Category: Buddhism

A Good Description of Right Samadhi, the Eighth Element of the Noble Eightfold Path

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Theise provides a good description of Right Samadhi at 6:02 min, prompted.

Buddhist philosophy and practice is founded on samadhi states, which might be described as the doors which open to the temple of Deepest Reality. Samadhi states are available to all people. They are the experiential part of Buddhism. They have to be experienced to make sense, and once experienced all of Buddhism will make sense.

Western civilization has almost no traditional awareness of samadhi. We have scores of philosophers and religious thinkers, but no samadhi. It is a glaring omission, one that has led us astray in many ways. Fortunately, today more people are beginning to see what samadhi states are, as Theise illustrates. Be sure to watch the whole clip as it will provide context to what he says about samadhi.

Buddhism is sort of implicitly ‘panpsychist’ or based on consciousness as a primary aspect of reality. Mind Only or Yogacara Buddhism makes this claim more explicitly. Samadhi is beautiful, joyful, wonderful. It will change you very deeply for the better or make you realize you don’t need to be changed at all. ABN

Kastrup responds to my criticisms of Analytic Idealism (part 1)

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UPDATE: This is a very good discussion which can be understood within a Buddhist ‘mind only’ framework (or not). I have posted it especially because it seems to conform very well with what the Buddha might have thought and/or how later Buddhists came to understand Buddhist enlightenment, the cessation of all suffering through fully understanding all of reality. This video is the first part of a planned two-part discussion. The second part has not yet been posted. The second part is going to start with the question why the universal mind itself does not experience metacognition. I have some idea how Kastrup will answer that question, but will wait for his take before commenting further. Kastrup’s work in general seems to me to be a good way to consider Buddhist practice and thought from a modern point of view, using vocabularies and concepts we are familiar with or which can be readily accessed. It is important to know that the captions for the above video rarely correctly render the term Markov Blanket. This is an important term for understanding Kastrup’s ideas. More information can be found here: Markov Blanket. ABN

UPDATE 2: Near the end of the discussion linked above, Kastrup says he is incapable of meditation. I hope he reads this because I want to point out to him and others that meditation, or samadhi in Buddhism, is the method for the ‘small self’, which resides inside its Markov Blanket, to commune with the One Mind (Kastrup’s term, which works well with Buddhist thought). Samadhi is a natural state. When you take your attention away from Kastrup’s ‘dashboard’ and open the windows (let’s ignore the wind in his metaphor), your ‘small self’ perceives and experiences One Mind. Like all experience, samadhi states become richer and richer the more we experience and appreciate them. I would like to also encourage Kastrup and others to read this description of the Five Skandhas. The ‘consciousness’ which arises out of the first four skandhas is the consciousness of the small self, the self ensconced in its Markov Blanket. Whether he knows it or not, Kastrup has done an excellent job of describing Buddhist thought and practice in modern terms. I particularly like his work because, as far as I know, he has never mentioned Buddhism. For this reason, he provides a very refreshing take on the Dharma very clearly explicated and coming from a different angle from all others. ABN

Samadhi

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Samādhi (Pali and Sanskrit: समाधि), in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In many Indian religious traditions, the cultivation of Samādhi through various meditation methods is essential for the attainment of spiritual liberation (known variously as nirvana, moksha).[1]

In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path.[web 1] In the Ashtanga Yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.[2][3] In Jain meditation, samadhi is considered one of the last stages of the practice just prior to liberation.[4]

In the oldest Buddhist sutras, on which several contemporary western Theravada teachers rely, it refers to the development of an investigative and luminous mind which is equanimous and mindful. In the yogic traditions, and the Buddhist commentarial tradition on which the Burmese Vipassana movement and the Thai Forest tradition rely, it is interpreted as a meditative absorption or trance, attained by the practice of dhyāna.[5]

