Viking

@Costa7 tough. u gotta get over that if you want to know the truth. One thing you have to be careful of at the moment is sharing all this with your family, they might not have nice opinions about all this because they're maybe as afraid as you are, which in turn will make you fear more.

@Max_V can you elaborate please? to me it seems pointless

mental masturbation

@Costa7 look what str4 wrote, he sums it up pretty well. relying on beliefs is not healthy, it leads to suffering, while relying on direct experience leads to the opposite. this vid of leo will answer ur questions i think:

post your motivations to follow the spiritual path, whether they are comprehensible for newbies or not. I feel like the desire for truth is the most important thing in order to succeed in this path, so tell us why that desire exists within you.

@Costa7 Use psychedelics when you obtained the maximum logical knowledge you can acquire. dont even think of using psychedelics if you can break through to the next stage using simple logical thinking. it will simply just confuse you even more. I recommend you to watch more of leo's vids. psychedelics arent addictive substances. you come at peace with religion when you gain enough knowledge and see religion as it is, it will come naturally. a thought experiment that can help you is - why is it that your religion is the right one among the vast amounts of religions out there? islam, judaism, buddhism, hinduism etc. wouldnt it be a strange coincidence that the religion you were raised in is the right one?

@eputkonen why did you want to know the truth ?

@LaucherJunge Maybe for you it's a healthy road to become enlightened. Take sadhguru for example. he became enlightened without any intention to. Maybe you will get enlightened but it will take longer.

@Leo Gura How much time after daily self inquiry and meditation is it smart to do the first retreat ?

I usually have to ask myself a question a shit ton of times before I can genuinely answer it, and even that comes pretty rarely. for example my last inquiry i did 1 hour and i had a sense of myself about 20 times max, the rest was monkey mind and trying to set up the mood to answer a question because i cant just answer it because i ask it and there is no answer. does it come with time? or is there a more efficient way to ask questions? I heared people talk about visualizations and looking at who you are. Can you elaborate if you know the technique and are there any more techniques?

why asking yourself over and over again the same question makes you realize you are nothing? is it because all other options are eliminated and thats the only option thats left? Also if enlightenment is just a realization why doesnt it stick?

what kinds of retreats are there what are they good for why are they important pitfalls how to plan

are you going to meditate the rest of the time? what kinds of meditation?

@cetus56 there are unconscious answers for example i ask "who is aware?" and then my brain just plays along with the words and says "sure, me" but I dont feel anything, just like your spouse for example asks you what do you want for dinner and you say "i dont want to get a new couch". on the other hand sometimes I ask myself "who is feeling this leg" and I get kind of an emotional response that I feel is what i really think, and then what I do is realize this is not me because its just a perception. but this happens rarely.

during the days im tired im having a really tough time doing self inquiry. should i drink coffee or something these times

thanks

Ive been having struggles with do nothing meditation because i dont know whether i should be aware of the moment while doing the technique. if i do nothing i get sucked into thoughts obviously and then its very hard to keep awareness on those thoughts. from time to time during the meditation i realize ive been unconscious and thats it. i dont feel an urge to do something after that, it doesnt happen much that i get those urges. also isnt keeping awareness a something?

what's your opinion on it? is it a safe place to start? never even smoked weed lol

I realized during my self inquiry practice that naive realism is a huge obstacle for me right now. ive seen leos rant on naive realism but i didnt understand how do i get rid of it mechanically. do i do it during the self inquiry as a part of it? or do i undermind it first and only then start to practice self inquiry because it seems to me that because of it im stuck.

@Leo Gura What would you recommend then for a beginner beside those 2? is there some list I can check out?

I feel like there is too much information from the enlightenment guide and the step by step video and I think I didnt catch the core principle which self inquiry is built upon. im a bit retarded when it comes to a lot of text, lol, so can you explain to me please what that is?

since its hard to judge the results from meditation/self inquiry, how am i supposed to know if im doing something wrong with my practices? I notice for example during self inquiry that my monkey mind becomes a monkey on coke and I dont know if theres any use from that.

tell me please if im on the right track: I started meditating with the do nothing technique for 20 min every day and self inquire for 30 each day. in 20 days i will change the meditation technique. my self inquiry have been kinda messy because i just started and i also check my notes while i do it. I just finished my semester in the university and i have a month and a half of free time so i wanted to do a retreat for myself. am i ready for a retreat if i just started? the retreat will be done solo. i thought of doing strong determination sitting for 4 hours with do nothing with breaks every hour and then self inquiry for an hour. what are your prefferences? how should i do it? what worked for you? should i do it at all? also i dont 100% understand the goal of retreats. are they essential for enlightenment?

@Arkandeus What I tried to say is that the neti neti method is failing me. I found a thing that I could be and I cant disprove to myself like all the other stuff like senses that its not me. Im getting stuck thinking im this part of my brain, how do i get unstuck?