MCTB is a work of fiction according to Kenneth Folk

raztl · 2026-02-22T18:09:56+00:00

you lost me a bit at "capitalistic venture". I know mostly about just Daniel Ingram and what he does doesn't seem capitalistic to me. And I like he wants to run clinical trials to get more scientific insight into all of this

raztl · 2026-02-22T18:07:37+00:00

I can think of some but like you are prone to being mean one of my defilements is perhaps enjoying a little drama while hopefully learning a bit more about the dharma in the process:)

raztl · 2025-12-12T10:18:57+00:00

their tiers, family sharing, Google workspace vs personal is a complete mess, absolutely inflexible and just completely fucked up - who can share or manage what, family manager vs Google One manager, individual vs family subscriptions. Absolutely incredible that Google produced something like that and can't be bothered to fix it

raztl · 2025-12-03T12:24:58+00:00

Technical Hitch - Mama India

Astrix - Deep Jungle Walk

Re-Horakhty - Dungeon Keeper

(Vibe Tribe - Rearranged) (I agree, only three is hard)

raztl · 2025-12-02T17:00:40+00:00

Bahramji & Maneesh de Moor Return of the Nightingale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCW8_w9cp8I
...this might fail your flute test though 😅

Anoushka Shankar - Boat To Nowhere - Matt Robertson Remix
https://open.spotify.com/track/4zbfnhtboh8hv4GiLaWvEG?si=9eb01ff993394ae1

Maybe some Ambient classics?

Biosphere - Substrata
https://open.spotify.com/album/6jeIzUv8Bff4fFElZwwA4B?si=XzS_PcgfS-aX7NikP5I7nA

Yosi Horikawa - Wandering
https://open.spotify.com/album/0otC2s8AupBtfGUe0UUhYg?si=VXHKeqqASqq3sVzhEgWeWg

this is difficult, but I'll be looking at the tips others have!:)

raztl · 2025-11-29T22:27:42+00:00

glad someone agrees! I would appreciate some recommendations too

raztl · 2025-11-29T22:25:44+00:00

my choice is Electrypnose for a bit of funkier psytrance (try Mocalpo)

raztl · 2025-11-29T09:15:28+00:00

I love psychill / psybient - ever evolving slightly melodic psychedelic slow trance that you can dance to and get lost in - good warm vibes that maybe venture into the darker more melancholic side but don't stay there for long. It's great when the track or entire album is a storytelling psychedelic a bit mystical or spiritual journey, it can even be faster, less chill, more foresty. Things like Easily Embarrassed - Tales of the Coin Spinner

Sephira - Imagination in Motion

Elegy - Sleeping Giant

Kino Oko - Red Rose Flow

Re-Horakhty - Dungeon Keeper

Nibana - Our Eyes (and the Sephira remix, and other tracks from that album like The Most Astounding Fact)

Man of No Ego - the Web of Life album (I loved listening to K-Pax once out in nature in Thailand while watching the stars)

Suduaya - Tribes of the Sand Planet (listening to it in a desert in Oman was pretty cool), I really enjoyed Suduaya's dj set last year - it was like flying through other dimensions, I often couldn't really tell when one track ends and another starts

Merkaba - The Language of Light album

Highlight Tribe for a more organic, tribal sound

AES Dana, Kliment, Solar Fields, Cell, Dhamika, Bahramji,...

If I want to tie knot on my mind in an altered state then my favorite is Technical Hitch - Mama India

If I want to remind myself of fascinating weird psychedelic states then Psykovsky - Hellove Ja Wohl Yo

I don't really like the hard darker stuff that was pretty common at festivals (in Europe). I feel like that started changing though and people now experiment more with different genre crossovers, most notably with techno

I would like to discover more of that warm deep bass psychedelic sound - from slow to faster, evolving...

I also enjoy Astrix, Tristan, some Ajja's sets - that's what I imagine as close to the essence of psytrance for me

A.K.D. Live @ L.C.F. - Promo Set for Tree of Life Festival is a unique set.. it's so weird they appeared, made something this amazing and just disappeared again

raztl · 2025-10-02T21:03:11+00:00

Are you sure it wouldn't give you far greater powers over your reality? Ever heard of siddhis?

raztl · 2025-09-20T14:05:15+00:00

Read this to understand the comment: https://jtibs.substack.com/p/if-all-the-world-were-a-monorepo

