Leo's Practical Guide To Enlightenment

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Echoes said:

The question occurs because of the different approach of teachers. The one side says that you are already enlightened and that there is nothing to do; that it is the most obvious thing and it's not hard. The other side says it's requires decades of deep and hard work and only then will a few sages reach the full realization.

Enlightenment is a shift in PERSPECTIVE. That means, nothing about the "external" world changes. You just begin to see it in a radically different way. Sort of like reality flips inside out. The context of everything changes while the content remains the same. But you can't appreciate just how significantly a change in context can alter your relationship to the content. You'll have to discover that the context you call "my life" or "our reality" is totally unreal. It it's groundless! That "you were born" is just a story, and that you are inhabiting "this reality" is just a story.

Yes, you are already enlightened, but it will take you many years of grueling flailing around to realize that. Your perspective must flip. That flip of course must occur in the present moment, because there's nothing other than the present.

Nothingness exists in the exact same place as everything!

For example, when you look at your lamp, are you aware that the lamp is nothing? It's nothing right now, as you're seeing it. The nothing is located exactly where the lamp is. It's not necessary for the lamp to disappear or change colors. Those are misleading expectations of the mind. You just have to realize that the lamp's "substance" is nothing. Everything is made out of this substance of "nothingness". It's like objects are hollow, including yourself.

Consciousness is not a change in phenomena. It's a change in consciousness. You can't imagine it because your present consciousness prevents you. It's too low. As it rises, everything gets seen in a different way, although it's not like you're seeing aliens, dragons, and unicorns. The mundane world is enough. After enlightenment, the mundane becomes magical. Seeing a table or a lamp is no less magical than seeing a dragon or a unicorn. The mind likes to get lost on shiny objects. That's the whole problem. Nothingness isn't shiny at all, which is why you keep not seeing it.

[Son of leo]

This topic is getting more and more confused these days..... r u contradicting urself leo?? 

[Son of leo]

@John Flores hope so

[PureExp]

7 hours ago, Echoes said:

Is there any difference between ordinary every day experience and full enlightenment?

I guess you are asking about the difference between experience before and after enlightenment. If "enlightenment" means a realization that you are pure awareness, the screen made of nothingness on which every experience is projected, then there would be no difference.

As Leo said, the difference is now in perspective. It is flipped !

Now, I'm not claiming that I have achieved enlightenment, perhaps the above realization is only a start, but thats how I see it at current stage personally.

About time, how much time it takes to know that "you" are awareness? 2 seconds. Right? The time it takes to answer the question - Are you aware now?

How much time it takes to abide as awareness without falling back to old way? A life time....

That's the paradox, you see.

[PureExp]

21 minutes ago, Maorice said:

I am not a scientist but I do not believe in the 0,000000001% of matter being "really real" or "really solid".

You are right. Even scientists do not believe it.

The "solid" particles fitting in a sugar cube BS is made up by someone with a shallow knowledge of physics, I suspect. According to firmly established science (about 100 years old now), particles are just probabilities of observing an effect (e.g. mass or charge) at a particular point in space. When you plot all the probabilities, the graph looks like a spread out fuzzy cloud which extends to infinity. In others words, the particles are not there really, but an observer can make them appear by simple act of observation. The important point to note is - the observer must be a conscious observer, an instrument or computer, or camera cannot do that. In essence, physics says that matter is just consciousness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_interpretation

Why do people still cling to the "matter" explanation of the reality? Ignorance. Very very deep ignorance.

It doesn't take a lot of effort to see it directly, its always in front of our noses, there is only consciousness, I see nothing else. What would you call a person who can't hear to all those blaring voices of scientists, mystics, religions, philosophers ...saying there is no matter at all?

[Echoes]

@Leo Gura Thank you! So the experience of the lamp IS what the lamp is? that there must be some real thing (the lamp) which I am aware OF is also just a misleading expectation of the mind? So is the NOW like a hologram? and that hologram is me? but why does everybody in the room sees the same lamp if there is no lamp there.

