Joseph Maynor

Watch these three videos: What is Ego? What is Karma? What's Wrong with Ego?

http://sagewisdom.org/usersguide.html http://www.salvia-divinorum.nl/en/salvia-divinorum-use.html

Ask the question and just let your mind scan over answers. Consider answers and everything else that comes to mind. See what comes up and follow the leads, don't try to control too much in advance.

Good job. Journaling is such a boon to growth. You should do the same exercise on this topic -- "Blocks to becoming your authentic self." Watch this video too:

I only did it for 20 seconds when I was doing it. That is long enough.

Creativity just flows-out for me -- I don't have to try to do it as much as I have to kind of tidy it up to make it presentable. It's like the game Tetris where although you don't choose or make each block, you have to position each block to make it fit in with some reality condition on the ground in the moment. So, a lot of art for me is organizing and presenting raw content after it spills out on the table for me. That raw content just pours out of me, it is "birthed" to coin a term -- birthed out in a rough but inspired form. That's what an artist is. They're basically master communicators, communicators on a much higher level than normal. They always keep their audience in mind too. They're organizers -- they have a knack for how to arrange things to make them cool or hip. They can communicate with anything -- sounds, images, words, etc. I'm not saying I'm a master artist by the way, but I have a taste of it in me. I don't think creativity is bad. It's just a kind of work. That's it. It's pleasurable to go through the creative process. It's a feeling of a collaboration between Nature and you. Sometimes I sit here and watch the keys move on my keyboard and smile. Playing a jazz solo on the bandstand feels exactly the same when it's going well. Most of the time it's not going well though! The creative process gets more neurotic the more pressure you are under to make it perfect right away. The great thing about writing is you have an eraser and you are usually given enough time to revise. A jazz soloist doesn't have an eraser! You learn how to auto-correct when you play jazz where you can riff off any note or idea played and take it wherever the line needs to go to make the solo work. I play jazz trumpet, so I'm not just talking out of my ass here. I learned a lot about creativity playing jazz. You really learn how to honor your Muse, to get out of its way. You gotta know when to interfere and when to just let it happen. That takes intuition and experience to master. Let it flow out and then hone it, shape it. Tell a story with it. Make a trip out of it. Take a person from point A to point B with it. Sometimes all you gotta do is be a good arranger. But it's that heightened sense of communication that an artist has -- you might call that aesthetic sensibility or taste. Being tuned in to rhythm is also closely associated with artistry. Even writing has rhythm, flow, energy, etc. When I do a final read of my writing, I smile to see my fingerprint of aesthetic touch there. Little things like how I used punctuation or how I turned a phrase etc. That was me. Art is the soul-stamp of the artist.

The journey is long and there are some twists and turns along the way too.

If you were your authentic self in full awareness you could not do things that would harm you. This is probably a bit overstated, but it is a cute way to say -- you wouldn't be playing poker all day if you were your authentic self either. But maybe some things will fall away and be added in this process of discovering your authentic self. You are probably doing many things now that run counter to your authentic self. This is because the mind is augmenting reality with a sense of agenda, rules, and control. You are in your own way so to speak. This is causing all your concerns. When you just let go, be aware, and do what the no self does, then you will find out what is natural and what is not. Be prepared for some stuff to fall away. It can be rather shocking. The authentic self is the no self by the way, not any kind of egoic self. Watch:

Don't try to control. Just watch the situations. Be aware of the process. Watch all the emotions and see how these events play themselves out. Be an observer. These are not your emotions. Don't identity with anything. You don't exist. Start to see how the ego, the identity; creates all negative emotions. So -- this is a good time for you! Be happy! Watch and learn. Observation is how you grow.

Start to play a musical instrument of your choice and just start to learn how to jam on that instrument for a while. Then, start to inquire. Your inquiries will have some nice foundation now. Otherwise your mind is just gonna run wild on its own without any footing in reality.

You don't have any control. Just be aware. There is no you that has control! You gotta grok that.

What does it mean to be truly enlightened?

What do you like about her work?

There is a time in life for great study and learning. If you are tapping into that, great! I tapped into it for a long time myself too. Knowledge is important. I hope you are getting a feel of what your authentic self is. That is what you want to start to tap into. Great Video to Watch: I watched it last night myself to review.

Let go and discover who you are.

What do you feel you still need to learn?

It would be nice if we could stop our lives to do enlightenment work, but we can’t do that. You don’t have a choice anyway. You’re gonna do whatever you do and you just gotta accept it. The best thing you can do is maintain as much awareness on the situation as possible. My business has taken a toll during the last 6 months I’ve been doing enlightenment work real heavy. So, I know what you’re talking about. But I feel really happy too, happier than ever!

Once you figure out all of the ways that the mind colors reality you will see it. You will see it by learning what awareness is and over time your awareness will increase to where you can make a distinction between mind and not mind. And this distinction doesn’t have to be perfect because it has a practical use.

Other people are me to the extent they are perceptions of mine. But their Being, if any, is inaccessible to me. Therefore, I seem to have no reasonable basis to conclude that other beings exist. Help me out of this if you can please. Let’s discuss.

Trump's picture should be in the dictionary under Ego. I'm not judging him. He has an interesting life, and he chose it and worked hard for it. He is a fascinating case to study. We need to realize that one way to live is not necessarily better than another way to live. The people who cling strongly to judging Trump should have their pictures in the dictionary under Ego too. Is that paradoxical? Well . . . What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Think about it. From God's perspective Trump is just fine, and so are his critics, and so are the people who don't care about him.

Other people have nothing to do with you and you comparing yourself to other people cannot help you. It doesn't solve anything at all for you to compare your own life with other people. You should not be envying anybody else. You don't know what their lives are really like. What you're doing is projecting your life onto theirs, which is just a fantasy. And all you're doing is causing yourself unnecessary suffering and distraction. Watch this video: It's a great one. One of my favorites.

There is no quick fix. You need to develop a Mastery mindset with Personal Development. You're not gonna get an easy answer. You need to chunk this process down into a daily routine. I would watch all of Leo's videos first. You need a theoretical background to draw from in this work. You gotta start from where you are and pay your dues to get growth. It takes a lot of work. More than most people think. And you gotta be your own guru to do it. To do that effectively, you need lots of information. That's what Leo's videos give you. Any easy answer only works for someone who already has a deep shore of reference to understand it. There's no quick way to build a deep shore of reference either. It takes years, a lifetime. You need to figure out where you are in this process, get to work, and do work on a daily basis. What work is appropriate for you at this time depends on where you actually sit in this process. Watch:

Here's a question for you -- In which ways do you think you can still grow and mature in life? Can you foresee how you might think, feel, and value differently than you do now? Do this, give me some sentences.