vanoosa

wisdom slop

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@canister_queen https://t.co/X6XVnWgyRs

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@stoliglobalese @Thomasdelvasto_ i said “more”! both are good, but most meditators would benefit from allocating some of their sitting hours to other practices

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

https://t.co/WFlIHe6Uck

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

new post: i write about choosing a meditation path from my extremely unbiased vantage point of having already chosen one

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

i thought i was good at feeling my anger because i got angry often, and wondered why it didn't stop me from lashing out. turns out that getting angry AT others requires dissociating from the anger up until the moment it becomes impossible to ignore

[Joe Hudson @FU_joehudson]

Years of working with anger, summarized on one page.

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@stoliglobalese @Thomasdelvasto_ i said “more”! both are good, but most meditators would benefit from allocating some of their sitting hours to other practices

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

most meditators would be better off doing more "relative" inner work (therapy, dance, bodywork, journaling)

only a healthy, capable self can survive its destruction

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

buddhism often draws a distinction between relative vs absolute truth. relatively, we live in a world of objects and selves; in the absolute sense, everything is empty of real, independent substance.

typically, "relative work" aims at building up a healthy psychological self, which is still necessary and good even if from the absolute perspective there is no such thing

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@vimtor ime meditation strongly invites in whatever is present, especially what's being avoided. then the usual mechanisms used for dissociating from what's unpleasant no longer work, so meditation feels difficult

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

conversely, most people deep in relative inner work would be better off doing more meditation

you are so much more than just your feelings, exquisite and sacred as they may be

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@CaryHawkins_ tldr: i think it ends up being fine for most people, just not beginners. i actually think it's a great container if your practice is decently far along enough to debug yourself. i just think the downside for some is asymmetrically bad, and it's hard to predict ahead of time

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

my first blog post! in which i use all my PTO on meditation retreats and learn a few things along the way

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@CaryHawkins_ i still came away having benefited greatly, but the message i got at the end of the retreat was "if you don't practice 2+ hours a day you're wasting your time". this was pretty demoralizing to hear

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@richardludlow @ArtirKel banger

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

the two practices that reliably *work* for me are zhan zhuang and ecstatic dance, but i keep doing silent sitting practice because those don't feel like Real Meditation

[Guy @nosilverv]

follow me on discord for insights such as this

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@ArtirKel poast the rest of your stack and let's compare

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

the self is just one very long game of telephone

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@LukeSallmen 🥹

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

https://t.co/TkqPk87qgU

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

@ArtirKel no, my unopened copy of root verses on the middle way has been sitting on my desk for months lol

i also just got back from a month of retreat so the vibe is head empty no thinky, just see the emptiness directly bro

[vanoosa @vanoooosa]

in retrospect, the idea that "all traditions are ultimately pointing to the same Truth" was a misleading mind virus that set back my practice enormously