All Personal Questions For Leo

[Jasmine]

10 hours ago, Sine said:

Leo, can I give birth to your future children? You pay my flight ticket. I do the birth-thing.

hahahaha, be ready to wait in line girl xx

[Charlotte]

@Leo Gura I am struggling to self actualize whilst dealing with Chronic lower back pain.

I am 27 and have dealt with this pain for many years. It isn't getting any easier as I age. I allow the pain the hold me back and drag my mood down. 

 

Have you struggled with Chronic pain in your life? If so, how did you manage to work around it whilst maintaining focus?

 

[Jasmine]

17 minutes ago, Charlotte said:

@Leo Gura I am struggling to self actualize whilst dealing with Chronic lower back pain.

I am 27 and have dealt with this pain for many years. It isn't getting any easier as I age. I allow the pain the hold me back and drag my mood down. 

 

Have you struggled with Chronic pain in your life? If so, how did you manage to work around it whilst maintaining focus?

 

Have you tried yoga?? Its really helped my with shoulder pain x

[Sevi]

18 hours ago, Jasmine said:

hahahaha, be ready to wait in line girl xx

Ahahah!! where was this line again?!

[Charlotte]

@Jasmine I haven't but I have been looking into it. Was your shoulder pain accute pain or Chronic?

[Jasmine]

On ‎28‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 6:57 PM, Charlotte said:

@Jasmine I haven't but I have been looking into it. Was your shoulder pain accute pain or Chronic?

Chronic! It started because I spend long hours infront of the PC as required for work. 

[Charlotte]

@Jasmine in what way as the yoga effected your pain? 

 

I'm on morphine daily, restricted from achieving my life purpose (due to pain) and I'm only 27 ? been out of work a good 5 years so I'm basically missing a good chunk of my life due to pain. 

 

So I'm willing to try anything at the moment and I'm definitely swaying towards holistic treatment. 

[Gushu]

@Leo Gura The information retained from reading is low. Do you employ a method to solidify information better? Is there an ideal order to read your book list?

Appreciate it

 

[MiracleMan]

@Leo Gura  What spiritual teacher did you resonate with the most if you did at all?

[TeamBills]

1. Do you think you will ever look back at the end of your life and realize that you made a huge mistake with focusing on personal development/actualized.org? It is kind of scary that after all a person usually doesn't know they are wasting their life until it is too late. They are always almost certain they are doing the correct thing for their life. 

 

[Dovahkiin]

Hi Leo. I'm very grateful to have found your YouTube channel about two years ago, and delved through your materials since. Obligatory thank-you for your work.  I respect your time, so short version of my question in bold, long version after:

 

What degree of structure (e.g. maps of stages of insight, Nanas, Jhanas, etc) do you think is helpful to know as one does consciousness work? 

 

Recently I had a consciousness-shaking meditation experience. While practicing a basic mindfulness meditation, focus on the breath grew more concentrated, until I felt a warm tingling in intermittent parts of my body. I noted the warm feeling for a second, and it started growing more vibratory. Then for a moment I felt a ton of fear, because up until this point nothing had happened in meditation that had me questioning my perception of the world or reality. I remember a feeling of surrender, and the fear swiftly leaving and being replaced by the warm, vibrating sensation, which then grew into an intense and really pleasurable high. My sense of being changed dramatically. I opened my eyes and things looked different. I looked down at my legs and they sort of blended in with the white acrylic of the tub I was sitting in. I got up, looked in the mirror, and perceived my face differently. My pupils were very dilated even though the lights were on, and a bunch of other weird stuff.

 

My experience since, though, is sort of like you described in this video:

Unless I'm meditating and having a similar experience (which has happened a couple times, getting more frequent), I typically don't feel very connected to what happened. Even my description above is probably disingenuous to the experience. I've researched online to try and figure out what this experience was, and have only really gotten more confused. It was undoubtedly an altered state of consciousness, but what state? I really don't know.

