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Love happens, when your meditation is not an activity. When meditation is not a separate process. when meditation is simply the name for life lived with awareness. An individual is awakened the day when he begins to live meditatively. So understand well that meditation is not just one of life’s innumerable activities. It is not just one link in the chain of man’s endless doings. If you are living twenty-three hours a day without awareness, and only one hour with awareness, then you will never attain it. It is very arduous to attain.

principal of acceleration, a positive spiral, the more you advance, the better you get at advancing the beginning really is the hardest part of spirituality, once the ball gets rolling I assure you that change happens fast and constantly. the promise of spirituality is a life of constant joy and happiness and fulfilling, does anyone sometimes think about what it takes for them to be in a state of constant joy and happiness? it takes some serious changes in the degree, intensity and variety of your reality. spirituality WILL blow your mind, literally, you will experience things that will make your mouth drop. the beginning is slow, that is normal, you're slowly awakening to your identity as a soul if you really want to advance faster I suggest you read a book called ''seth: the eternal validity of the soul'' written directly by an highly awakened soul that lives in the ethereal world beyond physical life and time. it is literally a teacher from beyond our dimension

@nightrider1435 I had the same realization. I am happy for you that you realized this as well I think one should be wise enough to take a REAL personal journey, not just theorizing, and thinking he got the Truth. It has to be LIVED. Meditation helped me a lot in overcoming my neurosis, but I am not awakened yet. " The longest journey is the journey inward" Rumi

Love is love, hate is hate, compassion is what it is and abuse is as well. We can live loving and compassionate lives and we can eliminate hate and abuse in us without ever seeing it as moral. Dividing everything into two piles and labeling one "good" and the other "evil" is endorsing the separated mindset. As someone grows in recognition of us being as part of a whole being the natural expression of that is to not harm a part of ourselves. If someone needs a code or rules to tell them to not do harm, have they awakened at all?

Of course we don't know the full picture. He might be a complete fraud and not have been enlightened whatsoever and still act the way he does. You cannot know that, just as you can't know if he did indeed have an awakened expirience. I would disagree that he is teaching by example. Someone who teaches by examples, does not go around and say "You are so negative, think positive!", but would simply be positive and let that sparkle curiousity in others. I guess this roots in the lack of wisdom, and lack of understanding the human mind. He does not understand himself, the workings of his psyche, which for me is an essential part on the path of enlightenment. The ego, as we know, can take any expirience that is non-permanent and use it for it's own purpose. If you expirience ego-death, once the ego reappears, it might think of itself that it is enlightened. This will give the ego a sense of superiority, that it will of course not utter in thoughts, but rather in subtle deeds and behaviour. The ego is not enlightened, it can never be. It's very dangerous for the ego to identify with this concept, especially after having had a direct expirience of it. It's difficult to tell, but it does seem like he is conditioned by various sources that claim to know the truth. He believes in concepts that he has no direct expirience of, infact he is absolutely certain of them. He is certain that mere positive thinking can change the world around him, but he had no direct expirience of that. The certainity is what indicates immaturity of the mind to me. If you look at people who have taken this path and seem to be successful with it, you will notice a certain humbleness. The ego can claim an expirience to be his, even if it was true. It can always self-decept, and the reason why this is so dangerous is because the ego now claims it knows absolute truth. Even though the truth is the absence of knowing, the ego is trapped in a belief system that it cannot escape. Before, the ego was investigating, questioning and it was skeptical. Now it claims to know the truth, and there might be no turning back from that. It seems to me like it's essential to have a proper understanding of the ego before having an enlightenment expirience. The ego is so well at deception that it will do anything to survive. It will even pretend to be selfless, loving and all knowing, just to avoid true death. You said it yourself, awakening can cause a massive paradigm shift. In this case it seems like this massive paradigm shift created a paradigm-lock, far firmer than the paradigm that was held before. It's not full surrender, it's the pretending of full surrender. It's not true love, it's the pretending of true love. He claims to know the unknowable truth. It's the ego grasping and holding onto awakening to avoid it's own parishing.

