Joseph Maynor

@Dodo This is so true. Everybody wants to have the last word to win. Need to be right. Need to solve the problem. Need to make the last intelligent point. Need to be the one to put the issue to bed. See? That makes me right. Now my ego gets to feel good for 5 minutes too.

Here's another great video on point. Watch.

@Ramu But even that is a concept. The true skeptic drops even that conception. Or he holds it loosely if he does hold it, not like a fact but more like a useful rule of thumb. This is tricky to do because we want to know, to have a definitive fact, to settle the issue, to be right. But that's another part of the illusion right there. Another piece of the problem.

Not necessarily. If SOUL is a true skeptic, then his claim is not dogmatic but extremely openminded.

Here you go. Leo explains it here: https://www.actualized.org/insights/just-scaffolding

@Anna1 It's so great that we can communicate effectively on here. Language is so ambiguous and it takes a great tight-rope walker to keep meaning in check. There is so much room for projection and argumentation in communication via writing.

@SOUL That only resonates with the monkey-mind perspective.

@Prabhaker I agree. Brahman is the only destination.

@Natasha You are the awareness of experience. And the increasing consciousness. You as a process of increasing awareness.

@Natasha When I see the limits of existence when I meditate I smile and think. Wow, it's just this easy! This is all there is? Cool! Nothing to worry about. We all exist in a small, plain, white room -- even if we don't realize it. The space of the soul.

@SOUL Yes. I am a manipulator! You caught me

@Anna1 You need to burn-out need to know. That takes as long as it needs to take for each person. Paradoxically, it is by knowing a lot that you come to the conclusion of the limits of knowing. Otherwise you're just a dogmatist, because it is not first-person knowledge for you.

@Loreena I feel like the lower mode can be completely transcended. I know some among us are skeptical of this. Brahman is the prespectiveless perspective. That is possible for you. Anything less would be a distinction and thus an illusion.

Here's the thing. You need a huge amount of theory to become enlightened. This is the taboo truth that a lot of people do not want to admit. And you know what, let's stop bullshitting ourselves about this. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the end of this stupid denial. Why the hell are we perpetuating some anti-theory perspective on enlightenment? Enlightenment can be explained in a pamphlet. I've seen it done. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jnana_yoga Hare Krishna dancers in Florence. I saw this when I was there. Changed my life. Florence. You're crazy not to go there at least once. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence

Go for it. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. I live in San Francisco so I've seen everything.

@Dodo But do the definitions paint a useful picture? How does your experience relate to that picture? Can you draw an interesting line of creative energy that would at a minimum entertain me?

@SOUL The ego needs it to latch onto while it self-implodes.

@Shanmugam 29 If any one should wish to get the kingdom for himself, and to effect this by what he does, I see that he will not succeed. The kingdom is a spirit-like thing, and cannot be got by active doing. He who would so win it destroys it; he who would hold it in his grasp loses it. The course and nature of things is such that What was in front is now behind; What warmed anon we freezing find. Strength is of weakness oft the spoil; The store in ruins mocks our toil. Hence the sage puts away excessive effort, extravagance, and easy indulgence. 37 The Tao in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do. If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed by them. If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would express the desire by the nameless simplicity. Simplicity without a name Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right as of their will. 56 He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it. He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals (of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things; he will attemper his brightness, and bring himself into agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called 'the Mysterious Agreement.' (Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or meanness:--he is the noblest man under heaven.

@Principium Nexus The theory is like training wheels on a bike. At some point the training wheels should come off. Leo makes the best training wheels though. Everyone needs them to become enlightened.

@SOUL I'm thinking that the very enlightened person has thrown all the theory in the trash at a certain point.

@SOUL Scaffolding. Mere scaffolding. Glorious scaffolding. Both scaffolding and not-scaffolding. Both and neither and even this claim has to eat itself. No-thing.

Stop attaching to distinctions and release and let go of the mind. Stop attaching to maya and release all control. Watch reality play itself out. Watch yourself play itself out. Release, release, release. Let go, let go, let go. Stop augmenting reality with beliefs. Become indifferent. From The Bhagavad Gita: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Partha, when a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the Self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness." "A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires -- that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but always still -- can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires." "A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego -- he alone can attain real peace." "Being purified by his intelligence and controlling the mind with determination, giving up the objects of sense gratification, being freed from attachment and hatred, one who lives in a secluded place, who eats little, who controls his body, mind, and power of speech, who is always in trance and is detached, free from false ego, false strength, false pride, lust, anger, and acceptance of material things, who is free from false proprietorship, and who is peaceful -- such a person is certainly elevated to the position of self-realization."

Death only applies to the false self, ego. The true Self is immortal. Technically the ego never dies though because it never existed.

Accept all perspectives. Reality needs every perspective.

@pluto Leo says himself that all his videos are just a giant kick in the ass. This is so true. Like training monkeys.