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With so much now depending on what Christians, Jews and Muslims think and do and how they interact so poorly with each other and any one else and how their beliefs are based on old stories and not much else, this may be a good time to remind or inform anyone who wants to listen that there are much older and deeper traditions of the mind including how individuals should conduct themselves morally, ethically, spiritually. Samadhi states are but one aspect of ancient traditions that vastly predate Judaism and Christianity and also provide much deeper insights into the workings of the human mind and how to deal with the ever-changing conditions of life. The way the Abrahamic religions are behaving today is an embarrassment to all of humanity. ABN

Bodhisattva in samadhi, Gandhara 2nd Century CE

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Bodhisattva seated in meditation. Afghanistan, 2nd century CE; attribution

UPDATE: The period this statue dates from and the area in which it was found was Gandhara, which was a major center of Buddhism. A great deal of Buddhism went to China from Gandhara. Chinese Buddhist nuns, to this day, take Sarvastivadan monastic vows which probably came from Gandhara. Buddhist statuary developed in this area under the strong influence of Greek statuary which became prevalent in that region due to the Greek presence brought by Alexander the Great. The earliest attested Buddhist teachings come to us from this area through Pyrrho, the Greek skeptic, who studied with Buddhist monks. Skepticism is clearly based on Buddhist core teachings. See Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia for more on this topic. I highly recommend that book. ABN

A Christmas message from Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir

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Needless to say, misuse of this technology is terrifying and will strike fear into the hearts of clear-thinking moral people everywhere. But this technology exists and is here to stay and will only become more powerful. You cannot ban it or make it go away, so we have to deal with it somehow. Much has been made of the fact that Karp is Jewish. In the hands of a Jewish supremist, this tech would destroy our world overnight. Western civilization would disappear from the face of the earth overnight and all other civilizations would follow soon after. So far, Karp has not destroyed our world and has not shown signs of being a Jewish supremist, so for now, maybe we do not need to fear his control over this tech, for now. Those are the cards and that is the game. What if Obama or Harris controlled this technology? Or Fauci or Daniel Penny’s prosecutor? Who controls Karp? I always hope for an enlightened elite and waste little time expecting there to be no elite. At the same time, I am well-aware elites are always out of touch with the primary essential fundamentals of life. They always make terrible mistakes and so far have never succeeded in self-correcting. So, should we all be afraid starting yesterday? Does Palantir confirm in modern guise the First Noble Truth of earthly delusion and suffering? Right now it looks that way to me. ABN

Pentagon study hints at reincarnation being real after finding consciousness ‘never dies’

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A study conducted by US Army Intelligence has suggested that reincarnation is real because consciousness ‘never dies.’

Entitled ‘Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process,’ the 29-page report was drafted by US Army Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M McDonnell in 1983 and declassified by the CIA in 2003.

The mind-bending official Pentagon study was commissioned to better understand what its Army intel colleagues were doing sending personnel to a small institute in Charlottesville, Virginia that was working on the ‘Gateway Experience.’

The then-secretive ‘Gateway’ project, based to McDonnell’s analysis, was ‘a training system designed to bring enhanced strength, focus and coherence… to alter consciousness.’

From there, Gateway’s ambitious goal was to shift the practitioner’s consciousness ‘outside the physical sphere so as to ultimately escape even the restrictions of time and space.’

At least according to McDonnell, the Monroe Institute’s discoveries that wound up bolstering the case for reincarnation were profound. 

‘When consciousness returns to the Absolute [Monroe jargon for a realm outside spacetime] it brings with it all the memories it has accumulated through experience in reality,’ as he distilled the Institute’s finding that memories pass on from life to life via reincarnation.

link

The Buddhist term is rebirth rather than reincarnation. The study mentioned, which might be of interest to some, is here: Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process. ABN

Bernardo Kastrup: A Research Conversation in Consciousness

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2:14

I agree with a lot of what Kastrup says in this discussion. One important thing he seems to be missing or misunderstanding (or chose not to discuss) is the fundamental dramatic nature of consciousness, of conscious life, which as with everything else is fundamental to nature itself as he describes it. Nature is not just impersonal forces or impersonal thought or impersonal anything but also drama. The dramas are bigger than us, just as all of nature is. And there are more beings than just humans who participate in these dramas. And we are all touched at many levels and in many ways by drama. We are not just traveling on an impersonal road only able at best to feel contented, well situated, in tune. We are also actors in dramas, some of which are our own making, some not. I like the way he says motives or intentions flow through him but are not his; they are elements of impersonal nature. I think he is inkling the dramas when he senses that. ABN

Anhedonia for the masses now? — insights from schizoid personalities

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I’ve been noticing something remarkable lately- everyone I interact with at work just is completely checked out. Used to be just me faking and masking, now it’s the most extroverted amongst us that I am clocking a seismic shift in.

