Joseph Maynor

@Leo Gura Zen-stick slap? What am I, an ornery child Leo? One who writes really well for his age, perhaps haha. I beg your pardon Leo! That's not an argument nor is it persuasive. That's ok. You seem to have no problem advancing arguments when they serve your lofty claims and conclusions. Sounds like something that a religious person would say when their cherished beliefs are challenged. It's in the book! Go read the book! See, right there, it says in the book! God created the Earth 4000 years ago, see, the book! Well sir, we have evidence that the Earth is billions of years old. Zen-stick slap! Ok, I guess that's like the Chan master's punch in the face, I get it. Oy vey, the irony! Ok Leo, maybe I should take your word for it then. The master has spoken, I stand corrected now! Zen-stick slap? Gimme a break! How arrogant and dogmatic a response from you! I thought you were supposed to be "Mr. Openminded"! I would have expected such a response from a religious fanatic, not the one Leo Gura. Go read yer bible sonny! Well, I've done that daddy, and . . . Well, then GO read it again! Yes sir, because you says so, I'z will. Guud! I hope you welcome diverse views on this forum Leo besides your own. We don't all swallow-down your epistemology like tablets from Moses. I quite disagree with your views on epistemology in fact, if you care to ever have them challenged. Maybe you don't! If that's the case, I'll deal with other issues on here. After all, this is YOUR forum, and I respect that.

@Emerald Cool! I'm gonna check out your content on your channel. I'm so excited! I've watched every single one of Leo's videos, many multiple times now. You and Leo are going to ensure I never get any work done lol! I love this stuff! And I'm learning so much. Can't wait.

@Natasha Can you explain a little more about body-mind? Sounds interesting!

@Prabhaker Doesn't it make sense to draw a distinction between the individual ego and the social ego? Seems like you are referring to the social ego. My current understanding is that the social ego is societal in nature, and everything else is the individual ego. I realize these distinctions may be more or less problematic (or more or less useful depending on which lens you are looking thru for which purpose). I'm sort of a newbie with all this stuff, but not really too. Please correct my thinking if you see it differently.

@Epiphany_Inspired Good point. My idolizing only extends to their ideas not to their lives due to the effect that their ideas had on me. Of their lives, with the exception of Wittgenstein, I know little about.

Not reading responses, writing responses.

Let's say someone put a gun to your head and said you have to label yourself as a type (or combo of types) or die, what would you say? Remember, no loosey-goosey: you are gambling with your life. And I assume anyone who talks about enlightenment as a serious topic of daily discourse falls into the category of Buddhists. Don't nitpick that category please. Think of it as a wide net. Gimme some labels! Let's get down to some brass tacks here. I wanna nail you folks down. And if it's a combo of schools, say that. I'd rather have an answer than no answer. Remember -- No weaseling out! Weasels die. No hedge-words. And no lying just to save your skin either. Be honest. Let's say the gunman has you hooked up to a lie detector machine. Describe your influences and/or types please. I think y'all get what I'm looking for. And if you can't do types or schools, do teachers. Something's better than nothing. You can give me a list of teachers, no? I wanna learn about you and your differences.

@Nahm I'm not sure. I can't believe Leo's concept of enlightenment until I experience it for myself though. But I have had an ego-death experience where I lost the concept of myself as a thing. And I do practice being in nothingness and watching my input portals (thoughts and senses). But I have not experienced the crack that Leo talks about where you lose your sense of self entirely. And I'd be interested in hearing from anybody on here who has actually achieved Leo's sense of enlightenment fully.

My monkey-mind is very negative. Does the monkey get more cheerful as you do personal development and kick-up more positive default thoughts than negative default thoughts? Does the ratio ever favor the positive thoughts with some of you more advanced folks? I wanna trade my negative monkey in for a more positive one! I think my whole world would change.

@egoeimai Well, do it then. I'm curious. I wanna see what people's blocks are to compare them with my own. I've got some big ones, as I've plainly shown.

@Epiphany_Inspired Maybe this is what causes people to become celebrities or "successful"! Positive monkey-mind spirals. Just a half-baked thought.

@Nahm I'm definitely not a fan of nonduality. I don't accept duality either or the idea that one or the other has to be true (this is an example of a false choice fallacy). But I have had an ego-death experience in the sense that I no longer cling to a notion and feeling of myself as a thing, and I do practice being in nothingness, meditation, and watching/monitoring my thoughts. I do not believe all is one. And I don't think Leo's concept of enlightenment is possible. You can't lose your self entirely. That's a fiction. Maybe 85%, but not entirely. And I would never believe that or espouse that unless I experienced it directly and firsthand myself first. Otherwise it's a pipe-dream at worst and hypothesis at best. And I don't mistake hypotheses for truths. Until I experience the crack for myself, as Leo has referred to it as, I will continue to believe that Leo's concept of enlightenment is a fiction. Nobody else's testimony is really persuasive to me because I can't really climb into their mind and verify it for myself. But I still keep an open mind and welcome testimony, naturally. I never stop listening. To believe it, I must first see it for myself firsthand, especially with something as radical as Leo's concept of enlightenment.

@Nahm Would you say you have achieved Leo's concept of enlightenment? Have you experienced the crack that Leo talks about in his discourses on enlightenment?

@egoeimai You can do it! You can do it!

@Steph1988 I'm self employed. Yeah, it's just an ideal. I practice it at a percentage accuracy everyday. I'm getting it locked in more and more each day. Sometimes I do take a day off here and there. I've pieced it together over time like building modules and then working them together so it's hard for me to say how long I've been doing it. It was a gradual optimization process for me. I started doing it this way in time blocks a couple of years ago when I got out of the paradigm of having everything scheduled down to the minute.

