#you should meditate

[brother-hermes]

WHY MEDITATE?

“One of the most elusive truths is knowledge of the self. Generally we see ourselves only through a thick veil of ego. For this reason, it is impossible to see ourselves as others see us. Through meditation, however, we can remove the veil of ego, and see ourselves with a degree of objectivity. In this manner, we can look at ourselves objectively as a third person. We are then able to see our own shortcomings and overcome them.

“The self-awareness engendered by meditation can also strengthen the ego when needed. Thus, a person with a weak self-image and feelings of inadequacy can learn to be more self-assured. He can examine his motivations and learn to become more inner-directed, doing the things he desires, and not simply what others expect of him. He can look objectively at his relationships with others and learn to improve them.

“One of the most powerful uses of meditation is to gain an awareness of the spiritual. Although we may be surrounded by a sea of spirituality, we are not usually aware of it. Spiritual sensations are quite faint and usually overshadowed by the world of the senses. Even in a state of sensory deprivation, the self-gener-ated thoughts of the mind tend to obseure spiritual sensation.

“However, if a person can quiet down all extraneous thoughts, he can then "tune in" to the spiritual. This tuning-in is what is known as the mystical experience. In this sense, meditation is the most important technique of mystics all over the world.”

-Excerpt from Jewish Meditation by Aryeh Kaplan

This is one of the best arguments for meditation I’ve ever seen. Kaplan really cuts to the core of why meditation matters.

[mellosdrawings]

Welp, the princess decided to wait for the guarantee to come. He wouldn't have escaped me anyway but he sure knows how to be desired uh.

[unopenablebox]

probably not actually the worst thing about rationalists but up there is the fact that despite their alleged hardline stem supremacy etc they are actually incredibly tolerant of/encouraging of/willing to engage with the most blatant woo self-improvement sincere-belief-in-magic shit you can imagine.

this is i think the product of some combination of bay area weirdo cultural origins (constant background probability that someone will offer you special weird meditation ideas); the fact that the original appeal of the Canonical Blog Posts is at least as much "the internal sensation of reading something that makes you feel like you're experiencing an insight" as anything, which unfortunately is easily simulated by charismatic guys pretending to be shamans who already know you're into that stuff; the specific virtue of “taking ideas seriously” taking on the meaning that you’re never allowed to dismiss someone’s special new meditation variant out of hand and uh oh now you’re doing cleansing runes in the middle of a 36 hour sleep deprivation cycle in order to remove your demon possession; and, probably less important but not irrelevant, the fact that you have to be willing to bend your brain around a bit for the ai/nanobots thing to like, slot in properly, given that it's pretty obviously a problem generated by assigning-arbitrary-big-numbers that was selected from the possible things to care about by being an obsession of the movement's founders, not through any empirical method, so there's already a uh. somewhat faith-based element. which you're pretending isn't faith-based. which can create additional problems.

also all the parts where that last bit has in practice the psychological effects of an apocalypse cult, but i acknowledge that people who happened to be right about the end of the world would also have that problem

anyway i actually just think it's a real dick move to draw people into a movement by claiming you're doing Real Hardline Serious Empiricism and then actually being so sloppy and terrible that you're exposing them to a bunch of shit that consistently makes them either believe you can do Mindhacking via Spells or convert to catholicism. both of which are pretty disastrous outcomes for a person trying to do stuff irl

[petalsthefish]

I'm here, folks, but barely hanging on as I'm exhausted and just took an extra melatonin to ensure a full night's sleep tonight.

How do you sleep with anxiety?

[interstellar-elf]

I'm pretty sure you could draw a straight line from the 1980's Satanic Panic to the creation of Project 2025, but I'm also convinced if Ronald Reagan was not president during the 80s, then the actual spread of the Satanic Panic would not have been as big as it eventually was.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

in the course of thinking about all the discussion about the gods and the concept of "well, the gods never answered my prayers" and especially upon thinking about Ashton saying that they HAVE prayed to the gods only to get no answer and that some rocks had a better response, like...

it's occurred to me that many (within the fandom, within the narrative) maybe do not really and fully grasp that there is a difference, and a massive one, between prayer and saying words in a divinity's or similar's direction

there is a sort of focused process to meaningful prayer in which one is to reflect on their intention, what they're trying to achieve or express in this moment of communion, and then make a focused and intentional articulation of that, followed by meditating on that (if you are praying to a deity as part of a petition or prayer of supplication, this is the listening portion, because you aren't supposed to just talk and then hang up). the form of prayer changes per religious tradition, ritual structure, intent of the prayer, setting, etc. but the core idea is that it involves intent, focus, and reflection.

actual and meaningful prayer—not just saying words or making a haphazard request of a god���is a focused, reflective, intentional process that asks you do to a lot of work actually. and, it is often found to be not fulfilling if one does not undertake that work.

