Joseph Maynor

When I was at UCLA studying philosophy, I remember a professor telling us an anecdote about David Hume. And it's a good anecdote whether it's true or not. David Hume was one of the Empiricists, who were very scientifically-minded and observationally-minded philosophers. I want you all to learn about David Hume at some point. But he was nearing his death, and someone asked him what he was working on at this time -- and he said that he was looking forward to observing himself dying. This is such a scientific attitude you gotta love it! The explorer to the very end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume

That is a belief too. The idea that you have no choice is a belief. What are you? What is an idea? What is the idea that you have no choice? What is a belief? I want you to give me answers to all these questions in your own words. Don't worry about what you think you're supposed to say or what others will think about it. Just record the answers that come out of you effortlessly and naturally. Then we'll see what we have.

I've noticed that with my writing sometimes I write a lot and sometimes I don't write much at all. I go through weird, unpredictable phases with writing. And I don't really like to fuck with that. Thank God I do this stuff as a hobby because I can see that if I had to force myself to write when I wasn't feeling it, that would cause me a lot of resistance and suffering. This is an issue for career, because you gotta goose your muse sometimes when it is not authentic to do so in order to produce on demand or pursuant to some kind of schedule. I wanna keep my muse authentic and pure. Right now I'm not doing a lot of essay writing because I'm not feeling it. I'm noting topics that I want to write about, but I do not feel like writing right now. I would hate to have to force that muse when I am not ready yet. At some point the muse will hit me and I'll do a bunch of writing. I like to wait for that to happen naturally. That's called following your authentic-self. Trying to control that with the Mind is what causes a lot of suffering and limiting-beliefs to form.

I feel the same way. I apologize for my unaware behaviors of the past. The Ego is a sneaky bastard. I thought this was egoless apologizing haha. That would never happen.

Are you in an increase, decrease, or are you holding steady? I'm having the keen-insight that awareness is like a continuous function in mathematics. It goes up and down, and this is often not something you are fully aware of. But when the Mind gives way to stratospheric awareness, you will appreciate that ascent and notice it. Those parts of the curve are awesome. I feel myself ascending with a fast rate of change right now. We'll see where that goes. But now I can see that I was on a plateau for a long time. About 2-3 months. Enlightenment is about transcending not repressing the Ego. That's the path! Yo! But check this out. I've been more aware than I am right now in the past. That makes me humble because I now realize we go through these kind of fade-in/ fade-out shifts with awareness that we are often unconscious of. Yet the Mind makes us believe that we are always growing in a linear manner. I hope you see the point I am trying to make here. What is your actual chart of awareness? This might shock the shit out of you to realize that this kind of thing is happening and you are not in control over it. THING FOR ME TO TEACH – We need a strategy to maintain high-awareness at all times. This would have to be something in writing that would ring the right bells for reminder. Video on point to watch: And this one: And finally this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gabriel_(1980_album)

I want you to forget about the theory or what is kosher to say, and I want you to just center on you. And after that I want you to write in your own words a response to the following: Enlightenment is . . . . DO NOT consider what other people will say about what you wrote. Just let the heart move your pen and be a conduit for what comes out of your being. Channel it for me. Then we’ll take a look at what is there.

It's crazy how the Mind comes up with all these rules for spirituality. It does that generally with culture too.

Totally. When I eat now I really take my time and enjoy every bite. Eating is one of life's greatest pleasures. It is communing with the Body-Mind. I love feeling how the foods and supplements I take affect the Body-Mind. Fueling is enjoying to both the Body and the Mind.

