Jonty

@Anirban657 The instruction from @Jkris is perfect. I got really bogged down with this as well. In reality, being aware of being aware is very simple, but I always found when reading forums that people try their best to be as profound as possible sometimes when in reality, the process itself is very simplistic. Look at an object in the room and realise what it is that is knowing that object. It is not a thought, it is awareness. Concentrate on that and in time you will realise what you are. As others have said, it can be a long process. Notice it and stay with it as long as you can. Awareness is the "thing" that you believe is the "life" in you for want of a better phrase. The thing that you believe you are, behind all the thoughts, behind the sensations. It's the thing that knows all of these things. As others have mentioned, you cannot grasp it like an object. It's no-thing, but you can be "aware" of it if that makes sense. You can be aware of the no-thing or the awareness. Hope that makes sense! Watch Leo's video on how to do self inquiry. It's brilliant!

I wanted to share this quote I heard the other day. I can't even remember where I heard it to be honest, but think it was Ramaji. He was talking about when you are truly awakened, there is no need to continue to seek anything. I loved it. This isn't verbatim, but close enough to get it across. "When one truly awakens and materialism dissipates, so does spirituality. Spirituality is the antidote to materialism. Once we are cured of the disease, there is no longer a need to continue to take the medicine"

@BlessedLion as per the user above, I can highly recommend Rupert Spira. I started off my spiritual journey on this website, but for me it wasn't a good fit. Personally, I found the way Spira teaches to be much more beneficial for me. There are many, many teachers out there with varying styles. They are all teaching the same thing, just in their own unique way. I would suggest looking around and seeing what fits for you. I hate to use the word "enlightenment" but I have to in this conversation as it's mentioned by you. Its rare that it will hit you like it did with Ramana Maharishi, as in during one moment. For most people it's a gradual process when one day you will simply say "Of course.... that's what everyone has been talking about!" It's not an objective thing, it has no objective qualities and therefore you can't know it like you would with anything else. Keep positive my friend. Just do the self inquiry and look for a good teacher who's style you like. It will happen, but it takes a long time as your brain has been conditioned for so long. Sending you love and good will from across the pond!

@Pronevron I struggled with this for a long time as well. All I can do is re-interate what Nahm has said. Self enquiry is where it's at. Keep doing it and it will pay off. For most people, there isn't a huge enlightenment moment. There are just deeper and deeper insights over a period of time and it creeps up on you until you realise what you are. The real kicker is that you are already the thing that you're looking for, but you have to do the work to actually realise that! Keep it up my friend and you will get there.

Hey All Not sure whether any of you have seen this, but I've just stumbled upon it when researching things from other spiritual teachers. For those who don't know, Peter Ralston is the dogs nuts in terms of contemporary enlightened masters and up there with the best of them. Best of all, he's being interviewed by Leo! Here's a link to the first of a 29 part series. Enjoy!

I've spent a lot of time studying non-duality over the last few years from a variety of teachers, Leo included and have watched the Actualized videos over and over and gained a really good understanding of non-duality. One thing puzzles me however and it relates to infinity. In Leo's video about Absolute Infinity he says that the meaning of infinite is "everything without exception." This makes complete sense to me and I understand this both logically and also have had brief insights which seem to confirm this in my own experience. However, over the course of the last month I have read (based on Leo's recommendation) a book by Rupert Spira. This has led me to watch some his videos on Youtube. I have heard him say over and over again that the infinite can never know the finite and vice versa. I can see that my finite mind can never truly understand infinity, however, surely infinite consciousness can understand finite things due to the very fact that it is infinite and therefore contains and understands everything without exception. @Leo Gura I know that this is without doubt a misunderstanding on my part, but I wondered if you might be able to find the time to clarify it? If there is anyone else out there who might be able to shed some light on it, I would be truly grateful. Thanks in advance

@Aakash Gotcha! That simple! Thanks. I owe you one!

@Aakash In addition to what I just wrote actually, if infinity IS everything then surely as well as being everything there is or could possibly be, it IS also everything that is finite or by definition, it wouldn't be infinite. Therefore, why is it not possible (as Rupert Spira says) for infinite consciousness not to know the finite mind? The finite mind itself is made up from and exits within infinite consciousness and is therefore a part of it. Am I overthinking it? Sorry to have to ask again, but I really hope to gain some clarity on this.

