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Lol you still don’t get it. Philosphy is not enlightenment. Zen is not enlightenment. Buddhism is not enlightenment. Academic nitpicking of traditions is not enlightenment. Nonduality is about practice and waking up now indpendent of what silly tradition you’re part of or subscribe to at the end of the day. No tradition “has the truth”. If you’re don’t wake up, you’re just jerking off your mind at the end of the day and spinning your wheels and that game will never EVER end. If you’re not practicing you’re not going to awaken. I can pretty much guarantee you that. And if you don’t awaken, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re talking about an orange without having ever eaten an orange.

All right so you do agree that defects in the brain changes your indvidual experience ( as you said- The cosmic mind has created a universe that appears to operate by certain laws, and among these is that brain states influence states of consciousness.) So we both agree that at least at the level of the body, your behavior changes if there is some defect in your nervous system, doesn't matter if you are enlightened or not, if you are a buddha or a christ or jesus if you have defect in your brain then you will show the subsequent symptoms and personality changes, this is no bullshit, this is medical physiology and if you happen to disagree you will be challenging modern medicine itself and if you demonstrate something otherwise then you will win the nobel prize, become world famous, it's that simple, you won't even need a youtube channel. So here we both agree. At the objective level, we both agree. Now comes the level of the subjective experience. Now here we may differ. You say that , leisions in the brain does not effect enlightenment. So what do you exactly mean by that? That is not clear. Basically you are saying that enlightenment stays even if you have a leision in your brain. But what does that mean. Let's say, the great Adi Shankaracharya, the greatest indian theologian responsible for wiping out Buddhism from India, gets a brain tumor. You and I both agree that at the body level he will be acting weirdly. But what do you think goes in that mind? ( You say that enlightenment stays) I don't know about you, but this is my understanding of enlightenment- the disidentification with your body, thoughts, minds, sensations, ego, and final result is pure awareness. So from my understanding of enlightenment, the enlightened Adi Shankaracharya's experience while he has brain tumor is he will have pure awareness in the background. He knows that the body is acting wierdly, but he knows that he is not the body or the mind, he is nothing but pure awareness, he feels himself identical to this awareness though he sees the body acting weirdly. Now what I am saying is that even that pure awareness has it's center in the brain. Of course this is assuming my version of enlightenment. So are you saying that enlightenment is other then dissolving into pure awareness and nonduality? If enlightenment means complete disidentification, complete disconnection with the imagery world , and subsequent flow of pure consciousness, then even this pure consciousness has it's root in the brain. All you need to do is read a book on neurology, or do a google search. Consciousness comes from brain stem. (Thinking, memory so and so it's all from cortex and other parts, but basic consciousness that is the characteristic of life, is brain stem. Even reptiles have it) It's clinical significance is, if there is a problem, there is irreversible loss consciousness. ( At least when looking at the body). That's how we know brain stem is responsible for consciousness. Now if you are saying that , if the enlightened individual has his brain stem damaged, he still remains enlightened because his flow of pure consciousness and disidentification with the body continues as if he is a ghost although his body is good as dead, then that is a subjective non-falsifiable assertion which cannot be proven or disproven. But at the level of the body, the center of consciousness is brain stem. The body loses consciousness and becomes dead stuff if brain stem is damaged. But if you are saying consciousness is still present, then that's subjective. Now if you are saying the retention of enlightenment happens in some other away, then again that's subjective, non-observable , and I have no idea what you are talking about.

@Nahm Mortality and fear are probably the biggest ones for me to explore. What about the merging of regular duality and the Ultimate Nonduality, is that not an even greater level of consciousness? I think Leo has talked about it like this in the past, but it has kind of faded away... @Serotoninluv Are you kidding? I was talking with Leo today about the demonstration of Love and I teased him, that he has become better at communicating, but Nahm is still the God of Love (someone else gave him this name long before me and I really liked it hahaha) and he said, that Nahm is a Carebear, after which I started thinking about the difference between what most people think by love (not the Absolute) - probably acceptance is the best word here, and what I mean by love - focus, attentiveness and how too much complimenting/accepting of the other can actually lead to strengthening ones ego. (if someone „loves you too much“ to which Leo replied LOL) Did he actually mean stage Teal super-master or the regular meaning of the word Carebear? Edit after Aakash answered: Who the hell is the Court, is that an inside joke that I am not getting? Sometimes I am just stupid... How was Nahm reiki'd into Infinity? (fuck fuck I am probably just stupid nevermind)

@Bryanbrax Keep practicing this, like you would anything else you want to develop. ?? It can lead to channeling, awakening, and nonduality. Takes a lot of practice. Ever considered taking Reiki classes? I bet you’d love it.

