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@Leo Gura Have you heard of the book The Evolutionary Energy in Man by Gopi Krishna? This sounds a lot like what he experienced. Unfortunately it was years of hell that eventually calmed down to the point where he could live happily and led him to being a very awakened mystic poet. I hope you don't have to endure all of that suffering to get to the other side, but it might be worth reading to help ground yourself in someone else's similar experience. He was literally receiving novel's worth of mystical poetry in the form of light and he learned how to harness all of that energy.

Take it easy man... We are not saints. We seek to learn more about the nature of this fucking infinite consciousness. So it's always fine to say I awakened. Look inside to see what really annoys you when you see someone proclaims awakening... There should be something you need to dig up. Otherwise you would be really easy with people talking about their awakenings.

The nature this enquiry, I have come to learn, is usually Egotism. I used to have such questions in my mind when I first started: How many people in the world are awake? How many people are enlightened? Am I among the enlightened? Am I among the Awakened? But the more I got into this work, I realized it doesn't matter at all. The trick here is that there is not clear line dividing between realized and not-realized. The more important point though is: They way you see others is not necessarily the way they see themselves, and the way you see others depends on the way you see yourself. So, wouldn't it be better to improve yourself and embody more Love into your consciousness so you can see others better? So you can see the entire world enlightened?

This thread is for asking me questions, not for asking and answering your own questions. I don't prefer calling myself "it" or "ego" and I don't recommend that for you. I am a human being, a precious, beloved, beautiful, genius, miraculous and the most treasured creation of God. You are speaking from the delusion of nihilism, same as @Razard86 , which is very prevalent on this forum I prefer to say "I'm breathing air" instead of "I'm sucking air" Why do I want to share about my awakening? I want to be congratulated. I want to be admired. I want to be seen. I want to be praised. I want to be treated with love and respect. I want to be recognized. I want to share the beauty of who I am. I want to share my Truth. I want to share because sharing is beautiful and it brings me much joy. I want to share my love. I want to share my wisdom. I want to share my joy. I want to share the beauty of who I am. I want to alleviate suffering. I want to heal myself and others. I want to keep embodying my Truth on a deeper level. I want the entire world to know the beauty of my Truth. By sharing and answering questions about my awakening, I embody my Truth deeper, the embodiment, recognition, acceptance of my Truth is the healing and salvation for our world. I want to receive the best gifts that the Universe can offer because I know I am worthy. I am Vladimir, precious child of God who has awakened to his Truth that he is Jesus Christ, savior of the world. I have great desire to share this Truth because humanity is in desperate need for salvation, there is great suffering in the world. There is no power greater than my Truth because my Truth is Love and Love is the greatest power in the Universe. The Truth forgives all, the Truth is original innocence, the Truth is Unity, the Truth is Love, the Truth is Life, the Truth is salvation, the Truth is victory over all darkness, The Truth is forgiveness of all darkness. Who is it that wants to share the awakening? I am king, warrior, magician, lover. I am Jesus Christ. I am Yeshua. I am Vladimir. I am Arza - The Beginning of Light. I am White Wolf - Czar of the Forest, Czar of animals and humans. I am wild. I'm a king from a long line of kings. I'm a hero of might and magic, a leader, a man of destiny. I am Prince of Peace. I am God. I am Eternal Father. I'm Merlin, Magi, Alchemist, Mind and body master. I am genius. I know myself. I am King Shaman. I am Grail King. I'm a Beautiful Mind. I am Sage of all Sages. I am divine. There is no one like me. I'm the master of martial arts. I'm a master healer. I am Lunar Lover. I am a healing moon man. I am the Guardian of the Womb. I am the master of shamanic martial arts. I'm a womb (hara) shaman. I'm a tantric priest. I am as wise as a serpent and gentle, innocent and harmless as a dove. I am Siberian. I am king of kings. I am Russian. I am the Light of the World. I'm a breath of fresh air. I am the True Vine. I am the Gate. I am the Bread of Life. I am a Good Shepherd. I am a brave heart. I am immortal. I am holy. I am whole. I am innocent. I am safe. My Soul is pure. I know myself. I'm the master of medicine songs. I'm a divine, innocent child of an unconditionally loving Mother Mary. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. I am which is, which was, and which is to come. I am the way the truth and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. I am a sovereign creator of my Universe. I am a sovereign being of light. I am. @r0ckyreed Thank you for your questions.

