krazzer

@Mondsee just like you I haven't done any drugs until this year. I started with AL-LAD, 75µg, then 150µg, and last Sunday I did 300µg. The first two doses didn't do much but then I knew how much I could handle. 5-MeO-DMT kinda scared me too the first time I heard about it, but after the trip i've had, and maybe a few more, I think i'm ready for it.

@How to be wise The problem is that enlightenment inherently cannot be conceptualized. There are no symbols or statements or words that lead you directly to it. That's why it's so hard to convince other people to search for it. You can't. They have to do it themselves. I do believe however, that at some point humanity must face the true nature of consciousness when we are technologically so advanced that we can transfer our minds to a machine. Or when we can transport ourselves. Does the old you die? The new or transported you thinks not, because he has all your memory. Well then what if you die every time you go to sleep and wake up thinking you are the same you as you were yesterday? To an enlightened person these questions are irrelevant, because it's all you, nothing dies. But these kinds of questions will inevitably come up more and more and should bring more and more people closer to enlightenment. At least that's my perspective.

@Gabriel Antonio Ohh cold showers are so awesome, I can't believe Leo didn't make a video of it yet. It is so extremely powerful yet simple and extremely practical once you get over the initial barrier. I've been doing them for 4 years now. Had a few breaks from it in the first few years but now it's just natural. Cold showers are just natural to me. It's the best way to start the day. The benefits are indeed infinite.

@The Monk I have had the exact same experience as you. Not only the epifany, but also the confusion about if it was enlightenment or not. This is how I described it a day later. My ego blew it way out of proportion, and I thought I really nailed it. The first few days I felt really awesome, much awareness the whole time and just a blissful state most of the time. But as the days past this feeling faded but my ego rejected that I was losing this state, so I got really confused, I got sick and the weeks after I wasn't really a productive human being. It took me a month or so to wrap my mind around the whole experience and everything. But now I can see things much more clearly. I am most definitely not enlightened, but I did reach some new level. Just like yours the experience itself was not blissful, emotional or grandiose in any way. But still a big leap forward in the spiritual journey. So be happy you've had the experience, but take your time to integrate it, and move on. Keep meditating, keep self inquiring, keep them good habits going on, go to the gym (or start doing exercises in nature instead of surrounding yourself with ego driven buffed up guys).

He's so awesome I have seen some videos of him recently he's really at a high spiritual stage. And he is just telling everybody what he believes but nobody really understands him. Especially all those celeb people.

Now I understand why most enlightened masters say nothing at all.

Of course @Leo Gura should have done them, before making a video. But cold showers seem to me extremely helpful and extremely practical. Ik take showers 4x a week, and all of them cold, except on Sundays 1 minute warm to wash my hair. But even then I start cold and end cold. I've been doing this for 4 years. The duration is 30 conscious deep breaths. The best thing about them is they force you to face your fear. I still fear them from time to time. The only way to stay under a cold shower is te become aware. If you're aware you can accept the pain. If you resist, it's undoable for any extended period of time. So it's meditation under extreme circumstances. They also reduce stress, are good for your skin, save you money and it's better for the environment. They don't cost you any time, actually they save you time because most people stay in hot showers longer than necessary.

I will listen to any person as long as they can teach me something or make me grow in any way I find meaningful. That's still the case with Leo.

Ah so that's why he didn't already make a video of it yet I didn't like them before I started doing them. Leo is an open-minded guy, he might change his mind. After 4 years of doing them, I actually prefer a cold shower over a hot shower. Cold shower make me feel energetic, hot showers make me feel weary afterwards.

@Joseph Maynor Authenticity, listening to your intuition, living according to nature, doing what god tells you to do. All these things point to the same thing. I believe that the more silent your mind becomes, the better you are able to distinct ego from intuition. Don't overthink this too much. Do the work, be patient, and trust that the answers will come naturally.

