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Note: This document is a work-in-progress and will be improved and supplemented over time. ----------------------- So you wanna become enlightened, eh? Good! That's where this journey starts. A burning desire for TRUTH is essential to success in this. Don't let people confuse you with talk of how "desire is bad", "seeking is delusion". No! Seeking is essential to breakthrough. Don't burn your ship before you've crossed the ocean! That would be foolish. Rather than filling your mind with beliefs and ideas about enlightenment, let me give you a bare-bones structure for how to actually make progress towards enlightenment. There are at least 20 totally different ways that I know for how to get enlightened. What I'm going to share with you here is just ONE way out of dozens. It is however a very direct way. This method is highly effective. It may not work for everyone, but then again, no method works for everyone. I call this method self-observation or Leo's version of self-inquiry. "Self-inquiry" as classically taught by Ramana Maharishi is technically different. Anyways... First, let's be very clear what we're talking about when we speak of enlightenment. So... What this basically means is that YOU are deeply confused about who you think you are. Right now you think that you're a human being, sitting there, reading this text on your screen. This is false. Pure fantasy. You are in fact not that thing at all. What we have here is a case of mistaken identity. You think you're a body, but you're not. You think you're a mind, but you're not. You think you're an entity living inside your head, but you're not. You think you are a physical object but you are not! Take a moment to seriously consider the magnitude of my claim. IF I happen to be right, and you happen to be wrong, then what that means is: you are NOT a human being, or even a physical object! Not metaphorically-speaking; not as some philosophical curiosity; but literally! How could such an outrageous thing be possible?????? How could you be mistaken about what you actually are????? Very easily actually! Recall how you've met people in your life who you knew were indoctrinated from birth with silly religious beliefs about Jesus and all sorts of other nonsense. Recall how little children believe that Santa Claus exists because they don't know any better. Recall how terrorists believe they are killing civilians in the name of Allah and will go to heaven with 72 virgins waiting for them. Recall how racists insist they are right for persecuting minorities. Well... here's something you're not gonna like hearing: that same delusion mechanism which existed in them, is operating FULL-FORCE within you right now! Yup! You too have been indoctrinated by ignorant parents and teachers from birth into believing a fairy-tale. Except in this case, the indoctrinated idea was: you are a human being. What a mind fuck! Now, in this work of "self-observation", you will discover -- for yourself -- what you REALLY are. Important: I am not asking you to believe me. You will have to demonstrate empirically, for yourself, that what I say is accurate. You can be skeptical all you want here. It won't upset me. "Okay" you say. "So what am I then if I'm not a human being or a physical object?" Great question! Sorry to tell you this, but your ENTIRE identity and life story is just a giant optical illusion. Like this non-existent triangle: There's nothing really there! Although it sure seems convincing, doesn't it? The problem is that you cannot know what you are rationally or logically because the mind is the source of the confusion. See.... No matter how cleverly or deeply or long you think, all the mind can ever do is symbolize stuff. It can only create maps and models. But you are not a symbol or a map or a model! You are not an idea or a thought! So you have to directly experience what you are. This MAY take months or years of very careful self-investigation. Note: I am saying that you have NEVER IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE ever experienced yourself before! You've only experienced phenomena, none of which is essentially YOU! So what is this mysterious "essential you"? Let me spoil the surprise because otherwise you will waste YEARS searching in the wrong places, thinking you've found yourself when you really just found another false belief. So... as directly as possible now: the entity who thinks it's reading this sentence does NOT exist! Again, please try to fathom the magnitude of what is being said. This is extremely radical (but nevertheless true). Since you are pure awareness, all your focus goes toward shining "light" on sensory phenomena so it's really hard to "see" yourself. Pure awareness is very subtle, which means you have to develop extraordinary mindfulness abilities to "see" yourself. "But Leo?! You can't be serious! This sounds like a crazy New Age hippy conspiracy!" Let me assure you it's not. I am no hippy. I'm probably more rational and logical than you are. But I do recognize the limits of logic and rationality. The problem here is that you've been so brainwashed by society that what I'm telling you right now sounds crazy. That's okay. Just keep your mind open to the possibility that what I'm claiming can be directly verified by you. Nothing here has to be believed. But you do have to be willing to take it on as a temporary hypothesis to be verified or falsified. Leo's Patented () Step-By-Step Process To Become Enlightened: Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit alone. (You don't need to sit cross-legged.) Turn off your smart phone and disconnect from all distractions Set a digital timer for 60 minutes Now sit silently and start to genuinely wonder: "What am I if I'm not the body?" Do NOT meditate! Sit and carefully observe your direct experience. Notice that direct experience is THE ONLY THING you have of reality. Nothing else is real. Realizing this should make you very "present". Try to locate yourself within direct experience. Be very specific and clear with yourself: What are you? Are you a foot? A hand? A face? A mind? A brain? The envelop of the skin? The picture of yourself in the mind's eye? A feeling in the chest? What? Seriously! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU????????????? Notice that anything you might point to as being "your true self" cannot be true, because that's just another experience arising. Here's the logic of it: Firstly, it isn't constant. It fades in and out throughout the day, so it cannot be you. Secondly, you are observing it, so it cannot be you because "you" are the one doing the observation. So again, WHAT ARE YOU? Open your mind to the possibility that you are mistaken about being a human body or mind. Just sit there and keep genuinely wondering about what you really could be. Try to locate the one who's perceiving things. Do not philosophize or come up with theories. Focus 100% on what your direct experience is telling you. This is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL!!!!!!!! The bulk of the work happens right here at this step. You have to slowly become aware that all your thoughts and ideas and feelings about "you" are not really you. They are just symbols and stories. For example: notice that the image of your body that you have in your mind is NOT actually your body! It's just an image! And the same goes for the feelings that make up your body. Those feelings are real, but they are not actually you! As any theories arise of what you think you are, notice that what that is, is a thought! And no thought can be you because you are the one perceiving the thought, and also because your existence does not depend on any particular thought's existence. Notice you don't cease to exist in between thoughts. Just sit and keep doing this for 60 minutes without getting distracted in irrelevant thoughts. As your mind wanders off track (and it will wander a lot) don't beat yourself up. Just bring your focus back on the self-observation. After 60 minutes, stop and notice what happened. Notice if your mind feels "elevated" or more aware. Frustration and confusion are OF COURSE going to arise. Do NOT be discouraged by frustration or confusion. Believe it or not, these are signs of progress. Do not expect instant results. You must be very methodical and patient like a crocodile. Repeat this process every day for at least 60 minutes for the next few months. Be very patient. It will take several months just to start to get your bearings straight. And by that I don't mean you will become enlightened. I mean you merely begin to realize the magnitude of your ignorance. In this time span of 3 months -- let's say -- you will get a strong sense that it really isn't possible to locate yourself. This may seem like you've failed, but actually this is a huge advance. Now you've finally started to realize that you've never really met yourself before. Now the journey towards enlightenment can begin in