@ValiantSalvatore Yep. But if I fall off I don't worry about it and just pick it up the next day. The schedule is an ideal, I don't perform it 100% all the time, although I aim to. But it is also not a pipe-dream either, I do practice it with a percentage accuracy everyday.

@nahtanoj Ego-death: When the concept (and feeling) that I had of myself as a thing died, or more accurately was no longer capable of being clung-to. The thing I had previously thought I was and was defending died. Who I thought I was died, so in a sense, I died, although not really. It's a bit paradoxical. But it was not a fun process. It was a very emotional process. Like what happens when people are exposed to enlightenment: sometimes you hear people describe the table-turning aftermath of that. That's what I mean. I literally went through the 7 stages of grief. And I got really angry and fearless and became a Zen Devil for a couple of weeks until I got my bearings again. But this was not an intellectual experience. It was more like an exorcism, although without the evil connotations. My self left me. Although, I found out later, not entirely. There are still vestiges of my ego (in the self sense) left in me -- like 15% remaining. Be careful what you wish for with enlightenment work, you might get it! But I feel much better today being in emptiness, so it was worth it. But it caused a lot of consternation in my life for about 3 weeks. Watch Leo's videos on enlightenment.

No need to apologize. It's not that serious.

@Natasha One problem I have is when people are so purportedly open-minded they forget they are practicing philosophy. I'm not surprised nobody answered this. It was a good experiment. Nobody wants to admit they are beholden to theories. I'll keep to the practical stuff on here, the Self-Actualization side.

@Martin123 I didn't say that! That's a straw man you set up. I posed this question in good faith and specifically said don't get hung up on the word Buddhist, it's a wide net and not the question at issue. I wanna know how people identify, not some trivial response.

Physical Health Peace of Mind Writing my work on Philosophy (Contribution) Healthy Relationships Financial Independence The feeling of integrity with my values

I do this same routine Mon thru Sun, 7 days per week. But I take a little 3 day vacation every couple/few months where I travel somewhere by airplane for R&R time. So, even though I don't take my weekends off, I get to go to Las Vegas or wherever every couple/few months for 3 days. That works for me. I find that running my life on a consistent routine everyday gives me great momentum, like having wind at my back. 1. Morning Routine (3.5 hours) Wake: 5:30 am -- Make and drink smoothie -- Read my Mission Statement -- Do Concentration work/ Do Meditation (1 Hour) -- Get my lunch ready to bring to work. Do some errands around the house. -- Take a Bath -- Get Ready for Work -- Walk to Work. Do walking meditation. 2. Work Routine (9.5 hours) Arrive at work: 9 am -- Strategize my work day (30 mins) -- Work (Eat Lunch somewhere that fits) -- Work on my philosophy (I'm writing a book) 3. Evening Routine (2.5 hours) Leave work: 6:30 pm -- Walk home. Do walking meditation. -- Do some errands. Do some cooking (if needed). Work on my exercise for integrating with my past. Do some socializing with friends and family. Do some work on this forum. Do some personal development work, but nothing too heavy. (I usually only do the heavy personal development work when I travel.) 4. Sleep (8.5 hours) In bed for Sleep: 9:00 pm // PS: I find that being too anal with my time-frames didn't work for me, I felt too reigned-in, too controlled. Notice that I keep stuff in time-blocks rather than having everything scheduled down to the minute. But that's just me. I don't like to be too controlled, and I need some flexibility in my schedule. This is the only schedule I have ever stuck with for any length of time. It is sustainable for me. It took me 10 years to realize I can't do the anal schedule where everything is scheduled down to the minute. If you pull the reins too hard, the horse will buck!

@Markus After many years of battle (and I have the scars to prove it), I realize I don't want to be at war with my monkey-mind anymore. That just emboldens it I've found. And correct me if I'm wrong, but even the most enlightened yogi on this planet still has vestiges of monkey-mind lurking in their psyche. If you gotta live with it, shouldn't you try to make it the best possible roommate for yourself? Don't you wanna tame the little devil? If you can get it to lay down and take a nap that's good, but if you get it to kick-up positive rather than negative thoughts, that seems to be one better! Is that possible?

I need some feedback. I am going to try to use that personality assessment Leo had us do into a plan to improve my work life. Is this a worthwhile goal and plan for work self-development? Before I commit to this, I wanna see your thoughts. Are these goals sound or futile? Work Self-Improvement Hacks: (For my work -- Job) 1. Self-Efficacy -- Go from Low to High 2. Dutifulness -- Go from Low to High 3. Achievement Striving -- Go from Low to High 4. Activity Level -- Go from Low to High 5. Interpersonal Style -- Go from Competitive to Cooperative 6. Stress Management Style -- Go from Reactive to Resilient Do any of you folks see any problem with this kind of goal/plan for self-development for me? I don't wanna waste my time on something futile. If there's a futility with any of this, please let me know.

Yes. I am recovering from a similar situation. Really the last 6 months have been a turning point for me. I had my ego-death experience in March, and then I went kinda crazy for a while. Then my life sorta spiraled out of control due to many reasons. Then I hit rock bottom in early May. Now I am sober, rebuilding my business, and re-engaged with moving forward. But I hit the depths of depression too, so I can relate. Just remember that a sunny day always follows a series of cloudy days eventually. This too shall pass. And when that sun peeks over the horizon you're gonna be so grateful. And believe me, it does. I just experienced it myself.