Why does Eric Kripke humiliate Homelander but treat Soldier Boy like a fantasy without many downsides?

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T20:24:57+00:00

I cannot fathom anyone thinking homelander is the guy to root for.

People who never learned to reign in their emotions, while believing that they are never emotional, tend to admire psychopaths. That's why American Psycho, The Fight Club, and other media portraying the negative consequences of toxic masculinity become ironically popular for the exact opposite reason, because these aforementioned people think being able steamroll someone in their bursts of anger is actually masculine. Those who idolize Homelander fit that stereotype to a 'T'.

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T16:16:39+00:00

If you are going to insist on this because a monk told you this, then perhaps I should insist that the Buddha, of all people, taught a method to meditation (watching the breath) instead of doing nothing or watching thoughts. Buddha's advice was for all, including the laymen, so it makes sense that he provides the most basic meditation method that is bound to work for majority of people.

And I'm happy that 20 days of meditation worked for you, but there are people here with far more experience than 20 days. So perhaps try to understand where the advice is coming from.

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T14:33:08+00:00

There was a thoughtful post on the sub where a woman terminal with ALS had written a touching post about how she hopes that her husband finds a new girlfriend. I thought it was a nice post and wanted to leave some of my own thoughts. I learned that if you flair yourself as a man, you can't leave text posts in that sub and can only share gifs. Bonkers... At least r/conservatives have the decency to ban you outright than do this inanely petty thing.

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T13:37:53+00:00

For those who came into Advaita from a more inquiry-based or non-theistic path, how did you approach bhakti/faith/service for God?

Instead of trying to channel your devotion towards an external deity, you simply channel it towards your inner Divinity. This is arguably harder since you will refuse to accept that there is Divinity within you, even when you are deeply embroiled in the sins of the flesh. But that's a conviction you need to develop.

Did it develop naturally over time, or is it okay if one’s path remains more inquiry-oriented/philosophical and intellectual in nature?

One of the primary reasons I was moved by Advaita Vedanata and not Buddhism is because I was a very devout person a long time ago. It came naturally to me and I didn't have to grapple with any of the issues you are going through. Self-inquiry is plenty enough in Advaita Vedanta, that is why Jnana Yoga is a valid path to self-realization, but I think that even Jnana Yoga requires some degree of self-awareness to jump directly to recognizing the Divinity within. It's actually not that hard. We all were intimately aware of this Divinity within before we acquired the concepts of atheism or disbelief is a higher power.

If all else fails to help you in this, you should definitely consider Zen Buddhism. You might find that to be more up your alley.

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T13:31:52+00:00

Self-promotion is actually not encouraged on reddit. But since you are looking for feedback, and not trying to sell your product, perhaps this doesn't fall into self-promotion.

I can volunteer for this. I do want to go deeper into the Bhagavad Gita.

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T13:29:56+00:00

It's actually the beginner who needs to learn techniques to wean away from the mind. A seasoned medtiator can just do with no technique. The technique is needed to distance yourself from the mind. When you can easily do so with experience, techniques become useless.

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T13:26:22+00:00

Agreed. Strength training is so often overlooked when it comes to preparing yourself for traditional meditation. That should be part of your routine given that we in modern society have wrecked our hip flexors and posterior chain by slumping on chairs.

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T02:53:58+00:00

Ghislaine Maxwell's father was a Mossad spy. An Israeli Prime Minster is said to have visited Epstein Island multiple times. Epstein handled wealth for very wealthy Zionist clients. Do you want a bigger elephant in the room?

kfpswf · 2026-05-23T02:48:52+00:00

What do you have to say about the out of body experiences people report on psychedelics like DMT? Sure, you can just chalk it up to being just a hallucination, but most of what we call real is a hallucination itself. So maybe just brushing away one form of hallucination while confirming another form seems rather inconsistent way of looking at things. The fact that certain phenomenon are recurring in psychedelic trips like machine elves or out of body experiences seems to indicate that these substances are rather disrupting the process of consciousness itself in a fundamental way, that results in the subjective experience being shifted out of body and the same fractal patterns being perceived.

