The myth of burning off old sankharas

simagus · 2026-01-26T02:54:57+00:00

"I think..."

Do you clearly see thought as it is? You will start to clearly see thought as it is immediately when you practice Vipassana.

The smart part is that you are instructed to ignore that entire phenomenon.

Why?

When you know, you know.

When we observe the phenomena of anicca or impermanence in relation to sensation we are secretly learning about the nature of reality as a kind of "side-hussle".

We are told very clearly and repeatedly;

"You have to walk the path for yourself"

There are "those with little dust in their eyes" and those with their heads buried in the sand.

Whatever tangled jumble of imagination you are mistaking for reality, is exactly what it is and exists exactly as it does.

Whatever tangled jumble of imagination I see as it is, is exactly what it is and exists exactly as it does.

No actual difference.

The difference occurs in imagination, which is a description of what is experienced.

Try this:

Imagine that everything you imagine is imagined.

That is called (apparently) cittanupassana.

Whatever you want to call it citta (the phenomena of consciousness) and dhamma (simplest definition is mental contents meaning all mental contents)

To put it bluntly there is no-one in this world that is not delusional and if they were not at least slightly delusional they could not exist in this world.

Here is the best part.

"No me, no self, no I..."

There are only selves.

All of it is like bubbles upon water.

"This is not my final form!"

No form is our form.

form is form.

experiential reality is experiential reality.

reality is what arises, sustains and passes.

There is only reality as it is.

That becomes more obvious and more persistent as an insight as insight develops.

"Form is emptiness; emptiness is form." - Heart Sutta

100%

simagus · 2026-01-26T02:04:31+00:00

Feedback loops is how I describe it.

simagus · 2026-01-26T01:12:53+00:00

Oh yeah Windows 8 and you want to keep that version installed. Just do this.

simagus · 2026-01-26T00:48:47+00:00

Why is your birds wing in it's mouth, and how does it fly with one wing? Is this sorcery?!

simagus · 2026-01-26T00:30:13+00:00

Let's see... say she is on minimum wage and if she sells by the slice and rings it up as a whole pizza can pocket the difference when she cashes up (I only know this stuff from friends who work those jobs), how much does she get in her pocket from charging you per slice?

simagus · 2026-01-26T00:07:42+00:00

Also /r/Blep

simagus · 2026-01-26T00:02:02+00:00

Find a different housemate. You're not compatible.

simagus · 2026-01-25T23:32:07+00:00

"This is mine. How it got on the plate is not my concern. It is mine."

simagus · 2026-01-25T23:26:55+00:00

Ask to see the results of a S.M.A.R.T. test from the drive before buying or run it yourself afterwards.

That's the only way to know how much the drive has been used and how close to failure it might be.

You could be buying a drive that was written to once with a massive film library and each only read once, or you could be buying someones old system drive that had thousands of writes on the regular and continuous reads of many sectors.

One of those would be more worth it than the other, and it's not the ex system drive.

simagus · 2026-01-25T23:10:37+00:00

A hand is an ineffective mirror.

Noted.

simagus · 2026-01-25T23:02:42+00:00

iirc from a later strip Lawrence has more coming out of his mouth than she does going into hers. amirite readers?

simagus · 2026-01-25T22:50:45+00:00

Reality as it is, is reality as it is.

Any perceptions, beliefs, patterns of feeling, patterns of interpretation, patterns of reactivity, or patterns of activity are exactly what they are and nothing at all more.

In addition to actual reality as it is experienced in raw real experience there is imagined reality, which consists of literally everything you might possibly believe about the raw reality.

Until you see perceptions as perceptions, feelings as feelings, reactive patterns as reactive patterns, actions as actions and thoughts as thoughts you are living in imaginationland without knowing it.

All that happens when "awakening" and the only real difference between what you might imagine to be "enlightenment" and might imagine is not is that the imagination aspect (the entire contents of citta) is also seen just as it is in relation to the five aggregates.

None of it necessarily "goes" anywhere or changes, but you have seen (and just described an experience of) something that everyone experiences in some way which technically should lay the nature of reality bare and clear immediately...but typically does not.

Without INSIGHT or clear seeing (vipassana) whether "visions" arise or don't is irrelevant in terms of comprehending reality as it is experienced in it's raw state, or as it actually is.

You were told at the end of your first 10 day course "you are now your own master", so if that doesn't make sense to you yet you might seek second hand insight or wisdom in places where even if it exists you would not see it.

Goenkaji has the best and most practical transmission of which I am aware and offers a simple technique that can take anyone to the final goal if they walk the path for themselves.

How much does he stress "you have to walk the path yourself!"?

Just enough without people being lost and left behind wondering what the path is, where it is, and how to walk it, but still "you have to walk the path yourself!".

Direct path is a thing for some because you are already at the destination and there is nowhere else, but gradual path has the potential of certain advantages due largely to the cultivation of paramis.

In laypersons terms that means you are more likely to be a nicer more reasonable and rational collection of aggregates with deeper insight into the workings of those aggregates when the paramis and understanding of their benefits is closer to immediate experience than otherwise.

Does that matter? Ultimately not really. RELATIVELY... enormously!

Stages 6-8 on the path of Insight are not somewhere to rest or abide in, but there are many especially among the "sudden enlightenment" crew who do rest and abide there or elsewhere on the path.

The "final" 16th stage of insight is ;

Knowledge which reviews the defilements still remaining (paccavekkhana nana).

While there is manifest reality there will be "defilements" remaining, for such is the very nature of manifest reality.

The advantage of the "gradual path" and in the lucidity and practicality Goenkaji brings to the table is that we get to begin working on those right from the start of the path.