 

My question boils down to: Is it fruitful to try and assess what it was, and if so,do you suggest a particular track, e.g. stages of Vipassana or Samatha Jhanas? Should I just forget the labels and keep meditating? I know you lauded the post below, so I'm curious if you have a recommendation.

 

 

[Ray]

Hey Leo pretty bastard question here: Are you really happy now that you don't pursue art/videogames? I mean, do you really value personal development & spiritual work more than it, art/beauty/expression? If you could restart from scratch would you really do again the same change from videogames to Personal Development?

I mean, personally I have a passion for art/expression (in particular making movies/animation) and it's really like a feeling of knowing what it's the most right thing to do in my life (and the "proof" it's that it's emotionally difficult af), it's like a secondary instinct and really a part of me, almost like an arm or at least a beautiful person/friend in my life; and from the way you speak of videogames designing and videogames we could tell that you have a passion for it.

I mean does personal development and this actual life purpose of your satisfy you like the video game design one (considering that you would had a big economical independence and was in total control of the project you were working on)? 

Sorry for the disturbing english. 

[Gabriel Antonio]

Thanks a lot for keeping this topic up-to-date!

My question is: would you consider writing an autobiography without self-censor? 

Thanks for inspiring us! ✌️

[BjarkeT]

Whats the benefits of contemplating on something vs learning it from a book that explains it in deep details?

[Leo Gura]

On 9/6/2017 at 9:50 PM, Extreme Z7 said:

@Leo Gura Two years ago, some stranger online criticized and insulted me for trying to make radical changes in my life that involved moving out of mainstream culture (Giving Up TV, Meditating, Reading and Watching Personal Development Content, Getting Into Spirituality etc.). Of course, a debate ensued because I was still in a very naive and low consciousness place and that really got me pissed and frustrated at the time.

It seems so so petty but now I still feel that my mind still hasn't let go of that memory completely even after 500+ hours of meditation and countless hours of life purpose work and such. I know that it's all just monkey mind but it's embedded deep within my subconscious. I don't even like to argue with anyone anymore, I'm a hell of a lot more pragmatic and results-oriented now rather than concepts and beliefs-oriented. Still, the negative emotions  and memories just keep cropping up and cropping up everyday and I was wondering if you've ever dealt with something like this. If you have, how have you dealt with it?

Contemplate why you're so bothered about it. What do you fear there?

On 9/7/2017 at 4:09 AM, Outer said:

Ego evolved for co-operation: Self/Other, if you are alone in jungle forever, there's no self/other. If you actually are 100% non-duality, I would suspect this is most practicable in a retirement home with nurses who changes your diapers. Don't you actually want to keep some? See Ramana Maharshi for example, as far as I know, he was in cave for a long time, people changed his diapers (as far as I know) and fed him, and eventually he came back a bit and started helping out. Isn't this true?

Nonduality makes you MORE effective at life, not less. Watch out for such simplistic and wrong assumptions.

On 9/7/2017 at 4:36 AM, Loreena said:

Leo hows life going. Are you enjoying your life? And how is your health ?

Life is a bittersweet thing. It's not meant to be 100% sweet.

On 9/7/2017 at 7:22 AM, Anirban657 said:

@Leo Gura How will enlightenment change your life?

Will you continue pick up and normal personal development and sage development after becoming enlightened?

Watch and see.

On 9/7/2017 at 10:58 AM, The White Belt said:

@Leo Gura - who's your favourite actor and why? 

Don't really have one. I do not fawn over celebrities or any authority figures much.

On 9/7/2017 at 0:53 PM, Emerald said:

How long ago did you visit Costa Rica, and did you enjoy it?

Couple of years ago. Yes, enjoy it.

On 9/7/2017 at 1:02 PM, Joseph Maynor said:

When are you gonna be as rich and famous as Tony Robbins?  

Never, nor would I want to be.

On 9/7/2017 at 2:35 PM, The Monk said:

@Leo Gura What's your opinion of Prophet Muhammad?  

What's your favorite food?

what's your favorite meditation style?

