Joseph Maynor

I hear people say -- I am Enlightened! Or, am I Enlightened? Or, not he's not Enlightened. It's this all or nothing, binary kind of thinking. Why not assume Enlightenment is more like a dial that is constantly changing? It's not a binary thing like a two-way switch, it's more like a constantly changing variable or dial of keen-awareness. Honestly, this does annoy me when I see it because I can see the Ego chasing the "state of Enlightenment", which is exactly what will never get you progress in this work. Related post:

Don't get too hung up on words. It's more readily observed than that. You guys are confusing yourselves with all these words -- all these rationalizations. Reason can prove both everything and nothing.

@Saumaya Ahhh! I am loosening up more now.

All confusion is Maya when it comes to reality. Reality is the opposite of confusing. Reality is right there. If you're confused about reality, you're not Enlightened. Enlightenment just is the removal of confusion about reality. Moksha is the removal of ignorance, the removal of beliefs. But there is no you that's removing the beliefs. That's a linguistic metaphor taken literally.

What is pre-conceptually. The unchanging watcher of sense content. That unchanging observer is what reality is. This is the Soul or Awareness or Atman or Brahman or Emptiness or the Void. Maya is our set of beliefs about reality, and assuming that those beliefs are true.

Language might be paradoxical, but reality is not.

It's clear to me that there is no control. Just surrender to being it. The idea there is a choice or control is Egoic.

You believe you are choosing eh?

You're enlightened when you realize (1) you're not in control over reality, and (2) you realize all your job is is to be that which never changes.

I want you folks to discuss truth and your story about it here. Ok, so we have reality — which is the present moment, and we call that truth. Now, we also have conceptual truth. This would be like — Reality is uniform in some sense. The story of reality has a structure to it. That’s a belief about reality, not reality per se. And you can determine that empirically through meditation and/or mindfulness. So, how do we treat conceptual truth in a way where we don’t lose sight of reality? That seems to be our biggest issue? That’s where we are still all screwed up it seems.

What was removed from you is the idea that you're in control of reality. It makes me feel great that other people than me get to experience what no self feels like. But when you live with no self, you gotta accept all of reality. The Ego has long claws and a hard time with that one, so just be warned. Ego will still be a part of your experience. Just consider all of it a dream, like Leo's video talks about.

Dude. All you gotta do is let go. Just let go. Reality is doing what is was doing. Your beliefs about reality do not affect reality. Stop trying to control, know, or do. Watch reality continue on unperturbed. Just rest as awareness. Watch reality and be reality. There is no controlling agent. That's a belief taken to be true. Just realize you are all of it and that you are not changing. What is changing is Maya. Can you see it? Not believe it, but be it?

It's just a story. Stories are for ignoramuses.

http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/670

If you meet the Buddha, kill him.

Everybody is already Enlightened, so no. False modesty is Ego.

What is this you that is choosing to be the Ego? Is that real or a belief?

All your neuroses will drop with Enlightenment.

There's no control. Control, doing, and knowing are beliefs about reality, not reality as it is.

How about this one: 'Guru' is a word and/or vocalization. What do you make of this? Am I wrong?

No. That’s all clinging to beliefs about reality.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.

The idea that you are influencing the dream is Ego

There is no you controlling the Mind. There’s no you, there’s no controlling, and there is no mind.

Hey folks. I’ve been puzzled by one belief that keeps gnawing at me. That’s kinda how I work, issues get stuck in my craw until they dissolve or get resolved in some way. One of our biggest beliefs is that our words or vocalizations match up to reality in some way. Now, here me out. This is the basis of all theory, is it not? It’s the basis for all conceptual-truth. But what is this theoretical truth really? Isn’t it just words and vocalizations? Doesn’t this seem like when you were a baby you started seeking names for everything in reality? Don’t beliefs and theories seem like an extended version of that process? And then we have the custom of inheriting ideas. The veneration of past ideas. This is a huge mistake, no? We see this happening in our history of ideas. There is obviously a utility to gathering thought-stories, words and vocalizations, and we do seem to make practical use of it. But can reality be known through linguistic means? Is our belief that a set of words and vocalizations link up with a similarly ordered reality a good one? That’s a metaphor, is it not? Aren’t we taking a metaphor to be true here?