more difficult it gets... I'm wondering if anyone else has similar feelings? I have indeed noticed myself unhappy with a lot of things, more noticing of a lot of bullshit around me, and in giving up a lot of my egos attachments to comfort, it certainly hasn't been easy. But there are then those miraculous moments I have, through insight or shifts in consciousness that keep me on this path of madness I've also noticed some very positive changes in my personality - such as no longer needing to win, but simply enjoying the game or sport for what it is. But the suffering persists... and I just try to have faith that this is what is necessary for real growth to happen. I'm planning on volunteering in nepal next december then heading to india afterwards for a vipassana retreat. Thanks for the info on your travel experience. It's hard for me to give you advice, because I seem to be in a pretty similar place in terms of just not being happy with the way things are right now, but I mean I should be... and you should be too... we've got a million things to be happy about but our minds just don't seem to want to let us. Have faith... Leo's opened my eyes to so many things I never would have imagined so I guess we just need to trust the process and persist.

As a former fan boy, I’ve recently come to conclude that JP does not grasp very well the essence of spirituality nor consciousness itself. In many of his speeches, he emphasizes that life is essentially suffering. And from a physical/materialistic standpoint, is seems to be just that. He’s intellectualized the crap out of this on a bigger picture, and he’s right. His solution? Pull up your bootstraps, work your way to the top of the dominance hierarchy, and act in good faith. Contrast this with two spiritual teachers that I’ve come to greatly appreciate for their wisdom – Eckart Tolle and Sadhguru. Everything they teach is pretty well aligned with Leo’s teachings, but obviously they fully embody what this stuff is all about. Leo understands it and articulates it incredibly well, but is still striving to embody it. They emphasize how miraculous life itself is and how appreciative we should be for the miracle of life we live everyday. Why such a difference in opinion from the intellectual juggernaut JP? Because they’ve recognized what they really are (consciousness) and see the world from a different perspective than you or me. They see it from a true perspective. I’ve gone through a lot of mental suffering recently, and come to notice that there are so many misguided resources for self help and spiritual work out there that completely miss the fundamental aspect to freedom. It can’t be explained any better than in this video through an analogy with diarrhea ? Take away message - you need to stop identifying yourself with things that you're not. And until you do, expect the misery continue. I finally had a big leap with my meditative practice that resonated very well with this video, and was seemingly able to separate my consciousness from thought at a far greater degree than I have before through a meditation session, and the peace that comes with that is incredible. You can continue having “negative” thoughts without feeling the usual emotional anguish that comes with them, and consciously choose not to follow them. They lost their power entirely. 3 years in on this path of personal development and pursuing a meaningful life purpose, and although there’s many ups and downs, it’s been a very nice reminder that while the path may be tremendously long and difficult, it’s well worth the effort. And if you find yourself thinking that you’ve only become more miserable because of pursuing a difficult life purpose/goal, well, just know that suffering can be an incredible catalyst for growth.

Sydney, Australia - 20% blue 80% orange

I've probably flip flopped my opinion in politics about 100X over the past few years since coming to actualized.org and enjoy learning more/seeing modern issues be debated. Would like to hear other people's opinions on certain things since we're all open minded people and can accept opposing views Capitalism- Yes it's the best we've come up with and has led to prosperity - however, the more i ponder it the more i think a highly capitalist system leads to inherent selfishness, and a need to be better than others, and yields capitalist "winners" like donald trump. We know for a fact that psychological disorders are skyrocketing, I think in Australia 1/5 people has either an anxiety or depressive disorder. Jordan Peterson's answer for this is to just focus on the individual, but I think this is much more of a systemic issue, a consequence of a system built on winners and losers. Obviously ideally they'd teach something like self-actualization early on in schools, they'd teach empathy, but these aren't valued in our system to a high degree. Wealth and "power" are what is prioritized in our system. Identity Politics - Very much dislike them, have only seen toxicity result and create hate between genders, races etc, but this just could have been from my limited experience. Very much in JP's camp with this. Free speech - very against the violence ive seen exhibited by mainly the radical left when speaking out against certain groups. I've felt very policed in my speech because of consequences I think generated by identity politics. If I were to speak out, for example, against capitalism (not saying i'm against capitalism), i think it would not be right for me to be attacked, the same way some of these other controversial speakers (milo) get berated for having different beliefs. Would like to hear some other opinions on these topics, or other political issues. Hopefully all civil conversations that we can learn from.

