Advice on choosing the spiritual path!

[Dean Walker]

I feel lost, I know Leo says almost all questions he see's on the forum are low quality and I know this is one of them but I still think advice might help me.

I've followed Leo's work for the last 6 years and I'm admittedly an armchair philosophist dabbling in different practices then dropping them.

This year I wanted to really throw myself into a lot of the practices recommended by Leo and others I've came across over the last few years to put an end to the armchair philosophy and to experience some real growth.

However last night I rewatched the dangers of spirituality video and this has made me doubt myself massively. To put some context to this I had what I feel was a big shift in my conciousness around 7 years ago just before I started watching self help videos then eventually stumbled across Leo which to me was the highest quality of self help I'd came across as what he was teaching felt like it resonated with me a lot. 

Then last year I felt like I hadn't fulfilled stage orange so decided to start an online business that consisted of using a woo commerce page and Facebook to provide what's known as a competition company that's basically a large online raffle for luxury products (extremely stage orange I know) but I felt like it would help me move past stage orange.

Within a couple of months I decided to let 2 of my old school friends buy in on it with me as they'd wanted to be involved right from the start and I felt it was too much work to handle by myself. That was around 2 months ago now and since then I've realized how much I've changed from my old school friends and how I have much less passion for stage orange and materialism than them.

But after watching the dangers of spirituality last night I'm now doubting my future choices.

I've always envisioned practicing Leo's teachings alongside my life and seeing how far I can improve, but when Leo's saying if you still want a nice life and nice home, and holidays with your family then chase that and drop spirituality it's hard not to doubt my choices, in a way I'm thinking thanks for the advice but I can't go on Leo's every word and my goals still feel achievable to me.

I apologize for how poorly written this is but if you would like to ask any questions feel free and anyone with any similar experiences or any advice would be highly appreciated! 

 

[bejapuskas]

You have to train before you overtrain. The motivator for you to enter the spiritual path is most likely suffering, so you need to do something different. This doubting is, in my opinion, another load of armchair philosophy. 

Also I think you are your own person and whatever Leo says doesn't have to be 100% true for you, you need to get out of that armchair and actually experiment with yourself, what works for you. I actually think that connecting deeper with Love can help you build deeper relationships beyond the physical and emotional. 

Leo's videos nowadays aren't comprehensible if you don't meditate, they are there to drive you towards that path. Leo doesn't want you to just think, you need to do the work and then maybe you won't even need Leo which would be the best case scenario. 

Remember there is no you in the future that works on their relationships/meditation or is happy, there is only the present. You need to do what you want now, otherwise it will never ever happen, and you will end up being miserable.

[Leo Gura]

@Dean Walker Figuring all that out is the bulk of your path. We can't tell you want you want and in which order you want it. You have to introspect to get clear about what your priorities should be for the next 5 years, let's say. Usually you want to focus on one key area of life like: business/career/life purpose, relationships/family, health/fitness, spirituality/meditation, education, etc.

You can't do it all at once. You gotta prioritize what you're most engaged in working on, what you most need to advance to the next stage.

As an example, my first business stage lasted about 3 years, basically full-time. Then my relationship/dating stage lasted 1-2 years almost full-time. Then my next life purpose/business stage lasted 6 years, almost full-time. My fitness stage lasted a few years, part-time, sprinkled within the stages above.

Remember, life is long and if you're young you've got plenty of time to pace yourself and plan stuff out in stages. 3 years invested into X, 5 years invested into Y, 2 years invested in Z.

If you are starting a new biz, I would recommend planning to invest 5 years into it. At least 3 years. Anything less than that I just don't see how you'll succeed. 3 years is barely enough time for something like that.

Not all things require equal time. Something like biz will be one of the most time-intensive things in your life if you want to succeed at it. Competition is fierce and there is a never-ending amount of work. Since biz is such a massive time investment it's wise to be very clear what values your want your business to represent.

[DreamScape]

43 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Usually you want to focus on one key area of life like: business/career/life purpose, relationships/family, health/fitness, spirituality/meditation, education, etc.

@Leo Gura Leo, I understand the importance of having a focus in life. Do you think it is possible to pursue mastery in multiple domains; such as: music and consciousness/psychology, or business and consciousness/psychology? I don't want to stop spiritual progress, but I am too young and don't have enough money to make that the sole focus of my life. Plus, I do want to do things like make music and create also. 

It does seem like consciousness + "x" increases the value of the "x" no matter what the x is. 

Edited January 2, 2020 by DreamScape
I didn't tag my sir leo gura.

[Leo Gura]

8 minutes ago, DreamScape said:

Do you think it is possible to pursue mastery in multiple domains; such as: music and consciousness/psychology, or business and consciousness/psychology?

