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If you're interested in nonduality, but don't follow an organized religion, how important is the concept of faith to you? I'm curious because for a couple of years I grooved on nonduality, meditating on oneness, and reading about Brahman. I thought I lived in an impersonal universe. Turned out I didn't read far enough ahead. Earlier this year, Ishvara, or just something more akin to infinite intelligence, or a more traditional idea of God has been revealing itself to me. I'm never exactly sure what I'm perceiving, all I really know is that I know nothing, right. But I've been surprised the last few months how resistant, resentful and unsettled I am that an all-powerful and aware transcendent intelligence really has been watching me this whole time (hey God!)... I'm still really resentful about the religious school I attended as a kid, and it's a severe mindfuck that there is something more than just the base, ineffable substrate of the universe. You mean you were watching the whole time? I feel like I'm right back to being a kid, struggling with free will vs fate, and really struggling with humility. The way I feel by default is very resentful about this, but I know that's not very skillful or helpful. I have been paralyzed in terms of returning to the world in much of a meaningful way since discovering nonduality, because I feel like I simply don't know where I stand. It kinda helped my emotional health a little bit, I was severely suicidal, depressed and dysfunctional leading up to that discovery, and since then I've been kinda limping along, thinking maybe one day I would figure out how to motivate myself to do things like socialize, start a business, try to get a job that isn't near minimum wage, but I feel like if there's an intelligence watching me, and I have already befallen the many struggles and crises and just overall complete and utter psychological and spiritual dysfunction I've felt in my life, and that intelligence oversaw all that suffering, I don't have much hope for the future. I literally had more hope when I believed God didn't exist, and I'm kinda not sure how to proceed now. I've just been defaulting to Vipassana meditation and gratitude practice, but it's kinda like once the high vibe wears off after a couple hours, I'm just back in the ego mind, which feels absolutely hopeless, and of course is conditioned to be fearful and is not at all welcoming of the "good news" that I am surrounded by intelligent Love. I seem to be vacillating between being high on meditation and prayer practices that cause me to believe in delusional love and light stuff, then being busted back down to depression sadness when I try to make contact with the world. I am kinda surprised that all these years of trauma recovery and study of spiritual practice and the human psyche have not really afforded me any confidence in the relative world. I'm not really sure how to project my intentions into the world or into the future. I was kinda curious what you consciousness explorers make of the concept of faith, if you're coming from a specifically NON-religious paradigm. I'm kinda thinking this whole nonduality trip was just a cul-de-sac of spiritual masturbation designed to turn an agnostic into a believer, and when I'm filled up with gratitude or samadi, I feel hopeful. But the hunk of meat that makes up my human mind is fucking disgusted and sad, I guess I'd always hoped that the ultimate real truth was something completely different from just... "magical irrational God just arbitrarily fucking with me by teaching me bullshit 'lessons.'" Even after all this meditation I'm struggling to place my faith in that. I guess I was deluding myself with nonduality that maybe I, the little me, was really "it," but it's becoming clear that I'm not. It's not that I thought I was that great, I guess I just thought if I lived in a cold, uncaring universe at least that meant that it really was all my fault, and I could do something about it with my merit, and instead it seems there's forces beyond my control after all, and it makes me feel sad and powerless.

Ultimately everything must be accepted, love, peace, beauty, wonder, fear, damage, death, torture, the stars, sunsets, Nazis, bliss, torment. From the highest possible beauty to the most depraved possible evil. Light, darkness. Purity, evil. Nothing can be rejected. Even separation is included in nonduality. If there is only one thing that has and will ever exist, it is not possible for that thing to not be anything

Well, that's a big mistake. Truth requires understanding. That's not the issue. The issue is lack of consciousness and understanding. Everything that comes and goes is Truth, but there is way more to Awakening and God than that. Don't assume that your guy comprehends God. He's parroting a lot of boilerplate nonduality, which he learned from following some other guy like himself without question, which you will now repeat. And on the chain of human spiritual ignorance goes. God is way more profound and advanced than all that. But I appreciate you sharing this document. It has its place.

