Leo's Practical Guide To Enlightenment

[Key Elements]

I've been wanting to say this for quite some time now but didn't know how. I would like to comment on the 10 Ox Herding Pics. The 10 Ox Herding Pics is a great guide/map, but as you know, "the map is not the territory."

Here is the story told by Shinzen Young:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

*I don't want to forget to include the traps that Shinzen Young mentioned:

Traps

At the end of the story in part 3, there is this person, and people call him The Cloth Bag Monk. I wonder what could be in the bag? For me, I thought, maybe he carefully planned the gifts, like for example, have fortune cookies wrapped up with something else, like maybe chocolates, to pass out to children and others. In the fortune cookies, there would be some profound quote or saying to teach people something.

The Cloth Bag Monk spends his day socializing with children and others - teaching them wisdom in indirect ways. Nowadays, it's not so easy to do this everyday. We have our jobs to go to. Maybe there has to be an alternative way to do this. Like do this in the evenings. 

To teach wisdom in indirect ways and become a pointer, we think about how to set up our lifestyle so that our time is available for others. If we seriously pursue this, we will probably find out about passive income - making a website, YouTube channel, etc. etc. so that we earn in an alternative way.

More info on passive income:

Info 1

Info 2

We do look for other alternative lifestyles. Other examples:

Info 3

Info 4

However, as we age, or have families, or whatever the reason may be, we still may pursue passive income since we need to watch our health or if going to the hospital is required for emergencies. And also, we live along with nature without destroying it - in great communities with great health care for all.

All in all, when we do this, when we align our life purpose + health + startup + nature + spirituality + etc., we have to try not to be obsessed with anything, esp. money and things like that. Then, things will start to fall into place. It will be more automatic, flowing, meditative, and natural as we get better at it.

In summary, the Cloth Bag Monk =

Leo's recent video:

The Topic of Mindfuckery

Also, in the end of part 3 of the 10 Ox Herding Pics, the emperor got shocked/surprised (mindfucked), when he was told that The Cloth Bag Monk was the most enlightened person in his kingdom.

"Enlightenment is also the realization of knowing how much you don't know." -Ralph Smart 

[Guest username]

I'm going in an out of non-duality. Shaktipat Siddha Yoga has been really effective for me.

This week I also experienced samadhi on multiple occasions, multiple third eye activations (I think that's what this is), and kundalini arousal.

I'm not sure if I happen to be extra sensitive to shaktipat for some reason, but I highly recommend it to anyone who feels stagnate. 

Also, I think semen retention may be helping. I haven't ejaculated in twelve (will be 13 days today) whereas I used to several time per day. I feel more energetic and it's easier for me to go deeper with my meditation.

Edited October 28, 2017 by username

[Space]

Hey Leo,

Recently my self-observation feels very stale, repetitive and quite mechanical. For the first 6-9 months of the practice it seemed like I was making a lot of progress, having small insights all the time and genuinely really enjoying it. The process felt quite easy and was rarely the same from day to day. But recently I feel like I’ve hit a wall and the same questions and thoughts keep coming up. It’s like I’m just going through the motions, even when I really try to move away from it. I don’t know if this is good sign or not, but it’s having an effect on my motivation to keep practicing. I do still put aside atleast 45 mins to an hour a day, which is much less than I used to do. It’s tough going and there’s a lot of resistance. Any advice?

[Leo Gura]

@Space You're in luck. See today's new episode.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but psychedelics would help in this case a lot.

Also, doing a week-long retreat would help a lot.

But also remember that progress on this path isn't linear. You will have some plateaus.  Don't quit.

[Space]

20 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

@Space You're in luck. See today's new episode.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but psychedelics would help in this case a lot.

Also, doing a week-long retreat would help a lot.

Yea this weeks episode has definitely cleared a few things up. I realised i've been falling into the trap of skipping through things that I assume i'm not that strongly identified with, which may be one of the reasons the process was becoming mechanical. Need to be more thorough in my approach I think.

I actually had a pretty intense mushroom trip a few days ago, but I can't say it helped me with my inquiry in any direct way. It was more of a deep emotional release. I'll definitely be working with AL-LAD and 5-Meo in the coming months though.