We all have dark times and addictions can be extremely tough to beat. I think a valuable lesson to learn when trying to conquer any addiction is not to beat yourself up when you fail, as it's those negative thoughts that work to perpetuate the cycle. Even if you think you're back at square 1, you're definitely not. Just in writing what you did, shows how conscious you are of everything that's going on in your life, and the progress you've made. What you see as failure is not really failure unless you see it as such. Try viewing it instead as another lesson, another opportunity where you were able to become more conscious. From my experience, results with this personal development work manifest very slowly, and it's difficult to notice these changes without being very conscious in the first place (catch 22). My best advice would be to just keep at it, have faith, and watch some eckart tolle videos while you're at it if you're feeling overwhelmed/down and out. Cheers!

I grew up with an extreme attachment to "winning" and needing to be more competent than others at things I see as important, sports, academics etc. Since starting my journey inwards of self-actualization, I've made a lot of progress towards being more content with life in general, however, I still find myself overly upset when I lose to a rival in a sport, or do poorly relative to my standards in my post grad. I've built this image of myself that leads to a lot of unhappiness when I don't live up to my standards. I've become much more socially isolated since moving to a new country to do my Doctorate, and as Jordan Peterson explains, when this occurs, and when you're not succeeding, your biology takes over and essentially makes you stressed out in order to do whatever it takes to get yourself into a better situation. This sort of feeds back into "needing" to succeed and needing to win, making one unhappy otherwise. But from all my work here, it seems that what I actually want is to be low status, to be at peace with not succeeding, to enjoy the process rather than the outcome. Unfortunately, working towards this just seems to bring me more unhappiness, and makes me more susceptible to further stress. I try to be as conscious of these negative emotions as I can when they arise after something so simple as losing a tough match, yet they don't seem to be getting much better because I feel my biology is just programmed to do its best to get me out of the situation, and it NEEDS to find a way to succeed, and that means not being satisfied with anything but. It seems to me like it's a battle between my motivation to shatter my ego by shining consciousness on what I perceive as bad circumstances vs my programmed biology, and it's a very difficult conflict. Anyone have any tips for overcoming this?

Happy Birthday! Don't even wanna imagine where my life would be without your youtube channel.

Studying in Sydney, Australia but from Vancouver, Canada

"I watch porn and I don't feel bad about it. I don't view it as an addiction. The body has sexual cravings that need to be satisfied." How often would you say you watch porn on average? I think porn is one of the most difficult addictions to overcome precisely because the body has sexual cravings that we think NEED to be satisfied. You've definitely mentioned in some of your episodes that porn can be an addiction and is a low-conscious activity. I'm sure there's a lot of people on here that have noticed porn impacting their life negatively - one such thing I believe it leads to is objectifying women (or men) and greatly increasing one's sex drive, which leads to a LOT more craving. Do you really think porn is a harmless activity in moderation? This is very controversial, high debated issue, and I keep flipping back and forth as my motivation to be free of porn wavers. As someone I look up to, your opinion holds a lot of weight, but I'm quite surprised that you haven't seemed to notice any negative impacts in your life from porn.

@ULFBERHT great post, love the "just show up" mentality.

I find this UofT psychology professor absolutely brilliant and someone who is trying to better mankind through helping people to work on themselves and personal development. Listen to some of his youtube videos/lectures if you're interested in psychology, relationship advice, or politics. One thing that I'd like to discuss more is I found out that he takes anti-depressants- my limited understanding of these are that they increase serotonin uptake in the brain and make you feel good. I believe he's halved his dose over a few years, but he's quite a proponent of using them if bettering other areas of your life doesn't seem to make you satisfied. I'm wondering what other people's thoughts are on using anti-depressants in this field of personal development work? My initial reaction is that it's a short-cut to avoiding some deep issues that may need to be endured for future growth, and inhibits ones path to spiritual development/awakening. I find it interesting that such an incredibly smart man with everything going for him, and whose devoted so much of his life to helping others uses them. I really don't know a whole lot about depression so I don't want say anything that might offend someone on this subject. Would just like to open a discussion on the matter.

