Where Exactly Do Leo's Teaching Differ From Nonduality?

[Girzo]

20 minutes ago, bazera said:

What do you think about dailiy 1-2 hour meditation?

It's required to sustain the results of your last 200 hrs retreat until the next one. It's not as beneficial if it's the only thing you are doing. If you have 1-2 hrs I think it's better to do yoga, because you can still the mind but also work the body.

[Nemra]

@Leo Gura, so, basically, meditation for discipline and psychedelics for awakening?

[AerisVahnEphelia]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Meditation rewires the brain/mind in ways that psychedelics cannot. Hardcore meditation sharpens perception in important ways.

Psychedelics also sharpen perception but in ways that just don't last long enough.

Meditation also forces the mind to confront difficult emotional labor that is different from psychedelics. Meditation forces you to confront boredom and addictions in a very serious way that psychedelics cannot.

If you haven't done a 200hr retreat you really should. It will be hell, but you'll also learn a lot.

Meditation literally don't exist. 

Some brain can be in permanent meditation.

If the things I do bring me nothing, then I m in meditation. 

[Butters]

@Leo Gura I do 20 minutes of meditation daily. I would love to do a retreat but it will take some time to fully have my business set up, generating income and also being 100% outsourced and running in my absence. Hell, I might wait until after I've sold my ecommerce business before I would do a retreat. It's impractical. 

[QVx]

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Meditation rewires the brain/mind in ways that psychedelics cannot. Hardcore meditation sharpens perception in important ways.

Psychedelics also sharpen perception but in ways that just don't last long enough.

Meditation also forces the mind to confront difficult emotional labor that is different from psychedelics. Meditation forces you to confront boredom and addictions in a very serious way that psychedelics cannot.

If you haven't done a 200hr retreat you really should. It will be hell, but you'll also learn a lot.

@Leo Gura, do you have any resources you can recommend for this?

Such as books, videos, teachers etc that are superior in your view?

Your latest blog post refers to Plotinus as key source within western philosophy, would you have a similar recommendation in respect of meditation?

[Yimpa]

3 hours ago, Butters said:

Hell, I might wait until after I've sold my ecommerce business before I would do a retreat.

You're retreating from the retreat 

The point of a serious retreat is to do it when it's the least convenient for you.

Edited March 24 by Yimpa

[Husseinisdoingfine]

On 3/24/2025 at 4:38 AM, Leo Gura said:

The game everyone is playing is avoiding just sitting down under a tree for 200hrs of non-stop meditation.

If you look at every human being: academics, scientists, politicians, CEOs, New Agers, right-wingers, progressives, influencers, celebrities, etc -- all they're doing is just a clever strategy of avoiding sitting under that tree.

They will do anything, say anything, they will riot -- all just to avoiding sitting under that tree.

That's what it all boils down to. Because sitting under that tree is the death of all their bullshit.

https://www.actualized.org/insights/explaining-take-down-new-awakening

This is a very new shift in tone from you, because in the past you described meditation as 'bullsh*t', especially in your blog video explaining why you took down the solipsism video, but now meditation is the death of 'bullsh*t'.

Which is it?

[Butters]

23 hours ago, Yimpa said:

You're retreating from the retreat 

The point of a serious retreat is to do it when it's the least convenient for you.

That's silly, nobody takes years building a business to then destroy it by going to a retreat. You sell it and then go. 

Although this morning my internet died which forced me into a mini home retreat 😁

[Yimpa]

Nondualists claim that the homeless person at the 7Eleven is illusory.

I am claiming that that’s LOVE.

[Butters]

Just now, Yimpa said:

Nondualists claim that the homeless person at the 7Eleven is illusory.

I am claiming that that’s LOVE.

I once saw a crazy lady just laughing and laughing for no reason. I got jealous. 