Has the world finally caught up to my perpetual state of disconnection? Where I’ve long inhabited emotional neutrality, now everyone seems to drift—listless and anesthetized by invisible systemic pressures.

Is this mass schizoid experience a diagnostic canary in society’s collapsing coal mine? Economic precarity, technological alienation, and relentless performative expectations have seemingly drained collective vitality. What I’ve experienced as individual pathology now appears a widespread condition: a numbing adaptive response to late-stage capitalist entropy.

Are we all becoming involuntary ascetics with our affect flattened?….a synchronized emotional shutdown? And if so, what will remain special about how we see the world?

link

I found this post and replies to it interesting and related to Buddhist practice and thought. I personally learned in my childhood and youth, through unregulated experience, states like dissociation, depersonalization, or ‘checking out’. I do not believe that in moderation those are ‘disordered’ states. As a young adult, I did not ever think there was anything wrong with me for experiencing states like that. Augmented or probed deeply through meditation, dissociative-type states appear to me to be related to Buddhist samadhi states, probably even part of the same continuum. Western civilization is awesome in many ways, but generally lacks a deep appreciation of samadhi states as they are practiced and learned (and learned from) in Buddhism, Taoism, yoga, and similar traditions. Basically, the West lacks the vocabulary for the beauty and depth of samadhi states, which may appear to some, or be wrongly defined by some, as psychologically ‘disordered’, ‘depersonalized’, ‘dissociative’, ‘anhedonic’, or ‘checked out’. Taken too far samadhi could become an unwholesome trance state, but this is normally not a problem as proper Buddhist practice also includes rational thought, mindfulness, contemplations on others, compassionate activity. I believe I am not too far off in the gist of this comment simply because there is virtually no common vocabulary in the West known to many that describes deep meditative states or samadhi states; ergo, the West does not have a good understanding of them. The quoted post above and the comments under it at the link above comes from a subreddit on Schizoid Personality Disorder. I am not saying there is no such thing as SPD or anhedonia, but maybe some people who think those terms apply to them are only thinking that way because Western psychology does not have a deep enough vocabulary to couple with their experiences. I believe the insight that things have changed since covid is valid and maybe there is a lot of good in that. Taking no pleasure in a world of lies and bs can also be seen as awakening to the First Noble Truth of worldly suffering and delusion. ABN

How (intimate) interpersonal language functions

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Parentheses around the word (intimate) indicate a spectrum from less to more intimate, less to more psychologically important.

1) If we study how (intimate) interpersonal language functions, we will discover that it is significantly both defined and impeded by errors in listening and speaking.

2) The more intimate interpersonal communication is the more idiosyncratic it is.

Since (intimate) interpersonal communication is psychologically more significant the more intimate it is, it follows that it is very important to analyze and understand this kind of communication. It also follows that (intimate) interpersonal communication is harder to analyze from the outside the more intimate it is.

It is essentially impossible for an expert to tell two lovers what their words mean or how to understand their acts of communication.

Therefore, the lovers must do it themselves. The expert can only show them how to do it themselves.

3) This is a fundamental truth that rests in the nexus between language and psychology: the more intimate the communication the more important it is psychologically and also the more important it is that the communicators be able to analyze their communication satisfactorily and correct errors that inevitably occur.

4) How to do that can be taught. This is a good job for psychologists. Doing the analyzing and correcting is the job of the intimate communicators.

5) If (intimate) interpersonal communications are not analyzed and corrected; if errors are not discovered and removed from the system, the psychologies of both communicators will be harmed.

