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I've had glimpses before. But they were mostly like five seconds at most. This was the real deal. This Saturday evening I decided to go to the beach by train (which is like one stop away from me), smoke a joint, take a walk and do some inquiry, or even just to relax a bit. Whatever, I had nothing big planned at all. I do this almost every other week but this time things were different. What I noticed is that an unusual amount of fear surfaced. It was a warm day so there were still lots of people around which triggered some fears in me. It felt like everyone was looking at me, judging me... You know the usual, which I thought I had resolved already. Not at all. It became so intense and my ego started fighting it more and more. I had not expected this so after awhile I decided to turn around to return to my train and get home. By this time the fears had grown into thoughts of going insane, of fainting, of losing control. So I started to walk faster and faster until I reached my train. I sat down, totally panicked, but I'm pretty good with keeping these things to myself so I don't think anyone could really notice. Maybe because I was sitting comfortably that I was able to face these fears now. But I looked at these feelings and found out what they were. It occurred to me that they were like waterbubbles trying to pull you away from the water. I don't know why this is the analogy I went with, but that's exactly what it felt like. Remember I smoked a joint, so things got very conceptual. Anyways, fears kept rising up but I wasn't really afraid of them anymore. I saw that they were made of this same 'water.' Which made it all very clear to me. And then it happened. The last thought I remember that arose before it happened was 'I AM ALL OF IT!' Boom, awakening... I don't know why it happened at this moment. But it just happened. I saw reality. And it felt like I've seen it a million times before. It was there for all of my life. I saw a train moving and there were some people in it. I was in it. Sounds were literally just sounds. Utterly complex sounds but just sounds nonetheless. It was so serene and empty. Words aren't able to describe it but it's literally just 'life happening'. That's the reason why it's so familiar. Cause that's what it has always done. It's also a lot more 'normal' than I had imagined it to be. Then for a moment, thought would interfere and I got scared shitless. I decided to return to the egoic state... Which is pretty insane to think about. I literally created a new fear so I had something to hold on to. But no, this awakening had to happen today. And so it returned. And this is when the awakening became permanent. At least for the next seven hours. My train had reached it's destination and I got out. Huge smile on my face. No thought. Just walking. Walking towards my home. (I live very close to the trainstation.) Then thought returned, going completely bonkers about the amazing thing 'it's' experiencing, but this time they were no longer mine. I witnessed them. Even the identification I still had with thought, was witnessed. So it was all good. And the first thing I noticed, is whatever thought arose, a feeling came with it. And this feeling INSTANTLY healed as I looked at it. And this was the great miracle. Everything I witnessed, healed. Now I'm not sure if this includes the external world (as it all felt as one), but at least all feelings, all thought, all ego was healed if only I would take the time to simply look at them. Awareness truly is curative! In the most literal sense. It made me really understand why Awareness is referred to as God. Back home, I started to investigate what was happening. The recurring thoughts were; 'It was already so. It was already so. My god, it was already so.' I started to write in my journal. All very short sentences, kind of like riddles. It's in dutch, but I might translate it one day and share it with you because some beautiful words were written, if I say so myself. One of the biggest insights I had was finally understanding the 'hidden in plain sight' part of spirituality. And when I did, I laughed out loud. It basically comes down to the following question: Do you see reality? Yes Well, that's it. Reality is it. Everyone would answer yes to this question right? That 'yes', is enlightenment. Because it has always been yes. Awakening is merely realising that. Really, read that again. It's so simple and dumb yet it points to the ultimate truth. It's just an oversight. The seeing of reality, is the thing you are looking for. But you were already doing that! Of course you are. From the awakened point of view it's all so damn simple. You just witness reality. No further questions. And then you realise, that even though there's nothing there. There is life. OH MY GOD, THERE IS LIFE. Do you see why it's such a miracle? There shouldn't be life, because there's nothing there. Yet there is life all the same. Haha, it's so hard to explain this. But I completely lost it, when I realised that. And then at one point, ego panicked. And this was a profound moment. Because I was no longer identified with it. So it wasn't me that was panicking. If someone would have walked in at that moment they would've thought I was depressed or gone insane. And 'I' was. But behind it all, there was laughter and peace. Ego was thinking 'I want to go back,' 'what would my friends think of me like this,' 'what if this is forever? 'I'll never be able to function properly again.' And so on, and so on. It was just patterns playing itself out. And as said, every thought came with a feeling that was being felt completely and therefor it healed. After a couple of hours, more and more the thought; 'Do I still have it?' came up. It was quite the paradox since from Awareness' point of view, there is nothing to lose. So the funny thing was, I was completely convinced this would never leave me again. I was enlightened. And then sleep came. And I wasn't. It was ego waking up Identified as it's little self again. Which is fine. This entire experience was a complete shift in paradigm all the same. I don't feel different at all. But now I know. Now I know there's nothing to search for. It is already so. Even now that I'm identified with the separate self again, there is this knowing. A trust. Trust that whatever arises, is seen by 'that'. Even now. The next couple of days, there was a lot of energy released in my body. It was everything that was looked at during the awakening. It was that powerful. Kundalini I guess? I don't know a lot about that, so I'm mostly guessing. Doesn't really matter too much anyway. Looking back at this, there were a couple of things that really stood out to me. First of all. No bliss. Not at all. Absolute peace, yes. But no bliss. And the funny thing is, back then, I couldn't care less. When I say peace. It doesn't mean peace in the positive sense of the word. It just means nothingness, emptiness. From ego's point of view, it's quite a 'cold' peace. That's why ego doesn't really like it. It's so empty, it has no qualities. The other thing that stood out was how much of a role ego still plays even when realised. That really took me by surprise, I always had this idea of a full awakening from ego. Which you do, but at the same time, it doesn't mean it disappears even in the slightest. Even addictions were still there. I guess that's the reason it didn't stay permanently. There is just too much of a pull from ego. I didn't care at the moment, but after seven hours or so, it succeeded. (Or so, it thinks ) So, yeah. I guess that's a real lesson for anyone here. Be prepared for that! I wasn't. You don't want this. It's the only reason you don't have it. You don't really want it. That's a hard pill to swallow. But it's true. It's worth it all the same though. My god, the fear! There's so much fear! It really showed me how much work there is still to be done. The good news though, I now know awareness heals. Not by believing it. But by having witnessed it myself. This is the shift. It's like this awakening has showed me the disease and the cure simultaneously. Really profound. Isn't it amazing that my first proper awakening happened in a train that dropped me off at the 'next' stop. And that next stop turned out to be home. I try not to attach too much value onto symbolism like that, but man... It's beautiful, isn't it? Thanks for reading this. English isn't my first language so I hope it's easy to read! I wasn't planning to share this, but here we are. So much words, and I'm not even a talker. An introvert even. Go figure. Feels like I can talk about this forever!

@Ilya Thanks for your response. I just heard a really good quote that reminded me of my problem of thoughts here. It was: "the mind is a great servant, but a terrible master". That kind of told me that I can use my thoughts as tools but I need to develop the master to use them correctly. I was very into the Triforce Academy for awhile but I have a really hard time agreeing with some of Bentinho's theories. In his "Intro course: lesson 5 - what is consciousness?" he explains that there was infinite infinity of nothingness and then out of wanting to know, taste and experience itself in form there was an explosion (the big bang) of bliss love, a love/presence/energy. I am paraphrasing him of course but I just have such a hard time accepting that concept. He also believes in Free Will which is something I disagree with as well. I am trying to stay open minded about everything but I am having a hard time getting past his theory of nothingness wanting to know itself. I really want to work through this though because as you said it looks like a wonderfully well laid out course. Do you have any thoughts on his explanation of consciousness?

