Aware Wolf

Frank Yang is heavily influenced by Daniel Ingram. Frank Yang claims to be an Arahant too. Frank Yang has been diagnosed with bipolar. Fans of his say, "well bipolar people can get enlightened." That may be true, but how do you know what's the manic side of bipolar where you feel great, have tons of energy, etc -- and what's a valid awakening? In any event, if you claim some high special attainment, one should be able to back it up with evidence. Both Ingram and Yang do not. In fact, they get a ton of stuff wrong. Ingram wrote a book, Mastering The Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book. Recently Bhikkhu Analayo wrote a pretty scathing review of it. Venerable Vivekananda who is of the same system that Ingram claims lineage and mastery of, Mahasi Sayadaw, wrote a letter taking issue with Daniel's claims too.

I feared that saying "Go watch more videos" sounded pedantic and like "Educate yourself more, noob!" -- and really it wasn't meant that way at all. It should all become clear. If you come back after you watch I dunno, ten videos (you might require less than I do to get something) -- I very much doubt there will be an issue. Advaita Vedanta is not Solipisism.

@Forza21 @Baller Baller is correct. I have tremendous respect for Advaita Vedanta. It's some powerful stuff. I love the care they take with trying to explain deep issues with good teaching and logic and examples. I've joked that Zen may teach you to drive by throwing you behind the wheel. Advaita Vedanta would put you in a Driver's Ed class. I appreciate both. I don't feel comfortable at all trying to explain Advaita Vedanta. But I feel comfortable saying that in no way is Sarvapriyananda saying anything at all like Leo is. Watch more Sarvapriyananda and Arsha Bodha videos and it will become clear that this is so. They explain it all wayyy better than I ever could.

Most people are happy if you just leave them and their beliefs alone. If an astrologer type or a The Secret fan sits at my table at the Vegan cafe, they won't start pedantically lecturing me about it. If somehow it does come up, they're grateful for not hearing "Oh isn't Astrology a bunch bullshit?" They may have a different path than me, but usually there's almost always mutual respect. There's a possibility for sharing. In my experience, for many of the devotees of Leo, Daniel Ingram and Culadasa there is no talking to them. They have found the Truth. Leo is God, Daniel Ingram is an Arahant, and Culadasas is the highest level meditator in his system. Who am I? Why should they believe me or anyone else? I like a comment Sam Harris makes. We should be aware and consider that we may be wrong and most likely we are wrong (to some degree) in many areas. A way to sort this is out is by discussion with other people. I like one of the Buddha's sayings, No matter how you consider it, the truth is always something other. The Buddha also stressed not clinging onto anything, especially points of view. I'm a skeptic about astrology. I watched this Netflix series, Indian Matchmaking. Custom for Indians is to get a astrology chart for compatibility. When they brought in the astrologer -- wow did he nail the person he was giving the chart for! I don't know how to explain it. Interesting.

Ya. You know with teachers, most people don't feel called to defend them aggressively. If someone says Ram Das is actually not that knowledgeable about the teachings and Vedanta -- I'd shrug. They kinda have a point. If they think Jack Kornfield is full of crap, I don't really care all that much. I like Jack, but maybe if I inquire further they'll name the exact issue bothering them. There's a saying "I don't have a dog in the fight." Why would I care? It's not the same with Leo Gura, Daniel Ingram, or Culadasa. And some other gurus. If you go on an Indian perused website and slag off Sadhguru -- Sadhguru is literally like an official Indian Treasure. Seriously. People will feel personally attacked and go after you. Look at all the Leo stories here. Their fans are snowflakes. They have a very thin skin. On Actualized, as people here have recounted, the blame will not be on Leo, the blame is on you. There's a famous sayng in zen, "Kill the Buddha". This is often misinterpreted. For me, it's not about having two heads, a Buddha head and an Aware Wolf head. Don't mistake Buddha's enlightenment for your own. There's a koan where a dog urinates on a Buddha statue. A take away is, don't mistake the wooden Buddha for something holy. It's not the Buddha. You're the Buddha. You're also the dog! One of my favorite koans is by Seung Sahn. A man enters the dharma center and tips his cigarrette ash on the statue of the Buddha. What do you do? He says he understands Emptiness. There is no Buddha hahaha. I love this koan because it triggers a lot of people who want to tell a smoker off. Adyashanti told a story of being on a hike meeting a man who saw his dharma bracelet and said, "The Buddha was an ASSHOLE." Adyashanti laughed. These are Leoisms collected by Blessed2. By the way, whoever coined "Leoisms" -- brilliant! LEOISMS "You have understanding. Understanding of yourself and reality, because they are One. And understanding is the key to a better life. It is the key to happiness, selflessness, integrity and most of all to Lpve." "But your not there yet." "When you learn this you will have awoken." "Your being bias" "The truth hurts us all." " it is the way of the world because of the ego's selfishness." "articulating Truth" "weren't ready for the teachings and should have turned it off" "Non-duality is a total lack of bias. Notice that." "You can be enlightened and be a total asshole." "That is your bias."