I did do a week long Mahasi retreat about 2 weeks ago. Wasn't focused on self-inquiry though, of course. I assume you're recommending doing a retreat specifically for self-inquiry/observation? 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Space

[Leo Gura]

@Space All that stuff is helping. Sometimes you gotta clear out emotions before you can dig into the existential questioning.

The psychedelics will def help you with self-inquiry if you keep exploring them prudently. You've only scratched the surface of them.

Any kind of retreats are good. I find meditation helps with self-inquiry, and vice versa.

Of course a week-long 24/7 self-inquiry retreat would super-charge your practice, and likely get you a glimpse of nonduality. 1 weekly retreat is worth like 365 days of practice.

[Sri Ramana Maharshi]

I find these factors (inquiry/VIpassana) to be self-supportive for the most part as well, at least in certain stages of development. I started daily meditation with a Samadhi focused practice (8 Jhanas at a medium level, Metta, etc.), several years ago, but my first teacher and I quickly saw that I was using those toys and "attainments" to re-self and stagnate. Mahasi style practice for 3 years straight has sorted that out, but the way has been rough (as it probably should be). One eventually sees the mind follow after most traps and cravings and not so skilled entrainments. Also, the purification Vipassana practice gives is incredible if one sticks to the basic technique, in its daily dose or constantly if possible. I will keep the weekly retreat advice for use as soon as the body is capable.  

For myself as a westerner, faith was originally a problem due to over education (beliefs/conditioning) so Ecclecticism moved in. While I learned a bit about Generalized Mysticism through a broad research pattern, there emerges a tendancy toward hacking over and over again at the branches of the tree rather than a sharp honed skill set that cuts the root. 

Metta,

-Brett

[Klaudia]

Even the pure awareness - or being - is not constant. When we are in deep sleep, there is nothing. Absolutely nothing. So am I actually NOTHING where all this life (my life) appears? 

If that's the case, how this NOTHINGNESS connects to all other things in existence? It seems to be ONLY the void where Klaudia's life appears. Is the mind creating the separation? Like cutting a slice of the infinite nothingness? 

The mind is unable to solve this mystery. And as I can see, all we can use, is our mind. The mind is the one who wants to know the truth and finally realizes that it is incapable of seeing out of it boundaries. Actually the mind realizes that its own existence is the reason of not seeing the Truth.

 

[Leo Gura]

@Klaudia Not so fast!

You speak of nothing but you don't know what that is. Your ideas of nothing are NOT it!

There is a way, beyond the mind.

You don't yet know what there is in deep sleep.

[Guest username]

I have been going in and out of non-duality for a while. More recently, I've had periods of a quieter mind quickly alternating with ridiculous amounts of monkey chatter. It's strange to explain this, but despite increases in mental activity, I'm not as wrapped up or identified with it. There is also a big increase of bodily tension.

Based on what I've heard from teachers and my own experiences, this is all good and the key is to just keep practicing and not identifying with the mind while also keeping tabs on my health.

So far, I see no pitfalls to that approach. If there are any, I suppose time will tell.

[Guest username]

Also, I haven't had any severe emotional problems for months. I've experienced anxiety, irritation, etc, but I quickly let it go and don't really feel to identified with stories anymore.

I suppose the biggest emotional obstacle manifests in the form of resistance to the work and making excuses to not practice.

This feels like it might be a calm before the storm. Peers I've kept up with have gone through Dark Nights of the Soul whereas my life has been on the whole more peaceful.

Could this be a sign that I'm repressing something, or is it normal to have periods of tranquility like this? I just find it strange because I've never gone this long without suffering more severely, and not being identified with thought stories like before, it's kind of hard to see going back to that, ever.

Then again, during my enlightenment experiences, I didn't think I'd ever go back because everything seemed so much clearer, but it didn't end up lasting.

[Leo Gura]

@username All par for the course. Just keep at it. Dark Night is only experienced by small minority of people. So don't worry about it unless you find yourself there.

[Key Elements]

I noticed something. I just want to break this down to 2 basic things to make it easier for us to understand. It's just a pratical guide/map. It's something to browse over as we go along on our journey. You may add to this if you wish.

So...

#1. There is the actual "experience of the no-self."

#2. One does not need to have an actual "experience of the no-self" to understand the following basic list to help in the journey to become "fully enlightened"(Eg. Like the Cloth Bag Monk). However, it does help to have an "experience of the no-self (Riding the Ox Backwards)" to refer to because it makes it much easier to understand. 

