Joseph Maynor

What is this process? What characterizes and differentiates the thoughts and emotions which are not created by the ego with those that are created by the ego?

I will still contemplate but I want to be careful that I am not spiritually bypassing. I want to make a counter-intuitive move for 6 months and see what happens. Like an eager scientist. An explorer. I've never done this. My life has been defined by intellectualism in one way or the other. Concepts are synonymous with me on some deep level. I've always loved ideas. I always asked why? when I was a kid. I used to annoy my family with this -- Why why why? They used to respond -- just to make you ask questions!

@Prabhaker I will work and live my life, but I will ween myself off all intellectual or conceptual pursuits. I will live in the moment. I'll still contemplate, not I'll try to limit the contemplation to looking inside rather than philosophy. It's like getting off TV. I won't be able to tell you until after I do it. I don't want to get caught up in spiritual bypassing.

I think so. Spirituality should be a need on Maslow's hierarchy. Without spirituality we don't experience a sense of holism. Without spirituality we never surrender into the hands of God. Without doing this at some point, our lives are going to be neurotic and depressing. Perhaps this explains why there are so many religions around. People need spirituality to live a fulfilling, self-actualized life.

These three videos Emerald did are excellent. And three from Leo. These have to do with Shadow Work too because how you judge yourself and others has to do with your shadow. If you watch these six videos you will likely understand the basics of Shadow Work. I just watched these all again myself! Awesome.

1.49 The wisdom obtained in higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars. 1.50. The habitual pattern of thought stands in the way of other impressions. 1.51 With the suppression of even that through the suspension of all modifications of the mind, contemplation without seed is attained. Don't just say yes or no. Elaborate and weigh-in on the ideas. What does "seed" mean?

Atman is emptiness and so is Brahman. So they are the same. Atman = Brahman. Emptiness and infinity are one.

"Metaphors We Live" By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson This awesome book explains how metaphors are a mechanism of mind and structure the most basic reality of our experience. I have read this book and highly recommend it. I'm re-reading it now.

A person's sense of individual identity as a separate thing from the rest of reality.

Ah. So it's kind of like getting off an ego addiction. The longer you stay sober the less and less cravings arise over time. I love this way of looking at it. It's very hopeful.

I believed in God before enlightenment work. I used to say that I both am and am not a Muslim. I still do believe in God, but I dropped all ideology around God. My religious beliefs have radically changed since studying enlightenment. But my perception of God phenomenologically has not changed. God is very synonymous with intuition though. But more accurately -- intuition is an aspect of the voice of God. A quality or trait of God.

Another perspective. A healthy ego is one that a person is super conscious of. Like levels of awareness up from the norm. So the ego is smaller basically. It shrinks as the subconscious beliefs shift due to increasing awareness. Increasing awareness dissolves the ego over time.

@kieranperez Watch the 4 videos Leo has with subconscious in the title. The video on self image. The video on backsliding. And the video titled awareness alone is curative. And the video titled free will versus determinism. And the systems thinking video. Leo's description of the subconscious is extremely adequate.

@Natasha Giving up free will was the end for me. If there is no free will, God is not gonna be judging me.

@Zephyr I agreee with you 100%. What do you think about predestination?

@PetarKa No. There is a voice you can hear if you are listening. Watch Leo's video "How to harness your intuition". The Tao speaks in a still, small voice. This is the voice of God -- your intuition. Now I realize that religious people have confused intuition with concepts and ideologies. But I digress.

Awareness is a muscle and has to be worked out every day. Most people have weak awareness muscles. A few have strong ones. Awareness is a physical activity, a practice. You gotta approach awareness like weight-lifting. If you don't do it, it creates a lot of self-delusion which leads you to feeling awful, making crap choices, and taking bad actions. Increasing awareness turns this downward spiral into an upward spiral in due time. There is no other possible outcome in the long run. But you gotta be patient.

@gogoladze1929 The problem is is that there is no you. Wu wei is the only sustainable solution to obstacles. Embracing the Tao. Just watching reality move. And raising awareness. Will power is non-sustainable because it is an egoist concept. There is no you to control. So control is an egoic illusion too. There is no you, no willpower, and no control. What you are is outside of space and time. Reality arises out of you, and any sense of identity you may have is a thought mistakenly construed as an aspect of reality.