earnest! Just keep doing the process without discouragement. At some point, your mind will crack and you will surrender to the realization that there's no one home. That life has always run with you. And BAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!!! Enlightenment has occurred! Notice, I did not say YOU got enlightened. Rather, enlightenment has occurred. So who got enlightened? No one. Tips For Self-Observation: Don't just do this process mechanically, you MUST be genuinely curious about the truth of what you are. Try to establish a daily habit of self-observation. You need to build consistency and momentum. Be very careful about coming up with theories about what you are. We don't care about theories here. Every theory is NOT it. We only care about direct experience. REPEAT: ALL THEORIES AND IDEAS ARE DISTRACTIONS! Spend time asking yourself who you really believe that you are under the conventional worldview. Are you a body or are you the owner of the body? Are you inside the skull? If so, where exactly? The point of doing this is so you're clear and honest about your present beliefs, even if you intellectually know they are false. It's very important to get clear what exactly your false beliefs are. Do not be vague in your answers to the query of What are you? It's vital that you be precise and specific. Answers such as, "Well, I dunno, I'm just in the skull somewhere." are NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!! What EXACTLY are you identifying with? Hint: it will either be a thought, a body sensation, an emotion, a visual perception, or a combination of the above. But all of those cannot be the true you because they are not constant. Create an active sense of doubt that you are a human being or a physical object Any belief, thought, or idea about who you really are is automatically FALSE! Drop it. Any sensory experience about who you really are is automatically FALSE! Drop it. All scientific theories or models are automatically FALSE! Drop it. All spiritual, New Age, or religious ideas about who you really are, are FALSE! Drop it. You are NOT a visible object or "thing" so stop looking for yourself like you would look for a missing dog. You are NOT located in any area of space, so stop looking for yourself as a point or hidden object somewhere. You are NOT located inside "your" head You are NOT located inside "your" body There is nothing magical to discover in this process. You are not some kind of unicorn or fairytale creature. There is nothing hidden. Everything you see before you is exactly what there is, nothing more, nothing less. It is not possible to find yourself, so this process is futile. But you need to realize that through doing the process. Not by believing me. You will get VERY frustrated during this process and want to quit. Just accept the frustration and keep going. This process will surface deep emotional issues from our subconscious mind. You will experience emotional turmoil and anguish. Just accept it and keep going. You will feel depressed at times. Just accept it and keep going. Your mind will use every excuse in the book to distract you and get you to stop looking. Stay vigilant to all these tricks and keep looking. DO NOT GET TRICKED INTO STOPPING! The truth of what you are is ever-present. It is always HERE and NOW. You don't need to go anywhere or do anything to see it. You are you right now! Be prepared for this self-observation process to take several years if necessary. Understand that enlightenment happens always only in the NOW. Never in the future. You can be enlightened RIGHT THIS SECOND! You don't need to wait 3 years. Always intend to become enlightened right now! Enlightenment/Truth is NOT an emotional state. Enlightenment is occurring always, even when you're watching TV or sitting on the toilet. Meditation is NOT enlightenment. A psychedelic high is NOT enlightenment. A powerful energetic experience is NOT enlightenment. A vision or hallucination (however real it may feel) is NOT enlightenment. Enlightenment is what's absolutely true without ever changing. Don't forget the possibility that you may not be a thing! Don't forget the possibility that there might be nothing to find There is no you to become enlightened. When this is realized, that's enlightenment! Hint: it's MUCH simpler than you think. A HUGE HINT: The thing you're looking for but aren't finding... THAT'S YOU!!! Don't expect it to have any attributes. Don't expect the mind to have anything whatsoever to latch onto. You cannot grab NOTHINGNESS by the collar. You can only realize you're already it. Think of it this way: you are looking for a needle in a haystack, but this is no ordinary needle. In this case the needle is literally the realization there was no needle to begin with! A cosmic joke! You've been punked by God (yourself). Best Self-Observation Questions: What am I? No, seriously now... WHAT THE FUCK AM I????? No, cut the shit! What am I -- RIGHT NOW -- in my direct experience???? Who is aware of reality? Who is aware of me? Who is perceiving? Who is the owner of the body? Who is the owner of the mind? Who is feeling pain? Who is asking all these questions? What was I before I was born? What am I when I'm in deep sleep? What could I be if I'm not the human body/mind? What connects and unifies all of my different senses? What is true independent of ever-changing sense experience? What is true independent of my life and my death? Why do I believe I'm the body? Why do I believe I'm the mind? Where to do thoughts arise from? If I'm the body, what is everything else that I'm seeing? Why do I trust my feeling that I'm the body? Is a feeling really evidence of TRUTH? Why must I be an object? What if the "perciever" has no attributes or properties? When I close my eyes, where did the world disappear to? Where is sound occurring? Where are thoughts occurring? Where are body sensations occurring? What is the relationship between physical body sensations and my visual field? What if I don't exist? What if I can't locate myself because I am "empty" or without form or attribute? What if I'm addicted to looking only for objects or perceptions, but my true nature is neither of those? What if I'm just an idea? What if my entire paradigm of physical reality is just an idea? Could my body and brain just be ideas? Is any physical object actually permanent according to direct experience? What distinguishes one object from another? Do boundaries between things really exist, or are they ideas? What would happen if I stopped distinguishing existence from non-existence? How To Tell If You're Enlightened: This is very simple. Answer the following questions honesty: Did a major shift in awareness occur? Are you absolutely clear now of what you are? Are you the physical human body you've always thought you were? Do you feel infinite, without boundaries or location? Do you actually understand, or are you in a temporary meditative high? If you answered: "YES! YES! NO! YES! I UNDERSTAND!" then there's a pretty good chance you're enlightened. If your answers were not: "YES! YES! YES! NO! YES! I UNDERSTAND!" then chances are you aren't enlightened. Keep trying. If in doubt, find an enlightened master to help you verify the depth of your realization. Don't get cocky, remember, there is more than one enlightenment breakthrough to be had. You ain't gonna become Buddha with just a few years of self-observation. Is it worth the struggle? Abso-fucking-luty! Awakening is divine. Videos Explaining Enlightenment In More Depth: https://www.actualized.org/articles/spiritual-enlightenment-intro https://www.actualized.org/articles/what-to-do-next-after-learning-about-enlightenment https://www.actualized.org/articles/spiritual-enlightenment-part-2 https://www.actualized.org/articles/spiritual-enlightenment-part-3 https://www.actualized.org/articles/enlightenment-faq-part-1 https://www.actualized.org/articles/enlightenment-faq-part-2 https://www.actualized.org/articles/how-to-become-enlightened https://www.actualized.org/articles/my-enlightenment-experience https://www.actualized.org/articles/being-a-spiritual-seeker-good-or-bad https://www.actualized.org/articles/radical-openmindedness https://www.actualized.org/articles/mindfulness-meditation https://www.actualized.org/articles/understanding-awareness https://www.actualized.org/articles/the-enlightened-self https://www.actualized.org/articles/the-benefits-of-enlightenment https://www.actualized.org/articles/how-your-mind-distorts-reality https://www.actualized.org/articles/enlightenment-guided-inquiry https://www.actualized.org/articles/grasping-the-illusory-nature-of-thought https://www.actualized.org/articles/what-is-god https://www.actualized.org/articles/the-dark-side-of-meditation https://www.actualized.org/articles/mystical-traditions-around-the-world https://www.actualized.org/articles/becoming-a-zen-devil List Of Enlightenment Exercises: https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/7587-list-of-enlightenment-exercises/