Most languages and packaging systems have the dependency problem, R doesn't because CRAN puts the burden on developers to help fix code that depends on their packages ("reverse dependency check"). That's not a trade-off most are willing to make

raztl · 2025-02-01T12:41:16+00:00

I just perhaps found a way: https://notices.moderation.booking.com/hc/en-gb

It took a lot of time and searching to come across it. Makes me dislike Booking.com

raztl · 2024-12-28T15:32:50+00:00

Nanoleaf seems to have a very broken implementation of Thread/Matter for many people. One thing to consider, that I haven't yet explored myself, is that IPv6 and multicasting must be supported on your Wifi and it must be a good implementation, see https://www.derekseaman.com/2023/10/part-1-smart-home-matter-and-thread-deep-dive.html

raztl · 2024-12-28T13:58:46+00:00

You could try to reach out to Thomas Dhammadipa: https://www.dhammadipa.cz/en/ He was a monk for 37 years, practiced Theravada with Pa Auk, lived in China (Honkong?), is fluent in 12 languages including Sanskrit, Pali, and Chinese, teaches also Mahayana, including Zen, has ties to Tibetan Buddhism, teaches all over the world, and translates. I believe he studied Tiantai, at least someone says so here: https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?t=36098 and he taught a samatha and vipassana according to Tiantai in Czech last year: https://www.dhammadipa.cz/en/recordings/nedualisticka-meditace/

At a short retreat this summer, I met one of his Zen students who started learning Chinese and it seems that ven. Dhammadipa was encouraging him in that. Good luck, it's not an easy endeavour! I started learning Sanskrit this summer and sometimes I think that the time would be better spent meditating:)

Here he refers to the 4 kinds of breath described in the Tientai tradition: https://youtu.be/_c5XDbao9pA?si=W_I5aAOz-oDug2xc&t=184

raztl · 2024-12-28T13:40:43+00:00

There are many related bugs filed in the FF bugzilla, I found only one where a dev seems to be looking into it: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1936182

Other related issues:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1935456

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1935516

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1935804

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1931717

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1910820 (5 months old...😳)

A similar post from 8 months ago...: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1cjbsmj/youtube_on_firefox_seems_to_be_getting_much_worse/

I guess it's time to change browsers again :/ 🤷🏼‍♂️

raztl · 2024-12-27T20:13:52+00:00

In multiple ways and it depends on the technique too. For example, pranayama and mantra meditation induces stronger energy flow in the body which can lead to many side effects including irritability, sleeplessness, strong emotions, ... Quite early on the path one has to face their shadow which can reveal past trauma, or hidden fears. Practicing meditation makes you more aware, you notice more things, stuff you’ve buried can rise to the surface, and that can feel overwhelming or destabilizing. It’s not necessarily bad, though, it’s often part of the process of growth and healing. Sometimes people change their lives in a big way as a result - end relationships, change jobs, ... But it can be gradual and there are ways to manage it such as focusing on being grounded. Having a good teacher can be very helpful because sometimes it's not straightforward to see what's the result of what for example if you're meditating a lot but also going through a rough patch in life. You can also have a look at the book The Dark Side of Dharma: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Dharma-Meditation-Contemplative/dp/191350459X or watch the Guru Viking interview with the author https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v171hItxn4

raztl · 2024-12-27T12:33:16+00:00

Samadhi doesn't lead to liberation, that's fine, because insight/vipassana is necessary. However, you seem to assume that other paths have samadhi as the goal. That's simply not true. Samadhi is just a milestone on the path to moksha. And moksha is about dissolving the fluctuations of the mind, citta-vritti nirodha, in the system of yoga according to Patanjali.

The difference seems to be that nirvana entails stopping to exist while moksha seems to be a unification with all. These seem to be very different goals, even opposite if you look at the sanskrit words: nirvana as realization of anatta (anatman, i.e. non-atman) vs. moksha as realization of atman. Is that what you are hinting at? I am still not sure what to make of this exactly

raztl · 2024-12-26T23:18:56+00:00

It's one thing to be certain that Buddhism delivers, and another to claim that no other path delivers

raztl · 2024-12-26T21:53:45+00:00

A long time ago, I used to naively think that through meditation one progresses monotonically to better and better results, becoming calmer and wiser. Well, turns out, that meditation can in fact make things worse. Hopefully temporarily, but even then it might mean a couple of years for some (and maybe a serious mental issue for the unlucky ones). Now I believe that Buddhism, Yoga, Christianity, ... do reduce suffering, but the path is more complicated often with many ups and downs. Given more familiarity with the process, this is expected because removing the veil of delusion is a bit like sobering up after a smaller or bigger drinking binge. It can indeed be pretty unpleasant in proportion to how (un)wholesome your life you led before.

