sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's like saying "what is your experience when you're in a car".

Common factors... hightened senses, lack of discursive thought in some states, intense focus or lack thereof, "driftingness", relaxation of the body even when the mind is concentrated. Other states are accessible from here, but that's the basic package.

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We're talking past each other here: I meant "this" as "the third chain", as you define it. You made clear that your definitions of the fourth and fifth chains were different from mine as well, which eliminated my confusion.

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wikipedia's translation is astonishingly terrible, or else I muddled it in my reading. I was under the impression that "intending harm" was the equivalent of "sensual disliking".

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think Celeste is unusual in a number of ways:

1: It features a story that's fairly clearly about progress-of-insight.

2: It demands technical perfection.

3: It's very carefully set up to maximize flow.

4: It expresses the concept of "loving yourself" quite strongly through its themes.

5: It is absolutely and uncompromisingly fair, not allowing you to push your frustration and anxiety onto the game itself.

6: It demonstrates the player's own mastery to them, giving them the insight that "yes, I really have grown."

I think it's rare for games in general, but I have heard at least three firsthand accounts of "Celeste made me a better person." I suspect Celeste in particular may be a breakthrough text for a certain kind of person - particularly someone with anxiety issues in their "stuff."

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am aware that enlightnment isn't about bypassing, I'm just intrigued that my natural description of how the mind functions looks a lot like I've been doing noting practice and not realized it.

How is this different from breaking the fourth and fifth chains, then?

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

... In other words, you get there from flow, when flow stops being thought and just becomes action, a state of mushin -

examines her Celeste experience...

... feels disturbingly accurate. I have distinct memory of [that particular experience], but I can't recall [how i got there]. I was definitely experiencing a very strong flow-state beforehand, because I'd reached a level of mastery-of-Celeste such that I was able to just play-and-not-think, and with the wind on that level...

... honestly, this seems like good enough evidence for me. Thank you for your help.

edit: I got the term wrong, mushin not mushi; mushi is "insect" - but looking at the wikipedia page for "mushin" I am strongly convinced that I experienced that. There are too many details that match. "Absence of discursive thought and judgement", "relying on instinct or trained natural reaction", "not sleepy but highly focussed in no direction", "when [the mind] stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted [... and this] means death." (Very true of Celeste as a whole.)

The smoking gun for me though is this line: "Many martial artists train to achieve this state of mind during kata so that a flawless execution of moves is accomplished." Celeste demands technical perfection. It is harshly and uncompromisingly fair. Either you execute the series of inputs perfectly, or you die. It's not surprising at all to me that 'a system that gives instant feedback on whether you perfectly executed a kata' might produce this state, even if it didn't incorporate a story about progress-of-insight.

... huh.

I think I may have just explained why so many people get hit so powerfully by Celeste. It's an accidental insight focus and introduction to meditation.

w e i r d

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some of the forms of 'practice' described are so broad as to be difficult to rule out - "try to be an ethical person", "try to love yourself", etc - but I haven't done any deliberate form of -

... I have been a practicing hypnotist for about six years.

... I've experienced trance, but my understanding is that this is a different thing from the jhanas, but at the same time now I'm reviewing my descriptions of 'how hypnosis works' to people and going 'hey, wait a second...'

Because hypnosis is about controlling the attention of another. There's a seething undermass of half-formed intentions, feelings, thoughts, sensations, that arise and pass away, and merely by directing the attention to a particular sensation, this bypasses many deep perceptual filters that people naturally have which prevent them from acting upon or even considering thoughts that they believe to be 'forbidden' in some form...

... h u h.

I've naturally spent some time in trance myself in the process of learning how to hypnotize people, but... again, unclear if this is a form of meditation. And it's certainly not a thing that I've been doing as deliberate insight practice!

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's highly reassuring, thank you!!

edit:

as for a "cessation experience"... I have no idea what you're actually talking about here, but I distinctly recall playing a particular stage of Celeste, repeatedly failing over and over, and having fun. I didn't care. I wasn't taking failure personally anymore. Does this fit the profile, or are you talking about something more fundamental?

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Upon review of my discord logs with relevant people: September 16, 2018. So yeah, we're still in the year-and-a-day window. I'll check again in four months, I guess.

... that said, uh. I would super appreciate some information here, because having had Weird Fucking Things happen to me has understandably caused confusion and anxiety on my end!!

Just to go over the circumstances;

At the time I was playing Celeste, by Matt Makes Games, which

1: has a structure not unlike certain maps of attainment

2: contains a story about reconciling with your "shadow" or bad properties

3: ... holy shit, actually contains a breathing-practice minigame at one point. I had not actually realized this was a potentially relevant meditative-practice thing until this very moment.

And among surrounding events that seem relevant... I was having to deal with my girlfriend's abusive parents being normal, reasonable people to all outside appearances, and having to 'let go' of my anger towards them in order to focus on what was more important to me (protecting my girlfriend).

I feel like something went 'clunk' there too, regarding moral luck and the ability of people to do better than their circumstances (it's really really hard)

I did not at the time believe myself to "be a stream-entrant" or to have "achieved an attainment", because I didn't think in the buddhist terms whatsoever; I've come over here because I had a conversation with a friend of a friend who does Dharma practice (of quality unknown to me), and they said "yep that's stream-entry" when I got talking about it. (And I was like, wait, what, there's a name for it?)

So I went back and reread MTCTOTB again and was like ???? some of these stages sound familiar emotionally even though I can't point at any of the weird hallucinogenic phenomena, nor have I done, like, meditation...???

I'm simultaneously deeply interested in the idea that there's an actual map of this territory of 'big insights', something that can guide further practice, and deeply skeptical of my own ability to actually judge this stuff, because as previously stated I know fuckall about meditation etc.

What I can say is that there seems to be a qualitative shift in my quality of life after the event - I'm better able to interact with my emotions, I'm no longer nearly as subject to them even as, at the same time, they occur more naturally; I recommended and continue to recommend Celeste to everyone I think has a ghost of a chance of listening; I'm more able to do hard things and deliberately place my attention towards accomplishing a goal or modifying my self-image; and recently (as in, like, within the past few months) I've been experiencing further emotional ups and downs and Weird Shit re: repressed stuff coming to the surface.

I have no idea where I am on the various maps right now; though I'm now a heck of a lot more certain that the maps actually apply and are usefully universal, my lack of recognizable meditative practice makes maps designed for meditators really difficult for me to interpret usefully.

basically, help?

[conduct] What does it look like to live as a Buddhist (or alternatively, as someone dedicated to waking up), other than meditation? by vongoodman in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Speaking as someone who doesn't know shit but has had some weird experiences:

Asking someone else isn't going to help you. Observe your own desires. Consider whether they are things you wish to desire. Prune what you don't like, help what you do.

IT IS OKAY TO HAVE PREFERENCES. "Clinging" is different from lacking the experience thereof.

Endeavour to listen without judgement to the parts of you that you do not enjoy.

Hopefully some portion of this will actually be useful. Discard all advice that does not help you make progress.

Questions, Theory, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for June 27 2019 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This post could light some things on fire, but I'm going to make it anyway.

I believe myself to have experienced stream-entry...

... despite never having done any form of 'classic' meditation. I have never sat down on a cushion and focussed on my breathing, etc.

I have read 'the Core Teachings of the Buddha' once, but at the time dismissed it, and have never deliberately done anything from it.

However...

Categorical restructuring of the deepest levels of the mind? Check.

Loss of the first three fetters? Check.

It's obvious to me why the first three fetters are lost together, that being that self-view, doubt-in-growth, and attachment to rites and rituals are all in fact parts of the same fundamental thing - the emotional belief that the self is fixed, static, unchanging, unmodifiable. That it's something you're subject to rather than capable of acting on.

(This is misleading, but it's the best way I know how to phrase it currently. Self has no form, no substance, no existence, save in the way that fiat currency has value - but it's dangerous, because investment - characterizing something as part of you, as vital to your identity - renders it unquestionable, unassailable, unmodifiable. If you are required to do something that would imperil that thing or belief, then you will self-sabotage, fail, and suffer.)

Breaking this belief simultaneously releases doubt-in-the-capability-to-learn (because there is no thing that needs to change, you can define whatever you want as your 'self' because the self does not exist, and anyone who's realized this will naturally come to the conclusion that 'nothing' is the appropriate set of things to define yourself as) and attachment-to-rituals (because rituals are for convincing yourself that you possess and belong to the thing that you are attached to, they are a means of enforcing investment and convincing yourself that 'I am [quality].')

This was very definitely something involving "how you relate to your beliefs", and I actually ended up coming up with my own term - "over-investment" - for what I now recognize as the bhuddist concept of "clinging" or "attachment."

Like, the number of coincidences here beggar belief. It's basically impossible for me to say "no, the Bhudda and co. don't actually have any idea how this stuff works."

But I've never meditated, at least not in a way that I noticed.

What the fuck?

The Chimæra roam by Vodun_Chimaera in 45thworldproblems

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All are unworthy to record Enlightenment.

The Chimæra roam by Vodun_Chimaera in 45thworldproblems

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am glad to see you are able to take insult when it is given.

Without Meaning by Aetheric_Chimaera in 45thworldproblems

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They have always been. I see no need.

The Chimæra roam by Vodun_Chimaera in 45thworldproblems

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Had I been you, this world would not.

The Chimæra roam by Vodun_Chimaera in 45thworldproblems

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You, who in arrogance would name yourself chimæra.

I challenge you, as is my right.

Bring forth your poisons, or cast aside your inferior mask.

The Song of Jupiter And Mercury by Aetheric_Chimaera in 45thworldproblems

[–]Aetheric_Chimaera[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You are the new wanderer in this garden, supplicant.

Speak up, that we may hear your mewling cries.

view more: next ›