I just meditated for an hour, instant bliss :3

@Ilya Pleasure my friend :-) May you be triggered beyond your structures so it starts an endless expansion into the existence of bliss and harmony :-)

@ajasatya A calm state of mind is a stage of healing, it is a neccesary step to progress on the spiritual path. The mind creates conflict because it is dualistic. When one is identified with ego (and at the start of the spiritual journey everybody is) the body is reacting to those thoughts and that creates emotions, and bad emotions make your body tense. This tension gets stuck in the physical body. When one is tense for a lot of time without releasing this tension, this tension spirals out of control. To prevent this, one has to realize this calm state of mind. If one doesn't realize this state he cannot prevent this and tension starts to build, build and build to the point of disease. The lower the brainwaves the more healing power channels into the body. If you don't experience any lower brainwaves for a few days, you would be dead. So with EEG one can start to better recognize his brain waves and that helps one to get into healing mode when that's needed. Recognizing patterns is important, that's basicly what spiral Dynamics stage torquoise is about. I still think it's better to think of this as stages of progression. One can never free oneself from a state of mind without experiencing it first. Calmness is healing. Parasympathetic nervous system is activated. The breath is slower, and when you get really deep, it's like you need very little air to function, the breath is slow automatically. The overactive sympathetic nervous system causes stress and 90% of doctor visits. Stress is the main cause of disease and the main cause of death. The sympathetic nervous system is active when brainwaves are high and the Parasympathetic is active when there are more lower brainwaves. When tension is present in the body, one cannot shift between brainwaves effectively. So it's neccesarry to first realese all this tension, go trough the side effects of meditation (the purging process) and than once that is done, one can easily shift between states without getting attached and do the thing that you said - to liberate oneself from any state of mind. But then again one can become attached to a state of mind that is not attached to any state of mind and there is too much fluctuation. There is no more calmness. So... it's really all about alignment and synchronization. So you stay synchronized with that which is. The synchronization of the aura with the "state" of bliss, that which you actually is. That's also I think why it's better to think of one as existing and not existing at the same time. There is a fluctuation between matter and anti-matter, you are a particle but also a wave. If you think that you don't exist and get attached to this than synchronization falls away and your selling yourself so short you can't even imagine really. Yes you can be enlightened and not synchronized, But when your enlightened and not synchronized with that which is, your experiencing far far far far far far less bliss than from being enlightened and synchronized. This requeries embracing a greater paradox and also leads to experiencing more of what one is. The perfect alignment is when you can maintain 13Hz in your brain as far as my research goes. @TJ Reeves I looked it up and muse actually has a rating of 4.1/5 based on 538 reviews and I think that's pretty good. I don't think you Will ever get a 5/5 review based on 538 reviews for a tool that can help you. What do you think about the data that muse provided you with? Have you gained anything from using that device after you stopped using it? I have written something about this calmness above, I think that also applyies to what your Zen master said (I have not read his article yet). I don't know if you really need an EEG that costs a few thousands to get accurate data. The more expensive the EEG the more precise the data Will be but that doesn't mean you cannot get beneficial data from the cheaper one.

To anyone doing research for their life purpose, mastering a skill set for their life purpose, or finally making strides to finish a project for their life purpose, please understand one thing: Embrace Not Knowing. If there were any one idea that's important to understand about nailing your life purpose, it would be this one. Your level of success in any career field is directly tied to how well you can tolerate Not Knowing: If you will get paid If your idea is actually that good or you're just a crazy person Where you might have to go next in your career path Whether your career's assumptions are accurate Not Knowing is the well-spring - the ground - the source for creativity and insight. Creativity starts with a question, with uncertainty, not with a cut-and-dried answer. You cannot ever have True Knowing without having Not Knowing precede it or, perhaps, be it. Yep, I said it: True Knowing might just be Not Knowing. What you don’t know is what you don’t know. And it's not like pretending to not know changes the fact that you don’t know: It just means that you've deluded yourself into thinking you know, when indeed you don't. But herein lies the rub: You fucking hate sitting Truly Knowing Not Knowing. That’s why you buy the courses and the books and the videos and the seminars and the training courses that you waste so much time on. That’s why you distract yourself from what's right in front of you. That’s why you read my articles, Leo's articles, and any other idiot on this forum's articles. You just need something - the thing. It's in your genes. If your ancestors wondered for too long whether that noise near the bushes was a predator or not, you wouldn't be here right now. Our brains are geared to make fast assumptions, and questioning them in many cases quite literally equates to death. No wonder we're so hardwired for confirmation bias. No wonder we need quick fixes. ---- I started watching Actualized.org Videos during my senior year of college. My success up to that point had nothing to do with my happiness and I was adamant that the same would be true in the future.This was pretty distressing to realize at the time. It meant that I didn’t know what lay ahead of me. Mainly, it told to me that my dream of becoming a doctor had nothing to do with happiness. My whole life up to that point was about becoming a doctor – what the hell would I do? I purchased the life purpose course, meditated, and came up with some pretty cool visions for the future. Here’s what I came up with: I could use my background in neuroscience to help create a technology that would link consciousnesss together. My vision included a search for what part of the brain created consciousness as well as technologies that would allow people to turn their brain into holodecks. Basically, I wanted to turn astral projection into a technological science that went beyond psychedelics or VR and went to mainstream society. My heroes at the time included people (read: chimps) like Elon Musk, Walt Disney, Tony Stark, and Barack Obama, amongst others. Almost everyone Leo listed off as someone not to follow, I followed. If you want to see my vision board, here you go: The Enlightened Warrior Sage of Bliss.pdf @Leo Gura advised me that though I was onto the right path, I would be wise not to put the cart ahead of the horse. So, with his perspective, I went back into the Hallowed Grounds of Not Knowing. Specifically, I had to understand what consciousness was before I even began raising it, especially with dangerous A.I. tech. This meant researching a ton of weird areas that I would previously have never even begun to consider. If my militant-atheist, fundamental-rationalist sophomore or junior-year version of myself had heard of me these areas, he would have laughed before crying. I’m talking about things like: o Lucid dreaming o Astral Projection o Psychedelics o The Nature of Reincarnation o Witchcraft o The No Self o Chakras o Kundalini o Shamanic Traditions o And *gasp* books arguing against the logic of science amongst other things In Leo's video about the paranormal, he talks about the scientist who goes off to a cave, only to return with a truth he can't describe. Well, I am that scientist. How do I explain to scientific advisors that we can't link consciousness together because it's already linked together right now as it is? How do I explain that I can't create A.I. consciousness because the A.I. would already be made out of consciousness? How do I explain that entire fields of science are straight up looking in thanks wrong direction? But here’s the thing: the ability to rest in Not Knowing while doing research has paid off greatly. There’s a ton of stuff that I’ve recognized just in the past year that has saved me literally lifetimes of seeking. Amongst others: o Perhaps I don’t need to be anything or anyone special o Perhaps I don’t need to become rich and famous to be worthy o Perhaps I don’t need to one-up my ex-girlfriend to get back at her – the goal that originally launched me into self-help material o Perhaps I don’t need some big fancy life purpose that saves the whole world immediately. Perhaps its often the people who do that who mess up the world because of their narrow-minded unawareness. o Perhaps the Tao Te Ching is right in saying that the actions taken with the least damage are the wisest o Perhaps what the world needs is to specifically not need to do or be anything other than what they are, as-is, and if we did that, everyone would be better off naturally. I’m not talking about me using that as an excuse to sit around doing nothing: I’m saying that 1) we all need to get out of our own way with our egos to 2) help others have enough and then 3) be able to sit around happily now that we’ve all as a species had enough. o Perhaps That’s’ the only actual need anyone has: the need to have the ability to simply Be themselves happily. o Perhaps You don't have to do anything to meet that primary need other than remove your own conditions for happiness o Perhaps It’s just an assumption that consciousness is created by the brain. o Perhaps it’s the other way around than from what I was taught at the world’s #1 medical university. o Perhaps its consciousness that creates the brain. o Perhaps there’s no need to chase around the holy grail of a “neural correlate of consciousness” like the thousands of other neuroscientists and neurosurgeons who’ve gotten nowhere. o Perhaps the answer is right under the scientists nose and their culture and dogmatism prevents them from seeing it, not the data. o Perhaps I don’t need to subject myself to some of the bullshit faced by academia to get ideas out there o Yet perhaps no matter what path I choose, it’ll be filled with trial and tribulation unless I choose to see things otherwise. --- Do you get that each one of those realizations is worth a lifetime of understanding? I’m not exaggerating whatsoever. Just the first two bullet points explain how the entire Los Angeles Culture came about. The third is enough to get past 5 years of therapy. And the 4th would have saved Elon Musk 50 years of effort. And so on and so on. And those aren’t even all the insights I’ve had! There are at least 250 pages worth of insights scribbled in my journals. All – ALL – because of my ability to Rest in Not Knowing ---- After purging myself of some of my original pursuits, sense of self, and attachments, what's left? I’m still left with my strengths: 1. Wisdom/Opennness/Judgment 2. Social Intelligence 3. Love of Learning 4. Creativity 5. Zest/Enthusiasm/Optimism 6. Humor 7. Bravery I’m also left with the same tangible skill set as ever: o The ability to recall information from +250 books on psychology, history, science, medicine, religion, philosophy, metaphysics, and science fiction o The ability to research the shit out of anything using the internet, books, and good old contemplation o The ability to gain a wide, nonjudgmental perspective during conversation and brainstorms o Making unforeseen connections between seemingly unrelated areas of interest o Digesting hard concepts into smaller, simpler ones o The balls and enthusiasm to share my ideas while still listening to others I also got my MCAT scores back. After 550 hours of study, I killed it. Especially when it comes to psychology – I got a perfect score in that section! So here's the final question: What are my plans now? Fool, did you not read anything I wrote? I DO NOT FUCKING KNOW AND THAT’S PERFECTLY AS IT SHOULD BE. (More seriously, I am considering pursuing clinical neuropsychology. Specifically, there’s a chance that I take the energy I would have used on finding a neural correlate of consciousness and use it to figure out the neural correlates of Enlightenment. There seems to be an open niche regarding 5-meo-dmt in research and if I hop in now, I could position myself as the #1 person in the world on the topic of the Science of Enlightenment using 5-meo. See, Martin Ball didn't have Martin Ball to help show Martin Ball the ropes. But I do. I also see the possibility of creating psychedelic integration programs with biofeedback, journaling and zen noting techniques thrown in for the phase in between doses. But until then…) Goodbye Neurosurgery Goodbye Becoming the next Musk Goodbye One-upping my genius ex-girlfriend Hello Unconditional Happiness Hello Darkness, My old friend and Hello Not Knowing, let's see what we come up with today.

