Joseph Maynor

Read 'Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius' by Ray Monk This book had a huge impact on my life when I read it in my late 20's. I also re-read it in my early 30's too. https://www.amazon.com/Ludwig-Wittgenstein-Genius-Ray-Monk/dp/0140159959 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein

Maybe facing your fears is unnecessarily torturing yourself as well. It's the 'Self' that wants to face its fears. This is not how an Enlightened person talks: 'Remember, this is your individual journey, your demons, your fears. Do not avoid any hard work, such as facing your deepest fears. You cannot get there without facing them.' This is what I call cultivation of a 'Spiritual Ego'. The idea that Enlightenment is something for you. Enlightenment is not a destination. Enlightenment is surrendering to BE-ing right now in the moment without pre-judgments or pre-expectations. Videos on point to watch:

KEEN AWARENESS IS HOW YOU TRANSCEND FEAR OF ENGAGING IN CONFLICT WITH PEOPLE The easiest way to enter conflict without fear is when you're keenly aware of your micro and macro-level actual problem situations in your life. It takes a lot of Personal Development work to get to this place though. The reason you don't want to enter conflict is because you're not keenly aware of your actual problem situations or what is needed to sustainably solve them. One of the best places you can get to is when you enter conflict knowing deep-down that it's a battle worth waging.

I use apple cider vinegar as my key acid when I make food. I use it on almost everything I eat. Sometimes I'll use balsamic vinegar instead or I'll blend the two 50/50.

Enlightenment is tricky because it's all about surrendering to BE-ing -- and the Mind kicks up every obstacle to distract you from doing that. One of the biggest obstacles is clinging to 'Need to Know BE-ing'. Another obstacle is assuming BE-ing is a butterfly that you need to catch with a net. Enlightenment teachers talk about this as 'setting Enlightenment as a goal to be achieved'. The problem with that is it tees the Mind up to create a concept of Enlightenment or BE-ing. But see, BE-ing is not a concept. BE-ing is right now. Enlightenment is transcending the 'Paradigm of Self', and eventually all paradigms as well. Asking your 'Self', 'shouldn't I be Enlightened by now?' is a trick question. It's a distraction from surrendering to BE-ing in the moment without pre-judgments or pre-expectations.

No way. I entered UCLA at 23 years old and graduated when I was 27 years old. It was actually weird because everybody around me was 3-5 years younger than me, and I lived in the dorms too for the first 2 years. Even though I was only 23 years old, I felt super old at the time. Now I'm 40, and I look back on that and say, 'how the hell did I think I was so old at 23'? When I was going to UCLA there were a few undergrads that were there in their 40's! I sh*t you not! The grad students were all around my age though, which was cool. I actually hung out more with grad students and people off campus than I did with the kids on campus. I was playing music at that time, and most of my friends were musicians off campus.

Wow. That's something I think is worthwhile to do. I gotta do that at some point.

But see what's weird is that you're actually giving advice in this post. Can you see it?

You need to get to the point where you accept your body. This is something that Enlightenment Work really helps with. It helped me a lot with that issue.

I'm a fan of the College Education with the proper caveat added to it. College is great for building Course of Study and Shore of Reference -- but it's really just a launchpad for these in your life.

No. That's what a Self thinks. It's the Self that says 'that's for me'. BE-ing just is what it is. You don't really wanna try to understand BE-ing, you just want to surrender to it.

Is it possible that you’re treating yourself poorly and you’re projecting this frustration out externally so you don’t have to focus on yourself?

Collaboration. Synergy. Feedback. Sanity check for ideas. Motivation to create and develop Personal Development systems. Seeing what people actually do and think.

A CAVEAT FOR SPIRAL DYNAMICS IN PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT WORK It's almost like you wanna write out the Spiral Dynamics map in detail and then crumple it up and burn it afterwards. It's paradoxical. It does give you some awareness, but you don't wanna cling to it either. It can get you rigidly defining things which puts you back into Paradigm City. And that's no good for Enlightenment Work. But at the same time, it's good for Conceptual Understanding though. It's useful to have some big-picture models. It can cause you to have insights about your own life too, which is valuable. If you don't know where you're going, chances are you'll never get there. Spiral Dynamics increases awareness in that way. Spiral Dynamics is much more of a tool in Conceptual Understanding Work than it is in Enlightenment Work. A lot of Enlightened people don't do enough Conceptual Understanding Work and they stay at Stage Green as a result due to their lack of awareness.

As a heterosexual male I never find a need to be homophobic. Sexuality is totally irrelevant to me. It's people who are uncertain about their sexuality that tend to raise the issue of sexuality in my experience. It's the Shadow. People introducing gay stuff in their humor is a huge tip off and red flag. Sometimes I'll get off-put by seeing a transgender person, but I think that has to do with the fact that I hate myself for not being that comfortable with my own body as they are with theirs. Anyway, that's a long conversation -- but it's not their sexuality that I'm reacting against. It's their openness with their body that triggers me. But see, that's my issue not their issue. That's my cowardice with not being as accepting of my body as they are theirs, see. They're not hiding anything, and that triggers me. And they don't give a sh*t about what anybody else things about it either. I secretly envy their courage and self-acceptance. And I secretly hate myself for not being as accepting of myself the way they are.

