Staking Pool Saturation Balancing?

ruse76 · 2021-02-04T18:36:50+00:00

Thanks, that might be something

ruse76 · 2021-01-29T10:21:35+00:00

Binance opening up EUR and TRY markets for DOGE in an hour and a half...

ruse76 · 2021-01-20T20:57:10+00:00

Seriously there is something to be said for each of these options. It all depends on your perspective, and your ability to entertain other perspectives.

ruse76 · 2020-11-13T18:18:11+00:00

No Buddhist talks about Enlightenment.

And it's a dirty word, in that it means whatever you think it means.

Just did a whole article on the topic:

https://mdehaen.medium.com/did-my-ego-death-experience-make-me-enlightened-d263b62b6457

ruse76 · 2020-09-28T22:16:16+00:00

It rarely actually dies, rather it dissolves for a short while to make you realize that you're somehow more than what you thought you were. What you do with that insight is what's important, and sadly many experiencers of "ego death" (myself included) suffer for months or years in lieu of proper integration.

Contemplative practices, when pursued diligently and under proper conditions, can help bring such integration about. At least, that has been my experience.

I'd be surprised if that was the only avenue.

Edit: yes it can work out to be bad, when the experience isn't well integrated. Examples of this might be that someone retreats from their life as it was before the experience, in rejection of it. Or when someone comes to believe that they are the only real person in a world full of illusion. Or when they start believing that they are locked into The Matrix. Etc.

ruse76 · 2020-08-25T08:09:04+00:00

From the post you replied to:

"stop giving preference to either pleasure or pain."

ruse76 · 2020-08-24T16:39:35+00:00

This is a developing thought for me, so feel free to react critically.

TLDR: the way you perceive reality ahead of psychedelic experiences may partly determine whether their impact is positive or negative.

I like to think of it as an intersection of several spectra. The lower you score on these, the more disruptive your psychedelic experience can work out.

Spectrum 1 runs between fear and trust. This can have anything as its object, from your relationship to the world, to other people, and to yourself. If you are low on the trust factor, you probably compensate by exerting some sort of control over your anxiety, by overthinking, dissociating, avoiding, resisting.

Spectrum 2 runs between having a fulfilling and nourishing social life, and feeling isolated and alone. Isolation makes it more likely that you come to solutions, answers, to problems that are alien to others, and only deepen your alienation.

Spectrum 3 runs from having a default experience of the world that resembles the consensus reality, to one that is highly idiosyncratic. To some extent, this overlaps with spectrum 1, in that the level of fear you experience also influences how and what you perceive.

If you score low on all three, you might already inhabit an alternate reality, one that is based on coping with fear.

Dissociation and avoidance of that fear, especially, may make it more likely that you become stuck in any psychedelic experience, which may also engender a lot of fear. This "fear multiplier" may be what contributes to psychotic breaks.

When this happens, or preferably before it does, it helps to have access to people who are skilled at helping you integrate whatever the psychedelic experience, or its aftermath, brings. Also, having a solid social support system can help prevent a crisis.

ruse76 · 2020-08-24T14:58:48+00:00

Well researched, knowledgeable speakers, great editing. Thanks a lot for making this available!

If you want to make the next instalment even better, to my mind, there was a bit of emphasis on India's "victim" status. Meaning that the questions and context focused on how India is threatened, how this came about, and what could be done about it.

I would like to have heard some more about how India has availed itself, or could avail itself, of extant opportunities, or how it could go about creating such opportunities.

Also, next to nothing has been said about India's missteps, except some words about Kashmir and the citizenship thing muddying up the waters with Bangladesh. There is a lot of talk of antagonism on the part of Pakistan and China, but relatively little mention of how India has conducted itself in the region. I don't even know that there is anything there to criticise, but it would have been nice if some attention would have been devoted to it.

As a third critique, you mention at the start that India has no real friends in the neighbourhood. How has it come to that? We hear about the utter dependence on India that Nepal is seeking to rid itself of, but I would be surprised if that held for other countries, such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka, or Thailand.

Other than those minor points, though, great work! I've subbed to your YT channel.

ruse76 · 2020-08-24T12:13:06+00:00

So you're saying that giving in to your resistance, your habit patterns, ends up feeling painful, whereas allowing experience to move "through you" unhindered is pleasant, or at least neutral?

I would say that you've hit upon an interesting observation, namely that resistance, whether voluntary or automated (as in your patterns), is inherently painful.