A Critique Of Actualized.org And Leo Gura The intention of this critique is to make people aware of some of Leo’s limitations. It might save people time and unnecessary suffering. It is not meant to invalidate or insult Actualized.org or Leo. I think Leo is a great teacher in many ways, this is just healthy criticism. Please take it lightly. Since Leo likes to criticize everyone else, I thought why not do it to him this time. It’s worth mentioning that I’ve personally never taken any psychedelics and I don’t consider myself some advanced spiritual person either. Some might consider this critique incomplete - which is fair. I have been watching Leo and other teachers for a long time. Nevertheless, I think it can still be helpful for people to read this. If anything, it can be an exercise in open-mindedness. It’s important to note that I will only be critiquing Leo on his more core and central teaching. So don’t expect much on minutia like his dating advice or politics. Although these thing can be important to some people, and you are free to level your own critiques on him, small or big, below this post, I personally won’t be focusing much on this. So sit back and let’s being… Freedom from understanding This one is a little confusing and long but the most important. Stick with me please. Basically, Leo takes psychedelics and shares his findings on YouTube. Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because there are things he doesn’t explicitly tell you: What Leo does is pursuit of understanding. It is an endless process. There is no end to it. You can keep on accumulating new experiences and making your understanding better and better. Understanding is a limited process rooted in the ego-mind. So during his psychedelic trip he has an experience of God. We can say he is in a higher state of consciousness. Once it is over, he comes back to his normal state of consciousness. The experience is stored in the form of memory which gets interpreted and communicated by the ego-mind. The memory isn’t reliable because it can’t be stored. Understanding is a limited thing, whereas Truth is unlimited it can’t be bound to such things. So here’s what you need to know: Most people don’t need to do what Leo does. Leo is like a scientist. It’s his profession and passion to have new experiences and create new mental models. This pays his bills. Truth is beyond understanding. Truth is something living, it doesn’t come from a memory of a trip. Understanding (and experience) is only needed to answer a few basic questions, beyond it you don’t need it. Questions like, “Who am I?”, “What is thought?”, “What is the limitation of thought?” Basically to quiet the mind and satisfy your curiosity. To become free from this as well. The point of spirituality is freedom, but people get stuck in this cycle of accumulating experiences and gathering knowledge. They never become free from understanding itself. You have to use your understanding to get free from understanding. Getting more understanding will not change you. Your personality will remain the same. Your habits and patterns will remain the same. Your base level of consciousness will remain the same. You will remain an idiot. (If anything too many fixed ideas you got from your trips might make your ego swell and make it hard for you to look at life afresh.) You might regret wasting this time on understanding. It’s endless. It’s the same as exploring the physical world. You can keep exploring it deeper and deeper and arrive at new conclusions each time. Your time might be better spent on any number of things. It’s important to tell you that it will not get rid of suffering either, in case that’s why you are following Leo. It’s important to tell you this because people have attached unrealistic expectations about this. If you’re an average person with a job and a career, you don’t need to do this. In fact this might not even be spirituality for you, it’s like a weird game of documenting peak experiences. He might say he made this clear to people, but I say he doesn't explicitly tell you this. Most people don't need this and they don't know they don't need it, they are lost and Leo doesn't help them out. Lack of balance Leo likes to talk about balance, but how balanced is his spirituality? How balanced is his self-help? It is overly intellectual (as he himself admits). All he’s trying to do is get peak spiritual experiences. He has completely neglected raising his base level of consciousness. As far as you know he is not doing anything to raise it. He inspires others to do the same. Arrogance, ego and the forum If you had asked me about Leo’s ego a year ago, I would have ignored it as minutia, but now I increasingly feel it is becoming a problem. After an awakening his ego becomes inflated for several weeks. Every time he gets an awakening you can bet it will be like this. You know something other people don’t. So what? What’s the big deal? What’s there to be proud about? You don’t even know it after the trip. I don’t see the point of inflating your ego. Trap of solipsism “But it’s not ego, he’s trying to communicate solipsism. That’s why he says he is the best and the only one awakened.” No, no. If he was he wouldn’t say it like that. It would be a matter of fact statement. Anybody with some awareness can tell that what he is saying coming from ego. He thinks there’s no one he can learn from. There can be no characters in the dream more knowledgeable and aware as him. Yet he continues to be in the dream. He thinks he is the most advanced, not because of solipsism, he actually thinks that. (For anyone that thinks otherwise, you can simply use the search function and look what he said in the past.) (I'm not saying solipsism is not true.) It’s a one way conversation with him. There’s nothing you can say to him that will get through to him. There’s really no point talking to him anymore. It’s a misapplication of solipsism. “He’s just being authentic.” Being authentic doesn’t mean doing whatever comes to your mind. “I feel like murdering someone, so I will murder someone.” That’s not authentic. Again, I think it comes under a trap of solipsism. “The other teachers are not as good” He doesn’t know about other teachers’ methods. Leo doesn’t know about all these things, he has never learned from an actual Yogi, Tantric, or a Buddhist monk from the places these traditions