Joseph Maynor

I've done it. I'm going to start doing it again. Here's how I do it. Turn the heat up to pretty hot, then turn the water down all the way to cold. And stay under the water for 20 seconds. I would spin around under the shower-head so that water went all over my body, face, head, arms, back, etc. It was a good practice. Then I would go work-out after that. That was a good little routine I had.

Here's the key question: Are you Being right now? Can you be it right now? Forget about thoughts or memories. The Psychedelics might point you to Being, but Being should stick. I'm starting to worry that these drugs are giving wrong beliefs and notions about what Being is. Being is no-thing, the object of no belief. All beliefs that point at Being too literally die on the vine.

If you want to remain true to the truth of no self, you gotta be completely silent. Try this model on for size -- You are a self-aware field of no-thingness. Do you see the duality here, but also the pointing function of these words? When you know the destination, is is easier to appreciate all the *cute* belief-scaffolding we have.

It might be that the "strong ego" has more chutzpah to pursue Enlightenment. It takes a lot of hard work to get real enlightenment shifts. Of course, I pursued the non-chemical route. I don't believe you can become enlightened without a lot of hard work. You need a lot of theory, instruction, guidance, and sticktuitiveness to boot. If you are just sitting on your ass waiting for something to come to you, y'aint gonna get anywhere with Enlightenment. This is because Self-Inquiry alone takes a lot of work. And then you need to see the problem of duality fully, which is not something you can pick up quickly. Enlightenment has to stew in you for a while, and you gotta be stirring the pot the entire time. Ever make rissotto? Well, you gotta stir like that for as long as it takes.

When are you gonna be as rich and famous as Tony Robbins?

These are my *currently* favorite Leo videos: 1. The number one reason you are not succeeding 2. Personal Development -- How your mind is like a rider atop an elephant 3. One simple rule for acing life 4. Willpower -- Scientifically proven techniques to build your willpower 5. Peak Performance -- How to hit and maintain consistent peak performance in life 6. Success & Creativity -- Why you should be more schizophrenic 7. Create an exciting life -- your proudest moments exercise 8. How to never quit -- The key to re-framing the toughest obstacles 9. How to stay focused -- The key to being extremely productive & clear minded 10. Personal Power -- How personal power creates success 11. Staying Hungry -- How to use pain for growth 12. Positive Thinking -- The key to thinking positive 13. The law of attraction -- How it really works and how to use it 14. How to stay committed to a cause 15. Self-control -- How to develop self-control to live an amazing life

This is all just dualistic speculation, but what the Hell; I feel inclined to write and will honor that Muse here. We are programmed to follow the Lower-Self, probably due to our evolution. We aren't designed to live a long time. And before we were so smart, we needed strong instincts to guide our actions to survive and thrive. Go get food, go get sex, go get comfort, go get possessions, go get security, etc. The Higher-Self is a positive use of the Mind-Matrix that we constructed. (We can use the Mind-Matrix like a CAD program, see video below.) To live the Higher-Self requires that we fight the Lower-Self for control over our actions. To do that, we have to dislocate the Mind from our Identity, which requires the ability to see the Enlightenment Problem in all of its complexity. The final result of Being is simple, but arms-lengthing the Mind-Matrix is a very complex process. This is because you have to understand all of the ways that the Mind-Matrix interferes with reality, which gives you the knowledge of the *numerous traps* you need to maintain a true practice of Being. The biggest problem we have is we identify too tightly with the Mind/Mind-Matrix. That helps us practically to navigate basic evolutionary functions in the world, but it causes problems when we ask more Philosophical or Scientific questions. The duality and habits of the Mind/Mind-Matrix become apparent when we exceed the bounds of pragmatic thinking. One of the worst problems with the Mind/Mind-Matrix is it becomes a tool of the Lower-Self. The Ego calibrates the Mind-Matrix to be in its favor. The Lower-Self is one manifestation of Ego. The basic problem of Personal Development is transferring the reins from the Lower-Self to the Higher-Self. Don't cling to these dualities too tightly though. Do them, don't let them do you. Video on point to watch: Video on point to watch: (How the Higher-Self can be engineered in the CAD Program of the Mind-Matrix.)