I absolutely loved the videos where Leo tackled scientific concepts and mixed them with structural-stage yellow ideas. Quantum Mechanics Debunks Materialism Relativism Leo has mentioned the idea of creating a video on Chaos Theory. Here are some questions that can be explored: What is Chaos? How do mathematicians/scientists/philosophers define it? What is Chaos Theory? Why is it that life feels so chaotic and unpredictable? Why is it that no matter how much we study something, it's never "enough"? E.g. how an economist can spend decades studying economics models, yet make bad predictions again and again on how the inflation/unemployment/GDP will be in the future. Why does the word "chaos" have a bad connotation? Why didn't "God" create a simple universe with few variables? How come no single philosophy or ideology can fully encapsulate the complexity of life? (not even Nonduality) Why is the universe so chaotic? Even outside this tiny planet, even far in the distance into space, there are quasars, black holes, all sorts of strange, complex objects What are the metaphysical implications of Chaos Theory? What epistemological errors do we make when we distinguish "chaos" from "non chaos"? What are useful perspectives we can adopt from it, to grow in life?

So after studying nonduality for a little while, I think I understand god. God is experiencing itself through multiple forms including me right I know that is the cliche but here is what gets me. On the conceptual level, I have cerebral palsy. So did god imagine a limit so I can have a unique view point. I get confused when Leo says I'm imagining my own limits when I have physical limitations. Just wanted to gain some clarity on that thank you.

I followed Nargis back when she was a non dual speaker/coach. She then went onto preaching Pranic Living. Now she changed her name to maryam magdaleina and believes she is Christ Conscious and has all sorts of weird views on how women & men should behave. She also believes bentinho massaro is her twin flame/lover and is interacting with her through energy. She is super defensive and attacks others and is super judgemental now. It's crazy interesting to see her develop from nondual clarity into this. Anyways, I wanted to get your thoughts and comments on this. Related Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/nonduality/comments/17j6sg1/comment/k70ftxk/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

yes, thanks for your reply i will look into it. i feel awaking is very exaggerated, but I am a beginner in spirituality and meditation. i listen, and understand more about nonduality and stuff through Advaita vedant, upnishad-type stuff. i initially got into spirituality after being a nihilist for a long time just to see a new perspective on life.

An issue I've been grappling with for a long time is the bliss vs truth dilemma in spirituality. A lot of people who practice spirituality do it to achieve a happier state, whether they frame it as escaping suffering, having peace of mind, or experiencing divine bliss. But spirituality should be truth-seeking, and when truth is your goal it doesn't matter if you feel blissful, sad, energetic, or slightly despondent. You are searching for what is actually the case, asking what is reality really. When spiritual teachers like Sadhguru say, "Would you rather be blissful or sad? Blissful, yes... isn't it?" and then people inevitably say yes, I can't help but see this as a spiritual deception. To an actual truth seeker, it isn't enough to just pick blissfulness over negativity. Blissfulness, based on our typical drive for experiencing positive emotions, seems better, but does it actually lead to truth? Maybe, maybe not. You can't make that assumption! And I see spiritual people doing this all the time. Then there's an even deeper issue, which is what truth seeking really is. It only takes a little consciousness to see that everything we do is motivated by desire for one thing or another that always circles back to the self, sometimes directly and sometimes more indirectly. If you haven't grasped this notion, contemplate it, and you will see that it's true, similar to how everything in the universe can always be traced back to oneness- nonduality 101. So even searching for truth is just a desire that's ultimately arbitrary and only for the purpose of your own fulfilment. The problem with just going for bliss is that in choosing that path and not knowing whether it leads to truth or not, you're essentially giving into the relativity of your experience and just going with what feels right thinking that everything is relative. And if you are going for bliss, you don't have a guarantee that it will lead to truth- it may be the opposite. So then the spiritual seeker (which is my situation right now) is in a dilemma of wanting to pursue truth but not knowing whether it exists or is just based on desire. Hopefully it was clear what I'm trying to get at. This is an existential quagmire about truth, bliss. and relativity. I'd appreciate any insights people have, especially @Leo Gura as a truth-seeker.

I reject this whole nonduality frame. Serious Consciousness is beyond all that. If you wanna keep swimming around in circles at this plane of consciousness, go ahead. I will not argue with you further.

Because he obviously has a very deep and exceptional level of consciousness. But as I have said, there are many degrees and even different kinds of awakening. I gave him a privileged position back before I had my own intense awakenings in which I realized the limitations in his teachings. It took me 200+ awakenings to deconstruct all the elaborate illusions of nonduality, Buddhism, and self-inquiry. That was when I was saying crazy sounding-shit and people were calling me out as arrogant and delusional. After which point I stopped pushing my views on matters since it becomes counter-productive. Well, I am still saying that there is even deeper consciousness than that. It took me something like 200+ awakenings to break free of all human spirituality and gain total soverienty over my own mind. Until that is achieved the mind will be bogged down by very sneaky human spiritual constructs.

