Questions for Leo: 30 day retreat blog video

[Sempiternity]

*note* I'm really asking Leo here and hope he has the time to answer. I'm not looking for every Joe blo's opinion from their beliefs. I'm not interested in opinions. If you really think you can answer these questions, from actual experience, and not coming from a place of feeding your Ego's importance, then yes please, I'd love to hear your wisdom. 

Fist off, awesome first video. Can't wait to see the other 2. I have some questions for you.

I've been to that place you talk about, the infinite knowledge, the no body, no Self, one with everything, but nothing, no life, no death, just being and love. I've been there many many times, through Ayahuasca, DMT, and high doses of psilocybin mushrooms. I go there actually quite easily. There's always the disappointment once I come back from the trip and the experience of that fades after days. 

How do you truly KNOW that place is Truth, if you're going off an experience on drugs?
Or a similar experiences not on drugs, but you're comparing it to the experience you had on any 'drug'?
Wouldn't there always be the doubt/possibility it is just a drug trip experience, until you actually achieved that absolute Truth / Awakening / Enlightenment / God / permanent Death of Self? 

How do any of us know this is actually true (I trust your authenticity completely) if you the teacher are not on the other side (which you claim exists, but have not fully achieved *Yet*)?   (I really hope you got there during your retreat and excited to hear how it went.)

In all your videos, you talk mostly about How to get to Awakening / Truth / Infinity / Nothing / God. You talk about what it's like on the other side of Ego death/ true death (knowing you where never alive to begin with).
But, I'd love to hear you talk about what the rest of life is like after Awakening? 
Sure, it's 'immortality', but what does a day to day life look like after you are God?
How does knowing there is no material reality, it's all a dream, effect the way you day to day relate to everything? 
What does one do, when they are God? How do they react to things in life?
How do you desire anything, when there is no You to desire?
How do you enjoy anything, when there is no You to enjoy it? 
How can you experience anything, when there is no You to experience? 

*Sorry for all the reading to do, I tried to make this as succinct as possible. And thank you for any answers or insights. 

[Nahm]

Here, now, same “place’, just with thinking added. Practices integrate the trips, the emptied cup. 

[Leo Gura]

@Jed Vassallo The Absolute is self-knowing. It's actually beyond knowledge or experience, you are it. You are the Absolute. You can't get any more direct than that. When you're at infinite consciousness, there is no doubt. Doubt is an activity of the mind.

Yes, you can go to the Absolute and then fall back down into the relative. That's mostly what happens after a trip. But the Absolute was nevertheless the Absolute while you were in it. And really, it's still here. It hasn't gone anywhere. You're just disconnected from it. Like clouds temporary blotting out the sun. The sun is always there shining. Even on a cloudy day.

Even if I achieved full Buddhahood, nothing for you would change. You would still not know if I was deluded or wrong. There is only one way for you to know the Truth, and that is to awaken for yourself. That is the only way. Yes, from your POV I could be wrong, mistaken, deluded. Then again, maybe it's you who are wrong, mistaken, deluded?

I'll tell you what the rest of life is like after I live it. I am a work in progress and there is still much I have to discover about this whole process of awakening. But I can tell you for sure that the Absolute exists, and you can discover it for yourself, and it's more amazing than anything you could imagine.

[Sempiternity]

Thank you, Leo. No offense meant in my questions. I appreciate you journey. I admire it greatly. I guess where I'm stuck, and you cover this in your blog video, is I have to trust this is 100% possible, for me to fully dedicate myself to doing the work. 

[robdl]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

@Jed Vassallo The Absolute is self-knowing. It's actually beyond knowledge or experience, you are it. You are the Absolute. You can't get any more direct than that. When you're at infinite consciousness, there is no doubt. Doubt is an activity of the mind.

Yes, you can go to the Absolute and then fall back down into the relative. That's mostly what happens after a trip. But the Absolute was nevertheless the Absolute while you were in it. And really, it's still here. It hasn't gone anywhere. You're just disconnected from it. Like clouds temporary blotting out the sun. The sun is always there shining. Even on a cloudy day.

Even if I achieved full Buddhahood, nothing for you would change. You would still not know if I was deluded or wrong. There is only one way for you to know the Truth, and that is to awaken for yourself. That is the only way. Yes, from your POV I could be wrong, mistaken, deluded. Then again, maybe it's you who are wrong, mistaken, deluded?

I'll tell you what the rest of life is like after I live it. I am a work in progress and there is still much I have to discover about this whole process of awakening. But I can tell you for sure that the Absolute exists, and you can discover it for yourself, and it's more amazing than anything you could imagine.

Can it be said that the doubting mind will doubt an experience, as any experience is susceptible to doubt --- be it in real life, a dream, hallucination, etc.  So the mind projects the Absolute as an experience, and therefore can doubt its realness or actuality.  But if the Absolute is trans- or non-experiential, and so totally self-evident, it's not susceptible to mental doubt in the same way.  It transcends mental doubt because it isn't experience, it's being.

Edited June 1, 2018 by robdl

[Leo Gura]

@robdl Correct.

Being is prior to doubt. Doubt is constructed out of being.

Also, if you become conscious of Infinity, you simultaeously become everything that has ever existed, past, present, and future. Your being is so total that you realize you are every possible thing that could ever be. It is beyond all possible doubt. You realize that you exist as every doubt that every living creature in the entire universe has ever had, and infinitely more.

Once you are God, this is no doubt you are God. Hence it's called awakening. You are 100% awake to the entire functioning of the universe. Nothing is hidden from your awareness. You realize there is no place for anything to hide. There is nothing behind the scenes. Everything is seen to be precisely what it is, without reliance on experience or knowledge. It is omniscience. But it is nonverbal, so you cannot speak it.

[Zweistein]

The fear of death - another concept I found helpful (I think it was Byron Katie, who mentioned it): Why do we tend to think that being dead is worse than being alive? 

[Dodo]

1 hour ago, Zweistein said:

The fear of death - another concept I found helpful (I think it was Byron Katie, who mentioned it): Why do we tend to think that being dead is worse than being alive? 

I don't think that. When life is a continuous Soup-piss, you might find yourself dreaming of death and those dreams would be the best you've ever had

[Zweistein]

@Dodo Life is a continuous soup-piss - is that really true?

[Dodo]

18 minutes ago, Zweistein said:

@Dodo Life is a continuous soup-piss - is that really true?

True for me, because I keep on pissing in my own soup. 

[cetus]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Once you are God, this is no doubt you are God. Hence it's called awakening. You are 100% awake to the entire functioning of the universe.

@Leo Gura Yesterday I was contemplating and suddenly all walls around me collapsed into infinity. I may have opened a new door.  Does this sound familiar to you?

[Leo Gura]

40 minutes ago, cetus56 said:

@Leo Gura Yesterday I was contemplating and suddenly all walls around me collapsed into infinity. I may have opened a new door.  Does this sound familiar to you?

The infinity part sounds familiar. There's no mistaking infinity when it hits you.

[Nahm]

@cetus56 ?