Joseph Maynor

Your paradigm. The only one that truly matters. It's a bit counter-intuitive. All truth is internal not external, personal not impersonal. Physics, or any conceptual body of knowledge for that matter, only matters to the extent that it matters to you. To the extent that you can take those insights and weave them into your ever-evolving worldview, that's what matters. Much of what we learn dies away. It's what we keep that is important. And that always comes back to your paradigm. That toolkit of concepts, heuristics, and expectations that you carry around with you and actually work with on a daily basis. What's in there? How can you improve it? How can exposure to Leo's ideas help you to improve that toolkit? Conversely, how can that bum on the street that tried to hustle money off you help you improve that toolkit? See, it's all you optimizing your knowledge grab-bag, your toolkit. It's all about your paradigm and taking responsibility for improving it, for honing it. It's all about what does this information do for you that is the relevant issue. Always. And then when you get a broad paradigm built, you might be so abundant that you condescend to advise others, because you've likely made every mistake in the book by that point and want to reduce suffering of others. This is, in part, what makes person want to be a philosopher or teacher or guru or whatever you want to call it. Mastery of that knowledge grab-bag and seeing that worldview for what it is. Nice! I got away with using a sentence fragment there.

You know what is a better question -- does he think he is enlightened. Not whether he would say so publically, but how does he feel about it in his own heart-mind? If he is satisfied with the answer, then the issue is moot. There is no objectivity in reality. Objectivity is still egoic. Enlightenment is a highly personal thing I find. Highly personal. You can half-objectify enlightenment, but at the end of the day the shoe has to fit the wearer. And that's what makes a great shoe. There is no objectively right shoe. There's room for variance built into enlightenment. A monkey's perspective is not the perspectiveless perspective. So, create and optimize your own enlightenment. You are toying with Maya either way. Don't believe the hype. There ain't no right answer. That's what is so paradoxical about enlightenment. Enlightenment is no-thing. You see all these books about enlightenment. And then you go -- yep, no-thing. When you have that realization it will hit you in a comical sort of way. You will still want to cling to the theory though, naturally. The ego wants to cling to theory. But just go -- yep, no-thing! That's hard to do. The ego has a need to know, need for certainty, and need for conceptual clarification. When you see that about the ego you can't unsee it. And you'll release all the judging and trying to cubby-hole enlightenment. I've heard the word "spiritual ego" before, and it may or may not apply to what I have said here. I'll let you decide if it does or not. All perspectives are existentially relative and dwarfed by the Absolute, the perspectiveless perspective, which laughs at all of our little distinctions. Good, bad, right, wrong, true, false. All ego. All illusory, myopic beliefs at the existential level. Now, in monkey-ville all of these distinctions have practical import, but monkey-ville ain't true reality, not even close. Even so-called enlightened monkeys still half-reside in monkey-ville, within our bodies, beliefs, and cultures.

Because it takes a life-time to mature. I am 39 years old and would you believe that in the last year alone I have grown so much. You will see that you will learn and grow your whole life-long. You will gain some knowledge, then gain some perspective. And this little engine will work itself your entire life. I feel like I am the same person I was when I was 20, but I just have a lot more knowledge and experience. You ever wonder why a lot of older people look so grounded and happy? That's knowledge and experience. I look back to how neurotic I was when I was 20 and younger. I am much less neurotic now. Don't worry about it. You are likely heads above your peers. Don't let that go to your head though.

@Shin I remember making the same observation myself about 5 years ago. When you read written text you will see that you are really reading aloud the words in your mind. So, it's the vocalizations that are more primary than the written marks. This even applies to mathematics. 2+2=4 is sounded-out. This is a major insight. You might read some Derrida. Derrida was an interesting and often misunderstood philosopher who was interested in these issues. This is a cutting edge issue, not much explored. Even Derrida was too focused on oppositions, which both helped him and screwed-him-up in equal measure. But he's worth reading. You'll clarify your own view when you see why his view is wrong.

