Joseph Maynor

Maya is illusory. Atman is what is real. But Maya does rear it’s ugly head within Awareness, so we can treat it theoretically as a dream. Obviously that’s a metaphor. Language is not to be taken literally. It’s what’s being pointed to by the language that’s the intended effect.

I’m rather atheist in inclination, so I say no. God for me is Awareness. But then that’s just me. Saying I’m God does no work for me. It’s just playing with labels.

What about your awareness? Is that ever affected by any of these puzzles?

The only thing wrong with Islam is that other Muslims wanna tell you what's right and wrong a lot. It's a religion where people think they know God's will. It's a very rule based religion. The Koran is viewed as not very different from God's tongue. In other words, the Koran is taken to be more or less authoritative and literal. Not entirely literal, but damn close. And then you have the numerous Hadiths that document the actions and sayings of Muhammad. Muslims try to copy Muhammad because they believe he was a perfect man in his beliefs and actions. So, one of the problems with Islam is the sheer number of rules that people think a real Muslim should follow. It's a very strict, law-based religion. Your behavior has to conform to certain rules. It's very egotistical in the sense of -- I am going to be saved, I'm the most pious, I have the direct hotline to God's will, I am God's servant, etc. All of the Judeo-Christian religions are like this, although differing in other ways. Christianity is more Philosophical than Islam because it grew out of the European Philosophical Culture. So Christianity is more focused on right belief whereas Islam is more focused on right conduct.

Materialism is a belief system. Reality is not affected by belief systems. Belief systems don't get at the essence of reality.

Oh yeah. The only reason I spend time on here is because I am growing. If I were to stop growing, I would not be hanging out so much on here. I like to help others too. But make no mistake about it, the reason I am here is because I've done a shit-load of personal development on here. In 1 year I have grown so much, it's amazing. It's phenomenal actually. I don't want to sound like I'm tooting my own horn, but it happened for me -- in large part I must say -- from interacting on here. The best advice I can give someone is use this Forum like a sounding-board for your own growth. You gotta really want to grow, to become more and more Enlightened. And there are something like levels to Enlightenment. I don't think they can be crystallized into one-sized-fits-all stages because they depend on the personality that's becoming Enlightened. And every personality is so different.

Other people are as real as the dream is, no more and no less. It's a qualified reality. It's like -- yeah -- you're real, but the underlying dream is not, so there you have it. Ego is an illusory reality. So, it does exist in a sense, but not substantially. It exists as a dream exists. It seems real but has no substance to it.

There's no Egoic you doing low-consciousness activities. That much is true.

The dream includes other people. But ask yourself this -- is the dream real? I can totally appreciate Nagarjuna's 2 levels of truth now, and that the dream level is "sublated" into the absolute level. One feels real but isn't real. The other is real but doesn't feel real. Boy are we confused huh? That tricky Mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_truths_doctrine // Shankara elaborates on the Two Truths Doctrine as follows: Shankara proposes three levels of reality, using "sublation" as the ontological criterion: Pāramārthika (paramartha, absolute), the Reality that is metaphysically true and ontologically accurate. It is the state of experiencing that "which is absolutely real and into which both other reality levels can be resolved". This reality is the highest, it can't be sublated (assimilated) by any other. Vyāvahārika (vyavahara), or samvriti-saya, consisting of the empirical or pragmatical reality. It is ever changing over time, thus empirically true at a given time and context but not metaphysically true. It is "our world of experience, the phenomenal world that we handle every day when we are awake". It is the level in which both jiva (living creatures or individual souls) and Iswara are true; here, the material world is also true but this is incomplete reality and is sublatable. Prāthibhāsika (pratibhasika, apparent reality, unreality), "reality based on imagination alone". It is the level of experience in which the mind constructs its own reality. Well-known examples of pratibhasika is the imaginary reality such as the "roaring of a lion" fabricated in dreams during one's sleep, and the perception of a rope in the dark as being a snake. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta#Ontology_-_the_nature_of_Being

I just recently learned about the Buddha and Buddhism. I didn't even realize Enlightenment comes from the Buddhist tradition too, which I assumed came more from the Hindu tradition, which I was more familiar with. So, for me, I just recently came into contact with Buddhism, which I must say came as a pleasant surprise to me. It's amazing.

It appears to be some kind of religious text for people trapped in the purgatory period between Earth and Heaven.

Ask yourself this: What is matter?

I know a lot of us like to boast — I’m growing, I’ve grown so much. But what do these words mean in respect to your experience with growth and growing on your path? What memory can you recall where you felt like you were growing a lot? Do you feel like that right now? Why or why not?

