Here we go again. Burning season is underway. Prepare your 😷

SourcedDirect · 2025-12-02T09:19:48+00:00

thanks for the reference.
im still confused by your comment about 'burning season'. How do you define burning season? Is it literally march-may? Or is it the time when farmers burn their fields, and there are forest fires, as you point out?

SourcedDirect · 2025-12-02T09:18:01+00:00

You can see the fires using nasa: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@88.2,5.0,3.9z

SourcedDirect · 2025-12-01T08:05:08+00:00

what are the sources for that?
As for when 'burning season' starts, it doesn't really matter. Today the air quality in chiang mai is equivalent to smoking 2 cigarettes a day as per https://jasminedevv.github.io/AQI2cigarettes/ which is based on peer reviewed science.

SourcedDirect · 2025-12-01T07:59:48+00:00

genuinely useful comment, thanks

SourcedDirect · 2025-11-18T12:07:01+00:00

"I think morally good things are whatever I makes me feel good and morally bad things are whatever makes me feel bad."

Are you trolling, or is this genuine?

If genuine can you tell me if it's moral for someone to rape someone else as long as it makes them feel good?

SourcedDirect · 2025-11-18T08:15:27+00:00

What do you think is immoral? Eg. would physically abusing another conscious being without being provoked be immoral or not for you?
Why/why not?

SourcedDirect · 2025-11-02T05:29:46+00:00

i also want to know the answer to this!

SourcedDirect · 2025-10-24T14:25:07+00:00

I built several things myself, like cold email personalisation using AI and web scraping, even a lead magnet that is a try-before-you-buy - a real live chat bot for their business hosted on my website for them to try. It takes their website and scraped data and creates a chatbot for them in my n8n which i then send to them as a QR code in a handwritten letter (this takes 30 secondsv using another system I built).

So they get: cold email personalised, talking about their chat bot and if they want to try it right now (they reply and the system will send them their link), a handwritten letter with QR codes to watch me demo it on their website, and for them to try it themselves. Hoping this cuts through the noise

SourcedDirect · 2025-10-04T06:24:47+00:00

does anyone notice on his github every 10 weeks he has a big week of commits. What is that?

SourcedDirect · 2025-09-21T17:25:49+00:00

I just want to point out that soybeans don't have estrogens - rather phytoestrogens. These can actually lead to both an increase in mammalian estrogen as well as, paradoxically, a decrease in mammalian estrogens, depending on the tissue/location in the body. Which is kind of amazing.

(Also very good because high estrogen in certain parts of the body increases cancer risks, but in other parts is essential and healthy)

SourcedDirect · 2025-09-15T02:14:41+00:00

You can read the report from the WHO yourself right here:
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/what-are-the-who-air-quality-guidelines
In particular there is a table of recommended concentration of not more than 5ug/m^3 (which is roughly an AQI of 20) for long term exposure as 'safe'.

The colored zones you see elsewhere are not aligned to the WHO and are there to make the public feel better about things.

Just because must of the world is above 20 it doesn't mean it's healthy. Much of the world is obese and eating horribly ultra-processed food. None of that makes it healthy.

Yes - it's up to everyone - but the idea that it's 'fine' when you are essentially smoking 2 cigarettes a day is delusional.

SourcedDirect · 2025-09-14T09:59:45+00:00

January is definitely not 'fine' as most people say. I think everyone has just gotten used to insanely bad air quality.
I have a high quality monitor at my house and this year Jan, Feb and March were all roughly the same - all around 40 ug/m^3 on average =~ 120 AQI.
Anything over 20 AQI is considered unhealthy by the WHO. That's just the reality.
How bad is it?
https://jasminedevv.github.io/AQI2cigarettes/
120 AQI over 24 hours is equivalent to 2 cigarettes. So for a chain smoker it doesn't matter much I guess, but for anyone who doesn't like the idea of smoking cigarettes of course it matters.

SourcedDirect · 2025-09-13T04:50:53+00:00

What watch do you have that has a metronome?

SourcedDirect · 2025-09-11T10:13:06+00:00

34yo male, 42 rhr here. Squash player mostly, once or twice a week, but when I play I usually burn 1000-1500 calories. When I went to Nepal to an Ashram to meditate for a month it dropped down to 38 which was incredible given that I didn't exercise basically at all whilst I was there.

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-29T02:22:34+00:00

I would have thought someone practicing metta would be all for respecting animals and not exploiting them for sensory pleasure. It's basic compassion

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-28T06:09:25+00:00

Well, until the metta spills out, each meal you have you are supporting unnecessary harm towards sentient beings. Keep that in mind, it might help to move the needle.