Turn the mind off and really live. That's what do nothing means. And it is exciting. I like the excitement in the drawing. Non-doing doing. Non-knowing knowing. Non-being being.

I meditate in 15 minute blocks 3 or 4 times per day, as needed. I do not meditate on a fixed-routine except for the first 15 minute meditation which I do after I wake up in the morning. My body-mind tells me when it is time to meditate -- there's a stress that builds as I work my day. Then I meditate and afterwards I feel happy and rejuvenated. I do these short meditations a couple of times per day, and it keeps me nice and balanced. I did 1 hour per day for like a year and a half before switching to my new system about a month ago. I like the newer system, but I think I got a lot of gains by doing the longer meditations. I guess it depends on where you are in your progress what approach to mediation is best. I only do do nothing meditation now, whereas I did 4 types of meditation before. Also, before, I treated meditation more like a mindfulness or awareness exercise, whereas now I just focus on awareness of my body, integration of my body and mind, and allowing my mind to lie down and go to sleep for a bit. I don't neurotically focus on awareness or control like I used to -- I just dissolve into Being. I get strange jolts that bubble out of me sometimes too. I think they are little bubbles of neurosis coming to the surface.

I suppose the analogy would be -- imagine the way a happy baby feels. We can't feel that good haha. We are too conditioned.

Mastering savvily-clinging (and not-clinging) to beliefs and other Mind-Matrix objects. So crucial. Do-Nothing Meditation 4 times per day for 15 minutes. Getting my body and mind in harmony with each other and letting my Monkey-Mind take a nap. Reviewing the theory binder I made. I call these my "Yin/Yang readings". Self-Inquiry and mindfulness. Being present in the moment. Understanding the traps of the Mind-Matrix and of duality -- so I can notice and avoid traps. Watching my information and food intake. I cut myself off from most things except what is healthy for my life-purpose and for my emotional well-being. We stir our Monkey-Mind awake with all the shit we consume. I don't even know most days what is going on in the news unless somebody tells me. I don't know anything about what's on TV, and I don't watch movies or listen to music anymore either. Affirmations and visualizations. This is me feeding myself with healthy information. This is a counter-weight to the media garbage that we are bombarded with. That stuff will sabotage you. It is poison to the mind. I actively spoon-feed myself everyday with healthy, high-quality affirmations, visualizations, and information (reviewing my Yin/Yang readings and other highly-selected external readings or videos accomplishes my information component). Reviewing my Hero's Journey binder which contains all my goals, mission statement, action-plans, and written vision. Video on point to watch:

Why does it have to be an either or? Do you appreciate that this stipulation is a duality? Enlightenment requires theory, practice, being, all of this. Once you learn how to cling better and the irrelevance of belief to Being, you can cling much more dynamically instead of these big, broad, binary, context-independent approaches to clinging. That is a stipulation of the Mind-Matrix too. Enlightenment requires it all, and you will see at the end that there is a specific thing that you want to get (<=listen to how dualistic this sounds!). Then Enlightenment gives you the tools to cause that "experience" (<=look at the duality here lol) more or less at will. The Mind-Matrix tricks you into thinking beliefs and need to believe are really important -- but listen to this: Beliefs are irrelevant to Being. Totally, 100% irrelevant to Being. If you are clinging too hard to beliefs, by definition you will never "know" Being. Being requires an arms-lengthing of the Mind-Matrix combined with a deep understanding of the nature and limits of duality. But see, even this is said using language which is dualistic. So, don't cling too hard to this. Enlightenment is hard to "teach". Enlightenment is *loosely challenging* (<=no word is appropriate here because it is too dualistic) the medium in which teaching happens: duality. Clinging to beliefs is important to Being, it depends on the situation, but it will happen intuitively and naturally pursuant to context. But, the "Being that is de-void for the most part of Monkey-Mind" has little to do with beliefs. Beliefs, once conceived as such, are an object of the Mind-Matrix, not an object of Being. There are no objects in Being. All objects are Mind-Matrix elements. Tip -- Let go, but don't turn letting go into more ideology, dogma, or beliefs. Enlightenment is about loosening our grip on beliefs and becoming smarter about how and when to cling to beliefs. And knowing the limits and traps of *need to believe*. You don't need beliefs as much as the Mind-Matrix deceives you that you do. Being has nothing to do with beliefs. This isn't 100% true, but it's a good affirmation to say to install this into your subconscious-mind. I almost hesitate to write anything at all because of the duality of language. Ultimately, theories, combined with your own self-inquiry, will cause shifts for you, and those shifts will cause your enlightenment, not mere beliefs alone. Enlightenment is not conceptual. Even this is too mechanical. There is a conceptual component to Enlightenment too. See? Nothing I say is as certain as the Mind-Matrix wants to make it seem when it is communicated. The finite cannot capture the infinite. But even this claim is finite. There's a rigidity, a mechanicalness, that is built into duality. It's like trying to design a human being using strong AI -- it's never gonna work! Engineering is too dualistic to create a human being.

