Aware Wolf

@Robed Mystic Wow. You can tell all that about me. Do this one now -- What finger am I holding up?? I fail to find any logic that someone who has had spiritual experiences or an awakening would not reference others and other teachers and teachings. The Buddha did. Ramana did. Adyashanti who you reference does. Thank you for this insight. Did you learn this from Leo? If you did, I don't know what to say. Is English your native language? This is like level 1 Kindergarten spirituality. No offense, but it's true. "So that when you do reach enlightenment- your life is that much better. " Umm. Good Grief. Okay. This seems rather elementary. Okay, enlightenment is a good thing is what you're saying? LOL A red flag and one of the things I despise about the spiritual marketplace, especially some of the New Age or some Nondualists is how they revert to cliches, sometimes ad nauseum. "Total consciousness." "Become the Master" "Master of Reality". They can make me throw up a little in my mouth. Also, do you find it a just a wee bit hypocritical to come on this thread and complain and criticize others who criticize Leo. Why aren't you taking your own advice and doing whatever practices you find beneficial on your Path? Yet here you are. I wondered if you'd let go and not respond here, but I kinda figured you were at a level you'd be drawn in. Most of us are at this level. I know you're probably struggling here with hitting reply and responding or realizing the truth of what I'm saying and that you might could follow your own advice. Evidently this thread is not a waste of time and obviously it's worthy of your attention. You've shown it is. You've also demonstrated how it's okay to critiicize other people (just not Leo). Most everyone else on this thread is wrong, but you're the awakenened one showing us all a better way and we should not criticize Leo and instead go do Practice (which you've left undefined). Does this strike you as perhaps a bit arrogant or egotistical? I hope this doesn't come across as mean. Peace, out.

@Adeptus Psychonautica @Mandy Indeed. Leo is just a dude. He's not all that. He's a bullshit authority when it comes to psychedelics (see Adeptus's videos) and he's bullshit when it comes to spiritual teachings (see the myriad posts here. I did one where I lambast him for getting "non-thinking" very wrong in his zen oxherding video. He also said in that video on non-thinking that "if your dog dies, you're okay with that" and real zen masters would cringe on that. Part of zen is freedom and having a full range of human emotions, not disassociating oneself from human relationships and emotions. Awakening is not becoming a zombie. Yet he boasts his insight is greater than zen masters with decades of experience. I watched his Solipsism video that was taken down and started yelling at the screen at times (e.g., when he claimed his drug trip insight that he was God were scientifically validated because they were reprodicible. -- That's definitely not how science works, Bucko. Schizophrenics often have recurring delusions and that doesn't mean they're scientific. I think a red flag is when a teacher or guru often gives teachings on subjects that are outside of their wheelhouse. Both Leo and Sadhguru give authoritative talks on subjects that they're hardly experts on. When Sadhguru talks about women and women's health issues (like menstruation) there's some real howlers. There's a Sadhguru video where he says in 50,000 years, the moon will drift away far enough away from the earth to no longer be in thrall to earth's gravity. When this happens, Sadhguru says, women will stop having periods and that will be the end of the human race. No. I could go into facts why all this is wrong, but there's google and if you're interested, google moon drift and whether women's periods are actually caused by (or tied to) the moon (it's a myth). Interestingly enough, Leo also has some real howlers when it comes to women too. I don't quite understand the Actualized fawning over Leo when there's real masters and their teachings available. I highly recommend the Youtube channel Samaneri Jayasara which has audio reading of top notch masters.

@Adeptus Psychonautica Ditto. I like your videos. I discovered them when Leo started going a bit off the deep end and wanted to see if it struck anyone else too. So I discovered you and also Mandy Ramsdell @Mandy video about Leo. I thought your Leo video was very fair and also kind. It's a bit strange that Leo and his Org seem to take such offense to you and seem to see you as a troll . My take is that you're definitely arguing from a place of good faith. I don't seem to recall them answering your critique of Leo's claim to cure all diseases. Was that Leo bullshit? Delusional? I think that the Actualized forum just tries to ignore that part. I like your other videos too. "Is psychedelics the answer?" -- short Adeptus answer "No. There is no Answer." I've also copied your "Okayyyy" -- hope you don't mind.

