Joseph Maynor

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Posts posted by Joseph Maynor

  2. Posted

    4 minutes ago, WelcometoReality said:

    @Joseph Maynor That's right. The ego is simply the identification with thoughts and sensory perceptions (body-mind). What is meant by Identification is believing that they belong to a person (you).

    Can you explain body-mind to me a little bit.  I'm still not clear what that means.  

  4. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    7 hours ago, Anna1 said:

    My advice, do what you will, but don't get attached to what you'd like the outcome to be. Think about that for a minute.... it's the attachments we have to our fears and desires that cause emotional pain. Accept what comes after you do an action (karma yoga). Sometimes the universe knows whats best for you.

    It's thinking too far into the future or ruminating about the past, that usually causes delusion, pain and suffering. 

    Another thing, every situation/experience has an upside and downside. If you have a job, you have money, but not enough time. If your married you have a life partner, but you aren't "free" to do as you choose, ect, ect. 

    I think you got me mixed up with Moreira.  That's his language, not mine.  I am seeing though that there is a certain swath of theoretical foundation needed to be confident in doing the nuts and bolts of enlightenment practice.  You don't want to shortchange that.  The question though is when is enough enough?  And after that point, it seems as though it's best to get off the teet of theory for a while and just practice.  It appears more gains will be made there by making a shift away from theory to practice at that juncture.  I notice Leo recommends a voluminous number of books in enlightenment on his revised book-list.  People seem to disagree over this issue of how much study is needed however.  I will not engage with that issue here.  But at the end of the day, it's a tricky issue to determine when a person's thirst for theory has been properly satiated or not.  Imbibing theory after that crucial point will only cause bloating, immobility, and frequent waste emissions.

  7. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    On 10/7/2016 at 7:32 AM, Frogfucius said:

    I'm aware of the form and non-form, changing and changeless. I feel like I am two, and there's a demon in my head, but underneath there is something more aware and forgiving. I feel like the answer to every philosophical question is both yes and no. I feel like I'm awake, but in a dream.

    What kind of phase am "I" going through? Why am "I" going through it?

    I follow you with the exception of feeling awake but in a dream.  That to me would be an interpretation of being, and thus concept.  I'm not disagreeing with your feeling that way.  I'm not denying that.  I just looked into myself and determined that I don't feel that way myself, and I presume the reason being is I don't overlay that concept onto being.  Reality just is.  

  9. Posted

    2 hours ago, 2000 said:

    Think of all the pain, emotional suffering, and neorosis associated with maintaining an egoic self concept. Existing with an ego is hell! Quite literally. I am studying religions, and I now realize the "hell" they speak of is really the mental stream of thoughts that rape you of your consciousness. People are driven to suicide because they identify with their thoughts and take them seriously! 

    So when I read books on spirituality and watch videos  (such as the one's on Actualized.org) and am told that I don't exist in reality, I now think that THIS IS THE GREATEST NEWS EVER! All the unnecessary suffering is quite in vain, and it is this that motivates me to do spiritual work.

    Just needed to let go of that, I hope maybe this helped someone.   -_-

    Watch this video.

     

  10. Posted

    11 hours ago, Moreira said:

    I've been since kid a hard-case introverted, shy with social phobia. I improved a lot and learned to socialize, but never erase my social phobia at all.

    I forced myself into social events to fight against my fears, but when I got into self development and Leo's enlightenment episodes my ego find the perfect excuse to avoid uncomfortable situations and my lifestyle became like a enlightenment junkie monk. I work in a job at night without people contact to detach from my ego.

    I can find bliss being alone, If I want I can find joy in meditation. But I know this is a trap.

    For some reason we are in this life to overcome our fears, and if we avoid them, they will come back again and again in different situations.

    This escapism of masturbatory enlightenment has been my rationalisation to stay in the comfort zone. If I'm happy in the now why to approach girls and be rejected? why be married and risk to divorce? why run a business and get broke?

