Joseph Maynor

Here’s a good question to begin these kinds of discussions: What do we mean when we say that Awareness is Infinite? Otherwise we’re gonna get everything plus the kitchen sink brought into these kinds of debates. // Alternative formulation: What is Awareness? What do we mean when we say Awareness is infinite?

There really is no difference between the little you in the Dream and the little everything else in the Dream. It’s by backing out of the whole game, paradoxically, that you become kind to others. You don’t become kind to others by forcing the little you in the Dream to be kind to others. That’s Ego. You become kind by realizing you have no control over the Dream and then you accept everything happening in the Dream. You lose all Egoic interest in the Dream. The entire Dream becomes of a piece — a bit of illusion that contains no little you or little anything else in it.

If that’s my view and it works for me, why do you so hastily allege that it breaks-down and “says nothing”? If it’s worthless, why would I retain it and express it here as my view? I’m a smart guy, right? I majored in Philosophy in college. Surely I have something valuable to add here, at least to me. A better response from you might have been a request for an example, or a clarification, not an outright dismissal of my view.

After being exposed to teachings, put them down, and then become your own guru. There are pros and cons to teachers. Teachers are like training-wheels. You need to take the training-wheels off and become your own guru. That’s where you’re gonna get results. Otherwise, you’re gonna basically be clinging to the authority of the teacher’s theory. You need to make your own theory. Not cling to it, but make it.

How about this view? Truth and falsity is a dualistic model that has more or less application depending on the context, but in no way does reality adhere to being modeled in this binary manner through and through. That would be a form of theoretical idealism — of mistaking the map for the territory.

Ask yourself this — what is truth? What is falsity?

The only thing that I ask of Leo is that he put 100% of his heart into his work. I’m less concerned with what he says. If the heart is in the work, it is good! It’s like Louis Armstrong said about music — if it sounds good, it is good! If the heart is in the work, then it’s true from an artistic standpoint. That’s all I care about at this point. But I also realize Leo has more to worry about than just pleasing me.

There is no you and me. That would be dualism. It’s a little bit more wild than that. Non-duality makes no distinctions. Saying I create my reality is Egoic. You create your reality — how Egoic is that! I get mine and you get yours. Me me me, mine mine mine, yours yours yours. You see?

I never said I dropped all beliefs. Trying to drop all beliefs is Egoic. What you wanna do is see through the illusion of Ego, not drop all beliefs. You’ll still have all sorts of beliefs, they just don’t mean squat from the perspective of Awareness. The aim is not to try and control beliefs — it’s to stop neurotically attaching to beliefs. Let the Dream do whatever it wants to.

I’m glad you’re excited about this work. Welcome to the Personal Development Path!

How is experiencing one state gonna cause egoless to become more permanently awake?

I recall watching an interview with a guru who said that “Enlightenment is not for everyone.” He said only certain people are genuinely called to the Enlightenment Path. He didn’t mean that others can’t handle it. He meant something more like — it’s not the right path for them. It was an interesting perspective that stuck with me. I’m not taking a position on that either way.

This is why I say it’s dumb to be proud to be awake. That’s just how ‘your’ story played out. It couldn’t have happened otherwise. ‘You’ could have been a bum on the street too, and similarly have no control over the matter.

If everybody agreed with me, then I would start to worry haha. I would start to think — whattaya you want from me! Don’t worry about people disagreeing with you. Opinions are like bellybuttons, everybody has one. I like it when people disagree with me. That shows they are thinking for themselves — or at least attempting to. That’s a virtue! It takes balls and principles to disagree with somebody. I always say — please argue with me. I don’t wanna be agreed with. I don’t need to justify feeling right to anybody. We all have different perspectives. There’s no one-sized-fits-all correct philosophical view of reality. There’s just your view. And the only live question for you is — can I improve my view? Don’t worry about what anybody else thinks in the first instance. Worry about if you can improve your view of things. And then maybe you’ll influence others later on with your refined view of reality. But don’t worry about what other people say or think about you. That reflects on them not on you. If you can help them, great, if they can help you, great — but the disagreement aspect alone is not that significant. If people are agreeing with you a bunch, then maybe you have something to start worrying about! It’s like “yes men” when you get rich and famous, right? Everything you say is smart and funny now! That’s total BS though — it’s butt-kissing. I think humans are programmed to disagree more than agree with other humans. I expect that and celebrate that. If people aren’t disagreeing, then they probably aren’t thinking.

Frankston’s view is pretty strong too. We don’t get offended by things that we’re completely detached from.

This is great! I enjoy the way it’s made easy for everyone to understand.

If you ask two lawyers for an opinion — you’ll get three opinions.

Very nice. I haven’t studied Osho yet.

In a sense nothing changes with enlightenment. All that changes if your identification with and connection to a Dream that you never had any control over to begin with. So, the circle completes itself. Accept the little you in the Dream — it’s not yours! The little you in the Dream is no more you than the little anyone else in the Dream. The only Matrix is Ego — a false set of beliefs about reality. Why would you ever want to go back to suffering and ignorance? That tells me the jackpot on the Path hasn’t been hit yet.

Before enlightenment, carry water, chop wood; after enlightenment, carry water, chop wood.

I'm a fan of Cosmopolitanism. When you're exposed to a lot of differences, it's hard to form too many prejudices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitanism

Just let go of Ego and let whatever happens happen.

An hour is a nice long meditation. I usually meditate for 30 mins. 20 mins is the shortest amount of time I like to meditate. I try to meditate every morning.

Get audiobooks and listen to them at twice speed. The Audible app lets you do this. Sometimes I do it. I try to only listen to audiobooks now so that I can adjust the reading speed to the way I want it.

Cremated. I don't think it's necessary for me to take up space in the Earth after I'm gone.