Like I said, set priorities and pace things out in stages. If you pace things well, then yes.

You need to think 10 years ahead.

But if you just randomly try to do multiple things at once you'll probably not get anywhere on either front.

Mastering a career or art takes so much work, dedication, and attention that you need to have a clear, singular vision for what you're trying to achieve. Then hit it every day for 5-10 years relentlessly.

This is discussed in detail in my Life Purpose Course.

[Dean Walker]

@bejapuskas

2 hours ago, bejapuskas said:

You have to train before you overtrain. The motivator for you to enter the spiritual path is most likely suffering, so you need to do something different. This doubting is, in my opinion, another load of armchair philosophy.

Thank you for the reply.

I agree and think I've always understood the doubting was just another form of armchair philosophy but its became so real it's stopped me in my path. I've always been a deep thinker and one to try and precisely plan my outcomes but not always the best at following through with them all. 

I bought George Leonard's Art of Mastery after hearing Leo mention it and identifying myself as a dabbler and I feel now's a better time than ever to re-read it to engage with my plans.

[Dean Walker]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Dean Walker Figuring all that out is the bulk of your path. We can't tell you want you want and in which order you want it. You have to introspect to get clear about what your priorities should be for the next 5 years, let's say. Usually you want to focus on one key area of life like: business/career/life purpose, relationships/family, health/fitness, spirituality/meditation, education, etc.

You can't do it all at once. You gotta prioritize what you're most engaged in working on, what you most need to advance to the next stage.

@Leo Gura Thank you for taking your time to reply.

As I've said in the above reply I've always liked to try and accurately plan my outcomes in life but haven't always been the best at carrying out the bigger decisions for the long run which I've again put myself in by surrounding myself with old toxic influences.

I've had to sit back down over the last few weeks and prioritize what's really important to me which isn't the business I've started but family/relationships and a business that as you said above has to have clear values of what I want to represent and that resonates with who I am which I feel would be something centred around helping and connecting people who care or think more deeply.

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Dean Walker 

As an example, my first business stage lasted about 3 years, basically full-time. Then my relationship/dating stage lasted 1-2 years almost full-time. Then my next life purpose/business stage lasted 6 years, almost full-time. My fitness stage lasted a few years, part-time, sprinkled within the stages above.

I feel like I started the other way around and my fitness stage came first and then was less time consuming and sprinkles throughout other stages but that's something I want to go back and do as I got in amazing shape while eating a very toxic diet and I want to experience mastering the body alongside mastering my diet as I've since gone paleo. 

I'd like to think while I'm not fully in the self actualisation stage yet I could sprinkle that throughout my other goals but maybe I'm aiming too high.

 

 

 

[Leo Gura]

9 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

I feel like I started the other way around and my fitness stage came first

I didn't particularly list my stages in order.

They can happen in any order -- whichever resonates with you.

[Dean Walker]

@Leo Gura I'm definitely struggling to see what resonates with me the most.

The next stage I feel I need to focus the most on is my business/life purpose but it's knowing which path/option resonates with me the most. 

I'm going to work through your life purpose course and try to get a better understanding of myself.

 

[DreamScape]

On 1/2/2020 at 1:13 PM, Leo Gura said:

Like I said, set priorities and pace things out in stages. If you pace things well, then yes.

@Leo Gura So, I've been contemplating Mastery and pacing things out. I'm thinking about pursuing Music and Psychology/Spirituality/Consciousness as two domains that I want to focus my life. My question: Pursuing two things, could I focus my attention to Spirituality for one year (mainly), and then focus hardcore on music for maybe two years, and then return to spirituality and consciousness as the main focus. While I'm doing this, still be doing both at the same time but the focus would shift. Do you think that this is a viable idea?

[bejapuskas]

On 2. 1. 2020 at 8:51 PM, Dean Walker said:

I agree and think I've always understood the doubting was just another form of armchair philosophy but its became so real it's stopped me in my path. I've always been a deep thinker and one to try and precisely plan my outcomes but not always the best at following through with them all. 

You just think you understand. You can be any kind of thinker, serious, philosophical, scientific, and you can spend days, weeks, months, even years meditating, but self-reflection can always get you. As long as you are self-reflecting, you are trapped. It's not like you understand that much when you're there. By saying that you understand, but it's become so real, you're just giving the problem extra illusory validity, that makes it easier for you to stay in self-reflection. Do you see how you create whether the doubts are real or not?

On 2. 1. 2020 at 8:51 PM, Dean Walker said:

I bought George Leonard's Art of Mastery after hearing Leo mention it and identifying myself as a dabbler and I feel now's a better time than ever to re-read it to engage with my plans.

Good to hear  

On 2. 1. 2020 at 10:55 PM, Dean Walker said:

@Leo Gura I'm definitely struggling to see what resonates with me the most.

