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Just re-watched Leo's "How to Escape Wage Slavery". It feels particularly relevant now in my life because I just started a new job. This job is by far the best job I've ever had: It pays well, the hours are flexible, a lot of it is remote, and I have a lot of creative autonomy. Yet, it still doesn't fulfill me. Why? Because I don't care about the industry, I don't feel like the work is moving humanity forward in any way, and I still have someone telling me what to do (controlling my life to some extent) and I can't really say "no" without jeopardizing the gig. So I wonder: Am I ungrateful? Or am I justified in still desiring something better? Don't get me wrong. The job isn't all sunshine and rainbows. It has its downsides. But it is a lot better than jobs I've had in the past like busing tables or Uber driving. In other words, as always, it could be better and it could be worse. This experience has always inspired me to wonder: Is there really any way to escape wage slavery? Is there any way to escape the rat race for money? Yes, you can refuse to take a job and refuse to chase money and live a life of homelessness and poverty. In fact, I've tried it. Is it freeing? Yes, in some ways. Is it an adventure? Yes, absolutely. Is it good? Well... I don't know. It's a really hard life, in some ways. It's definitely nice to wake up and have no schedule, no responsibilities, no one telling you what to do and when to do it. But it's not nice to eat canned beans and raw peanuts everyday. It's not nice to worry about spending more than $3 on food and water in a day. It's not nice to have no fridge, no bathroom, no power source. It's not nice to be cold and uncomfortable and alone at night. So what do we do? Sell our time for some comfort? Or live in absolute integrity, our "ultimate truth"? At my current job, I look at my boss. He's an entrepreneur, he owns the company. But I don't see him as much less of a wage slave than I am. He works 12 to 16 hour days, he spends all his time thinking about his business. Sure, he has no one telling him what to do, but his life is still a massive grind, with very little time for self-improvement and self-care. And why does he do it? Same reason I work for him: money. Of course, some folks, like Leo, have managed to make money doing what they truly love. But still, Leo probably has days where he wakes up and doesn't want to make a video or manage his website or coach a client or whatever. He's even mentioned in videos that he's not always sure if continuing Actualized.org is the right decision for him. And yet he still creates content, he still promotes Patreon, he still sells his book-list and courses. Why? Money. Sure, he loves his work, but in a perfect world wouldn't he just give everything for free and never ask for money simply because he loves it so much? Sure, but he needs money to survive, so he can't really do that. To conclude, my main question is this: Is it really possible to escape wage slavery? Unless you're a high-ranking "Illuminati" member (assuming something like that even exists) who can literally just print money, or someone who has so much money they can just toss it in an index fund and never work again... how does one escape wage slavery and is it even possible?

@remember I love your profile picture lmao

<3

@Monkey Mind I think of it as trance music. Just repeating the same words of wisdom over and over again until you enter a trance and they begin to integrate into your being. The things Leo discusses are like... the deepest of the deep. Master those few fundamental principles and you're set for life. The repetition acts as a constant reminder, and thanks to the internet, his words continue to be available if you ever need to refer to them again. I don't listen to every episode nor do I listen all the way through. When I desire a reminder from Leo I throw on an episode for ten or twenty minutes, soak in the deep wisdom, and go on with my day. Why? I've listened to literally hundreds of hours of Leo and I've got his teaching down pretty much. I don't need to listen for hours anymore. Some people do, that's why he repeats. Leo's episodes are his art, and just like art, it is there for you to interpret and use for whatever purpose you wish. If it no longer aids you, explore another gallery Peace and love fam ?

This! If you no longer find value in Leo's words, move onto someone else. Or just write your own thoughts and listen to yourself. Don't make it Leo's problem! He's just doing his thing

@Natasha

@Monkey Mind There is only so much to say

@RawJudah LMAO "It’s harder to escape wage slavery than it is to reach enlightenment" So counter-intuitive but so true. The hardest part about Earth is being human, not enlightenment lol

@SerpaeTetra Well said

@GodDesireOnlyLove Wow! USA is not so generous

@GodDesireOnlyLove You've never worked???

@Chives99 I don't care much about money either, but gotta make at least some of it to pay rent

@Parththakkar12 Well said, thank you friend

I recorded a podcast episode about my journey (so far) in cultivating wisdom. Listen on YouTube here. Has your personal journey been similar or different? How so? :)

Love is dangerous. When we love, inevitably some day we'll have to let go of our object of love. The only thing we never need to let go of is consciousness / existence / creation... because ultimately that's all there is. Perhaps this is the essence of self-love; not love of the human self but love of the eternal self. I explain my feelings more in depth on this video. Have y'all ever felt this way?

@Leo Gura Terrifyingly beautiful! ??

@GodDesireOnlyLove ?

@remember Very poetically worded, Remember. Indeed this human life is occuring in the unified mind of god. Our human bodies, a vehicle to explore ourselves as if separated.

@Meta-Man Which country?

@remember "Forgot a 9" LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Nice one. I agree. I've been browsing the "spiritual" world for awhile now and I feel like there is a misconception with this notion of "Self with a capital S" or the "True Self". Everything is consciousness, yes; but consciousness has no substance. Or in other words, its substance is nothing. Folks talk a lot about those who know the True Self and those who don't, but when you meet these "True Self Knowers" in person, they're human just like everyone else, with insecurities, flaws and all. I'd put it this way instead: 99.999999% of humans are human.

@Meta-Man Sure, many people are caught up in that mindset. I'm not sure how accurate your percentage is. I've met a lot of folks who, on the surface, appear to be lost in the human world, but upon getting to know them more, find that there is much more depth to them. Some folks are quite enlightened, but simply enjoy playing the human game. I don't judge them, I do it sometimes too. But also, I have indeed met folks who are very caught up in the "I love this and hate that" mindset.

@Meta-Man No self is limited, because all selves are infinite. Yet all selves are limited, because if you wish to be anything, you must be something instead of everything, because if you're everything then you are nothing. The only unlimited self is the no self, which only exists when nothing exists. Yet all selves are unlimited, because just as there are infinite numbers, 1 2 3 4 5 6 etcetera, there are also infinite numbers between 1 and 2.

@remember Only if the container is!

@Meta-Man Ah okay. Ego gratification is not what I'm referring to. Been there, done that. The way I see it, true love is love of eternal being. Yet the eternal being is inseparable from what that (one) eternal being is experiencing, In other words, the being and the being's experience are one. To put it in Aristotle's words, "You are what you do." What I'm referring to in the video is that I experience so much that I love. Everything from people to dreams to books to movies to photographs to nature, etcetera. But the love can get trapped in forms, trying to keep what is loved. All that is loved must eventually be lost. Except true love, of course, which is eternal being.

@remember Ah yes, the truest truth contains lies.