r0ckyreed

Consciousness isn’t a concept. All concepts occur within Consciousness.

You aren’t getting it. The moon isnt just a pure concept. The idea of a moon points to an actual moon. Whereas the idea of Santa doesn’t point to anything in existence of actuality. For instance, Leo’s toilet isn’t just my imagination. I can go out and find Leo’s toilet. This is different from Santa Clause.

What are you meaning by state and contemplation? From my understanding, you view contemplation as deeply thinking about something and state as one’s level of consciousness.

Right. Peter Ralston discusses this in his book that contemplation is all about direct consciousness of truth. But isn’t an insight a state change? Does contemplation bring about a deeper state change than meditation? All the times I have spent counting my breaths in meditation, I could have spent contemplating a question and gaining a valuable insight. I am not sure how chanting, counting breaths, etc. will bring about the state change. Meditation makes me more blissful and contemplation makes me more insightful.

But what about contemplation and curiosity? Being present without curiosity won’t lead to awakening. This is the downside of meditation and shutting off the mind. There are plenty of dogmatic meditators who sit very presently and can access satori’s and samadhis, but this isn’t the same as complete understanding of reality. I don’t think meditation can ever lead to the highest levels of understanding because meditation encourages us to shut off the mind rather than to utilize it to explore our curiosity. Do you see how shutting off the mind is only exploring half of reality, whereas using our mind explores the other half. I am certain that contemplation leads to the highest levels of understanding because contemplation is being deeply curious. Without curiosity and contemplation, even psychedelics and the Buddha himself cannot awaken you. Awakening is a process that happens from within in the same way that medicine helps the body/mind do what it needs to do to heal from within. All meditation has ever done for me is make me feel happier and peaceful. All of my deepest insights have come from me sitting down and thinking curiously and critically about the present moment or what have you. Correct me if I am wrong, but awakening is about insight and truth rather than my happiness, suffering, and how I feel. Meditation helps more with the latter and contemplation is effective with both.

There is no such thing as a meditation technique. You are correct that meditation is a happening and not a doing. Techniques are just more doings.

Isn’t sameness also imaginary too? The mind creates difference and sameness. Separation is definitely an illusion and so are boundaries. I am with you on that, but what I am not quite with you on is this contradiction between my experience being absolute but also relative amongst other experiences. If other people have experiences like mine, then that means there are parts of reality that I, my experience, cannot access.

If we don’t exist, then why do we say “we”, “my”, and “you”? We have to draw distinctions to be able to talk about things. I could just say River but you would have no idea which river I would be talking about. I say external world to identify yourself beyond the ego. There is a seen world and an unseen world and both are the self. There is an internal world of your thoughts and feelings and private experience, and then there is a world beyond your beliefs, opinions, thoughts, feelings, and subjectivity. That is why it is called “external” because we are making a distinction relative to a certain point of view because you don’t experience all of Infinity as a finite human experience. If you did, then reality wouldn’t be infinite. There is more beyond your senses because that is what infinity is. You are a leaf on a tree in which you are tree too.

Yes. I agree but these concepts point to an actuality of some sort. Right now, my car is a concept that points to something that exists, whereas the Spaghetti Monster isn’t. My car isn’t purely conceptual. Likewise, others aren’t purely conceptual. I exist as a concept and as an actuality. The ego is concept but consciousness (what I am) isn’t.

I agree that I have only ever experienced my experience because that is all I have. You might say that my experience is reality but the issue is that if other people have experiences, then that means my experience cannot be total. My experience is completely sovereign, but it isn’t absolute because my experience only captures a small part of this Infinity. Just think about it, I see in 3D, but an alien might perceive is 3000D. Can you imagine that? Who would be God in this case? Can you see that the alien would have a totally different reality than me and could see different parts of the world that I can’t? Also, look at blind and deaf people, they can’t experience sight or sound and are thus missing out on other parts of reality. My experience right now is like that of a blind and deaf man compared to an alien. My experience is relative to others and to the Universe itself. I am not sure what you mean because this seems obvious to me that my experience is limited and not absolute. It is absolute in the sense that I cannot experience anything but my experience, but my experience also tells me there is more than just my experience. If it is true what you are saying that there is no external world and my experience is absolute, then it would follow that there are no others and that there could not be other absolutes. This contradicts Infinite Gods. It would also follow that you don’t even exist and are just my experience talking to me, which is technically true, but it would mean that you have no experience outside of my experience of “you.”

