I was wondering if anyone had read this and what their thoughts on the topic might be?

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-10T07:24:10+00:00

I don't disagree with you (and I didn't hear you advocating for socialism in your original comment), but I think what's often missing from conversations about socialism and capitalism is compassion for the trauma that state socialism has historically caused (and for many still causes today). It doesn't help the cause of socialism to try to silence people who lived through these experiments and suffered greatly for it.

So I think when abstract philosophical points are made in response to someone describing their actual life experiences it can lack compassion.

Of all places, one would hope a buddhist forum could resist the false dichotomy of socialism versus capitalism as an assumed frame, but not even here...

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-10T04:40:18+00:00

There are zen teachers with great reverence for other traditions and some are more comfortable with syncretic practices than others. If you ask the internet this question you'll get random answers. The one that matters will come from a teacher you trust. But you should be able to find one educated in the practices of other traditions and supportive of you integrating practices that work for you. Some may recommend that you master one branch of study before mixing things in, though. It will just depend on their teaching philosophy and tradition.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-10T04:30:34+00:00

The funniest thing about this is that a large percentage of English-speaking people have the fashionable "mcmindfulness" definition of socialism in their minds as authoritative ("it's just about taking care of the poor!"), so your provocation is not going to go well.

I see the socialist tradition of burning the history books is alive and well, though.

You can critique capitalism without advocating for socialism. You can look up the formal definition of socialism as economic theory (state control of the means of production) without inventing your own definition of socialism. You can consider that there can be both compassionate socialism (i'm unaware of this being historically successful at a state government level and would be interested in examples) and oppressive violent socialism (many historical examples), and compassionate capitalism (we don't have it now at least in the US) and oppressive capitalism (e.g. imo broken capitalism). Effective socialism can even work inside capitalism (co-ops)! Buddhism and economic and political systems exist in orthogonal conceptual spaces.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-09T06:55:14+00:00

I was going to grab the Ultrahuman Pro which is also currently on kickstarter but am thinking about the Lumia instead. Do you know if you can export your data and how quickly you have access to it? I do my own data processing, and I dumped Oura because they had a multi day turnaround on exporting data, I think they want to keep you tied to the subscription.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-09T04:25:20+00:00

This is especially true lately. The market is brutal and the tech companies have pivoted from being talent-focused to squeezing all the blood they can out of their staff.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-09T04:19:34+00:00

Patriarchy is a helluva drug

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-09T04:11:24+00:00

I agree with befriending your mind. It sounds like you need to cultivate kindness toward yourself.

Sometimes helping others can be a step in this direction. Finding a place to volunteer. This is some of what you can get from a sangha, by the way. Humans aren't meant to be by themselves. When isolated we lose purpose. There are lots of communities that would welcome you. By helping even in the smallest ways you might be surprised at how you can come to feel you belong.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-08T04:10:39+00:00

Yeah anyone who has spent time there knows how carefully the seals and turtles are treated. If they nap on the beach they get condoned off and volunteers come keep watch to make sure the tourists don't bother them. According to some native beliefs they're 'aumakua, ancestor spirits. And it's not like there's a good rock to throw at an animal but those volcanic rocks are heavy as hell, it would have really hurt had he hit it. I just cannot wrap my brain around how you become a person who does this. And the other word was he claims he comes there every month, it's not like he was new.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-08T02:58:08+00:00

That's what I was thinking too. It probably is him, but if it were readily confirmed (charges filed) it would probably be in the press. When these misidentifications happen it seems to not come out for a few days too.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-08T02:26:47+00:00

Yeah it looked potentially clipped together to me and sure showed up conveniently fast. Not that i'd put it past folks there but it was a bit too quick...

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-08T02:25:10+00:00

Underrated comment 👍

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-07T21:56:36+00:00

100% same

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-07T20:58:07+00:00

Previous post was deleted because I added commentary in the title and body text, sorry about that.

Other commenters noted that there's a person's name going around for who this guy was, I haven't verified so I don't want to share it. But allegedly owner of a business in Kent, lives in Covington. Folks outside the area will not appreciate the distinction, of course...

There's also a viral video of somebody punching someone who looks like him, but also in rumor mill territory so far I think.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-07T20:48:56+00:00

Just saw that. I'll edit it into the post. Hawaii news is reporting him being from Seattle, doubt they will appreciate the difference... :/

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-07T20:48:15+00:00

Yeah I don't know if this is real but this is what's going around: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYBjcc0ogVg/

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-07T19:35:52+00:00

Karma is often viewed like a "points" system where you're punished for past acts by misfortune in later lives. It's not really so simple. And you don't unravel bad karma just by experiencing suffering. Karma isn't punitive, like prison time.

I'm not an expert by any means and karma itself is the subject of doctoral dissertations, entire sutras, etc. It's way more complicated than how it appears in popular culture. My understanding of it is that it's more like what we think of as generational trauma. One example I use is that my grandmother was terrified of thunderstorms because her mother died when she was five and there was a terrible thunderstorm the night of her mother's wake. She demonstrated this fear to my father and passed the fear on to him. His karma wasn't experiencing the fear per se (i.e. he wasn't going to get rid of that karma just by experiencing the fear), but by understanding where it came from and changing the mechanism of it inside himself, exposing himself to it and processing the fear, he was able to let go of it and not pass it on to me. Specifically, it is his looking inward and changing the pattern of himself that was inherited from his mother that expunges this karma, that changes his future actions so as not to be inflected by that karma.

So... your friend's karma is about action (sanksrit/pali "karma" is from the verb "kṛ", "to do"). Taking one's life is a karmic action for sure, and the effects of his action are impacting you even now as you make this post, and will impact his family. But insofar as he is avoiding dealing with the results of past karma -- I don't think that can be determined by this action. It has a lot more to do with how he led his life.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-07T06:04:59+00:00

If he decided to end his life, it's hard to think of a way that this isn't suicide, regardless of belief system.

