FirstglimpseOMG

Trying to keep the blinders off. Striving to remain awake and aware. Trying to notice when 'unpacking my experience' = 'constructing concepts and feeling that they are right, or pretty close.' = very close to very complete illusion. I say very close to very complete illusion because I saw the illusion for what it was. I don't, and could not, forget that, but I am a fucking MASTER of distraction. Oh man, if only the paycheque was based on how fully and completely and quickly I am able to distract myself from my real nature.

Personally (heh heh), I did not read about enlightenment, or look specifically for enlightenment. I was on a quest, but it was born of curiosity, and continued to be driven pretty purely by curiosity. It didn't seem like I was determined to find and 'understand' enlightenment. In fact the term was an abstract, rarely thought of, obscure term for me until AFTER my profound experience of waking up. THEN I found that this word enlightenment, which had been around forever in different forms and languages, was an appropriate, widely used label, to slap on to my experience so I could talk about it with others within a conventional context. I found it might be compared to your first orgasm. You 're likely not bootin' around at 10 or 12 years old, thinking "Man, I've heard and I can sorta grasp that there's this awesome thing I can do with my body... I'm going to learn about it and study how to make this thing that I don't have a clue about happen." One day you just explore a little out of a fun and natural curiosity, maybe in the middle of a perfectly ordinary boring ol' day, or your good parts are leaned against the washing machine on spin cycle a little too long while you daydream and KABAAAM!!!

Holy crap. Thank you for that.

Or... did I convolute everything and get it wrong, or some aspect of that definition fails? This gets so interesting and so strange, I'm likely overthinking everything at this time? Shit, this time just turned into this time, that just turned into this time... and only the best , smallest increment I can perceive is reality. Down the rabbit hole pretty good this time...

Or am I just really really slow and most people knew this this way all along?

Hi all , I'm new here, and it's very cool that 'I' found this place online. I had my first glimpse of enlightenment yesterday. Geez, you can't 'unsee' it can you? Ego has crept back in and is doing it's marvelous job of maintaining the illusion, but it's a bit like watching a magician's trick again after the way it was done was explained to you, or you peeked 'round the curtain, or behind the mirror. I was very emotional last night, all overwhelmed, tears of joy! Today as well, even though ego resurrected itself without much effort too. Isn't that strange? Oh what a beginning! Oh, this is going to be fun. Learning to meditate effectively and 'see' with less and less effort, I think is going to bring more 'wow' factor to this newly awakened being. Which of course just propels true joy and recognition and the actualization journey. Holy crap. Thank you very very much to Leo, and to anyone else trying to share enlightenment and awakening.

Leo has a pretty spot-on video dealing directly with pickup. I think it's called A rant Against Pickup. If you can still embrace pickup after watching that entire video? Well, enjoy the fallout, yikes. @Ross Cool for thinking for yourself after all bud, but placing blame anywhere really does nothing. Even beating yourself up over your experience with that girl will do nothing for you except generate guilt, which is probably the best way to hinder thinking clearly and reasoning it all out as a social experiment that made you uneasy afterwords, that you learned a bit from, and are moving on. In my opinion and experience anyway.

Being true to your gut feelings while at the same time treating her as you would like to be treated if the tables were turned may be a great way of approaching it. Not sure about it all? It's probably perfect that you are not sure. Maybe the exact situation doesn't seem to resolve itself within you with ease, and maybe it just not meant to right now. In my opinion, from readimg your post, this young you is very likely already doing most things relationship-oriented very well when it comes to how you respect her and treat her. Likely she is someone that is also already intrinsically capable of appreciating your honesty and genuineness. Otherwise you would likely have a pissed off, petulant little sulker on your hands. Maybe also likely, since both of you are pretty naturally in a good place personally in your early development, with or without a big, commited relationship, you are both already ahead in the game of life. Man, if you can do the important 'I need to look for what's best for me right now in my life', without making her feel 'less than'...? Sounds like the definition of the beginning of the development of what a real, genuine, not-selfish, friendship can be. Probably not a bad platform to base yourself on while figuring what your your gut feelings or questions are going to bring you as you just chill and live and figure it all out as you go. Imagine the world if everyone just gave out some basic love, understanding and respect to all while trying to figure out just what the fuck they're all about. Surely a fantasy, but my impression from your post was that you are already basically running with integrity, regardless of unsureness of what race you may be in, and how important it may or may not be to you at this time. Sounds like you're trying to keep it real while not forgetting about what your needs may be as you figure them out at any given time. That doesn't sound wimpy and selfish and needlessly unsure to me, that sounds like a good place to work from, and I imagine that operating with a base integrity towards yourself and others will ...well, I just don't see that 'not working' for you. Hats off bud, enjoy the shit out of your positive relationship with others, be they friend, colleage, lover, whatever. Pick those peope well, and with and expecting the same level of strivance towards personal integrity that you are developing now. Just simply enjoy it all, I think that's what life is for.