[Brandon Nankivell]

On 3/24/2025 at 4:39 AM, LambdaDelta said:

 

 

That's a good start to grasp the differences. The short of it is, in my own words, is realizing Multiplicity is just as absolute as Unity. Depending on the depth of reading this might sound stupid or simplistic, but contemplate and maybe you'll get somewhere. There's also many blog posts, some of them very recent, that highlight the distinctions. 

 

 

Which is to say, If I understand you correctly: Multiplicity IS Unity and Unity IS Multiplicity, because the two aren't separate. There's simply the One Reality appearing as multiplicity.

Adi Shankara, proponent of non-duality writes: "There is no multiplicity in the Self. The Self is indeed one, and its multiplicity is imagined due to limiting adjuncts."

This to me sounds the same as what you've said, and hence I see no contradiction between non-duality and what Leo is teaching, or at least the way you've stated your understanding of what Leo is teaching.

If I understand non-duality correctly, it denies the 'reality' of all dualistic phenomena (which, by nature, is temporary and appears fragmented). But 'reality' in this context simply means 'not-eternal'. It isn't denied that duality / multiplicity / phenomena exist, just that they're not 'real' (eternal).

Samkhya philosophy on the other hand seems to describe what you are describing, and I speculate that it's really the same as what Leo is pointing to. Since it acknowledges the reality of inseparability and reality of multiplicity from Oneness.

I'm still curious to understand what it is that Leo claims to point to, that transcends non-duality.

I've listened to the advanced God realization videos multiple times, the solipsism videos and hundreds of hours of similar content, still yet to see how it differs from the True Self being one, appearing as multiple.

Leo often says 'I am you, and you are me' 'understand this...' etc. This is no different to the core teaching of Sufism, Samkhya, Kabbalah etc...

Any awakening or insight labelled 'above' this in degree would actually just be a 'wave of phenomena' contained 'within' Oneness, would it not?

P.S. Considering making this a new thread

Edited Tuesday at 03:21 AM by Brandon Nankivell

[Princess Arabia]

On 3/25/2025 at 3:39 PM, Butters said:

I once saw a crazy lady just laughing and laughing for no reason. I got jealous. 

Idk why, but I just love this comment. There's a sense of rawness and Truth in it's essence. 

[Leo Gura]

On 3/24/2025 at 3:34 AM, Nemra said:

@Leo Gura, so, basically, meditation for discipline and psychedelics for awakening?

No.

Nothing in this work is done simply for discipline.

On 3/24/2025 at 11:53 AM, QVx said:

@Leo Gura, do you have any resources you can recommend for this?

Such as books, videos, teachers etc that are superior in your view?

Your latest blog post refers to Plotinus as key source within western philosophy, would you have a similar recommendation in respect of meditation?

See book list. There's a hardcode meditation book there.

I already shared sources about this on the blog.

Edited Tuesday at 04:14 AM by Leo Gura

[VeganAwake]

Nonduality cannot differ from anything because it's literally a word pointing out the oneness of everything including all teachers and their teachings..... It points to the all inclusiveness of reality itself!

❤️ 

[VeganAwake]

Any opposition to that is a misunderstanding which is also included in the meaning of nonduality!

❤️ 

[Hello from Russia]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

No.

Nothing in this work is done simply for discipline.

See book list. There's a hardcode meditation book there.

I already shared sources about this on the blog.

You're referring to the first one on the list or yoga stuff? 

[Leo Gura]

4 hours ago, Hello from Russia said:

You're referring to the first one on the list or yoga stuff? 

Meditation is not yoga.

[UnbornTao]

Is systematizing "contemplation work" actually necessary?

It should be allowed to occur organically, otherwise it is not contemplation. This point isn't about any particular teaching.

Any attempt to intellectually piece things together will be inaccurate, and it can't be a consciousness of the truth. Not only is it undesirable, but attempting it is counterproductive, since we would now be comparing sets of presumptions with each other, as if we were in touch with what's being conveyed by presumably authentic sources. And generally we don't seem to notice that we're doing it, conflating that with an open study.

So—Zen stick.

Edited 13 hours ago by UnbornTao