UnicornLaw

BTC early adopter went underground to study law. Re-emerged as a baby attorney ready to make magic and break rules!!! 🦄✨🌊☀️

[☽☉☾ @solelunastro]

10H Jupiter people may have a strong need for social & professional recognition. It’s likely that they put energy into building a positive reputation for themselves by spreading positivity, enthusiasm, and sharing their wisdom with others. You can read my full interpretations of Jupiter in the houses (7-12) here: https://t.co/C2Ma6Ekz68

[Akemi Takahashi @takahashinakemi]

Unveiling the Mystical World of Nehan-gyo: A Journey into the Heart of Korean Buddhism

Introduction

In the rich tapestry of Korean Buddhism, few practices hold as much reverence and spiritual significance as Nehan-gyo, or the "Nirvana" ceremony. This ancient ritual, deeply rooted in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, commemorates the life and teachings of the Buddha, culminating in his final enlightenment and passing into Nirvana. In this article, we will delve into the essence of Nehan-gyo, exploring its history, symbolism, and the profound impact it has on the lives of its practitioners.

The Origins and Significance of Nehan-gyo

Nehan-gyo traces its origins back to the 7th century CE, when Buddhism was first introduced to the Korean peninsula. The ceremony itself is a fusion of Korean and Chinese Buddhist traditions, reflecting the unique cultural and spiritual landscape of the region.

At its core, Nehan-gyo celebrates the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, who lived and taught in ancient India. The ceremony is a reminder of the Four Noble Truths, which form the foundation of Buddhist philosophy:

The truth of suffering (Dukkha)
The truth of the cause of suffering (Samudaya)
The truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha)
The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

Through the teachings of the Buddha, practitioners are encouraged to follow the Noble Eightfold Path, which leads to enlightenment and liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth.

Key Elements of the Nehan-gyo Ceremony

The Nehan-gyo ceremony is a multi-faceted event, involving various rituals and practices that embody the core principles of Buddhism. Some key elements include:

The Buddha's Life: The ceremony begins with a retelling of the Buddha's life, from his birth as Prince Siddhartha to his enlightenment and eventual passing into Nirvana. This narrative serves as a reminder of the impermanence of life and the importance of pursuing spiritual liberation.
The Three Jewels: Practitioners take refuge in the Three Jewels of Buddhism – the Buddha, the Dharma (teachings), and the Sangha (community of practitioners). This act of devotion signifies their commitment to the path of enlightenment.
The Five Precepts: Participants also take a vow to uphold the Five Precepts of Buddhism, which serve as a moral and ethical code for daily life. These precepts include refraining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxication.
Meditation: Meditation plays a crucial role in the Nehan-gyo ceremony, as it allows practitioners to focus their minds and cultivate inner peace. Through meditation, one can develop a deeper understanding of the Buddha's teachings and progress along the path to enlightenment.
Offerings: Devotees make offerings to the Buddha, such as incense, flowers, and food. These offerings symbolize gratitude and respect for the Buddha's teachings and serve as a reminder of the impermanence of all things.

Conclusion

Nehan-gyo is a deeply spiritual and transformative ceremony that offers a profound insight into the heart of Korean Buddhism. Through its rich symbolism and powerful rituals, the ceremony serves as a reminder of the impermanence of life and the importance of pursuing the path to enlightenment. As we delve into the world of Nehan-gyo, we gain a greater understanding of the teachings of the Buddha and the profound impact they have on the lives of those who follow them.

[Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D. @hubermanlab]

This is the Yoga Nidra I have done 1-7X per week since 2017. (No affiliation) I also have a 10 min, and 20min one. But this one is a staple. Zero cost of course. https://t.co/rJXObEmvlE

[🪬📿Alchemilie 📿🪬 @Emmijen]

v e n u s i s i n s c o r p i o 🦂

venus is in scorpio for her first fixed sign transit w/o major affliction since 2020 !!!!!

btwn saturn in aquarius bullying the rest of the fixed axis, the south node haunting scorpio until late July THIS YEAR and a grueling venus rx thru fixed leo- the fixed signs have been without true venusian blessing for a long while 🥴

tbh, after the last three years no one could blame you for running a more jaded script than ever in the scorpio subjects of your life.

unyielding trust issues? apathy where passion once lived? fear of deep exploration and a stubborn refusal to leave the shallows for new scorpionic adventures? TIME TO GIVE IT TO VENUS

it's time to come alive again and drop (at least a few) acquired defense mechanisms in favor of raw, transformative connection in whatever scorpio rules for you

and this is not just connection to other people. think BIGGER. passionate connection to our Works, re- connection to our Dreams, a new connection to Life and the wonder of it All ✨

so no you won’t be getting be saccharine sweet + dignified venus, willing to compromise at every bend and overindulging in simple, easily attained pleasures. this is going to be so, so much better than that.

i t ‘ s g o i n g t o b e S A C R E D

[Elizabeth Meagher @lizmstate]

This square can be likened to a tug of war where Venus' gentle influence on love, values, and connection clashes with Pluto's intense call for change, power, and rebirth. Individuals with this aspect and relationships often experience a rollercoaster of emotional depths, facing

[Spiritual GPS Service @AstroCounselVik]

Venus is finally home!!