Here's a partial perspective : Pure love is dual ? Where did you get that idea ? Don't confuse the mainstream idea of "love" and actual pure love. "love" in the mainstream sense could be compared to extreme compassion and rapport (at least from my point of view). But pure love (as in, the Love of God) is more like an energy, an energy that allows phenomena to happen, an energy that every human being perceives through their 5 senses and their thoughts. Also, you say that God is everything. Therefore it is pure love. And it is ego. And it is suffering. And it is EVERYTHING !!!!! Again, if you look at pure love as an energy that allows phenomena, then that question is stupid. Suffering is phenomena. By the way, this perspective of seeing pure love as a sort of energy isn't groundless. A lot of people having had enlightenment experiences, and/or breakthrough 5-MeO trips report seeing love that way. Of course, this is metaphorical, and I have not experienced anything of the sort myself, so... But, still. There is nothing. Period. NOTHING AT ALL !!!!! And this nothingness is also absolutely everything. And you ARE that. There might be nothing to improve on the nothingness side of you, but there definitely is a lot to improve on the everythingness side of you. Of course you don't have to improve anything. But just realize that you ARE the ENTIRETY of ALL THE SUFFERING IN THE WORLD !!!!! I don't know about you but I don't think I could bear this much. Because anything that can be is, has always been, and will always be. Otherwise God wouldn't be Absolute Infinity. Essentially, yes. It would be fundamentally the same. However, why settle ? Why do nothing with your life ? See, when you become enlightened, all you do is see through the illusion of the ego. But that doesn't mean you don't spend any time in your ego. In fact you probably spend most of your time in your ego. So if you're gonna play that game, why not play it well ? So yes, it's the same when you're not in ego. But no, it's not the same when you're in ego. Also, it's hard to transcend a weak ego, personal development is a part of becoming enlightened, there's a reason a lot of people don't believe in God. Yes. But it's not "the universe punishes you when you do bad things," nor is it "if you do bad things in this life, you will be reborn as a bad thing." It's more something like : You did something selfish and now you enjoy the suffering. Let me clarify what I mean by "selfish." I mean basically anything that assumes that there is a self doing something. Aka. literally everything you do when you're not enlightened. The Buddha used karma to essentially describe the endless suffering that comes with not being enlightened, because why pursue enlightenment, right ? It's only after you become enlightened that you can act completely selflessly.

