Joseph Maynor

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.

I think this Forum can be a great support group for someone who wants get help and help themselves; I know it was for me.

I would honestly encourage participation on here, I've grown a lot on here. If this place were so bad, I wouldn't still be on here. But, if you're on here a lot and still not making progress, then we need to look at why that is. Help for each individual person needs to be tailored to that person. No, I think the Forum is good. Just like everything else you can have too much of a good thing, which can lead to a kind of backfiring effect. But all in all, I think it's good to have a support system here with multiple perspectives of caring people to offer solutions. I still kinda feel that Enlightenment is only part of the solution. There are a lot of aspects to personal development. But I will tell you this, Enlightenment Work should be making you less neurotic not more neurotic. If that's not happening, then we need to look at why that's the case.

I think your take on Enlightenment Work may have made your situation worse. You're at war war with your identity and that's only contributing to your problems. The way you're gonna know you're making progress on the Path is your neurosis should be dialing way down. This idea that your identity is the enemy is not correct and will only backfire on you. This is like a gay man becoming a Catholic priest to try to get rid of his gayness. No, the gayness is still there and now is dysfunctional because it isn't treated right by the holder of the trait. Ditto for your identity. You gotta learn to accept and love your identity, your Ego-Mind. If there's anything I can do to help, PM me. I'm happy to work with you on this.

I've been through phases where I thought I didn't need meditation. But I realize now that meditation is the best practice, the best daily practice for communion with being because it shrinks the Ego-Mind down. I've said that meditation and LSD both have the effect of shrinking the Ego-Mind down so that being and the practice of No Ego can be let in without so many blocks from the Ego. The problem with not meditating is you can get stuck in Ego much easier, and you probably won't even fully realize that. The Ego hides itself when there is no perspective on it from meditation or psychedelics or what have you. That's why it's important to meditate every day. It allows you to practice what I call No Ego, and to be sensitive to being.

The Devil is a concept in a religiously-inclined person's Mind that they cling to. I'm not a fan of using religious words when talking about Enlightenment. If you wanna be religious go for that -- go whole hog into that. I was religious myself for a spell, so I l know exactly what that is and means.

Because when you're satisfied you're not striving. Notice it's those who are not satisfied that are striving.

Why don't you write it? Write the best damn book on the subject.

Who is it that believes reality is a dream and desires not to give a f*ck about said dream? That's the Ego-Mind clinging in two ways there: one as a belief and the other as a desire.

Eliminate all obvious distractions when you meditate.

The Ego-Mind wants very much to locate the "one right" truth about reality.

I like the word being myself. But then I don't put any Metaphysical jibber-jabber constraints on being either. it's just being. It is what it is and it doesn't really benefit from linguistic description.

Not to say I'm enlightened, but what work I have done has brought my neuroticism down really low. I used to have really bad problems with neuroticism, stress, insecurity, over-compensating Ego, etc.

I think the concept of awakening can be deceptive. What you have is your own evolution on the Path.

Watch out for goal. Goal is for the Ego-Mind. Making a goal out of Enlightenment can lead one away from being not closer to it. I know this is hard to wrap your Mind around. But that ain't a coincidence because the Mind is an agent of Ego.

The unenlightened Ego-Mind is suffering. When you can start mediating Ego with No Ego or being, your life becomes very . . . "stable" is the right word, I don't even want to use the word "happy". Happy doesn't always apply, but stable does. Even if you're going through shit, you can still mediate Ego with No Ego and be, and realize that reality is not marching to your Ego-Mind's drum. No Ego or being is like a pressure-release value for the Ego-Mind.

I agree, but I probably would not say post-Enlightenment. Post-Enlightenment is another one of those dubious terms. That’s not to say it never applies, I’m sure there are applicable instances.

I would frame this differently as follows: If you have unconscious shadow issues operating, that can function like a block to your Path. Ditto for what I call "supershadow issues", which is where you don't even see your own Ego-Mind accurately let alone your own shadow issues.

I don't like the word "Evil". You guys and your religious tendencies oy! It's pretty obvious to me when people or business are not coming from a pure and genuine place.