The question is absurd and dualistic. Substance is a Mind-Matrix thing. Being doesn't conform to the Mind-Matrix. The Mind-Matrix wants to cubby-hole and judge Being. See, even this language I am using here is metaphorical. That's an insight that you gotta grok. That's the deepest insight is that all language and thoughts are atomistic and dualistic. Being is non-dual. <= But this thought is dual. See that? The way to get at substance is to back away from the Mind-Matrix and see what is left. But even this description is metaphorical. See? If you wanna get at Being you gotta realize all the traps of duality. I know it now because I've experienced it. Once you experience it you will come to know it. And then you can stay in it. But see, even this is metaphorical -- stay in what? And even this is dualistic because it reeks of discreteness. Being is not discrete. Doh' even this is discrete? See? Duality is hugely limited when talking about Being. We do not realize the limits of duality without some education and inquiry. What is useful for Science is not necessarily useful in Metaphysics. What is Being? See, even this question reeks of duality. It assumes Being is individuated. Let's say I say this -- Being is not individuated. Ok, well, same problem. What Being is is reality unpolluted by the Mind-Matrix. But even this description is metaphorical. Once you see the metaphorical nature of all language when referencing Being, you'll notice that Being has nothing to do with the cubby-holes that we are neurotically trying to cling to. And when you can distance yourself from these processes, then you can see what is left, and that is pure creativity, lightness, spontaneity, love, and peace.

@Samuel Garcia You know what's crazy? I still don't know what it is haha. Most people would have at least looked it up, right? Not me. I have no connection to mainstream media. I cut it all out, like 98% of it. It's all toxic. I can dream-up enough in my own life, I don't need other dreamers encroaching on my space and diluting my drink. How can you hear the still-small voice if you are up your eyeballs in stupid shit? I did that nearly all of my 20's through to my late-mid 30's haha. No mo! My goal is only to implement my own dream now.

Absolutely. I've spent my entire life studying, thinking about, and writing philosophy. Do you have a passion for it? All of it is good. I don't trust people who have too many opinions about Philosophy. Most of them don't like Philosophy much, so keep that in mind.

