Dharma/Med/Life
Samsara
Joined May 2020
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Rain retweeted
accelerationism never works, making the world worse makes it worse and then it's worse. the way to make the world better is by making it better.
Rain retweeted
“Meaning Crisis” people are confused. There are two types of meaning: experiential and narrative.
Experiential is the felt sense that life flows with meaning. You get it through consistently sleeping well, exercising, *play*, connecting with loved ones, entering flow, releasing addictions, and meditation. Narrative meaning you get from having a coherent story of your life and why it’s important, goals you’re moving toward, and knowledge of how your life relates to the cosmos.
Almost everyone I meet who is seeking meaning is seeking *narrative* meaning while neglecting experiential meaning. This is backwards. Experiential meaning obviates the need for most types of narrative meaning.
Rain retweeted
Alcoholics often say that they have a certain amount of freedom over whether to have their first drink on a given day.
But once the first drink has been drunk, all bets are off.
This dynamic I think carries over to micro-addictions like doomscrolling/binge-eating/porn etc.
Each morning when you wake, there is a window of opportunity to enact the freedom not to restart the cycle of compulsion.
But as soon as you start diving into your <insert compulsive behaviour>, all bets are off - it’s easy to get sucked into the compulsive loop indefinitely.
It’s why it’s so important to treat that first engagement in the day with a compulsive behaviour with a lot of care.
In the case of phones, it’s why it’s especially important to make sure grabbing your phone / scrolling isn’t your first act of the day.
This moment of first engagement with the world is a sacred opportunity to set the tone of the day.
And the moment of first temptation by a compulsive behaviour is a sacred opportunity to reset your relationship with that behaviour.
Often, finding a sacred ritual to start the day with can be a way of replacing the ritual of our compulsive habits.
Sometime I even think that many modern micro-addictions are caused by the lack of sacred rituals we have embedded into modern life.
In the absence of conscious rituals, we engage in unconscious rituals.
And all the power of our inherent drive towards the sacred gets channeled into compulsive behaviour.
Matthew Perry’s sister, Mia Perry Bowick, has told a new documentary about her brother’s life that his 2013 #Newsnight debate with Peter Hitchens was a “huge moment” in his decision to speak publicly about addiction and “show himself”.
You can watch some of the debate here.
Rain retweeted
( Please join us in donating and contributing to the medical treatment of children with cancer in Gaza.
You can also help by quoting this twee perhaps, together, we can be the reason a child’s life is saved.🇵🇸
@willmenaker
@Srirachachau
@kthalps)
chuffed.org/project/203172
Rain retweeted
are they telling y’all you have to have sex with misogynistic men or are they saying sex isn’t inherently degrading? are they saying you must be okay with casual sex or that not being punished for having consensual sex as a woman is a step towards liberation?
Rain retweeted
In 2014, The Atlantic published an excellent feature on the risks of deep meditation, profiling Willoughby Britton's irresponsibly neglected work.
In the years since, other publications followed suit. We got the Harper's treatment, an investigative podcast on Goenka retreats, etc.
Today, for some reason, The Atlantic ran basically the same piece they did back in 2014, unearthing risks as if no one talks about them, and profiling Britton as if they hadn't already.
Strangest of all, since 2014, the Western meditation scene has responded & evolved in a number of notable ways. If you're gonna run the same piece, why not report on how the landscape has changed in the 12 years since?
No mention of @the_emergent work on building clinical expertise, at scale, to support people dealing with adverse events. No mention of the explosion of teachers who explicitly fold trauma, psychology, and attunement to the risks into their dharma teaching. @tucker_peck, a meditation and clinical psychologist, just published a book on what integrating Western psychology with dharma teaching looks like. No mention!
That wouldn't be all that bad, except the piece is written by someone who, by their own admission, isn't all that into the meditation world. As a result, we're given this idea that Buddhism's teaching of "no-self" is a path of dissociation ill-suited for worldly practitioners today. You could argue that Burmese Vipassana has a huge and even troubling tendency in that direction. But may I introduce you to Vajrayana? May we consider tantra in a form other than annoying (though amusing and not always incorrect) caricatures of people having weirdly spiritual sex? Buddhism contains multitudes!
It's a very good thing to make sure people are as informed about the risks of meditation as they are the benefits. They're real, and can be deeply destabilizing. But I do not understand the value of recycling a 12-year-old vision of the landscape without including any of the incredibly interesting developments that have happened since.
Rain retweeted
You know in old cartoons how you can always tell which item is about to be interacted with? Our daily life can feel like that, with most of the environment looking/feeling "dead", except the few objects we decide to touch.
But EVERY object in our awareness can be interacted with, and it's an easy way to increase an overall sense of aliveness and presence if we choose to perceive them as "available".
Rain retweeted
My friend has a filter for "Who should I date for marriage?" which is "Would I trust them to make medical decisions on my behalf if I get incapacitated?" and I think this is a good filter
Rain retweeted
Excuse me, I think there’s been a mistake, I need to speak with the manager. I was supposed to be part of the in-group the law protects but does not bind, not the out-group it binds but does not protect.
Rain retweeted
Safety in cities is essentially a socio-economic challenge rather than a peace and order challenge.
Fill our cities with cops and best case scenario is there might be peace, there might be order - but there sure won't be justice.
UPDATE: Minors aged 18 and below are no longer allowed on the streets of Metro Manila starting 10 p.m., the Philippine National Police and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) announced on Monday, based on their "Safer Metro Manila Plan".
"Kapag hindi nag-aaral o nagta-trabaho, (kelangan) proof of employment or education na nag-aaral sa oras na 'yon na pauwi kayo, bawal na kayo sa kalye after 10 p.m.," said Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla.
Aside from this, authorities will now prohibit drinking and gambling on streets. Using videoke is also only allowed until 10 p.m. except on fiestas and if a permit is secured. | via @chedcgatchalian, bnc.ph
Rain retweeted
the point of self-love is not to live without other people; it's to love yourself even when you don't feel their warmth in the same room. self-love is the satellite of other-love installed in you by everyone who's ever loved you, starting with the earth, sky, and your parents
