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🧵 Thread (155 tweets)
1. I opine that reincarnation is realhttps://t.co/c3MGHXVQXF
2. I opine that neither monogamy or polyamory is Intrinsically Better but it depends on who you are and who you love and your situationhttps://t.co/wffXkZ5Y7O
3. none of the publicly prominent/ available Western Buddhisms really resonate for me and I suspect they're not very good yet for reaching and helping people in Western Culture. I've had to remix/DIY different teachings (including non-Buddhist) to something that resonates for me
4. in adapting to the west, Buddhism should (and often does) have some humility and realize it can learn a lot from the West. e.g., science, psychotherapy, trauma, movement, ethics, productivity, strategy, non-profit orgs, Creative Commons, memes
9. open, honest exchange of information, practices, resources, and people between communities is the best antidote to the gravitational pull towards cultish antipatterns. there are so many good people and communities and practices and we can all learn from each other
10. there are many places that are better starting places for spiritual practice than meditation. reading teachings, conversations with peers and teachers, generosity, finding a job that doesn't hurt you or others, movement practices, journaling...
12. Western-bodied people generally aren’t prepared for extensive sitting meditation. standing meditation/Zhan Zhuang, yoga, qi gong, Tai Chi, massage, dance, contact improv are good, healthy, fun starting points instead
15. given its importance I hope Twitter becomes something like public infrastructure at some point or viable alternative interfaces or open-source replacements take off. tricky incentives here and not sure what will happen
16. people still don't understand the power of quote tweets, even around here, and we could have even cooler and more beautiful even poetic conversations by remembering and citing our own and other's tweets (and writing with that in mind)
17. where possible, it's good to -- carefully, skillfully -- abstract and crosspost private insights from journals or conversations more publicly as much as possible so that as many people can benefit as much as possible. we all have wisdom the world needs.
18. for a mood change- and this one's important- we need to prioritize ubiquitous public bathroom access it's a systemic problem so needs systemic solutions. customer-only bathrooms make sense but are ultimately immoral. same for locked porta-potties.
20. many, many more conversations should be recorded; many more conversations should be shared publicly when recorded. recording is cheap, editing is annoying but easy, and potential benefits are high and hard to predict in advance. opt-in only ofc, I'm not pro surveillance
22. to a lesser extent I feel similarly about alcohol and cannabis. a little occasionally seems fine for some people but a lot often seems bad for most people and it's easy to fall into abusive patterns. I don't use them myself
25. animals and plants and the earth are people too, have feelings and needs, and deserve respect and love. bad news is we're treating them very poorly. good news is we'll all be far happier if we learn how to love and respect other species as a global community
26. what the heck let's get a little woo. if you're thinking of someone or have a dream about someone they may very well have been thinking or dreaming about you. your thoughts are actions which have consequences, which matter, so be careful what you think
30. one non-obvious reason people (including me) like sex so much is that it more or less requires you to be in your whole body, which in itself feels really good, esp since we tend to spend so much of our days in our heads
31. I bet one very good reason earlier monastic traditions were pro-celibacy was the lack of contraceptives. hard to train well in a monastic setting with children (the family life is a path of it's own ofc). but times have changed and good contraceptives are widely available
@algekalipso @tasshinfogleman 😄I direct you to: 'The Red Thread':https://t.co/4Z5GfHab0XContains monastic misbehavior🫢.
@algekalipso @tasshinfogleman Also, Ikkyu, famous Zen miscreant and master:"A single night of love is better than a hundred thousand years of sterile meditation."😆https://t.co/vrZbepuuFs
@algekalipso @tasshinfogleman Seems like from a cultural self-defense view, if you were bullish on this, you’d make sure everyone kept quiet on it. There’s a book on this dynamic in Catholicism as well, sth like “Christian mysticism’s queer flame” Jeffrey Kripal also talks about it a lot
33. there is an alternate universe where 45 would have been the tremendous, inspiring, excellent leader he aspired to be. he has many admirable and excellent qualities and a mountain of character flaws and psychological issues heaped on top
34. evangelical vegans/vegetarians often make a strategic error of trying to persuade others to totally adopt their diet or views (to say nothing of shame for other views). more useful is to aim for less meat consumption for more people
35. social justice types point to (mostly) real problems + power imbalances that we should listen to and have a whole host of problems with how they act on that wisdom tactically, strategically, interpersonally, ethically. victim/villain dynamics aren't the solution at any scale
36. of all the many things that should be taught in school but aren't, theory of mind (concept and practice) is probably chief. tricky but very high impact to do so. it's not ideological but would improve ethics and systems across the board
37. men are widely unable to healthily process their feelings/experiences internally, with friends, or in public, because they don't know how or don't feel safe to. this is a root cause/load-bearing infrastructure for the egregore commonly referred to as "the patriarchy."