originate from. He has never gone too deep into this. He’s not qualified to talk about it. He doesn’t know about devotion, about chakras, energy, and many other things. It might be because he has an autoimmune disorder which prevents him from exploring other methods fully. That’s why he likes psychedelics so much. They’re quick and easy. “Buddhism will never get you there.” Sadhguru said Buddhism is a long, drawn out process. He said Buddhist masters tell you it will take you 12 life times of sadhana to become enlightened. Buddhism in the east, the actual Buddhism, makes it clear. It doesn’t give you false expectations. "But re-incarnation and all that isn't real." Just like everything else. The walls in your house, your ego-mind, your body, and your psychedelics. How do you know it's not as real as radio waves? "But these teachers are genetic freaks! We can't be like them." So it just didn't occur to these genetic freaks that other people can never advance spiritually like them. These supposedly genetic freaks who are juggernauts of awareness, just didn't realize other people are not like them. It slipped their attention. Obviously if these people are so aware they know what they are doing and what others are capable of. I've seen videos and testimonies of people who go to these people. People's lives have changed for the better. Obviously not all the people who benefit make a YouTube channel and say exactly the same things Leo says. People are private. Being offensive and outrageous I am embarrassed to share that I watch actualized.org with anybody. With post titles like, brains don’t exists and pedophilia is love. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Leo has no regard for how others might perceive his loyal followers when he does things like this. It’s coming from ego. The way he’s going about saying it is dumb. You don’t need to do all this to make your point. It’s unappealing, that’s why people move away from you and he feels they are moving away because they don’t understand his point. “Look at this video of a murder taking place. This is love guys! Look at this! Why are you going away? Surely you’re not as awake as me! I’m the most awakened person on the planet!” Future I think in the future, it is possible, Leo will eventually develop occult powers with the use of psychedelics. And his ego will be even more inflated. It will become even more ugly. This is all a consequence of not neglecting his base level of consciousness. Forum The forum is not a great place. Partly because Leo himself sets the precedence on how to communicate here and he himself breaks his own rules and name calls people. Even when he’s not name calling you directly, that’s what he’s trying to do indirectly. He’s so snarky too. Other than that he’s doing some version of “everything is a dream”, “this is just a figment of your dream.” “It’s the internet” No. They look at Leo’s writing style and get inspired. The quality of the forum is quite low. Some members with mental illnesses should’ve been reached out and told to take care of themselves before posting again. There are posts which are quite low, like “why I hate men/women” or some other thing like that. Some members should’ve been kicked out a long time ago but Leo seemed to have a soft-corner for them. There are people who have shown no progress (or even regression) and have been on the forum for a long time. For e.g, take Nahm’s example. He should’ve been stopped a long time ago. I come on the forum occasionally and even I noticed he was misleading members on the forum whether he meant to do it or not. And I have seen long term members being lost and no one corrects them. This is important ‘cause there have been incidents of suicide and people ending up in mental hospitals among Leo’s audience. It’s not far fetched to call what he does irresponsible. Better self-help teachers In a sense you can’t even call what Leo does self help anymore. Over the years, he has become more interested in sharing his awakening from his trips than actually understanding his audience’s problems and solving them. 90% of the time he’s just describing his awakening and it’s not of much use because you cannot get to that point by just listening to him. Just do the psychedelics in the way Leo say, there’s no point listening to him except for entertainment. I think, there are better more balanced self-help teachers out there. Those who don’t focus on journalling and intellectualizing too much. Intellectualizing is the number one trap today, people just sit and home and try to think through their problems instead of taking action. So that’s why I think it’s a big limitation of Leo. There is Sandeep Maheshwari for example who has a good balance of self-help and spirituality. His content is not in English however. And for what we know Leo is not a very productive person either. His life might be worse than most people’s for what we knew (partially because of his autoimmune disease). I don’t he’s the ideal person to teach a balanced self-help. For e.g. take the difference between Sadhguru and Leo on concentration. Concentration is one of the most important things you need to become successful spiritually and materially. Leo has a video on concentration titled: Concentration vs Meditation - How To Develop Concentration. I’m sure everyone has seen it multiple times so I won’t talk about it. Now look at what Sadhguru says about concentration: he says don’t try to concentrate. Trying to concentrate is torture and you won’t be able to sustain it. Instead be involved in whatever you are doing and focus will naturally come. Not attached, not detached, but involved. Like you are involved while playing a sport. To meditate is to be involved. Involvement brings attention, and attention brings clarity. Personally this had changed my life. Here’s one article by him: https://isha.sadhguru.org/in/en/wisdom/article/key-to-staying-focused I think Sadhguru knows much more about attention, concentration, focus, alertness, and the overall mind than Leo. Other minutia If I were to say something else I would just say that Leo has a slight bias toward the “western” way of life and has wrong assumptions about people from other places. The lifestyle of the “west” isn’t all that great. They End I may edit this post later for spelling and grammatical errors, or if I want to add something to it.

