Joseph Maynor

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Posts posted by Joseph Maynor

  1. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Tano I agree with the jist of what you are saying here.  Very wise.  There is enlightenment, but not what most people think it is.  It's very simple realization of emptiness, and attachment and releasing.  A separation of theory from reality.  Theory is something we might attach to or release.  Theory does not *underlie* reality in any way.  That's one of the erroneous premises that Indian Philosophers seem to habitually make.  Reality does not contain a Kantian conceptual filter. That too is concept and can be attached to or released.  See that?  Does that make sense?

  4. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    21 hours ago, Emerald said:

    The only time in my life where I was truly at peace and loved myself, was when I experienced ego transcendence. I don't really have the luxury of not taking it too seriously because I know that's the only way that I'll ever really feel okay. I know it is the only thing that will ever give me what I have been seeking for in my entire life. When I experienced ego transcendence, I realized that I had always been seeking it all along through many different endeavors including career goals. I'm unfortunately stuck in the middle of the pipe. I can neither transcend the ego nor can I take my search for ego-transcendence more lightly. I sometimes wish that I had never experienced it, simply because I'd be a lot more successful right now. I had huge ambitions before those experiences. But the ambitions were what was causing me so much suffering, and I saw it clearly without the ego there. Now, I still have ambitions, but I don't take them all that seriously. I try to let go of the need to be seen as somebody or to leave some legacy. But I still enjoy doing things that I like. 

    Maybe you are looking in the wrong place for what you want.  Or maybe your idea of the end result is wrong.  Consider those possibilities too.  I find you to be very successful right now Emerald.  You're doing exactly what you need to be doing with your life right now, heavy personal development work.  And you're practicing contribution heavily too by contributing to others' growth, helping them along on their paths. Pretty awesome life.

  5. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    About a year.  It started with meditation and culminated with my ego death last March.  But I was meditating for about a year before my ego death.  What precipitated it is I had watched all Leo's videos, including the one ones on Enlightenment.  But more importantly I started to heavily contemplate the question "What am I?"  

    But I was already advanced in personal development work and work in philosophy and psychology before I started meditating.

  7. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Dizzy Ego Transcendence seems like loss of self image.  You realize all there is is emptiness and attachment or releasing, nothing more.  That's where I'm at the doorstep of right now.  There is no life to improve.  Why cling to that concept?  That's a fiction.  All that matters is awareness and choice of what to cling to and what to release.  And what to do based on this of course.  This journey has been pretty cool.  Realizing what I am, which has paradoxically been mostly realizing what I am not.  Releasing some bad default-positions, bad theories of self.  This stuff is not airy-fairy to me.  Reality doesn't lie.  I'm a very practical and tough-minded dude.  No woo woo.

    I'm a little leery about Dizzy's next stage which she terms "Enlightenment" though.  That's a theory, a concept.  Do you see that?  You're clinging to that.  You don't wanna be clinging.  You wanna be empty and aware.  No default-positions are needed.  So to me Self-Transcendence in something like Dizzy's sense just is Enlightenment.  Do don't need to cling to the theory of non-dualism even.  You folks are idealistically clinging to ideas that are adding another layer of theory onto this very simple obervable fact about reality.  

    You're rationalists, theoretical-idealists basically building up a snowball matrix which you then use to look at the world with new, wildly-distorted eyes.  Googly-eyes, not sober eyes!  You're clinging to thoughts that are supplementing and distorting what is real at bottom -- the counterintuitive simplicity of reality.  Release those theories!  Release your thought-stories about Enlightenment.  I've heard so many!   

    Paradoxically, in the case of Enlightenment, more thinking leads you further away from the goal rather than closer to it.  It's like trying to solve a math problem with carrots and sticks instead of pencil and paper.

  8. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Anna1

    11 minutes ago, Anna1 said:

     

    @Nichols Harvey

    "Can we stay on topic please?

    It's incredibly rude and actually disrespectful to derail Dan's thread with an unrelated grievance."

     

    Didn't you say this above ^ just yesterday? But, now here you are derailing talking about Emerald.

    Also, you haven't said a word to @Fidelio about derailing either. So, it's ok to derail as long as you're interested and/or participate?

    "Do as I say, not as I do"...got it.

    Lol.  Consistency is a beast!  I love it!  Do as I say not as I do.  And living inconsistently is violating ones integrity too.  It's  self-induced harm.  A peeing in the pool of one's self esteem basically. Just thought I'd chime in and add that.  

  9. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    @Maxx Then why isn't the lower self part of that mix too then? Why throw the lower self away if there is no self.  Seems like that goes against non-duality.  The ego is there, why not accept it as part of the whole and learn to love the ego?  I've kinda done that.  I've harmonized with my ego.  To me you non-dualists seem like dualists because you are trying to deny part of your self.  You're beating yourself up big time with this war and rampage against the evil ego.  The distinction between the lower self and the higher self is illusory.  That's concept.  Does that make sense?  You guys cause yourselves a lot of neurosis with your theories paradoxically.  Do you see that?

  10. Posted · Edited by Joseph Maynor

    I know some of you spiritualists on here seem to think that positive thinking as a personal development practice is a fools errand.  This actually surprises me, and I think that that's too bad.  Care to elaborate and debate/discuss this with me?  Let's do some hashing out here.  Some getting to the bottom of this.  

    I believe positive thinking is the holy grail after enlightenment.  The final solution so to speak.  The last move one can make in personal development.  The hallmark of the true sage.  Peace and positive thinking go together like ham and eggs.

    Please watch Leo's video on "Positive Thinking" first before responding to this question.  It is a prequisite to this discussion.  So if you haven't done that go do that first.  Otherwise we're not gonna be focused in our discourse.  We're gonna be talking past each other which is no good.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  19. 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?

  23. 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.

  24. 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.

  25. 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.