Back when I was in college I was a pretty militant atheist. I didn't say that god was provably non-existent, but I certainly fought with people about their need to give up all beliefs. I would enter debates and talks with people about religion like all the time. Then my girlfriend at the time showed me three short stories called The Egg, The Last Question, and The Last Answer. Reading them shook me to the core and awakened something deep in me. It was the first time I had cried reading anything. She had only seen them as neat science fiction. But to me, it was different. Something inside of me knew that these stories pointed towards the truth, despite my inability to fully explain it. From then on, I understood what it was like to begin taking spiritual texts seriously. Over time, my feelings towards religions shifted toward pure open-mindedness and empathy. I wanted to share these stories with you to inspire you and give you food for thought. They only take at most 20 minutes each to finish, but their messages are quite profound. The first one to check out is called The Egg by Andy Weir. It helped me begin to understand reincarnation and karma. You can find it here: http://highexistence.com/images/view/the-egg-by-andy-weir/ The second one is called The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. It informs my current life purpose and what's worth it to focus on technologically. I'm pretty sure this story inspires Elon Musk and all of his companies, too: http://multivax.com/last_question.html The third one is called The Last Answer. It is also written by Isaac Asimov. It helps me understand a bit of the nature of growing the quality of my consciousness. I think it goes well with The Egg. Leo posted in the insights blog about how time and reality goes in a circle. Perhaps this is a way of what that would look like: http://www.thrivenotes.com/the-last-answer/ After years of contemplative, psychedelic, and academic research into enlightenment, I think these stories do a great job of at least inspiring one toward capital T Truth. They echo many of the main ideas of ancient traditions around the world, except modernized and thus easier to understand. So read em and post here what you think!!!

Such hate, and yet he is such a sweet sweet representation of the values actualized.org should be striving for. 1. Self-responsibility 2. Teaching by example 3. Emotional mastery 4. Enlightenment (even if its just debatebale) 5. Detachment from relationship and then allowing them to form on a deeper level 6. Non-materialism 7. Open mindedness 8. Optimism Dr. Phil is a douche and makes him look bad, and he knows so. Deepak from a Chopper is just derping around like "I really don't know what Im doing." Let the guy be. And be honest with yourself when asking the following question. If you awakened and found yourself in a place of deeply deeply conditioned family and felt powerless in all efforts to helping them, would a thought of leaving them not cross your mind? If he leaves them, he can do good to receptive souls. The ones that are ready to awaken. When he talked about positive thinking I believe he could have meant manifestation, not just "aww ima tell myself this affirmation". Which isn't nothing terribly evil. Of course he could have been confused on the brink of awakening. You underestimate how big of a paradigm shift awakening can bring, and how messy your circustamstances can get. And also one thing to notice Many of you kind of went in the direction of sheeple. Of Dr. Phil. Of mainstream culture. So what a great opportunity to ask the following. How am I still conditioned in the western materialistic cult? And you will open a pandora's box, that has a bright light on the bottom.

What evidence do you have to prove this blanket statement? Not necessarily true, "younger people" just have different focuses/conversations, not more awakened, I may suggest a bit more self absorbed, mildly narcissistic, and less tolerant than their prior.

When Jesus was crucified , when Krishna and Mohammad were fighting wars and killing others. Were they not awakened ?