Well, according to the logic of this spiritual talk, you are technically imagining that we talked about this multiple times within this one time, the present moment.

Right there. You just acknowledged that there is more than one perspective. Idc if there are a million clones, they will all be the same but will also have different experiences in the game.

But if there are others, then it isn’t absolute because there would be experiences happening outside your own, which would make your experience relative amongst other experiences.

I believe other people are living life even if I don’t experience it. I believe cops are murdering black people even if I don’t experience it. To say otherwise is racist and inaccurate. Injustice is done around the world without my awareness. I mean look at this Gaza war. It is obviously happening while I am on the toilet drinking a root beer, typing this message.

Boundless infinity is what is meant by external world. It is the world of consciousness that existed before you were born and after your death. The external world is also you. The external world just means that there is a world beyond your current experience. If there are other minds, then there are other worlds. And they are all the Universe. If there was no external world, then what am I watching on a cops body cam footage? If there is no external world, then Leo doesn’t exist and neither does his house unless I am there. But the world doesn’t evolve around my ego.

I have been very lethargic and lazy today and was contemplating what meditation is. I came to the realization that meditation is not a doing but a being. Let me explain: In life, we are always doing something, and I started to notice myself meditating as another doing in that I would be "doing" meditation or performing a meditation technique just like I would another task or activity. But here is the truth: Meditation is NOT a task or activity. There is no such thing as a meditation technique or even meditation itself. As soon as you make a technique out of meditation, you turn it into a doing. True meditation is just being, just being aware and satisfied with just existence itself. Anything else you add onto that is a "doing" and is a distraction. You don't even have to sit to meditate because that is a doing. Whatever you are doing right now, just allow and accept everything as it is. Don't try to change anything about your experience. Just be. The thing is that you are always doing something. Let meditation just be just like your breath before you notice it. Just be aware of existence and just accept it. True meditation is being satisfied with not doing anything at all and just letting everything become a happening rather than a doing. Your breath happens, your thinking happens, and then your meditation happens. If you are focusing on your breath or doing anything else, you are technically doing a technique than true meditation. Why can't you just do absolutely nothing and just be satisfied with being? A client told me that she can meditate, but it is another task that she does. And when she has nothing to do, she gets really bored. But it is that moment you are not doing anything, that is the meditation. The only thing you are "doing" is noticing, letting it be, letting it go, and being satisfied throughout the experience. And notice that the act of noticing, letting it be, letting it go, and being satisfied are not doings but are happenings. Try that out. That is true meditation and to even call it "meditation" is a trap. To saying "I am meditating" then becomes a doing, and is therefore, not meditation. True meditation is when people ask, "What are you doing?" And you reply, "Nothing at all! I am simply being." One more thing I want to point out is that while meditation is helpful in your life, it shouldn't be all you do in your life. Notice that survival is against being. You have to do something if you really want to live, so in a way, just being is a way of facing death and being in touch with the present moment. But if all you are just being all the time, you will die, and you won't be fully satisfied as a human being. No amount of meditation will satisfy you. Did you get that? Let me repeat it again, NO AMOUNT OF MEDITATION WILL SATISFY YOU. A 10 minute or 10 hour "practice" may give you a little bit of satisfaction, but you will reach a point where your mind just has to do something. In fact, it is not healthy for you to be sitting in zazen 24/7. Life requires you to do other things besides shutting off your mind and just being. When I asked ChatGPT the purpose of meditation, it listed the themes to be centered around enhanced well-being, improved mindfulness, and spiritual development. On the other hand, when I asked ChatGPT about the purpose of contemplation, it listed themes around gaining insight/understanding, problem-solving, and introspection. Notice that no amount of shutting off the mind will give you insights because insight requires that you allow your mind to open, and to open, your mind needs to be able to be used, to think, and to connect dots. You cannot connect any dots in your mind if it is silent. Can you please notice this!!? You Buddhist Bats!! You cannot be deeply curious about life if you are silencing all forms of thought, including your curiosity. You cannot solve problems if you shut off your mind!! Solving problems requires that you use your mind. Some of you may object saying that meditation and having a silent mind allows you to have insights into problem-solving. Yes, but that is only AFTER you allow yourself to think again and use your mind. You get a ping of insight and that is mental content. And technically, you still can't solve problems with no mind. Contemplation is important to deeply think things through and to self-reflect. Just being aware of your self and your thoughts isn't enough. You have to engage with them and follow your curiosity. I hope this helps. So basically, meditation is a helpful "practice." You want to engage with just being satisfied with being. But don't mistake that for shutting off your mind and being a mindless Buddhist Bat. You want to engage your mind and be like a Leonardo Da Vinci or a Sherlock Holmes, Einstein, etc. Those are the greatest minds because they have used them but have also not used them. You cannot have a great mind if you are always shutting it off. That is really not a life worth living. The unexamined life is not worth living and so is the thoughtless life. Meditation is bullshit. Meditation doesn't exist. There is just being and doing. Allow yourself to be and then allow yourself to do. Engage in being deeply (meditation) and then engage in doing consciously and curiously (contemplation).