Let's be clear on one thing. There are no things in reality. This includes space and time. All 6 channels of experience stem from this nothingness. They're here because they can be, so they are. See, in this nothingness, there is no boundary which means that anything that can be is, has always been, and will always be. No boundary also means Absolute Infinity. Those 6 channels are obviously the 5 senses and thoughts. Now, thoughts are really difficult to understand. They exist as they appear, and they're kind of like ghosts of all other 5 senses. They are symbols, they represent things that they themselves are not. And then we believe that those things are real, and we act as if they were. Could you imagine living life without thingness ? No, you can't, because that's the point of thoughts.

Is there a way of explaining all this with ego, enlightenment, spirituality (not the typical spirit persona that's going to some heaven) in just 5-10 minutes without sounding like you're part of some nonsense religion? I came from a very atheistic, grounded, scientific point of view before I found Actualized.org and Leo's videos and other research it lead to. But I can't exist in this short period of time in eternity and not try to understand it or not search for deep truths if it can be found by humans, and all this with enlightenment and everything around it really got my attention, seems like the most "neutral" study of existence to me. But when trying to explain it in a few minutes (that's all the time most people got) I can't get to get through why this is different from religion. Although Leo has given some good lines about why this isn't made up religion in some of his videos, I think "ego", "enlightenment", "nothingness" just sounds like another idea. Especially this thing with our true nature and enlightenment, although everyone agrees that everything in our body has changed throughout our lives, it's easy to think that we are this deep memory or sum of an equation of all things that has happened. Of course you could say not to care what people think, but eventually someone will ask and for some reason I want the explanation to catch their curiosity. How would you explain all this in 5-10 minutes to someone that know very little to nothing about it? Can it even be done? Is limitations of language the problem?

@Mr Lenny Please listen to me carefully. You are not somethingness, nor are you nothingness. Both views are related to nihilism and eternalism. Concluding that one is nothing because he is not something, is a wrong conclusion. That which you are, is all pervasive Awareness. Which is not nothing, or something, a combination or a subtraction of something and nothing. All pervasive awareness, is not bound to a single body or a single mind, but is all pervasive throughout all bodies and minds. And by this, there is behavior in accordance with all pervasive awareness, and behavior that is not. The behavior of good and bad deeds are not in accordance with Awareness, and are there for suffering due to their conditioned states. The true good deeds, that are in accordance, are the deeds that arose from seclusion from wrong view, intention, act, speech, effort, livelihood, attention and concentration. Its a deed sprouted from the from the right view, that there is only Awareness, and there for there is polarity of good and evil with the root of it as being desire. Wrongful deeds, are deeds where one forgot about oneness due to his desires, and thinks there are others besides awareness and acts accordingly in believing so, which creates huge clouds everywhere, making it hard to realize the truth, to remember again what one is. There for let one seclude from wrong view, intention, act, speech, effort, livelihood, attention and concentration by focusing on how in essence you do not differ, but that due to forgetfulness of ones true nature one behaves badly. Stop the flood of bad information, alcohol, drugs, to much food and focus on the all pervasive you and receive knowledge accordingly. Work hard, surely soon or later your view becomes perfect.

Lyrics: A long day alone The emptiness is so real Never having peace of mind Running from what I can’t see And there is no where left to hide Turn and face these empty eyes All alone, heart unturned Trying to find Break me down Replace this fear inside Take this nothingness from me I want to find I want to shine I want to rise Break me down I try to find myself I find the stranger trapped inside And I’ll take one more step away From a face I used to recognize Familiar shadows closing in Suffocating fear descends It comes alive, uncovered eyes Trying to find Chorus x2 Break me down I want to find I want to shine I want to rise Break me down Repeat Break me!

For whatever it's worth. I was just meditating on infinity with an intention for it to show itself. To maybe get a glimpse of infinity like Leo describes. But something else happened. What I first experienced was a mind that was totally empty of all content. The usual meditation but deeper. I observed the mind in that state for quite a while. And just as a note, that totally empty mind does feel like it is infinite. Infinitely empty. So that is the closest I experience of being infinite. But than the infinitely empty mind vanished too. There was nothing there. Not only was the pitcher empty of all content. But the pitcher itself no longer existed. So did the pitcher return to infinity? Or did it return to nothingness? Or something else? What is that when it happens? It's just a total blank space there. Where would experiencing infinity fit into this? Anybody else experience this happening to them? Maybe all the time? Maybe never? I just don't know where this fits in. Should I try to stop that vanishing from happening for now on and just remain in the experience of mind empty of all content? I really don't know what to do here and it's happened before on occasion. Does somebody have some experience with this happening to them too? Thanks

@Deep That's interesting because one time I purposely surrendered within a state of Samadhi just to see what would happen and I vanished for a while. Of course I didn't realize I had vanished until I returned to the Samadhi state (sorry, I don't know all the exact lingo but you get the message). 2 days ago I left a reply on another topic that stated "At the heart of Samadhi lies nothingness". That experience, or should I say non-experience, is what I was referring to when I said nothingness. There was no awareness of anything because I didn't exist (no mind/thoughts). There was no experience, no bliss, no infinity, no God, no awareness, no emptiness, no nothing. After that happened I wondered if there was a level of awareness that enlightened people have achieved that could experience that state of absolute nothingness. So I'm asking, what do you see here that I may not. What are your thoughts or better yet, direct experiences on this? You seem to have knowledge in this area. Thanks

@Leo Gura Awesome pic Leo. Now, pls don't interpret what I'm about to say the wrong way. I'm only saying it according to my experience, ok? (It's not a debate.) It's riding the ox backwards into one's body from nothingness, maybe not with M.C. Escher's drawing of lizards. Below..just another pic, just another hint. Then, one is left with a huge residue of 'divine love' / 'bliss' when awaken.

It could help for sure, but with all the informations there is on internet nowadays, no you don't need one. It is cool to have people to talk about these kind of stuff in real life though Anyways, you could search for temple or dojo in your region (google map is your friend). Search on facebook too, maybe there is a group about non-duality/consciousness/nothingness (try every key words) near you live.