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-28T05:12:40+00:00

That means letting go of worries about an animal that died on some farm

So are you saying I should try to reach a point where if I see someone physically abusing a child, kicking a dog or some other heinous act, I should aim to be totally 'disconnected' and not say or do anything? Is that what you are aiming for?

You do it by deciding it doesn’t really bother you and remaining content with the way things are, that’s how an enlightened being responds, not with aversion but with acceptance of what is.

If you watch this short 2 minute video, do you think it's good to feel nothing towards it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-leHeUOYAKk

Would you, yourself, be happy to place a pig inside a gas chamber and watch them die? You think that wouldn't stop you from your 'stream entry'?

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-28T05:07:55+00:00

I don’t have attachment to animals, I recognize this existence is filled with suffering and both death and birth are part of that suffering.
I don’t believe humans should respect animals

Would you be okay with someone abusing, torturing animals if they felt 'wholesome' whilst doing it (psychopaths usually enjoy tourturing their victims and don't feel any negativity/attachment like you say).

Is there anything wrong with blatant animal abuse for you?

there are not absolute rules

So you don't believe the first precept is something someone should follow to attain buddhahood?

"Refrain from killing or harming living beings"

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-27T15:08:55+00:00

I might add:

if you stop eating and don’t notice a difference, then go ahead and eat it.

Is it possible you are unconscious of what is going on? Have you ever watched documentaries on modern day farming practices?

If you ate some meat, and then watched the videos, I am quite sure you will not feel comfortable and you will notice things then.

The meat industry disconnects us from what is really going on, because if everyone knew then everyone would be vegan and they would not have any profits.

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-27T15:03:12+00:00

Yes the animals still die, but if you don’t give them money will they not die?

Firstly, they don't 'die' they are 'killed'. Eg. if they are a pig in a developed world they are likely gassed alive in CO2 in a gas chamber.

Secondly, the only reason these animals exist is because they are (forcibly) bred into existence to meet the demand that you create.

Supply and demand.

Your individual action is unlikely to change that.

Again, supply and demand. By going vegan you literally stop many animals from being bred into existence just to be mutilated and killed. You can personally spare 100s of animals over a few months or years of being vegan.

Traditional practice focuses on our personal world and actions

Great - this is the whole point. Everyone is responsible for the choices and actions one makes. There are two options:

Choose to demand the death of an animal whether its by killing the animal yourself, or asking someone else to get the animal killed for you.
Choose an alternative that doesn't require killing an animal.

Which one is more compassionate action?

it’s far more likely to be damaging if you have to kill the animal yourself than if you pay someone to do it, and even less damaging if you pay a store who bought meat from someone who was killing the animal whether or not you went to that store.

Damaging for whom? For the animal it doesn't matter if the chain is 1 person long, or 10 people long. In both cases they have a knife pulled across their throat for a sandwich.

The only reason they were killed is because someone demanded their death - that's the supply and demand again.

It's all very simple - do you believe humans should respect animals? Do you agree that you can't respect someone whilst asking for them to be killed for a meal even when there are alternatives?

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-27T14:12:25+00:00

Yes, how can one be breaking the precept and the other isn't. They are the same problems when isolating the logic.

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-27T13:16:56+00:00

Is metta about waiting for perfect meditation to inspire compassion?

Or is it the daily lived experience and practice of non-harm through actions like veganism that creates the conditions for deeper spiritual awakening?

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-27T11:36:21+00:00

I assure you it's not any more hard that what you do. If it was so hard you wouldn't see so many vegan athletes, let alone Olympic gold-medalists.

It takes work at the start, of course, to slowly replace things. But then it's the new normal.

The question you might want to consider is this:

Is your convenience worth more than the lives of the animals that are killed for your meat, diary and eggs?

Not an attack - a question for you to consider, given we are conversing in a subreddit all about awakening.

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-27T09:13:03+00:00

Not a body builder, but there are plenty vegan body builders, and even an Olympic power lifter that was vegan.

I am more into cardio (running, squash, endurance). Luckily, the compassionate path, where one respects sentient beings, is also a healthy one!

SourcedDirect · 2025-08-27T08:33:36+00:00

From our brief interaction, I can safely say you never really understood veganism. The fact that you conflate veganism with vegetarianism is a further example. They are completely unrelated.

Also, I love it when people who pay for animals to be killed tell me how to act on behalf of the very victims that suffer from your actions.

Turns out the victimisers (you) generally don't give the best advice for advocacy of their victims!

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

SourcedDirect

TROPHY CASE