After navigating through its debilitation sign, Virgo, where it also encountered the hermit Ketu, Venus is now in Libra.

Expect more harmony and social ease.

Time to surround yourself with aesthetically pleasing environments.

[𝔟𝔯𝔲𝔧𝔞 𝔫𝔢𝔤𝔯𝔞 @labrujxnegra]

protection herbs

Rosemary - one of the most versatile magical herbs, its narrow spiky leaves tells of this plants protective quality. Rosemary wards off negative energy, when grown outside your home it prevents negative energy from crossing your threshold. It can be burned to purify and protect your space

[UmiJenevieve @UmiJenevieve]

Jupiter in Taurus

With Jupiter being in Taurus.

Let’s talk about the most resourcefully blessed placement you’ll ever find.

Moon in Taurus.

When you want to meet a prodigy in attaining resources.

They are it.

[Million Dollar Hypnotist @JulietCObodo]

Oh my goodness I love this question:

How Hypnosis Works (thread)

[Anthony Vicino @AnthonyVicino]

24 simple truths I never want to forget:

[UnicornLaw @UnicornsLLP]

@theraleighwill Launch

[maneesha @ManeeshaSem]

goddesses in every woman-the 7 divine feminine archetypes.

each of these goddess archetypes are all enchanting & beautiful in their own unique ways. most women deeply resonate with 1 or 2 goddesses but women can embody different archetypes depending on where they are in life.

[zae @itszaeok]

halle bailey was MOTHER here. PREGNANT with talent and ambition. i love the PICS from this night too

[Nature is Amazing ☘️ @AMAZlNGNATURE]

Even turtles can be passenger princesses

[Sam Hogan 🇺🇸 @samhogan]

6 months ago it looked like AI / LLMs were going to bring a much needed revival to the venture startup ecosystem after a few tough years.

With companies like Jasper starting to slow down, it’s looking like this may not be the case.

Right now there are 2 clear winners, a handful of losers, and a small group of moonshots that seem promising.

Let’s start with the losers.

Companies like Jasper and the VCs that back them are the biggest losers right now. Jasper raised >$100M at a 10-figure valuation for what is essentially a generic, thin wrapper around OpenAI. Their UX and brand are good, but not great, and competition from companies building differentiated products specifically for high-value niches are making it very hard to grow with such a generic product. I’m not sure how this pans out but VC’s will likely lose their money.

The other category of losers are the VC-backed teams building at the application layer that raised $250K-25M in Dec - March on the back of the chatbot craze with the expectation that they would be able to sell to later-stage and enterprise companies. These startups typically have products that are more focused than something very generic like Jasper, but still don't have a real technology moat; the products are easy to copy.

Executives at enterprise companies are excited about AI, and have been vocal about this from the beginning. This led a lot of founders and VC's to believe these companies would make good first customers. What the startups building for these companies failed to realize is just how aligned and savvy executives and the engineers they manage would be at quickly getting AI into production using open-source tools. An engineering leader would rather spin up their own @langchain and @trychroma infrastructure for free and build tech themselves than buy something from a new, unproven startup (and maybe pick up a promotion along the way).

In short, large companies are opting to write their own AI success stories rather than being a part of the growth metrics a new AI startup needs to raise their next round.

(This is part of an ongoing shift in the way technology is adopted; I'll discuss this in a post next week.)

This brings us to our first group of winners — established companies and market incumbents. Most of them had little trouble adding AI into their products or hacking together some sort of "chat-your-docs" application internally for employee use. This came as a surprise to me. Most of these companies seemed to be asleep at the wheel for years. They somehow woke up and have been able to successfully navigate the LLM craze with ample dexterity.

There are two causes for this:
1. Getting AI right is a life or death proposition for many of these companies and their executives; failure here would mean a slow death over the next several years. They can't risk putting their future in the hands of a new startup that could fail and would rather lead projects internally to make absolutely sure things go as intended.
2. There is a certain amount of kick-ass wafting through halls of the C-Suite right now. Ambitious projects are being green-lit and supported in ways they weren't a few years ago. I think we owe this in part to @elonmusk reminding us of what is possible when a small group of smart people are highly motivated to get things done. Reduce red-tape, increase personal responsibility, and watch the magic happen.

