Archive for 2023
This is a big list of everything from 2023. It's... a lot. By month instead:
Thinking
Collections
- Acceptance and resistance (added 2023-12-03)
- Inaction and Underneathness (added 2023-11-13)
- Grips for the Critic / Coach coin (added 2023-10-10)
- Buddhist ideas (added 2023-05-31, updated 2023-10-04)
- Inner Critic (added 2023-10-01)
- Grips, October 2023 (added 2023-10-01)
- "The Headless Way" session for One Mindful Breath (added 2023-09-17)
- Self-consciousness and the self (added 2023-09-01)
- Countdown grips (added 2023-08-20)
- Self-acceptance (added 2023-08-13)
- The six mantras of Loving Speech (added 2023-08-02)
- Collapsing (added 2023-07-30)
- Rest and peace (added 2023-07-16)
- Nondual practice (added 2023-07-16)
- Wu wei (added 2023-05-24, updated 2023-07-09)
- Competitiveness (added 2023-07-03)
- The Whole (added 2023-05-23, updated 2023-06-18)
- The Headless Way (added 2023-06-16)
- The Tao (added 2023-05-30)
- Free Will and Self (added 2023-05-30)
- Why can't it be both? (added 2023-05-24)
- The Matter With Things (added 2023-05-24)
- Not having a problem (added 2023-03-30, updated 2023-05-24)
- No-Self (added 2023-04-16)
- Consciousness (added 2023-04-07)
- The Palliative Society (added 2023-03-30)
Longer form
- My philosophy (added 2023-12-29, updated 2023-12-31)
- Philosophical systems (added 2023-12-14)
- Spiralling towards clarity (added 2023-12-06)
- Silence, stillness, slowness (added 2023-12-05, updated 2023-12-06)
- Gym as analogy (added 2023-12-03)
- Compassion and conflict (added 2023-11-18, updated 2023-11-21)
- Mindfulness for exhausted people (added 2023-11-18, updated 2023-11-19)
- Vowlued action: Valued action / vow remix (added 2023-11-18)
- Big Ideas (added 2023-10-28)
- Integral Insights maps (added 2023-10-23)
- Valued Action, September 2023 (added 2023-09-03, updated 2023-09-24)
- Formative Influences (added 2023-09-01)
- AI and ethics (added 2023-06-23, updated 2023-08-11)
- Process / Approach / Big Ideas (added 2023-07-22, updated 2023-08-05)
- Relaxed, creative, practice (added 2023-07-31)
- Some "nots" (added 2023-07-30)
- Self: perception and illusion (added 2023-07-29)
- Pre-retreat grips (added 2023-07-28)
- Capitalism (added 2023-07-02)
- Valued Action, May 2023 (added 2023-05-07, updated 2023-05-29)
- Money and companies (added 2023-05-24)
- Reality, Experience, (Inter)actions (added 2023-04-24)
- Before thoughts (added 2023-03-23)
- How I take notes (added 2023-02-14)
Posts
- Transcend difficulties through deep surrender.
- Transcend difficulties through deep surrender.
- Absolute intimacy with the 10,000 things.
- Who are you, once you've let everything go?
- We can only recognise, think about, nondual experience after the fact.
- See what's happening in this moment as exactly right.
- Recognise the matrix of (constructed) narratives you live in.
- Reality, seen and unseen, is one unified field of loving aliveness.
- Our true nature is deep, still, harmonious without the polarities of opinion and belief.
- Empty as in absence, the possibility of appearance.
- Effortless action as in: no sense of self taking action
- By holding fast to our likes and dislikes, we continually recreate the sense of self.
- We habitually resist unpleasant experiences, which sustains and prolongs them.
- This current feeling is not solid or permanent.
- Tend patiently to your mind, like a gardener to their garden.
- Take the cushion everywhere.
- Suffering is struggling with things as they are.
- Simply to be alive presents us with tension and mystery.
- Be friendly to yourself and merciful to others.
- The self is like a net made to catch suffering.
- It's only when you think about it that it hurts.
- Uncertainty is just a story you tell yourself. (Inaction is in fact an action)
- Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.
- Orient towards stillness.
- Zen uses contradiction and paradox to loosen our grip on concepts.
- Zen demonstrates reality rather than talking about it.
- You are the principle victim of your delusions.
- You are the principal beneficiary of your practice.
- Totally embrace all ordinary opposites in harmony.
- Three jewels of Daoism: humility, compassion, simplicity.
- The three transcendentals: what is good, what is true, what is beautiful.
- The separation of subject and object is only conceptual.
- Soak in the silence and vastness of existence.
- Plant good seeds. Day by day. Year after year.
- Our life is a gift from everyone. None of us have earned our keep.
- New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.
- Live with full attention and clear awarness.
- Labels divide and isolate.
- Just rest. Don't meddle with thinking.
- Drop a koan into your mind like a pebble into a still pond.
- Clarity is accepting what's clear and what's not clear.
- Choosing obscures the way.
- Sit still and feel the discomfort.
- Break the mind to body to mind negative loop.
- Ask yourself: "what would be enough?"
- Things that seems separate are manifestations of the underlying unity.
- Reality is fundamentally interconnected, interdependent, inseparable.
- Liveliness can only be felt, not measured by statistics.
- Intellectual maps and verbal interpretations are necessarily inaccurate and incomplete.
- Desires only appear to contain imperatives.
- By focusing attention on a concept we create its opposite.
- All things and events can only be truly understood as integrated parts of the whole.
- A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom.
- Turn towards feelings, especially uncomfortable ones.
- This is the way things are right now.
- The world doesn't happen to you, it happens through you.
- Seek action with softness, ease, suppleness.
- See more clearly that things are (actually) fuzzy.
- Respond to discomfort from a place of stillness.
- Recognise your self as overlapping, malleable, stories.