[clueless1995]

self care has been so twisted into serving capitalism and the patriarchy it makes me sick actually

[tayloralisonswift]

i want to get better but i don’t even know how.

[non-un-topo]

Propaganda below

Summerwind

I'm considering this fic a sort of practice for an original novel I will never write. It's very heavy on the original characters and the headcanons of course, being a story about Yusuf and Nicolo and their families that spans from 1074-1099. I've mapped it out to around 7 or 8 chapters, though this could change. I'm putting a lot of historical research into it, so it's been kind of a passion-project. Will get violent and all that good dark stuff, but is also quite emotional at times. It switches POV between Yusuf and Nicolo (but I promise I will get you to fall in love with at least one of the family members). I will say I can't promise a lot of romance, as I'm expecting to end it shortly after their first deaths, besides a smidge of one-sided infatuation (guess which side hehe). We know what happens to them after 1099 anyway, lol. They live happily ever after for 900+ years.

Fool's Gold

This one has needed a ton of rewriting and still might, but it's slowly getting there. There's a bit of a mystery, though I wouldn't say it's the main genre. The QQ are fleeing an accidental crime (thank Quynh), conning their way south until they stop in Tripura, starving and penniless and full of lice. As with my other QQ mysteries, they get roped into some tense affairs that shouldn't concern them. There's a European woman who's set up a mining operation on the territory, for reasons unknown to the locals. She's promising a huge reward, though, for the person who can find this unnamed thing she's searching for. There's also a very sick population who needs the money. The QQ split up in this, and the POV switches between them all. There's conning and aliases, alchemy (well, not really, but Yusuf is pretty convincing), lepers, a badass little girl and her bratty brother you'll want to kill, and there's a slightly heavier focus on Quynh.

[s-lycopersicum]

Sometimes I feel like making a nsfw alt, but it would be mostly filled with complaints thrown at twitter artists whose approach to lewd art go against my own personal philosophies.

[baekhyuns-purple-buttplug]

My message to ray in this episode

[maladaptive-ninja-returns]

I was meditating when a thought passed my brain like a bullet…

What if the first dude asked to paint the image of God- any God- had taken one look at his neighbour and thought “why he kinda…” and proclaimed his sexy ass portrait as The One for centuries to come

[martyrbat]

batman: the knight #6 • batman annual 2022 • dc pride 2023

[ID: Three panels from separate comics to draw parallels. In the first one, Minhkhoa Khan and Bruce Wayne are fighting in the snow after their mentor, Luka, was shot dead by Minhkhoa. Minhkhoa throws him into the ground next to Luka's bloodied corpse as he tells Bruce, “Luka was a master painter... who threw his brushes away.” Bruce shouts that he's insane but Minhkhoa corrects him, “No, Bruce. I just have vision... you and I could be the greatest artists alive... (— but you're too much of a coward!”)

In the second photo, Bruce and Minhkhoa are fighting a group of armed criminals together some time in the near future. Minhkhoa has his Ghostmaker mask on that covers his upper face as Bruce wears a black mask that's similar to Zorro's. They're in the middle of a quarrel with Bruce telling Minhkhoa not to be reductive before Minhkhoa continues talking, “This is an art. An artist doesn't let someone else handle their paintbrush. We've given our life to this. You can't just bring in others and expect them to be able to do what we can.” Bruce argues, “What's the point of it if we don't help others and share what we learn?”

The third photo is a closeup on Ghostmaker's helmet after he compared a battle to a dance. His internal narration reads, ‘Some say I feel nothing. But I appreciate art. I respect it.’ END ID]

[mars-ipan]

i’m so sick of everything hurting but my liver was enlarged at the hospital and i just got off a ton of meds so i’m trying not to take any advil rn. out here rawdogging this shit so my body has a chance to heal properly. fucked up

[kaddyssammlung]

My Sleep Token Hoddie and my baby 😅

I'm working on learning the solo from "Waking the Demon" by Bullet for my Valentine. It's a lot of fun but also a lot of notes in a short time.

[binders-and-beanies]

Did my night routine for the first time in idk how many months (skin care etc) and it sucks how it used to be a crucial thing that helped hold me together, similar to many things I’ve had to give up that used to feel essential (like yoga and meditation and drawing and a morning routine) n now those are all things I do at like the end of the semester when I’ve finished my work. I forgot how much it helps my mental health just to like. Have a smooth nice smelling face n massage my top surgery scars n take a moment to appreciate my chest etc. I also did some cleaning n it sucks how cleaning one’s living space is considered a weekly necessity for a lot of people and an occasional luxury for me. But that also makes me notice more how much a cleaner space helps my mental health. I always say I can’t wait to be a person again and not just a student but every time I get to do a Damn thing for myself it’s p much spiritual bc of how rare it is these days