God, reality, existence etc are also concepts. Stating the obvious doesn't help much. Look at what people point to with such concepts. Duality is as real as nonduality. Thats the mind fucky paradox. Nonduality includes duality. It is meant to point at the total, the sum of everything. Illusion and real are one in the same.

@Synchronicity Nice. And really great loa / nonduality video btw. Thanks! What’s the name of your channel so I can subscribe?

@Aakash Don’t worry, Leo’s aware that most people won’t want to accept Nonduality. It’s strong stuff and it’s not necessary for everyone to adopt it

Yes, this seems to happen. Don't worry about it. Go for nonduality.

@Shaun Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that you are having a tough time of it. At least we accomplished something here, though. We got to the heart of the issue. The most urgent issue for you is not that you can't seem to find the right woman The most urgent issue is not that you have sexual desires and that they cause you suffering The most urgent issue is that this nonduality stuff is depressing you! You took too much, too fast in your enthusiasm to be on the 'right' path. I would say keep a meditation habit and stop all the other stuff that's making you feel bad. There's no need for it. As Leo says, the nondual explanations he offers in his advanced video are not meant to be taken as gospel. They are all false, untrue, by definition, because they're putting the inexpressible into words. So all that 'reality is an illusion' bullshit is of no value to you until you have awakening experiences for yourself. And then you will see how false the words are, and how actually not depressing the truth is. I'm not speaking from experience. I've never awakened. That's why, however interesting, I don't look for meaning in this nondual stuff. It's not relevant to me (yet). My two cents: take a step back from the theories about reality that you read here. Almost no one knows what they're talking about, because if they did, they would know that it's inexpressible with words. You can ask actual enlightened people if you need answers. Maybe @winterknight wants to weigh in here? Be nice to your ego. You're stuck with it forever, it never goes away and you need it. Feed it wholesome things. Give it what it needs. Practice self love. Look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, honestly, and assess what parts you need to work on before you arrive at the level where this nondual stuff starts to even matter. Most importantly, re-learn to listen to your intuition! All this overthinking is probably clouding it. But you do have that soft, but determined voice somewhere inside you, that tells you what you really want, what your purpose is from moment to moment. It's a great way to live spiritually, because when you master the skill of hearing your intuition, you can start to gracefully play out the role that God intended for your particular ego, and it will feel great! Getting therapy is also a valid step in self-actualization, so do consider that, too, if you need something to ground you. I wish you strength on your path.

Sound advice, thank you. I'm definitely not after a 10/10 woman as I'm not a 10/10 guy. I will be taking action soon to get my head sorted out after taking in too much nonduality teachings from Leo and then I will try and get out a bit more.

No, you're not being an asshole, it's a valid perspective based on how it looks from the outside. I read into some of those threads and there is a guy there who didn't even bother with pickup and ended up in a happy relationship. All the stuff I have learned about nonduality over the past few months has damaged me probably beyond repair for the rest of my life. I don't have the creativity or drive any more for a life purpose. The best I can come up with is winning the lottery or installing/servicing electric vehicle charge points. I am going to get the proper help for these issues but I just keep getting haunted by the idea that reality is just an illusion of my making and i'm totally alone. That's the general consensus here anyway.

