Joseph Maynor

Yep. Once the grenade explodes you can't unexplode the grenade. That's the key. At the advanced levels, you don't have to try to be mindful, it just stays with you all the time. Awakenings should be things you can't unsee, that's what make them true awakenings. If your awakenings aren't producing this kind of change over time, they're probably not very deep awakenings. Mindfulness is not a trying, it's a keen seeing. Mindfulness is directly proportional to love of the Truth; love of the true nature of Reality.

That's what I do now. It's ideal. I used to have an office but I cancelled that and now work from home.

Mindfulness Self-Inquiry Contemplation Meditation Work with Psychedelics ——————————————— Shadow Work (useful at the early stage of the Path but becomes moot when Ego is transcended)

Good job. I did that myself about a year ago. I use a different blocker though. You’re doing the right thing. The Internet is a distraction machine. Ditto for YouTube. Ditto for Infotainment and News websites. I’ll take a note to check out uMatrix. Thanks for the recommendation.

What makes you so sure you and Ego are one and the same? That’s actually false.

What is this “Truth wants you . . .”? You’ve personified Truth. Truth is not a being, not an organism. The word ‘Truth’ is so ambiguous that it begs to be misunderstood. Whoever put the word ‘Truth’ in this work ahead of the better word ‘Reality’ should be reprimanded posthumously for causing so much needless confusion. Substitute “What is True?” for “What is Real?”

This is a decision for Leo alone. Your guy's Stage Green values are not gonna resolve this issue. That's the problem with Stage Green. Pure Democracy has obvious limitations. Nobody but Leo can make this decision, and to not see that is kinda naive in my opinion. This is Leo's Forum; that needs to fully percolate through to you, no matter what your Thoughts may want. Without Leo's leadership, this Forum would be nada, it would not exist! One man is responsible for this Forum, as much as your inclination towards Democracy and collectivism might want to obscure.

Why? I think the 'number of posts' variable can be (but isn't always) actually telling or demonstrative of how much work people are putting into Personal Development. It's a useful and good variable to know; namely, "That dude posted a bunch of stuff, he's really into this work and has done a lot of it." You wanna strip everybody down to their underwear but the fact remains that we're not all equal on here. Some of us work way harder than others do on this stuff, and why not let people know that? I have more posts than Leo does on here! I've worked my ass off on this, and you want to make me appear to be equal to some noob? Fine by me, but I think that does the Forum a disservice. The fact is we're not all equal on here. And your Stage Green attempt at forced equality just hurts the Forum because it tries to blind the facts on the ground, the reality on the ground. We're not all equal on here: We span a spectrum from total noob to the insanely advanced. And you will not be able to conceal that by stripping everything out, all you do is make the information harder to learn by people who aren't active on here a lot. I think people should have some sense of who they're dealing with on here, because not everybody has the time to stay on here long enough to figure that out, which they do figure out anyway if they're active on here for any length of time. So, although I think you mean well, I do not think your proposal helps the Forum, I think it helps conceal facts which restricts information that the occasional visitor to this Forum, not the regulars, may want to know. Experience and demonstrated work matter. People should know the following: (1) what they're dealing with, (2) what they're walking into, (3) and who they're dealing with.

Think of all the ways you actually use the word 'mind' in your daily life. Write as many examples down as you can. Actually sit down and do this, maybe set a timer for like 5 minutes and freewrite for the whole 5 minutes. Then post us your top 5 examples of how you actually use the word 'mind' in your life. Video on point to watch:

That's how I do it and it hasn't hurt me. I hour per day. It seems to hinge on whether you buy into the Kundalini and Chakras Paradigm or not. I don't, so for me Meditation is simply about maintaining mindfulness. Meditation also does a lot of subtle healing for me. These include but are not limited to, making me feel better, making me more aware of the illusion of Maya, making me more centered in the true Self, making me feel more rested and energized.

The word ‘mind’ doesn’t mean one thing, it has a variety of uses. Can you identify some of those uses for us? Meet us halfway by starting with your own contemplation first.

That's what happens when Ego dies.

Sure, but that's not the best place. The more awake you become the more you will be doing meditation all the time. But even the awake person should still do meditation because it has so many benefits. I used to meditate a lot in the park. Find a secluded place and just sit. Listen to the birds and the wind rustling the leaves of the trees.

Why the resistance to saying anything original that pertains to you though? That's my point. You should be talking only about you and you should be open with doing that. The more advanced someone is on the Path, the more they'll naturally do this. They won't be speaking about ideology or arguing, they'll be telling you about what they think and see from their own inner work. The more original stuff that you say about you, the more you're telling us that you're really doing the work. I've probably shared more about my Path than anyone else on the Forum. And from doing that, I can tell you this, that's where you're gonna get your real growth. It's not arguing and debating and clinging to traditions. It's you looking at you and then talking about that very openly and honestly.

Samsara is Hell. This is because Maya is always changing and has you tail-chasing to try to figure things out, not realizing that Maya is an illusion. Release from exactly your suffering is what Moksha is. You express the suffering so well in your writings. Clinging to Ego is Hell.

There's a difference between being idle and being lazy. Oftentimes people confuse the two. Being idle is not being lazy necessarily. Being lazy is putting things off that you know you should be doing because it's just too much effort. Laziness is not putting things off while doing other things that are worthwhile, that's procrastination but not laziness. There's an element of 'that's just too much effort' with laziness. Laziness goes like ham and eggs with putting off doing exercise. You don't want to exercise because it's just too much effort. Laziness is resistance to physical effort, but effort that you know you should be doing. Plain resistance to physical effort is not laziness, because perhaps what you're doing is something you shouldn't be doing anyway. Laziness requires two elements: (1) Not doing something you should be doing, usually physical, and (2) For the reason that it's too much effort. For example, someone who sits on their ass all day long when they know they should be exercising is being lazy.

I believe Leo said he started a couple/few businesses when he was younger.

There are Egoic and Non-Egoic stages of the Path. Turquoise can be Enlightened as f*ck, yet still be clinging to Ego. The key issue for you is, "Am I clinging to Ego or am I watching Ego?" -- where does the meter point on that scale for you? That's the relevant question.

Why do you think it’s well said? Please elaborate.

Can you explain what you agree with and why?

Please elaborate. Anybody can say ‘is not’ or ‘is too’. Give reasons for your conclusion and then a conversation is possible. You left no room for conversation in your dismissive comment. It’s also not clear exactly what your objection is. What’s not the point? Whose point? It’s an attack without any substance behind it, an objection without any foundation we might call it.

Well, we can agree to disagree too. Can your Ego handle that? Why do you feel like you need to correct me? Instead, you should be probing me and asking me for clarification, or just plainly ignoring me if what I say doesn’t resonate with you. I don’t come on here to please your Ego with what I say. Moreover, your above reply is revealing to me regarding your stage of growth. Been there done that. I’m done arguing about Enlightenment, but I will explain myself further if someone requests that I do so either in a post or in a private message. What I say comes from me and is all honest statement. And it comes from my own seeing which is a different source than Thinking. Trying to argue with me about Enlightenment conjures up the old saying, "who do I believe you or my lying eyes?"

Survival is Egoic. The true Self is not worried about survival in Maya. Ditto for success. Ditto for love. Ditto for happiness. All that is Egoic distraction into Samsara (Hell) if clung to too tightly.

Only at the Egoic stages of the Path. There are two stages of the Path: (1) in Ego and (2) out of Ego. 'Out of Ego' doesn't mean there is no more Ego, it just means you ain't identifying with it anymore because you can see that it's an illusion.