An Ideal Schedule For A Year Of Consciousness Work

[Gavalanche]

Hi all, I know the path is different for everyone and some things can't be rushed, but I'm at a large crossroads in my life and am wondering if anyone can help me with recommendations, tips, strategies or best courses of action for moving forward.

Small backstory: I have a decent amount of money saved up and pretty much ready to ditch my 9-5 software engineering job, but am at a bit of impasse when it comes to next steps. I've given myself a few months to tie up some loose ends and figure out my next move.

My two current fascinations are Enlightenment and Life Purpose. I've been trying to take major action on both fronts but am being severely hindered on account of my work responsibilities and how draining it can be, not leaving a lot of time for action or for research. On the site here, I see a lot of - "you're not going to get anywhere unless you dedicate 10,000 hours to this" and I believe this to be true for both Life Purpose and the pursuit of enlightenment. I have been oscillating back and forth between which one I should really commit myself to, but the drive for realising the truth of things is undeniably winning out and would just undermine my Life Purpose work for now. I believe consciousness work and my eventual Life Purpose will be closely related too, which is conflating and confusing things no end

My question is mainly this: If someone is in the position to take time out to really dedicate themselves to enlightenment / consciousness work, say for at least a year straight, what would be the best approach or sequence of techniques that would help maximise the potential for making progress along the path, experiencing non-dual states and possibly attaining enlightenment?

I'm thinking it should be a combination of the following, but have no real idea how much time to dedicate to each area:

- Meditating
- Going to meditation retreats
- Self-Inquiry
- Enlightenment retreats
- Trying to get my hands on psychedelics
- Reading / Research on everything mind/body related

I am current based around the San Francisco Bay Area so am planning to move away if I leave my job, due to the rent prices.

My options are:

- Move back to Ireland (where I'm from), possibly limiting the avenues of possibility for my future
- Move somewhere cheaper in the US
- Move somewhere else in the world (no idea where)

The major concerns and factors around my choice of living destination are:

- Accessibility to high quality retreats (meditation, enlightenment)
- Legality / accessibility to psychedelics (I'm pretty much hopeless on this front anyway and am thinking religious groups / organised retreats somewhere are my only real options here, due to a lack of contacts in this space)
- Rent / cost of living (won't be bringing in any income so looking to minimise this)

If anyone has any suggestions about particular regions that you think would be well suited to support this work, please let me know, thanks!

* A smaller but frustrating issue is that I am currently training with Shaolin Monks in San Francisco when I can and am really enjoy it, finding it to be another step in the right direction for my Life Purpose, spiritual pursuits and physical well being - and will be reluctant to withdraw from it. I guess something's gotta give though

[Azrael]

9 minutes ago, Gavalanche said:

If someone is in the position to take time out to really dedicate themselves to enlightenment / consciousness work, say for at least a year straight, what would be the best approach or sequence of techniques that would help maximise the potential for making progress along the path, experiencing non-dual states and possibly attaining enlightenment?

Although the people who say that there are different paths for different people are right in my opinion and one will see this for oneself on the path, here is the most direct way I know of and practice:

• Daily "Strong Determination Sits" with "Do Nothing" / "Self-Inquiry" (I mostly do "Do Nothing" with SDS because it trains you in being "choicelessly aware" which in my case led and leads regularly to no-self experiences; however self-inquiry also is good (try 'em out)
• Daily Big Mind process (from Genpo Roshi, this is incredible - look it up)
• Daily HoloSync (either with your normal meditation I stated above or as an extra practice) - it's meditation steroids
• Bi-weekly or monthly use of a breakthrough dosage of 5-MeO-DMT - fuck legality you live in in the 21th century + you are a programmer, onions may help you, be creative it's not that hard - I'm experimenting with this right now and I have the strong assumption that it will lead you to enlightenment quite fast (probably 6-12 months) if you do it at least once a month I'd say - but we'll see

That's my power pack. But all of this won't help you if you have no burning desire of learning about the Truth. And be aware that it's really not about getting work done here but more about relaxing the body to a state in which he naturally sees the truth. I think most people don't get this. Also, this is not the ideal path. It's one with very direct methods that from my personal experience will lead you to the mot horrific existential crises - purging all of your shit - and the most beautiful enlightenment experiences. Be careful, it's powerful. There are way more very good techniques and good frameworks you should look at and learn about, especially certain frameworks to get good pointers where to look.

Cheers

[Leo Gura]

@Gavalanche

1) Definitely move out of SF, waste of money.

