Buddhism: The rupa jhānas

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In the sutras, jhāna is entered when one ‘sits down cross-legged and establishes mindfulness’. According to Buddhist tradition, it may be supported by ānāpānasati, mindfulness of breathing, a core meditative practice which can be found in almost all schools of Buddhism. The Suttapiṭaka and the Agamas describe four stages of rūpa jhāna. Rūpa refers to the material realm, in a neutral stance, as different from the kāma-realm (lust, desire) and the arūpa-realm (non-material realm).[33] While interpreted in the Theravada-tradition as describing a deepening concentration and one-pointedness, originally the jhānas seem to describe a development from investigating body and mind and abandoning unwholesome states, to perfected equanimity and watchfulness,[34] an understanding which is retained in Zen and Dzogchen.[35][34] The stock description of the jhānas, with traditional and alternative interpretations, is as follows:[34][note 2]

  1. First jhāna:Separated (vivicceva) from desire for sensual pleasures, separated (vivicca) from [other] unwholesome states (akusalehi dhammehi, unwholesome dhammas[36]), a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhana, which is [mental] pīti (“rapture,” “joy”) and [bodily] sukha (“pleasure”) “born of viveka” (traditionally, “seclusion”; alternatively, “discrimination” (of dhamma’s)[37][note 3]), accompanied by vitarka-vicara (traditionallly, initial and sustained attention to a meditative object; alternatively, initial inquiry and subsequent investigation[40][41][42] of dhammas (defilements[43] and wholesome thoughts[44][note 4]); also: “discursive thought”[note 5]).
  2. Second jhāna:Again, with the stilling of vitarka-vicara, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the second jhana, which is [mental] pīti and [bodily] sukha “born of samadhi” (samadhi-ji; trad. born of “concentration”; altern. “knowing but non-discursive […] awareness,”[6] “bringing the buried latencies or samskaras into full view”[52][note 6]), and has sampasadana (“stillness,”[53] “inner tranquility”[50][note 7]) and ekaggata (unification of mind,[53] awareness) without vitarka-vicara;
  3. Third jhāna:With the fading away of pīti, a bhikkhu abides in upekkhā (equanimity,” “affective detachment”[50][note 8]), sato (mindful) and [with] sampajañña (“fully knowing,”[54] “discerning awareness”[55]). [Still] experiencing sukha with the body, he enters upon and abides in the third jhana, on account of which the noble ones announce, “abiding in [bodily] pleasure, one is equanimous and mindful”.
  4. Fourth jhāna:With the abandoning of [the desire for] sukha (“pleasure”) and [aversion to] dukkha (“pain”[56][55]) and with the previous disappearance of [the inner movement between] somanassa (“gladness,”[57]) and domanassa (“discontent”[57]), a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the fourth jhana, which is adukkham asukham (“neither-painful-nor-pleasurable,”[56] “freedom from pleasure and pain”[58]) and has upekkhāsatipārisuddhi (complete purity of equanimity and mindfulness).[note 9]
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This excerpt comes from the Wikipedia entry on samadhi, which is really very good and worth reading in full. This entry and the description just above are detailed descriptions of meditative states which lead to full enlightenment in Buddhist and other traditions that revere samadhi states. This deep capacity of the human mind to realize enlightenment through directed concentration is all but nonexistent in modern Western thought, a momentous omission. In the Nagara Sutta, the Buddha refers to the Noble Eightfold Path, the last element of which is samadhi, as ancient, showing that Buddhism and other samadhi traditions date back millennia before the time of the Buddha, roughly 500 BC. Buddhism is a deep Indo-Aryan tradition and as such has roots shared by ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome as well as India and most of Asia. I believe it is helpful to recognize the antiquity of samadhi and jhāna practices as well as the civilizations associated with these practices which still exist today. In this respect, Buddhism is an extremely old and pristine core tradition belonging directly to most of the world’s peoples via tradition and indirectly to all of them via efficacy and reasonableness. ABN

One wrong move by government here, and you will see, at the very least, 250k Irish people descend on the capital in a blink — Conor McGregor

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One wrong move by government here, and you will see, at the very least, 250k Irish people descend on the capital in a blink.

They must step down, there is no other way.

I cannot see another way.

We have already heard the warning of using the army against its own people.

We have heard the threat that they will come for the protestors after the protest ends.

We have then seen the attempted character assassinations on the protest leaders.

None of this has worked an iota as every single person in this country, outside of the political paywall and even within, is wide awake to it.

These threats, as well as being pitiful, are now futile.

Where else do they think they are going here?

Government, you have no more moves.

You’re going nowhere but out I am afraid.

It is check mate. The gig is up.

I don’t condone it, I don’t call for it, just calling it as I see it.

