Ken McLeod claims that 'emotional reactivity' is the origin of suffering. Pain consists both in what happens and in our reaction to it. But…
Modified: October 06, 2021.
I don't know if this makes sense, but one intuition I have for karma comes from the observation that the weights of a least-squares linear…
Modified: February 10, 2022.
The Buddha really liked lists. For example: the three refuges (the buddha, the dharma, and the sangha) the [ three characteristics ] the…
Modified: July 08, 2022.
Sasha Chapin describes trauma as a 'splitting off' of difficult or painful experiences as memories that the mind tries to avoid accessing…
Modified: October 27, 2024.
a Buddhist point. I was trying to fast last night and kept being tempted to relax it slightly . "It won't hurt anything if I just have one…
Modified: July 19, 2020.
A story from [ Dan Brown ]: A group of psychologists came to interview the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. One of the Americans…
Modified: February 10, 2022.
This may be a central point of confusion: how do we define AI systems that have preferences about the real world , so that their goals and…
Modified: April 12, 2023.
There's a spiritual idea, in Buddhism and elsewhere, that there is "nothing to do": everything is already suffused with "primordial…
Modified: June 06, 2023.
A point made by [ Michael Taft ] in various talks, e.g. The World is Inside You (also the '[ emptiness ] of perception' described by [ Dan…
Modified: February 03, 2025.
It exists, but is [ empty ], insubstantial, a [ fabrication ]. Foregrounding this view is an important part of [ awakening ] or…
Modified: March 23, 2023.
Buddhist (Pali) term referring to craving, longing, desire for the world to be other than as it is. This includes craving good things and…
Modified: September 03, 2022.
These are the first teaching of the Buddha, after he achieved [ enlightenment ] while [ meditation|meditating ] under a tree. The truths are…
Modified: February 25, 2022.
The four qualities of mind that it is impossible to have too much of, aka the four 'divine abodes' or immeasurables: [ loving-kindness…
Modified: May 19, 2022.
David Chapman suggests that enlightenment in Buddhism is not a single defined thing, 'the word is hopelessly confused': https://vividness…
Modified: March 23, 2023.
Here's a perspective I like on spiritual awakening, elaborating on a metaphor used by [ Michael Taft ]. Suppose you awaken from a dream: a…
Modified: March 23, 2023.
I think [ Dan Brown ] said somewhere that a good synonym for 'empty' in meditative contexts is 'mere construction'. For example, practicing…
Modified: March 23, 2023.
Very smart people tend to disbelieve in [ enlightenment ] because they hold up unrealistic notions of what it is or what it entails. There…
Modified: May 30, 2023.
See [ emptiness ].
Modified: March 23, 2023.
Notes on Abram Demski and Scott Garrabrant's sequence on Embedded Agency Embedded Agents : Classic models of rational [ agency ], such as…
Modified: April 07, 2023.
Buddists identify five factors as obstacles to [ concentration ] in [ meditation ]: Sensory desire ( kāmacchanda ) Aversion or ill will (…
Modified: March 22, 2023.
Interesting and seemingly very powerful perspective on the [ cessation of suffering ]. Most refs on this page are from this twitter thread…
Modified: July 14, 2023.
In [ Dan Brown ]'s telling, these are: mindfulness ( sati ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness (Buddhism))_): paying attention to the…
Modified: June 27, 2022.
I grew up in the 2000s reading the New Atheists, where 'faith' was considered a dirty word. Faith was the opposite of reason; it meant…
Modified: November 14, 2022.
see: https://www.abolitionist.com/ https://qualiacomputing.com/2018/11/07/anti-tolerance-drugs/ [ suffering ] may seem inevitable. [ karma…
Modified: June 14, 2023.
Academic components: Right view (right understanding): seeing reality as it really is and understanding the [ four noble truths ]. This…
Modified: February 25, 2022.
In Pāli, dukkha refers to the unsatisfactory parts of existence. Literally it refers to a wheel in which the axel hole is not centered…
Modified: October 25, 2022.
From @visakanv on Twitter: (relevant to [ nothing matters ])
Modified: August 13, 2022.
No-self is one of the [ three characteristics ] that traditional Buddhism holds are present in all phenomena. In later Buddhism, the…
Modified: May 30, 2023.
four [ right effort ]s: Restraint : avoid unwholesome situations that might give rise to or trigger unwholesome states and patterns. For…
Modified: October 03, 2024.
Modified: February 25, 2022.
A set of methods for maintaining an " attitude of spacious passion ". The particular methods are contingent; if you could maintain the…
Modified: March 23, 2022.
[ impermanence ] [ dukkha ] (unsatisfactoriness) [ no-self|annita ] (no-self) Daniel Ingram's summary: things "come and go, don't satisfy…
Modified: May 19, 2022.