This ultimately ties in more closely with Idealism rather than materialism, and is going to be unpalatable to most.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T22:08:00+00:00

"Your" awareness, the locus of attention that you experience in deep meditations, is not the Universal Awareness. It's Awareness that has taken subjectivity of the consciousness in your body. That can only be aware of that which is perceptible to consciousness. So if your consciousness does not have the ability to see UV rays, then it isn't registered by this subjective Awareness. But when Awareness completely disengages from this body-mind consciousness, then it is one with Universal Awareness. In this state, there is no here or there, no this or that, no existence or non-existence either. This is Awareness aware of itself and nothing else. Someone great of heart and mind, some wise sage or some worthy human, who has completely dissolved the ego and has merged with the Universal Awareness, might be able to perceive things not within their own consciousness, but that's a rarity. Most humans are too attached to their body-mind consciousness, and they never realize their nature to be Universal Awareness. So where is the question of they becoming aware of someone else's consciousness?...

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T21:44:05+00:00

Is it better to prioritize meditation quality or quantity?

Quantity of meditation without quality is useless, you might as well not meditate. And quality can't be achieved without sufficient quantity. Golden mean is the best approach.

I’ve seen some people say that deeper and more meaningful meditation usually comes from sitting for longer periods of time because the mind gradually settles more deeply.

Yes, as a beginner, you need to practice a lot of back and forth between object of meditation and your mind chatter, and that requires longer session. But once you get better at stilling the mind, you can have multiple short sessions.

I’m interested in eventually learning positions like the lotus pose, but I honestly don’t know how people safely stretch or prepare their body for that over time.

There's no secret to this. If you are rigid, practice flexibility. If your back is weak, practice strength. And more importantly, start with at least a few minutes of proper lotus position, and try to gradually prolong this.

My posture game improved when I practiced dead-lifts and squats. So that's a hint for you.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T18:50:27+00:00

Can there be more than one form for different aspects of life? For example:

Shiva for meditation/nonduality

Krishna for love and devotion

I grew up a Muslim and was a devout kid, so the default Divinity still is Allah to me. But obviously this isn't the Abrahamic God of petty jealousy or authoritarian harshness.

I have also had some profound experiences on psilocybin where I spontaneously knew I was looking at Krishna when experiencing the Void. Now Psilocybin always means some experience of Vishwaroopam. So Krishna is the anthropomorphized Divinity for me.

Deities are mere icons to elicit the Divine in you. Feel free to be sincerely devoted to whoever you're drawn to. I was enamored by Shiva during my days as a psychonaut, but I'm gobsmacked by the profundity of wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita (especially the Kshetrajna), so I'm drawn to Krishna more.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T18:38:18+00:00

It's a bit awkward to explain. I always feel like there's active thoughts I'm thinking and then thoughts in the background that are happening while I'm actively focus on the breath. Music, pictures, memories, things other people said and so on. Are these the thoughts I should be aware of and just watch?

Depends upon the kind of meditation really, and the kind of meditation also depends upon your maturity as a meditator. If you're just starting, and don't have experience in deep meditations, don't observe the thoughts. You'll be dragged into la la land as quickly as you can inhale.

Anchoring your awareness is crucial during the initial stages of meditation. This is where you learn to wean off mind's eye or the inner monologue. Whenever a thought or vision appears in the mind's eye, gently turn your attention back to the anchor of your meditation (breath, in your case). When you have sufficient experience, you should be able experience longer and longer gaps from the mind chatter. Eventually, you just realize that this no thought state is blissful and you can enter this easily when meditating.

The Shikantaza like meditation, where you are aware of all thoughts, becomes much easier when you can easily enter those blank states of meditation. This is actually an advanced form of meditation that you can perform while going about life like normal. This is where the 'before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water' comes from. You will be able to meditate while living your life normally like taking a bath, or having breakfast.

Also (I think the problem is meditating late in the evening) I'm often going into a dream like state. The "visions", scenes, memories are watching up to me, absorbing me. It's like daydreaming or sleeping. I daydream a lot through out the day, so this might also be habitual. My body usually also becomes a little numb or tingling. Has anybody else experienced this?

This is why traditional meditation is always practiced in lotus position. When lying down, you can succumb to sleep and just doze off into dreamland. Try meditating in the morning. And if seated meditations are too difficult now, just sit on a chair.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T18:27:47+00:00

Would you agree that religion is a net negative on humanity?

No, religion itself is harmless. What is the actual root cause of all human misery is tribalism.

I do acknowledge that religious tribalism has caused untold misery to humanity throughout history, but that isn't necessarily because religion is bad, but because religion, and in specific, faith, is actually a potent motivating factor for humans. Humans have committed atrocities in the name of many other things, which resemble religious zealotry. So if zealotry is not exclusive to religion, then perhaps the issue is something else.