Why do you think people act in a racist manner and is it bad for them?

thanks for the knowledge!

He clearly had some spiritual attainments. But nothing special about him over any other human being. Every human being is equally God.

I liked smoked salmon.

I like self-inquiry most.

We're all basically racists. It's just hardwired into us. The ego's job is to be self-biased.

On 9/9/2017 at 1:41 AM, Max_V said:

Have you ever suffered from social anxiety and if so, has it completely left you or is there still some residue left?

I am highly introverted and I do get nervous in social interactions sometimes.

Pick up helped me overcome a lot of that.

But what helps the most is enlightenment experiences. Over the last year, with various enlightenment experiences, it's getting harder and harder to care what people think, or that people even exist.

On 9/11/2017 at 8:20 AM, Peace and Love said:

  @Leo Gura

Leo - You have taught me so much.  SHOULD is a very powerful word, but it also is very negative. It's a limiting word that prevents you from going after what you want.  I'm not saying to answer me here, because I know this is very personal for you, but you "could/can" (a more positive word) reflect on "WHY" you haven't gone after it.  When you ask "WHY" you haven't gone after this you will notice there are limiting beliefs holding you back.  I've started doing this recently.  Asking why I don't do things I want to do.  And I find I have so many subconscious beliefs and garbage in my  head that's holding me back from my potential.  I've found out during my journey that the reason we have these beliefs is we have a lack of "loving ourselves" to some extent in some way.  The more you love yourself and do the inner work the more you realize that helps other people as well, because you have more to give. I hope you have already done this for yourself.

I'm not looking for a coaching lesson.

I am happy with the trajectory of my life. I'm into letting it evolve organically.

On 9/11/2017 at 10:41 AM, onacloudynight said:

1. What do you eat on a daily basis?

2. Have you entered any of the jhanas?

1) It varies. I experiment with my diet a lot. Every quarter it tends to be different.

2) Probably, I don't really worry about them too much. My focus is on understanding reality, not states.

On 9/17/2017 at 2:52 PM, Mondsee said:

Obviously you've read a lot of books to be able to deliver the content you do.

Practically, how do you do it? Do you set time aside every time aside every day to read? If yes, is it always the same amount of time and at the same time of the day? or do you rather read only when you feel like it? Do you read different books at the same time, or do you finish one before starting the next one? Also, how do you decide which one is the next book you're going to read?

Thanks in advance!

I don't have any fixed schedule. I usually listen to an audio book for 30 minutes every morning while I shower.

I tend to read organically. It depends on what I'm in the mood for and what great new book I find.

I just pick a book which I'm most curious about at the time.

On 9/19/2017 at 2:00 PM, CGeo said:

Do you still take the same supplements as you did in this video? 

 

 

Not all of them. I take fewer supplements now.

On 9/20/2017 at 8:56 AM, Gabriel Antonio said:

When are you going to release the "reprogram your subconscious mind" course? we want that!!! we want to give you many $$!!

btw - thank you for advocating studying from infinite  sources. Shamans, Buddhists, Christians (the old-school ones) i have learned how to filter things out. i am now open to get the best out of the worst hehe and then you discover that is all the same fucking thing from different perspectives

[seriously, i even like evangelical churches and i get Samadhi-like experiences there haha]

life feels so amazing...!!! :D\\\\\\\

Not for a while. And maybe never. I am letting things unfold more organically. I'm not gonna force it. If my heart doesn't want to create it, I will not push it.

Glad you learned that lesson

On 9/23/2017 at 11:25 PM, doucey24 said:

@Leo Gura  Hey Leo, what is the update with your bold life change regarding Actualized.org? I.e. The pursuit of achievement/success/keeping Actualized.org alive VS turning inward to purely pursue Truth/self-mastery.

By the way, on your LinkedIn page, it says that your marketing business 'LPG' is still presently running. Are you still running it / or at least passively earning from it?

Also, how much of your vision do you still relate to from your 2014 video entitled 'True Vision - I Reveal My Life Purpose Until You Can Feel It'?