 

25 Basic Ways to Get Rid of the Toxic / Fictional Ego

1. Adopt the beginner’s mindset. It is impossible to learn that which one thinks one already knows. When we let ego tell us that we have arrived and figured it all out, it prevents us from learning. Remind yourself how much you don’t know.

2. Focus on the effort—not the outcome. With any creative endeavour at some point what we made leaves our hands. We can’t let what happens after that point have any sway over us. Doing your best is what matters. Focus on that. External rewards are just extra.

3. Choose purpose over passion. Passion runs hot and burns out, while people with purpose—think of it as passion combined with reason—are more dedicated and have control over their direction. Christopher McCandless was passionate when he went “into the wild” but it didn’t work well, right? The inventor of the Segway was passionate. Better to have clear-headed purpose.

4. Shun the comfort of talking and face the work. We talk endlessly on social media getting validation and attention with fake internet points avoiding the uncertainty of doing the difficult and frightening work required of any creative endeavour. As creatives we need to shut up and get to work. To face the void—despite the pain of doing so.

5. Kill your pride before you lose your head. You cannot let early pride lead you astray. You must remind yourself everyday how much work is left to be done, not how much you have done. You must remember that humility is the antidote to pride.

6. Stop telling yourself a story—there is no grand narrative. When you achieve any sort of success you might think that success in the future is just the natural and expected next part of the story. This is a straightforward path to failure—by getting too cocky and overconfident. 

7. Learn to manage (yourself and others) John DeLorean was a brilliant engineer but a poor manager (of people and himself). One executive described his management style as “chasing colored balloons”—he was constantly distracted and abandoning one project for another. It’s just not enough to be smart or right or a genius. It’s gratifying to be the micromanaging egotistical boss at the center of everything—but that’s not how organizations grow and succeed. That’s not how you can grow as a person either.

8. Know what matters to you and ruthlessly say no to everything else. Pursue what the philosopher Seneca refers to as euthymia—the tranquility of knowing what you are after and not being distracted by others. We accomplish this by having an honest conversation with ourselves and understanding our priorities. And rejecting all the rest. Learning how to say no. First, by saying no to ego which wants it all.

9. Forget credit and recognition. When we are starting out in our pursuits we need to make an effort to trade short-term gratification for a long-term payoff. Look at the people who are already successful and learn and absorb everything you can from them. Forget credit.

10. Connect with nature and the universe at large. Going into nature is a powerful feeling and we need to tap into it as often as possible. Nothing draws us away from it more than material success. Go out there and reconnect with the world. Realize how small you are in relation to everything else. It’s what the French philosopher Pierre Hadot has referred to as the “oceanic feeling.” There is no ego standing beneath the giant redwoods or on the edge of a cliff or next to the crashing waves of the ocean.

11. Choose alive time over dead time. According to author Robert Greene, there are two types of time in our lives: dead time, when people are passive and waiting, and alive time, when people are learning and acting and utilizing every second. During failure, ego picks dead time. It fights back: I don’t want this. I want ______. I want it my way. It indulges in being angry, aggrieved, heartbroken. Don’t let it—choose alive time instead.

12. Get out of your own head. Writer Anne Lamott knows the dangers of the soundtrack we can play in our heads: “The endless stream of self-aggrandizement, the recitation of one’s specialness, of how much more open and gifted and brilliant and knowing and misunderstood and humble one is.” That’s what you could be hearing right now. Cut through that haze with courage and live with the tangible and real, no matter how uncomfortable.

13. Let go of control. The poisonous need to control everything and micromanage is usually revealed with success. Ego starts saying: it all must be done my way—even little things, even inconsequential things. The solution is straightforward. A smart man or woman must regularly remind themselves of the limits of their power and reach. It’s simple, but not easy.

14. Place the mission and purpose above you. The act of selflessness we need to remind ourselves of.

15. When you find yourself in a hole—stop digging. Our ego screams and rattles when it is wounded. We will then do anything to get out of trouble. Stop. Don’t make things worse. Don’t dig yourself further. Make a plan.

16. Don’t be deceived by recognition, money and success—stay sober. Success, money and power can intoxicate. Leave self-absorption and obsessing over one’s image for the egotists.