Wow, we think ourself out of so many possibilities.

I once made a sandwich for a dog. It's not really a joke, but it sure can be funny to think about. With meat and cheese and a thin layer of mayo and everything. It was in the morning before work one day and it made the rest of the day light and awesome.

I had to look up equanimity.

Hiya, I'm going to try and share a few interesting things going on with me since I caught a glimpse of my true nature about a week ago. Not 'understood it finally.', not 'oh okay I gotcha, I get it now!'. I was very, very, very lucky and in a completely unexpected flash, somehow, somehow I woke up. I 'saw', the same instant that I 'experienced' my true nature. It seems like when awakened people talk about their initial 'flash' of seeing, their experience of 'seeing' really translates to 'experiencing', and furthermore, 'BEING'. Maybe different words for the same thing, 'experiencing', 'being'..... This is not 'understanding'. It cannot be understood. Not until you wake up. You are asleep, and then you wake up. Understanding it did not awaken me. No, that's not right... I did not understand until the moment I was awake. If I can attribute 'time' to the experience itself of flashing awake and seeing my true nature, simply BEING my true nature, in the profound, awakening, life changing way that's talked about; I got maybe a second. Undescribeable and uncommunicateable, I'm sorry. I cried on and off for a few days. All joy. If I dwell on that moment for a second or two, the experience does not repeat like that, but the effect is the same, tears of joy... fuck- I submit. You only wake up from this once. Enlightened people on here have talked about falling asleep again, and I know what they mean, but... you can't have the initial awakening over and over. There's no way to forget the experiencing of your true nature for the first time for it to really suprise you again. I am very very new at this, and still very emotional. My ego has been blown up. It's a relief that I cannot describe yet. Unpacking it all....? I'm a monkey-mind whirlwind even though underneath I know. I haven't been able to work for most of this week. That will change and be fine. No sadness yet, no panic. Some psychosomatic stuff when ego tries to put up any real resistance. You can't mistake any aspect of ego for anything else really anymore. I can't 'not recognize' ego doing it's thing now. No aspect of it. When it's not you, it's simply not you. No more; 'Gee, that must be ego talking, gotta watch for that.' Make no mistake, my ego is there at this point. It's helping me a little bit with sanity right now. Can't walk around all day with that thousand yard stare and my jaw all dropped. Ok, yeah I can, but didn't in public. Remember, ego is still here. Guess that's where the real work starts. It's disconcerting to the ego to be suddenly exposed completely, but it dosn't just pack it's suitcases and leave town. Not in my case. It's naturally clever, and very strong. It is not managing to fool me. There really has been no backsliding... but the ego has been very desperately trying to rip the shit out of my awakening experience. It can't. So strange to know what the ego is for real, and still have it there. It blew apart, but didn't cower and leave. Ok, so...awakened and enlightened do not go hand in hand as I can see so far. Yeah I know - wordplay... but the ego needs to be banished for good, and as awake as I am, it's playing it's role and it is very effective. Not fooling me, but I have not killed it. I guess this is where I begin to put it to rest so my awakened state is more than ...no that's not right either, being awake finally can be no more than, or less than. It's very weird to let yourself be a little confused, when you know you're not really confused anymore. This will pass because it must. Wow, brain-burn, wee bits of anxiety spread up weakly through torso. Short lived but nagging. Adrenaline streaks. Short lived tingles. The ego FIGHTS! So strange to have 'awakened' and still have so much more to learn. I need time. I will need to learn how to meditate for real. I know what I am, and it's huge... but that ego - unbelieveable. (Well, literally unbelieveable...) Not sure what else to write here right now, may need to have another cry, fuck, this is crazy but so good. I'm not at all sure about posting like this, gotta talk about it somewhere though. I hope to share and maybe help, but it may be a while before I stop sounding like an arbitrarily rambling and gushing, mistaken wannabee or a deluded shortcut-taker. That's it for now, I feel like I need about an hour of deep breathing and deep sighs after trying to convey any of this. So, so strange, looking back at what I wrote, crying happy overwhelmed tears, realizing that so far, words have failed me completely.