2) Fastest results would come from enrolling in a full immersion program. But that's only if you're very serious. Otherwise, you can still get pretty good results solo, but you'd have to really dedicate yourself and be a self-starter.

[Oneness]

6 hours ago, Azrael said:

 

• Daily Big Mind process (from Genpo Roshi, this is incredible - look it up)
• Daily HoloSync (either with your normal meditation I stated above or as an extra practice) - it's meditation steroids

Been thinking about Holosync, is it really effective? My concern is that it makes you dependent on some kind of stimulation which is quite the opposite of meditation. I see it's potential to give myself a nice meditative experience, but does it help you when not using it?

[Azrael]

5 hours ago, Oneness said:

I see it's potential to give myself a nice meditative experience, but does it help you when not using it?

Having nice meditative experiences is cool and HoloSync will definitely give you that but it'll change and synchronize the whole structure of your brain (as meditation does as well but it's just faster). If you're interested, look at the studies and the information. There is a lot of that out there.

[Gavalanche]

Thanks for all the info and feedback!

@Azrael Cheers for the new resources, I'll definitely look into those. Also, I was a bit ambiguous there sorry regarding legality; I actually have no real qualms with legality (other than fear), it was more to do with how legality affects availability - for instance Salvia and DIY mushrooms seem a lot more plausible and accessible in certain parts of the world - although I just need time to research them properly. Similarly on the "programmer in 21st century" recommendation - I figured that network would probably be the best route  but I don't know shit about it yet and my current tech knowledge is rather limited to C++ and working on shit games at the moment, but again, time and research  

@Leo Gura Thanks, yeah SF / the Bay Area definitely makes no sense without the software engineer's salary or equivalent to back it up. The area does seem to be good in terms of proximity to potential retreats though, so I'm going to see if I can attend some in the coming months perhaps, before I eventually depart.

I guess the other question I had for everyone is: how realistic do you think it is to really make any meaningful progress on the path, for those in the rat race, 9-5 type routine?  Working part time seems slightly more amenable, but even that still seems limiting considering the amount of research and hours required. Also, pretty much any visions I have of bootstrapping and living an outwardly directed Life Purpose / career and being successful at it, would seem to leave little or no time at all for deep consciousness work. Is it all a matter of priorities and timing, do you think? Kind of touching on other topics there, apologies.

Thanks

[Azrael]

1 hour ago, Gavalanche said:

Similarly on the "programmer in 21st century" recommendation - I figured that network would probably be the best route  but I don't know shit about it yet and my current tech knowledge is rather limited to C++ and working on shit games at the moment, but again, time and research

If you are able to link C++-libraries and include headers in your programs, you will be able to achieve this. I'm a programmer myself (it's also part of my life purpose + my deepest passion next to meditation. I can program for 8 hours straight and it'll feel more awesome to me then sex because I love it so much.)

1 hour ago, Gavalanche said:

I guess the other question I had for everyone is: how realistic do you think it is to really make any meaningful progress on the path, for those in the rat race, 9-5 type routine?  Working part time seems slightly more amenable, but even that still seems limiting considering the amount of research and hours required. Also, pretty much any visions I have of bootstrapping and living an outwardly directed Life Purpose / career and being successful at it, would seem to leave little or no time at all for deep consciousness work. Is it all a matter of priorities and timing, do you think? Kind of touching on other topics there, apologies.

In the beginning it is a lot of research and getting involved with different fields of the journey and so on. And it'll take time to get on your path and get it going. But you have the rest of your life to do this, so no worries here. The one and most important thing is whether you really wanna find this out for yourself or not.

When I watched @Leo Gura's first enlightenment video I never raised the question whether I have time for this or whether I have to change my priorities. My whole life (I now know) I had this burning desire to find out what reality is all about. It is just that I gave up at some point because I thought I could never get at it with my intellect because I'm always projecting something on to it that it is not. When I watched the video, I instantly and intuitively knew that this is what I always looked for. And this also is my deep trust that I will get to the deepest levels of understanding with time, because nothing else makes sense. I just go the way and it'll present itself on its own.

It is similar with your life purpose / calling. You don't have to convince yourself to do something that is the most interesting to you. It comes natural.

[RossE]

@Gavalanche I think you've got this idea that enlightenment is a huge goal to strive for and it takes a lot of work.

Whenever I've had an experience I just laughed at myself for even trying to "get there". The truth is always there, your mind just blocks it and alters reality to suit the organism. The only thing you can really do is move your attention from the ego.

 Why should it have to take that much work? That's another abstraction.

Once you see through all the shit your mind comes up about reality with you'll see the truth. 

