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After some deliberation, I've decided to lock this thread because it's becoming a distraction. Whether UFOs are real or not is too off-topic for this sub-forum. Yes, openmindedness is important, but that has to be balanced with focus. UFOs are a very controversial subject which will just cause pointless debating without really helping people grow. I personally have nothing against UFOs. I'm open to them existing, and I'm open to discussions about them, but just not here. It turns a lot of people off from spirituality. Yes, this is a subjective judgment call. It's not a black and white case. But I don't want Actualized.org to develop a reputation of UFO-ology and things like that. I'd like to stick more closely to traditional nonduality. I many ways, it's a matter of style. Different people will resonate with different styles of spirituality. Maybe this policy will change after I personally meet a UFO and discover its personal growth potential, but until then, let's cut the UFO talk here. This doesn't mean I am denying UFOs exist. It simply means they are off-topic in this sub-forum in the same way that talking about military history or knitting might be.

@egoless Well you can say the same about enlightenment. There is no "enlightenment". This is where language collapses. Every philosophical perspective has 1 magical "foundation". The magical "foundation" of "enlightenment/nonduality" is the "NOW/being/happening/awareness" itself. It's the recognition that existence is mysteriously and bizarrely just happening, without needing a justification. The magical foundation of the thought process is a brain in a universe, because of a big bang out of nothing, etc. But the magical foundation of "nonduality" is so directly in your face that it doesn't need the reasoning of the other metaphysical magical foundations. The magical foundation is self evident

@2000 nonduality

@Will Bigger You are underestimating the power of consciousness. It can literally dream up any kind of reality is wants. You are confusing perception with consciousness. Idealism is just another name for nonduality. Psychedelics would quickly show you this.

What enlightened teachers out there you think are the most profound and best at understanding nonduality?

No, not right now. Short on time. But I plan to start one in the future. I like Kriya yoga, but I'm no expert on yoga. Not a big priority in my life. Not really. That would be something which would require dedicated work which isn't high on my list of priorities. I would keep the practices separate. Law of Attraction is still good and important if you want to sculpt your mind and succeed in life. Nope I would probably get upset. But I would also come to understand why it must be so, and that would take some of the edge off. 6) Not much. That's an area I require much more work in. 7) Closer to my own age. 8) Depends on how you define "place". In the US I've lived in 4 different states. 9) No, but I own a sharp ninja sword. All trespassers will be sliced Try to treat the situation casually. Go answer the door if you must and then return back to your meditation like nothing happened. No, I don't have much doubt any more. Seen too much at this point. But of course I'm always open to being proven wrong in the future. If that happens, I will be open to it and report my discoveries and errors back to you guys. 1) Dying prematurely, before I fulfill my mission. 2) Morrowind Because for now my focus has been on building Actualized.org rather than going balls-to-the-wall on myself. My diets fluctuates a lot. These days I eat more meat because I don't find it very sustainable to only eat plants. I basically starve to death that way because I don't eat any wheat or dairy products. Healing is quite a common ability actually. There are many legit healers around. Which is not to say there aren't frauds on TV. I real healer probably wouldn't be showing off on TV. Apply everything you learn and use your consciousness to help elevate the world. I don't know for sure. Probably in the 300-range. Of course that excludes all the books I read in school and college. I'm talking post-college. Good books on epistemology are quite rare. My understanding of epistemology largely comes from years of my own personal contemplations, not books. Although I will be adding some more epistemology books to my book list in the future as I'm doing a lot of research into it right now. Yes, one. All fears are the same. You must face them head on or they will enslave you. Either way will work. Some yoga and walking meditation is healthy I think. Too much sitting isn't good for the body. You should watch my video: Meditation Technique: Do Nothing "Do Nothing" is a very specific technique. A few points about this: Yes, that's sorta my style. I like to be a bit abrasive and confrontational. I also do that because it amuses me. When I speak, it's like I'm acting in a play, or like I'm doing standup comedy. The fact is that most of the things I say are so obvious that they should be common practice. So some outrage is warranted. It would be dishonest to speak about such things nonchalantly. Society is a chimp circus, and it needs to be called out for it. In this way, I'm sort of channeling George Carlin when I speak. It's a bit over-the-top on purpose. Of course my ego is still intact, so it must show through in my work. That cannot be avoided. All enlightenment teachings are misleading, by definition, regardless of style. I find "modest" styles and teachers to be extremely misleading, even if they are very enlightened. I speak to a very broad general audience on Youtube where most people have no idea what enlightenment is, nor are they serious about pursuing it. So my style is aimed at getting them interested. That's a very different challenge than what someone like Peter is doing. Peter is only teaching small handfuls of extremely hardcore students. I teach A LOT more stuff than Peter or your typical nonduality teacher. I talk about lots of pragmatic things which have nothing to do with enlightenment. The aims of my teachings are more ambitious. A lot more territory must be covered to assemble THE BIG PICTURE which no nondual teacher gives you. My communication style will evolve and improve in the future as I become more conscious and authentic. I always tell you guys to think for yourselves and to don't believe me. My videos are already long, and I'm tired of saying it. It should be obvious that all my words are merely words. Comparing me with Peter is rather unfair. You can compare me to him when I'm 65 years old. Wheat is just empty calories and is hard for your body to digest. Without eating wheat, it is almost impossible to become fat. What's wrong is that reality is immaterial. I like having one girl who I like. I don't think polyamory is healthy or sustainable. Nope. Sometimes in early 2018, hopefully. Beans, no. I have tried, but nuts make me feel nauseous. They are too rich for me so I avoid them. ??? If you want that, you should be the one telling me. I want to make an entire course about it. Too much hassle. It takes dozens of hours to prepare things like that. Yeah, we'll get to it at some point. It's not an easy topic to cover meaningfully in 1 video.

