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it's hard to say. I think it's mostly a very relative matter. You have people who are more enlightened and people who are less enlightened. I have heard of the "ultimate liberation" though, which would imply that no other rebirth is necessary. Going along with this presupposition, I would guess that these extremely high degrees of consciousness for earthly standards are incredibly rare, probably not more than a handful of people alive right now, and maybe less. I for instance don't feel like people like Eckhart Tolle or Sadhguru have attained to the ultimate, final liberation. Just a relatively high state of consciousness. I feel like someone like Osho did. Those kind of people are incredibly rare. But in between your average Joe and the most enlightened avatar you could imagine, there is an incredible wide spectrum of how conscious and awakened people are. That's my take on it. These are just guesses though, so don't take my word on it.

I think the number of people who believe they are enlightened is significantly higher than the number who actually are. I'd almost wager that none of us are enlightened, even those who we hold as enlightened masters. There are people who have awakened to something deeper, but I'm not convinced anyone has truly attained enlightenment yet.

and that face when he talks about the awakened baby ?? hahahaha I love his humor, gets me every time... cause it's true he reads me like a newspaper I feel like his videos always appear at exactly the right moment for me <3 yeah, I hope so

The construct of “me” is within a more expansive consciousness. The term “awakening” suggests a “before” and “after” awakening. This an an imaginary door within a timeline. It can be useful at the personal level, yet it would be more accurate to simply say there is awakeness, rather than “I have awakened”. I think taking one step back from the personality and simply saying “There is ISness” can be helpful at the personal level since it removes personal attachment and identification.

you can’t be witness of your own victory, of awakening, right? Then how can you say that you are awakened or absolute-realised if there’s no one to say it?

I was browsing the holybooks.com webpage and came across a book called The Zen of Love. It was as if a light bulb lit inside of me - this was the next book I had to read. In the very beginning, the author suggested that we don't only read the book with our minds, but with our entire beings. That we feel the book. I really took his words to heart, and don't know so much what the content of the book was (word wise), but I know very well what it felt like. It felt wonderful. Sometimes we say that a book can resonate with us. I really understood what that means while reading this book. Just a sentence, a word, or really just a glance at the book would send waves of energy rushing through my system, making me blissful and quiet. I am not saying that everyone will experience that with this particular book, but I sure did. It resonated. This book is about Love. The author describes his personal experience, life story and keeps pointing us to the reality, which is - Love is all there is, Love is what we are. This book was quite a trip. It showed me that the others are actually me. It showed me that it was actually me who wrote the book. It showed me that it is me that never ends. It showed me Love. It allowed my heart to open up after a long time of being asleep. And the heart is very happy. It is happy to Love. And so is the heart of everyone I meet, as it is the same heart. =================================================================== Title: The Zen of Love: Discover Your Own Awakened Heart Author: Peter Cutler Number of pages: 209 https://www.holybooks.com/the-zen-of-love/

this is amazing film. it has english subs. i think u should watch it, its based on book about dude who became awakened

no one cares about our suffering , thats the thing no one cares about ur life in general ego wants to think that there is someone up there who loves it and cares for it its just ego's desire to be saved, in truth, no one gives a shit, u r just a biorobot without any significance, u have no more significance than a bug. if bug is suffering, who gives a shit? its just biorobot of a bug having discomfort. it exists for no reason in total darkness. so do you. if u r not awakened and live in darkness, who cares? no one. even u dont care about that really. u can live in dream state forever and still not care. no one cares if u live in darkness or in light. no one loves u, no one needs u, u dont even need urself, u dont even care about urself or care about anything really, u r just a biorobot.