@AleksM yes

True, it's possible to be in the flow and be aware of that at the same time. Haven't done any coding for some time now but i'm definitely gonna try more of that when I do. I have the same experience. When you're in the flow it definitely feels like the code is writing itself. There is thinking, but it's very much to the point and there is no fear of doing something wrong or overthinking what you're doing. It just flows I would advise not to think or try to be aware while coding. Just immerse yourself into the process of coding. Get in the flow. My coding has improved much since I started my spiritual path. And so did @AleksM's. Maybe it looks like you're not being productive because you're mind is so quiet, but a quiet mind is the best place to subconsciously create a solution to a technical problem, which then seems to come out of nowhere. I don't think technology is in the way of spirituality or enlightenment. Unless you're misusing it. If you use technology to express your creativity I don't see any problem with it at all.

@Wormon Blatburm you cannot control your emotions, but you have full control over how you react to them. That is basic stoicism. This man was imprisoned during the Vietnam war for 7 years and tortured and isolated, stoicism helped him stay sane: https://allthatcase.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/does-stoicism-work-the-case-of-james-stockdale/

@OBEler I'm also a software engineer. I don't think you should want to focus on your breath while coding. You should focus on coding. Have you ever heard of the 'flow' state? When you work and just work and the world around you vanishes for hours. Productivity goes through the roof. If you don't, check out this video: https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=nl The better developed your level of awareness is, the more likely you will get into the flow state.

@Wormon Blatburm Stoicism is basically living like someone who is enlightened. Not suffering, being virtuous, doing what's right, being indifferent about your situation. They talk about how you can prefer something to change, and then work towards it, but being indifferent about the outcome. I have studied stoicism early in my self-development journey and I find it to be extremely helpful and practical. This is a good book to start: https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-Stoic/dp/0195374614/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=86796SK5924DGSCPHDCJ And this one goes deeper: https://www.amazon.com/Stoicism-Art-Happiness-Teach-Yourself/dp/1444187104

@Socrates happens to me too. I just recently started doing SDS for one hour, without moving the eyes. After about 15 minutes the stuff around the object I focus on begins to glow. Sometimes it looks like everything is inverted. And also complete black. No vision at all. This happens mostly if I let go of the urge to 'reset' this by refocussing. I don't find it that freaky though. Must be something with the brain/eye going on.

@Real Eyes @Wormon Blatburm I have a clear sense about what I am. I am not the result of my brain activity as I always used to think. I am simply it. I'm sorry I really can't put this into words and right now I'm not feeling very much like trying to When I read any book about enlightenment or hear a teacher speak about it, I simply get it. This is not going away, period. When I read the descriptions of what enlightenment is from various teachers, some of them would label me enlightened. My ego told me "Yes! you got enlightened, you did it, everything will be awesome from now on!" and clearly deluded me, because after a few days the awesomeness wore off and I also got sick. I dropped the need to label myself anything but I feel there are some things still missing. I don't feel love for everything as some of the teachers describe, and I don't really feel that i'm everything as some describe. Maybe that's just my character, but I feel I want to deeply investigate this much more. And I will. This whole experience has instantly transformed me to being 5x more serious about spirituality than I was. I am dedicating all my free time into this now on and I even chipped away some time from building my company. Which would have been unheard of 1 month ago. These last 2 weeks I was mostly sick laying in bed. I caught a flu and got a real bad sinus infection which I just recovered from. I haven't been working for 2 whole weeks. This has never happened before in my life. It might be related to all of this, but it might just as well be a coincidence. Who knows.

Something strange was happening to me these last few days... I felt like the search was almost over. I have been searching for enlightenment these last few years. But over the last couple of days I felt like I was almost there. I felt it but I didn't believe it. I thought it was just my ego being stupid. But something kept me searching very intensely these last few days. I was looking for enlightened people on the internet. I found this this list: http://www.poehm.com/en/list-of-enlightened-people/ I was looking for video's of those people talking. Yesterday, all I was doing was watching video's and reading this book: https://www.amazon.com/Search-Talks-Ten-Bulls-Zen/dp/3893381163 I was watching video's of Sadhguru, Tolle, Mooji, Gangaji, Cairns, Leo and others. Then my mind became 100% quiet while watching this video: Then I watched this one: And then, at the end, I got it. What I was looking for was already there. It has been my entire life. I went back to the book, and I found out there were only a few pages left. Before, the words kinda made sense to me, but now, I got it all. It was like reading a book about how to drive a car, while already having a drivers license. When I listen to any enlightened person now, I feel like I truly understand everything their saying now. Over a year ago, I also got it, but it lasted only about half a second, while watching Leo's video about the Neti Neti Method: But now, it's still there. All the time. My mind is quiet. All the time. It's like i'm meditating all day long. It's marvelous. The mind still creates thoughts and feelings, but they are so small compared to the presence of my true self... One could say that I am now enlightened, but it feels so silly to say that, because the truth is so ridiculously simple. It's like all my life all I did was look around, and never look up. And then suddenly I notice the sky is there. "Ohhh! The sky! I wasn't looking up to see the sky! Hey guys! I'm enlightened now! Because I can see the sky!" It would feel like that. Now I also understand why words cannot describe it. My best definition would be: It is that, which cannot be found, because it's already there. That's it! My whole life feels upside down now. I was trying to grow my business, but it seems so silly now. I was meditating every day for half an hour and doing self-inquiry. But now I know who I am! And i'm in a meditative state all the time! Time will tell, all I know is that everything is going to be very different from now on. If anyone wants to know more feel free to ask.