I'm a dharma bum and India wallah. I made a Guide to Asian Retreats and Dharma centers available free here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cGTI8-M-XQQTSnMyqBRiskpFLMapc-FfO1S-2wxHYXw/edit?usp=sharing It's pretty comprehensive and should answer a lot of your questions. Although my guide focuses a lot on Buddhism there's options for yoga and advaita. If you're wanting to do Advaita, and are of an intellectual bent, the Dayananda Ashrams are top-notch. Can't hardly say enough good about them. Their classes are like a university course. Brush up on your Sanskrit. For Less of a university type course feel, Swama Atmananda Udasin of Ajatananda Ashram is also legit imo. He's western guy, Belgian, I think, and I like him. He gives teachings (at least in 2019) in Rishikesh, Tiruvannamalai. Both RIshi and Tiru both big centers for advaita and neo advaita. Rishi is huge for yoga. Yoga can be a bit different than yoga in the west. There's yoga ashrams in India that yeah, they do asanas, but they also teach the eight limbs of yoga. For Neo Advaita, Tiruvannamalai is home of the Ramana Ashram and in season (approx Oct-February) walls are full of posters of random people and gurus doing satsangs. It's buyer beware. You must do your due diligence. Sometimes I'd read these flyers and play a game, "Enlightened, Delusional, Full blown crazy, or Grifting" -- very few came across well enough on a flyer where they might be enlightened. There's a lot of Dodgy gurus out there. I don't think finding a guru is as easy it might have been a few decades ago. A lot of big names have died off. There's Amma, the hugging saint left and Sadhguru left, but tbh I'm hardly a fan of either. But I've known people who go to their ashrams and liked it a lot. These ashrams are HUGE. There's other gurus around India too of course but they market to the substantial Hindu India population and may not teach in English. Lower your expectations as far as finding a great guru. I know people who came to find a guru in India and were disappointed. But I think that's part of the path too, it's searching and not finding. Neti-Neti. There's a lot of options in India. What are you interested in? How much time do you have? You mentioned finding a guru, but what about other wisdom teachings such as Buddhism? If you're interested in Buddhism, it opens up Dharamsala (Tibetan Buddhism) and surrounding regions which often have programs and meditation retreats going and Bodhgaya which in season also has stuff going on with lectures and classes by lamas and Buddhist teachers. I recommend in a year or so, traveling to places like Rishikesh, Dharamsala (and surrounding regions), Bodhgaya, and TIruvannamalai. One of my favorite places is zen center run by Jesuits in south india (same state as Tiruvannamali), Bodhi zendo. It's a chill place. I recommend starting India in either the very south (Tamil Nedu state or Kerala) or the very north (Dharamsala). If you fly into a madhouse like Delhi, I'd recommend not leaving the airport and getting a flight to Dharamsala or Madurai or Kochin. It's fun to be a dharma bum in India. I enjoy seeing frequently someone I did a vipassana retreat with in Bodhgaya, later in Rishikesh, then in Dharamsala, and then later way down south at Bodhizendo. There's like a Dharma Bum circuit.