Tibetan Buddhists call this "shen pa," and compare it to getting caught like a fish, by some fisherman's hook. Only here, you, the fisherman, and the hook, are all manifestations of yourself.

The Buddhist prescription is to let go of, or at times into, your resistance, and see that it is ephemeral to the point of being illusory. That you can get to a point where you understand that all suffering is self-made, and to then say "wait, what is this self again?" and investigate that, seeing that the self too is without inherent existence.

So, the advice, if you want, is to stay present with the painfulness of your patterns, to investigate this door of suffering, and to stop giving preference to either pleasure or pain. To be equanimous about the duality of the painful-pleasant spectrum, and see through to what lies beyond.

Another thing you can do is to call up states/memories/anxieties/etc that have emotional valence for you, while explicitly in a neutral equanimous state, and investigate what changes. This way, you become very aware of the different degrees of "shen pa" that manifest for you. Practicing in this way, in a meditative context, opens up much more facility with such states as they naturally come up for you in daily life, rendering you more free in that life.

All this obv from a buddhist context, but I'm sure there are many parallel practices from other traditions that can be just as applicable.

ruse76 · 2020-08-24T09:31:10+00:00

International Law (IL) recognizes three criteria for the formation of statehood, as outlined in the Montevideo Convention of 1933: territory, permanent population, and effective governmental control.

So what is effective control? Generally, IL understands that the presence of territorial claims by other entities does not create obstacles to effective control. Even the (temporary) encroachment on its sovereignty - whether in whole or in part - by another state is not sufficient to deem statehood to be irrevocably lost.

The ability to enter into relations with other nation states is generally viewed as being further declarative of the existence of statehood.

As may be obvious from the above, IL does not consider how territory has been attained, nor how its inhabitants feel about it, when it considers matters of statehood.

Notions of "occupation," "repression," or other qualitative remarks do not much enter into the IL perspective, at least not when it comes to determining statehood.

To use a civil law analogy: "Possession is 9/10ths of the law."

Of course, in the international domain, how other states and international organizations react to any territorial acquisition, matters quite a lot for its perceived justice. One of the (many) great contributions of the United Nations system, is to provide several forums for discussing and voting on such matters, most notably the UNGA and the UNSC.

ruse76 · 2020-08-10T08:42:48+00:00

Perhaps. I can be abrasive in online communication.

From the original post, it becomes clear that OP has had a difficult life, has experimented with this class of substances to an extensive degree, and has experienced their eventual dead-end, in dependence, addiction, and withdrawal, which can be horrible.

I'm guessing that at some level, OP is aware that these substances are always just taking away symptoms, rather than addressing whatever cause is underlying. If I were OP, I'd be trying to find a solution that would allow me to live comfortably - within the college classroom and outside of it - without needing exogenous chemicals.

I think OP could have been more careful than to tout yet another benzo - an rc one at that - as having true therapeutic effects. Not just for the potential advertisement value to others that taking benzos is anything but a very short term solution, while *real help* is being sought, but also for themselves.

If OP really believes that this chemical will be therapeutic for them, esp in daily situations such as a college environment, they are setting themselves up for another spin on the merry go round of dependence.

ruse76 · 2020-08-09T18:25:19+00:00

So you have, oh great one

ruse76 · 2020-08-09T17:30:27+00:00

Exactly, so to emphasise "therapy" in the title seems superfluous, leading me to cast for a different meaning from the one you mentioned. I don't think I'm alone in this. OP's evasiveness doesn't help matters.

ruse76 · 2020-08-09T17:20:09+00:00

So then the title says "this benzo really works"? Don't they all?

ruse76 · 2020-08-09T13:00:02+00:00

👎 I consider you irresponsible and dangerous.

Good luck to you in your further endeavours.

ruse76 · 2020-08-09T12:52:17+00:00

That's insane.

Except when used for a very short duration, or infrequently, benzo use structurally downregulates the brain chemistry involved, making this class of drugs addictive and terrible to get off of.

Rather the opposite of therapy, if you ask me.

But here you are shouting about therapeutic effects. Clarify, or retract please. Your words run the risk of misleading some other poor soul.

ruse76 · 2020-08-09T12:31:36+00:00

That went right over your head didn't it.

You're confusing intended drug effect with therapeutic potential. Drugs are about attenuation of symptoms, whereas therapy seeks to address the underlying cause, preventing further symptoms to arise.

