Leo's Practical Guide To Enlightenment

[Guest username]

Are shallow/ mini Samadhi experiences a sign of progress?  Since dialing up my practice and cutting down on my addictions a few months ago, I've experienced for the first time what seems to be a blurred boundary between the local sense of self and my immediate surroundings. I'm not sure if this is really a samadhi since there's still a clear sense of self, but it seems "expanded" or without as sharp boundaries as before.

It's more profound during meditation sessions but there seems to have been a noticeable, albeit subtle, shift in what I perceive as "me".  I've also noticed that the sense of self/ ego is stronger when I perceive some sort of physical danger ( a dog growling at me/  coming across a bad driver) or are in the height of strong sensory experience (stubbing my toe/ uncomfortable strong determination sit).

I've also more recently been facing my fear of death on a much more visceral level. Last night I meditated on my bed in the dark while alone and I was overcome by an irrational fear of a serial killer jumping out of my closet and slitting my throat. I tried to just remain equanimous , but I chickened out a succumbed to my need to sooth myself, and turned the lights on and stopped meditating. My intuition is telling my sitting through that fear and dissolving it with awareness would have been best and is one of my obstacles.

[Leo Gura]

@username Of course it's progress.

[Guest username]

@Leo Gura @Leo Gura Sorry about the phrasing, that probably didn't convey what I was getting at.

I was wondering if my description was an accurate of what samadhi/ typical spiritual progress is like. These are my first direct experiences, so I'm having trouble relating them to what I've studied/ heard about. Prior to this, all I had was some tranquility of mind.

Is it worthwhile trying to label/ worry about what a particular experience is called, perhaps to give myself a clearer idea of what's going on, or am I likely just distracting myself from going further?

[Leo Gura]

@username Just go further. All labels are pointers. Don't value the pointers over the insights and experiences.

[Alxtrov]

Hey Leo, Im new here and i only go into spirituality recently through Julien Himself's Transformation Mastery. There seems like so many different types of meditation - subconcious releases, emptying mind, and now like this enlightenment excercise where you focus on "what am i". Whats the right one.. which do i invest my time into?

[Leo Gura]

@Alxtrov You'll have to experiment and decide for yourself.

Most meditation that's taught these days is not oriented towards enlightenment breakthrough. It's mostly taught for relaxation, etc.

I think self-inquiry is the most direct way to enlightenment, short of 5-MeO-DMT. But meditation can be helpful in building your awareness and focus muscles.

With meditation, you're not going to break through to enlightenment unless you do massive amounts of it. Like many thousands of hours, and mostly in 24/7 retreat-like settings. A 1-hour per day meditation habit is not going to enlighten you, unless you are super lucky.

I suggest hardcore self-inquiry and also doing hardcore meditation retreats, if you really care about results here.

[Loreena]

@Leo Gura  Is self inquiry any different than shadow work. I'm thinking both are same. Could you shed some light on both. 

[Extreme Z7]

I don't really like to post much about my enlightenment work (or even results on much of any personal development domain) because I'm extremely introverted and don't have much desire to share them.

However, I think I've made enough progress with enlightenment after the past few months of doing self-inquiry for an hour a day that I thought it'd be a good idea to share them. Nothing mind-blowing yet but there are noticeable changes.
 

• I now notice that there is no experience that is outside of me. An experience of a far-away mountain landscape occurs "within my head". And the experience of my head/scalp is itself not outside of "me", or not something that "covers" me.
• There is no difference between nothing/something or existence/non-existence. All moments of experience are something and nothing at the same time. And Nothing (with a capital N) is not "nothing" as people would conventionally conceptualize nothing but Nothing is synonymous with Everything.
• "You" are a lot easier to find if you just stop seeking. But the stopping of the seeking is more of a passive event rather than active decision but also feels like a bit of both. Like the active decision was a passive event.
• I now notice that enlightenment has no value. That's kind of why it's the most important thing for humanity right now.
  (Additionally, that also made me realize that nothing has value. Even things that have "value" have no value)

I believe that I still have to climb a thousand Mount Everests stacked upon each other to get into some really deep shit, so this isn't me bragging about how far I've gone. In fact, it still feels like my enlightenment results are pretty shallow. I'll be pushing myself further to the best of my abilities in the future, or maybe play some video games or whatever.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Extreme Z7

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Loreena said:

@Leo Gura  Is self inquiry any different than shadow work. I'm thinking both are same. Could you shed some light on both. 

