Manjushri

@VioletFlame Well my art is usually like this. Otherwise it'd be really cluttered and ego driven. Thank you for the insights! Last night I actually wrote some crazy good poetry this way.

@kieranperez Translation is the easiest cash I guess. If you know 2 non-English languages.

@Serotoninluv isn't all of art that? what do you mean by nonlinear?

TEACHINGS The Three Speed Transmission Kenneth Folk July 1, 2017 People do contemplative practice for different reasons. Some people want to be free from suffering. Some people want to have interesting experiences. Some people want to find out what is true. For me, the best reason to practice is to find the happiness that is not dependent upon conditions. When happiness becomes your baseline, it frees up a lot of energy to be free, have interesting experiences, and find out what is true. In actual practice, all of these things are likely to happen to anyone who commits to contemplative practice, so you get to have your cake and eat it too. Below is a prescription for the happiness that is independent of conditions. I call it the 3-Speed Transmission. It’s like driving a car; when you are cruising along and everything is fine, third gear is the place to be. But sometimes the going gets rough and you know that if you stay in high gear you’ll stall out. That’s when it’s useful to be able to downshift. In pedagogy (the science of teaching and learning) there is a concept called scaffolding. It means offering students a way to build their understanding step by step, so that each new understanding fits into what they’ve already learned. It’s like building a scaffold around a house; you can climb up the scaffold to reach the high places you haven’t finished building yet. If learning is carefully scaffolded, there will always be something to hang each new bit of learning on as it comes in. This association of each new bit of understanding with what has gone before helps you to retain knowledge better because anything you learn within a larger context is hard to forget or confuse. Later, as we shall see, the understanding we are most interested in is not related to knowledge in the usual sense. And it doesn’t need anywhere to hang. All of the scaffolding is only a temporary device to help you find the confidence to abandon the building project entirely and find that you already are the happiness you seek. The most gifted among you may find that you can just stay in third gear nearly all the time. For you, the happiness that does not depend on conditions may become second nature as soon as it is pointed out to you. For many of us, though, the conditioning to live in our thoughts is very strong. In that case, it’s helpful to have 2nd and 1st gear so that when things get tough or confusing we can still do a practice that is accessible and that doesn’t leave us feeling overwhelmed. So, without further ado, here is the 3-Speed Transmission: (First I’ll present the thumbnail version, then elaborate on each theme.) 3rd gear: If you can just let it be, understanding in your heart and in your bones that the happiness and peace you seek are your own true nature, then let it be. This is known as recognizing buddha nature or dwelling in buddha mind. If you are distracted and unable to rest in buddha mind, downshift to: 2nd gear: Ask “Who am I?” until awareness turns back on itself. Who knows about this experience? If the answer is “I”, then ask “Who am I?” This is called self-enquiry. If, for whatever reason, self-enquiry isn’t feasible, downshift to: 1st gear: Balance investigation (vipassana) and concentration (samatha). Note your experience, preferably aloud, with one-word labels until everything that arises in the mind and body is seen in the moment of its arising. The genius of vipassana is that there is never a time when it can’t be done. So it’s the ultimate safety net and 1st gear practice. It also has the feature of being effective all the way to arahatship (the Fourth of the Four Paths of Enlightenment as described in Theravada Buddhism). So, it’s by no means a low-grade or substandard practice. Quite the opposite, it’s a very sophisticated technology of enlightenment. Used correctly, together with the other practices listed in this recipe, it’s a rocket ship to the moon. In time, the 3-Speed Transmission becomes an automatic transmission; the meditative attitude best suited to each moment arises naturally as appropriate. Meanwhile, we practice. May you awaken in this lifetime. Kenneth Folk July 2009

@Strikr i exactly know what you mean. i was addicted to an rpg too.. and im not talking about WoW, which is like an experience for itself, a new world. Im talking about a shit rpg which has such a repetitive aspect (not many new things) and instadeath. it was pure orange. i made some good $$ off of it though, selling items. probably thats what kept me playing. idk. it was fun, but not nearly as WoW. its ok because i was like 12-14 years old playing that game on and off. what i wanted to say. I remember one dude watching anime and me reacting "wtf dude are u srsly watching anime thats such a waste of time (which implied that the things I was doing were not only for pleasure). If I didnt have that RPG grinding vent for my masculine-orange-grinding-improving urge , i cant even imagine how far would i be already... because when i stopped playing games i basically began grindng life skills... im 18 now.

Say your core value is truth. What does that mean?

@kieranperez here I'm asking as a value. If your core value is truth, what would that mean.

title. I feel guilty now... Now I'm not motivated to do the grind, I already checked new messages, new email, new topic replies... I must change this.

@ivankiss Well, smartphone first thing in the morning (after a 10min ritual) doesnt sound like a good idea... there are always menial tasks or actualization which i could do and when im done reward myself with phone email/forum time.

@Outer Freeganism sounds good.

sustainable frugal life etc. using plastic bags etc. what do i do

@Consilience Okay. But then, if I stop eating meat, I don't make a change whatsoever... Unless I am a Kantist (deontological) then I must stop it because i should act so that i can want that the maxim of my will can also be a general law. I'm not going to bring down the industry, so what do? I'm in a dilemma here.

I've been thinking about this.

My family's watching a local political satire show atm, so this occured to me. I don't watch the news, have no idea what's going on, etc, living my life. I love talking about philosophy of politics with my friends , but I don't see a place in my life for news/actual politics. On the other hand, if I behave like this, I'm an idiot in the antic Greek sense. I'm split here. My life is so much better this way, but I'm basically being ruled over and shat upon without me caring, living in my own little world... Until I wrote this post, I didn't even realize I live under a glass bell, totally forgot that there are things happening politically etc haha! I guess it's useful for spiral dynamics research, but I can't consume that toxin... I guess I needn't care about being shat upon unless I want to become an activist (and change it), which I don't - otherwise it's just garbage. garbage in, garbage out.

@Leo Gura why the fuck would you do this??????

@FrgttnDeer i'm asking on the relative scale...

Oh shit, I gotta get started with enquiring

title

Hi, I made around $300 on upwork translating. PM me so I can send you my profile and answer any specific questions General advice : write a killer profile, do some quick easy jobs first, get 1-2 feedbacks, do the readiness test, become a rising talent. have a good short proposal with a work sample and (Invite me for an interview to dsicuss more).

@Strikr how did you actualize playing games?? you couldve grinded a worldly skill. your only category in that experience was pleasure. present benefit. the experience itself. with a carrot on a stick making you believe youre doing something - grinding, getting the levels.

@Nahm no??? instrumental music???

I guess the answer to my question boils down to ignorance concerning the dynamics lol. needa research more. When I say more developed I mean a stage above. @Shin@Nahm

@Serotoninluv isn't a religious person stuck in dogma also post-logical? blue

Racket = Ball + 10 ball+racket =11 2 balls = 1 ball 0.5 lol and second, we cant know.

Self actualization IS pleasant, but there are some parts where u gotta pull yo sleeves u know. How do I balance 'work' and play? EG I can go on whatsapp only after X.