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@Leo Gura In your video, the dark side of meditation, you said that one who works deeply on enlightenment will surely face a feeling of loss or lost, how does one overcome that feeling? Thanks!

@PureExp Thanks for sharing

@Flow With Life Great poem

@Loreena Wrong question!! but if you really want to answer it, the answer would be nothingness or emptiness.

" My face resembles sleep. A misguided person thinks it is sleep"- Rumi

@Afonso I think the best thing to do is to become nothing. And play with your little ego as you wish

@ashashlov 15 months of daily meditation ( the do-nothing technique, strong determined sittin, self-inquiry). I had some pretty good gains, but my ego is still big. All I can say is that if you have problems: anxiety, lack of confidence, ect, do not go all in on enlighnment. You better do shadow work. That's what I do now. If you go all in on enghlinment, you will experience the dark soul of a night Leo talked about. They can be very discouraging on the path. Wish you a glorious freedom

@ashashlov It's VERY hard to break free!!

" God is the light of the heavens and the earth; the likeness of His Light is as a niche wherein is a lamp (the lamp in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star) kindled by a Blessed Tree, an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West whose oil well-nigh would shine, even if no fire Light upon Light, God guides to His Light whom He will"- The Quran

On being madly in love!!

@Leo Gura Knowing this fact, I have been lazy lately. I even quit my job. Now, I spend my time at home meditating, being in the forum. I am also experiencing dark night of the soul; reliving the past, and feeling vibrations over my body. Understood! So, if I still have problem like money, confidence with girls, fitness, etc. I should go and work on those problems, right? or let's put it this way, I should stillcreate a great self-actualizing dream Thanks

