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[Music] it's time for us to get serious about this work one of the biggest challenges with the topics that we talk about on this channel is that I cover a lot of highly abstract theoretical and conceptual topics which can get people lost into this sort of rabbit hole of theory and ideas and failing to distinguish between that and what all these concepts and ideas are pointing to so we need to get out of fantasy out of concepts and out of imagination and into the real world in touch with what is actual actual actuality what is actual so today we're going to be working on carving out this distinction this is one of the most important distinctions you can make in all of personal development and in all of spiritual work is this distinction between on the one hand the actual what is actual and then on the other hand concepts beliefs and imagination and people in general are very very poor at distinguishing between these two and this is why they get themselves into so much epistemic trouble and they struggle so much to understand reality is because they've completely blurred this distinction such that they're living in augmented reality this sort of conceptual matrix which is interpreting everything that they're seeing all their interactions with actuality are getting corrupted by all of their concepts that they got from their culture and from their early upbringing and now they can't tell the two apart so let's work to correct this a really common mistake that people make when they think about spirituality is they think that all spirituality that's like a bunch of beliefs when in fact spirituality is the exact opposite of that spirituality is actuality not belief so let's get you in touch with that right now actuality what do we mean when we say the word actual so we could sit here and think about it I can give you a bunch of interesting theories and ideas about what it all means and how it all works and none of that will actually get you closer to actuality so this is a very hands-on episode no pun intended where you're going to have to participate with me here to actually get this not just listen to me but actually do the exercises we're gonna do a lot of exercises here so let's do this right now take out your hand and look at it hold it in front of your face about a foot away from you and just look at your hand put your awareness completely on your hand without a bunch of distracting thoughts and just look at it notice the hands existence the fact that it exists in your direct experience and just sit with that don't particularly try to do anything or get anywhere or have any kind of objective just be with your hand and recognize and be conscious of its existence make sure you're actually doing this as I'm talking pause this recording if you need to to make sure that you get what I'm saying and I want you to hit this sort of moment where you become hyper conscious of the fact that oh yes this hand exists here it is and just be hyper conscious of its existence that right there is actuality your hand actual here it is don't fall into the trap of thinking oh well so what who cares Leo this is so obvious no no no it's not obvious at all not obvious at all sit here and just be conscious of this hand be conscious of its actuality this is what's real this is as close to reality as you can get there is no closer no amount of science or religion or reading books or hearing lectures or watching videos will ever get you closer to reality than looking at your hand right now that's as close as you can get if you can't get this you're lost there's no hope for you you can't do consciousness work you can't do spirituality you can't do personal development if you can't get this that's how important this is now take your hand put it behind your back so you can't see it anymore and now imagine and think of your hand that right there is concept and imagination we're going to be using the word concept and imagination throughout this episode interchangeably so do you get that don't think about this I want you to actually experience it to feel it now take your hand out again look at it and notice that this is actual this is actuality right here and then when I put it away and I think about it that is concept and imagination are you getting this make sure you do this a couple of times to make the distinction very clear it's not enough that you understand the distinction conceptually that's easy any fool can do that you have to actually experience it and become very quick at distinguishing between these two as it's happening throughout your entire life all the time when you are waking up in the morning when you're brushing your teeth when you're tired when you're hungry when you're horny when you're depressed when you're angry when you're frustrated all of these things are happening to you you need to be able to recognize between what is actual and what is imaginary otherwise you're gonna blur these two and get yourself into a lot of trouble and it's going to be utterly impossible for you to do any kind of work towards enlightenment or basically any spirituality because spirituality is not about about a bunch of rule beliefs about spirits and aliens and ghosts and things like that spirituality is this right here this exercise that we're doing right now looking at your hand look at your hand right now look at that hand that is as close to spirituality as you will ever get are you getting this I'm not joking you might say olio but how can my hand what what is spiritual about my hand are you we just playing word games here why are you calling my hands spiritual there's nothing spiritual about this this is just some ordinary perception that I have ah you see you're not being careful you're not being careful because look what your mind is doing your mind is saying this is a hand it's a human hand it's biological it's mad of chemicals and molecules and it's physical and it's it's my hand and the label hand is getting applied to it and you're calling it my experience my perceptions see this is a lot of conceptual baggage that you're adding on top of what's here what is actually occurring right here is not so obvious and the problems that your mind is so used to projecting it's interpretations on to everything that you're seeing all the time that again you're failing to distinguish between actuality and then what your mind is coming up with and thinking is there what you think is there isn't actually there so this hand that you think is there this physical hand it seems like that's what's actual but that's not what act is what is what is actual so what's happening is that your mind is giving context to every perception that you're having even to say that a thing is a perception or an experience is already to go too far it's already to give way too much conceptual context to this thing that's happening right here already way too far so really what spirituality is about is about deep contextualizing everything that you experience or see or feel such that you get it as close to as raw as possible without any interpretations and then you see what happens and you might be surprised at what happens if you're just starting with this exercise it might seem to you like well Lea if I just sit here and I look at my hand I mean isn't just don't isn't this just a waste of time I mean what's gonna happen seems like nothing's gonna happen I'm just gonna sit here and look at it it's kind of obvious and okay so what next what do