Outer

So we should go autobiographical but you can't? I'm just asking if there's no thoughts, is there Enlightenment? Because that's what I want to know for the path.

When there are no more thoughts, is there Enlightenment? What do you tell someone who has no thoughts?

Love ya, Jed

Listening to this song while high on marijuana.

Depends what kind of person you are. In any system or society there will be the outliers, the trailblazers, who think outside the box and will be ostracized in one way or another. It is the case in all societies, not only in China, although for different things. They are though beneficial for society and the societies that make use of their abilities or talents won't end up with a society that is stagnant and not changing in the face of rapid change and technological progression. https://mad.science.blog/2018/07/09/xenotypy/ Great blog post on xenophilia (of ideas and people) and the possible genetics surrounding it. Pressuring you to become married and have family - can't that have the opposite effect? "The people are difficult to keep in order because those above them interfere. That is the only reason why they are so difficult to keep in order. " - Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Also people who daytrade are trading against professional traders and algorithms/machine learning built by buildings filled with people.

The western world has democracy - which means that anyone can start a political party like the Communist party, and in elections every four years or so, gain or lose support, with increased funding for the newly created party by the government as it increases its share of voters. This means that the people choose their government, and their ruling government decides the rules and the laws. Churchill has said: 'Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.'

Were you created from something inside of you?

Are akilesh's words true?

So what was the point of the text in the first place?

The text that is written at numerous places.

Page 155 and forward. https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/KapleauPillars.pdf

Someone on the forum started reading a lot of Jed McKenna before bed to tackle his nightmares. Sleeping on the side is useful for sleep paralysis. Night terrors I don't know. But read through wikipedia on the topic, etc.

It is pretty much impossible to gain weight if you eat a diet consisting whole plant foods, unless you gouge on nuts and seeds. The fiber and water makes the food large.

I do self-inquiry but nothing much is happening.

What does it say of enlightenment if its easier to attain if you read Hindu texts?

What stage is UBI?

How much do you think?

Try eating a vegan diet. If you do supplement B12 and algae oil. And Vitamin D3. The latter two is pretty important for folks.

Since the whole book is about samatha meditation, and treats everything else as something that happens naturally while you’re doing samatha, this makes it sound pretty minimal; just do what you would be doing anyway and you’ll be fine. This is a big difference from Ingram, who thinks that explaining the risk of the Dark Night and how to get through it is one of the most important jobs of a meditation teacher. Culadasa endorses this difference: There seems to be something of a consensus in the relevant community that Culadasa’s type of practice, which is called “wet” (ie includes concentration and jhanas) may be less likely to produce these kinds of problems than the so-called “dry insight” that Ingram discusses, and that if you’re doing everything right maybe you shouldn’t worry about it. Shinzen Young is another meditation teacher who moves in the same circles as Ingram and Culadasa. I found his perspective on this the most informative: Historically it is not a term from the Buddhist meditative tradition but rather from the Roman Catholic meditative tradition. (Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using Christian terms for Buddhist experiences but…). One must clearly define what one means by a “Dark Night” within the context of Buddhist experience. It is certainly the case that almost everyone who gets anywhere with meditation will pass through periods of negative emotion, confusion, disorientation, and heightened sensitivity to internal and external arisings. It is also not uncommon that at some point, within some domain of experience, for some duration of time, things may get worse before they get better. The same thing can happen in psychotherapy and other growth modalities. For the great majority of people, the nature, intensity, and duration of these kinds of challenges is quite manageable. I would not refer to these types of experiences as “Dark Night.” I would reserve the term for a somewhat rarer phenomenon. This phenomenon, within the Buddhist tradition, is sometimes referred to as “falling into the Pit of the Void.” It entails an authentic and irreversible insight into Emptiness and No Self. What makes it problematic is that the person interprets it as a bad trip. Instead of being empowering and fulfilling, the way Buddhist literature claims it will be, it turns into the opposite. In a sense, it’s Enlightenment’s Evil Twin. This is serious but still manageable through intensive, perhaps daily, guidance under a competent teacher. In some cases it takes months or even years to fully metabolize, but in my experience the results are almost always highly positive. For details, see The Five Ways manual pages 97-98. This whole Dark Night discussion reminds me of a certain Zen Koan. Although the storyline of this koan is obviously contrived, it does contain a deep message. Here’s how the koan goes: A monk is walking on a precipitous path and slips but is able to grab onto a branch by his teeth. A person standing below, recognizing the monk as an enlightened master, asks him to describe Enlightenment. What should the monk do? As a teacher, he’s duty bound to speak, but as soon as he speaks, the consequences will be dire. It sounds like a lose/lose situation. If you were the monk, what would you do? That’s the koan. If we don’t describe the possibility of Dark Night, then we leave people without a context should it occur. On the other hand, if we do discuss it, people get scared and assume it’s going to happen to them, even if we point out (as I just did), that it’s relatively infrequent. So the take-home message is: 1. Don’t worry, it’s probably not going to happen to you. 2. Even if it does, that’s not necessarily a problem. It may require input from a teacher and time but once it’s integrated, you’ll be a very, very happy camper. I think it would be a good thing if people lighten up around this issue. This may help (see attached cartoon). ... http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/11/28/book-review-the-mind-illuminated/

Not sure if Yellow or Green.

Okay. I will admit I was tricked for awhile. I don't think all are the same as the few rotten apples anymore. I think you will appreciate this. This is how we change.

Clever.