Leonard is an amazing teacher, and if you are on the spiritual path I highly recommend him. He has helped my awakening process gain momentum, and his teachings are extremely effective if applied.
Thank you for this interview. Leonard is a genuine and beautiful soul. I have been deeply moved by his talks/videos which can be found on his website, and on youtube. Leonard ranks up there as my favorite spiritual teacher, along with Eckhart Tolle.
Leonard Jacobson is the truest voice I have heard in a long time. I particularly resonate with the importance of allowing emotions to fully express themselves, to be fully present with them, with no attempt to get rid of them or escape from them. The last time I was angry, (I'm not talking about the yell that comes out of me when I hit my thumb with a hammer), my wife said something that pissed me off and I reacted by saying something nasty. But I had been down this path enough times that I caught myself in time. I know where this road goes and no price would be too much to pay to keep from building anger upon anger, from creating more and more suffering for myself and others. If I have to die to bring an end to this it would not be too high a price to pay. I also knew that I needed to be present with the anger and watch it play itself out. So first I went to the body. What does it feel like? Where are the tensions? "Oh my shoulders are shrugging up. Interesting." And as soon as I notice that, they begin to relax. My legs are tensing up and there's a tightness in the genitals. "Aha! By all means protect that which can pass my genes on to the next generation!" Then I started watching the stories I was creating. "Fascinating! Look how clever I'm being, trying to think up something really hurtful to say that'll prove than I'm right and she's wrong." Eventually it became really hilarious, but the truth is that most of the time it was really painful, and it took real courage to stay with those awful feelings, not analyzing, not judging, not trying to fix anything. it took about a half hour of this but eventuyally the anger was completely gone. As an experiment I tried to bring it back, but I couldn't do it. No matter how much I tried to remember the hurt, or recreate the anger, it was gone and could not be brought back. Ever since then, whenever something would trigger anger, or anxiety, or fear, within a second or two something kicks in and brings an end to it. As Pema Chödrön so often says, "Drop the story. Stay with the feeling. Stay...Stay..."
Indeed Sandy Seton-Browne, and thanks for reminding me of that metaphor. But the benefits of painfully yanking that arrow out are miraculous. One thing that has been a consistent effect of meditation practice for me is noticing first hand that I create the suffering in my own mind. This began with conquering chronic depression and has spread out to all aspects of my life. It's like "Hey. If I can create worry, anxiety and depression, I can stop creating it."
I am personally at the point that I don't always or maybe I don't usually stop the reactions but when I don't and I hurt someone the feeling is SO Much worse. That pain is a feedback that diminishes the number of times I react
Perfectly spot on +Bob Cornell! It's just mind thinking, just thinking - what I have been doing with an anger moment. Watching the thoughts without judging and usually laughing at myself after several moments into the process. :) Love mindfulness.
Another great Aussie. It is such a shame he moved to the US. We used to have Barry Long, but now he's gone. Loved Leonards books, and he will be in Australia this year. Hope my ego lets me go and see him!
Thank you for the upload & interview!! Now, i wish i had spent more time at (Lake Harriet) spiritual community learning from Leonard. This has helped me to understand his view & experience much better. The words God & or jesus don't scare me either.
I really enjoyed this interview. Thank you. Just one thing to Rick and Leonard - you both say that it is abhorrent to hunt and shoot animals, but Leonard said he would buy meat from the Supermarket. Most people think that way because they are unaware. The meat and dairy industries are like the hidden dark subconscious of the human population. If you inform yourselves about what is actually standard practice to create meat and dairy for the supermarkets it is a billions times more abhorrent than hunting. It is constant and pure torture to the animals from their births to their deaths. It is not only the slaughter that is abhorrent. The people that have those jobs are suffering too. It also affects the environment, world hunger and human health in huge ways more than anything. Once learning all details about it, I would say that shooting an animal in a forest is nothing in comparison, even though I do not like that either. These industries thrive only on the consumer demand, so awakening to the knowledge of what they really are doing and what people are eating can change so much for this world in the area of compassion health and sustainability. Lightening the diets to plant-based diets also creates health and lightness in the body and is also known to stimulate personal spiritual awakening in itself. If anyone wants to know more there are a lot of informative Farm Sanctuary youtube videos, or Woodstock Sanctuary or talks by Gene Bauer or John Robbins, or the doc Earthlings.