@Aakash Thanks for taking the time to answer that. I'm going to have to take some time for that to sink in I think. I do understand (and have seen glimpses of) the fact that there is only one thing, infinite consciousness. You probably had this experience yourself when you seem to get it, have an insight and then all of a sudden, you're back to square one again and seem to know nothing! Thanks anyway. I'm sure it will click with more contemplation etc.

@Giulio Bevilacqua Prior to having an awakening it’s very difficult to understand why the idea that you could end up losing “something” is so silly. I have a friend who doesn’t want to “risk” awakening because he feels that it might affect what he currently has in his life (wife/family/job etc.) You need to trust that you’re doing the right thing by exploring this. You don’t have to stop playing guitar whilst you’re doing the work. By the time you reach a stage of awakening (which could be several years) your life could have changed completely and you can’t turn back the clock. I’m 44 now and wish I had known about this in my 20’s. Take care my friend

@LiakosN Hi. Yes it certainly helped me. I try to integrate it as much as possible. If you’re wondering then why not give it a try for two weeks say and see what happens? I can almost guarantee your awareness will improve as a result.

@LeoBacca I’ve been meditating as well but not as regularly as with contemplation. I meditated probably two or three times a week for around 30 mins. For me, meditation simply aided my contemplation. It helped keep my mind free of chatter and helped me concentrate. I wouldn’t have made as much progress as I did by meditating for long periods. My personal opinion (and it is only that) would be to spend more time in contemplation than meditation, but you have to find what works for you... it’s your maze! Good luck my friend. Just stay positive. It will happen if you put the work in!

@LeoBacca I had an awakening recently. I have been doing contemplation for at least one hour a day, every day for nearly 18 months. Coupled with that, all my free time has been spent watching videos from a variety of different sources (Sadhguru/Papaji/Eckhart/Mooji/Actualuzed etc.) and reading books on Leo’s book list. I have the Actualized podcasts on my phone so even as I’m walking around I can still be listening to things. I also tried to be ultra aware of everything I was doing if that makes sense? That was tricky at first but became second nature after a while. I hope this helps. Stick with it my friend, it’s worth it!

@fi1ghtclub Hi Ive taken quite a lot of different psychedelics over the years and I would really echo what everyone has said. Ease yourself into it gently. If you can get a lower dose on this occasion then do that. Just make sure you’re comfortable both physically and mentally and when it starts to work don’t fight it. Just relax into it and enjoy! I’ve had some incredible experiences on LSD. I’m slightly envious! Enjoy my friend and make sure you share your trip report! Jon

Hi @Giulio Bevilacqua I'm a musician and an artist. I "awakened" around a month ago. My love for art and music has remained incredibly strong, but I seem to have a freedom with it now that wasn't there before. I'm now creating art because I love bringing something into existence that wasn't there before rather than doing it for the sake of my "ego". Prior to my awakening, I was creative for what it might bring me (money, success, fame etc.). Now there just seems to be a desire to just create because I love doing it. The perceived pressure that was there before has gone. I hope that re-assures you somewhat? I would add actually that from it's the greatest thing I have EVER done. Trust me when I say you will not regret putting the work in! Just go for it! Jon

I wanted to write this post to really encourage any newbies out there to keep going. I have been doing contemplation for one hour a day, every day for around 14/15 months now. I meditate and try to eat well. Tonight I have had my first ever HUGE awakening experience and trust me….. it’s incredible. If there are any sceptics out there (and I know there are), please believe me when I say that EVERYTHING that Leo is saying is right. He is giving us so many pointers in his videos to the Truth that I actually am finding hard to understand how I couldn’t see it before now as it really is quite a simple thing to see once you understand what you are looking for. Its right there all the time, right in front of all of us…. It’s crazy! The thing that has tipped me “over the edge” if you will were the last two videos he has done, about oneness and about perception. I was thinking over and over today about the fact that the universe is not happening to me, it’s happening to itself and BAM! There it is. It just all sinks in all of a sudden. It actually made me laugh! (ironic as well, as I asked a question about oneness earlier this week as it was confusing me a little!) To all newbies out there or people thinking about giving up, just keep plodding away because IT IS REAL!! You will see it. All you need to do is do the work! @Leo Gura Thankyou!