You're expecting the world to do your work for you. That's a red flag for me. If that was really your genuine Life Purpose, you'd be telling us what your career is because you'd be so passionate about getting started working on it. Proper Life Purpose Career is something you would pay someone to let you do. You wouldn't be facing any resistance regarding what you should do for Career if you had a genuine Life Purpose in hand.

The more Enlightened you become the more you'll just always be doing the work no matter whatever else you're doing. Enlightenment is about raising your awareness to keen. It's the noobs who have to sit around do explicitly do Self-Inquiry. When you're Enlightened, you'll just naturally be keenly aware of BE-ing in the moment. Once you transcend the Paradigm of Self, your Enlightenment work will change dramatically.

I was watching a Jordan Peterson video — I wish I knew which one because I’d post it — but Jordan Peterson was talking about how Nietzsche believed you had to take stupidity into account in every situation because stupidity is a real factor in every situation. I thought that was pretty wise. Most people are not that aware and accepting of stupidity, most of all their own stupidity. Even though I couldn’t find the right video, this one is worth watching:

DO ANIMALS HAVE EGO? Yes, animals have Ego. All Complex Adaptive Systems have Ego, which includes but is not limited to all living organisms. Animals lack the ability to transcend the 'Paradigm of Self'. So, animals identify with their Ego 100%. Animals can't watch their Ego from a corner of their consciousness like we can. There's no separation between 'me' and 'Ego' with animals. Humans can realize that 'Ego' is not 'me', which sets the path for Enlightenment. It's the identification of the Ego with the Self that causes unenlightened beings. Once you transcend the Paradigm of Self, it's not that you lose Ego -- its just that Ego becomes just another part of experience. You're not identifying with 'Ego' as 'me'. That's what Enlightenment is, and everything that entails. Enlightenment is actually the transcendence of all Paradigms, but I want to keep this post simple. The elephant in the room with Enlightenment is the transcendence of the Paradigm of Self, no doubt. But technically speaking, Enlightenment is the transcendence of all Paradigms, including but not limited to the 'Paradigm of Self Or No Self'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system

You're assuming a computer metaphor and placing that on top of BE-ing. The Past is the Present. The Future is the Present. Gimme a future that's also not a present. Gimme a past that's also not a present.

A POINT ABOUT ENLIGHTENMENT Everything that is a part of experience needs to become acceptable to you. You need to stop pre-judging or pre-expecting things about BE-ing. You need to ALLOW BE-ING to be whatever it wants to be in the moment. Can you do this yet? You'll get to the point where the type of experience doesn't really matter so much at all.

Sounds like she doesn't want to open up to you.

I think it could be if you met the right person. Will Durant was married to Ariel Durant and she even helped him write his 'Story of Civilization' books. She was actually co-author of all but the earliest volumes. Will Durant proves to me that you don't have to do an either/or false-choice regarding Life Purpose or Marriage -- because Durant did both -- he proved it -- who has written more than Will Durant! -- Few people. But I also think he picked the right woman for him too. Whether that was skill in the selection process or luck, who's to know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Durant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Civilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Philosophy

SOME MUSINGS ON LIFE PURPOSE Life purpose should come from within. Maybe you're you're the one who feels 'at a crossroads and at a looming doom' and you're projecting that 'out there' instead of accepting it 'in here'. Life Purpose is all about solving your biggest life problem for yourself and sharing the fruits of that with others. Do not base your Life Purpose in some kind of compassion for others. First of all, you don't even have compassion for yourself yet. My main point here is, your Life Purpose should be solving some kind of problem for you primarily. That's why you have a super-human motivation to work on Life Purpose. Sustainable Career is then an evolutionary and inevitable fruit of that massive action you'll take working on your Life Purpose -- working on sustainably solving YOUR biggest problem in life. But step one is to make sure you find your genuine Life Purpose. I give you props for asking this question. I don't think you've found your genuine Life Purpose yet. Being a do-gooder is not a sustainable Life Purpose in and for itself. My Life Purpose is to help myself and others accept themselves and reality by optimizing the use of the mind. And that's also my biggest life problem and always has been, see. So, as I'm working on my Life Purpose, I'm also sustainably solving my biggest life problem. That's like putting your Career on the fast-track if there ever was one -- and it doesn't even feel like work. I would pay to do what I do. That's how you wanna feel about your Life Purpose. Find work that you would do where you would pay to do that work. // Charles Bukowski describes very well what's it's like to work with an authentic Life Purpose: ‘SO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER’ - by Charles Bukowski if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don't do it. if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it. if you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it. if you're doing it because you want women in your bed, don't do it. if you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again, don't do it. if it's hard work just thinking about doing it, don't do it. if you're trying to write like somebody else, forget about it. if you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait patiently. if it never does roar out of you, do something else. if you first have to read it to your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your parents or to anybody at all, you're not ready. don't be like so many writers, don't be like so many thousands of people who call themselves writers, don't be dull and boring and pretentious, don't be consumed with self- love. the libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleep over your kind. don't add to that. don't do it. unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it. when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you. there is no other way. and there never was. // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski

'Need to Know BE-ing' is a trap for Enlightenment. Don't get trapped in Tier-One Metaphysics in Enlightenment work.