List Of Enlightenment Exercises

[FirstglimpseOMG]

5 hours ago, BLABLABLA said:

 I understand that I cannot understand. 

This is likely a much better place to be than thinking you know things when you simply do not.

Knowing that you don't know is apparently a great way to begin this journey. Thinking you know, or pretending you know, when you do not, is likely a sure way to stall the process of awakening. I can't remember which Actualized.org video it was where Leo asserts that knowing that you don't know, and embracing confusion for long periods of time, rather than fighting it, puts you ahead of the game, rather than immersing you further into delusion.

[The Universe]

@Leo Gura Could you describe in a future video if you can :

- The process of Awakening ( and It's different traps )

- The benefits of Awakening ( experience of the enlightened state ).

It could really help me and certainly over people because It's a essential component of spiritual work and you NEVER talk about it. Thank you for considering my question. Deep love for your work. Cool exercises here. Might do them .

Edited May 3, 2017 by The Universe
One lettre missed

[Leo Gura]

@The Universe I have described both those subjects already.

[The Universe]

@Leo Gura Great, i'll watch them later. Cheers.

[Nexeternity]

This is similar to Excercise 5 but it has you looking for the opposite.

 

Exercise:  Looking for seperation

 

Sit comfortably and quietly, still your mind, and become aware of direct experience.

Ask yourself, "What is seperating me from anything I am aware of?"

Where is the seperation between one thing and another thing that I am aware of?

Where is the seperation I make between things and myself in my awareness?

Where is the seperation I make between myself and my awareness?  

 

Try to become deeply conscious that you cant find anything seperating anything else.

[Huz]

I love this question. I have recently been playing around with it.

If you can get to a state where your mind is calm and quiet. Leo's "Next level of mediation" video is good for that. If you can't then it is fine.

when you get to that state of mind ask:

"what would my life be like if language and thought didn't exist"

"What would happen to my past or future if language or thought didn't exist"

You can replace "if language or thought didn't exist" with "if I wasn't allowed to use language or thought ever again"

Look at what the present moment reveals to you

Edited May 11, 2017 by Huz

[WaterfallMachine]

Our Pictures Are Models Exercise

Imagine the face of someone you know well. Notice his or her overall shape, size and color. 

Now imagine the specifics. How is their mouth shaped? Can you see it in a way that you can see the tiniest details of lines as if you are an artist said to draw them? 

How is their hair positioned? What is the exact shape of their eyes? And their nose? 

How does the shapes and lines change when this person feels different emotions?

Realize that in this way that your ideas are vague pictures of reality, even if visual. 

And realize that this person's face is everchanging from very big facial expressions to small micro movements like a tiny moving down of a person's mouth. 

Are your pictures of the world really true when they are ever changing? 

 

Our Words Are Models Exercise

Take an idea that has a spectrum. Something like the spectrum of big to small. Good to bad. A peaceful society to a violent one. The loser to a talented one.

Take this word and ask where exactly one trait ends and where another begins.

Like the word big or small in the amount of sand. Is it a big pile if it's 500 pieces of sand? But that would mean that 499 pieces of sand would be small. 

People around you would often define big or small in ways they would often disagree.

You can keep doing this with more spectrums.

Realize that language is full of guidelines that interpret reality in different ways. But realize — language is not reality itself.

[WaterfallMachine]

The Mind Is Not In Your Control Exercise.

Give yourself time to let your mind wander without focusing on one thing. Allow it to be free.

Now, after a little time, notice that you can't predict how your mind would wander. The exact words you use. The exact sensory experiences you have in your mind. 

And when you get distracted from this, notice that you aren't fully controlling your focus when you do so as well. 

When something is you, does it not mean control? Then what is this? Where are you, really? 

Now see your thoughts as not something you resist and not as something you identify or encourage. 

 

Your Emotions Are Not In Control Exercise

Take a small temptation like junk food or your Facebook feed. And as you put it in front of you, try to resist it.

Notice you can't predict how emotions appear exactly. How it strengthens and weakens. When you may give in or when you are fully off the pull of your urge. 

You can remind yourself obligations, beliefs, rewards or punishments but this tells you how your emotions increase or decrease, but not at the rate and speed it does. 

If it is you, can't you control it? It seems you are just a passive observer. But where is that observer? 