@Hafiz It’s hard to actually describe to be honest. I have a summer house in my garden, which is where I go to meditate and do contemplation etc. I have built up a habit of doing same time every day. What happened was that I had been watching one of Leo’s videos just prior to going outside. It was the one about understanding perception. In it at about 14 minutes, Leo starts to do a short guided visualisation of what perception is and the fact that reality is not happening to us, it’s happening to itself. This really resonated with me and I had just kept repeating it over and over to myself once I started my contemplation. I then quietened my mind and just became ultra-conscious of everything around me, what I was experiencing in as many senses as possible and then it just hit me. The way it actually felt was hard to explain. It made me smile a lot, it made me feel very happy and then it made me laugh out loud. It felt like something just clicks in your mind. The optical illusions that Leo shows in one of his guides to enlightenment is a very good way of explaining it. Its the one with the cube. It’s like everything is exactly the same, but your way of seeing it is completely different. I realised what oneness actually means. It’s funny, because I already knew what it meant, but it’s like you FEEL IT and KNOW IT once you have an awakening experience. It clicks like a maths equation that you have been looking at for months and all of a sudden you understand how to solve it. (x1,000,000!!). Remember the moment when you were a kid before you could ride a bike and you practiced for weeks and then all of a sudden you could ride..... that's what it's like. It just happens. @Space It sounds clichéd, but I started at the beginning. I followed all of Leo’s videos, right from the first one which was the introduction to enlightenment. The ones which had most impact on me though were “Reality is a strange loop,” “how your mind distorts reality,” and then the latest 3 that he has done. The one about actuality was a biggie for me. It really started to open my mind. Also, the exercises that Leo has posted I found very helpful initially, although they took me a little while to get my head around. At first I was really grasping at anything that I thought might help me. I was looking for answers everywhere. I watched videos, read books and forums, but realised what I was doing was exactly what so many people had advised against, which was not doing the work myself and looking for the "answer" in a book. Trust me now when I say that it won't work like that! I can’t emphasise just how important this is. I know from experience. I found all of the answers to what reality is written down in a variety of places on the web. However, it’s not enough just to read them. You have to understand them and the only way of doing that is to do the work and go through it yourself. I resorted to actually talking to myself out loud in the end, because it seemed like the only way I could stop my mind from wandering off onto other things and it managed to keep me focused. It was like I was asking myself a question and then answering it. The actuality video is a massive help and if I was to do this again from scratch, it’s probably the first video I would go to. Personally I think if you can get your head around the fact most things are concept and imagination then the understanding of reality and oneness isn’t far behind it! I have probably spent much longer contemplating than an hour a day. It became an obsession with me that I had to know. It was all I have been thinking about for months, so in my car I listened to Actualized.org podcasts, it was the first thing I looked at when I got up in a morning and the last thing I looked at on a night. Although I haven’t taken them for some 20 years, I have taken quite a large quantity of psychedelics in the past. I’ve probably done 100 trips over the course of my lifetime from mushrooms to LSD and a variety of others. Whether or not that opened up my mind to an extent where an awakening occurred more readily than it might have normally I don’t know, but it must have had some sort of impact. I have realised as well that I was over thinking it. It actually isn’t that hard to grasp once you know what you are looking for. That used to annoy me to death when I read that on this forum, but its very true. The thing you are looking for is right there, right now, in front of you. Reality is functioning perfectly, right now, its happening right now as you read this, but it isn’t happening to “you” it’s happening to itself and that is the thing that did it for me. It's not happening to YOU. It's happening to ITSELF and for ITSELF. It's functioning perfectly, without a single glitch, the entire Universe and Cosmos. Try to question why you think that it's actually happening to you and you eventually get to the point of realising just how stupid that is. I know that I have so far to go, but I would encourage everyone who has even considered giving up to keep pushing forward. It is possible to do, but you have to dedicate time to it. It had me so fooled! If my experience is anything to go by, the one thing I would take from this post if I were you would be to get your head around “actuality” and what is concept and imagination. Everything else, certainly for me, fell into place after that. If there’s anything else you need to ask then feel free to drop me a message and I will try my best to try and explain more.