I like to look at it like this, even though I don't want to label myself as having an ego, I can look at reality through the concept of ego and apply that lens to reality and to other things in reality. But the map is not the territory. I refer to it as cubby-holing through the lens of Yang. You can rubricize reality in terms of Yin and Yang, but Yin and Yang are just lenses and not actual features of reality. I think we need to be very cautious about saying we are any property or not any property. When we arms-length the Mind-Matrix, those issues lie moot to reality. Reality just is. The Mind-Matrix is what wants to cubby-hole things as ego and not ego. When you arms-length paradigm, theory, beliefs, concepts -- Mind-Matrix -- all you're left with is Being, which is property-less. So, I am no-thing. Whatever I "am" is what the Mind-Matrix says I am, and that is too limited of a designation no matter what it is. I am not a property, a quality, a thing, or a thought. Even the "truths" of enlightenment are Mind-Matrix products. Except for the few things that can be determined empirically and the experience of Being when the Mind-Matrix is arms-lengthed. Those don't have much to do with the mind, unless you believe that the mind is projecting all distinctions onto reality and not just adding things in with thoughts. If you believe that, then you have a more robust view of what the Mind-Matrix is doing to "overlay" and "alter" reality; e.g., you might believe that all distinctions are products of the Mind-Matrix. And does this extend to individuation of objects too? -- probably, if you ask these theorists. Without doing more self-inquiry myself, I am cautious about believing too many positive-claims made in enlightenment theory. I view enlightenment theory as just loosening our existing theory, not as a replacement truth. I hope this makes sense. My take is that enlightenment is not about believing different truths, it's about being the true skeptic and arms-lengthing all beliefs. Arms-lengthing is different from accepting and denying. Cling-loosely and only when appropriate is my motto. Don't just change jerseys, take them all off. You don't want to be an enlightened dogmatist, that would be the wrong answer -- just to frame this dualistically for fun. Actually what you want to do is savvily cling and not cling to the different jerseys in the right manner and at the right times pursuant to your aims in particular contexts, but I am getting ahead of myself here. I'll discuss this idea in my journal. Like when you drive a car, even though the car is moving smoothly, there is a complex and organic discrete application of (or clinging to) the gas and brake pedals that produce that continuous motion. And note that this combination of gas and brake must be intuitive if we're dealing with real terrain. It is too complex to be modeled by any computer or dualistic theory. Sure you can model one small stretch of natural terrain perhaps, but a human can easily drive any terrain, even unforeseen terrain. Driving a car is an example of the Breath of God. We just drive the car without thinking anything, seemingly naturally. We open-up and simply harmonize with the Tao, with Divine Creativity. We do the gas and brake pedals, they don't do us. We forget this a lot often, especially when we are talking about ourselves or about the external-world. Very often we mistake the map for the territory. We often reverse cart and horse; and the horse gets aggravated by this and the cart gets damaged as a result. When I'm in Being, I could care-less about categorizing or labeling most things. I just try to harmonize with the Tao, or Divine Creativity. I'm realizing more and more that the Mind-Matrix was designed to deal with practical matters and is very clunky dealing with philosophical matters, and matters regarding reality itself. Thinking is inherently dualistic and atomistic in nature -- it is discrete. Reality is more primary than the cubby-holing qualities of the mind. I like Leo's idea of building a tube down to the bottom of the ocean and then trying to maintain that indefinitely. It's a fool's errand. That contraption that we built is gonna get smashed to pieces like a toy one day when Nature gets bored, looks for something fun to do, and rears-up, making a swift-mockery of our simple-minded intentions. The Mind-Matrix is like that! Too simple by half a lot of times. You can't catch a shadow with a net. See? The Mind-Matrix is what allows the metaphorical-speak I am colorfully playing-around with here. Our funny minds! It's got a mind of its own haha. I could tell it that it's wrong, but then I would only be playing right into its own hands. It's better to just ignore the Monkey-Mind, and then it just slinks-away eventually -- especially if you meditate everyday. Video on point to watch:

