John

Hey guys, So as part of my Life Purpose, I am endeavoring to become a teacher of mindfulness. It's a skill I have been practicing for four years with great intensity. However I have very few entrepreneurial skills. Does anyone have any advice or resources for going about setting up my own business as a coach? Particularly those of you who are Life Coaches etc, what is your business model so to speak? Right now my plan is just to have a little poster made up with my phone number on it that I can put up around various shops and cafes in my city. Also I will have some business cards made up. I want to start taking massive action as excessive thinking and planning have burdened me before. Any advice here would be much appreciated!

Well worth checking out this interview

Do you have to be willing to go insane on a psychadelic? In order to drop everything, surely you would have to drop your sanity? I mean this if one is shooting for the deepest experiences of non-duality.

@Leo Gura What would your advice be here?

@Shakazulu I find Self inquiry difficult on psychadelics. There are still parts of my psyche that sort of abuse the inquiry for their own ends. They have ideas about enlightenment they are trying to achieve. So really with psychedelics I'm trying to leave even the notion of enlightenment behind and just surrender. That's why I'm curious about the sanity part. it's tricky. because on the one hand, when the thought comes up, "I think I'm about to go insane" I can let it happen. But I also have to be conscious somehow of where I am and make sure I don't go and do something I'll regret.

I just wanted to say how much I've been appreciating Leo's vlogs on his retreats. Usually I see him in a HD video talking about his deep insights or explaining the journey up a mountain that he is now standing on top of. That might be the wrong view of what's happening, but it is how I have experienced many of his videos none the less. So to see him in the trenches like that, to see his suffering, to see that he's in this game, going through the ringer just like me puts the videos more into perspective. It makes me feel more connected to him and his videos. So, yeah, right on @Leo Gura!

@elias Nothing! Just enjoy it. Contemplate it

I'm trying cultivate a vision for my life. I am meditating a lot and doing a lot of consciousness work at the moment. How do I integrate these two things. How do I have enlightenment, being enlightened, as a big part of my vision?

I would endeavor to discover the truth of my existence. I would cultivate as much presence as possible

@Elephant I have done magic truffles once, and twice I have tripped on 150 mics of LSD. Next time, I am thinking about doing 225 mics which might help push me into that surrender.

@PsiloPutty But I'm not saying LSD can actually make you go insane. I'm just saying that I as a person, need to let go of my idea of sanity, in order to fully let go of control. I notcied at one point during my trip I was getting worried about forgetting where I was, so I would remind myself and try and hold things back together again. But I'm curious now, what would happen if I didn't try to pull things back together again, and just completely submitted to whatever happens.

@SgtPepper I like this. It's such a huge part of life and enlightenment aswell. An internal attitude of non-resistance. I have tried t cultivate this consciously but lately it has just become a much deeper acceptance of life and reality as it is. Because of this, it seems, reality has revealed itself more fully to me. There's not so much wanting things to be other than as they are getting in the way. I noticed this on the trip, a lot of my old tendencies to want things to be a certain way came up. It was really intense and emotionally uncomfortable, but like you say, that willingness to let it happen, allows these things to arise and then pass. And then if you're lucky, you get some juicy non-dual experiences ;D

The reason I ask is that I did 150 mics of LSD recently. I booked an air bnb specifically for the trip. I went into it with pretty serious intentions for personal growth and transformation. That's why I do psychedelics. And I noticed at a few points throughout the trip, this fear came up. I remember trying to rationalize why I was there. "Oh yeah, I'm John. I'm here to explore non duality and personally develop". I kept reminding myself of stuff like that. It felt like if I didn't I would get lost. I was in an air bnb on my own. There was another apartment above me. What if I got lost and started laughing too loud that they heard? Or started playing music too loud? Or you know, something like that? Also there were certain trains of thought I found myself going down that potentially led to a negative place and in turn a negative trip. Should we be willing to explore them fully? Or should we manipulate the trip a bit more to make sure it is positive?

@Leo Gura How can one have a vision for the enlightened life? What does that look like for the spiritual seeker? Isn't every image false and misleading?

So, I deal with a lot of shame, fear and anxiety in my day to day life. I am a very conceptual, very intellectual person. I have built many prisons in my mind which suffocate me and rob me of joy and freedom. This problem can seem immune to meditation sometimes. (I have been meditating seriously for over three years now and have done four retreats.) The mind takes the meditation and uses it toward it's own end. I thought a good dose of psychedelics might break things open a bit. I booked a cottage in the country side, took 150 mics of very clean LSD and tripped for around 10 hours. I experienced a radically altered state of consciousness. Much fear arose. Much anxiety arose. I remained as open as possible throughout. I can't quite remember, but I think there were periods of no-self throughout. I just became consumed by visual fractals. Fractals in fractals in fractals. At one point I remember 'me' the observer falling into this unfolding fractal. The screen of awareness itself was now moving through the fractals. But every time I came back to the room I was in, a subtle fear was present, a holding on. An unwillingness or inability to truly let go. I was with a very close person who has much experience with psychedelics. He seemed to be having insight after insight. Ultimately I felt depressed after the whole thing. I felt as though it may as well not have happened. I didn't feel more open or that my mind was really opened/changed in any significant way. Anyway, I keep hearing about the positive effects of psychedelics, and I want to grow and learn and evolve and ultimately just be a more conscious human being. "The prime directive of my life is to increase the quality of my consciousness". I have this written above my bed. Does anyone have any advice here as I plan and consider my next trip?