Funny how Mind works. I just had an epiphany. For a while my mind has wondered why it's feeling such disturbance and unease, even though I've been pursuing enlightenment for nearly 2 years now. "Hey sam, don't you think some amount of consistant bliss would be pouring in by now, since you do know that all beliefs are bullshit, and that life is absolute infinity." You sly fox. I hadn't really fully acknowledged it, but learning enlightenment and consciousness work brings its own sneaky beliefs along with it. Just because the work is about stripping away beliefs, concepts and assumptions does not by any means mean it does not contain its fair share of beliefs. I actually realized this for myself after experiencing a great plateu in this work. "Why am I stuck?! "Why am I not getting MY tranquil experiences?!" You little trickster... What a sneaky mess you have made...

Salvation in depression (poem attempt) There's a great bliss to the action of sitting with the overwhelming voices of a mind hit by depression. When it hits and everything goes fuzzy, there's no words for what is the real problem but "FUCK OFF!"; That's when you sit; that's when you watch: The twirls and the swoops, The zooms and booms, they're there to bring you bliss; It's a firework show in your mind That only hurts when you resist. Understandably the energy is overwhelming, And can be described as anything but calming. But there's a place behind its shout, That it feels it's pulled you out.. A place of calm, That can't be harmed. Eternal bliss; stillness. It's empty of voice, or anything loud...or anything at all Yet everything's there. From here is where you sit - you've got a front row seat, To the fireworks of fear, That admittedly can give a kind of scary heat. Remember this show is just for you, You've got a wild mind on fire! No one else gets this spectacular view, A head filled with dragons, explosions, magic and pirates. I understand from your point of view, You feel like a pussy, oh yes you do, But look from a place a little higher, And you'll realise Hun, That you're a fucking tiger! So sit with it, be with it, It's truly a sight of wonder. Don't run from it, don't fight with it, It's only a little thunder. An opportunity into God's heavenly cribb; In the jacuzzi of joy you can't miss a cheeky dip, Although if I'm truly honest I will admit, That sometimes depression does feel a little shit.

my experience of benefits: increase in energy, increased focus and concentration, increased bliss, sense of connection, reduced feelings of discontent, relaxation in the body, more joyous creativity should be practiced with wisdom, caution and guidance