I do energy work on myself with crystals and my chakras. What he's saying about being caught up into others energetically really rings true. I mosltly try to unblock energy, but most of the timeit feels like uncomfortable emotions, and often it feels like the emotions are not even directly mine (usually people in my family related to inter-personal dramas.) I'm currently a big fan of blue hemimorphite. It helps to shield your space from other people's bad vibes. Very purifying spiritually. Also very emotionally balancing.
I'm both a spiritual seeker and a hunter and I am disappointed. This interview is a reminder that "enlightenment" won't make you immune to ignorance. #1 : Nothing on my plate has been killed, so I'm not a killer. But how much perennial woodland (with all its rich biodiversity) has been cleared to plant those annuals? Biodiversity of a carrot field, anyone? A large part of the woodland where I hunt has been cleared to plant soy. No more trees, no more birds, no more squirrels, no more wild flowers, no more mushrooms, no more nothing. Except soy. I wanted to cry. For the life forms that had disappeared, obviously, but mostly for those that can no longer be born there. Truly, it looked like a genocide. #2 : I did not kill the animal on my plate, so I'm not a killer. Someone had to do it, dude, and the animal was probably raised in less than enviable conditions when you compare them to the deer I shot this november. And deers (+all other lifeforms in that ecosystem) will still live in those woods a hundred years from now (provided the land is not all converted to agriculture) I suggest you interview Lierre Keith, author of The Vegetarian Myth. Also, it might be of interest to you to know this : the vast majority of hunters I know have a deep reverence and respect for life. A love that is very personal, a love that is very animal-like (as opposed to purely intellectual), because they spend so much time in nature. Most of them are very mindful about their impact on the ecosystem. And believe it or not, hunting can also be an intense form of meditation, one that is certainly not meant for just anybody. Food for thought. Deer is on my plate tonight. Cheers
I do need to point out that raising cattle for beef and dairy. .. especially beef is one of the worst uses of land and water and energy. Much worse than eating lower on the food chain (vegetarianism). Much rainforest is cleared for beef cattle ranches. Also eating factory farmed pork, poultry etc. . uses WAY more grain and resources than simply harvesting and eating those grains directly. But you probably know this already. That said. .if everyone hunted and only ate wild game. . well there would be no wild game left at all. . . Human populations are too massive to survive on wild game and wild harvested fruits and vegetables. We still harvest wild game in the oceans have have already destroyed up to 90% of ocean wildlife.
Anger is a modification of desire . We get angry when our desires are obstructed from someone or something. Therefore as long desire exists in us anger cannot vanish from the psych. Another point which is a mistake and many spiritual teachers say is this. They say that we express anger because we have repressed the anger in the past. But to repress anger is necessary first to have anger. Without to have anger how is possible to repress anger? Anger will be expressed as long we have desires because anger is only a modification of desire energy. The repression of anger only indensifies its expression in the future and in cases which not so important. Secontly the repression of anger can create psychosomatic diseases. On the other hand if we express freely the anger the result will be the increasing of the anger because it is fend by our energy. How we can disolve anger? it is a long process. There are not fast food solutions. The disolution of desire, anger and fear go together until the finall disolution of ego because the one and the same energy assumes these apparently different expressions.
Dear Jacobs the tamasorajasic ego never becomes a friend of ours and does not cooperate at all in this journey towards liberation. It resists and reacts and attacks until the last moment of its death. I remind you that the ego attacked even the Christ in his last moments. The mind (especially the buddhi) becomes our friend when is purified by the egoic tendencies and the sattva quality is predominant in it.
So Leonard believes he was given information to give to Jesus while he was dying on the cross? And he feels that this actually happened? And then he didn't speak about it for a long time because he was worried what "they" would do to him? You have incredible patience Rick! Wow.
A mystical experience can produce a range of illogical and irrational visions in the same way it happens in dreams. If Leonard would have said that he had a powerful dream about Jesus then you wouldn't think that he believes that the dream represents an objective historical truth. So in the same way mystical visions don't represent an objective historical truth and you asking "he feels that this actually happened?" shows 2 things: 1. You have no idea what mystical experiences are. 2. You are using your logical mind to try and grasp the unthinkable. This will get you no where. Take care.