at 4:50 timestamp "There's a lot of confusion." (sighs) "There's a lot of people that aren't that bright...and I'm sorry but that's where a lot of this person's (Leo's) support is coming from." == Lester Retsal It seems that way. I'd say it's like Advaita Vedanta says, the problem is ignorance. It's unlikely that anyone with a training in philosophy or many other fields would be taken in by Leo. It's unlikely someone who has years of experience with legit spiritual teachers would give Leo the time of day. Leo is just a dude. It's more someone with experience will yell at the screen at Leo's false logic and pseudo intellectualism. There's other spiritualities that I could call out for issues and problems. Astrology, spirit mediums, Law of Attraction. The difference between these and Leo Gura's community is that Leo is part of this obnoxious trifecta whose fanboy simps (Daniel Ingram, Leo Gura, and John Yates (Culadasa) who are often young white males who aggressively believe they have THE TRUTH and condescend other points of view. I don't have any problems with people who like Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, Eckhart Tolle. They're cool. I don't have any problems or issues with astrologers. None of these communities will lecture me at the Vegan cafe on how what I'm doing is wrong and their guru and gtheir practice is The Way. This trifecta have a bad reputation at meditation centers, monasteries, and ashrams because they are often resistant to following directions or rules. To quote some favorite Leoisms: "Your awakening is incomplete." "You're not there yet." "You obviously weren't ready for the video and should have turned it off."

Thank you. Advaita Vedanta is legit. Here are some other links I like: Arsha Bodha Center with Swami Tadatmananda has a YouTube playlist Introduction to Vedanta. ***** Introduction to Vedanta Also see Arsha Boda's Atma Boda's series, Advaita -Vedanta - Samaneri Jayasari YouTube The Mandukya Upanisad is short, profound, and they say if you grok it, you're really cooking with gas. See Swami Sarvapriyananda's 4-part video Playlist on the Mandukya,

@Joseph Maynor You have a point. If people are up for the challenge, go for it. Like we talked about earlier, India a country of paradoxes. I've met many travelers who've hated India. One was said INDIA stood for I'll Never Do it Again! I met these British teens on their gap year and they spent a weekend in Mumbai and hated it. "There were people pooing on the railway tracks! they said. The Golden Triangle is a full-on chaotic experience. I've thought India as kinda like the Graduate School of Backpacking. I'd never recommend a person new to traveling to start off in India. I recommend Thailand or Nepal first and work up to it. I have a philosophy when traveling of mixing easy countries with hard countries. If you only do hard countries you can get tired and fagged out by it all. India is a hard country. Although not as hard as it used to be. If you go to the very north and south, you'll likely have an easier time. They are also beautiful states. In the north, there are the HImalayas. In the South, beautiful coconut beaches, temples, food, and the people are more chill. In the Golden Triangle is where you're very likely to encounter scams, touts, lethal air pollution, and unfriendliness. They are waiting for people new to India. You got targeted in Delhi by the official tourist office scam. I knew these two British bacpackers. They asked me if I was scared traveling alone. I thought it a strange question. Like why would I be? They'd been targeted at the airport. The two young British backpackers were tired after getting off the plane, they were approached and asked if they needed a cab. Since they did, and were tired from their flight, they took the easy way and just went with the man. The driver supposedly called their Guesthouse on his phone and the driver said the Guesthouse was closed. Not to worry, the helpful taxi driver had another good guesthouse he recommended. Then the friendly taxi driver took the lads to an official (not really...) India travel agency who confirmed that there was rioting in New Delhi and the best thing was to book a pricey car and driver tour package and get out of Delhi. All lies, golden oldies really, but still they work, evidently. The real Guesthouse called their home number in the UK and asked why didn't they show up. Their second mistake was not going to the Prepaid Taxi booth. Their first mistake was not reading up on scams and basic information useful upon arrival. When I met them they were scared. They gave off energy like a badly beaten dog. They were scared to eat out and scared to walk the streets. They'd been told by their agency that it was too dangerous for them to go out alone and to call their cab friend and he would take care of them. In truth it was ridiculous. They were relieved that I went with them walking although they were two young British guys. We walked down a perfectly safe street in the daylight to a restaurant that I had enjoyed earlier and had a great meal. I hope I educated them that they were safe and their agency and cabbie had lied to them. I"m glad that you walked around Delhi Joseph. My advice is to avoid the unpleasantness all together by flying in to the North or South or save it near the end of one's trip when you are more likely to be used to Indian craziness. I contend that even if you're not harassed by anyone doing the Golden Triangle, if you do not fall into any scams, and you deal with any issues no big deal -- I still contend even with no issues -- doing the South or North you still might enjoy it better. Because the South and North Rock. Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra -- not so much. My last India trip I flew into Bangalore. I took airport bus, walked to my hotel. No issues. No touts. No scammers. The next day I went to this great famous little coffee and snack shop. I asked for an English menu, but there was none. But the owner explained and I ordered some of everything. It was super delicious. The food I'd never heard of before or seen but it was like Nirvana. OMG. It was like that cafe scene with Meg Ryan in WHen Harry Met Sally. Seriously, you'd have what's Wolf's having! At the end, the owner refused to take my money. I insisted he take some money to give to temple next time he went. I keep my head on a swivel when I go through Parhanganj. I'm not usually targetted because I look like an India Bum. I walk as if I know where I'm going (I do, mostly.). Although once near the train station, I had a guy tell me the train tourist office was closed. I laughed. "Does this still work? I heard this fifteen years ago this is like a golden-oldie" The guy wagged his head, smiled, and said "Sometimes." I told him I wished he'd get a better job. Still I love India. The food, chai, and trains are arguably the best in the world. India has a high degree of English proficiency. It's a lot easier to make an Indian friend than say a Thai one (although Thais are friendly ... they still keep a distance).

