Joseph Maynor

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Posts posted by Joseph Maynor

  1. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Prabhaker That's awesome.  What I like about you is you don't seem to get trapped by all the theory that others do pertaining to enlightenment.  Enlightenment is not rocket science.  I agree.  Enlightenment is you changing your view of your self and your actions towards your thoughts.  That's it.

  2. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Nahm I can choose to focus on positive things and go after those.  So you are a fan of law of attraction and positive thinking I assume?  

    I am choosing to focus negatively.  That's so true.  And it's easy to not do it too.  You just need mindfulness on that issue and a reminder process to keep you on track.

    You seem to believe in free choice and free will too, no?  I do too.  I don't think Leo does.

  8. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Dizzy Very nice!  I think I'm hitting the ego-transcendence stage now.  I'm losing a lot of emotions.  All my negative emotions are disappearing more and more.  More peace rather than positive emotions.  Peace and acceptance.

    I love your definition of ego-death. I went through that stage distinctly last March.  Have you experienced it?

  12. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Emerald And you just like Leo are making a career teaching this stuff which means you are always gonna be up to your eyeballs with the theory.  You're never gonna be able to escape it.  That's a hindrance to your growth paradoxically.  I've advised Leo before to just take like 2 years off and go live somewhere where there are no books and just practice.  Purge the ideas from his awareness.  And just be.  Like a fisherman fishing on a boat.  Still as a Japanese pond.  Being a teacher causes you to hit a glass ceiling with personal development because, paradoxically, you ensure you will never be able to do this.  You stunt your own growth by necessity because you are always clinging clinging clinging to notions and theories.  It's like your mind is being stung by biting flies all the time.  What you really need to do is -- at a certain point -- is to get rid of those flies.  And let your mind heal.  And go be at peace from all those ideas.  Like detoxing from them in a way.  I never thought of it like that before until now.  Because you are teaching this stuff, you are like a carbonated soda all the time, boiling-over with so many concepts, neurotically being mastered to teach other people who are at lower stages of personal growth than you are.  You are reaching down all the time instead of up.  You gotta cut that cord at some point and realize that the teacher is the true Bodhisattva, the martyr.  She foregoes nirvana for herself to help others.  That's a high price to pay though, and you might want to consider the costs of this.  The person who achieves nirvana decides to cut the cord and take that selfish act.  Let others fend for themselves at a certain point, and set your self free.  It must be done.  Martyrdom is too costly a strategy in the long run.

  13. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Prabhaker Ah Prabhaker.  Another beacon of genuineness, just like Emerald.  You know, I was tough on enlightenment and all this spiritual-striving in my previous post, but the day I had my ego-death experience, which was last March, was the first day of my life.  It was the day I went from a caterpillar to a butterfly.  I'll never be the same again.  So, enlightenment is not to be underestimated.  But I think there's a balance there you can find with this work.  And that's what the wisest people find.  That balance.  That peace.  That end to striving so much.  A turning away from the burn and more towards love.  Love and acceptance.  You don't have to work that hard.  Just be.  That's what's I've discovered.  It's like you discover the Tao.  Wu Wei.  Non-action action.  Striving via love not force.  A gentle steady wind versus a tornado.  Tornados cause a lot of collateral damage, even to the tornado itself.

  14. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Emerald Sometimes I feel that this enlightenment stuff is not necessarily 100% healthy.  It is actually pretty neurotic at times.  I've had to find a balance in my life.  A peace.  But at the same time I wanna be killing it on my life-purpose, which is huge.  I'm writing a philosophy book, not necessarily a minor feat.  So, it's kinda paradoxical.  But you can get sucked too far down the rabbit hole of the enlightenment theory route, and kinda lose sight of the trail.  You end up kinda off-center so to speak.  A bit too radical.  A bit too bought-in.  You end up being a conformist in your quest not to be one.  Kinda like punk rockers.  Saddling yourself and guilting yourself with all that theory.

  16. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    It's not just a compliment.  I don't know you personally, but it is like calling a spade a spade.  That's not a compliment, it is a fact.  You can take it as a compliment if you wish.  I am very genuine too.  Or at least I try to be.  I can be ornery too from time to time though.  Especially when my ego gets rubbed the wrong way.  I'm very sensitive to criticism and get very competitive very fast.  If I don't watch myself I will turn into a crazy person, a mad-man.  But I don't do that as much anymore.  I've burned enough bridges in my life.  

  19. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Prabhaker Maybe he should work on the log in his own eye before he worries about the speck in others.  

    "Do Not Judge!
    …For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye?…"  Matthew 7-3

    Damn that's wise eh!  Jesus didn't suffer no fools.  Oh lordy lord.

    Here's the King James version, a little more blunt -- 

    Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

  22. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Nichols Harvey Do you guys all know each other in real life?  Seems like a small squabbling family around here sometimes.  I never thought Buddhists could be so argumentative.  The Buddha must be spinning in his grave!   Rub the Buddha's big fat belly for some luck and peace folks.  Life's not this hard.  I thought I was an arguer.  Man, I'm chill in comparison.  You ever seen one of those tiny zen gardens?  Maybe get one of those.  With that little rake. Rake away your sins!  Life is chill.  Eat it up.

  24. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Nichols Harvey Not enlightenment per-se, but non-dualism.  I got a big problem with non-dualism as a theory.  And that doesn't mean that dualism is correct either.  That would commit the false-choice fallacy.  It's possible that both dualism and non-dualism are false.  Enlightenment is real.  I practice it.  Not the concept of enlightenment that Leo has per se, but something with a family-resemblance to that.  Enlightenment is life-changing.  You don't need to accept the theory of non-dualism to be enlightened in some sense.  They're totally independent from one another.  Separate and distinct.  Although, non-dualists would likely disagree with me about that.  If they do, I would encourage them to argue with me about that so we can hash it out and take a look under the hood on that issue!   Otherwise we're just clinging to theories rather unconsciously.  Like dogmatists.  

  25. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Annetta This is more like extreme annoyance (or anger) than hatred to me.  Hatred implies a flavor of a feeling of superiority.  Like, I despise you kinda thought/feeling.  When you despise somebody, it's hard to treat them well at all.  You don't want to have anything to do with them really.  I think you have anger as opposed to hatred.  Correct me if you think my intuitions are off here.