luckieluuke

If these these RC drugs are as powerful as most here seem to get behind Leo and claim, shouldnt we have see some psychedelic enduced enlightened beings / mystics by now? I mean in the calibre of Ramana Maharishi, Rupert Spira, Eckhart Tolle etc?? Guess Terrance Mckenna is as close as you get and he was far from enlightened. Really im interested to hear, give an example of a psychedilic induced enlightened person? Psychelics is a wonderful tool if used correctly but im sorry to burst the bubble, it´s not the answer to everything. And it can be a terrible tool if used cautionless. Which people will do if you are not responsible in how you spread information. Which Leo is not. But he also spread good information so I´m not saying it´s a bad thing altogether, quite the opposite. But there is some truth to the concern raised by the topic starter @Zingo, don´t be blind to that. It´s so interesting how people quickly get into dualistic for / against camps which only split and divide. Guess thats the play of life...

My take: they´re great but once you get the message; hang up! IE I use it rarely to realign myself and get inspired but these experience is not "truth" since its a my limited body experiencing and interpreting limitlessness, and there is danger in that since the ego can use it to it´s advantage once you sober up. And I try to not let it be a crutch to my path.

It´s obvious Zzen has his agenda but he does represent a perspective I feel has some just critique. Which is partly why i stopped following Leo. He believes too much on 5Meo for one. I would love if Leo engaged in more discussions with other teachers (or just anyone). Which Leo has said he is not interested in. oh and Leo doesnt follow anyone since there is nothing anyone can teach him anymore. Hey @Leo Gura Why don´t you prove this guy wrong and do an interview with him? would love to hear it! Im not anti Leo in any way BTW. I love him and he brought so much positive things to my life and I am deeply thankfull <3 Nowadays I see him more as an entertainer than a teacher thou.

@astrokeen Havent posted here in many months...so yea my eagerness to awaken comes and goes. Which i think is only natural. I have had a very very slow progress, barely any big realizations or non dual experiences whatsoever despite 2 vipasanna retreats and meditating 3-5 times a week past 2 years. On the other hand I havent had to endure any dark dark nights of the soul. So I guess Im a slowburner. And I do feel progress only if I compare myself to a year ago. That doesnt need to be a good or bad thing. Just sharing in case you feel you are a bit of a "slow burner" you too Spirituality is full of contradiction. One is that the ultimate truth is that there is no effort, everything is perfect as it is and you will awaken just by stepping on the path, sooner or later. But that mentality doesnt work in practice (I have found) Just like free will doenst exist ultimately but for your ego you needs to believe in free will and responcibility. It´s easy to get trapped in the comfort of ultimate truths! ah Im rambling....

Im speachless that you even ask the question. It´s a well known fact that frequent use of cannabis before the body has fully matured is damaging. Dont believe me, look it up for yourself. So YES! Please quit it at least when you´re so young.

@Philipp Yea kindof. For me it´s more a feeling that I am missing something. I have been searching for that something for the better part of my life but can´t seem to find it. And I am sooo tired of the search. I wish I could just work a meaningless job and watch stupid tv shows and be happy with that. But noo I have this void in me that needs filling and for some fing reason I don´t believe I have anything to fill it with!

Humans don´t understand what real love is. Everything we do we do out of love (or fear from not having love) Even Hitler did what he did to make the world better. The road to hell is paved with good intetions. So don´t worry about your "human side"...it will change as you grow Like the muslim say, there is the big war and the small war. The small you wage on the world, trying to make it the way you want. The big war you wage onto yourself. Your own struggle to reach god or enlightenment. Don´t worry to much about it. Sit down, relax and observe

@FrankTheTank I agree at some level. Namely I feel that Leos teaching/view relies heavily on extremely deep psychedelic experiences. He doesn´t seem to question these experiences at all and take them for the truth without hesitation. Maybe because it sounds wild and he gets more followers and his ego likes that. Or maybe they are true, baybe psychedelics are portal into absolute truth or they are portals into a fantasy of what aboslute truth is. I don´t know. I mean just the fact that he discard every other spiritual teachers and only has himself as a teacher (psychedelics) sounds a bit alarming to me. (as he said in blog: Total Omniscience Awakening) I disagree that he should prove it in a scientific way. It cannot be done, you can only prove it by asking yourself in silence. Personally when I do this I tend to verify the points made by other teachers such as Rupert Spira, Ramana Maharishi etc. So I listen to them instead... while Leo can be entertaining and giving me inspiration other times (Thanks!) Let Leo do his thing and take what you want from it. I agree completely that he should take on guests, or visit others. That would be awesome! (and healthy)