40. Buddhists on social media should memorize, reflect on, practice, discuss Right Speech: true, useful, kind (words), kind (state of mind), timely or context-aware. consistently doing so has been tremendously helpful for me in dealing with the power and ethics of speech acts
41. it's a voluntary practice. you can only determine for yourself whether something is Right Speech. you can't determine for someone else whether their speech acts are Right Speech or not. you can offer feedback if requested and there's a context for that (esp sangha)
42. doubling down on this. @m_ashcroft's course or something like it should be included in driver's ed curricula everywhere.https://t.co/hmc9CDe3OQ
45. it's good to share your couch or guest room with people you trusthttps://t.co/cPiqoenedP
if you have a spare couch or guest room, it seems to me that offering it to trusted friends, travelers, and couchsurfers for short and long stays is one of the most underrated but commendable, prosocial, even counter-culture (building a better world) actions available to you
46. i think most people would benefit from a little monastic traininghttps://t.co/yYZuCSY85c
48. breath meditation is typically taught totally abs backwardshttps://t.co/sKrCfrJs0Z
61. if you'd be actively interested in cuddling / making out / going on a date / having sex / being in a relationship with etc. with someone you should consider letting them know explicitly (but considerately) rather than being indirect, coy, hopeful about it. that includes me 😘
63. if you want something, say ithttps://t.co/g6hLzlKLTP
71. because 40-hour work weeks are not feasible in many professions, their ubiquity is morally problematic at societal scale because it requires either harming yourself (violating Buddhist 1st precept), or lying about hours worked (+ stealing unearned pay) (4th + 2nd precepts)
72. using information access hubs like SciHub, LibGen, and torrenting are illegal but arguably morally defensible under philosophies that are not well articulated or evenly distributed yet. our societal attitudes towards copyright + information-scarcity will be seen as a dark age
74. as best i can tell love and especially sex amplify this effecthttps://t.co/lYS8Fk7tY6
26. what the heck let's get a little woo. if you're thinking of someone or have a dream about someone they may very well have been thinking or dreaming about you. your thoughts are actions which have consequences, which matter, so be careful what you think
77. people forget too easily how dangerous cars are. we are inured to how dangerous cars are. it would be better if we could find transportation methods that don’t risk harming or killing people and animals so easily, frequently
78. i believe plants are conscious, experience pain, and are generally worthy of love and respect. that this is likely true is the best argument i've found against vegetarianism—and yet i still choose to be a vegetarian myself
79. argument from authority is considered a fallacy but it should be taken more seriously when a particular argument is made by a wise person, living or dead. of course, do not simply, blindly agree and accept what they say at face value— but disagree with the wise at your peril
80. in many cases, imprisonment, makes little to no sense morally, practically, or socially. we imprison people for things that they shouldn't be imprisoned for. if we aim to separate people from society, we should do so more humanely. if we aim to rehabilitate, we largely fail
81. the prevalence and frequency with which people need to make GoFundMe's and similar for health care and other necessities is a technological blessing and a welcome solution but ultimately a condemnation of our society at large
82. it has disappointed me to see the extent to which the dark timeline has been used for gossip, dunking, and other acts of speech that harm more than help. private speech can still harm, and we can do better with our thoughts, words, actions, time, energy
83. in any case, the feeds I describe here are far better (technically) than the dark timeline, which is limited to tweets and threads and Twitter's interface—although they are of course not free of the same moral and ethical challengeshttps://t.co/FJO19cy1R0
85. it's an understandable but ultimately incorrect choice to discourage students in contemplative traditions from conceptual thinking, from creating mental models, reflecting on their experiences analytically, etc.