You should develop yourself to the point where you'd feel bad for her for needing to do this. Something obviously wasn't right in your relationship, and she decided she needed to lie and find whatever she was missing in someone else. Maybe she just likes to get fucked, but do you really think that that would lead her to a meaningful life? Also, is that somebody you'd want to be with in the first place? Tinder ain't the problem, undeveloped people are the problem.

Worth the $20-$30 investment? anyone use these? I don't actually have regular nasal issues, I do have asthma. Just wondering if they help people generally and improve well being

@Psyche_92 Totally agree that a lot of the urge is fueled by your addiction. Been trying to conquer this for 8 years now, was addicted since grade 8 high school. Went on 100+ day streaks porn free but always came back to it. Vipassana has been the first thing that has really helped and given me the confidence that I will finally beat this addiction. You do find at 3 months plus that the urges become much less in intensity- however you will also find yourself craving the highs of porn again, as your life becomes more normal/ less rollercoaster like. Vipassana helped me realize that no longer living slave to your cravings was a good thing,highs are more often than not followed by lows. To me, sex and porn are very different things. Even if I'm having good sex, there's a separate desire for porn. The stimulation that can be brought about from porn is almost limitless. This is what makes it so difficult to beat. And the fact that our culture promotes porn as if it's a good thing - a nice stress reliever. Facing your suffering/stress head on is the way to go for personal development, and the more you endure your issues rather than distract yourself from them, the better off you are in the long run IMO. Porn is an incredibly powerful distraction from facing your issues and growing from them.

I feel like the benefits of meditation were undervalued unintentionally in Leo's last video. I also coincidentally started yoga a month ago and have found the benefits it has on both body and mind to be very beneficial and the fact that it trains both is excellent. However, the benefits I've had with meditation over the past year and half have also been extraodinary, and I'm not sure the changes in the way I react to things could only have been achieved with yoga alone. Although not necessary, the research/science behind meditation is growing rapidly and pretty much everything is very positive. Less so for yoga, however this is likely attributed to improper yoga techniques, poor teachers, and a lack of understanding as Leo's pointed out. I think meditation provides a very good foundation for branching out into other fields of spirituality. Having to the awareness to notice changes in new disciplines like yoga can be very helpful for sticking to these disciplines. Without increased awareness, you're less likely to notice the benefits of these practices in your everyday life. Therefore, if you're new to this channel and just recently watched the video on yoga, don't dismiss meditation as a profound opportunity for self-development. I don't actually agree that the benefits to yoga come faster per say, but to each his own. I do agree that the benefits of yoga pertaining to both mind and body is very valuable, and definitely worth trying for yourself.

I HATE hearing all the negativity around psychedelics. It's the most culturally constructed crap I'm aware of and it's to the detriment of anyone seeking something beyond our mundane experienced reality. That being said, I don't actively try to do psychedelics anymore. I've had a few great experiences with them opening me up to the spiritual world and helping guide my path of personal development; it's incredible seeing how much more there is to consciousness and reality- they really help expedite you into seeing the potential that living a spiritual life can have. The reason I've stopped doing them is because I've come to recognize that these miraculous experiences are very temporary, and create craving (yes, vipassana), and I'm tired of living my life fueled by craving. Once you've realized even a small facet of truth using psychedelics, or had some glimpse of an enlightenment experience, hopefully it gets you motivated to walk the right path. Why get mad at Leo for being a guinea pig and trying these psychedelics though? Him posting that last experience live was the most authentic thing he's done IMO. It bothers me that just because you've been indoctrinated to an "anti-drug" mentality, that you would be so close-minded to the potential that psychedelics might actually be beneficial in some way. I'd recommend looking up the research/literature on the effects of psychedelics on things like depression, and other psychological health issues. You might be surprised that these drugs actually have many POSITIVE benefits for people, including also literally making people more open-minded, one of the qualities Leo stressed is of utmost importance in this work.