- Recognise when you're on the Hedonic Treadmill.
- No part of a person is unchanging, permanent.
- Like holding water in your hands: gently, lightly.
- Life is defined by growth and transformation, aliveness.
- Life can't be other than it is.
- Inspiration without action is not useful.
- For the Sage, cravings happen in slow motion.
- Craving something makes it feel farther away.
- Collaborate with the shape of the world.
- Big changes happen through sufficient suffering or inspiration.
- Solitary confinement is (the sense of self is) a prison.
- Notice the freshness of unfolding reality.
- Naked awareness: thoughts and the mind are like clothes and the body.
- Attend to the dynamic nature of emergent life.
- Your identity is a narrow slice of your potential.
- "The Tao is like muddy water" is a precise description of things as they are.
- Reality has a profound adaptability, flux, mutability.
- Reality exists in essentially infinite resolution.
- Look more closely and resist the urge to summarise.
- Grasping and aversion both reinforce things.
- Don't take it so seriously: be more playful.
- Don't adopt the stupidity of not investigating.
- We tend to think problems, complications, are anomalies.
- Thoughts arise without your permission.
- The mind interprets every experience almost instantly.
- Your self is an individual expression of many collectives.
- Rest is not for being able to be more productive.
- Your identity can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Actions are changes made by a self-conscious agent, a manifestation of purpose. So the Tao has no actions.
- When you feel like a bad person, you're more likely to do bad things.
- Trying to escape our own suffering creates a separate self.
- The effort to be a different person increases the tension, the suffering.
- Take in the good of feeling cared about.
- Practice is something we do for the rest of our lives.
- Practice grows the amount of life you can hold with becoming upset, without it dominating you.
- No separation between you and the circumstances of your life.
- Let action emerge from experience.
- It's not a quiet mind that matters but non-attachment to the activities of the mind.
- Investigate the snake to see the reality of the rope.
- Feelings of worthlessness are acquired over time, so they can be released or replaced.
- Decisions seems like problems from a self-centred point of view.
- Union is only possible between two things. If there is only one there can be neither union nor separation.
- There is no difference between the sender, that which is sent and the one to whom it is sent.
- The new requires manifestation and the eternal requires remaining hidden.
- The movement of existence is the movement of love for the sake of the revelation of beauty.
- The knower is the attribute and the known is the essence, and they are one.
- Notice how giving experience a warm welcome makes you feel about yourself.
- If you don't accept both sides, you may end with the opposite of what you wanted.
- Things are often diminished by seeking to increase them, and increasing by seeking to diminish them.
- The sense of self is inferred from things arising, on their own.
- Don't let the content of awareness veil your true nature of happiness and peace.
- Become viscerally intimate with the truth.
- When we avoid a (negative) task, we avoid the (negative) emotions associated with it.
- True contentment is when desires have been diminished, not when they have been fulfilled.
- "To have seen it from one side only, is not to have seen it."
- The whole truth is the reconciliation and holding together of opposites.
- The story includes the feeling tone includes the raw data of experience.
- The Sage puts themself behind, to be on top without crushing, to guide without leading into harm.
- Self-forgiveness mitigates negative affect, turns avoid into approach.
- See the truth and act on it.
- Recognise your shame triggers.
- Opposites complete, test, determine, harmonise, give sequence to one another.
- Notice how often you default to the (modern, convenient) comfort.
- No-one can always be their best self.
- Language has evolved to describe purposive action, making it hard to describe spontaneous, actionless, activity.
- Know well your own faults: "they're stating the obvious".
- If you want to make progress, don't mind appearing foolish.
- Humans have evolved to do "the next most comfortable thing."
- Have patient determination: just commit to the next step on the path.
- Forgive yourself for the barriers you put up.
- Conquer by quiescence, by getting underneath.
- The Six Perfections: Generosity; Morality; Patience; Effort; Meditation; Wisdom.
- The Five Hindrances: Sensual Desire; Ill Will; Sloth; Restlessness; Doubt.
- Right Mindfulness (including Right Action (including Right Speech)).
- Pay close attention to the consequences of your behaviour.
- My Practice / Path: meditation, study, action.
- In between any two opposites lies emptiness, creative potential.
- Take three long slow breaths.
- Look for your head.
- Alternate three chair exercise: the (Inner) Critic, the Coach, the Compassionate Observer.
- What we resist, persists.
- Who were you before that (part of your identity) existed?
- "Not knowing is most intimate.
- Be kind to the kind. Be kind to the unkind.
- The mind is awareness in motion, an activity of awareness.
- Rest and allow attention to settle on itself, not any object.
- Happiness can't be acquired, only revealed.
- Use the body as a visual path to your headless nature.
- Manifestation, performance, function, but no centre.
- An empty signifier with no fixed referent.
- Your search for happiness is what makes you feel miserable.
- The space in which reality reveals itself.
- The self is a public event and a private experience.
- The self is a modality of action, not the seat of our identity.
- The more true the identity is, the less defined, until it finally drops away.
- The "I am" prior to all.
- Space and time are like the ocean: flat from a distance, more turbulent and frothy the closer you get.
- Sense the indefinite, flexible, indeterminate boundaries.
- Not a heroic quest, but a silent attunement.
- Meditation merely needs to be allowed, not created.
- Knowledge is intrinsically relational. We can't access reality independent of the observer.
- "I don't know." Remind yourself of the fact, not try to make it know.
- Everything is perfect as it is, even the ego that insists it's not.
- "ego-reframe" more than "ego death": revealing the interconnected relationships of self and reality, rather than a process of erasure and reconstruction.
- All of reality has interdeterminacy, granularity, relativity.
- "We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains."
- Just noticing that we were distracted, again and again: that is the practice, that is meditation.
- Absolute control of our environment is not a desirable or possible goal. We are in, of, and acted on by, the world.