You can discuss and debate, but hold your positions loosely and don't have your identity tied-up with your views or arguments. You shouldn't be getting worked-up in a discussion. That's really the test. And always assume that the other person could be right. Try and learn something about why they believe the opposite from you. That's fascinating. That's human variance going on there. Probably the truth is somewhere in the middle anyway -- in some ethereal space betwixt and between your two positions. Humility really is a virtue, but don't be afraid to argue. For one thing, it's damn fun and funny sometimes too. It's better than watching flies fornicate or watching television even. It's probably better than half the internet stuff we do on a daily basis. You can learn something in every situation. And every person has something they can teach you. Your true takeaway is what is key -- not some misplaced egoic desire to win or to be right. Any run-of-the-mill enlightened person knows the foolishness of being a know-it-all. That's a big-trap that a lot of very smart people fall into. They wanna be right. But thats' illusion-city goin' on there!

@Loreena I don't know. My guess is it's the result of a lot of spirituality work.

That might be a good reason to back off the spirituality stuff for a while. Give it a breather. Too much of a good thing sometimes turns into a bad thing.

You know what's crazy, I don't even know what this is. Shows how out of touch I am.

True. Except the rare person might dream to become a yogi, teacher, guru, or philosopher.

Finding the dynamic balance in personal development is critical. You don't want to cling to any ideology. To get the picture right takes quite a bit of exposure to theory, and then you gotta make sense of it yourself and apply it to your life. Then you feel qualified to advise others based only on that experience. So, I have a perspective that works for me. But it's not the only perspective. It may or may not resonate with you. Watch all of these videos on point:

@Socrates You can both be and not be superior. Practically speaking, you can be superior, but existentially speaking you can't be. So, you can cling to the belief that you are superior, but just hold it loosely, and don't assume it is part of your identity. Just because you are enlightened doesn't mean practical good and bad go out the window. But just realize that even being a good, excellent, or virtuous human is a perspective on reality, an illusion at bottom. Reality is the perspectiveless perspective. But we half-live in the illusion, so thus the paradox: Be superior but don't be superior. Ain't nothin' wrong with realizing you are smarter or better than other people. Just don't cling too hard to that belief and don't assume it is part of your identity. Your identity is nothing (or no-thing) existentially. You don't exist existentially, and neither do other people. All reality is one existentially.

Create your own boot-camp for yourself. That's the way to go.

@egoless Yes. Enlightenment isn't any different from real life. The only difference is the enlightened person sees through many existentially false beliefs. Enlightenment is the key to emotional mastery, to resilience. You can't stop me if there's no me and there's no you. And I can't get offended if there is no me. I can't have any beliefs if there is no me. And that includes limiting-beliefs. I can't be depressed or neurotic if there is no me. I can't transcend the ego if there is no me. See? Nothing means nothing about a separate sense of self. Reality is one. You are entire reality believing you are a piece of reality. The illusion of ego is there, and none of us can escape it entirely. All we can do is see through the illusion. This benefits our little monkey lives in an assortment of ways. Most people lack emotional mastery because they cling very ignorantly to existentially false beliefs. This is why enlightenment is a key element and threshold-guardian for true self-actualization work. You gotta let go of your false beliefs about yourself which causes you to hold yourself back. Enlightenment is a tool I find. A tool for emotional mastery. But it's the existential Truth too, not just a tool. Emotional mastery and life-purpose enable you to go out there and do true emotional labor and optimize your little monkey life to live a full, abundant life, where you are so abundant that you give back to humanity in a very beautiful way. That's the view of enlightenment that resonates with me. There is no existentially true way to live. You are the music-maker with your life. You are the dreamer of dreams. Don't let anybody's theory of enlightenment make you forget that. Reality is but a dream. Reality is truly free. Reality laughs at our cute little beliefs and theories, even the ones about enlightenment. So watch out. There ain't no objectively right answer existentially. Reality laughs at the rationalist paradigm trying to understand and cubby-hole it. It's like trying to design a real human being via artificial intelligence. Ain't never gonna happen. Some engineers might believe this, but they are in la la land -- way off.