Leo in his new motivational video talks about the importancy of extreme ownership over your life. Becoming independent from the society, surviving, starting up your own business. But I don’t understand why Leo generalizes it so much. I’ve seen people loosing their houses and all money because of unsuccessful passionate business they started. Yes reward is amazing if you are successful but sometimes the risk is higher imho. On contrary I know some people in Finance working in huge corporations with good salary and they are enjoying their life at the fullest. @Leo Gura Yes, you can keep repeating that in the end they are delusional and we are having better piece of cake here but reality is reality. These people live at the fullest. They work hard in their corporations even if they dislike the job sometimes. But due to financial stability they are free to experience whatever cones on their mind in their free time. The way you and some other people generalize about 9-5 jobs is way too extreme and I don’t agree. Everyone is different. Plus if everything is divine in the nonduality then why do you make entrepreneurship more divine?

@Shroomdoctor Yea me neither, but from time to time the nostalgia gets me. Do you know Käptn Peng? He frequently adresses topics like nonduality and "true self" in his songs.

You are right...nonduality is not a container and it is important not to get trapped up in thoughts. Also, dualities are created by thoughts. No thoughts, no dualities. I would agree. Duality is a fiction of the mind. We are not living in duality...it has always been nonduality. The idea that nonduality includes duality, in a way, gives legitimacy and reality to duality. However, one sees duality because of ignorance and illusion. It never was real...just as a rabbit being pulled from a hat is not real...but it exists as an illusion. So duality, as an illusion, exists within nonduality. There is only the appearance of duality (apparent duality) which is included in nonduality. Much of the confusion comes from conventions of speech and thought. Let's take a mirage. You see water, but in reality it is light refracting off of hot air (on the desert, pavement, etc.). As nonduality has no "other" or exclusion...so in this spirit, you would have to say there is hot air, refracted light, and the appearance of water. It would be incorrect to say there is water...as a reality. The illusion of water exists, but it is not real..water is not what is there. This is not excluding or creating otherness. It is just accurately verbalizing what is.

@Joseph Maynor seems like he’s beatin around the bush. Makes me wonder if he has actually been Alone. I’m starting to think, either there are souls and I have not experienced them / mine, or he has experienced Alone, and he is downplaying what he has to offer and undermining what he Is saying, or he’s dumbing it down to what he assumes is the reader’s level. It could totally be my ignorance, but whenever souls get brought into nonduality, my dogma radar chirps a little. Not code red, just a couple chirps.