Sorry for all the prying questions, but finally, what can we expect of Actualized.org over the next year or so?

I have managed a sort of middle way. Not to say that I will never abandon it, but for now I have been able to get massive consciousness growth in the last year while still running Actualized

On 9/24/2017 at 1:20 AM, Shiva said:

@Leo Gura What kind of sports do you do?

None

On 9/25/2017 at 7:19 AM, BjarkeT said:

Have you consider doing interviews with other people in your field?

could be interesting  

Yes, but I decided that's not aligned with my life purpose. My purpose is to be generate my own insights.

On 9/26/2017 at 3:55 PM, sleeperstakes said:

have you ever come close to quitting personal development or changing careers? what would be an example of a time you were close to giving up

Well, I have changed careers many times before starting Actualized.

I would never quit personal development. If anything, I would quit Actualized in order to deepen my pursuit of personal development.

Ironically, running Actualized holds back my own development. I would easily have been enlightened by now if I didn't invest so much time in Actualized.

On 10/2/2017 at 5:07 PM, Eden said:

Hey Leo, I've been watching your videos for a while. It's a struggle as I'm still in this egoic world, and I feel so unconnected to everyone; my friends, family, their lifestyle choices. I find myself going through a lot of crisis's in my aloness, solitudness. Sometimes, I fear the unknown, and the lonliness. How do you cope with it? And..was wondering if we could have an intimate converstation sometime. - Dreamers Disease

I rarely get lonely. For me, reality is just too amazing to be lonely. I would be happy if I was the only person alive in the world. In fact, even more happy.

Get more in touch with reality/being and your life purpose, and you will never be lonely again.

On 10/4/2017 at 2:02 PM, caelanb said:

Can't you buy healthy bread such as whole grains, and also make pizza from whole grain bread? That's good. Though I will agree on the other stuff though, but having them once in a while is not gonna hurt in my opinion.

No! Wheat is evil.

On 10/5/2017 at 11:38 PM, heisenburger said:

@Leo Gura How satisfied and happy are you daily? After nearly a decade of personal development what wellbeing has it gained you how good do you feel on a daily basis? Asking for my own motivation to self actualize!

It's not possible to quantify.

There are of course daily frustrations. But my connection to reality is pretty amazing. You start to feel a bit like a Jedi attuned to The Force which nobody else sees. I can see the infinite beauty of everything more and more.

On 10/6/2017 at 4:15 AM, The White Belt said:

Can you list the benefits and how much your happiness/peace/fufillment has increased since taking spirituality seriously (self inquiry/contemplation/using psychedelics)? 

See above answer.

On 10/8/2017 at 11:46 PM, Himanshu said:

Leo, have your understanding of Law of Attraction shifted after moving into the Turquoise stage?

Yes, it feels like there is a higher intelligence at work in every facet of reality.

On 10/9/2017 at 0:09 AM, Chrissy j said:

@Leo Gurahow much has Personal development helped you in your life? And contrasting that to spirituality how much has that helped you? By personal development I mean things like self help and such. 

Both have helped a lot. Spirituality is starting to transform the very fabric of reality for me. The solid physical world is dissolving into a infinite sublime hallucination. Every problem in life simply dissolves into irrelevance, including death.

On 10/9/2017 at 11:59 AM, Vaishnavi said:

@Leo Gura 

You've always been fascinated by the big picture and that is what you strive towards, having the best possible understanding of life. You've studied everything (almost) from psychedelics and science to health and dating to spirituality and history and society and biology and whatever, I mean everything you thought was necessary, and of course was fascinating and a part of the big picture; and you continue to educate yourself. 

So my question to you is how do you integrate your studying? Everything is deeply related to each other and therefore it becomes all the more easy to get distracted, it's as if one thread leads to the other and it never ends; it also gets overwhelming.

So how do you really maintain your focus with one thing at a time (not getting caught in all the threads that lead to one another) and how do you above all integrate your knowledge, assemble it all and organise it to bring a more grounded and profound conclusion? Jumping from micro to macro and vice versa?