    I owe it to myself, to stop avoiding the fears of life.

    I got a big challenge with this too.  I'm gonna fix it.

  12. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    2 hours ago, Moreira said:

    I've been since kid a hard-case introverted, shy with social phobia. I improved a lot and learned to socialize, but never erase my social phobia at all.

    I forced myself into social events to fight against my fears, but when I got into self development and Leo's enlightenment episodes my ego find the perfect excuse to avoid uncomfortable situations and my lifestyle became like a enlightenment junkie monk. I work in a job at night without people contact to detach from my ego.

    I can find bliss being alone, If I want I can find joy in meditation. But I know this is a trap.

    For some reason we are in this life to overcome our fears, and if we avoid them, they will come back again and again in different situations.

    This escapism of masturbatory enlightenment has been my rationalisation to stay in the comfort zone. If I'm happy in the now why to approach girls and be rejected? why be married and risk to divorce? why run a business and get broke?

    I owe it to myself, to stop avoiding the fears of life.

    I would say you are attaching too much to ego.  You're labeling yourself too much. Stop doing that.  Practice self love and self acceptance more.  Work a little bit on drafting a plan for your life to move forward.

  16. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Chime I'm in on this please :o  I'm starting to see thIs but I want to hear your point of view.  It's kinda paradoxical.   Firstly, I realize now that no person can be enlightened.  This is a paradox too.  But I don't want to pollute the waters too much with my own monkey-mind.   Let yours do the talking now.  My monkey is on a strict diet.

  17. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    22 hours ago, Snick said:

    Is this irony? :)

    Am I enlightened? :) 

    Here's the thing! No person in the world is enlightened. 

    Not the person of Eckhart Tolle either! 

    But let's take ET as an example here! 

    Whenever there is an experience IN Tolle that is absent of ANY identification with Tolle himself, you might rightly so call that experience an enlightenment experience!

    But other experiences IN Tolle might have identification WITH Tolle to them. That is how it should be, otherwise we don't function on a personal/practical level! 

    Thus, within Tolle, there is a stream of experiences, some of them are of the type enlightenment experiences, but most of them are not! 

    Intellectual he always know that all is one! But that's an easy task to arive to that understanding! 

    Just contempalte a cookie for example. Try to find the "Cookieness" in that cookie! You will find everything but cookieness to it, like sugar cocoa, etcetera! 

    Or contemplate a tree, the best example! Where is the treeness of the tree? You just find it consists of everything else but the tree itself, like the soil, the water, the sun etcetera.  

    Everything depends on everything, rather everything IS everything

    To understand intellectual that there is no separation in the world is an relative easy task! 

    To have a direct experience of it is more difficult. Partly because we are not wired to experience reality that way! 

    If we would, we wouldn't manage to handle life! 

    We are wired to be naive realists. 

    You can view enlightenment experiences as TRUE, but not NATURAL! 

    And the natural way to experience is not true! 

    To be human is tricky if you want to be both natural and true! :) 

    That's why I like to refer to perception and particular the visual system!

    It fools us all the time! It add and withdraw things that isn't there for purpose of survival! And particular it leave us with a feeling that the content we see is something other then just an inner representation that has no direct contact with the outer!  

    A painter can add nothing but dots of colors to a bridge or a square, and we see people there! :) 

    Human being are always complex! If you known Eckhart Tolle or Le,o, you would see for yourself! 

    Rather, speak about enlightenment experiences rather then enlightenment persons! 

     

    Got it.  This is deep.  Thanks for the information.  I need to work on experiencing reality that way.  Thank you!

  21. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    One might say -- True for human purposes, for our purposes.  The proposition "Killing an innocent elderly old woman merely for amusement is wrong" is true with a lower case T.  And it's pretty obvious what the argument for it is.  Look inside your heart.  That's the argument, paradoxically.  That sense of injustice and inhumanity -- unfairness.  But this has no existential import whatsoever.   So, is this truth with a lower-case T basically a human morality built for human life and well-being?