Heh heh, I get all excited when I write about my experiences, and sometimes on a re-read something sits funny with me or seems ambiguous, or self-righteous. Self-righteous is not likely to resonate well in an enlightenment/awakening environment. See how awesome I am for figuring that out?

Leo has such informed and straightforward videos on meditation. How to, the pitfalls and traps to avoid, his personal experiences, three levels of meditation and how to change them up and make them effective for you. I'm glad I watched them, would have been subject to a lot of bullshit and misinformation myself, being inexperienced and trying to learn about simple, basic, effective meditation techniques and it's benefits from all over the internet.

...beyond the human ego's perception?

The Devin Townsend Project's album cover for the soon to be released 'Transcendence'.

@cetus56 Hiya. Hmmm. Well, I'm trying to grasp the concept of timelessness. Also, trying to wrap my head around infinity. Same thing? As far as practical experiences so far and apparent implications? It sure seems like I can slow time down a little. I guess everyone can. The differences I notice now after my experience are that instead of walking along and thinking "Woah buddy, why not slow down a bit, why are you in such a hurry?", I simply am walking differently, naturally and more loosely, but also very naturally a little slower, without the mental prompting. It seems counter-intuitive now, intrinsically, naturally, to be in a hurry about anything. Subsequently it seems like more gets done in less time. Speaking of waking up and smelling the coffee, yesterday I opened a new container of coffee. Sure it's always pretty aromatic to open a new thing of coffee because it's all so fresh, but I was hit by it differently this time... Boom, I felt like I was smelling every bit of expertise and competence that went into the roasti g of the beans. It was crazy, almost like I had an idea of what the freakin' earth that the beans were grown in smelt like. Almost felt like I had a quick impression of the land and the people who were working that land. All in a second or two. It took me aback, seemed like the most intuitive thing ever, without an ounce of thought, just a quick, unexpected, very rich impression of something that had never hit me quite like that. And it was cheap-assed coffee. I'm hoping this means that being more 'in the moment' is coming more sub-conciously, rather than always reminding myself to be in the moment. I'm still all over the place. Feeling it as I go. In the past, I have actually stood there and wished the water in the pot would boil a little faster, and of course it seems like it's taking forEVVVERRR!! Now the water's conspiring to boil even slower because I had the audacity to try and hurry it up because I was hungry and wanted to drop my egg or potato or hot dog in there faster. Boy, that water just boils up in a jiffy though if I put the pot on and go check out some forum posts and finish getting dressed. The damn thing boiled too fast, still have to get this shirt on before I can go drop my egg in the rapidly evaporating water! Anyway, very lately it seems like the 'in the moment' thing is a more natural, less forced state. I'm not wantonly noticing the time stretch by watching the water boil, mind you, but it sure is nice when it stretches out while doing something more pleasurable, like walking around on a gorgeous summer day. (as opposed to the day flying by when I am enjoying myself but slowing down to make it seem more tormenting when I'm not.) It just seems more natural and beneficial now to 'slow down'.

@WelcometoReality Wow, I guess 'being' doesn't equal 'knowing'. It's a little too funny that my ego didn't know that for most of my life. Not only thought it 'knew', but in case of dispute, most often thought it 'knew' even better than the other person's ego. Too ridiculous. I would occasionally come back down to earth from my pedestal of hidden smugness (can't appear arrogant, it's just good enough to be quietly right.) long enough to occasionally say, "Wow, you may be right on that, I never thought of it that way", but not most times. At all: Speaking of being 'right' and thinking or speaking as if I know something you don't know.... somewhere above I said "I speak the Truth." Well now, arent I special. Cool, sorry - strike that and I'll replace that big statement or claim with; I'm trying to convey a truth I've experienced, and genuinely hope your truths and experiences may be as enriching and eye-opening as mine were/are. There, that feels right.

