Ayham

SImple! stage orange and blue brainwashing depending on culture lack of meaning and purpose social media

Do you also get doubts after doing these practices for a long time on a daily basis? things like meditation, kriya yoga, contemplation, self inquiry, etc. and of course reading stuff on: self help, spirituality, philosophy, positive psychology, etc. I get these doubts whenever I see scientific criticisms of these stuff as "new age", "woo woo", "irrational" ( even though my personal style is not "woo woo" and I also know all the criticisms of science here but how does one gain confidence in his ideas, especially when they are so anti mainstream and criticized? ) I suppose these doubts are normal, but how can one know what's right, even with lots of contemplation and realizing these stuff directly I still feel doubts, and feeling like I am wasting my time. How can one stop being affected when hearing criticism? how can one know if he is delusional? is radical/philosophical skepticism the way (never really believing in anything, always being skeptic of one's thoughts and ideas , but still maintaining the practices) ?

Beautiful!

@Stretch that's great, working on your life purpose makes enlightenment easier, self-actualization before self-transcendence. so I would recommend focusing on life purpose, and still having a daily spiritual practice because aside from many normal "benefits", you will work up to enlightenment gradually. This is what I am personally doing.

@r0ckyreed jedi academy?

you could focus on poetry, and have a daily spiritual practice too, you can spare an hour for meditation or kriya yoga or self inquiry or whatever, if not, maybe try 20 minutes. it will help set a foundation for when you want to focus on enlightenment later on.

@martins name Thanks, great answer, very high quality! sorry I didn't see it (i don't get notifications from tags for some reason) right now I got back into normal meditation, though I will definitely return to kriya at some point. I will read Ennio Nimis book for now.

the thing is, he says this all the time as an idea, but he does not mention the "how" of doing that, as in, how do you become a "monster".

@RevoCulture oh I just checked this series, it looks perfect for me, exactly the stuff I am into. But this picture is a painting called "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog", it is also used in some covers of Nietzsche's book "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"

@Salvijus Great results! keep it up man, good luck. @Leo Gura oh yes, a sort of yearly review, good suggestion leo. @Carl-Richard I feel honesty from them and I get lots of clarity, and what I see as admirable is wisdom. great advice. @Yimpa @supremeyingyang thanks. @hyruga yes I suppose patience is necessary.

Yes man I understand, it is hard here, especially when your financial situation is bad. honestly the worst thing here is the people. keep strong man, hopefully you get out of here if that is a goal of yours (it is for me).

@NoSelfSelf great! @Salvijus well good for you, for me, I do get results, so far I have gotten things like: much more mindfulness, being in "awe" everyday, much greater self-control, more happiness in general, more emotional mastery, I have a purpose. and on the less spiritual side: people and friends started to ask for advice and take me as an inspiration and I also have much better grades (i think like it is connected) what is your practice? what results did you get? @Gesundheit2 well this work and school are my top priorities, this work is kind of my life, I cant imagine stopping even if not for long. and my expectations in the long run are basically: becoming a very wise and knowledgeable person, becoming enlightened, and to develop a solid foundation for life. beautiful, I have also noticed that, when people ask for advice/help, I seem to be able to answer much better than I would answer for me.

@NoSelfSelf its more like, I am trying to become an independent thinker, but I don't think I am yet. @Sincerity Oh damn, you aren't that old either, and I also got into this at 15. Thank you so much!

@NoSelfSelf I have formulated lots of unique ideas through contemplation, yet I don't have any confidence in them, specifically because they are not something that people would agree with, I try to have independence of mind, its one my of top values along with wisdom and understanding, yet it is difficult, especially when most people are against your ideas. @Sincerity damn it, your answers are motivating and make me smile. As for the I am god/love thing, I still haven't had a direct experience of this, looking forward to though, enlightenment is something I will focus on when I get the lower parts of Maslow hierarchy mastered (I am still 16, so lots to go), but I do have daily practices nonetheless (daily meditation, daily concentration practice, daily reading, daily exercise, and contemplation at weekends) I love this. @Basman the thing is, I do feel benefits, but in these periods of doubt, I either think "it might just be a placebo effect" or "these benefits don't get me anywhere, this is a waste of time" though when I don't have doubts, I realize this as foolish.