For Descriptive purposes, yes. For Prescriptive purposes, as a guide to language, No. Words like "mobile phone" have gone the way of the dodo. Just say "mobile' or "phone" or ("talk stick" or "blower" if you want to be hip) "Bosom" is another old word that got yeeted out. "Broad" for female. Unless you're on the Actualized forum it's unlikely to go over well. "Phat" -- remember this from the 90s ?? Hope this helps.

@Joseph Maynor Online dictionaries may still carry outdated words because they're not faced with the same limitations as physical in-print dictionaries. But they're not the official source and guideline for language as the print sources are.

Leo is correct. I looked in the Oxford English Dictionary and it's NOT there, and "The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world." This is from Urban dictionary. gullible - Urban Dictionary https://www.urbandictionary.com › define › term=gulli... Being gullible is nothing more than trusting someone who should not be trusted. ; The only word that is not in the dictionary. Go look. ; Perhaps @Mandy could help us here as she loves words As I understand it, the word was removed to make room for new words like twerking and cheugy. In a post Truth world, gullibility doesn't mean anything anymore. It's like Charlie Manson said about crazy, used to be crazy used to mean something. Now a days everyone is crazy.

@Joseph Maynor I'm with you. You know that whole Golden Triangle (Delhi-Jaipur-Agra) is the most aggro trip anyone could plan for India. The touts and scammers are literally waiting for you. I have the most aggro in Agra (a friend calls Agra Aggro). My last time I had a tuktuk following me around after dropping me off and trying to see what guesthouse I might go in so he could get a commission. I didn't want this, as I'd pay a higher price. So I told him to leave. He did not. So I walked slow. He idled his tuktuk behind me. I turned around walked back. He turned his tuktuk around. Okay enough is enough. I walked into a store! Usually they give up here. Nope! When I walked out with my bottle of water, he was still there. I finally gave up, but told my Guesthouse he did not bring me, I'd found the place on Trip Advister, he was like stalking me, and he doesn't deserve a commission and I absolutely cannot pay more. It's annoying. But not dangerous. Then I got a pedicab to the Taj. I make very clear that it's straight to the Taj. No carpet places. Taj only. I repeat this several times. Maybe I'm being an asshole about this. But I know there's a scam where they give you a low transport price but they depend on taking you shopping. I'm willing to pay a fair price but I want to go where I want to go. "Yes, yes, yes" he says. "Straight to Taj!" Then five minutes in, he turns to me and smiles and says, "Shopping??" This is where even if you have the patience of a saint you feel like blowing up. LOL. I tell people to fly into the very south or north of India first. It's far less intense. Get aclimatized to India and find your India legs. Avoid the Golden Triangle. If you must see the Taj, see it at the end of your trip where you've got more India smarts and tolerance.

