Joseph Maynor

I believe him. Why would someone lie about being fat as a kid. A lot of people who get into Personal Development have a certain kind of adversity in their background. That’s what makes them tough as shit. I had the same thing. I wasn’t really fat, but I had other problems. You have to have a certain kind of ‘I don’t give a f*ck attitude’ to be great at Personal Development PLUS a compassion that comes from being that person who was formerly at a disadvantage. Those two really come together to make you a rockstar Personal Development dude later on in life. I mean, if you could just do it — why would you need Personal Development? You gotta struggle or face some kind of adversity for Personal Development to even emerge as an issue for you. Videos on point to watch:

Make fun of your shadow side. It will be funny to you as well. A lot of the time the stuff you make fun of is your shadow because you're trying to distance yourself from that. But you can tap into that for humor. That's why I'm always making fun of bums on the street -- because secretly I'm kind of a bum myself, although I never had to live on the street. I guess I'm a bum in the sense that I never did anything I didn't want to do. And a lot of those people weren't as lucky as I was. So, I find that a lot of my humor comes from me trying to distance myself from being the street bum. The loser, the guy who can't keep a job, the addict, the ne'er-do-well, the guy playing a musical instrument on the street, the guy who's basically a social outcast. That's my shadow side. That's the side for many years my Ego has tried to avoid. Just pay attention to what's funny to you and connect it to your shadow side. This is why a lot of closet cases are the people quick to make fun of gays, right. Same thing -- they're using their shadow side to inspire and create humor. Video on point to watch: To me, because of my shadow side, this is really funny:

What's so great about Sadhguru? That's an amazing name though, right? It's got the word 'guru' right in it. What is it about Sadhguru's opinion about things that means squat to you? Gimme some meat that I can check out like a video or something. I know people have posted all kinds of videos. But gimme that one video that I need to see the value in Sadhguru. Maybe I should re-name myself 'Joeyparalegal' or something haha. I'd probably be taken a shitload more seriously in the Freelance Paralegal industry. 'Joeyenlightenedone'. That would go over real well! It might get me a gig as one of those odd guys who try to sell their 'services' on the street. I saw a guy holding up a sign today that read 'Astrologer for Hire'. He wasn't a street bum, but he was an odd looking guy with the pointy beard, weird hat, and odd clothes.

GREAT VIDEO FROM MOOJI

A TIP FOR PEOPLE ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT PATH -- FROM MY PERSPECTIVE AND EXPERIENCE Your awareness will increase more and more the more Enlightened you become. And with that increased awareness, you'll just watch everything happen and not get triggered by it. You gotta transcend the Paradigm of Self. It's not about you, it's just about what your experience is like right now. If you're trying to force that experience to be one way rather than another, that's the kind of clinging that you need to become aware of. Reality just moves without your input. What you need to do is just let reality do what it wants to do in the moment. Just try to be aware, which will eventually stick you smack dab into the present moment. One of the great things about being Enlightened is you're stuck smack dab in the present moment. And you're just surrendering to BE-ing in the moment without pre-judgments or pre-expectations. Eventually you'll transcend the Paradigm of Self. And when that happens, you'll just BE. And BE-ing is not a doing, it's not an attaching, it's not a controlling, and it's not a conceptual-knowing. It's just BE-ing in the moment without pre-judgments or pre-expectations. Video on point to watch:

It's a very nit picky sense that I get after watching a lot of his videos. Don't take any teacher too seriously. Let them resonate with you, but at the end of the day, you are the only guru for you. Eckhart Tolle is in my top 3. So, he's way up there for me. He's very wise when it comes to Enlightenment. And he's a great communicator. Each Perspective has a unique conceptual system of Enlightenment. And that's just the way things are. The problem comes when you go from using conceptual systems to believing in conceptual systems. And we all fall victim to that. So, I'm not judging him as if I'm above him or anything like that. It's just a sense I get. I think the original context of my remark was I was suggesting that Eckhart Tolle might be the kind of person who could benefit from psychedelics. It might be something that could really give him that tiny bit more awareness. I know LSD worked like that for me. LSD gives you a kind of super-mindfulness. And that can be really useful to your Enlightenment work.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENLIGHTENMENT AND CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING There's a difference between Enlightenment and Conceptual Understanding that a lot of Enlightenment people miss. And Enlightenment benefits Conceptual Understanding, and Conceptual Understanding benefits Enlightenment. One of the ways that Conceptual Understanding benefits Enlightenment is by increasing awareness of the Paradigm of Paradigms. In other words, we're not always conscious of everything we're clinging to. Conceptual Understanding gives you the awareness to bring it all into high-relief. So, Conceptual Understanding is not bad per se. Enlightenment is about BE-ing in the moment without pre-judgments or pre-expectations. You're not gonna be able to surrender like that if you're clinging to 'need to know BE-ing'. It's 'need to know BE-ing' that's the problem. It's clinging to paradigms and beliefs about BE-ing that's the problem. You can think all you want to solve pragmatic problems in your life. But if Enlightenment is what you want -- you gotta make sure you're not clinging to Tier-One Conceptual Understanding. And that's why Conceptual Understanding is relevant to Enlightenment.