I found two great songs by a little-known musician named Stuart Davis. One of them is featured in the Audiobook Kosmic Consciousness with Ken Wilber, which I will put a review of later. Ladder The first song is called "Ladder." It's a lovely song about our personal and species-wide evolution and the natural clash with psychological entropy. That is, as we grow more complex as individuals and as a species, we also have more stuff that can topple us. I've got brains like antique floors I built each one on the one before I use all three but they don't agree One of them wants to love you Another one would love to club you I guess my old natures move like glaciers Chorus: The fish became a lizard The shrew became an ape Will the ape become an angel? The higher that we climb The more the ladder sways I'm the bastard child the one who got the head of Einstein and the soul of Pol Pot there's no compassion but I can split the atom Better give me a microscope for a different eye Better give me a telescope for the inward sky and a ladder leading up from Eden Chorus If Ramana Maharshi came from clay there's more to evolution than a little DNA Cut off the moorings to the inward ark Aiming it into a question mark The fish became a lizard The shrew became an ape will the ape become a Mother Teresa? She came from clay There's more to evolution than a little DNA Personal Commentary: Ladder bases itself off of the integral idea of Holarchy. Holarchies are made out of Holons. A holon refers to the something being both a whole and a part with no actual distinction between itself and other whole/parts other than arbitrary measures. Each holon is a system (or phenomenon) that is an evolving self-organizing dissipative structure, composed of other holons, whose structures exist at a balance point between chaos and order. Higher level holons are always at a more precarious position than lower level holons. This goes for physical objects, ecological systems, psychological stages, social organizations, and even spiritual development. With reference to holarchical human development, Alan Watts serves to help us see the issue: "how is man to be best related to his environment? Especially in circumstances where we are in possession of an extremely powerful technology and have, therefore, the capacity to change our environment far more than anyone else has ever been able to do so. Are we going to end up not by civilizing the world, but by Los-Angelizing it? In other words, are we going to foul our own nest as a result of technology? But all this gets down to—the basic question is, really, what are you going to do if you’re god? If, in other words, you find yourself in charge of the world, through technological powers, and instead of leaving evolution to what we used to call, in the 19th century, the blind processes of nature—that was begging the question, to call them blind—but at any rate, we say, we’re not going to leave evolution to the blind forces of nature but now we’re going to direct it ourselves. Because we are increasingly developing, say, control over genetic systems, control over the nervous system, control over all kinds of systems; uh then, simply, what do you want to do with it?" This song responds to Watts inquiry by pointing out that Perhaps there is a universal Telos. That there is a point to all of this and the despite the hemming and hawing and guffawing that we know as human violence and suffering, it works out in the end such that we become the gods that oversee us. We made a universe that is perfect for ourselves, despite seeming otherwise. Creating Heaven is Heaven. Watts echoes this sentiment at the end of his own lecture. What is your idea of heaven? What would you really like to have happen, if you could make it happen? That’s the first thing that really starts people thinking because you soon realize that a lot of the things you think you would want are not things you want at all. Supposing, just for the sake of illustration, that you had the power to dream every night any dream you wanted to dream. And you could, of course, arrange for one night of dreams to be seventy-five years of objective time, or any number of years of subjective time, what would you do? Well, of course, you’d start out by fulfilling every wish. You would have routs and orgies and uh uh all the most magnificent food and uh sexual partners and everything you could possibly imagine in that direction. When you got tired of that, after several nights, you’d switch a bit, and find yourself involved in adventures, and uh contemplating great works of art, fantastic mathematical conceptions; you would soon be rescuing princesses from dragons, and all sorts of things like that. And then one night you’d say, now look, Tonight what we’re gonna do is, we’re going to forget this dream is a dream. And we’re going to be really uh shocked, and when you woke up from that one you’d say, ‘Oooh, wasn’t that an adventure!’ ----- Nothing In Between The second song is called Nothing in Between. It is a wonderful tome about Nothingness, aka God. There is nothing in between us when we sleep Every night the bliss begins to leak Nothing in between us when we laugh it’s something that our head will never grasp It’s seen in between There’s nothing in between your joy and mine It’s all a lot of nectar on the vine Joy is how my parents were entwined and there’s nothing in between their lives and mine We’ve seen There’s nowhere to hide in the open Reality Love is so wide, there isn’t a boundary There is only one eye without any enemy when you’ve seen in between There’s nothing in between our skin and light Nothing in between the wind and kite Nothing in between our lips and grace Nothing in between the tongue and taste It’s seen (Refrain) There is nothing in between you and I Nothing in between blue and sky Nothing in between us and love Nothing in between wings and doves (Refrain) There is nothing in between Personal Commentary: This song struck me as a great way of pointing to non-distinction. This morning as I meditated using Headspace, I was instructed to feel that the center of creativity deep in my heart. I was then asked to extend my awareness of that center past my chest and to my whole skin. From there I was asked to expand this awareness to the walls around me. From there I extended it to my whole apartment complex... The City of LA... Earth... The Solar System... The Galaxy... The Virgo Cluster... The Laniakea SuperCluster... The whole Observable Universe that seems to form a universal Brain/mind complex... Then I pushed further - I asked what would be beyond that -- where is that universal brain? And I kept pushing outwards to see the next order of fractalization... and what came up was me! That is, I saw that cosmic brain complex residing in my own head or another version of me or maybe an alien or maybe some computer who itself resides in some version of the city of LA which is itself on some version of earth... And so on for all of eternity outwards. And so on for all of eternity inwards as well! Which is to say, I can't describe it as One because it has no end or beginning to its outwardness and inwardness. And to call something one, it must reach an outward and inward end. I could call it zero because it has no ground, but it's clearly here and now. " _____?!?!NOTHING?!?!______ " is all I that can be said about it. There's me = you = everything, which breaks down into ____!?nothing?!?!____ upon further investigation. There's ___!?!nothing?!?____ between physical material and conscious object. There's ___!?!nothing?!?_____ between past and future. It all happens Now - the only place that remains Absolutely unchanged EXCEPT that its also Absolutely Relative as proven by Einstein. There's ___!?!nothing!?___ between me and you. There's just ____!?!nothing??!___ between anything. There is no distinction. There no such thing as a thing-without-some-other-thing which means that there is No thing-other-than-the-whole-thing which means I cannot point to any-one-thing as-itself in-and-of-itself other than ___!?!nothing?!?____ . This is the Holarchical perspective. ---- Putting the ideas of both songs together we can intuit a holarchical ladder with nothing in between. We see an universe of other universes with no part distinct from other parts as it builds itself and destroys itself at the same time - Now - in a fashion that is relative to the timeline of each observer. This universe would: know all from a wide perspective and it would know all from a limited perspective - the one "we" see out of in our everyday understanding. Indeed, in knowing all it would know what it is like to not-know it all. It is from each one of these limited perspectives that the wide perspective gets generated. The manifestation of such wide perspective gives universal purpose. It would be a wild adventure.

Hey guys! So... I finally uncovered my Life Purpose! Thanks @Leo Gura for the course! With that said, being that my life purpose is to be a Running Life Coach, I'm currently living in San Francisco. The running market here in the Bay Area, as someone whose already VERY deep in the running scene (I'm friends with the founder of Hoka ONE ONE, several professional athletes, and have worked in all the niche running specialty stores, and so on and so on, just to give an idea of what I mean by how deep I already am), the problem I see for myself is that the running industry here is so occupied. I mean, it's the Bay Area. I've really been paying attention and listening to my intuition on how I think what's necessary is for me to save up enough money and relocate somewhere. I already don't vibe well with people in the area here. Plus, I've already built up a not-so popular reputation (depending on who you ask I guess) from stupid social mistakes on my part (a common struggle when you're an outspoken person in the most politically correct area in the world). So to sum it up, from my perspective, I think it'd be way too much of a tedious and honestly unnecessary task to try and rebuild an entire new business and reputation and what not given where I'm already located. Plus, again, who I am authentically (plus no enlightenment comments as I'm working on that) really just doesn't vibe well with a lot people here. Plus, for my own mental health, I'm trying to get out of this area as it is because this environment is just so neurotic that it literally drives me up the wall. This fast paced bubble that is the SF Bay Area really just isn't healthy for me. I also love the idea my intuition is feeding me that I'm really best off actually testing out my own training ideas somewhere away from a lot of the masses. I think of it like how Joseph Campbell followed his bliss by retreating into the wilderness and absorbing massive amounts of material from books and such. Like, there's one coach in the history of running from New Zealand that revolutionized training for middle/long-distance running literally through experimenting his training theories on himself. I love that concept. I really don't want to follow the cookie-cutter path by just copying other coaches. I want to learn by working on myself and with others by not just experimenting with different training theories, but also incorporating personal development strategies to increase all the other facets of one's life to create the most fulfilling running career one can have. Hopefully at least some of you are following along so far... If so, I'm impressed ahaha So what I would love to know is, does anyone have some practical wisdom to share on when relocating might be necessary? Another question, if not an even more burning question I have is, what wisdom do any of you guys have to share on how to do research when looking at relocating based around the context of Life Purpose? Anything helps & thanks as always!

Its all a dream-like existence with logic. I've got this realisation, because my dreams have been getting so realistic, that there is absolutely no difference in experience, except that here it is longer and follows certain rules. Tibettan Budhism has a section all about dreams. They are extremely helpful companions and teachers in the Hero's journey. You can make far more spiritual growth within your dreams than in real life exactly because this logic section of mind is switched off. Where infinite potential meet infinite knowing. 0 (0%) is infinite potential, 1(100%) is infinite knowing meet in nonduality, then the Holy True Love relationship is formed. And we experience bliss within the dream.