I have pretty strong opinons on this topic. I think a lot of the Western Dharma scene is Dharma Whoring or Dharma-tainment. For myself, I can't afford it. It annoys me to see a dharma student have to put up a GoFundMe page when they're accepted to a Western Retreat. It used to be that it was the teachers who lived the Path with the help of donations, now it's the students. It's also a bit annoying that these high priced teachers often learned their craft in the East where they were given the teachings free or by donation. The dharma shouldn't be sold like good in the marketplace. The dharma shouldn't be only accessible to those who can pay the cost. To be clear, I'm not against a teacher making a living by charging, but I think it's good to reflect and find some model that allows people who can't afford it to receive teachings. There's another problem with high priced teachings. You get what you get, often a highly homogenous, older, upper class White crowd. @Adeptus Psychonautica It's also like he says. If I was asked if I'd like to change places with these Western Dharma students who could afford it, I doubt I would. Often it's shopping mall dharma. This month an Adyashanti satsang, next an Eckhart Tolle camp, then a Lama giving some empowerment, then a yoga camp, a visit by a swami, then Butoh dancing. It's spiritual materialism. It can be fun, but also just another rung on the belt. I paid a couple hundred dollars a few years ago to see a popular dharma author locally. I quite liked his book. The weekend was a lot of nothing. It was dharma-tainment. The dharma teacher comes in, we sit in meditation for an hour, then he talks for 45 minutes, tells some funny stories, then another sit, then an amusing talk filled with jokes. Everybody likes it. It's nice enough. But there's no meat, there's no real effort to teach dharma much less try to awaken anyone. It's a feel-good weekend. Maybe that's what sells. Maybe that's what you have to do. It is what it is. Still for $300 I can spend a month at a nice retreat center in India. Room & Board. And get superior instruction. . @Mandy You and I both live in a very sparsely populated rural area in the US. I think at certain stages being isolated is not a disadvantage on the spiritual path. A lot of yogis, swamis, took to the mountains and sought out isolation. Right now, I'm typing this while listening to Samaneri Jayasara's audio of Ryokan poetry. It seems fitting: My life may appear melancholy, But travelling through this world I have entrusted myself to Heaven. In my sack, three sho of rice; by the hearth, a bundle of firewood. If someone asks what is the mark of enlightenment or illusion, I cannot say.......wealth and honour are nothing but dust, As the evening rain falls I sit in my hermitage And stretch out both feet in answer. – Taigu Ryokan

This is Parhanganj, New Delhi, where I stay. See it through the eyes of Karl Pilkington, newcomer to India.

I like this post. I feel the same way. There's a lot of bullshit out there and I don't feel it's my call or responsibility to call it all out. If someone is a spiritual medium or says they are channeling an ancient enlightened being -- I don't buy it. But they are up front with it. People who attend the teachings know what they are getting. A cargo cult is a cargo cult. That's fine. It's only when they try to tell me it's THE TRUTH (copyright by them) or their guru is a living enlightened Buddha or God Man, that I might choose to enter the fray. I feel somehow it's my karma that I run into these people, often at a center, or they join my table at a Vegan cafe and want to tell me how they've found the Truth and how what I'm doing will never work. LOL. I think I'm probably one of the worst people someone can evanglize a guru to. Sometimes I meekly demure, a guru isn't really my cup of tea if they seem nice. But sometimes when they claim Bhagavan (insert guru here) gave a good satsang talk and they had a warm glow in your heart and they felt Truth, Bliss, and Oneness -- it's not evidence he's a Buddha or a Ramana. Every True Believer of every religion has these feelings where they believe they're with God and in Truth. So did the Manson girls and the Heaven's Gaters -- and how did that turn out? It's just a good satsang talk, or maybe not even objectively that. No offense, but feelings are just feelings. It's evidence on par as a teen's claim that they know Korean Pop is the bestest evah because K-Pop makes their panties moist! I don't expect to change people. They didn't ask me. Beliefs are resistant to change. I hope I may plant a seed. Also if there's other present, it presents another point of view. I try to be just as hard on myself. How do I know that what I believe is true, is true? Spiritual experiences are often by our concept of them. I believe you can't say you know they are true because you had the same experiences as X or what some book says, holy or otherwise, or what some drug says. All concepts. One might have been primed. We can interpret our experiences retroactively. Experiences are memories and memories are fallible and malleable. Leo does this. So does the Arahant, Daniel Ingram. They think it's evidence their experiences are valid and show they are God or an Arahant -- but does it? There's a good Mark Twain quote that it's hard to convince a man of a truth when his paycheck depends on him believing something else.

Hopefully, people are no worse for a bad teacher, and can move on, older and wiser. It's like that bulletin board saying about wisdom. Something like Wisdom is making good choices. You develop wisdom by making bad choices. However, sometimes people's lives are wrecked by spiritual teachers. Like my only very partial list of Charles Manson, Marshall Applewhite, David Koresh, Keith Raniere, Osho, Sogyal Rinpoche, Swami Muktanananda. I could put in many, many others. Here's one, Thomas Rich / Osel Tendzin. Chogyam Trungpa's successor. Sleeping with students, rape, all without disclosing he had AIDS. Some students contracted AIDS from Rich. In high control type of environments, if you don't resonate with the teaching -- the blame is on YOU. If you don't agree with the teaching or behavior, it's your EGO that is at fault. You need to look at yourself. In Raniere's NXIVM language, you are at cause. Who are you to question the guru / leader? Are you awakened? I think not! /s I wouldn't call the damage these people left in their wake as "working out for them."