The Buddha was right. Attachment to the dream is the cause of suffering. Awakening is the first step to detachment from Ego. Liberation is realizing there is no little you in there! But all of this awakening business is part of the dream too. So, don’t take any of this too seriously. Just be the watcher. Be that pillar that is always there at the center of all these changes. Start to see the fluxing part of reality as a dream. Detach from it as reality. Reality is the Soul or unchanging Awareness that is witnessing all of these changes. Awareness does not control, do, or conceptually-know — all that sh*t is part of the dream. The Ego thinks it does those things haha. That’s a very common trap. The best thing Awareness can do is detach from taking the dream so seriously. There is no you driving the dream. You’re just always aware of it.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

I agree. Experience without knowledge is blind. Knowledge without experience is lame. You’re on the right track. You need both. Especially an understanding of past thought, which can give you perspective on your present thought. If you lack that perspective, you will fall into numerous traps that are well known about. I have particularly benefitted recently by going back and reading Indian Philosophy, so I can see what those ideas really were. People have made up a bunch of stuff and then pretend that’s what those traditions were about — and I can see that clearly now. You can get at facts in this work, but you gotta study. You’ll get a nice BS detector that will help you in this work! It will help your Enlightenment to see the source of the ideas that are so casually and often carelessly bandied about by the New Age community. There’s a lot of BS out there! A lot! Some things to read about: Upanishads, Jainism, the Charvaka School, the Six Orthodox Hindu Schools, the Buddha, Nagarjuna, Adi Shankara, Chan Buddhism, Japanese Zen Buddhism, Lao Tsu, Taoism, Confucius, Mencius, the Neo-Confucianists, Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, 16th Century Western Philosophy, 17th Century Western Philosophy, 18th Century Western Philosophy, 19th Century Western Philosophy, 20th Century Western Philosophy, Christianity and Christian Theology, Islam and Islamic Theology, Judaism and Jewish Theology, Carl Jung’s Psychological Theories, the American Transcendentalists, Mystical Traditions from around the world, Sufism, Sikhism, Mormonism, Neo Advaita, etc. So, there’s a lot to learn. This will give you perspective. And this is just some stuff that came to mind now. There’s so much more too. Treat life like an education. Not necessarily a bookish education exclusively either! Life is not to be lived in the books! But you do need some study so you can hold it in the road without getting too far off course. There is nothing new under the Sun in a sense. Smart people have devoted their entire lives to these matters, so you do wanna find out what they had to say. There’s guidance is the world’s books! Use it. Improve on it!

Why are we using the definite article ‘the’ as in the Buddha? Doesn’t this ring of a deification that he would reject? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

What is a guru? Who becomes one? Is a guru a moralist? Is it Egoic for the guru to try to help others? Does the guru stunt their own growth by spending so much time in language and illusion? Does one need to be brought to awakening through the doorway of illusion? And if so, isn’t that the guru’s task to help people with that process?

A guru is person who is willing to knock people out of their ignorant complacency for their own good. It’s not necessarily pretty work. And the guru is not always loved. Not if he’s doing his job. Sometimes the guru has to accept being hated. But what drives the guru is to help others see the truth. And he will do that no matter what the resulting outcome is. That’s the calling of the guru. He’s not selfish with truth. He feels compelled to share it. He wants to help others see what he sees. Why? Because it’s the truth. Truth is not relative. Only thoughts can be relative. Truth is not paradoxical. Only thoughts can be paradoxical. The guru is the one who makes right distinctions on these matters and then can guide others without confusion.

I’m loathe to say you’re wrong. But I’ve experienced something very different in my path.

I think you guys getting confused with this possibility talk. That’s all conceptual. Being is not conceptual. Being is right now. I still think you guys are stuck in the mind a bit. The concept of infinity and possibility is confusing you. You keep chasing the fulfillment of a concept instead of realizing enlightenment is right now. Enlightenment is not a state. I’ve mentioned this many times, and it doesn’t seem to get through. Enlightenment is not a state. Enlightenment is the recognition that reality doesn’t contain a you controlling anything. That’s it. And Awareness does exist as an unchanging thing. Don’t get seduced by sexy sounding language, ideas, or psychedelic states. You’re tail chasing. Enlightenment is the most mundane thing, not the most conceptually fascinating thing. The latter is the Mind’s interference in the awakening process. It’s a distraction. All there is is unchanging awareness and the dream. And no control, no Egoic you. That’s it. Stop chasing states and just be reality right now. Enlightenment is right now.

There’s no divine either. That’s just a belief. You guys gotta get rid of all your baby-blanket beliefs about reality.

I could see how you might conclude that. I used to think like you too. The truth is a lot more radical than most people are prepared for. It’s the complete annihilation of belief in Ego. What you are in now is the Spiritual Ego phase of the journey. Been there done that. That’s not the final stage on the path.

I like your honesty.