Joseph Maynor

I'm not judging Neo-Advaita definitively. I like it but I stick to Maharshi as to interpretation. That's my preference. And a lot of people don't consider him to be Neo-Advaita. It's his students that are usually considered Neo-Advaita. Maharshi was an original and hugely influential. He's like Shankara to me. The followers of Maharshi created Neo-Advaita.

So this shows the Tao Te Ching says there's no self? I'm confused. That's a great passage by the way. I'm glad that you're familiar with the text/work. The wisdom vs. words ratio in the Tao Te Ching is probably greater than any other spiritual text ever written. Such a beautiful work too.

I've read the Tao Te Ching dozens upon dozens of times. It's one of my favorite spiritual texts of all time.

Well yeah, that's the issue. Can you give me a quote to look in the Tao Te Ching?

The "no self" lingo seems like a sneaky way to avoid any criticism or accountability. Is like how can I be blamed for anything or be held accountable for anything if there are no separate selves.

You’ll know you’re happy when you don’t need to work on getting happy anymore. Happiness becomes persistent. This is one thing spirituality offers is elevated happiness. I’ve seen people disagree with this on here, so I’m only speaking from my own experience. For a while I was working a lot on happiness trying to explore it. It’s not really a weakness for me, but I know it is for others. I’m pretty happy, almost too happy. Being too happy has some downsides. You’re so happy that you can do nothing and you’re cool with that. Unhappiness is good for motivation.

Precious and fragile things Need special handling My God what have we done to you? We always tried to share The tenderest of care Now look what we have put you through Things get damaged, things get broken I thought we'd manage, but words left unspoken Left us so brittle There was so little left to give Angels with silver wings Shouldn't know suffering I wish I could take the pain for you If God has a master plan That only He understands I hope it's your eyes He's seeing through Things get damaged, things get broken I thought we'd manage, but words left unspoken Left us so brittle There was so little left to give I pray you learn to trust Have faith in both of us And keep room in your hearts for two Things get damaged, things get broken I thought we'd manage, but words left unspoken Left us so brittle There was so little left to give

I don’t understand how this is not identification. It seems defensive and reactive to me. I look at action when it comes to being self-absorbed not to the words people say. I think I'm pretty smart and I also think you are too. That's not the issue. One can be smart and self-absorbed. If someone were not self-absorbed they would take actions that benefit the whole not get mired in stupid conflict, and I don't take myself out of this, I'm growing too. The inverse of self-absorbed is being whole-absorbed -- and actually you don't need to even identify I'm just stating a pointer. The point I respectfully ask you to consider is to look at actions not words more when it comes to being self-absorbed, which exists on a spectrum in "people". We have to turn on our heartlight like that great Neil Diamond song.

This came out in 1973. You can hear a Progressive Rock and Jazz Fusion influence on this album. Usually this album is not on YouTube so this is rare to even have this. This is one of my favorite albums. Excellent sound quality too. Nice and loud!

This makes no sense to me. Could you clarify?

Phil is definitely Phil. I know what you're doing but it doesn't go as far as I think you think it does. it's a cop out. When someone addresses us on the issues we raise, we can pretend we don't exist to evade examination on the merits. Phil has a lot to say and he has strong opinions to boot. This gets a little too slick. You even sound like him in your writing like you're emulating him. If I didn't know any better I would think that was his writing.

Crap goggles? It's ok. Take a step back and redouble efforts. There's always another day. That's one of the great things. We get lots of tries.

Maybe he has done this. What he's getting out of it is expressing his original ideas about spirituality. Why should this site be so adamant about pushing ideas as a precondition for being here? I don't think that's smart. I think we need to be more openminded. There's no need to silence people and shoo them away because they disagree with us. That's weak sauce in my opinion. If you want to allow expression, do that, value that. If not, well people will have to make a decision as to whether their voice is even valued here.

He's giving me warning points man. Lay off the silliness for a while.

You gave me another warning point. What's up with you? Why can't we discuss these things like adults here? You have me 5 warnings this morning. You're losing it.

Why aren't you being warned for thread bumping and excessive personalizing?

Phil just gave me another warning point.

Correct. That's the issue.

Leo demoted @Phil from being a mod because he didn't like his language and now he's giving me warning points because I challenge his ideas. Someone challenging your ideas should not cause you to trigger if you are solid in your spirituality. Consider that. Clinging to those ideas to prop your spirituality up is only going to take you up to a certain point. Once those ideas are gone, you lose your shite. There's a higher level than that where your spirituality is not hinged to any orthodoxy.

I'm not suffering. Thanks Mandy. I do appreciate your insights.

Maybe the Neo-Advaita stuff is brainwashing.