@How to be wise That depends on how we define science. In a way, self-inquiry is science because you are finding empirical ways to determine that beliefs you cling to lack foundation. It's applied phenomenology. Now, you can argue that this ain't science because hypotheses aren't verifiable by another person. But this is just semantics. The bottom-line is that self-inquiry work is at a minimum quasi-scientific in its aim at truth through direct experience. There's just no verifiability since we can't crawl inside each other's minds. However, we can assume we are all talking about the same stuff because we can talk about it, but without certainty. Science loves certainty. Self-inquiry has a lot of arrows pointing in the direction of being a scientific inquiry. But there's also some distinctions that can be drawn. Lack of verifiability by another person of the proposed hypothesis is a huge one. Science doesn't like that. Science likes the idea of above-board verifiability, no shenanigans. Scientists tend to think mystics and other wacky theorists (from the scientists' perspective) took one too many puffs off the magic dragon, if you know what I mean. Fantasy airlifting a dying reality to higher love. Cute, they say. Very cute. Keep dreaming junior, they snort internally.

@egoless The paradox of non-duality is that the practical truths still apply. You gotta be both ego and non-ego, and neither. Enlightenment is not divorced from egoic life. Enlightenment and ego are two sides of the same coin.

I found that it is a very useful tool to convert a have to to a want to. This is one solution to procrastination. I need to use this more.

@Afonso Great idea. I wonder how much work, time, and resources this would require. And then what the payoff would be. And what the ultimate value differential between upfront costs and practical benefit the app would create over like a 3 year period. Now, see, if Leo had that information, he could make an informed decision. It just requires the relevant research.

Enlightenment kills neuroses. I had a lot more neuroses before I got deep into enlightenment. The question is whether you can learn this stuff. If you can, you might get rid of a lot of your problems.

@Simon Håkansson No. that would be like becoming addicted to reality. Reality can be cool, but to say you could become addicted to it is probably not possible. Make sure you are distinguishing meditation from beliefs. Meditation ain't got nothing to do with beliefs. All beliefs are existentially false. Meditation is not true or false in that manner. Meditation is just nap-time for the mind and re-connecting with the Absolute, which is your True nature. You can't be addicted to being yourself, unless you are some kind of narcissist perhaps. Although God is you, don't go crazy with that.

1. You have to do life-purpose and enlightenment work to the point where you see that the addiction has got to go, there are no if-ands-or-buts about it. 2. Plan a date to pull-the-trigger to go cold-turkey that is like 2-weeks out. 3. Treat quitting like a little project. Say goodbye to your little friend. He served you well, but he's getting in the way now and has to go. 4. When the D-day comes, that's your last day playing video-games. So, see, do it as a 2 week process. Video-games were good to you, you don't want to just dump them like a turd. Give your friend a proper farewell. When you abruptly quit, the ego likes to move the addiction to the shadow and you get the "dry-drunk" phenomenon. Video-games are cool, they're just a distraction to you now. They're robbing you of your focus and attention which needs to be squarely on actualizing your compelling life purpose -- living a BIG, inspiring, rare, prolific-life. You ain't got the time to waste! Our finite-time is dying every hour. We gotta get serious with our limited time, energy, willpower, and focus. Every ounce of misplaced energy is a cryin'-shame. You owe it both to yourself and to humanity to accept the Hero's call, to follow the principle of right-action, and to welcome the emotional-labor required to actualize your compelling cause and life-purpose.

@Dodo I got off spirituality and am now addicted to personal development practice, not theory. Spirituality is a molehill compared to the mountain of personal development. Separates the men from the boys.

@Lynnel Read your personal mission statement, do 5 minutes of affirmations, meditate for 1 hour. Do negative visualization practice for 5 mins. Eat breakfast. I went so long not eating breakfast, but it sets up your whole day. Give yourself time in the morning, don't be rushing around. Nurture your day by watering yourself properly in the morning like a houseplant basking in the new day's sun. Your morning routine should tee up your entire day. Then you can go out there and kill it with your work.

