Post Your Biggest Challenges With Spirituality Here

[Taavi]

Discerning what anything is. Things have gotten spooky after "just being", without categories and stories. The hard part is trying to know if my understandment and experience is the same as what you are saying in your videos.

[Sage_Elias]

16 hours ago, SLICKHAWK said:

What bugging me is how ignorant we all are. Its tough being vegan highly conscious around most who do not have passion to change.

I think we have all had this challenge

Note that people cannot act beyond their level of consciousness. That is, they are not conscious enough to act other than they currently do.

Also note that everyone is at different stages of consciousness. So you may have certain values and act a particular way due to the level of consciousness that YOU have.  So your mom who just can't understand why you are 'wasting time' meditating and doing yoga is like this based on her level of conscoiusness.

Just be aware that we are at different stages...this should be of help

[Beyond Words]

How can adancements in artificial intelligence, gene editing or any practical technology help contribute to getting most humans open to and pursuing enlightenment? What stepping stone can help people without having had enlightenment experiences get to become open to becoming enlightened?

Let's cut the shit. VERY FEW will get an enlightenment experience let alone will try a psychedelic to generate one. Having had, by accident, a glimpse of enlightenment, I know I would've never been open at all to the possibility of the absolute truth.

I will become enlightened. What can I (and others) do with the rest of our lives to bring forth the advent of an enlightened society?

What should I read? Do? Who to meet?

I'm already working on this full time but I'd like a more experienced perspective as I'm only 19.

If anything, I think the process behind 5-MeO could be turned into a medical procedure, an operation or something so people are open to it.

I'm looking for something to create that would appear as an "illusion" but would reveal the truth. A product/service that accelerates how many people are enlightened.

Please cover this. Only the human race depends on this.

PS yes I've done your course and am reading your book list.

[Seed]

Finding the balance between developing myself, and my understanding of the spiritual non - dual world at the same time as parenting a 3 year old and running a demanding 24/7 business..

[Shin]

This

Come back, I'm ready now !

I PROMISE, NO LIE !!!

 

Quote

Surrendering to God

 

How you think it will be

How it actually is

 

Edited May 6, 2017 by Shin

[Garuda]

staying in a spiritually elevated state outside of mediation.

 

[jjer94]

• Reconciling spirituality and social interaction. How do I know that my prioritizing being alone meditating/self-educating/contemplating/self-inquiring is not just an excuse to run away from social anxiety?
• Reconciling spirituality and life purpose. How do I balance or merge the two of them? Whenever I focus mostly on spirituality I get hermity and forget about LP, and whenever I focus mostly on LP I get neurotic and forget about spirituality.

[Sevi]

If you could do a shorter and just guided version of the 'neti neti' video, that would be so helpful. 

That's the only tool so far, which helped me to pass my arising fear in the process. 

Thank you?

[bobbyward]

@Leo Gura how about you do a ''self inquiry part 2'' video, for advanced inquiry.

when you talk about inquiry, it does be about the beginning stages when you are asking questions and trying to work things out through thought. 

 

 

 

[Be Yourself]

I feel the deeper I get into the enlightenment work the more I realize how scary this enlightenment thing to the ego. It can be very disorientating after you've seen the Truth to live "normally" in the world. I'm loosing interested in many things that I used to enjoy. Not interested in seeing some of my friends or going out anymore. Loosing interested in achieving my life purpose. I feel that my life purpose now is to awaken. I really want to get deeper into that and to let go of many things but scared how I'll be functioning in the world after. How will I be going to work? How will I be interacting with my family or friends? I get it, it's all ego. In the ultimate reality all those things don't exist but it's just very painful sometimes to experience it on the level of the ego. 

Edited May 7, 2017 by Be Yourself

[Alex K]

Which 'Textbook' or 'Mentor' to choose to learn what are the steps on a hero journey? How to understand which one am I on right now so that I can know what to work on, how to structure my life?