Sláinte

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I hope and pray the Irish will save Europe once again. History seems to show they are in the best position to do it. ABN

Humans are retarded

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Humans are retarded because throughout our long history of being able to speak and listen, not a single one has discovered FIML or taught it.

How can humans be any more retarded than that? We all talk, but no one has ever figured out how to talk correctly, let alone taught us how to talk correctly.

This fact alone makes me seriously doubt all religions everywhere. What god, God, Saint, or sage would not teach humans how to talk, this saving us from many millennia of mental illness, sadness and pointless violence.

(I love chess), but consider what a waste of time it is; how many years so many people spend studying it. Yet not one human anywhere has ever spent a tiny fraction of that much time figuring out how talking and listening actually works, or how to talk and listen as well as a grandmaster plays chess.

Becoming good at FIML is probably 1,000-10,000 times easier than becoming a chess grandmaster, or a capable engineer, or a PhD in linguistics, history or psychology.

What subject is more obvious than people suck at talking and listening?

Think about it: What constitutes what most people think is talented talking and listening?

For talking, it’s fluency, vocabulary, charm, persuasiveness, explanatory ability, etc. But never accuracy in dynamic real-time, real-world situations. Virtually all so-called talented speakers, whether public or private, are performers. They perform dazzling speech acts like acrobats, but rarely tell the truth and never know how to properly analyze even their own words.

As for listening, it’s the flipside of performative talking. All people everywhere have been and are still raised to talk and listen in these ways, a sure sign of species-wide mental retardation.

The other way people are raised is to stifle speech and listening, which is an even more direct way to make them retarded

All you have to do to escape human linguistic retardation is learn FIML and do it with someone close to you, someone smart enough to understand why it is necessary. ABN

Semiotic codes

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Simply stated, semiotic codes are the conventions used to communicate meaning.

Codes can be compared to puppet masters that control the words and semiotic bundles that people use when speaking and listening. For many people, semiotic codes are largely unconscious, functioning mainly as limits to communication or as givens.

Some examples of codes might be the ready-made formulas of politics or the ordinary assumptions of any culture anywhere.

Codes work well in most cases when we do ordinary or formal things, but they inhibit thought and communication when we want to go beyond ordinary or formal interactions and behaviors.

Unconscious, unexamined, or strongly-held codes can be a disaster in interpersonal relations if one or both (or all) parties are rigid in their definitions and understanding of the codes being used. These are the sorts of conditions that lead to absurd exchanges at the dinner table and are one of the main reason most of us learn never to talk about politics or religion at most gatherings.

Gathering for dinner itself is a code. On Thanksgiving we are expected to break bread without breaking the code of silence on politics or whatever else your family can’t or won’t talk about. There is not much the individual can do to change this because the harder you try—no matter how good your intentions—the more it will seem that you are breaking the code, being aggressive, or threatening the (probably fairly weak) bonds that hold your dining unit together.

Many years ago, Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese proposed a theory about communication known as the Uncertainty Reduction Theory. This theory deals with how people initially get to know each other. It proposes:

…that, when interacting, people need information about the other party in order to reduce their uncertainty. In gaining this information people are able to predict the other’s behavior and resulting actions, all of which according to the theory is crucial in the development of any relationship. (source)

The basic idea is that we humans need to reduce uncertainty in order to understand each other well-enough to get along. If we succeed at reducing uncertainty sufficiently, it then becomes possible to continue to develop relations.

The theory works pretty well in my view, but the problem I see with it is reducing initial uncertainty is much the same as feeling out semiotic codes, discovering which ones both (or all) parties subscribe to. As mentioned, this works well-enough for ordinary and formal relations, but what happens next? For the most part, most people then become trapped in the codes they seem to share.

What happens next can even be seen as sort of comical as people over the weeks or months continue to reduce uncertainty while confining themselves even more. Very often, if you try to go a bit deeper, you will be seen as breaking the code, disrupting convention, even threatening the group.

This is the region in which intimate relationships can be destroyed. Destruction happens because the parties involved are trapped in their codes and do not have the means to stand outside them and analyze them. Obviously, this leads to either reduced or turbulent speech.

I think the Uncertainty Reduction Theory might be extended and amended to include a stage two theory of uncertainty reduction. FIML practice would constitute a very reasonable stage two as FIML is designed to remove uncertainty and ambiguity between close partners.

Notice that FIML itself is not a semiotic code. It is a tool, a method, a procedure that allows partners to communicate without using any code at all save ones they consciously choose or create for themselves.

It seems clear to me that all established interpersonal codes are ultimately limiting and that people must find a way to analyze whatever codes they hold or have been inculcated with if they want to have truthful or authentic communication with their closest partners.

Most codes are public in the sense that they are roughly known by many people. But all of us have idiosyncratic ways of understanding these public codes and all of us also have private codes, idiosyncratic codes that are known only to us.

