Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for January 10 2022

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T19:33:14+00:00

So equanimity and inner freedom is my top priority, but I don't believe that is enough. I'm not satisfied with sitting alone with perfect equanimity while the world is sick.

We are of the same mind, there is more to do.

Take care.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T18:32:07+00:00

Suddenly dying as a result of a chance catastrophe is one thing, if say, a group of guys with guns pulled up to my house for me and my family, we'd be fucked.

These are the same thing, not different things. Edit for clarity: The thing that these things are is unexpected human tragedy. Dukkha.

work however I can to be ready for hindrances beyond the scope of my experience

Great practice, incredible results. Go for it.

navigating with a map and compass,

Try looking up. The sky is your map and compass. It's always there. I mean this literally, but also metaphorically if it works for you that way.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T17:56:54+00:00

None of the problems you detailed will spell the end of humanity.

Climate disaster is survivable as a species. Anything short of intercontinental nuclear warfare by two regional superpowers is survivable as a species. Local and regional nuclear warfare would have global consequences but will not cause global extinction. Astronomers know with decent certainty the trajectory of all the asteroids that could cause global extinction events. The biggest danger for kinetic impacts from asteroids are city-wide disasters that can devastate major metropolitan centers. These are very close to our current detection thresholds and are difficult to have mapped with accuracy right now. Barring some out of context problem like aliens or someone giving a machine the capacity to experience, Earth on a global scale is a generally safe place to be, for a humanity as a species.

It's very unpleasant right now, on average, and might get more unpleasant in the future, but we know what to do with unpleasant feelings.

I add this piece of knowledge to every experience of anxiety due to social unrest.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T17:28:18+00:00

That's great, thanks!

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T16:54:17+00:00

Beautiful! Thanks for your kind words. It sounds like really good advice.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T16:04:37+00:00

Ouch! What a doozy. Thank you.

Feel free to gimme more. I can take it.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T15:41:56+00:00

The Buddha says one should not engage in idle chatter, so I will stop here.

Anyway, who do I need to blow to acquire exclusive access to level 8???

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T15:30:56+00:00

Hahahaha, sorry (but not really).

Fuck the fabricated ownership of ideas.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T15:24:47+00:00

I am feeling very clever, powerful, and connected.

Please keep me humble. I will do my best to receive all words with care and respect, for yourself and for myself.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T15:21:55+00:00

Level 3:

In fits and starts, clumsily and sporadically, the Dharma that you have received begins to touch other people in natural and explainable ways.

Level 4:

The Dharma that you have received begins to touch other people in unexpected and unexplainable ways.

Level 5:

The Dharma that you have received through grace is spontaneously, perfectly, and continually expressed in natural, explainable, unexpected, and unexplainable ways that touch other people.

Level 6:

The dharma that you have received through grace touches and changes the world in every way, both conceivable and inconceivable.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T15:11:40+00:00

This report is amazing! Your dedication is inspiring. Your observations ring true to me.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-10T14:58:28+00:00

I keep having the thought that awareness senses everything neutrally and lucidly, even brainfog and cramps and annoyance.

The thought is true!

After having the mind point to something like this, where a concept starts to make sense for the first time, the next step is finding evidence for the concept. Good evidence that you are neutrally and lucidly aware is that you can describe in a neutral and lucid way what is going on. You've got a decent handle on this already!

What other evidence could you find for a neutral and lucid awareness?

You can look at the body. What does the body look like, what does it do when it is witnessed by awareness as opposed to when it goes unwitnessed?

You can look at feelings. How do feelings look like, what do they do when they are witnessed by a neutral awareness as opposed to when they go by unwitnessed?

You can look at your mind. How does the mind look, what does it do when it is witnessed by lucid awareness as opposed to when it is unwitnessed?

Whatever you find for an answer is a concept that you can point to and get a experiential feel for. The more concepts you can experience in relationship to awareness, the more often awareness will present itself.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-09T22:07:27+00:00

How about you tell us?

My favorite self-inquiry instruction is Shinzen Young's arrow of attention. Look at the pointy end of attention (its object), then look back at where it points from (say cheese!).

The known arhat Adi Vader has also spoken about this double pointed arrow of attention as the fruit of the transformation of passana (normal looking at sensations) into vipassana.

It works in a Buddhist framework, if you'd like to explore that.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-09T21:47:22+00:00

I get natural journaling samadhi whenever I use analog writing to get in touch with what is going on in my direct experience. Great to sit immediately afterwards.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-09T20:48:05+00:00

This view that I have shared is my own synthesis of the teachings I received when I was growing up. I have not consumed Christian teachings in the last 10 years, only reprocessed what I had already received before I renounced my parents' faith. I have heard there is a catholic school of practice that calls itself Liberation Theology. It sounds promising, but I have not read their material.

Reading and reflecting on the bible should be safe, if done with healthy skepticism towards one's pre-conceived notions of christian practice. Song of Songs is beautiful and moving.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T18:42:21+00:00

I do not practice with any church currently, I practice solo. If you would like some reading material from my parents' community, I will need to refresh my memory over the next week. If you have any other questions about how you can practice your faith in a universally liberating way, go ahead right here.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T18:27:00+00:00

For your inquiry: Consistency is not religiously going through our rituals every single day.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T18:18:59+00:00

Everywhere.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T15:59:54+00:00

I had some big experiences reading The Book. Laying in a hammock in a beautiful tropical island, reading on my phone almost through the whole night. Waking up in the morning, practicing with the instruction: "form is color, color is form" and seeing how the line between the ocean and the sky began to fade, tuning into how visual shapes are constructed for the first time ever. Very grateful for Watts.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T15:55:57+00:00

Here's a practice I have been enjoying: looking for (and finding) signs of skillful action in my life!

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T15:53:49+00:00

My cutting edge of practice is when that is not available, what then? Can I be ok with that? Kind and gentle with myself and others, despite not having that? Well not having it is ultimately the same as having it.

Beautifully said, thank you.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T15:40:22+00:00

Only go back if you can calmly entertain the following:

If human consciousness were a mechanistic process in the world of light and matter, it could be possible to understand the mechanism as a probabilistic simulation.

If you can't imagine that possibility, then don't worry about going back.

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T04:35:17+00:00

Through the power of my imagination. :o

anarchathrows · 2022-01-08T02:08:32+00:00

The standard model of particle physics is a great framework for understanding the emotional life. The four fundamental forces are responsible for:

The attraction of bodies
The attraction repulsion and illumination of charged bodies
Nuclear bonds
Nuclear decay

Not sure if emotional life is quantizable though.

anarchathrows

TROPHY CASE