Because usually people give simple advice to cover it all like 'practice unconditional self love' or 'do the self inquiry' or 'knock yourself out with years of Vedanta knowledge mesh'

Edited May 7, 2017 by Alex K

[Dodo]

@Leo Gura

How to stop second guessing myself.

Recently I find myself more and more in situations where im about to do something and then I look at it and go: "wait, i think this is egoic, better to just not do / say it".

So it feels like I'm moderating myself and I'm unsure whether this is healthy or unhealthy behaviour.

Edited May 8, 2017 by Dodoster

[eskwire]

Attachment and detachment. I have a vague sense of what they mean and have felt moments of detachment, but I do not know how to cultivate it. I struggle with attachment.

[Leo Gura]

Great stuff! Keep 'em coming.

[Shamrock]

On 5/6/2017 at 0:27 PM, unknownworld said:

@Leo Gura  I would really appreciate it if you would address romantic relationships/ sex/love and how does that apply to spirituality and Enlightnment. Here are some of the questions:

1) It seems the further we go and become more conscious, it's harder and harder to to be in a relationship with people who are not spiritual or people who you are not on the same wave length as you are. Should we avoid getting into relationships with people who have lower consciousness?

2) Sex. Tantric sex, the role sex plays for people on a spiritual path. 

3) importance of finding the right partner for spiritual growth and do basic concepts when attracting women, do they apply to spiritual women as well?

4) General importance or non importance of relationships and sex for people who's purpose is attaining the truth.

5) Having kids and family - and how necessary is it.

Thank you!

I second this list and the below:

 

'Reconciling spirituality and social interaction. How do I know that my prioritizing being alone meditating/self-educating/contemplating/self-inquiring is not just an excuse to run away from social anxiety?

Reconciling spirituality and life purpose. How do I balance or merge the two of them? Whenever I focus mostly on spirituality I get hermity and forget about LP, and whenever I focus mostly on LP I get neurotic and forget about spirituality."

[Kserkkj]

On 5/6/2017 at 9:27 AM, unknownworld said:

@Leo Gura  I would really appreciate it if you would address romantic relationships/ sex/love and how does that apply to spirituality and Enlightnment. Here are some of the questions:

1) It seems the further we go and become more conscious, it's harder and harder to to be in a relationship with people who are not spiritual or people who you are not on the same wave length as you are. Should we avoid getting into relationships with people who have lower consciousness?

2) Sex. Tantric sex, the role sex plays for people on a spiritual path. 

3) importance of finding the right partner for spiritual growth and do basic concepts when attracting women, do they apply to spiritual women as well?

4) General importance or non importance of relationships and sex for people who's purpose is attaining the truth.

5) Having kids and family - and how necessary is it.

Thank you!

Gonna give my perspective here on this.

1) Imo it's not really about avoiding unconscious people, that is just a higher division, a higher duality, your role is the alchemist to shed the darkness and bring the light and share the light.

2) I think you'll really like Taoist internal alchemy, they have a whole system for energy sex in depth specifically for enhancing health, consciousness, enlightenment, and managing your energies. Check out Mantak Chia.

3) Not necessary, but certainly does help to have a partner to have your back. I don't think generic pick-up tricks work on people who look at a person deeper than the superficial stuff.

4) Relationships and sex is about sharing energy, I don't think you Need anything to attain truth but it can help to be in a conscious environment.

5) It's not necessary, you can do w/e you want in life, but are you responsible for your actions, are you aware of those consequences, can you take those consequences, 

Hope this helps.

[Guest username]

Could you do a video on clearing up the dichotomy between the importance of having direct experience in consciousness work and the surrendering of all experience? 

[MsNobody]

I hate big walls texts but here it goesss

I started in the less traveled road 7 months ago, my ego is currently screaming for old habits cause im changing too fast, things that were problems turned into solutions for the higher Self but that means bad days for the ego, I feel like Im falling in all the traps that are possible, like all in once and I would appreciate some help  

• Loneliness, do I interact more or stay in my mind?