So you may not completely resonate with the terminology that I use here but I think you will get the idea. Basically, the purpose / reason for LITERALLY ANY human action in life is: TO MAXIMIZE THE QUALITY OF ONE'S CONSCIOUSNESS. And I'm not just talking about awareness like Leo does. I mean that literally every human being on Earth has this very same purpose whether they know it or not. So what do I mean when I say TO MAXIMIZE THE QUALITY OF ONE'S CONSCIOUSNESS? Well, when you are hungry why do you go and eat? Because you want to satisfy your hunger. Simple enough. But what is hunger? It's basically a feeling. This is what I mean when I refer to the quality of your consciousness. Life is just one giant stream of momentary consciousness -- this moment is consciousness, the moment after that also, etc. etc. So when I say "the quality of your life" that's the same thing as saying "the quality of your consciousness." But the quality of your consciousness is not determined by how much money you have, or how skilled you are at something, or how famous you are. It is ONLY determined by the FEELINGS / EMOTIONS / EXPERIENCES you have e.g. your happiness, fulfillment, the passion you experience on a regular basis, the wonder, beauty, and magnificence you are able to see in the world. Even benevolence is done for the same reason -- the joy it will bring when you help the world. Even pursuers of Truth do this for the same reason. They want to KNOW, and to them, satisfying their thirst for Truth is a worthwhile way of maximizing the quality of their consciousness. Plus all of the bliss that might come from that. But this is also why people are protective or even agressive. Because they want to protect something (their body, their property, somethings that's "theirs") which in one way or another contributes to the maximizing of the quality of their consciousness. It's also why they might seek power or fame. Because power lets them manipulate reality easier and fame basically creates the illusion that their worth has increased and because they see themselves as a separate entity in the world, they think that this entity has somehow become more powerful and can therfore influence reality easier and can therefore (in one way or another) maximize the qual. of their consc. The same can be said for almost ant low-consciousness behavior. You just have to analyze it deeply. The only thing that I struggle to fit in this model is SURVIVAL and MAXIMIZING THE LENGHT OF ONE'S LIFE / CONSCIOUSNESS. I mean is that still a way of optimizing one's consciousness -- life (consciousness) is better than death (no consciousness)? This is a long post, I know. But even with a post as long as this one, I couldn't really fully explain all of this theory / model which I honestly believe explains alot! I want to write this on a 5×5 card to read every day -- like a mission statement: My purpose in life is to: MAXIMIZE THE QUALITY OF MY CONSCIOUSNESS. I think it would be a great idea. What do you think? Do you think this theory is sound?

@Spiral @deadforever @art @Siv Hey! If you're up for it, post your information about you and your journey. Maybe you find some likeminded friends a long the way that lives close by. Fredrik Andersson Age: 28 Gender: Male Location: Sweden (born) Marital status: Single Kids : No (and don't want kids) Occupation : recently quit my job (carpenter). Hobbies : personal development, positive psychology, writing (poetry, rap, speeches etc), movies, women, marketing, projects, motivation and making music. Challenges i've overcome so far. Hard addiction: Drugs, mostly marijuana, valium and pain pills (5 years addiction) Quitted aug 5 2015 (two years free). Sorting out toxic relationships. Be able to cry, both from happiness and grief. Trying to be like someone else rather than working to discover YOUR authentic self. (Leo's trap list) Assuming that successful people, like your favorite role-models, celebrities, professors, CEOs, etc are happy (Leo's trap list) Working a job/career just for the money (Leo's trap list) Consuming mainstream media. Not realizing how toxic modern media and entertainment is. (Leo's trap list) Expecting people close to you to understand and support your efforts to grow. (Leo's trap list) Personal challenges I'm trying to overcome (more long term). Stress (trying to change too much too fast. Lack of focus) Prioritize How to deal with emotions (Distracting myrself from facing emptiness, negative emotions, loneliness, and ego backlashes). Procrastination Chasing quick-fixes. Not wanting to explore issues deeply or solve problems at their root. (Leo's trap list) Balance: Money-Follow dreams. (trying to find a way to pay ends meat with out selling my soul until I find out whats true for me) Not having a big vision for my life. Quitting when emotional upheaval surfaces. (Leo's trap list) Letting yourself get lulled back to sleep by our toxic and indifferent culture. (Leo's trap list) What Im working on now: Life Purpose Course + Books (Right now on So good they can't ignore you By Cal Newport) Follow my bliss and see where it leads me Stress (using/learning to implement baby-stepping strategy) + KBT sessions about the roots of my stress. Actualized.org/start Introduction part Not reading, not learning, not doing enough research. (Leo's trap list) Dealing with sorting out low consciousness/egotistical choices from my life (mostly girls) Limiting believes (mostly about quitting bad habits, hard addictions like nicotine and porn, and soft ones like external affirmations)

I remember reading somewhere that for your oversoul the entirety of your life going by is like a second for the oversoul...this relation between psychological time and attention is interesting for me. time is very complex and interesting, time can go by faster and yet the same time can be more abundant. That's the thing with enlightenment, time seems to go by faster, and at the same time it is going by slower. the quantitative property of time passing by, the feeling of how ''fast'' time goes by in my opinion has to do with ''smoothness''. If you're unhappy time doesn't go by smoothly, obviously. If you're happy, this smoothness, this gliding of time comes in. But this gliding of time doesn't mean time is going by faster, it is just that you're not paying attention to the passing of time, you're outside of time so to speak. Those magic times when you're really happy, they are filled with more details and events, because that's why you're so happy, what makes you happy are incredible things, they're filled with these immense experiences. So even though you experience more then ever, you go through so much crazy happy stuff, you lose your relationship to time. doesn't anyone else experience this? when you're really having fun time you get into this trance and suddenly it's over, you notice time flew by. but it didn't fly by, actually you went through so much stuff being happy, what we experience is a loss of the concept of time. this bond between happiness and loss of relationship to time is important. we live in a made-up world of time, of past and future. When we're genuinely happy we get pulled out of that illusion, because happiness pulls us in the present moment, because happiness is in the present moment, in the ''now'' so to speak. We all through enlightenment aim for the ultimate happiness, the end of suffering forever, we aim to live in bliss and happiness. This does mean though, that we're aiming for a place outside of our world of time. If we live our lives in bliss and happiness...in consequence our lives will go by in the blink of an eye. We'd enter the truth of the world, where everything happens now. This is why death is such a major key in enlightenment. You cannot attain this heavenly happiness if you're afraid to die. Because deep down you'll be afraid to step outside the world of time, and to be literally racing head-on towards your death at thousand miles an hour. The fear of death is what sustains this world of time. It's what sustains the past and the future. The implication of being truely, genuinely happy, to live in the present moment in bliss is that there is no time,you cannot keep track of your death, you cannot keep track of your life, you cannot shield yourself from death nor can you see it coming in any way. you cannot predict or look out for it....it is coming to you with absolute certainty, it's as if it's practically there around the corner,and if you are genuinely outside of time it is there. everything happens now the best way to put iit s that you're genuinely happy you're falling of a cliff straight towards the ground which is death and as long as you have a problem with that you can't be in that place. the degree in which we fear death is the degree to which we cannot attain true happiness, we cannot step outside of time. It has to be said that and I'm starting to see this, is that to live in time and suffering, is to delay your death. if you're suffering time goes by slowly and you get to sorta stay put. this to me seems to be what most of us get out of living in the past and the future. We get to watch out for death, we get to stay far away from it. we're getting something out of not being enlightened and it has to be recognized so that we can work on overcoming this shield of comfort made out of time, just to protect us from death. to be enlightened is to really die, ultimate happiness goes hand in hand with death. if you're ready to die, you're ready to really be happy

@Moreira The observer is a good thing, or place to be along the path. No association with the mind's concepts, with all the traps. Good place to be. But the no thing is in your question already - when you say "If we are no thing, who is aware", the no thing, the pure center of love itself, is the "is" in your statement. It just is. And of course, it isn't. It's no thing, as in, we are familiar with "things"; chairs, fruit, gravity - it is nothing like anything thing at all. You reach the last point of no thing (pure unabashed love and bliss) by letting go of everything else; preferences, choices, perspective, concepts, etc.

Feeling emotional, as if I'm about to cry, the feeling is just lingering around the throat and upper mouth area, it feels like there is an emotional tsunami waiting to be unleashed any time. Was thinking how I wanted to incorporate humor into my youtube videos and came up with some funny things which made me laugh during the morning's yoga class. Then, thought up of some more really funny stuff while contemplating at home and made myself laugh hard enough to make tears come out of my eyes. Wow! I haven't laughed so much in a long time, it feels like things are really starting to move, also the usual lingering anger in the throat is very subtle and only shows up once in a while. Been contemplating if I wanted to still do anything with Clever Techie channel, was re-watching a lot of those videos and realized how well made they are, so I praised myself for being able to make all these videos before my first mystical mushroom experience and before I embarked on this sage-like personal development journey. I've struggled with the decision for a long time now, but I finally decided to 100% quit Clever Techie channel and fully pursue We are One because this is my true bliss and I'm going to follow it.

