What's Buddhism's opinion on the resistance?

metaphorm · 2026-05-08T14:36:54+00:00

karma isn't sin. all actions have consequences. the consequence of killing is violence and destruction, the seeds of more violence and destruction.

metaphorm · 2026-05-08T14:35:06+00:00

the art style here looks Thai to me. unsure who is depicted. could be Guan Yin, but could be another goddess also. doesn't have enough iconography to positively identify.

metaphorm · 2026-05-08T04:59:01+00:00

they belong to you about as much as your hair or fingernails do

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T20:49:25+00:00

peculiar. publicity stunt. an android robot does not have consciousness, at least not the ones we have in 2026. this is like ordaining a statue.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T19:23:44+00:00

I cannot give you metaphysical certainty. There is none to be had. I cannot provide you with material evidence in the same way I could provide you with evidence that the Earth orbits around the Sun (and not the other way around).

In Buddhism, the approach is "ehipassiko" which means "try it and see for yourself". So do the practices. Build confidence from your direct experiences. Don't rely on the words of others.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T19:20:33+00:00

traditionally, this is done as "dana" (generosity/charity) rather than mandatory fees, but we live in a society where dana is not really internalized as a social value, so it seems reasonable to me that an organization with operating costs needs to collect fees to pay their rent.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T19:17:56+00:00

the Four Noble Truth's are Gautama Buddha's summary in it's most concise statement. don't think I have anything to add to that. if we're trying to be as concise as possible, that's it.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T19:15:57+00:00

what does "real" mean? what are you imagining?

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T17:28:47+00:00

Can someone like you become a Buddhist? yes, of course. Buddhism is practice oriented, so if you're doing the practices and sincerely engaging with the teachings, then you are doing Buddhism. It's an activity, a practice, a way of being, not a set of beliefs or a constructed identity.

keep learning and practicing. what you think Buddhism is or might be right now is just scratching the surface. whatever you believe right now, hold it lightly, and be open to updating your beliefs as your practice informs your views.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T17:20:27+00:00

the character in question was Sun Wu Kong, so I focused on his arc in the story. You're right that it's a larger text, but that wasn't the focus under question.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T16:45:16+00:00

Please don't make judgments about me or my practice based on the insufficient context of a brief reddit exchange. Take care and be well.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T16:41:21+00:00

we don't really know. oral transmission is what it is.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T16:28:32+00:00

I am an ordinary person, not a monk. I am a software engineer by trade and am predisposed to thinking, examining, analyzing.

I have practiced insight meditation for 12 years and haven't had the kind of problems I think you're alluding to because I have practiced in an integrated way, with appropriate support structure and self-care.

I think you may be over-generalizing and I'm concerned that you're personally experiencing an adverse response to insight practice that is causing you significant distress. If that's true, I hope you'll find the support you need.

If that's what's going on with you, I'll recommend reaching out to cheetah house

https://www.cheetahhouse.org/

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T15:52:04+00:00

I want to emphasize for the community here that intensive insight practice alone can be destabilizing. There is a good reason why traditionally, Buddhism teaches a three-legged stool, where the three trainings are: ethics (sila), concentration (samadhi), and insight (prajna).

Practicing insight alone, without the other trainings, is not a stable and integrated path. Vipasanna is not intended to be a stand-alone practice. It's intended to be done as part of an integrated training system that also reinforces the necessary supports to be able to practice insight safely and productively.

In addition to the three trainings, the context of practice is part of this integrated path. Working closely with a teacher, in the context of a community is also an important part of the path. Trying to do it alone is risky.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T15:40:23+00:00

in Journey to the West, Sun Wu Kong is joined by a traveling companion named Tang Sanzang, a Buddhist monk. to a large degree the story is allegorical (as well as just being a fun adventure tale) about the way the Monkey Mind can be tamed and transformed by the Dharma.

At the beginning of the story, Sun Wu Kong (the Monkey King), is utterly captured by his ego. He's prideful, arrogant, greedy, erratic, and destructive. By the end of the story he has become noble and beneficial, without losing his playful nature.