There CANNOT be a how! That's why this work is so challenging. How can there be a how for nothingness? All hows are somethingnesses! The only way past this brick wall is persistence and finally surrender. You are the only thing standing in your own way, but you aren't ready to give yourself up quite yet.

@cetus56 Union with what? Anatta is a buddhist term. The anatta doctrine states that there is no self. They examined the elements and declared them to be "empty" but failed to recognize that what was witnessing the emptiness was Bhraman, awareness/God. So Anatta is just a philosophical misconception of the nature of reality which means that Buddhist doctrine is still stuck in this material universe, therefore it is a humanistic philosophy. But Bhraman is the only thing that exists, and the world does not exist, it only appears to exist. There is no real "samadhi" because samadhi is a state experience in the apparent non existing universe of which Bhraman is the ever present witness of. Bhraman doles out state experiences which we call samadhi, but these are in the dream. There is no "union" because non existent entities cannot "unite" with "nothingness" because nothingness is a philosophical concept (as I mentioned before). Also, how can all entities awaken and return to the absolute? There is nobody here to awaken, there is only Bhraman looking at its creation. You also mention "God" in the same sentence as anatta, which means you are lumping Bhraman in with the Buddhist concept of anatta, but if you are to refer to the Buddhist concept of anatta then you cannot talk about God in the same context - the two are incompatible because Buddhists assert that there is no God. So this is not right either. "God" is the aspect inherent in Bhraman which is called ignorance, or "Maya" which projects and a world. However there is no real world. You can verify this yourself by contemplating the concept of time. Time is a thought, is it not? If time as a concept, and there is only one "eternal now" then how does this account for the fact that your body changes and deteriorates over time? If there is no time, and only one moment, the "now" that means the body never changes. And its true, because there is no world, no body, its just Bhraman projecting thoughts every nano second that seem to look like a continuity of a life, its not a real creation, its a projection, like a predetermined programme. Your "life" has happened before, many times, and will continue to happen again in the next cycle. Its like a movie playing over and over. I think you are confusing a lot of doctrines and lumping them all in the same category. This is a symptom of the perennial philosophy, a belief system based on the assumptions that all the non dual systems of thought point toward the same truth, which is just a new age belief system. Perhaps you get a lot of your information from this new age video here? I think this sort of thinking just confuses people and leads them on a wild goose chase, chasing ideas that are not even remotely related to each other.

Yes. True. Aren't we "God/Allah/Infinite" too? (Paradox.) Surely Leo, there has to be paradox. We still come back down to earth after our enlightenment experience, even if this is all illusional/fictional. We don't stay "up" there in "heaven" experiencing "divine love" and peace, although that's what we are all the time. We could practice being this non-duel while we're here on earth. (I know that there's nothing/nothingness in front of me.) Just saying non-duel could be misleading. Not everyone's life purpose is no purpose and to work at 7/11. I saw all that debate. (Looks funny. ) I think it doesn't matter which type of thinking you choose, both lead up to the same mountain top, whether it's non-duel or non-duel/paradox. From my experience, the second one helps since we have to deal with everyday living.

Be careful with doing #1 and #3. Monks/gurus/sages do those things for a good reason. They could make sacrifices for someone else or for the world. I understand that we live in a non-duel reality. Our thoughts are coming from nothingness - that we are just a "program." There is no "you." Yes, I get all that. The thing is, the opposite is also true, right? That's why they call it paradox. We don't live in a black and white world; we live in a gray one. It's not so easy to say that it's completely non-duel/no free-will when there is paradox. You (we) could at least plan your (our) next milestone. If it doesn't work out, that's ok too. So, how do you explain paradoxes? Non-duel verses duel? Ego verses fictional ego? Free-will verses no free-will? What is the paradox of no free-will? Surely, we have a drop of free-will, no? It's because of paradoxes. If not, what's the point of us seeing this duel awareness we call earth?

I don't know what he is talking about regarding this. It could have a number of meanings. But to answer your questions, when you know that you are awareness and not the person, you understand that everything else that is sentient is also the same awareness as you. They are awareness with body. How can the sentience in them not also be the same sentience in you? There is only one sentience, and that is awareness. Some people call it nothingness, whatever you wish to call it, its you. Its not even an it, is it? Its the subject, the witness. Look into your experience. Are you sat in a chair at the moment? If so, think about how the chair feels on your butt. Are you actually experiencing a chair at all? Or are you just experiencing the thought of "chair" as your sense organs present a feeling to you? What you actually experience all the time is yourself taking the form of an experience. Your mind is formless and can take the form of anything because there is only one awareness with the same functions appearing as relative phenomena. It certainly seems like there are many individuals here, but there is not, because all these apparent individuals are only awareness (you) with gross and subtle bodies that function exactly the same in everyone. So where are the real differences? Can you find any?

Nothingness lies within the heart of Samadhi. Samadhi is the link between what is this and what is not.

@Deep You are definitely on the right track. But the deepest samadhi is into Nothingness. That's what Maharshi and all the greatest mystics experienced. The Heart is The Void. It's both hollow and infinitely full.

@Shin that is when you become Aware of your true nature. Everything happens within Awareness. Nothing was ever experienced out of Awareness. So awareness and what appears in it is tied together. There is a painter and a painting which exactly reflects what the painter intended. So we could identify with one Little aspect of the painting (be it dark or shiny) or with the creative force behind which includes the painter, his Colors, his canvas and his intelligence = god = nothingness

free will is being able to have Options to respond and chosing one of them as a consequence. do you have Options when you are not consciously chosing but compulsively or according to your "likes" and "dislikes"? are you really at the receiving end in this creation and have therefore no free will? Or are you as well the creator in fact at the giving side? Isn`t it that the receiving end version (victim side) is the Illusion and the giving side is what your truely are? (creator, god, nothingness whatever) check this out:

I.N.R.I. In nothingness reveals infinity. I have no affiliation to the cross, I just came up with this for trivia means.

