Joseph Maynor

You have to take an objective perspective and see if what they are saying is constructive in some way. If so, then listen to them. If not, just ignore. We all have little shadow things that others see better than ourselves. Those are useful to learn from others.

Ya'll gotta visit Pompeii to appreciate this fully. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii

I can only speak for myself. Once I saw Being I realized that I don't have any more control. So, in that sense I'm just watching stuff happen. I'm aware of happenings. And everything seems to happen as normal without the Ego trying to control anything. It's creepy when you first see that control is an illusion. I've been experiencing some grief emotions though. You know when you get really drunk and the whole room starts to spin? Well, imagine the spinning is Ego and Being is the drunkard being passively aware of the spinning, assuming she is lying on the ground still and just watching. See? Even alcohol can provide a non-dual experience! Anything that puts Being in high-relief can provide a non-dual experience, including Meditation.

I have one of those black eye coverings that you sometimes see people on airplanes wear. They work great because no light gets in and you don't have to worry about closing your eyes. I'm sure there's some hardcore person out there who's gonna come along and deprive me of my mask lol. Watch! Ya'll know you wanna go all orthodox on me! Maybe their rationale will be -- Brahman needs dancing eyelids to transcend Maya! I caught a bunch of shit once before when I admitted sometimes I meditate laying in bed. This is the one I have -- https://www.amazon.com/ALASKA-BEAR®-Natural-blindfold-super-smooth/dp/B00GSO1D9O/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_194_bs_tr_img_1/141-2039829-1145664?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=W9A91C0P89HWCFWN87Z2

Who would be striving for Enlightenment? Oh, got it, you're talking to people that think they are Egos. I resonate with point #3 in part. You can grease the wheels though by using what I call "counter-weight theory." So, there is a need for a theory-rich period at that stage. But the big-shifts happen when the Ego dies, I agree; that comports with "my" experience. #2 is kinda screwy. You are Being. That's it. The "people" who are gonna pursue Enlightenment had no choice to. There is no choice. Who had the choice? All there is is Being. I think awareness is about all you can give Beings. Awareness of Enlightenment. But then again, that awareness would ultimately happen randomly. Your movie and my movie might be similar, but other movies might vary considerably. And who's to say that our movie is the best movie? You'd need an Ego for that. So, there is a deep randomness to Enlightenment. I wouldn't go so far as to tell "people" not to seek though. I always hated that advice. It's wrong. There is something to be sought -- freedom from suffering, Being, and awareness of the illusion of Ego. The seeking is an illusion though, there's just awareness of happenings.

Wow. That's cool. I still believe in distance myself. Not that I want to believe it, but the belief is still lodged in there. From the Being perspective it does look like a series of discrete flat planes come to think about it.

I'm really starting to see that the body is not my body now but the body. It is a little bit freaky and it's putting "me" into a little bit of a depressive funk. I think "I" am experiencing a little bit of dark night symptoms. The sense of nobody home is really not sitting well with the Ego. "I" see now that the body is just this thing that is there and is alive and operating on its own like a machine. There's no me inside of it.

@Ilya It's not easy. Also, every time I think I've arrived I realize that I am just at the beginning of this. I see now that this is a process that has to unfold or unravel -- pick your metaphor. I also see now that conditioning has basically fed the Ego into thinking of me as a self. I've always had a sense that there was something odd about me, and now I realize that in the back of my mind I always felt the nonduality tugging at me in subtle ways -- like in my 20's. Now I see why that was. We have convinced ourselves that we are selves! But it's all just beliefs overlaid on top of perception basically. I think you have to trip hard to really become aware of this fully. Be careful with psychedelics though folks. I don't think I would have ever gotten to this place had I not had that massive trip. The same Being I was there is the same Being I am here. And all I can do is be! What control is there to be had? I'm like watching myself do myself now. Now I see why this has to be done in steps. It would be too painful to go through Enlightenment all at once. Ya ever see the movie Alien? It feels like that. But I had a similar feeling back in March when I had my first big shift in the Ego unsettling process. It actually felt worse then. This one is more like a calm despair. That one was more like grieving a death. I just feel generally bad, not cheerful at all. But not depressed either. Just kinda moderately sick in some way. I think it's the loss of the illusion of control that is really hard to accept. And it's just weird to realize that what I thought was reality is basically just a movie -- just like when I had my trip. Same deal. I don't want anybody to hurt themselves with psychedelics, so be careful. But I have to say that that caused a big shift for me. You gotta really understand what Being is. Once you get that, that's when things start to happen fast. Once you see an error, you can't overlook it. Denial only works if an error is not fully seen or comprehended.