- To be noticed / perceived, something has to be different. We filter our sameness.
- The Tao precedes difference, is prior to everything with form or fixedness.
- The Tao is the source, the unconditioned prior to conditioning.
- The potential infinite collapsing into the actual finite.
- Take problems seriously, but handle them calmly.
- Some truths are more complete, some are more partial.
- Seek, without wanting to change to a (transitory) state.
- Put effort into the fundamentals, not the frills.
- Nature's pattern-forming processes come from being off equilibrium.
- Growth instability: the feedback process of (bumps) self-amplifying.
- Form becomes a frozen memory of growth.
- Everything that exists is contingent.
- Don't do anything except be open to the possibility of being more relaxed.
- Be as aware of your faults as your angriest opponent.
- Acknowledge how difficult you are, in some ways.
- When meditating, be very gentle with your concentration.
- Notice how the thought of other's people opinions creates a self.
- Meditation is about resting. Not-doing, relaxing, refreshing, recharging.
- Consciousness is already at ease. No effort, no push or pull. No doer, no one.
- What will you say no to, even thought it's worth doing?
- There's no need to tie your self-worth to your To Do list.
- There's no need to start the day with productivity debt.
- The witness and the object are two sides of the same experience.
- The sense of self is just another thought.
- Reality is not given to you twice.
- Look for the dividing line between contents and context.
- Knowledge can be articulated, but understanding is inhabiting in nondual space with the question.
- A mirror only gives not-mirror. But it also only gives it in the mirror!
- Binaries are an essential quality of reality.
- Nothing to gain, no results. Just the process.
- We (subsconsciously, contextually) edit out the qualities that don't match what we want to see, good or bad.
- You are partly right (whether it's praise or criticism).
- Would you ever treat a friend like this?
- Develop a healthy relationship with your imperfections.
- Wait for a better question to arise from loose and open attention.
- Watch for the change from river (flow of impermanence) to eddy (contraction, resistance).
- To be able to provide help we need a little calm, a little joy, a little compassion.
- The task of the meditator is to care for bad feelings, like an older sibling.
- The self is like a constellation. It exists only be convention.
- The self is just a concept, coming from identifying with what's arising.
- The problem is the reactivity, triggered by the underlying feeling tone, creating a compelling narrative.
- The knowing and the object arise as a pair, distinct but not separate.
- The freedom is in the not-(becoming).
- The experience of choice: we hear the question; we choose; we think "I chose".
- Not analysis, but unthinking absorption.
- Making yourself an attractive object doesn't help you be happy as a subject.
- Love takes us out towards the world, opening to what's in front of us.
- Listen to others' needs, know your limitations, then act compassionately.
- Learn to sense the feeling tone (vedana) before you become entangled and start to spiral.
- Four Ps of knowing: propositional, procedural, perspectival, participatory.
- Emptiness means not independent, not separate, not unchanging.
- Don't recall, don't imagine, don't think, don't examine, don't control. Rest.
- Choice is just an interpretation of an experience.
- Being distracted is not a problem but staying distracted is.
- Become less attached to your pains and pleasures.
- Ask questions to sustain wonder and curiosity, not to uncover facts or answers.
- We are in and of the world, not separate from it.
- The feeling of self is a (diffuse) contraction. Just relax, allow it to soften.
- Following the breath will always bring you back to the stillness within.
- When we're absorbed, time and embodiment are backgrounded.
- The more important something is, the more difficult it is to grasp in language.
- Sometimes falsifying is difficult. Instead test against ongoing lived experience.
- Reality is processes and fields that collapse into things.
- Our mechanisms for simplifying the world so that we can control it prevent us from understanding it.
- Doing collapses all possible futures into a single concrete present.
- You are not anything you can think about yourself.
- The first instant is before before classification, measuring, labelling.
- Sense fields: What shape is it? What size it? Where are the edges?
- Orient towards unity, wholeness, the peace therein.
- No approaching, no becoming. Just let everything fall away.
- Any given duality or division is conceptual only.
- When you think "I've found it!", that's not it. "It" is before thought.
- The past, the future, the present moment are projections of the mind.
- The "I am" before adding anything, before looking backwards or forwards.
- Not an injunction to do, but an invitation to rest.
- Joy and delight are better encouragement to learning than criticism.
- Distraction from discomfort is the separate self expressing itself.
- Challenge your assumptions using your direct experience.
- Celebrate your good qualities to acknowledge and improve them.
- Big insights have to be available now, not just as impermanent, peak, states.
- Anything that can be named or located can't be you: it's an object in awareness.
- Anger, anxiety, aren't the right states from which to best respond.
- The effort to meditate creates the meditator, separateness, duality.
- Short moments, many times.
- Nondual practice is nondoing, relaxing.
- Nature shows us concrete versions of impermanence and interdependence.
- Being outdoors, in nature, wakes up our physical senses.
- The separate self arises in resisting and seeking.
- In awareness there is no resistance.
- When you notice someone looking your way: what are they looking at?
- The feeling of self is like clenching a fist. But the inside is still empty.
- Reaction to thought is also another thought.
- Notice what you map to your sense of self. For example: anxiety vs indigestion.
- Have no preference. Change the cognitive frame.
- Feel the profound relief of recognising no-self.
- Emotions and feelings like anger and anxiety are information, βsalience signalsβ.
- Being seen creates the βIβ, we become self-conscious.
- Life is the dancer, you are the dance. Notice that you canβt tell the dancer from the dance.
- Equalise self and others, as human beings.
- "To learn without thinking is fatal, but to think without learning is just as bad."
- The smaller the dismembered part, the less it comprehends itself, the whole.
- The Silver Rule: Don't do to others what you don't want done to you.
- The all-time of the whole becomes the no-time of the center.
- Our reaction to ordinary, everyday, events show us our true colours.