@Leo Gura HOLY SHIT! YOUR NEW VIDEO DISCUSSES EXACTLY WHAT I’VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT!!!!! This is an open letter thanking Leo. There are three parts: 1) My enlightenment insight 2) My interpretation of the new actualized.org vision 3) My life purpose statement and the steps i'm taking to live it. Specifically, I'd like to give you a look at my typical day because i've tailored it to become a real world example of what Leo is discussing. I'll start by discussing my experience with actualized.org. The first thing i'd like to say is that the life purpose course is totally worth it! There are many great pieces of advice and the exercise are very helpful. there are three important caveats: a) do not expect to the end the course with the ultimate final vision... it may take a little more time and research before you get the real vision. b) Do all the exercises! In order! c) Read the recommended books and connect them to the lessons from the videos! The next thing I've done is a meditation streak. So far, I'm at +100 days straight. What helped was using the Headspace app. Meditation is my favorite part of the day using this app. Then, I read the top 9 out of the top 10 books Leo recommends in the top +185 reading list. It was only then I that had some deep enlightenment experiences + insights (with some psychedelic help ). The books helped give important pointers and perspectives. When you combine these factors, they overlap to make things much clearer. I'd describe enlightenment as the intuitive, first-hand understanding of a very counterintuitive theory: this world is all really an illusion… we are all the same awareness/being/energy/nothingness/god playing a game with other versions of itself in itself... we seem to have intentionally forgotten that we're playing this game so that it raises the game's stakes... its like we're the designer of the perfect virtual reality RPG, who hopped in the RPG, forgetting we're in an RPG of our own creation once we're playing... and the most enjoyable part of the game its enjoying the beautiful world and realizing that its a game, so you don't have to take it seriously. It's incredible! Life really does take on new meaning with the enlightened perspective. But over the past few weeks I struggled to reconcile three perfectly reasonable interpretations of one’s life purpose: 1) the ultimate life purpose – technically doesn't exist out there - but could be interpreted as us all being vessels (puppets; videogame avatars; rpg characters) meant to experience god’s (our own) creation in the form of one’s unique path/perspective in life… literally every action one takes counts as part of this path… it's a path where its impossible to make a mistake... our only 'job' is to perceive things and increase awareness so we perceive more things... imagine being a painter and now you've hopped in your own painting your only job would be to admire your own work! 2) an inner life purpose – becoming a sage – one’s spiritual path - the way to squeeze the most juice out of life as a whole, regardless of one's place in time or culture. This is what Leo describes as the new focus of actualized.org. if you understand spiral dynamics, I'd call it the tier 2 focus of actualized.org. Note that tier 2 thinking still uses and understand's tier 1 thinking when necessary. This explains why Leo doesn't just up and delete all of his videos on seemingly 'lower-self' topics like 'how to make a woman squirt' (I love that video.. so does my girlfriend ) 3) a 'social' life purpose – a vocational path for creativity and business development - the way to squeeze the most juice out of socially constructed life in this culture, in this time period - from the spiral dynamics perspective, this is the tier 1 focus of actualized.org and the focus of the life purpose course. I sat with the confusion and over time it kind of hit me: the three life purposes do not need to push each other out of the way. They actually stack on top of each other! I asked, wrote, and meditated on what I could do to tangibly combine all three purposes in my own life to live the best life possible. If I see this all as a game, what's the best way to play it? I chanced upon the new movie Dr. Strange, which helped me come up with new ideas about striking a balance between the three life purposes. Dr. Strange’s whole story arc is about achieving a scientific, mystic, spiritual balance through the relentless pursuit of truth. Ultimately, he must give up his regular beliefs to expand as a human and become a sage (or, 'sorcerer supreme' as they call it in the movie). I examined my own dreams, strengths, and spiritual wisdom and determined that for me, the best path was as a sage-like neurosurgeon. It's something i've dreamed about since I was a kid. Specifically, I have always had a strong intuition that the next step of human evolution will involve computer-brain implants and I want to be the person to develop and install in those implants. The path of a surgeon is also a path of mastery, giving me clear goals, apprenticeship opportunities, and virtuous ways of giving back. Also, the necessary deep knowledge of the brain during this path will help me as I learn more about spiritual wisdom, and vice versa. I'm considering doing research on the effects of 5-meo-DMT in the brain at some point along my path, perhaps during a medical research fellowship. For example, there are no 5-MEO studies using fMRI scans yet; I would have no problem staying in Mexico for a year to get some studies published between residency and full specialization But the most important reason why I know this is my calling is that its what my intuition tells me. Theres simply nothing else to say than that i feel a strong, wordless, magnetic pull towards it that doesn't go away no matter what I do and makes me feel better as I approach it. Some other notes: The life of a med student = the life of a beginning sage = lifestyle minimalism = the ideal life The path of a surgeon = path of mastery The path of a surgical sage = the path of a surgeon who's compassionate, integrates other methods of treatment other than just surgery, and focuses on making people the best version of themselves instead of just cutting away. My final vision is as follows: Use my ability to learn and research to become a neurosurgeon who implants artificial intelligence interfaces into the human brain to raise awareness. Along the way, I focus on mastering my mind to the point of a sage through personal development work. And no matter what happens, its always perfect because the only thing to remember is that its all a cosmic game. Do you see how all three life purpose perspectives are integrated? Enlightenment really is only the beginning. Even if I see the world as a game I (the real, formless I – god/nothingness/siva) play for the enjoyment of it, I’ve made serious commitments to living out my awesome vision. If you're wondering what this looks like practically, heres my day: I begin every morning with meditation and many hours of scientific and theoretical study for the MCAT. Afterwards, I lift weights, play intramural co-ed sports, or attend seminars to socialize. My day ends with many hours of spiritual study (i.e. reading and note taking). There is no Facebook, instagram, or other multi-tasking. There is no clubbing, partying, or TV-time. Scientific work - Body Work - Social work - Spiritual work. Every day. No breaks. I've found myself slowly creep away from regular culture because of this schedule. My friends wonder why I don't party or chase women like I used to. They sometimes make fun of me, yet they do see that i've made progress and fully encourage it. Most importantly, when it comes to difficult emotional subjects, they come to me for support and advice lately. So despite their teasing, they recognize some development is taking place. It feels weird and at times is incredibly difficult to maintain this schedule, but I couldn't be happier! Overall, your new video helps solidify my vision and thus motivate me, Leo. Its exactly what I needed at this stage and I’m glad someone else shares the idea… to the point that I think this video is a sort of godsend. So yes, this new vision for Actualized.org is definitely worth it!!!

