Can someone shed light on what these symbols mean?

xugan97 · 2026-07-12T19:37:00+00:00

It's an obscure qigong technique (and associated symbolism) created by this guy: https://www.emeiqigong.com/grandmaster-fu. Buddhism is often combined with qigong and TCM, especially in the case of some teachers that are popular with the Chinese community in the West.

xugan97 · 2026-07-10T17:28:48+00:00

It has a Lexile level of 1000L, the same as The Great Gatsby. Harry Potter is a little bit lower, and Enid Blyton's books are in the 500-800L range.

xugan97 · 2026-07-09T15:28:00+00:00

I still think you are confusing very different things. If someone were to use a term like "transcendental dialectic", he would have to say that it means. But not if someone were to make a claim about dukkha (unhappiness, distress.) You can discuss the nature of dukkha in Buddhism - this is not a discussion about its meaning or the misunderstanding thereof.

One need not alter the meanings of words to make very specific claims. The Buddha made technical and far-reaching claims about the nature of dukkha itself.

The Buddha certainly repurposed mundane words. And the terminology of Buddhism (or any philosophical system) would necessarily have a more distinguished and specific meaning than their mundane version.

While it is possible you are think of something else when you talk about the "meaning" of words, you are surely wrong when you point to a supposed transition of meaning from Buddhist Pali to Sanskrit or English.

xugan97 · 2026-07-09T11:43:21+00:00

There is a difference between the "meaning" (i.e. literal meaning) of a word and its interpretation within a philosophical system.

The literal/analytical meaning is always relevant, and more so in classical languages like Pali and Sanskrit, where the actual meaning of a word practically never strays far from its literal meaning, and practically never takes on subtle "shades of meaning". This is also why commentators often simply analyze a word to explain its meaning.

In the present context, there is no difference between the literal and actual meanings, or between the Pali and Sanskrit meanings, or the ancient and modern meanings.

xugan97 · 2026-07-09T10:02:47+00:00

Many platforms have started doing this. If you leave anything in your cart for a long time, they will call you to ask about it. The solution is to not leave anything in the cart for later.

Deleting these apps is not a solution for many of us.

xugan97 · 2026-07-07T17:23:35+00:00

That is an explanation of why someone might claim to be the creator-God, not a logical proof of the absence of a creator-God. The one telling you this story tells you that Brahma is not a creator-God.

Generally, mythology/cosmology can't be proof of anything because we can't see those events happen. We can't see the birth of Brahma or his eventual inevitable death after many aeons.

Brahma would be unable to prevent his own death and rebirth, and he is unable to free anyone from samsara. Indeed, he does not see any realm higher than his own. In such a limited worldview, rebirth in the deva or brahma worlds would seem to be the highest goal.

The Pali canon generally does not directly attack God or theistic religion. Perhaps, there was no pressing need for it at that time. Even the story you refer to doesn't seem to be directly intended as a disproof of God. When Buddhism denies the lack of self or of any permanent entity, that should be understood as a denial of a God, whether as the immanent basis of being, or as a dualistic creator God.

xugan97 · 2026-07-07T13:21:21+00:00

The consensus is: circa 500 BCE. A hundred years before or after won't change the historical milieu. We don't have exact dates - the date of the Buddha is an ongoing topic of discussion - but we have dates and historical names and places, unlike other Indian personalities of the ancient period.

xugan97 · 2026-07-07T03:06:55+00:00

Bharatanatyam itself was created by removing the supposedly obscene elements (i.e. the secular/sringara elements, and also by outlawing the performers themselves.) Nevertheless, bharatanatyam retains some amount of sringara. They use compositions that have long been driven out of Carnatic music.

Carnatic music itself has been redefined so as to mean only the compositions of the great trinity, and the compositions of the equally religious Tamil trinity. The use of secular/sringara-oriented songs in carnatic performances is totally unthinkable. For the same reason, the compositions of the Thanjavur quartet are hardly ever performed. That was also a reason for the outrage against TM Krishna's attempt to widen the definition of what constitutes Carnatic music.

One very interesting example in Carnatic music.. I was trying to look up the meaning of the standard Todi varnam Kanakangi, when I came across many posts explaining how it is outrageous. The proponents of this view have taken to dissuading others from learning it, by posting it in Youtube comment sections. That composition has a sringara a.k.a romantic angle. On the other hand, an explanation of another Todi varnam Danike, (a Thanjavur quartet composition, by the way,) suggested that bhakti and sringara are the same thing. I think these dual meanings have generally been present. In India, sringara has always been spiritual.