86. for myself i am wary of the many varied, complex, reactions various medications in widespread use have these days and i would generally choose to not use them, and caution others against their use unless absolutely necessary
87. in traditional buddhism (and other religions), there are literal hell realms and you do not want to go there (unless you are Jizo and have his skills). suicide is said to bring you there promptly and for this reason alone it is worth wagering against suicide
88. i personally choose not to have sex with women that i would not be willing to raise children with. birth is financially, practically, morally, spiritually expensive and not worth doing haphazardly or thoughtlessly
89. rather than blurring genders, or reifying traditional polar gender norms, i'm most interested in conversations, art, etc. that inspire me to integrate my masculinity and my femininity—not a new idea, easy to say, hard to do, + i am generally not impressed by what i see
90. as a banal example, it's easy and common to encourage men to get strong and build muscle and defend themselves and protect the family and what have you, but shouldn't everyone, women included, value their physical strength and health, be able to defend and protect, etc.?
91. i am generally confused and appalled at how little people seem to talk about or pay attention to ethics, or make actions based on some coherent ethical perspective or attempted moral reasoning. ethics and morality matter far more than we seem to weight them
92. everyone has the same limited hours in the day, everyone will die, everyone has a precious gift to give with their life; no one's gift is more precious, no one's time more valuable, and to believe or imply that it is is not only inaccurate but cruel
93. it is cringe at best and immoral at worst for coaches and other people offering products and services to solicit specific clients without consent or request. clients should seek out coaches, mentors, teachers—not the other way around
94. saying that you didn't know or intend your actions to have certain consequences doesn't negate that your actions, did, in fact have those consequences. all actions have consequences, expected and unexpected, and we become an adult morally when we recognize and anticipate this
97. AI Art is surprisingly beautiful + compelling but what i've seen so far often feels uncanny, is typically lacking one thing or having too much of something else. "centaur chess" demonstrates that humans + AI are more powerful together + i expect similar outcomes from AI Art
99. taking screenshots of having been blocked as a way of criticizing the person who blocked you is unethical. yes, you feel hurt, but everyone should have the right to block anyone at any time for any reason, no matter who they are or what their relationship with you is
100. lying, inaccurate speech or writing, is simply never an ethical course of action. proposed exceptions are simply trolley problems. if you cultivate moral imagination, strength, and courage you will find novel solutions to any actual problems you face
@tasshinfogleman most polite maybe, but not best I use an equals sign between both times I also think there are many other heuristics for using only your own timezone (eg if the other is travelling, or they happen to be very familiar with your tz but not vv) https://t.co/OCrzIyTbpO
btw, here's a simple format for effective unambigous scheduling between different timezones: if you're in PST scheduling with someone in EST, write "how about noon=3pm?" = means both timezones no more "your time, my time" blah. just "the time that's both noon & 3"
@tasshinfogleman Mostly through ppl having enough $ to afford their own separate leases. We need to do better in the future for my people who are lower income. Toward that end have been starting business bootcamps & inviting ppl to teach FractalU classes and charge for them
@TylerAlterman this is exactly what it looks like, imeand mostly isomorphic to how i'm doing things with the Service Guild (https://t.co/FhFsjDbjyc)—it's critically dependent on people who volunteer their time and energy part-time
@tasshinfogleman tasshin i thought you said you weren't an ass man 🤔 https://t.co/J2XN7RFyh2
@RichDecibels oh gosh not so bad after all so far. I've been warming up to it. a little bit of nervousness but that's mostly exciting. hard part is remembering what my opinions are because I have tried not to have any or share them (hasn't worked) and also because now I'm doing 100
@RichDecibels when you asked, it was much the same—"not so bad" but just in the last day I've noticed I feel less defensive, apologetic about describing perspectives that I have that are out of the ordinary. feels causally connected to writing this thread
@tasshinfogleman more context: we had no romantic ceremony, the wedding was just a change in paperwork for migrant reasons but having a new identity for us created a new identity for me, I feel more situated in history & society and its more obvious what I need to do to have a good life...