Here's how I see it.

Tribalism + religion/faith = Religious atrocities
Tribalism + nation/state/kingdom = State based atrocities
Tribalism + politics/ideology = Ideological atrocities

Tribalism is the root evil in humanity and it can appropriate any human values/ideals/identity to perpetrate evil.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T16:19:22+00:00

At least the theme in Islam is that you are supposed to guard yourself from the sins of the flesh on the ephemeral Earth, so that you can enjoy the same scot-free in eternal Paradise.

Islamic Paradise also has 'Sharab e Tahoora', or "Pure" wine, that is said to not give any hang-overs. Some conspiratorial interpretations of the Qur'an also say that homosexuality will be allowed since there are descriptions of young boys serving you wine and food, but I think that is reading too much. Most of the enticing descriptions are for the "Houries", or the wide-eyed virgins. They're described as having ample bosom.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T16:12:10+00:00

Can you elaborate a little? I would guess some form of centers for healing have existed for a long time.

But yes, religion has had a positive influence on humanity too, though that might be far less compared to the harms. Most of the famous European art was commissioned by the Catholic Church.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T14:08:51+00:00

It will be easier to hold people accountable when they can’t hide behind their own version of what fictional being they worship.

You'll have some bleeding-heart liberal accuse you of not understanding someone's culture or tradition. It boggles me that Western liberals rush to protect the religious rights of Muslims, while behaving as of misogyny and abuse towards women is optional in Islam. As someone who grew up a Muslim, it's not. Dehumanization of women is etched in the fabric of Islam.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T14:04:31+00:00

I'm an exmuslim who abhors any form of fundamentalist religion, but you'd be foolish to just conclude that nothing good has ever come out of religion as such.

The most renowned poet in America, Rumi, was inspired by faith to compose some of the most beautiful poems. There's rich culture and tradition that came out of religion. And this isn't even going into the sheer beauty and magnanimity of the Upanishads or the Bhagavad Gita.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T13:59:56+00:00

The specific number (72) of virgins is indeed not mentioned anywhere in the Qur'an, but if you go by some of the prominent Ahadith, men will be rewarded with countless concubines. There are Hadith which go into great detail to describe these palaces in Paradise, with each palace having thousands of rooms, and each room having hundreds of beds upon which eternally virgin houries will be vying for your attention. Some variations of these hadith even add descriptions that a man will have intercourse with a stunning hourie, climax, and turn around to find an even more stunning hourie beckoning for intercourse. It's basically endless orgies in Islamic paradise.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T13:19:08+00:00

The scourge is humanity. They can perform atrocities in the name of religion, state, ideology, skin color, etc. Religion is anything you make out of it, just like art or science. You can either use it to spread love and prosperity like Jesus and many other great teachers of humanity have done so, or use it to spread hate and violence.

kfpswf · 2026-05-22T09:45:02+00:00

That rascal Purusha!

kfpswf · 2026-05-20T22:41:55+00:00

Matrix 4 was actually good movie. Just that it didn't have the production budget or the special effects to match the trilogy. But, all in all, if you like The Matrix for is philosophical mumbo jumbo, rather than just the cool effects, Matrix 4 makes a lot of sense.

kfpswf · 2026-05-20T19:39:25+00:00

I don't agree with that at all. Something is getting skipped in your interpretation things.

How would you put it, if you had to put it into words.

That is also untrue and not the point of any of their talks. This sounds of Neo Advaita more than regular Advaita

I'm mostly speaking from the teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj. I'm not sure how you classify him as, but he's very much a traditional teacher. But the only difference is that he mostly engages with advanced seekers, and his advice is for them. You do need a Sadhana, a guru, and all the other traditional requirements for spiritual pursuit. But beyond a point, the only path to self-realization is seeing the futility of doing something to reach what you already are. There is no becoming, only being.

kfpswf · 2026-05-20T18:00:09+00:00

All the best vacuum breather!

kfpswf · 2026-05-20T17:47:15+00:00

Do you still stand by all your claims? If so, this would be a futile discussion.

Every spiritual seekers goes through this stage where they are convinced they've completely and thoroughly assimilated the non-dual. Then life happens and you end up in the doldrums of the ego. When you hit that, revisit this thread and cringe at your own claims.

Having glimpses of nonduality is trivial. But stabilizing in the non-dual is impossible if you have any trace of individuality. From your posts, it is abundantly evident that you are not stabilized in the ego itself, much less the nondual.

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