Question for Leo or any other people who have had significant enlightenment experiences: Why is there so much misconception about what happens after death between people who have experienced what you have? the buddhists believe this, jesus says this, hindus say this, reincarnation, heaven, hell, non duality, the list of these concepts goes on - how can so many people experience that which is beyond words yet come out of it with such radically different perspective on what actually happens after death?

But Nahm you're saying that I'm made of atoms. Leo is saying that there are no atoms to begin with. IBN Sina speculates that a lack of experiences happens after death. Slade says the only thing that can possibly happen... life. Quite a lot of differences to me. I'm fully in agreement with the fact that I will never understand much of this until I experience ego death.

Does anyone think Jesus, Mohammed, buddha, or any other spiritual being in our history, has experienced this awakening that we all seek? Each of them comes out of it with many similar views on how to live your life, but very different views on what happens when you die - heaven vs hell, reincarnation, never actually existing... the list seems to go on, although some of them may be somewhat similar/overlapping. So all these incredibly spiritual beings have this experience of that which is beyond words, yet coming to no clear consensus on what Truth awaits us after death. I need only look at the posts previously to see that there's no consensus either here - one starts to live? so I start to exist as everything that ever was, is and will be? GIven that I never existed, all my memories of anything that happened would be gone, so i'd have no recollection of my experiences. It's just a mindfuck when i try to ponder it. Would really love to find a way to get some 5MEO to get a glimpse of some of this, I've experienced only very mild enlightnement experiences as of yet compared to what I see Leo experiencing, but I had one profound one that showed me the groundlessness of reality, with consciousness creating reality, but it's hard to explain

Just got back from two weeks travelling in the South island of NZ, renting a camper van. It was an incredible trip with gorgeous scenery and a great experience. I would highly recommend travel like this to help inspire a vision for your future. When going on an adventure like this, you very quickly realize how expensive living the way you want to live can be - doing incredible things like bungee jumping, taking scenic boat cruises, and even camping can be very expensive when you add up all the costs (gas for the trip was around $450). Motivated me greatly to pursue my career with much more discipline and with a better, more determined vision so I would be able to continue to have experiences like this. Leo's recent video explaining why he posted his psychadelic experience video has resonated with me more than any other video. The points he makes about using enlightenment experiences to make real positive change in your life is something that needs to be stressed. Enlightenment is not the answer to suffering. Being mindful and rewiring your brain to be more conscious, and to REACT to the shit life throws your way in a better manner I feel is the pursuit that should be had with this process. So many things over the past few years have not gone my way, and often times in the past this has gotten me extremely frustrated or angry. Many little things went wrong on our trip (including not budgeting for $450 gas :)) but after consistent meditation while driving 5 hours a day, I was able to react to these situations much more mindfully and less emotionally. I've carried this with me after this trip as well, recently learning that my school has hiked our tuition fees by 9.5%, amounting to a $12,000 increase over 3 years that I did not budget for when making my decision to study overseas ($128,000 vs $140,000 +). A student in the cohort after me literally had to drop out because of this 30k in debt. This normally would have sent me into a deep rage that would have ruined many days to come, but I've somehow managed to stay incredibly calm, and actually feel good despite this tremendous setback. This is life, and really there's no point in getting upset about WHAT IS, as this is reality and there's no other way it could be . Best make good of the situations your thrown into, what a difficult life it would be to be frustrated by all life's hardships. I'm heading on a 10 day vipassana tomorrow, and will post back with my insights after this as well Planning on doing a lot of yoga in my free time there. Love Leo's approach at testing so many different methods to enlightenment and strongly agree that every individual has unique circumstances and their own difficulties to conquer in this process. Kudos to him for posting that video on his psychedelic experience and showing his own vulnerabilities - being authentic at its finest.

I'm heading to NZ for two weeks, renting a camper van and adventuring along. Following this up with a 10 day silent meditation retreat in the blue mountains (very secluded naturesk area). Been planning this February dedicated to relaxation and getting my head clear for a while - will let you know how it goes