Joseph Maynor

Ideally, your job (as in your career) should not be being bossed around in areas you are weak in, but leading in areas you are strong in. Let's say you want to make money as a Spiritual teacher (as I'm sure a lot of us would do if we could) -- A Spiritual Teacher can lay out a path, and then the question is can they engage others to follow you/them on that path? A path is like a trip. So if you want to make spirituality a career, you gotta find people who want to go on this trip with you and give you money.

Am I or You Wearing Crap Goggles? This depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. You may go so far that you find there is no you. In that case there's nothing that's wearing any goggles. There's no problem. It would take a self to have a problem. Vivartavada – The universe is an illusory transformation/unreal manifestation of the Self. Although the Self appears to undergo a transformation, in fact no real change takes place. The myriad of beings are unreal manifestation, as the only real thing is the Self, that ultimate reality which is unborn, unchanging, and entirely without parts. The empirical world of appearances is unreal. SOURCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivartavada

I think the difference between buddhism and advaita vedanta is in the advice for the 4th noble truth. Advaita vedanta would say the answer isn't in action it's in knowledge. Practice isn't going to save you if the doer doesn't exist or an agent of doing doesn't exist. It's only knowledge of the Self that is the 4th Noble Truth. The first 3 are agreed on. Wrong attachment to delusion causes suffering, but the way out is to realize the Self is not a doer.

This is great too. Instrumental "1984" by Van Halen. The vocals are filtered out (somewhat lol). I don't think DLR could ever be completely filtered out of anything. 'Top Jimmy' sounds better as an instrumental -- I can hear a possible Steve Howe (Yes guitarist) influence in those fast and accurate guitar embellishments (runs) in this song. You hear that Howe embellishment thing at points in 'Girl Gone Bad' too. I can tell this album was influenced by the first "Asia (1981)" album which Howe played on. EVH is highly integrous and also highly original. I can hear a Hendrix influence in his style too. 'House of Pain' sounds better as an instrumental and is amazing! 'Hot for Teacher' sounds so much better as an instrumental. 'Girl Gone Bad' too. Eddie Van Halen -- guitar, keyboards Michael Anthony - bass Alex Van Halen - drums

Exactly! It gets deeper than most "people" realize or even want to go. I prefer the pointer that the Self is undefinable rather than "nothing", but I like your pointer too. The Undefinable and the Indestructible.

Why can't you or I let go of attachments? Recently I’ve seen an end run around problems like this by realizing that the Self doesn’t attach or detach. I don’t know why this helps me but it has. It sunk in for me and changed the way I think about the relation between the Self and the ego. I realized a lot more things said are pointers for the ego to wake up to the Self. But once the Self has been realized, it all just seems to die on the vine. There is nothing to detach from. What or who would be doing the attaching or detaching? I answered a post by @James123 that raised a similar issue to this. I think the presumption is that somehow the ego needs to do something to cause or force the existence of the Self or that the Self is somehow creating ego — but if ego doesn’t exist that could not be the case. This stuff is very tricky because there’s layers of sneaky ways the ego factors in. The Seif is not a results seeker. What or who is letting go?

In what ways can one integrate the Masculine into their life? Provide for yourself and for others. Bring abundance including resources to the group. Fundamentally, do not depend on anyone else. Be able to survive and thrive on your own even if you don't need to. Realize your own Self-sovereignty (one without a second). Be ok with being the only "thing" that exists. Some of these are human Masculine and some are Divine Masculine.

I find that "made out of" is not quite right from a Shankara or Maharshi perspective. The Self is not made out of anything. I'm referencing the last 4 paragraphs of the Rupert Spira page quoted. I'll elaborate a little: The Self is not the senses or anything in the senses. The Self is attributeless. The Self is mode-less or modification-less -- this means that the self is not any form that can be experienced, what shape that has. Similarity and difference are not-Self. The senses and what appears in the senses are not-Self. Another good one: The Self is undefinable and indestructible. And you're the Self. Everything else is false and illusory.

This is long but I really enjoyed reading it and got a lot out of too. It discusses Yoga and Advaita Vedanta with a slant toward the latter because Shankara wrote this. The Bhagavad Gita is not really an Advaita Vedanta text. It's kind of more like an Upanishad. It can be thought of as a very long Upanishad, although there are people who will say that it is not. If you haven't read the Gita lately you should read it again. There's so much packed in there. It's like the Tao Te Ching in that way. I recommend the Eknath Easwaren version of the Bhagavd Gita which is in book and audiobook form -- I consumed both. If you don't have all the time in the world to read like me, just read the Conclusion chapter at the very end (link below). It's the "Eighteenth Discourse" starting on page 441. This final chapter is an excellent standalone work in and of itself. https://estudantedavedanta.net/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.ShankaracharyaN.pdf

What or who is letting go?

Donald Byrd – trumpet Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone Horace Silver – piano Doug Watkins – double bass Art Blakey - drums

This is a good video too. This is one of my favorite YouTube videos.

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 from today.

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.