Joseph Maynor

Yeah. You remembered that. I thought it was a fair and insightful video made when I was in India. I was reviewing all my spiritual beliefs when I was in India almost like everything was rewound and then someone hit fast-forward. That was my first experience ever being in a YouTube video a week shy of 5 years ago. That's why India is on my mind because I realize damn that was 5 years ago!

That's what will blow your mind. I'll put it this way. Every extreme of Absolute Infinity on display (display of every nuance of reality). I don't think I really grokked the Indian Spiritual systems until I saw where they originated. For example I totally understand the Story of the Buddha and why that happened in India. I can just see him leaving his palace and walking around -- the furniture was rearranged in his head for sure and a seed was planted. It makes total sense. Samsara makes sense. I loved it in India and I will go back too. Very spiritual place too. I visited some Hindu temples that were amazing, Just walking around while making sure I was safe was the most fun. I've never experienced anything like it. I wasn't the same person when I left. I imagine for an Indian to come to the US would be just as much of a trip.

Just riffing off this comment here. I don’t know how one can study this stuff and not want to go to India at least once for at least a couple of weeks. It will blow your mind if you are from the US.

Wow this is really good too. I gotta include this one for completeness as one of Metallica's best albums. This is an instrumental in C like the other 4 albums I posted. I like the precision of Jason's bass lines. He plays with a pick. 'One' reminds me of the slow part of 'Master of Puppets' for some reason. I think I like 'Harvester of Sorrow' more as an instrumental. Wow 'To Live is To Die' sounds better in C in my opinion. A lot of chord changes in 'Dyers Eve' I never really noticed that before -- I like how the simplicity of the progression in the chorus offsets and counterbalances this. It's a good song. Much more complex than I realized listening to it instrumentally and in a different key. I almost like it better as an instrumental. Kirk is doing different things with his lead guitar solos on this album too. I'm still trying to figure out what he's doing differently. I notice he's playing a lot more sort of accompanying "outlines" in the tunes than in prior albums, although he did this before too. These outlines function almost like strings or keyboards. If there's anything that is characteristic of album it is this outlining or highlighting with the lead guitar and Lars' cool sounding drumming.

The best thing he could do is delete that Forum. It's a waste of his time at this point.

The thought that the Self controls the self needs to be looked at. This is a deep one. Pull the "I thought" out of that one! "[A]ction which belongs to the body and the senses, while yet retaining its own nature as action, if falsely imputed by all to the Self who is actionless and immutable; whence even a learned man thinks 'I act'." -- Shankara, Commentary on The Bhagavad Gita, Page 131 (see below) SOURCE https://estudantedavedanta.net/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.ShankaracharyaN.pdf

To me it seems you're integrating some Masculine which is good. Women often need to integrate their Masculine. There's no shame in this.

The same analysis given to thoughts can also be given to emotions. The ocean of emotions is Bliss and the ocean of thoughts is the Witness. All else are just drops or waves in that Ocean. I'll use @Agape's distinction between discrete vs./and continuous thought here which I found interesting. Bliss = continuous emotion and Witness = continuous thought. Awareness = continuous rather than discrete thought. Bliss = continuous rather than discrete emotion. SOURCE

Seemed to me that he got bored with spirituality like he got it all figured out. Some things just have an expiration date. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just got sick of it just like with making videos. He needs a new project that he can be passionate about again.

This is a worthwhile video to watch. One of the best Western philosophy videos I've seen. This guy is a fantastic teacher. You can understand Stoicism in this video and how it might compare with Buddhism, Yoga, and Advanta Vedanta, etc.

This is good! I never noticed the keyboards in 'Sad But True' before. 'The Unforgiven' sounds totally different in C, wow. The way they got that complexly (rich) thick sound on this album is producer Bob Rock recorded through a few different amps and then blended them all together. I like the chord progression in the chorus of 'Don't Tread on Me' and Kirk's (I presume) lead guitar accompaniment there. Newsted's bass sounds amazing on 'Nothing Else Matters' and James plays the lead guitar solo in this song instead of Kirk. 'My Friend of Misery' is almost better as an instrumental, I love it in C-- one thing I notice about Metallica is they like to do a one-step modulation (chord change) from the root, in this song from C to D. 'The Struggle Within' almost sounds better as an instrumental too.

