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I understand. May seem like word salad, but I can not be in the moment, because nonduality. Nothing. It’s a conversation, like an episode of Friends. What do you figure is being searched for? I don’t experience that ‘either way’ factor really. I wouldn’t say I do care, no. Idk. That didn’t occur to me. How is it you feel I’m ‘fighting my self’? I apologize if I came across that way, it’s not what is experienced ‘at my end’. The intention of my replies was a pointing to what is prior, and to what is a priori, rather than to “counter” or “argue”. I honestly am experiencing an interesting conversation. I don’t feel any arguing or countering. Indeed. You’ve got to remember though, I don’t hold that belief to begin with. If I express that is not my experience, if I point to that there is prior to, am I “arguing” / “countering”...? Seems like all one...no? Neuroscience is not an entity which moves or accepts. Also, a theory is “of the two computers” as you might phrase it. Again, I’m pointing to that being a priori. That is also “of the two computers” / duality. Of course there is disagreement. If one has not “gone” prior to duality, one lives in arguing / debating / theory. The actuality of ‘their theories’, is your thought. Just like... “evolution”.

@Endangered-EGO Your notion of winning or losing debates is silly. Truth and consciousness are not things to be debated at all. Yes, Sam Harris is more developed than JP and of course Ben Shaprio. But Sam has plenty of Orange yet in him, and he is certainly not awake. But yes, he has a good deal of Yellow in him. But Yellow is not that high when we are talking about things like truth, consciousness, love, God, nonduality, spirituality, etc. Yellow is still childhood. Sam Harris is very moralistic and does not understand relativity. So he hasn't fully integrated Green.

@Nahm Thanks! It turned out to be a really good conversation. He said that he didn't like how nonduality and spiritual teachers use their own language to speak about this stuff, and how you have to learn it before you know what they are speaking about. My first mistake is that day in, day out I read and immerse myself in this stuff and discuss it with him very little. Then I expect him to just come along with me only when I want his help with something. I compared the language to our understanding of Christianity and the Bible when were kids, specifically terms such as the "Holy Spirit". Then I tried to explain how communion was really a powerful nondual pointer, which he didn't get, but then told me that he was taught several different things about communion in church, including that if your heart wasn't quite right and you still took it, that God would strike you dead. And then I remembered that his upbringing was far, far different from mine, and how fear and control were so front and center for him. Then I realized that I've been a selfish jerk overlooking and under appreciating a lot of things.

Balance that out with the opposite. Feel that great in the selflessness of it. Also keep in mind, you can’t want the flow state, and be in the flow state. It’s letting resistance go, and listening to the thought of future flow is resistant to presence now. And also, we’re all where we’re at with non-duality so to speak, but referring to individuals as separate, and or assigning anything to individuals, reinforces the belief one is themself separate. It’s healthy relative to hatred, but unhelpful relative to nonduality.

Had a long conversation about spirituality, psychedelics and awakening with my husband. I decided to read this above to him. He said nothing, so I asked what he thought. "Especially the part about the balance, it sounds like an infomercial ,"it slices, it dices!" He said some awfully judgmental things about psychedelics and made a comparison that particularity hurt. There were jokes, connection and good communication throughout. Towards the end the conversation went to Christianity, and eventually I realized I am a complete jerk, because I tried to tell him what communion means as a pointer to nonduality and he wasn't coming along with me. Then he told how it was described to him in various ways in church and that he was told that if your heart wasn't in the right place and you still took communion, that you'd be struck dead. And I realized and remembered the amount of fear instilled in him. He was dragged to church every single Sunday, to some of the most fundamentalist churches. I read my Bible on my own free will, with a few lose expectations and morality that was set in my family. To tie it to Leo's most recent video which I loved, you can't expect people to hold liberal "woke" values if they are living in a threatened environment. Yet this is exactly what I've done. I'm a selfish jerk. Spiritually, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth in comparison. We've both made incredible spiritual progress over the course of our lives, and likely he's traversed more "ground" than I have. Partially because he got seduced by the daughter of Satan but whatever, God works in mysterious ways!

