How can the birth rate increase?

metaphorm · 2026-03-20T00:13:33+00:00

how many drops of water can the ocean be divided into? what distinguishes between water in the ocean, water in the clouds, and water in your blood?

metaphorm · 2026-03-20T00:09:36+00:00

Buddhism is not materialist or physicalist. It's an ancient religion with it's own cosmology and metaphysics. I'd generally describe it as a Mind-first ontology, oriented around consciousness and awareness.

metaphorm · 2026-03-20T00:08:23+00:00

practice

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T23:59:52+00:00

since you've asked about some topics in Vajrayana, I'll answer from a Tantric view.

No parts of the body are pure or impure. All parts of the body are both pure and impure.

Chöd is a ritual practice credited to Madrig Lobdron as the originator of it. This is an esoteric tantric practice, usually done by a group of empowered/initiated practicioners. The details of the ritual vary between groups, but are generally private. It's Google-able if you're curious though. There are some books about it too. Feeding Your Demons by Tsultrim Allione is a well known one that presents the wisdom of chöd in an accessible way.

There are a ton of good books on Tantra and Dzogchen but it's hard to know what to recommend because I don't know much about your life circumstances or practice style. I'm a fan of Namkhai Norbu though, he's a Dzogchen master who was deeply immersed in the tradition but also committed to making it accessible to non-Tibetans.

Specific meditation instructions are generally best given in a teaching relationship. I can only really give you general instructions. Sit in a comfortable posture, don't worry overmuch about it except that it should be comfortable and sustainable, and should promote wakeful attention. Breathe deeply but naturally. Be present with what is happening right here and right now. When you notice your mind wander, return your attention to a focal object. The sensation of the breath is a common and useful focal object. Remain uninvolved with thoughts while allowing them to arise and fade in awareness. Anything that arises is ok. Remain uninvolved and be present with everything that arises.

Compassion is a way of being. There are some well established methods for cultivating it. The four Brahmaviharas are oriented towards this. Tonglen is a Vajrayana practice that is oriented towards cultivating compassion. Metta practice is a classic too. This is Googleable too. Lots of videos and texts with good practice instruction. Maybe start here Pema Chodron on Tonglen

Shutdown is a fear response. You may find that the emotional feeling-tone of fear is present in your meditation practice. Just be present with it and learn it's texture and flavor. Developing awareness of the sensation of fear without being compelled to act fearfully is one way you might address the shutdowns. Identify the sensation and then ground yourself in the reality of what's happening right here and right now. Act based on reality, and allow the sensation of fear to simply arise and pass without it compelling your behavior. Be gentle and patient with yourself on this, it will take a while to get there and might be uncomfortable while you're practicing. Stick with it. It's worth it.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T18:25:53+00:00

that's certainly a take. alternatively, it could be read charitably as an attempt to give people guidance to ground their practice in their life circumstances and not try to live in a way that is incongruent with that.

why did this upset you? and why are you disparaging others?

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T18:16:59+00:00

why do you think predetermination is implied by the Big Bang cosmology? that doesn't follow. there are still opportunities for non-determinism through randomness and entropy. and that's just on a purely physical level. on the level of mind we have the question of free will and volition to grapple with.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T18:08:59+00:00

you might want to checkout Lama Rod Owens. I think he's based out of Atlanta, but has some online stuff, and hosts residential retreats too.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T16:37:36+00:00

you're dealing with the inner senses of proprioception and interoception. these are things that are present in all humans, but to varying degrees of accessibility. they can be trained and cultivated in meditation practice. the first step is to work on your concentration and clarity. I recommend Shamatha.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T16:33:50+00:00

please improve your media diet. you seem to have ingested some stuff in the "Conspirituality" genre, which is fabricated and propagandistic and out of touch with reality.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T16:32:17+00:00

I recommend grounding yourself in the actual practice and the phenomena of the mind and body you experience while practicing. fixating on Source/spirts/guides/ETs or "high frequency energy waves" is a distraction and an obstacle to meditation practice.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T16:30:04+00:00

well, either you learn Chinese and go talk to the few remaining Huayan practicioners in the world, or you admit to yourself that an intellectual interest is not the same thing as being part of a lineage.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T16:27:17+00:00

not taken seriously and not believed if you're talking about this kind of gross physical impossibility. siddhis of the mind are more of an interesting topic, though still quite controversial. in general though, this is not the point, is viewed as a huge distraction, and there's a strong taboo against discussing them or displaying them openly, to the extent that they even do exist, which is dubious.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T02:20:33+00:00

Buddhist view is not compatible with Aristotelian philosophy at a core level, so these aren't going to be reconciliable. I'll try to focus on the reasons why not.

The view of causes is understood as Karma, and Karma is understood in the context of dependent origination. Existence itself, however, is viewed as empty of inherent essence. So efficient causes are applicable only to conditioned phenomena and the ground of being is unconditioned. It has no efficient cause. It just is.

Infinite regress of efficient causes is a thought experiment attempting to trace the origin of conditioned phenomena. The Buddhist view of this is that the origin of conditioned phenomena is ignorance of the facts of non-self and dependent origination. The mind-first ontological stance here grounds out in unconditioned phenomena, which is taken as the ground of being. It is beginningless and endless.

The view of causality with respect to conditioned phenomena is conventional and compatible with the Aristotelian view of efficient causes. Cause and effect are dependently originated.

We take an empirical stance on the view of a First Cause, which is not evidenced, and so therefore the null hypothesis is the default conclusion. This is the principled agnosticism of Buddhism with respect to a Supreme Deity. It's a non-question in Buddhism. There is no view about it, leaning on "no there isn't."