we do next tell me something flashy and and mind-blowing no no no this right here is what's mind-blowing but you gotta really sit here and look at it look at it for a long time I spend about five hours a week at least these days just sitting and looking at my hand this is my favorite spiritual exercise this is my favorite meditation technique I've sort of outgrow and various other kinds of techniques like for me now just it's so simple that I just I sit on my couch I just look at my hand like this literally like this for an hour and then I get up and do other stuff and I do that maybe five times a week and that's five hours right there if just looking my hand that's it that's the entire spiritual practice that's us as a pure of a spiritual practices you're ever gonna get forget about yoga forget about enlightenment forget about self inquiry and all this complicated you're getting lost in way too much conceptual stuff right you got to make it real this right here everything you're looking for is right here in your hand when it comes to enlightenment non-duality spirituality all the wacky stuff I talk about it's all right here in your hand right now actual this is actual the problem is that way too many of you are getting lost in all sorts of ideas about non duality so let's keep deepening and sharpening this distinction between actuality and concept I want you to think about the fact that you are on around earth as you believe you are think about that fact and now notice that what that is is concept of imagination that is what that is there's no disputing what is being said here your mind might want to come up with objections and you might say oh but Balea what are you saying are you saying that I should be a flat earther now are you saying now I shouldn't believe the earth is flat are you saying size is wrong is that what you're saying notice what that is that's concept and imagination you're layering concept and imagination on top of concept and imagination and so you're digging your own grave here with your own mind you're getting lost inside your mind so be very mindful of your objections actuality is what's happening right now in this present moment your hand or that object that table you're looking at that lamp you're looking at that cat if you have a cat there that's actual anything else does concept and imagination because it's not here right now I'm not saying that you should be a flat earther but the fact that the earth is round is a concept and is imagination you have to become conscious of that if you cannot become conscious of that then god help you because you're [ __ ] screwed in this work you're not gonna make any progress you get this let's keep going now bring to mind the fact that you were born you think you were born notice the key word there though you think you were born so notice what that is all of your ideas and memories of being born our concept and imagination getting this it's very simple but it's also quite radical where did you come from well I was born no that's concept and imagination think of your parents unless they are sitting here in the room with you right now your parents are concept and imagination no you might say believe I talked to them last night that's concept and imagination but Leo if I didn't come from my parents where did I come from that's concept and imagination be hyper aware of how your mind pulls you into these various rabbit holes of questions and objections and denials and all of this sort of stuff ignoring the obvious of what's actual pull your hand out this is act look at your hand this is actual now think of your parents think of being born think of the round earth that's all imagination are you getting this actually do this now pull your hand out again and look at it okay this is actual my parents are just a concept oh okay now I'm getting it actually do this don't think you've got it because you still don't got it now moving on think of being enlightened you've heard me talking about enlightenment ad nauseam over the years whatever you imagine enlightenment to be think about that notice that that's concept and imagination that's what that is those concepts and those images are preventing you from becoming enlightened you want to get as close to enlightenment as possible take out your hand put it in front of your face and look at it and realize that this is actual and while you're looking at this hand and you're you're sensing it's reality it's realness is actuality that is enlightenment you're looking at enlightenment right here in your hand I'm not kidding all of your ideas and theories and philosophies about enlightenment that's not enlightenment that's [ __ ] this is enlightenment right here so if you want to become enlightened just sit and look at your hand for many many many hours for hundreds and thousands of hours just sit there and looking at it that's it and you'll become enlightened now you'll say but Leo how is how is looking at my hand gonna make me enlightened I mean the hand is just a hand again that's because you haven't actually gone deep into this work you haven't even spent five minutes just looking at your hand without thinking about it something very profound happens we just do this exercise for hundreds and thousands of hours what you see here will change and now of course by that don't get the wrong idea I don't mean that you're gonna be looking at this hand and then all the sudden it's gonna turn into a tentacle that's not what I mean I mean that you'll still basically see the same shape the same colors here but again your your context will change this hand will get recontextualized into something else than a human hand and what that thing is can't be explained to you because it has no name and it has no verbal description but when you get it you'll get it and until then you'll be lost and you'll be confused and you'll not understand what I'm talking about right but the more you sit here the more you look at it and the more you start to feel that wait a minute this hand this is a weird thing why does it why is it here what is this hand why does it exist I mean sure it's a hand but that doesn't say anything about it what is it what's it made out of really like what is this thing and why is it here how come it exists and the more you get a conscious of that the more you become conscious of that right now the closer you're getting to enlightenment that feeling of realness is what you're going with when you're doing any kind of consciousness work or spiritual practice that's it it's extremely simple it's so simple that nobody wants to do it it's so simple that it seems like it won't lead anywhere it's so simple it seems like it's a waste of time so nobody does it and so nobody discovers what's right there in front of their face think about evolution whatever your ideas and opinions about evolution are whether you believe in it or not think about that and again notice that that's all concept and imagination now take out your hand look at your hand again that's actuality evolution that's imagination now think about science and reason and logic think about proof and evidence all of that is concept and imagination take out your hand again put it in front of your face and notice that this is actual right here you cannot get more direct than this right here to reality science reason logic proofs and evidence all of that that is further removed from reality than this hand right here are you getting this there is no proof or evidence or logic for this hand