- Notice and orient towards the underlying unity and wholeness.
- Gently let go of the idea, the feeling, of there being a meditator.
- The Fourfold Task: Embrace life; Let go of (instinctive) reactivity; See the ceasing of reactivity; Act from a place of clarity.
- The Four Noble Truths: there is suffering; the cause of suffering is craving; there is an end to suffering; the way is the eightfold path.
- The Eightfold Path; (Ethics) Right Speech, Action, Livelihood; (Meditation) Effort, Mindfulness, Concentration; (Wisdom) View, Intention.
- Experiencing before understanding, defining, or remembering.
- Recognize, once again, that life is bigger than we are.
- Find peace, humility in our smallness, our luck to be alive.
- Find peace by resting in the wider whole, of this and not-this.
- What things are depends on the range of the observer.
- We interpret states according to our stage.
- Problems start when you dismiss or deny a perspective.
- Don't dismiss what you find just because it doesn't match your existing model.
- All development is envelopment: transcend and include.
- We're not, and have never been, separate from our experience.
- Take the lower position, the root, the base.
- Simply rest as that which is aware.
- Rest in the wider space of awareness.
- Relax into stillness. Light and easy, not rigid.
- Have little thought of self, and as few desires as possible.
- Find just enough space to notice what's going on.
- Be as careful at the end as at the beginning.
- Avoid excess, extravagance, arrogance.
- And not-this: notice how sounds happen in silence.
- Adapt the nothing therein to the purpose at hand.
- Be interested in what's happening, not caught up in it and identified with it.
- Be, accept, the whole of your experience, not just some of it.
- Your deeper identity is that relaxed, alive, stillness.
- What happens when you bring compassion to the feeling?
- What connects us is more powerful than what divides us.
- The movement of thoughts in your mind creates a narrative, a self.
- Quiet the mind, open the heart.
- More important than what's happening is how you meet it.
- Mindful presence, mindful response.
- Every person is the protagonist in their own story.
- Don't reduce a person to their temporary function.
- Dissolve conflict (not avoid it) by bringing non-reactivity.
- Beneath our uniqueness is commonality.
- The Middle Way. Both indulgence and deprivation are equally useless for liberation.
- The consequences of our choices extend far and wide, in many directions.
- Many metaphysical questions aren't conducive to liberation. They just lead to further speculation.
- 4E cognition. Cognition can can be embodied, embedded, enacted, extended.
- We don't experience the world directly.
- The brain's simulation of the world needs a phenomenal self. But it's only a model.
- Polarities have rewards of focusing and risks of neglecting either pole.
- Pay attention to interior and exterior, individual and collective.
- No things are truly independently existing.
- Polarities create friction when they feel like opposites, contradictions.
- Notice, harmonise, and integrate patterns in polarities.
- Do everything with two hands.
- Beware escapism, it accrues interest.
- Beware desire, it destroys peace.
- We learn, grow, in hierarchical spirals.
- It depends. (On the context)
- What's real doesn't disappear when we look carefully.
- We can't think our way out of thinking, only observe it, from outside it.
- We can't think in a nondual way, only notice when we're not doing it.
- We can't expect the thinking mind to (break the illusion of the self) by not-thinking.
- The thought that life shouldn't be a struggle is painful, so we try to escape it.
- The thinking mind works to save energy and avoid the discomfort of being wrong.
- The thinking mind interprets, not experiences.
- Slowly, painfully, reconcile to life.
- "Selfing" has interacting existential, psychological, and social layers.
- Recognise unhappiness, without trying to change it or fix it.
- Reality in all domains in composed of holons: wholes that are parts of other wholes.
- Practice is not having a problem with the endless stream of problems.
- Practice is about moving from experiences to experiencing.
- Our emotions transform preferences into demands.
- Non-forgiveness comes from feeling separate, being self-centered.
- Let problems support your practice, enhance your ability to respond appropriately.
- It doesn't matter how many grips a wrestler knows, as long as they win.
- Imbalance is purely perceptual.
- Have a handful of principles, hold them close, practice them continually.
- Experience emotions fully, without separation or rejection, without adding anything.
- Do fewer (and fewer) things that make people (including you) miserable.
- Cognitive science knows that thoughts are transformed interpretations, not a perfect rendition of reality.
- Beyond thought and self, not thinking-about-not-self.
- A good life is rich and interesting, but not always happy.
- All models are wrong, but some are useful.
- We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.
- But/and. Continuation and negation. The turn, The twist.
- And/or. We need both.
- The person appears in awareness, not the other way around.
- The world has many problems. But we don't need to be miserable while we work on them.
- The Path is a river.
- Spend time and attention in large bills.
- Our conventional sense of self is an illusion.
- Only the absence of the thinker of thoughts can be found.
- Experience more clearly. Not think about experience more clearly.
- Buddhism's central teachings are entirely empirical.
- We set the threshold (for gratitude, for example)
- Even a "bad session" of meditation interrupts the non-stop flow of thoughts.
- Transcend without denying.
- Renunciation, not action, is the path to liberation.
- Read and reread until you have an intuitive sense of what's behind the words.
- It's only when "I" arises that "You", "They", arise.
- If right differed from not-right clearly, there'd be no need for argument.
- Have a mind like a mirror: chase nothing; welcome nothing; respond but don't store.
- Don't draw forced, unnatural, distinctions.
- Treat waiting as unexpected extra time to practice.
- There's a lot going on there...
- There aren't values because there's life, there's life because there are values.
- The process is the fulfilment.
- The cosmos is constantly speeding things up that are important to it.
- Some important things can only be expressed implicitly, through experience (not knowledge).
- Notice the space around objects, connecting objects.
- Negative Capability: remain in doubt and uncertainty.
- It's so close we overlook it.
- Intuition can take in more, and more subtle, inputs.
- Gradually break the bad habits of bad feelings, bad intentions.