This isn't perfect, but it's in the vicinity:

BE-ing is not something to know, it’s something to surrender to. Trying to know BE-ing keeps you from surrendering to BE-ing in the moment. It’s what causes tail-chasing in Enlightenment.

I agree with this 100%.

Actually it’s more intuitive than that about Eckhart Tolle. It’s just a sense I get. And I could be wrong, right. I haven’t watched all of his videos. And I like Eckhart Tolle, he’s my third favorite of the famous gurus. For me it’s Adyashanti and Mooji kinda both at the same level as 1 and 2, and then Eckhart Tolle at 3. So, I rate Eckhart Tolle very highly. I’m just nit-picking on a vibe I picked up after watching many videos of his. It’s a stiff vibe like I mentioned. It’s a tendency to conceptualize BE-ing, even if it’s ever so slightly. On another issue you raised: there’s a difference between rigidly clinging to paradigms about ‘reality’ to loosely clinging to more or less useful frameworks. This is one way Conceptual Understanding helps Enlightenment. I’m not stuck in Tier-One Epistemology or Tier-One. Most people are stuck by default in Tier-One Conceptual Understanding which screws up their Enlightenment. There is a sense in which work in Conceptual Understanding helps Enlightenment. But I agree with what you say — every Enlightenment teacher has to have some framework for teaching Enlightenment.

‘Need to know BE-ing’ is a trap in Enlightenment.

It's a paradigm. 'The Paradigm of Soul.' It's a conceptual system in the Conceptual Understanding. It's a conceptual interpretation of BE-ing.

I think Eckhart Tolle would benefit from doing psychedelics like LSD, Mushrooms, or DMT. Just a sense I get from his vibe. There's a stiffness in there. He kind of clings to his little nut of theory. That's why I don't put him at the level of Adyashanti or Mooji. For me psychedelics really evened me out and got me outta my nut of theory when it comes to Enlightenment. For others psychedelics produce different reactions. For me, psychedelics got me outta theory and into BE-ing when it comes to Enlightenment. Psychedelics helped me transcend the Paradigm of Paradigms. If you're had enough of the right kinds of psychedelic experiences, you probably know what I'm talking about. So, I can't discount psychedelics in good faith because they helped me over that final obstacle to Enlightenment about six months ago, which was transcending 'need to know BE-ing' and just BE-ing in the moment without pre-judgments or pre-expectations. The last time I did LSD about 4 months ago now really drove that point home to me -- it showed it to me

I wonder what Adyashanti thinks about using psychedelics on the Enlightenment Path.

Curious

Why are you trying to 'know' for Enlightenment? That's like expecting a steak to taste like a strawberry.

It’s a paradigm — a ‘belief’ about ‘reality’.

Really? This sounds a bit suspicious. I like Leo, but let’s not warp reality either. Leo does not need us to warp reality in his favor.

I call B.S. on that. People make a lot of shit up.

I hear ya. But we're very lucky to live in SF.

I don't think his growth rate 'tanked' necessarily, but Leo definitely had already established a sizable audience by the time he started to get more esoteric. And I think to this day, those earlier videos probably drive a lot of new people to Leo's channel. And then they get exposed to the esoteric stuff. I know I was attracted to the earlier videos initially. I was not happy when Leo started to do the Enlightenment videos initially. I think this was back in 2015 (3 years ago now). Obviously, now, I'm at a much different place than I was then. But when you're expecting Stage Orange-Style Personal Development, Enlightenment talk sounds like a total distraction and mistake. I was big into Stage Orange-Style Personal Development all throughout 2014 when I was watching Leo's videos. And I think a lot of other people come to Personal Personal Development from that perspective, initially at least. It took a couple of years for the Enlightenment stuff to click with me. I really didn't like it when I first heard about it. I thought it was spiritual bypassing and a distraction from doing the relevant work at hand. But now, I think very differently, right. So, I came around eventually, and ultimately flourished with Enlightenment.

What made Leo popular was his Stage Orange-style earlier Personal Development videos, don't forget that. Leo did not start out doing esoteric topics like Enlightenment until after he got popular with the earlier videos. So, I think it's a mistake to think Leo got popular by marketing Enlightenment videos. He was already popular, and then he shifted gears into the Enlightenment videos. I remember when it happened. But half of Leo's videos -- his earlier videos -- were mostly all Stage Orange-style Personal Development videos. It would be interesting how successful Leo would have been if he started off doing the Enlightenment videos straight away. That's a hard thing to do because you don't got the attention. Leo had the attention, and then he switched gears after he already had it. If anything, whether intended or unintended, Leo did a bait-and-switch from the Stage Orange-Style Personal Development to mostly covering Enlightenment. Try getting popular on YouTube starting out doing the Enlightenment videos, that would be an interesting test. Probably much harder would be my guess. Just because you're gonna have a much smaller slice of the pie of viewers that are even gonna be interested in you in the first instance. You gotta get on people's radar screen to become popular, right. The dog has to like the dog food. Early Leo:

Do you do the exercises as specified in the book, or have you evolved to where you're doing your own subset of the routines?

I think a lot of the 'gurus' that people think are Turquoise are actually at Green. Adyashanti and Mooji are at Turquoise in my opinion. The others, I'm not so sure about.