Now see your feelings as not something you resist and not something you encourage or identify with.

[John Iverson]

Is it i'm on the right track to say that I'm like a mirror that everything i sense is a reflection? And there is nothing just a hollow?

Edited July 1, 2017 by John Iverson

[Brody]

For the 1st exercise do we draw the line to our sense of self or by you do you just mean anywhere on the body because my sense of self is located in the back of my head so the line can't reach it.

[Dogsbestfriend]

So happy I found this site, some of these I came to naturally but I'm excited to try the ones I have not.

[Not a shaolin monk]

On 2/1/2017 at 11:53 PM, Leo Gura said:

There is nothing beyond what is occurring right this second.

Notice that anything else you might think might be happening "behind-the-scenes", is just a thought happening right now.

Become deeply conscious that NOTHING IS HIDDEN!

This nothing is absolute infinity? or is just like the conventional mind understand nothing?

[Brody]

"Exercise #13: Noticing Other People When you see your loved ones face-to-face, you are STILL ALONE! That's you looking at your own direct experience. Nothing more."

When you say looking at my own direct experience are you talking about my direct experience through me or are you talking about "the other" persons experience just being my own direct experience 

[egoless]

@Leo Gura If I had to choose one of these exercise to make it consistent daily habit which one is the most effective to choose? I would do them all but I want to be consistent and make it daily.

[herghly]

For someone who already has a daily meditation practice of 20 mins which exercise would be the best to start with ? 

I want to start with one simple and slowly work my way up , il start with just 5 minutes daily after my meditation 

[AriChi17]

Hi Leo. In exercise #3, I'm getting stuck on this part: "If all sensations are exactly level, how come you think or feel that "your body" or "your mind" is perceiving everything else, as though it were at the top of a hierarchy?"

If wind blows a tree I can't feel / perceive it, but when the wind blows on my face I feel it, so it makes me think that I do have a body and that the sensations that affect me are primary while the others are secondary. What am I missing? 

Thank you. 

[doronshadmi]

@AriChi17  well come.

If you are stuck, then you may choose another exercise.

Anyway, the best that I can give you is no more than an analogy, which is always secondary to your own direct experience, and this is exactly the reason of why nobody but you can do the actual way into enlightenment.

Here is my analogy:

Origami is the art of paper folding.

If you experience folding or hierarchy of folds right from the paper, you may realize that there is actually only the paper, no matter if it is folded or unfolded.

What is called one's ego transcends the folded\unfolded duality into Unity.

It does not mean that folding or hierarchy of folds are not considered anymore.

On the contrary, folding or hierarchy of folds are relative creations of the paper right from its unfolded absolute state.

By being aware of the paper right from its unfolded absolute state, without eliminating folding or hierarchy of folds as its relative creative creations, one becomes enlightened.

So being enlightened is not less than being both absolute (unfolded aspect) and relative (folded aspect) of the same substance (called paper in this analogy).    

 

Edited November 10, 2017 by doronshadmi

[Shin]

On 04/08/2017 at 8:02 AM, egoless said:

@Leo Gura If I had to choose one of these exercise to make it consistent daily habit which one is the most effective to choose? I would do them all but I want to be consistent and make it daily.

No one can answer that, it all depends which exercice resonate the most with you, so try them all for 1 week, then pick one.

Quote

@John Iverson Is it i'm on the right track to say that I'm like a mirror that everything i sense is a reflection? And there is nothing just a hollow?

That's kind of a negative way to say it, but yeah, everything is just a reflection of you, there is nothing but you here.

Edited November 12, 2017 by Shin

[egoless]

@Shin I already settled that for myself. I am doing meditation  Self inquiry was always natural for me so I just do it effortlessly everyday too.

Edited November 12, 2017 by egoless

[John Iverson]

.. hm? It feels like it is timeless, unbound, undisturb, formless, limitless, I don't know how to express what I've experience but all i can say is.... (I'm that, i'am) even the consciousness  can be eliminated and you can't even touch or move it or see it with your eyes, or percieve it , itis beyond percieving.. it is beyond consciousness.. you can be conscious but who see that you are conscious??  it catches all even the one who catch ...catch it .. mind cannot grasp it... from within if you surrender , you become all, you become everything , you become the universe..