Existence and non existence is a duality that the mind places on top of reality. Reality doesn't fit into that duality. Reality transcends life and death. Existence vs non-existence is a monkey-mind conceptual duality that reality laughs off. Life and death are thought-stories that are existentially illusory. Reality just is, and it is one.

Do this affirmation every day for 5 mins: I can handle any challenge, any situation that life throws at me. Transition from a caged life to a comfortable life to a charged life. Commit to living a charged life. Strengthen commitment to your life purpose, a huge source of intrinsic motivation and energy. Be a prolific creator in your life. Be excited for all the content that you have coming out and are producing. The content that is implementing your life purpose. Always be advancing your life purpose with your time. Are you doing that? Have a cause you are willing to bleed and die for that is in line with your highest values. Dedicate your life to your life purpose, which includes living the excellent life. Have powerful routines you are living out every day. Start a habit of doing the right thing rather than the comfortable thing. Willpower is your ability to live in accordance with your higher values. Build discipline and willpower by resisting lower urges. Willpower is a muscle that needs exercise. Realize that. Taking right actions builds up willpower. Following daily routines builds up willpower. Working hard implementing your life purpose builds up willpower. The more willpower you have, the stronger you will feel and the more self-efficacy you will have. Exercise, clean diet, removing all addictions including internet and phone, build willpower. Read this affirmation daily: I am a creator, I have belief in myself, I have self-esteem, I have resourcefulness, I have drive, I have a vision, I have goals. I have self-control, I have discipline, I have emotional mastery. And now my inner reality is so strong that I impose it on the outer world, and I change the outer world to be whatever I want it to be. Strategically install permanent solutions to your underlying problems in your life. When you start to get enough permanent solutions into place, your permanent foundation is installed into place. Mission statements are important because they keep you principle centered. People that are principle centered are grounded. They are enforcing their reality on the world. Set discipline and self-control as part of your top 10 values. Want peak performance. Understand why you want peak performance. This will get you juiced up to go out there and perform on your life purpose. It takes emotional labor, toil, and strain to make your life purpose results real. You need to go out there and push yourself and grow. Your life needs to be proceeding along a trajectory. Your life purpose is larger than you -- you are advancing the cause of humanity in some way. Every hour of your work should be advancing your life purpose in some way. Appreciate the boring, grindy, tedious work -- and consider it bleeding for your values, for your work. You are bleeding for what you believe in. You are struggling for your cause and purpose in life. You need hard work, commitment, and persistence. Stay on the path, live your values, and advance your cause and purpose in life. You should grow to love taking your actions everyday. Align your actions with your higher values. Successful people work their asses off. Work and play blurs though because you're doing what you authentically want to be doing. You want to live your life big. If you half-ass your life, you're gonna get a mediocre life. You need to set the intention to create an extraordinary life. Be all in in your life. Be mindful of your life purpose at all times. Live up to the courage you need to go out there and live it. You need to become fearless. Working your ass off for something bigger than yourself is the glory of life, it's what inspires you, and it's what motivates you and other people. Life is short. You only have this one chance. It's worth it to make your life BIG. All leadership starts with leading yourself. Train yourself to resist short-term gratification. Action is essential to all results and trumps thinking, talking, or planning. Live your life by deliberately chosen principles. Be principle centered. Develop the habit of thinking about the things you want to create in your life. Eliminate extrinsic motivation as a source of motivation in your life. All your motivation should be coming from inside you, from your passion for creating your extraordinary life. Get excited! This is damn exciting! Develop the habit of re-framing negative situations into positive ones. Strategize about unleashing your full potential in this one, short life that is yours to create and experience. Create a work of art with your life and work-product that is beautiful and that will live on forever. Make your life and life's work outlast you, inspiring humanity for years to come after you die. Lean into emotional labor -- don't shy away from situations that feel emotionally difficult. Your lower self, that emotional weasel inside you that wants comfort and an easy life, needs to be checked. Develop the habit of mentally visualizing every single day what you want your life to be like. This means set a habit to do this for 5 mins in your daily routine somewhere. (Personal development theory that doesn't get converted into practice is just mental masturbation. Remember that. Always be thinking -- how can I make a daily routine out of this idea.) The biggest thing you should fear in your life is that you wasted your life, this one shot that you got. If you don't have a life purpose nothing is grounding you in what you are doing. You're like a leaf being blown around in the wind. Have a point outside of yourself that you are moving towards and be very clear about it. Step outside of your comfort zone and endure some emotional discomfort. Be persistent and never quit. Get to the place where your higher-self takes control over your lower-self. When you act disciplined and consistently, you build self-control. Don't forget about the importance of consistent action. Going to the gym once doesn't do shit. Doing it everyday on a daily routine is what causes results. So, you need consistent, routine actions, not a few one-offs, to see real results. The lower-self just wants to plug into something and let go. You gotta keep this from happening. Eliminate your stupid distractions. They're killing your life potential. Your mind has to be focused on whatever it is that you need to be doing. Bring your thoughts to a point and eliminate distractions. Be proactive -- take control over your circumstances and take initiative. Make decisions that increase your agency over your external circumstances. Do not be passive. Do not be a victim. Set effective goals -- develop the habit of setting, writing down, and constantly refining your goals. Have short-term, medium-term, and very long-term goals. Get goals that are specific, compelling, and aligned with your highest values. Apply deliberate practice to important areas of life that you've committed to mastering that will advance your cause and purpose in life. Work in block time. Use the Pomodoro method. Start doing this. Don't just read this and go uh huh. You gotta implement this. Wire it in today. It will boost your productivity massively.