One of my favorite Ajahn Chah quotes is this: Do not be a bodhisatta; do not be an arahant; do not be anything at all. If you are a bodhisatta, you will suffer; if you are an arahant, you will suffer; if you are anything at all, you will suffer.

@Joseph Maynor Right. Everything you say. I love India, but man. It can be intense, chaotic. But somehow in the end, everything works out. I am like you -- I don't take people on face value wanting to be friends on the street. Especially when I have a backpack on, it's not appreciated. Now a days I can't tell you how many times I've been to Varanasi / Benares and I stay at my favorite guesthouse and get my favorite room. The staff know me. I know the way to the guesthouse. And even though Varanasi is a maze of warrens (the first time the nice cab driver got out and walked me to my guesthouse the final hundreds yards because it was like a right on an alley, then a left, then finally another right and you're in the guesthouse courtyard. ) I feel I now feel comfortable enough, I'll often respond. Indians will often ask "Where are you from?" to engage you. Ignoring is safe, but sometimes I'll respond, and then ask them where they are from, like which state in India or have they have always lived in (Delhi)? Seen much changes here then in your life then? What's your name? My pro tip is that if the tout is near your hotel, the next time, if you do remember his name -- they're often very happy. Once in Thailand I went to the beach island of Koh Phangan. Unfortunately because it's a small island the transport people have a cartel and they charge high prices for transport (for Thailand). For the West, it's on par. So they herd me into a van with other tourists and they're going to make $100 from all of us for a short trip. This is huge money for Thais. The first Westerner gets out after FIVE MINUTE drive. By coincidence, all of the Westerners in the van are staying in the city and village close to the port. I'm the only one who is going to a beach further away. They have a chart they show you that has all the inflated prices written down. The driver doesn't want to take me for what the agreed upon (and posted) price was, since I'm the only person left. This is one of those cases, it's fine, perhaps preferable to let one's anger / annoyance show. I made my case. We agreed to this price. It's a fair price. That's what they post. They were fine with it at the start. Please take me to my destination. FFS. There's silence and the driver continues driving. I'm thinking, what if he stops midway and demands more money? I'm in the middle of nowhere, it's dark, I have my backpack-- what will I do? He's kinda got me by my balls. But the van doesn't stop, and after some minutes we arrive at the entrance of Haad Rin and the driver says that's as far as he can go and gives me directions to my guesthouse which wasn't far. It was kinda annoying and I had the same problem with the boat cartel trying to leave a beach. The boat cartel takes people to this beach fairly cheaply and you can get boat rides at a fair known rate but the date I wanted to leave, it was storming a bit, and fewer boats were running and they charged $30 per person for a ten minute boat ride. They put ten people in a longtail boat. I had reservations elsewhere. So I paid. Well, at first I refused, and waited, but no other boats were going, so I paid. My point about the first ride -- no way that happens where the guy just gives up after one time trying to get more money in India! It would be at least a twenty minute argument about the fare! Indians are the best bargainers! My take away is, transport people, in whatever country are usually the worst. That's where people can get scammed. You mentioned being swarmed at the New Delhi railway station by taxi drivers. I too am, because I'm Western. I tell them I'm going to the Prepay Taxi Booth. Most larger towns have these. Once arriving in Varanasi, I'm walking, a taxi guy came up, I tell him "PREPAY". He tells me the Prepay Booth is closed. Of course he's full of shit and lying so I"ll go with him and pay a higher cost. I continue walking, he walks with me. I arrive at the Prepay Booth. It is indeed closed! LOL. He tells me he'll take me according the destination chart on the Prepay Booth. Which means I'll pay the same. I'm not being cheated. Usually when they come after you aggressively you're certain to pay a higher price. I don't know what's going on. Okay, buddy, sure. I repeat the price to be sure. I have an uneventful ride to my destination. Okayyy. Always have the exact fare to pay, because damn sure the transport people will deny they have any change. Although it's not the custom to tip, I do tip especially if I'm being treated well or fairly (the transport driver gave me the same initial price as what locals pay). Also now there are ride sharing apps like Uber and Grab and they make life a LOT easier. Another time my India spider sense was tingling, I was walking down the road to catch a bus in a Burmese beach town. It was a twenty minute walk to bus station. This random bus stops on the road and they say "Get in.". Of course I'm not going to get in. I tell them I have a bus. "This is your bus", they tell me. Okay how would they know this ?? -- are they the Amazing Kreskin or what ?? I teI ll them where I'm going, they agree. I show them I have a ticket already. Fine. I tell them I'm not going to pay more. I show my ticket. Not a problem. I can't figure out what the con is. In India, no way I get on this bus. The Indians are smarter than I am. In India, last year some criminals were sentenced to Death because they raped and murdered a girl. They had chartered a bus and went around picking up women on their bus and then assaulting them. This was horrible and the story got worldwide condemnation. If something feels off, you don't do it. This was Burma and they were just starting to get tourists back after free elections. I get on the bus. Suspicious as hell but curious. They make their way to the bus station, stop for ten minutes, more people get on there, and then the bus makes it way to the destination on my ticket. They collect my ticket. It WAS MY BUS. Evidently, they KNEW where I was going and I had a ticket. They knew that this was my bus! I'm not sure how. My take away is be prepared for more people than you might think to know your business. Don't be an asshole. The best people I run into are the people who work in the small phone and electronic kiosks that are everywhere. I can buy a sim for $5 and they'll spend time to put it in and if there's any issues, I need a new charging cable, they'll go through their stock to find one that works, check it. The best was this sri lankan guy who spent a LONG time fixing this mini LED flashlight I had. No charge. I looked for something else to buy in his shop. Now when I'm in Sri Lanka, one of my first stops is his shop where I get a local sim and a data/phone plan. He remembers me and it's like we're old friends.

