Joseph Maynor

That’s a cool insight.

I feel like I needed theory to become Enlightened. I'm sure other people feel differently about this.

I love this post. That Socrates quote is really good.

He must have. It would be totally weird to me that somebody could become Enlightened spontaneously without any theory or teaching even.

It’s provided me with a robust language from which to talk about Personal Development.

What about your personal development? Why is all personal development even relevant?

You guys worship Ken Wilbur too much. I never resonated with Ken Wilbur. Be your own Ken Wilbur. Ken Wilbur is just another dude with an opinion. Personal Development is not Science or Philosophy.

Ok. I'll let you debate these other people on here. I'm gonna do something else.

The burden of proof if on you. You made the claim.

How so?

I find it weird that he became Enlightened without any help.

Alex Jones gave me bad energy the first time I saw him on Joe Rogan. Total bad energy, Super manipulative energy. I don't want to say Stage Red energy, but that's kinda what it felt like. Donald Trump energy. Worse than Donald Trump energy. You gotta pay attention to energy just as much as you do what people say. We don't pay enough attention to energy because we don't talk about energy. But energy is there, you can feel energy off people and off places. You just gotta become sensitive to energy, in the first instance realizing that it exists. I call this Energy Metaphysics and I will be writing about this more as I become more attuned to energy. You can feel energy off of music too, that's one of the great things about music. In fact, I think the fact that I used to play jazz had really attuned me to energy and to vibe. I'm just now starting to give that credibility in my metaphysical picture of reality.

Tony Robbins is a really great observation. Totally!

Wow. This is a hard question. I've been thinking about this for a couple of days now. I would probably give a slight nod to Self-Inquiry. And my rationale is you can meditate all day long but that's not gonna make you Enlightened without further training. Self-inquiry is an investigation into the question "Who/what am I?". That's a very important project for Enlightenment. It's not enough just to meditate, you can meditate all you want. Meditation has to be coupled with Contemplation and Self-Inquiry for Enlightenment. That being said, Meditation is more important as a daily routine than Self-Inquiry is once you past a certain point in your Enlightenment Work.

I mean you can do it, but it's gonna have the same kind of limitation of defining Justice in a few sentences. It will be nothing more than a conceptual pointer to/about Enlightenment. The problem with formulating those kinds of models is people believe in them. It's just like the answers people were giving Socrates when he was looking for the essence of Justice in a few sentences. Read the "Republic Book 1 below, it's very illustrative about how a few general sentences can't really capture Enlightenment. https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Plato/republic_book_one.pdf I can define Enlightenment as discovering the true Self, realizing the illusion of Ego, and accepting the paradox between Ego and no Ego. Now, how would Socrates rip apart this definition of Enlightenment? Now, I'm not assuming this is the essential definition of Enlightenment, as Socrates wants. I'm perfectly ok with just a useful definition and I'm open to there being many definitions of Enlightenment, equally as good as my own. So, Socrates and I aren't operating on the same premises. He wants the one right essence of Enlightenment in a sentence or two definition. People like Wittgenstein drove a truck this kind of expectation, through Socrates' project. It's what Socrates was looking for that was the error; It's the way Socrates framed the kind of answer that he was looking for that was the error.

This is like Socrates asking for a definition of Justice in a few short general sentences.

Ego is the identification with Experience as me or mine or them. In addition, Ego is the identification with Thought-stories about me or mine or them.

His views on women are horrible. But he’s an essayist, so it’s best to take each of his essays as its own statement on whatever topic he’s addressing. I really benefitted from reading his essays. I had a complete books of his essays. If you like Schopenhauer, check out Francis Bacon’s essays. Not the painter Francis Bacon but the philosopher Francis Bacon. I think there’s an Essays Vol. 1 and an Essays Vol. 2 if I recall. You’re gonna be amazed at how much wisdom is packed in Bacon’s essays. And they were written in the 1600’s I think. I’ve read them all, they’re great and had an influence me. Schopenhauer’s essays and Bacon’s essays should be part of everybody’s reading list in life.

You gotta have the attitude that helping to change one person is enough. Really what you’re trying to do is help change yourself. And then you give back by helping to change others.

Here’s an essay I wrote recently: Compassion is the effect of knowing the true Self. And this comes from reducing ignorance. Once ignorance is seen through it can be reduced and prevented. Compassion is the prevention of suffering that is enabled by reducing your own ignorance and helping to reduce the ignorance of others. Love is not really the issue it's compassion. Love is a little too vague and ambiguous. You can have love for many things. But compassion is about reducing suffering caused by ignorance of illusion and otherwise. Compassion is walking up to a person and saying "I think you're making a mistake and let me tell you why I think so." So, I kind of feel like love is not quite right as the concept for Enlightenment, it's compassion that's more accurate. It's once you know the truth you can reduce your own ignorance and the ignorance of others, which is compassion to yourself and compassion to others.

Sure. Spiral Dynamics is just a model for Personal Development and development of groups of people. I’m less concerned with the groups of people part of it and more concerned with how Spiral Dynamics aids my own personal development. To what extent does Spiral Dynamics give me ideas on how to grow my Ego? That’s the key question for me.

Spiral Dynamics just is about the development of Ego. One of the worst beliefs people come to cling to is the belief that Ego is bad and should be gotten rid of. Although Ego is an illusion, it’s still a constant part of Experience just like the Body is. Spiral Dynamics isn’t really about Enlightenment — actually paradoxically it is and it isn’t. What I mean by that is you can be Enlightened and also fully love and accept Ego after you discover the true Self and after you see through the illusion of Ego. You can think of Enlightenment as 3 stages — (1) Carry water and chop wood, (2) seek the true Self and actual reality, (3) carry water and chop wood. It’s the third stage where Ego is accepted back into your life and loved, although it is an illusion. Vision for your life is an illusion, it’s thought-stories, but you’re gonna have the illusion of Ego anyway, so the key is to create a loveable vision for Ego. This is a vision where you’re doing good things for yourself and for others. That’s a loveable vision even if you don’t accomplish it (or it doesn’t come to full fruition). It’s still better than sitting on the couch eating junk food watching TV, wasting your life.

@VioletFlame I’ll do a deeper read and give you a fuller comment.

Both. I share my insights with others and I benefit from others’ insights too. And others benefit from my insights. I think it’s good to share your insights — just don’t become too evangelical about it.

There’s a paradox and you gotta work both ends of it. On the one hand peace is knowing everything is just fine and nothing needs to be done. But on the other hand peace is having a loveable vision for your life that you want to implement in reality.