mandyjw

So I found this video fascinating, it mentions and puts together a lot of things that I've been thinking about for a few years. I really enjoy a lot of Yuval Harari's ideas about how jobs are going to become obsolete for the most part and the dangers of having an "elite" in such a world. Sadhguru seems to have the answers here. But Yuval Harari is actually really into Vipassana meditation. A quote from him, "My main ambition as a historian is to be able to tell the difference between what's really happening in the world and what are the fictions that humans have been creating for thousands of years in order to explain or in order to control what's happening in the world." Yet he tells stories. or he makes us aware of the stories. He doesn't prescribe meditation or consciousness work as a solution to all these terrifying world problems that he talks about. Why not? I would think that having discovered Vipassana meditation and having a vision for the world that the connection between the two, the connection Sadhguru makes in this short video, would be the main focus of Yuval Harari's work. Instead he's interested in starting a discussion. Bill Gates and many important people read and love his work. The power and opportunity he has for change is huge. Does he not truly understand the connection? Or is he just not saying what it is? Yet? Is it more powerful to raise a question, than to provide the answer or a solution? It seems like misleading people to not offer a solution when you already know what it is, but at the same time every time you offer an opinion or position, people turn into devil's advocates and come out to oppose you. So is the more loving thing just to present someone with a problem and let them go solve it on their own?

@Leo Gura I've been following you for over four years now. I've gone back and forth between really loving your content and not being able to relate much. Eckhart Tolle was my favorite, the one I got stuck on. I wasn't open-minded enough for him but your videos changed that quickly. It wasn't that he said very much, but I loved how he made me feel. I felt like I was programming my brain by listening to him. Now I feel like I haven't gone deep enough with real meditation or studied enough theory at the same time. I've just been wavering around somewhere in the middle, lots of self inquiry causally throughout the day, and I always had a real connection with nature that I naturally deepened to become quite intense. Then things in my life just started randomly happening without me seeking them out and they grew me and broke me in ways I didn't expect. So buckling down and making a commitment to a real practice is something I've never really done up until this point. I've always basically just done what I feel like doing.

@Sahil Pandit Yes it was one of my absolute favorites. I made huge strides to minimize my possessions, I did the konmari method. I've focused almost exclusively on spirituality for the past month and my life has pretty much exploded around me. I'll watch it again though.

@Leo Gura Dangers along the lines of getting into something "dark" or dangers with not being focused enough to go deep? Or both?

@Leo Gura Should we just whore ourselves out indiscriminately to all religions and spiritual teachers without settling down with any of them then? I'm definitely starting to develop a wandering eye.

@Leo Gura That's an important reminder, it's one of the reason I chose this avatar but it's still easy to forget. The trap I fall into a lot is comparing my path with other people's path. There are some areas that I find people are incredibly advanced in and I get taken away with them. Then later I realize that they are missing some basic thing that I knew as a 5 year old or really early on. Or I do the reverse of it and dismiss someone who could really help me grow and I them. It's incredible to me how lopsided people can be and still be awakened to some degree. I guess that can be called the grace of God. Perfection in imperfection.

Oh. Crap. I've been wondering about this a lot lately. I have the chicken and the egg problem. My life is too much of a mess for me to meditate and do yoga, and my mind is too much of a mess to clean.

Surrender is really counter-intuitive. Sometimes surrendering actually means taking action. Sometimes it's being brave enough to ask a question when you are really scared of the answer. Be aware of your own feelings of resistance and be aware of the times that you are in a flow state. Becoming better at staying in a flow state and gaining intuition while in that state will make you more aware of when and how to surrender when it's called for.

@Leo Gura Yes that's a good point. It's probably time I got more involved in politics again. Having been raised so conservative, and then going to the far left as an adult made me need to throw the whole idea away for awhile for the sake of my own spiritual growth I guess.

@Leo Gura I know, my only concern is that if Trump was impeached before his term was up that we would be in for even WORSE ego backlash. It's hard to know how long it needs to take to play out.

Trump is just fulfilling the role of ego backlash after having Obama in as President. What stage was Obama really? Yellow? Imagine being stage red or blue and having a stage yellow President. You're going to think he's the Devil.

@Leo Gura I'm just shocked that he doesn't know or say more about it when he does such intense Vipassana meditations. I guess that if you meditate with the goal of becoming a smarter person, you'll become a smarter person. If you meditate with the goal of forgetting everything you know, you'll forget everything you know. I'm very suspicious of people. People sometimes play roles to act like they know less than they do in order to serve a greater purpose. I can't tell if he's just stuck in his head or if he is playing an important part. Maybe both.

@Lister It cannot happen everywhere but there are places where it can and does happen. Question for you, is a spiral linear?

@Lister Let the land go back to what it was and live off the land. Hunt and fish and gather, and farm unobtrusively. Back to how our grandparents lived or the Native Americans lived. http://indians.org/articles/native-american-spirituality.html

You'll be hungry if you look to yourself for validation and fulfillment too though. We have to do our best to love people without seeking anything from them, validation or anything else. Wanting or needing something from someone is not love. It's so tricky, you can't trust yourself and you can't put your faith in others either. All there is is God, Love and connection, perfect as it is.

@Salvijus Yeah, it's a lot to dig into. I know his basic ideas from lectures and interviews, I haven't read his books. He tries to bridge a gap between science, history, intellect, technology and... that's where it gets frustrating. He gets so close but doesn't bridge the gap. He talks about human beings acquiring powers than transform them into Gods. "Human beings are in the process of acquiring divine abilities, through scientific research and technological development..."

@now is forever Maybe the settlers are the ones who need to adapt.

@now is forever We still have fish, deer and moose. I once got within 6 feet of a moose accidentally. She was sick with meningitis and wasn't acting like a normal moose. She sort of bluff charged at me but never touched me. We killed off the wolves. Managing populations carefully is our duty now.

@now is forever Do you realize that you're condemning an entire people? Hunting and fishing are deeply spiritual practices to the Native Americans and always have been. Driving a car, using electricity, all harm mother earth much more than conscientiously taking the life of an animal that lives in nature.

Love can't be communicated, it can only be felt. Let it in. It can be shared though. Just not through words.

Yes Mom.

@Nahm But they know what you had for lunch. Somehow.

@Serotoninluv I think I feel the same thing honestly. Can you surrender to the yearning? Are you resisting it?

Do you want to exert your authority and intelligence or do you want love and connection?

I came here to this forum a few weeks ago with the intention of teaching people. I had basically given up on Leo's videos and thought that he was way out to lunch. I wanted to help people to know what I knew. I wanted to tell them how great Abraham Hicks was and how Eckhart Tolle had changed my life. I wanted to tell them that Osho was a total piece of crap spiritual teacher, psychedelics were dangerous and that they were mislead. The more I tried to teach people and tried to change their minds the more they graciously or rudely made me aware of things I didn't know. When I started making youtube videos I found out that a lot of the things that came out of my mouth weren't true but I had held them as beliefs and as soon as I said them with the purpose of someone else hearing them, I knew they were false. The whole experience was a total mind fuck. This forum and what I had learned from Leo's videos in the past four years all came together and gave me a breaththrough. I didn't even know what was possible. There ARE levels of conciousness. Leo was right all along! I thought I was it already. You're the one in the bear trap. Just be a student again for a little while. It's ok. The student and teacher are one. it's ok to get what you want and what you need. You really really want out of that bear trap. Stop biting people and let them free you. You think they are trying to hurt you, you think it will hurt, it will just for a moment but then you'll be free. Maybe if you let me free you, I'll free myself too. If you won't do it for you, do it for me.