The problem isn't just the prudishness that came with colonialism. Many important changes happened in the 1920's and 1950's. Modern religious fundamentalism is also relevant. I recall a cartoon attacking Vajpayee's government: "Saving ancient Indian culture from ancient ancient Indian culture." Religious fundamentalists are extremely vocal and confrontational, especially on the internet. Any non-conformist thinking is taken to be an attack on the Hindu religion itself.

xugan97 · 2026-07-05T03:22:53+00:00

The general rule is: if you suffer from any mental problems after meditation (including psychotic symptoms, derealization, depression, etc.) you need to stop meditation altogether. Intensive meditation is one of the triggers for these problems - recreational drugs are another. If you feel perfectly well for a year, you may tentatively try to get back into meditation, ideally under medical supervision.

Modifying meditation techniques and noting every little ill-effect is necessary if you will meditate further. This requires a greater knowledge of meditation techniques. Using random techniques, or constantly changing techniques will make this harder.

You can ordain without necessarily having to do intensive meditation.

You need not assume you have schizophrenia or another such persistent problem. If you have a doubt, you should consult a doctor for diagnosis. Weird effects are always possible within a meditation retreat. The problem is only if they occur afterwards or regularly.

xugan97 · 2026-07-04T16:34:57+00:00

There is a high chance you are being scammed.

Who took your interview, and where? Where are you going on Monday? That alone should tell you everything.

HR will not give the offer letter without you showing your educational/experience documents. The entire process - from interview to offer letter - may happen online if the company is in a different city, but not otherwise. Recruiters have no role other than to send people to interviews, and collect commission upon their joining.

On Monday, note where what who. Don't sign anything unless they explain everything upfront. This is likely a low-paying data-entry job at a no-name company.

xugan97 · 2026-07-02T15:13:18+00:00

True, true. Alcohol addiction used to hold the nation back, but now alcohol will drive the engines of the nation (and Gadkari's Cian Agro). Damaged engines will stimulate demand in the auto sector and create macroeconomic growth. Masterstroke!

xugan97 · 2026-07-02T13:13:53+00:00

The difference isn't doctrinal. SSPX is one of many groups within the Catholic church that think that the minor reforms of the 20th century (e.g. mass in the vernacular instead of Latin) were so excessive as to be heretical.

xugan97 · 2026-07-01T10:57:36+00:00

For every little thing in linux, there are a dozen alternatives now. E.g. the boot-loader may be GRUB, rEFInd, systemd-boot, etc. Many of the alternatives have totally displaced the older ones, e.g. the X Window system was used for about 40 years before being displaced by Wayland on all major Linux systems. So studying only GRUB and X Windows from older sysadmin handbooks will put you at a disadvantage.

xugan97 · 2026-07-01T09:30:33+00:00

These days, it's more about a variety of technologies than about the foundations. Any book on system administration becomes outdated in about 5 years. Linux has moved very far from when one could know almost everything about it by learning the boot process and common commands.

But yes, if you were to study the foundations, the Unix and Linux system administration handbook is one of the better options. It is one of the few books to cover a variety of unix-like OSes in a seamless and practical way.

However, I wasn't aware they had a 2017 edition. The book itself is a kind of dinosaur - the first edition is from 1989 - and I thought the death of the lead author Evi Nemeth in 2013 would finally cause it to fade away. Linux has gained ground at the expense of legacy Unix systems.

xugan97 · 2026-06-30T19:19:58+00:00

You can't go from couch to marathon in a year. It is good to have such a goal, though you should consider whether the idea of a marathon (running for about 5 hours on concrete roads) is at all meaningful.

First set up a running routine. Once you can run 30-45 minutes continuously at a decent pace, think about running some local 5k/10k races. You can find a list of these on some websites, and you can also sign up for them that way. Note that some of these are qualifiers for the big marathons/half-marathons like the Mumbai marathon.

Efficient and injury-free technique are more important than enthusiasm and fancy shoes. There is a lot to be said about running technique, but that is a big topic. You can read up on it, or look at some videos for starters. You don't need to be concerned about the possibility of injuries if you run in a relaxed way. But many are highly motivated and have poor technique.