I find weed to be both numbing and psychedelic. And there are good sides and bad sides with both in my experience: 1. Numbing: can be good in this hectic life we are almost forced into. Working long hours I am so tired and I can´t completely wind down when I get home. The numbing of weed and alcohol to some degree can force me to let go of the anxiety society creates. If I lived a good, healthy, self fulfilling life I wouldnt need it, but at the moment I don´t so a day a week I might need something to chill. 2. Psychedelic: It does open my mind and make me think in new ways which makes me draw new conclusion - "aha moments". But just because it´s a new pathway in my brain does not mean it´s closer to the truth than the previous, especially if Im numbed down at the same time (weed). When stoned you I come up with this amazing idea how everything works, then when I read it when Im sober it´s not as convincing. I feel like as long as I am conscious of what im doing im gonna be fine And i get more conscious by meditating generally, not smoking weed.

Thats cool... and a bit crazy I never had big paradigm shifting experiences....well maybe in my younger years. Nowadays for me, it´s more of a slow burn. Guess I´m getting into the details hehe Ever since I was a late teenager I got into Lucid dreaming which led to -> out of body experiences -> psychedelics -> buddhism -> advaita vedante -> non dualism (no particular line of thinking) I will always follow this path but my dedication comes and goes in waves.

@Paul92 It´s like Leo says. I have been thinking and exploring this alot. So much is contradictory on this path. Then again that is the essence of non dualism, two opposites are the same. When we are at the beginning of the path it can be good to believe false ideas, such as free will. The way I see it. Ask yourself: do you have free will? don´t think, feel. If the answer is yes then use that free will to explore further. And maybe one day you will find the answer in your experience that no, you have no free will. But Thats the future and there is not much need to worry about that, be here now present.

Really found it interesting how the "new" techings say that you can choose one out of 4 paths, or that you only need the path of spiritual wisdom. And neither of these are true to the original teachings wich say that you need to follow all paths to reach enlightenment. Personally that resonates with me more. Another weird thing is that spiritual knowledge is a different path from meditation. Sounds to me that meditation should be your main source of knowledge and old scriptures should only be used as wayposts along the way.

What do you guys and girls think? I never got such a great overview of Advaita Vedante before so I wantet to spread the word The more I learn about spiritual practices, gurus, schools etc I get the feeling that people who actually do get enlightened don´t follow a path set by others but create their own. All three schools of advaita vedante are correct but should not be followed fanatically. Buddhism and Zen also.

@mandyjw You´re damn right! Including people who say that other people are reflections of your own ego ;-) @AlwaysBeNice And you´re either searching or content

I agree with a lot of what she says. I think we can all agree that Leos deepest insights he shares as "truths" are derived from psychedelic states that are deeper and more intense than most psychedelic users have never been...maybe hardly anyone. And he claims to have an understanding deeper than almost anyone. Personally I take what I experience from my psychedelic states with a grain of salt, and I do the same with Leos. They can show you a goal but you will have to walk there sober if you ask me.

@moon777light @Esoteric@everyone So I´ve been looking into Santata Gamana and there are 5 books! Which book is best for me? I guess Im just looking for instructions to exercises. Sounds like alot of the books are generally around the practice and not the practice itself. 1st book (Kriya yoga exposed) ought to be the most basic and practical one but it sounds to me that the 2nd (The secret power of kriya yoga) is more practical and maybe better for me?

The brain is what counsiousness look like from a 2nd point of view. If you eat a chocolate and a scientist scans your brain the scientist will see what the experience looks like in your brain but it is only what the experience looks like and not the experience itself.

