Joseph Maynor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loveless_(album)

You wanna get to the point where you are always meditating, always mindful, always keenly aware. Do some self-inquiry work and psychedelics (safely) if you can. Enlightenment is being able to see through the Mind and make the distinction between Mind and being in real-time in the moment. When you can do this, you don't really have to do any work anymore. All you gotta do is just be keenly aware. It's analogous to the way that an adult sees the world versus the way that a child sees the world. The adult sees through all the illusions that trap the child. When you get a shift, you'll know it. Enlightenment is a series of shifts. It's like you get a buildup to a climax, and then when you least expect it, reality gives you a paradoxical shift where all your values flip and you have to pick up the pieces and learn a new perspective. I've had at least 3 of these shifts over the last year, more likely 4, but I want to be cautious. But then, to call these shifts is misleading too -- because I can see how enlightenment is a progression too. You become more and more enlightened as the Ego begins to weaken and you begin to see all the traps when they arise in the moment. As your awareness grows and deepens, that's what begats your growth. So, meditation is not gonna cut it, and you might want to start working on other things. Still meditate, but don't think that that is gonna get you where you want to be on its own. 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 tongues) 7. Education (Exploring world ideas and history leading to reliable knowledge and wisdom) 8. Cultivation of the Authentic-Self (Maslow's Pyramid, Life Purpose, 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)

All you need is keen awareness.

I didn't get deep enlightenment until I had that ego-death experience on psychedelics. After that, my enlightenment entered a new level, So instead of gradual and instantaneous, enlightenment is more like a stair-step ascent with a series of plateaus that are transcended one after the other. And you are on one of those plateaus now. If you grow, you will make a discontinuous leap to the next plateau up -- the next stair-step up, assuming there is one. After all, awareness requires exploration and knowledge as well as observation. The more inner and outer exploration you do, the more you feed that growth engine which might deepen your enlightenment and pop it up a notch or two from where you're at. Travel and experiencing different cultures, peoples, folkways, lands, art, letters, and ideas is food for enlightenment too, not just inner work. The inner-outer distinction is illusory, so we wanna be mystics of the world not mystics hiding away under a rock. Hiding away from external reality is a trap. You wanna engage with reality fully.

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 were given. That would be sad, right? Think about it. It'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 betwixt and between. You were the explorer! -- reality getting to know itself fully. That's a nice meta-vision. Watch:

Nah. Strong AI is impossible. But AI will continue to develop and continue to mimic human thinking. There are things about being Human that cannot be designed. It's like asking a bat to explain its sonar hearing to you. It can't.

I would get the degree. Education is important and you will beat yourself up the rest of your life if you don't get that degree. That's important. The degree is a capstone to your education, at least symbolically. I am proud of my degree, and sometimes I have nightmares of failing out of school, etc. Then I wake up and realize that I have a degree and smile. It's is wild what the Ego does when the Body sleeps.

I look at the news, but it's a dirty habit that I want to break. I figure if it is important enough, I'll find out about it anyway, so I don't need to bathe in it directly. I let other people do that for me, and then they come tell me about it. Get a web browser blocker like "Blocksite" to block those sites from your computer. It works. Just don't turn it off. Even if you turn it off, it's still a reminder that clues in your awareness to the issue. Over time, you can wean yourself off the News. It's a distraction.

The only sure way to know is to see if anyone has actually done it. And how much theory did they have? That's a question too, because it's not just meditation -- there's a lot of theory in enlightenment work too. Imagine someone having no access to theory and just meditating attaining enlightenment? Again, the only sure way to know is to see if anyone has actually done it. Otherwise we're just speculating.

Makes sense because you are in the field of education and that is your forte. It's a trap that your profession is probably inclined towards: Need to know. And then there is the need to prove that you know. Especially to your fellow know-it-all colleagues. It's normal. The knowledge professions are prone to certain traps. Every profession has its traps. In the legal profession it's not knowledge per se that is of value, it's needing to prove that you are competent and that you won't be treated like a chump. So, in the legal profession, there is a lot of ego traps around these issues like various macro and micro-aggressions, rudeness, posturing, poker-faced sneakiness, gossipy backbiting. In law, nobody gives a shit what you know unless it can be translated into money or utility somehow. Knowing for the sake of knowing is not valued in law, so we don't have the same kind of know-it-allism that academics have. It's all about how you translate your knowledge into cash that is of value in law. Law is a business, and the only academics are not lawyers, they work in universities. It's interesting how your profession frames you. It's inevitable. If you study enlightenment, the world looks like enlightenment. If you study law, you see the world through the lens of law. If you study medicine, I'm sure you see life differently, etc.

I prefer listening at .75 speed. It gives my brain time to get everything said.

It's something that you wanna get wired into a routine. It's hard to be your best when your sleep is screwed up. If happiness is what we want, sleep is probably the most important element in that. Maybe nutrition before that, but not too many things.