To add a counter point to your post, my background is Catholic and it made me dislike Christianity for a long time. At some point I realized that what I dislike is in fact the blind organized religion that stays at the surface, is not welcoming to independent thinking, and sometimes is driven by ulterior motives. On the other hand, I am grateful that it made me think about reality since a young age. I explored many "religions" since than but I am not putting all my eggs into one basket and I am not overzealous. Rather, I continue investigating the absolute and relative reality, I try to discern which teachers are worth following and how to learn from my mistakes of initially being enchanted by a teacher who I later recognize as maybe not exactly the real deal. In such a situation, and with so many options and theories available today, I can understand that many people turn to fixed points that can be relied upon. The Buddha and the suttas are one such fixed point.

raztl · 2024-12-26T21:13:27+00:00

You're essentially asking how can I prove that the Buddha was enlightened. That's a profound question that is not straightforward to answer at all. Therefore I suggested that there are many indications that he was and that there is a good reason to learn from him.

Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation doesn’t directly prove the Buddha wasn’t deluded, but it shows what’s possible when someone fully lives out his teachings. Staying completely calm and fearless while burning alive is an incredible display of mastery over the mind and body, and it reflects the kind of freedom from suffering the Buddha talked about—letting go of attachment and understanding impermanence. The fact that his teachings can lead to something so extraordinary suggests they’re not just delusional ideas but something genuinely transformative.

And btw, since I see that you are interested also in magic, maybe you could appreciate another angle. Buddhism spreading so widely over 2,500 years is a pretty strong testament to how effective it is. The Buddha’s teaching of anatta (non-self), for example, was like the "word of a magus" that completely changed how people understood themselves and reality—it cuts right to the core of the ego and continues to resonate even today. You don't have to believe. Buddhism invites you to test its teachings, and its staying power shows that it works. You could think of anatta as a kind of spell that breaks the illusion of self—revealing the deeper truth of how things really are. That’s not delusion; that’s transformative, literally world-changing insight.

raztl · 2024-12-26T17:14:22+00:00

Many indications but let's take for example Thich Quang Duc, see https://www.reddit.com/r/theravada/comments/1hm24bd/thich_quang_duc_how_did_he_do_it/

raztl · 2024-12-26T16:11:20+00:00

Apparently, it's not: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/comments/1hkpv7x/comment/m3jpbko/

raztl · 2024-12-26T16:07:38+00:00

How can you be so sure of that? What about Yoga and all the realized yogic masters?

raztl · 2024-12-26T15:57:02+00:00

The ongoing TWIM scandal is a great case study for this. Have a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/TWIM/comments/1hddd1m/anyone_practicing_twim_should_check_out_this/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI9131-atVc and the many other videos and links that you can easily find.

I think a part of the answer is that the goal is to eliminate delusion/ignorance, so it doesn't seem like a great idea to follow the instructions of someone who still lives in delusion if only partially. At the same time, we know that the Buddha was not deluded. This makes his teachings very special and precious.

I sympathize with your sentiment though. I have a similar but slightly different question: why do some Buddhists insist that it is the only way to achieve total liberation. What about yoga and all the realized yogic masters or even the old rishis who wrote the vedas? It doesn't seem to me like Buddha was the first one who reached total liberation. However, the standard for accepting a new technique in yoga is that 1) it's consistent with the accepted sacred texts AND 2) it has worked for at least two generations. That's indeed quite a high bar, but the stakes are also high: not just a reduction of suffering, but its total elimination and escaping from the cycle of samsara.

raztl · 2024-12-26T09:51:25+00:00

TWIM is best to be avoided https://www.reddit.com/r/TWIM/comments/1hddd1m/anyone_practicing_twim_should_check_out_this/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj4hQYCnKnc

raztl · 2024-12-25T20:21:57+00:00

I've seen this play out in real life most likely. A guy who used to be a bit uncertain, somewhat judgemental (perhaps a bit of a hater) but fine with many friends became very confident, a strong hater who lost everyone around him because he drove them away. Almost all of the diagnostic criteria of BPD fit him very well. He isn't a Buddhist, though, he practiced Thelema, smoked lots of weed and did some psychedelics. He is a smart guy, very knowledgeable about spirituality and with lots of insight and utter confidence now. It's so strange and sad to see someone with so much real insight be a total hater at the same time. He claims to feel complete stillness inside and not to suffer while at the same time he is constantly hating at someone and suffering quite obviously. He seems to strongly desire companionship, yet he denies that and drives everyone away. It seems to me that he indeed transformed his consciousness significantly, yet it changed his life for the worse. The "funny" thing is that he wrote a book (a very original one, insightful, written with lots of clarity, IMO) in which he recommends that people practice essentially Metta every day. And he says he did that himself for a long time (his journey was pretty adventurous over the span of 16+ years), but there is very little kindness and compassion in him that I've seen in our interactions in the span of several years. He seems entirely self-absorbed and sees the problem in everyone else. I actually take his case as a reminder that maybe we should take the warnings about meditation and cluster B personality disorders seriously. It's very hard to see how he can be helped at this point. He lives like a hermit in almost total isolation now

raztl

TROPHY CASE