- Consciousness is a verb. Beauty, truth, goodness are aspects of it, adverbs.
- Awareness brings choice. Choice brings freedom.
- Look for yourself, at zero distance.
- We practice to (have the strength to) confront problems effectively.
- Walk until the heat goes out of it.
- The rivers all flow to the sea because it's beneath them.
- Some ideas are too big to take in once and completely.
- Seeing clearly is difficult because of the (imaginary) obstacles we put up.
- Redundancy is more reliable than attempts at perfection.
- Quietly, discreetly, serve the common good.
- Proceeding slowly means mistakes instruct.
- Mindfulness brings concentration, concentration brings insight.
- Longevity is determind by flexibility.
- Institutionalise stability, suffer chaos. Institutionalise chaos, enjoy stability.
- Impermanence is what makes transformation possible.
- Harmony comes from continuous, small, feedback loops.
- Function melts form, perpetually. Form follows failure.
- Flow without forcing or coercing.
- Excess invites disaster.
- Enlightenment is non-interference.
- Each part is in the whole, the whole is in each part.
- Act without acting on, work without working at.
- The Triple Gem: the Buddha; the Dharma (teachings); the Sangha (community).
- The Three Poisons: grasping (greed); aversion (anger); ignorance (delusion).
- The Three Marks Of Existence: Impermanence (Anicca); Suffering (Dukkha); No-self (Anatta).
- The Four Heavenly Abodes: metta (loving-kindness); karuna (compassion); mudita (empathetic joy); upekkha (equanimity).
- Call your mood's bluff. It's not the whole of you.
- Patterns create probabilities, not certainties.
- When we resist impermanence, the feeling of self intensifies.
- See the bigger picture, the wider view, all the complex factors involved.
- Science is the history of perpetual mistakes.
- Respond in ways that open up choices.
- (Re)connection, seeing interdependence, is more effective than strength or dominance.
- Proportionality is a longstanding, important, part of justice.
- Find calm by suspending the why.
- Bring out the best in yourself and others.
- Address the underlying dynamic, not the surface issue.
- Work patiently, steadily, calmly. Allow ample time.
- Wait in, instead of wait for.
- Use whatever happens as opportunity to wake up, to soften.
- Today, algophobia rules. Pain is cast as personal, private, a failure, an attack.
- To do things carefully, do them quietly.
- The intensity of the pain is equal to the intensity of the grasping.
- Refrain, not repress.
- Pain initiates and carries narrative.
- Modern society is in permanent anaethesia.
- Modern society has: little space for conflict, difference, negativity; more pressure to conform, be the same, be positive.
- Constantly "scratching the itch" conditions the mind to keep looking for more stimulation.
- Sometimes we need to turn towards positivity to combat our inherent negativity bias.
- Practice reduces the lag time, lets us catch it more quickly.
- Pay attention, no matter what.
- Leave space for things to untangle themselves.
- We tend to assume that we can only be happy if things go the way we want.
- We need perspective: we exaggerate what's close to us.
- The more we're willing to feel uncomfortable, the easier it gets.
- The harmony past knowing or saying (re)sounds more deeply.
- See difficulties as doorways to understanding.
- Not quite feeling yourself is the normal human condition.
- Live a good enough ordinary life.
- How far away from the object are your thoughts about the object?
- Everything, every thing, causes some problems.
- Bear the truth, work with it, despite your fears.
- All things change and flow, continuously becoming their opposite.
- Worry postponement: set aside a time and place to worry instead of worrying right now
- What's there when there's no problem to solve?
- Seen in the first instant, or not at all. Before concepts, not beyond them.
- Judging yourself doesn't work. Check!
- It's right on the surface. Like a window as mirror instead of a window.
- In this moment, is there really a problem?
- You can't become happy, you can only be happy.
- Recognise what's already there, not acquire something that's missing.
- Knowing, not the knower and the known.
- Focus on the space, not the objects in the space.
- Break the illusion of separateness of anything you can notice.
- Our To-do lists are post-modern rosaries, keeping a larger, avalanching, reality away.
- The cramp of self-consciousness is the opposite of nondual feeling.
- Our habituation to our scales of time and space make them seem objectively real.
- Navigating life is about proportion and balance.
- "If only" mind sets us up to be miserable now.
- Having the attention of a crowd versus being in a crowd
- An open hand, not a closed fist.
- Accept the wider view of everything and its opposite.
- How we show up in our daily life is probably the truest metric of the efficacy of our practice.
- Use departures from your authentic self as mindfulness alarms.
- Treat people like trees: appreciate them the way they are.
- Our negative expectations of others has a strong negative impact.
- Become somatically familiar with different states.
- Almost every experience in life can be categorised as a good time or a good story.
- Zazen is enacting stillness, non-reactivity.
- Let go. Don't push, don't pull. Make space.
- Experiental reality is much deeper, richer, than what can be named.
- Awakening is an ongoing process, a ripening, cultivation.
- When getting there is the goal, the journey becomes a chore.
- We grow by doing what excites and scares us.
- Trust and desire for control are inversely correlated.
- The self is a stream of dependently arising processes interacting.
- Suffering comes from aversion.
- Have wise ignorance. Stop frantically conceptualising.
- Change your tone from critic to coach.
- Art is useless, by definition. If it was useful, it'd be a tool.
- Your understanding is flawed. Seek to improve it. Adopt a learning stance, be tentative.
- We all want to be heard, understood.
- Three realms of disagreement: what is true, what is meaningful, what is useful?
- The three conversations: what happened; feelings; identity
- See the balanced view of yourself: your patterns and human imperfections; your basic innate goodness.
- Open your mind, don't try and change theirs.
- Not perfect, just engaged and committed to aligning actions with values.
- Make the most generous assumption, choose the most respectful interpretation.
