A Critique of Leo Gura’s ‘An Advanced Explanation of God-Realization’
Note: This article is in response to Actualized.org’s video ‘An Advanced Explanation of God-Realization’. As such, it won’t make much sense unless you’ve watched it!
I felt compelled to write this article because there’s a monumentally important lesson to be had here. Namely, faulty premises can only ever result in greater degrees of distortion. I know — that’s not even slightly sexy; it sounds like something from a high-school textbook, but its significance is impossible to overstate.
In the video, Leo describes his most recent awakening in which he had his clearest realisation of God yet. He makes a distinction between God-realization and non-dual awakenings. Further, he references a map of awakening that he’s been thinking about; at one end of the map is cessation of experience and at the other end is God-realisation. He then goes on to describe God-realisation in greater detail.
It’s completely you. You take complete, full ownership of yourself as the creator of this experience. There is no ‘other’ present.
Underlying this realisation of God are certain premises, and that’s what we’ll be considering. First though, we need to lay some foundation;
For most of us, our regular, waking state of consciousness is so consistent and unwavering that we easily forget (or may not even know) that there are a vast array of states that we could otherwise be inhabiting. When our state of consciousness is altered, we feel anything from mildly surprised to utterly dumbfounded. It seems astonishing that this sudden change is even possible. The more significant the alteration of consciousness is, the greater the astonishment.
Radical experiences are possible, which is in and of itself an amazing thing. A significant portion of people unsurprisingly mistake these radical experiences as being either awakenings, enlightenment, realisation of God or asbolute truth. The reality is it’s yet another form of delusion.
The only people who aren’t deluded are Buddhas and people who have attained Nibbana. There are three stages of awakening prior to attaining Nibbana and even then, there’s delusion (it is however significantly reduced and in the process of being removed altogether).
A Buddha is a Buddha because they hold the intention to become one and purify their minds for an incredibly long period of time. They are therefore able to comprehend the laws of nature (Dhamma). This is otherwise impossible to do because without reference to an accurate source, ignorance will only ever lead to more ignorance.
As a practitioner of Buddha Dhamma, one examines the claims made by the Buddha by considering their validity and investigating their own experience in a corresponding fashion. In so doing, they come to appreciate that these claims aren’t simply beliefs or ideas — they are in fact an accurate description of the laws of nature.
However, this cannot be realised if someone thinks that 2+2=5. Why? because they don’t have an accurate understanding of the premises. What’s more, in an attempt to understand the laws that are predicated upon these premises, they will subsequently arrive at incorrect conclusions. The overwhelming majority of ‘Buddhism’ is testament to this fact (it’s for this reason that accurately representing what the Buddha taught is so darned important).
Therefore, to understand the absolute truth, it is necessary to establish the correct world-view and then comprehend the true nature of reality. Once this is understood, neither Leo nor any other individual, religion or spiritual tradition will ever be able to pull the wool over your eyes.
We do not all perceive reality in the same way. What’s more, due to our respective worldviews, the meaning we attribute to those perceptions and how they subsequently get contextualised can be enormously varied.
The way in which a person sees reality at a fundamental level makes perfect sense based upon the premises that their worldview is based on.
One premise of Leo’s worldview is Idealism. There are different kinds of Idealism, but its underlying assertion is that all of reality is a mental construct and therefore, physical matter doesn’t exist.
Here are a few choice Idealism-bumper stickers:
- It’s all a dream
- All is self
- All is one
- All is God
- There is no spoon!
…there is no Buddha, there is no cessation. You’re imaging all that shit right now to keep yourself inside the dream.
Idealism is wrong. Here’s why…
As previously stated, Leo’s brand of Idealism is monistic; all that exists is mind (God) and all multiplicity are expressions of this one, universal mind. Therefore reality is imaginary in nature and has no material basis. In contrast, many current scientists and philosophers are proponents of materialistic monism; the notion that physical matter is the only thing that fundamentally exists. So here, the inverse is argued to be the case.
Buddha Dhamma shows that neither of these contrasting views are correct. Reality is ultimately mental, but (and this is a very important but!) it is in relation to a real, physical, objective world. Don’t confuse this for materialism, which argues that physical matter produces conscious experience. The world-view of the Buddha is that mind comes first and physical matter exists as a consequence.
However, this real, physical world (which encompasses much more than one could even begin to imagine) has three fundamental characteristics;
- There is nothing in this world that can result in permanent, absolute fulfilment because nothing can be maintained to one’s satisfaction (For a detailed explanation as to why that’s the case, read this).
- Despite all effort, in the long run, one will suffer much more than they will experience moments of fulfilment.
- Therefore, so long as one is in this world, they are helpless as there is no permanent, absolute fulfilment to be found.
Important — Nibbana is the only way that one can put and end to existence in this world. Suicide, along with all conceivable alternatives, will not ever solve the central problem of existence.
Both the realisation Leo had and the psychedelic he used to have it with are conditioned phenomenon. As such, they are a part of this world and are subject to these characteristics of nature.
Based upon the references Leo makes to Buddhism in the video, it’s clear that he hasn’t come across an accurate account of Dhamma. For instance, Sunyata, which he cites as a classic Buddhist insight, is widely misunderstood and has little to do with true Dhamma. No self is another example of a misunderstanding. The cessation of experience that he discusses is characteristic of the 7th Jhana, and therefore, is not Nibbana.
What’s more, it’s clear from his material in general that a correct understanding of Kamma, Paticca Samuppada, and the Netherworld (among other things) is absent. Of course, all of this can be hand-waived away with a simple “You’re just imagining that. It’s not actually real anyway”. Such is the nature of delusion, our capacity for which is boundless.
All of this begs the question: how do you establish an accurate understanding of reality. You look out for inconsistencies and contradictions, and discard accordingly. Buddha Dhamma doesn’t contradict fields of science or itself. A student of Dhamma goes out of their way to find inconsistencies but doesn’t find any.
Leo isn’t a cult leader. I don’t think he’s a bad person, either. Like the overwhelming majority of us though, he is deluded. To that end, I wish nothing more than for him and all beings to comprehend the true nature of things swiftly.
References & Resources
An Advanced Explanation of God-Realization
An Advanced Explanation of God-Realization (Actualized.org) — A Buddhist’s Two Cents #leogura
Good Explanations — Key to Weeding Out Bad Versions of Dhamma