Leo & Women I asked a zen master once how can one determine if someone is enlightened or not. He said for zen, he could tell because of the shared heritage and there's questions one can ask that a zen adept would know. But someone from a different system he couldn't do this with. He'd have to watch their actions. One of the characteristics of a spiritual awakening is getting a new relationship with one's understanding of the self. A broader one. The old self doesn't apply. Another characteristic oaa spiritual awakening is the transformative effect. Many people describe a change in their lives like a fire. Fire is often a keyword here, the fire cleaning things out. If there is no CEO self, then other beliefs don't apply either. There's not a self, no caste, no class, no gender. Al these are constructs like the self. Even in ancient China an early zen master said there was no male or female in Buddha nature. So perhaps we can evaluate Leo here: How does he act in regards to a personal self? Does Leo have an ego? How does he talk to and relate to others? Does he treat everyone with respect? I'll let you answer that for yourselves. Leo answered a female friend of mine's post and called her "naughty". This is so condescending. Would Leo have done belittling with a non female forum name? It's so much bullshit because on the Internet, on a Forum, names are just names. If you're responding with respect to somone who calls themselves "Ramana6969" and belittling someone who uses "Sarai"... -- I don't know what to say. In 2022, a friend messaged me that Leo had posted on the Actualized Forum that masturbation and porn was just as good as being with a woman. I’m not anti-porn at all, but when I looked at the thread in many ways, what he says is worse: TRIGGER WARNING: Language and sex. (It's like an 8th grade frat house locker room) Leo POST #1 _________________________________________________________________________ Posted Tuesday at 01:57 PM On 2/15/2022 at 0:50 PM, MarkusR said: @Leo Gura Watching porn today is like the equivelant of prehistoric times watching the alpha fuck the girl you desire and you jerking off in the bushes. _________________________________________________________________________ Leo Gura: Haha, nah. When you reach God consciousness you will be able to orgasm just from watching two people have sex as if you were both of them, because you actually are. You guys have no idea how profound porn becomes with God consciousness. I can run a slide show of porn photos and be conscious that I am everyone in the entire universe who ever fucked, and I can orgasm to my infinite God self as the Mind which imagines all of human sexuality. Ya'll are not even conscious of what porn is. You totally take it for granted. If some guy is fucking a girl, that is me fucking her and me getting fucked. But you are not conscious enough to understand that. You are God. You are Love. You are Infinity. You are Leo. _________________________________________________________________________ Notice this is a porn addiction thread. Someone started it because they perceived they had a problem with porn addiction. Leo chimes in PRO PORN. Is this helpful? It's like someone posting for food overeating and asking for diet advice and Leo chimes in that food is great, he loves food and can eat anything and imagines himself with god consciousness eating the banana cream pie and also being the banana cream pie being eaten. Okayyy. I love Leo’s signature: You are God. You are Love. You are Infinity. You are Leo. Post #2 _________________________________________________________________________ Posted 2 hours ago 3 hours ago, hamedsf said: the bad thing about fleshlight is that your mouth doesn't water to lick it. the smell of real pussy turns the water of my mouth into a superglue! _________________________________________________________________________ Leo Gura: Buy a fish from the store and stick it in your Fleshlight. Problem solved You are God. You are Love. You are Infinity. You are Leo. _________________________________________________________________________ Retrieved from: https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/77942-addicted-to-porn/?page=1 There's many posts like this. Actualized Org is the premier site for personal development and spiritual growth. /s. LOL. When someone complains that a Fleshlight doesn’t have a woman’s smell and how he loves that – Leo suggests buying a fish and sticking that in the fleshlight. What is this, high school again? The great Leo who claims God Consciousness making a “joke” that women smell like fish? I remember hearing this joke in high school, “What did the blind man say as he walked past the fish market? – HELLOOOO LADIES!”* My main criticism of post #3 is the misogynistic tone of the message. It’s also just not funny. My last criticism is there any truth to it? In my limited experience, women don’t smell like fish. They’re more likely to be near paranoid about how they smell. So I googled it, and the All-Knowing Google said if a female smells like fish, it’s a medical condition and she should see a doctor. Maybe Leo needs to upgrade his pickups, or more likely he needs to grow the fuck up.

That's a point of view that emphasizes practice. It works for many. Then there's the pov that because the root problem is ignorance (seeing the rope for a snake) that we need to remove this ignorance. Advaita emphasizes we need a teacher. Once someone explains "Oh that's a rope near the well, there is no snake" the problem goes away. Without a teacher, you can meditate on the snake, pray for removal on the snake, and do bhakti and karma yoga to remove the snake. Will that work? Also believing that only practice will get you there is a belief and theory. Which practices? Are there any practices that don't work? To what degree? For everyone? All the time? What practices work best? For multiple practices, is there a sequence or map? -- all this would be theory. Still, all this talk of mine would probably get me hit with a stick by an old time zen master...

Lets do an experiment. Instead of Leo substitute: Charles Manson, Keith Raniere, Marshall Applewhite, Sogyal Rinpoche, Osho, and Muktananda. Does your point still hold? Are you still open for all of them to have had profound enlightenment experiences? If not, why does Leo get a free pass here? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. What evidence is there that Leo has had these profound experiences, huge insights, and he's on a higher level than any other teacher? Is it his Pickup videos? I mean Wild Wild Country was a huge hit. Helter Skelter. The Vow. Or is it just Leo? Is Leo too smalltime? I get the point Leo can be safely ignored. And time devoted to thinking about him could be devoted to oneself and one's Path. Then again, I'm grateful for the whistleblowers who devoted a huge chunk of their lives to bringing down Keith Raniere. Contributing to a thread on Leo Gura doesn't seem like a big deal. There's people that like to talk about the weather or their cats. There's people here that spent years on Leo's site. To not mention Leo seems like it would be strange. Is Leo some Voldemort that cannot be named? If it's not your cup of chai, there's other threads. To come to this one and complain about the subject seems wasted and judgemental.

