What POSITIVE CHANGES are you making in your life?

charlest wrote: Yes, I was considering the Waking Up app. Sam Harris is my favorite modern philosopher and much of my interest in this subject matter stems from his discussions/writing, so Waking Up feels like the logical starting point.

Ran across a few things lately, that you might find interesting:

A discussion of meditative states, or "jhanas":
astralcodexten.substack.com/p/nick-cammarata-on-jhana

A followup, addressing some interesting comments on the previous post:
astralcodexten.substack.com/p/highlights...e-comments-on-jhanas

Jhanas are traditional in Theravada Buddhism. Zen tends to ignore them as a distraction from the ultimate goal.

A long video (2.5 hours) on the science of meditation:


Very good info from an actual neurobiology professor. Notably, he recommends the Waking Up app. It exists in podcast form too.

Since moving to Kenya I've started exercising more regularly as well. I'm a pretty big dude, so I'm not going to be running any marathons anytime soon. But there's a space near the compound where we live that has a really nice walking area, that has several hills as well. At the higher altitude it definitely took some conditioning, but I'm out there several times a week now.

Our compound has a squash court and I've actually started playing with our neighbor every now and then. I'm so bad at it. I told him I feel like one of those tiny colleges that takes a huge paycheck to lose by 40 to the giant state college football team. But it's fun, and I always prefer exercising with some kind of objective in mind.

Also, the people who used to live in our house had a cat and we adopted him when they left. He's pretty great, very low-allergen as cats go so I'm not bothered by him. He's also the most mellow cat I've ever seen. Very little of the twitchy cat stuff that a lot of cats do, and mostly just cuddling and snoozing. He's been a handy mouser too, which is good since living in the tropics is a constant battle to keep wildlife out of your house.

Finally, about two years ago I started journaling. For me it's connected with a lot of spiritual disciplines, e.g. Bible reading, prayer, etc. But mostly it's just helped me with my constant internal monolog. I didn't let on about this at the time, but toward the end of 2020 I had a bout of suicidal ideation for the first time in my life. I jumped right into counseling because it really scared me. Long story short, that was one reason (among many) we felt the need to move on from the Philippines. I don't share it much with people outside of family, but I'm still in counseling now, mostly for the transition to Kenya. It's been a very difficult move for me in a lot of ways, but I feel like I've turned a corner and I've been able to find some good tools for helping me in the transition. But yeah, journaling has been a really big part of that, because it's helped me articulate thoughts that are always swirling through my head.

I deleted my Facebook stuff and cut the cord, will be deleting my non private twitter shortly too. I'm still enjoying discord stuff and my friend has a mastodon server so I joined that which is goofy... extremely weird to interact with a non-commercialized old school social that doesn't serve you anything at all besides raw friend posts!

I actually signed out of my Twitter in anticipation of the US midterms, just because that platform affects my mood WAY more than Facebook does. Trying to break the Twitter habit is pretty tough for me. Don't know if I will make it permanent or not, given all the crap going down there.

I would be pretty ill informed about news if I just read my washington post and nyt subscripts, is the main thing keeping me on my private twitter account. Even if it does generate enormous amounts of anxiety. But in my case, the anxiety is anxiety I should be feeling, based on my employment in the public sector, the election cycle where I live, and drastically different potential futures.

I bought my first pair of winter boots and updated my warm socks collection. I expect to be reaping the benefits of this for many cold years.

Gary Sax wrote: I deleted my Facebook stuff and cut the cord, will be deleting my non private twitter shortly too. I'm still enjoying discord stuff and my friend has a mastodon server so I joined that which is goofy... extremely weird to interact with a non-commercialized old school social that doesn't serve you anything at all besides raw friend posts!

I saw someone quip today (possibly on Twitter, ironically) something to the effect of “the next generation will talk about social media the same way our generation talks about lead paint.”

dysjunct wrote:

Gary Sax wrote: I deleted my Facebook stuff and cut the cord, will be deleting my non private twitter shortly too. I'm still enjoying discord stuff and my friend has a mastodon server so I joined that which is goofy... extremely weird to interact with a non-commercialized old school social that doesn't serve you anything at all besides raw friend posts!

I saw someone quip today (possibly on Twitter, ironically) something to the effect of “the next generation will talk about social media the same way our generation talks about lead paint.”

"Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You kids might remember me from such educational films as Lead Paint, Delicious But Deadly"

The internet is 35% porn, 50% bullshit, and 15% useful info. So basically 50% of it was a bad idea.

dysjunct wrote: I have been a Buddhist of varying degrees of commitment for a long time now. Currently my commitment level is low, in terms of actual practice. So grain of salt.

The good news about Buddhism is that, if you don’t like religion, there’s a lot of secular approaches that are viable.

There is some bad news about Buddhism, which will vary based on your experience.

- There’s some jerky teachers who run the gamut from narcissistic weirdos to actual abusers.

- It won’t solve your problems. It might make you more aware of them, or maybe give you some good tools to deal with them. But you’re still going to be a person, with whatever fucked-up baggage you bring to your experience of life.

- at extreme ends, it is possible to meditate enough so that you rewire your brain to the point of being challenged to interact with the everyday world. Like realizing, on a very deep experiential level, that concepts are mental constructs and have no fundamental meaning. But then you need to ask someone to pass you the salt and it takes mental effort to conceptualize “salt” and “pass” etc. because they are all weird consensus reality words.

I like Brad Warner a lot. He is a zen teacher who mostly doesn’t want to be a teacher but feels obligated because zen helps him a lot.

I've actually taken up an interest in Stoicism lately. I didn't realize it was having a bit of a revival. I mention it because I was surprised to find it had numerous parallels with Buddhism, having once had a season or two as a Buddhist myself. Whether it will endure or grow I can't say, but it does seem like a philosophy well-suited for trying times.

Amontillado wrote: I've actually taken up an interest in Stoicism lately. I didn't realize it was having a bit of a revival. I mention it because I was surprised to find it had numerous parallels with Buddhism, having once had a season or two as a Buddhist myself. Whether it will endure or grow I can't say, but it does seem like a philosophy well-suited for trying times.

There's cultural influences for sure:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism

Alexander the Great made it to India ca. 325 BCE. He had some philosophers with him, notably Pyrrho, who interacted with Indian philosophers and ascetics. Later Buddhist missionaries went west (in addition to east along the Silk Road).

Edit: Although it's unclear how much of the development of Stoicism drew from Buddhism, and how much is convergent evolution from people contemplating the human condition and arriving at similar conclusions.

I've been a classical Stoic (Aurelian) for most of my philosophically-aware life. The only book that sits on my bedside table is Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. It was the set of ideas that worked for me when all religions had failed. And, yes, the comparisons with various forms of Buddhism are plentiful.

Jackwraith wrote: I've been a classical Stoic (Aurelian) for most of my philosophically-aware life. The only book that sits on my bedside table is Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. It was the set of ideas that worked for me when all religions had failed. And, yes, the comparisons with various forms of Buddhism are plentiful.

I've started reading Meditations and thumbing through a book by Massimo Puggliacci.

Mr. White wrote: I
During the pandemic, I looked for something else, and landed on a skateboard…..
…while listening to punk rock in airpods while I near 50. I'm not great at it, nor trying to impress anyone, but it's my life. F it.

Holy shit. I could have written this. My youngest got a friend who is really into skating and her dad is a gonzo skater, so I’m now riding a Hella Kitty board with my own blend of trucks, bearings, and wheels. I go to a Fidelity call center with 2 dual level garages. I’ve fallen hard as fuck a couple times, but judo never goes away so I haven’t been hurt yet.