I haven't personally experienced infinity (yet) but I find it incredibly satisfying to think of it as absolutely infinite. When I was a kid I always had this thought: Why is there something at all? Why isn't there nothing? But absolute nothingness and absolute infinitely everything are logically the same thing. The one cannot exist without the other. So there just has to be everything. And well if there is absolute infinity then what you experience right now couldn't not be.

@AleksM the technique of constant awareness resonated very much with me. I also believe this is key for fast spiritual growth. I think if you want to teach others what you've learned, you need to be very careful with what you write. Most people on this forum are more open minded than average, but still I don't think you should just blurt out everything you know. I myself had trouble not dismissing everything you said in the second part with all the paranormal stuff and I consider myself to be extremely open minded.

Eckhart Tolle was no exception, check this video:

@Silver Look deeply, very deeply. Just be aware and see what awareness brings you. If you listen carefully you will know the difference between your ego talking and your intuition. Also, you don't have to choose between these 2 extremes. Your truth path might just as well lie somewhere in the middle.

That sounds wonderful. Really? That's great! I would like to hear more about it! Thank you! It's indeed worth mentioning that in no way it is easy. The absolute truth is simple, but our minds are mostly trained towards solving difficult problems. Cleaning up your life is very much required. High awareness is required, but consistent non-destructing behavior is needed as well. Enlightenment is like a very big bright stone in the middle of a 100km² desert. The untrained mind is full of fog and will never find it. The fully trained mind can see it from any distance.

Hard to say, I think it's very personal. When I started I did 10 minutes a day, which were a drag back then. Now i do 30 minutes a day. I want to build it up to an hour. The most important thing is to do it every day.

@Real Eyes That's a good question. I have never taken any drug in my life, so I also never investigated it. Drugs was simply a no-go area in my life. This changed when Leo started talking about psychedelics. His video about AL-LAD convinced me to try it out, because it looked like a good starting point. The problem though was to do a trip, I required myself to take a whole day's time, and the next day no work, which restricts me to Saturdays. I haven't had many Saturdays completely free for myself, and I'm not gonna trip when I need to take care of my son. Another problem was my wife. She is even more dogmatic about drugs than I was. Doing a trip isn't something I can hide from her, nor should I want to hide it. So it took me some courage to tell her, and while she doesn't agree with me doing it, she told me she trusts me in whatever I do. So far I have 2x taken AL-LAD. The first time was 75µg, just to see how I would respond to a low dose. Nothing much happened, except for maybe slightly more awareness. The second time was 150µg. No noteworthy visuals, but much more awareness. I was in a peaceful state, listened to some music, but nothing profound, no insights or anything. Near the end of the trip I didn't know what to do anymore so I watched some TV with my wife, and it was a show about celebrities. I remember ridiculing all those celebreties and their petty problems, it all looked so alien to me. On the other hand I don't need drugs to see that . Both trips didn't have any lasting effect on me as far as I know, and I don't think they have anything to do with the awakening I've had. But who knows. In my next trip I wanted to try a 300µg dose, and that was actually the trip I was waiting for and expected to actually get some results from it and hopefully some insights. My desire to do this has dramatically diminished, because I already got what I was looking for, but I'm gonna do it anyway. I now know there is even more to discover. Even though I don't really desire any more discovery, doesn't mean that I shouldn't.