being here this hand is prior to all of that you're getting this there is no proof for this hand other than you looking at this hand and really even that is saying too much there's not a you looking at this hand and this thing is not really a hand if you look at it long enough and there's actually no looking happening either so be careful about that you think that I'm here this is a hand this is a human body a biological organism that was born and that I am looking at this hand that is all imagination and concept none of that is actually true none of that is actual what is actual here is this but what is this that's what you got to sit with that's what you got to sit with don't let your mind come in there and start thinking a bunch of thoughts that's taking you into Imaginationland all right now think of the universe the entire universe all the galaxies and stars in the Milky Way and all the planets that are out there and aliens and [ __ ] that live out there and black holes and the Big Bang and all of that think of all that and notice what that is that's concept and imagination pull out your hand again ground yourself in actuality this is actual all that other stuff that's imagination see notice that even if you're just sitting here if you're sitting on your couch mining your own business watching some YouTube videos in the back of your mind you still have this sort of orienting frame this is the context in which you are putting yourself you are putting yourself into this context this orienting frame of I'm sitting on a round planet which is orbiting a Sun which is part of a Milky Way which is part of a Big Bang part of the entire universe somewhere in the back of your mind that context is there that's contextualizing this experience that you're having right now so realize that all of that is concept and imagination that's not actual what's actual is this raw experience right now what is this raw experience right now of this room that you're in when you strip it of all context including the context that this is occurring within a universe in some Milky Way galaxy in some solar system on some giant rock orbiting the Sun when you remove all that context what do you got left when you remove the context that you were born what do you got left when you remove the context that you're a human being what do you have left the problem with this is it's it's a lot harder to actually do this than it sounds you're not going to be able to just sit there for five minutes and strip your mind of all of its context and this is the only thing that's preventing you from enlightenment is that this this very stubborn context is there and it feels so real that you're not classifying this context as concept or imagination to you it feels like reality so really if you're going to be doing this process correctly what's going to be happening is that as you're as you're distinguishing between actuality and concept eventually you're gonna discover that more and more the stuff that you thought was real is actually just conceptual context and you're gonna strip that away and strip it away and strip it away to the point where you're gonna start to lose your mind because reality's gonna start to collapse underneath you you're not gonna know what's real or unreal anymore other than what's actual all right you've never start to question things like whether you were born or whether you have parents or whether there exists a milky way or whether a BIGBANG ever happened because you're gonna realize none of that stuff is actual and one once you once you start to realize this it's gonna actually be quite frightening and a little bit disturbing because you're gonna feel like you're going insane and that's exactly correct so the mistake that people make is they think that oh no I'm doing something wrong no you're doing exactly right everything is exactly right what you're realizing is just that how imaginary most of what you call reality is and that can be a little disturbing so don't don't don't worry about that keep going keep going deeper so now think of consciousness as it's arising in the neurons in your brain right that's what science tells us this what science says consciousness is so think about that as you're sitting here you're looking out this room you are telling yourself that all all of this is some sort of activity of my brain the various neurons and chemicals in there they're doing all of this but notice that that's concept and imagination compare it with your hand pull out your hand look at what's actual now think again about your ideas about the brain all imagination now here's a really tricky one think about your body can you notice that your body is concept and imagination you would say well but Lea what do you mean body is actual look the hand you were showing me the hand and that's actual that's not imagination but this is not the body this is not what you think the body is when I say the word body you have a very specific concept and image that comes to mind for you of your body this is a conceptual imaginary construction now if you actually want to contrast that with what's real what's actual then close your eyes and actually feel what we would traditionally call the body just feel it but notice that whatever you're feeling you're not feeling the body there's a it's like a cloud of various kinds of sensations from your feet to your abdomen to your back to your chest your phase to your hands there's various kinds of amorphous sensations certain parts of it you can't even really feel at all and so what you've got these you've got a cloud of various kinds of sensations now those sensations those are actual but that's not the body the body is a very specific imaginary construct that you have now you might look down and say well Leo I'm looking down here and look I'm seeing my body so there it is how can you say the body's conceptual when I'm looking at it but what you're looking at is not the body what you're looking at is some stuff and what exactly it is you don't quite know unless you project a lot of concepts onto it you don't really know what it is you're looking at you don't even know that it's you you think this body is yours you think you're in control this body you think you were born in this body you think this body is responsible for everything that you're seeing out there you think that this body is perceiving that table and that lamp and that cat and that dog and that tree and that wall all of that notice that that's concept and imagination now think of all the teachings that you've gotten from me from actualized org everything I've ever shared with you every insight every idea every everything you've ever learned for me notice that that is concept and belief that is all you ever get for me is concept and belief not just for me but any teacher on any subject now compare that to your hand this is actual and everything I've ever told you that's all concepts and belief you see the biggest trap with all of these teachings that I teach is that we have to communicate through concepts and through beliefs there's no other way that's inherent to communication so we're always dealing with this inherent limitation to communication and you have to be able to understand these various pointers these conceptual pointers that are being given to you and then go beyond them to actuality you see so when I tell you something about your hand what you need to be able to do is you got to say oh he's talking about my actual hand let me look at my hand oh yeah