@David Hammond Hi Friend Note to Mods: this is a friendly discussion - not an argument. "Enlightenment is also a process if you look at it from a different way. It's called the noble path. I speak of that a lot. But as far as being nothingness having an ego as opposed to being an ego with a memorable non dual experience, the difference is permanent enlightenment and intellectual understanding. Bodhi is intellect, and in a Buddah the bodhi is also awakened. That's because intellect is needed in being able to see through what causes separation. Without the development of bodhi you are basically pissing in the wind with your practice because you cannot get to permanent realization without understanding the steps. And that requires practice. " Basically our views are the same here - we're just speaking it in different words. You are referencing Buddhism, and I am not referencing a particular religion. Bodhi is consciousness. With Spiritual practice, time, experience, you gain Wisdom. Wisdom comes with an increase in consciousness. The buddhist's concept of permanent enlightenment is the same as mine. After a mystical experience, you become much more conscious, because you have tapped into the consciousness of the Universe, which is your true self. I believe Buddhism speaks of the no self in certain sects and this basically means that small self is an illusion, and in truth there is only the large self, consciousness. After a mystical experience in which you become conscious of the Truth, and in my case I became conscious of all facets, your intellect is awoken. The Bodhi is awakened, in other words..it's the same thing. I have tapped into Infinite Intelligence. So at this point you are permanently awake, as you are viewing the world thru a non-dual lens. You're back as the small self, but forever changed, and Awoke - conscious. (we can drop the whole word Ego if it makes you uncomfortable). Buddhism is very aligned with the Idealist Paradigm - which I subscribe to after my Awakening. It means that consciousness is not happening inside a brain, but the brain, and the "ego" as people call it, is happening within consciousness. Consciousness is equal to Absolute Infinity. This is formless, and contains absolutely everything, which has to include nothing. Therefore it is groundless. So you can think of reality as a Giant mind, and within that mind is the idea of you and me. So we agree that the ego is an idea. The term Enlightenment is relative - it has to be - because reality is an Absolute Relativity. There is no objective world out there. Where I believe someone is Enlightened after they have a non-dual experience - or in Buddhism the NO self. Becoming pure consciousness and becoming conscious of what is really going here. That's what happened to me. I think what you are trying to say is that you do not need a mystical experience to become enlightened according to your definition of enlightenment - which is Awakening of the Intellect. If that's the case yes you can raise consciousness without a mystical experience, but it's not quite the same thing. I believe you need to incorporate both in order to be fully Awake. Also notice the memory of the becoming the Absolute is not the same as Becoming the Absolute. It's a memory, something completely different. So don't confuse the map with the territory. But then once permanently enlightened as you like to say, you can embody Truth in your everyday life, and everything including suffering, which is the topic of this post, becomes effortless because you have complete and full acceptance and understanding of it.

@Inliytened1Hi my friend. @cetus56 please let me address this because I think it will be useful? You say your ego has to die for you to wake up to yourself, right? That is the case for either drug experiences or not having enough training in states - which you can earn from a recognized dzogchen lineage holder, or someone respectable in adwiata or a real enlightened one man band (very very hard to find, you won't find it on youtube). State training which I am talking about is how the Buddah became enlightened. That's a story given to us from the Buddhist science of enlightenment and the Buddahs realization is a science that can be practiced and eventually nirvana can be attained. Permanent enlightenment. Enlightenment is also a process if you look at it from a different way. It's called the noble path. I speak of that a lot. But as far as being nothingness having an ego as opposed to being an ego with a memorable non dual experience, the difference is permanent enlightenment and intellectual understanding. Bodhi is intellect, and in a Buddah the bodhi is also awakened. That's because intellect is needed in being able to see through what causes separation. Without the development of bodhi you are basically pissing in the wind with your practice because you cannot get to permanent realization without understanding the steps. And that requires practice. Nothingness or God is reality, but experience tells us that you and I as nothingness is an ego inside a body and the evidence of this is sensation tied to belief. That belief and sensation never goes away. And you don't want it to go away either. Because being nothingness is not what you want because you will just be a mess. I had a discussion on here about ramana maharshi and i said that ramana was a mess. He wasn't trained by a swami, he just woke up and let his body be eaten by rodents and didn't care. That's why he got arthritis in his hips? Who knows? But there are certain consequences you pay for ignoring samsara. But the belief and sensation can be seen directly for what they are if you are already disidsntifed from the body and mind as the witness. Once you are the witness all you need to do is put attention on the sensation of boundary between body and world and eventually the boundary will collapse and you will wake up from the dream as the universe. But for the witness already not identified with body and mind it's a very small step from being formless witnessing presence realizing that this presence is not local. It's everything. So no ego death required. Just skill and understanding. That's what this meditation practice will do for you. If you feel you are dying then you are still the body or mind. When you say you're enlightened I know you are not because you have not done the work to understand all of these stages of meditation states. No hard feelings and I'm not saying you didn't have a bona fide experience either. I don't know. But what i do know is that you speak from ego as if it is real. When you speak as nothiness having an ego then you can be called a master of the work.

@David Hammond It was a joke....just that fact that you asked "Whats wrong with Boasting" shows me that you are not Awakened and have no idea what you are talking about. But it's not worth my time honestly. I just hope no one buys into your BS.

There is no God in Buddhism. So you're essoetially saying that the Buddah wasn't enlightened. Because he never spoke of a God. But I know what you mean by "God" but Buddah awakened to emptiness..

It also took the Buddah 4 years. 4 years to master the technique of strong determination. Vipassana. Whatever you want to call it, that's the method the awakened one used. Your thinking that a newbie can just watch the breath for 48 minutes without thinking one thought. That's silly.