@WelcometoReality Hi there, I unpack this for the rest of my life now, so.... I'm like a baby. Undoubtedly I'm a miracle - but I don't know shit yet. As for trying to convey the answer to your questions, that's a stretch, there's a very real limit to language and intellectual discussion when attempting to try and 'help you inch closer' to what I have experienced. Certainly for me so far anyway. How strange and delightful to have experienced something so profound that language, even the most True and simple explanations by the sages and masters seem to most often end up sounding a little flighty and just beyond our grasp. I'm thinking there is merit in trying though. Just remember - I'm a baby that has very much growing to do. I'm so new that the whole 'just woke up' thing, has me just trying to keep up with the terminology and labels, not only if I'm to have a chance of conveying a fraction of this, but in order to build my own frame of reference for what I have experienced. You asked "There is one, is it true?" Yes, and it is you. And me. And everyone else on the planet. And the planet. All of nature is ALL of Nature and All IS nature. We are Nature. Not separate from, not stemmimg from, not mostly a part of, dependind on now well stories are told or your language of choice is used. We are simply not outside of nature, despite often appearing to be outside of nature, or 'feeling like you are outside of nature' (another good label to slap on 'ego' maybe?) The planet, every smallest, smallest particle, measureable or immeasureable, of space between and completely and fully surrounding every every every thing from your 'fictional' point of reference out to the absolute boundaries of the universe (of which I'm not sure there are any). And not the observeable universe, ALL of IT. ALL of IT, every every every thing in it and the now tangible every , absolutely every bit of space surrounding every thing in it. EVERYTHING there IS. ...is the exact, completely same thing as you. And vica versa. See how easily it can sound all prophetic and mysterious and esoteric. It does not matter what IT 'sounds' like. What it sounds and seems like is just another story, another conceptual visualization or the fuzzy result of an intellectual surgery session. Nature, The Universe, God, (terminology, labels) the stuff between the physical stuff, the stuff between or inside the stuff, ALL of Everything is the same thing, [[[[[[[[[[AND it is innately intelligent.]]]]]]]]]] And because you are of Nature, are Nature... once your really begin to 'get' that, it is the most incredible thing in your life that you can do to now start thinking about all this 'consiousness' stuff, along with, and on top of, all this physical and 'space between the physical' stuff. I make that promise directly to you. Soooo... let's mix in some vastly expanding capacity to approach this consiousness thing now. If you can begin to wrap your head and heart around some or all of the above, let's begin to use our calmness and stillness and readiness, and open-ness... to build on our newer momentum exponentially in order to maximize our chances of advancing closer and closer to the Truth you seek. All I speak of points to the fact that despite your 'ego' (completely counter-intuitively, the [[[[[[[[FALSE]]]]]]]]] constructs of your mind since birth), this conciousness tht you enjoy. [[[[[[[[ IS NOT LOCAL ]]]]]]]] THERE IS NOT 7 BILLION CONCIOUSNESSES ON THE PLANET. 7 BILLION egos. Absolutely. Get past the language of this all if you can. Look for your Truth within. It's not out there. It's in you. You are it, and miraculously, beautifully, perfectly, and NATURALLY, your ego gets the opportunity to play the game of life the best way it knows how, and has the gift of the capacity to "Transcend" the perception and almost completely convincing illusion of the locality, and physicality of our individual existence. I'm not bad with language... maybe carefully and as deeply and as openly as possible try and see what all of my words and the way they are put together, may be pointing to. It is the Truth you seek. You ARE that Truth already and your mind's convincing and seemingly individual perspective on that Truth is fundamentally flawed and that is an aspect of humanity. Transcend it. Your mind's ideas are not reality. They are concepts, the stories your mind tells itself in order to try and have a reference point for YOUr existence, and CONCEPTS and STORIES are simply not reality. No matter how ingrained, convincing, persistent, or apparently infallible these (simply 'mind'/'ego' constructed compilations of impressions since birth), are. I attempt to convey Truth There are not 7 billion consciousnesses on earth, or in-between the ears of our head, somewhere sorta behind our eyes. Our wickedly awesome physical, local, unimaginably beautifully evolved, and developed brains, yeah, there's 7 billion of those my friend, but thay are all the same big Universal, UNIVERSAL, NOT LOCAL consciousness. You don't 'get to 'be' GOD (label), You and I are GOD, and are working on identifying and nullifying the damaging, limiting, blinding, life-fucking-long, almost-perfectly convincing illusion-since-birth, that is Truthfully, nothing more than the biggest, most pervasive, most well intentioned and wickedly engrossing movie you've ever Watched. Enjoy your beginnings bud, the journey is life and being and it is perfect already. Get out of your own way. This mindset is not unsurmountable. This is the Truth. No philosophy. No religion. TRUTH in the best way I can try and convey it at this time @electroBeam The reality of what you are knows exactly why it seems so big and profound and majestic! IT IS!!!! I'm sort of all out of words after the above attempt and conveyance, and I'm going to end this post before I lose the whole friken' thing to a tablet power-down or something foolish like that. I am just happy that you got a glimpse too.Fucking enjoy that to the nth degree amd run with it. Meditate, meditate, meditate. Open, open, open and get that exponential expansion of your mind in motion and working for you. Work it well and it will eventually happen in the way that the Innately Curious and Intelligent you (The universe), is capable of and exists to BE!