that's my hand oh yeah actuality here it is that's what he's talking about when he says the word hand right but most people who listen to my videos never ever do that never and that's why they misunderstand 90% of the things that I say now think of God whatever your ideas and thoughts about God are whether you believe in God or don't believe in God whether you like God or hate God whatever your religion told you about God bring all that to mind notice that that's a concept and that's imagination get that now pull out your hand look at your hand again this is actual right here all your ideas about God that's all imagination in fact if you want to understand what God is look at your hand this right here is God I'm not joking this is God look at it become conscious of it sit here for four five hours looking at this hand until you realize that this hand is God I'm not kidding this is it all your ideas about God that's nonsense that's not God this is God right here God is actuality so why is spirituality and actuality the same thing because spirituality is about connecting with God and what is God God is what's actual and what's actual is all of this whatever it is that's God it's that simple you're overlooking the obvious now of course you're gonna say Leo but but well this is absurd I mean my hand is not God your it sounds like you're playing word games here and you're trying to make something that's not God into God I mean what what what kind of joke is this you can't be serious again because you're under estimating the power of the context in which you're interpreting all this so when you're looking at this hand you can't see the God of it because you think it's my hand your idea that it's my hand is blocking you from seeing that actually no this is God I mean it's just that simple but it's gonna take you a lot of time looking at this thing to realize what's being said here this is not an easy thing to get requires a lot of consciousness a lot of consciousness you have to be really conscious on what this hand is and of course not just this hand you can you can look at a cat or a dog or a tree or a lamp or a wall and realize that it's God God is this entire field right here this whole field that's conscious that's self-aware this self-aware field is God now think of your death and non-existence right you believe you're gonna die you're worried about dying what is that what is death notice that's a concept and that's imagination this entire time that you've been alive you've been worried about death in all sorts of ways whether it was near-miss car accidents or being on an airplane and getting some turbulence that frightened you or maybe you would to get an STD test and you were afraid for a few days of what the results might be what is all this is all you fearing your death right so what is all that that was all concept in all imagination it was an actual tada non-existence is an idea that exists pull out your hand again and notice that this thing this is actual this is existence right here now think of non-existence that right there that's imagination there's no such thing as non-existence there is only existence there is only life there is no death but again notice all of the objections that your mind comes up with Alba leo but what are you talking about that can't be true that doesn't make any sense but what happens if you shoot yourself what happens if you drink some poison what happens if you jump off a cliff what about all that all of that is your imagination which you are lost inside of I mean there's not much to say about this stuff because it's so obvious you either get it or you don't there's no arguing with me here it's not like you're gonna bring up some scientific proof or some evidence or some whatever to demonstrate something with don't argue with me there's no arguing here look at your hand this is it the sexuality everything else is imagination all your arguments are imagination and how do you know that's true not by believing me but by looking at it I'm not asking you to buy into some philosophy of mine here I'm just pointing to you what is the the case that you're overlooking right so don't agree with me that death is a concept rather look in your actual experience and notice compare the hand here this is actuality with death what is death right now if I'm thinking about death what is that oh yeah that's imagination okay yeah he's right he's right it's true of course it's true that's how this process works now think about truth everybody loves to be a Crusader of truth a champion of truth everyone thinks they have the truth what is the truth whatever you think the truth is bring it up to mind right now bring to mind the most true things that you know and notice that that is concept and imagination that is not the truth you want the truth pull out your hand this right here look at it be conscious of it yeah that's the truth this is the truth right here the truth is not some lofty metaphysical philosophical arcane esoteric thing it's your hand this is the truth this room you're sitting in this is the truth that's it everything else is not the truth that's it think of your political preferences whether you're conservative or a liberal Republican Democrat whatever think of your highest political ideals whether it's equality or freedom of speech or civil rights or justice and fairness and law and order whatever it is bring it up what is that that's concept and imagination all of it yeah but Leo I think that the Constitution is really good and I think freedom of speech is the most important and I think liberty is the highest ideal that's all imagination yeah leo but do you want to live in a society that's not free and that's going to be filled with totalitarian Nazis and communists and all this that's imagination no Leo but it's real the the constant Nazi concentration camps were real the Communists gulags were all real that's imagination yeah leo but what should we do how should we run our government in structure society that's imagination watch out for how your mind sucks you in your mind will extort you you realize that your own mind is extorting you with fear fear of everything that's gonna go wrong if you don't buy into its imaginary schemes that's what's going on here every single objection you have to what I'm saying is just fear it's a knee-jerk fear reaction notice that you're afraid of what happens if we question signs you're afraid of what happens if we question your god we you're afraid of what happens with question morality if we question religion if we question the Constitution if we question politics if we question reality you're afraid of what's gonna happen psyche oh no leo but what's gonna happen am I gonna lose my life is something bad gonna go wrong is Society gonna go to hell but a whole fear is imagination pull out your and look at it is there any fear here when you're looking at the actual hand is there fear here there's no fear there's just the hand that's actual fear is imaginary bhalil if I don't fear then I can get myself killed remember that death is imaginary too so the worst thing you think will happen if you get rid of fear which is your death is itself imaginary imagine that again don't believe me sit down and actually look is what I'm saying true remember what truth is truth is right here this is truth this is truth right here so is what I'm saying truth take a look think of all of human history everything that you learned in school from the crucifixion of Christ to Julius Caesar and the