  22. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    I know about Varanasi, city of Shiva if I'm not mistaken.  Let's say I wanted to do like a 2 week spiritual vacation in India.  What cities would you recommend I visit.  Remember, I'm a semi-spoiled tourist who does like to stay in a hotel that is not too far below Western Standards.  I don't want to be living like a Sadhu in an Ashram for 2 weeks lol.  But at the same time I want to get off the Tourist Trail, if you know what I mean.  North or south?  East or west?  India is so large.  And assume I'll be going by myself for 2 weeks.  I know it's trendy for people to do the Golden Triangle.  

  23. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Yes.  My first big enlightenment experience was followed by a lot of pain, negative emotions, anger, and depression.  The enlightenment experiences after that were less disruptive to me in that sense.  The first one was hard because I basically came to the realization that my self didn't exist.  And I was angry at myself for clinging to that self for so long, and I was angry that I had held myself back in life by internalizing weaknesses in my self-image.  You gotta get through it though.  It took about a week for me.  Don't cling to the idea that you are depressed or angry.  That will make it worse.  Try not to label yourself.  Just accept the negative emotions fully and try and release them.  Become mindful of your dwelling on these emotions.  When they pop into your consciousness, acknowledge it -- oh this is a negative emotion -- and then try and let the emotions go.  You can release the negative emotions in this way.  Note, label, savor, and then release.  Repeat this.  Don't consider the emotions as yours.  Think of them as like trees, as aspects of reality.  You can look away from a tree or release a tree from your consciousness.  And you wouldn't consider the tree to be part of you.  Well, you can do the same thing with emotions.  They're just phenomena in reality that you are aware of, not yours and not attached to you.  Don't try to block or bury the emotions either, that will just make them bigger and last longer.    Accept and release.  Say -- oh, this is an emotion.  Let me look at it.  Ok, it's just an emotion.  It's not me.  I don't have to identify with it.  Could I release this emotion?  Will I release this emotion?  When will I release this emotion?  Ask yourself this set of questions.  Then try and release the emotion.  I think this is called the Sedona Method.  If the emotion comes back up, repeat this algorithm.  Remember, no trying to bury or block emotions.  Releasing is different from blocking.  Releasing is you savor the emotion fully, acknowledge what it is, and then try and let it go.  Let it in fully, and then detach from it.  Over and over and over again.  Eventually the emotions will stop haunting you.    

  24. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    27 minutes ago, Loreena said:

    Your point was perfect. Couldn't have said it better. 

    It's gonna be ok.  Enlightenment people are no more ornery than regular people are.  Maybe just a little more in denial about it.  Denial ain't a river in Egypt.  None of us are immune to it.  That said, I think Leo is just pissed that he has to deal with the pettiness on here.  He seems to be a very focused guy and doesn't want to waste his time.  I can appreciate that.  Maybe we're all wasting too much time blathering on here.  This stuff needs to be applied and I think being on this forum is a distraction from doing that.  Sure, dip your toe into the books for a short while, but you gotta know when to get off the dole after a while too.  Otherwise we're just all talk and no action.  Myself included.  And you wonder how much help our opinions really give to others, and if they are even listening.  You spend time to craft a beautiful response, and the other person is not even in the space to hear you.  So, you kinda wasted your time, did you not?  Better to focus on your own growth.  At least your work goes directly towards your life purpose then.  I still like to contribute on here and will contribute on here.  But I came to that realization myself yesterday.  Being on here -- can be but is not always -- a subtle form of procrastination.  Balance is key.  People that are here all the time probably do themselves a huge disservice, Leo included.  Unless you are really putting into practice everything you learn on here.  In that case, you should be more enlightened than Leo is by now.  You should be more enlightened more than even Osho was by now if you really study here and make a practice of it.  But nobody really does that.  We often come here not to work, which is problematic.  And I realize this tough medicine applies to me too, I'm not taking exception for myself here.  If the shoe fits . . . .