99% of the "spiritual" people I talk to...don't seem to have a clue?

[Joseph Maynor]

A lot of people who want to kind of hide out in life and not take responsibility get drawn to spirituality.  Instead of looking at the group you gotta focus on specific individuals.  And remember personal development  teachers can only teach who they are.  Every personal development teacher is basically telling you who they are.  This is why being full of shit moots your teaching as a personal development teacher.  People might be initially drawn to you if you’re full of shit as a teacher, but at the end of the day you’re causing yourself suffering and others suffering by lying.  A personal development teacher has to just basically tell you who they are.  When you see a sculpture in a museum the sculpture itself doesn’t tell you how to see it.  No, you just look at the sculpture and if you resonate with it as it is then it’s authentically valuable to you on some level.  That’s how personal development teachers should be seen.  You might like sculpture in the abstract, sure — but it’s really specific sculptures that are truly valuable not sculpture as an abstract category.  If you’ve ever been to Athens or Rome and actually seen the famous sculptures that everybody reads about and writes about you can appreciate what I’m saying here.  And there is something intimate about you and that sculpture sharing a moment.  It’s almost like the sculpture becomes a part of you.  Personal development teachers function the same way in life, as a kind of intimate influence.

Edited November 8, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Shanmugam]

On 11/6/2018 at 6:02 AM, Aaron p said:

What do I search on Google to search for lectures on the topics discussed on this site?...I've tried Buddhists, hare chrishna's (mad cunts), Christians, "spiritualists"/holistic teachers, yoga places...none

1

Use these terms in Google search, you will find related sites: spiritual enlightenment, spiritual awakening, self -realization, nonduality

Edited November 9, 2018 by Shanmugam

[Shin]

16 minutes ago, Shanmugam said:

Use these terms in Google search, you will find related sites: spiritual enlightenment, spiritual awakening, self -realization, nonduality

No-self, god-realization.

[josephcampbellworld]

@Aaron p this is my first time commenting on this forum. i don't know how to have the time but i suppose its useful to talk on here and exchange ideas. I avoid social media during the week and its amazing the difference in the quality of life. so happy.

 

Im from Ireland too and im just starting to look around for meditation retreats. went to a hare Krishna retreat and its so true they are mad cunts. arent we all haha. 

 

im in the republic and just starting to get to some really good retreats this year. trying to find work also if anybody knows anywhere for a learning enthusiast 

[Nahm]

@josephcampbellworld Welcome to the caravan.

 

[Aquarius]

You seem to be in an ego trap. Enlightenment is not what you think.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Aquarius

[SOUL]

Well, @Aaron p  , because it's all bullshit, just ask Leo, he'll tell you.....among the other untold number of things he'll tell you. Most of the stuff that is talked about in 'non-duality circles' serves as more of a distraction from being present than it is a awakening to being present.

The practice and theory of 'enlightenment' becomes a fixation of the mind masquerading as being present but not actually being present. So don't get too caught up in the ideology and ceremony of 'non-duality' and just use this as a call in oneself to awaken awareness of being present.

2 hours ago, Aquarius said:

You seem to be in an ego trap. Enlightenment is not what you think.

The guy in this video has some insight, he's actually hitting on a very clear message about things being are as they are, it is what it is, there is no right or wrong of existence, no saved or fallen states. Yet he seems to be on some 'debunking' mission stemming from his desire to call bullshit on what he thinks he sees as a 'con' in others but he may fail to see the con his ego has perpetrated in his own life.

Awakening is the process of continuing the expansion of awareness so that it grow beyond the limited scopes of the conditioned mind. Yes, it isn't that the conditioned mind is fallen or broken that some choose to demonize it as but it still is what it is, the conditioned mind that can limit our perspective to just the self centered consciousness.

He's looking at all of it's parts thinking it is the sum of it's parts but not seeing the whole which transcends the sum of it's parts to be something that all of the parts and the sum of them aren't in of themselves.

Although when I have time I will watch a few more of his videos to see if he actually does have a view of the whole that wan't clearly communicated in this one video.

[Joseph Maynor]

1 hour ago, SOUL said:

Well, @Aaron p  , because it's all bullshit, just ask Leo, he'll tell you.....among the other untold number of things he'll tell you. Most of the stuff that is talked about in 'non-duality circles' serves as more of a distraction from being present than it is a awakening to being present.