- Ask questions about, and focus on, what connects not what divides.
- Be patient in understanding the complexity of a predicament. Don't rush to a solution.
- Ask "How did we get here?"
- Admit ignorance, give power.
- It can be about understanding, not agreeing, or even having common ground.
Noting
Book notes
- Zen in the Art of Archery.
- Lying.
- The Gifts of Imperfection.
- The Elements of Style.
- Nonduality: In Buddhism and Beyond.
- Trust in Awakening.
- The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic.
- Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are.
- Returning to Silence: Zen Practice in Everyday Life.
- So Many Books.
- Zen: Direct Pointing to Reality.
- The Vow-Powered Life.
- The Tao of Physics.
- Rest Is Resistance.
- Imagining Decolonisation.
- Know Yourself.
- Everyday Zen.
- Being Aware of Being Aware.
- Wake Up Now.
- Taoism for Beginners: A Guide to Balanced Living .
- True Love.
- Principles of Zen.
- Tiny Habits.
- The Sacred East.
- Waking Up to What You Do.
- Shinto: The Kami Way.
- Ruined by Design.
- The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction.
- How to Say No: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Cynicism.
- The No Self, No Problem Workbook.
- A Theory of Everything.
- Nothing Special.
- Waking Up.
- The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi.
- Zhuangzi: Basic Writings.
- Sensitive Chaos.
- How to Focus.
- Zen Experience.
- The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything.
- The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism.
- Why It's OK to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists.
- The Palliative Society: Pain Today.
- On Having No Head.
- Reasons to Be Hopeful.
- Becoming Bodhisattvas.
- Fragments.
- The Three Marriages.
- The Path of Aliveness.
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Other notes
- stoics-and-cynics β stoicism and tests, challenges.
- relationships β why you are lonely and how to make friends - kurzgesagt from Why You Are Lonely and How to Make Friends.
- zen β henry shukman - practice email - three poisons.jpg.
- philosophy-systems β sowing anachronism - the school of the unconformed from Sowing Anachronism: How to be Weird in Public, and Private.
- the-matter-with-things β is love the source and sustenance - ian mcg from Iain McGilchrist and D C Schindler: Is Love the Source and Sustenance of Everything in the Universe?.
- zen β the medicine of emptiness when witnessing suffering and injustice - zen studies from The Medicine of Emptiness When Witnessing Suffering and Injustice.
- philosophy-systems β philosophical systems from 500 word philosophy.
- daoism β lao tzu - taoism - ways to be in flow with your life from 6 Ways To Be In Flow With Your Life - Lao Tzu(Taoism).
- daoism β control your cravings - tao te ching ch12.
- waking-up β waking up - resilience.
- zen β practice is how you live each and every moment - zen studies.
- stoics-and-cynics β stoic philosophy on community and connection.
- the-natural-world β the truth is always made of details.
- systems-thinking β uncertainty - uncivil savant.
Reading
- Zen in the Art of Archery by Herrigel, Eugen. Read 30-12-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Zen in the Art of Archery.
- Paladin's Faith by Kingfisher, T.. Read 30-12-2023, rated 5/5.
- Lying by Harris, Sam. Read 29-12-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Lying.
- The Gifts of Imperfection by Brown, BrenΓ©. Read 29-12-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson The Gifts of Imperfection.
- Sailing Alone Around the Room by Collins, Billy. Read 26-12-2023, rated 4/5.
- The Elements of Style by Strunk Jr., William. Read 25-12-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson The Elements of Style.
- Nonduality: In Buddhism and Beyond by Loy, David R.. Read 25-12-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Nonduality: In Buddhism and Beyond.
- On the Fox Roads by Vo, Nghi. Read 23-12-2023, rated 4/5.
- Witch King by Wells, Martha. Read 21-12-2023, rated 5/5.
- Trust in Awakening by Snyder, Stephen. Read 16-12-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Trust in Awakening.
- The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic by Roubineau, Jean-Manuel. Read 12-12-2023, rated 3/5. My noteson The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic.
- Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are by Matthews, J. Jennifer. Read 08-12-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are.
- Returning to Silence: Zen Practice in Everyday Life by Katagiri, Dainin. Read 04-12-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Returning to Silence: Zen Practice in Everyday Life.
- So Many Books by Zaid, Gabriel. Read 23-11-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson So Many Books.
- System Collapse by Wells, Martha. Read 22-11-2023, rated 4/5.
- Zen: Direct Pointing to Reality by Bancroft, Anne. Read 17-11-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Zen: Direct Pointing to Reality.
- The Vow-Powered Life by Bays, Jan Chozen. Read 16-11-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson The Vow-Powered Life.
- Δria by Hinerangi, Jessica. Read 08-11-2023, rated 4/5.
- Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Hanh, Thich Nhat. Read 08-11-2023, rated 5/5.
- The Tao of Physics by Capra, Fritjof. Read 03-11-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson The Tao of Physics.
- Deleted Scenes for Lovers by Slaughter, Tracey. Read 03-11-2023, rated 4/5.
- Rest Is Resistance by Hersey, Tricia. Read 23-10-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Rest Is Resistance.
- Ascension by Binge, Nicholas. Read 23-10-2023, rated 4/5.
- Imagining Decolonisation by Elkington, Biana. Read 21-10-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Imagining Decolonisation.
- Chinese Fish by Yee, Grace. Read 16-10-2023, rated 5/5.
- Children of Memory by Tchaikovsky, Adrian. Read 13-10-2023, rated 4/5.
- Know Yourself by Twinch, Cecilia. Read 10-10-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Know Yourself.
- Until the Last of Me by Neuvel, Sylvain. Read 08-10-2023, rated 3/5.
- Everyday Zen by Beck, Charlotte Joko. Read 08-10-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Everyday Zen.
- Starter Villain by Scalzi, John. Read 29-09-2023, rated 4/5.
