Joseph Maynor

I don't understand this need to drop knowledge. Why is everything someone has been told a lie?

I feel like my mind is usually my friend. Maybe I'm unusual in this way. I do not see a need to check the mind.

Have you similarly deconstructed feelings like you have thoughts? Are feelings of a different nature than thoughts? I've been through phases like this but I felt like I was having to try to do this. Eventually I just surrendered trying to surrender. I feel like if I have to remind myself of something, that's not Truth. I have a sense of Truth inside and it doesn't require me to practice anything.

I like this, but I'm wondering if the idea of surrender occurs all the time or only some of the time? I feel like I'm good at this sometimes, but not all the time. (I'm assuming spiritual enlightenment means it should be True all the time.)

@Mellowmarsh What is the illusion of the ego?

I remember watching Leo's first spiritual enlightenment video when it first came out. I was like what is this? I didn't even know what spiritual enlightenment was.

Wabi-sabi in Japanese aesthetics is the appreciation of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." So different from our western notion of aesthetics which seems to favor symmetry, perfection, flawlessness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

I'm seeing a way to trap white's queen but not a capture it as follows: black plays bishop e7 which forces white's queen to move to b8 or a8, and then black takes the pawn on b5 with the rook.

I agree. Brilliant insight.

I’ve been noticing that people sometimes seem to be using spiritual language in different ways. Some of it feels more about exploring or understanding, while some of it feels more about settling or quieting experience. Both seem helpful in their own way, but they don’t always line up in discussion.

I love this, but I'm curious as to why an active or reactive mind is seen as a problem or bad? I see this come up a lot in these discussions here and elsewhere, and it seems to be sort of a measuring stick as to who is the most enlightened, and I'm not sure why this even matters.

Nice to see Spinoza listed on the blog. Read Part 5 of The Ethics if you can, it's amazing.

Seeing the pawn pin was the solution. Very good puzzle because psychologically we're averse to sacrificing the queen.

Very well said.

@VeganAwake Here's another example. Not my cup of tea but I actually watched this.

The issue of "you" is nuanced in my opinion. But yes, I agree with you too.

But what happens here when you're the you that you're referencing?

Fact -- a relative but concrete discernable truth. Truth -- Absolute Truth and relative truth. Relative truth includes but it not limited to facts. Belief -- holding a relative truth. Assumptions -- beliefs that the small self is more or less conscious of. Could be unconscious.