***** I bet eventually he'll lose his patience and he'll start saying things like : "But isn't it more plausible that this all just happened in your imagination? And isn't it true that you keep telling these fanciful awakening stories because they make you appear "special" to gullible seekers and you can therefore make a living as a spiritual guru/teacher?" With that said, I actually think a lot of what Leonard teaches is good stuff for people in suffering. (I couldn't make it through this interview, but I did read one of his books years ago) The problem is he's playing the spiritual game of being a teacher, and this will ultimately keep people from really stepping out and standing alone and asking the tough inner questions.
*Roughly a 1.5 on the new -3 to +3 scale. Disclaimers at the end of the comment.* A good interview, yet tiresome in some respects. *As usual, the opportunities for truly engaging questions are not seized*. Endlessly we are hearing about some "need to be loved" or "accepted" _(one gets the impression these interviews are mostly for women)_, but why do we never hear about the need to fuck, and I mean fuck, not "make love" or all that - we all know the Barry Long sermons that never even touched the main problems. I think I only remember one interviewee - I think it was Nukunu Larsen - having come out with the fact that "God is eating up all my sex drive" or some such, but he was lucky to have had fucked all his dreams away for decades under Osho before he got there. Should we do that too ? *I would request that male "awakened" interviewees would routinely have to be thoroughly questioned regarding the history of their sperm production throughout their awakening story*, the very physiological aspects of desire, and not this whussy psychological stuff for first world, middle to upper class concerns. Most people's real problems are not the "desire to be loved" and blah, but how to pay the rent, how to not waste all of their lives trying to make a living, in particular those men who made the mistake of engaging in marital contracts in order to be able to fuck regularly (which then of course they can't do after all, because it's always the same broad or she doesn't want to, and she gets old and after all there's all the other chicks...). These problems are not psychological so much, they are *physiological*. So the question is: did your interviewees, in particular the male ones, disssolve those physiological concerns ? Does that contain any implications for those not awake yet ? Should they fuck or not ? For instance. What are spiritual implications for old whackers who can't get a decent fuck anymore except with these old broads that are "appropriate for their age" (yuck) ? *Rick, ask some real questions !* _About the rating: anything below and including 0 means by and large a waste of time, and anything below 0 is not only worthless but damaging to the world. For comparison, on that scale, Francis Bennett would be a +2 or more and Harri Aalto would be roughly a tentative + 2 - 2.5. Not coming up with original, independent cosmological insights bans any interviewee from > 2.0 ratings as a matter of principle._ *General Disclaimer:* the rating _pertains to an interview, not to the interviewee_. If the rating is high it means merely and exclusively that I consider the interview to be of high value relative to the stated purpose of the channel, and that it is therefore no waste of time to listen to the interview. It would _not_ imply that whatever the interviewee speaks is the truth (as if I was the arbiter over that) or that you should follow him/her or accept whatever that person offers. _That is particularly in need of emphasis if that would be an expensive enterprise_ !
If you are present and in this state it is not possible to harm anyone how then you can eat meat buying it from the supermarket? Are you conscious of the suffering of the animals which are tortured until to be in your plate as a meal? Are you conscious that the two greatests psychological disorders that lead this world to its destruction is gluttony and sexual passion? You can tell me that greed for power, fame and money are most responsible and is true from one pount of view, but I will tell you that these disorders are based on sexual passion and gluttony. I would like also to clarify that Presence is one thing and purity of mind is another one. It seems to me that in some way you are confused about these two things. The power of presence is different to each one and is directly depended to the purity of mind. An aspirant who is in the beginning of his journey an awakened one and a liberated one have an altogether different level of presence . Your level of presence probably not allows you understand that eating meat is violence against living beings. Yoga teaches ahimsa (non violence) to the aspirants from the very first step but western advaitins seem that they are beyond any rule and they eat meat in the spirit of unity
Enlightenment or Self Realization is natural but its not ordinary , it is extraordinary! Ordinary is what happens every day to the majority, extraordinary is what happens to very few rarely. Beings like Maharshi, Mahavatar Babaji, Amma Buddha, Jesus , Swami Sivananda are not ordinary people.
But this is a way of making people seem to be "other". The deeper you go inside yourself, the more you recognize yourself in all other beings. I have gone through the same process that Leonard has gone through, and I've talked about it a lot to many people. What I have found is that when I talk about my experiences, it separates instead of unifies. It creates awe in people and feeds your ego, so that you have to constantly maintain it from getting big. Now I no longer talk about it anymore. I simply choose to now talk about the illusory and impermanent nature of the self, and all forms, and how to come into your own "infinite void" of existence, which is where you always have and always will exist. This is an experience beyond life and death, and it's attainable in every moment. It's always there. This is what all the great ones have known, and they each try to explain it in their own way, but it always becomes a part of the symbolic order again because there are so many minds that are not ready to give up on their attachment to form. Yes, it's frightening to accept your own impermanence, but look at what we create when we don't realise this. A world awash with conflict and confusion.