Why assume it's an either or? Why are you so strongly opposed to Leo's thoughts? Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. If your ears are closed you can't listen. If you can't listen you can't learn. If you can't learn you can't grow. If you don't grok self-mastery you can't get sustainable, consistent, high-quality growth and results. This stuff is a science, I told you. You need to open your mind. Self-mastery is the only strategy that can produce sustainable success in life. Personal development is about mastering that. Make sense? If you can't control yourself, you're gonna be screwing up in life -- It duddn't matter what kind of "success" you become or nutty-artist you aspire to be. There's no end-run around self-mastery. Bite the bullet and accept that. The lower-self wants a quick-fix but there's not one here. Might as well get on board now rather than later. And I wager that eventually you will do that in your life. I see a spark in there that needs some direction to express itself to its full-magnificence. You seem frustrated, like a bum on the street stumbling upon a cannabis joint and then realizing he has no fire-power to set it alight. Dive in brah. Stop playing the role of the sniper-skeptic. That's easy. That's just step #1. I went through that too. You are at beginner step #1. Accept that and be humble. Suck it up. I get it, it sucks to be smart and to be a beginner at something. Growing long, luxurious hair requires a long time spent in the ugly-stage. Open the ears. Watch all of Leo's videos. I watched all of them over 3 times. This stuff takes a lifetime to live into. It's like a king-fu master practicing his routine all day long, and in the evening returning to his little hut to analyze in detail everything he did in his little notebook. That's what personal development is like. One baby-step at a time. One baby-improvement at a time. It's an upward-spiral. Notes discipline themselves into melodies and eventually into songs over the long-view. But you gotta first believe that this is possible for your life. Do you? Kill that limiting-belief if you don't. That might be goal #1 for your personal development plan. Your thoughts are stunting your life in ways that you *can't* even know about yet. But you will eventually if you stay on this journey of personal development. You'll learn all about limiting-beliefs and the harm they cause. And you'll learn how to BE differently in the face of such *limiting-beliefs*. Everything and anything is possible for your life. You can birth yourself out of the marble any way you wanna be. You just gotta believe that you can and get to work. It takes huge emotional-labor to do it. Things that are rare and valuable in life have a cost, a price associated with them. Life-purpose is a strategy that makes you love to pay that high-cost. Pretty nifty eh? Can you appreciate the brilliance of life purpose as a strategy now? You're taking massive action -- but it's fun and exciting not grindy and boring. And you are getting your whole life together too -- like a rising tide raising all boats floating thereon. So, life purpose is a win for you and a win for society if done right. It's really an amazing personal development strategy that cleans-up your entire life in every-which way, financially and otherwise, if *actually* implemented over the long-term. But you gotta design it right and you then gotta live it! There ain't no easy, primrose path to the dream-life. If there were, that would be the norm, and it's not. Dream-lives are rare and valuable indeed. Videos on point to watch:

Is this some kind of new art? Avant-garde? Sort of like a core-dump poetry. Hey man -- maybe it's sayin' somethin' about us man! Positive thinking at work. Nice name by the way!

Watch this video, it's great.

It helps you gain the emotional leverage you need to face head-on the emotional-labor required to take actions. I use it from time to time. Especially when I have a big procrastination I need to bust through. Another technique is to visualize yourself starting the project. I procrastinate much less now because I am on top of all my work. But that took me a long time to get handled. Procrastination used to be my best friend.

You're going to be doing personal development work for the rest of your life. It's a marathon not a race. Don't expect huge results fast or cheaply. But if you commit to doing this work and fall in love with it, your life will improve dramatically over the long-term. Set some goals and visualize the hard work that you're gonna do to implement them. It's gonna take emotional-labor. This is not some pop-a-pill and problem solved stuff. You are after value that is rare and valuable in life. Value must be fought for, it never falls in your lap or comes easily, not sustainably. So, take baby-steps and don't overwhelm yourself. Approach this like learning how to play the guitar. It will take years of daily practice to get really good at playing the guitar. But remember the work of art here is you, your dream-life! How exciting is that? Visualize what you will get from doing this work in the long term. Let that inspire and motivate you today. Get on the path to become a personal development junkie. Set proper expectations now to avoid later frustrations which could cause you to quit. You wanna avoid quitting at all costs. So take baby-steps. Pre-algebra must happen before calculus can happen and it takes a couple of years of study and hard work to bridge the gap between those two textbooks. Same thing applies to Personal Development work. You are at the pre-algebra stage now. Do where you are really well. That's the best you can do. Your bright future lies ahead.