Mongol hordes the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution and Galileo and Isaac Newton and World War one and World War two and the assassination of JFK and all of this think about human history notice what that is that's concept and imagination compare it with your hand this here is actuality Hitler in World War two that's imagination think of atoms and molecules maybe you're looking at this hand and you're wondering yeah what is it made out of I guess it must be matter of cells and those are made of organelles and those are made of molecules and those are made of atoms and those are made of quarks and things and strings and quantum particles and things but what is all that that's concept and imagination compare that to what's actually here none of that none of these molecules or atoms or anything is actually here what's actually here is what's actually here not anything else nothing you think is actually here is here only what's actually here is here and lastly take a small object find any small object lying around you like a pen like this it could be anything a pen a piece of paper a book a tennis ball a paperclip something small you can hold like this and now look at it look at this object as though you're looking at it for the very first time in your life and as you're looking at it sort of make love to it with your eyes but also with your fingers like feel every part of this object trace every line and every curve on this object with your fingertips slowly and also with your eyes and just marvel at its existence and its actuality and become conscious right here right now that this thing is actually this is actual and just feel it and look at it and just really take your time and go very slowly with it and just wonder what is the substance of this thing what is this thing made out of and be very careful that your mind doesn't come up with all sorts of conceptual answers like metal or plastic or glass or rubber but just look at it notice for example if you're feeling rubber like right now I'm feeling some rubber here on this grip of this pen that feeling of rubber what is that the feeling of rubber is not rubber so what is the feeling of rubber what is the feeling of plastic the feeling of plastic is not plastic and just keep doing that and contrast that with any thoughts or ideas you have about that experience this right here is actuality this is how spirituality is done with these types of exercises that we did here together so I want you to keep grounding yourself in your direct experience so what we've been exploring here is direct experience that's another word for it actuality direct experience truth being consciousness these are all identical the all point to the same thing and keep making the distinction in your mind between concepts and imagination and actuality keep sharpening this distinction keep practicing it over and over and over again this is gonna take a lot of work this is gonna take hundreds and thousands of hours of your life to do this work but it's going to be highly worthwhile and you're not going to know the full benefits of doing this work until you actually do this work because the benefits of it are actual and not conceptual if I told you all the benefits I could but if I told you all the benefits all that would be would be just more concepts and so what you would have you have a lot of concepts about the benefits but you wouldn't have the actual benefits so instead what I want you to have is the actual benefits rather than the concepts and ideas of benefits so if you've been watching actualize I work for a long time and what you have is a lot of ideas but you're struggling to get the actual benefits you only have the theoretical benefits that's because you're not doing the actual work and so therefore what you have is you have only ideas of the benefits which is better than nothing it's better than where you were when you started when you know about any of it about any of this stuff where you were just depressed and miserable and lost it's better than that but you got to go one step further which is to get the actual benefits I want you to be very honest with yourself about the benefits you get from this work or really any teaching for that matter any teaching you got to be brutally honest with yourself and ask yourself this yes I've been learning all this stuff but what actual actual benefits have I gotten not theoretical benefits because you have a bunch of benefits you think you've gotten from your imagination what are the actual benefits that I've gotten from my meditation from my yoga from my psychedelics from my reading of books from my listening to those videos from my listening to these videos from my attending this class over here from my listening to that person over there what's the actual benefit and what you'll discover is that the actual benefits are a lot lot lower than your imaginary benefits and that's going to be a little bit disturbing at first it's not comfortable to realize that but also that's a very important to realization because then you start to realize like oh yeah so I've been getting hooked on these imaginary benefits but where are the actual benefits how do I get me some of those and then you realize go yeah I got to actually be doing more practices then you'll start to do more practices and you'll actually start to see more actual benefits every insight or lesson that I share with you through these videos you must locate them in your direct experience it's not enough just to hear them and to understand them you must locate them you must match up the words I use with actuality let's go through a few examples of what I mean because this is this is gonna determine the difference of whether you're gonna get huge results or miniscule results with these teachings so for example I might tell you as an insight or a lesson that direct experience is all that exists that's the insight direct experience is all that exists do you agree with me do you disagree with me it doesn't matter because that's just a concept when I say direct experience is all that exists that is pointing to something so what you need to do is you need to go to the next step and not just agree or disagree with me but you need to actually sit down and look at actuality actuality is what's happening right here and then look at it and say to yourself well is what he's saying true how do I know what he's saying is true is it true that direct experience is all that exists let me look that's an experience that's an experience that's an experience that's an experience that's an experience the thoughts in my mind aren't experienced oh yeah everything is experienced so direct experience is all that exists that's what he was saying that's true okay now I got it I got it or take this other example I've said in the past that evil is a concept do you agree with me or disagree with me it doesn't matter whether you do or don't because when I say that evil is a concept I mean that you need to pause look at actuality look at your hand look at it and ask yourself is this evil No okay so there's no evil here is this one evil no is that dog evil no is that cat evil no is that person on TV evil no and you go through this until you realize that evil what is evil oh yeah it's a concept and then you got it the mistake is to try to argue with me like oh no leo but what about Hitler Hitler was truly evil how dare you buh-buh-buh-buh-buh buhbuh all of that is imagination that is not doing the work doing the work is