After doing spirituality for a long time and having it benefit me a lot, the paradox is on some level I'm still the same dude I always was. I'm the same dude but with a bunch more nonsense to talk about lol. Just kidding. Naw, it did benefit me on some level. But I think we exaggerate the change too. It's ok to be the same ole you you've always been too. Not everyone is going to agree with me here, and that's ok. There's something to be said for self-acceptance in this work. People want to transform into some idea they have in their mind and it just turns into a kind of self-denial and self-delusion. Not entirely, but in part. It happened/happens to me and I assume everyone else on the path too. I suppose I could try to look like Mooji or Sadhguru if I wanted to, but there's no need. I'm cool being me without any shame. But at the same time I'm open to change too of course. It took me a long time to kind of figure this all out on my path because when you're young on the path you tend to think you need to completely transform into something else -- you listen to everyone else tell you what's what. I can be influenced but I'm an original too.

You can do the same to emotions as to thoughts. Those emotions are not yours. You can pull that "I thought" out of emotions.

It can help to get at what the opposite of thought is which is silence where the mind is just gone.

"Five Hymns to Arunachala" by Ramana Maharshi https://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/teachings/hymns/

Beautiful writing and deep. I really enjoyed both reading and listening to the Upanishads. You're learn a lot about the Self. Highly recommended! https://www.amazon.com/Upanishads-2nd-Eknath-Easwaran/dp/1586380214 https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Upanishads-Audiobook/B0BQ1YC62Q

This sounds like a remaster even if it isn't one. I love this album.

There's no thinker either. That one is more profound to catch. It was for me at least. Do doer, no body, no mind, no self, no people. Only the Self exists. All thoughts assume a subject-object duality. No external world or internal world either.

Where has this been all my life? 'Battery' sounds almost better as an instrumental. I still find "Kill 'Em All" most interesting out of the first three albums when listened to as instrumentals. 'The Thing That Should Not Be" sounds almost better as an instrumental. If the last album "Ride the Lightning" featured dual guitar harmonies, this album features dynamics. I like how guitar is used almost like a string section or horn section in 'Disposable Heroes'. 'Damage Inc.' sounds amazing in C.

For advaita vedanta, I prefer to say the Self is the qualityless (nondual) detached witness consciousness. Saying it’s infinity makes it sound like it has qualities which entices the mind to attribute this or that to it. The thought "I Am" is just a pointer and not needed once the Self is realised. The not-Self can only be noticed when the Self is known. I had to actually read Shankara and Maharshi to come to this pointer. Otherwise, the Self and ego get conflated. Solipsism is a good of example of this conflation. Any "ism" is a thought and therefore ego. Nothing wrong with thought if you have a clear realisation of the Self and can bring the "I thought" back into the Self so to speak. When it points out you can turn it around and point it back in. Just make sure you're not mistaking the mind for the Self because the mind is also "in". The Self is not really in because in/out is a duality.

From and advaita vedanta perspective, thought is exactly what leads you away from resting as the Self.

Ride the Lightning in C. Wow! It's cool to hear the grooves without the vocals there. Interesting how the riffs, guitar harmonies, and solos can sound entirely different with a change of key. The music on this album is very different than on "Kill 'Em All" when you hear them instrumentally. You can hear the keyboards in 'Fade to Black' cool. I never really paid attention to the keyboards before. I like the guitar harmonies in the chorus of 'Escape', I never paid that much attention to notice those distinctly before. The bass sounds amazing in 'Creeping Death'. 'The Call of Ktulu' sounds better in C in my opinion, darker and more soulful.

Only you as the Self are God. Good to hear from you btw.