At some point you gotta surrender, and no teacher can do that for you. It seems to be happening automatically for me now. Like a process that's now gonna play itself out. Instruction is just first base.

@WelcometoReality Great advice

Woah. I just posted a similar post myself. It is so odd going from the illusion of doing to just being. And then trusting the automatic stuff is also a change. The feeling of no control. But the reality is that nothing has changed. That's what I gotta keep reminding myself.

I don't understand your quibbling with my word-choice. It's a distinction without a difference to me. If you had two good legs, would you believe that shooting one of them off would help you walk better? This is what we do with morality. It's the Egoic Illusion trying to judge and control Nature. And it's a big cause of suffering. The Ego uses polarities like moral good and bad to give the illusion of control and the illusion of existence. Being just is. Imagine two alien (as in non-human) video-game characters that were programmed with a completely arbitrary sense of right and wrong. How would you regard that code of morality? Would you see it as applicable to your life in anyway? What if you experienced some trauma that caused you to start judging yourself based on that video-game moral code one day, and all your actions caused you to feel like a total piece of shit. Wouldn't that be unfortunate? Right and wrong does the same thing to us. The Ego doesn't exist -- but all those emotions are registered by Being. So, morality, right and wrong, and good and bad, are just Ego-Smog; and they kick up a lot of neurotic, often painful feelings -- aka suffering. Video on point to watch:

You guys and gals should watch the movie 'The Wicker Man' -- the original one. You'll see the real burning man. This is one of my favorite movies. The first time I saw this movie, it was a total shocker to me because I was exposed to it by a friend who was a film major in college. I had no idea. It's just so well done. A real film with a real message. I like how it crosses so many genres of film too. It's a good one. You know a movie is good when you call it a 'film' right? 'Movie' sounds like something for kids. This is a classic, inspired, awesome film. I wish they would stop ruining classics like this by remaking them. Here's a rule -- if you're gonna re-make a classic film, you gotta make it better than the original or don't do it at all. Like that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wicker_Man Celtic polytheism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_polytheism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid

If a dog bites you is the dog morally wrong? What is it about dogness that makes us pause here? If a rock falls down a mountain and kills you, is the rock morally wrong? If cancer cells kills you, are the cancer cells morally wrong? What if a spider bites you? Is it wrong? Or a cat? When we swat the cat afterwards is it because what it did was morally wrong? Says who? Does the cat have a say in the matter? Is it morally wrong to hug dogs if they don't like to be hugged a certain way? Does the dog decide this? What about the things that dogs hate that we do that we don't know about. Are those things morally wrong? Says who? Are they wrong even though the dog cannot formulate the statements for itself? In other words, can the dog have moral rights and duties that it doesn't "know" about? Does its fear and pain of being hugged and its reaction to being hugged count as "knowing" that a certain behavior is wrong? So, can it have moral rights that it is ignorant of? Says who? The dog? What is it that properly gets assigned moral rights and duties and why? Who decides? Does Being have moral rights and duties? Says who? On what basis? Where do moral rights and duties come from? What is their origin? If human beings didn't exist, would there be any moral rights and duties? Do human beings exist? Do video-game characters have moral rights and duties? Ok . . . I'll stop. Ok. One more. What if you know that petting a cat's hair the wrong way is not comfortable to a cat, and you go ahead and do that and the cat bites you? Is the cat's behavior morally excused? Says who? The cat? Video on point to watch:

I've found better success with four 15 minute sessions per day than the longer sessions. Sometimes I will meditate for 1 hour though if I feel like it. Just recently I did a 2 hour session for the first time. It was pretty cool. That's a long time!

