Joseph Maynor

"Self-esteem" is an interesting concept because it seems to be clear enough and not clear enough at the same time of exactly what the f*ck we're talking about. There's something dodgy about the concept of self-esteem that makes it like trying to catch a greased hog to understand specifically what it means. I'm gonna frame it like this. When you're miserable in your own life, that makes you very selfish. When you have lots of deficiency needs that are not being met, that makes you very selfish. How can you be generous when you're not happy with your own life? Generosity and compassion comes from someone who is coming from a place of abundance. When you have very few deficiency needs that are unmet, you're generally very helpful to others because you're content with life, you're happy. When you're content with your own life, and when you have few deficiency needs, you can feel compassion for even people and scenarios that even most regular people turn their nose up at.

I'm not a fan of using "truth" at all in Enlightenment theory. For me "being" is better than "truth" because it doesn't carry the baggage that "truth" does. But that's just me. I make room for other people to have differing proclivities regarding Enlightenment theory. To me clinging to "truth" is also a potential trap because it's the Ego-Mind that wants the one right "truth" about everything; it's frikin' insatiable. And then I get to run around telling everybody I have the one right "truth" like I'm some kind of super genius Ego-Mind among all the other Ego-Minds out there. That's a little dodgy and pretty obviously in error from my perspective regarding what the Path is all about, which is getting away from clinging to for lack of a better word at the moment, the "unenlightened Ego-Mind".

The physical plane as opposed to what? Reality doesn't seem to have fragmentation in that way.

Be careful about working on it though because that's just more Ego-Mind clinging. It's a little bit counter-intuitive. You don't want to try to be humble, that will only backfire and your Ego will not do that sustainably anyway. It's best just to keep working on your Path and meditating. Let No Ego or being work on you. I recall in one of Emerald's videos where she talked about those Chinese Finger Traps where the harder you pull the harder the damn thing locks down on your finger. It's only when you stop trying to pull your finger out that the trap releases. Humility is like that too. Trying to be humble doesn't do it. It's when you release from the Ego-Mind that humility naturally comes, as does calm and peace and all kinds of other things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_finger_trap

When I sent to Istanbul, Turkey for 2 weeks, I would hear the Muslim call to prayer 5 times per day and people would stop what they were doing to go into the nearest mosque to quickly pray. You can see the Blue Mosque (to the right) and the Hagia Sophia (to the left) in the background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul

This answer seems unsatisfactory. It sounds deep but has no cash value.

Why do you have 2 eyes? Why do humans live 100 years instead of 200 years? Why don't we have eyes on the back of our head?

You must feel like you're right. That's what makes me cocky, when I feel like I'm right. When we feel we're right, we act cocky. Maybe what you should do (and we should all do) is examine that clinging to feeling right. The Ego-Mind loves to be reinforced that it is right. But maybe you're not so right, or maybe this is a deficiency need that is coming from the Ego-Mind's need to feel right.

Look at how you guys rationalize stuff. It's like telling one lie forcing you to tell 3 more lies to cover up that first lie. Honestly, is reality forcing you to make these Metaphysical distinctions? Nothing changes if your Metaphysics goes away. Notice that. Nothing changes. All that changes are the beliefs that your Ego-Mind is clinging to.

Because when you're not clinging your ears are open for the first time. But at the same time we don't wanna cling to being Enlightened beings, because that's just the Ego-Mind clinging to that. The Ego-Mind wants to be an Enlightened being.

I think some of the changes the Path can elicit in you are permanent. Just like you don't go from being a 41 year old man back to being 17 years old. Some of the changes are irreversible. Ultimately Enlightenment is about unclinging from the Ego-Mind, so that has some permanent affects to it.

Think about the kind of person that is generally respected by others for being a good person. What is it that separates that kind of person from other people? What is that person doing, what is that person saying, what is that person thinking, how is that person living?

Thinking the girlfriend is an illusion is overthinking too, is it not?

