Sven

@Preetom Exactly.. The reason I created this topic is because I am slightly concerned with who follows Leo as being a leader. Leo is awesome that's not what I mean, but now even that he has taken a 30 day retreat was, and - yes it is necessary to take breaks from hard work but, - he is so concerned with enlightenment. I feel that so far the lack of response on this topic has been great, since that means people understand what enlightenment is. Perhaps though some still think it is something "you" can "gain". Which it is not. This message should be clear.

@Principium Nexus Yes but you see... Where does "the world" end and where do "you" begin? Seriously. At what point in making a decision was that "yours"? Was it not a result of the entire cosmos being the way it is? Well ponder that, and if you have, there really is nothing else necessary to ponder

@Joker_Theory Might be too many words causing confusion. Don't worry about it. @Principium Nexus I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that question... You use the word "ego" in "egoic pursuit"... What do you mean by ego?

@Joker_Theory Tough question honestly. I think you know what the game is already. It's just THAT. Here it is see? You know the difference between a gene and an allel? Well genes code for a category of genetic information and alleles are one type of genetic information of one said category. For example, when we talk of hair colour, colour is a gene. blond is an allel. brown is an allel. Black is an allel. See? So in this way, we see a hierarchy form. We can give loads of examples. Food chains, political structures, your favourite foods... whatever. Everything is categorized . That is the game. Creating seperation within Unity. That's why when you are truly open minded, everything goes, so to speak. It's the ultimate ultimate. It's the category of categories. It sounds abstract this way but that's language, a filter. It's not in the words. You will stop playing the game when you stop playing the game. But look ... This is what makes it funny. You as a person will not be there when the game stops. You are part of the game. It's like, you mix mashed potatoes with sauce, how are you ever gonna eat just the sauce? No way. See? That's you as a person. Part of the game. When you are not present the game is not either. Don't need to be sitting under a tree for that okay. You can. Sounds wonderful. No need is all I say. So now, you understand why your second question is rather silly?

@Tistepiste Oh well no need to feel humbled... All is One remember ... What I mean is, everything is the same in that it is different, but everything is also supposed to be the way it is... It sounds like a paradox but it is not really. Either you are anxious about your state or you accept your state, that is somewhat of a choice you have. But you cannot accept yourself more than you can accept yourself. So enlightenment in this way is the recognition of how the Now is all there is, it is okay, you are fine, this is how it's always gonna be... No need to worship. We are all leaves on the same tree or droplets in the same ocean, if you will. But if you prefer one droplet of water over the other, what is this but separating what ultimately is One and the Same? Shakespeare once said (alegedly) "Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Yeah? No? I know... what the hell did you just read? Or did you get it? Hang up the phone when you get the message is a fun saying. Don't hang up the phone before that though. Genuine curiousity. Yeah : genuine curiousity. Authentic Not Knowing. But for your question The internal state is layered in a way. Being is just Being/being. Capital referring to yah know... and lowercase referring to whatever the body/if you're dreaming and being a lizard is doing. But this Being is always there so phew. You can sigh of relief there. No way to lose it. Now you also have emotions and thoughts, which may or may not be anxiously trying to make more of what is than what is. Worrying about worrying. Thinking about thinking. Ask yourself when in a genuinly curious mood (!) "Whose thoughts are this?" And again... NOT MY answer is important. YOUR answer. Anyway, you may or may not come to the realization that indeed thoughts are just like your feet or your hands or whatever. They are there, but you don't have to consciously focus on them you see? That's all. The internal state is a mix of stuff mostly a reflection of your external state. There may be different thoughts when in a rollercoaster than when at a funeral. But really it's not your thoughts anyway. You're observing them silently. Hope you get something out of this. Remember keep it simple okay. It's not so extremely complicated

@Tistepiste Everything changed, yet nothing changed... Love is difficult to explain... Being feels like the absence of feeling... Your state is your state, yeah it changes. And that's why life is not boring. If you were always feeling the same, haha... Imagine that. At one point you would be like "Well, whew. I've sat here for a thousand years under a tree. I am hella enlightened and blissful. But ehhhh now what?" There is no condition to enlightenment. Either you feel like playing the game or you don't, up to you. Really. No pressure. Sorry for missing the point of your question earlier!

Yes I sigh of relief. A lot of unnecessary energy was wasted in this topic so far, which was never my intent. But this is what happens. And it's fine either way, because it's all ... ... Yeah. Concepts. You say that everything you can say about it is a lie... Well... Of course that is not completely true. Yes. No words will cover it. But- It's like... you can choose your words around it. Like, you try to describe the colour blue. You can't really say what you see. But you can say that, the sky is blue. Blue is the colour of the water (not really, but you know). In that way you can show stuff which resembles it. And game will recognize game? Something like that. When I leave that's when it's there. So it's never "there" completely when I type, because I'm thinking in concepts. But if you recognize the difference between actuality and concepts (Leo has a video on this), you can say "Ah. Okay." and move on. Hmmmm emotions are great, they are what move us. No emotion is like the Flow State, which I get into much more easily now that I stop holding on so much. If you don't know what Flow is, well, it's basically when you're basically not present anymore other than being that which is the activity which is being performed. Professional sporters have this stuff. It's what distinguishes the Master from the Apprentice. But the funny thing is, the Master does not have to be good at something in order for him to be the Master. He just recognizes that in practice is no person involved. George Leonard wrote a masterpiece on this subject, it's a book called "Mastery". And yes, this is still related to your question ... Emotions are great don't worry. Watch them unfold and look at what you can learn from them. If you have some serious emotional issues, consult a psychologist or talk to someone face to face. Resisting emotions is like throwing oil on a fire pit which is your suffering, it does not reduce the suffering, it enhances it. If you go through all your emotions when they come up, this is what healing is.