6) Conversely, if (intimate) interpersonal communications are analyzed and corrected; if errors are discovered and removed from the system, the psychologies of both communicators will be benefited.

7) Indeed, removing error from an (intimate) interpersonal communication system will result in gradual optimization of both the system and the psychologies of the analyzers.


8) In sum:

  • communication error is inevitable in (intimate) interpersonal communication systems
  • it is very important to correct these errors
  • and to analyze them and the communication system itself in the light of these corrections
  • this optimizes both the communication system and the psychologies of both communicators

There is no other way to accomplish such sweeping improvement in both communication and individual psychology. There is no outside way for intimate communications to be analyzed and no one else to do it but the intimate communicators themselves.

This fundamental truth applies both to intimate communication and psychology. Psychology is determined by intimate communication and vice versa.

FIML practice is specifically designed to correct (intimate) interpersonal communication errors and is best used for this purpose.

first posted JANUARY 6, 2019

‘Empty yourself completely and sit waiting’ — Saint Romuald

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Romuald (Latin: Romualdus; c. 951 – traditionally 19 June, c. 1025/27 AD)[1] was the founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century “Renaissance of eremitical asceticism“.[2] Romuald spent about 30 years traversing Italy, founding and reforming monasteries and hermitages.

Romuald was able to integrate these different traditions and establish his own monastic order. The admonition in his rule Empty yourself completely and sit waiting places him in relation to the long Christian history of intellectual stillness and interior passivity in meditation also reflected in the nearly contemporary Byzantine ascetic practice known as Hesychasm.

Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms — never leave it.[9]

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St Romuald’s empty yourself completely and sit waiting is an instruction in how to enter deep samadhi. Samadhi states are the experience of spiritual truth, whether it be Buddhist or Christian. Buddhism emphasizes samadhi as the eighth element of the Noble Eightfold Path and as the third training of the Three Trainings — ethics, samadhi, and wisdom. ABN

UPDATE: It’s worth noting that Christian monasteries (and by extension Western universities) were modelled on Tibetan Buddhist Viharas, as were Islamic madrasas. I did not post this entry on St Romuald for that reason or to connect Christian ascetic practices with Buddhism, but rather to show that samadhi states, by whatever name, are practiced in many wisdom traditions. They are the most fundamental base of being a conscious human. Samadhi can be described as deeply knowing or contemplating the artesian well of consciousness that bubbles up or flows constantly in each and every one of us. They are dynamic yet still states that can be experienced when we devoutly empty ourselves and wait. ABN

Small lies matter

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A new study shows that even small lies can weaken our self control, causing us to tell bigger lies and more of them.

Lead author of the study, Neil Garrett, says of it:

“It is likely the brain’s blunted response to repeated acts of dishonesty reflects a reduced emotional response to these acts. This is in line with suggestions that our signals aversion to acts that we consider wrong or immoral. We only tested dishonesty in this experiment, but the same principle may also apply to escalations in other actions such as risk taking or violent behaviour.” [emphasis added] (How lying takes our brains down a ‘slippery slope’)

The study itself can be found here: The brain adapts to dishonesty.

Here is the abstract:

Dishonesty is an integral part of our social world, influencing domains ranging from finance and politics to personal relationships. Anecdotally, digressions from a moral code are often described as a series of small breaches that grow over time. Here we provide empirical evidence for a gradual escalation of self-serving dishonesty and reveal a neural mechanism supporting it. Behaviorally, we show that the extent to which participants engage in self-serving dishonesty increases with repetition. Using functional MRI, we show that signal reduction in the amygdala is sensitive to the history of dishonest behavior, consistent with adaptation. Critically, the extent of reduced amygdala sensitivity to dishonesty on a present decision relative to the previous one predicts the magnitude of escalation of self-serving dishonesty on the next decision. The findings uncover a biological mechanism that supports a ‘slippery slope’: what begins as small acts of dishonesty can escalate into larger transgressions. [emphasis added]

Though this is only one study based on results from only 80 people, I find it very credible.

In Buddhism we learn that even the smallest of thoughts can have enormous consequences.

