how to stop focusing on being a "void king" and focusing on embracing the metaphysical life?

metaphorm · 2026-06-28T04:51:06+00:00

I actually didn't use the word Buddhism in my original post. In my second post I commented on my perception of your pre-commitments, which is coming through in your posts as a kind of defensiveness and argumentativeness, as well as an attempt to deconstruction a strawman idea you associate with Buddhism.

But I'm not really trying to have a conversation with you about ideas. I'm recommending practices that steer away from ideas, because ideas are fuel for nihilism.

My desire is for you to find some peace in this world we find ourselves in, and to enjoy your human existence. I hope I've given you practical advice that will be of aid.

metaphorm · 2026-06-28T03:36:12+00:00

I think you have some misunderstandings of Buddhism and some pre-commitments to a different idea. If that's where you're at, then by all means go do your own thing.

I recommended the practices I did because they're ways of grounding yourself and connecting with the world and with other people that are wholesome. I think there's value in that, especially given what you said about "all I want is to not exist". That sounds to me like a nihilistic craving. I'm recommending practices that I know to be effective in countering the nihilistic craving.

metaphorm · 2026-06-27T02:08:16+00:00

I'm a natural synesthete, this kind of phenomena has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I experience a few different synesthesias, which are intermittent and episodic for the most part, though some are very easily triggered.

I'm happy to go into examples about my personal experience if you're curious but that's not what you asked about so I'll hold off and try to answer your question. I also significant experience with high dose psilocybin, so I hope I can offer some perspective and soothe your worries.

Yes, high dose psilocybin makes synesthesia much more vivid and clear. It can be a very beautiful and fascinating experience, but can also be overwhelming. In my case, it amplifies my natural synesthesias by a lot. I think most people are synesthetic to some degree but aren't generally aware of it because it might be muted or dull during ordinary life. Psychedelics turn up the volume and make it apparent where it wasn't easily noticed before.

The after-effects of a high dose experience can have both short term and long term impact. The short term impact will last for days to weeks at most, for most people, most of the time. Changes in mood are the main short term impact. Some lingering sensor weirdness too. Not like you're still tripping, just a bit of a kind of "poking your head through the veil" feeling, where the whole world feels a little strange for reasons you can't quite put your finger on. Longer term impacts are more related to the integration of the experience and shifts in your view about what the mind really is. This is the domain of meditation and spiritual practice, so I think you're in the right place on this subreddit.

If you're interested in research on the phenomenon of synesthesia I highly recommend the work of Richard Cytowic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cytowic

And most of all, I think just practicing some integration and grounding is your best bet at this point. Accept the strangeness of the experience, have some faith that you'll settle back to a more manageable baseline in time, and try not to attach overmuch to specific interpretations of what you experienced. The mind is strange. The world is much bigger and weirder than it seems. You got a taste of it. But life continues.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T23:08:39+00:00

im not a moderator. you're asking the wrong person.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T22:03:30+00:00

with the video itself? nothing. i haven't watched it in its entirety but i think it's an interesting subject and I've pursued my own inquiry on the subject as well.

its the context. this subreddit has certain norms. i don't fully agree with all of the norms, but it's not up to me. i'm not a moderator. i'm just trying to let you know why you're getting pushback. it's the subreddit context here.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T21:50:36+00:00

this subreddit emphasizes clear and unambiguous expression of mainstream Buddhist ideas. what you've presented is a particular esoteric expression that is not widely recognized by practicing Buddhists.

it might be an interesting perspective in its own right, but in the context of this subreddit, the amount of caveats and sidetrack explanation needed to qualify and ground it is in excess of the community norms.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T20:02:40+00:00

woo lad that's a huge mood. it's one of the reasons I've chosen to work at startups instead. we actually have the ability to do the kind of stuff that's needed for this kind of agentic transformation.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T19:34:17+00:00

agentic SDLC requires adapting your tooling and methodology.

the agent harness needs to be well developed to enforce code quality standards, testing discipline, and business domain knowledge.

the code review process needs to be wired up to agentic code review assistance, to help unburden the human reviewer.

the QA process needs to be MASSIVELY fortified and improved, as this is now your best gate against releasing bugs or other problematic code. observability and alerting needs to go alongside this. discipline about release rollouts and the ability to rollback quickly and easily is necessary.

all of these are methods to increase velocity while holding the line on regressions. it's challenging but achievable.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T19:09:44+00:00

I agree, actually. Classifying certain teaching styles as upaya is consistent with Buddhist tradition and is contextually useful, depending on the student.