Sometimes our understanding of our idiosyncratic codes and/or idiosyncratic interpretations of public codes is not all that clear to us. One reason is we do not have good ways to access them. Another reason is a good many idiosyncrasies are sort of born in the dark. We muddle into them privately, inside our own minds with little or no opportunity to share them with others. Indeed, as seen above, to try to share them all too often leads to disruption of the shallow “certainty” that adherence to the shared code has provided.

What a mess. We need codes to learn, grow, and communicate with strangers. But we have to go beyond them if we want to learn, grow, and communicate with the people who are most important to us.

FIML is a sort of stage two Uncertainty Reduction Practice that allows partners to observe and analyze all of their codes—both public and private—in real-time.

Why is real-time analysis important? It is important because codes can only be richly and accurately analyzed when we see clearly how they are functioning in the moment. The “psychological morphemes” that appear only during brief moments of communication must be seen and analyzed if deep understanding is to be accomplished.

An Open Letter To President Donald Trump (My Response) | Candace Ep 322

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Among the many reasons Trump appears to be losing touch with reality, targeted energy weapons, even subtle poisons, could be as much to blame as blackmail or threats against him and his family. I doubt he is the victim of only his own hubris. The stakes are very high and the forces controlling him will stop at nothing. His smartest move might be to go into some form of hiding; a place from which he can communicate and also be left alone long enough to clear his mind and body of whatever thoughts or weaponry is harming him. Saving himself may save USA but not his family, who will remain vulnerable; that’s how fraught the situation is for him. Trump is wrangling with KOBK forces; Kill-Or-Be-Killed. What is happening to him can happen to any leader, but most of all to the most powerful leader in the world, President of USA. When people suddenly go crazy and piss everyone off, including those who had been closest to them, it is always important to consider the kinds of mind-warping weaponry that might be being used against them. Anyone with street smarts knows how common roofies, poison, knives and violent crime is. It’s no different at the top of global power. Up there, the stakes are higher and the weapons better, but the hearts of those people are no different from violent criminals on any city street. ABN

Asia is collectively rejecting the Israeli-American War against Iran and preparing for the post-American era in the Eastern Hemisphere — Douglas Macgregor

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Asia is collectively rejecting the Israeli-American War against Iran and preparing for the post-American era in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Japanese crude oil tankers are heading east toward the Strait of Hormuz. These vessels are assembling with others at the entrance to the waterway during the ceasefire between the United States and Iran.

Meanwhile, Republic of Korea (ROK) Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is sending a special envoy to Iran to discuss bilateral concerns between the ROK and Iran, and to clarify navigation problems in the Strait of Hormuz.

Spain is reopening its Embassy in Tehran. Madrid is walking away from Washington and toward Tehran. Soon Spain’s walk will become a European sprint.

These developments make it difficult but not impossible for Washington to restart the war for Israel. But if Washington resumes the offensive they risk blowing up the world economy in what the international community will view as Washington’s sabotage of Iran’s “Istanbul moment.”

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The founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation vs the current executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit group founded in 1990 by Mitch Kapor, John Gilmore, and John Perry Barlow to defend civil liberties in the digital world. 

Status: Headquartered in San Francisco, the EFF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a staff of approximately 125 (as of 2025) and over 40,000 members, often described as the “online equivalent of the American Civil Liberties Union.” 

Mission: The EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. 

Key Activities: The organization fights illegal surveillance, defends free speech online, challenges restrictive copyright laws, and develops privacy-enhancing tools like Privacy Badger and Certbot. 

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Looks like classic infiltrate–takeover–invert the org 180 degrees. Virtually every institution in USA and the West has met this fate. It is ideological asymmetric warfare, parasitism, and political ponerology all rolled into one. ABN

The deep importance of intentional language

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A major feature in language is the importance of asking and how you ask.

The impetus for all speech resides deeply in and around the imperative that we must want and ask for the spiritual development we are seeking. Frivolous asking and mundane desires do not count. They are outside of deep language use.

The Buddha only spoke on the Dharma when and if he was asked to do so.

The source and meaning of language and meaning itself can be glimpsed in this. Right Language is a soul-deep operation of the mind.

In this respect, FIML is a profound philosophical answer to what language is, what meaning is, what communication and communion are. FIML is this answer because it reveals and analyzes real-time, real-world speech between honest partners.

You cannot cut that close to the bone in any other way. Two people, true speech, true analysis — the source of linguistic being is revealed. The conundrums of psychology are healed.

FIML speaks to us within language, not from outside of language. With practice, FIML will move the source of your speech and meaning to your true experience. It will remove from you the need to understand yourself through extrinsic language and meaning.