What is spilling/flowing out of Sadhguru is choiceless love, the divine love of the Absolute, not a personal love. It's the unconditional love of That, that is mistaken as love coming from an individual/person. When the divine awakened, the illusion of individuality was lost and union with the Absolute, is the SadhGuru. He's not the form,person or individual, and that's the trap devotees fall into. They are identified with the form that is only a conduit for the divine formless that is manifesting through it. Love is it's nature, and that love is trying to show them that,that is what they are also. Guru means 'dispeller of darkness" and all a real guru does is try to get you to realize/see that, that divine nature is what you are also. Once that happens, you see the real guru beyond the physical form for the first time and you see what he really is and subsequently, what you are also. The guru's job is to draw you in, and once you're drawn in, he throws you back into yourself. Then he disappears. His job is done. If you watch this clip, notice how Sadhguru, through questioning and an articulate use of direct and simple language, is used to bypass too much intellectualizing by the listener. Through questioning he's getting you, or trying to get you to stop for a second and look into yourself (throwing you back into yourself),to see if it is true and not just blindly accepting or taking for granted what he's saying. Experientially seeing what is true, and not accumulating more useless knowledge.

Is normal, because you awakened the limbic system and is atrophied. Now is time for healing and meditation. It is a very tough path to awaken the entire reptilian/limbic parts of the body. Because those parts are interconnected with everything in the universe and the drama is huge, because real awakening is beyond own drama, is experiencing all the drama and bliss of reallity. Being the reason so few people awaken.

There's a really powerful collective energy that comes from having a crowd of people with one intention. That's the reason some people love going to concerts so much. It's easy to tap into energy from an awakened person and if you do it enough you get better at it. You can even do it through videos and recordings. It's a great tool. I'm guessing it's even more powerful in person.

So wrong. Being is easy after awakening the limbic system. Before that is more difficult than optaining a PhD, so let's be real for once. This awakening stuff has nothing to do woth the mind and self inquiry. But if you talk from the right side of the being, than being is easy, those who have been awakened in the Ego side, Leo per example, or Maynor, with certain discipline being is a piece of cake, but this is only the mind. Peace!

There is no perfect word to use, yet I prefer to use the term "prior" than beyond because the human mind is highly conditioned to think and perceive within the construct of a timeline. For me, it's more straightforward to ask "what is *prior* to conceptualizing". Tons of stuff. In the construct of a timeline, conceptualization would "enter" near the end of the movie. Yet, this of course is trying to explain within a timeline. Within the dimension of Now, it becomes much much harder to explain since the human mind is not conditioned or oriented in this dimension. When it speaks of "now", it is actually referring to a "now" within a timeline. To me, those are very deep "levels" of consciousness. Yet I would say, there is still a "prior" so to speak. What you have written and what I have written (and am writing now) is an appearance within a mind. As much as my mind tries to go "prior" or "beyond", it cannot. In the end, such efforts could be seen as a waste of time or as a fun part of the human experience. For me, it depends on the mood of my mind-body. . . As soon as there is an appearance in the mind, it is a "somewhere". It is no longer "nowhere". Even a thought about "nowhere" is a "somewhere". Even ideas/images that there is "nowhere" beyond/prior to "somewhere" is a "somewhere". Any memory, image, feeling, essence, whatever is a "somewhere". Right now, I am "somewhere". For me, this is an extremely subltle attachment/identification. . . This subtle attachment/identification is not at the personal or egoic level, it is at the human level. This attachment/identification to humanness is apparent when I communicate with an awakened tree. What is communicated via an awakened tree is not what is communicate via an awakened human. What I am learning is that there is transcendence of humanness. All of this talk/experience of enlightenment, nonduality, awareness, consciousness, beyond, prior etc. is all within the realm of humanness. It goes through a human filter. One word or image is too much. Yet it is also part of humanness. Such explorations can be considered a waste of time or a fun part of the human experience. Imagine the word "Gintolfid" appeared. Please explain to me the essence of "Gintolfid". One could say it's silly to try and define/describe/explore the essence of "Gintolfid". Yet that is what many human minds like to do. So we can spend hours, days, weeks or years exploring the essence of "Gintolfid". We can go on retreats, read spiritual literature, take psychedelics, watch nonduality videos. We can spend thousands of hours meditating and contemplating the essence of "Gintolfid". We could also spend thousands of hours describing the essence of "non-Gintolfid". We could learn and experience an enormous amount. Yet at the end of the day, we are not any closer to the essence of "Gintolfid" because there is no essence to "Gintolfid". It is Nothing. It is Nowhere. There is Nothing to find and Nowhere to go. The journey is the destination. Yet the journey goes on. We can spend our time searching for "Gintolfid" or search for that which is beyond "Gintolfid" or prior to "Gintolfid". Or we can do something else - like learn how to communicate about the essence of "Lanhiblik" with a tree. Ultimately it doesn't matter, yet at the human level, it matters a lot.

@zeroISinfinity the higher your consciousness the less the devil. The devil is a low conscious Ego. Pure consciousness is God. High conscious awakened Individual is an angel.