- Children of Ruin by Tchaikovsky, Adrian. Read 26-09-2023, rated 5/5.
- Being Aware of Being Aware by Spira, Rupert. Read 18-09-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Being Aware of Being Aware.
- Mammoths at the Gates by Vo, Nghi. Read 14-09-2023, rated 5/5.
- Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity by Rovelli, Carlo. Read 10-09-2023, rated 5/5.
- Late in the Day: Poems 2010β2014 by Le Guin, Ursula K.. Read 08-09-2023, rated 4/5.
- Wake Up Now by Bodian, Stephan. Read 05-09-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Wake Up Now.
- Super Model Minority by Tse, Chris. Read 25-08-2023, rated 4/5.
- Trouble with Lichen by Wyndham, John. Read 25-08-2023, rated 4/5.
- Revenge Body by Wiley, Rachel. Read 24-08-2023, rated 4/5.
- Middle Youth by Bach, Morgan. Read 20-08-2023, rated 4/5.
- Patterns in Nature by Ball, Philip. Read 20-08-2023, rated 5/5.
- Thornhedge by Kingfisher, T.. Read 18-08-2023, rated 5/5.
- Taoism for Beginners: A Guide to Balanced Living by Simpkins, C Alexander. Read 16-08-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Taoism for Beginners: A Guide to Balanced Living .
- Translation State by Leckie, Ann. Read 16-08-2023, rated 5/5.
- Saga by Mettner, Hannah. Read 10-08-2023, rated 4/5.
- True Love by Hanh, Thich Nhat. Read 02-08-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson True Love.
- Principles of Zen by Batchelor, Martine. Read 30-07-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Principles of Zen.
- Timequake by Vonnegut Jr., Kurt. Read 29-07-2023, rated 4/5.
- Wonders of Life by Cox, Brian. Read 29-07-2023, rated 4/5.
- Hera Lindsay Bird by Bird, Hera Lindsay. Read 25-07-2023, rated 5/5.
- Tiny Habits by Fogg, B.J.. Read 13-07-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Tiny Habits.
- If Else Paradise by Sriduangkaew, Benjanun. Read 08-07-2023, rated 4/5.
- Titanium Noir by Harkaway, Nick. Read 03-07-2023, rated 5/5.
- The Sacred East by Littleton, C. Scott. Read 01-07-2023, rated 3/5. My noteson The Sacred East.
- Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised by Somerville, Alice Te Punga. Read 30-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- How It Unfolds (The Far Reaches, #1) by Corey, James S.A.. Read 29-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- Falling Bodies (The Far Reaches, #3) by Roanhorse, Rebecca. Read 28-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- The Long Game (The Far Reaches, #4) by Leckie, Ann. Read 28-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- Void (The Far Reaches, #2) by Roth, Veronica. Read 27-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- Slow Time Between the Stars (The Far Reaches, #6) by Scalzi, John. Read 27-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- Just Out of Jupiter's Reach (The Far Reaches, #5) by Okorafor, Nnedi. Read 27-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- Waking Up to What You Do by Rizzetto, Diane Eshin. Read 24-06-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Waking Up to What You Do.
- Shinto: The Kami Way by Ono, Sokyo. Read 17-06-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Shinto: The Kami Way.
- Personal Velocity by Miller, Rebecca. Read 16-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- Sleep and the Soul by Egan, Greg. Read 16-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems by Collins, Billy. Read 12-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- Ruined by Design by Monteiro, Mike. Read 10-06-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Ruined by Design.
- The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction by Wilber, Ken. Read 06-06-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction.
- Season of Skulls (New Management #3) by Stross, Charles. Read 06-06-2023, rated 5/5.
- Tempest, Kae by On Connection. Read 05-06-2023, rated 4/5.
- How to Say No: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Cynicism by Usher, M D. Read 01-06-2023, rated 3/5. My noteson How to Say No: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Cynicism.
- People Person by Cho, Joanna. Read 30-05-2023, rated 4/5.
- 40 Artists' Ideas for Planet Earth by Obrist, Hans Ulrich. Read 29-05-2023, rated 4/5.
- Chain-Gang All-Stars by Adjei-Brenyah, Nana Kwame. Read 19-05-2023, rated 5/5.
- The No Self, No Problem Workbook by Niebauer, Chris. Read 03-05-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson The No Self, No Problem Workbook.
- A Theory of Everything by Wilber, Ken. Read 02-05-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson A Theory of Everything.
- A House with Good Bones by Kingfisher, T.. Read 28-04-2023, rated 4/5.
- Nothing Special by Beck, Charlotte Joko. Read 24-04-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Nothing Special.
- A stone seat and a shadow tree by Jansen, Adrienne. Read 21-04-2023, rated 4/5.
- And Put Away Childish Things by Tchaikovsky, Adrian. Read 20-04-2023, rated 4/5.
- Waking Up by Harris, Sam. Read 19-04-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Waking Up.
- The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi by Maharshi, Ramana. Read 17-04-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi.
- Zhuangzi: Basic Writings by Zhuangzi. Read 13-04-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Zhuangzi: Basic Writings.
- Furies by Various authors. Read 08-04-2023, rated 4/5.
- The Cosmic Dance by Ellcock, Stephen. Read 09-04-2023, rated 5/5.
- This folding map by Riach, Alan. Read 04-04-2023, rated 3/5.
- The Martian Chronicles by Bradury, Ray. Read 02-04-2023, rated 4/5.
- Sensitive Chaos by Schwenk, Theodor. Read 01-04-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Sensitive Chaos.
- Really Good, Actually by Heisey, Monica. Read 25-03-2023, rated 5/5.
- Wintering by May, Katherine. Read 24-03-2023, rated 3/5.
- How to Focus by Hanh, Thich Nhat. Read 19-03-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson How to Focus.