@Telepresent you are the box in your avatar pic. The box is implied. Only implied. It is no-thing. IMO, you are going in the right direction. 'I am not my body' - is a big step. Currently, however, you seem to be identifying as your brain / thinking / thoughts. The next big step is becoming aware that you are not your thoughts - and then next step after that is that there is no "you" which has thoughts / no observer which observes the thoughts. There is no-thing, which we all are, through us / which has awareness. See how "we are all One"? No souls, no heaven & hell, no observer - just the one no-thing. (The one no-thing is pure love & bliss btw, yet also no-thing at all) (also, imo, it has an incredible sense of humor, and also is no-thing) To detach from your thoughts, which allows the next breakthrough, you must get started putting the focus in, doing the meditation. Continue the self inquiry. Start eating vegan. Excercising. Then you'll be feeling great. Assimilate the habit of breathing awareness 24/7 & BEING IN THE NOW. Past & future are merely thoughts in the now. Look at all things and say "that's not me".......Then try shrooms. Research it! You'll breakthrough. Continue that "path" of no path, and you're on your way to nothingness. (And it's fucking awesome, no fear, no doubt, everything makes sense, love pours out of you all day, miracles happen, birds chirp to you, water feels like a kindred spirit / best friend, people come out of the wood work with opportunities for you, funny is funnier, crazy is crazier!!! Animals will literally walk out of the woods and gaze into your eyes while you both experience - that you are no thing, Beautiful is true beauty itself, the stars pop right into place every time you look at them!, IT REALLY GETS AMAZING TELLY!! ....also...it's also no thing, plus, you'll be CRAZY!????)