I've gotten a lot out of Enlightenment Theory. The theory allows you to have a structure to hang your experiences on so you don't lose them. But the theory is not the be all end all. But people tend to pooh-pooh the theory too much too. My path has found a place for very substantial theory, at least up until my recent ego-death experience. Since then, theory is less important because I can just be Being and notice that everything else is not me, including the theory. It's almost like the Ego needs the theory to take it beyond the point of no return, but once you get the full ego-death experience, the theory kind of falls away like a set of training-wheels. I can make up many analogies now, whereas before I was stuck on certain words or ideas -- almost like the Ego was clinging to them as the Truth. And I think that's a necessary stage in Enlightenment. You gotta fake it 'till you make it in Enlightenment too it seems haha! I think there is a utility for a heavy theory stage. I was reviewing the theory everyday for a while. But once you realize that you are just Being, the theory becomes pretty obviously nothing more than a lens that you can use to hang your enlightenment around as you progress along your path. It's a roadmap almost. I really have no interest to review the theory right now. That could change though.

What does success mean when you are dying? The Ego does not want you to even explore this. The Ego will probably dismiss this as just another wacky point. But it goes to the heart of things. What is the difference between a bum on the street going through the process of death and a billionaire going through the process of death? The only way to experience this is to go through a true ego-death experience yourself and find out. It's scary, but it's very worth it. You'll see life differently afterwards. Since my ego-death experience, all my values have fallen to the ground, and now I'm looking around on the ground trying to pick up the broken pieces. I'm not sure what to do! The only thing that seems mandatory is Being. And I want the body to be healthy to minimize suffering caused by pain in the body. And I want the mind calm. Those seem to be the basics of what my new values are. I'll build up from there. I get so much more out of meditation now and love just Being. The Beatles should have wrote a song -- "All you need is Being." All you need is Being, da' da da da da! Doesn't rhyme as well haha. You need Being more than love. Human to human love is optional in fact. Being is true love; True love is Being.

I prefer Brahman rather than God. You are Brahman. You are also Atman. Atman is Being. Brahman is Being. So, Atman = Brahman. Being is a constant, it does not die. You are Being. The Ego is not Being. The Ego is an illusion masquerading as the Truth. Truth is the absolute truth. [t]ruth is relative truth. Relative truth is truth for human beings. Ego is the Devil. Video on point to watch:

(1) You can be a resistor in life or a super-conductor. Being a resistor means that all the neuroses and suffering of life burns through you -- your life includes a lot of optional suffering. Being a super-conductor lets you bypass this suffering. To be the super-conductor, you need Enlightenment work, even if just in the form of a daily meditation practice, that will help you although not completely. To get the best fix, you gotta do Enlightenment work. (2) You get to know the truth of what you are and what the world is, and what death is and is not. You'll get the maturest possible view of life and of yourself and of the world and of death and the afterlife. But this requires deep Enlightenment work and the shifts that result from that work. (3) You'll have a better idea how to spend your time in life. If you don't know what you are or what the world is, how can you really know what to do here? You can't, and that causes a lot of chasing and a lot of suffering. People don't know what the hell to do here, so they just wing it. But good living is counter-intuitive because Ego is an illusion. So, if you wanna live a good life, you gotta know a few things first about Enlightenment.

@Serotoninluv Keep going. Here's what I'll say. Don't over-intellectualize this. You are Being. Does that make sense? What is Being? Look at that. You are Being. That's what you are. This is not some kind of abstract statement. This is very specific.

It gives you a relief because you realize whatever you do here is really cheap, it doesn't matter. It's a freebie. It's a simulation. You're already dead. The Ego warps this though and makes it seem like what we are doing here is really serious and important. You are immortal. This place is just a movie. Karma is still an issue though, see. When you die, you wanna feel good, not like a piece of shit. Also, I'm not sure how Karma carries over into how Being feels in the post-death experiences. I got the sense that you don't want to carry any negative shit with you if possible. Best to be clean and positive. Be aware and be charitable. It's all part of your movie. Don't piss where you drink. You are Being. Being doesn't die.

Gimme the golden nugget of beginners strategies folks. I can already feel a surge of energy up and down my spine if I focus awareness there. It's kinda freaky.