Well, nonduality is a tricky thing. It's sorta like the elephant in the room which nobody sees. And IF you see it, it might change your plans in life. But also, don't put the cart too far before the horse. You don't really know what nonduality entails, so as always you have to keep living your life using imperfect information. Your desire to help people psychologically is probably genuine. What nonduality would do is purify that desire and show you more effective ways of serving people than perhaps traditional psychotherapy. Don't get too far ahead of where you are. Ideas of enlightenment are not enlightenment, and will not feed or comfort you. It's still the best strategy to stick to what you're more passionate about.

@Joseph Maynor In a way, I agree ... however, in an absolute nondual state there would be no possibility of this relational experience. So nonduality, all that is, allows for apparent duality for the sake of this relational experience. Realizing this, the dream doesn't end, it's just known as the creative play of Lila that it truly is, but free of the attendant suffering of not realizing this. Why the dreaming, is another question altogether.

@snowleopard I think I understand what you’re saying, maybe not. nonduality is perception without paradox. Often, ime, the big picture duality is the last paradox before nonduality. Not as a rule or anything. Just seems that way. As in, without something to do, there could be no doer - and without a doer, there could be nothing to do (duality). Without the duality, it is seen that there is no actual doer, and there is actually nothing to do. Yet, here we are, in a loop of creator and creating, as the One.

@egoless @Nahm It's a fascinating topic ... Clearly, duality is imaginable, as it is nothing but imagined ... but is nonduality? Leo's insightful 'strange loop' pointer seems like a way to visualize this apparent paradox? It's like a kind of visual koan ... he may well have pulled it off

@egoless if we’re loosely defining enlightenment as permanent nonduality - experiencing life, without a central ‘you’ - body / brain identity, only the practices will do, short of a one in a million Tolle happening. (IMO) The practices free us of “me me me” perspective. Loa takes you from there and can reveal you are, indeed, the One. It also helps with the next question that arises....if I’m the one, what about all these other ‘people’? ?❤️

@AdamDiC Dismiss what nonsense? Meditation is just one component of development. You definitely will be missing out on a lot of stuff if all you do is meditation. That is not enough, and it will produce a lopsided, half-baked development. There's nothing confusing here. Meditate your ass off if you like, but also be learning and growing in other fields as well. This is just common sense. Meditation will not make you good in relationships, social skills, life purpose, career, communication skills, understanding of society, etc. Yes, meditation can be very powerful, but it shouldn't be your only tool. Self-help and nonduality are not really in conflict. They can dove-tail beautifully. Self-help doesn't have to mean that you drift from your mindfulness practice.

Nonduality perspective in a dualistic reality/illusion; "I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I imagine you can also feel me. You won't have to search for me anymore. I'm done running. Done hiding. Whether I'm done fighting, I suppose, is up to you. I believe deep down, we both want this world to change. I believe that the Matrix can remain our cage or it can become our chrysalis, that's what you helped me to understand. That to be truly free, truly free, you cannot change your cage. You have to change yourself. When I used to look out at this world, all I could see was its edges, its boundaries, its leaders and laws. But now, I see another world. A different world where all things are possible. A world of hope. Of peace. I can't tell you how to get there, but I know if you can free your mind, you'll find the way."

@beastmode Nonduality negates the very thing the solipsist holds as the most certain thing.

Don't confuse solipsism with nonduality. They are subtly different. Nonduality is actually more radical.

Loa is a guide to freedom, to nonduality. (I am referencing Ester, not ‘the secret’) It takes some serious commitment, but one can learn to wield the actual nature of creation.

@Serge Careful not to get carried away with your radical models. Don't confuse nonduality with anything-goes. It's the opposite of that, actually. You want to become hyper-aware of the narratives your mind is building about reality, and drop them as much as possible. The fact is, most of the stuff you believe, you have zero experience of. It's very easy to abuse this work and hurt people. So be very careful with your theorizing.

