Basman

Big money doesn't need to be exorcised, just tamed. They provide a lot of value to society. Rent-seeking behavior just need to be kept in check.

Leo tortures himself and in return we get a bunch of juicy content for free. The art of the deal!

Another point on doing nothing that I've discovered is that it is highly mood dependent. Sometimes I feel sleepy. Other times I'm full swing with my thoughts. Other times I'm borderline mediating with very little thoughts. Meditation in comparison is much more consistent in my experience, with how you focus on your breath and disengage from your thoughts and hold a sitting pose.

I've lately been experiment with "doing nothing" which is exactly what is sounds like. I start my mornings these days with 30 minutes of doing nothing, where I just sit and do nothing. I don't focus on anything in particular or restrict myself from anything except doing a particular activity. I can think as much or as little as I want and I don't have to sit still as opposed to meditation. So far, I've found doing nothing to be much better at processing emotions primarily as well as letting me contemplate things of interest compared to meditation. I find the emotional processing particularly valuable and something easily gone amiss these days. When doing nothing I feel like I'm dealing with karma that I've carried for years, bit by bit. Meditation on the other hand is much more directly relaxing and leaves me with tingly sensations. From the hundreds of hours of meditation I've done I don't remember ever feeling like I processed anything like I do with doing nothing deliberately however, probably since you consciously disengage from thoughts when meditating. Meditation feels much more like a chore while doing nothing feels more relaxed despite the former being inherently more relaxing but also more strenuous to actually do. Meditation can also feel a bit pointless in my experience. Just my two cents.

You need to balance regulating the home market while not disincentivizing big companies from investing in and building homes too much. Big companies can house thousands affordably if regulated right with none of responsibilities that owning a home comes with for renters.

Might just be one of his four dogs that mauled him (or his wife).

Good to hear. I'm happy that it was helpful ❤️.

Enjoy your Sharia law.

You're all over the place. You criticize governments for using religion for control but argue for people following religious laws over state law. You argue that religions get things wrong so why treat them as infallible? The key issue is whether or not religion actually makes your life better. The issue with state mandated religion is that blind faith cannot adapt to a complex and changing world and that it would be largely oppressive. It wouldn't grow people spiritually. You are of course fine with that when it is your religion but when the Flying Spaghetti Monster becomes state mandated you'd cry for religious tolerance and freedom.

Atheism is rejecting religion and god as being real. Their views tend to mirror religion in how they elevate science and materialism as existentially true. Secularism is the seperation of state and religion. They usually don't subscribe to a religion but many enjoy Christian traditions, like celebrating Christmas. Religion is a political instrument first and foremost. What happened was that state and church where seperated as religion became untenable for a West that became more conscious of what the role of the state was. Religion wants to monopolize the minds of people which is problematic for a society that is globalizing and increasing in diversity of perspective. Subsequent generations lost their faith as the church's influence waned. Another way of putting it is that Europe went from SD Stage Blue to Orange. From a farmer to an industrial/service society. Also, Europeans didn't originally write the Bible. What you are not recognizing is that claiming to be the end point of how to understand and see the world is part of it's structure. It needs to do this to assume authority. Religion is endlessly self-referential. It doesn't matter what is true, only that you believe. Religion isn't necessarilly a top-down affair with a tyrant forcing people to become religious for political reasons. Religion is part of a collective identity and it's enforcement is part of the collective's survival agenda. Muslim's maintain Islam because they are Muslim. This why religion goes hand in hand with culture. It's why different cultures can have different interpretations of the same religion. There are good things that have come from religion. Christianity for instance where the first to push for the emancipation of slavery. The problem with religion is that it wants to monopolize all ideology. Religion always fails to actually accomplish this because reality is too diverse to be monopolized in a simplistic and relative manner. Would you want to live in a society that oppresses you for not believing in god? But only in a very specific and culturally relative way? By what right if religion is not even objectively true? Like not being able to eat pork.

Europe outgrew religion largely though a lot of the principles that define us originate from Christianity, like equality and liberty. The West didn't become atheist but secular. Christianity is still the biggest religion in the world. Muslims stay Muslim because the middle-east is the least developed region on the planet. Their societies would be even more tribalistic and dysfunctional without religion. I can't speak on Buddhism. I'd argue that religion itself as a political tool is inherently oppressive. Being raised religious is mental bondage.

