Joseph Maynor

Enlightenment Work functions very practically in my life. It's like the counter-balance of my Ego -- the pressure-release valve for my Ego. No Ego, like Ego gets summoned depending on the context. If reality is really rubbing my Ego the wrong way, I might surrender into being and use the lens of No Ego for a while. You need No Ego -- paradoxically, it's what allows Ego to develop into a Healthy Ego or what I call an Enlightened Ego.

That's a great metaphor. The Ego has to discover No Ego. That's the Path of Enlightenment. So, the Path is designed for Egos.

You'll develop an inner sense for this. I never know in advance when I will meditate. I just do it when it feels right to do it. Similar to how one might eat upon feeling hungry. Some days I'll meditate for 30 mins. Some days I'll meditate for 2 or 3 hours, it just depends. And I never try to force meditation either. I just surrender to it for as long as it needs to be. It's like eating, you don't really force yourself to eat, you just stop eating when you're full -- it's an automatic sensor. Meditation has that too.

That's why I used the word approximate. I'm drawing my comparison not his. I'm trying to point to being. I don't follow Adyashanti, I just used one of his metaphors to point to being.

Yeah, in a sense I think so. When you surrender to being you do also discover what the lens of No Ego points to. But that's a very specific case. In most cases Meditation and Self-Inquiry function very differently. I still Meditate but I don't really do Self-Inquiry anymore. Self-Inquiry became moot for me a while ago. When you discover "being nothingness" you don't really need to cling to the question 'what am I?' anymore. And also 'what am I?' is an unnecessarily Egoic question because it's designed to point an Ego to No Ego. You don't ask 'what am I?' after discovering being. It's the Ego seeker that asks 'what am I?'

This is a great question. Kudos for thinking of it. Being is not a knowing or a doing. No Ego, or as Adyashanti approximates it as "resting as Awareness", is a being. Being is a surrender to nothingness. This is No Ego which you might discover when you meditate.

That's ok. most of what I read now is research I do online. I sort of transcended "need to know" which is the impetus of a lot of reading. I still read but only when it's relevant to some actual problem that has arisen in my life. I do a lot of Web Research on issues I care about -- practical issues in my life.

Yes. We might summarize that as the Paradox of Lying and No Lying -- and that you gotta work both sides of this. Egos do lie strategically, all of us do, even if it is just white lies or omissions or biased representations. Assertiveness is a habit, but just because you practice assertiveness doesn't mean you never lie. The Ego is lying a lot all the time. But you can reduce deliberate factual lying or explicit denials of direct questions with a misleading intent. People differ on how straightforward they are. You can put this on a spectrum of straightforward vs. not straightforward. Some people function on need to know basis and ARE masters of not being straightforward -- as if being straightforward is some kind of a willingness to be hurt or something. Other people become masters of being straightforward.

Lack of personal development work in my opinion. Another thing I noticed that some people do which is a no no is they lie. I used to lie when I was younger and then I quit it. Some people though make a habit of lying and keep that up. That is a crappy way to go through life. And people who see that automatically reduce your credibility when they realize you are not forthright. One of the best things I ever did was just be forthright all the time. Sometimes this backfires on you, but it's so much easier to never lie than to be trading in lies all the time. It's assertiveness basically. In Personal Development this is the topic of Assertiveness. I wrote on this and it's a real thing and has to be practiced. You have to learn how to be assertive. Some people have this trait more naturally than others, but it can be learned through training and education.

Sometimes the way people react to you says more about them than you. They are hurting so they lash out. They are bored so they bitch and complain. They are unhappy so they project a shitty attitude onto the world and others. You can develop a thicker skin where you don’t get triggered by these people. And you can develop an empathy where you see their hurting is caused by their unhappiness and suffering which then manifests as anger or some other shitty attitude or behavior.

