Joseph Maynor

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Everything posted by Joseph Maynor

  1. @Toby In order to formulate any question there is a model presupposed. Same thing with answers. Your answer is not the Truth either, just a perspective. A judgment. If you don't care, then that is ego. Why not accept my question as reality? Instead you argued with it. You staked a position. You partitioned reality.
  2. @Gavalanche This is a great video idea. My favorite.
  3. There is no answer to this. Being has no partition.
  4. The best meditation is no-manipulation meditation. Watch: If you want to become enlightened, do these too:
  5. @Anna1 There really is no answer possible. Only being reveals the wordless answer. Garbage in, insight out -- paradoxically. What can words teach us about being? It's like trying to build a skyscaper with Jello -- it just creates a huge mess.
  6. We like to say that reality is self-aware. But I'm starting to realize that even this distinction is false, a model. Awareness is a kind of control-seeking, if you think about it. Natural awareness is very different from awareness as we often understand it. You can't really individuate natural awareness that way. Enlightenment is letting go of the mind. This is the only real problem. I figured this out by the school of hard knocks. I guess all the theory is just to get you to release the mind. No mind, no ego, no problems. It's that simple. You could fit this on a postcard. Shorter than the Heart Sutra. Check it out. Am I right? The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore (the "Heart Sutra") Avalokiteshvara while practicing deeply with the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore, suddenly discovered that all of the five Skandhas are equally empty, and with this realisation he overcame all Ill-being. “Listen Sariputra, this Body itself is Emptiness and Emptiness itself is this Body. This Body is not other than Emptiness and Emptiness is not other than this Body. The same is true of Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations, and Consciousness. “Listen Sariputra, all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness; their true nature is the nature of no Birth no Death, no Being no Non-being, no Defilement no Purity, no Increasing no Decreasing. “That is why in Emptiness, Body, Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations and Consciousness are not separate self entities. The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena which are the six Sense Organs, the six Sense Objects, and the six Consciousnesses are also not separate self entities. The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising and their Extinction are also not separate self entities. Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being, the End of Ill-being, the Path, insight and attainment, are also not separate self entities. Whoever can see this no longer needs anything to attain. Bodhisattvas who practice the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore see no more obstacles in their mind, and because there are no more obstacles in their mind, they can overcome all fear, destroy all wrong perceptions and realize Perfect Nirvana. “All Buddhas in the past, present and future by practicing the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore are all capable of attaining Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment. “Therefore Sariputra, it should be known that the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore is a Great Mantra, the most illuminating mantra, the highest mantra, a mantra beyond compare, the True Wisdom that has the power to put an end to all kinds of suffering. Therefore let us proclaim a mantra to praise the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore. Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha! Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha! Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!” https://plumvillage.org/news/thich-nhat-hanh-new-heart-sutra-translation/
  7. Cool. I'm reading the Upanishads right now. Not all schools of Vedanta are non-dual: Some of the better known sub-traditions of Vedanta include Advaita (non-dualism), Vishishtadvaita (qualified non-dualism), and Dvaita (dualism). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvaita_Vedanta
  8. "If one inquires as to where in the body the thought "I" arises first, one would discover that it rises in the heart. That is the place of the mind's origin." "Who Am I" by Ramana Maharshi, Paragraph 9. http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf What do you glean from this?
  9. @Cepzeu you're still thinking too conceptually about the Self.
  10. It seems like at some point you just have to be the Truth and not conceptualize Enlightenment, otherwise the ego never fully dies. How can you be the Truth when you are creating a partition within it by augmenting the Truth with concepts, fantasies, theories? Reality contains no partitions. The ego has to drop thinking about Enlightenment to completely die. So, at some point inquiry has to end to become truly enlightened. After you cross the river, you can dump the raft. But the ego wants to cling to this raft because you spent a lot of time making it. But clinging to the raft after crossing the river only slows you down and prevents you from reaching your desired final destination. Your thoughts? Read this too. I love this little article. So informative. http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf
  11. That's awesome. It's so anti-egoic. The ego want to know. Greed for knowledge is egoic.
  12. @Shanmugam Understood. Thanks for the clarification. I realize words are elusive without contextual details. Especially with enlightenment concepts which are already little models parroting the Truth at best.
  13. I get this, but I want some more elaboration from you. The distinction between awareness and things aware of is false. The Self is Truth. Atman (Self) = Brahman (Truth). The Truth is embedded in awareness, so all of reality is like the Self's body. So the container and the stuff contained is a false distinction. Similar to the false inner and outer distinction. All of Reality is one flow. I'm doing inquiry on this right now. So, this is not just philosophizing.
  14. @TJ Reeves The issue is spiritual bypassing. Emerald does a great video on this. I have been guilty of spiritual bypassing too. It's a manifestation of the spiritual ego. And the spiritual ego is still the ego. The person who is truly enlightened has nothing else to seek. They've gotten off the teet, so to speak. Intellectual masturbation is an addiction and a manifestation of ego. And a huge trap. Enlightenment is about being, not thinking. It is about embodiment. People who turn enlightenment into another truth or ideology are still stuck in Stage Orange or Stage Green, not Stage Yellow yet. "If you're so enlightened then you should have no problem making more friends naturally simply by going about your day." Yeah, when you're enlightened your social insecurities and fears should end and you should be acting out, out, out like an extrovert rather than being stuck in your head.
  15. I keep hearing here and there that the stoic approach to spirituality is wrong in certain ways. Let's discuss this! This is not a basic question, it is a deeper question.
  16. Read Leo's blog post on The Origin of Worship. https://www.actualized.org/insights/the-origin-of-worship
  17. I don't know that the world is illusory. Reality is very real. I was hung up on the idea that reality is illusory myself until recently. No, reality is real. The perceptual field is real. There is just no you perceiving it. You are it. What is illusory is the conceptual augmentation of reality.
  18. All of reality is your body. Watch this video.
  19. I think I'm getting to this place now.
  20. Some people describe post-enlightenment as feeling like God. This gets tricky because our normal concept of God is very egoic. So, whatever these people are talking about would have to be explained in more detail to have any useful sense.
  21. @Leo Gura I'm interested in Kundalini Yoga and Chakra work. That is really resonating with me.
  22. You are the awareness that contains visual content that the ego conceptualizes as the body. But think deeper about the body. What is the body stripped of all concept? What is the body to awareness?