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Voidian

@ Voidian @lemmy.dbzer0.com

Posts
4
Comments
44
Joined
5 mo. ago

  • Is your life better or worse than your parents (I mean specifically your parents, not your parent's generation)? (Specify country)

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  • Finland. Genuinely can't say. I suppose that's a good thing for everyone involved.

    I have very different values than my parents. I know there was a time when things were very rough for them... which unfortunately was also the same time that was very rough for me. Overall I definitely went through more hardship than they did, for much longer. Very alone. But objectively I'm doing pretty fucking good now, despite being technically poor. My parents were middle class, but they did value money more. I value other things and I get to enjoy them. But my parents were pretty happy, though their health failed them too early I think. Trying to avoid the same fate but honestly not looking good on that front. We'll see.

    Would I swap places with my parents? No.

    I feel like this was a very Finnish answer...

    Interesting question, good job OP!

  • What do we do now that we found out the world is run by a billionaire parasitic class??

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  • What? Someone actually gives reasonably actionable suggestions here?

  • Podmasana Spirituality and Wisdom Podcast

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  • That's interesting. And nice to see they actually have a Mastodon account. But I like the trend of finding connection points between different traditions, instead of insisting that whatever tradition one follows is the only correct one.

    Not exactly a podcast but sort of for me would be the Waking Up app. There are the guided meditations but also a massive amount of talks and dialogues from various different teachers from different traditions.

    Same vein would be Deconstructing Yourself from Michael Taft.

  • What are some depressing realizations or positive benefits about life you've learned growing up?

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  • Do you ever feel like you need to cry but can't?

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  • I think people not being able to answer "how does it feel" questions is partly due to the cultural quirk where "what do you think" is replaced with "how do you feel". Meaning even the asker is in fact posing the question as "what do you think", rather than inviting actual reflection on one's emotional state. Think of TV interviews for example.

    I also suspect that there's a subtle desire to make the answer a bit more inarguable. Because it's socially acceptable to argue about one's thinking. Less so about feelings. "All feelings are valid" is taken to mean that anything that follows the phrase "I feel..." is automatically true and you're not allowed to disagree. Which is precisely what the "all feelings are valid" is not about. "All feelings are valid" points to the subjective experience of an emotional state. A war veteran freaking about fireworks is valid. A war veteran saying fireworks mean they are actually getting bombed is not. Rape victim feeling insecure when walking alone is valid. Rape victim saying everyone's trying to rape them is not. A highly nuanced and volatile issue which people really want to reduce into very simple dogmas.

  • Do you ever feel like you need to cry but can't?

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  • Yes and I've been there. It took me a lot of conscious effort to get past that wall.

    It'll sound weird and it's possible you might feel a bit inhibited but I strongly recommend trying. It's just getting your locked up nervous system to cooperate. Kinda like pushing a car to start it up.

    Use music with any of these if you want. Find the safest place you can.

    You can just go somewhere in nature and sit there until tears come. Sometimes you need to just create space for it.

    Another is to actually just make noise. Moan. Shout. Or just hold a note. Whatever. Just keep doing it for a few minutes or so. For whatever reason I like to do this in the car. Not to cry anymore but it's just become a habit of letting out steam.

    Then more involved is to move your body. Shake it. Jostle it. Make more noise and let it sound weird from all the moving. Dance without trying to be good at it. Don't think about it.

    TRE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FeUioDuJjFI

    If you feel a lot of inhibition because of the imagined cosmic judge, be gentle with yourself. Some people get this immediately, for me It took a bit of pushing. I had already tried everything else and sure, cried a tiny bit here and there but still felt like I had a fucking ocean on uncried tears in me. I had to learn to go to it via the body, not the mind.

    People hate on Yoga and meditation but it does work for this. Problem generally is in finding competent teachers. But I've been on retreats where grown, burly men burst into tears because for the first time in their lives, they actually connect with their nervous system, they're allowed to be vulnerable and actually FEEL their feelings. Instead of "dealing" with them, "letting them go", intellectualizing them away, suppressing them or drowning them in substances or work/hobby. It's a hell of an aha moment.

    https://youtu.be/VsNcjRSBhGA

  • Has anyone ever actually clicked on those links that porn-bots spam everywhere?

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  • My bad, I probably should've clarified that I meant clicking on it thinking that there's a respectable porn site on the other end lol but I actually don't recall ever clicking them, even by accident, so fun to hear there isn't anything more sophisticated there than just "hey, download this totally not suspicious .exe". Have you ever tried running those tools on a secure computer?