I love the description of the "Ten Bull" in zen Buddhism about enlightenment. I realized that I am still in stage 4, catching the bull. I think "my" bull will easily surrender as soon as I overcome my psychological problems. Well, hopefully I. The Search for the Bull The seeker looks for the bull (symbolic of his or her true nature, the ‘Buddha-mind’). This is the beginning of the path. It is usually heralded by a fundamental disappointment with one’s life, and a recognition, however dim, that we have been living a life governed by endless distractions leading us down endless garden paths of empty conventions, fads, and general nonsense. The search for the real meaning of our life begins: we are now seeking, however uncertainly, the bull. In the context of meditation, this can be thought of as marking our initial efforts as we sit. 2. Discovering the Footprints The footprints of the bull are spotted. This is the point when the seeker’s confidence in the reality of the bull—in the real possibility of awakening—begins to grow. It could be said to represent the conviction that the possibility of salvation or liberation from the bondage of the mind and its powerful delusions is real. In meditation, it marks the progress that is noted as the mind begins to focus more clearly. 3. First sight of the Bull The bull is spotted! The bull appears far away, perhaps even hiding behind a bush, but now there is no doubt that it is real. Visual confirmation has happened. This stage marks the first glimpse of the underlying principle of mysticism, that all that is perceived is ultimately not separate from the mind that perceives it. This can be likened to an initial awakening, usually called satori or kensho in Zen. It is an incomplete realization -- symbolized by the fact that the seeker only sees the bull's hindquarters, not its entirety -- because it is going to require sustained discipline and a great passion for truth in order to deepen this realization and begin to integrate it into one's daily life. 4. Catching the Bull The bull is ‘caught’, but the seeker’s relationship with him is rocky. What this implies is that even after an initial glimpse into our true nature, unruly mental states—in particular, strong feelings and emotions—still arise. In many cases, these difficult mind states arise even more strongly after our initial awakening, because the mind is putting up its natural resistance to change. The bull is ‘wild’. Despite our initial glimpse, we are still very much in the grips of our unconscious mind with its habits and agendas. This is a crucial step, one in which many seekers of truth fail to successfully pass through. 5. Taming the Bull If we successfully negotiate the previous stage -- by applying real discipline and commitment to our path -- we now reap the benefits. The 5th stage refers to the important realization that all thoughts arising in the mind are manifestation of our true nature. All is as it is, and must be seen that way (as opposed to being ‘made wrong’—‘this should not be the way it is’). With this realization, our mind begins to settle and to work with us, rather than against us. 6. Riding the Bull Home The sixth stage represents a deepening of understanding, and the corresponding tendency to disengage from exhausting mental struggle. Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita[14:24-25] makes reference to this state when he remarks to Arjuna, ‘Who dwells in his inner self, and is the same in pleasure and pain; to whom gold or stones or earth are one, and what is pleasing and displeasing leave him in peace; who is beyond both praise and blame, and whose mind is steady and quiet; Who is the same in honor or disgrace, and has the same love for enemies or friends…’ It is here where we begin to move beyond duality, and all the reactive states (attraction-repulsion) and subsequent sufferings that arise from that. 7. The Bull Transcended (Bull Forgotten, Self Alone) This stage marks the classic definition of enlightenment, when it is finally and directly understood that the seeker (the egoic self) and the bull (the Buddha-mind, our real nature) are not separate, and never have been. Prior to this the journey of awakening has been an ‘experience’—requiring a ‘me’ to experience this 'awakening'. At the seventh stage, the central illusion of this separation is radically realized. There is no bull, and there never has been. We then begin to understand that enlightenment is not an experience. It cannot be, as experiences arise and fall away. Enlightenment is simply the direct recognition of our true nature -- already here and now -- which is unqualified and unconditioned and does not arise and fall away. This stage is sometimes characterized by the recognition that our meditation practice cannot 'get' us anything, as ordinary reality is already the case, and is already our true nature. Thus, we do not meditate to get anywhere, we meditate to enjoy what is already the case. 8. Both Bull and Self Transcended (or Forgotten) The eighth stage is a deepening and maturing of the seventh stage; here, all vestiges of what Chogyam Trungpa called ‘spiritual materialism’, or what Zen calls the 'awful smell of enlightenment', the subtle self-consciousness of ‘being awake’—‘I am awake and therefore special’—is extinguished. Roshi Kapleau, in his commentary on this stage, linked it to an old Chinese parable of a man who became enlightened, and experienced birds ‘commemorating’ the occasion by showering him with flowers. As his enlightenment deepened, the birds stopped doing this, ‘as he no longer gave off any aura, even of devotion or virtue’. With the previous stage (the seventh) the bull -- the notion of a 'higher truth' -- is forgotten, as it is radically realized that ordinary reality is the Ground of truth. With the eighth stage, the very self that is realizing all this is also forgotten. All is Reality, empty, whole, and complete. Therefore, all reactive tendencies toward others (attraction or repulsion) are released and freedom from dualistic delusions is realized. 9. Reaching the Source This stage marks resting in the full recognition of the Source as ‘consciousness without an object’. It can be understood as the complete penetration of Ramana Maharshi’s ultimate koan, 'Who am I?' It is the return to the center from which all thoughts and the entire universe arises: pure Consciousness itself, self-radiant without cause or object, unqualified and perfect. Things are as they are: the ‘river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red’. Nothing is the same because now our eyes are open. And yet nothing has changed -- the entire universe remains as it has always been. The river flows and the flowers are red. We had to seek truth to realize that there is nothing to seek: the very reality that we are immersed in is the truth, and we are that reality. 10. In the World (Entering the Marketplace with Helping Hands) In some of the parables of the tenth stage, the seeker (now a finder) re-enters the world with a gourd, traditionally used for holding wine. The wine can be seen as symbolic of the true sage’s embrace of life and willingness to share their enlightenment with society and the world. It is an echo of an old idea found in many wisdom traditions that any deep spiritual realization must ultimately be shared in some way with the world for it to have lasting value and meaning. The 10th stage also speaks to the tradition of the 'crazy-wise' teachers, who seek to utilize any means to awaken others—even by entering into, and participating in, their ‘reality-tunnels’ or private dream-worlds. According to Mahayana Buddhist teachings a true ‘crazy wisdom master’ is only one who has reached a profound level of awakening and has been purified of character defilement. This enables them to enter into any dimension of reality without concern of becoming tainted and thereby having their clarity, or motives, for helping others compromised. http://www.ptmistlberger.com/the-ten-bulls-of-zen.php Which stage do you think you are experiencing now? Thanks

@Bebop Yes, you are right. They always come and go, lol. My problem with my ego is that it stops me from expressing myself. The ego has to die in order for the real self to be born.

@Bebop Aha! How did you see through your ego? I hear ppl a lot say " To see through the ego" but I don't quite understand it. I am happy you are reaching the source

@Leo Gura So, as I am catching the bull, I want to tam the bull so I can ride it home . If I raise my meditation daily habit to 5 hours or 6 hours a day, will I be able to ride the bull home quickly? Or what should I do?

" To know is to be. That's the thing. That's the thingless thing"- Mooji

@retardedhorse1 Only the mind creates drama. The point of spiritual enghlinment is to be unconditionly happy.

