Joseph Maynor

Very nice list. Leo exposed me to Enlightenment work in 2015 and I kind of just worked on it and worked on it for a few years now and have made progress which has kept me interested. Sure I have Ego flare-ups, but my level of peace of mind is so much better than it was before I started doing Enlightenment work. I used to be one neurotic dude, with monkey-mind always chattering away. Now I experience a lot of my day with no Mind at all. My Mind is very tame and drowsy now, it likes to sleep. I used to be caught up in the Mind without realizing that I didn't need to be. And I think that's the thing that causes a lot of neurosis is that people don't have a space between themselves and their Mind. They don't know that there's such a space. And I think that alone is one of the great insights that one can learn by doing Enlightenment work. It just takes you out of that whole Mind-Matrix so you can have some peace of Mind. And then if you want to go into the Mind you can go into the Mind, but you can do it more consciously without being trapped in the Mind.

Very nicely put. This is an area where I find that a lot of people studying Enlightenment do not seem to understand well because the Mind likes to have only a single "one right view" and cling to that view in a context-independent way which defeats flexibility and nuance and context-dependence. I look forward to writing more about this issue myself.

Thank God. The whole tone and vibe of this place is elevated when Leo is around.

I agree with this. Surprisingly, it's these very simple things that a lot of people don't understand because they're not taught well by Enlightenment teachers. You can't explain away right action with Enlightenment Work. That's like trying to explain away your cardiovascular system with Enlightenment Work.

Well, ok. You don't need a thought to know you're breathing per se, but there does need to be a kind of awareness on breathing for breathing to even be noticed. This is actually a very seemingly nuanced issue that I need to think about more and observe about more.

Yeah, but are you really conscious of breathing unless the thought of breathing is also present?

Careful. Surrender can also be a clinging to surrender. Surrender and no surrender is a mental duality. You don't want to cling to either horn of that artificial mind-engineered and mind-created dilemma.

Teachings are like place-holders for the Ego-Mind as you work to (1) locate being, (2) transcend the Ego, and (3) transcend the Mind. You don't learn to ride a bike straight away, you need training-wheels to start. Teachings are like those training-wheels. You can't omit the training-wheels, they're necessary. But eventually, when you transcend the Mind especially, the training-wheels can be removed and you can just ride the bike by almost a kind of magic.

No, but I think Ethics is not understood right in the way Enlightenment is currently taught. Zen has some insights here that I hope soon to be able to explicate in my writings. On the one hand there is no Ethics, that's true, but on the other hand there is. In Zen they talk about this as the contrast between soft and hard teachings. Right action can be real. In many contexts it's legit to consider right action. But you have to be smart and not cling to this in the wrong way. This is worthwhile to listen to as a little introduction:

I agree with this. But there comes a time when the training-wheels need to come off the bicycle.

Yes, but then why do you even need to categorize being so much then? By categorizing being you cheapen it. I'm gonna stop here so I don't get accused of being overly probing. Thanks for the good discussion Highest, I like you.

Which is it, me or not me? I'm confused now. Does being confuse? What is that which is capable of being confused?

When no thought is present, does the issue of direct experience even arise?

What that which which says "this or that is me"?

What does direct experience say about itself? What is that which sections out "direct experience" from being?

Why does it have to be you? Many people never seem to question this. It amazes me.

Relationships and connection are an avenue for growth that I only recently fully started to appreciate. I recall my buddy talking about all the lessons he learned from each girlfriend he had as I sat there perplexed. Now I get it. Top heavy people like me tend to over-emphasize thought as the vehicle and conduit for growth. But no, you have relationships, you have contribution (projects), you have health and fitness, you have art (creativity), you have action (right conduct), you have meditation (connection with being), you have travel (especially international cultural travel), and probably others that I'm missing. Avenues & Sources of Growth Thought Relationships Contribution (Projects) Health & Fitness Art (Creativity) Action (Right Conduct) Meditation (Connection with Being) Travel (Esp. International Cultural Travel)

I thought about this and observed this as promised for a few hours. Here is my assessment to your well-formed and respectful question. When no thought is there, the issue of choice is not there. There is no issue raised as to choice that is always there. The issue of choice is only raised when a thought is present. See, what the Mind wants to do is force this issue on every context without revealing that the issue itself is only a thought laying on top of what is happening. The Mind says, this must be what's happening. But that must is itself a thought.

Me My Self And I

Why is your Ego invested in feeling or appearing humble? What are the pros and cons that feeling or appearing humble have on your life? Maybe write out a list of pros and cons like this: Pros and cons to my life of feeling or appearing humble: (1), (2), (3) ... etc. Try to come up with as many as you can, don't just list 3.

For newbies I would suggest the 60 mins per day for 1 hour per day. As you get more advanced you can meditate for shorter segments. I meditated for 60 mins per day for a couple of years religiously and I can't over-stress the impact this had on my Enlightenment work and practice.

Ok. I don't want to get pushy but lemme give you one final thought to consider and then I'll go away. What is that which thinks there's a choice or no choice? What is insisting that this issue stay on the chopping block? What is the issue itself?

When you pick up and throw a football are you forced by necessity to consider anything about choice?

The whole point is to get you to transcend the Mind which is something that Zen teaches you how to do better than anything I've ever seen. It takes you out of the whole Mental Matrix. You'll still have thoughts, but they won't have you on a leash. https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Suzuki-DT-Introduction-Zen-Buddhism.pdf

What you do is transcend being hamstrung by the issue which is only created in the Mind. It's thoughts flapping back and forth over being, nothing more. It's blah bah blah. Being is not hamstrung or dependent on blah blah blah. So you carry water and chop wood and transcend letting these issues of the Mind distract you. If you pick up a football and throw it, that has nothing to do with the Mind's blah blah blah about choice vs. no choice. You just pick up the football and throw it and watch those thoughts, but you don't become fixated on them or sort of dominated by them.