There's a huge problem with being paradigm-locked in the rationalist paradigm trying to understand the Absolute. Make sure you kick away the theory and just be the Absolute, be God. Enlightenment is about being the Truth, not understanding the truth. There is no right theory of enlightenment, they're all stories. You can't communicate being, you gotta be being. Be the higher self and God simultaneously. Like 2 sides of the same coin -- reality has no distinctions. Talking about enlightenment is like engaging in metaphorical dancing – it mindlessly amuses itself at cross-purposes to the Truth. God laughs at our beliefs masquerading as the Truth. Similar to quietly and nervously chuckling at a naive child enthusiastically communicating some half-baked insight. It don't work like that kid, we snort internally. The lesson I get from Leo's video "Understanding Absolute Infinity Volume 1" is the stupidity of trying to conceptualize the Absolute. Really, all that video does is give massive reasons why not to try and do this. That was my ultimate takeaway. I had to watch that video like 4 or 5 times to get that. Reality is arational. The rational mind will never conceptualize reality. It's overconfidence to the insane degree. It's like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Concepts and enlightenment don't like each other at all. But then all concepts are part of reality too, so enlightenment does, in part, have a conceptual component, a paradoxical result. Saying it doesn't would pooh-pooh the importance of theory in enlightenment, which is like ignoring the purple elephant sitting on your couch. How many enlightened people never studied any enlightenment theory? [crickets] Note: The distinction between conceptual and non-conceptual is also a dichotomy, a story. The theory canoe bridges the stream, but must be left on the opposite shore once the stream is safely crossed. Utilize the theory, but take great care not to cling to it too tightly or to identify with it too much. That's the key. Dynamic balance is the key. I like stories too, but learn to see through them for what they really are -- and that's what enlightenment is really all about! Enlightenment doesn't mean judging theory or tossing theory. It means becoming higher-conscious about what theory is existentially. Theory is not bad, what is bad is the way that we cling to and interpret theory. The true sage accumulates a vast amount of theory and knowledge, and he applies this wisdom in his life and embodies it. But he also knows theory's limitations and its true nature, and he knows how to dynamically cling to and release theory like a masterful unicyclist confidently navigating an uneven and uncertain path. So, the dichotomy of theory being good or bad is really low-conscious and stupid. It's conceptual, do you see that? It's a brain-fart of the rationalist paradigm. Here's the bottom line: Use and believe in theory freely, but don't become addicted to it and don't cling too tightly to it. Even this "advice" is a story. See? God laughs at this like an embarrassed parent witnessing their child make a huge spectacle. Video on point: