Joseph Maynor

You’re getting the “you might be crazy thought” I see. I had that too relatively recently when I was doing a bunch of work that I wasn’t passionate about. I was diagnosing myself preliminarily with all kinds of sh*t. And then I realized, “no, actually I just don’t like what I’m doing, I don’t like what I’m working on.”

Enlightenment is only one major part of Personal Development Work and not the only part. Taken the wrong way, Enlightenment can actually be a block to your Personal Development Work when you start believing that you have no control. It’s not Enlightenment or Personal Development — It’s Enlightenment and Personal Development.

Leo did a good video on this subject.

What the hell is Spiritualism? Just kidding. I know what you mean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism

He seems to have gone from a Psychology Professor to a Personal Development Content Provider. I admire the career change.

Most people go through a Spiritual Ego phase of Enlightenment when they are young on the Path. Of course these people don’t realize they’re in a Spiritual Ego phase of the Path.

There’s also a difference between theory and planning. An architect’s detailed plans are nothing like some abstract metaphysical musings. Thinking of planning as a theoretical activity is no good for the practice of careful planning.

Just like you can hide out in a forest in life, you can hide out in theory in life too.

A more interesting question is, What does Ken Wilber think about your ideas?

Totally, I get it. Enlightenment Work has a lot to it. You wouldn't expect someone to be able to give you the principles of Physics in the palm of your hand. Somehow we expect Enlightenment truths to be given in the palm of our hand. The assumption is that Enlightenment is simple. It's a paradox, on the one hand Enlightenment is simple but on the other hand it's complex as well, and you gotta work a both ends of that paradox.

I already know everything, so I don’t need to watch any videos. Just kidding! I’ve watched all of Leo’s videos.

I bolded some words.

You gotta find your passion first, and then you select work that harmonizes with your passion. You can actually gauge your passion throughout the day. Most of us are not really taught to do this, but you can do it as part of your mindfulness. You could keep a passion journal where you monitor and record your passion throughout the day. That would be an interesting exercise. Maybe I should do that as well.

Subconscious Mind is just a category. It's a useful concept when you're trying to re-program your Mind. It's part of a model of Mind.

Notice that even when there's no self there's still self. Notice that when there's self, there's also no self. And then the third thing would be notice your self considering these ideas. Notice the difference between your self and the ideas. Who's doing who -- are the ideas doing the self or is the self doing the ideas? Where are these ideas coming from?

I don't think I would want to hang out with any. They're not any different than ordinary people. What they have you can't see anyway, even if you met them.

How would you even know if you were trying to skip a step? This is weird thing. How do you even know what a step is gonna be for you, let alone articulate the steps you think you've attained? What are these steps? And even if we have steps, what would it look like to try to skip a step? How would that actually look?

My question to you would be this. You have what you just wrote there. How does that differ from what it's like to be you? What's the relationship, if any, between what you wrote there and what it's like to be you?

Ego is your life. It's everything that's near and dear to you -- both inner and outer.

I always have been addicted to Personal Development. My childhood set me up to be addicted to Personal Development. Not because I wanted to be Tony Robbins. I never wanted to be this super rich person. But what I wanted to do is solve my own problems in my own life which were very big problems. But that kinda teed my personality up to always be trying to improve myself. I think there's something to the Paradox of Personal Development and No Personal Development, and how you have to work both ends of this paradox. On the one hand we do want to be doing Personal Development Work in our lives, but on the other hand we want to let the issue/ concept of Personal Development go and just focus on other things in life too. Personal Development is just one issue among a multitude of issues that you're focused on every day. Don't cling to Personal Development Work like a child clinging to a baby-blanket. But at the same time, you do want to be working hard on your Personal Development Work every day.

Whether the body exists within consciousness or not, the body exists on some level. You can call that whatever you want. You can say that it's an illusory level if you want to. But if I come up to you with a baseball bat and threaten you, you telling me your body doesn't exist ain't gonna carry any water for you. We wanna be smart but not so smart that we're not smart.

I think the first thing for you to understand is that this is normal. We all have this. This is not unique to you. A lot of Personal Development is straightening out that idiotic part of ourselves that seems to be marching to its own drum. That's our starting condition. We have these conflicted natures. On the one hand our Minds are very wise, and on the other hand our Minds seem to be driving us in counter-productive directions. This is the ultimate problem that Personal Development solves. The problem is how do I accept myself and correct myself in the optimal way? Notice there's an "and" in there not an "or -- it's accept and correct. You need both. It's not accept or correct!