Joseph Maynor

Why do you think you need to know this answer so bad in the first place? Does knowing this answer change being for you?

What would happen to your Enlightenment Work if you stopped clinging to all these beliefs?

It is tricky. Yes, I agree that demonizing your Ego-Mind is no good on the Path. But at the same time, the problem with the Ego is it creates all these deficiency needs that get you chasing for happiness in some other place than simply being. So, it's a bit nuanced. The Ego-Mind can thwart your happiness if you let it. And while it's doing that, you can be deluded into thinking you're doing a great thing, only to be left with a hollow victory at the end of the process, if you get a victory at all. But at the same time, to demonize and deny the Ego-Mind just pushes it more underground which makes it harder to manage and harder to see frankly. This is why there are so many Spiritual Egos on the Enlightenment Path. These people deny and demonize their own Ego-Mind which is still there. I hate to use this example, but it's sort of like being gay and trying to deny that out of yourself. You don't wanna do that, that will just make your problem worse. You're better off allowing yourself to be gay, even if you're not happy about that, because at least then your gayness isn't sent underground where it will still survive but be forced to manifest in all kinds of under the table ways. Ditto for Ego. It's best to acknowledge and accept Ego than to try to deny it out of existence, because it doesn't go anywhere. It's best to deal with things above the table rather than below the table, even if they're unsavory. So, I am a fan of loving and accepting the Ego-Mind, but I also realize the danger and traps that the Ego-Mind presents and try to avoid those too.

It's ok to want to help things, but make sure that is coming from a very pure place. The Ego-Mind can chase saving the world too in order to aggrandize itself, which defeats your Enlightenment Work and your happiness. The truth is, nothing you do in the world matters more than the quality of your being right now. You shouldn't need to do anything more than being. If you do need more, that should be examined as a deficiency need. The Ego-Mind takes Enlightenment and turns it on its ear to make it something for the Ego -- when in fact what Enlightenment allows is a cease to that kind of seeking, that kind of feeling that more is needed to make your life palatable to you. See, that's the issue. Enlightenment should be making you ok with simply being -- you should feel complete without all the seeking, all the striving, all the aggrandizing of your Ego over other Egos. That all comes from deficiency needs. You can feel someone is Enlightened when they feel complete just with being. They don't have a neurotic need to do anything like saving the world or whatnot. Now they may in fact do that, but it doesn't have that same kind of urgent, desperate energy about it. There's a humble, secure energy there because no deficiency needs are creating that feeling of lack in the moment. When you don't need anything, that is noticeable by others. There you're coming from a place of abundance, of effortless and easy contribution, not a need to fill a void within your own Ego-Mind.

Words can be a trap because we all know our talk and our walk are often at cross-purposes. Lots of talk makes it seem like we are progressing, but take a look and see how much of that is actually the case. Talk can actually be a colossal distraction from doing personal development work. The Ego-Mind likes to cling to its talk and think that it's making progress by doing a lot of talking. But then you look at the person a year later and nothing has really changed in their life -- just more and more talk, more and more distraction from making the changes that are needed to do real personal development work. Some of these people end up pretty deluded and miserable, with that huge Ego still there only now hiding more cleverly than before.

I find it a little creepy to have to tell myself I'm God. It sounds like an iffy affirmation. One of those things that a person tells themselves to feel better about themselves. There's a creepy, dodgy vibe to all this God Complex stuff. Don't we have enough narcissists in the world? I'm sure Donald Trump thinks he's God too. My intuition is not sitting well with all this God and religion stuff lately. I see it as a turn in the wrong direction. https://psychologenie.com/what-is-meant-by-god-complex-in-psychology https://lifedev.net/2008/07/31/god-complex/

When I watch Leo's videos I pay more attention to Leo's changes than to the contents in the videos. What interests me is personal development, so it's Leo's own personal development that I am looking for in his videos.

@Faceless Faceless is back! You took a sabbatical dude.

Before you can integrate Shadow you need to know when you're reacting to your Shadow. You need to be able to see your own Shadow, to recognize it clearly.

I'm realizing that my view of Enlightenment and somebody else's view of Enlightenment might not even resemble each other.

"We are all one" is a useful but equally incomplete and potentially harmful thing to believe or cling hard to.

Thanks for this. I have taken your advice and am now watching her videos so I can make a more informed decision.

This is a good video.

A way to break people out of an unenlightened Ego by use of an exemplar or model.

Becoming being is impossible, do you see this? It's the Ego-Mind that wants to become something. All your stories about being God is also not being. Those are stories about reality (Metaphysics) that your Ego-Mind is clinging to. Why do you need all these elaborate stories about you being God in reality? Being and thinking you're God is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I'm the Godlike No Ego! Yeah buddy, sure. That's the person whose inflated Ego-Mind (God Complex) is looking for a new home in Spirituality.

Enlightenment is a Path. It's a Path that begins with an unenlightened Ego-Mind and ends with an enlightened Ego-Mind that's able to mediate itself with being through a practice of No Ego.

My advice is to take the extra time and use it to get away from the concepts. The worst thing is to take the extra time and use it to double-down on the concepts. That will just put you more into the Philosopher's mentality. I went through this myself in my 30's, so I know how this plays out.

I think in general yes. The whole point of Enlightenment Work is to take pressure off your Ego.

Ocean Beach, San Francisco

I think the people who attain faster are people who have been working on Enlightenment all their lives without really knowing it.

We all have places where someone could jab at us if they were so motivated to look hard enough. Each one of us has a huge Ego. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's not a very acknowledged thing.

The first thing to understand is, what is your mind and what purpose does it serve? It sounds so basic, but then again, it's these basics people miss on the Path.

I would say that's a pretty good pointer. But there's a danger that it can be misinterpreted too.

You get to the point where you stop with the "true Self" language as well. You get to the point where you don't need to conceptualize being.