The next stage I feel I need to focus the most on is my business/life purpose but it's knowing which path/option resonates with me the most. 

I'm going to work through your life purpose course and try to get a better understanding of myself.

Make sure to do the exercises, if you go through them just in your mind, they won't help you  

 

@Leo Gura  When we are at it, I heard this opinion that it is dangerous to introduce someone, who hasn't yet figured out what even their small self is, to spiritual work. (they probably meant a person in their identity x role-confusion stage of development) I personally think this can be overcome, but I think that Abraham Maslow wrote something in one of his books that when you have a strong ego, (I don't think he meant strong identification, maybe he meant more like maturity, shadow-integration etc...) and you know who you are as a small self, it is easier for you to target your ego and to dissolve it. (or perhaps that you might have less problems with your other values when on the path) I am not a big fan of this approach but I'm interested on your perspective on this as I feel like @Dean Walker, and other people in my social circle might be struggling with this issue.

[Dean Walker]

1 hour ago, bejapuskas said:

You just think you understand. You can be any kind of thinker, serious, philosophical, scientific, and you can spend days, weeks, months, even years meditating, but self-reflection can always get you. As long as you are self-reflecting, you are trapped. It's not like you understand that much when you're there. By saying that you understand, but it's become so real, you're just giving the problem extra illusory validity, that makes it easier for you to stay in self-reflection. Do you see how you create whether the doubts are real or not?

I'm not exactly certain of what you mean? Are you saying I'm stuck in self-reflection and that is the armchair philosophy? Also could you expand on spending years meditating but self-reflection can always get you? 

I thought self-reflection was helpful but are you saying I'm creating my own doubts and limitations through self-reflecting? Because I could see how I'm doing that but I've always thought of it as a way to work through my thoughts and come to a reasonable decision that I can carry out and gain a positive outcome rather than throw myself in head first without contemplation and not make the best choice.

1 hour ago, bejapuskas said:

Make sure to do the exercises, if you go through them just in your mind, they won't help you  

I purchased it last night and the first exercise was to visualise having 10 million dollars then contemplating what you would really want to achieve once you got bored of living it up, isn't that going through it in your mind? ?

 

1 hour ago, bejapuskas said:

 @Leo Gura  When we are at it, I heard this opinion that it is dangerous to introduce someone, who hasn't yet figured out what even their small self is, to spiritual work. (they probably meant a person in their identity x role-confusion stage of development) I personally think this can be overcome, but I think that Abraham Maslow wrote something in one of his books that when you have a strong ego, (I don't think he meant strong identification, maybe he meant more like maturity, shadow-integration etc...) and you know who you are as a small self, it is easier for you to target your ego and to dissolve it. (or perhaps that you might have less problems with your other values when on the path) I am not a big fan of this approach but I'm interested on your perspective on this as I feel like @Dean Walker, and other people in my social circle might be struggling with this issue.

And sorry to jump in on your question to Leo, but what is meant by someone's small self? Is that the same as the lower self esteem and higher self esteem? Just trying to get the best understanding of myself so I can pursue the work that's going to be most beneficial!

[bejapuskas]

1 hour ago, Dean Walker said:

I purchased it last night and the first exercise was to visualise having 10 million dollars then contemplating what you would really want to achieve once you got bored of living it up, isn't that going through it in your mind? ?

I don't have the course, but I can imagine that the exercises there are worth doing.

1 hour ago, Dean Walker said:

I'm not exactly certain of what you mean? Are you saying I'm stuck in self-reflection and that is the armchair philosophy? Also could you expand on spending years meditating but self-reflection can always get you? 

I thought self-reflection was helpful but are you saying I'm creating my own doubts and limitations through self-reflecting? Because I could see how I'm doing that but I've always thought of it as a way to work through my thoughts and come to a reasonable decision that I can carry out and gain a positive outcome rather than throw myself in head first without contemplation and not make the best choice.

And sorry to jump in on your question to Leo, but what is meant by someone's small self? Is that the same as the lower self esteem and higher self esteem? Just trying to get the best understanding of myself so I can pursue the work that's going to be most beneficial!

No no no, it's okay. Now you can forget the armchair philosophy, I feel like the armchair philosophy term has more to do with an unpleasant feeling of excess comfort in your body, whereas self-reflection is just being stuck in the world of small self, that is limited by thoughts. This is connected more to seeking than living a life. I just wanted to say that you need to stay vigilant about this self-reflection, because it will create imaginary excuses for you to stay alive as the small self, rather than Love. The doubts are only reasonable in the relative, but their meaning can be thrown away and you can stop resisting. Leo has many videos about the Higher Self  

I was Leo this question so I can perhaps better understand your situation.