Where I live in North Europe they do more damage than good. The Christian parties tend to represent some of the most regressive politics.

Millenial spotted. Taking the shot.

Religion has value primarily as a form social control for a very low developed population. Making eating pork moral in the context of it being unhygienic is effective when you are dealing with people who can't even read. The cost of religion is that you can't turn spirituality into an ideology and you become close minded and dogmatic. It fills your worldview with contradictions. I'm not opposed to gaining value from a religion, you certainly can I believe without subscribing to the ideology, but becoming religious is a mistake.

I've been around a bunch protestant Christians in a developed country and they are generally pretty chill. Kind of have to when you are the minority and people are constantly making fun of and testing your religion.

When Christians go to heaven god catches them with a glue trap on a stick.

If god didn't want you to eat pork, then why did he make it (and why is it so delicious)? This is the likely explanation. The problem is that the distinction is being treated as absolute as opposed to relative. Moral significance to whether or not you eat pork is pure bullshit. Pork being unhygienic is the perfect example in fact of religion being inherently political in nature. Making it a moral issue is about controlling the population. That kind of control for modern people is outdated and ends up just closing your mind. Religion is not about the content of your beliefs but about surrendering your authority to an ideology wholesale. You have to distinguish god from the religious. Religion is a social power structure. It is not spirituality which drives religion because spirituality doesn't demand dogma to be viable. Why would god ever demand faith in the first place, -but only a specific kind of faith that is wholly relative to a specific culture at a specific point in time? Why even create the rest of the universe if god is Muslim? The crux of religion is that they want to have a monopoly on reality itself but reality is too diverse and relative for that to be possible. Therefor god cannot be religious, I.E. the purpose of religion is a culture of conformity and not god. It is not even about if god is real but the structure of religion itself and how it suppresses human individuality and indoctrinates people to believe bullshit. Believing in the Muslim god is like believing in Santa. Once you see the sociopolitical scaffolding of religion it becomes impossible to ever take religion fully serious again.

There are plenty of reasons for why religion spreads that have nothing to do with spirituality. Religion is first and foremost political. God in the context of religion is kind of the ultimate scam. With a religion like the Flying Spaghetti Monster it is too obvious that it is an arbitrary belief. But if you point towards something profound you can make your religion profoundly self-referential, "word of god", etc. It doesn't matter if the religion itself is actually godly. The most important distinction that I've made in regards to understanding religion is that god isn't religious. Religion is a man made mental construct. It is literally like the saying give to god the things that are of god and give to the Romans what are of the Romans, but instead of Romans it's religion. You don't need to subscribe to a religion to get spiritual value from it but religion does need you because it is parasitic in nature.

Conforming isn't inherently bad but you have to recognize when it is to a purely ideological and dysfunctional extent. Not eating pork isn't going to make you any more happier because religion isn't about making you happy. The vast majority of people are religious only because they where indoctrinated from birth. Conformity is purely a matter of life and death to them, not spirituality or happiness.

Where I came from we had something we called being "study prepared" meaning you've passed most classes that are typically required to be admitted into a university degree. I did a vocational education that was parallel to a standard "study preparing" high school education. This meant I had to pass supplementary classes when I applied for university. If your school is academic and you pass all your classes then I assume you can apply to just about anything out of the gate which saves you a lot of time. Since things can change it is a benefit to have your academic credentials under wraps. I can sympathize with not being interested in learning though. Assess what your goals are and go from there. If you need a certain grade to get into a sociology degree or whatever then you know what you need to do. The bare minimum might be passing or getting full marks depending on what your goals are.

In order to be part of a religious community you have to conform. That is the point of religion. If a Muslim doesn't judge you openly because it goes against scripture then that is just another form of community. The religious will always judge people for not being religious enough including themselves in my experience.

I consciously avoided short-form content since it became a thing specifically so it didn't even get the chance of becoming a "path of least resistance". It's obviously so bad for you and addicting. Literally anything else is better.

Hand tufting is an affordable and relatively brainless hobby while still giving your that creative fulfillment. Something to chip away at day by day. Good podcasting activity.

To answer the topic, I think mediation may be a trap if you are doing it slavishly and mechanically while not enjoying it or growing from it. You have to assess for yourself.

Yeah, I also suspect that people that have had god experiences are the one's who get most out of meditation. It's kind of overrated for normal people though in my opinion but I realize that mileage varies a lot between different personalities.