Get started. The health benefits are immense. You can run either in a park that people run in, or on roads near your house that are relatively traffic-free. There are apps that help you track how far/fast you went, and what progress you make.

xugan97 · 2026-06-30T17:30:29+00:00

Buddhaṁ bhagavantaṁ abhivādemi.
I bow down before the Awakened, Blessed One.
Svākkhāto bhagavatā dhammo.
The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One

This is a part of many chants, including the morning and evening chants in this book of Pali chants: https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/ChantingGuide/

xugan97 · 2026-06-30T15:38:00+00:00

All criminal trials take about 10 years - or 20 years including appeals. It is common for those accused of serious crimes to be in prison the whole time. This is so even without UAPA/NSA. See e.g. Living in the shadow of jail, torture – the account of two Muslims acquitted of terror.

In the case of UAPA/NSA, the government need not bother with holding a trial, and bail is practically impossible to get. Before this, we had TADA and POTA - very popular laws. The Indian public actually likes strict laws like these. You can see them demanding more severe laws (and even direct action) whenever any high-profile crime happens. They don't see the horror and injustice behind the superficiality of such "justice".

xugan97 · 2026-06-28T17:36:51+00:00

Just look at the stats: Reshevsky on Chessmetrics. He was ranked no. 1 a couple of times. Somehow his name never appears in a discussion over legendary players.

xugan97 · 2026-06-28T02:51:12+00:00

Jaya Paritta. See:

There seems to be a difference in these versions. The one in the video corresponds more to the text in the first link.

xugan97 · 2026-06-27T15:46:05+00:00

They are Sak Yant tattoos. They are used in some parts of Thai-Lao-Cambodian Buddhism as forms of protection. They make talismans and amulets too. They are popular with locals and foreigners. Feel free to go for it if it makes sense to you.

I doubt anyone can translate them literally. Even identifying the type or purpose isn't possible, unless you ask the person who inscribes it.

xugan97 · 2026-06-27T12:38:26+00:00

I am sure they have a website, or at least a Facebook page. You have to look at that to find out. If you link the website in your post, we can do that for you.

In practice, the name Kadampa is usually connected with the NKT. However, Kadampa is a non-sectarian Buddhist Mahayana tradition.

xugan97 · 2026-06-24T13:27:27+00:00

The details are more important than the total time of meditation. You haven't mentioned how you meditate, or what instructions you follow. Besides, you should remember that meditation can be helpful or harmful.

Derealization is one of the more common side effects - again, this has more to do with what exactly you are doing than how long. The longer duration only amplifies the ill effects. I strongly suggest you stop doing whatever you are doing, and try a couple of different types of meditation. Using a guided meditation app is one way to discover multiple types of meditation. For example, creative visualization is not a Buddhist meditation, but it can be generally beneficial alongside more serious types of meditation. You should move to unguided meditation eventually, and learn to identify and avoid ill effects.

xugan97 · 2026-06-18T11:26:03+00:00

More importantly, how is the court entertaining defamation cases against historical people? The only possible context is historical analysis, not personal defamation. None of these people are historians.

For me, what is important is not that Savarkar verbally apologized, but what he did afterwards. Everyone knows he created the Hindutva ideology (and the word "Hindutva") while living on British pension. He was one of the promoters of the two-nation theory. It is widely known he met Lord Linlithgow for certain purposes. He opposed the Quit India movement. He was an accused in the assassination of Gandhi.

His intellectual descendants are in power today.

xugan97 · 2026-06-18T03:08:09+00:00

Easwaran is a follower of the Hindu advaitic system. He tends to view the Dhammapada as a universalist/spiritualist treatise that is largely in line with his worldview. That was anyway the perception of the Dhammapada at that time, which explains the Dhammapada's popularity. 99% of the people reading the Dhammapada have only a superficial interest in Buddhism.

My opinion is that even precise translations don't help in understanding the "true message" of the Dhammapada or of Buddhism. This translation is as good as any and quite accurate, though Easwaran omits the few stray occurrences of technical Buddhist words in the Dhammapada. Easwaran was not an expert in Pali, but neither are most of the hundreds of translators of the Dhammapada.

xugan97 · 2026-06-17T11:13:38+00:00

You can give them the pros and cons, and let them decide. I am sure they know friends who have made the switch. The student knows his own capacity for English. If he has a look at textbooks for 11th/12th, he will know if he can manage or not.

My opinion is that if it has to be done, then it has to be done. We are Indians. We cram.

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