This is a good question, a good thread. I think first we have to define what total awakening is. There's going to be different definitions here. Total adds another layer here. I'm suspicious of any claims of a one and done awakening. IMO there's always more to learn on the Path. There's more wisdom, kindness, equanimity and happiness. I've half jokes that it's funny how yoga people have kundalini awakenings, Mahasi vipassana people may feel vibrations, Zen people get kensho, shamans receive visits from spirit animals, Christian mystics know God, Pentacostals speak in tongues, Ayahuascans meet Mother Ayahuasca. I believe our Path and awakening is individualistic, bound largely but not entirely, by our concept of it. Some readings on awakening and enlightenment that I like a lot. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Two Visions of Awakening When we compare a linear ascending path with a spiral unfolding, we find two quite different conceptions of spiritual fulfillment. The linear path holds up an idealistic vision of the perfected human, a Buddha or a saint or sage. In this vision, all greed, anger, fear, judgment, delusion, personal ego, and desire are uprooted forever, completely eliminated. What is left is an absolutely unwavering, radiant, pure human being who never experiences any difficulties, an illuminated sage who follows only the Tao or God’s will and never his or her own. If this is the ideal we hold, we also have to acknowledge that such beings are exceedingly rare or may not exist at this time on this earth. The more circular vision of enlightenment presents freedom as a shift of identity. In this vision, too, we awaken to our true nature, and rest in a timeless freedom of spirit. We know that our true reality is beyond body and mind. And yet because we also live within this limited body and mind, the ordinary patterns of life may continue. Jack Kornfield. After the Ecstasy, the Laundry ____________________________________________________________________________________ Normal people are deluded by their Enlightenment. Buddha's are enlightened by their delusions. -- Dogen _____________________________________________________________________________________ In particular, we want our personal selves to be different than they are. For example, we want to make ourselves "enlightened." We picture being an enlightened self as somehow glorified, different, and separated from the rest of poor ordinary mortals. Enlightenment seems to us to be a great achievement, the ultimate ego attainment. That eagerness to become Enlightened pervades many spiritual centers as an undercurrent of excitement about spiritual practice. It's ridiculous, really. --Joko Beck. The Natural Man. In Nothing Special: Living Zen. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Don't be an arahant, don't be a bodhisattva, don't be anything at all — if you are anything at all you will suffer. – Ajahn Chah _________________________________________________________________________________________ Leaving maps and expectations behind, in the end we must turn our hearts in the direction of love and awareness, come what may. In living from this awakened heart we all become bodhisattvas, all servants of the Divine. We replace any claims of levels of enlightenment with a vow to awaken each moment, together with all beings. This is the path of patience, compassion, wisdom, and generosity, the path of our willingness to live in the reality of the present. Only here can we find freedom and rest in a timeless perfection. As Suzuki Roshi put it: “Strictly speaking, there are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.” If there is a self who claims enlightenment, that is not it. Instead, he went on, “What we are speaking about is moment-to-moment enlightenment, one enlightenment after another.” -- Jack Kornfield. After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ No-One Becomes Enlightened I used to believe that people actually became enlightened, and that the event was similar to winning the jackpot in a national lottery. Once the prize had been won, the beneficiary would thereafter be guaranteed bliss, infallibility and incorruptible goodness. In my ignorance I thought these people had obtained and owned something that made them special and totally different from me. This illusory idea reinforced in me the belief that enlightenment was virtually unobtainable except for an extra-ordinary and chosen few. These misconceptions sprang from some image I held of how a state of perfection should look. I was not yet able to see that enlightenment has nothing to do with the idea of perfection. These beliefs were greatly strengthened when I compared my imagined inadequacies with the picture I held of whichever "spiritual hero" I happened to be attracted to at the time. I feel that most people see enlightenment in a similar way. Certainly there have been, and still are, many who seek to encourage such beliefs and who have actually claimed to be enlightened. I now see that this is as pointless a declaration as someone proclaiming to the world that they can breathe. Essentially the realisation of enlightenment brings with it the sudden comprehension that there is no-one and nothing to be enlightened. Enlightenment simply is. It cannot be owned, just as it cannot be achieved or won like some trophy. All and everything is oneness, and all that we do is get in its way by trying to find it. Those who make claims of enlightenment or take certain stances, have simply not realised its paradoxical nature and presume ownership of a state they imagine they have achieved. They are likely to have had a deep personal experience of some kind, but this bears absolutely no relationship to illumination. As a consequence they still remain locked into their own individual concepts based on their own particular belief systems. These people often need to take on the role of "spiritual teachers" or "enlightened masters" and inevitably attract those who need to be students or disciples. Their teaching, still rooted in dualism, inevitably promotes a schism between the "teacher" and those who follow the teaching. As the following increases so does the exclusive role of the master need to be enhanced. One of the usual symptoms, when such a role has been adopted, is a clamp-down of any admission or sign of "human weakness". Together with this a distance is usually created between "master" and followers. As the specialness of the "master" becomes more effective, and the demands of the followers become greater, so invariably do the teachings become more obscure and convoluted. As the obscurity of the teachings increases, so does the schism get wider and many of the followers become more confused and submissive. The usual effect on those involved can be unquestioning adulation, disillusionment, or an awakening and moving on. However, these kinds of influences have established and maintained an illusory sense of doubt and inadequacy in the collective unconscious about people's ability to realise and allow something that is as natural, simple, and available as breathing. -- Tony Parsons. The Open Secret. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Zen Story & Koan A monk asked Yunmen, "What is Awakening?" Yunmen answered, "A dried shit stick."