Here's mine: (1) Enlightenment -- Be an explorer in the fullest sense of the word. This is what we are here to do. This is a life where you are supposed to be expanding. Do not waste your potential, do not waste this life. Discover your authentic-self fully through a life-long, multi-faceted process of reality exploring reality fully. The practical result of Enlightenment is liberation from all culture. (2) PILLARS OF ENLIGHTENMENT (REALITY EXPLORING REALITY FULLY): 1. Daily Meditation Habit (Microscope on the Mind) 2. Non-Dual Theory (Scaffolding to orient the Mind to favor awareness over the Ego) 3. Psychedelics (Exploring inner-being) 4. Self-Inquiry (Realizing no-Self fully) 5. External World-Inquiry (Realizing no-World fully) 6. Cosmopolitanism/ World Travel (Exploring outer-being, world cultures through travel, learning other languages) 7. Education (Exploring world ideas, culture, and history leading to reliable knowledge and wisdom) 8. Cultivation of the Authentic-Self (Maslow's Pyramid, Life Purpose (including Career), Self-Actualization, Self-Transcendence) 9. Spirituality (Reconnecting to being the Watcher and purifying away illusions) 10. Cultivation of the Body (Nurture and fortify the Body, it's your constant companion) 11. Exploration of Art (Exploring non-linguistic ideas and patterns of ideas, exploring linguistic arts like poetry and fiction) 12. Life Practice (Perfecting your strengths in a way that makes you feel good/proud, eradicating weaknesses if authentically desired) 13. Being Good (Being a source of love and inspiration to others rather than not doing this, assisting others) 14. Authentic Relationships (Where you realize and perfect the idea that we are all One) (3) A META-VISION OF A DREAM-LIFE Experiencing the feelings you want to be feeling, making the money you want to be making, having the kinds of relationships you want to be having, feeling free, productive, like you are contributing to the world, healthy, respected, admired even by your peers. Being able to own your own home, save for retirement, and travel when you want to, to explore all of the nooks and crannies of experience this life has, both inner and outer. Sampling the best that recreation has to offer in life, including sampling nice food and spoiling yourself on occasion. Having a career that actually is an expression of you that you can be proud of and look back on your life's work-product with a proud smile on your face. To be able to deal honestly with other people so you can live guilt free and free from having any kind of bad reputation or ill repute. Having passion for your life and being excited by your life. Jumping out of bed in the morning because you're doing exactly what you want to be doing and you're on fire about it. You're jacked up; not on drugs, but by your work. Your work has become an extension of your strengths -- and you get paid very well or at least fairly for what you do. That's the kind of life you want to live. It's called a "charged life," as Leo says. To design your life to be able to genuinely say that you did it "my way" -- you didn't just slug around and sleepwalk through this cornucopia of a life we've been given. That would be sad, right? Think about it. That's like traveling to Paris but staying in your hotel room the entire time. No! You explored every inch of reality, both the inner and the outer, and every space in-between. You were the explorer in life! -- reality getting to know itself fully. That's a nice meta-vision.

I’ve been contemplating in this way very authentically lately. I’m also realizing that the Mind does not like paradoxes. Mine keeps trying to discredit them by calling them having your cake and eating it too, or labeling them as a kind of pseudo-issue or a vacuous, illusory claim. However, is that really the case? It seems as though certain paradoxes really do tell us something profound, contrary to the Mind’s bias against paradoxes.

Let me put a nail in this coffin. You guys have been gossiping about this for too long and missing the issue. The issue is -- THINK FOR YOURSELF! YOU GOTTA BE YOUR OWN GURU EVENTUALLY IN THIS WORK!

It is the Ego’s last gasp. The elightened master represses his ego until his shadow gets so dense that he unconsciously re-integrates it by losing his humility. Of course the enlightened master is not aware he is doing this. The Mind will rationalize the behavior to him.

How do you know for sure Jesus was enlightened? What does it mean to be enlightened? What is Jesus?

No, the heart of all suffering is the Mind putting false expectations on reality.

In a way it is. Religion is a step in the right direction towards enlightenment. I went through atheism, theism, to finally enlightenment. Religion puts you in touch with the mind of the cosmos. The problem with it is that it is too ideological, just as Science is as well. I’ve read the Bible and the Qur'an. I enjoyed both, especially when I believed in the theology that I had constructed.

I've studied Leo and Emerald and Myself, that makes three. I've studied Classical Indian and Classical Chinese Philosophy though. Oh yeah -- and I've read the essay "Who Am I" by Ramana Masarshi, which really influenced me. But I have absolutely zero interest in studying under any additional gurus. Here's a couple of Emerald's videos:

Did you get this concept of nothingness from your 5-Meo-DMT trip? What exactly is so utterly-radical? What do you mean that reality is so empty that it doesn’t include consciousness? What is consciousness?

This is very speculative.

The addiction to being and feeling right is a trap! A real nasty one. I’ve been trapped by it myself. The Ego is a tricky bastard. It is hard to always see this trap because the Ego filters it out. So people can get caught up in this trap without even being able to be aware of it. That’s the danger of having a shadow, and we all have one too.

Wow. This is a nice insight and set up for a nice discussion. The paradox you gotta balance in life is being the ego and no-ego at the same time. It’s a little bit tricky to see how you can do both of these at once, but you can. Looking at things from the perspective of no-ego represses ego, which is a denial of reality and creates a shadow to the ego to boot. And that shadow acts incognito of awareness, which is what makes it such a trap. If you can learn how to be the ego and no-ego at once, and to cling loosely to that paradox, and to be able to release it at anytime as well — you’ll approach my present state of consciousness.

Once you find yourself you still have the issue of how to deal with beliefs. So, Enlightenment must deal with beliefs as well as the Authentic-Self. This is kind of where Philosophy and Enlightenment need to have a baby. You might call this Epistemology, although I don’t like that word very much. It’s too loaded of a term.

Yes. But the biggest block to mindfulness is the Ego, and that is built by culture. So, it’s culture and not knowing how to get up under culture that blocks mindfulness. Culture includes ideas too.

Lately I’ve been really aware of the fact that this is such lip service and denial of reality. Everyone has an Ego, even Enlightened people. I think there’s a bullshit false narrative that “Enlightened people” no longer have an Ego or that they have transcended the Ego. Them’s just words and beliefs, and a denial of reality to boot! Video to watch for some background:

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