" I wish I could show you, when you are alone, the astonishing beauty of your own being"- Hafiz

I have done a 5 hours self-observation, asking the question who is aware of reality. I already know that I am pure awarness/ emptiness.... when I asked this question, the first thing that came to my mind is " my eyes are of reality. I digged deep, and remembered that my sight are changable. Went on on asking the same question, then I said it's my voice, but again It is alway changing. This goes on for a while untill the waves of emptiness washes all over me. I said IT'S EMPTINESS is AWARE OF REALITY. However, I asked again who is aware that emptiness is aware of reality!!!!!..... Can anyone help here? Who is aware of reality?

" Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself" Rumi “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Rumi

@Leo Gura I have been meditating in a serious way for 14 months now without missing a single day. The longest I meditated was 4 hours a day. I can feel the emptiness profoundly, but I am probably still far from enlightenment. I want to know, in a simple way, when I get enlightened, Does this emptiness stay with me all the time? Blessings Be Upon You!!

Hello, again. Happy Journey Nothing much happened. Same old same old. On one hand, I am doing my best on enlightenment work. It's getting deeper day after day. 1. Being impeccable with my words If I can put a percentage into how empty my mind is, I would say it's 40 to 60 per cent, which is great. So, that let easily spot my negative thoughts. 2. Don't take anything personally haven't interacted with people a lot, so I did not have any actual situation to test myself. Nevertheless, I notice my thoughts daily. 3. Don't make any assumptions Same thing applies to not taking anything personally 4. Always do your best I am doing my best to improve my self-expression. I visualized. I affirmated, and took action.