Who is it that has awakened? Who is it that wants to share the “awakening?” Why does it want to share? The it I am referring to is ego. The ego cannot awaken because it doesn’t exist. But even so, as long as you are sucking air, the ego and maya will be always with you.

This post is going to be very controversial, but I have been called to share my thoughts with ... Myself??? After some time contemplating what a dream really is, I have come to the realization that Awakening itself is a Dream! How did I come to such a conclusion? Well, we first must ask what a dream really is. A dream is consciousness inventing a reality/story through trickery and deception. As such, The Dream Doubt cannot be fully unraveled no matter how awake you are. For instance, I once had a dream (while sleeping at night) where I became lucid and realized that I was in a dream. I then woke up, went up stairs immediately and talked to my mom about it. I shared with her my excitement. But then, I "actually" woke up and realized that my mind imagined me waking up just to keep me in the dream!!!! This one dream I had redefined how I see spirituality, the concept of a dream, and awakening. I was lucid in the dream or so I imagine I was. It makes me wonder whether I was really awake or whether I was just dreaming that I was awake? I had another dream where I my grandpa died (still alive now I am assuming at the time of this writing) and I asked my mom whether this was real and if this was a dream. But of course, my mom (my mind) convinced me that it was real. These dreams really casted a major doubt upon me. I realized that no matter how conscious I think I am, I can never penetrate beyond the dream doubt. No matter how much meditation or psychedelics I do, it will all be a dream! There is no awakening because that is what the dream imagines. The duality between Asleep and Awake collapses as it must. The forum, Leo, Buddhism, psychedelics, meditation, and Awakening are part of the Dream!! This Dream is not going anywhere. But maybe lucidity within this dream is still possible? Or is it just a self-deception to make me think I am awake when I aint? Just because one is lucid within one dream does not mean one is lucid within all dreams. My lucid dream made me realize that when you start to wake up, your mind is going to do everything to keep you asleep. Even the resources/tools you think will wake you up like Leo, this forum, psychedelics, meditation, etc. will be used to keep you asleep. I dreamt that I was lucid in a dream, and it should make one wonder whether true Awakening is even possible and if it is but just another dream within the dream. How can we know anything for certain beyond the fact that Consciousness exists? How can you ever transcend self-deception or unravel The Dream Doubt? I don't think you can because to be dreaming requires self-deception, and there is no awakening without dreaming. I don't think you can never not consider no matter what experiences you may have, that you could be dreaming them all up right now!! Now, let me ask you (or other parts of myself) some questions. Given that reality is a self-deception or dream, how do you know you have awakened when it is possible that you are still inside of dream - a dream that has deceived you into thinking you have awakened when you really haven't? How can you know? How can acquire true understanding when ever tool you use is all part of dream? And please, don't give me any answers like "You will only know when you awaken" because that assumes that you can awaken to something beyond a dream. But how do we know there is anything beyond dreaming, and how can you know if you are awake? By the way, there is nothing wrong with dreaming. Awakening to me means realizing what is Absolutely True. But what is Absolutely True? Consciousness. The end. Alien consciousness is just another dream within Absolute Consciousness. Awakening is a Dream! How does that sit with you (pun intended)? Please let me know what you think. I cannot get past The Dream Doubt. Thanks!

That is the whole issue is how can you know that you are in a state with no self-deception at all? As long as there is Mind, there is always self-deception knocking at the door. The Dream Doubt still lingers. Also, can God know itself? How can God know itself if it is itself? Knowledge is always about some part of God and yet God is all there is. God/Existence/Consciousness is prior to knowing. Knowing already creates a duality between the knower and the known. I am just trying to understand. I could be wrong. Yup. That is what I am saying. Awakening is imaginary. I was lucid in my dream, but then I created a story when I wanted to share that with my mom. It is almost as if the lucidity/awakening was part of the dream. Can you think of other examples where this "need for sharing" happens? Why is it that when we awake, we have a desperate desire to share that with "others?" Maybe it is another clever mind trick of the dream. That is my hypothesis. How powerful is the Mind? If you think or "know" you have "awakened," then you have greatly underestimated the power of the Mind/self-deception & The Dream Doubt. How do you know you are awake? How do you know you aren't imagining/dreaming you are awake?

I guess I should start with answering the question, "What is knowledge?" Because empiricism and rationalism do presuppose that knowledge does exist and can be acquired through direct experience or through rationality. Skepticism though holds that knowledge of anything is untenable. Knowledge presupposes a duality between knower and the known. You have already alluded to what knowledge is in your video on Not-Knowing. Our senses cannot give us any knowledge about the spoon and neither can rationality. We can know the utility of things, but we cannot know the being of it through either empiricism or rationality. But then again, if empiricism and rationalism cannot derive knowledge, then what is awakening? Is awakening the knowledge and understanding of Consciousness/Truth/Existence? How does one know they have awakened if they cannot rely on direct experience or rationality? How can you trust insights on psychedelics if we cannot rely on our senses or rationality? It seems like the only thing you can know for certain is that consciousness exists and nothing else can be known for certain, which is basically epistemological solipsism.

@King Merk There was one guy who awakened years ago and I feel like he was legit.

Oh I thought this was a joke ? Nice that you have awakened to such high stages of love, but what does Alien have to do with it?