Hi In Leo's video about oneness, he says that God is playing out every possible scenario in order to understand itself. I do understand some of this, however, do have a question which has been perplexing me. If God has created the "movie reel" to experience the full range of itself why does it need to do this? Why experience it when it already has the knowledge beforehand to create those individual experiences? If God is all knowing, then there would be no reason to create an experience that it already understands. For example, God created the scenario involving the Nazis and the Jewish people. God must have had some knowledge of needing to create this scenario to play it out in the first place. I am obviously missing something here and no doubt it's something which I will understand when I have an awakening and possibly not before. However, if there is any logic here that I'm missing, I would be really grateful if someone could "enlighten" me! (No pun intended!) Many thanks

Hi I'm relatively new to this blog. I have however watched most of Leo's videos several times and am very committed to contemplation work and have a daily meditation practice which I have undertaken for around 18 months. I wanted to ask a question, however, this might be slightly strange as I don't want an answer to it as such. I take on board that Leo advises that we discover things for ourselves rather than asking for an answer and have seen some brief glimpses of breakthroughs in a variety of facets of enlightenment work, albeit very fleeting. All I want to know is that I will discover that this following problem is something in my mind if I stick to it long enough and a simple yes or no answer will suffice! I have watched the video in which Leo states that whatever problem we have, even if we have the worst problem imaginable, that this is simply a fabrication by the mind. I do understand a lot of this, the projection of my self agenda into situations and onto objects etc, but I do have a similar problem to that he mentioned in his video. Long story short is that I have a severely autistic son. He is violent and damages the house, my car and more concerning is that he has caused injury to himself, to my wife and myself which he continues to do weekly. He is on medication to control is "meltdowns" however, this simply just takes the "edge" off the violence and doesn't prevent it completely. I understand that the car, house etc. are material things and in reality, these things are un-important. I struggle however to get my head around his violence towards us and towards himself. I love him unequivocally and just want to know that if I continue to pursue the work, I will ultimately realise that this particular issue is just in my head and not real. As I mentioned, a simple yes or no answer would suffice! Thanks in anticipation. Jon

@robdl @Nahm @Leo Gura Thankyou all for both the practical and very helpful advice, but also words of support. This has helped me hugely. Hope you all have a great day!

@tashawoodfall I do understand a lot of what has been said in the exercises, both the ones posted by you and those that Leo posted. The huge sticking point for me and one that I just do not seem to be able to get past for some reason is the brain. I have watched @Leo Gura video on the brain over and over again and I just cannot seem to get it to sink in. Whenever I feel like I’m making progress, up it pops again “You’re the brain!” It’s driving me nuts! I have sat for hours doing exercises and contemplation, simply for the idea to pop in there and destroy any of the hard work! Thanks again for the little nuggets of wisdom. I have found them to be very helpful. If there is anyone out there who can give me any pointers on this to finally eridicate this feeling of me being the brain, it would be much appreciated! @tashawoodfall I do see that it was a subject you were going to come back to in your post! ?

@tashawoodfall Brilliant!! Thankyou so much for sharing these. Very, very helpful

@Leo Gura Hi Leo. I'm a real newbie to this and am struggling a little with one of the exercises. I hope you might find time to just give me a little pointer? In exercise 4 you say that the object in your visual field is existing exactly where it is. I understand all that completely and have tried my best to become very conscious of it. However, I struggle to understand how I can be everywhere when the perception of the object is being seen with the eyes. I know this is an extremely basic question, but as mentioned, I'm a complete novice, but very, very determined to understand. Thanks in anticipation. Jon

@Truth Addict Hi I have taken various psychedelics over the years and had incredible experiences on most of them. The easiest way I've found of explaining their effects to an individual who hasn't experienced them is through a quote I heard (sorry can't remember who from!) "Psychedelics open the door to the room where Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha reside, although only for the briefest of moments" In short, they give you a glimpse of where you are heading and help you clarify how to get there. I hope that helps somewhat? I know it's a very basic answer and very "non-philosophical" but I found it to be very true and sometimes the simplest of answers is all that's required. Take care my friend Jonty