Joseph Maynor

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Posts posted by Joseph Maynor

  1. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    8 minutes ago, ajasatya said:

    that's fine. you'd be simply playing with the semantics behind the words human being, which i don't find exactly an interesting task.

    in many ancient suttas, sidhartha gautama himself mentions the struggling that intellectually driven men encounter on the path due to their attachments to the thinking process. they face suffering because they're addicted to being right/correct and proving others are wrong/mistaken. this habit strengthens their egos in subtle ways (pride and arrogance) and they end up going in the opposite direction while convinced they're getting closer and closer to some ultimate intellectual comprehension.

    with Love,

     

    8 minutes ago, ajasatya said:

    that's fine. you'd be simply playing with the semantics behind the words human being, which i don't find exactly an interesting task.

    in many ancient suttas, sidhartha gautama himself mentions the struggling that intellectually driven men encounter on the path due to their attachments to the thinking process. they face suffering because they're addicted to being right/correct and proving others are wrong/mistaken. this habit strengthens their egos in subtle ways (pride and arrogance) and they end up going in the opposite direction while convinced they're getting closer and closer to some ultimate intellectual comprehension.

    with Love,

    Words and concepts are two different things and are attached to in similar but different ways.  I don't have to cling to the concept of human being.  The word usage is irrelevant.  I can release the notion that I am a human being.  Try it yourself.  This is not intellectual.  It's clear to me anyway.  I will not beat you over the head to get you to see this.  That's not my role here.  All I'm saying is I see it.  I get it very profoundly.  And I'm looking for some feedback over this epiphany I've had.

  2. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    5 hours ago, Telepresent said:

    @Joseph Maynor Ok, good.  I still want to say the following, which is probably more about me than you, but I feel like I need to say it, so please allow the self-indulgence:

    I get the feeling I've massively misunderstood you, like a sitcom character who doesn't like the new neighbour.  I'll freely admit I've judged you without right and I'm not even sure why - probably because I read one post in a particular tone and determined that I KNEW what you meant.  I hope I can recant for that as I learn more

    Yeah.  When you get little tastes of enlightenment you realize that enlightenment is more like a journey than a destination.  If you're working, you're always on the cusp of your next epiphany and growth point.  Then it's like wham-o.  Oh damn! This is the next level!  I'm one notch from before now!   How's the air up here?  Sniff sniff.  How do I adapt to this?  How will my life change?  

  3. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    5 hours ago, Telepresent said:

    @Joseph Maynor  I like the principle of your statement.  If you feel this isn't the right place for you, fair enough and I will be sad to see you go.  I have appreciated the challenge you have brought to the boarf, though I can appreciate it might seem very one-sided and even as an assault from your point of view

    I'd hate to disappoint ya Telepresent but you're stuck with me dude!  I win either way to repeat myself.  I grow either way.  I've been doing personal development work for 17 years.  Started when I was 22.  So, I grow regardless now because I'm always working at something.  Filling holes.  No matter what I do now I grow. Something bad happens -- growth.  Something good happens -- growth.  Two sides of the same coin.

  4. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @ajasatya Can I choose to do all those things and still release the notion that I am a human being?  Think about it.  There is no necessary nexus there.  Just because I put food into my mouth doesn't mean I need to cling to the concept that I am a human being.  In one case food is attached to.  In the other a concept is attached to.  Do you appreciate the difference?

  5. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Telepresent Let's not argue about it.  I respect his wish.  Let's grow constructively.  It's better for us anyway.  I'll just focus on building rather than tearing-down.  They're two sides of the same coin really.  You'll get to the same destination on either road eventually.  So it's no harm no foul.  I'll just worry about my own growth primarily and stop trying to goose others out of dogmatism on here.  I don't need to play that role here.

  7. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Telepresent Leo doesn't want me challenging as much so I gotta cool the combative stuff around here.  I'm ok with that.  Either way I gain.   I challenge because I'm on the path and not dogmatic.  I never said I opposed enlightenment.   I'm well along on that path myself.  Very far along.  And this forum is helping me grow.

  9. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    I'm having an epiphany and I wanna run it by you:

    Since all I am is awareness and attaching or releasing in the moment, I'm starting to realize that I have no self to improve, no needs inherently, no fears inherently, and that I can chose to ditch non-positive thinking totally.  Am I off in la la land here?

    Add to this if you can.  Broaden and extend this for me please.

  11. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    4 hours ago, Natasha said:

    @Joseph Maynor I am naturally a number person, I work in accounting and love it. When I was growing up, however, I wrote poems and short stories and was even published twice in a local periodical in my country. So I already have a bit of experience from a long time ago.