In this sense, FIML is truly a philosopher’s stone. It will take you to the deepest levels you are capable of. ABN

Abby Martin Went To Israel. IT’S WORSE Than You Think

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I hope no readers of this site are so naive as to believe Jewish Supremacists anywhere in the world think differently, including those inside USA and Europe. Martin calls them fascists repeatedly. But they are not fascists, they are Jewish Supremacists and that’s how they think and behave. So far, one good thing about this Iran catastrophe is Jewish Supremacy, its madness and control of USA and the West, is out in the open for all to see. ABN

‘Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin’, an Aramaic phrase, which means, ‘You have been weighed and found wanting, and your kingdom will be divided and given to the Persians’ — E. Michael Jones

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On Good Friday, Catholics celebrate the day on which the Jews killed Christ. It seems like an odd thing to celebrate, but the Serbs celebrate the battle of Kosovo Pole, and Texans celebrate their defeat at the Alamo, so I suppose it’s understandable that Christians would celebrate the most catastrophic defeat in the history of the human race. Let’s meditate for a moment on what it must have been like on the Friday evening after Christ’s body was taken down from the cross. Think of how devastated the Apostles must have felt gathered in the upper room full of fear that what happened to Christ would soon happen to them.

…On the other side of town, the Jews gathered to celebrate their victory. Not just any Jews, not all Jews, but certainly the Jewish leaders Annas and Caiphas were there. Try to imagine the smug satisfaction on their faces and compare it to the bitter disillusionment on the faces of the apostles that night. Nothing unseemly here. No vulgar exaltation of the sort we would expect from a buffoon like Rabbi Shmuley. No, think of the most distinguished Jews you ever met, Natty Rothschild, Rabbi Stephen Wise, and their self-deprecating gestures as they congratulate each other at the moment of their greatest triumph, the day on which they killed God and proved that they belonged to the master race which stood above everything Moses forbade.

…In Jesus’s time, “Jewish authorities” were known as the Sanhedrin. Today the Sanhedrin goes by a different name. It’s known the “Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations,” an “umbrella body” that “coordinates national and international policy issues,”[3] for the following organizations: the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the American Jewish Congress, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), J Street, a “Progressive pro-Israel organization that advocates for a two-state solution and diplomacy alongside security for Israel,” B’nai B’rith International, the Jewish Masonic lodge which has as one of its main goals the promotion of the theories of Sigmund Freud, Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist organization, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is “prominent in Holocaust remembrance, fighting antisemitism, and tolerance education.”[4]

This is not an exhaustive list. It does not include de facto Jewish groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, Pornhub, Only Fans, and the news room at National Public Radio, but it does establish the fact that “the Jews” is a category of reality which exists in real buildings at real addresses which can be sued for damages as a concrete expression of the rage that is sure to sweep over this country when its citizens wake up to the damage they have done by dragging America into a war which it cannot win.

…Pretending that “the Jews” don’t exist as a category or that they didn’t get us into this mess will only make matters worse and increase the likelihood of violence. The rage continues to build. “The Jews” just announced that Israeli soldiers will not accompany the America troops which are now scheduled for a ground invasion of Iran, which is solely for the benefit of Israel. Even an establishment figure like George Will had difficulty containing his indignation when he reported this. Americans need to identify “the Jews” and hold them responsible for the irreparable damage they have done to our international reputation by ensuring that they cannot do this again. One way to accomplish this end would be to seize the assets of groups like AIPAC, the ADL, and the SPLC and distribute them as reparations payments to anyone they opposed or defamed. Is there something wrong with this idea? Is Professor Mearsheimer, the man who co-authored the definitive book on the Israel lobby, telling us that AIPAC should emerge from causing the biggest foreign policy debacle in American history unscathed?

…Just as Nostra Aetate provides the necessary category for this discussion by defining (and rehabilitating) “the Jews” as a category of reality which encompasses “Jewish leaders and their followers,” Catholicism can provide guidance on how to deal with the mechanism which allowed this to happen, namely, usury and the use of usurious ill-gotten gains to bribe members of Congress. In his letter to Margaret of Flanders entitled “De regimine Judaeorum ad Ducissam Brabantiae (“On the Government of the Jews, to the Duchess of Brabant”), St. Thomas Aquinas give practical advice on how Margaret should deal with the severe economic problems which usury had created in her realm. The Jews have no right to keep usurious wealth, which is another term for ill-gotten gains, and does not truly belong to the Jews, but restraint needs to be exercised in appropriating this money to ensure that “the necessary subsidies of life in no way be taken from them … this seems to be what should be observed, that … the services coerced from them do not demand things that they had not been accustomed to do in times gone by.”

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This is a longish essay about how ‘the Jews’ are going to pay dearly for having forced Trump into this war with Iran. I have provided a longer excerpt than I usually do to provide a sense of what Jones is arguing. The essay is rich in both Catholic and everyday reasoning. It’s well-worth reading. As for the term ‘the Jews’ and the confusion that arises from its use, I believe Jewish Supremacy is the better term and will solve the problems Jones describes, if more people use it. ABN