@Joseph Maynor I like the cut of your jib. I'm with you when you talked about how it's a mistake when people reject the relative in favor of the Absolute. There's an interview on Closer to Truth where the interviewee says eating a slice of pizza is just as valuable for consciousness as some trancelike altered meditation state. I totally agree. Thich Nhat Hanh even is famous for an exercise he does where he does a guided meditation on eating an orange. There's some people like Jim Newman, though he's not alone, there's several YouTuber Nondualists who do the same, which is they emphasize the Emptiness of things. Blah blah blah. I listened to one of these whose name starts with an "A" and for an exercise skipped around to various times in her talk. The entire talk was different ways of saying There is no self. It's all an illusion. Here's my results: "It seems there is talking and making a video, but there's not even that." Dead silence. After 45 seconds I skipped again. A lot of these satsang types do this. Rambling dialogue unable to find a quote It reminds me of when people joke about freshman smoking marijuana for the first time in a college dorm. "There is nothing to get. Nothing to attain. Nothing to become" (15 minutes later) "There is nothing to know. Nothing to understand. And the nothing isn't a something to know or understand." (This sounds like nihilism) (8 minutes later) "So there really is nothing to say because all words concepts cannot understand reality." "There is no meaning. There is no anything. Meaning is conditional." _________________________________________________________________________________________ OKAY. I GET IT. Good on Newman and these other nondual bears (see Jeff Foster's funny youtube cartoon about the advaita trap) can make video after video although there's nothing to say. It seems to me being stuck on emptiness. There may be no Jim Newman as he says. But you can't play that same game trying to register for his paid zoom satsang talk. Afterall, Who is Paying, Jim? They effin’ know the answer to that koan! You’re paying – with a valid credit card number. Only then will you really be free.

Agreed. A friend in a group when I vented about how I was watching all these YouTube Arahats, said "Anyone who says they are enlightened, isn't." It's a trap to overestimate one's achievements and attainments. It fossilizes growth. It's funny with Leo, when he lectures about the Zen Oxherding pictures, he warns how *some* teachers after having an initial awakening in picture #3, "Finding the Ox" (or #4, 5, 6) will believe their awakening is all there is and put out a teaching single. It's also a bit ironic that Leo will often post to others claims of attainments with "Your awakening is incomplete." Are there any Actualized "graduates" that Leo likes and says they've achieved? Do people ever grow and progress out of Leo and go on to teach or write books on their own? -- And Leo brags about them? Or does this never ever happen because there is only Leo. And Leo is God. Right. There's some analogies the Buddha used for this, that it's like a person cured of a malady, a traveler after a travel in a dangerous area arrives in a safe place, a prisoner released from jail.

Sound good! I think often there's guilt involved with people who've left teachers. But then again, people can outgrow teachers and leave a little older and wiser. A lot of the Path, imo, is a neti-neti approach, seeking and NOT finding. i'm not a particular fan of Eckhart Tolle but he's good at introducing people to spirituality and nondualism. I joke Eckhart Tolle is like the training bra for real spirituality. The difference between Tolle and with Leo and some of his ilk, (Daniel Ingram and Culadasa come to mind) are how obnoxious their fanboys can be. They have a map of truth and reality. This map is superior to others. These fanboys often have trouble in centers and ashrams because of their strongly-held concepts. They can be resistant to instructions. If Leo is God and Ingram is an arahant -- why should the fanboy listen to the directions of some no-name meditation teacher? You can see where problems can enter in here.

Actualized wasn't as bad as Heaven's Gate, Manson, or Jones. But people who've left Actualized share some of the same characteristics as people who've left an abusive cult. On a lighter note, here's the Great Leo in Action: Checkout video on Leo’s Blog, Adventures in Vegas 4, where he walks around a loud dance club, filming himself. He is smiling and nodding, but it’s weird not only because his nodding is not in time to the music – there’s a lack of any self-awareness of how hilarious he is. This is where I began to think Leo is on the Spectrum. See for yourself: https://www.actualized.org/insights/adventures-in-vegas-part-4 It reminds me a bit of an SNL skit, with grandmaster level head nodding: Jim Carrey head dance song SNL "What is love"