I'm pretty sure I got bullied more than you do currently. How do I know? Because I have gotten into fights from 1st grade all the way to the 11th grade and also my freshmen year. Also two years ago some random 6'5 230lb plus guy tried to fight me in a CAFE because he believed when I walked in an aisle I brushed against his leg (I didn't) without saying "Excuse me." The situation ended peacefully fortunately. I can tell you what your issue is as I use to be in your same boat. The reason people mess with you HAS NOTHING to do with how you look, but how you CARRY yourself. If you carry yourself as someone NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH, that actually lowers the likelihood that others will attempt to mess with you. Also not gaining weight is an issue you only have when you are young, when you hit your 30's that problem will completely disappear. Now you said psychedelic realizations have no absolute basis in reality? That is a statement of complete ignorance. All realizations have 100 percent basis in reality....are you kidding me? The fact you think this means you aren't taking it seriously and are still too full of fear and selfishness. Here are some ways it has a basis. 1. Everything you see IS YOUR MIND. So explain to me...how discovering that everything is your freaking MIND and you are completely and utterly FOOLING yourself that you are in a physical universe not applicable? Explain to ME how this isn't THE MOST APPLICABLE REALIZATION EVER? 2. If everything is your mind...why don't you figure out how your THOUGHTS, and EMOTIONS are influencing your reality? Instead of complaining about people using psychedelics for love realizations...why don't YOU USE THEM to see in real-time how your thoughts and emotions are changing your reality. You see psychedelics SPEED UP your reality and allow you to see how you changing your reality through your own POV. What you call LIFE is just your freaking mind. 3. Lastly psychedelics can make you have an EGO DEATH which is the SAME AS WHAT WE CALL DEATH. There is no distinction, the only difference is you didn't have to harm the physical body to do it. Once you DIE you realize...THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR and you are IMMORTAL. So notice the above I just mentioned....there is nothing else more important than this work. Once you realize how you influence your reality you can take accountability for how your thoughts and emotions influence it and take charge. You also are able to DROP YOUR VICTIM MENTALITY. How ARE YOU A VICTIM OF YOUR OWN MIND? ITS YOUR MIND!!! You also realize you cannot die, so your fears can start to fall away as you integrate this. So yes psychedelics are VERY APPLICABLE, there is NOTHING MORE APPLICABLE than Spirituality. Spirituality answers EVERY FREAKING QUESTION. It is the last stage in this game of life. Because its about dropping all the illusions that you are creating and you create MANY illusions. Oh and I use to be very into physical fitness, here is how I use to look back in my 20's. Physical Fitness, Money, Status, Women, all these goals and pursuits only give you small dopamine boosts...they don't fix your core issues which are always...based on self-love. When you can be at your lowest in those categories and still love yourself the same as if you were hitting on all cylinders then you have achieved emotional mastery and have truly awakened to the mind game of illusions you are creating.

Well - some of us are awakened and not chasing awakening with drugs. Some of us have had actual God Realization. The actual thing. This is not some BS science fiction dream world. The more he talks about far out crap the more it becomes evident that he is not awake. He can fumble around all he wants but in the end he will never become enlightened. Not ever. His ego will always prevent that. If he tries selflessness he might have a shot. But you can't try that - you have to be that. And I can't teach him that.

1. There is no correct way of saying evil, evil...literally does not exist. Reality...is an appearance out of NOTHING. This nothing is experienced through the sensations. Without sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, pain, thoughts, and emotion....there exists no life. This means that every act.....NEVER HAPPENED it is AN APPEARANCE of something happening. So explain to me how something is EVIL....if it never happened but instead ONLY APPEARED to happen. You don't exist, nothing exists so nothing is happening RIGHT NOW. Meaning= The belief of a me, which creates EVIL. When all distinction falls away...the realization that nothing ever happened is realized. So if nothing ever happened...where is the EVIL? This is why I said....you just awakened...you haven't fully grasped it yet. Only the EGO believes in MEANING. MEANING= Illusion/Delusion. Nothing wrong with that, because meaning is FUN. But the highest truth....is there is NO MEANING. Your POV which is relative is CREATING MEANING, and trust me....NO ONE POV.....has the TRUE MEANING. NOT ONE SINGLE POV. The biggest delusion...that many POV have.....is they believe that their POV has the TRUE MEANING. The reason that delusion is so hard to realize...is because it is housed in that which has NO MEANING. That is why the highest realization is the theme of life....is to drop ALL MEANING if you want to transcend this identity game. Otherwise you are just playing the dualistic identity game and deluding yourself which is your choice. Meaning= Identity= ME=EGO=BUYING IN TO DELUSION. Which is completely fine. Play with the illusion if you want too.

I tried submitting a poll, but some kind of error occurred. Anyways, I'll do it here instead. Given his current trajectory, when do you predict Leo will become enlightened? I'm not talking about satori and psychedelic experiences here and there however profound; I'm talking about full-blown, God-level sahaja samadhi akin to what Jan Esmann and David Spero have. a) less than 1 year b) 1-3 years c) 5-10 years d) 10+ years