I'm not saying it won't take time for you but telling yourself that after ~1000 hours of work you'll get there is counterproductive. Just get doing the right shit and it will happen when it happens. You can't really choose.

Depends how you do your job - if you're lost in your mind the whole time then that's not gonna do it. 

 

[Gavalanche]

@Azrael Thanks for the considerate responses. Leo's enlightenment video had a similar effect on me; it was the first time I'd been introduced to the idea and I haven't really stopped thinking about it since. So, I'm definitely on-board. I'm just in a transitional phase the moment and am slightly frustrated at not being able to just drop everything and pursue all these avenues of investigation. Similarly for my life purpose. I've tried to be strategic and set myself up financially, so I can actually have the time and freedom to really dive in deep when it comes to figuring out my purpose and doing consciousness work. I'm almost at the point, where I can make this leap I've yearning to make.
It's cool that you're a programmer too and love it. I wish I was as clear about my passions. I have many but they wax and wane. Programming was one, but I think it has been stifled by the professional / corporate aspect, even if it is a games company I work for. I loved it in college. It is partly why I have been reluctant to fully jump ship, as there is something in my job that I enjoy and it pays very well, but just doesn't leave me the time to pursue all that my heart/intuition is telling me to. I believe (but am not attached to the idea ) that I have some self-trust issues to work through. Out of interest, what kind of programming / projects do you enjoy working on? I think a shift into more of research mode might help re-invigorate my passion, as opposed to churning out code for projects I don't ultimately believe in. I do get enjoyment out of fleshing out systems and such to support the gameplay though and tend to enjoy investigative elements, when not racing against the clock.

@RossE I think you're right that the mentality of enlightenment as a huge goal could be a big hindrance. I'm very open to experiencing these states right now! I just want to make sure I am giving myself enough time and space and giving the pursuit the focused attention it deserves. I do find myself lost in my mind an awful lot, when at work, not so much when away from it, so I think any additional time away from that environment is ultimately only going to help me. Thanks though, I think you helped me clarify something for myself.

[Leo Gura]

@Gavalanche If you check out the second book in the Consciousness category on my book list, there you will find an example of an individual who pursued enlightenment very diligently and successfully while living a modern Western lifestyle, getting married, AND becoming a medical doctor!

So watch out for making excuses about how you can't do it while working a 9-5 job. I bet you that guy worked more than you. Of course he was very serious about doing enlightenment work. He wasn't sitting around and wasting time. If you are strategic and motivated, you can do it quickly. The real problem is that you don't really want it badly enough. Serious enlightenment work is not pretty or easy.

[Richard Alpert]

I hop on here for once, then it´s my last message on this board:

"- Meditating
- Going to meditation retreats
- Self-Inquiry
- Enlightenment retreats
- Trying to get my hands on psychedelics
- Reading / Research on everything mind/body related"

You dont need to do any of this. You can, but you dont need to. Youre mind = ego is probably wanting to just achieve something and feel good.

this was me. always the next book, next seminar, next retreat etc. youre just bullshitting yourself.

If you learn to unidentify with the mind youre good. Dont think about enlightenment etc. and all that word game. Leo is cool, but he and other spiritual teachers make it all sound too sexy and fascinating.
 

[cetus]

On ‎11‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 1:13 AM, Gavalanche said:

My options are:

- Move back to Ireland (where I'm from), possibly limiting the avenues of possibility for my future
- Move somewhere cheaper in the US
- Move somewhere else in the world (no idea where)

@Gavalanche If I had money I'd buy a piece of property somewhere secluded. Maybe Maine. Have a cabin built off the beaten path or find an existing site and create a nice balanced working/living environment. I'd practice Zen,  carry water, hit key stroke.  Could you work from a remote location?  More and more company's are willing to allow their employees to work remotely.  Just one of many options to consider.

[Gavalanche]

Thanks for the wise words, all. You've given me a lot to consider and reconsider

I guess it is true that I just don't want it badly enough yet. I want to want it. I've embroiled myself in too many less important things that are just distracting me and draining me. Whenever I actually get some time and space to think, I feel like I'm thinking clearly and my yearning is much stronger. It may just be a case of waiting for some of the noise around me to die down, which it should do soon and then truly cut out all unnecessary distractions.

@Leo Gura I'll definitely check out that book, thanks! And I don't doubt that guy probably was working harder than me. My issue has been trying to strategise around enlightenment work and life purpose transition work and it's all been a bit overwhelming. I think my priorities are becoming much clearer as time goes by, so thanks for all the advice.