Alright, let's talk about Leo. I think our new Adeptus Psychonautica does a good job of taking down Leo's DMT claims of being God, omniscient, and able to cure diseases. There's a funny Leo video on Youtube (Awakening in Real Time, I think it is) where Leo is tripping. He's God. He's omniscient. But there's also when a knock on the door, "Who is that?" and he wonders if his camera is recording. As Adeptus says, "Okayyyy" (so much for omniscience). I have a lot of experience in the spiritual world, I've been a Dharma Bum for years. I think the other side of Leo, the spiritual side, is lacking. He's not all that. I understand the thread here because it's formed by former survivors of Actualized.Org. So Leo is worth talking about for closure. Why should we listen to Leo at all? Who was Leo's teacher? Leo had no teacher. How many years did Leo spend in retreat? Did he study under anyone? There's only silence. Leo's read a lot of books, I give him that. He studied philosophy. Did he graduate? Has Leo written any books that show his high insights and his God Level omniscience? No ? I wonder why not. I think it's because Leo, like several other gurus, for example Bentinho Massaro and Sadhguru talk in a stream of consciousness style. It's word salad. It can seem profound if you're listening to it. I think perhaps the reason Leo hasn't written any books is that simply his schtick doesn't translate well into print. A Tibetan guru, Sogyal Rinpoche, author of the bestselling "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" was a bad guru, guilty of physical, sexual, and financial abuse. Sogyal had a ton of western disciples, not so many Tibetan. The thing is, Sogyal when he went to the West, didn't have much Buddhist training at all. He was able to fool Westerners however because they knew less than he did. I love the story of T. Lobsang Rampa, a supposed Tibetan Lama and author of best selling books in the 60s. Then he was found out to be an English plumber living in Devon. There's some funny Youtube stories about Lobsang. People loved his books. He introduced a generation into Tibet and Buddhism. However, real Tibetan scholars were like, wtf, who IS this guy, because he made a lot up. One of his stories concerned the opening up of his third eye, which required surgery. This is ridiculous, the opening of the third eye -- nobody does surgery to open the third eye, in Tibet or elsewhere. My favorite is T. Lobsang wrote a book on his trip to Venus from a flying saucer he found on the Tibetan plateau. My second favorite is the book that was written by his siamese cat and dictated to Lobsang. My point here is that these fake gurus will fool many. Not only the uneducated or ignorant. I don't want to sound mean here. We go to teachers because we reckon they know more than we do. To sound like Yogi Berra, we're all ignorant of stuff we don't know much about... What we have to do is look out for red flags. warning signs, that the guru or teacher is not all they say they are. One red flag is authoritative talks that are outside of their wheelhouse. Another red flag is grandiose claims. Another is a claim that their teachings are superior or are the only truth. I could go on here. It's not particularly difficult to sound profound. There's a funny website that puts random words together to sound like Deepak Chopra tweets. Leo is a great communicator. He's absorbing. I liked, at first, his video on the zen ox herding pictures. But when I listened to it again, without multitasking, and with a lot of zen experience -- when Leo's talking about the Yamada Mumon book, it's good. The book is quite excellent. But when Leo discourses on his own -- he gets a lot of stuff wrong. For example, he explains zen non-thinking as a blank trance like state. It's not that at all. Zen doesn't emphasize trance like states. Non thinking is cutting away the discursive mind, but still being aware. Leo's non thinking is a zombie-like state and Leo advocates here being in a happy state no matter what. If your dog dies, Leo says, you’re okay with that. Nah Leo, that’s not it at all. We can look at this zombie-like state of no-thinking and no feelings, no emotions. It seems less an attainment than a disassociation. It’s more akin to a serial killer affect than a true zen master’s one. Leo’s no-thinking, no feeling state is achievable too with an isolated cell-like no-attachment existence. But is a solitary jail-like escape the same freedom of a zen master? I think not. It’s textbook spiritual bypassing. Leo is in error. This isn't a surprise because where in the world with all the varied videos Leo has YouTube videos titled: Using Psychedelics; All of Religion Explained in One Video; How To Manage Your Money; How to Get a Girlfriend; Meditation on Steroids; Becoming God; as well as Leo's recipe for vegetable soup! Where did he get his zen experience he can competently talk about it? Yet he claims he has a better understanding than zen masters with decades of experience! One of the big insights in nondualism is cutting through the self. It's a nondual cliche that "There is no self". Yet look at Leo's ego! How could someone on the nondual spiritual trip fail to see their ego is out of control here. I like this from Ram Dass's Be Here Now: That Psychosis business is an interesting business. If you go through the doorway too fast and you're not ready for it, you're bound hand and foot and thrown into outer darkness. You may land anywhere and lots of people end up in mental hospitals. The reason they do is they went through the door with their ego on. -- Ram Das. Be Here Now.