Some people can have this........ Insomnia Another sleep disturbance is waking in the night and not being able to go back to sleep for hours. Or not being able to get to sleep. I believe these problems are caused by a high ammonia level in the brain. This belief is based on two observations. Ornithine, an ammonia reducer, induces a wonderful sleep in sleepdeprived persons. It is also observed that after killing parasites, which produce ammonia, sleep is much improved. Our metabolismdoes not produce ammonia. We produce urea which is excreted by the kidneys along with water and then called urine. When we are parasitized, our metabolism is burdened with ammonia, though, made by the parasites. We have to turn it into urea in the liver and kidneys so we can excrete for them. But this can't be done in the brain! The brain lacks an essential enzyme, ornithine carbamyl-transferase, for this bit of biochemistry. The brain was never meant to be parasitized or infected and has no defense. Most of our parasites come from animals we associate with. We weren't meant to live with horses, cows, sheep, pigs, monkeys, guinea pigs, cats, dogs and chickens nor to come in contact with dozens more at a zoo. We do so at our own peril. It is known that ammonia is a strong brain irritant. In fact, a person can be awakened from a coma by being made to smell ammonia “smelling salts.” Ornithine reacts with ammonia, mopping it up like a sponge. Arginine, another amino acid, also reacts with ammonia, but does not put you to sleep. So there is more to insomnia than mere inability to reduce ammonia levels. Arginine results in alertness and therefore should be used in the morning, when needed. Ornithine, given at bedtime, may take ½ hour to do its magic. Both are perfectly safe, since they are natural to your body, and a food constituent. Start by taking two ornithine capsules (each 500 mg.) on the first night. Take four the next night. Take six the night after and choose the dose you like best. Sometimes it takes five days to “catch up” on everything that needs to be done for the brain and get you sleeping. Meanwhile, of course, you are planning to kill your parasites and be done with insomnia in the most effective way of all. Just some info J@Loreena not saying you suffer from it.

I may not have reached the highest state, I have attained what I have and i have no basis for comparison. I use just basic meditative practices, nothing intricate or exotic. The practices aren't the key, it's the actual inner work we do. I don't have many labels for what I experience, I have tried to equate it to some of the words on ideas people use for the different things I hear from them but I don't know if they really do. So pardon me for my vagueness. Any chance you can find, clear and focus the mind on the now in a small meditation moment. It doesn't matter where and it doesn't have to last long. in the shower, standing in line at the store, waiting for a stop light to change even on the toilet. Anytime the mind would normally wander off and churn around on the tedium of life, instead use the moment to meditate. This will bring a heightened illuminated state to normal daily life, as I did this I found that my overall more awakened state stayed with me through more complicated tasks. It also allowed me to meditate deeper and deeper. It is a challenge to focus on the moment while our brain is needed for normal life tasks so this illuminated state fluctuates through the day depending on how much my mind has to focus on a task. Tasks that are well practiced behavior and the subconscious mind can do it so I pretty much run on "auto pilot" so allows for a heightened state to be maintained. Obviously when the task involves the safety of yourself and others like operating dangerous equipment or driving those heightened states can limit the ability to accomplish the task safely so the mind should be attuned to the task. Although I will admit there were some long road trips across vast empty distances that I had some incredible meditative moments....but i wouldn't suggest it.

Yep, the more awakened you become (so to speak) the less sex is of interest instead.. Love becomes more drawn to and empowering for you. I haven't had sex in a while, I'm actually feeling really great lately, full of energy, and wisdom and little to no animalistic thoughts or patterns. I mean.. the monks do say ejaculation is wasting spiritual energy. They're onto something i tell ya haha

You were working under the fallacy – that the society can be changed and the individual will change automatically. You cannot do anything to it. Whatever has to be done is to be done to the individual. Don’t think that words are not powerful. Ordinary, mundane words have no power; they have only utility. But when the enlightened man speaks, the word has no utility; it has simply a tremendous power to transform your heart. The awakened people down the ages have not seen anything more powerful than the word. It is just a question of spreading it, and spreading it not like a parrot, not like a gramophone record, but spreading it as a representative of it. Whatever you say, you should be; only then can your saying have power. It is a question of living the message. Your life should be a proof of it; then nothing else is needed.

