Joseph Maynor

That's a tough call between that one and this one:

We can argue about the pros and cons of thinking, that’s not what I want to talk about here. Enlightenment requires acceptance of the void, of stillness, of emptiness, and a detachment from all thoughts and emotions. How you gonna do that if you’re always filling that void with addictions, distractions, rationalizations, fantasizing, bullshit, video-games, THINKING, entertainment? See — many of you don’t yet have the patience for Enlightenment. You wanna be spiritual egos instead. And until you start to wean yourself off the crap-information intake and become more ascetic, your growth will only be in theory — but you’ll hit a glass-ceiling in practice. That’s called spiritual ego formation, and it’s a trap in this work. We need to move beyond that phase. That should be our goal this year to finally do that. Anyone on board? How much do you really want Enlightenment? Well, you’re gonna find out. Or is what you want to do is bask in the idea, labels, feelings, and image of Enlightenment — but never do the real work. See? You gotta see this trap. The Ego doesn’t wanna see this trap. You will argue and fight with me instead of acknowledging this — that’s the Ego in self-protection mode. We gotta stop letting the Mind bullshit us with its rationalizations and avoidance of being. But you gotta take some action here and correct this. Stop waiting for it to auto-correct through awareness alone. That could just as easily be turned into an excuse. Accept some responsibility here. Get off the drugs, THE PSYCHEDELICS, the addictions, the distractions, the over-thinking, the entertainment, all that shit — and just be ok with being still in the void, in emptiness, accepting that which you are constantly running away from. Can you make it a goal to do that this year? It’s gonna be harder than you think it’ll be. “Sobriety fuck*n sucks” — Ozzy Osborne. You’re damn right it does! It’s hard to be stone-sober all the time. It takes hard work to get there! We know that. Facing the void head-on all the time is fuck*n death to the Ego. If you wanna think — this is the principle you should be thinking about. Right? Haha. The Ego would not allow it easily. And why should it! See how these traps form now? The Ego is sneaky. You gotta realize that and keep reminding yourself of that ALL the time. That takes Enlightened awareness. Bite the bullet and do this work. I’ll be very proud of you if you do. I’m in this too — don’t think I’m not in this. This is an US not a YOU movement. We’ll do this together this year. Enough pussyfooting around — let’s do the real work for a change. Set day one for March 1st. Put it into your calendars. Starting March 1st we’re gonna start becoming more ascetic with the goal of ridding that sh*t from our lives by the end of the year. Pace yourself — it will take the entire 9 months to do this. And you’ll have the rest of this month to plan for it. I’m on board. I’ll lead it. I’ll post updates in my Journal as we move through the year too. 2018 is gonna be the year. We’re gonna create something to really be proud of.

@StephenK If you meditate you’ll locate it.

“I’m just as influenced by what I hate as by what I like” — Frank Zappa

Yep. That’s a good insight.

Video on point to watch:

Rebellious in the sense of iconoclastic. It’s kinda like wishful thinking that will never be actualized in reality. You could give them Enlightenment on a silver platter and they will reject it almost by force of habit.

Correct.

I was agreeing with you.

Work and Enlightenment are not at odds. We are always working at something, even after Awakening. Life purpose is about finding your authentic work and wrapping your life around that.

People get too caught up in theory. It’s a huge trap. A bunch of Philosophers opining about Enlightenment.

Sometimes being blunt has its place. Let your Wisdom in the moment guide you.

After Awakening you will stop identifying with the Body, Mind, and the Ego. So, from the perspective of awareness, Meta perspective, or Atman — it is not persuasive that just because there are changes in form that that alters the formless. So, death is a hypothesis that cannot be confirmed by anyone here basically. It’s a problematic hypothesis too — wanting in proof that it cannot deliver on. Death is a belief, conceptual truth. And conceptual truth is always suspect — inherently so. So, the hypothesis that we die is suspect on that basis. The proof is just not there. It cannot be proved. So, death is a highly-problematic hypothesis that cannot be proved basically.

It’s a paradox: 1. Awakening has no levels. Reality never changed, so there is no change per say. But 2. Dismantling the Ego has levels. Bad habits, shit beliefs, idiotic Ego attachments, stupid fears and superstitions, backward culture, abusive childhood — all these take the rest of your life to root out and let go. So, detaching from Ego has levels even after Awakening. Awakening is just the beginning, the true start of the Enlightenment path. Now you gotta clean all that garbage out that you have gained the eyes to see. That’s the real path of Enlightenment. And that path ain’t dotted with epiphanies and cool states. It’s the mundane, the void, emptiness, stillness, detachment — all the non-sexy stuff that you don’t wanna do.

One of the things that I do is try to get to the pre-conceptual aspects of reality. So, I focus on the sounds and sights when I perceive language. Meaning is concept, and something I try to be very weary of. Be very empirical and very honest, and you will be on the right track. Spirituality is becoming aware that it’s the preconceptual aspects of reality that are the truth. Concept is laying on top of reality, like an oil film on top of water. It’s not really real but appears to be.

Sometimes being harsh is needed. Especially with people who already know but are stuck in their own BS. Watch this full video, it’s good:

My life purpose is to help myself and others increase self-acceptance and acceptance of reality by optimizing use of the Mind. This is the work I am naturally doing anyway — it might as well be my career too. Find what it is that you’re already naturally inclined to do and turn that into a career. You gotta have a job, so make it’s the best one you can. What is your natural work? That’s what Leo’s Course helps you find. And it’s an intense course, going though a lot of stuff to help you find and implement your life purpose. Best $250 I have ever spent by far.

How old are you? I can’t believe you would say this directly to a woman like that.

Look into Leo’s Life Purpose Course. That’s one way to do it. That’s been my path.

Bingo! Keep that in mind always. When I was a kid I was getting into trouble so my mom sent me to a Christian private school for 7th and 8th grades. She thought she was keeping me away from the “bad kids”. Then I realized that that’s what all the other moms thought too as the school was filled with almost all bad kids. So, people are often attracted to not what they are but what they want to be. So, just because someone is involved in spirituality does not mean that they are prima facie “spiritual” — it could mean quite the opposite in fact.

Self-acceptance was what drove me to Enlightenment. I realized that traditional Self Help was not working for me. Then I figured out that the work I needed to be doing is clearing all the garbage off my Sun so it could shine brightly and fully. And I’ve been doing that work for 4 years now. I started watching Leo’s videos in 2014. My Sun is getting its color back now, waiting to shine fully as part of what’s here. But there is work yet to be done. Mostly work dismantling attachments to Ego. Getting of the teet of those patterns. Stopping surrendering to them. Etc.

We have all these ideas about Enlightennent that turn into limiting beliefs and fears.

How do you know Jim Carey hasn’t also done the work?

What or who is a normie Leo? Why assume Enlightenment goes over the normie’s head? This sounds kinda elitist. Correct me if I’m wrong please.

That’s why I was reluctant about asking about a spiritual teacher on here. There are people who will say horrible things in that kind of setting. It’s as if a spiritual teacher is threatening their beliefs or Ego. Then the knives come out. And it’s so easy to project all kinds of things on a spiritual teacher. Especially one who hasn’t been blessed by the group. This is a community on here, with all the trappings of one, I’ve slowly come to realize.