corbin

brown univ // my hyperfixation is that deep okayness seems to be tractable

[corbin @corbindreams]

made a diagram to organize some thoughts

[corbin @corbindreams]

@qualiakiwi check dm

[corbin @corbindreams]

@AskYatharth very very very relatable

[corbin @corbindreams]

@nosilverv @qualiakiwi this is amazing

[corbin @corbindreams]

@chrislakin @marcin_kw LOL

[corbin @corbindreams]

self-therapy without equanimity seems like trying to refactor a codebase but there's no helpful documentation (or even anti-helpful comments) + also btw each read/write comes with taking a scary cold shower

[corbin @corbindreams]

it seems like self-therapy without equanimity is like debugging your tennis serve technique or refactoring an n-dimensional tower of hanoi but you’re too afraid to actually look at any of it

[corbin @corbindreams]

@nosilverv does this mean ill see you on michael’s pod soon

[corbin @corbindreams]

@nosilverv whoa

[corbin @corbindreams]

@AskYatharth i think ive said this before but i really enjoy how you articulate things

it feels very direct and true (and relatable)

[corbin @corbindreams]

im curious what specific parts of these traditions you personally resonate with and want to see more people “steep” in

i imagine that even if modern pedagogy took care of the minor risks + major risks + made sure to go not too slow / not too fast, you’d still advocate that people should pause and steep in certain stages/states/areas of the path — id love to hear examples

[corbin @corbindreams]

@ascetic_shadow ahh okay i can totally see that

[corbin @corbindreams]

@AlexKrusz @Plus3Happiness super agree

[corbin @corbindreams]

@maxkshen reminds me of:

[corbin @corbindreams]

yeah i agree

see: the history of germ theory, and how long it took to convince people that you need to wash your hands (it took a while!)

see: theories of diffusion of innovation (it takes a long time for innovations to culturally diffuse even if it *does* already have robustly reliable outcomes)

see: sarno back pain stuff / pain reprocessing therapy is way less woo than meditation + way more cultural legitimacy/legibility + more robust outcomes (compared to meditation) + simpler to explain + easier to practice, but there's still a really open question of how do we scale those outcomes?

i think it'll be possible but it seems very nontrivial

(i think our best hope for Universal Basic Okayness is to do enough cultural diffusion to attract the future nerds who will end up doing the neuro/bio research breakthroughs to make the equivalent of a tanha vaccine, sorta)

[corbin @corbindreams]

@dkazand @kathryndevaney omg

[corbin @corbindreams]

insight meditation as a subset of pain reprocessing therapy

[corbin @corbindreams]

@realitymap ooh just thought of this - e.g. if we're overcoming chronic pain (a very serious goal-oriented task!) using pain reprocessing therapy (very similar to vipassana / looking closely / insight meditation), we can still orient to this with play and curiosity!

https://t.co/DIh0BDa19Q

[corbin @corbindreams]

the meditation field needs more people posting about how Fun and Beautiful it is to practice

not just about the beauty of absorbing attention into incredible amounts joy/peace, and not just about how it can radically change our everyday experience and make us feel super peaceful..

there are lots of beautiful results, but we can also talk about how the process can be so beautiful too!

this is common in music and sports and friendship. theres so much talk about not just the end product but also the beauty of late nights befriending your instrument, playing with sounds, struggling with chords. there’s so much talk about not just winning a tennis game but also the beauty of befriending the ball and the pleasure of swinging a racket. there’s so much talk about not just finally becoming best friends but also the beauty of doing the fun dance of small talk, getting to know someone new.

we can do the same for meditation!

i think one of the reasons people are so graspy about results is bc no one talks about how fun it can be to practice!!!!!!! it can be fun!! it can be SO fun!!!!

we can normalize this

it feels like meditation is in a phase right now where the common sentiment is to treat it like classical music — read some sheet music (instructions) and get good at playing the song like that to produce a beautiful result. do deliberate practice on your scales like a chore. have good posture.

orrrr you could be a jazz musician! you can be friends with music, listen really closely and intimately to it, and start babbling. crawl, feel, stumble. make your own sentences! doodle around! explore! befriend the playground. become comfortable! develop real conversational fluency!

i think we can make a similar shift of perspective in meditation practice, for jhana practices and insight practices and other practices!

[corbin @corbindreams]

@realitymap or, like, for example: there are fighters who fight for war and self defense etc can still totally appreciate the beauty and joy of playing around in daily practice (to some large extent)

eg im also thinking of the air force pilots depicted in top gun maverick

[corbin @corbindreams]

@maxkshen @stephen_zerfas @patrickc would love to read this preprint