Have you ever studied how interconnected trees are? It's so profound that we can only start to fathom and appreciate it. Its roots and branches are shaped like a fractal, coming together as one where earth and air split. Trees communicate through the earth with each other through connections with mycelium networks in the soil and through electrical, hormonal chemical signals through the air. Science is only beginning to explore this. We scientifically and intellectually don't even understand the mechanics of how it is that sap flows upwards from the roots to the branches in the spring.  Our existence, no matter what area of study you zoom in on, is too mind blowingly amazing and connected to be real.  Psychology, spirituality, science, art, philosophy, literature are all arbitrary separations under the guise of focus on a single subject, that actually obscure the depth of what each points to.  Your connection, and your connection with other humans in ways manifested and non-manifested is also beyond what is real. Have you considered how many systems in your body including your nervous system branches just like a tree?  So who is the only one who has the ability to say that trees are separate from one another or even ourselves?  What's special about us is that we have the ability to delude ourselves into believing that we are separate entities. The mind's purpose is to... 1. Select 2. Separate  3. Imagine (and therefore create in one motion)  Are either of those uses bad? NO!!! So why is the purpose of enlightenment described as going "beyond" the mind? What does that even mean? Can the thing that separates, then separate itself from itself?  Our mind patterns spin their wheels like a car stuck in the mud, burning gas and getting nowhere. The energy gets stuck in a loop of fear of being a separate self, and trying to secure itself with something "outside" it which perpetuates this loop. Instead of flowing throughout all the energetic systems within and without, it is inverted and "burns" itself like a short circuit. In other words, these kinds of thoughts do not feel good. The mind is so creative with the fear it creates, that it does not see how all its different "negative" emotions can all be boiled down to the illusion of fear in its creation of the I.  The entire purpose of enlightenment or anything we search for is to feel good. Paradoxically only the mind can make the distinction of "good" and in doing so creates bad, fear and I in one swift movement. Enlightenment is connection and loss of self and separation so deep that there is no good. This desire becomes "good" when it is that. Seeing through this and doing the opposite by renouncing desires gets you nowhere, you will still be stuck in the loop because you created "opposite". The desire to feel good is not "bad", it is in truth desire for connection. Wisdom is knowing that what we want is connection, and that wanting to feel any way other than we do is disconnection. You are always love, you are always loved, you are always connected, so much so that you have the freedom to convince yourself otherwise.  Depression and bad feelings themselves are gifts that you are too busy trying to get rid of, pawn off on "others", or throw away to even realize that it's a gift. For you. The wrapping paper may be ugly. It may be elaborately wrapped in many layers. But it is energy, and all energy is connection. The mind doesn't want to accept this kind of connection, so it pushes it away and calls it bad, or labels it depression. "I want to feel good. I don't want this." If it instead got curious, and wanted to know what was underneath the ugly wrapping paper long enough to recognize that it was a present it would laugh at itself.   So how do you open the gift? This is where the duality between mind and no mind must die. You must embrace the paradox of curiosity and being. Curiosity means observing yourself, asking questions, studying, reading and learning with a passion. It is the "ask and you shall receive".  The energy masquerades as pain and disconnection when the entire time it was pure Love/Connection. Being means knowing and practicing ending the spinning wheel thoughts loops that arise by paying attention to how you feel, and when you think a thought that feels bad, you connect with the infinitely connected forest of being by taking conscious breaths. Now take a step back and look at this BEAUTIFUL irony here. If you select and focus on one tree it is simultaneously none other than the entire forest. That's why using the mind to focus without exclusion, allows one tree to connect with the entire forest of being. Is focus selective? No, because true focus is oneness with the object of focus. It is only the mind that create the idea/ or opposite possibility of distraction. Can't see the trees for the forest?  Worried about distractions? HAHA, there are no distractions, until you think about them.  There is a fractal forest of connection within and without. Connect with breath and one point of focus (stomach breathing, feeling sensations as they are) and the caught wasted energy will disperse throughout. Eventually, theoretically (it's none you YOUR business you sneaky sneak) the brain is rewired as connection.  These two steps or opposites, curiosity and being, are essentially what the law of attraction is teaching. Esther Hicks and the Law of Attraction fundamentally teaches you how to have no desires by indulging itself to go into what us self proclaimed spiritual people may judge as "shallow examples" such as winning the lottery. In "contrast" or in addition to the miracle of connection, Leo's work, Ramana Maharshi and other "focused" teachings are incredibly important. But remember, you are where the paradox is resolved. You are the focus itself.  It is miraculously so complex yet so simple, that the mind cannot grasp neither the complexity nor simplicity of it.  To further study the self created mind "loop" of self created fear, I highly suggest reading this thread.  and other posts by @Faceless