@Key Elements i brought up that very point in my post on 2nd phase of awakening in which Leo failed to respond. Check that post out. The concept of multiple awakenings in an effort to find "permanent" awakening doesn't exist. I.e. permanent awakening doesn't exist. Once you have a non-dual experience you are Awakened.

@Shaun your right about that its both terrifying and beautiful at the same time. But just the fact that you are saying this means your Ego is strong enough to come back after a non-dual experience. So do not get lost in that and miss out on unimaginable bliss. Bliss that will change your life forever. The Ego backlash will be severe but even if you experience it just once in your life you will never be the same. You will be Awakened.

They could mean they awakened to something, don't confuse it with non-dual enlightenment.

Like in the Hero's Journey or The 10 Ox-Herding Pictures, the Hero or the awakened one always returns to where he began. This is why I considered enlightenment as a part of the game. I can see now how it isn't a part of the game but also isn't separate from it.

Here is my definition: "regular" person: lives in distinctions and concepts. World is taken quite literally as a puzzle of words and ideas of reality. Interconnections of different distinctions coupled with ones own biases and survival needs create ideologies of the world, that are seen as real as reality itself. Rape and murder are just plain WRONG and that the end of it, it is obvious isnt it. Highly dualistic, black and white thinking is trademark of the "regular" person. Awakened person: transcends and includes distinctions and concepts. Concepts and ideas are now seen as they are: a description, a point of view, but not as reality itself. Ideas are a legitimate part of oneness, but they do not overshadow being itself like the previously did. Duality is non-duality and vice versa, all issues and problems collapse and all the capital versions of dualisms (see leos recent duality series) step into foreground of experience. Ideas are included and integrated and seen as they are. Insane/psychosis person: gets lost in distinctions and concepts. Insane person draws connections and meaning out of his own ideas that others dont experience. These connections and meanings take a hold of a persons life and mentality in a disruptive way. A person is no longer able to tell wich of his fantasies and ideas are real and wich are not: they all blend together into his experience. Meaning and the further meanings of different meanings are not seen as a mental construct, meanings create real tangible physical features of reality. The experience of the phone ringing MEANS that secret agents are watching. There need not be any evidence, first hand experience of agents themselves to prove they are real, meanings of different things that are experienced first hand create a reality for them. For the regular person the fact that the phone rang means that someone is calling and the phone rings, both are equally real and tangible, the caller is not an idea but a real physical part of reality. There is no further meaning drawn from either of the "facts", but the idea of the caller enforces the bundle of ideas and unconscious delusions that create the ego illusion: me and not-me. The delusion is there, but it goes by without noticing, it does nor grip the "experiencers" experience in a disruptive way. For the awakened person the fact that the phone rang means that someone is calling AND that the ringing is simply experienced, as it did and there is no other reality to it. The ringing is real and the person calling is an idea. This is a very brief overall explanation that includes non-dual understanding. Im not going to go into the Leo Guraisms of this topic (such as the fact we all more or less believe a voice in our "heads" that tells us stuff), but I encourage you to contemplate the dualism of insane vs not insane. Psychosis and madness are very complex phenomenon though, and there is much more to them that I could blabber on here. Highly recommended read, one of the most comprehensive and stage yellow books I've read:

@NorthRise First of all, just because Leo has dedicated "his entire life to self-actualization" doesn't mean he's on the right path. He can be very well in a dead-end and delusional. Just the fact that he frequently demonizes the ego is a sign that he's not as advanced in the path as he thinks he is. He speaks as if he's an authority, but true master are orders of magnitude more humble than he is. For example, when he talks about the illusion of the self, he's very unnecessarily intrusive by pointing his finger to the viewer and saying, "YOU, exactly YOU, do not exist." Furthermore, he also gives very dangerous advice such as "spend two days not talking to anyone, but doing 4 hours of meditation." The way he glorifies psychedelics is also irresponsible. I am not against psychedelics, but it works only for a limited number of people. The fact that he isn't able to pull off a solo retreat without psychedelics is a big red-flag to me. Well, to be fair, he didn't use psychedelics in his first one. But it was disastrous. Then, in the other two, he obviously used them and thought he was awakened af. He also doesn't value personal relationships enough, which is something that Abraham Maslow himself said was one of the needs in the pyramid. Regarding his social skills, you can tell very easily by watching him talk that he's a very tensed-up guy. Tension blocks the flow of a conversation. No wonder why he very rarely does interviews. And I highly doubt he's going to make that USA tour happen. The "Enlightenment Happening in Real Time" video shows how out of touch with reality he is. If he had good social skills, he wouldn't even consider doing that. It's really cringey. I am very aware about the topics Joe Rogan talks about. I'm just saying that Leo rambling about non-duality won't make the podcast interesting.