Being doesn't really benefit too much from the Ego-Mind trying to understand it. That's why it's called being. One must be, which really isn't an understanding. You ride a bike, but that's not really an understanding. You just ride the damn thing. There's no conceptualization needed in the first instance. Same thing with hunger, you just eat. You're not sitting there conceptualizing your hunger in the moment. This is really hard for the intellectual mind to grasp. Same thing with peeing. You're not sitting there pondering the nature of peeing when you have to go pee, you just go pee. To me it's kinda sad to see all these books about being because being is very simple and non-intellectual. People get confused into all this Metaphysics by reading these books, and then they cling to that which sets up a block for being. Being is so simple that you have to find more sh*t to say about it to write any kind of book about it -- that's why all the Metaphysics has to be brought in to fill up those pages. This just ends up filling the Ego-Mind with concepts about being, which moves you further and further away from being. Being is like noticing a pretty woman, you don't need to say anything to appreciate her look. Rather than turning Enlightenment into Philosophy (or Metaphysics), I think a much better idea for a book is to write an autobiography of your own experience on the Path. That's where you'll get your fat book without all the misleading conceptualization of being. That's an Enlightenment book worth reading. All the abstract stuff, all the conceptualization, is trying to turn being into some detached thing that can be theorized about in the abstract, which is not only impersonal, but misleading. It's hiding out in a concept of being, which is just the Ego-Mind using Enlightenment to stay the same. No, Enlightenment should be changing who you are both externally and internally, with manifestations that are apparent to others too. Enlightenment is not some conceptual odyssey for the Philosophical Mind. In fact, Enlightenment should be bringing you back down to earth from that Philosophical Mind, see. If that's not happening, then you need to look at that.

This is a good way to think. Let us know if you find anything that is worth doing so frequently.

What is a victim? Victim is always measured up against some Ego-Mind's preference. A preference is always a the golden egg of some Ego. So, you're gonna be a victim many times in life. Every time your Ego-Mind doesn't get what it wants you're gonna feel like a victim. And don't think this is all conventionally selfish stuff. Consider your preference to stay alive, to stay healthy, see. Being will victimize your Ego-Mind in a way that is both foreseeable and unforeseeable. Being doesn't march to your Ego-Mind's drum. And you need to come to terms with this. This is a major part of the Path. The world doesn't revolve around you. Don't take that personally; that's just the way things are for everybody. Being is not for you or for him or her or for that. That's what Ego wants, see. Ego tries to make being partial to me.

Hearty veggie salad, split pea soup, brown rice, steamed asparagus

This is the starting point for a lot of personal development work: how do I make change? If we could make all the change that we wanted to, personal development would be unnecessary. My advice is to single out the change you want to make very clearly. Set it as a project. Take baby steps to execute it. Break the project down into steps or stages if possible. You also want to know why you're doing what you want to do and what kind of long-term effect it will have. Then you need a way to hold yourself accountable to chipping way at it. For example, make a daily checklist that you print out every day that has the work to be done that day which you cross off when completed. And then also you might want to experiment with doing some reprogramming of your Ego-Mind with positive affirmations to get your Ego-Mind bought-in to what you want to do. That's important. If your Ego-Mind is against what you want to do, that's like swimming against a current. And when you start taking action, you'll build up a little momentum which is important too. Oftentimes once you get started on a project, the hardest part of the project will be done -- because getting started is the hardest part because the Ego-Mind is not convinced that what you're doing is a good thing: that fear kicks in and blocks you. Oftentimes you hear the cliche, "getting started is the hardest part of a project". That's true! So, get started, break your project down, take baby steps, and build that momentum slowly.

You know you're really conscious when you stop referring to other people as unconscious. Also, remember too that word goes both ways. The Ego-Mind always prefers to consider itself as the conscious one.

You asked the $1,000,000 question. I think people can be deluded by anything on the Path, so beware. The Ego-Mind wants to feel like it has the one right answer.

Yep. The talk is just there to get you to locate being and to realize that the Ego-Mind doesn't entirely define who/what you are. This allows you to release from some of the sh*tty effects of being trapped in an unenlightened Ego-Mind.

If I same after you with a sword you would figure that out really fast. That little philosophical qualm would go bye bye. Now, why is that?

And yet you still have some free will. How do you explain that?

Someone other than me made this point. Wow. The people who can't see this they just aren't ready to see it. When you're trapped in Metaphysics, you think you have the truth. You gotta go through that and come out the other side like a teenager exhausting a phase to see this, it's not something that can one can be persuaded of intellectually. Most people are way too stubborn for that, since the Ego-Mind is so invested in its own beliefs.

I think we have some free will but not as much free will as the Mind wants to think we do. And I think the wiser you get as a person, the more you take the Mind's agenda with a grain of salt and realize that until you do it, it's just a thought.