BipolarGrowth

Atman to me seems quite similar to Leo’s God-Realization I just think it’s more a question of degree and intensity with maybe some other components but yet similar structurally you might say. I came to the Atman side of things much earlier than I came to anattā which might explain my bias toward anattā and Buddhism. I got to experience Buddhism through a Hindu-strengthened base of practice you might say. They are both incredibly beautiful and both totally “useful”. Maybe something to check out on the Hindu side of things would be the Heartfulness/Sahaj Marg tradition. It had a great power for me even as a beginner and is still quite enjoyable to return to at times. I’d certainly consider Daaji to be one of the most balanced and embodied spiritual beings on earth although his representation and expression of teaching is in many ways antithetical to Leo’s teachings or at least the main focuses and ways of prioritizing teachings and insights. Heartfulness is good because it is a transmission-based practice which can produce strong results for some right away while also being quite widespread and accessible for a deep tradition operating in the modern world.

@Danioover9000 well the inspiration definitely relies on “external” sources mixing with “internal” sources IMO. Copy catting done poorly is just that. It’s just not that appealing because it’s done poorly. If you can “copy cat” better than the original source of inspiration, then this is copy catting done exceptionally well which usually takes off and can even be seen as original just because of how good it is. People really care more about the quality produced more than where it comes from in practice, at least that’s my view.

The vast amalgamation of inspiration in an artist’s mind is what is truly original even more so than the content which is created.

Can I please formally be the first person to go from having the “member” title to “Crazy Mfer” title? Not joking.

I will say that banning @Consilience would seem like a horrible mistake to me. He’s one of the most dedicated people I’ve seen on here, and from memory, generally pretty pleasant and respectful. Its a bit worrying to see this exchange because it brings to mind the thought that “do the work” seems to these days mean something closer to “do the drugs” which is not feasible or tenable for many people. I know for a fact Leo himself has seen the nonsense, not at all his fault, that came from me following his recommended methods.

You might want to try some new techniques to see if they are more powerful than the “do nothing” technique. The simple and 100% accurate advice on how to stay in higher consciousnesses states is to get into them more often. You want to use whatever method, technique, substance, or combination of those which allows you to healthily and sustainably get into radical states as often as possible. The more you do this, the higher chance you will reach the point of a permanent shift in baseline awareness and perceptual capabilities. This is the barebones, zero dogma or bias way of looking at this process. If I were to suggest something based on my own bias and experience, I’d recommend doing vipassana and looking directly into the three characteristics perceptually. Great starting points for this would be reading Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram and Rob Burbea’s Seeing that Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising Vipassana and meditation for most people will not be enough to reach significant and radical alterations/improvements to baseline awareness. For those without crazy motivation, discipline, and talent, psychedelics and a myriad of other techniques from other traditions might be needed to make truly noteworthy and rare levels of progress.

Sounds like you’re progressing well. I would like to point out that many of the elements of this report of events lines up with some insights into emptiness though. Seeing the liquidity of form is a stepping stone to seeing emptiness. Seeing no self is a stepping stone to emptiness. No self also goes deeper than ego death though. No self insight can eventually show the emptiness of the Atman (Self).

Good to know you’ve maxed out the capabilities of Buddhism to know that it can’t compare. That’s incredibly impressive… If you talked with people who do Buddhist practices at much depth, you’d probably find that they have contacted much of the stuff you’re saying is better than Buddhism. They just use different language and interpret other insights as deeper because well… they kind of are deeper from my experience of playing with both sets of toys.

Great choices for mods! @puporing and @The0Self are certainly top notch imo.

I’ve mostly inadvertently invested $100-150k in net worth into my spiritual development not considering opportunity cost, and I would have to say it is the absolute best investment I could’ve made. It’s ironic that to the world and even myself so much of the process looked foolish and certainly unhinged, but I think this is what the expression of spiritual development for essentially of any person with a more severe case of bipolar disorder will likely look like.

An interesting video for sure. I’d say the majority of my personal spiritual development has been related to this type of effect of basically exposing oneself to novelty which might have previously been strongly rejected at previous levels of consciousness. A lot of this has happened accidentally with me. My bipolar disorder, especially the most intense manic episodes have exposed me to many experiences which hardly no one (including my normal mood state self) is willing to do. Leaving 20k in liquid assets which was much of what I had at the time on a sleeping homeless man’s belly in Las Vegas is one example of the types of activities that ultimately break one out of bondage to certain attachments and value systems, at least temporarily, and to some degree in a more permanent sense.

The OP is pure imagination, grounded in nothing. All there is is appearance while appearance is appearing to be that way. There is no beach outside of experience, outside of appearance.

This was one of my old favorite pieces of content on Awakening maybe five or six years ago. It’s odd to think of what my direct experience might have felt like back then from my current perspective laying in permanent zero gravity and infinite space. Anyway, enjoy the video!

It’s great to see you being truly authentic Leo. I respect the changes you’ve been making in your self expression.

This seems to be the most direct and valuable of Hindu teachings I’ve found. I hope you guys find it useful.

This is an amazing breakdown of fighting as a sport. Incredibly well done.

Nothing only belongs to the Dream ?❤️

If you continue to practice, you’ll eventually get to the point where crystal clear and useful thought happens on its own without any sense of control, at least if you can keep progressing that is. It puts a whole new meaning to no-mind.

It’s infinitely young.

Sounds like fun!

The origin of existence is happening right here and now for no one.

You’ve done great with those base needs and accomplishments, but there is a whole world you have yet to discover. Recommending spiritual teachers is sort of doomed to fail to some degree because this is an internal and intuitive process to awaken. You will likely cycle through many lower-tier teachings before being ready for the intermediate and higher tiers. Here are some resources and teachers I recommend: https://www.mctb.org/ Seeing that Frees by Rob Burbea https://youtube.com/c/frankyang Leo’s videos High dose psychedelic experiences once building up in dosing slowly https://youtube.com/c/DhammaratoDhamma https://youtube.com/channel/UCgEw96l2EdbnlgfLZuwwB9A I’ve found the most powerful teachings through various Buddhist schools with Theravada being most appealing due to the degree of phenomenological precision in their descriptions and Mahayana Buddhism as a runner-up, but this is my preference. Yours might very well be different.

There is no such thing as spirituality without “altered” states. To be even more clear, there is no human existence without “altered” states. There is nothing virtuous or desirable about the “lower” normal states of consciousness humans tend to inhabit when living in an unexamined way. The whole path of spirituality is a hunt to find what the real “unaltered” state actually is. This is essentially a fusion between the childlike freedom, wonder, and flow that we all experienced to some degree or another with the conditioned, egoic, and responsibility-focused adult life we are all naturally pulled to at some point. Eventually one finds through the path that experience has always been and always will be somehow the same process on a structural level, but the viewing of what the structure of experience is becomes more and more refined through the repeated exposure to a wide array of apparently different experiential configurations.

Your life already reflects the intelligence of God.

People often put in solitary confinement are about as low conscious as they come, and they likely have no knowledge of the practices which might awaken someone. It’s not much of a surprise that these people aren’t known for awakening.