What do you think about the messages of nondual teachers like Tony Parsons, Jim Newman, and Paul Hedderman. (Youtube them if you have the time) Tony Parsons talks a lot about meaninglessness, and this intrigues me. Sometimes the notion of meaninglessness is like a sick feeling in the gut, other times it feels like a weight being lifted, but it always some kind of emotional rollercoaster when I listen to talks about nonduality, it is a bit shocking and I couldn't imagine having a mundane conversation about it at a bus stop or a park (although it would be lovely!) A course in miracles also speaks of meaninglessness, but from the perspective of the ego thought system. ACIM basically puts the metaphysics this way: the egoic thought system projects meaning and purpose (knowledge) onto the world and seeks security in that form of knowing, like miscreation 101, the original sin, missing the mark, making an innocent error. The course then subtly transitions to "God did not create a meaningless world." The paradox of duality is displayed in the two statements "Nothing I see means anything" and "God did not create a meaningless world." Maybe the perception of meaning is the error, and Tony asserting that the world is meaningless is just smacking the ego's hand and saying you've miscreated by attaching your own personal meaning to the universe. This personal universe is one in which I stake a flag in the ground and say "these concepts of meaning are my own, they are a testament to my knowledge and understanding, and they give me security in a world I truly know nothing about..." A universe beyond limitation could hold no meaning except by the whole. What believes it is a fragmented and limited part could only perceive a fragmented and limited concept or meaning of reality, since by its own limitations, its can only perceive a "slice" . Where is @Faceless when you need him, box with me man. What do you think @winterknight? Edit: While proofreading I noticed that the statement from the course "Nothing I see means anything" probably means physical sight in terms of perception. The statement "God didn't create a meaningless world" is a metaphysical statement. I think that is worth dwelling on.

Not necessarily. If Nonduality is true and all this is an illusion, and death is a story, then it's likely that once this particular version of existence has 'ended', then all of the illusion will end with it. As Leo has said, my family (as is everything and everyone) doesn't exist. They are all dream characters. Once I wake from this particular dream, they don't exist to morn.

There suddenly being no more me, and being God creator of everything, seems like a big deal. I honestly wish I didn't know anything about all of this, and someone just came up to me with 5-MeO and said "here try this". And then got to learn about Nonduality after the fact.

**If you yourself haven’t actually surrendered to your own death, died and experienced God/Truth/Infinity, I request you not comment, as you’re in the same boat as me, all conceptional and non-experience based opinion.** --------------------------------------------------------------------- Leo, If everything in life is imaginary and I (God, whom I’ve yet to realize in actuality) am creating this eternal moment, then that should mean that everything I heard about death is false and just as illusionary as everything else. So if I am immortal and eternal, then my (the Identity Ego) death is as inconsequential as waking from a dream. But everything the Ego is about is survival, staying alive, so how do I commit to my death, when everything I am doesn’t want to die? Is it a leap of faith? You have to have the will to die, commit suicide, commit fully to the end of your existence, standing strong in the faith that enlightenment is on the other side of that committed choice? I was an Atheist all my life, up until I discovered Nonduality, so death being the end of existence is still deeply ingrained (all a story I created, I know), even if I now know that I cannot die, at least in theory via stories from other people. The key is I need to experience myself as Nonduality, to finally ‘know’ Truth/God/Infinity/Omnipotence. But to do that I need to fully commit to my death. Otherwise I’ll just fight death with everything I’ve got to fight it off, to stay alive at all costs (including my Awakening and liberation). Which is what happened last time I did 5-MeO. Now I’m trying it again, and want to not fight it to stay alive, but to fully surrender to experience Truth. But how can I if everything in my Identity is trying to stay alive? Catch 22 is it not? How does one commit and surrender to their death if everything they are does not want to die? How does one commit suicide (Ego death thru psychedelics like 5-MeO or DPT), if they desperately want to live? I know you and others say it’s not real death, that you’ll come back after, but I don’t know that for 100% sure. I mean from everything I’ve studied over that past 2 years tell me I will come back, but I won’t know for sure until I experience it for myself. Even if I was 95% sure, that 5% would prevent me from committing to surrender of my life to death. In Nonduality, everyone says the goal is to actually not come back. The goal IS my death. So again, how do I surrender to death, without just saying ‘you just do it”, how do I have the will to commit suicide (again, talking Identity Ego death, which is apparently the same thing as conceptual death)? I’m 44 and have spent decades doing every drug I could get my hands on. I’ve done LSD and mushrooms hundreds of times, I’ve done hash, Ketamine, Nitrous, 5-MeO-DIPT, Ayahuasca. I’ve even done 5-Meo a few times, to little affect. About half of these experiences lead to me having a panic attack, thinking I’m dying and trying to fight to not die. But these drug experiences were all to enhance my reality. And 5-Meo is about ending it. So all those past drug experiences are not relevant to this equation. Is surrendering to death on 5-MeO the same as surrendering to a drug? Letting the drug take you wherever it wants. Is this surrender the same as surrendering to death? I know conceptually that all those past experiences never really happened, as my past experiences are imaginary (apparently), but I won’t know that for sure, until I Awaken. But those hundreds of instances of panic attacks and fighting to not die, are real to me, as I’m an Ego, thinks his past is real. So you see the catch-22 / vicious circle? How do I trust, when the request is my very death and the end of my life? I don’t know if I have that much trust in me, to gamble with my life. So what advice is there to be able to choose that trust, to take that leap of faith, to chose to chose to end my life? How do I trust that if I kill myself, I’ll Awaken to Truth/Liberation/Enlightenment, and not just be ending my consciousness, potentially robbing myself of maybe another 40 years of a decent, it not flawed life? Now I’ve learned that the only way to Awakening/ Truth is to be in that same space of feeling like I’m dying, panicking again, but this time I have to choose to die, instead of trying to save myself. But how can I do that, willfully commit, surrender to my death? How can I choose to die, when I can’t, cause my very survival and life is all that matters to me? Could really use some advice on this.