@Joseph Maynor Sounds like a nice hotel. Do you recommend it? I think India like you say is full of paradoxes. Whatever you can say about India, the opposite is often true too. I wouldn't ever say Delhi is spiritual. Delhi is a madhouse. So it's interesting you saw the spiritual side of Delhi. I stay in Parhanganj New Delhi which is very intense and chaotic (but close to train station). There's people try to get me to do something -- take a tuktuk, carpet, sell something, beggars -- my rule is I just keep walking. Sometimes headphones helps. I don't think it's dangerous, it's more like they're trying to make a living to sell you something. I've heard of scams and cities like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur are where they are likely to run them. One oldie is if you go to New Delhi Train station to buy a tourist train ticket, a friendly Indian man will ask you where you go. When you tell him Tourist office, he'll tell you it's moved. He'll take you to the new location. A sign will say "Official State Indian Tourist Agency". But it's a scam. They'll book you a travel excursion package as they are really a private agency. I don't tell people where I'm going. Or I say "Just walking" or "Pakistan for cricket" and let them sort that out. I tend not to believe people on the street and want to see for myself. Though twice I was told by tuktuks every place was full but they could find me a place. Lol. I didn't believe them. Fakirs! Of course they make a commission and would take me to a expensive place. But it turned out they were right. Once Ravi Shankar festival was in town and ya most places were full. Another was a yoga festival. There was this series on television called scams. One episode was India. Whereas other countries like Thailand the scams were run by mafia and were damgerous to investigate, the India episode was ... Different. The westerner who purposely gets taken by the scam got a high priced taxi ride. When he confronted the Indian guy about it afterwards, the Indian guy shrugged, talked about it all openly, it was like hey gotta make a living, nothing personal. There was a beggar family he hung out with at a roundabout. The westerner begged cars for a day and then the beggar family cooked him a meal outside. It looked kinda charming. They were farmers but off season farming beggars. I try to get out of Delhi asap. The pollution is ... Well take the most polluted day you've ever experienced. Perhaps they closed schools because it was unsafe levels. Maybe your eyes burned a bit. This might be an AQI of 300. Delhi gets above 1200. It's literally a gas chamber. And I can't complain about it while I'm there because I can leave Delhi. The Indians that live there can't.

@Serenity Oh I think I heard of that movie of the Three Jesus's and looked it up on IMDB but the reviews weren't so good. Did you like it? Thanissaro said something like, however you define yourself is how you limit yourself. Defining yourself as God, doesn't seem like it would be limiting, but indeed it is. It kinda strikes me as ridiculously egotistical unless you're interpreting it as we're all One, We're all Stardust, We're the Universe looking back at itself, we're a manifestation of Brahma, we are God, blah blah freakin' blah. It reeks of New Agism. I prefer to under promise and over deliver. Labeling myself as a Supreme Being might cause me performance anxiety. And it's all just a label. Not really my cup of chai. In Mormonism, Joseph Smith claimed to receive gold plates and a message from God reestablishing the true teachings on Earth. God was reconnecting. Well, if God's back, there's no reason why other people couldn't get messages too and indeed other Mormons started receiving revelations. Perhaps these other channelers were hotter than Joseph Smith. I envision Anna Brown level here. Perhaps they had better gospel music accompanying them. Maybe they start drawing attention away from Smith. For Joseph Smith's organization to survive as he saw it, something would have to be done. And it was. God gave Joseph Smith a revelation that from now on, God would only talk to Joseph Smith. Convenient. A characteristic of cults is the supremeness of the Leader. If we're all God --which I assume is Leo's teaching because if it's only him, what's the point of him teaching the rest of us peasants anything? -- If we're all God -- then we're all equal. Or at least there's by following Leo's teachings and boffing some 5 Meo DMT we can achieve this. There's potential. If he's God and omniscient and the greatest teacher above Buddha and every living teacher, than his teaching should bring people around and fairly quickly too. But does this ever happen? Is there anyone on Actualized who followed Leo's teachings and became a Leo-Approved Level God? I mean there should be a TON. If they did, let me know. I was only a lurker there. I doubt it ever happened. I did see a ton of Leo posting, "Your Awakening is incomplete" and Leo claiming to be so far beyond us that we couldn't even comprehend how far above us he is. LOL. Okayyy.

