Joseph Maynor

Remember that game hot potato when you were a kid? Somebody would throw you a ball and you would have to release it as quickly as possible by throwing it to somebody else while exclaiming "hot potato" in an urgent voice! Well, are thoughts to be treated this way too in Enlightenment work? It seems like a lot of what we're trying to do is not get as bogged-down into the rabbit-holes of thought-stories. Thoughts, when seen meta, can be treated like boulders on the side of the road. But when stumbled-upon with our guard-down, have an allure that siphons awareness into a matrix that stands at cross-purposes to reality.

Any answer you give would just be monkey-chatter when held juxtaposed to reality. Awareness perceives thoughts and awareness also perceives thought's attempts to define awareness. Thought can never define reality. Reality does contain thoughts however. But even this is monkey-chatter. You gotta look inside for the answer. Just look!-- as Wittgenstein would often say. It's more important to see what is pointed to by the word "thought" than going on a monkey-chatter expedition for the meaning of the word "thought". It took me a long time to figure this out for myself. Look inside.

@Loreena Acting from the ego-consciousness paradigm.

Free will is concept and applies to ego-based paradigm. In awareness of reality there is no free will. All there is is awareness. Reality and awareness just are. Any consideration of free will is merely the awareness of and going down the matrix of a thought-story.

@Loreena You gotta meditate in a quiet place for 1 hour per day. I use an eye covering to keep the light out. I meditate laying in bed, but I've been told that's a no no. But you might baby step meditation that way. Find a comfortable place to meditate where you can relax. Here's my prior daily practice (until very recently): I do concentration practice for 20 mins, do-nothing meditation for 10 mins, awareness-focus meditation for 10 mins, mindfulness meditation for 10 mins, and active-release meditation for 10 mins. I do these in this order everyday, time adding up to 1 hour, about an hour after I wake up in the morning. Concentration practice is thumb and forefinger. Here's my current daily practice. What's interesting is very recently I've been shifting to do-nothing meditation with a little labeling added in when needed. And this is what I normally do when I'm not meditating. So meditation and everyday life for me are kinda merging now. 1 hour of this per day. Anytime of the day is fine. Sometimes I'll concentrate on the sensation of my breath on my nostrils.

1 year.

Got it. I keep making the mistake that life will change with enlightenment, but it doesn't really. It's the same old life. There's a little bit of a salvation wish in there I think. I gotta root that out.

And paradoxically we are almost trained here in the West that loving yourself is somehow wrong, selfish, or overly luxuriant behavior. Before Leo released his video on Self Acceptance I don't think I even knew that loving myself love was possible. Love was something to be expected externally. I still don't really have a Self Love practice nailed down.

Got it.

Another epiphany folks, I think. The ego, or concept of being a separate self, is concept and therefore not part of reality. And consciousness work is basically working on stopping to cling to the concept of ego in all of its manifestations. Is this right? Releasing the concept of being a separate thing in all of the manifestations. Stripping that nugget of idealism from reality! We can cling to the concept of ego or release it. And this has no effect on reality whatsoever either way. Am I on track here?

Got it. Maybe questioning too much is the ego's way of clinging to life. I'll take your advice. Inside I go.

What are common shadow triggers.

Life is a comedy of errors, is it not? Why do we choose to be so serious about life. Maybe that's a bad paradigm. Just a random thought that flashed though my head. I picture Chuang Tsu fishing in his little boat smiling.

Not really. Just being honest.

Got it! Thanks.

It seems to me that everybody has their own opinions about spirituality. There is more disagreement on this issue than perhaps in ethics or even aesthetics. All I can do is wade open mindedly through all the opinions and come to my own resolution on the matter. That's what I've discovered. If I took everything as gospel, my mind would burst. So, I take everything with the appropriate grain of salt. I go into the dressing room with an idea, try it on, and see how it fits me. That's how I deal with spirituality.

Don't forget about Western Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy too.

I notice about 3/4 of all my negative emotions are gone now. I think bad theories were causing these emotions. Namely the labels I was applying to myself. Also practicing accepting what is has worked wonders with this. Now doing positive thinking seems moot.

I agree with this. Sectarianism is a stupid thing really. We should think of philosophies and scriptures more like a buffet, take what you need. Nobody is asking you to opine and categorize the buffet items into some kind of system. Just shut up and eat. And then go back for seconds of course!

Not necessarily. People have different interests. That doesn't make them stupid. If they lack book smarts we might argue they are stupid, but really only in one sense of many ways one might be stupid. I bet they are very wise about people. An area where a lot of nerdy people may be very stupid. So, by doing something you forgo something else. Whatever you have forgone, that's where you're stupid. And each person has their own brand of stupidity as a result.

Does the concept of self-transcendence predate Buddhism in the sense that the Hindus were practicing this before the Buddha lived? Or is Enlightenment a concept and practice that properly starts with the Buddha?

This is happening to me now. Openness and acceptance cures all. Ego transcendence.

Have you guys studied the history of Buddhism in China? That's like the sequel of your dreams to this saga. And then Zen grew out of Chinese Buddhism.

There appears to be a paradox that must be accepted with emotions. On the one hand we want to reduce negative emotions from our lives, and within reason to stoke positive emotions. But on the other hand this labeling of good or bad might become ego identification because emotions have no existential value as good or bad in themselves. Emotions just are. How do you reconcile this paradox regarding emotions in practice? Is chasing feelings always egoic?

Radical acceptance and openness. This seems like a key value. And not attaching thoughts to the negative emotions.