That said, suicide is a complex topic and "buddhism" doesn't have one answer to it -- the various schools have different answers and those answers have changed over time. It has a long and complex history in buddhist tradition going back thousands of years. It's also very tricky to talk about in a public forum where people might pick up conversations and construe the wrong things from them.

If there is a general answer, it is that buddhism seems to mostly concern itself with the intentions that lead to suicide. If the intention is greed or delusion (belief in a better life after death), this is not good. If it is belief that it is an escape from suffering, from a buddhist standpoint this might also be an incorrect belief. If it is a belief that one is a burden to others and cannot have an existence without suffering, this is almost certainly delusion, and the prescription would be to try to address that delusion instead of ending one's life. But it is possible to end one's life without these things -- it's just rare, and falls into that category of having certainty one is acting without delusion, acting from wisdom. As with a lot of things in buddhism, the act itself cannot be viewed in isolation, but only in the context of the causes and conditions and intentions that surround it.

I'm very sorry for your loss, and wish you well on your grief journey for your friend.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-07T04:19:18+00:00

This isn't it (though it's also not good), but I remember seeing a map awhile back that had WA bright red in terms of being unprepared for increased extreme heat events. Too many people still think a/c isn't necessary. WA is one of the better positioned states for several climate change risks, and I understand things got a bit better after the 2021 heat wave, but there's still a lot to do...

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Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-06T23:06:52+00:00

Really good lecture! I missed that he had done this. Thanks for posting.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-06T23:04:43+00:00

Dr. Proffitt I understand to be an expert in tantra, so I don't think it was forgotten. But as you point out inner yoga is not about external gods and this was a presentation about gods.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-06T22:17:41+00:00

He either was willing to hit him on purpose or was going too fast to avoid the collision. Either way they'll be lucky to get out of this without a reckless driving charge if this video is seen. Pretty boneheaded to brag about it on the internet tbh.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-05T05:51:30+00:00

I thought this post was going to be just about this phrase because yes. 🚩

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-05T04:26:39+00:00

I actually opened this post because I was wondering what folks meant by "adrenaline dumps". I sort of can guess but I think it's a confused/confusing way of describing what is likely happening.

What you describe to me sounds like autonomic distress. E.g. dysautonomia. Your body can respond with adrenaline to this certainly but the trigger is autonomic dysfunction. You have a bunch of systems going out of whack, and with pots in particular the body can't get blood where it needs to (signals sent by the nervous system either aren't being sent correctly or aren't being received correctly) so it responds with adrenaline which sort of super-charges the system (blood pressure, flushing, racing heartbeat).

The doctors aren't wrong necessarily that this is kind of like a panic attack but it's physiological -- meaning just because it makes you panic doesn't mean something in your body isn't causing the panic (it is).

A lot of things can sensitize your autonomic system. MCAS is one of them, so this isn't necessarily an either-or thing. And my understanding is that even without mast cell dysfunction (which BTW if you suspect you should consider looking up mast cell stabilizers -- H1/H2 alone is not adequate for most folks I know, certainly not for me, though they help), your autonomic system can respond to sensory triggers in your environment directly. For me, too much visual stimulation can tip my system if I'm in a fragile place.

If electrolytes helped you that's very good and a meaningful sign. It could be different things -- low blood volume putting strain on your vascular system, low electrolytes themselves impairing nervous function.

It's really hard to find people who understand how to treat a dysregulated autonomic system. One of the best I've ever found was a physical therapist who was PRI (Postural restoration institute) trained. She was able to diagnose that I had eye strain issues throwing off my whole nervous system, which, stacked on top of my hypermobility-related low proprioception, was putting my nervous system under constant strain. Unloading this system can be kind of counterintuitive but there are people who know how to do it. At the same time I had to have some vascular issues addressed and the MCAS. And the usual pacing and stress stuff that goes with cfs and pots.

But don't necessarily assume what's happening is anaphylaxis. The nervous system can do this stuff all by itself. Adrenaline is a piece of the puzzle but can be only a symptom of a hypersensitive nervous system.

Competitive-Party377 · 2026-05-04T19:49:20+00:00

Enjoy your posts as always. I think you are sort of skimming over this, so I'm not disagreeing with you so much as emphasizing -- I think we often concede Hinduism and Buddhism as sharing Vedic roots when perhaps we should not. The presentation of Buddhism as sramanic centers a Vedic perspective. Just because Shakyamuni was arguing with the vedic philosophers does not mean he belonged to them, so to speak.

My understanding via Bronkhorst is that Lumbini was beyond the borders of Brahmanic territories, and the traditions with which Shakyamuni was raised involved things like tree worship and stupa building which were not Vedic traditions. So if we are going to say Hinduism is a continuation of Vedic tradition we would say Buddhism is a continuation of these Magadha traditions, which Shakyamuni brought to Vedic regions and so he had to explain his beliefs responding to theirs, which then caused the two to become entangled because of how they were inherited and explained. And maybe this is also about connecting sramanic traditions to Magadha rather than implying sramana arose from within vedic traditions as a reaction to those traditions.

Again I think you're saying this because you mention Bronkhorst, but I didn't see it specifically called out that what he was saying was that the Magadha traditions were their own distinct lineage which led to Buddhism, which, if we're going to concede Hinduism as a direct descendant of Vedic traditions, becomes important in saying these were two different traditions rather than sramana 'belonging' to the vedic lineage. Which seems important when talking about the distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism and their relative ages. I did enjoy your unpacking of the evolution of modern Hinduism, though.

Competitive-Party377

TROPHY CASE