There's sitting, standing, lying, and walking. There's nothing wrong with meditating on a chair. Lying posture imo is underrated. Walking is great. A relaxed mindful walk is healthy. I think walking is literally in our bones and our evolution. I have a kneeling bench and I like it.

I think what you're going thru is pretty common. There's your first post of how to transfer mat samadhi to outside the mat, which is a key question. Then there's the toxic environment most of us have to live and work in. There's studies that show more traffic accidents after daylight savings time when people just lose one hour of sleep. If you're not sleeping -- this is a much greater disruption. There is a mind-body connection and there's a body-mind connection. One of the worst times I had, mentally, was when I had cellulitis and ran a fever and had fever night sweats. I've pondered how enlightened a person could possibly be if they have food poisoning and have projectile vomiting and pooping. I think often these problems should be approached holistically. How is your sleeping? Your diet? Your social network? Are you still doing the things you enjoy or used to enjoy? Exercise? Small steps, many times. If you're being caught out being annoyed at work, first congratulate yourself for being mindful that you're aware of this. I like U Tejaniya (books are free on his website) and he used to work in a Rangoon market. It was too busy to meditate and what U Tejaniya did was frequent check-ins with the mind along with the associated judgment. I think a key is to catch annoyance arising quickly as you can and then decide on a wise course of action. Sometimes when I felt out of sorts, I would just emphasize listening. If my mind was still a blank, I'd ask the person what their opinion/advice was. This often went over pretty well, people like being listened to and asked for input.

Have you read any of the Tibetan view of the Bardo realm? Tibetan book of the dead? They say there's a connection between the dream world and death. They advocate using dreams in preparation for death. That's one of the basis for Dream Yoga. Andrew Holocek has a good book on Dream Yoga if you're so inclined. I've practiced Dream Yoga and it's pretty cool. When I went lucid recently and saw a dead relative in my dream, I asked her, "What happens after death?" I wanted to know because there's sparse details on what happens. No sages and prophets go into details. I'd just like an example of a typical day for a dead person. I see mediums on television and grannie is always watching over loved ones. This seems to me to be pretty boring. If it was me, and I could, I'd rather explore the universe than watching my loved ones in their mundane lives. Also it seems a bit invasive. The medium message is often a cliched, "grannie loves you, don't grieve, she's proud of you" or some such. But why doesn't Grannie tell about what's going on for her? Is she Grannie up there or her idealized 20 year old version. Is she dating anyone? Is she playing beach volleyball up there or bingo? The answer I got in my dream, was look up "Elysian Fields". I didn't know the word Elysian and had to ask how to spell it. After I woke up, I looked Elysia on wikipedia and saw it was the heaven for pagans and virtuos heroes. There's a lot of nice poetry regarding Elysia. Which was nice. I think sometimes when it comes to the unborn and undying and absolute, a good way to approach that can go beyond words because words fail, is by using art. This all was an interesting experience for me. Whether the answer came from beyond or from some bit of my unconscious, it still felt pretty cool. I have a Buddhist background and so I think I'd tend to invent a Buddhist afterlife so this Elysia heaven which I had to ask how to spell and did not know what it was until I looked it up in Wikipedia -- was a nice touch. It also sufficed for me as an answer.

"From direct experience, it seems like there is no direct experience of deep sleep." It seems this way. TIbetan Dream Yoga contend that there can be awareness of deep sleep though this is pretty advanced. Supposedly some lamas are able to remain conscious even in deep sleep. More doable is lucid dreaming which is becoming aware in a dream that it is a dream. "Certainly, the thought of "I slept deeply" is not actually about Deep sleep or anything." Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not so sure. See the lama abilities to be aware during deep sleep above. Perhaps one could be aware, to some extent, of being aware of being in deep sleep. "Also what do people mean they are "aware" during deep sleep ? If there is nothing there, what are these "people" referring to?" I"m not sure what they're aware of. Who are they, what are they saying? Advaita Vedanta does not say there's "nothing" there during deep sleep. Here's a quote I found on Adaita Vedanta deep sleep, deep sleep state is a similar condition of seamless non-apprehension of thoughts We also have to define what might we mean by "nothing". Even in deep sleep, a cat may hear a sound of a can opener and awaken so there's at least a potential for awareness there. People claim to be able to wake up at a certain time, so there's evidently an ability for an internal clock. It was only a few decades ago they were able to prove lucid dreaming was a real thing. I think deep sleep is probably even more a mystery. "Does deep sleep have any similarity to death?" Good question. What's death like?