Ya, you know when you put it like that ....Manson does draws parallels ... I watched some documentary on Manson. Did you all know that he took a Dale Carnagie course while locked up as a youth in California? I mean, shit, that made a lot of sense. Charles Manson Quotes “Look down at me and you see a fool, ... “Total paranoia is just total awareness.” ... “I can't judge any of you. ... “I'm nobody. ... “We`re not in Wonderland anymore, Alice.” And my favorite is: “You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. ... There was also a Mindhunter episode on Manson. When Manson is going off on his philosophy -- it's not the craziest thing I've ever heard. He even kinda makes sense. What struck me is that in the interview, there's an old FBI agent, probably Catholic, probably an ex cop who entered the FBI -- I don't remember. But he's immune to Manson's schtick. It's just hippie bullshit to him.

I love this post by Adeptus. I totally agree with everything. I think Adeptus does a good job here. I've been critical of Leo but overall I'm not critical of most spiritual teachers. If someone wants to tell me about a spiritual book they read and how it impacted them and their take-aways -- GREAT! I'm not going to say, oh well, you're an alcoholic and a Belgian, so what do you know? It's different when a person puts out their nondual or enlightened teaching shingle and then makes claim that they are enlightened. It's a red flag. It's dangerous. If you look at all the damage that's been done, the physical, sexual, financial, and emotional abuse by spiritual teachers and gurus -- it behooves us to look critically at spiritual teachers and those who put themselves on a pedastal, claim powers, and have "The Truth". All red flags like a Soviet May Day parade. Charles Manson, Marshall Applewhite, Jim Jones, Osho, Keith Raniere, Sogyal Rinpoche, Swami Muktananda.... it's ridiculous to think that behavior has no relationship to claims of awakening and becoming a higher level human. If there's no link between awakening and truth and behavior than could Charles Manson be awakened? Really? Seriously? A lot of people come to spirituality seeking to end suffering and be happy. The Dharma is supposed to help people find happiness. We lose track of this sometimes. If someone claims they can improve my life, offer God Level insights and Wisdom -- but their own life is more messed up than mine -- why should I listen to them? It's like all the young "life coaches" who are failures and become life coaches because they want to tell others what to do. I think there's not only Truth but also other characteristics like Wisdom, Kindness, and clarity a person on the Path should exhibit. I wouldn't believe anyone was awakened if they were a racist, a classist, or misogynistic. Or even if they are -- what's the point? I don't see it. That's not the path for me. I'm not interested in listening to Charles Manson's rants. I tried listening to the Exit interviews of the Heaven's Gate members (on Youtube) but couldn't listen for long. If you make a claim, you should be able to back it up. If you're God, or an Arahant, or a Level 8 Buddha, prove it. If you're omniscient, prove it. If you really do have special siddhis and can cure all disease, please feel free, we've been having an pandemic last two years so get up off your arse, Leo and deal with that. For more ordinary teachers who make no special claims, there's a spectrum. I like Chogyam Trungpa. I think he was a genius. I would attend one of his teachings. However, I would not make him my guru or live at his center. Trungpa reminds me a bit of the chessplayer Bobby Fischer, a genius but who was very flawed. On the other hand, I bought a couple books by Fred Davis, a Neo Advaita type teacher, liked them well enough, but then found out he's a convicted sex offender. Ew. Plus he charges like $500 for Skype consulting Awakening sessions. If you can't afford his high fee he urges people not to book a session. No sliding scale, no email me and maybe we can work something out, no financial aid, no free seminars or talks once or twice a year. This all changed my opinion of him and his books. I liked Robert Augustus Master's book Spiritual Bypassing. Recently I was sent links showing he's an abusive ex-cult leader. Geez. I also don't care to read Sogyal's book, Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. In contrast, Reggie Ray was involved in a scandal where he seemed to be just a big arsehole -- yet his coverage Mahamudra in the Modern World is still quite good and I still think it's valuable. Leo's teaching is at a low level. That could be contrived as opinion but it's a grounded one. The problem isn't that it's at a low level the huge issue is that he gets a ton wrong -- but he says it all in an authoritative way. Adeptus as a psychedelic practitioner for a long time could easily tell Leo was full of it when it came to his videos on psychedelics. But the same goes for all of Leo's other videos too including his spirituality and teaching videos. My goto example here is Leo's video on Zen's