2500 Years Old Enlightenment Path

[Guest]

what are the "higher esoteric buddhist teachings"?

[Leo Gura]

To even understand what the Buddha was actually talking about, one would have to do some very heavy research. Modern day Buddhism has little to do with what the Buddha actually did himself. And there are many branches of Buddhism. Buddhism has basically been turned into a religion. So following it blindly isn't a good idea if you're seeking truth.

That said, you could certainly dig out the core essence of Buddhism and follow that to total enlightenment. All the Buddha did himself was just sat for very long periods of time in stillness and mindfully observed experience arising. That was his technique. It took 7 years to work. With more modern teachings and techniques, you could cut this time by 2x to 5x.

But let's also not forget that there are about 10 or 20 different equally valid paths one could follow. And no one path is best for all people. You have to find the one that resonates with you. For some people Buddhism will work great. For others, it will be a dead end.

[Aldo Marchand]

I think that the balance of your personal growth, skills, knowledge and spirituality forms your condition to reach some of the first enlightenment points where you are not moved only by the pain, but you start to feel that you are part of something bigger and enthusiasm starts to flow from this morning.@Leo Gura @tropicana @Locooig @tropicana @jip @Guczo

[Guest]

@Leo Gura Woo! There we go. 10-20 paths, that's amazing! Are they unknown (one must discover a path for oneself)? Or are there good sources of information out there?

[Leo Gura]

7 minutes ago, tropicana said:

@Leo Gura Woo! There we go. 10-20 paths, that's amazing! Are they unknown (one must discover a path for oneself)? Or are there good sources of information out there?

They are all VERY well-known. Just not to regular folks.

There are actually probably more than 20 that I know of. I'll shoot a video about the various paths to enlightenment at some point.

[Guest]

@Leo Gura well, hopefully if I do some research I, as one of "regular folks", will find something for myself

Thanks!

Edited February 23, 2016 by tropicana

[Leo Gura]

@tropicana All the methods are very similar. They all involve sitting in mind-numbing boredom for 100s of hours and concentrating on direct experience.

There are many individual techniques for how to do that. And most of them come in a giant pile of dogma.

Here's one cool way: Sit with your eyes closed and just focus on the sounds around you. Do this for long enough until you realize that there is no you hearing the sounds, but that you in fact are the sounds! BAM! Enlightenment!

You could use this one technique to reach full enlightenment.

The trick is never in the technique. The trick is simply motivating yourself to actually sit down and execute it. Every fiber of your ego will resist it.

[Guest]

@Leo Gura What made me upset about all the Buddhist thing was that they claim it's nearly impossible to become enlightened unless you go "live in a cave". I understand I have to make a commitment but I don't really wanna leave my "normal" life, you know.. After having this discussion here, I realized it is not really necessary, is it?

[Khin]

I consider myself as 100% Theravada Buddhist. But... I do not have faith in Buddhism because my first teacher who is a Buddhist monk in Burma said that I don't have to believe in Buddha. He also said as soon as I find his teachings wrong, I can leave the temple right away. He said that when I entered the temple to become a pre-monk (monks under 20 are consider pre-monks in Theravada).The other helpful thing about Theravada Buddhism is they maintained all of Buddha's teaching scriptures (originals). So when I started meditating, I can always go back and check my errors in scriptures. They all were written in Pali language. They explain how one's mind works when it goes towards enlightenment (Basically with curiosity). Explained all the distractions one would face in enlightenment path. Explained fake enlightenment experiences (There are 10 in basic). Explained many ways to enlightenment for many people. Doing enlightenment work is called Vipassana (it means looking carefully) and to gain power (stillness) of mind is called Samata in Theravada. Enlightenment work can be done in any position, anywhere, anytime but not Samata.  Another thing is all that reincarnation, heaven, and hell are presented differently in Buddha's teachings (at least what I read were). Being just a Buddhist pre-monk, there were many rules but all those rules were explained why one should follow them.

So being a Buddhist is like walking a guided path. It's like I was already told that there is a diamond at the end of the road but I will see a silver ring after ten steps, will see gold after twenty steps, cross muddy river in thirty steps etc.... I find Buddha's teachings very true after walking into his path or my teacher's path. LOL! I am a Buddhist. I love Buddha for teaching this most valuable path but I'm not religious person. I don't consider Buddhism as religion.

 I don't know if Leo had ever researched real Buddha's scriptures but doesn't matter. Leo might not claim himself as a Buddhist but it's funny that he is very much like my first teacher who is a Buddhist monk. He doesn't talk much but it was very straight forward when he talks. Leo should meet with him though. They will become very good friends.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Khin
LOL

[werlight]

1 hour ago, tropicana said:

@Leo Gura What made me upset about all the Buddhist thing was that they claim it's nearly impossible to become enlightened unless you go "live in a cave". I understand I have to make a commitment but I don't really wanna leave my "normal" life, you know.. After having this discussion here, I realized it is not really necessary, is it?

jaja No. You definetly don't have to live in a cave or be a monk to become enlightened.. and yes there are shortcuts .. but there are several things (conditions) that need to be in place .. and certain skills that you need to develop..

first; you have to develop your ability to gradually reduce your thoughts to reach higher levels of mental clarity. What do I mean by this? Imagine your mind as a choppy sea, the surface is full of waves, big and small with riddles everywhere. Now imagine the same sea but early in the morning with no wind or tides affecting the surface. It looks almost like a perfect mirror. It can reflect light almost without distortions. Absolute clarity.