Well, considering how @Leo Gura has mentioned that he's writing a book (which I'll be first in line for as soon as it comes out), I might as well get more of my own stuff out there so no one thinks I'm copying. Also, I can't emphasize how much writing helps. In particular, writing basically eliminates the monkey mind 'problem' by giving your mind a rubik's cube to solve -- how to describe whatever it is you want to describe. Anyway, here's another section: How to use this book - The Nature of Enlightenment “The most profound insights arise from questioning the overlooked obvious” – Peter Ralston 260 BC - Hiero’s new crown pleased him. To celebrate his long climb to the top of royalty, he’d appointed a goldsmith to make him the most beautiful wreath ever as a message to everyone else. After weeks of work, the goldsmith produced a masterpiece - a wreath truly worthy of the gods. Indeed, it seemed no mortal man could have produced such a wreath. The commoners began rumors that the king’s wreath was not made out of gold, but silver, which is much easier to work with. Heiro could not stand such scandal. He might as well have been a king without a crown. So, he held a public trial for the Goldsmith and the crown. If the crown was made out of gold, the Goldsmith would be awarded with even greater money than before and Heiro would look like a just, benevolent ruler. If not, the Goldsmith would be tortured in front of the city as a warning to anyone who tried to mess with royalty. The goldsmith’s talent ran in the family, as exemplified by his cousin Archimedes. Not only did Archimedes use calculus to prove the area of the circle 2,000 years before the actual invention of calculus, but he also invented hydrostatics and the compound pulley. For this reason, Archimedes was the first person the goldsmith went to for help. “I have two days before they kill me!” the goldsmith cried to Archimedes, “I don’t know how to prove to the king that the crown is made out of gold other than destroying it and showing him the insides. But I can’t destroy my life’s work – we all know the gods would punish me for doing so! Then again, I don’t want to die for my masterpiece, either!” Archimedes got to work immediately. Prior experience told him that gold and silver had different weights at the same overall size. If he could figure out the size of the crown, then he could compare it to the a known amount of pure gold of the same size to tell if it was real. But there was a problem: up to that point in history, no one could figure out how to measure the volume of an object with an irregular shape. I mean just look at the thing - do you sacrifice accuracy by using a big ruler, or do you waste time by using a tiny ruler, one which will still contain inaccuracies? Archimedes spent all day and night trying to come up with solution to this issue. Alas, nothing worked. Dejected, Archimedes went to take what he knew was to be his final bath before the king killed his cousin and then killed him for helping a traitor like his cousin. As he stepped into the bath, Archimedes noticed that the water level rose. As he got his whole body in, it approached the top of the bath itself. And when he placed his arm in the water, some of it splashed out the sides. At that moment, insight struck him: the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. "Eureka! Eureka! (I found it! I found it!)" Proclaimed Archimedes. Eager to share his discovery, Archimedes leapt out of his bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked telling everyone of his discovery. ---- Most people think of this Eureka moment as happening in an instant. This is only partially true. See, Insights transcend the term “slow” and “fast,” existing in an nigh-unknowable plane of hidden mystical awareness. Insights are partially “slow” because they usually need time to incubate. Like Archimedes, you need: · Previous experiences that give you lessons · Time spent concentrating and contemplating over a topic · And a little bit of mental relaxation for ideas to float in. But once you build the correct scaffolding, insights seem to come out of nowhere and they do so almost instantly. The key is to recognize that this is different from thinking. Thinking usually involves a step by step series of problem solving. That takes too long. Direct Insight - involves an actual recognition of something. When you open your mind to the new possibilities, there’s a sudden shift in perspective where that which didn’t seem to exist suddenly exists. Again, the truth is that nothing changes: you simply realize that which was always there in the first place. Archimedes didn’t invent the fact that you can measure density using water, he discovered a fact that was always there. The same is true for enlightenment. Except you probably don’t realize that yet. In particular, you think you can’t become enlightened or haven’t already had Enlightments. This is because of shit marketing tactics and the natural human tendency to not investigate things on ones own with open-mindedness. See, like Archimedes, you too will be partially tempted to run around naked telling everyone of the Absolute Truth. Its just too obvious and too amazing not to. On the other hand, the answer is so simple, you’re not going to want to say anything. After meditating for 42 days and realizing enlightenment, Siddartha said “I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled Enlightenment,” Immediately afterwards, Siddartha, now the Buddha, went off to the mountains to live alone. He figured there was just no way anyone would get it if he talked about what it is he ‘got’ because there was just nothing to say. After a while, however, people started begging him for help. They’d heard of his enlightenment and wanted a piece of it for themselves. He refused to budge. One day, someone pointed out that if he were to help, then eventually, someone would ‘get it.’ With the hope that just someone somewhere might get it, he began teaching. His first teaching consisted of sitting silently while he stared at the crowd. This continued for a few years, much to everyone’s frustration. His second teaching consisted of telling everyone that he was not a teacher, no one should quote him, and that nothing he was about to say was actually true. This continued for a few years, much to everyone’s frustration. His third teaching consisted of telling everyone to stop relying on teachers and to see the truth for themselves. This continued for a few years, much to everyone’s frustration. After a while, he gave up on that and started alluding to regular sensory experiences to try to point out what’s up with reality. Now everyone was happy. Unlike the density of an object, the Absolute Truth cannot be spoken. At best, the Absolute Truth can be pointed to with analogies and stories. When egos run upon these stories its up to them to see what’s being pointed to on their own. And the problem with that is that egos exist in almost direct opposition to the truth: you are immortal, infinite, and omnipotent; the ego convinces you that you are mortal, finite, and of limited potential. Moreover, the only way for you to ‘get that you’re immortal is that the ego has to go away long enough for you to see that yes, you really are immortal. To the ego, going away equates to death. That is, in all seriousness, to become immortal you have to die. You can see how this could create problems. Mainly, one faces the question of how to convince people to go on an inward journey even though they think they have a bunch of stuff going on outside themselves. The next question is how you are going to get them to kill what-they-think-of-as-themselves without having them literally take a knife and slit their wrists. Intro to Marketing 101: You tell them it’s more worth their time than anything else. You tell them enlightenment is this grandiose thing filled with extra universes and heavenly figures and eternal bliss. You tell them that its some near impossible journey only taken by heroes, legends, and gods and that they are brave for starting such a journey. You tell them that it costs no money and that by even beginning to ask about enlightenment, it’s their destiny to attain it. Oops, my bad. I got ahead of myself. That’s not marketing 101. That’s Intro to Marketing 100: fucking lie to them. Tell them something that’s true, but not really. Tell them just enough that they feel happy enough to spread the word, but just enough that everyone else can accept easily. Don’t tell them the whole truth because the whole fucking truth cannot actually be told. Turn the Truth into a meme. Make it something that follows the SUCCES model of making lessons stick: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Storied. Don’t make people think too hard – their own biology prevents them from doing so. Tell them that Jesus died on the cross for you to tell you that you are a child of God. The Buddha sat under a tree to figure out that when he became enlightened, everyone became enlightened because he is the same as everyone anyway. Krishna has your back as long as you focus on doing you and becoming the best person you can. Yes, it's true, but no, it's not at all what you think it actually is because the truth is far more nuanced yet simple at the same time. Think about it: for basically everything in life, we need previous experiences and understandings before we can accept new experiences and understandings, but for the Absolute Truth, we must find something that rests on absolutely no prior experience or understanding for it is that which is prior to all experiences and understandings. Most people can barely get past the first layer of questioning themselves when you ask them why they do the things they do. Forget the second layer. And Fuck the third layer, that one’s impossible. Enlightenment, on the other hand, literally requires coming up with the answer to an infinite regression of questions. Do you really think people are going to do sit down and do this for no reason? And yet what’s Absolutely Hilarious – the Kosmic Joke - is that everyone can do it. I mean it. I really mean it. I really really mean it. That’s what drives some enlightened people insane. They can’t help but do something to let everyone know what’s up. Put it this way: a few months ago, I went to watch my 5-year-old cousin play T-ball. In case you didn’t know (or otherwise didn’t have a childhood growing up cough), T-ball is a form of baseball where, instead of having people throw the ball at the batter, the ball would sit on a mount, absolutely motionless and easily available to knock out of the park. It’s supposed to be so easy, even a 5-year-old kid could do it. To my amusement, the kids would take a swing and totally miss. Sometimes, they’d line up to bat looking in the wrong direction, as if they were going to hit the ball into the fence behind them. It was the cutest thing ever. You too would think to yourself how is this possible? But you couldn’t run onto the field and play T-ball for them. They have to figure it out on their own. This is the feeling I get when it comes to discussions about nature of enlightenment. Its like Humanity has basically been stuck in a 10,000 year old Abbott and Costello Who’s on first skit that mixes the words you, nothing, truth, infinity, god, allah, the higgs boson field, the universe, simulation theory, consciousness, and " " (wordless expression). Everyone’s talking about the same thing, but every time someone kind of gets it, they proceed to get mad at everyone else for being 'wrong,' even though they’re basically just as wrong and just as right. Human nature is basically a process of spiraling from one description to the other, flipping off the other descriptions until you realize that they're all capital-I 'It' masking itself through words. ----- We’ve all had insights. And so, part of us gets why Archimedes ran around naked. We also know that when we have insights they kind of just strike us out of nowhere. In particular, we have to try really really hard and then, just let go and take a nice bath to clear your mind. Now I want you to imagine that you can have an insight into the biggest questions of life. If you’re not sure what questions those are, let me get you started: 1. What is consciousness? 2. Does God exist? 3. Is our universe real? Are we in a simulation? 4. Do we have free will? 5. What is the universe made of? 6. What is Truth? How do I know what is right or wrong? 7. Why is there something rather than nothing? 8. How do we stop ourselves and the universe around us from dying? (Foreshadow: How do you prevent the 2nd law of thermodynamics from taking us over?) 9. How did life begin? 10. Are we alone in the universe? Both us as individuals and humans as a species? 11. What makes us human? Why? 12. Why do we dream? 13. Can you really experience anything objectively? 14. Why is there stuff? 15. Are there other universes? 16. Why is math so accurate? What are numbers? 17. What is at the bottom of a black hole? 18. Is time travel possible? 19. What will be the fate of our species? Our universe? 20. Why is the universe so exquisitely balanced such that life can exist? 21. Is there life after death? 22. What is the meaning of life? 23. What is beauty? 24. What am I supposed to do with my life? This is the type of stuff that enlightenment refers to. I’m not exaggerating. You can answer all of these with the same insight: The Absolute Truth = Consciousness = You = Pure Awareness = Absolute Infinity = Pure Imagination = The Universe = God = Nothing = Everything = All = Zero/Zero = “ “ (there is no actual word for it) So without further ado, here’s what enlightenment is: Enlightenment is insight to the Absolute Truth. It is direct consciousness of what-is as-it-is for-itself as-itself. It is insight into that which is Absolutely True about the nature of reality, the nature of the self, and the nature of existence. Here are other clarifications: · It is NOT something that happens only once -- You can keep having insights that go deeper and deeper into the same subject: Absolute truth, the same way you can view a diamond form many angles. · It is NOT strictly Either-or -- Although yes, the insight itself is either-or, you may have different glimpses of insight at different moments such that you awaken more to the truth just like you get better at using the multiplication table once you understand it and begin to apply it in new ways. · It is NOT the same as personal transformation -- The truth specifically does not change and transformation is, by definition, change. What happens is that the truth allows you to have a significantly easier time changing your behavioral patterns. · It is NOT impossible -- If anything its pretty easy once you set up the proper mental and physical systems for attaining insight. You can definitely do it! And once you know what to generally look for, insights will start coming by the boat load. · It is NOT 'eternal bliss, no matter what' -- Sorry kid, you’re always going to have problems as long as you live the life of a human. Thats just what we do - make up problems for ourselves. In fact, trying to go for eternal bliss will probably just cause more suffering. As Rick Sanchez once said, "you want to *burp* rip that band-aid off now. You'll thank me later" · It is NOT Something you perceive, in particular it must involve some out-of-this-world emotional, sensational, or physical experience; nope, the world basically stays the same. -- Put it this way: intuitively grasping the Pythagorean theorem makes math more beautiful, but its not like your paper flew out of the room and turn into an angel. (Sidenote: I admit however, that if you saw your paper fly out of the room and turn into an angel, it would probably make enlightenment easier.) · It is NOT unavailable to you now -- Enlightenment is always and only available NOW. Stop waiting for it to happen in the future. Enlightenment is available at any point, and at any time the way insight is always available to Archimedes. Open your mind up to possibilities and allow for impossibilities. It will be almost like an "aha!" moment, but it won't actually require thinking other than focused contemplation mixed with some looseness from psychedelics or simple relaxation. What we're looking for requires recognition, which seems like thinking, but it's an entirely different mode of perception. Its like when you cross your eyes to look at one of those 3D puzzles and boom it just pops out: reality is neither matter nor hallucination - it just kind of is and it is all and you are its source and you are all and you are everyone and everyone is all which means that it is no one person except that it is all one person. Trust me, that last sentence will make sense as soon as you 'get it.' Maybe this section of this book will make you ‘get it’. Maybe another section will. Maybe it will take a re-reading. Maybe, you’ll get it while taking a bath 60 years down the line. Be ready. Be aware. Be open. Enlightenment will mean the end of your journey. You’ll be done. You’ll just know. Pure and simple. You’ll understand why it is that some of the things that have been marketed to you the way that they’ve been marketed to you. That is, you’ll begin to see that them as partially true, and in some cases, totally possible accounts of reality. You’ll to see them as partially wrong, and in some cases, totally impossible accounts of reality. Heaven Exists, but it’s not what you think of. The Gates of Heaven Exist too, but the Gate is a Gateless Gate. The implications of the existence of absolute truth as nothing but pure indistinct imagination are so crazy, yet elegant, so chaotic, yet simple it will blow your fucking mind. Enlightenment will also mean the beginning of your journey. You’ll find yourself on your knees, trying to pick up pieces of your mind back up off the floor from having been blown to bits. This will take the rest of your lifetime. And If you’re at all curious like me, your first enlightenment will just make you want to have more enlightenments. Everyone knows that One answer begets five more questions. This is just as true for The One Answer. Enlightenment will also mean that that there is no beginning – there is no end. Life itself becomes this never-ending series of insights to be had about the same thing - you. Everywhere you look at becomes a series of clues, all pointing to final puzzle piece that restarts the whole puzzle - Everything. Except that the puzzle is infinitely big and infinitely small and infinitely long and infinitely wide and so it doesn’t even have a final piece - Nothing. As you might imagine, this makes every day inexplicably exciting and full of wonder of some greater force – God. ----- Archimedes didn’t stop working on mathematics after helping his cousin. He began wondering about the nature of circles, for he intuited that circles held a view of the Absolute Truth. While he worked on this problem over the next few years, the Roman Empire toppled the Greek Empire. Archimedes barely noticed as his house got stripped away and the Romans forced him to live on the streets. It didn’t matter if he was Greek or Roman – that stuff was all relative. It only mattered that he find the Absolute Truth. One day, a high-ranking Roman soldier came up to Archimedes as he sat on the road drawing circles. The soldier commanded him to make way for the passing Roman guard. But Archimedes, in the middle of solving a problem involving circles, refused to budge. The soldier grew enraged – for what reason does this poor old Greek commoner disobey his commands? “Nothing,” Archimedes replied, “Don’t disturb my circles.” The soldier promptly ran through Archimedes with his sword. Archimedes had good reason to not move. ---- The Main Point: Enlightenment = insight to the nature of nature itself. No more, no less. Focus, relax, boom.