I know itś probably my ego denying to interact with people, that would explain why im a lone wolf now, but my goodness, 7 months ago I would be desperate about spending time with people, people, people and sometimes I would have no one to go out with and feel terrible bad about it, but now, missnobody the most extroverted person on earth turned inside out and talks to herself, its a fucking blessing, I cant wait to have my time alone and do my shit, read books, Im in a point that Im comparing people with books, should I go hangout with person X or read this book that is gonna bring my mind to x y z places? I know the more we go deep and better ourselves we start enjoying everybody’s company more and more, so if Im preferring to be alone does it mean I have tons of work to do?

Im basicaly a child that found out a secret place, and this secret place is my mind, why would I go to places if I have an entire universe to explore inside myself? I also stopped travelling, I know this is the one thing that was crucial in breaking my mind open, instead of travelling Im gonna do a Vipassana retreat, awesome isnt it? but my ego keeps screaming, you are young honey, go have fun, sex, drink, dance and enjoy life... what brings me to another issue

• Attachments and how to conciliate spirituality with day by day life?

If I want to start the Dalai Lama path and enjoy a little bit of enlightenment before I die its better if I start right now, and I mean in this moment, no time for another stuff, parties, people, fun, I feel like I need to abandon everything to go down the path, I mean I do little things everyday, meditation habits, improved my diet and healthy, devouring books, more aware of my actions.. BUT there is always that thought in the back of my mind, chose enlightenment or the other distractions that our 5 senses are able to give ourselves?

Then I always think I should do more, more and more, in the end I think there is no balance, if one needs to go, it has to be allll the way, there is no half path in spirituality work, either you go all the way or you start using all the knowledge for bad things and ego eats you alive, once you woke up the little beast, you are in the room alone with it, its kill or die, do I dettach from everything? When I do something I usually do the whole thing, but Im having problems here, and I think part of that is because enlightenment is seeing (by me) as such an impossible thing to acquire and Im getting distracted easily by the thought, dont waste your life with something you maybe wont be able to attain

• Judgements!

I judge myself all the time, and of course others, the mind is getting wiser and its using this excuse to judge myself and others, Im understanding so much more about life on general and how the mind works, ego is inflating, and Im not a psychologist or anything, but I see people suffering all the time, friends and family, I wanna open my mouth and tell them the things Ive discovered that helped me like A LOT, I would say my body was a flesh wound, and I really mean every centimeter of my skin, and just through knowledge and understanding I was able to heal myself, so now I watch people suffering, of course I judge but I also have this need to help, its like you see a dog trying to go through a glass door, hitting its head a lot of times, but you cant do anything, you just watch, thats how I feel now, self development is an endless thing, I need to first help myself so them I can help others, as Leo and Socrates says, ‘Let him who would move the world first move itself’ whats the balance between those? we are soooo ignorant that this is killing me, why god forgot itself and now we need a whole life to remember how to be gods? I was an architect in Brazil and Im totally gonna abandon my career to help people wake up, its a sin and feels wrong live my life studying about spirituality but building houses so people can go inside and suffer, maybe Im seeing a lot of suffering because Im suffering myself, actually my ego is, and maybe this subject applies better to the self actualization topic because its a big change in my life purpose..

I wasnt gonna say anything, but Im a chameleon right now, I change every damn second, thats exactly what fascinates me the most about life, this changing all the time, and the possibilities are fucking infinite, but changing skins hurts, sometimes when Im really aware of my ego stuff, my whole body starts itching, like writing this, right now, it itches everywhere, and the hard thing is that this path you dont go on google and search ‘skin itching when ego is affected’ like I did today.. I think its my nervous system or whatever, everybody is different, everybody go in a different way, we just take our knife and go cutting all the sticks and bushes you see in front of you, there is no path, we make our own, but man, it has been crazy, Im really glad I have all the people here in the forum and Leo, sorry that my post is sounding like a rant, maybe its my ego writing all this and asking for help, thanks for reading Leo and I apologize, I myself hate big walls texts.