@ajasatya It depends on the age of the child so, yes, that accumulation of words was not accurate

@GeoLura <3.. Thank you

. For those of you who feel ready to stop pretending and put yourself out of the equation, there is the short route, which is, right now dig into who you are. Ask yourself this question with 100% curiosity. Don't look at anyone else for answers. Don't think about what it SHOULD be like to be enlightened. Of course those thoughts will come by. Observe them. Once it is quiet in your head, watch who is observing. An enlightened person is not a good person. An enlightened person is not a bad person. An enlightened person is not a quiet person. An enlightened person is not a magical person. An enlightened person is not different. An enlightened person is not unique. An enlightened person is not special. An enlightened person is not omnipotent. An enlightened person is not bad. An enlightened person is not perfect. An enlightened person is not wise. An enlightened person does not exist. An enlightened person is a concept. There is no you to speak of to become enlightened. This is the joke. I've collected some of the most valuable sources which have helped me along what was my journey. Remember the value is not to be found in external sources, however. It is only to be found where it is to be found. I realized it is not as easy as it might sound to me now. This is why I will say this one more thing: do not become worried about not "achieving something special". If you do become worried: watch the emotion. Confront it completely when it arises and watch it disappear because of the consciousness attending. There is so much more I could say, but I will leave it at this for now. Rely only on self-inquiry. Once again. Rely only on self-inquiry. 1 The interview Leo held with Peter Ralston. 2 Alan Watts playing God for 10 minutes. 3 Paul Hedderman (one of his many talks) 4 The book by Peter Ralston: The Book of Not Knowing 5 The Hero With A Thousand Faces (This book is quite a read, but this is a broad perspective at the complete picture so forth given by our culture through mythology)

You know, when you accept all that is in the Now. This is not an activity you have to perform mentally! This is something already present. Right now as you are reading these words. Yes. Now. It's not actually a path. But of course, we believe we have to follow a path. There's an argument to be made both for saying yes there's a path and saying no there's no path. In a sense they're both right. It's up to you whether you wanna follow a path, or, alternatively, you step aside, and let life happen. When you do this, magic starts to happen. Everything falls into place. It all makes sense. You can't help but sometimes get crazy laughter or crying. That's optional, though. The reason you start crying and laughing is because you see how ridiculous of an act you've been putting up for, well, depends per person for how long of course. It took me like 6 years I suppose. In retrospect, I would say, the day you start your path is the day you start fooling yourself. Watch out. This does not mean that being awake doesn't exist at all. It merely means you began standing in the way of your awake nature. Your nature is awake. You are awake. Right now. Nothing to hold on to. Watch it. Watch consciousness focus and unfocus as a dance to whatever it wants to focus and unfocus. Ask yourself! Try the exercise. Ask yourself out loud: who am I? I used to hate self inquiry because I didn't understand what kind of an answer I was supposed to expect by asking myself who I am. But if you actually want the answer, it's right here. Notice any resistance by reading any of this? A thought saying "Yeah great man but, it can't be that easy. I've heard so many say it's a crazy path and it's this and that and ..." - see? Already distracted. You're missing the point! YOU are asking the question. Get into that. Feel your own personal energy. Everyone has their own energy. Live it. See what happens. Make the leap of faith. I wanna help I really do. I just need to get my head around how to get this across. Now I know why these guru's use all these tricks and stuff. It's madness, really. It's like, you see a blue wall, definitely a blue wall. And your friend says "What colour is that wall?" and you say "It's red." Now, you know really that it's a blue wall there's no doubt about that. But you feel like you can't be truthful and authentic and real with your friend because he really hates the colour blue. So instead, you pretend, you fake, you say it's red. Your friend doesn't mind, but he might look at you like "huh... what?" but he'll let you go along your day because really, whatever floats your boat. Be real or be fake. Up to you (is what he would think). Just say it. The wall is blue. You are you. Roses are red and violets are blue.

@Leo Gura There's always more to learn and more to be conscious of for the hippocampus. But "enlightenment" is before all that. You already are it all, there's no need to huff and puff to try to reach for something other just seeing that you are the one reaching. I mean look. It would be fun to know but there's nothing that will fill up the illusionary empty hole you keep thinking up when pretending you're somethin else than that which you are..! Think of a child. A child is enlightened until he starts believing he's not- at some point in it's development. This idea will grow and grow into puberty where thoughts are like parasites completely having you convinced of all these beliefs and concepts and what have you... Even though- all that time- it was a sham. You were just in the background so to speak. That never changed, will never change, cannot change. And it is NOW not somewhere else. When you have a doubt about yourself just reset by reminding yourself when it is and who you are. At some point the story in your head will just not be convincing enough anymore. @tecladocasio I had myself belief before that it was complete nonsense.. but what the hell haha... no of course not. Why do people golf? Why do people dance? Why do we do anything right? Hahaha @Nahm Well I just had to laugh at what Shin said, when I read it fist and a little more when I got back to it to quote it. Think about it ;p why stick your head in the ground right? Yeah it's great hmm Yes it feels a little like wanting but with further inspection it reveals itself as being a lack of wanting, which in turn makes for you to be who you are just as you are. You get what I mean? There you go. The thing is you'll convince yourself there's stuff you need to do to be a good person. There's not. That's I guess the hardesr and easiest pill to swallow. @Shin I think this is well put as well. It's like, the thing you want is to be at least the one who really wants what he wants and not pretend to be someone you're not and follow those wants. That's one hell of a weird strategy if you ask me...

@ajasatya Nothing does, it already is. you just gotta stop sticking your head in the ground like an ostrich hahahah