@Richard Alpert The mind identification is definitely proving to be the most difficult part. Feeling like I'm aware one minute and all of a sudden I'm gone again... Thanks for the reminder. The minute I say "I'm not the mind", I really do get a serious question arising of "well then what the hell am I?!" 
 

@cetus56 Thanks for the suggestions. That does really sound like an idyllic set up! I have been thinking about trying to work remotely more and more. It will probably require a different employer though, as I think it will sicken my SOUL to keep doing the work I'm doing  I'm hoping I might actually be able to not work for a decent amount of time. I'll be happy to work when I eventually hit on something I'm truly passionate about doing.

[Leo Gura]

@Richard Alpert  Don't be so eager to drop seeking that you fall back into ignorance before you've actually become conscious of the really deep stuff. That's just another trap.

The point of seeking isn't to seek, but to do the work. And if you haven't done 10,000 hours of work, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Don't over-dramatize seeking, as if you're being tricked into seeking for the sake of seeking. There's nothing wrong with pursuing a deliberate plan of spiritual development. In fact, it's necessary to have a plan. The fact is there's a lot of ignorance that needs to be corrected, and it will not correct itself without serious work.

What you're doing is burning the bridge before you've used it to cross the canyon. Burn the bridge AFTER you're crossed. And stop advising people to burn their bridges before they've even started. That's counter-productive. It's like telling your child not to go to school because he's already complete and perfect.

[RossE]

@Gavalanche Yeah I appreciate that - I'm very much in the camp that you need to have some sort of practice going but it's not actually something which YOU can achieve. It's a delicate topic.

[Azrael]

13 hours ago, Gavalanche said:

Out of interest, what kind of programming / projects do you enjoy working on? I think a shift into more of research mode might help re-invigorate my passion, as opposed to churning out code for projects I don't ultimately believe in. I do get enjoyment out of fleshing out systems and such to support the gameplay though and tend to enjoy investigative elements, when not racing against the clock.

When I'm at work I write software to plan and organize public transport. That's quite interesting. When I do projects on my own I'm very fascinated with problems like "How can you retrieve big units of data from the web and build relations with that data to generate knowledge out of it?", "How should you design software architecture for big data with a lot of changing content and structure?", "How can you parse exact information out of a source that is easily understood by a human but not by a machine?" etc. Basically I'm planning to make my bachelor in the field of information retrieval and then my master in big data / artificial intelligence. I love these fields.

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

What you're doing is burning the bridge before you've used it to cross the canyon. Burn the bridge AFTER you're crossed. And stop advising people to burn their bridges before they've even started. That's counter-productive. It's like telling your child not to go to school because he's already complete and perfect.

@Richard Alpert Of course you don't need all that information and practice to get enlightened. You could just take a walk and get enlightened from the grace of God. Probably happened to some people. But most I guess mistake that enlightenment is NOT one event you have to work or surrender to and then for the rest of your life everything is great, you can stop meditating, stop thinking about it and just be happy. For most people it won't be that way.

Even a Eckhart Tolle deepened his enlightenment for several years. Listen to someone like Shinzen Young and he'll tell you that your first enlightenment will be like the invitation, the starting of "Now you see" and from then on you can delve into the really deep shit (for the next few decades). It's not a on/off thing but a development. Also, keep in mind that (and this happened to me) you can have deep awakenings and still be emotionally so fucked in the head that a lot of shit will come to the surface you have to deal with. For me this happened and still happens here and there probably for another 5 years until it is really all gone. If that happens to you, you'll need the techniques and frameworks simply not to break together and go to a mental hospital.

Most people don't realize how frightened it can be for the ego when it merges with the subconscious. When you lose control, when thousands of uncontrolled thoughts come up, when feelings fuck you up and so on. So be wise here and don't burn too much of the good stuff and use it properly.

[Gavalanche]

7 hours ago, Azrael said:

When I'm at work I write software to plan and organize public transport. That's quite interesting. When I do projects on my own I'm very fascinated with problems like "How can you retrieve big units of data from the web and build relations with that data to generate knowledge out of it?", "How should you design software architecture for big data with a lot of changing content and structure?", "How can you parse exact information out of a source that is easily understood by a human but not by a machine?" etc. Basically I'm planning to make my bachelor in the field of information retrieval and then my master in big data / artificial intelligence. I love these fields.

That's pretty cool. I'd like to work on projects more based in reality and contribution to society like that, as opposed to creating content purely for entertainment value. Your personal projects sound like some sort of programmatic epistemology  Best of luck with the degrees! I hear a lot a people dissing degrees and their importance from time to time, but I found my time in college critical to my understanding of computer science and programming.