@PureExp I rather meant the different realizations of enlightenment. Things like: There is no me; time does not exist; Outer world and inner world is the same; I am consciousness and not the body are realizations which are present for everyone at any time; only that thoughts and believes veil this realizations. But there are other things who seem to be more "deep" or "far-out-there" realizations like infinity; or that I am god. All that stuff that Leo mentioned in his 5-MeO Video. Those seem like things which are not in your ordinary every day consciousness in plain sight and only because of conditioning not recognized. These things seem to require a deeper or altered state of consciousness, and not just a shift in perspective.

Edited February 23, 2017 by Echoes

[Leo Gura]

50 minutes ago, Echoes said:

So the experience of the lamp IS what the lamp is?

Yes and no. It's tricky.

What the lamp is, is prior to experience. "Experience" is what you have when there is a "you" looking at the lamp in the ordinary sense.

But there is actually no "you" looking at the lamp. You ARE the lamp.

This is the difference between experience and BEING. You need to get past experiences, to the being level of things. This requires a radical shift in perspective. Imagine for a second that you became the entire world. That's what happens when you realize you don't exist "inside there somewhere". You exist as the world. Notice that there's nothing "inside" you. Enlightenment is like becoming 100% extroverted. As if introversion didn't exist. Even "your mind" is actually happening "out there". Nothing is happening inside the body.

Imagine for a moment that there is no difference in kind between your thoughts and emotions, and a lamp or a tree. There is no "in here" vs "out there". The "in here" never existed in the first place. There's just this bubble of consciousness and within it arise all sorts of phenomena, from lamps to tree to thoughts to emotions. And this bubble is self-aware, without a witness or perceiver.

But don't get lost in all these explanations and metaphors. You need to become directly conscious of it.

[Echoes]

@Leo Gura damn! I think you really helped me overcoming some misconceptions I had here. what is the role of the brain then? is it just a tool of maya with no importance whatsoever, it doesn't even exist? just to make the game believable? "photons enter the eye and project an image on the visual cortex" (or something like that) is that all bullshit?

Edited February 23, 2017 by Echoes

[Leo Gura]

@Echoes The brain controls the body and creates experiences, emotions, and thoughts. But it is not what you are.

[Tancrede Pouyat]

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Echoes The brain controls the body and creates experiences, emotions, and thoughts. But it is not what you are.

Nor does it produce what you are. Actually filters it.

[khalifa]

@Leo Gura  does self-inquiry count as a meditation? I've googled it seems like it is but i'm just making sure how so? The mind is still creating noise during that state so how on earth is it a meditation?

[Leo Gura]

@khalifa It's not meditation.

It can morph into meditation when your self-inquiry gets very deep and so focused that the mind shuts off and you're just "sitting" right on top of matter. You're past verbal questions and answers, and your mind is honed in on the matter of who/what you are. Then you can just sit with one-pointed focus, waiting for the truth to hit you.

This is ideally where you want to work up to. The most powerful self-inquiry is non-verbal.

But when you start -- for perhaps many months -- there will be a lot of verbal questioning, confusion, and monkey-mind. That's okay. It's part of the process.

[Old Man]

I had the ego death experience 45 years ago on Maui, Hawaii, on a beautiful hillside overlooking the ocean. The full infinite enchilada. The big Kahuna. And then, of course, the veil fell back into place and "I" was back, but, with new, lasting knowledge. 

Leo is a master, and I mean master, of using our ego-world monkey language to convey, guide, express and teach the elements of enlightenment, which is almost impossible to do. Good job, Leo. 

I've just discovered you, and this group, and look forward to sharing this journey with all of you 45 years after the illusion crumbled. It's been a long, and in many ways, lonely ride. 

As always, so glad to be 'here'. Ha!

 

 

 

[Shin]

So yesterday I experienced that I'm not the body, not the brain, not the thoughts, and even not the consciousness that perceive all of this.

Ok, now I'm starting to REALLY understand why no one talk about this

[Leo Gura]

@Shin Lol

[Shin]

It's like you know you're in the matrix, you can sort of sense that you have a fucking VR headset on your head, but you can't get it off !

No matter how much you try, you still really believe that everything you see, is all there is to see, but deep down you know this is all a fairy-tale.

I can only feel my body, ok, yes that's true, in my direct experience that's all I can sense.

