Greg O

I'm struggling to grasp what it really means to "Enter the Marketplace with Extended Hands" and how living this way is considered to be the highest awakened state. To illustrate, below are a few quotes from the last chapter of Lectures on the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures. 1st Quote: "When you have reached this highest awakened state where the world, just as it is, is the Pure Land, where you yourself, just as you are, are the Buddha, then you must throw away this satori and for the sake of those in suffering and distress descend to the bottom of society, to the farthest corner of society, and awaken everyone else to this Pure Land as well." 2nd Quote: "Without preaching, without offering his opinion, without giving a lecture, this monk gets in among the people and just by his laughing and smiling, all who meet him come to feel the point and purpose of life, like flowers blooming on a withered tree." 3rd Quote: "No matter what your field, even if you are a scholar who has read all the books in the world, you must not give any air of being a scholar but instead recite the Buddha's name like an illiterate nun who cannot read one letter. The way of a Buddhist cannot be anything other than this." To me, this would imply that simply by being with the people in society who are suffering most, your consciousness sort of rubs off on them like osmosis. And awakening people through this "osmosis" effect is a better/higher way to help them than to actually lecture and teach them directly from the position of a mentor. I thought this was interesting since I personally feel like I would not have made near the spiritual progress I have without teachings that slap you around a bit with a more direct, no-bullshit approach. What are everyone's thoughts on this?

@kieranperez So essentially what you're saying is there can be many manifestations of "Return to the Market with Extended Hands" and it depends on what is most authentic to you as a unique human character? And the smaller scale impact is just how Zen typically portrays it?

@Aaron p Yes, I always imagined the sage path as one involving getting enlightened and then using that insight to spread wisdom and help as many people as possible. That's what threw me off when the book said "Without preaching, without offering his opinion, without giving a lecture this monk gets in among the people and just by his laughing and smiling, all who meet him come to feel the point and purpose of life." But that is good advice. I assume I will understand after enlightenment. I guess it's impossible to really predict what the recontextualization from enlightenment will be like. However, I am still grappling with how to live my life now in order to best position myself to make the greatest impact in the future after enlightenment... So far, it seems to be a never ending inquiry. Such is life!

I was interested in this as well, so I emailed their support team and got a link. Enjoy! https://bm246.infusionsoft.com/app/orderForms/Internal-Master-Map-of-Success

In Ramaji's book 1000, he includes a list of historical figures and their corresponding level of consciousness (LOC) from 1-1000. I was surprised and confused to see Genghis Khan listed with a 1000 LOC. I had always assumed his conquests were a result of satisfying some ego trip. Maybe I am misunderstanding the levels of consciousness, but I don't understand how you can spend your life raping and pillaging and be at LOC 1000 (the highest possible level of consciousness). Lol maybe it was just his dharma? Thoughts?

@Leo Gura Thanks for the detailed response. That’s an interesting perspective. And after doing some research I think I agree with you. I would imagine that the common public opinion on a lot of historical figures is highly inaccurate. Sort of eye opening... Can’t just take shit on faith. Gotta do your own research and form your own opinions.

Haha can you imagine if Leo made a video talking about enlightenment with a bunch of smokin hot Instagram models in the background? Tai strikes me as a phony. There's much higher-quality practical business advice out there if you do some research.

@Hunter Arrington I just copy and paste the text from the PDFs into OneNote and it looks fine. Then fill them out from there. I'm sure it would also work pasting into a word doc.

What if you are unsure of the exact impact you want to make and/or your domain of mastery, but have it narrowed down to some general area? Is it better to choose one thing specifically and begin implementing it (programming subconscious mind, etc.), or is it better to continue contemplating what is really most meaningful to you before you begin the implementation process? I don't want to be overanalyzing/procrastinating, but what I've come up with through the exercises feels like it still needs more refinement.

I had a crazy experience tonight while I was meditating that I had to write about while it was fresh in my mind. I was hoping someone could help me understand it, because I don’t really know how to explain this experience to myself but it was unlike anything I’ve ever felt in my life. Long story short, I’ve been following Leo and Acutalized.org for about 6 months now and still relatively inexperienced with enlightenment. I decided to dedicate my Saturday to enlightenment work and spent the day doing some off and on meditation sessions and self-inquiry. After watch Leo’s “Meditation of Steroids” video, I elected to finish the day with a strong determination sit. I set my iPhone timer for 75 minutes. My hips are pretty inflexible, but I’ve been trying to make myself sit cross-legged during my meditations. I decided it would be good for me to force myself to sit through whatever discomfort arose and holy shit was it uncomfortable. It truly is amazing how difficult it is to sit completely 100% motionless the entire time. After what felt like about 45 minutes, the pain in my legs became so intense that I pretended I was a marathon monk and had to kill myself if I quit. That’s when my crazy experience happened. At first, it started as a tingling feeling in my legs and felt like my brain was releasing some kind of feel good chemical to help me get through the pain. The tingling then came over my whole body and it felt amazing. It was an interesting feeling, so I sort of just felt into it and allowed it to overtake my body. Then all of a sudden after a few more seconds, I completely broke through the pain and my vision went totally blurred. I could feel my eyes open wide (like the face you think of when someone sees a ghost) but couldn’t see anything but totally blurred light. Then I experienced this incredibly immense euphoria where I became insanely conscious of everything in my experience. My heart beat, my breath, the feeling of my entire body, the sounds from outside and the fan spinning above me. Like my ordinary awareness x1000. It was like entering a totally different realm of reality where I was accessing some consciousness that I didn’t know was possible. Not sure if everyone will get this reference, but I almost felt like Bran from Game of Thrones when his eyes go back into his head. Literally, the best, most intense feeling I’ve ever had in my life. After what I believe to be about 30 seconds, the experience became so amazing that it started to scare the shit out of me, and my vision refocused and I came out of it. The rest of my session I was extremely present but nothing like what I felt earlier. After my timer went off, I just sat there for a few minutes like what in the fuck just happened to me? I’m not really sure what happened, but it felt powerful. Has anyone ever experienced anything similar to this? I can imagine people having breakthroughs during meditation, but it was just so crazy with my vision blurring out and everything. Maybe this experience isn’t as significant as it feels to me right now, but I felt like it should at least be documented. -Kyle

Great advice. I appreciate the help!

Yes, both definitely relatable to what I experienced. These strong determination sits are so mentally challenging, but now that I've gotten this taste of higher consciousness, I'm excited for where it could possibly take me. It's such an interesting form of satisfaction when you're able to finally break through the physical pain and mental struggle.