oxherding pictures. When Leo quotes from Yamada Mumon's book -- it's quite good. However when Leo explains things in his own words he often goes badly astray. He thinks non-thinking is a trance like zombie like state. Leo says in the video, "if your dog dies, you're okay with that." -- Leo seems to be advocating disconnecting not only from thinking but also from emotions. This is spiritual bypassing. Yet Leo claims his insights after conversations with zen masters as being far superior. I don't see it. What I see is someone who's never studied zen besides reading perhaps a book or two on it and now through the magic of Dunning-Kruger thinks he understands it. I think the same goes for all of his videos. The problem can be when Leo explains his solipisism Leo As God, it becomes harderto criticize because now we're just dealing with what's in Leo's head. It's not zen, it's not neo advaita, it's not nondualism. It's Leoism. It's like when Connor Murphy went off the deep end -- where do you even start? It's funny because Leo hated Connor when Connor was like Leo 2.0. Connor claimed to be God and had special powers and soon Connor would win the US Golf Open and become ruler of an independent Texas. He offered the Prime Minister of the New Texas Republic to Leo. Leo turned it down. The Leo-Connor meetup reminded me of the experiment a psychiatrist did who had three patients who believed they were Jesus Christ. He decided to put them all in a room and see what would happen. All of the Jesus's thought the others were loony. Perhaps Leo's video on making his vegetable soup is alright. I'll give him that one. I suspect it's not all that special. It's just soup. If I had a partner and they lied to me ONCE -- it might be over. Authors need to be very careful with the facts and the truth or they can lose the trust of their reader with one mistake. If I"m reading what appears to be a decent article on economics then go to a footnote and the author blames the Jews for unemployment and inflation -- I'm out of there. Why do we keep on making excuses for gurus and their bad behavior? I remember when Apple Maps had an error and people were driving into lakes. So mistakes by a spiritual teacher especially when they're selling "The Truth" or maps is pretty problematic. I think a bad map can be worse than no map at all. Leo fanboys who go to a spiritual or dharma center are often worse than a complete newbie. A newbie most likely would follow the directions and rules and not think they know better. I put Leo fanboys in the same camp as Culadasa's and Daniel Ingram's -- their followers often have an arrogance in thinking they know "The Truth" or they hold so tightly to concepts and maps, there's no talking to them much less trying to teach them anything new. It's kind of funny, besides here, I can't really talk about Leo. Leo is a nobody in the spiritual world. Leo has no bestselling book beause he hasn't written anything. I suspect it's because his schtick doensn't translate well into print. Leo, like Bentinho and Sadhguru can word salad and it's cool in a lecture but in print it's more obvious it's nonsense. If I asked a legit dharma teacher about Leo, they most likely wouldn't know who he was. He's not treated as legitimate by anyone that I know of. He has a degree (maybe) in philosophy but still it's an undergraduate degree and in philosophy that don't mean shit. If I explained, oh Leo is one of those Internet Youtube Buddhas -- they'd just nod, probably hold up their hands and say: "There you go." "Well." "If I had a banana for every YouTube Buddha or Internet Arahat -- I'd have a bunch." "Buyer Beware" "You've got to do your own due diligence." I like the YouTube channel Samaneri Jayasara. She does audios of past classics and great masters. There's Ramana, Nisargadatta. I like Longchenpa heaps. I was only on Actualized Org as lurker but it felt toxic af. I prefer to listen to people who knew their shit than just a Dude, who claims to be God, above Buddha and every living teacher, and has special psychic powers. But also gets basics wrong but says it all in a authoritative and convincing way.

@Forza21 I haven't been there. It appears to be just north of Rishikesh. So lovely area, tons of yoga places. What type of ashram is it? What's the name of it? What lineage is the teacher? What comes up if you do a Google search? What are the Google map reviews of the Ashram? Does the ashram have a website?

Yet here you are again, in a thread you are critical of others because they dare to criticize Leo. As far as your prediction and your feelings about me and my age, Well, I'll just say don't quit your day job and try to make it as a psychic. There's a funny saying: "Assume everyone who engages with you on the Internet is a 15 year old boy" so maybe try to have a little more tolerance, Dad! :-) I'm glad you didn't consider my post as mean. I don't think there's any benefit in engaging with you anymore on this. I think I've proven my point. There's no point in baiting a dead horse. Metta and may your practices prove beneficial for you.