Is it ? No, not really right ? I can sense the wind, what I eat, sounds, and sure it sounds logical because of our sensory tools, but is it really that simple ?

In our dreams, nothing is real right ? So how could we have all these sensory experiences in our dream then ? Nothing change in our direct experience, we just rest, but, we still have all these sensory experiences in the dream, and it feels real !

So we are linked to something else, otherwise there would be no dreams, how could be there random dreams, totally randoms, if we were just this entity, shouldn't we just dream about things we know, things that make sense, why dreaming at all ?

It doesn't even make sense that we could be a separate mind, because we have so much random thoughts, we should be able to control everything if that was the case, right ?

Intuition ? Why would there be intuition if we are a separate being, nothing could interact with us if that was the case !

So Intuition is just knowledge we know but don't remember ? It kinda feel like that, but I kinda have an intuition that it isn't really that !

That's fucked up !

How could I be just the body if I can have thoughts ? Everyone think it's normal, but no, why something that is material could be so interconnected to something immaterial as thoughts ? Ok, there is the brain but, why the thoughts ? Why not just act mechanicaly then ?

How could I be the thoughts if I can watch them and silent them (sort of) whenever I focus on them ? I should totally be identified with them, like a machine, but it's not the case.

I can remember that I was thinking very poorly about me, and sometimes it was the contrary, and for some weeks now, I don't even think I'm less or more than what I am, I'm just "that", and it's ok, why would it not be ok to be "that" ?

So again, how could we be "that", if our opinion of it and other "things" can change so drastically ? I was a very different person 20 years ago, but still, the consciousness that arise of this body is still the same, I'm still me, despite thinking totally differently, and after all the roles I played.

SO WHAT THE FUCK MAN ???!!!

Edited February 26, 2017 by Shin

[Shin]

Ohhhhhhhhh ...

 

 

[Key Elements]

Hey folks,

I would like to share this thread here:

It's an attempt to describe the lifestyle and some of the qualities of an enlightened person.

 

A story:

1) https://youtu.be/x8aN9O73lgg

2) https://youtu.be/0PQonSiGkVE

3) https://youtu.be/Ozca_5ifwQ0

 

Traps:

https://youtu.be/i288Lnb7NOk

Edited March 3, 2017 by Key Elements

[Kloof]

@Leo Gura

Thank you for posting this! In this thread and in one of your videos, you says, "You're not physical." Somehow I'm really hung up on that. I can't understand. You mean, my body is not physical? I'm really new at this, so forgive me if my logic sounds stupid.

When I step on a leaf and it crunches beneath my foot, it seems to confirm that I am physical. But if I'm not physical, then the leaf didn't actually crunch, or the leaf doesn't actually exist. If the leaf doesn't actually exist, then nothing would exist, right? But if I'm not physical, why can other people see me?

Did I take you too literally when you said we are not physical? Am I misunderstanding the word physical? Or is this something I can't possibly understand until I start doing the work?

[Leo Gura]

@Kloof No, you're not taking me literally enough!

Ask yourself, What does "physical" mean? Who is the judge of what is and is not physical? Who is even making a distinction between "my body" and "a leaf". If you investigate all that deeply, you'll clearly see that it's all a construction of your mind. There is no such thing as "physical" or even "reality". You invented these things in order to come into "existence". These things are conceptual in nature.

Who told you what constitutes the criteria for judging physicality? You say "But if I'm not physical, then the leaf didn't actually crunch" << How do you know that? Notice, that's just an arbitrary conceptual construction you made. Why can't a leaf crunch in a non-physical reality? Do leaves crunch in your dreams? Do leaves crunch in a video game? Is a dream physical or virtual? Is a video game reality physical or virtual?

And for that matter, how could you even distinguish between reality existing vs not-existing?

Consider... that there may be zero difference between reality existing vs not-existing. It could in fact be doing both things simultaneously.

The only reason reality feels "real" is because you say it does. If you stopped believing that, reality might cease to be "real" and instead become just an illusion or a dream.

This is all very tricky stuff that requires deep levels of inquiry to grasp. It cannot be believed at all. You also cannot "reason it out" with logic. Logic itself is a construction.