Joseph Maynor

Wisdom is taking caution that you aren't getting stuck in stupid paradigms. Being wise to this and cautious to it.

Start by reading the Gospels. John is my favorite.

It’s something that has to grow on you.

Wow. Nice recollection. I have elaborate dreams but only remember small parts when I wake up.

I’ve used affirmations off and on in the past but very rarely use them anymore. Unless I’m doing some programming, then they can be useful. I did a little bit of that for my life purpose. But I no longer believe in the subconscious mind, so that’s another issue.

Even oneness is a thought about reality. You gotta make the distinction between the map and the territory. Oneness is still a map — or thought about reality. What oneness is pointing to is the territory. So, there’s a big difference between what I call conceptual-truth and reality. Conceptual-truth is a thought about reality — or a thought story. Reality itself is not a thought story. That’s a major distinction to grasp.

You’ll learn about this best by just walking the path and having shifts yourself. The proof is in the pudding with enlightenment. Without the experiences, it’s easy to cast doubt on enlightenment. You gotta see for yourself.

I like reading multiple books at a time. I've been up to reading 10 books at a time. That was when I was younger and more hungry for knowledge. I'm still hungry for knowledge, but not that hungry!

Non-duality is simply the understanding and experience of reality as being different from conceptualizations about reality.

What are you expecting Enlightenment to be?

I posted a video in my Journal of Peterson discussing Jung and it quickly digressed into ideological BS, so I had to remove it. The intro was like a ruse to assert some kind of conservative talk radio BS. The intro about Jung was good. He had me fooled for about 2 seconds. Beware of false prophets! I agree with Leo on Peterson. I get a bad vibe. I have no problem with conservative arguments by the way, and it might be an insult to conservatives to call Peterson one. To me conservative talk radio is comedy anyway. The problem with it is people get swept up by the ideology and become closed off. But liberal radio functions the same too. My policy is to steer clear of all News and Infotainment. Are you guys and gals doing that? It’s great let me tell you! That’s the bad part of culture. Leo needs to do another video on the bad parts of culture. Not all culture is healthy or wholesome. And you have to control your informational intake actively — it doesn’t happen by default!

I agree about Peterson. I haven’t looked into Harris yet. I feel like Plato against the sophists here. I guess the payday is too tempting for these people. You would think love of truth would hold supreme, but not for everybody! Money is the great corrupter.

I don't think two people share the same definition of Ego. I say no, but I have my own definition of Ego. Ego is the false sense of identification, controlling, doing, or conceptual-knowing between unchanging Awareness and the changing Dream. In my sense, Ego is a total illusion. So, it cannot ever be good. Awakening just means becoming conscious of the illusion of Ego, and getting the actual shifts in consciousness that follow that change in belief.

Check out Gigi Young https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo_fdaL6nGtL3fjyP8NsNaw

Writing. I see myself as wanting to be more of a writer than a one on one coach per se. I realize that becoming a freelance writer is what I should transition my career to. Then, at least I'll be working in the right field.

Pretty good. Almost always at peace. Sometimes I get worried, but it's pretty mild.

Is that what your life purpose is? What's your tentative life purpose statement so far?

Doing one video a week is pretty light for Leo, eh? He does a good job on the videos, I'll give him that. And he also moderates on here. I have to work a friggin' full time job though, plus do all this spirituality sh*t on the side! That's a lot of work! It's alright, the pressure is causing me to grow. I have to be organized and have a great schedule.

I don't get paid to teach anybody. Not yet. I have to work a real job. I basically have a joint career.

Think of yourself as a self-sustaining system. What are the substances addicted to doing to keep that system stable? What would be missing without the substances addicted to? What kind of adjustment would have to be made to the system to adjust for the change? Brainstorm in this way a little bit. You'll start to come up with useful ideas.

Awesome. Cooking is one of the most philosophical arts. Especially Chinese cooking. It’s like applied Taoism. All ingredients must be brought to a harmony and balance — where each ingredient also stands proudly and discernibly on its own. When I went to China, the food there definitely embodied this kind of philosophy. Every ingredient must stand out but also blend into a perfect harmony with all other ingredients — like a perfect Confucian society.

You don’t want to get stuck in what I call the la la land stage of Enlightenment forever.

Can you fall in love with the process and get started right away? 1. What is the process? Develop it. 2. How can I fall in love with this process? Can I get competitive with it? Can I turn it into a personal improvement thing? 3. Get started right away. Do not let this turn into a last minute crisis.

If you are prone to thinking, embrace it. Stop trying to deny part of who you are. That’s causing you a lot of suffering. People that advocate against no thinking have good intentions but they are not quite right in their attitude regarding thinking. It’s Egoic thinking that’s the problem, not non-Egoic thinking. What is causing your suffering is you think you can control reality. Think of it more like thoughts are happening, I don’t need to identify them as mine. Let the thoughts be. Your job is not to fight them. That’s like banging your head against a brick wall. Let reality be and just accept all of it. Be the Awareness not the junk floating through it. Be the atmosphere not the clouds. The atmosphere doesn’t care if there are too many clouds! That’s how you wanna be.

This is one reason I am leery of mixing God with spirituality. God just confuses everybody. Reality doesn’t need God. God is our projection on reality. It’s Egoic. We want reality to be how we want to think of it. God is a big distraction. It’s something we made up.