Joseph Maynor

When we are zoning-out in low-consciousness behavior, is that being triggered by the shadow? So, will reducing the shadow correlate with a reduction in low-consciousness zone-outs? Is it the size of the shadow that's to be reduced?

I think part 2 is better than part 1. Yeah watch part 2 again. It's awesome.

Did you watch his part 2 one? HTSBAV Part 2.

Travel to a few culturally exotic places around the world that will move your mental furniture around. Southern Europe China India Turkey Taiwan

Accept every emotion and don't balk at them. Open yourself up so that your shadow gets expressed more and starts to shrink. Transcend the self and practice awareness, openness, and acceptance. Release all monkey-chatter thoughts. Try not to tangle up your emotions with beliefs. That's what feeds the shadow. When the emotions come up, let them in and look at them impartially, without judging them good or bad, and beware of associating the emotions with certain thoughts. Watch Emerald's 2 videos on the Shadow and Shadow Work. You gotta shrink the Shadow to kill your demons.

The idea that you are choosing or not choosing to live is illusory. There is no you choosing. There is no real problem here. Just be and accept what's in the awareness.

Spiritual enlightenment intro What is karma? How not to be a zen devil How not to be a victim part 2 Mindfulness How to meditate deeper The power of routines What is happiness? How to feel happy Positive vs negative motivation

This and "Awareness Alone is Curative" video haha! Two of the very best.

Your choice to stand up is a perception or thought in awareness. It may be an egoic thought. You are assuming something is choosing. That's a thought. But those thoughts do not interfere with awareness of the body moving. They supplement that awareness. They add a thought-story to the awareness of the body moving. You're coming at this from the egoic-paradigm.

I was confused about this too. Great advice here. Words have limitations. It's like expecting a one-sided coin. Ain't gonna happen. Every video is a snap-shot. There is no one line of consistency possible. We've gotta use the fragments to inspire ourselves to look within and work from within. Instead of 80/20 outer to inner you need 80/20 inner to outer. A shift of paradigm and habits.

I'll let you know in 5 years. I got some inner work to do. What's crazy is I have spent my entire life running from my inner life. That's why I developed such an analytical personality. I didn't want to deal with some tough emotions that came from some early childhood abuse. But over the last 6 months or so I have let a lot of those demons out of hiding in my psyche. And I feel so much lighter now. Like I am not as emotionally on edge all the time anymore. Leo's video on "understanding roles" is where I really started to do this work heavily.

I will take this advice myself too. Thanks Dodo! No need to rush this stuff.

Woah! Coulda said the same thing myself. Just happened to me too.

Almost no monkey-chatter. Neuroses go bye-bye.

Remember that game hot potato when you were a kid? Somebody would throw you a ball and you would have to release it as quickly as possible by throwing it to somebody else while exclaiming "hot potato" in an urgent voice! Well, are thoughts to be treated this way too in Enlightenment work? It seems like a lot of what we're trying to do is not get as bogged-down into the rabbit-holes of thought-stories. Thoughts, when seen meta, can be treated like boulders on the side of the road. But when stumbled-upon with our guard-down, have an allure that siphons awareness into a matrix that stands at cross-purposes to reality.

Any answer you give would just be monkey-chatter when held juxtaposed to reality. Awareness perceives thoughts and awareness also perceives thought's attempts to define awareness. Thought can never define reality. Reality does contain thoughts however. But even this is monkey-chatter. You gotta look inside for the answer. Just look!-- as Wittgenstein would often say. It's more important to see what is pointed to by the word "thought" than going on a monkey-chatter expedition for the meaning of the word "thought". It took me a long time to figure this out for myself. Look inside.

@Loreena Acting from the ego-consciousness paradigm.

Free will is concept and applies to ego-based paradigm. In awareness of reality there is no free will. All there is is awareness. Reality and awareness just are. Any consideration of free will is merely the awareness of and going down the matrix of a thought-story.

@Loreena You gotta meditate in a quiet place for 1 hour per day. I use an eye covering to keep the light out. I meditate laying in bed, but I've been told that's a no no. But you might baby step meditation that way. Find a comfortable place to meditate where you can relax. Here's my prior daily practice (until very recently): I do concentration practice for 20 mins, do-nothing meditation for 10 mins, awareness-focus meditation for 10 mins, mindfulness meditation for 10 mins, and active-release meditation for 10 mins. I do these in this order everyday, time adding up to 1 hour, about an hour after I wake up in the morning. Concentration practice is thumb and forefinger. Here's my current daily practice. What's interesting is very recently I've been shifting to do-nothing meditation with a little labeling added in when needed. And this is what I normally do when I'm not meditating. So meditation and everyday life for me are kinda merging now. 1 hour of this per day. Anytime of the day is fine. Sometimes I'll concentrate on the sensation of my breath on my nostrils.

1 year.

Got it. I keep making the mistake that life will change with enlightenment, but it doesn't really. It's the same old life. There's a little bit of a salvation wish in there I think. I gotta root that out.

And paradoxically we are almost trained here in the West that loving yourself is somehow wrong, selfish, or overly luxuriant behavior. Before Leo released his video on Self Acceptance I don't think I even knew that loving myself love was possible. Love was something to be expected externally. I still don't really have a Self Love practice nailed down.

Got it.

Another epiphany folks, I think. The ego, or concept of being a separate self, is concept and therefore not part of reality. And consciousness work is basically working on stopping to cling to the concept of ego in all of its manifestations. Is this right? Releasing the concept of being a separate thing in all of the manifestations. Stripping that nugget of idealism from reality! We can cling to the concept of ego or release it. And this has no effect on reality whatsoever either way. Am I on track here?

Got it. Maybe questioning too much is the ego's way of clinging to life. I'll take your advice. Inside I go.