Joseph Maynor

Tony Robbin's book "Awaken the Giant Within" is partially influenced by NLP. I recommend that book.

@Shanmugam I will read this. Thanks!

I know Leo advises doing what's emotionally difficult. But how does this square with maximum acceptance? There seems to be a paradox here. Doing what's emotionally difficult all the time seems to equate to beating yourself up all the time. Watch Leo's Video "One Simple Rule For Acing Life" first if you haven't already.

@AleksM Have you read Walden yet? Listen to the audiobook on Audible. It's awesome and right up your alley.

I am fascinated with Chakras. It's a cool framework for growth including the enlightenment stages of growth. I need to work on the lower/ feminine chakras and the Heart Chakra.

When we go from zoned-out to mindful, isn't there some control happening there? Well, isn't that false egoic control? In other words, increasing awareness is an illusion.

Should we accept the externals of thoughts and reject the meanings or thought-stories? I've seen conflicting advice here. Should we focus on our breathing when thoughts arise? Should we accept the thoughts fully, story and all. What do you do? Can a principle be formulated here, albeit tentatively?

@Anna1 I'm starting to realize that if I give up control entirely then I just do what I'm supposed to do. I have to learn to just back off and watch. This is so liberating yet counter-intuitive. I have nothing to worry about because I'm not in control. Everything that needs to happen will happen. And it seems to be working. All I can do is increase awareness and mindfulness. And even then, just when I see myself do that, the moment is gone. So, I'm really realizing that there is no egoic me. That's just thought-story.

I got this idea from listening to one of Emerald's videos -- emotional repression.

I just realized. If I am the watcher, I should not be trying to control thoughts. My interest should be to be aware of thoughts for what they are. Egoic control is illusory so why engage in it. Thoughts?

@Leo Gura Maybe the belief in a nice tidy psychologically safe answer is a big illusion. Flatten the illusion lol.

"Giving one’s self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self." (Ramana Maharshi, "Who Am I", Paragraph 18, "Of the devotees, who is greatest?") Does this mean that we should not intellectualize at all? What do you think? How do you weigh-in on this? Is this a moral injunction, or is it grounded in the fact that thinking is a trap in itself from enlightened practice? This seems very conservative to me. Too conservative, no?

What do you think caused the effects? Stuff bubbling up and out? I never had anything like that happen to me In meditation. No weird psychological cracks.

Would Stage Yellow think of the ego as a system in the systems-thinking sense? What are the benefits of treating the ego as a system? Would each individual treat their own ego as a system? Or should be treat the generalizable ego as a system? or both? Do you find this kind of thinking useful or distracting for enlightenment?

@Heart of Space Haha. Nice. I'll let you off the hook.

@Heart of Space Maybe it is, maybe it's not. Who are you to judge my experience that way? Think about it. You don't know me. All you know is you. I just answered this because I think it deserves an answer and because a lot of other people on here likely wouldn't have the gall to be as open about it on here as I am. Like I said, there's a false modesty that people have about claiming they are enlightened, and it's rare to get people to really spill the beans and talk about it like I did. This is an experiment on my end too. But I do not claim to be enlightened, just that I have had the above-described experiences. That's all. Let someone else describe their experience with enlightenment for a contrast to mine. That would be useful. I just let loose and let the fingers hit the keyboard. Stream of consciousness. That's all I did. And it doesn't have to be right or wrong, that would miss the point. It's just a crude description in symbols (words) of somebody else's experience with enlightenment. That's all it can ever be.

@Sagatarius All language is thought-story when you talk about enlightement. Enlightenment just is being. Thoughts happen inside being and are subordinate to it.

Unconditional happiness and a huge weight taken off the shoulders. From what I can tell so far. I'm still in the beginning stages. All your neuroses go away. All the obstacles to pursue your path go away. Life becomes incredibly easy and productive. And I need much less sleep. I've been getting much less sleep the last week since I've been making a lot of enlightenment shifts, yet I am not as fatigued as I used to be with this amount of sleep. But I'm still in the early stages of enlightenment, so others might be helpful if they are brave enough to elude to the fact that they might be enlightened. People don't want to say they are enlightened, it's kind of taboo. A false modesty around here especially. Other than that, I'm still the same, except I don't identify as me anymore. I am way more opened up, but a little more detached socially. Like I am slightly autistic or something now. And I have zero fear. I also have no shame in doing what I want to do, since I know that that's what's advancing my ball most directly right now. Following the intuition. Same as I always have in that sense. I've always had great intuition and have followed it which has led to a lot of personal development growth for me. God speaks to you -- you just gotta have ears to hear Him. That's intuition. As long as you follow true intuition, you can make all the mistakes in the world, yet still end up in the exact right place. That's one thing I'm realizing now. I have no sense of regret over the past anymore. But I'm just watching all of this happen because there is no me. This is just a story. "I" just observed "myself" tell it. Freaky!

@Shanmugam Luck is irrelevant at this point. I think I agree with Leo on this one.

@Shanmugam I'm going through the process now. This might be my last question. I don't think I have anymore right now. Leo seems to think you can think of the ego as a system in his Systems Thinking video. I like that concept because it allows a framework for viewing the ego. That might be useful for a person pursuing enlightenment such as myself.

@Nahm Got it!

So we can gain awareness of them.

Incorporating the most basic fundamentals that drive the human personality. Highly recommended by me. Keep and open mind. If you love psychology, this is a must read.

Watch these two videos now

Ralph Waldo Emerson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendentalism Laozi Leo Gura