Our second group of winners live on the opposite side of this spectrum; indie devs and solopreneurs. These small, often one-man outfits do not raise outside capital or build big teams. They're advantage is their small size and ability to move very quickly with low overhead. They build niche products for niche markets, which they often dominate. The goal is build a saas product (or multiple) that generates ~$10k/mo in relatively passive income. This is sometimes called "mirco-saas."

These are the @levelsio's and @dannypostma's of the world. They are part software devs, part content marketers, and full-time modern internet businessmen. They answer to no one except the markets and their own intuition.

This is the biggest group of winners right now. Unconstrained by the need for a $1B+ exit or the goal of $100MM ARR, they build and launch products in rapid-fire fashion, iterating until PMF and cashflow, and moving on to the next. They ruthlessly shutdown products that are not performing.

LLMs and text-to-image models a la Stable Diffusion have been a boon for these entrepreneurs, and I personally know of dozens of successful (keeping in mind their definition of successful) apps that were started less than 6 months ago. The lifestyle and freedom these endeavors afford to those that perform well is also quite enticing.

I think we will continue to see the number of successful micro-saas AI apps grow in the next 12 months. This could possibly become one of the biggest cohorts creating real value with this technology.

The last group I want to talk about are the AI Moonshots — companies that are fundamentally re-imagining an entire industry from the ground up. Generally, these companies are VC-backed and building products that have the potential to redefine how a small group of highly-skilled humans interact with and are assisted by technology. It's too early to tell if they'll be successful or not; early prototypes have been compelling. This is certainly the most exciting segment to watch.

A few companies I would put in this group are:
1. https://t.co/VA35Jn2sti - an AI-first code editor that could very well change how software is written.
2. https://t.co/DdZYB0H7Hq - AI for legal practices
3. https://t.co/ppAFpUNSHo - an AI-powered video editor

This is an incomplete list, but overall I think the Moonshot category needs to grow massively if we're going to see the AI-powered future we've all been hoping for.

If you're a founder in the $250K-25M raised category and are having a hard time finding PMF for your chatbot or LLMOps company, it may be time to consider pivoting to something more ambitious.

Lets recap:
1. VC-backed companies are having a hard time. The more money a company raised, the more pain they're feeling.
2. Incumbents and market leaders are quickly become adept at deploying cutting-edge AI using internal teams and open-source, off-the-shelf technology, cutting out what seemed to be good opportunities for VC-backed startups.
3. Indie devs are building small, cash-flowing businesses by quickly shipping niche AI-powered products in niche markets.
4. A small number of promising Moonshot companies with unproven technology hold the most potential for VC-sized returns.

It's still early. This landscape will continue to change as new foundational models are released and toolchains improve. I'm sure you can find counter examples to everything I've written about here. Put them in the comments for others to see.

And just to be upfront about this, I fall squarely into the "raised $250K-25M without PMF" category. If you're a founder in the same boat, I'd love to talk. My DMs are open.

If you enjoyed this post, don't forget to follow me, Sam Hogan. I share one long-form post per week covering AI, startups, open-source, and more.

That's all folks! Thanks for reading. See you next week.

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

Being on the internet always reminds me:

There is so much pain and suffering in this world.

If you are in pain. If you feel hate. If you are suffering.

Let love in.

Submit to love. Don't be afraid. Let it wash over you.

Let your pain out. It will escape in wracking spasms. It will escape in tears. It will escape in sobs punctuated by belly laughter.

You will wonder how you ever could have expected to fight love for so long?

You will wonder how you ever could have hardened yourself against the most powerful force in existence.

Your suffering will be pierced by a deep connection to Humanity and to all Creation.

You will awaken to realize a dormant, longed-for connection to Oneness.

In that connection and wholeness it you will find peace.

Perhaps this is gibberish to you. Perhaps you find it irrational. Perhaps this is all too "religious" or "woo woo."

Perhaps you are committed to fighting love. Perhaps you are committed to hatred.

Then pay me no mind.

But for those who read these words and are willing even for a moment to let love in, speak these words:

May I feel love.

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering.

And in turn I say to you:

May you feel love.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.

🙏

[J. @Tupetty_Shakur]

@Black_Daria1 He also warned about A.I. and the internets influence.

[Romeen Sheth @RomeenSheth]

Principle #2: Optionality caps your downside AND your upside

As you progress in your career, skill is more attractive than the promise of potential.

This shift can be painful - it happens very suddenly.

Sacrifice optionality early, so you can get more of it later.