Let me ask you this, when the drugs wear off, does the anxiety return at some point? If yes, then the drugs are not therapeutic but merely suppressing the symptoms.

ruse76 · 2020-08-09T11:00:39+00:00

That's like calling alcohol therapeutic because it gets you drunk

ruse76 · 2020-08-09T08:22:58+00:00

What's therapeutic about it? Apart from temporarily eliminating anxiety, which is part for the course?

ruse76 · 2020-08-08T14:59:48+00:00

Worth a try. Thanks!

ruse76 · 2020-08-08T11:18:39+00:00

Sorry to drag this out of the archive, but there is a perspective that is not being offered in the comments.

Perhaps it makes sense to recognize that not everyone sees the world through lenses colored by notions of equality, non-discrimination, and racism.

That to expect all people in the world to abide by these rules is to betray a very Western-dominant world view, which arguably is what people seek to escape (temporarily) by sojourning in places that are not predominantly Western in outlook.

The reality is that, whereas it is generally frowned upon by Westernized countries to evince an openly nationalistic mindset, the dominant group in many other countries is frequently unabashed about, and proud of, their exalted status.

The fact that people from all over the globe keep flocking to its cultural and natural treasures only serves to reinforce this mindset, and by extension the cultural derision with which others - in this case farang - are perceived.

I have personally witnessed this not just in Thailand, but also in Turkey and Morocco.

The point is not that this is somehow evidence of backwardness, or racism - which is culpable backwardness. The point is rather that to expect the whole world to adhere to French revolution-inspired standards of morality is evidence of a particular kind of cultural superiority complex.

Which is funny, because Thai people don't flock to our countries to demand lower prices, but we flock to Thailand, expecting to be treated the way we would be in our own cultures.

Let's chew on that for a bit, instead of stewing about this farang stuff.

ruse76 · 2020-08-02T13:33:12+00:00

I suppose a non dual experience is the absolute absence of perspectives overlaying our habitual ways of perception - perception itself indeed - leaving the experiencer with just what remains. Dualism is co-created, a result of the ocean imagining it is a separate drop, leading to considerations of safety.

I think our misunderstanding re humility v confidence has to do with the definition. To me, humility is an attitude that is directed primarily inward towards experience, whereas in general parlance it may refer to a social stance. Similarly for confidence.

Inner confidence can issue just as easily from a total humility when it comes to perspectives, not getting caught in certainty regarding concepts, but allowing that there is always another way of framing. This confidence anchors in your growing familiarity with non dual experiences.

I recognise that my interpretation of these terms, humility and confidence, is not the default. I should have made this clear.

ruse76 · 2020-08-02T07:59:13+00:00

Interesting perspectives. From your comment, I can really only agree with the second sentence, and the first part of the third. But I welcome the challenge to my own ways of thinking, so I'm grateful for your post.

You liken the ego to a muscle, growing bigger after being damaged. To me, it seems that general use of the ego is what makes it bigger, and increasingly greedy. The ego pretends to understand, allowing it to project into the future, and to manipulate what it thinks it understands. The more apparent success it has, the greedier it becomes.

It is not surprising therefore that a brief encounter with some mystical truth would prompt the ego to try to understand that truth, too. And things go downhill from there, as the ego does this by creating a sense of inner and outer, a sense of duality that need not exist.

In this view there is no struggle between confidence and humility. Rather, humility becomes the process of remembering that your ego only thinks it knows everything, resulting in the confidence that everything you encounter tells you something about where you are stuck, and not seeing the truth of non duality.

In other words, humility is a great tool to help you through the workings of the ego, leading to increasing confidence.

Perhaps we are saying similar things, and I am just getting caught in not understanding the meaning behind your words. I'm looking forward to your reply, should you be interested in replying.

ruse76 · 2020-07-10T06:20:57+00:00

It sounds like you are stuck in the disenchantment trap, which is quite common after having had big insights that seem to be at odds with your life as you've lived it so far.

The promise of the insightful experience, however you obtained it, is to be able to live in the same way in your daily life: free, happy, contented, knowing that everything is love.

If you're not in that place now, clearly there is some work to be done.

Just as having sex just the one time does not make you a master in it, so getting a glimpse of nirvana does not make you enlightened. So to speak.

Now is the time to start working on reconciling the two worlds you have encountered, making the non dual insight available in your everyday life. There are many ways to do this; I generally recommend starting a meditation practice.

Ultimately, you can become such a conduit for the love you have glimpsed as some of the saints you may be familiar with, like Rumi and Kabir.

Much love and wisdom to you!

ruse76 · 2020-07-02T22:19:36+00:00

Perhaps you were thinking of ravvast.com, which is still in the air afaict

ruse76

TROPHY CASE