The practice and theory of 'enlightenment' becomes a fixation of the mind masquerading as being present but not actually being present. So don't get too caught up in the ideology and ceremony of 'non-duality' and just use this as a call in oneself to awaken awareness of being present.

I bolded some words.  

Edited December 15, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Tony 845]

@Aaron p you're on the best forum there is, a year & a 1/2 ago I was in pool of anxiety fast forward to today & Leo, Adyashanti, sadguru, shinzen young, echart tolle have helped me awaken my kunalini already. Really Leo more then anyone has helped me get to where I am already in a short period of time. (I'm still not enlightened) but I know it will happen. You are  lucky to have found this forum my friend. 

Edited December 15, 2018 by Tony 845

[SOUL]

22 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

I bolded some words.  

Yes, exactly. Early in my path I allowed the plethora of spiritual practices and methods to distract me and I became too attached to them. After going in circles on that path for a short while I realized it wasn't working to cease self suffering and I instead focused on the simple techniques that are less about doing but more about not doing.

When the mind conjures up thoughts, emotions, impulses, memories, concepts and everything else it produces to contextualize this manifest experience not attaching to them by not endorsing or agreeing with them is the thing not done. In not identifying with them and by recognizing the observer as awareness in us that doesn't have to identify with any of it to be what it is, it can just be.

Eventually that sense of just being without the attachment became the natural state of being where as before it was the reflexive attachment to what the mind conjured up. In time the mind also produced less 'attaching' material and tendencies itself, the monkey mind got trained to be at peace with itself in an absence of a strong identity.

This allowed me to go further into a non-local sense of awareness and abide in it more consistently. It wasn't complicated methods or practices that helped me to this presence though they may have some value to others, it was the simple passive observational state of being in awareness exercised in every moment.

It's not what I did in 'practice', it's what is not done by 'exercising' the unattached awareness of being. Even though that can feel like standing in a tornado or cyclone and not being moved by it. Life can swirl all around and I may get battered by the elements but the core of being isn't moved by any of it to create self suffering.

Isn't it so funny how many words I used to explain not doing anything? BAHA

Edited December 16, 2018 by SOUL

[Joseph Maynor]

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.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[ValiantSalvatore]

 

Where does it start where does it end? Who cares? At what point? Till what dies? The what of what? Who cares if not? 

 

Why not count yourself to death or cough ? bark. The twist and turn of the world? schuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuujhhhhhhhhhhhhchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Is it really a segmental story? Maybe the universe picks u up. Like the Slingo wished ? P.S A crazy one.

Shoot it, cowboy. Where is my horse? Or Bull? bark

psstt....the disease is there. Better cough during the holy day? Light and dark, from good, to bad, to better, to great, to bright? Colors. To time ? of speak ? bark ?

Ever tried Auto Speak? How nuts can rationality be? Scared of a dog or a bird? I am sane. ? Cowboy. wuff

 

Is it one story? Really?

 

[Forestluv]

@SOUL Some nice insights in your last post ? 

[DrewNows]

6 hours ago, SOUL said:

Isn't it so funny how many words I used to explain not doing anything? BAHA

Infinitely funny as well as lovely in of itself!  

Makes me think of the end of the scene in this show -- "Don't be afraid! Don't be f#%*ing afraid! Don't make me do this by myself. It's a journey people!" - Joe 

 

47 minutes ago, Serotoninluv said:

@SOUL Some nice insights in your last post ? 

Yes i concur! expressed beautifully! 

[SOUL]

On 12/16/2018 at 0:15 PM, Joseph Maynor said:

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.

It isn't just a 'young on the path' phase, it starts with the learning of methods and techniques then moves to practicing then on to teaching but it all can become a fixation of the ego to justify it's identify. Even the 'truth' reality can be just another way that ego justifies it's identity in a dualism mindset to separate itself from the 'false' illusion.

Awareness of just being present is what one can hope comes from those methods and techniques but isn't really a product of them because the fruit of presence is savored in absence of practices. I even chuckled to myself when I was writing the word 'exercise' because I am aware of the paradox in using it.

Thank you, @Serotoninluv @DrewNows, so kind of you to say.

Edited December 19, 2018 by SOUL

[Toby]

99% is a very low number.