List Of Enlightenment Exercises

[Leo Gura]

@Anton Rogachevski You're just wasting your time avoiding the actual work. Do the exercises! They are the most direct method.

[AlwaysBeNice]

9 hours ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

@Leo Gura Any powerful affirmations you might suggest?

'I don't exist' and 'I am (or life is) perfect' I like. They are helpful to shape your mind, to get into the right state of being in life and to create a conscious distance between thoughts and who you really are as consciousness.

[abrakamowse]

I am awareness, I am pure consciousness... 

[123456789]

In exercise #12 it says

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Now -- here's a doozy -- notice that you actually DO have a direct experience of absolute reality.

That direct experience is.... NOTHING!

So the external world exists as... literally NOTHING!

I am confused. What do you mean by "nothing"? Consciousness? 

 

[Leo Gura]

@Lenny Notice, what is your current experience of the "external world"? The world you believe exists beyond your phenomenal field?

It's literally nothing.

That's what the "external world" turns out to be. You might say you have access to the entire external universe. It just happens to be absolutely nothing.

You have to realize that reality doesn't need any external causes. It's all right here. There's nothing behind the scenes the way you were taught in science class.

Of course this means you have to open yourself up to a deep inherent mystery. Hence it's called mysticism.

[123456789]

@Leo Gura Thanks for explaining, but I still have more questions about the exercises.

1) In exercise #1 it says the following:  

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The line always terminates at nothingness

In my experience it doesn't, it terminates at my forehead .

2) In exercise #3 it says the following: 

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How can one sensation perceive another sensation when they are exactly level?

In my mind it makes sense for one sensation to perceive another even if they are on exactly the same level.

3) In exercise #4 it says the following: 

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Become deeply conscious that your sense of "you" is false, and that in fact YOU are everywhere!

Even if the sense of "I" (body-mind self) is false why would that mean that I (whatever that is) am omnipresent? 

4) In exercise #10 it says the following:

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Become deeply conscious that "brain" and "mind" are illusions and that the true source of thought is nothing.

Yes, in direct experience "brain" and "mind" are illusions but the source of thought is silence, not nothing. Even if the source of thought is nothing and nowhere wouldn't it mean that there is no source? 

5) In exercise #12 it says the following:

Quote

Now -- here's a doozy -- notice that you actually DO have a direct experience of absolute reality.

What do you mean by "absolute reality"?  

[Leo Gura]

8 hours ago, Lenny said:

@Leo Gura Thanks for explaining, but I still have more questions about the exercises.

1) In exercise #1 it says the following:

...

In my experience it doesn't, it terminates at my forehead .

Look closer. Do you see a forehead? Or is the "forehead" an mental image? And does the line then terminate at a mental image? Is that what you ACTUALLY experience?

Or do you ACTUALLY experience a line terminating at nothingness?

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2) In exercise #3 it says the following:

...

In my mind it makes sense for one sensation to perceive another even if they are on exactly the same level.

And in a kid's mind, it makes sense that Santa Claus organizes the distribution of Christmas presents.

Yes, "in your mind" it makes sense because it's a fantasy. In reality it's false.

Your mind is the enemy here. What makes sense to the mind doesn't matter. Reality is otherwise.

You can take it as an axiom of this work that no sensation perceives another. Now your job is to verify this by finding the actual perceiver.

Hint: the actual perciever (you) is non-existent. You're never going to find it as an object. Because you are emptiness itself.

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3) In exercise #4 it says the following: 

...

Even if the sense of "I" (body-mind self) is false why would that mean that I (whatever that is) am omnipresent? 

There's no logical reason why it would. You have to discover via direct experience what you are. Then you'll see that what you are is infinite and without location (hence omnipresent).

Quote

4) In exercise #10 it says the following:

...

Yes, in direct experience "brain" and "mind" are illusions but the source of thought is silence, not nothing. Even if the source of thought is nothing and nowhere wouldn't it mean that there is no source? 

Well, be careful not to get lost in terminology. Language is a poor vehicle for this work. You need to have the direct experience of reality.

"Silence" and "nothing" might point to the same thing.

"Nothing", "source", and "no source" might point to the same thing.

And "nothing" might point to something very different than what you imagine.

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5) In exercise #12 it says the following:

...

What do you mean by "absolute reality"?  

Absolute reality is that which is true all the time, without change, under all circumstances.

What is the ONE thing which never changes?

Nothingness. Every other experience is relative truth.

Hopefully you're starting to notice that all experience is changing all the time.

Hence experiences cannot be The Truth. Experiences are not Absolute.

To use a scientific metaphor, you might think of the vacuum of empty space as being an absolute. Although in fact, not even it is absolute, since it's merely a concept/experience your mind is having.

[123456789]

On 26.2.2017 at 0:26 AM, Leo Gura said:

Look closer. Do you see a forehead? Or is the "forehead" an mental image? And does the line then terminate at a mental image? Is that what you ACTUALLY experience?

Or do you ACTUALLY experience a line terminating at nothingness?

@Leo Gura No, I don't see a forehead but I am aware of a physical body sensation. Does it count? or are we working with the visual field only?

[Leo Gura]

@Lenny Is there a "you" aware of physical body sensations? Or just physical body sensations (without any you)?

