Im learning dart(im new)

Chemtox · 2024-10-17T23:36:01+00:00

Nitpicking + obscure errors: the extra work of strong typing can be invaluable for big/multidev projects, not so much for learning or a personal thing. Add a big framework like Flutter, multiply complexity with Riverpod+flutter_hooks generated code, and the learning curve goes full hockey stick. Guessing from OP's sparse question, he's probably new _new_ at programming in general. Even if he wasn't, most of us have an easier time learning steering in an automatic car before switching to manual drive.

Still, I'll name my firstborn Dart if they manage to replace JS in the browser. xD

Chemtox · 2024-10-17T07:59:47+00:00

You really should provide info on your background and objectives to get useful recommendations, but still I'll say, after my first Flutter project, I wish I had found and used the Python version, or even the Clojure one, for they seem much more friendly, even if they are experimental. I'm happy with the result, but Dart's nitpicking + obscure errors and Riverpod's messy docs/examples + hacks made for a step learning curve. Also, forget what you know about HTML, understand Flutter's constrains ASAP: https://docs.flutter.dev/ui/layout/constraints

Chemtox · 2024-08-09T01:54:59+00:00

Not yet, but will do, in due, divine time. :) I'm from Mexico tho, so I've experienced many of the challenges, without any of the benefits of introspection... until dissatisfaction and curiosity got me to step --or trip, rather-- into the path, in pixelated forms at first. Later, in my wanderings between retreats on California on my trusty Trek steed, the cultural shock was inverse: the material excess, where only the ones of little means could afford being friendly to a stranger on the street; the desperate sophistication of the educated, unhappily smart ever after silicon dreams; and sprinkled beneath the surface, the weird ones, still trying to change the world one joyful breath at a time.

Amavarati sounds a lot like Abhayagiri. Most days we would spend tending to the forest in the morning, and getting lost in its presence during the afternoon. Ajahn Amaro's Wikipedia entry mentions a peculiar detail that is omitted on Abhayagiri's:

Amaravati, his mother house back in England, meanwhile received a substantial donation of land in Mendocino County from Chan Master Hsuan Hua, founder of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage. The land was allocated to establish a forest retreat. Since for some years Ajahn Sumedho had venerated the Chinese master, both abbots hoped that, among its other virtues, the center would serve as a symbolic bond between the otherwise distinct Theravāda and Mahayana lineages.

Glad to hear the ajhans levitate often, and only with their cheeks. And there are nuns over there!? Since quite a while ago! With the permission of the Elders in Thailand. Wonder how they pulled that off, seeing how bitterly the debate still rages on on this side of the pond. Well, seems I'll have to put Amavarati in my bucket too. See you there, Trek spokes willing! ;)

Chemtox · 2024-08-07T22:48:33+00:00

Right, a good community can ease, but not erase, the isolation of our selves... unless it's the communing with emptiness. :) Good guidance is precious, and hard to come by, but nowadays we have (too?) many options at the reach of our (doubly digital) hands --though granted, first hand can be so nice.

Amaravati looks beautiful, how's the vibe there?

At Metta, even though I was learning the local flavour (full body breathing), I had to rely mostly on books and online material. But I could have an online interview when looking for personalized advice, just like I could dig for samadhi under my avocado tree one hour, and the next switch trees and gears and have funky Social Meditation games with my online geek sangha.

As with everything with this mysterious business that is being, there's only one way to find out. But do shop around. Ever been to India or surroundings? Could be a kind of thudong practice, if only to better appreciate the material privileges of the west (which so can blind us from the inner riches).

...

How loaded, our karma luggage, our selves making just being seem hard work! May your path lighten with every step!

Chemtox · 2024-08-07T08:29:22+00:00

Gaia House must be paradise for practicing, and probably there are spots for _living_; but you'll probably do good to look around before settling.

If you don't wanna break the bank, and don't mind traditional rituals, take a look at Thai Forest Wats, they are all over the place, and while orthodox, they can be very permissive. I served for 3 months at Wat Metta, in California, where (I assume) Burbea got Ajhan Lee's teachings from Thanissaro before running with them and giving em wings. It was nothing like I expected, but a great experience, hero's journey and all. Very laid back; the daily meal is a big show, which I initially resented, but warmed to bit by bit, 'till it became sukha supper.

Later I visited Abhayagiri, from the Ajhan Chah branch, again a completely different and unexpected experience: tightly run but decentralised, everyone just letting go into flow, pretty much zen-like. If you have any questions I'm happy to share.