@billiesimon When a person is conditioned to perceive and identify to only one side of a duality, the awakening comes from realization of the other side of the duality (and then realization both sides are the same). For example, if someone believed waking life is "real" and dreams are "imagined". It would be most helpful to show them that waking life is "imagined". They already have the "real" part down - they don't need any help realizing waking life is "real". That would actually be counter-productive since it would re-enforce their attachment/identification to that side of the duality. For them, the awakening comes from realizing waking life is "imagined". On the flip side, the person is already aware that dreams are "imagined" - the awakening comes with seeing that dreams are also "real". With this awareness, the duality between "real vs imagined" can dissolve. 99.999% of humans are programmed that "sober" waking life is "real" and "altered" mindstates like dreams and psychedelics are "imagined". Very few people are programmed for the opposite orientation. Just look on this forum: how many people believe that psychedelic states are "real" and the sober state is "imagined"? I would say noone. The vast majority of people are questioning how "real" psychedelic states are. I've only met two people in my life with a nearly reverse orientation - and both are getting re-conditioned to believe waking life is "real". The first is my niece. She is a master dreamer and has created a dream reality that is more real than her waking life. While awake, this has caused all sorts of problems. She has various anxiety disorders and various psycho-somatic issues including recurring migraine headaches, nausea and vomiting. She has received years of therapy trying to get her grounded that waking life is "real". . . . The second person was a non-speaking autistic whose default state was nonduality. It took him 10+ years of practice and training to awaken to duality. . . Both cases are the opposite orientation of 99.999% of people. . . I've also met several people that are natural hybrids - the have an ability to "flip" back and forth, yet preferences one side. I think they would have an advantage in that they 90% of the way there starting off.

Ok, now I get it. It's just a duality to see imagination opposed to reality. In nonduality they are the same I guess.

How exactly does this work? Everything just happens? If you look at neo advaita teachers like Tony Parsons or Jim Newman, they are always radical about it, saying there is no one home, and thus there is no free will. So what about murderers, serial killers, pedophiles, serious drug addicts etc? They have no free will? They don't have a choice in killing someone or staying addicted to heroin? I don't understand how this works. Also addictions in general. Do you actually have no choice wether you are addicted and stay addicted to a subtance?

a few resources that helped - https://non-duality.rupertspira.com/read/treat_everyone_and_everything_as_they_truly_are_224 https://www.google.com/amp/s/nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/nonduality-teachers-and-money/amp/ @GreenWoods also regarding your last post, why not do both maximise your own happiness and so called “others” who are literally your very own self’s happiness? I don’t see why it has to be one or the other. In fact, sharing and loving and helping others often leads to greater levels of happiness and abundance, so in fact doing both is actually beneficial. I don’t see an issue with someone wanting to live a comfortable life and help others simultaneously. You can never perfectly embody enlightenment 100%, if you look at modern teachers such as Rupert Spira, Adyashanti, Francis Lucille, all of these earn money be deservedly so. Are they not embodying their awakening as a result? an embodied awakening doesn’t have to mean you go feed the poor, you could work at Starbucks and live an embodied Self-Realized life Also, do you have a problem with teachers earning money?

In the sense, meaning arises in you. Whatever “absolute perspective”, “the human perspective”, “universe”, “reality”, “ego”, “personal you”, “right”....mean to you, is only what it means to you. Nonduality would imply there is not a you and a meaning. There is learning what a word means, like cup, and there is ‘learning’ it was never “a cup”, as “cup” was a word you learned.

Minecraft is more than just a game. Much more. It is an interactive allegory for the dream we call life. And it is so beautiful... While Minecraft is an endless game of infinite possibility (just like life), there is an "end" baked the game. Starting the game with absolutely nothing, over time you gather resources to craft increasingly powerful items. After many hours of play, if you know what you're doing, you can gather the resources to create a portal to "The End," a separate dimension from the "overworld" where you started. Upon traveling to The End for the first time, you spawn on a platform where you must fight a giant dragon. Notice that this is a reference to The Hero's Journey, where the dragon is a metaphor for the final boss. After you slay the dragon, you drop down into another portal back to the overworld to continue your infinite journey... but not until The End Poem plays back to you. And boy, this caught me by surprise. It's a deep and moving metaphysical poem about two unknown beings (presumed to be of a higher dimension, or gods) conversing. As the player, you realize that these two beings have been with you all the time, but only now are you aware of their presence and thoughts. Let's think about this for a moment. At the end of Minecraft, the most popular PC game of all time, is a metaphysical poem about dreams, love, nonduality, and the infinitude of the universe. All lining up with the work of actualized.org and eastern spirituality. Excuse me, but WHAT THE FUCK?!?! Only those on the path are open to considering and understanding the deep truths found within... Truly fascinating. Since "beating" the game yesterday, I've browsed the web for other people's reactions, and it shouldn't be a surprise to you that 95% of gamers hated the ending or totally misunderstood it. And even those that "got it" didn't REALLY get it. Doesn't the universe speak to us in the most amazing ways? Even if you've never played Minecraft, Please please please watch the ending. Trust me, it will speak to you and uplift you. P.S. I looked up who wrote the poem, and it wasn't Notch, the famous developer who created the game. He hired Julian Gough to write the ending, based off Julian's short story "iHole," which is a brilliant satire worth reading. I just ordered his latest book called "Connect," which appears to be a riveting work well ahead of its time. Once you read the End Poem, you'll know that Julian isn't your run-of-the-mill fiction writer. He can't be.