Totally different. They have almost nothing in common. Shadow work will not enlighten you. Shadow work is like therapy. It operates in the psychological domain, not the existential domain.

@Extreme Z7 Good work! Keep it up. Don't get sloppy or complacent. You're just warming up

[Anton Rogachevski]

Hello dear seekers!

"I'm" reaching a point where I can't seem to find any experiencer but just a field of experience. In this point my mind is absolutely quiet and there seems to be nowhere further to seek since there is no point to focus on. What's next?

[Afonso]

I know that in order to be happy, I must become enlightened. Why am I not going all-out towards enlightenment? Why am I resisting?

[Leo Gura]

4 hours ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

Hello dear seekers!

"I'm" reaching a point where I can't seem to find any experiencer but just a field of experience. In this point my mind is absolutely quiet and there seems to be nowhere further to seek since there is no point to focus on. What's next?

Good, stay with that. You need to keep your focus trained on that for long periods of time. Just observing what's so.

But notice, nothing in the field of experience is you!

So start to wonder as you sit there: WHAT AM I?

If you are not any experience? What are you then?

[Anton Rogachevski]

@Leo Gura

How do I even know what "experience" even is without having non-experience as an opposite? I really don't know what is it that is manifasting.

[Leo Gura]

@Anton Rogachevski Well sure, "experience" is just a label we attach to everything you're sensing. Don't overthink it. Experience simply means: the 5 senses plus thought. In other words, EVERYTHING you've ever encountered from the moment you were born till today.

But then there's consciousness beyond that. It can't really be imagined because imagination is related to sense experience. Try not to think of it as anything. Not some alien landscape or anything.

Consciousness may just be Nothing

[Guest username]

I'm trying to set up my schedule this upcoming semester for optimal consciousness work. I've got 16 credit hours but only three days of classes due to having two courses online.

I've only got a little under two hours of class and Monday and Wednesday with my long day on Thursday.

I'm wondering if it would be best to switch from doing a few (usually 4) hours a day of consciousness work to maybe an hour a day during one half the week so I have more time to study and exercise ( my current workout is simply three hours walking meditation every other day) and then getting ccontinuous practice by setting up a three day weekend retreat every week.

I remember you said in your retreat video that you were switching from a few hours per day to something that would a lot you more retreat time, @Leo Gura .

[Leo Gura]

@username Both ways can work. It all depends on you.

Large chunks of uninterrupted time are great and important for breakthroughs. But so is daily practice.

[Shin]

Don't know if it's a common practice of it, but today I just rapidly scanned my body sensations (no questions).

I did that until there was no way to tell where I'm located anymore, felt like I was in a simulation.

Try it

[30secs]

@Shin that's more effective when you start to transcend the verbal inquiry:)

[Shin]

I'm crying before I start any self inquiry now.

I automatically stop looking at something when it gets too lify or when I have a samadhi.

Intense peace throughout the day whatever happens, don't know if I'm dreaming or not.

This shit works lol

 

[Viking]

I watched Part 3 of leo's vid of enlightenment with the practice. was it meditation or was it self inquiry? that experience was much more powerful than the most of the self inquiry that ive done, mainly because i came to the conclusion that i am the presence (not the idea, nor the feeling) and it seems that i know for sure "i" am not an entity yet im not enlightened, questions dont seem to do anything for me and im stuck.