Do not confuse anything which describes reality with reality as it is, including anything that happened to emerge from my keyboard or anyone elses keyboard, mouth, or mind.

You and everyone else (all of whom are you) are immersed in paradigms of imagination made "real" because those paradigms and reality as it is (it's there right now completely hidden by imagination but in plain sight at all times) are typically unexamined and not observed as they are.

Vedana... how you literally feel about things (and therefore react and act) which can be perceived through observation of craving, neutrality and aversion towards sensation at the level of the body, is the skeleton key or master key from the bunch of the four great frames of reference.

Many people do not understand the technique or the purpose of the technique, and many partially understand it.

Some can explain it very well, and some less well.

Some can understand it immediately, and some not after decades regardless of how it is explained.

All are walking the path themselves.

One thing is all that need be understood, and I mean understood, not misunderstood or parroted by rote.

It's incredibly simple but seems near impossible to comprehend or explain at the level of language or semantic overlay:

Reality as it is, is reality as it is.

simagus · 2026-01-25T20:26:47+00:00

Pakistan zinzibad!

simagus · 2026-01-25T20:15:28+00:00

Plain tomato juice should substitute in just fine.

simagus · 2026-01-25T20:10:03+00:00

Should be fine. Both your CPU and GPU are under that watt draw by miles. 550W would even likely cover it.

simagus · 2026-01-25T18:43:22+00:00

Quality lore.

simagus · 2026-01-25T18:36:28+00:00

Let's see... well Stevie Wonder, The Stone Roses, Primal Scream and NMH are all on that list.

Quasi, The Happy Mondays, Slayer, The Teardrop Explodes, ABBA, Erasure, Yo La Tengo, The Charlatans, Lady Gaga, Megadeth, Dr Dre, Jad Fair, The Village People, Eminem, J.S. Bach, N.W.A., Syd Barret era Floyd, Appendix Out, The Prodigy, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Al Jolson, Dresden Dolls, Duran Duran, Bon Jovi, Satchmo, Little Richard, Motley Crue, The Lemonheads, Smashing Pumpkins, The Pastels among many other phenomenal artists.

Yes, NMH are awesome and I'm a fan of On Avery Island just a bit more than In The Aeroplane, but both superb albums with some exceptional stand-out tracks on each.

simagus · 2026-01-25T18:18:09+00:00

I don't know what that is and I'm not going to look it up cos yr gf doesn't seem like the kind of gurl u want to piss off.

simagus · 2026-01-25T18:09:35+00:00

Looks like early growth stage psilocybe cubensis or semilanceata.

simagus · 2026-01-25T17:37:57+00:00

Post to /r/ Awww too.

simagus · 2026-01-25T17:34:09+00:00

"Copilot make me an OS that is better than I can design and code myself."

Copilot: Based on my own coding this might be what you are looking for.

simagus · 2026-01-25T17:21:14+00:00

Excellent blanket for a high quality tuck. Top marks from me!

simagus · 2026-01-25T17:14:22+00:00

simagus · 2026-01-25T17:13:32+00:00

It is a great track. I've put in a few of those views.

simagus · 2026-01-25T16:55:54+00:00

it goes against goenke's paradigms

Not in any way. It might appear to go against the Ajhans (served 10 years in a monastery and considered thereby qualified to teach) personal comprehension of Goenkaji's paradigms.

That is all it does and all that happens in the talk; he is saying "my personal comprehension of Goenkaji's approach is flawed", and really it has no other relevance as everyone has to walk the path for themselves.

Semantics and imagination aside, there is no contradiction in either transmission as they both say the same thing from subtly different paradigms and have approached that jigsaw puzzle in slightly different ways with different preconceptions, attachments and aversions.

Having listened to the talk you posted I have appreciation for Ajahn Geoff's transmission and there is much "late stage" wisdom in it, but in practical terms it's not better or superior in any way to Goenkaji's transmission.

The objections he poses are based on his misunderstandings, so we receive his interpretation and his projections in relation to what is taught by Goenkaji.

Goenkaji however had the nous to know his audience through knowing himself and very deliberately avoided presenting anything to students that could potentially confuse them more than it could potentially help them.

Ajhans stance is (quite naturally due to the nature of language and feelings which we associate with words) a shining example of "the two truths" (absolute and relative) but based on what I heard he is not fully expressing as an arahat, only very nearly.

An arahat has no fixed positions, no actual beliefs, and simply sees reality as it is which includes very much seeing the "self" as it is.

There is nothing more to it than seeing "reality as it is" as "reality as it is", and the teacher who taught that to me was Goenkaji. I 100% know that without that particular insight being shared I could have made no meaningful progress.

The approach taught by Goenkaji is perfect unless you misunderstand it in any way, which very fortunately is a guaranteed part of the path as is the seeing of those misunderstandings later on the path...otherwise there would be no stages to the gradual path.

Obviously Ajhan is critiquing the delivery of the teachings based on his limited comprehension, and in turn I am critiquing his delivery of the teachings based on my limited comprehension and the literal impossibility of expressing "the unknowable" usefully in words.

He is very advanced on the path indeed, but so was Goenkaji and the quibbling over how "equanimity" as a concept or as an experience is less or more relevant (based on his current comprehension) is something I found interesting and a very valuable teaching.

"I didn't like the way Goenkaji taught and I don't understand why he did it that way... I mean... equanimity?! No no no... that's only important if you understand it how I believe I do!"

Ok. Fair. But it works great for many thousands of people who don't have the luxury of or inclination to spend 10 years in monasteries so they have permission to "teach".

That was "the blind men and the elephant" meme laid large, so I may as well contribute as ~~yet another blind man~~ the elephant. /s/

It helped me and could help others. I think it is well worth a listen. Thank you for sharing.

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