@nistake Im a bit frustrated to. That´s the thing with this stuff its so tricky: You need a goal to motivate you to do something, in this case to meditate. But you shouldn´t meditate with a goal, then the meditation won´t be effective. So basically you should sit down and do nothing for no reason. It´s crazy when you come from the material and logical philosophy lol Which is why so few do it I guess.

@moon777light @Esoteric Thanks a lot for your time I will look into Gamanas books

Should I give up on Kriya? I´ve given it a try with an open mind and a litte fairth... but not alot of faith (which might be part of the problem) I´ve done it 6/7 days for 3 months now and got to lesson 14 (give or take a lesson or two) and unfortunately havn´t had much result Compared to my vipassana meditation I don´t feel that I get as "deep" Some Kriya excercises are nice, and some I have trouble with. 4 examples of troubles: 1. I don´t feel like I should first focus on my chakras and at the end of the meditation train my focus. I prefer in vipassana that you first train your focus and THEN use it. 2. when I am stretching I want to focus on the feeling of the stretch and not a chakra AND holiding my breath AND saying a mantra like they want me to do in the exercise. 3. Just the fact that they say some people undergo surgury on the toungue in order to reach samadhi, and not saying this is a bad idea enforces it. Which to me seems crazy. 4. There are so much to do! exercise after exerscise and I need to focus on different specific things. Which makes it easier than simply focosing on one thing, lets say the breath for all that time. Which is probably why I feel I get deeper in vipassana meditation, even thou it´s harder. Feel like I have three choices: 1. I quit Kriya alltoghether 2. I have faith in the practice and follow it even if I don´t agree with it 3. I use what works for me and form my own path I feel in the gut that the third option is the way to go but there is some "danger" to it, I might do something the wrong way and then not get any results...Like half doing different things and not completing any of them. Thanks for reading all this if you did, and please give me your opinion

+1

Spring is here! Sun is shining! Which for me, having survived the dark winter of Sweden, is a blessing to each day. (Funny how egyptians worshiped the sun and us northeners the thunder (~rain)...should be the other way around no? ) Each morning I meditate and after some concentration meditation, like focusing on the breath I do some self enquiry usually by trying to pinpoint myself. But now I do the opposite of self enquiry (which ofcourse is the same) - not trying to pinpoint myself. I sit in the sun and feel it´s warmth. I feel how my consciousness can be like the sun. Some rays shines on one thing, but the sun has omnidirection, shining it´s "truth" to everything. Consiousness (maybe with the help of the mind?) can focus on one thing, like a thought or a sound. But it can also rest in awareness. Being like the sun, shining on everything. I realized that I identify with my thought because only I experience it, while many experience a sound. But I am equally the sound as I am the thought. And instead of focusing on something, an emotion, a thought or the breath I can relax and let myself just be...everything. Rest in awarenss. Ofcourse the monkeymind will interrupt but then just go back to feeling the wonderful sun, how it gives you warm loving energy. And feel how you just like the sun shine on everything and everything is you. Ah what great way to start a day! Have a wonderful spring everyone and may the sun shine on you!

How are you going to know what it´s like to 'insert tragic life situation' if you don´t try it? If everything exists then that situation exists as well. Good or bad is a human invention. Who are you to say that Trump is a "bad thing" maybe he is exactly what America need in order to grow? Humans don´t know shit, so just relax and enjoy the ride Destruction and Creation, Life and Death are closely linked

I really liked the Jed Mcenna book I read, just because he was so straight forward and not "new agey". I even find Kriya yoga to be to "spiritual" for me personally. I never believe stuff I don´t experience so im quite critical. Guess we all find the teacher and path that suits us. It does sound like you got alot from reading his books thou so congrats! (even if it feels abit shit right now, maybe you have something like a ego backlash?)

@FoxFoxFox I think what @Joseph Maynor is simply trying to say is that the mind and maybe "ego" needs illusions (ideas, knowledge) to explain the illusion (perceived reality) first in order to open up for the "real" work. For me it´s a bit like that and I know it´s like that for others as well. If I need to meditate for 1000 hours in order to experience some truth then first I need a reason to do it. As you move on you realize that the reason has become a burden/obstacle so you drop it and move on. This text that Ivankiss wrote is a beautiful illusion that can help you realize that it is an illusion, and once you do you can leave it behind and move on.