Joseph Maynor

Member
 View profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    15,039

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Joseph Maynor

  1. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    How do you explain the illusion of free will?  That's what fascinates me.  There is a definite illusion of feeling and thought that seems to suggest the free will conclusion.  

    No free will resonates more with me than free will does.  Free will seems more problematic.  It's not that I need to prove no free will -- I can be doubtful of the free will paradigm.  So, I am more agnostic about these issues pursuant to my attitude of skepticism and not knowing, but I lean more towards no free will. 

    I'm inclined to think that Awareness or the Soul or Atman isn't the Ego and the free will concept kinda makes no sense without Ego.  But I remain open to new evidence or possibilities.  I prefer not to cling tightly to any paradigms, including the so called Enlightenment variants.  All beliefs miss the bus of what reality is.  Reality is only in the moment.

  2. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    6 hours ago, Faceless said:

    That’s what I mean.. the you that is believed in distorts actually reality. You can’t change truth/reality. Truth/reality is of itself. 

    The u who controls is the distortion. 

    I agree with this.  Or to sound less clingy and belief-oriented -- I should say that this resonates with me.  It resonates very much with how I think about these matters too.  The Ego is a belief and most likely false.  Knowing how our ideas have ferreted out on many matters -- it wouldn't surprise me that our cultural beliefs are wrong.  The Egoic Paradigm is simply a philosophy, a belief system, a cultural construction, not different from any other creation like Rock and Roll or Kung Pao Chicken.  Is Kung Pao Chicken objectively better than Beef and Broccoli, well?  Yeah!  No.  It's funny that we think like that with our other paradigms and don't even realize it.  That's why Enlightenment is the eradication of ignorance -- the deepest eradication of ignorance.

  3. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Nothing changes.  You most likely never had any control over reality to begin with.  Reality just is itself.  It is most likely not controlled by an egoic self.  The egoic picture or story or belief of reality is very problematic and most likely false.  But the best place to get to is the art and practice of not knowing or suspending belief.  So, even the counter-weight paradigms, the enlightenment paradigms, are arms-lengthed.  This leads you to be able to just focus on being the Soul or Awareness or Atman in the moment and not clinging to impermanent things.  That's liberation right there!  Atman don't need no knowledge.

  4. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    I’ve been studying philosophy heavily lately, so I’ve been examining a lot of ideas that have converged to form our collective mentality regarding beliefs.  And in the West, especially after Science got going, there’s been a real bent towards pragmatism, skepticism, and weighing of facts and arguments prior to belief, all of which is an advance in the collective mentality regarding belief in my opinion.

    And knowing that reduction of ignorance is the key to Enlightenment, it’s so important that we remove all vestiges of unsavory clinging from reality — to the extent reality does this for you.  We all realize the benefits of this.  We have a couple of cliches — awareness alone is curative and acceptance of reality alone is curative — that get at this.

    My point is that the theory of Ego encapsulates all of this wisdom, and then drills it down as a highly practical understanding which goes beyond the abstractions of thoughts.  This allows us to have wise awareness, which miraculously cleans up reality for us, whether there’s a possibility of control, or whether we’re just watching a story play itself out.  

  5. Posted

    2 minutes ago, Faceless said:

    What do you mean accepting reality?? 

    The reality perceived by you can be altered. One who’s thought is in order has a very different reality than one whos thought is disorderly. 

    But reality as in of itself is independent of the observer. Any view you have of reality is based on relationships, associations physicaly and mentally/thought...We can’t know it or grasp it by conceptualization. Our reality is dependent on how we interpret and what impressions are reflected back into it. 

    Accepting reality in the sense of being it and not trying to exercise control over it.

  6. Posted

    16 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

    You can't shed the tentacles of Ego by insight alone.   

    "In reality, acquiring self-consciousness means long and hard work.  How can a man agree to this work if he thinks he already possesses the very thing which is promised him as the result of long and hard work?  Naturally a man will not begin this work and will not consider it necessary until he becomes convinced that he possesses neither self-consciousness nor all that is connected with it, that is, unity or individuality, permanent 'I' and will."  -- P.D. Ouspensky

    I wanna discuss this more.   There seems to be a paradox between accepting reality and thinking we can change reality.

  8. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Stop judging and trying to control reality.  When laziness is in your shadow you will naturally be attracted to it.  If you allow laziness to be part of what is, the shadow will lose its force and power over your unconscious mind.  Basically, hating laziness is what causes you to be lazy.  Because you have formed an Ego identification against laziness, you’re gonna be unconsciously attracted to laziness because it’s a part of reality that you do not love and accept.  Reality doesn’t like to be partitioned.  So the shadow traits are always gonna be inclined to want to be loved and accepted by you, and therefore the shadow will constantly try to get laziness re-integrated in reality for you.  So, in a nutshell, if you wanna stop being lazy, stop judging it as bad and accept and love your own laziness.  It’s paradoxical, but there it is.  Knowledge of the shadow is a very powerful tool in this work.  

  9. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Self-confidence is where you don’t question reality so much.  Lack of confidence rests on the illusion of control.  Oh I need to control some thing!  No!  There is no you to control.  So, confidence is none other than just letting reality do whatever it wants to without trying to control it.  You’re just ok with whatever happens.  You don’t try to self-censor.  You don’t let your own beliefs and fears cause you to want to shoot a hole in your own boat when you are in transit on the waterway.  Lack of confidence is evidence of a huge Ego, paradoxically.  It’s a fear of being judged and rejected.  How Egoic is that?  There’s no you in reality!  How does lack of confidence even make sense?  See?  It’s predicated upon an illusion, a thought-story about reality.  Confidence is positively correlated with acceptance of reality without trying to interfere with it, judge it, or control it.  What appears on the outside as confidence is on the inside just acceptance and the resulting peace that comes from that.  