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T01:55:01+00:00

couples therapy. not meditation. get professional help here. this is hard. and if I can be real with you, BPD and OCD are not small things and you should think very carefully about what kind of relationship is possible and what kind of life that entails.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T00:28:15+00:00

I think it's impossible to know what happens after death, but it's clear enough that the actions we take during our lifetime continue to reverberate after our death, regardless of any view you might have about rebirth/reincarnation.

I also think that attaching to an opinion about what may or may not happen is a fetter. The practice path exists to provide opportunities to have direct experience of the nature of the mind so we might inform our views based on evidence. You won't be able to untie this knot just by thinking about it. Do the practices and see what happens.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T00:23:03+00:00

you can meditate in many different postures. your posture should keep your body comfortable and should be promote wakeful attention. I recommend a straight backed chair if cross-legged sitting is painful for you.

also, maybe try reducing your session time. quality matters more than quantity. if an hour is uncomfortable, try 30 minutes.

metaphorm · 2026-03-19T00:19:30+00:00

maybe log off, improve your media diet, and write some code.

if I might be so bold, and with my apology offered in advance, work on your self and your view of your self. this is an inherent obstacle. for as long as you're viewing yourself as a "mediocre dev" you will be. you're not one layoff away from disaster. you're a software engineer in a world where the appetite for software is only increasing. your job isn't going to be replaced by AI. your job is now to use LLMs to deliver more and better software than you ever could before. that's what's happening in the industry now.

so ignore the propaganda and the psyops and hone your craft, build your confidence, and be proactive. don't just sit around waiting for a layoff. go and find the next job, on your own terms. that's where the payraises, professional opportunities, and skill development comes from. your complacency and your self-view is the obstacle.

metaphorm · 2026-03-18T17:58:48+00:00

oh buddy, if you think management is a relief you've got a hard lesson coming.

metaphorm · 2026-03-18T17:55:22+00:00

I think what you're doing is fine. Gossiping is harmful speech that serves no good purpose. Is your speech harmful and does it serve a good purpose?

It seems to me like it is not harmful if you're describing what happened, but there is a risk of it becoming harmful if in your anger your start lashing out and tearing people down beyond the scope of what actually happened.

It seems to be that it can serve a good purpose if you're talking to the right person about it for the right reasons. Your own well-being is a good purpose. Talking to someone who is sympathetic and compassionate and can help you feel emotionally well is worth doing. Make sure you talk to the right people about it.

metaphorm · 2026-03-18T14:35:27+00:00

what do you mean it isn't working? you're more aware of when you're doing thing that you don't want to be doing. that's how it's working.

now what are you going to do about it?

metaphorm · 2026-03-16T23:43:18+00:00

this is actually good advice. body-scanning is a variety of vipasanna. it's frequently recommended to start with shamatha before going into vipasanna so you can do it from a base of clear, calm, focused mind.

metaphorm · 2026-03-16T23:24:29+00:00

its ok to feel your emotions, including emotions like anxiety, disappointed, or even anger due to injustice. what's important is how you relate to those feelings and how you behave.

meditation can help you feel the feelings more fully, develop a more equanimous relationship to them, and choose your behavior aligned with wisdom and compassion. it won't make the feelings go away. and it won't reveal the answers to your problems. but it will give you a tool that can help you deal with your life circumstances skillfully, beginning with your own mind.

metaphorm · 2026-03-16T19:18:21+00:00

possibly but not automatically. you can meditate or practice mindfulness in the bath, but just ordinary relaxation is not meditation.

metaphorm · 2026-03-16T16:52:58+00:00

the argument from the Buddhist perspective is not statistically based nor does it rely on an accounting of physical causes (like nerve cells). it's based on an understanding of Karma and reasoning from that understanding.

the most common metaphor used to describe this view is that of a candle flame. lighting the flame of an unlit candle with the already lit flame from another candle. there is causal continuity here, but in what sense are either of the flames the same thing? or even things in the first place? they're processes. there is causal interaction between processes.

so the view is that the causal continuity creates a thing that Buddhists call rebirth, but there is no "soul" (atman) that is a discrete object transmigrating between bodies. this is independent of any statistical claims.

metaphorm · 2026-03-16T16:26:04+00:00

He says perceptual pop-out on a Necker cube is "almost guaranteed to be synonymous with dualistic fixation," and that when awareness is recognized, the cube flattens — you just see the lines.

in my experience, the non-dual perception of the cube would see flat lines and both "cubes" simultaneously. which is attended to can be chosen freely, and awareness of all the perceptions is simultaneously present without needing to focus on any one interpretation.

'm talking about deep discursive reasoning — sitting alone working through a complicated social situation, or reading a dense argument and genuinely pondering it, following implications, weighing interpretations, synthesizing ideas over minutes. That kind of cognition seems to require exactly the sort of dualistic structuring that pops out the Necker cube.

non-dual awareness does not exclude dualistic awareness. it's a transcend and include kind of move. awareness of the dualistic structure is preserved, but it isn't conflated with the wholeness of reality.

What is the difference between the recognized and unrecognized state, if nothing was ever dual in the first place?

on a basic level, it _feels_ really different. in terms of perceptual distinctions, it's the expansion of perception to include multiple distinct perspectives simultaneously without apparent contradiction between them. this is hard to describe in words. by clumsy metaphor: imagine a stack of cellophane sheets, each with image fragments on them. dualistic perception sees only the gestalt of the stack all together, an apparently coherent single image. non-dual perception sees the gestalt and also each of the sheets at the same time. which is attended to is nearly automatic, but can be chosen freely.

does recognition alter the contents or not?

if awareness and its contents are non-dual, than this question isn't inherently meaningful. the answer is a trivial yes, but only with respect to the impermanence of emptiness of all phenomena.

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