It's is kinda shocking that he didn't understand this sooner. If he listened to me and took some "frog juice" he would have realized it, and stuff even beyond that which is still missing from his teachings. As I said, self-inquiry and contemplation will not be enough to fully awaken. That's the real lesson here. I have underscored this trap that nonduality people commonly make, where they identify Truth/Absolute as formlessness while marginalizing form. And Ralston is still missing that Truth = Love.

most people think that professionals and high level people have some extremely complex understanding of some area of reality...which can often be true, but also...high level masters in any area of life will tell you that the case is often far, far simpler than you actually make it in your mind. Think about nonduality for example, esteemed to be the highest and most powerful and greatest teaching...and yet what it actually teaches is the most basic, simplest thing imaginable: that one thing exists. notice the common ground simplicity and profundity share at times. in practical, every day life, dont try to be more skilled than you are. you do better to admit that you know nothing and start at level 1 again but correctly and just learn the basics. dont overcomplicate it, as this is often the source of confusion. I took leos entire life purpose course just to realise that what i wanted to do was starring me in the face since i was a teenager. be mindful that things that are blindingly obvious, can sometimes be missed on account of the fact that they are the only thing there (theres nothing to contrast them against) like this image...somewhere in this image there is a wall, study the image carefully until you have a breakthrough and see the wall:

Working with 5meo takes time, like at least 10-20 times to see the glimpse of nonduality and integrating it. You are good, meditation is good prior 5meo, it helps one to not freak out much Personally I started with 5meo alone, nasal And i continued to explore it on my own in rectal, it's been 81 times now

I have not been active in the forum for quite some time, but just wanted to drop by and share my experience. For +12 years I have been searching for SOMETHING missing, something not quite clicking, and explanation into why I find life so difficult and full of suffering. I made a huge bet into nonduality and was 100% convinced all my problems can be boiled down to ego related integration issues and lack of seeing clearly in metaphysical terms. I even achieved a few incredible transcendent experiences along the way, but they of course were short lived and ultimately did not help me. Eventually through taking time of and travelling for 6 months in nepal and india, giving me time to reflect and really look into my experience and connect the dots I realised: I’m a high masking/low support needs AuDHD (mix of autism and adhd) I wont do an exhaustive explanation on the aspects of what my life has looked like in the past, but I can tell you that EVERYTHING makes sense now. I really have so few questions left to ask. Only thing left is to try my best o align my life according to my fixation/special interest (electronic music and sound design) and thats pretty much it, my life is done. I will eventually get back to nonduality seeiously again (because of course there is an infinity yet unrealised) but right now embrasing my fixation gives me way more joy than the metaphysical. Its quite overwhelming (and sad at the same time, as I must embrace that my life will forever will be quite difficult in day to day basis). But im not looking for a fix/medicine anymore, there never was an illness or really a problem or fault, its just me. The amount of relief is incredible, i feel like bursting to tears all the time. The more i research the more seamless and fully explanatory everything is. Holy FUCK folks! All the best guis, good luck out there <3

Insights seemingly appear almost everyday. Most are not very important. And about beliefs and such. Or trying to untangle from beliefs. I mean on psychedelics "experienced" so much weird stuff (mostly visions) jesus, hindu, space, hell, god, enlightenment etc. stuff but it’s hard to grasp so i don’t know how important it is. Getting addicted to nonduality talks it resonated that there’s no one and no free will/doer. But i also don’t know if that’s important. If there’s no one how can anything be important? Important to whom? How can anything be more important than anything else if let’s say all is kind of one.

This is a different type of AMA - Answer Me Anything Is Oneness or Not-twoness the better pointer to the Truth? Or perhaps some other term or thing or event is better pointer. Seeking the greatest pointer. 👉 Perhaps also, why? But you can just tell me which one and not explain why if you dont want to.

@Carl-Richard it's a waste of time arguing with Razard86. He just can't be wrong . Can there be two infinities? In math classes in high-school..did you study that infinity +infinity =infinity ? And infinity × infinity = infinity ? What is oneness ? What is nonduality ? What does it mean to say reality is made of the same substance? Is the thing that is aware of this present moment within me different from the thing that is present within you ?

There's also the opposite effect, thrashing around like an animal in the cage of your mind when you realize that's the only thing there is. Being 'somewhere' isn't quite the end of nonduality, more like a dissociative hole.