An important aspect of Buddhist mindfulness is watching how our thoughts develop and how they affect us and others. FIML practice is based on sharing the fruits of real-time mindfulness with a partner.

Done correctly, FIML allows us to observe small transitions in our minds and correct them in real-time if they are wrong.

FIML does not deal all that much with lies per se because partners are expected to be beyond that and FIML won’t work if partners lie.

Nonetheless, FIML does deal with small misunderstandings that can lead to slippery slopes similar to what is described in the study.

For example, if you think your partner’s tone is dismissive and it isn’t and you don’t do a FIML query, the next time you hear that tone you will experience confirmation bias and be on your way down the slope. It’s very hard to trace that sort of thing back to its origin after a few occasions. Your misunderstanding of your partner’s tone could be construed as an unconscious lie that you are telling yourself.

This is why FIML is so important and why it is very helpful to start doing it early in your relationship when all is well and there are no misunderstandings.

FIML can be described as detailed, shared, real-time moral and existential awareness. It demands integrity and mindfulness from both partners and rewards them with greatly enhance shared integrity and mindfulness.

A major purpose of FIML is to prevent the sort of thing that happened in the study. To prevent partners from sliding down a slippery slope that sometimes cannot be regained.

first posted October 24, 2016

Is morality a fundamental part of nature?

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Viewing nature as a signaling network shows its advantage with this question.

Instead of asking where our moral sense comes from, we ask instead what makes for a good signaling network?

The answer is “good organization.”

By “good,” I mean efficient, well-made, good use of resources, easy to maintain, rational, etc.

You are a signaling network.

A well-organized you will probably tend to be morally pretty good and wanting to get better at it, depending on your conditions.

Of course some people view “morality” as whatever is in their best interests. And that is a type of moral thinking. When it is found out, though, most other people, very reasonably, do not like it.

If we view nature as the evolution of signals and signaling networks rather than as the evolution of matter, we will see that changes in signal organization are fundamental to the evolutionary process.

In this sense, it is the most ordinary thing in the world that you, a complex signaling system that is conscious, would consciously seek good organization and/or want to adapt your organizing principles, both objective and subjective, to conditions that impact you.

Conditions that impact you are signals being perceived by the signaling network you think of as yourself.

Your adaptations, both small and large, will encompass many moral considerations and choices.

Morality can be viewed as a kind of organization. The networks that make up your being must organize their relations with the world around them and other sentient beings. We make many moral decisions when we do this. These decisions are an integral part of how we are organized.

Last night I heard a drunk swearing at his friend from the street. “You fucking bastard…” etc. Not well-organized, but still he was yelling a local version of morality and this was fundamental to his networks and behavior.

first posted MARCH 4, 2017

UPDATE 11/09/22: The above shows that what we scientifically think of today as evolution does not contradict what might be called spiritual evolution, or Buddhist evolution that happens in three ways combined: through 1) morality/ethics; 2) concentration/mindfulness; and 3) wisdom/understanding. Karma is the path of our mind as it wends through its various and numerous realities, sometimes tending toward goodness or the Tathagata, sometimes tending away. By consciously contemplating our signaling networks and describing them to ourselves and close friends we can make our signals clearer and more ethical and thus become wiser, have better understanding. The act of doing this is a kind of concentration or mindfulness. It really doesn’t matter what your religion is, including atheism or even oblivionism, honestly analyzing your signaling will change you probably for the better. ABN

Swedish court jails ‘far-right’ leader for burning Qur’an and making ‘offensive’ statements

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A far-right Danish-Swedish politician has been sentenced to prison on charges of incitement against an ethnic group for burning copies of the Qur’an and making offensive statements about Muslims.

Rasmus Paludan was the first person to go on trial in Sweden – and is now the first to be sentenced – for burning the Qur’an during an organised demonstration.

The leader of the Danish political party Stram Kurs (Hard Line) was on Tuesday sentenced to four months in prison at Malmö district court for two cases of incitement against an ethnic group and one case of insult in 2022. He was also ordered to pay damages and fees of 80,800 kroner (£5,822).