Just looking at them playing is a bliss in itself. When they talk to me or play with me, it's even more palpable, the emotion is just too strong. I guess it's because they still experience life freely in their mind, which makes them vibrate way more than adults. They don't think about the future, they say exactly what they think, they use their imagination all the time, and of course they engage life fully without any fear. Yeah, that's seems pretty similar to something else RIGHT ? The goal isn't to become a responsible adult, no, it's to become a child who's fully engage in the thing he love the most.

Name: Fredrik (Fred) Age: 28 Gender: Male Location: Sweden (born) Marital status: Single Kids : No (and don't want kids) Occupation : recently quit my job (carpenter) Hobbies : personal development, positive psychology, writing (poetry, rap, speeches etc), movies, women, marketing, projects, motivation and making music: Personal challenges I'm trying to overcome: Stress Prioritize How to deal with emotions Procrastination Balance: Money-Follow dreams What Im working on now: Follow my bliss and see where it leads me My PD (Actualized.org- Life Purpose Course) + Books and KBT AFC trying to understand Men+Women (mostly the "how to meet someone out of the blue" part Success Motivation My career

You take LSD or some other drug, and there are lightning experiences. Consciousness is simply waiting and watching. It simply says, "Look, beautiful things are happening," but they are not happening to consciousness. The spiritual growth is the growth of this witnessing! The spiritual growth has nothing to do with particular experiences. The spiritual growth is not a search for novel experiences. Spirituality has nothing to do with experiences as such. In fact to say any experience is 'spiritual experience' is utterly wrong, because all experiences are non-spiritual. THE EXPERIENCER IS THE SPIRIT. The witness is the only spiritual phenomenon. When all experiences have disappeared - of hunger, of satiety, of anger, of release, of love, of hate, of kundalini arising in you, chakras opening in you, lotuses opening in you, lights showering in you; celestial music is heard, you feel great space, you feel joy, you feel bliss, but these are all experiences - the real spiritual point is when there is NO experience, and the experiencer is left alone, utterly alone. There is no object to experience, but only this witness is there, silently witnessing nothing. Then you have arrived. Osho ~ The Wisdom of the Sands Volume 1

I’m really happy that my life is giving me more and more moments of joy and love, with no apparent cause. All of the sudden, I get waves of love and bliss, I smile and walk in the park smiling, radiant, fresh and alive. My interactions feel much more alive and authentic and my overall emotional-life quality has boosted a lot. Before, it would be very difficult to have moments of pure joy and love with all the inner-criticism, judgments and emotional baggage. After 10 months of meditating and learning very powerful techniques such as Letting Go, I feel that I’m now growing in the right direction and I’m on track. I’m so grateful for having been exposed and taken advantage of all the wisdom that Leo Gura and other teachers have presented to us. Much love for all of them. The practices and teachings that definitely helped me the most along this path (some were discovered intuitively) were the following: Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender by David Hawkins Do Nothing Meditation + SDS (Leo has videos on this) Prioritizing full-body awareness Prioritizing releasing thoughts (yes, I try not to engage in thought anymore, only when really needed, which is almost never) Concentration Practice (Leo has videos on this) Journaling Disengage from lower-energy activities (read Levels of Energy by Frederick Dodson) Self-Inquiry (this shit is magical, use it with Letting Go) Please share the love guys! Love you.

Long time ago I watched your guided No-self experience and trust me I experienced true peace and bliss. I discovered that what prevents me from hapiness is having duties, obligations, and social conditioning. I felt like when I was born that didnt had yet any past and future and I was free. Thats why I see living in nature, minimalist, in a relative financial freedom will take me to the same state of contentment when I was I kid and didnt had to fit in the matrix working every day, paying taxes and in general forced to do and be who I'm not.

Recently a friend of mine invited me to a skype conversation with about 5-6 people in it Where I could I chipped in giving my discourse on topics that were being discussed. (Shallow discussion) And I pushed some topics regarding what is wrong with the society we live in, that life does not have to be shallow and being a human being can be so much more than the current notions of what life is for a person (a mediocre life that is). I also pushed some stoic ideals (such as to live in accordance with nature, to hate another person is not in accordance with nature and that we were born to work together and to love mankind/one another.) An indivdual was interested in why I had the views I had. So we had an hour long skype call in which we debated -Whether or not people are born"bad". In which she thought people were born bad and I did not. -Whether or not life was inherently "shit" -What is a system (definition wars) - Is "Ignorance is bliss" a truth. (I argued against this) Through the entire course of the argument. She had she geuinely beleived the following beleifs as truth. -People are born assholes/bad. -Life is inherently shit and miserable with highlights of joy here and there. -Ignorance is bliss relative to living a good life. -That life is just bad and "It's just life" mentality argument regarding the unfairness and evil in life. She also mentioned earlier in the conversation she was communist when she was joking around by randomly saying "Heil Hitler" and then "nah mate I am a comie" In which a joked back "I am stalin man myself" "Gulag or go home." After I asked whether the following statements were true "People are born assholes, Life is Inherently shit. And Ignorance is bliss" And after she said that she beleived all these to be true I said she was full of shit. (I am apologise if that was close-minded and shallow in itself to say that an opposing opinion is "full of shit" but I do not think you get 3 statements that are more anti-actualization then the ones she said.) The argument shocked me. Just wow. I thought I had seen the most shallow people already in my school , where in most people I encounter have this "I dont care about the big picture of living , my grand goal in life , or the progression of society. I only care about my own happiness, I only care about the short term and whatever I can do to squirm to achieve some of that instant gratification" But this was something else, this 15-16 year old genuinely believed "ignorance is bliss". How long is until all the shallow masses adopt this beleif? Ignorance is bliss sound like something out of George Orwell 1984. It was a good a good debate for 20 minutes, but then it degraded into abstract argument and she began bringing up pieces of history I did not know much about such as the vietnam war and saying thing such as x y z generals who were stupid for doing a b c , and began spewing out a bunch of facts I would of had to beleive to be true to make the argument work. So I then objected to her use of refering un-briefly to history in arguments against a person who does not know that piece of history well. How was I know what she was saying was true about the vietnam war? After the argument was over I posted a varation of the above in the groups conversation and added at the end "Good argument, but not cigar" as I extracted barely any value from it. Soon after she kicked me from the group. Is Humanity doomed to be shallow? Are debates even worth getting into. i starting a debate worth it? -