  11. Posted

    On the one hand you are already Enlightened.  Reality was never changed by a you, so speaking of you changing or doing anything is just a story, a belief laid up on top of reality.

    BUT you must spend the rest of your spiritual life detaching from Ego and beliefs.  (Detaching in the sense of loosening identifications with thoughts, beliefs, paradigms.)

  14. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    17 hours ago, Faceless said:

    Why would one de-center the center after seeing its falseness?? 

     

    You can't shed the tentacles of Ego by insight alone.   

    "In reality, acquiring self-consciousness means long and hard work.  How can a man agree to this work if he thinks he already possesses the very thing which is promised him as the result of long and hard work?  Naturally a man will not begin this work and will not consider it necessary until he becomes convinced that he possesses neither self-consciousness nor all that is connected with it, that is, unity or individuality, permanent 'I' and will."  -- P.D. Ouspensky

  15. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    2 hours ago, Faceless said:

    Do we see the fact that in trying to overcome insecurity is an attempt to seek security psychologically, and that only promotes further insecurity??

    Is there there psychological security?? 

    Can this ‘self’ cultivate security? 

    Insecurity only comes from clinging to the self-image or Ego.  When the self-image is dropped, so is insecurity, in theory.  In practice, it's much more work than that makes it sound.  It takes a lifetime to detach from Ego.  And it's a matter of degree, not some kind of binary thing.  Nobody fully detaches from Ego.  But you can de-center the Ego to a greater or lesser degree over the course of your life.

  17. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    8 minutes ago, SOUL said:

    @Joseph Maynor

    II personally don't create a belief  that belief prevents awakening or peace. Since our perception is a subjective experience the question of it being 'truth' is not something that is in the context most skeptics view it.

    We are being 'true' to our subjective experience of it not to an objective standard so completely contrasting beliefs can be called 'truth' with spirituality. The issue arises when people make universal or objective claims on their personal subjective experience.

    Skepticism is a quirky thing, even suspending belief is founded on a belief that there is value, a benefit, is better or is preferable to it. Also, it's the belief  that we can even withhold it to some effect or can even assess if something is worthy to extend it to.

    It takes belief to be a skeptic. Haha

     

     

    Skepticism is a word not a belief.  It's what you make of it.  It's a caution regarding belief, not a belief per se.  It's a willingness to assume you could be wrong at all times.  And this is a rare practice.

  18. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    21 minutes ago, SOUL said:

    It's almost insidious the way the mind will continue to frame everything as a duality. It is a misperception of the mind but one that served it well so doesn't relinquish the habit easily.

    Which is evident in the way even non-duality is unconsciously framed as an opposite of duality. This is why I place considerable attention in brining to awareness the hallmarks of how it is expressed.

    Although, I don't put too much importance on a concept to replace it otherwise the mind may try to contrast that in dualism as well with a right and wrong or good and bad dochotomy.

    Yeah.  The Mind is sneaky in its conceptualizations.  That’s why we wanna be skeptics.  Wise skeptics though, not stupid skeptics.  Wise skeptics are ok with suspending belief because they understand the limits of the mind.  But that doesn’t mean they don’t use thought when it’s useful.  If they held back in that manner, it would only be because they are clinging to some theory that corrupts natural wisdom.  No wise skeptic does that.  They just aren’t sloppy, that’s all.  And it’s knowledge that makes them not sloppy.  Moksha is achieved through knowledge.  Avidya, or error concerning belief, is the sole block to Enlightenment.

    Video on point to watch:

     

  19. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Folks I just watched the video again, and I think the biggest thing is that Leo seems to be too much in love with Metaphysics.  He loves Metaphysics a little too much.  That’s the issue.  There are some good stuff in the video, but his Metaphysics makes it hard to digest.  Metaphysics is and always has been highly problematic.

  20. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    8 minutes ago, snowleopard said:

    That is what is paramount ... If a teaching, a metaphysics, an allegory, or whatever, serves that function, then what does it matter any other opinion about it. It could be that when there is still some exclusive self-identity attached to it, as 'the authority who knows the truth', it can become dogmatic. But there's no longer much inclination to be someone who gets hung up or upset about that. Presumably it'll play itself out.

    Beliefs will become much less important to you when you transcend Ego.  They will lose their allure to you, like an older man losing his youthful lust.  Beliefs once looked so important, so attractive, so pure, so natural.  Now, you see through that issue like a 70 year old man sees through a teenage relationship.  Beliefs are not what’s important.  What’s important is detaching from beliefs, detaching from clinging to an Ego of beliefs, or a self-preserving system of assumptions about reality.

  23. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Absolutely.   No World is one of the big areas of work in Enlightenment just as No Self.  All there is is reality.  If you can perceive reality instead of conceive it — you will take 100 steps towards Enlightenment.  But there is no you and the object perceived.  It’s stranger than that.  Awareness of being just is reality.  It’s the most obvious thing.  If our cultural beliefs didn’t muddy this up, it would be the first profound observation of Science. 

  24. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    To me, the dark night of the soul means something specific.  It’s the point where you first realize that the self is a lie, and your ego and shadow briefly unite like opposite poles of a magnet.  The depression that follows that is you coming to terms for the first time of your now deceased self-image.  It lasts a week max, and it feels like a death. You will go through the 7 stages of grief.  

  25. Posted

    1 minute ago, Monkey-man said:

    Enlightenment can be attained quite fast. But path never ends, there's always more coz it goes beyond enlightenment. When you slaughter all of your demons, you will have to deal with demons of the whole world. Thats why there is such thing as boddhisatvas, they can't help but deal with suffering of the whole world, its not up to them, thats how things work, its a force of evolution.

     The idea of boddhisatva seems Egoic to me.