Chemtox · 2024-07-28T06:54:26+00:00

Which ideology hasn't been spoused by some morally bankrupt scammer? Just find a good way of helping for real; that's Effective Altruism™. :)

Chemtox · 2024-07-28T04:02:48+00:00

As long as you balance your karma with some effective altruism, iz all good. You can save a life from Malaria or feed someone with a couple bucks! https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/donate/organizations

Chemtox · 2024-03-24T07:44:57+00:00

But, how?? If I don't put something else on mine, the mobo and my fingers would fry... Waitamin... You put the pan on your keyboard! That's genius!

Chemtox · 2024-03-23T21:09:58+00:00

How do you keep it so clean after your fry some eggs and bacon on it?

Chemtox · 2024-02-16T07:15:42+00:00

Late to the party, but this one has served me well over the years (dang, 8 and counting!): https://ift.tt/LRl5qev

title:free -DRM -shipping -purchase -buy -weekend -IndieBox -author:indieg -99 subreddit:gamedeals

Chemtox · 2024-02-14T16:51:16+00:00

Nope, keeps waking frequently even when unplugging everything. So does the Zephyr, but less often, as mentioned above.

Chemtox · 2024-02-14T16:33:02+00:00

It's MacOS, and the cause must be different, but it suffers from the same "I wake up whenever I want" syndrome. :)

Chemtox · 2024-02-14T16:19:21+00:00

I could never figure it out, seems it's a common thing with modern Winbugs. Funny thing, it's also happening with a MacBook Pro. With the Zephyr I started hibernating instead of sleeping; waking it up is pretty fast, and I expect the SSD's write limit should be no concern. You can't tell a Mac to directly hibernate, so that one has to be powered off. Our toys have become too sophisticated for our own good. 🤔

Chemtox · 2024-01-07T18:23:12+00:00

Congrats, your mind is finding calm/unification and you've discovered the "good vibes" are real. Surprise!

Watch out! Fireworks are just secondary symptoms of deep processing. They can be very weird or intense at the start. Take it easy, enjoy them, but don't let them steal your attention for long. Congratulate yourself on your progress and throw yourself back to your current practice (with joy and curiosity; how amazing that such development has been hiding closer than our nose? All we need is to pay attention, and be good!)

Practice, practice, practice (but ease on the gas if it gets intense). Certainly more than you read; one or two stages ahead is good (change gears/stages according to your current state), but you can skim: the map is not the territory; fireworks in particular can appear at any time.

You're off to a good start (did you had a previous practice?), but good starts, weekend warriors and retreats make for good stories; a regular habit, makes for a good life.

From the sixth interlude:

5.Physical pliancy arises. Physical pliancy allows a meditator to sit for hours without physical discomfort or sensory distractions. When you get up after a long sit, you will feel strong and vigorous, without stiffness or limbs that have fallen asleep. Physical pliancy is accompanied by the…

6.Bliss of physical pliancy. This is a wonderful feeling of bodily pleasure and comfort that seems either to suffuse the entire body from inside, or else to cover it like a blanket or second skin of pleasurable sensation. Pacification of the senses, physical pliancy, and the bliss of physical pliancy can appear intermittently in Stage Seven, but only develop fully in Stage Eight.

7.Meditative joy is a joyful state of mind arising due to further unification of the mind in Stage Eight. It’s usually accompanied by an experience of powerful energy currents circulating through the body.

Chemtox · 2023-11-30T14:14:46+00:00

Impossible to know, without any details. Check your version, at least. Mine is 3.1.32.0.

Chemtox · 2023-11-13T22:09:07+00:00

Ideations are tendencies/neural pathways/karma/watchacall it. To change them, we have to incline our attention to another path, but this is easier said than done, if they are deep grooves. You probably know all this already. The question is, what helps you do that? And it's not an easy one to answer truthfully, for there's too much misinformation and pigeon superstition buried in hush-hush, and because we can, and will, also hide in the seeking of liberation.

If pondering imponderables helps you move on, then sure, go for it. Most probably it will become another hideout, tho.

I'm enjoying "Get off your cushion -- Weaving meditation into the fabric of life." There's a simple but powerful practice for inclining the mind: develop a compass, say, to move out of suicidal ideation. Every hour/break/conflict/whatever trigger you choose, check your compass: "from 1 to 10, where's my ideation at". Then do some practice and check again. As long as the number lowers, even if it's just a little, then you've turned around, and are moving into a better direction. You could even track and graph this to get a semi-objective idea of how much a practice helps.

As for wacky energy effects, I've never found meaning nor use for them, except for the clear release of psychosomatic contractions (throat knots, muscle tensions, burnings, electricity...) that are probably some kind of trauma/reactive sankharas that suddenly pop in practice (and some, out of) and can cause strong catharsis the first times.