Sorry for the length of this post, I just had some stuff to get out of my chest, so I don't feel bad after . Legend goes Taurus wrote his first book on a Leo Comment section as his first post in the community. Since then everyone both loved and hated him for he was the Taurus. Reading is a function. You can call that function. Or you can choose to run another function. But stick all your attention in one function, like reading, because that's the only thing you're doing right now. Or breathing. I mean, right now you are breathing AND reading this. because if you weren't reading it, you wouldn't know I said it, and if you're reading it, you definitely must be breathing, otherwise you'd be dad. Let the body control the breath, because it is vital. Don't let your monkey mind close you your breath ever. You dont want to give the tail of the snake to the snake, because it will hurt the snake. Give out LOVE to receive LOVE. Love is the best story, love is the best life. Love is when your life works out perfectly, exactly how you want it, because in every moment you want exactly this. The thing that is happening to you. You want to be reading this and you are enjoying your body, as if you are consuming energy all the time and receiving the pure joy of having a position and the thought that you are something and that you matter to someone. Like getting reputation on Actualized.org or becoming a dragon with wings and burning the entire existence just for the LOLS, because you are a keyboard warrior and you can say what you wanna say and do what you wanna do, because life is too precious to waste it on typing slowly. Type as fast as you can, and you can never bee spoken down upon. Cause nobody's reading that far, who am I kidding [Reply by Anonymous Keyboard Warrior] lol that kid cares -Taurus [+1B reputation] because Yeah, I am a keyboard warrior, but there is a reason for it. And that reason is South park. They make me into a keyboard warrior with the ideas that they allow my mind to think is possible. And that's fucking possible, because it's happening. I can say anything. It's art. It's drawing. Drawing something into nothing in a virtual space that will soon be gone and forgotten never seen by anyone, nobody noticing what is right infront of their face. The beauty of life itself, not finding a truth, because one has to see the truth is all around them and be satisfied with what they have and actually be truthful that everything around them is beautiful. It's like the prettiest girl being in-love with you, but you are too honourable to leave your station as keyboard warrior. That's how ready I am for this. My ships of freedom of speech are vast and of many varieties. The first variety I need to specify is the variety of chance. When I am not thinking, I am thinking that there's 0 chance of something happening. But then reality proves me wrong, by showing me, look, you were wrong. Now learn. You are an awesome machine. But you gotta stop trying to control it, because it has a momentum of it's own, we are the master of ourselves. We are the puppetmasters of our selves. We are high above, controlling ourselves from as high as we want. And if we're eccentric freaking maniacs we will go so deep, that we become the servant. The real master serves to the servant. Because it's a friendship - You do something for me, I have to do something for you. Certainly that's how Thesis: Nobody will read this, even though reading is the most amazing activity. By itself in itself, you become the page. The empty space... Because when you write something that you wrote you create the 3d space in which intelligence to shine. Nobody can move your muscles but yourself. Feeling relaxed is better than feeling good. You can be in grave danger, and still be calm, because if you show fear, the enemy will know. You gotta be fearless. Like a cat that has to be a Lion to protect it's kittens. So I can say anything I want..! Oh My. I decided to edit and made this post into a ritual, so I strongly urge people not to read this, because it's my own secret private place that I don't want anyone to see. And you are going to see it - reading is the best thing you could be doing at this moment. Not even that, reading this will be the most enjoyable thing to you, because it is so unlikely to be happening, that it is a universal experience, one of a kind, one that cannot be replicated and yet it has been replicated, and we are the ssame, but freekidi doo dah. +....@ <-We all got issues like this guy, but that doesn't mean we can't let them go. Letting go. Reading on like a feather being pushed slightly in a single direction and then the other. You are surfing on my words. Please pop on. You are reading only the tops of each letter and you know the letters in 3d form. You are the most amazing code. Too bad it can't run the function. A prayer and a meditation are functions. Everything else is brushing with white. The only important thing is hidden in the junk. Sometimes you have to really deep dig in the dirt to find the gold. We can fail. But we do it anyway, because who cares, we are still reading and we are training the mini intelligence within. Actually fuck that scratch that I can give less fucks? Nobody's reading this junk, someone might even think it's spam, cause they will be freaked by the amount of letters coming their way. But if I say Sorry for the length of this post, I just had some stuff to get out of my chest, so I don't feel bad after. I am saying secrets that can bring joy and beauty to this word through complete transformation of your thought to be just light, screen. The empty page in front of you, which you want to fill with the present moment and the filling of the empty space. While only thinking about the empty space, you are going to be able to say or do anything you want, because you are free to do so. This is a state of thought so amazing, because every single little decision seems like is coming from you, while in fact it is coming from the mother god who is the motherboard to existence, a mountain so huge and beautiful, it has cast us away for being too simple. Until we jump forth and do what we had forgotten we can do. This is filling the nothingness with something. You are doing that just by being and this is your golden form, just being yourself, relaxing and letting your body take care of the work, while you are drifting off into fairytail land where you meet god and all his angels and you go into all that deep stuff you know. The deep shit. But the SIMPLE reality is that you change conciousness all the time. Conciousness is just your state of mind, state of conciousness is state of mind looked through the prism of the mind. the mind is like a snake chasing it''s tail cause it has nothiing else to left. It's playing cat and