The best Self-inquiry is to do do-nothing meditation for 1 hour per day and just look. The heavily contemplative self-Inquiry stuff is important too, it's not an either/or it's a both. But Just meditate and look. Inquire by looking. This is huge. Just meditate and be aware. At the right time, just naturally inquire -- What is the mind? Where are these thoughts coming from? Why is the mind flapping around? What is causing that effect? Etc. Dont be too neurotic about Self-Inquiry. This would be like looking at yourself in the mirror with your nose pressed-up against it for hours. Take a more leisurely, harmonious approach. You are looking and seeing what you are. Don't rush this. It's a lifelong process. Enlightenment is a gradual transformation.

Enlightenment is about realizing that all beliefs are existentially false by being the result of that not merely conceiving the result of that. Don't worry about experiences. Work with the root. This is why Self-Inquiry is so important. Experiences are the result of doing this work, not what enlightenment is. Enlightenment is not a far-out state. Enlightenment is being reality all the time. See -- our realities are augmented by our thought-stories which introduce a lot of fantasy into our "reality". Enlightenment is being reality, but also seeing through the added-on fantasies very acutely, like the magician sees through the illusion of all his magic-tricks. You don't need drugs for enlightened being. People do drugs to explore the shit out of being, to *research being* by *being it*. Enlightenment research is done by BE-ing. But all you need is sober being to be enlightened. Everything else is just higher *research*. Just like you really only need a JD or Juris Doctor degree to practice law but if you had a deeper interest in law you could get the LLM degree with is the Master of Laws degree. But that degree is optional. All you really need to practice law is the JD. Same distinction can be made in enlightenment. All I want is the JD for now. Others on here are pursuing the LLM Degree. Some people on here are still in Undergrad, ya know! It's a mix. You gotta understand that Leo is *researching* the shit out of enlightenment at the Ph.D. level. You need to get to the Bachelor's Degree first. Don't think Enlightenment is a single thing or state or destination. It's an evolution, a life-long transformation. You just need to get on the path in the best way from where you are right now.

If you don't attach to an identity, just have fun playing the roles. Nothing is you anyway. None of those emotions are yours. I guess it's an empirical question to see how acting screws with your egoic-self. I get it. Maybe it causes your personality to get screwed up or maybe it causes some neurosis or depression. But maybe those are just neurotic limiting-beliefs! Assume that and get in there and tinker and just find out. Screw what anybody says without actually having done this, it's all made-up or hearsay. It has no real value to you. It's just talk without any foundation. What value does that give to you really? Nada. Your ego is looking to cling to some kind of unfounded belief when what you really need to do is go find out by actually doing it. Or, maybe talk to someone who is very analogous to your situation who has *actually done it* and whose opinion has been established by you as highly-credible. Don't solidify some limiting-belief based-off what you hear said casually. Not when it comes to your career. It's too important, especially if you already noticed you have a passion for it. Your ego is looking for a way to sabotage you with limiting-beliefs, remember that. You considering pushing your comfort-zone spooks the ego. This is why most people never get out of second-gear in life. The lower-self wants physical and emotional comfort, and it will try to murder all your higher-self's aspirations. An enlightened person realizes that everything we do is role-playing anyway. That's all we do is play roles. All day long. We play the roles of our little egoic, earth-bound selves. What do we do or think about that is not role-playing? I can't think of anything. I see the growth-potential in acting as a profession and I see how it could go with an enlightened life not against it. After all, what the hell is genuineness anyway? It's ego. The higher-self, the virtuous-self is ego. Reality just is. People take Maya so seriously. Play around with it a bit! Let's transform our verse into song! We need to lighten-up in our Maya lives. Purpose is great, being good and imitating Jesus is great, but man, sometimes I think we just need to relish the illusion and realize it ain't all that serious. We make it serious. Acting is right in line with this realization. Just don't compromise your values too much. Obviously everybody has to compromise a little from time to time. If our higher-selves ran this place, we would all be hoping for death because the spice-of-life would be conspicuously AWOL. Just maintain the proper dynamic-balance between Yin and Yang to harmonize with the Tao and you'll do great no matter what you do. This is how some people practice their spirituality. Much less cerebral than we do. I saw this when I was in Florence. Sing -- Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama. Rama Rama, Hare Hare. The Hare Krishna Mantra is like a baby calling for its father, but in this case the Father is God and we are the baby. It is a re-union with God. How does this "singing and dancing" role-playing compare to our "staring at our PCs" role-playing? It's a distinction without a difference. But even that belief must eat itself. Reality just is.