New Kind of Awakening: Infinity of Gods - Incomplete Notes (Main Insights) Lesson 1: See the God in "others" This means to recognize the divinity and highest potential of other people This means to see the good in others and the God in others that they themselves do not see This means to help other parts of myself to realize they are God, to realize they are me. This is Love. Application For each person in my life, on the news, people from my past, etc., point out at least 3 things that they do well, 3 strengths that they have, and 3 ways that they are good. Point out the good qualities you see in them and help them to achieve them. Give others the freedom to be themselves. Recognize and respect their own sovereignty and freedom. This means that paradoxically, I have to learn to respect and honor others who may want to be devils and who may not care about realizing they are God. I would be committing the same sin as religious people if I turn and force God-realization upon others as something that everyone should aspire to. Lesson 2: The Insight may be True but the Integration may be False This means that you may realize solipsism to be true, but the negative means and how the insights are integrated may be false. Attaching a negative meaning upon life being a dream is foolish because solipsism means that I am Love and I am connected to the infinite intelligence to life, whereas prior to awakening, I believed I was separate from life. Leo makes a good point that there is no reason to feel negative about being one and connected to life. The opposite should be true for being indoctrinated in materialistic worldview. The integration is as important as the realization. It could also be true that one could misunderstand the insight. If this happens, then false integration will be inevitable. Then, you will be living a bigger lie than before. This is evident by people who harm themselves over being hurt by the truth. If the truth makes you want to hurt yourself, then you are stuck in a deeper lie. Only falsehood makes people want to hurt themselves. Ideas of insights aren't the insight A true awakening moves you into more joy and love. It is kind of like pursuing your dreams. You will have initial fears, but on the other side of them is love and joy. If you haven't gone past your fears, then you are still stuck in the ego-mind, and thus, you haven't awakened to who you are because you are Love. Application Notice how negative meaning is constructed and wonder why. Why does it matter if I am all that is? Was I ever depressed that Santa Clause wasn't real? No. Realize that nothing really changes except for my interpretation and integration. If it is true, then it has always been the case; therefore, there is no need to suffer. After every insight, imagine and write down how I can integrate it through the highest love. If the insight isn't integrated with the intention of living and embodying the highest love, then the integration needs to be changed. Lesson 3: Trust your feelings/heart If you are stuck in solipsistic depression, take a break or you can question and analyze your methods. If your methods aren't making you happy, you are doing it wrong somewhere. "Heart is guiding you towards Love." Application: Go back to your drawing board and analyze where you went wrong if you aren't feeling love Be more intuitive in life. Follow the highest love. Lesson 4: Be aware of delusion Application Delusion is not exclusive to psychedelic drugs. Many people are deluded without them. Try to invalidate previous insights to try to prove them wrong. In other words, try to falsify it. If you cannot falsify it, then it may be absolutely true. You know you have had an awakening when you have 0% doubt. Don't be afraid to question your ideas. If you are afraid, then the ideas you hold may not be true. Follow the fear to awaken to love.

You're welcome and I also think it's quite accurate and needed to be said I'm glad this person was able to see through her male 'teacher' as well. His name is Igor Kufayev and I'm always surprised how others don't readily see through his massive ego such as his friend Rick Archer seems to be duped as well. Rick does many interviews with awakened people on his youtube channel 'buddha at the gas pump station'. But then again, I heard in an interview this Igor guy conveniently redefining enlightenment to mean that it's 'normal' for your ego to enlarge after enlightenment because that's how he experienced it, instead of being aware of the fact that he just had a glimpse and after that the structures of his ego came back full force *thinking* he's enlightened, lol. These men do need a reminder that enlightenment means or at least involves a permanent loss of ego, if not you may have had a glimpse but nothing more than that. Good points! Another red flag I can think of in relation to for example Igor Kufayev, is that I saw him talking while sitting on a chair (looked more like a throne) while his female devotees were sitting on the ground. A sign of Hierarchy over Cooperation or Equality. Thanks for the video, I'll check it out!

https://youtu.be/qn23B-Pj4gU "Spirituality, if it's authentic, is going to be something that unites us to something that pulls back the veils that we look through without even knowing that we're looking through them because they become habitual. We look through these veils and our perception stops at the distinction and uniqueness of things." "Even the world of awakening is a diverse world. The uniqueness of things prevails in any state we may be in." "One of my central tasks is to give voice to a universal human experience. I'm giving voice to what we all know, even if we don't know that we know it." "Teachings can pull you away from yourself, if you're not careful. You can be always searching for what some other teaching has defined for you as the goal, and it may or may not be yours." "Some of our best opportunities to transform comes through difficult and trying times in life. When we suffer enough, then we stop holding things so tightly. Often what we're holding onto is what never is to begin with. The most difficult thing in moments like that is letting go of the fantasy that never was. What actually is, or what actually was, that can be challenging enough, but what's even more challenging is what wasn't and what won't be. We can grab innocently onto some veiling of experience that makes it far more difficult, and the difficulty is having some sense of what wasn't or what won't be. Life is different than I thought it was. I'm different than I thought I was. You're different than I thought you were." "One thought believed sets heaven and earth infinitely apart." "Just be honest with yourself and your own thinking." "It's the truth that sets you free, not trying to maintain a particular experience. There is no such thing as the endlessly sustained experience." "One definition of enlightenment: it's the total harmonization of body, mind, and spirit." "Any kind of unveiling requires a radical ability to be totally honest with oneself." "What would it be if I spoke from the quiet place in me?" "Have the intention to have silence from the head: skylike and spacious; silence at the dimension of awakened mind. Down here, the level of the gut, is the silence in the real ground of being. It has a different quality; it has no spatial quality at all: it's something more rooted. And then here, the level of the heart, there's intimacy and connection. This is where we perceive unity from. We can have intimate encounters, if we're here. It's an intuitive attuning. When we feel connection, how we act and move and speak will flow out of our intimate connection. Lean into your heart. It's a little nervous, because it's intimate; it's a little revealing. Play with it. Experiment with it. What would it be to be in the silent intimacy of the heart walking down the sidewalk?" "That's what the human heart has to be willing to do: to be vulnerable. When the human heart gets connected with the spiritual heart, that's the part of you that's invulnerable." "The words aren't as important as the intimacy with which you're engaging. You're the benevolent presence that all that vulnerability needs." "What would it be like to act and move and do and relate from whatever your current version of the deeper place within you is? Start with the small stuff: washing the dishes, walking down the hallway, or encountering somebody outdoors that might need your ear for a couple of minutes." "I don't say this so anybody is overly aggrandizing themselves, because it's actually a humbling thing: the world needs you. It needs all of us. It needs each and every one of us. It needs anybody that's even endeavoring to be connected and to live from a place that's just a bit more connected. It's not just all an inside act."