@Loreena Early age? Maybe. If I didn't screw up and experiment so much earlier in life I don't think I would be as wise now. People too focused in life run the risk of being raised in a monastery or bubble and never make the mistakes that are necessary for full and deep wisdom later on in life. Youth is meant to be exploratory, egoic, and damaging. Otherwise what context do you really have to grow away from? So yeah, be careful with sheltering yourself too much when you are young. Make a bunch of mistakes when you are young so you can get at the truth as you age. Then you grow into something truly wise. Someone who's been there, seen that, done that, and overcome that. You'll dwarf all the sheltered kids in wisdom by a mile.

@gogoladze1929 This advice is more for the newbie to intermediate personal development person. Advanced advice runs on a different paradigm entirely. Without enlightenment experience, advanced advice falls on deaf ears. You appear to be advanced from your comment. In that case, yeah what I said might seem to apply only to the kiddies. But you gotta start somewhere. What I posted is how I did it in my beginner/intermediate stage. Enlightenment work, or advanced personal development, puts you in a totally different paradigmatic bubble. But it takes a few years to become advanced. People need personal development training-wheels in the meantime. That's what I posted. A hack, as I like to call it. A temporary fix. So, yeah, it's not permanently sustainable. But it gets you moving. Enlightenment reveals that all obstacles are illusory. Willpower is also illusory and therefore moot.

Consider this: Tao is the merging of yin and yang. It is the harmony that emerges from this union and is deeply creative. It is the absolute expression of love. Tao guides thr wise moment by moment. The foolish are lost and can't see clearly. (Exerpted from the Tao Box by Priya Hemenway) How do these ideas compare with Zen or Advaitan concepts?

@kieranperez Watch every video Leo did with enlightenment or enlightened in the title. And watch the Neti Neti video. There's like 10 videos you gotta watch. And do the exercises as Leo guides you in the videos. This will give you some solid context. Also watch Leo's video on Contemplation. That one is right up your alley.

Visualize starting the project. Create a list of 10 things that you will gain by starting the project and completing it. This will increase your optimism regarding the task. Contemplate the suffering you are causing yourself by not doing it. Contemplate how you have overestimated the size of the fear or pain that is standing in your way of you beginning the project. Break down the task into small bite sized pieces. Strategize and write the steps down on index cards and lay these cards down into a sequence or straight line. Throw each card away as you complete each sub-task. Don't beat yourself up, calm your self down and give yourself some love before starting the task. Get into a flow state as quickly as possible regarding the task so your whole being just does it mindlessly. Do some affirmations like "I'm always taking action". "I'm always taking action". Utilize the 5 minute rule. If you have a project that is causing you resistance, spend 5 minutes on it everyday. That will get you over the hump of the resistance. Once you get over that hump, flow with it and just ride that wave. The task will take care of itself. Use a timer! 5 full minutes, don't cheat -- everyday. Often what blocks willpower is initial resistance to get started. That's the secret to willpower, getting over that initial hump. That's what I've tried to give you some tools to use for here. It works for me.

Leo. Emerald. And then a bunch of study into Philosophy. I try to stay away from too many "gurus". Leo is excellent and so are Emerald's videos. I think those materials are probably enough for a primer by any one guru. At some point you gotta become your own guru. No shepard following. That's for Stage Blue or Stage Orange folks. I don't know how Leo or Enerald feel about being labeled gurus either. Both are fiercely independent thinkers, which is what you wanna become too. I do want to read Osho. He seems like a wise, original cat right up my alley. I don't want to get caught up in too much of the non-dual religion, cultish aspects. That's a trap that many people miss. No following, only leading remember that. You gotta become your own authority, the only real authority.

No. Liberation is transcending the ego through awareness. There is no you avoiding anything. That's an illusion. Ego exists inside awareness and it's only by increasing awareness that one can see the ego for the illusion that it is, and then our subconscious mind is forced to re-wire itself.