Best Of
Switching to Kagi for search
I found this article
https://daringfireball.net/2025/04/try_switching_to_kagi
Really interesting, not only for its talk about how Kagi is a better form of internet search, but also why Google and DuckDuckGo do not work well anymore. Spoiler, it has to do with money. Kagi is a subscription based search engine, so makes no money off ads or merchandise sales, which is why it can afford to produce better search results.
Jeroen
Re: Tonglen
@redapple said:
Hi guys,Does anyone practice Tonglen here? If so, how often do you do it? Please can you share your experiences of it?
Thanks!!
Yes.As a formal cushion practice every now and again, and every day when I hear of or see others suffering, there’s a wish to take on their pain and a genuine hope they find peace of mind, free from all the mental and physical distress they’re carrying.
However, I do find it more difficult when I see those who have caused suffering now going through it themselves. The wish is still there, but the feeling behind it isn’t as strong. It doesn’t come with the same force
Shoshin1
Re: Mastodon
You can join and run Mastodon from anywhere. Even the garden if you have internet connection
https://fedi.garden/
I warn you it is very different AND I am even stranger there than here...
You have been warned 
lobster
Re: Have you ever witnessed an exorcism ritual??
Have you ever witnessed an exorcism ritual??
On a more serious note:
Yes through meditation. Transforming one’s own mind by confronting internal demons like greed, anger, and delusion is a form of self-exorcism. These unwholesome negative energies possess the mind and cloud perception.
Shoshin1
Re: My Dharma practice today
My Dharma practice today:
As an ally to most, I now realise we are all one gender.
Wo!
We of course are not safe, until all are safe, especially younglings.Home made, wholemeal pizza today
- Was kind to one more thing/person
- Did not go to X-tian Church despite the Mince pie yearnings...
- Prayed to Alien goddesses and Amitabha
- Ate strawberries and cream as a devotee
- Provided food to local animals
- Gently berated myself for not being more Bodhi
- Posted image of fossilized raindrops
Am I doing good yet?
lobster
Re: Purity and Nuance
Interesting. I find that much of my understanding is devoted to boiling nuanced concepts down into simple-yet-deep principles that are easy to grasp. I appreciate purity and as the ai says ‘foundational values’ as things that I hold in high esteem. I don’t like thinking in opposites or contradictory pairs, it seems to me to create a lot of friction in the mind if you do that.
From a Buddhist standpoint I feel purity is a core value, something important to the path. The whole idea of the Eightfold Path is based on purity in view (right view), livelihood (right livelihood), and so on. Letting go, renouncing is the other side of purity, to get rid of stuff you don’t need.
Jeroen
Re: Some delusions that come from meditation
I think this is more an opinion about spirituality than fact. Like more a belief of how we should be in the world rather than a delusion.
- An excessive love of peace and quiet, to the point of no longer being able to function around ordinary people.
Speaking for myself, my experience is that people have a hard time being around me more than I do them because I don't fit the mold. Occasionally I'll find myself at a party and get in a conversation, everyone is in an excited sort of mood and then the vibe settles down and it gets weird.
- An unwillingness to engage in society, to the point of refusing to work together for political issues, doing charitable work, or, being a useful member of the community.
Sure, yeah we are always tied in with society and its important to give back. During Buddha's time he had his monks go to society to collect alms and offer teachings.
- A belief in the ultimate metaphysical importance of “spiritual things”: for example, believing that simply meditating for long periods of time makes the world a better place all by itself.
"All by itself" does a lot of work here. Doing spiritual work is like filling the cup, creating a place from which to operate. Not sure how many people have been to a monastery that radiates peace, where the feeling is palpable? My view is that these sorts of places are important to spread the value of spirituality.
- Becoming obsessed with teaching what you have learned through meditation to other people,
- whether or not they are capable of, or even interested in, learning it.
Yep, its important to meet people where they are. I think about planting seeds or offering information that may help move someone one inch closer to a healthy life than convincing them right now to drop everything and become a monk. To walk a spiritual path people need to come to it of their own accord through understanding or hope. By letting our own light shine we give others permission to do the same. And social effects transfer not only to people we directly interact with, studies of this effect show it passes as much as twice more, three degrees of separation. By offering our own drop and through the collective effort of others walking a spiritual path an impact is made.
- Becoming addicted to altered states of consciousness and losing the ability to function in the world of ordinary people.
Addicted, what does that mean in this scenario? Is a hermit addicted to spirituality? It doesn't seem like enlightenment is a thing in the author's world. A difference in metaphysical world view about what is and how it all works. Like a monastery radiating peace, I've met spiritual teachers who do the same. These sorts of beings impact the world in a positive way that the kind person working at a food shelter doesn't.
person