@newbee Fear only exists in the relative domain, which is illusory. In absolute truth, only nothingness / non duality "exists" although it is even beyond existence and non-existence. The nothingness is God. They are synonomous. Ultimately speaking God is all there is, and God is nothing. Fear and Love are a duality. Heaven and hell are a duality. Dualities ultimately do not exist. However the Nothingness we speak of here IS what true Love is. So ultimately Reality is pure Love. But pure Love without any contrast is simply nothing, and without fear as a contrast the meaning and the beauty of Love can not be realized. There are no awakened people. When awakening happens, people will dissappear, the illusion of people will be transcended. What remains is pure Love aka God aka Nothingness.

@Leo GuraBut how do you know you are awakened? What if you've imagined that stuff is imagined but it's not? @StarStruck True. I guess another one is, well, how do you explain someone having died and then come back to life for awhile and then people seeing them resurrect? And how do you explain that evil spirits are reported to have a negative reaction to religious things? You would think that evil spirits would have ZERO reaction to religious things if religion was fake and that it would have no power over them. How do you know that most of you on this forum aren't being invaded by evil spirits right now which is causing doubt that this is a possibility and they don't want you to think that way because they don't want you to believe because that is how they operate? Okay, I could say that someone coming back to life was witchcraft or that seeing someone being resurrected was a massive group hallucination. But then what, the priest and the people experiencing the evil spirits are hallucinating the entire time? I guess my thinking was like, if evil exists, love exists too and love exists via God and evil exists via Satan. I guess another one, why would people report being able to see angels and why would angels bother wanting to do good things and why would people report being able to see demonic things and why would people report them doing bad things? It could be that people who do evil things aren't necessarily low conscious or selfish but rather have demons leading the way. This could be possible and shouldn't be discarded as not if one was wanting to be studious and check out every possibility for reality possible. Another one is, do you find that you have hate and doubt inside for religious people and if so, could that be demons inspiring that hate? I guess for me, I was wanting to check out every possible paradigm for reality and was even writing a book and reading books about different paradigms and I was acting like each one at the time was absolutely true in order to do that and that is also how I got here... whereas if I would have explored this like it was fake the entire time, I wouldn't have gotten here at all.

Your critique I think is in sync with a blog post I just read from a woman who had a spontaneous awakening. It's an issue that many men (but also women, though more so men) have on this path to enlightenment and it is a good thing to address it I feel, because it's true. I'll copy/paste some paragraphs from her article. I'm sure it'll sound familiar : "Online forums and Facebook groups dedicated to endless debate about enlightenment, non-duality, advaita-vedanta, emptiness and more, are largely populated by men. And it’s men who are the most active participants in what often amounts to breast beating to prove who has the right answer or the most enlightened understanding." She further points out that a lot of these are 'stuck in the head' and she noticed two kinds of 'heady-awakenings': "The first is where someone has understood the concept of “no self” and then gone on to live their life as if this cognitive grasp equals true realization. This idea-based version of awakening is most common among online, male-dominated chat groups about enlightenment. (Yes, there are women there too…I’m just saying, it’s mostly guys). The second is the more rare case of folks who have been catapulted into the emptiness and get stuck there. Some call it Zen Sickness. It looks like apathy and indifference to any real engagement in reality. These sorts of men do show up in chat rooms online, but mostly to correct everyone by pointing out that “Nothing matters, nothing is real, there is no-one here, and so stop debating already.” I observed a lot of this type of behavior on this forum as well. Too much arrogance and not enough compassion, combined with a lot of insight is a sign of a person or people who had glimpses but are not awakened on a 24/7 basis. Also interesting what Adyashanti had to say about this: “Enlightenment does not mean one should disappear into the realm of transcendence. To be fixated in the absolute is simply the polar opposite of being fixated in the relative…. To awaken to the absolute view is profound and transformative, but to awaken from all fixed points of view is the birth of true nonduality. If emptiness cannot dance, it is not true emptiness. If moonlight does not flood the empty night sky and reflect in every drop of water, on every blade of grass, then you are only looking at your own empty dream. I say, “Wake up!” Then your heart will be flooded with a Love that you cannot contain.” That should serve as a good answer to those who insist on some absolute view such as "rape = love" and act like holding this insight is a sign of being awakened. It's another form of spiritual bypassing imo, to use an absolute truth against someone's personal truth. A truly enlightened person would prioritize showing/practicing compassion towards someone's personal experience/truth when needed as opposed to lecturing the person with some absolute truths, because they're not 'getting it'. Needless to say I do appreciate Leo's dedication and courage as an explorer of truth/reality, but I'd recommend him to become even more dedicated to checking in with his own self on how much he is actually living these truths in his day to day life, if being enlightened on a permanent basis is his true goal. Being the moderator of your own forum also serves as an amplifier of the ego and to become a teacher prematurely before becoming awakened 24/7 is unfortunately unhelpful as the audience they gain will only enlarge their ego and ironically stop true enlightenment in its tracks or make it a lot harder.