The Awareness, of being always aware of the nonduality at all times, that cannot be manifested or brought about directly, it has to be the residual result or consequence of setting up the "playing field" per say, you set the atmosphere up in your own system so that Awareness is naturally arising, for eg if You truly Realize we are all one, individual Bodies and Minds yes, but that is not what we are, in what we are we are all One, if that is truly realized then Awareness comes naturally..Once that is in place, no War is possible...

Why does practically no one care about the intersection between physics and spirituality? Leo, of course, has a very well prepared answer to this. The answer is that the modern scientific establishment, which is a giant mass of self validating authority, cannot move beyond its materialist paradigm and start to consider the importance of the observer as part of the physical systems they are studying. (Someone correct me if I didn't get this right). The trouble for me is that even given this explanation, there are no "wackos", no "fringe" or "pseudo" scientist, no internet conspiracy theorists, NO ONE who have both a deep understanding of spirituality and physics, and also have a humble respect for truth and epistemology. Of course, you have to exert zero effort to find someone who claims to be studying, or has found some theory of everything which ties together biology, consciousness, the standard model, GR, and God into one self consistent theory with a nice little bow on top. Whenever I find someone with this type of claim though, the theory will be either utter speculation (neither based on direct experience nor experimental observations), supper narrow in scope (for example, a mathematical framework to tie together QFT and GR), or a leap from some physical phenomenon to consciousness with absolutely no logic or critical thinking in between (for example, Roger Penrose positing that consciousness arises from quantum effects in the brain. Anyone who has perused spirituality deeply will know that this is definitely wrong, because consciousness does not arise from physical phenomena but instead is responsible for those phenomena. Penrose is about as academic establishment scientist as you can get though). So like, can we please find one person who for example: 1. Knows that they are god, and all of reality is part of their mind. In other words they have discovered absolute truth. 2. Understands the mathematics and logic behind physical theories like general relativity and quantum field theory. 3. Seeks to use their understanding of these two fields to build a cohesive model of the universe. Starting from the one absolute truth and from there deriving all the relative truths that we know and love today. I mean, this is definitely a big ask, but at the same time you would expect to see a couple people working on this. In reality though, there are NONE. I think someone might be able to to point out a couple contenders for people trying to work on this, such as Christopher Lanigan or maybe Joseph Campbell. But their theories are unsatisfactory to me. So I'm going to try to be as clear as possible as to what I'm looking for: I want an explanation of everything, nothing less. I want someone to be able to take the unopinionated ground truth of all of reality, which is nonduality, god, consciousness itself, or whatever you want to call it. I want the theory to start from 0. From nothing. From the point of total nothingness and ending in the exact nature of the reality which we see before our eyes today. A theory like this would be totally logical and be based on subjective experience of absolute truth at the most basic level. From this point, I want to be able to describe the nature of our conscious experience, and the objective reality which we seem to be experiencing living in. I want U(1)xSU(2)xSU(3) symmetry to be explained, and I want every physical phenomenon in the whole universe to be able to be explained. I don't really see anyone who has a really good understanding of the foundations of physics right now and at the same time has a really good understand of consciousness and absolute truth. Personally, I have what I would consider a surface level understanding of both of these things. I'm working on it myself, but I don't see anyone else who I would consider to be like me. I have spent some time at a Buddhist monastery so far, and I have bachelors in mathematics and physics, but I have waaay more work to do before I really even know the exact questions to ask. Anyway, all the theoretical physicists today are materialists and if they are talking about consciousness it's because they want to be trendy, but really they have no idea what they are talking about once they get away from physics. All mystics I know of who know about direct experience of absolute truth seem to not really care about physics, or have a very lazy understanding of it. So yeah this was just a rant let me know what you think.

I really like the back and forth of whether or not he loves "war" when he claims to want peace. Peace would require consciously knowing "every individual is only a version of you", and as we all know, fully consciously being aware of nonduality at all times is not exactly easy. Therefore, even if you do claim to want peace, it really will always be a surface level understanding of it. Being in duality will always technically mean being in love of war since others are separate from you, whether or not you like it.