The concepts in this journal are taken from the book; the Four Agreement by DON MIGUEL RUIZ. It is a such an effective book of life transformation if taken seriously. I read the book one year ago. I did practice some of its cencept, but I need to get to the next level. Domestication and the Dream of the Planet WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AND HEARING RIGHT NOW IS nothing but a dream. You are dreaming right now in this moment. You are dreaming with the brain awake. Dreaming is the main function of the mind, and the mind dreams twenty-four hours a day. It dreams when the brain is awake, and it also dreams when the brain is asleep. The difference is that when the brain is awake, there is a material frame that makes us perceive things in a linear way. When we go to sleep we do not have the frame, and the dream has the tendency to change constantly...... PRELUDE TO A NEW DREAM There are thousands of agreements you have made with yourself, with other people, with your dream of life, with God, with society, with your parents, with your spouse, with your children. But the most important agreements are the ones you made with yourself. In these agreements you tell yourself who you are, what you feel, what you believe, and how to behave. The result is what you call your personality. In these agreements you say, “This is what I am. This is what I believe. I can do certain things, and some things I cannot do. This is reality, that is fantasy; this is possible, that is impossible.” Each time you break an agreement, all the power you used to create it returns to you. If you adopt these four new agreements, they will create enough personal power for you to change the entire system of your old agreements. You need a very strong will in order to adopt The Four Agreements — but if you can begin to live your life with these agreements, the transformation in your life will be amazing. You will see the drama of hell disappear right before your very eyes. Instead of living in a dream of hell, you will be creating a new dream — your personal dream of heaven. The Four Agreements, which should be installed are the followoing: 1) Be impeccable with your word. THE FIRST AGREEMENT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE and also the most difficult one to honor. It is so important that with just this first agreement you will be able to transcend to the level of existence I call heaven on earth..... Just imagine what you can create with impeccability of the word. With the impeccability of the word you can transcend the dream of fear and live a different life. You can live in heaven in the middle of thousands of people living in hell because you are immune to that hell. You can attain the kingdom of heaven from this one agreement: Be impeccable with your word. How To Apply The Agreement: Not using the word "I will " I should try to say only positive words about myself and other people. Reality is just as it is. I have ZERO control over it. All I do is turning within and cleaning myself up. 2) Don't Take Anything Personally The deep I could meditate so far is 4 hours. I ( will) make it a habit from now on. So, four hours of SDS everyday. this wil help to expand my awareness. I believe it will help me not taking things personally and making assumption about others. THE NEXT THREE AGREEMENTS ARE REALLY BORN from the first agreement. The second agreement is don’t take anything personally. Whatever happens around you, don’t take it personally. Using an earlier example, if I see you on the street and I say, “Hey, you are so stupid,” without knowing you, it’s not about you; it’s about me. If you take it personally, then perhaps you believe you are stupid. Maybe you think to yourself, “How does he know? Is he clairvoyant, or can everybody see how stupid I am?” You take it personally because you agree with whatever was said. As soon as you agree, the poison goes through you, and you are trapped in the dream of hell. What causes you to be trapped is what we call personal importance. Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about “me.” During the period of our education, or our domestication, we learn to take everything personally. We think we are responsible for everything. Me, me, me, always me! 3) Don't Make Assumption There is just "seeing". I experienced seeing after a 3 hours od meditation. I know how it feels. So, that " state" should be permanant, all the time. Well, hopefully.. There is only "here" "now" what time is it? Now!! THE THIRD AGREEMENT IS DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. We have the tendency to make assumptions about everything. The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth. We could swear they are real. We make assumptions about what others are doing or thinking — we take it personally — then we blame them and react by sending emotional poison with our word. That is why whenever we make assumptions, we’re asking for problems. We make an assumption, we misunderstand, we take it personally, and we end up creating a whole big drama for nothing. All the sadness and drama you have lived in your life was rooted in making assumptions and taking things personally. Take a moment to consider the truth of this statement. The whole war of control between humans is about making assumptions and taking things personally. Our whole dream of hell is based on that. 4) Always Do Your Best Do my best in the gym to get the body I want. Do my best in my social interaction. I am giong to do my best in my online marketing. I am an ABNORMALLY passionate beginner on this field. So, It is mastered for sure . Reading and updating this journal everyday. THERE IS JUST ONE MORE AGREEMENT, BUT IT’S THE one that allows the other three to become deeply ingrained habits. The fourth agreement is about the action of the first three: Always do your best. Do your best to follow those four agreement. Know that your best change from time to time. You are not going to be" your best all the time, but it is ok. Breaking Old Agreements Awareness is always the first step because if you are not aware, there is nothing you can change. If you are not aware that your mind is full of wounds and emotional poison, you cannot begin to clean and heal the wounds and you will continue to suffer. There is no reason to suffer. With awareness you can rebel and say, “This is enough!” You can look for a way to heal and transform your personal dream. The dream of the planet is just a dream. It is not even real. If you go into the dream and start challenging your beliefs, you will find that most of the beliefs that guided you into the wounded mind are not even true. You will find that you suffered all those years of drama for nothing. Why? Because the belief system that was put inside your mind is based on lies. THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION: THE DREAM OF THE SECOND ATTENTION One way to change your beliefs is to focus your attention on all those agreements and beliefs, and change the agreements with yourself. In doing this you are using your attention for the second time, thus creating the dream of the second attention or the new dream. The difference is that you are no longer innocent. When you were a child this was not true; you didn’t have a choice. But you are no longer a child. Now it’s up to you to choose what to believe and what not to believe. You can choose to believe in anything, and that includes believing in yourself. The first step is to become aware of the fog that is in your mind. You must become aware that you are dreaming all the time. Only with awareness do you have the possibility of transforming your dream. If you have the awareness that the whole drama of your life is the result of what you believe, and what