Thats it, fuck ego, we are in the best time ever to be alive, and Im reaaaally happy I’ve chosen to be awake and dig deep in my mind, soul, spirit, whatever we want to call it..

My love for this work is ABSOLUTE INFINITE!! btw Leo plssssss open a topic about psychedelics 

[WaterfallMachine]

Spirituality in everyday life

I've been doing self inquiry and the enlightenment exercises. I don't claim to be some enlightened master but the little progress in my mindset during these exercises tend to lessen as the day goes by. I seem to have this cycle of having to challenge edging and edging away to open up my beliefs, only for it to close at times, then for it to open up a little more. And this goes on and on. It's much easier to reach a higher level of peace in formal exercises than doing so in everyday life.

Mind if I give a suggestion here? The enlightenment exercises look like they're made for formal situations, but can there be exercises designed for practicing it in daily life? Kind of like how other mindfulness exercises are designed for everyday life such as doing a routine task like washing the dishes or taking a walk? Maybe even mentally intensive work like solving a math problem or learning piano songs, any hobby. 

Some good way to monitor progress

Basically, it's for me to check if I'm really progressing or I'm being caught up in mind traps. And for another reason, being able to monitor progress in some way that allows more motivation in seeing little wins over time. I guess I do see some progress in my practice as how I seem to notice getting a little bit of growing realization and clarity in my practice rooted from experience. But what can I expect? Is there some kind of stages to enlightenment I can look forward to? Maybe it's my ego wanting enlightenment to be sooner but I think I remember in one of your videos something about the tail of the ox as a metaphor to the stages. I'd love to see that. I mean, I actually googled it already. But I'd like to hear it from Leo since he tends to explain things with more clarity and more in depth ways than short articles I see scattered around the internet. 

I get the impression from intuition that I'm already great at this thing but obviously the more rational side of me thinks this is crazy. I spent a couple years of meditation but still less than a month in self inquiry. Of course I haven't achieved mastery. This shit takes even longer, doesn't it? Though, there is this growing sense of deep calmness and even ecstasy without excitement. But of course with the information above, it gradually leaves me as the day goes on. But it's growing, nonetheless. I wish I could find some clear way to prove that intuition wrong somehow by knowing where I am. Take for example, practical signs for progress. Or even vague metaphors or abstractions if it can't.

Also I wonder what exactly happened with me. In the first few days of self inquiry, there was some intense fear that kept coming up. Then after some of that, an extreme sense of tranquility and peace which is starting to get more regular in each practice. Huh? What happened? 

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by WaterfallMachine

[LetTheNewDayBegin]

Challenges with enlightenment

The biggest challenge so far was how to trick myself into meditating. If I go meditating to pursue enligthenment, then the meditation is already flawed from the beginning. If I decide not to pursue anything with meditation, then I tend to skip meditations for longer and longer periods until I go back again to the idea of pursuing enlightenment.

Recently, I found that they way to do it was to become more decisive about the meditation practice: "from now on, no matter what, I shall meditate every day". I haven't tested it for long enough to say whether this solves it or not.

Obstacles to enlightenment

I feel like ignorance so far is the biggest obstacle to enligthenment. I don't really know what I am doing wrong. And everybody else has different things that they're ignorant to. So there can never be a book comprehensive enough to address all possible traps and issues. What would really me, and the community in general, is some kind of methodology of how to get rid of ignorance.

Some things have worked so far quite well for me, namely: open-mindedness, refraining from jumping to conclusions, radical mindfulness, surrender, applying teachings with total confidence and then dropping them. What would be your approach to this problem, @Leo Gura?

Edited May 12, 2017 by LetTheNewDayBegin