Read the 5am club by Robin Sharma.

Of course an external world would exist if there are other things outside of your experience. That is the whole concept of the external world. An external world is a world that is happening independent of your perceptions, thoughts and beliefs about it. If other minds do exist and continue to exist outside your own, then that would be the definition of an external world. The external world concept doesn’t have to be specific to materialism. Even Berkeley had to have an implicit idea of an external world because the objection still remained that other minds perceive things still existing even when I am not there, which means things still exist when I am not there. And Berkeley went so far as to say that God holds everything in existence because he is always perceiving it. So, the question is how is this any different from saying there is just an external world? Berkeley is making extra jumps when the simplest explanation is an external world exists, but its substance isn’t materialistic/mechanistic. Also, another thought came up and that is that if other minds do exist, where are they located? In my mind? Outside of my mind? Inside of God’s mind? Notice that the existence of other minds and Infinite Gods presents problems because if there are other minds, then there are other “worlds” external to mine. We have to contemplate what is meant by “world.” A world is basically a mind. Each human being has there own world external to mine, so therefore, there is an external world in that sense, and there is also an external world in the sense that absent of all humans, the world as we know it with all its animals still will be running. Just think about it, if I die and if you are conscious and not just some philosophical zombie I am talking to, then my death wouldn’t be the death of your “external world.” You would still interact with the world, but my console and VR would be destroyed. All of that is occurring somewhere and nowhere. So likewise, if all animal consciousnesses died, then this world will still exist for us. Heck, we even think aliens exist. Where could an alien exist besides just being an idea in our own minds? When we say an alien exists, we mean they exist outside our ideas of them and that they exist somewhere beyond our perception. Think about that. This idealism ideology fucks with your mind because this is not how the world works. There are things outside your perceptions such as other minds/worlds.

Because a lot of them are stuck in the Spiritual Matrix. I am actually thinking about writing a book about this very topic. Jed McKenna has been the only one I have heard articulate that concept well in writing.

Yeah. This is why Infinity of Gods contradicts solipsism. Solipsism says there is only one perceiver. Infinity of Gods says there are infinite perceivers. One of them is wrong. If there are Infinite Gods, then that would mean solipsism is false and that an external world exists.