I have studied basically actualized.org most important concepts, but I stopped because I realized I was only watching Leo and started believing whatever he says, so I continue with reading books and watching other teachers in terms of theory.

Yeah I have seen his behavior, this does make me hate Leo as a person, but I am still grateful that he changed my life. And like another person here said, I also don't watch his videos anymore, I watched all the videos in the "start here" section in the website like a year ago then stopped watching, though I still view the forum. I am really curious about his actions, it seems to me that he thinks he transcended morality and doesn't give a fuck about others feelings anymore. This work is supposed to purity the mind of impurities and fill it with love, so I ask, where is that? of course if he reads this, he will laugh about it and find it stupid because "everything is love" according to him (I am not here to question that, I am still a seeker and only been doing the work for a year, I haven't found out Truth yet ) but I mean love in the traditional sense of love.

@Rishabh R ah okay, sorry.

I get this, a year ago when I took personal development, meditation, reading, etc. seriously, my friends made fun of it, and about Actualized.org too. Now they tell me that they find me inspiring and want to be like me, which does show that this is working. lately though, I have been feeling like I am wasting time with meditation, with reading philosophy, with personal development, spirituality, etc. I know this is not true, but I still feel useless, like these are not real skills, not real fields. and some people who are acquaintances or not friends, still make fun of it. But I suppose this is part of the journey, let's not let anyone decide what we do with our lives. and I am a teenager, and I think you are too, we are influenced more by others around us and their opinions, as much as we try not to, it's part of the phase.

oh fuck, I like that dude

@martins name @BuddhaTree A couple of questions to everyone, especially for you two since you seem like experts. I have been meditating daily for a year, and now I am switching to kriya yoga. My routine right now is currently: Mahamudra x3 Kriya pranayama x32 yoni mudra x1 pravastha state for 5 minutes I am doing all of them from gamana's "kriya yoga exposed", currently a week in. so my questions: I do feel the effects of pranayama and yoni mudra, but i don't feel anything from mahamudra, am i supposed to feel something from it? i browsed the r/kriyayoga subreddit, and everyone seemed to agree that gamana is bullshit, why? is it because he doesn't speak ideologically? is kriya pranayama where you focus on the third eye as legit as spinal breathing pranayama? currently i just feel calmer after my routine, i used to get a lot of great results from meditation, not just calmness, I am giving kriya yoga 3 months to decide if I will continue with it, how long did it take you to get results? I can't visualize prana going up and down the spine, help lol. finally, do I have to upgrade my routine? I have school and stuff and this takes a long time already.

Guys, even though I am not on leo's side, but this is useless, everyone gave their criticism. Now, focus on the work. Take the useful things and practices from Leo and other teachers, apply them, and arrive at your own truths! Who cares what Leo does.

Leo I thought you were better than this, I understand that it can get to you (though you might deny that and say that you are not talking from your ego, sure I will take that possibility) But talking down to people is not the right attitude, I am not trying to lecturing you, sure I might be still stuck in morality, but I think that talking like that brings more harm than good. I am trying to understand why you are doing this, are you doing this out of insecurity or ego, or trying to only keep the "worthy ones" here that understand, or maybe just showing extreme honesty, honestly no idea, but I don't like it. I think I spent too much time here, I got all I need from Actualized.org and you, it changed my life, but I don't want you telling me your truths and brainwashing me with them, I would rather figure it all out on my own. love you leo

From all the people I have seen and learned from, I would say you are the most developed, to the point that inspires me so much and makes me emotional and in awe. So I am asking you this question. How do I achieve this level of wisdom, maturity, spiritual development, integrity and consciousness that you have and go beyond it? I want a no bullshit answer. What exactly do I need to do? Is it meditation, is it reading, is it contemplation, is it psychedelics, what is the key? what do I need to do that guarantees me to reach this level? I don't care if it takes decades, I just want a genuine practical answer. @Leo Gura

you mean content with just sitting with nothing? that seems like a good answer.

@Leo Gura why not? aren't breathing techniques used in a lot of meditation techniques, kriya yoga, kundalini yoga, etc? what makes something meditation? especially effective meditation.