I don't worry about that at all. I just let my mind organically interconnect everything, and it does so almost effortlessly. My problem is not getting distracted by tangents, but seeing too many deep interconnections. The interconnections are quite literally infinite. So it's hard to keep track of them all for sharing purposes.

On 10/9/2017 at 0:28 PM, JL said:

Do you file your own taxes?

Yes

On 10/9/2017 at 6:26 PM, heisenburger said:

@Leo Gurado you meditate with a meditation audio like holosync? Do you think it's better to meditate with no audio or with an audio?

I used to in the past. Not any more.

Sometimes I just self-inquiry while playing trippy music. More fun that way sometimes.

On 10/26/2017 at 4:22 PM, John said:

@Leo Gura What was the biggest obstruction to your clear seeing? 

@Leo Gura How did you let go of your images of Enlightenment?

Mundane life distractions

I don't make a big deal about images of enlightenment, so they don't bother me. I know what I'm after and I know what must be done to get it. It's as simple as that.

On 10/26/2017 at 10:37 PM, Charlotte said:

@Leo Gura I am struggling to self actualize whilst dealing with Chronic lower back pain.

I am 27 and have dealt with this pain for many years. It isn't getting any easier as I age. I allow the pain the hold me back and drag my mood down.

Have you struggled with Chronic pain in your life? If so, how did you manage to work around it whilst maintaining focus?

Yes, I have chronic pain sometimes.

There is no magic solution. You try to find way to fix it as much as possible, but in the end if nothing fixes it, you just carry on with your life purpose as best as you can. You have no alternative anyway.

On 11/1/2017 at 2:30 AM, Gushu said:

@Leo Gura The information retained from reading is low. Do you employ a method to solidify information better? Is there an ideal order to read your book list?

I don't worry about retaining information. All the information you really need you will remember. Don't worry about remembering trivial stuff.

There's no ideal order to read it. It's gonna depend on where you're at in life and what issues you're tackling. Try to read the top-rated books about consciousness. They are the most important. But you might not be read for them yet.

On 11/2/2017 at 6:59 AM, MiracleMan said:

@Leo Gura  What spiritual teacher did you resonate with the most if you did at all?

There are many. I tend to distribute my sources very well, so that dozens of the best teachers can influence me. I don't like sticking with any one teacher because all their teachings are partial and incomplete.

[Leo Gura]

On 11/4/2017 at 10:59 AM, TeamBills said:

1. Do you think you will ever look back at the end of your life and realize that you made a huge mistake with focusing on personal development/actualized.org? It is kind of scary that after all a person usually doesn't know they are wasting their life until it is too late. They are always almost certain they are doing the correct thing for their life.

No

The only thing I will regret is not doing more of it.

On 11/8/2017 at 10:45 AM, Dovahkiin said:

Hi Leo. I'm very grateful to have found your YouTube channel about two years ago, and delved through your materials since. Obligatory thank-you for your work.  I respect your time, so short version of my question in bold, long version after:

What degree of structure (e.g. maps of stages of insight, Nanas, Jhanas, etc) do you think is helpful to know as one does consciousness work?

Recently I had a consciousness-shaking meditation experience. While practicing a basic mindfulness meditation, focus on the breath grew more concentrated, until I felt a warm tingling in intermittent parts of my body. I noted the warm feeling for a second, and it started growing more vibratory. Then for a moment I felt a ton of fear, because up until this point nothing had happened in meditation that had me questioning my perception of the world or reality. I remember a feeling of surrender, and the fear swiftly leaving and being replaced by the warm, vibrating sensation, which then grew into an intense and really pleasurable high. My sense of being changed dramatically. I opened my eyes and things looked different. I looked down at my legs and they sort of blended in with the white acrylic of the tub I was sitting in. I got up, looked in the mirror, and perceived my face differently. My pupils were very dilated even though the lights were on, and a bunch of other weird stuff.