I thought I would make a thread dedicated to deciphering the false teachings throughout Actualized.org and other things spiritual teachers have said. I will focus on the false teachings of Leo in this post, but I hope others expand on the false teachings of Leo as well as other spiritual gurus as well. In one video, Leo stated that he will start to put intention false teachings in 10% of his videos. This thread will explore those as well as the unintentional false teachings. Unintentional false teachings: - Overestimating fasting and psychic abilities - Underestimating the role of genetics - Psychedelics will lead to enlightenment - Meditation will lead to enlightenment - Enlightenment is real and not just a Buddhist fiction. - His previous videos were highly influenced by Buddhist dogma. - “Reality is neutral.” He stated this in one video long ago. - Consciousness has many bubbles like a sponge. (Sponge analogy from Perception video). -Perception being an illusion. This is a false teaching because being is absolute and is not an illusion. - Brain being imaginary. If the brain is imaginary, then everything is imaginary, and if everything is imaginary, then nothing is imaginary because that word would lose its meaning if there is nothing that isn’t non-imaginary. - Oversimplifying and generalizing science. Leo had a narrow idea of what science was in previous videos, which made it easier to straw man. To be fair, he was really critiquing materialism because there is no difference between spirituality and science. - Making claims about consciousness that he never verified such as being able to embody the skills of Kobe Bryant through a state of consciousness. Not sure if I understood what he meant. - Solipsism Intentional false teaching: - Stating that he has experienced Insanity when I highly doubt it. - Victim mentality and overestimating the role of genetics on level of mastery and attraction. - Narrow view of Art. Being an influencer is not artistic. - Infinity of Gods - Meditation is a waste of time and will never lead you to God Awakening. -“At some point, reading books stops adding to your life.” I am paraphrasing the quote here. It is possible I may be taking it out of context. I am sure there are more than I am overlooking. I appreciate Leo for pushing us to think for ourselves and contemplate. One thing I wish he would stress more is calling out when people are just parroting him and following Actualized.org ideology. Leo is quick to call out Buddhist bullshitters, which is good. But I think it is also important to call out fakers on here more often. It is kind of assumed that if people do not reach the same conclusions, then somehow they didn’t go “deep enough.” But what is overlooked is that if you went “deep enough” you would shatter your whole paradigm around awakening and teaching. The more you awaken, the more false insights/awakenings you also unravel. And technically, truth and falsehood must collapse at the ultimate degree if there is such a thing. Please feel free to add on to this list. Nowhere near comprehensive. Let’s all take back our spiritual/intellectual authority and contemplate the false teaching we have absorbed and bought into. It could be from Leo or any other spiritual teacher. One more thing I want to point out as a small critique is that I feel like Leo sometimes isn’t as careful with how he words things and will sometimes go back and contradict what he says. For instance, he says the brain is imaginary but then also says that you need psychedelics to help change the imaginary neurons in the brain. I feel like it would be better to say that the brain is made out of consciousness/energy rather than making it sound like the brain is just a fluffy idea. I mean we are thinking of our brain right now and that is a concept. But there is an actual brain that is the same reality as my hands right now in my skull. My car might not be in my sight right now, but it still has the same actuality as my hands right now. It isn’t just a mere thought like Santa clause. The idea of my car actually points to something in reality. My idea of a brain actually points to something. Thanks for reading. Please let me know if I am overlooking something because I know my understanding isn’t complete here. Thanks for those who take this work seriously.

Yeah but then you run into the problem of how the brain exists in a reality that it is imaginjng. That would mean that the brain is also imaginary too.

Everyone who is a materialist or anti-materialist needs to ask the question, what is physical? Every idealist or anti-idealist needs to ask the question, what is mind? Notice that they are identical. Physical = Mental

I still don’t understand the difference. Materialism says everything is physical and idealism says all is mental. It is like saying reality is all object or all subject. Notice how they are both pointing to the same thing, just two identical ways to look at reality.

What do you say about people with aphantasia?