A Point of View (POV) is that our root problem is ignorance. We are delusional. We mistake the rope for a snake. How do we correct this? Do we meditate on the snake? Make a prayer to God to remove the "snake"? Do we pretend that a cobra by the well is fine, it's not a problem, the thought of a cobra is just a thought. Will this work? What we need is instruction and knowledge. Someone to come by and tell us that it's just the rope coiled up by the well. Once we know this, our ignorance and delusion is removed. Books can certainly help with knowledge, but they can also help with delusions too. Keith Raniere of NXIVM had courses, Heaven's Gate has a website (still active), the Lama T Lobsang Rampa has many books (my favorite is titled "My Trip to Venus" along with the book authored by his pet cat). It's buyer beware in the spiritual marketplace. You must do your due dilgence.

What I love about this post is that it's not about sadness -- it's the fear of sadness. The suffering of suffering. I think what you've hit on is a key question and also an insight. It reminds me of some differences between pain and suffering. Pain is a sensation. Suffering is our mental interpretation of it. Impermanence is often stressed in Buddhism. Everything changes, as Suzuki Roshi says. Even if it is good, it won't last. Even if we're happy today -- we may not be happy next week, or even tomorrow, We may even die before our next breath. There's a good book by Lama Yeshe, When the Chocolate Runs Out. How do we respond to the fact of impermance? What's a wise reaction to all of this? There's a wide range of answers here and options. What do you think?

What are the insights? 1) Cool. Maybe you're being more mindful and you feel more relaxed. You're noticing the quality of air. NIce. 2) I like U Tejaniya, a Burmese monk. He says study whatever appears. There's a lojong saying I love "Take whatever obstacles appear as a Path to the Dharma". So if panic arises, study that. What is panic? Investigate. Panic tbh is helluva more interesting than watching a candle flame. You noticed your breath getting quicker. Interesting. Is there other body connections? Anything in the gut? Do you have any associated mental judgements like aversion? Or a good meditator wouldn't be having this? Note this judgement, critical of oneself. You feel as if you may snap out of this "meditative state" ahhh here we have both clinging and aversion. Panic can be a good teacher. I wouldn't try to overdo this, but a five minute study should be fine. After five minutes, you might move your attention to the breath, or say a mantra that you like, like "Buddho" or Ajahn Brahm has "Relax. on the in breath. "To the Max" on the outbreath. It seems kinda silly rhyme, or funny, but it works for me. It's an option. I think one should look at the meditation cushion as a laboratory to explore.

I started watching 90 Day Fiancee after it was recommended by a friend of mine who said she liked it because it was interesting to see people from often two different cultures pair up and the assumptions people made. What struck me watching season one was the delusions involved. A relationship where the guy didn't speak English, was from a different religion who didn't like his fiancee drinking, and her boys hated him. Well, this shouldn't last long. What boxes does Marcel check off for her? He's breathing? Still, by the end, this couple grew on me. And I googled them and they're still together after years and expecting a child. In fact all the couples from season one are still married. Then there's the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. There's a lesson of delusion to be learned here too, how surrounding yourself with sycophants and yes-men can boomerang on ya. Russia expected to walk-in and be greeted as liberators. There's stories of finding dress uniforms as if the Russians expected to drive in and in the evening have a victory parade. One truck for supplies had riot police helmets and plastic batons as if the Russians expected only a civil disruption. This type of delusion of surrounding yourself with sycophants happens with gurus and ashrams too. My take away is to try and believe in as many true things as I can, and as few false things. Systems should allow for different opinions.

Ah. Leo. Leo. I have my own review that I've done and I am tempted to post it as a standalone review. The thing that tends to annoy me about Leo, is he's part of this follower trifecta along with Daniel Ingram and Culadasa whose devotees tend to adhere to a map and overestimate their knowledge and attainment. Worse, sometimes they believe they think they've found the Truth* (copyrighted) and will lecture me on how I'm doing it all wrong or I'm misunderstanding the profundity of their guru and his map. You don't find this at all, or as much with people like Deepak Chopra or Eckhart Tolle. Or any other teachers, basically. I like Joseph Goldstein, but I'm not going to go on message boards and defend him. He can take care of himself. Then there's all the red flags about Leo. The blanket advocation of drug use. The freakin' huge ego. The claims to be God, God Consciousness. Omniscience which Actualized fanboys seem to skip over or try to interpret so it sounds less crazy. Leo has a very good communication style. But he gets a lot of things wrong too. But it's said so confidently ...