Joseph Maynor

Explain consciousness? What would it mean to explain consciousness? What is consciousness? You see how you take these conceptual presumptions for granted?

Video on point to watch:

Why do you think one has to be "bothered" (using your word) just because they have a contrary view? One of the things I like about Leo is he doesn't insist that I believe his views at all. Honestly I think your clinging to truth keeps you from being -- but that's for really really smart people.

When you know what being is you can. I can commiserate with being anytime I want to by meditating.

I stopped drinking coffee basically. Today I had a small decaf coffee which seemed to have as much caffeine in it as a normal coffee. But I remembered that coffee is good for your liver when I drank it.

This is a potential issue. I'm not saying Leo's doing this, but I see this as a trap. When the Enlightenment videos first came out as we were doing personal development a few years ago, I never thought we would be getting into this truth business so much. It just sounds like more philosophy to me and a potential distraction. And then you gotta argue like hell just to convince yourself and others that you were right all along with every truth claim you've ever made.

I found out recently that your liver loves coffee! https://www.healthline.com/health-news/coffee-might-protect-your-liver https://www.webmd.com/hepatitis/coffee-help-liver#1

Being is not something that is understood. It's the Ego-Mind that wants to understand.

I have completely divorced being from metaphysics and philosophy. "God" and these kinds of philosophical musings are part of the Path, so I don't want to say I'm against them, but I realize that ain't the end-point of this work: more like the beginning parts of the Path. The end-point of this work are (1) finding being and (2) understanding how your Ego works. But be careful, being is not a crafty, clever theory, as much as Egos want that to be the case.

I went through a phase where I saw "God" as an experience too (read my writings when I thought I was first moving into Stage Coral in my Journals), but then I realized later on that being is not an experience. It's clinging to experience that leads one to "God". But being is not about any kind of clinging. Being is not about Metaphysics. That's a trap with a slippery-slope that can lead you into conceptland, and I don't know how a person stuck in this kind of mental-masturbation quicksand about Enlightenment and being can climb out of it. I should focus on how I climbed out of it in my future writings. I'm not even really sure how I did it. It's like a shift just happened. A lot of meditation preceded the shift away from "need to know" and reducing being to philosophy for me.

This is important. The Path is a process that has many ebbs and flows. I was obsessed with "God" too during part of the Path. To say this is the way everybody should think as a one-sized-fits-all solution ignores the fact that every Ego has to move in and out of things and is marching to its own drum. We're all talking about the Path but from where we are now -- ignoring the process aspect of the Path.

Exactly. Being is not philosophy.

I see no utility in clinging to the belief that "God" exists. However, I want to respect people on the Path that are still clinging to God or are yet to cling to God. My Ego's been there and done that. It was part of the Path for me too. But my Ego got out of that kind of clinging to Understanding, Truth, Reality, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy, and Religion.

i think this comes the more you realize that being is not conceptual and that being is actually accessed when you get away from concepts and get away from distractions.

Wow. This is a fascinating question, isn't it. This is a classic metaphysical question that goes way back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics I think every person should question themselves about free will. The presumption is that we have free will. The reality is more complicated than that linear kind of expectation, divorced of context and competing interests. But then we don't really want to say we don't have free will because that is defeated by the laugh test, right. No I'm not assaulting this woman, I don't have free will. Get outta here! Right? We seem to be an admixture of free will and no free will depending on the context. See, it's more complicated than free will vs. no free will. That kind of linear, binary, on-off kind of context-independent expectation of the Ego-Mind has its pros and its cons.

Why would you apply the metaphor of design to reality? Do you see the presumptuousness of this?

This is good. I had this awareness hit me too relatively recently.

First you become Enlightened and then come tell us about your experience. All this heresay stuff and wishful thinking stuff is useful at the start of the Path but is shed off like a set of training-wheels later on. You can really only speak from your own experience. The Ego-Mind can and does come up with all kinds of bullshit about Enlightenment.

Thinking of your life as a game is a concept. Your Ego is half-heartedly over-laying that on top of being. First of all, your Ego is never gonna fully believe life is a game. Your Ego is dead serious about this game if it is one. Actually the game idea goes bye bye quickly when your Ego gets in real trouble.

Thanks for posting this. I'm not saying I agree with everything you say here, but a lot of it I do.

Too much attention on making money and career and not enough attention on creating good health for yourself and keeping your stress levels low.

Playing jazz trumpet on a real bandstand in front of an audience. Finding my life purpose. Getting my daily routine/ schedule implemented. Getting my diet implemented. Implementing my Project Binder. Many of my psychedelic trips. Doing all the writing I've done about personal development. Traveling to Athens, Rome, Istanbul, Beijing, Taipei. (Each for 2 weeks at a time) Practicing jazz trumpet when I know I'm improving. Discovery of "being" and what Enlightenment Work is and accomplishes. Hanging out with friends. Exercising when I know I'm into it and motivated. Going on walks where I get to see the ocean and where I get to sort of think out loud to myself and reflect. Long meditation sessions where I'm really into it and meditating a lot (like 4 or more hours at a time). Listening to albums. And every once in a while I stumble upon a new amazing album I've never heard. One-on-one helping people with their personal development issues. Deep understanding of World Philosophy after many years of study and majoring in philosophy in college.

There is something to be said or someone coming into Enlightenment Work with a big, damaged Ego looking for relief.

Isn't believing Enlightenment theory just fear of death?

This is interesting. But be careful that the Ego is not trying to define itself as God. That's the trap with that kind of approach.