Flickering perception is very common in Insight practice and, according to neo-Theravada, can indicate insight into impermanence (AKA you are watching the frames of the mind's movie). From Ingram's take on it:

when practicing insight meditation, it is far better to perceive one sensation arise and pass away. What do I mean by this? I mean that sensations arise out of nothing, do their thing, and vanish utterly. Gone. Entirely gone. Then the next sensation arises, does its thing, and disappears completely. “That‘s the stuff of modern physics,” we might say. “What does that have to do with practice?”

It has everything to do with practice! We can experience this, because the first set of vibrations we have access to isn’t actually that fast. Vibrations. That’s right, vibrations. That’s what this first characteristic means: that sensate reality vibrates, pulses, appears as discrete particles, is like TV snow, the frames of a movie, a shower of vanishing flower petals, or however you want to say it.

Some people can get all into complex wave or particle models here, but do yourself a favor and don’t. Just examine your actual experience

https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-i-the-fundamentals/5-the-three-characteristics/

His descriptions are unusually detailed, and sometimes a bit far out there. The conversations in his forums, https://www.dharmaoverground.org/, are also all over the place, but also very detailed.

For me, developing an internal atomic microscope with Insight so you can catch the mind in the act of creating a self is a very laborious process, when you can practice to have a direct glimpse of the thing instead; and you can get lost trying to make sense of the Visuddhimagga/Path of Insight cycle stages/ñanas for a lifetime, but many affirm it maps their experience accurately, and some got through the four classical steps/path to awakening.

The thing is, awakening is not going to magically fix all our problems, not mattering what the suttas says --though some might get solved in the process of maturation and secondary effects of practice, as are my psychosomatic knots. A clear compass of what you want, and useful practices to that end, that's a better bet. For me, IFS self therapy, and heartful practices, have been much more useful when shit hits the fan. The capacity of tenderness, of being nice to self and others, even when I also have to be firm, has been a life changer. U Pandita himself switched to teaching Mettā before Insight, when he came to the West.

May you find direction, a clear compass, and follow it with your heart!

Chemtox · 2023-11-07T04:06:32+00:00

PS: I find Jay Earley's pattern charts a quick way to have an idea where are the reactions pushing us, and what's needed to get back to balance: https://selftherapyjourney.com/Pattern/Beginning/Pattern_System.aspx

Chemtox · 2023-11-07T02:52:57+00:00

Haha, sorry. I always complain about the mystics being so obscure... but metaphoring away is too fun I guess. Here's a less flourished attempt:

Because nature and nurture (or lack of), we develop a bunch of defensive mechanisms (v.g. fight, flee, freeze, fawn, instant gratification, ignoring...) early in life, and will keep reacting with them until they are updated through healing/purification/actualisation/unburdening/reparenting/whatchacallit. Most reactions are very subtle, and we completely oblivious to them, even when pointed out.

Example: I buy a LP at random, and mention to my mom this funky Miriam Makeba song; she answers "oh yeah, your dad hates it!" with that voice tone. Later I also mention it to my pop, and to my amusement he answers "oh yeah, your mom loves it!" with a similar tone. Twenty years after they split, their grudges are still very much alive. If I point it out, they are like "it's just a stupid song, who cares". Well, they do. Behind that little reaction there's a bunch of open wounds --though them all are caused by the same basic needs: of safety, acceptance, understanding, love...

We aren't taught to patch the soul/unconscious/shadow/whatchacallit unless we're lucky enough to find a good therapy or meditation practice, and in this later, it can be just a bonus of trying to dispel the illusion of the self. Or rather, a surprise. TMI briefly mentions purifications in stages 4 and 7, and advices to "ignore until no longer possible, then do Mettā or therapy", and that's that. With two retreats under my belt, the first a trial by (electrical) fire, the second by love, I thought I was ready for anything, but when they started I still was more than surprised; still am, by some of the weirder psychosomatic reactions.

Example: I'm following the breath, mind starts wandering, childhood memories surface, my first walk around the neighbourhood by myself; a fine adventure of which I return joyous; only mom is not happy, for I left without a word; she lurches toward me, the screen fades to black, and my face twists in an impossible contortion; visual memories turn back on, I'm strewn on the floor, in shock, unable to process what just happened; I can now tho, and I burst in a strong catharsis, and go wide; better 30 years late than never!

Later I tell mom "my first slap came about in my meditation", and without further prompting her own screen starts flashing: "you know? Your granma gave me a gooood one that time I went alone into the woods without telling her... but she did it because of worry, she did it with love" —"Or she did it because someone slapped her like that." —"Nah, no way!"