As soon as the mind desires sexual pleasure, the body begins to make preparations for it. From the sex centre the ganglia begins pulsating another demand. The sex centre becomes projected outside. The science of Tantra says, if the sex centre can be made to project inwards and can be drawn within (which is known as sex-mudra), you will within two moments find that the body has ceased its demand for sex. But the demand was made and the energy for it was already awakened. It is possible to take this energy upwards. No sooner do we think about sex that our mind begins to flow towards the genital organs. One has to draw the genital organs inwards. All the doors going out from the genital organs will be closed. When the energy has already been awakened, we should close our eyes at that time. Having closed the eyes begin to look at the head from within, just as you see a ceiling from within a room. By constant practice you will find within a month that something from below has begun to rise up. This will be, in fact, your experience that something has started to rise above, something is going up. Some call it kundalini, some give in another name. It is necessary to pay attention to two points here. One is the muladhar and other is the upper centre sahstradhar. Sahastradhar is our centre at the top level and muladhar is our centre at the lowest level. Muladhar is contracted inwards. The energy created in it tries to find a way out. Now we should direct our mind to the higher direction or upper direction, because that path is open. The energy of the body starts flowing towards that direction in which the mind is directed. This is a small process in the transformation. If you experiment with this, celibacy will be achieved without suppression. Now, you can fail any seductress ! Hope it helps.

@STC Up to now disciplehood has been tethered to a master who initiates someone into it. But disciplehood is not something which anyone can give you as a gift; it has to be received directly from the divine. Who else but God can initiate you into disciplehood? A disciple tied to the master is bound to become sectarian. It cannot liberate you; instead it will put you in bondage. Truth has to be awakened within you. Buddha's last message to his disciples was "App Deepo Bhava", meaning "be a light unto yourself". Do you know who was the master of Gautam Buddha when he was enlightened?

I should mention that your 21 and trust me that is young , the universe will eventually test you with happiness and give you great power but just be patient and try not to think to much and focus on one goal at a time and you will eventually be awakened sooner or later but the bigger test comes on how you deal with your happiness , so you have nothing to lose just smash it and work on at least one weakness and then you will see light

You are making good progress. It all depends on your concept and understanding of the word "awakening", so let us know. Note that everyone defines it differently, but one thing is sure - everyone is already there where they need to be, they only need to shed some ignorance. In other words, everyone is already awakened, they just need to realize what they are. Experiences come and go, but realization stays.

@Arkandeus Basically what he said. I'm not the most social person. And never was good at listening to people, until i saw this video recently. And i think its funny, that to love people, you have to stop caring what they think. It sounds contradictory, but its true for me at least. I found this flaw in myself, overvaluing the opinion of others, but not really caring about their idea's or views. I just wanted to prove that i had "worth", I needed their acceptance and approval. So instead of listening, i was waiting for my opening, to prove i was "smart". The flaw with that, is i didn't really understand what the other person wanted or needed, so they didn't really listen to me in return. And my "smart" point was lost to them, they often did not accept it. What i do now, is to truly be aware, to truly listen to people, then i can anticipate the best way to shape or change their ideas towards mine. Ask yourself, why are they saying this, what causes it. When they talk about binge drinking, why are they making such statements. Most likely it is boasting and alpha-male behavior, but why do they do that? Most likely because they want to be included, because they want to be loved and accepted and think that is what society expects of them in that setting. Truly try to grasp and understand it, becoming aware of the flaws in their behaviorism, understand their feelings and their needs giving cause to it. Understand their suffering. Then at least it becomes an interesting learning experience for us more awakened listeners. Remember, every being just wants to be happy, even serial killers or unenlightened people, they just go about it the wrong way. Part of becoming aware or enlightened, is not only being aware of easy beautiful things, such as forests or birds or art. But to be aware of everything, and this also means other people and their behavior, and things like death, disorder, decay, stink, distaste, distracting sounds, pain, etc... Mentally identifying with "small" talk of others is not being aware yourself. When we desire to be away from smalltalk, this desire brings us suffering. Why do we want to escape it, why is it frustrating to us, also become aware of that. The small talk is happening now, it's what the ears are registering, there is no no-smalltalk happening. There is only the smalltalk, it is reality and being now. It just is what is, nothing more, nothing less, it's happening.