A) I don't know what you mean by that. You are painting with a broad brush here. People experience and realize different things. Nondual consciousness is not a state of ego, it is the absence of ego, and the realization that your true nature is nothing and everything, or infinite, or God. There are many people here who are unaware of many things. Just because they have some degree of realization does not mean they are aware of the deeper layers. Ego dissolution also has layers and degrees of depth to it. The ego is a complex and relentless structure. It takes a lot of deconstruction work to fully get beyond it. B) Do not start yet another nonduality debate.

Nice story bro, but Truth is everything and the only thing. Psychedelics can certainly take one there. Of course here and there are nowhere and one and the same. Truth is both temprary and eternal. It is all and nothing. There is nothing but states of consciousness and you are in a state right now, regardless of what it is. All states are part of the Truth. Whether it is formed or formless is irrelvant. These nonduality debates are getting really silly.

This is just false. Psychedelics are not merely "an experience", they can take you to the Absolute. Just because enlightenment may not require an experience shift does not entail that an experience shift cannot lead to an enlightenment. Psychedelics do not merely change one's experience, they radically elevate one's degree of consciousness -- which is the whole key to this work. Psychedelics put you into an instantaneous samadhi state. From this state one can contemplate and realize all sorts of things, including one's true nature or various facets of the Absolute. The reason you're making this mistake is that you're trying to understand psychedelics in terms of some traditional spiritual paradigm like Buddhism, Zen, or Vedanta, which tend to discount state changes -- but psychedelics are a totally different path so it is inappropriate to judge it from those other paradigms. Psychedelics can take you to levels of understanding and awakening which are simply impossible otherwise, or else possible but extremely rare and only for exceptionally gifted practitioners. It is correct that you will not be able to permanently lock in a psychedelic peak state 24/7. But that is an improper expectation to begin with. Psychedelics, when used properly, can absolutely take you to the highest, most Absolute Truth. Of course the real trick is integrating it and embodying, which requires a lot of additional work. Psychedelic insights and realizations square up perfectly with those of Buddhism, Zen, Vedanta, yoga, Christianity, Islam, and any other serious mystical tradition. Shunyata, Brahman, The Self, no-self, ego-death, Allah, God, nonduality, Shiva, Buddha, nirvana, rigpa, samadhi, Mu, Infinity, The Void, Nothingness, The Dharmakaya, the godhead, union, Absolute Consciousness, satchitanadna, Truth, Love, kundalini awakening, Nibbana, formlessness, etc. -- all of this and more you can realize on psychedelics.

Nothing can come from nothing. So nonduality teachers talking about nothing are deluded I suspect, or are big conmen/conwomen. Even to say no-thing is confusing, because what is a thing? They need to define what they mean by thing first. EDIT: I came to think that there is also a third possibility: that some spiritual teachers have to be somewhat vague or misleading or the powers of the global ego might attack them and take them down. There are huge ego interests in protecting profit, social control, established collective egos and so on.