to actually open up a history book of Hitler find Hitler's photograph in the history book look at that photograph with your consciousness look at what's actually there the actual photograph and ask yourself is that is that actually evil and what you'll realize that it's not nor was Hitler in the flesh if you want to imagine Hitler in the flesh if you looked at him in the flesh you would also realize that he's not evil don't believe me actually do it and see of course you can't do with Hitler because Hitler's just in your imagination after all but you can do it like with the some other person that you really hate who's still alive and who's real and who may be good to look at from a distance if you think he's evil then you probably don't want to come too close to him but you could look at him from a distance maybe through a binocular and then ask yourself is that thing that I'm saying through the binocular is that evil and you'll realize that it's not mm-hmm another example I've said in the past that everything is consciousness do you agree with me disagree with me doesn't matter look look what is here look at this hand until you realize that this hand is consciousness this is consciousness this is consciousness that's consciousness that's consciousness oh yeah it's all consciousness let me try to think of something that isn't consciousness oh I thought of it but thoughts are consciousness okay so everything is consciousness oh yeah that's correct I've said in the past that meaning is a concept meaning is something you project onto actuality so you look at this hand and you ask yourself does this hand have meaning no you look at that table and you ask oh does that table have meaning no does that dog have meaning no does anything have meaning does this room have meaning does this experience have meaning oh yeah it doesn't does it anything that I think has meaning let me look at it oh yeah what is meaning oh yeah it's my imagination there's the actual thing there's my imagination which is projecting the meaning onto the thing okay yeah that's correct meaning is a concept how about when I say the self is a concept the self or ego you I've said many times before that you are a concept but what does that actually mean this one's very very tricky what you need to do is stop thinking about it and actually look at what's happening right here the actuality of your hand start there and ask yourself is this hand me know is this arm me know is this face me know what is me what is the self what is the ego and you keep looking and looking and looking until you realize that oh yeah the self is an imagination do you imagine yourself that's what that is that's what I am I've said in the past that you are God this gets a lot of people riled up Leo how dare you you're so arrogant and egotistical and all this blah blah blah blah blah and you contradict my religion and you you don't understand non-duality and you you're you butan enlightened how dare you say such things all of that is imagination or you could look at your actual hand and realize that this hand is God and not just this hand but this arm this torso this head and everything around here now that one's gonna be difficult it's not easy to realize that everything is good that requires a radical radical radical elevation in your consciousness to realize that a radical D contextualization of this experience that you're having now because he the problem is that you think that you exist as an ego and so because you think you exist as an ego or as a self you think you were born therefore you think that you are this biological being because you need to explain what you are so you explain to yourself conceptually that your biological creature and you explain to yourself that biological creatures can experience all of this stuff this experience this experience is my experience of biological creature and that's what I am that's what you tell yourself and so what you don't realize though yet is that actually what you've done is used usurped God so what this is this is God but because you have all these concepts explaining where you came from and you need to explain to yourself why you exist because you believe you exist and you don't want to admit that you're a belief or an imagination or a concept what you need to tell yourself is you need to you need to say that all of this is mine if it's part of me and it's coming from me from my brain it's being rendered by my brain and the neurons and all this and so I'll connect it to me to my body and this was all me and I feel me and it's all me me me me me me me me me so you're just walking out saying me me me me me all the time so you're saying me me me so much that there's no room left for God what you've done is you've taken God and you've recontextualized God into yourself and you split yourself off such that this is God but you can't see God because you've put yourself in the place of God this is literally what the devil does so by definition you are the devil the devil is one who takes the place of God like the cuckoo bird I told you about in self-deception mechanisms episode I told you about the cuckoo bird who finds a nest of other birds full of eggs that cuckoo bird gets in there she lays her egg amongst all the other eggs and then that who cuckoo egg it hatches first before all the other eggs and then it proceeds to kick all the other eggs out of the nest and pretends to be the only surviving baby of those other birds and then those birds they just buy into it and they believe that that bird is is their baby and the mother cuckoo flies off and does other things right so this is exactly what you have done with God tada [Music] that's it God is not some supernatural mysterious thing out there somewhere in the clouds no no this is God this right this is all of this everything you've ever experienced is gut actualities God but you can't see it because you've mistaken God for you now of course you're gonna say Leo but I don't think I'm God that's right because you've so mistaken God for you that all there is is you see you've you've taken the place of God so totally that you've basically killed God and you've only left yourself and now you walk around asking Oh where's God God such a stupid idea God God is a stud the dumbest idea you can't possibly believe you walk around saying all this while you are God convinced that you're not God it's the [ __ ] dumbest thing you could possibly do I mean it's just like it's it's absurd what you're doing it's absurd it's absurd it's it's disgusting I mean it's disgusting you're a devil and you do this because you're so full of yourself that's it it's just pure ego pure devilry that's all you're doing that's all you're doing here but of course one final twist to this tale is that God and the devil are actually identical so God is the devil God creates through illusion and through devilry I'll leave that for you to discover remember don't argue with me what I'm saying is it true is it true what I'm saying look for yourself here's another insight I've shared in the past which is that happiness what is happiness happiness is acceptance of the present moment regardless of whatever it is that is precisely the definition of happiness is that true do you need to go into google and type it in to see if it's true do you need to go ask your psychology professor if what I'm saying is true no what you do is you locate happiness right now in the present moment look at this hand right now ground yourself in actuality okay that's