Interesting story from a guy, called Cornelius Christopher who was suicidal and eventually became awakened instead. He experienced a phenomenon physicists call a quantum superposition meaning two or more conflicted states / alternative realities existing at the exact same time and in the same space. There he observed his suicide from the past, present, and future, including the now moment. He discovered that there is no such thing as death as we know it when we physically die; only consciousness exists before it collapses into one of those realities. In his autobiography, Cornelius describes he had received many extraordinary gifts, including pure consciousness where he has no inner voice, chatter and no ego. he experiences pure silence all the time with no self-doubt and or ability to judge.

I have experienced ego death some times through psyhcedelics. It was the most beautiful experiences I have ever had in my life. I did it one time with my girlfriend and we became unison with eachother, like we didnt know who we were but the love we felt for eachother was eternal. This have made me certain that this is my number one thing I will pursue in my life. But I also have some concerns: I read an article about a girl in my country. She had been attending many meditation retreats, and after a vacation where she attended one she came home and kept on meditating 3-6 hours every day while she was writing her masters degree. She said that she advanced in her meditation practice until she became enlightened. What happened afterwards was that she couldnt complete her degree, and the only thing she did all day long was that she was staring into a wall. She wasnt judgemental about the situation and she did describe is as an eternal happiness but her ego was completely gone and she couldnt do anything. Her family became very scared for her and she decided that she didnt want to live like it anymore and she started to do some electronic shock therapy to the brain that snapped her out of it. I have read Jed Mckenna's book and it completely resonated with me the way he lives his life. I am highliy financially indepentent to the degree where I have more than enough money to live my lifetime without working and what I could see for me would be just me travelling and doing things that excited me like extreme sports, climbing mt everest, and just generally exploring things. I know these things and life in general is completely pointless, but I just like to enjoy everything reality has to offer. I remember the first time I was unshackeled from my ego I felt very free and ran against the highest cliff I could find and just jumped straight into the water. So the question is, is there just certain people that wont function in everyday life once they are liberated, or is it just the way you get there through different techniques and preparations? From my understanding, the girl in the article didnt set it as a goal to become enlightened and it just simply became a bi product of her meditation practice.

solid and worked criticism. many valid and real points. but I have many doubts about many things. first thing, the word "teacher" . For me Leo is not a teacher, he is a guy who delves into reality and explains his findings. These hints can be useful for you on your way. I guess if you take the course he's talking about, he'll be a teacher, but he's not for now. second, traditional spirituality. I have the feeling that absolutely no one frees himself from the trap of the ego through any school of traditional spirituality. this may be wrong, but I can't help but think so. As you say, the goal of spirituality is liberation, not knowledge, since you cannot know infinity. but maybe if you can understand it. one thing is to cover and another to understand its mechanics. more and more it seems to me that without understanding there is no liberation, and without psychedelics there is no understanding. psychedelics are essential to be able to delve into the structure of reality, to understand it and thus stop being trapped in the trap of the ego. For liberation there must be understanding, and in this Leo is the pioneer. no one else tries to understand or explain what they have understood. lastly, his unloving attitude. It seems that he is a rather lonely guy, not at all gregarious by nature, who despises everything that is belonging to a group, feeling accepted, etc. and that is very noticeable when interacting with him. It seems that he has the typical superiority complex of a smart nerd who did not feel accepted in childhood for other kids less smart than him. and that shows, it makes him a bit poisonous in interaction with people, the dumbs. but hey, that's his problem, no one is perfect. And i think it's an advantage. It keeps him far of the sectary temptation. if what we want is to free ourselves, his work is of enormous help. That's enough And 4, the environment in the forum. What do you expect? A group of truly awakened people? Not today. Maybe one day.

I'm creating this thread inspired by Leo's blog post on October 23rd, recent posts on this forum, Shinzen Young's writings, and books such as 1000 (Ramaji). Needless to say, different teachers and traditions talk about different (though possibly related) things when they talk about enlightenment, awakening and spiritual development. Therefore, it would be interesting to identify the most important dimensions of awakening and spiritual development claimed by different traditions. We could then ask: 1) Which practices allow you to progress most effectively along different dimensions? 2) Which dimensions might not be worth focusing on because others subsume them? These are some dimensions that I can come up with off the top of my head. I'm not claiming that this list is correct or complete. Some dimensions may be redundant. I don't necessarily agree with every item. I'm just trying to collect the claims made by various teachers and spiritual traditions. Increasing concentration. Increasing sensory clarity. Decreasing reactivity. Dismantling habituated patterns of behavior. Reducing suffering beyond that caused by reactivity. Increasing recognition of the constructed nature of the self. Increasing recognition of the constructed nature of phenomena. Increasing recognition of the nondual nature of experience. Increasing ability to rest in and live from more awakened levels of awareness. Increasing ability to embody and sustain positive states such as love and open-heartedness. Increasing recognition of consciousness as ultimate reality. Realizing God (this is specific to Leo). Interestingly, some teachers are supposedly highly developed along the most sophisticated dimensions yet are clearly deficient in others. Think of a meditation master who fully recognises nonduality but suffers from alcoholism. Which dimensions would you add or remove?