17. Leave your entitlement at the door. Right before he destroyed his own billion-dollar company, Ty Warner, creator of Beanie Babies, overrode the objections of one of his employees and bragged, “I could put the Ty heart on manure and they’d buy it!” You can see how this manifestation of ego can lead you to success—and how it can lead to downright failure.

18. Choose love. Hate. Don’t let it eat at you—choose love. Yes, love (without the ego).

19. Pursue mastery in your chosen craft. 

20. Keep an inner scorecard. Just because you won doesn’t mean you deserved to. We need to forget other people’s validation and external markers of success. Warren Buffett has advised keeping an inner scorecard versus the external one. Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of—that’s the metric to measure yourself against.

21. Paranoia creates things to be paranoid about. “He who indulges empty fears earns himself real fears,” wrote Seneca, who as a political adviser witnessed destructive paranoia at the highest levels. If you let ego think that everyone is out to get you you will seem weak…and then people will really try to take advantage of you. Be strong, confident and forgiving.

22. Always stay a student. Put yourself in rooms where you’re the least knowledgeable person. Observe and learn. That uncomfortable feeling, that defensiveness that you feel when your most deeply held assumptions are challenged? Do it deliberately. Let it humble you. Remember how the physicist John Wheeler put it, “As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.”

23. No one can degrade you—they degrade themselves. Ego is sensitive about slights, insults and not getting their due. This is a waste of time. 

24. Stop playing the image game—focus on a higher purpose. To be or to do? Which way will you go? That is, will you choose to fall in love with the image of how success looks like or you focus on a higher purpose? Will you pick obsessing over your title, number of fans, size of paycheck or on real, tangible accomplishment? You know which way ego wants to go.

25. Focus on the effort—not the results. This is so important it is appearing twice. If you can accept that you control only the effort that goes in and not the results which come out, you will be mastering your ego. All work leaves our hands at some point. Ego wants to control everything—but it cannot control other people or their reactions. Focus on your end of the equation, leave them to theirs. 

(Source)

[Shin]

Just had an another terror attack, good guide ! 

[Danny M]

Hey all just joined and been enquiring for 2ish weeks now so pretty fresh to this. Loving all of Leos stuff and no nonsence approach. I did experience raised pulse feeling of fear once but stopped as had no idea what was happening and have not got there since.. What would be a good amount of time per day to enquire every day to give realistic chance of break throughs?..NOT including retreats? I understand that an hour a day is not generally enough time..

[Leo Gura]

@Danny M Start slow. This is a long-term game. It's better to do 15 minutes solidly, consistently, than 2 hours every day for 4 weeks, but then quitting in frustration.

Treat this habit as a life-long skill you're developing. So there is no rush.

With that said, don't distract yourself either. You should be able to commit to 15 minutes per day if you're serious about truth. You can always increase the time as you get better.

Quality of inquiry is far more important than quantity. 15 mins of rock solid, laser-focused inquiry is better than 90 minutes of sloppy, dreamy inquiry.

[Key Elements]

Just wanted to bring up the question here and share.

What about this leading to this?

I remember Leo telling someone why not achieve full "Buddhahood" and not eat cheetos?  But, sometimes you have to wonder what exactly is full "Buddhahood?"

 

[Nahm]

@Key Elements that’s deep.

[Samurai Y]

Just wanted to check in. I am a newbie here, let's say I'm in the self-help stage at this point.

Even so, I got really curious and I wanted to go further, check out the notion about enlighment and all there is.

I read this guide two weeks ago. I got so scared, I had to put the lights on and I slept like that. What is this, is it ego being scared from the void? It was a true sense of fear.

I decided it's too early/dificult to go with it, I guess I could define myself as 'curious, but not brave enough' regarding this. But I'm here and open and picking up the information and sorting them my own way, Thanks for the knowledge, insights, experiences and everything else you shared here.

I feel like I've discovered a whole new world that's been parallel to my existence (under the assumption I ever existed) :-)

 

 

Edited December 9, 2017 by Samurai Y

[Shin]

4 minutes ago, Samurai Y said:

It was a true sense of fear.

I decided it's too early/dificult to go with it

You will have to go through this fear sooner or later, so might as well go for it now.

It's not going to magically disappear, it's only going to get worse if you don't take care of it.

To the point you won't even consider doing the work because it is too painful to even think about it.