    I jot down all the time (I have sticky notes written all over them in my top work drawer). My issue is putting all this random stuff in organized context to make it presentable for reading. Another thing that holds me back is English being my second language, it's not perfect. Ayla tells me not to overthink stuff and to just let it flow. As they say, practice make it perfect.

    30 mins - 1 hr daily blocks would probably be a good start. I do have time in early mornings and in the evenings. The muse will catch up eventually, I hope 9_9    

    Here's my quick advice to you.  Two easy pieces of advice:

    1.  Get a grip on how punctuation is used.  Skim, don't read, like 5 different sources on punctuation theory.  Make your own table of rules as you skim in like a Word document.  Learn these rules cold, but break the rules when it looks right.  You gotta develop an aesthetic judgment about how you like to use punctuation.  This becomes an integral part of your writing style.  But learn the rules first.  And then break the rules when beauty, style, or clarity dictate.  The importance of this can't be underemphasized.

    2.  Find a writer that you really love and resonate with and learn from them.  For me that is attorney Gerry Spence.  A lot of my rhetorical turns of phrase and approach comes from his style.  I fell in love with it.  Gerry Spence and I are brothas from another mutha when it comes to our style of thinking and writing.  So I have assimilated him -- not copied him.  There's a difference there I'm sure you understand.  But that's how you find your voice, that's how you find your style as a writer.  

  13. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Ah man.  Aromatherapy works!  Smell is one of the oldest and most profound of our senses.  Things without eyes have smell, so smell is very deeply wired in us.  The smell of fresh alpine air is great.  The smell of rosemary.  The smell of fresh linen.  Takes me back to the womb of childhood.  The smell of incense.  The smell of Muslim scent oil.  It's a religious scent you'll often smell in a Mosque.  It's awesome.

  15. Posted

    35 minutes ago, Paintballer said:

    Try out the following sequence. It is super effective. 

    The 5 tibetans. Breath of fire or wim hofs beathing technique. Mine works pretty well a well but do not feel like describing it atm. It is on my channel. The vid is called the breath is sacred or something. Followed by a good 20-30 minutes of meditation.

     

    What is your channel?  

  17. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    I think for me it would be to add in some kind of cardio practice.  I walk a lot but don't get a lot of cardio at all.  But I don't know how to do this without burning up a bunch of time in my day.  Going to the gym burns up too much time for me.  And sitting there and just riding one of those stationary machines just sucks.  I hate that approach to getting cardio.  It's boring as hell.

  19. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    Mine:

    1.  Suffering -- This goes back to my childhood, but I feel comfortable and contemplative when I'm melancholy.

    2.  Competition -- I get a lot of energy from competing with myself and with others.  I like to fight, especially in writing.  I write arguments for a living.  I'm a legal writer.  I do very adversarial, argumentative writing, and I get off on doing it.  I love it and I'm good at it.  I know how to manipulate in writing very effectively.

    3.  Judging people -- I find that I do tend to do this.  I tend to judge bums, prostitutes, thugs,  thieves, and other people whom I consider to be losers and/or morally degenerate, etc.  It's subtle but I gotta kinda watch out about doing it.  I've improved on this; I do it much less than I used to.

    Yours:

    I think I got over being the nice guy a couple of years ago.  The way I did it was to work on assertiveness.  Get "The Assertiveness Workbook" by Randy Patterson.  That should cure you of nice guy syndrome.  Nice guy syndrome is an unsustainable strategy.

  22. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    I just watched Leo's amazing new video on overcoming subtle addictions.  Thanks for this video Leo, you answered by prayer with this video, and I love you more than ever before.  But doesn't our addiction to awareness, mindfulness, and watching ourselves like a hawk also qualify as a subtle addiction too?  Aren't we, paradoxically, manifesting neurosis by engaging in this conduct as well?  We're like over-eager awareness-strivers seeking to note and label everything accept the neurosis we are creating for ourselves by engaging in this compulsive conduct.

    Awareness alone is curative.  Ok, so that's our motto.  But does this strategy of constant mindfulness leave a neurosis trail in it's wake too, like a boat moving through water creates behind itself?  And if you're in the boat, you don't normally see this trail unless you turn around, so the trail is hidden from your ordinary plain sight, your normal forward-looking view on the boat.  Is it not?  But it exists nonetheless.

    So, what is the sustainable solution to overcoming this problem, if any exists.  Maybe there is no problem and/or no solution, and if that's your contention,  please make an appropriate argument here so we can discuss this issue.  Let's get to the bottom of this.  This question is for everyone.