you believe is not real, then you can begin to change it. However, to really change your beliefs you need to focus your attention on what it is that you want to change. You have to know which agreements you want to change before you can change them. So the next step is to develop awareness of all the self-limiting, fear-based beliefs that make you unhappy. You take an inventory of all that you believe, all your agreements, and through this process you begin the transformation. The Toltecs called this the Art of Transformation, and it’s a whole mastery. You achieve the Mastery of Transformation by changing the fear-based agreements that make you suffer, and reprogramming your own mind, in your own way. One of the ways to do this is to explore and adopt alternative beliefs such as the Four Agreements. Heaven on Earth I WANT YOU TO FORGET EVERYTHING YOU HAVE learned in your whole life. This is the beginning of a new understanding, a new dream. The dream you are living is your creation. It is your perception of reality that you can change at any time. You have the power to create hell, and you have the power to create heaven. Why not dream a different dream? Why not use your mind, your imagination, and your emotions to dream heaven? PRAYER FOR FREEDOM Today, Creator of the Universe, we ask that you come to us and share with us a strong communion of love. We know that your real name is Love, that to have a communion with you means to share the same vibration, the same frequency that you are, because you are the only thing that exists in the universe. Today, help us to be like you are, to love life, to be life, to be love. Help us to love the way you love, with no conditions, no expectations, no obligations, without any judgment. Help us to love and accept ourselves without any judgment, because when we judge ourselves, we find ourselves guilty and we need to be punished. Help us to love everything you create unconditionally, especially other human beings, especially those who live around us — all our relatives and people whom we try so hard to love. Because when we reject them, we reject ourselves, and when we reject ourselves, we reject You. Help us to love others just the way they are with no conditions. Help us to accept them the way they are, without judgment, because if we judge them, we find them guilty, we blame them, and we have the need to punish them. Today, clean our hearts of any emotional poison that we have, free our minds from any judgment so that we can live in complete peace and complete love. Today is a very special day. Today we open our hearts to love again so that we can tell each other “I love you,” without any fear, and really mean it. Today, we offer ourselves to you. Come to us, use our voices, use our eyes, use our hands, and use our hearts to share ourselves in a communion of love with everyone. Today, Creator, help us to be just like you are. Thank you for everything that we receive this day, especially for the freedom to be who we really are. Amen. PRAYER FOR LOVE We are going to share a beautiful dream together — a dream that you will love to have all of the time. In this dream you are in the middle of a beautiful, warm sunny day. You hear the birds, the wind, and a little river. You walk toward the river. At the edge of the river is an old man in meditation, and you see that out of his head comes a beautiful light of different colors. You try not to bother him, but he notices your presence and opens his eyes. He has the kind of eyes that are full of love and a big smile. You ask him how he is able to radiate all that beautiful light. You ask him if he can teach you to do what he is doing. He replies that many, many, years ago he asked the same question of his teacher. The old man begins to tell you his story: “My teacher opened his chest and took out his heart, and he took a beautiful flame from his heart. Then he opened my chest, opened my heart, and he put that little flame inside it. He put my heart back in my chest, and as soon as my heart was inside me, I felt intense love, because the flame he put in my heart was his own love. “That flame grew in my heart and became a big, big fire — a fire that doesn’t burn, but purifies everything that it touches. And that fire touched each one of the cells of my body, and the cells of my body loved me back. I became one with my body, but my love grew even more. That fire touched every emotion of my mind, and all the emotions transformed into a strong and intense love. And I loved myself, completely and unconditionally. “But the fire kept burning and I had the need to share my love. I decided to put a little piece of my love in every tree, and the trees loved me back, and I became one with the trees, but my love did not stop, it grew more. I put a piece of love in every flower, in the grass, in the earth and they loved me back, and we became one. And my love grew more and more to love every animal in the world. They responded to my love and they loved me back, and we became one. But my love kept growing and growing. “I put a piece of my love in every crystal, in every stone in the ground, in the dirt, in the metals, and they loved me back, and I became one with the earth. And then I decided to put my love in the water, in the oceans, in the rivers, in the rain, in the snow. And they loved me back and we became one. And still my love grew more and more. I decided to give my love to the air, to the wind. I felt a strong communion with the earth, with the wind, with the oceans, with nature, and my love grew and grew. “I turned my head to the sky, to the sun, to the stars, and put a little piece of my love in every star, in the moon, in the sun, and they loved me back. And I became one with the moon and the sun and the stars, and my love kept growing and growing. And I put a little piece of my love in every human, and I became one with the whole of humanity. Wherever I go, whomever I meet, I see myself in their eyes, because I am a part of everything, because I love.” And then the old man opens his own chest, takes out his heart with that beautiful flame inside, and he puts that flame in your heart. And now that love is growing inside of you. Now you are one with the wind, with the water, with the stars, with all of nature, with all animals, and with all humans. You feel the heat and the light emanating from the flame in your heart. Out of your head shines a beautiful light of different colors. You are radiant with the glow of love and you pray: Thank you, Creator of the Universe, for the gift of life you have given me. Thank you for giving me everything that I have ever truly needed. Thank you for the opportunity to experience this beautiful body and this wonderful mind. Thank you for living inside me with all your love, with your pure and boundless spirit, with your warm and radiant light. Thank you for using my words, for using my eyes, for using my heart to share your love wherever I go. I love you just the way you are, and because I am your creation, I love myself just the way I am. Help me to keep the love and the peace in my heart and to make that love a new way of life, that I may live in love the rest of my life. Amen Who am I? I don't know who am I, and I have no problems saying so I don't have a biography whatever I thought my biography was is utturly meaningless, a waste of joy In what date I was born, in what country, I was born in what religion, I belong does not matter, a waste of time I do not follow the Quran, the bible... I do not follow any prophet or guru, again, a waste of time what matters is what I am here now..

This is a great practical book about reaching enlightenment; Mastering the core teaching of the Buddha, An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book