Nonduality teacher Roger Castillo who sometimes quotes from ACIM said that some people start to suffer directly when they wake up in the morning, regardless of the actual external circumstances. That has probably happened to all of us. That's the mind causing suffering by itself! That simple fact is suspicion enough to at least consider what ACIM says as a possible truth. Why would the mind torture itself? Eckhart Tolle has mentioned something similar about the ego mind. So a simple practice I will try is to observe my mind and how it creates suffering by itself.

What do you mean under selflessness? An attribute of a person who cares about other things but himself/herself? Or do you mean Selflessnes which points at nonduality? Sacrifice is only a content like anything else the ego is able to see. It is duality and will never lead to Selflessness (lack of self).

Wow! What a powerful story, thanks for sharing that @DrewNows! Thanks for the support and your involvement, I appreciate it. It is not the case that I would hold a grudge or alienate him in any way. It's simply a matter of the fact that within me there still lives a traumatized archetype of a victim who was abused and trashed by overly insensitive masculine energy. One of the main ways a victim is reformed is by reclaiming their voice and saying No! The problem wasn't the advice, nor its legitimacy, the problem was that I did not ask for it. And since we already brought 'Moo-man' (thanks for that name I'll remember that hah) into the conversation, I recall a situtation with him where a former lover who he discarded was complaining about her treatment, and her complaints were dismissed as 'you were just too attached', and I was handled in a very similar way, where my concerns about the use of nonduality as a way of manipulating individuals who are in pain, and perpetuating patriarchal conditioning, was dismissed as a projection and so and so. It's not a projection, it's a very real thing that happens every day. As much as I would love to be complete and healed enough to brush it off without saying anything, I am not. I'm still vulnerable, raw and in various degrees of pain from what has happened to me in my life. I am on a very intense journey, and whenever my journey is disrespected by others, the only option is to speak up. It's very simple. It's an opportunity to heal, as a way of informing my nervous system that its safe to speak up, and if met with consequences, I can always ensure m own safety. It's very important to honor my own process, and so I shall.

J: And... we're live Leo Gura. How are you sir? L: I'm pretty good thanks. J:You haven't done many podcasts have you? L: I've been saving myself for you Joe J: OK so there's no pressure... if we fuck this up (joking) you'll just never do another podcast L: (More sarcasm) Yeah but I can cross it off my bucket list J: You can absolutely J: Your channel is unusual. Can I say that? I think I can say that. L: It is unusual. J: I've watched a fair few of your videos and there are some very, very controversial statements in there. L: (explains history of A.org making comparisons with more mainstream self-help, meditation, enlightenment.) Cue psychedelics discussion. Joe asks plenty of skeptical questions. Leo responds, with plenty of caveats and fundamentals, e.g. they both acknowledge that you can't just tell a religious person to drop their faith, or an atheist to consider nonduality. Leo may or may not smoke some bud. Politics. Dating. UFOs. Boom.

mhhh i have a complete different understanding of non duality. in some sense we could discuss every one of these positions and probably would come to completely different outcomes for at least half of them. but he somehow makes the talking about it already a no go which makes it difficult to talk about the essence of „what“ he is really talking about which he also denies being of any importance. the sheet therefore is critiqueless in itself. but nonduality for me means to see the juxtaposition in everything.

Is spiritual enlightenment just about removing the ego's identification as a separate self? Yes, that seems to be the main theme according to nonduality teachers and ACIM at least. In practice this is a huge thing. Why? Because all our personal memories were formed from that ego belief in a separate self. And the same with our whole society, and our whole human history and probably our whole biological evolution up to now. So the ego is a massive heap of false conditioning.

@remember Yes, but that’s what “on one scale” pointed to (or the intention anyway)...that it’s that same ‘thing’ fundamentally at play. @Raptorsin7 Can some dots connect here...? Conflation...mixing spiral dynamics references with nonduality, or ‘the path’ references....? In ‘putting down the armor’, allowing for emotional sensitivity...one is free of the prior held beliefs for doing the inspection work, which is Good, and feels Good, btw...yes? If I knew someone looking to feel good, to find “the zone”, to breathe more and more life into their LP... I’d tell em to do inspection work. As the “Good book” says....do not eat from the tree of good & evil (judgement).....eat instead from the Tree of Life Purpose. (Paraphrasing a bit there). *Not suggesting a dogma of Christianity. ....for good contextual measure perhaps.... “Whoever loves to meet God, God loves to meet him.” - Muhammad

The nonduality of the we are ONE is not incompatible with fractality and infinite possibilities: The omnipotent creator GOD is inside of limited beings so insignificant and vulnerable like a blind worm. A worm cannot levitate, telekinesis or manifest things with his primitive mind. Whats the problem with that? At the same time GOD is inside of some superinteligent alien in the other side of the universe that can move mountains with his thoughs. Absolute infinity means that GOD is here to experiment everything. Being a limited helpless maggot or being a super powerful entity.