personally I have recently discovered that it appears much more meaningful, accurate, and pro-social to consider the process an awakening, instead of an enlightenment. enlightenment in and of itself has direct implications of superiority IMO. Awakening directly leads into the understanding that it is potential that anyone can find, on the other hand. furthermore, I have never ever ever felt enlightened, tho in reality I suspect I first became "enlightened" in high school during my reading of Siddhartha and reflection thereof. but ever sence, it was a ongoing growth that truly was subconscious and in many ways dormant despite its ongoing changes. In this way, it is more accurate to, at least in reference to my growth, refer to it as an awakening instead of as enlightenment. the latter inherently implies sudden bursts! there are many times in which I can mark a noticeable, even a directly observable, shift in perspective, but none of these were sudden or in a burst - they were all a result of hard labor in the manner of contemplation over time. and end result to an ongoing process - not a sudden change at all! and lastly, I find recently that I Often notice both how common wisdom is found in cherished teachings throughout all of culture - but even people "enlightenment" would imply or assume are unenlightened (or unawakened) people, they show strong signs of having made some important growth thereof in various directions. I find that considering the process of an awakening more conducisively leads one to seeing these already found growth as possible, meaningful, and real, whereas enlightenment encourages one to think that they were less-then before, and others who have not found certain ideas are unenlightened. when the reality is that there are soo many perspectives to find growth in advancing, that All humans naturally stumble upon some of them throughout all phases of their life, in fact there are many common marks such as the time where a toddler ceases to see the world as "for them" and instead as "a community". In these ways, all humans have already awakened many of their potentials, but I doubt most people would consider many of these growths to be enlightenment or an enlightened experience! oh and sorry one more thing - one thing I have Always been aware of but unsure how to proliferate awareness thereof in others, was the very real possibility in learning important realizations during any discussion, even if discussing with a "fool" or a "troll". even with lies the truth can be found, even ignorance is capable of highlighting understanding. So I strongly endorse the use of the term awakening. any thoughts in opposition or in support of proliferating this terminology? I certainly will be using the word more often in my future, whereas I still hesitate to refer to myself as enlightened or having enlightened experiences. enlightenment just doesn't grok!

I do know I'm God now. No-one or nothing created me. I create every experience. Every experience (all form) is contained within me. (Absolute, formless infinity) I am more and more self-aware within the dream of form I create, as well as revelling in just being. I even love the insane ego as it has strengthened itself and complicated the dream. (It's still all experience and existence.) Ego is a side-effect of still being asleep within the dream and unaware as a finite mind that there is no need to still suffer within the dream after initially being conditioned to suffer by other 'sleepers', other finite minds that cannot understand or grasp that they are only me. ...not yet awakened. Not lucid within the dream. Oh, and Jimi Hendrix didn't 'die', I just needed guitar lessons.

@Gopackgo Thanks for a detailed reply : ) My theory is that while we operate in an unenlightened state we are helpless against ego delusion. We might theorize about it, but we can't really see the depth of it until a breakthrough. Even then, until you reach a constant awakened state you might be "under influence".

@Gurunext yes, but ego isn't real, its a made up projection that passes down generation after generation unfortunately. Awakened, you will see that there is no "you" to work on. When the delusion of ego goes away, you instantly become reality. You become it. There doesn't need to be an extra individual identity added to function in the world. Words of caution: when you do merge and realize... you realize you can't go back to old ways of navigating the world. When it happened to me it occurred during a contemplative walk. I was stunned and shocked like never before. This is an experience that will change your LIFE. IT is profound.