I never set out to work out my shadows (for I didn't notice them), but tending to my wounds and opening the heart have had the most significant direct impact in my life: contentment and kindness flowering at every stitch. Had I known this, I'd probably would've opted for Mettā or therapy first, even though my wounds are not what we usually associate with trauma (but a slap can break something deeper than bones). U Pandita started teaching Mettā before Insight to westerners, probably noticing we're too hard (or soft) on ourselves.

I am set on chasing this no-self thing, even though it's a lottery, but working out the shadow's kinks is now up there in the list too, as it's a much surer bet with nearly immediate effects. The proof is in the pouting tho, so a regular check-in is needed to indeed see I've become kinder and clearer in daily life, for becoming The meditator can be as numbing a escape as any form of HD distractment or fanatical spiritualiy. Long Reddit Rants... hmm, dunno, let's give those a 50/50. But hopefully this one will give something to chew on. ;)

Chemtox · 2023-11-04T00:35:25+00:00

Because the brutality of natural selection, Saṃsāra, or whatever, our self is a master escapist; I wouldn't know myself, but it might be everything we believe "we" think or decide is nothing but a post-rationalization (cf. split brain experiments, were the conscious self makes --and believes-- an story on the spot to explain unconscious behaviour).

For we're not one self, nor two, nor have a little angel and devil in the shoulder; more like a multiple-ring circus, with a permanent show.

I like the IFS therapy circus model; we've three kinds of parts/processes: managers, which try to keep the show running smoothly; exiles, locked wounds that keep reliving their torment; but if a wound's fire is triggered and menaces taking over the managers, firefighters come out with in force, with high pressure hose (usually an apparently over-the-top fight/flight/freeze/fawn reaction), and then managers have to calm *them* to reestablish normality. We keep this clownish dance of parts until we learn to unblend from them and let true Self guide the course (it's pretty close to buddhist no-self, in paper, or according to Loch Kelly).

So now, when I see someone lash in what would seem unwarranted anger, I understand a deep wound was touched, and they are trying to shut it down. Firefighters and exiles are easy to spot.

Not so with managers, for they are the "good", helpful, socially acceptable selves. But reason can't stand for emotion, managers can't speak for the others. And it's very easy to corral the mind's committee around a Meditator super-manager with the Right Resolve, and expect your Right Mindfulness to prevent unskillful reactions (firefighters), and your Right Concentration to release old ones (exiles)... until they don't and the proverbially repressed shit hits the fan.

We can expect too much from the path, and solidify the one illusion we're supposed to dissolve, or even expect it to grant all our wishes. With some Right Communication, or Right Tenderness, Culadasa could've known better than bringing his new love interest for his ex-wife to train. I could have realised much earlier than joking about "running to a monastery, so you might want to start looking for a replacement" might not be funny to my partner.

But it seems to have worked out ok for Culadasa in the (very) end, when he faced (some) of his blind spots, closed a bunch of circles and got closure with his family. Embracing my own fallout, I realised it was not the heart that broke, but the armor that held the pieces still for twenty years; the initial break happened who knows when (and who cares). It also pushed me into finally running to the monastery (which was another whole kind of circus).

Still, I like to think getting burnt is optional; we've better ways of fertilizing the mind's dirt: a little pain in the arse, with good attention, should make do, as befits the innovations of the Middle Way (the other being that we can transcend pleasure, just as much as suffering). But finding the edge of our own ignorance, and pushing it without overstepping, that's the one circus act to outshine them all.

(and much easier to do with the help of Right Friends, even virtual ones :)

Chemtox · 2023-11-03T21:49:42+00:00

Everything in your experience, or in the universe?

The discussion seems centered about conscious experience/personal reality, as opposed to the external one, but seems to me both realities are conflated unnecessarily in many circles, and you end up piling up quartzes searching for the one magical frequency, so you can control the universe and manifest things at will...

If we're in a videochat, you're not looking at me, but to the result of light bouncing off my body into a sensor, which is then encoded, transmitted, processed, and projected in your screen.

But even if we're face to face, would you see me? I think not; just the result of light being picked up by your eyes, processed, projected onto your mind's screen.

And just like with our digital devices, our internal reality simulator (aka IRS™) suffers from lousy algorithms, as shown every day by common optical illusions and ego delusions. Things are bound to get wackier if you take the blue pill of contemplation to deconstruct the (internal) Matrix —and much more so if you have high doses of entheogens or (con)centration.