mouse, so it spun and spun, faster and faster until one day she realized she was alone, the black colour alone. The feeling of intense joy and aliveness that I feel when I am in front of the blank page. It gives me all the freedom in the world to type big scripts and incredible stories, if only I switch the music on. I'm gonna do Yoga and return. I am the only one in the room. I am typing these words. At this moment this is what I want to say the most. It's me again'ts nothing. There's no thing on the page. It's just me and the page. Ok. We have established connection to headquarters. We are here and now, ready to type away. We are incredible machines of vast superpowers to use the keyboard of a device that can grant wishes. You can play with it, it's just another wave. Ok. Too Deep. Let's bring it back to the beginning. In the beginning there was time? Wait, what time is it? 23:57. I must be in another state of consciousness because of my meditation sessions earlier. Either my mind is playing tricks on me, or you're still reading it at this point. What I am about to say, you are not going to skip. And even if you skip them, I wouldn't mind, because if you skipped these words, then I know you did not even read them, so I am safe to write, because it is illogical for anyone to ever be watching what I am saying at this moment. It's about waves really. ~What is a wave? A structure perhaps, but listen. This is my presentation. I put forth to you the power of the waves. It's not me tho,, I am learning too The hands are doing all the work, ALL I have to do was sit myself in front of the blank screen and allays look at the blank. We don't even need to think about how we write because we are doing it automatically. I can safely say that if you are reading at this point, you are really loving this because otherwise you wouldn't even be doing it. My mind does this by itself, and it does it because it doesn't matter if anyone else experiences this text, the speed with which I am typing it and the very concentration I have over this activity is taking me out of my usual state of nothingness and puts me in the field of large texts and big numbers. The numbers make no difference, because there is infinity between 0 and 1 and they are not even that big of numbers, in FACT they are the primal numbers, the white and the black were their ancestor. The computer is humanity's child yet to be born. It's our canvas. Our art is waiting to be born in it's amazing saving and sharing potential. Man, the internet is awesome. For expression. But I am straying away from what is primary. The primary thing is that we are both experiencing this text in a certain way. And we can only experience it in the human way, the real human way, is to be in front of the screen, completely encapsulated by what you are doing in the online world, defeating dragon code at work. Now comes my choice. I am literally doing training for my hands. My hands are teaching my body. They are dancing on the keyboard my typing is really sexy Any girl will fall for a keyboard warrior like me because I am not going to let her attention go. I will alllways add another line and be the perfect human being for her, because that's what she wants. She wants me to be a real human. Not some superhuman freak with 100 abilities like reading minds or astral projecting into other realms. Other realms can fucking wait, because my conciousness is completely absorbed with the screen, and the virtual reality of the empty space that I am filling with my black ink of art. On a FREAKING AWESOME Friday night. A night so memorable I can already see. Behind me as the story of being a human body. And boy, I love water so much, because it gives me pure white energy from the source and is giving me gold on the inside that is pouring over my internal and exteral reality. It can do things on it's own better than if I control it I understood, that when nobody has the ultimate rules, you can be anything, because you set the rules. Being an atheist is the best blessing, because they are not expecting anything from anyone, and therefore taking things into their own hands. And use the power of the present moment... Fuck that. It's not even the present moment. I just am myself. And when someone is themselves they have impecable word and what they say is what it is. It's solidified, so nobody will tell me that I can't say this or this or this. Well. I need to relax. I am still the master owner of this white little space of nothingness. Nobody else can reach the fast speed that I am achieving at this moment as two spiders jumping on top of a laptop. This is my reality at this moment. I had forgotten nay, I have forgotten. Why Am I doing this? I am going to do Yoga. Look at the top. It's like you've travelled through time, look at the start of this. You used to be a peasant to the nothingness, but now you are filling it with something. That's the power. We are making something new here. Those pixels in infinity wouldn't have existed in this order unless I put them there at this exact same order. This feels fantastic and I am not one to lie about this. We have to admit our body knows more than us and we are the body. Lol that kid thinks he's enlightened? No. He is exercising his finger muscles to move around the keyboard in a sense of I don't even care. Just don't even care about what you have to write and see how smart your body is ;o.

does it mean that seeking Enlightenment is the symptom of some kind of a failure ? Is it a "quest" for those who did not find any fulfilling/ enriching/ captivating other way to spend their time ? (since we can chose whoever we want to be since we are nothingness (for me it's like we are all like cups of different shapes and we choose to put everything we want to within))

Whenever i ask myself if i am aware, i get the distant inner visualisation of a shining point circling nothingness, as if my mind is saying: thats the closest you can come to seeing yourself. Its like my very question is the light that starts circling around "me", the undefined that im trying to see and define.. Trying to shine on me, from every angle. Looks like an atom to me.

@Lynnel This took me a while to understand as well. Basically you are in an empty space of nothingness and everything in front of you is created by you. When I had my void experience I realized that everything I see are just colors and shapes that form into objects which made me realize that it was impossible to know anything, we can only know things conceptually. This is going to take a lot of work to realize but start questioning everything that you know to be true. Overtime you'll realize that you don't know anything for certain and enter into a state of confusion, which hopefully your true self will start to reveal answers for you