I remember Leo talking about how meditation and nonduality is not awakening. But I am wondering if this is one of the 10% of the false teachings? I mean think about it, what is the alternative? Just scrolling on TikTok and YouTube!!? That will never get you awake. Or is the alternative to plug DMT every day? That's not realistic either. What I have come to conclusion of is that meditation is all about increasing your awareness to the actuality of reality. You can take all the DMT you want, but if you aren't grounded in the actuality of the present moment, no amount of psychedelics will awaken you. There are plenty of people who take psychedelics more than me and maybe more than Leo but who are not awake. I think maybe Leo made a nuanced point in that no method is the awakening in the same way that the map is not the territory. Meditation is not awakening. Psychedelics is not a awakening. Contemplation is not awakening. Because all of these are activities and is not the same as state. It is confusing doing with being. Awakening is a state of BEING in which certain things that you can DO may bring about that state of BEING/REALIZATION. But the activities of meditation and psychedelics are not realization/being themselves. I think this may be the point he was making. I don't think Leo is discouraging people from meditating, but rather he is challenging people who are engaging in meditation filled with human Buddhist ideological nonsense. I get it. Chanting the Hare Krishna mantra over and over again probably won't get you to awakening. Awakening is too profound for such a simple dumb method like chanting Hare Krishna (no offense). There can be many deluded methods of meditation and psychedelics (i.e., such as chanting a religious mantra). But there can be more profound ways of meditation that can bring about mystical experiences and maybe even enlightenment. But the effectiveness of such a method would vary across different individuals. I am convinced though that there is no awakening/enlightenment without serious contemplation. You can quiet your mind, but if you don't know how to use your mind to think in nuanced ways, to avoid bias, then how could you be awake? How can you be awake if you would still vote for Trump and hold a lot of deluded stuff in your mind? So my point is that the method is not awakening, but this does not mean to stop meditating. It means to examine closely what you are doing and to make sure that you are meditating in ways that actually transform your consciousness. There may be limits on what meditation can do for some people, but what is the alternative? We just gonna scroll on social media!? No! We still engage in meditation and contemplation, but we aim to improve at it little by little. Meditation may not lead to the deepest levels of reality, but it is a practice that will transform your life for the better if done correctly. Meditation is a better alternative than chasing after money, fame, sex even if it doesn't ultimately lead to the highest levels. But that is still a big question mark of whether meditation can lead to the deepest levels or not. I think it all depends on how effective you are. You cannot be effective if your mind still clings to Buddhist, Spiritual nondual beliefs/ideology. If one thing Buddhism teaches you, it is that clinging is the root of all ignorance/suffering. Buddhism taken to the extreme deconstructs itself.

Its not duality, but its also not solipsism. Its nonduality. Its only duality if you still take awareness for an object, if you are awareness on intellectual level. Awareness is merged with all, no separation, no duality. A way I like to put it, awareness is nothing but is real, objects are something, but illusory. Something that is illusory really is nothing, in another aggregate form, if you think about it. Ice is water.

@Da77en It does not depend on what response you are getting on a specific topic such as Non-duality, Reality, or Truth but how much deeper you want to go into it. It will require work from you and whoever comes on this forum to search for it. Lately, nonduality has become a buzz word & everybody has their own POV. 99% of this view expressed anywhere on the internet is still a trap within the minds of people who are expressing it. How passionate are you about knowing the truth, and what are you bringing to the plate to know it? Otherwise, it will not take time for you to become a parrot as well. (99%, I have mentioned above.) For me, the eagerness when I have faced this question is to keep my life on the front line and be ready to die (if required) to know the reality. Even if you take the most powerful psychedelic on earth and are not ready to integrate the learning, deconstruct your mind, etc. You will end up with the majority facing mental issues triggered by it. Some rules to go forward (you can add your own) : - For a specific topic on this forum go to Google and search for a specific topic for example - site:https://www.actualized.org/forum/ "awareness". You can do this with any specific site. This will cut down your search to a minimum number you put. Now go and see the old topics on this forum or other sites. You will find some very good explanations on the topic you are searching for. Here is the link to get into a basic search on YT. There are many videos on the same topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzhbYoSZix4 - If you have started a topic and say for example 4 people have replied to it. Most probably out of 4. Only 1 or 2 people replies which resonate with you. You have to engage with them (elaborate on your query etc). It's ok if you are not engaging with 100 which doesn't answer your query. Other than this my POV here (Which may not be of yours or others) : You never arrive on this search. It keeps showing you new levels of understanding, and experience. The only thing you have to do is to keep yourself humble and surrender to it. Also, this journey is not for everybody (This is my POV) because it may land you with a nervous breakdown or mental illness. It is so direct that no thoughts or complex wording can define it. If you didn't find an answer here go somewhere else and search it. Never ever get discouraged because you are a unique POV out of approximately 8 billion Humans POV right now on Earth and an infinite alien POV out there.

The most Genius ones for me in no particular order: Leo Gura, Angelo DiLulo, Bentinho Massaro, Josh ("So awake" yt channel), Suzanne Chang (Suzanne Nonduality), Roger Thisdell