ftlsid

basically everyone is confused about whether they’re trying to obtain an outcome in the real world, or whether they’re just trying to feel better in a roundabout way

also I think posts like the quoted one are popular because the idea of spirituality is destabilizing to most people, who have implicitly accepted the promise of reality - be good, work hard and you will be rewarded. Some people wholeheartedly believe this, others are angry because it’s not true, but true freedom comes from completely leaving that idea behind. It turns out that the maximum well-being available is obtained through exotic techniques that alter the way the mind perceives reality. To realize this is to lose your trust in everything society told you about life. It’s easier to criticize spirituality and reaffirm your commitment to the external world than to accept that your whole way of thinking might be rotten

if we evolved to function optimally in the natural world then our intuitive world model should closely match the actual nature of the natural world. but the intuitive model is animistic, and has a lot of other subtle oddities. so either the world actually is animistic, or the model is wrong

Basically… predictive processing is the idea that predicting the future is the primary thing that the brain does; even actions are derived from predicting the outcome or process of the action. enlightenment is the absence of most or all priors, so prediction mostly stops happening. priors influence actions and thoughts in incredibly subtle ways, and so these priors seem to interact with the external world supernaturally or mystically. This leads to the idea of the tao. No comment on whether or not there is anything supernatural going on The practice of Jungian psychology and active imagination directly cultivates the attitude that dissolves priors and avoids the formation of new ones. Meditation does the same. No grasping, no clinging, no aversion, no judgment, no desire (jury is out on whether desire goes away fully; it hasn’t for me)

being able to tell when people are engaging seriously with reality and when it's just theater is very important, because almost everything is theater and little ever comes of it except temporary social points

nearly everyone is in a mode where they have fixed goals and are working out the best strategies and techniques to attain them. this subjects you to optimization, which places many restrictions on you and makes your life more predictable and stable. if instead you investigate the goals themselves, ask why you have a particular goal, and figure out if you can loosen or drop it, then you go in the opposite direction. you obtain more freedom, unexpected things happen, and life tends to become exciting. personally I value freedom the most so I practice letting go of things religiously, but regardless of which orientation you prefer (attaining goals or freedom) this is a useful relationship to keep in mind

it's important to really believe in yourself because otherwise your subconscious will quietly hedge your bets