Work with any field you like. But realize, there is no you experiencing it.

Be very careful with your wording. Don't be sloppy here. When you say, "Forehead", what exactly does that mean? Is a physical body sensation an actual forehead? Where is this sensation occurring? How could you know if you didn't have a mental image of it? Is a physical body sensation equivalent to having a physical body? And if you're drawing a line in the visual field, what do physical body sensations have to do with it? What is connecting the distant object to the terminating point of that line?

Slowly and clinically deconstruct the phenomenal field. Notice all the things you're assuming about it, which are just pure fictions. 90% of what you assume is there, isn't.

[PureExp]

There's an app for it

I never used it, and I'm not its coder. Just sharing...

--

Who Am I Daily

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whoami.daily

[PureExp]

James Swartz

Great and fairly detailed introduction to Vedanta. Swartz is a brilliant teacher. That's in 16 parts totaling 16 hours, but it saves 16 years of your life.

 

[123456789]

Doing these exercises over and over again makes my mind go nuts and the resistance to doing them bigger...

[Leo Gura]

@Lenny Of course. Because they lead you beyond the mind.

[FirstglimpseOMG]

I managed to notice something wild about reality the other day while contemplating lots and doing this;

Sitting in my comfy chair, while absent-mindedly lightly rubbing my chest through my t-shirt, I looked up at my stationary ceiling fan. Suddenly I realized, and managed to feel, once I worked it, that the sensation of my body, both from the fingertip side and the chest side, and the sensation of seeing the ceiling fan simultaneously, were both perceptions (sensations?) ONLY. One and the same thing. 

So on one level, The I that I Am cannot essentially be the body-mind, as the body-mind is the same damn thing as the perception of the fan.. a perception. On another level, both the perception of the body-mind, or rather, the perceptions of the body mind, including that perception of itself, is creation in action. Experience by existence. But practise noticing, and making your distinctions.

Edited March 29, 2017 by FirstglimpseOMG
Speeling, content

[FirstglimpseOMG]

Geez, can you reverse it too, and be closer to Truth maybe; Existence only via experience... Co-creation?

Edited March 29, 2017 by FirstglimpseOMG

[Leo Gura]

@FirstglimpseOMG If you are stuck grasping at experiences, you will NEVER reach Absolute Truth. The Absolute cannot be an experience, because all experiences are limited and changing, hence non-absolute.

In this work, you have to imagine that there is something beyond experience. A "thing" which cannot ever be experienced, but can nevertheless be known.

[FirstglimpseOMG]

@Leo Gura I'm just sort of floundering around. Trying not to get caught up in semantics but still easily confused... is the ultimate goal not to 'know thyself', to come to the fullest realization of our divinity, and  thus then acting as such here and now, more and more, in the meantime? Pushing the evolution of this whole existence in the truer direction, towards peace and love and conservation and all that? Sure I want to somehow break reality very badly, but I'm pretty sure that in the meantime, while I strive and suffer, any little things that keep me on the path without being misguided, including the half-baked 'nowhere near knowing the absolute, but got 3 inches closer' experiences, have the power of accumulation. I'm sort of slow at this, and a pretty lazy ego, which I strive to transcend a little here and there, so anything that gets me or keeps me meditating and contemplating and allowing and being more present with love, I do grasp at. I know conceptualizing, contemplating and looking for experiences won't get me there, but surely the heavy contemplation, spurring the 'aha' stuff, which enables the 'aw shit, here comes the love again, hold on to something' stuff, must have big value. I'm not only 'getting' that essentially I'm not an illusive ego & body/mind, I'm able to occasionally feel it too, and it comes through as big, unprecedented love and peace and recognition. It is very fleeting, but it sure feels like unconditional love in action for the moments of it. The more I know what that is/I Am, even if it's on a sliding scale of waking up and becoming 'Enlightened', and that experience/knowledge is manifesting as right action rather than egoic interference and backfiring.. well, don't we recognize, once we begin to wake up a little, that we have been momentarily Enlightened thousands and thousands of times up to this point in our lives?

Mind tries hard to grasp with less ego and less chatter.. too hard? Should I just shut up and meditate/concentrate/contemplate deeper & more consistently?  

 

Edited March 29, 2017 by FirstglimpseOMG
Are there prizes for run-on sentences?

[Leo Gura]

@FirstglimpseOMG Yes, definitely you should be growing long before you reach enlightenment. Every baby step you can take it good. Sometimes you gotta fake it till you make it. Even if you aren't loving, sometimes you can just force yourself to behave lovingly, and although that's not ideal and can become a problem if over-done, it can be useful. You gotta start somewhere and you can't be too picky at the outset.

@BLABLABLA Except it's not simple because you cannot imagine it, ever! So don't even try the imagination route. I'm just saying you need to be openminded and cognizant of your own mind's limitations. The mind must be smart enough to realize, "Hey, I will never get this, and that's okay because there's something beyond me at work here. I'm not the only game in town so let me stop acting as if I were."

[CGeo]

Should you set a timer for these enlightenment exercises, set an alarm to go off. For how long?

[Big_D]

@CGeo Your death IS the timer! lol