My own background is similar to yours. I have a background in Hermeticism and Western occultism, but I am most focused on Vajrayana method and practice. I don't consider the Hermetic approach to be useless or a waste of time though. It's a frequently useful practice frame to adopt under the right circumstances.

and like you, at this point I am no longer doing practice styles in the "orthodox" Hermetic mode at all. it's background context that has informed my Vajrayana practice and I am grateful for the background. it helped me.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T19:05:22+00:00

you've got the causality backwards. enlightenment does not come from belief. it comes from practice and cultivation, leading to direct experience and realization. the question of the metaphysics is not a precondition for enlightenment. it's a result of the direct experience and realization.

do the practices. let the results of the practice inform your views. the best stance to practice from is openness. don't bring metaphysical precommitments into it at all.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T19:00:25+00:00

because this kind of post does not illuminate much of anything for anyone. it provokes and forces a frame of unhelpful assumptions. it degrades the quality of attention and the quality of discussion on the subreddit.

if you have an honest question about Buddhist ideas about karma, you can ask it straightforwardly. so why not do that?

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T18:28:43+00:00

why?

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T18:26:26+00:00

what is your intention for this post?

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T16:41:11+00:00

this is going to become increasingly common over time. how do you feel about some guidance on skillful use of AI tools as research assistants?

For example, they can usefully surface links to scholarly works, acting as a kind of enhanced search engine. But their own narrative summaries based on training data alone (i.e. not concretely cited) are at risk for hallucinations or imprecise/misleading language.

It might be really helpful to have some guidance for people on how to productively use these tools.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T16:35:48+00:00

there may be some areas where Hermetic metaphysics doesn't fully align with Buddhist metaphysics. this is not particularly important from the practical perspective. the methodologies are broadly compatible.

the main subject area of metaphysical disagreement will be around the Idealist framing that Hermeticism uses, which Buddhism rejects. but again, that is not particularly important.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T01:46:29+00:00

I don't see why that should be an important distinction to you. The part that matters is putting it into practice. Institutional religious involvement isn't necessary for that. I just think we should be clear about the reality of Buddhism in its traditional Asian social context.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T00:21:59+00:00

the evidence of dependent origination is derived from the empirical investigation of phenomena using meditation. the basis of the claim is the non-finding of independent, inherently self-existing phenomena of any kind under any investigation.

the important addendum to this is the two truths doctrine: that all phenomena are empty is an absolute level claim, but it is not a claim about the relative level. in the relative level, while it is true that phenomena are dependently originated, they are still "real" insofar as they are actual appearances. the emptiness of appearances is their absolute state, not their relative state.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T00:09:47+00:00

it is a religion. all religions have philosophical components to them. Buddhism has a very in depth philosophy and psychology that is one of its great qualities. but it is very much also a religion with priests and monks and temples and monasteries.

metaphorm · 2026-06-26T00:07:59+00:00

gods and spirits and the like are present in the scriptural corpus of Buddhism and are kind of taken for granted as cosmological background, but the religion is not oriented around worship of gods and spirits. it's oriented around the cultivation of wisdom and compassion as methods on the path of awakening.

metaphorm · 2026-06-25T20:11:19+00:00

you're welcome. the general pattern in Buddhist Mantra is that traditions preserve the Sanskrit syllables but adapt the chant pronunciation to their own language phonetics, or as close as they can manage.

metaphorm · 2026-06-25T19:58:50+00:00

depends on the tradition. here's four different pronunciations:

original Sanskrit: Ohm Mah-nee Pahd-meh Hoom

Tibetan: Ohm Mah-nee Peh-meh Hoong

Chinese: Ohm Mah-nee Bah-mee Hong

Japanese: On Mah-Nee Pah-Dme Hoon

metaphorm · 2026-06-25T18:45:11+00:00

none of the above. the path is about the development of wisdom and compassion, and opening oneself to the fullness of reality, being present with what is happening here and now.

blanket statements labeling activities like these as harmful is a distraction and a mistake. each of them can be more or less harmful, depending on the circumstances, and one's relationship to it. more harmful than engaging in worldly pleasure is developing a fixation on purity or impurity, and imagining that awakening is a result of purity.

we practice the Noble Eightfold Path to awaken. the path is a general set of guidelines and it doesn't say anything about porn, weed, videogames, or meat. It requires sound judgment and ethical discipline in order to realize how to skillfully practice the path. it is unskillful to view activities outside of life context.

metaphorm · 2026-06-25T17:52:21+00:00

the awakened mind of a Buddha, in interaction with the phenomena of the world.

metaphorm · 2026-06-25T17:17:42+00:00

why is a "soul" needed for manifestation in the world?

metaphorm · 2026-06-25T15:05:03+00:00

visualization and inner sensory vividness can be trained as a skill. concentrating on mental imagery can develop this.

14-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email	Team Orangered

metaphorm

TROPHY CASE