Entry 91 | Contemplation Theory: Contemplation is a great tool for self-actualization. Applying it: Become aware of the fundamental assumptions that you make about what your existence entails. Then you can contemplate from a place of genuine curiosity and wonder. I've just watched Leo's latest video on contemplation. This is something that I have been doing on and off for several years in my life, but more intensely in the last year or so. Specifically, my contemplation has been focussed on what existence is. Ever since I experienced a profound realization of the illusory nature of existence during a meditation session, my mind has been constantly asking that question over and over again. Furthermore, I have never found myself at a loose end, filled with boredom, or lost with purpose ever since this experience. My days are filled with so much joy overall. And I think the contemplation of existence has influenced my ability to feel this joy on a daily basis. Most days, I can be filled with laughter at the sheer wonder of reality and its mechanisms. Especially when I wake up from moments of unconsciousness where I started to believe in the illusion of "I." Of course, it still happens. I'm relatively new at this game. But at least I know that I have the ability to transcend that identification. Also, upon watching the video, something jumped out at me when Leo began reading the list of things to contemplate. Of the many examples he included, he didn't mention the present moment. He included the questions "what is the past?" and "what is the future?" but he never asked, "what is the present moment?" Obviously, I have no idea if this was the result of spontaneity or if it was a well-designed plan to ignore this question. But all of the examples that he gave made me consider the following: aren't they all illusory? I've contemplated the past, the future, art, music, and the self enough to recognize that they are illusory in nature. That doesn't mean to say they don't exist. Rather, they exist in the form of thought and imagination instead of the usual assumption that they are physical. But when it comes to the present moment, it takes a lot of guts to admit to yourself that your sense perceptions of the present moment are just as illusory. That profound experience I had half a year ago was the result of this contemplation. My question for contemplation was "How do I know that I exist?" When I sieved through all of the technicalities of language, I arrived at the assumption that because I can see, hear, and feel, I must exist. To anyone, that would seem like a plausible justification. But it was clear to me at the time that justifications aren't as concrete in their plausibility as they often seem. So then followed another question: "What makes you think that your senses are accurate?" In other words, "What if these senses are illusory?" This question lit a fire within me that burned out any sense of self that I once clung to. Suddenly, I was awakened to the majesty and the terror of existence without "me" inside of it. Although this experience only survives in my memory, the groundbreaking effect that it had on my being will remain with me until death. I felt depressed for a month or two after that experience because I wasn't quite ready to let go of my sense of self. But gradually, I became accepting of the truth and my being has felt magical ever since. Life doesn't ever feel boring for me. Even when I'm doing something seemingly uninteresting on a surface level, I have realized how rich and wonderful this existence is. Now and then, I still suffer from the effects of the Ego but on a MUCH smaller scale than ever before. Maybe in a few years time, things will be different. But for the present moment, I can sit and observe it with joy and laughter. It's funny to watch how the Ego creates unnecessary suffering in life! But if we went back in time to tell this to my past, depressed self, it would be no laughing matter. To sum up, I completely endorse the idea that contemplation can lead to some of the most rewarding experiences in life. Perhaps I will consider contemplating other things in life as well as the fundamental question of "What is existence?" Pick of the day:

@Christian Ignorance is a very strong force. Try less, say less and you'll communicate more. Accept them genuinely, and in their expereince of your acceptance, they are awakened to their own discord and more aware it is not to be accepted.

I don't think being asleep is wrong because there are many good people who are. On a deeper level they feel connected with others but aren't sure about how. The illusion of separation is created by our mind. Most people aren't aware of Truth because they're chasing for happiness outside themselves. Our spiritual nature is very subtle in comparison to what our mind tells us. Once the mind is destroyed our spirit can be embraced. Destroying the mind doesn't mean becoming a zombie. It just means stopping the fluctuations of the mind. We automatically categorize things without even realizing it. If a person gets prematurely awakened, it can ruin his/her life. Jesus randomly woke up and offended lots of people. I suspect he didn't know anything about enlightenment. If a person knows about enlightenment, they can handle it much better. I don't think everyone needs to be enlightened, nor is everyone inclined to pursue it. From the Absolute perspective it doesn't matter what we do. After the dinosaurs died there is still life on Earth. Consciousness can produce life out nothing. How does practicing spirituality make you feel? Do you notice a difference from when your consciousness was lower? Thanks for reading!