- Tributary by Varcoe, Rae. Read 19-03-2023, rated 4/5.
- Zen Experience by Harding, Douglas. Read 17-03-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Zen Experience.
- Old Babes in the Wood by Atwood, Margaret. Read 14-03-2023, rated 5/5.
- The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything by Puett, Michael. Read 09-03-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson The Path: A New Way to Think About Everything.
- Children of Time by Tchaikovsky, Adrian. Read 08-03-2023, rated 5/5.
- The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism by Han, Byung-Chul. Read 05-03-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism.
- Far from the Light of Heaven by Thompson, Tade. Read 04-03-2023, rated 3/5.
- The Gate to Women's Country by Tepper, Sheri S.. Read 02-03-2023, rated 5/5.
- Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Reps, Paul. Read 28-02-2023, rated 4/5.
- Secrets Of The Sea by Barthelemy, Georgette. Read 28-02-2023, rated 4/5.
- Why It's OK to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists by Willard, Mary Beth. Read 27-02-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Why It's OK to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists.
- Death at Intervals by Saramago, JosΓ©. Read 25-02-2023, rated 4/5.
- The Palliative Society: Pain Today by Han, Byung-Chul. Read 20-02-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson The Palliative Society: Pain Today.
- Scale by Egan, Greg. Read 20-02-2023, rated 4/5.
- The Practice of Not Thinking by Koike, RyΕ«nosuke. Read 18-02-2023, rated 3/5.
- On Having No Head by Harding, Douglas E.. Read 15-02-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson On Having No Head.
- Reasons to Be Hopeful by The School of Life. Read 13-02-2023, rated 5/5. My noteson Reasons to Be Hopeful.
- Total by Miller, Rebecca. Read 02-11-2025, rated 4/5.
- How People Lived by Pipe, Jim. Read 10-02-2023, rated 4/5.
- Becoming Bodhisattvas by ChΓΆdrΓΆn, Pema. Read 10-02-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Becoming Bodhisattvas.
- Fragments by Heraclitus. Read 08-02-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson Fragments.
- Nine Horses by Collins, Billy. Read 07-02-2023, rated 5/5.
- Tale Of The Unknown Island by Saramago, JosΓ©. Read 07-02-2023, rated 4/5.
- Stella Maris by McCarthy, Cormac. Read 04-02-2023, rated 5/5.
- The Passenger by McCarthy, Cormac. Read 24-01-2023, rated 5/5.
- World Words by Cudby, Kevin. Read 21-01-2023, rated 4/5.
- The Three Marriages by Whyte, David. Read 01-01-2023, rated 2/5. My noteson The Three Marriages.
- Findings by Jamie, Kathleen. Read 13-01-2023, rated 5/5.
- The Path of Aliveness by Dillo, Christian. Read 07-01-2023, rated 4/5. My noteson The Path of Aliveness.
- Further Fables for Our Time by Thurber, James. Read 06-01-2023, rated 4/5.
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Zevin, Gabrielle. Read 05-01-2023, rated 5/5.
- Illuminations by Kingfisher, T.. Read 01-01-2023, rated 4/5.
Arting
2023 12 Sketches
2023 11 Sketches
2023 10 Triangles
2023 10 Sketches
- 2023-10-01 t-paps art
- 2023-10-01 waterfront
- 2023-10-02 raglan
- 2023-10-03 mojo aurora
- 2023-10-04 aroy
- 2023-10-09 amoebting
- 2023-10-09 cables
- 2023-10-09 meeting notes 2
- 2023-10-09 meeting notes
- 2023-10-11 water water
2023 09 Sketches
- 2023-09-01 empire bw
- 2023-09-01 empire colour
- 2023-09-03 franks terrace
- 2023-09-23 portrait gallery
- one and two
2023 08 Sketches
2023 07 Dot Dot Dot
2023 06 Sketches
2023 06 Eyes Guyz
2023 05 Taijitu Ish
2023 04 Taijitu
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2023 04 Sketches
2023 04 Bars
2023 04 Bars 2
2023 03 Sketches
2023 02 Sketches
2023 01 Sketches
- 2023-01-02 lil people
- 2023-01-03 lil people
- 2023-01-06 portraits
- 2023-01-06 war
- 2023-01-08 waterfront peoples
2023 01 B Dub
Gaming
- Dark Souls 3 on PS5. Played 2023-12, rated 5/5.
- Resident Evil 4 Remake on PS5. Played 2023-11, rated 5/5.
- Disco Elysium on PS5. Played 2023-10, rated 4/5.
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5. Played 2023-10, rated 5/5.
- The Wild at Heart on PS5. Played 2023-10, rated 4/5.
- The Messenger on PS5. Played 2023-09, rated 4/5.
- Tchia on PS5. Played 2023-09, rated 4/5.
- Dodgeball Academia on PS5. Played 2023-09, rated 4/5.
- Armoured Core 6 on PS5. Played 2023-09, rated 5/5.
- Vampire Survivors on Switch. Played 2023-08, rated 4/5.
- Pikmin 4 on Switch. Played 2023-08, rated 4/5.
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice on PS5. Played 2023-07, rated 5/5.
- Final Fantasy 16 on PS5. Played 2023-07, rated 3/5.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Nintendo Switch. Played 2023-05, rated 5/5.
- Tunic on PS5. Played 2023-05, rated 5/5.
- Sifu on PS5. Played 2023-04, rated 5/5.
- Resident Evil 3 Remake on PS5. Played 2023-03, rated 3/5.
- Resident Evil 2 Remake on PS5. Played 2023-03, rated 4/5.
- Immortals Fenyx Rising on PS5. Played 2023-01, rated 4/5.
- Yakuza Zero on PS5. Played 2023-01, rated 4/5.
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon on PS5. Played 2023-01, rated 5/5.