I had thirteen years of spiritual searching, but was not looking for enlightenment and I was not really suffering much so I wasn't trying to get out of deep suffering either. I just wanted to know the truth. I was taught past-life regression, various healing modalities, and I did meditate (sporadically - guided meditations, heart centered meditations, etc.). I did not really care for meditation, so I did not do it consistently and often months would pass between meditations. I never did self inquiry...I learned of that after awakening. My practices were all ego driven...self-improvement and human potential. I studied whatever seemed interesting...even magick (The Book of Abramelin, the Green Grimoire, etc.). You don't get much more egoic than wanting to control the world. I have a very wide band of general spiritual knowledge from this, but funny enough I did not study nonduality or enlightenment at all. Even the day prior to awakening, if you asked me what was nonduality...I would not have had a clue. After thirteen years of general studies, I hit a point where every new book seemed to just talk about things I have already read elsewhere. So I gave up the search. I quit reading, practicing, and meditating completely. I have been fairly intuitive since starting the spiritual journey, and so anything I bump into multiple times in a short period of time...I take notice of. I kept bumping into the name Eckhart Tolle. I had heard of the 'Power of Now' but hated the title so much that I never read it. I didn't want to read it, but would begrudgingly watch something - so I went to the library. They had a DVD called "Flowering of Human Consciousness". A talk Eckhart had given. As I watched it, it seemed it was more of the same. Be present...something I thought I was doing - even though I was very much in the head and thinking all of the time. But then he went through an exercise to inhabit the body - to be 100% devoted to the experience of now. I actually became present for the first time. Thinking stopped, and in that silence there was only feeling and experiencing what is here and now. In that moment of profound silence in November 2005, total stillness and presence seemed to come out of hiding from behind everything. There was no future and no past…just what is – that is sort of timeless. There was no “I” or identification with anything. The senses functioned and so I saw, but there was no seer…no “I”…just seeing. It was a direct, sudden realization into what is as it is. It was nondual...no separation. There was a clear and deep seeing through the false “I”. At the same time, as it is connected and not separate, there was a clear seeing of the nature of the world. I had spent years trying to let go of attachments, release myself from fears, self integrate, and basically become better. I saw in that moment that those very actions were in part keeping the illusory “I” alive. In that moment there were no attachments, fears, problems, sorrow, anxiety, suffering, seeking, etc. They never returned. I then read and studied nonduality to get some vocabulary regarding the realization and see how others talk about it. Why did it happen? I was ripe...and in being truly present (so there was no thought)...there were no distractions and a clarity occurred. In the end, there was nothing that I did that caused it. It just happened...of itself. Like surprise...you can't create a surprise for yourself. I clearly saw that is the problem with all practice is that an "I" is doing it and trying to get somewhere...without actually looking at the "I" itself. Upon awakening, I clearly realized that all of that time people spend in the process of freeing themselves from bondage was the delusion of bondage itself. We ask irrelevant questions and do a multitude of practices that only distract us from really looking at this "I". I love Ramana Maharshi's teachings...simple and straight to the point - who am I? He would never let people wiggle away from that point. They would ask him about reincarnation and he would reply - who are you now? I felt deep wisdom in this approach...not letting you look anywhere else. The direct path...a path with no steps. No where to go...just who am I? I recognize the limitations of practice and potential dangers of practice. So even when I suggest something that could be called a practice...self-inquiry for example...I point out that this should not be an efforting or doing. We have no choice but to be aware when we are conscious...so just look at yourself. Question - what am I...really? I try to minimize the egoic action involved. Also being present...this too is not a doing or effort. We are making efforts (thinking) that take us out of the present (experience) and into the head (thinking). So I talk about ceasing to do...again removing action and doership of the "I". If you did nothing (not even thinking), you would automatically be present. I try to be careful to not inflate the sense of "I" and doership...which is a danger of practices. As for your last question...I am currently working with someone who has panic attacks just about every day, in constant fear, and feels hopeless. I just keep pointing him back to this "I" he thinks he is. He keeps trying to distract himself...asking questions that have nothing to do with the "I". I point him back to "what am I?" He later tells me that he sometimes has revelations, but recently said he has spend many hours and days contemplating "who/what am I"...and he says he logically sees that he is not the body/mind...but he still worries and fears. I told him that he still believes he is the body/mind...that is why he fears. His fear of travel (one of many) would not be if he was not worried about something happening to the body/mind which he is so strongly identified with. All I can do is point him back to "who am I?" and tell him to be present (without referring to past or future or mental imagination...where can there be fear?). Cease doing...and as you have no choice but to be aware...look at who you feel yourself to be and delve deeper (keep looking).