actuality now feel your emotions that's also actuality whatever feelings you have in your body are you happy right now maybe yes maybe no now make yourself feel happy right now make yourself feel happy and how do you do that by looking at the definition what is the definition of happiness acceptance of the present moment whatever it is so fully accept this present moment and as you do that notice yourself becoming happy happiness is enjoyment of the President so start to enjoy the present moment whatever it is it doesn't matter I don't care if you've a a pain in your back or if there's something in your life it only doesn't matter whatever is is what you need to be happy about so be happy about whatever you have if you have a toothache be happy about your toothache and notice yourself being happy and then you say oh yeah it's true and maybe throughout the week when you become sad or frustrated or angry you could try it again and you can ask yourself wait a minute why am I not happy right now oh yeah it's because I'm resisting the present moment I don't want the present moment I want something else I want a future moment I want my imaginary moment and I'm denying what's right here right now that's why I'm unhappy okay got it it's true what Leo said is true and the last example is that death is a concept so again don't argue with me about what death is look in your direct experience at what death is what is death you're imagining it notice that there cannot be death unless you're imagining it so by definition death is an imagination this isn't rocket science super obvious stuff but you got to actually do it don't just believe me on it some of these things that you will discover as you do this investigation will be very radical and shocking and they will seem like it's like no can this possibly be true no you know it can't possibly be true that's right because you have so many false beliefs and notions that you've picked up from your society from your religion from science from culture from everywhere that now when you actually see the truth the truth is so radical compared to what you've been taught or what you've imagined that most people when they see the truth they dismiss the truth and instead go back to their imaginations because they say now the truth can't be like this can't possibly be like this that's not what I've been taught that's not what I've been told that's not what I've thought about before my whole life that's right the truth is something new the truth is something different and you have to be open to that be open to new radical truths let the truth shock you let the truth be whatever it is don't second guess guess actuality you see whatever's actual go with that rather than your ideas about what should be true what would be good to be true what religion told me should be true what science you know this is what's true this and it doesn't care about who told you what or what you want to be true this is true keep grounding and re grounding yourself over and over and over again especially in your hands this is one of my favorite exercises these days is just looking at my hands grounding myself in the actuality of my hands this helps me to break out of my mind and I want you to notice over the next week and over the next month how your minds are gonna be pulling you back into Imaginationland so you're gonna have to be doing this exercise over and over again it's kind of like with lucid dreaming you know and lucid dreaming they tell you when you're inside your dream look at your hands and that will be a trigger to get you to realize that this is a dream well we're sort of doing that but a little bit of the opposite we're actually looking our hands to realize that our hands are what's actual and that everything else is concepts as a homework assignment I highly recommend that you contemplate using your journal the following four questions what is a concept what is a belief what is imagination and what is actuality when you contemplate here like I talked about in my contemplation episode and how to contemplate using a journal episode when you contemplate you're not just thinking but you're actually looking at what's actual so to answer the question what is a concept you need to actually actually feel the concept inside actually find a belief and look at the belief exam and the belief observe the belief to see what a belief is and so on also a few more homework assignments for you I want you to spend 15 minutes every day closely looking at your hand or hands you can use both in silence set a timer for 15 minutes and then just sit there and look at it for 15 minutes straight without thinking about it try to strip all contexts and all imagination away from and just look at it like that and that's going to be your little exercise and another one that i highly recommand is that you you do the same thing but with an object so take a small object like this pen or a book or a pencil or something post-it note and just sit there and look at it the way that I showed you for fifteen minutes straight with a timer and as you're doing both of these exercises I want you to understand that these are the most pure spiritual exercises that you will ever do there is no more pure form spirituality forget about prayer forget about yoga forget about all that horseshit this this is where it's at right here if you can't be conscious that this pen is God then none of your spirituality matters none of it matters if you can't be conscious that this pen is you none of your spirituality matters if you can't clearly distinguish between a concept and the actual thing then none of your spirituality matters and also as you're doing both of these exercises with your hands and the pen I want you to be reminding yourself your mind is still going to be active you're not gonna be able to completely turn off your mind for 15 minutes unless you're super experienced at meditation so for most of you your mind is still gonna be churning so as long as it's churning you can use it to help you a little bit and the way you can use it is you can use it to remind you that this right here this this hand this is consciousness and this pen right here this is consciousness and so in fact you could take the pen and put it in your hand like this so you got both of them and as you're sitting there keep reminding so you're looking at it you're feeling the actuality of this thing here and then I want you to just subtly use your mind to remind you that this is all consciousness now at first when you do that it might feel untrue and it might feel like you don't know what that even means leo how can a pen be consciousness but just keep at it you're not so much programming your mind or brainwashing your mind you this is not an affirmation it's just your subtly pointing your mind in the direction of what's true which is that all all of everything is consciousness it doesn't matter what object you take you could take a tennis ball a cat a dog a human a tree a spaceship it's all gonna be consciousness right so it doesn't matter which objects you use and just keep doing that keep doing that and you'll start to notice some benefits from this you'll start to notice how you're actually drawing yourself out of your mind and into the real world and now you start to see what real spirituality is about and then if you keep doing this long enough eventually you'll you'll have some deep insights will have some epiphanies you might even have some enlightenment experiences some mystical experiences