@Joseph Maynor "breathing". Could you explain this more? Also, have you experienced fractals in other contexts? @Serotoninluv Cool to hear. Thank you for your feedback! Could you perhaps describe some of the major differences between trips on the same substance?

It became very apparent to me recently the depths of letting go. I mean there's letting go, easing up your worrying, lightening your load a bit, and there's fucking letting go. Dropping every intention, every expectation, every belief, every idea, every notion of how things should be and completely resting with reality as it is. I'm not saying I have come to that level yet, but I now see it as a possibility and would like to work towards it. At the same time, I have some toxic beliefs that need to be worked on. I have anxieties and neuroses that need attention, illumination and reparation. I have to read about them, do therapy for them, meditate on them. This is all activity and giving a lot of energy to the things that I say I want to let go of. Does one simply do both at the very same time? Embrace the paradox of it? Would appreciate feedback here and maybe some recommendations for resources on letting go.

Would you ever do a more personal video on the emotional turmoil of your spiritual path while building actualized.org? I'm pursuing both right now and am really in the thick of some depression/frustration. I know you must have experienced stuff like this, and yet you got the next video out (they never seemed to dip in quality). Am I right in that projection? Are you in some videos actually finding it hard to do? Where did you turn for support? What did you actually do to get through it and make it happen?

@Joseph Maynor @Leo Gura Do you have a take on above?

@Leo Gura I meant more along the lines of: Not every insight on the spiritual path is easy right? Some our Egos do not want to accept and it can be this kind of struggle, this emotionally uncomfortable dissolution/letting go. There are many punches in the face like this no?! For example, I read one of your comments recently about you being depressed for a week after reading Jed Mckenna's book. Was it hard to shoot a video during a depression like that? Did the emotional turmoil of enlightenment work ever feel like it was getting too much?

I'm with you on this one. A big hang up of mine is having an idea of what enlightenment is (backed up with hours of youtube videos and reading etc) that seems to be unreal. I keep on striving for it, and can't make reality match it. This rub between my image of enlightenment and how reality actually is, causes immense suffering. Kind of like your moralizing, no? One technique I have used very recently is Focus In. So, when you do your noting practice, close your eyes and limit the focus range to just your inner space. See if you can begin to notice your should statements arising. If they are arising as mental talk, note that, savor it. If they are arising as images in your minds eye, note that label it. If they are arising as emotional discomfort somewhere in the body, note that, label it feel, savor it. Notice that this is actually the only way your Moralizing can actually arise, through one of the above three channels, See In, Hear In, or Feel in. This can help untangle how you are actually moralizing in each moment. It can help you unravel the mechanism of it. Look up 'Shinzen Young Using Turn Towards' on youtube if you're interested in more.

"Make no mistake about it – enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." Adyashanti. I just want to get this discomfort out there. It seems to me as if Leo spent years Self Actualizing, got to a certain point, then found out about enlightenment. It was one, then the other. Then he sort of re-hashed the narrative of his life to fit that journey. His videos on making money, attracting women, how to make a girl squirt... He seems to be saying that they are all a part of Self-Actualisation and that Self Actualisation= Enlightenment. It seems to me as though he views it as this linear journey, you burn away all of your neuroses, you improve the Self (or actualize it) and then you Enlighten it. He always uses the two with each other, almost interchangeably because it kind of suits the journey he has been on. Now he has made the distinction clear in certain videos but that doesn't change the dominant theme of his channel lately which is to kind of use the two terms interchangeably or as the same process. I know I'm holding onto something false here, so I just wanted to post it and get some feedback. Could people refer directly to the post please. Thanks, John

@Leo Gura What was the biggest obstruction to your clear seeing? @Leo Gura How did you let go of your images of Enlightenment?

Guys I just went on to the Joe Rogan Experience Youtube channel and posted a comment saying thumbs this up for Leo Gura to come on. Could other people do the same please? And thumbs up aswell? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZPH6r_ZDvM It's the newest Russell Brand one.

Could people post examples of Enlightened beings who are pursuing a Life Purpose that could be seen as not traditionally spiritual? As Life Purpose is to do with ones career and making money, I don't see many examples of enlightened beings doing this. What about Musicians, filmakers, authors, Politicians, Businessmen, Entrepeneurs, sports people, athletes etc...