Notice when you meditate there are moments when the mind disappears. Really take note of that WITH YOUR BEING not with your conceptual mind. Really start to see that the mind is not you. See and feel and be that very profoundly. Start to be able to distance yourself from the mind like a bird-watcher watching a bird through binoculars. Don't try to force anything. Just be aware of things. Let the monkey-mind chatter away in your ear like an ornery little brother that you will eventually learn to half-ignore. It's like yeah yeah yeah, what? So sorry, I wasn't listening. Haha. It really becomes like that. It's not that you kill the mind it's just that you change the way that you relate to it. Like instead of kicking somebody's ass you just learn how to ignore them. But don't take any of these stories literally, they're just intuition-pumps for you to chew-on before you do your Self-Inquiry work and take a look for real by being the Truth. What is the mind? How does the ego want to cling to the mind? Am I the mind? What is the difference between the mind and awareness? What is the difference between thoughts and the mind? What is the difference between beliefs and thoughts? What are thoughts? What are sounds? Do sounds occur in space and time? Etc. See? All fascinating Self-Inquiry questions to explore. Here's some more: What is the ego? Am I my body and/or brain? Do I have an identity? Does that identity have stable properties? What is this identity? What are these properties? Do I have a stable personality? Could I completely change my personality? What is stopping me from completely changing my personality? What is holding me back in life from doing what my higher-self knows is the right thing to do? Are these obstacles fixed or can they be removed? What are these obstacles really and what are they made of? What is a limiting-belief? How does a limiting-belief gain its traction? How do thoughts limit me? What is permitting thoughts to limit me? How can I unhook limiting-beliefs from me? What is asking these questions? What is aware of all of this? Is that awareness something inside me or outside me? What is a conceptual distinction? How does a conceptual distinction relate to awareness? How does a theory relate to the subject matter or the result that the theory pertains to? Can the ego be destroyed? Do I die when the body and brain die? Does awareness die when the body and brain die? Does the mind die when the body and brain die? What is the relation between awareness and the mind, the relation between awareness and the body, and the relation between awareness and the brain? What is the relation between awareness and you? What is a relation? What is a question? What am I? And so on and on. Fall in love with Self-Inquiry if you wanna make progress with enlightenment. In enlightenment, theory is just scaffolding, pointers to do the Self-Inquiry work. Enlightenment is not a theory. Enlightenment is transformation. The ego wants beliefs and theories, but that's not what you want. You want transformation. Clinging too much to the theory-scaffolding is a huge trap. All beliefs and all theories are existentially false, But only use this as a guide. Don't even cling to this as a belief. The way you look at thoughts will dramatically change from the way you look at them now with enlightenment. If you're stuck in the Rationalist Paradigm, you're not gonna get this. It's just gonna sound wrong to you. Watch all the videos I attached below. Separate yourself from the Mind-Matrix. It will still be there, but your awareness of the Truth will change how you attach to things at the being level (I'm not talking about attachment to beliefs or thoughts here). Remember, this is about being differently not about thinking differently. This should change how you BE, how you are. You are looking for a being-transformation not a belief-transformation. These words are just scaffolding to get you to be differently. And that's why you just need to get in there, open up the hood, don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, and tinker-around inside your being. That's what Self-Inquiry is all about. Everything else is just pre-algebra compared to Self-Inquiry. This is so hard to explain too because we operate on the "knowing = belief" paradigm. Here we need to change that paradigm to the "knowing = being" paradigm for enlightenment work. You gotta literally jump from one paradigm to another one here, from one bubble to another bubble. And there's no easy, primrose path to do this. You gotta grab your druthers and make that discontinuous flyin'-leap from one paradigm to the next one! How many people can actually do this? How many people will do this? Videos on point to watch: