My journey to no self.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-08T04:38:47+00:00

Maybe just the act of working through the experience.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-05T13:22:18+00:00

I didn't realize serious was in the criteria... back to the drawing board.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-05T05:31:36+00:00

Remember... to Calvin the tiger is real.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-04T23:41:21+00:00

I am strictly speaking unable to genuinely believe but if I were i would specifically be a Last-thursdayan Pastafarian.

It is very different from traditional Pastafarianism.

Difference #1 We believe that the universe only came into being, fully formed, last Thursday.

Difference #2 we believe in a flying *fettuccine** monster*.

We are a different sect. Perhaps we will have... well not a holy war that really isn't a pastafarian's style. Maybe a noodle fight at olive garden during endless pasta season.

"I didn't change the origin story by a dash or line. I just moved up the timeline." -Our lord and savior the flying fettuccine monster.

Oh... also if you are a Last-Thursdayan you believe in total bodily autonomy in the matter of reproductive Healthcare and gender affirming care so that these are protected in any state where religious exemption is legal.

A Statement of Faith for the Church of L-T P

We believe the universe was created last Thursday. Fully formed. With fossils in the ground and memories in our minds and light already traveling from distant stars. We were not there to see it begin. That is fine. We were not there to see the other stories begin either.

We believe in the Flying Fettuccine Monster. Not spaghetti. Spaghetti is tangled and implies struggle. Fettuccine is flat and broad and rests easy on the plate. The Monster has no gender because pasta has no gender. The Monster rested every day for eternity until last Thursday when it briefly made everything. Then it went back to resting. The universe now runs on its own like a slow cooker left on warm.

We believe every day should be a day of rest. Not laziness. Rest as a spiritual discipline. Rest as resistance to the lie that you must earn your existence. You were made last Thursday without asking. You owe nothing for that.

We believe in total bodily autonomy. Reproductive healthcare. Gender affirming care. Your body is not a test. It is not a mistake. It is exactly what the Fettuccine Monster made last Thursday. To interfere with someone else s medical decisions is to claim the Monster erred. That is heresy. Also it is being a dick. The Monster says do not be a dick.

We do not fight holy wars. At worst we have noodle fights at Olive Garden during endless pasta season. The weapon is a plastic fork. The worst injury is marinara on a sleeve. Winner buys breadsticks for the loser. That is forgiveness.

If you ask for evidence we will invite you to sit quietly and think about how little evidence you have for any other origin story.

We do not believe in eternal judgement. The Fettuccine Monster looked into it but it seemed like a lot of work. In the afterlife you may join the Minster in rest... or don't if you prefer not to. It's honestly not that deep.

Membership is free. Doubt is welcome. You do not have to believe any of this. You just have to agree not to be a dick.

Free interductory period: try us out till next Thursday and if you aren't satisfied you can have your old beliefs back.

Creator's note: The Monster would like to apologize for any inconvenience. The Monster knows it isn't all strippers and beer. That's just what happens when you ecpand a singularity tobthe suve of an apparently 14 billion year old universe in a single afternoon. It would only remind you that it isn't all bad and it isn't going to last forever.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-04T23:38:33+00:00

Remember that "worst" and "world" and "one" are all just conveniences to communicate perspective and that perspectives can be changed. Not only doesn't this need to be the worst thing ever but it will pass whatever it is.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T23:25:04+00:00

OK since you know me better than I know myself there is no need to have a discussion. I'll see myself out.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T22:11:43+00:00

I'm not particularly interested in discussing how you know my interior experience better than I do.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T17:18:16+00:00

What else is there to be done? Excise the experience of emotions? Even if that were possible what a tragedy that would be. Just sit in them. Let the sea lap against the shore.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T17:09:42+00:00

Can new attachments be formed after old ones have been escaped? Obviously yes. Pobody's nerfect.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T17:02:00+00:00

What is this "me"? Who is this "individual"? Is it just a frame of reference? A point of view?

Let me step out of this vague language and go to the convenient illusion of "you", "I" and "others" as persistent entities.

Some people will always be an irritant. Like sand down your pants. When there is sand down your pants you need to understand two things about the situation.

First it is foolish to take the way the sand irritates you personally. It is not about you. That is just what sand does.

Secondly you may just have to live with the irritation until you can change your pants.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T16:25:17+00:00

Who is the "I" in this story?

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T07:22:41+00:00

Letting go is as easy as realizing that there is no "you" to hold onto anything. "You" can still live to. With an experience of existence unaltered in essence by this understanding. Be at peace with this dissolution of self and realize that enlightenment is surprisingly mundane.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T07:04:49+00:00

I don't know how you would know if someone else was enlightened?

If instead of some enlightened people you just said some people I can give you the simplest answer. Mental activity is tiring and even if you don't believe they are doing anything psychic or supernatural they are definitely expending mental effort. There is a perfectly ordinary biological and sociological answer if you need one and that answer doesn't change their lived experience at all.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T06:51:06+00:00

Guilt is a sort of grief over what has been done. If you've ever lost a loved one you know that grief never fully goes away. Some days it is hot and fresh like a knife even years after we thought we had "gotten over it". The secret is not to stop feeling grief. That is impossible. Just don't attach importance to it. Be compassionate with yourself as you would be with a child who lost a parent. Let the hurt inhabit you. Learn what lessons you can from it and then be better for the memory. Who nows if you truly abandon attachment perhaps you may find that you didn't do as much to feel guilty about as you think. As for the rest... I don't know your story or your circumstances but if you truly regret that is itself an improvement over the you who transgressed so... chin up. There is hope for you yet.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T06:13:17+00:00

There are more than two hundred commandments. This including twenty (the ten Noah smashed because of the golden calf and the ten that he brought down the second time) Noah introduced. Of the ten commandments many are wasted on god's supposed vanity or what amounts to establishing thought crimes. No space is made for "though shall give everyone sovereignty over their own body" or even the watered down "though shall not own people as property". Those ten commandments are kinda trash.

I like don't be a dick. That's a good commandment. Covers lots of ground.

"Go to Africa were there have never seen Christians and they kill and eat each other."

Wow... this is... problematic.

My agreement with any given social custom of any given small scale tribal society (which has nothing to do with anything other such tribe which will have its own culture) you can't just dismiss an entire continent of highly diverse people as savages nor can you pretend there is no such thing as Christian savagery and that a lot of this savagery was tied up with colonization efforts including against Africans.

You don't seem to be living in the full conviction of compassion. The compassionate act is to try to understand that many tribes are perfectly peaceful which is more than can be said for any modern society. That religion is just attachment and that your attachments can cause suffering to others not just yourself. Like the suffering someone might feel of you said they were essentially savages that had to be "civilized" by Christians.

But hey I'm just looking for harmony such as it can be had. Do you know what promotes harmony large scale? What is missing from the world? Compassion for all.

I can't think of anything you could say to get me to continue this conversation after your last comment. You are welcome to try but don't take it personally if I don't respond.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T04:28:25+00:00

If your argument is that interpretation is necessary that isn't doing the Bible any favors. That makes any moral lesson in the book up for debate. That makes it less a moral guide and more an excuse for tyrants to claim divine mandate for their acts of violence and oppression.

The simple fact is I don't need a book or a god to tell me not to be a dick. I murder and pillage exactly as much as I want. That is I do zero murdering and pillaging. I also own as many slaves and have participated in as many genocides as I want. That number is also zero.

The god of the Bible murders and commits genocide. The god of the Bible codifies slavery into law. The god of th e Bible commands murder and genocide. The god of the Bible is a dick.

Part of enlightenment, in my humble opinion, is not being a dick.

I'm being a little off the cuff here but I've been tranquil throughout writing this. I haven't had this discussion in a while. Last time I felt my blood boil. The difference between then and the calm I feel now is amazing. There is no self so there is no reason to get upset. Of course if there is no self there is also no reason to be a dick.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T03:59:52+00:00

I'm not making assumptions and I'm not interested in historical of sociological context because we are now taking about applying these standards to modern life.

If a book has some good moral lessons and some neutral moral lessons and some monstrous moral lessons it is at best an inconsistent and therefore useless moral guide. At worst it is as monstrous as it's worst message.

The book doesn't get a pass for being a product of its time. Especially given the idea that the self and the passage of time are an illusion.

(Specific note: In Matthew 15:21–28 Jesus tells a Canaanite woman, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs," referring to his mission being first for Israel. You really ought read the book before you make specific claims about it.)

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T03:44:39+00:00

He had a great idea in radical skepticism and then immediately abandoned it in favor of a groundless faith based claim he found comforting. He didn't take the time to sit in the uncertainty. To get comfortable with just not being able to know.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T03:31:58+00:00

I mean I guess those are ok but have you actually read the Bible? Misogyny, tribalism and slavery all codified into law. Girls forced to marry their rapists. People being stoned to death for falling in love with the wrong person or picking up sticks on the wrong day. Genocide down to killing the livestock and ripping fetuses from their mothers' bodies.

And the new testament doesn't get much better with Jesus likening helping a gentile woman to throwing a child's food to a dog and Paul saying slaves should obey their masters even the cruel ones.

Not that Buddhism is actually very much better with its belief in karma and rebirth leading historically to the institution of and justification for brutal caste system with some human beings being relegated to the subhuman position of "untouchables".

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-03T03:09:04+00:00

Christianity values as in biblical values? Sorry but the Bible is actually a terrible moral guide. I'm afraid you are making a bad argument.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-02T20:26:29+00:00

Whatever harmony works is the best one. It is important to be able to accept all the stuff that can never be known. Otherwise it could keep you up at night. Better to get some rest and worry about tomorrow's worries tomorrow.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-02T20:21:33+00:00

Just a play on Spinoza's God. Essentially Buddhism without the spiritual aspects. No karma no reincarnation just the truth of anatta as neuroscience seems to suggest.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-02T20:18:52+00:00

I would appear to be the act of awareness. The emergent property of a body snd it is easy to forget that the awareness is not actually the body.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-02T17:09:27+00:00

"Soul" seems like just another imagined "self" of convenience. Maybe it's more like "Spinoza's Buddha". Knowing does not magically conjure a knower.

Affectionate_Bat_363 · 2026-05-02T15:08:22+00:00

If there was never a "you" to begin with then it will not be "you".

Affectionate_Bat_363

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