My experience since, though, is sort of like you described in this video:

 

Unless I'm meditating and having a similar experience (which has happened a couple times, getting more frequent), I typically don't feel very connected to what happened. Even my description above is probably disingenuous to the experience. I've researched online to try and figure out what this experience was, and have only really gotten more confused. It was undoubtedly an altered state of consciousness, but what state? I really don't know.

My question boils down to: Is it fruitful to try and assess what it was, and if so,do you suggest a particular track, e.g. stages of Vipassana or Samatha Jhanas? Should I just forget the labels and keep meditating? I know you lauded the post below, so I'm curious if you have a recommendation.

 

I wouldn't waste my time trying to classify all the states.

Your focus should be on INSIGHT and answering the following questions:

• What is reality?
• Why does it exist?
• What are you?
• What is another being?
• What is the Absolute?

On 11/12/2017 at 4:42 AM, Ray said:

Hey Leo pretty bastard question here: Are you really happy now that you don't pursue art/videogames? I mean, do you really value personal development & spiritual work more than it, art/beauty/expression? If you could restart from scratch would you really do again the same change from videogames to Personal Development?

I mean, personally I have a passion for art/expression (in particular making movies/animation) and it's really like a feeling of knowing what it's the most right thing to do in my life (and the "proof" it's that it's emotionally difficult af), it's like a secondary instinct and really a part of me, almost like an arm or at least a beautiful person/friend in my life; and from the way you speak of videogames designing and videogames we could tell that you have a passion for it.

I mean does personal development and this actual life purpose of your satisfy you like the video game design one (considering that you would had a big economical independence and was in total control of the project you were working on)? 

Sorry for the disturbing english. 

I am extremely happy that I chose personal dev over video games as a career. Working on video games is very unhealthy as a lifestyle.

I'm still passionate about video games and digital art in particular. I might even pursue it in the future as a hobby. I enjoy imagining up designs and building prototypes in Unity. But I would never trade enlightenment for anything else. Enlightenment is literally infinite beauty. There is nothing even remotely as beautiful. If you took every work of art that has ever been created by man, and that will ever be created for the next billion years, and added them all up, that will still be only 0.0000000000000001% of the beauty of enlightenment.

Only a fool would know about enlightenment and not pursue it all the way.

On 11/15/2017 at 10:46 PM, Gabriel Antonio said:

Thanks a lot for keeping this topic up-to-date!

My question is: would you consider writing an autobiography without self-censor? 

Thanks for inspiring us! ✌️

I don't have a desire to write an autobiography. There are way more interesting things to write about.

8 hours ago, BjarkeT said:

Whats the benefits of contemplating on something vs learning it from a book that explains it in deep details?

There is no comparison at all. The book is concepts. Contemplation is deriving the truth for yourself. Without personal derivation of truths, you actually know nothing but stories.

Personal derivation is not optional here, it is MANDATORY!

[The White Belt]

33 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Don't really have one. I do not fawn over celebrities or any authority figures much.

On 8 Sep 2017 at 1:23 AM, Emerald said:

@Leo Gura - your answer sounds reactive. Please try not to project fame or celebrity onto what I'm asking here. Act like I'm asking you who your favourite Renaissance painter is. Do you have a favourite actor without the baggage of fame etc? Or maybe you could answer with a favourite acting performance that you've seen that particularly impressed you with its exhibition of excellence? 

[Joseph Maynor]

You might end up pretty rich Leo.  Your work is an arsenal for growth.

[Joseph Maynor]

What inspired you at an early age to make your life big and to become passionate about Life Purpose later on.  When did you see that you needed to go rogue and design your own career and realize how powerful and necessary this strategy is in life for some people.  Not everyone falls into the available career cubbyholes we have in our society.  And most of us simply were raised with big gaps in our educations, due to our families, etc.

It is pretty bold to create your own career.  How come I missed this and you figured this out?  Did someone or something influence you that I didn't get?  What did you figure out that I missed?  Why did I miss it?  I'm a smart dude too.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Extreme Z7]

@Leo Gura You like dance music?