1. Create lists of goals Goals need to be: (1) Specific, crystal-clear. (2) Big and compelling. (3) Written down. (4) Reviewed on a daily basis. (5) Alligned with what you want. 2. Implement calendar tracking system. 3. Use Solera Method. 4. Use Visualization. 5. Use Task Binder/ 5 Minute Rule. 6. Work in Pomodoros/ block-time. 7. Eat breakfast in am. 8. Implement budget and update annually. 9. Do gratitude exercise every day. 10. Do optimism exercise. 11. Practice positive-thinking. 12. Practice negative visualization. 13. Practice reading mission-statement. 14. Practice reading Yang readings. 15. Practice reading Yin readings. 16. Practice meditation, yoga, and Chakras meditation at work. 17. Practice 30 mins of meditation in am. 18. Exercise (walk) to and from work. 19. Maintain a healthy diet and supplementation. 20. Practice frugality. 21. Drink smoothie in am. 22. Create and read list of relevant adversity.

You get sucked up into the absolute for a while.

Enlightenment work is the best strategy for minimizing limiting beliefs in your life.

In what ways are you different from other people?

I was fortunate to recently just start doing LIfe Purpose work myself. I feel like I am out of the newbie stage with Enlightenment work where I’m not having to do as much explicit work there anymore. All I do with Enlightenment these days is maintain keen awareness as much as I can. Enlightenment is about groking the full manifestation of No Self and No World not just conceptually, but actually. That’s what the work of Enlightenment does. It purifies you of false beliefs so you can discover your authentic self. Then you gotta go back into the world and still make a living. That’s where Life Purpose then becomes at issue. Of course, most people didn’t have the good fortune of proceeding this linearly as I have through Enlightenment work first and then on to Life Purpose work, so you do both simultaneously. I thought I understood Life Purpose before, but it was an illusory, superficial understanding. Without doing Leo’s course, I didn’t fully understand what Life Purpose is or the pragmatic work involved to manifest it. Life Purpose work is designing a custom career for yourself. Way cool! I’m on board.

You gonna turn it into a cash-flow engine too? Life Purpose is about career. If you are focused on your own PD that maybe a trap. What value are you gonna provide to the world to get wallets to open for you? Life ain’t free. Do you have a passion to give massive value about PD to someone capable of paying you money? Is that really your passion!

Don’t get hung up on these issues. Find your Life Purpose and then how much you work will take care of itself.

It’s the best strategy for a satisfying Life Purpose — creative contribution to a wider cause other than yourself. Building good Karma does pay off in life, and chasing these kinds of experiences, while Egoic, is still the best way to make a living and also feel less dirty while doing it. Nobody wants to suffer in this life through bad Karma — it sucks and it is soul-destroying, as we all know. You’ll never feel fully pure making a living though, because everybody doing so is compromising their Karma while doing so to a greater or lesser extent. But if you can meet your financial needs while minimizing this shitty effect, it makes strategic sense to do so. I had this epiphany recently that even very noble people are still sowing bad Karma due to the fact that making money is inherently a grasping, a withholding, or taking activity where value is denied someone, often in ways that contradict the do-gooder’s original intent. Business is nasty, but you can minimize the nastiness — but we all need to earn our livings, don’t we. It is unfair to society and others to leach off of their wealth like lousy parasites. So there you have it, we are in a deep conundrum with business. We want to stand like noble men, not snot-nosed boys in this chosen, created life. We gotta compromise very carefully through this minefield, which we have the capacity to do — by mindfully implementing Life Purpose strategies in our lives.

You use the theory, don’t let the theory use you. Stop clinging to theory in unwholesome ways. Take a concept you like from the theory and figure out how to turn it into a budding daily-routine in your life to get some pragmatic dividends. Otherwise you’re just surrendering to the Mind, which leaves you satisfied and frustrated in equal measure.

Enlightenment and Life Purpose. Next would be codifying your Big Vision in writing and updating it on a daily basis. Finally, you need to understand some implementation strategies like building daily routines, building willpower muscle, time-blocking your workday, and achieving peak-performance on a plateau.

Thanks for this video Leo. If I had built one of these earlier in my life it would’ve made a huge difference. Organization is half the battle. I am implementing this great advice and will build my own book on One Note as I do your Life Purpose Course, which I plan to do before the end of this year. Good stuff. Your work helps a lot of people. I am so excited to do your Life Purpose Course finally! I’m surprised I waited so long to do it, but now is truly the right time for me to do LP work, so I can’t whine about that. It’s nice to do things at the right time in personal development. I think the biggest trap with LP is thinking you already got it handled. Maybe you should shoot a video on that issue. LP is just as important as Enlightenment, and just as tricky — full of sabotaging Ego traps. Also, LP may be harder than Enlightenment work because it requires that you get off your lazy ass and actually do something excellent with your life — something scary and out of your comfort-zone — something worthy with your time that also brings home the bacon. Isn’t that what we all want? — that kind of deep satisfaction and connection with reality? That is so important; just as important as Enlightenment work is.

Freelance paralegal.