Long story short: The ultimate nature is playful I am eternal I am timeless I delight in my own creation Short story long: Hello friends It has been a while Nine months have passed since I fried my ass off with 200µg of LSD last Septemeber. After a lot of integration and working on myself in everyday life I found myself in a good spot to drop some acid again. Once more tripping all alone; no tripsitter, no safety nets. This time at an isolated place in a nature reserve where I am currently working but with half the dose – 100µg of LSD. I was worried the acid might have lost some of it’s potency due to being stored at room temperature for over a year now, but these worries were unjustified In comparison to my last trip: Less visuals, less sacred geometry. No Kechari Mudra this time ;-) Deeper, more raw energetic kundalini stuff + some surprises More Death | more Non-Dual | more Love ! So here’s what happened: 18:00pm : I drop the tab, read “The teachings of Don Juan” and listened to the fabulous “Leylines” Album by Aes Dana. ~18:45pm: Can't read anymore, I start dancing. Dancing is great way in & out of the trip. Strong desire to be more aware of my body. Exploring energy moving through the shoulders and neck – I should straighten up my posture! Only slight patterns and visuals at this point, but my mind is already going places.. After some dancing I come to a dead end, gently drop to the floor, arms out to the sides, and watch myself die. I seem to somehow have skipped the comeup and directly went from "barely any effect" to "full blow trip"! Tingling at the base of the spine, light in my head. Here the unspeakable territory of yogic states begins. This is what I saw Dry analysis is ego, Light shines through in emotions This life is my offering to you, Shiva Angels and demons guard the same door Ravenous energies moving up the spine With pleasure I kiss shut deaths eye How does a self self-terminate? In the end there is nothing you do, you just give in to what was your deepest desire all along – you surrender and explode in ecstasy! There was no-Self to begin with! Oh dear Lord! Self-awareness kicks back in, but the meditator within me doesn’t want the endless orgasm to end – “I can last longer!” – so he keeps the body unmoving and goes for some more rounds on the strange-loop of (non)existence. I arise from my ecstatic slumber. I get up and go the bathroom, pulled by strings beyond my control, and face myself in the mirror. Hard to explain what happened there. I see myself as I am, with all my tensions and imperfections. My face morphs through various beings, from angelic benevolent rabbits to demonic shapeshifting lizards. From time to time my reflection disappears comepletely, leaving just the empty bathroom. I take off my clothes, look at my body. Imperfect by flawless design. Divine, tempting! I watch myself transform into a woman – androgynous mastermind Goddamn shapeshifters! ;-) I walk back to the living room and sit down on the floor, meditation posture. I vividly experience “energetic blockages” in the right side of my body, specifically in the right abdomen slightly above the navel. Left is conscious, right is unconscious. I had been increasingly aware of several “dysfunctions” on the right side of my body over the last months, now it all was very clear. The root of the energetic distortion lies deep within the right side of the pelvis, hard to explain. This is my karma, this is the work I have to do! For the first time I connect this to the appendectomy I had 10 years ago. I repressed the entire procedure! I let the memories surface with as much love and awareness as possible. Funny to look at it from the nondual perspective; I cut out a party of myself Because it would have killed me Interesting That was the first part of the trip, the peak; Surrendering, experiencing some esoteric/mystic/ occult/ecstatic far far out stuff you can’t talk about without being tackled from left and right, merging with the Absolute, reentering into karmic existence and clearing out some baggage on the way. Lovely. The second part of the trip was all about embodiment of nondual consciousness and how I fail at doing that. Huge lesson. Here's what happened: I stand up as God, as Myself. I look out of the window; flawless nature, the sun is setting. I gaze into the sun. Aligning the small ego self with the big Godself. Merging with love, drowning in love Infinite Pleasure, Infinite Love, Infinite Death, Infinite Anything Hey, babe… I’m the sun I love it all so much; I want to go outside, I want to be with my creation! Egoic fear starts surfacing. I know I am all alone out here in