To experience your true self is one thing and to become an embodiment of truth, love, peace, wisdom and bliss it is an altogether different thing. Very few on earth have achieved until now the level of Jesus Christ or Ramakrishna, etc. Do not ful yourself by thinking that you have achieved the highest realization.
***** You are missing the point, and the point that they themselves have always talked about. You ARE them. Do not focus on them as something other than you. They are an embodiment of you, and all others. They are always in you. When you truly realise this, it no longer matters who you are now, or who you were or who you will be. You just are. If you see these people who have achieved the peaks of enlightenment as greater than you, you will never get to the peak they are on. You're from the bottom looking up. But enlightenment is always there. It's simply that the more you experience enlightenment, the more your whole being becomes purified by that energy, and you will eventually reach the peak, which is the end of all suffering. And the flow on affect from that is that you become an embodiment of truth, love, peace, wisdom and bliss. But they are just the outer signs of a very low entropy consciousness. The highest truth is different for each being, so there is no one highest truth. I can say that I have seen beyond life and death, have been to the beginning of time, have seen that there are many more than one universe, that there are dimensions of existence above this one that actually create the 3rd dimension, but is all that my highest truth? Still no. I thought it was for a while, but I still suffer. So I have to become enlightened here on this world. Not out there. And to even say that to you creates yet another image in your mind to block you from the actual truth if you haven't experienced it yourself. And how do you know who I am anyhow? Seems like you are making some erroneous assumptions.
The highest truth is one. Yet everyone can have different experiences according his state of evolution. I do not see anyone separate from me neither superior nor infefior. But this does not mean that all we are in the same state of consciousness. I see that you are a littled bit confused as most of neoadvaitins are. If we have not disolve the ego completely we cannot talk about liberation. If you like to to belive that you are already enlightened while you are not it is ok. Life you will show you soon or later if this true or not.
I don't mean that we are all on the same state of consciousness. You should think a bit about the point I'm trying to make. Enlightenment is not something far away from us, it is right here as all the great teachers have said. I haven't realised this in even a spec of the clarity that great teachers have, but I can see that it's true none the less. And I have found that place of purity and oneness inside myself. I am not fully enlightened and have a long way to go, I will freely admit that. Thanks for the conversation and thanks for introducing me to this word neo-advaita.
What will happen on earth in the years will come has been said by the great prophets and masters like Christ and Babaji. I put an extract of the words of Shri 1008 Haidakhan Vale Baba known from the Autobiography of a yogi written by Paramahansa Yogananda ....The calamities, which are coining to this world, are unavoidable. Only he who has strong determination to do good acts and who is strongly devoted to God can survive this destruction. 17 DECEMBER 1983 A great Revolution is going to take place such as has never before occurred in the world. The, hearts of the people who read or hear the history of this Revolution will melt. This is an era of great destruction-no other time can be compared to this. The Revolution will last not for minutes but only for some seconds. The countries, which have invented these destructive weapons, will themselves be destroyed. They should not think they are secure. Read more about in this post elmisattva-prophecies.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/teachings-of-babaji-extract-about-great.html
A true "man of God", in the Da Free John/L. Ron Hubbard/Jim Jones tradition. "Miclat said that when she told the Australian that she was probably wasting his time, Eslam walked her to the door, shoved her against the wall, then shouted at her and called her names like "transvestite" and "arrogant dog". She said she did not want to touch the Australian so she spat at him. Then Eslam allegedly spat back and slapped her with the back of his hand..."
I thank you and hope you receive the money, necessary to go to conferences Yet, I feel, It is untrue and insincere, to say you need money to continue. You yourself, have said something close to, the = you get, more than you give. Please, you are a example of goodness. Be as honest, in all of your expressions, as you are able. Not something rote, because it is easy and automatic.Otherwise I believe, it lessen your efforts. I for one would like to see your efforts maximized, for the benefit of the people as a whole.
Does he have macular degeneration or another vision problem? Just wondering... He' seems to not be looking at the camera...not engaging to his audience, or at least to me.