Truth.

Oh my gawd, I hear you, and I thank you. You were the effective catalyst after three months of hard, hard curiosity, how about that? I have no more words. Subdued ecstacy in the middle of a false hurricane. Thanks again Leo, ...these words fall short too, just... thank you.

Hey all, noticed a few things about Leo's teaching style, and it's effectiveness, since finding him about a week ago. First of all, if you've ever seen a person happier about what they do, while they are doing it, please point me to them, I've never seen anything like it. From the second his videos fade from black you are struck by something. I kind of right away tried for a second to explain that something ...WTF, this guy looks like he's 'peaking' as soon as 'Heeey, it's Leo' is out of his mouth. If you observe closely, you might notice that it looks like he is doing everything not to smile and 'beam' so much that his mouth isn't able to form the words he wants to convey. Ok, well, he makes it look easy, because it's easy for him, but it has a huge impact immediately to see that 'something' in him that is captivating and convincing. I think that's what 'Authenticity' really really looks like. Well, I imagine that's what 'mostly contained joy' looks like too. Wow, I just realized that's probably a great description of 'Authentic'. Now, I imagine some may see me as fawning over him a little here. No. I am not easily impressed or convinced. I am impressed. Leo Gura has shown me things that, if I had $10,000 disposeable income available to me... I would send it to him right now, with tears of gratitude drying on the cheque. Once he is in the middle of conveying what he wants me to understand and experience for myself, I just naturally see something else in his eyes besides his joy and confidence and proficiency. I don't think I would have stuck around for the length of even my first video of Leo's that I found, had I not recognised that thing in his eyes that he couldn't hide if he tried. I see authenticity and TRUTH somehow. He got me to understand and see certain things, likely because I trusted him, pretty much right away. Rare, very rare for a healthy skeptic like I was. Sorry but it's very rare that you can gush to someone, 'this man that I don't know and doesn't know me, changed my life for free, because he knew if he was extraordinary enough in 'paying forward', by getting through to the few folks that might be open enough to benefit, and the even fewer folks that might discover a profound Truth for themselves...' (deep sigh of awe and gratitude, running out of words now.) Ok, not out of words... the topic was Leo Gura's inimitable teaching style... When he is straightforward and cutting, and direct, I've noticed comments underneath the vid like; 'Leo, you're great and I love you and your message is spot on, but would you consider toning it down a bit? I think you might impact more people if you weren't so sharp and condescending, blah blah blah.' I have to tell you, with his charisma and authenticity, when he tells me I'm not getting anywhere because I'm a "soft, lazy twat" or that my problems are likely to persist because I'm "too blind to understand", or I'm blindly perpetuating the misery in my "pathetic, stupid life" ... Oh man, it hit my funny bone every time and I sat here and howled laughter! I think I was so entertained that he had the audacity to say it like that, backed up with his way of hurling the truth at you with a loving, knowing, hopeful for you way... Some people don't get it, but I feel lucky to have actually found 'Authenticity' and Truth somewhere, and a person that actually and genuinely wants the best for me and my suffering to end, and offers ways to get there. Not just effectively, but extraordinarily. Hats off and thank you Leo. Anyone else find that finding Leo blew their socks off? Why?

Gotcha, I've watched for that trap and I think it's just incredulous gratitude and a healthy admiration. He got me to see some very profound things for myself, for the first time in my life. Very profound, life-changing stuff. It has never happened like that for me before. It's cooler than words but I'm tryin' lol. Yeah, watching him stay-on point with that quality and integrity for easily over an hour and a half in some vids, apparently without cues, is pretty cool.

@cetus56 Perfect lol.

Thank you Ayla, having a few authentic teachers around has suddenly become, ...very grounding for me and is so absolutely perfect right now. I may try my own thread here in a while, it's all too new for me to articulate very well so far. Sure is perfect that I found Leo, and then this place, and more awakened leaders and guides, as I am so NEW!!