The second thing  you must develop is your ability to stay focused, still, in the present moment. To do this, in addition to a clear mind, you need a relatively low level of emotional stress in your life. Emotional stress is very powerful, it can take over your thoughts and can easily take you out of the present moment and into the realm of thoughts about the past and the future

third; And as for the shortcut my advice is to meditate with music. sit down, close your eyes and focus your awareness and your feelings on the music.  let go, like floating in a river letting yourself go with the stream, without resistance, in silence and in peace slowly going deeper and deeper inside myself.

fourth: let your feelings guide you.. open your heart.

[Leo Gura]

@Khin I got nothing against good Buddhist teachers. I'm sure there are many good ones.

If they are non-dogmatic about their teachings then that's great.

[ayokolomo]

If Theravada is calling you then embrace it.  

[Keyblade Viking]

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

That was his technique. It took 7 years to work.

Actually, we don't know how long it took, the 7 is really symbolic of how he had to go through all the seven chakras  

Here's one path to take though:

 

[Guest]

@werlight thanks.. It just said in those buddhist teachings that one should focus their life on the path and it's hard to do if you don't become a monk or live an ascetic lifestyle. And since I didn't know about any enlightened people, I didn't know if it was possible to become enlightened without leaving everything behind. I was like "who knows, maybe Leo is going to leave us very soon for like 3 years" 

[WelcometoReality]

14 hours ago, tropicana said:

I have a question. Why people are trying to "realize how"/"find a way" to become enlightened or sometimes they even "come up" with their own "to do list" which they believe is going to get them to enlightenment, when there is already a model given by Buddha, which is 100% working? Don't take me wrong, I'm not trying to push Buddhism on anybody. We don't have to believe all the mystical stuff like reincarnation and stories about hell/heaven, but we could use the steps Buddhism gives. For example, many people after watching Leo's or someone else's videos start meditating and stuff. What Buddha said was that deep meditation is pointless unless you developed goodwill towards others and have right behaviours (body, speech, mind), which actually makes sense if you take a good look at it. So why so many modern guru omit such important points? Are they important? Is there a shortcut to enlightenment which I'm not aware of? 

It is very easy, Find out what you really are and let that be your grounding. Accept everything that comes up. The rest will take care of itself.

What hinders many is that mind will create smoke screens of fears and doubts and doing.

[Pierre]

If you really want to stick to Buddhism, try Zen. They're the most straightforward.

 

A mind to search elsewhere

for the Buddha,

Is foolishness

In the very center of foolishness

 

                                                             Ikkyu

 

[werlight]

1 hour ago, tropicana said:

@werlight thanks.. It just said in those buddhist teachings that one should focus their life on the path and it's hard to do if you don't become a monk or live an ascetic lifestyle. And since I didn't know about any enlightened people, I didn't know if it was possible to become enlightened without leaving everything behind. I was like "who knows, maybe Leo is going to leave us very soon for like 3 years" 

? ?   .. you don't have to move to a cave or a monastery to go through the enlightenment process, you don't have to leave everything behind.. but you do have to go deep inside yourself ! and it is not easy because you end up facing your deepest most hidden pains and fears, the bright side is that you end up releasing all those pains and fears and you feel great afterwards. emotionally you feel lighter like an 11 year old. ( like a kid ).  as for Leo I hope he doesn't leave us, I really enjoy his videos, great guy .. ?

[Key Elements]

@Khin From what you know, do you find that Karma counts toward enlightenment?

Btw, I used to go to a Theravada Buddhist temple in the US-wide open space. It was fun during the Thingyan festival with all the laughter and water thrown-miss it much. Followers cooked tasty foods-Ohn no khao swè, Mohinga, & lap pat dote-my favourites. Lucky you still get to celebrate it.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Key Elements

[werlight]

If by karma you mean the emotional baggage that we carry from our past. Yes. Absolutely. It plays a huge role. Let me explain ..

All the emotions that are not expressed throughout our life are stored inside our mind and our body. These stored emotions become the main cause of our anxiety, stress, bad moods, intolerance, fear etc.

These emotions build up and become painful. They are there all the time. They also block our ability to express love and make us miserable. There comes a point when you either look inside to find the source of the problem or you get sick (neurotic or worse).

It's like swimming in a river against the current all the time !!! It's exhausting.. There comes a point when the only alternative is to let go. You stop swimming (resisting) and you let the current carry you away

[werlight]

2 hours ago, Key Elements said:

@Khin From what you know, do you find that Karma counts toward enlightenment?

If by karma you mean the emotional baggage that we carry from our past. Yes. Absolutely. It plays a huge role. Let me explain ..

All the emotions that are not expressed throughout our life are stored inside our mind and our body. These stored emotions become the main cause of our anxiety, stress, bad moods, intolerance, fear etc.

These emotions build up and become painful. They are there all the time. They also block our ability to express love and make us miserable. There comes a point when you either look inside to find the source of the problem or you get sick (neurotic or worse).

It's like swimming in a river against the current all the time !!! It's exhausting.. There comes a point when the only alternative is to let go. You stop swimming (resisting) and you let the current carry you away.