After Paludan’s trial last month, the chair of the court, Nicklas Söderberg, said: “It is permitted to publicly make critical statements about, for example, Islam and also about Muslims, but the disrespect of a group of people must not clearly cross the line for a factual and valid discussion.

“In these cases, there was no question of any such discussion. The statements instead only amounted to insulting and smearing Muslims.”

Paludan was sentenced to prison because he had been previously convicted of similar crimes by a Danish court, the Swedish court said.

The judgment said: “Rasmus Paludan has expressed disrespect for a people group or other such group of people with allusions to creed, national origin or ethnic origin by putting bacon in and around a Qur’an and then setting fire to, kicking and spitting on the Qur’an.”

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Europe has slid down the slippery slope of ‘hate’ speech, ‘offensive’ speech, pejoratively calling people ‘far-right’ much further than USA. I hope and believe Trump will keep his word on protecting American free-speech. Besides wooly-headed leftists and dim-witted Eurocrats, most serious thinkers can clearly see that speech restrictions for any reason should not be written into law. Those who do want speech proscriptions written into law invariably have something to hide, no matter how they couch their arguments. Buddhists will recall that there is a long tradition in Buddhism of denying the scaredness of even the Dharma itself, the teachings of the Buddha. There are multiple stories of monks spitting on statues of the Buddha to illustrate that nothing is so holy we cannot stand our own ground before it. The Buddha himself said once you have used the raft to cross the stream, you do not need the raft anymore and should abandon it. So from an American point of view and also a Buddhist point of view, I disagree strongly with all laws designed to control speech or define what is ‘hateful’ or ‘offensive’. Legally, logically, rationally and Buddhistically, it is a spiritual and civilizational dead end to punish speech, including ‘defaming’ so-called ‘sacred’ materials. ABN

Identity and signaling

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Identity is constructed of memories, memories that have to be tended to, and this takes time and energy.

You have to remember who you are and often have to work pretty hard just to maintain that image within yourself, to say nothing of projecting it toward other people and getting them to accept it.

A big problem with this way of constructing a “self,” an identity, is it’s probably based on misinterpretations and a good deal of self-deceit.

Our identities, such that they are, are complex fictions. They are a central flaw in our internal signaling system.

If your identity is large and complex, it will use a good deal of energy. As you signal internally to yourself about your identity, you will also be receiving signals from other people, and these signals will necessarily be processed by your large and complex identity. And that, of course, will lead to serious misinterpretations, both internal and external.

If you belong to a group that defines, or helps you define, your identity, you can save some energy but will have as much fiction, maybe even worse fiction.

Consider the codes of group behavior (group signaling)  for Stalin’s NKVD officers who purged so many millions of innocents in the 1930s. All of those officers had identities that were largely determined by signals coming from the NKVD and Joseph Stalin.

There was a weird sort of ethical behavior among those officers in that they were trying to adhere to a group signaling system and not go their own way. This same problem in less serious form can be observed all over the world in every culture.

One problem with ethics and ethical signaling within groups is ethical questions can be difficult. There are few formulas that will always work, and formulas are what hold groups together.

Back to your identity. I hope it is clear that you have to be careful when you base your identity on group signaling systems. If you are a banker, you might do many bad things out of loyalty to your group. Same for all of us.

While ethics are hard to codify, the will to behave ethically is simpler. I want to do the right thing but I don’t always know what it is or how to do it. That is a good statement to make. If you can honestly say that to yourself, that is good because that means that your internal signaling system is seeking greater integrity, great clarity.

When we seek clarity and integrity within our signaling systems, we are seeking better ethics. We are changing our identities, or allowing our identities to be transformed by a higher desire for clarity, purity, integrity, goodness.

When we seek to improve our signaling systems, our ethics, we begin to abandon static identities and poorly constructed fictions about ourselves by subjecting them to a higher order of thought. If we can take a meta-position on ourselves, we will find the process of improving signaling is easier and more enjoyable than clinging to a static fictionalized identity that may have been constructed years before.

first posted July 24, 2013