nature, but it could be possible for some coworkers to come by. They can’t see me like this, walking through the garden, all ego-less!? Inner conflict. The same resistance you feel when for the first time engaging someone you truly love; fear of how it will turn out, fear of the unknown. But an irresistible urge to do so anyways. You have to trust, and step forward with love! I put on some shorts (huge mistake! :D) and made my way outside. Why did I even lock the door? Was I afraid someone would come by, rob, rape and murder me? I just kicked in my own front door and shot myself in the head! (with Love) Nothing to be afraid of now, hahaha It feels good to be outside But there are still old patterns, memories… God would have just walked off into the wilderness I turned right and slowly, consciously, step by step approached the garden and with it my synchronicity moment of the year, a funny little allegory about psychedelics and God-Consciousness; God-Me walks into his garden and sees a rabbit, feasting and nibbling on the tasty, fresh and young strawberries God-Me had planet just a week ago. Gotcha! God-Me stands still and intensely focuses his piercing gaze on the God-Rabbit. The rabbit abruptly stops eating, crouches and contracts in fear. God-Me loosens his tight gaze, squats down, extends his hand and mentally says “It’s okay you little rascal, come here, I want to love you!” The rabbit runs away. What a shame, I just wanted to love it. I sit down and reflect. If I really am myself, the rabbit, the strawberries and the garden, what does this mean? No time to reflect. I hear the sound of an approaching car - coworkers incoming!! They can’t see me like this, sitting in the garden all ego-less! With fear I contract and run back into the house. I am the rabbit! I want it to happen without drugs, that’s the only excuse I have Fear is the basic mechanism of separation; fear of Death, fear of Love, fear of Self Back inside, back inside my egoic safe space. I realize there was no car approaching at all. I just imagined it. What a shame, I could have just loved it. Too much of this love kills me Inside I sit in meditation and contemplate what just happened. I realize I have to give it another try, I have to come out of hiding. In addition to the shorts I put on a shirt and again venture outside. Now I feel more comfortable about being outside. I have to slowly adjust myself to these new levels of consciousness. So much energy in the system. I sit in meditation. Again I hear the sound of a car approaching. Same old fear, wanting to run inside. But NO! I am creating this! And I choose to create out of Love, not out of fear! I sit still. No coworkers. So much energy!! I get up and spontaneously do some impromptu Tai-Chi / Kung-Fu / Martial Arts. So that’s what that stuff is all about! Most of it must have looked uncoordinated and weird – my first real training session! Some of those movements however… If you really focus, intensely zone in… Mind&Matter moving together This is how God creates! Directly – effortless will I TaiChi-myself into a fascinating realization: Who cares about a few mosquito bites… I am a motherucking MACHINE ELF! The intelligence that guides the separation, the code that runs the divine operating system! Eternally recreating myself… My heart bursts open, it feels so good to be back, I missed myself so much! Like a father, like a mother, like a son, like a daughter, like a brother, like a sister, like a teacher, like a friend, like a lover “I love you!” Is that really true? “Sure babe, I’d tell you anything. I AM you!” Not much happened after that, I was just awake for 6 more hours. I meditated in the house, again naked but wrapped in a blanket, exploring visions of myself as a Sage, bathing in this new awareness. Dealing with the aftermath of chemically induced kundalini, trying to get the energy out of the system… Then I fell asleep at around 6:00am Takeaways from the trip: Love! A call to authenticity and spontaneity! I already am on that path, just gotta keep on walking… The destination is radical but it is worth it! (+there is no other option lol) Getting more grounded in the body! More Yoga, maybe start doing TaiChi. There were two more paragraphs I wanted to write. One about how I failed my own Zen Koan challenge (realized the answer but didn’t act it out). The other about Love only being perceived when there is something to be loved. But I don’t know how to express that without starting nonduality-wars ;-) So I’ll just leave it at that. Here’s a goodie for you to chew on: I am that I (1) create the Two (and remain in between) Did you get it? Love you all!