Enlightenment has to be a strange loop. It can only exist as a strange loop. There is this description in zen of enlightenment being a gateless gate. You walk through the gate and realize, that there was no gate to walk through in the first place. On my last AL-LAD trip I was mindfucked by this paradox of enlightenment being a "state" that can be reached vs advita nonduality tells us that we allready are enlightened and can't get any closer to it. The psychedelic confronted my mind with the question of how it's possible to reach a "state" that I am allready in. What I now know, after watching your new video, @Leo Gura , that I became conscious of the strange-loopieness of the concept of enlightenment. There is this description of the substance of enlightenment by Peter Ralston that captures this, that rings very true with me. The insight here is, that there is no difference between enlightenment and me. That's were the metaphor of the cat unraveling the yarn unraveling the cat comes in. I am enlightenment, I just have to realize what I am.

@Monkey-man Jed's writing is dramatic at times, but as Leo points out, they are indeed a work of love. I've talked with him personally, and he does have a compassionate air about him. I'm so glad I read his books before any other nonduality books, because they really cut the crap and get to the chase. However, don't take the drama too seriously, or else you risk zen devilry, which was the trap I fell into afterwards. I gave up meditation for awhile after reading his books, a mistake on my part. I became dogmatically anti-dogmatic, closing my mind down to all "New Age BS," which is precisely what I needed at the time. So, do take his work seriously, but maintain a holistic open mind. Enlightenment is a mastery process, not a neo-advaitan "there's nothing to do" farce.

careful, better to say "we" than "me" - the self is not YOU, it is not-you: the belief that you are you and that there is nothing beyond your being there, is NOT the understanding that all is as one. Necessarily there are things in which we aren't aware of, because our awareness is limited in order to exist at all. this is the trick. in the life that we see before us, we know that there is an infinity of possible awareness's we will never obtain, look to the stars! we can see that they are there, we see evidence of their existence, and yet we can never be existent as the stars exist. we can come up with ideas about how atoms are a true thing, yet we cannot truly be the atom. at the best, we can be a human who pretends to be the atom. or we can be an awareness that once thought it was human, which now thinks it is an atom, which later will return to being a human, and then trick itself into believing it knows what it is like to be an atom. but the only way to be an atom, is to have no true capability to understand what it is like to be anything else but an atom - just as we have no true capability to understand what it is like to be anything else but a human. we can pretend to know and come up with reasonable claims as to what alternative experiences of awareness are - but no matter how authentic that belief can be, it is still just belief. maybe it'll be easier to understand what others are if you imagine that they are a fabricated dream that you do not understand. and then from that basis, work towards realizing that instead they are a trick of the mind to process information on a deeper level than just the first level of direct awareness, a way of storing memory. and then from there, work towards seeing that you are just as fragile as they appear to be, that in an instant those dreams could shatter the dream that is you just as quickly as the other way around. in fact, we all shatter the dream of each other on a regular basis - move on with the day, forget (temporarily) of the existence of some individual. this is the nature of duality within nonduality. existence is nondual, but an essential part of experiencing existence is duality. how can you experience something if it is all one thing? you can only experience something if one thing experiences and the other thing is ethe experience. this is duality! nonduality is to realize that the experiencer and the experience are as one. the light projected onto the screen is as one. to stop seeing the screen or the light or the light projected on the screen at all, as seeing that is that! of course the world has consistency. it would just be a dream if it weren't consistent. oops but, it is a dream but you can make it inconsistent. in fact, necessarily it is inconsistent, lol, you say that the math explains why this or that or the other thing, well the math also fails to explain those or these or this other other thing. you just weigh on the consistency more than you do on the inconsistency, in order to convince yourself that reality is different from a dream. that's a fair enough thing to do. it is different, but not as different as you think. both are just a belief of experience, taking an observation and applying deep meaning to it and searching for consistency to rely on. please continue to rely on consistence, but work to start to notice that its consistency is just as illusory as its inconsistency, and its inconsistencies are just as real as its consistencies. (wait, did I say anything in this post? I hope I made any sense...)