and then you'll understand why it's called spirituality but for now you probably won't so this does require a little bit of faith faith in the process not faith in me not faith in God but just faith in the process this is like a science experiment you need to have enough faith in a science experiment to run the experiment could you imagine being a scientist who is so cynical and so skeptical that he can't even go and pick up a a test-tube and put it in the oven to run his experiment in his lab because he's so skeptical and so cynical you can't have science this way science only works when you have enough faith to be able to execute the experiment and many science experiments you know what they can take months and years to complete they could cost millions and billions of dollars Large Hadron Collider particle accelerators those take five to ten years to build and I don't know how many billions of dollars to to to fund those right so the scientists have to have enough faith that they will go through all this and you know what maybe they'll never discover any kind of big particle or any kind of new physical phenomena they might build this particle collider and it might fail that's what science is about that's what experimentation is about there's always a risk you're always exploring into the unknown because if you already knew it you wouldn't need to go explore it all right that's it enough of this I'm done here please click that like button for me and come check out actualized Edward right here that's my website you will find some good resources there you'll find my book list you'll find a life purpose course you'll find the actualized forum and my blog lately I've been putting a lot of new content on my blog various kinds of documentaries and videos very profound stuff there so make sure you go check that out and the stuff that I post on my blog is only found on my blog I also post videos on my blog exclusive videos that you don't find on my youtube channel or anywhere else only on the blog and I'll be posting a lot more of those in the weeks and months to come so stick around I'll probably be posting a couple of those per week I've got a lot that I've shot lately I've got like 10 videos that I'm gonna be posting on my blog that I shot which are sort of in the queue and I'm just waiting for them for the right time to publish them so go check those out and the last thing I'll tell you here as we wrap up is just that you need to appreciate the the fact that these teachings that I'm trying to offer you are very advanced and I don't say that to brag it's just the case you're learning about things here that 99.99999% of people on earth don't know and won't know for another hundred or for another thousand years that's the case and this includes scientists and academics and psychologists and intellectuals and philosophers and all of them they don't know this stuff either for the most part a very small percentage of them do so we're talking about very advanced stuff here and the reason it's advanced is because it requires your participation it requires extreme nuance it requires dedication experimentation personal investigation putting skin in the game sitting for hundreds of hours looking at your hand when you don't want to because you're so bored that's the cost of understanding these things did you really think that you were going to get to the bottom of reality did you really think that you were going to understand the universe and existence and God and life and death and love and evil and good and and mankind and and how your mind works you think you're gonna understand all of this just by sitting and watching these videos while you're playing video games or some [ __ ] like that in the background you think that that was gonna work it's precisely because nobody wants to pay the cost of doing these personal experiments that hardly anyone understands these teachings and that's why they are advanced because mostly what we do is we just accept whatever our culture teaches us unquestioningly this is not just true of a religion this is true of every single piece of knowledge that you have all of science all of logic all of rationality all of mathematics all of politics of course religion philosophy and anything else all of it you didn't through personal investigation of actuality you got it through secondhand hearsay you got it as beliefs and imaginations from other people because that's what's is easy and what's difficult about this work is that it's very different from the way that you were taught to learn at school as school you were taught just to memorize stuff and to believe stuff even when they were teaching new science they were teaching about molecules and atoms and chemistry and biology all of that was just brute force memorization of concepts and beliefs it's no different than the indoctrination that happens for example in Islamic schools in Afghanistan and in Syria and in Iraq the kind of indoctrination that happens in those schools is exactly exactly the kind of indoctrination that happens in American schools European schools in developed countries exactly the same the only difference is the content and the problem with this is that nobody actually learns how to investigate actuality and so everyone is operating on beliefs and imagination concepts and then when they listen to what I'm saying they interpret that as just more of the same and then they start to dispute me and and contest what I'm saying try to come up with clever arguments against things that I've said this is a complete waste of time a complete waste of time it doesn't matter whether you believe what I say or don't believe what I say what matters is what what you are willing to investigate for yourself and what I'm offering here is just ideas and hints for which parts of life are worth investigating for you and you don't need to trust me on that verify for yourself verify for yourself whether it's worth investigating what consciousness is what the mind is what concepts are what's happiness is what sadness is what fear is I'm telling you that these are the most worthwhile things that you can investigate in your life but you don't know that the only way you'll know that is by actually going out there and trying in comparing it with other stuff whatever other things you want to do pursue sex or pursue marriage or pursue career and money or whatever do all that stuff compare and see if what I'm saying is true and then you'll know that it is this is what makes actualize that work very different from most other channels for most other teachings and it's not religion it's not New Age beliefs it's not even science it transcends all of that all of that is inferior compared to what we're doing here this is direct investigation of actuality and as we go forward in the future I'm gonna be pushing you more and more to investigate this stuff for yourself and I'm gonna be offering you less and less answers and pushing you more and more because me giving you all these answers just spoils you and ends up backfiring for you and because honestly you're not going to understand the things that are you talking about in the future if you don't start to seriously do this work it's already the case over the last year the episodes that I released over last year are so advanced that even those of you who think you understand everything you have only understood 10% of the things that I've said that's how advanced this stuff is do not underestimate this work and stay tuned for more you