Aaron p

@Aquarius meditation meditation meditation. Trying to gain muscle by choosing to gain muscle is impossible...it's not the choice, the actual development of the muscle takes place when you walk into a gym and stay there for an hour, every day. Why would it be any different for the mind? Your mind is an infinitely more complex system, and your subconscious is in control the whole thing. Very little actual authority is given to what is known as "free will." Your subconscious controls your pain, digestion, blood circulation, the respiratory system, throwing up, sex drive, sex orientation etc etc etc. So don't fall for the idea that you can change something fundamental about yourself by "trying harder." I recommend one, or both of these methods. 1. The "neti neti" method that leo talks about. Which will dissolve the idea that you exist, and how can you be worried if there is no "i" to be worried? (I do this one) 2. Law of attraction. Check out the teaching behind law of attraction if you don't know it already. There's a lot of western commercialisation of this though, like "get rich quick" schemes. Try to get to the bones of it. How it actually works is, you have a vibrational energy (apparently), and this vibrational energy kind of governs the subconscious make-up of your situation. The only reason your in the situations your in, is because you've some how or another created it. An example of this is when someone is trying to make you angry, you can either feed into their trap and become angry...or completely rise above them, so much so you don't even reply. It requires your energy. So look into that. Manipulating these things once you know how they work, is actually super effective. U can change anything about yourself

I just don't understand how to answer your fucken question...because nothing exists

@Salvijus i think it's like when u cut yourself but don't realise for a moment, and only when you look at the cut does it begin to matter, before that point of realisation, you might experience a kind of "cool" sensation where u cut yourself. I think enlightenment is being able to experience pain, realising that it's not pain. Which enables one to look at the cut and still not feel the pain anyway...

@winterknight can u expand what you said here. Can u word it in such a way that it can be helpful. If u were trying to use this truth to teach a Buddhist pupil about it, what would you tell them? Thanks bro

@Gabriel Antonio comprehend existence, become god, understand reality, go to heaven. Just the normal stuff mate

I think the most important part of it is realising how much gold is at the end of it. You need to have some sort of beliefs about it, otherwise why would you do it. Check out Leo's practical guide to enlightenment. My practise has been 40 minutes neti neti method followed by 20 minutes of breath focusing meditation. I've been meditating for what feels like a couple of months now, and holy shit let me tell you...you want to do it. It's fucken hard tho, because you don't realise how much your missing out on until you do it. Basically heaven is literally the goal of meditation from my insights. I've started to feel different levels of euphoria after meditation now...and I can feel my chest open up literally now to. It takes a while for the results to become tangible and palpable. The best thing to do probably, is say "fuck u" to all your thoughts and feelings and just meditate your ass off for a month anyway. That's what I did.. haha and it worked. Then after you've seen god in person a few times you know that it's worth it and you can transcend your feelings and just BOOM meditate like fuck. U have to expect that there's always more too btw, like...never believe that you've reached the goal "...to believe that you are fully aware, would be to become permanently unaware of how unaware you truly are." (I've also explored ways to using spiritual laws to my advantage in the past. One technique I have for dealing with not wanting to meditate is completely be fine with it. I just be ok with not wanting to meditate and dont, then at some point in the day I sit down where I usually meditate and just start asking myself the same questions I would when I'm meditating I focus real hard and keep an eye on the time just to see. And boom, I'm meditating. And your actually meant to do this in meditation anyway. Your mind creates what you hate.)

How would you answer this?

@Outer yes I was going to say that

When you become aware of the sensations of the inside of your mouth, your mind creates a picture of the mouth...the sensations are real but the picture is not. When you become aware of the thump of your heart on your chest, your mind creates a picture of the heart...the "thump" feeling is real, while the picture is not. Etc, etc, etc... With this, a question arises: when meditating with stomach breathing, is it helpful or harmful to embrace the *picture* created in the minds eye, of the lungs, the air, nose etc (all of which are completely imaginary).

@Outer I measure my progress by how much I realise what is reality and what is not. Essentially I measure my progress by observing how wrong I was in the past.

@Outer the mind

@Outer im not sure I understand the question. I was just stating that I think anything outside of direct experience is ideological. An ideology is an ideology regardless of whether it's spoken about or written about, in my opinion.

@Outer well I think an ideology is anything outside of direct experience

@Outer from the stomach breathing, my goal is to still my ideologies as much as possible, for as long as possible

One of the catch 22 problems again. Our minds create reality, and so if we have a certain experiential "glimpse" of how our reality is fake...and then *remember* that glimpse and 'hold to that memory', are we becoming guilty of creating a new reality? Is this one of the paradoxical tricks?

Feel free to go into as little or as much detail as possible. All is helpful

@Nahm wow that's amazing. I can totally remember yesterdays body and yesterdays mind, I can even remember the thoughts that came to my mind when I became aware...but I can't remember the awareness itself. I don't know what it is lol. I think it's nothing

@Feel Good actually I do have to agree with him...I find that it becomes a lot easier to deal with physical pain when I realise that it's not me who's experiencing pain. It's actually quite pleasant

@BuddhaTree why does it cause freedom from suffering, and revelation of peace?

@cetus56 I just rewatched the whole video...thank you. But I'm still thinking about what the actual purpose of awareness is. I feel like it's core purpose is possibly to deconstruct the conceptualisations of the mind.

@Faceless @Faceless I think your talking about something I found myself. I took a hold of a goal in my mind which was "to pursue enlightenment." But I had to let go of that goal to continue my pursuit of enlightenment. Is that what you mean?

@Artaemis how does it dissolve all your physical and emotional pain and suffering?

Ok so I'm starting to understand a little bit about all this enlightenment stuff and how it works. It's quite challenging. My problem is this, when I'm *out and about* im torn between two things. Half of me says "ok I need to be *aware* of everything" and half of me says "NO, trying to be aware will lead to more mental activity. I need to not think." And I honestly cannot tell which one I should follow. Should I be aware, or should I focus on stomach breathing (not thinking)? I'm sure it's a simple question but I'd appreciate the help

Blows my friggin mind. I've only encountered this enlightenment stuff in the last month...it's so hard to get familiar with it. If I am the darkness and my mind is the lamp, the only way to find myself is to swtich the lamp off

So, I'm pretty sure I'm a hypochondriac to some degree. I notice it here and there. My mind is very very stubborn and it's hard to even think straight sometimes. What confuses me, is the fact that I used my mind to figure out that Leo's teachings had truth behind them. But I really don't know where the line is drawn between 'awareness' and 'thought'. EVEN RIGHT NOW IM TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT WITH MY MIND. I try to become aware of my mind when I feel symptoms of the hypochondria, but I just end up digging further into it. The only thing that really helps in the moment is taking my mind off it, by doing something else. How can I develop when, if I take a step in any direction, I am making a wrong step (by thinking). My question is this, should I be using my mind AT ALL?