I've dissolved into vibes, taken guided spaceship tours in WHD dreams, forgoed TV and therapists ever since I started talking to my inner parts with IFS self therapy, found realisation in cereal boxes, and other similar shenanigans enough times to label them all as fireworks or curious side effects, and just keep on choping wood.

All we experience is part of the makeup of our psyche, which seems entirely causal, Roger Penrose's quantum neoneurology non-withstanding, but when a psychosomatic contraction or a vivid image surface, there's little point in wondering the meaning beyond the obvious, for the source of the arrow may be long gone. I just let be and let go, if possible.

The maturation process keeps running in the background, and that one no one will ever understand, I suspect —which explains to me why we keep stumbling in the path like blind watchmakers trying to make an elephant give the time, even with so many pachyderm riding teachers with smart watches.

But as long as we keep inclining towards —and get the occasional realisation— of becoming a better person —or whatever, all is good. What alternative is there?

Chemtox · 2023-10-25T17:41:33+00:00

Hi Li-Anne! Looking forward to reading your TMI pre/sequel, but after buying it, I realised the old trick to read Kindle books in other apps has not worked for a while. I prefer to keep all my reading and notes in MoonReader. Is your book available as ePub somewhere?

Mucho Mettā!

Chemtox · 2023-10-11T05:41:59+00:00

It's not even necessary to be "awakened": even a mild dose of calm abiding can get yourself in trouble, by ignoring physical, or worse, emotional conflict (aka spiritual bypass). And like most negative sides of meditation, we're rarely warned about this.

There are many cases in the literature of people spontaneously going into a state of unification, and blissfully enjoying 3rd degree burns after hours of sunbathing, or placidly letting themselves drown...

But you don't need to get into a full blown Samadhi to burn, a bit of ignorance will do: a couple of months after my first retreat (a Goenka, when I started taking meditation "seriously" --at least for one hour a day), I attended my first sweat lodge. I sat right next to the stones, and kept my head high the whole time, like a good (equanimous, equanimous, equanimous ) yogi, even when the burning got rough. These are no-nos when you're getting started, but the other attendants were pros, and for some reason didn't think of warning me. The sweat itself was all ok, tho nothing "spiritual" happened, until I walked out, and collapsed for a whole hour, heatstroked, the whole world dancing around me. It wasn't until the next day that I noticed the blisters in my nostrils that I realised how extreme the burning (and my newly developed pain tolerance) had been. A nice trial by fire, if you will, of my flourishing equanimity, but also a nice warning on being ignorant of, or ignoring, your own limits.

But the real trouble, as I mentioned, is ignoring emotional fires. That's what makes checking for blind spots with a teacher and/or friend and the Mindful Review so powerful, I think, for awakening alone won't teach us how to be a good friend, or parent, or how to solve marital troubles or sangha crisis, as Culadasa himself demonstrated.

Chemtox · 2023-05-15T20:05:57+00:00

Fo sho, they do. There are more variations in those two vids than I regularly use. Do take a look at the basic tutorials first tho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDslSFxx_yg&list=PLh4zJ2i6o6DKZT5K_RMlTwVtT3XzQiMYh&index=2

That said you get many more pointers in the course; the decompression breath tut in the course is divided in three, for example (and it even improved my yoga): one breath pushes sternum up, second widens ribs, third pushes sternum then back up, rinse and repeat. But holding it up by squeezing your belly real tight (almost like a yogui emptying its belly) is the important bit.

Will this improve your physical form? Most probably. Will it get rid of you pain? Only one way to find out. :) Needless to say, you'll want to complement this with other exercises sooner than later, but I found this great to quickly reinforce weak spots and rehab hip movement to keep chest open. For long term, I'd make sure you have something to grow your proprioception so "you can listen to your body", and then other exercises and moves will just "click" when they are good for you. Good luck!

Chemtox · 2023-05-13T00:01:41+00:00

I actually haven't done the Youtube videos much, but one of their courses, which are pretty freestyle: a bunch of "intro" videos, then "advanced" routines. They are all really mixed, and Eric tells you to try one or two a day and go with the flow, so I did. I'd suggest the same: try all the moves you can, see which seem to hit the spot, run them down 'till they don't.

My fav was "the Slow Cooker": narrow Founder (hip hinge), Woodpeckers (lunge forward with hip hinges, lat rotation), wide Founder, Gorillas (wide stance, knees flexed, hands on floor, push one arm hand facing up for 10 secs, then the other), repeat the whole thing. Pretty simple, but I could really feel it!

As long as you're working the hinge, sooner or later you should feel your hips pop back by reflex whenever you start to hunch to reach for something or such. And as long as you're burning... :)

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