This is a profound insight indeed. Love is a verb too. It requires a giving, a doing, an extension of one’s self into the service of another. And then one has to have a mature capacity to receive love, which is not exactly as simple as it sounds. You might believe you are unworthy of love, which can muck up you being able to receive love the right way. You might find another‘s attempts at loving you annoying, manipulative, or stifling. Love is “I want you to have the best” — it’s “I want to give the best experience I know about to you”. Love is working to give experience to another. It’s an abundance. Love can only come from a sacrifice of you for them. The experience is not for you, you’re giving your best to them. It’s that giving to another, that sacrifice that make love so satisfying. Think about this — learning how to play a musical instrument is great. But what if you could teach some young kid how to play your instrument — and better yet, give them all the tips and tricks that you’ve picked up after many years of struggling to learn. It’s like a parent being consumed with giving the best to their child. That’s a very deep kind of sharing.

One of the beautiful moments of my life was when I was learning how to play jazz around that time 2010-2011. Those guys taught me initially. I was just a dude who showed up with a trumpet every jam session, and then they all started to teach me stuff. The bass player with the long hair was the guy I met with who had the chart for "All Blues" on his table when I arrived at his house for a lesson. The other trumpet player is very good as you can see. They tolerated me initially haha. But I eventually got very good. Jazz is weird because it requires an equal amount of left-brain and right-brain to play. Your creativity can let loose, but it's gotta make sense with everything else that's happening from a kind of logical level too.

I can play 'All Blues' but not Flamenco Sketches yet. What's cool about all blues is it's in 6/8 time -- basically 3/4 time or what we call a Jazz Waltz. Most jazz tunes are in 4/4 time so it was hard for me to learn how to improvise over 3/4 time to get the right feel. That was the tune I learned when I graduated from like intermediate to advanced. In fact, my first teacher had the chart for 'All Blues' sitting on the table when I came to my first meeting/lesson with him. I used to play with some of these guys: You can actually see me in the front left playing trumpet in the dark jacket and khaki pants: the tune is "Freddie Freeloader"

Which performing art do you practice? I was an amateur jazz musician (trumpet) for about 10 years myself. I played many jam sessions and other gigs.

Being is definitely in California haha.

Being is not a state. Doing psychedelics can help you find being, but being is always there and always accessible -- even when you're sober. You might need to meditate to shrink the Ego down to fully appreciate being -- but you can appreciate being at any time. Thinking being corresponds to a psychedelic state can lead a person to chase like you're describing.

It's ok. But you should be able to meditate without falling asleep. Can you meditate for 2 hours straight without falling asleep?

You know what, this experience is valid. This is me when I was like 25 years old. For somebody in their 20's this is life. I lived it. I don't try to change people in their 20's anymore. It's a unique stage of life. It's a valid stage of life and a special stage of life that has certain characteristics. Things will change for you in your 30's and 40's. I'm 41, for what that's worth.

I think Leo could do a weekly podcast like Joe. Why not? And have different people on. This is a nice avenue to explore. Leo can add a tab to his website that basically mirrors Joe's link below: https://www.joerogan.com/contact/

When you get hit with real obligation you’ll know.

No. But don't turn that into an excuse to be lazy and never work on a Vision. There's takeaway from everything you do, and you're not gonna premeditate all your actions anyway. That said, it's an important part of Personal Development Work to think about Vision and to appreciate the importance of Vision for motivation and for improving your life beyond where your baseline is right now. Video on point to watch:

That’s what practicing No Ego feels like. It’s not all about you anymore. You’re expanding your concern ourside of your own interests. Maybe you see yourself in that old man. One day that will be you. Sooner than most people realize too.

It means that you already know what it is; namely, you've already surrendered to No Ego before. You already know what that is. You just haven't labeled it and associated it with Enlightenment yet. Enlightenment is the ability to see beyond Ego and to be beyond Ego deliberately.

Any system that seeks self-survival and self-interest can be thought to have an Ego. Any system that has preferences about reality and seeks to manifest those preferences in reality can be thought to have an Ego. Any Complex Adaptive System can be thought to have an Ego. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system

Here’s how to approach this kind of question without getting caught up in idle and abstract theory. => List 50 things that you find worthwhile in your own life. Just brainstorm and write out a list. If you can’t make it to 50 then do the best you can to reach 50.