5-MeO-DMT Trip Report | Life Changing Nonduality Insights With The God Molecule

My husband has been vandalizing my dream board lately, which has been annoying to me, even though ironically yesterday I was thinking about nonduality and art and how obscene graffiti is art as much as fine art. I just noticed that he wrote, "Pop Goes the Weasel World" on it. The weasel is sneaky.. Sometimes external "dots" and signs have to connect before deeper connections can be made. I just realized that I give myself "gifts", I literally manifest signs so I can feel alignment with love. They are also pointers pointing me along. They give me confidence and reassurance, like intermittent rewards among the infinite. I spent my entire "life" with a deep desire to know Divine Love, believing that it was something outside of me... because I believed there was a me. Love is always implicit. Therefore, whenever anyone speaks of Truth without speaking of Love, they have chosen to never make the implicit explicit. How could this be a problem? How could this ever be a threat to the implicit Love itself? To the mind this sounds obvious. You know this already, right? Do you know it implicitly? Do you know that Love is implicit, implicitly? This is the deepest mind fuck, it's so deep, it's right on the surface, right under our noses and was the entire time. Right under our noses? You mean explicit? How can THAT be? Because what do two negatives make? What do two "implicits", make? That is how I can be... yet there is no "I." Love is neither explicit nor implicit. "Effort/time as the i, implicitly sets its own limit and continuously tries to exceed that limit."-Faceless Self Love is simply feeling, feeling when you've "got it right" and wisdom is "seeing" that judgment and separation feels bad. Is a feeling implicit? Only if there's a you. That's what makes feeling both. It only ever exists in your own internal experience. That's all. The only feeling that is ever TRUE is Love. True meditation is Feeling, Being Love. You can only know by how it feels. There's no one and nothing outside of you. Every teacher, teaching, experience and person is an aspect of you. It does not have the ability to resonate or be wrong. You only ever make yourself feel wrong, by making yourself out of whatever fragmentation and abstraction you create. Letting go of self judgement and giving in to Self Love means letting go of all fear. It also means letting go of all fear and all internally felt discord of responsibility. It's too good to be true. "All around the cobbler’s bench The monkey chased the weasel. The monkey thought ’twas all in good fun, Pop! goes the weasel." Pop.

It's a beautiful resort (esp. the gardens), but it is a bit too expensive (at least IMO). However, if that's not an issue for you and you feel that you resonate with what they offer (check their website) then go right ahead. I personally would recommend you to visit the Ramana Maharshi Ashram, Auroville/Shri Aurobindo Ashram in Southern India. Other places like Haridwar, Bodhgaya, Dharamshala can be good for opening your eyes to the culture and how spirituality plays a role in it. If you are looking for a specific spiritual line of work (Yoga, Zen, etc) then you might want to look around on the internet and check the reviews to get a feel for it. But you will find spirituality and Nonduality infused in every nook and cranny of the country if you have the eyes for it. Namaste

True. True. All judgement is relative to the self(-concept) and its survival. Feeling good, or being a good person is good, for the self. Nonduality is not relative to the self-concept and is not dependent upon its existence or non-existence.

@Elham For me it is very funny, i bursted out when i read this. It is funny for me in a few angles: all the nonduality wars and arguments i engage in and others engage in like it matters or something, but maybe it does, depends on what you know about it, i guess, and the many valid ways to look at this that gets rejected by people in each others arguments, because they believe only they are right or just want to be right because that makes them look better (in some social gathering cases, i remember one guy was discussing how he doesnt agree with that mackenna guy and some other schools of non-duality, like he knows, and the fact that i think i know something also and choose to judge him, the whole saga is hillarious); the whole suffering pain-pleasure saga of my life where i really want to know the answer to that question, but how can you know and get answers, ofc somehow experientially where it happens from me randomly from time to time; I feel like this question has become a meme for me at the point because i have gotten far less serious about life in general, tho i still want to know the truth, maybe even more than ever, but the fact is i am getting very non-serious with arguing with people about life in general, i don't see why not, the burden of proof is on them and in them, usually when you share your intimate far out ideas you get dragged down to their "uuh, but it has to be logical" and get confused if you believe them. Don't get me wrong its a valid question to find out some crucial info about somebody, depending upon if they are lying or telling the truth as they think it is. Idk if you hear an aswer like mine, you should run or something. Don't take this personally tho, i laugh about the question not about you asking it or you in general.

From the Nonduality perspective, this is all moot. We're all one. Race is Maya.