  • Zen meditation is to an individual what science is to a society.

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  • You’re both (rightly) defending the rigor of science, but the OP’s analogy hinges on how we define “study,” not whether science is superior. They’re framing science as a way to approach reality: one that, like Zen, prioritizes direct observation over dogma. When you call Zen “malarkey” (without knowing about the philosophy, which is not very fair) for lacking “systematic study,” it’s a bit like dismissing a telescope because it isn’t a microscope. Both tools reveal truth; they just focus differently. Zen’s “study” isn’t about accumulating data but about refining the observer until no mediation is needed. That’s not anti-science, it’s a different project. Science seeks patterns in reality’s behavior; Zen seeks reality without the pattern-seeker.

    If you question Zen's capacity to reveal reality, that's fine and I'll be happy to have that conversation, provided that you're open to some philosophy.

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    Voidian @lemmy.dbzer0.com

    Has anyone ever actually clicked on those links that porn-bots spam everywhere?

  • Zen meditation is to an individual what science is to a society.

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  • Don't wanna start an argument or otherwise intervene with your convo with the OP but I wanna highlight a possible confusion: note that Presoak gave a definition of what they mean by "science" in this context - a way of studying reality.

    You said "The individual will need some way to record their observations to do science, some sort of a database."

    In the context of Zen meditation, no. Very much the opposite actually. You are right that to do science, you'd need all that. But for the study of reality, as per Zen thinking, you don't.

  • Zen meditation is to an individual what science is to a society.

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  • Glad to see people are starting to figure it out.

  • The last thing people want is to stop wanting

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  • Oh yeah lol I was actually thinking about it when I wrote that but I forgot where I heard it.

  • The last thing people want is to stop wanting

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  • There's a misconception that to practice non-attachment, you have to literally live in a cave. There's a very large part of Buddhism that is geared for people who are still fully engaged in life. In fact many think it's the more spiritually challenging route because you'd have to live in the middle of all the temptations, turmoil and drama, without getting lost in it. The joke is that a family dinner is a good litmus test for how well one is doing. It's a process of constantly letting issues arise, being with the response that arises in you, and if an action must come, learning how to take the action through compassion. That allows for even political activism - it's just fueled by wishing people happiness, not by wanting to see the other side lose. The non-attachment is in not believing that the outcome one prefers is the outcome that should come about. But it's fine to work towards a goal, as one would in a video game.

  • The last thing people want is to stop wanting

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  • The non-monk Buddhists who could enter chats are great actually. I mean those who actually actively practice meditation etc. Very friendly and down to earth.

  • Showerthoughts @lemmy.world
    Voidian @lemmy.dbzer0.com

    The last thing people want is to stop wanting

  • People don't really know their own motivation for their actions

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  • I had a lot of things happen in my head when I started to listen to Harris' meditation stuff. Getting the free will thing was a huge relief. Been a while but I recall this was a great bit on it.

  • MealtimeVideos Cafe @lemmy.cafe
    Voidian @lemmy.dbzer0.com

    You aren't at the mercy of your emotions -- your brain creates them (18:19)

    www.ted.com /talks/lisa_feldman_barrett_you_aren_t_at_the_mercy_of_your_emotions_your_brain_creates_them

  • the artist that changed art forever? (on Mark Rothko) [30:12]

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  • Hell yeah, I fucking love Rothko.

  • What's the most globally impactful book ever written? EXCLUDING RELIGIOUS BOOKS.

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  • True. But important to remember their legacy isn't the only one, just the one that most western people have been deeply exposed to.

  • What's the most globally impactful book ever written? EXCLUDING RELIGIOUS BOOKS.

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  • Of western people. Particularly Christian people.

  • There should be a 'Political Showerthoughts': so there's a place for such thoughts (Edit: 'Political Showerthoughts' is now live for just that)

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  • Nobody is gatekeeping what topics you can have a showerthought on. But people are allowed to choose to not read them. Or create spaces where certain topcis are not welcome. You are free to create a space for whatever content you want to see.

  • Wardrobe malfunction

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  • I think it's cute.

  • Artificial Intelligence @lemmy.world
    Voidian @lemmy.dbzer0.com

    Contemplative Artificial Intelligence - Or, how to turn AI into a Buddhist so it won't eventually kill us all

    arxiv.org /pdf/2504.15125