There are many different styles and varieties of seekers coming from many different standpoints and schools. For example, you might find a community of seekers if you went to Tiruvannamalai in India (where the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi used to live) -- though you might also find a lot of other people. And clearly they will be seekers influenced by Maharshi's teachings. You will also find seekers in various Buddhist monasteries and retreats, Hindu ashrams, and so on. You'll find seekers at places like the Science and Nonduality conference, and also around any of the prominent Western spiritual teachers, though obviously those seekers will be influenced by and in the style of those teachings. Maybe you could consider watching some interviews on Buddha at the Gas Pump and see if anyone resonates? By watching what they say and what they do and how one feels about them and in their presence, one can get a sense over time of whether they 'get it' or not. Though in a sense it's limited, because the ultimate truth is that there are no enlightened people, there's just enlightenment.

Depends on what you call 'awakening'. If you mean a direct glimpse/realization into one's true nature, then any good nonduality teacher should be able to give you one within few minutes, given that the person is open minded and willing to follow that philosophical inquiry- either through a video or face to face conversation or through a book.. In that sense, dozens wake up like that in any nonduality retreats, Rupert's included. But if you mean firm establishment into that true identity, then no. No one can give you that. That's when the real game begins. You are not seeking anymore. You've found it. And now you are making it true in every situation all the time. And that requires conscious relinquishment of all the ideas associated to oneself and erasing one's habitual structures- and that happens simply due to inattention or non-engagement in those patterns as one only genuinely contemplates about one's real nature and sinking into that. In contrast to that, the peeps in 'progressive paths' are still seeking. One should be intelligent enough to see this distinction. But hell! even those who do find a glimpse in retreats forgets about it and starts another round of seeking some new fantastical thing once again lol. The perversion of the intellect. So it generally requires being in this circle for a while, have multiple 'awakenings' to finally wise up and see that one is not really coming or going or growing or diminishing- one is ever the same- that intuitive understanding slowly untangles one from the fantasties of new seeking and experiences- and instead encourages one to sink into Being

Around Nov/Dec last year, I had read, watched (including Leo's excellent videos, which have impacted my metaphysics deeply) and contemplated Nonduality long enough for it to start breaking down old structures apart. There was an earth shattering realization about my work in science: science isn't probably going to answer the questions I wanted answered. To make matter worse, something inside me had realized this well in advance and I found that I had hit a huge wall of procrastination (though I didn't understand it at the time). My work life was suffering and at the same time, though I had zeroed in on self-inquiry in my Nondual exploration, I had no idea how to actually do it. There were multiple points of confusion: 1) How to exactly self inquire? 2) How to integrate it with the rest of my life 3) What is the guiding principle to orient my actions in the relative world, and what relation it has to Nonduality? Around that time, I came across this megathread started by Akilesh/@winterknight: I was quite impressed with his answers and, like many of you, I had a sense that they were coming from an authentic place. I started talking to him one on one and finally I opted for weekly phone conversations for a guidance fee. I also read his book, How to find what isnt lost, in the process. As our personal interaction started, things started to unravel and settle down in coming weeks and months. First and foremost, he helped my understand my own procrastination. He guided me through multiple 'hitting the wall' moments of self-inquiry, resolved many existential doubts, and helped me avoid many of the subtle traps of a spiritual path. He explained my many doubts about Advaitan metaphysics and how exactly it related to self-inquiry. I finally reached a point where things were integrated enough for life and self-inquiry to be self-sustainable. There is a harmonious life now, well integrated with a background spiritual inquiry, that comes to foreground multiple times on a given day. There is content and peace and, equally importantly, a healthy engagement with the relative world. I can honestly say that this transition wouldn't have been possible, or at least would have taken much longer, it it weren't for Akilesh's personalized help. My orientation to nonduality is Truth, so I really appreciated that he did not sugarcoat his statements. He was brutally honest at times, and he did what many teachers don't do: accepted at points that enlightenment doesn't mean you know answer to every question. In fact there are many important questions on which there are speculations, but no definite answer. No one knows. This really helped my mind settle down into unknowingness. How to find what isn't lost was an excellent concise instructional book on modern perspective on Advaita and, more importantly, how to actually practice self inquiry. Most books on self inquiry are those claiming to be by Ramana Maharshi; but they are actually not written by him. It's always compiled and translated by someone else and is in Q&A format, and it is very hard to extract the exact instructions of the practice, especially for a beginner. So if you are interested in self-inquiry, you must give it a try. I am writing it here so in case you relate to the place I was at, you can give what worked for me a try as well.

I dont recommend or discourage enlightenment. Its not a cutting edge diet plan. Those who are meant to get it, those with necessary dispassion and introspective samskaras(latent tendencies) as opposed to extroverted samskaras, will get it when the time is right. Enlightenment doesn't harvest a goodie nor does it solve the human problem. It simply dissolves that human and the whole 'chabang' that goes with it (as the inlightened nonduality warlord likes to use that word ?) But unfortunately most "spiritual teachers" wouldn't spill all the beans due to marketing issues. I mean who in the world would sign up for a teaching for suicide. Virtually none. Many would definitely romanticize about it, but not the real deal. I merely try not to spread misconception and maybe show a signpost here and there for those with doubts.

@FrankTheTank I understand it looks that way from your POV, but you do not yet understand how radical Absolute Truth is. It cannot be doubted. The end result of openmindedness is Absolute Truth, at which point you are beyond the mind entirely and you are never going back nor will you ever compromise with ignorance. Don't mistake openmindedness for compromise with ignorance. Not all positions warrant serious consideration. Once you taste nonduality you will never take dualistic positions seriously again.