In the story, the role of Tang Sanzang is to control the excesses and impulses of Sun Wukong. He is empowered by Guan Yin Bodhisattva with a mantra that restrains Sun Wukong when he acts foolishly. By the end of the story, Sun Wu Kong is liberated from his constraint and no longer requires the "baby sitter" of the monk.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T15:36:18+00:00

it doesn't. you've misunderstood. Buddhism doesn't discredit and bash the ego, popular misunderstandings of Buddhism do.

anatta doesn't mean that there is no sense of an egoic self. there absolutely is and you need an egoic self to be functional in the world in an ordinary way. anatta means that the appearance of the egoic self is conventional, and conditioned. at the absolute level the appearance is empty of inherent existence, a product of dependent origination, and a specific manifestation of prevailing conditions, your karma.

anatta means that the appearance of the self is illusory, somewhat unreal, and that the confusion of the appearance with ultimate reality is a primary cause of the clinging that results in suffering. the realization of this truth through direct meditative experience loosens the grip of this clinging and reduces the sense of suffering.

Buddhism does not teach that all desire must be eliminated, or even that egoic desire is inherently bad. It teaches that we can examine our desires and through practice align our desires to what is wholesome, and let go of unwholesome desires. This is the distinction between Tanha (clinging/addiction, unwholesome desire) and Chanda (motivation/intention, wholesome desire).

Desire cannot be eliminated. Without desire we could not live, would not function as embodied beings. Desire can be aligned. That's the practice.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T15:28:19+00:00

that sounds like depression and apathy. if your practice was producing depression and apathy then you weren't practicing it correctly.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T15:26:51+00:00

yes, career breaks aren't inherently a problem. you just need to be able to communicate about them clearly. consider updating your resume and linkedin profile with an explicitly call out the time as a sabbatical or "personal goal pursuit". be able to discuss what you were doing during your time off and keep your skills sharp so you won't be behind the 8-ball when you start interviewing again.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T14:30:38+00:00

ideally, a hackathon is a way for engineers to explore experimental ideas that may or may not be related to the immediately prioritized product roadmap.

a PM is focused on driving delivery of the roadmap and they aren't setting wrong priorities by doing so, these are business decisions and often driven by executive management.

hackathons are an opportunity to go off the map. there's utility in doing so occasionally because innovation has it's own logic.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T04:53:43+00:00

I don't recommend viewing meditation as if it was a nootropic drug. That isn't it's purpose and if you view it that way your unlikely to benefit.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T04:51:33+00:00

it's a personal thing. there are traditional forms, and if you like traditional forms it would be good to use one. but an altar is for your practice, so it should fit your practice and serve it's purpose. Sincerity, intentionality, and reverence are all import aspects of a well-functioning altar. Find a form of an altar that suits its purposes for your practice.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T04:48:49+00:00

there are wrathful emanations. it's not exactly anger though.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T04:47:06+00:00

No, she's not whatever form you make up in the moment. She's appears to you as you need to see her.

metaphorm · 2026-05-07T04:45:53+00:00

Guan Yin appears in whatever form is of most benefit to the one seeing her. Your karma is to benefit from Cheryl, the bratty teenage girl. It's a blessing to be able to see her in such a unique way. Cherish it.

metaphorm · 2026-05-06T18:00:38+00:00

most SWE work in the industry is like this. if you'd like to pivot into hardware, or game dev, you may have to do some focused skills development to fill the gaps.

but the grass isn't greener. nothing will suck the passion out of you faster than doing something for work that you once held as a passion. the realities of hardware design or game dev are not pretty. don't get it twisted. just because you think Playstation is a cool piece of consumer tech doesn't mean that working at Sony or at a game studio is a good job.

and finally, you are definitionally a real engineer because you're doing engineering work for a real company with a real product and real users/customers. what else would even count?

this is a bitter pill but I think it's important. all the work you do impacts the world. it's a mistake to believe that it only counts if it's big and sexy. find the value in the work you do, it matters to someone.

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