f(x) = x is the identity function

It is the opposite of the tat tvam asi

f(x) = U 

Is the tat tvam asi of functions. 

Confusing and potentially useless at this level

 the universe be like one soul pulsating in and out of existence

lesser individual souls dot its surface like pimples on a golf ball

grating against the universe

tathagathagarba

I used to post links from reddit. now I have upgraded (or not ?)

you're shallow because you don't talk about anything but only deal in what is present, manifest, expedient. no planning no discussing ideas concepts etc

i'm less because i deal only in thought-forms, ideas, ... and am less worried about the real world

 steven pressfields novel writing guidelines from derek sivers' book notes

1. every story must have a concept

2.  every story must follow a theme

3.  every story must have a hero

4.  every story must have a villain

5. every story is in 3 parts - hook, buildup, payoff. also known as inciting incident, escalation, climax

6. every story follows the hero's journey

 - hero lives in ordinary world

- hero receives call , rejects call, finds mentor, mentor gives courage, hero accepts call

- hero crosses threshold, enters special world

- hero meets allies, enemies, undergoes ordeals which serve as initiation 

- hero confronts villain, acquires treasure

- hero takes the road back

- villain(s) pursue hero, more fight

- hero returns home with treasure, rejoins ordinary world

additional rules

- only hero's mental workings are visible

- the physical world and events is the plot

- show-don't-tell  

references : 

https://sive.rs/book/NobodyWants

https://sive.rs/book/ArtistsJourney

My name is Roger

I used to live in <county>. Once I got myself a police scanner.

After listening in for no more than ten minutes, I quickly understood that the police were interested in me too much for my own good.  I had better move towns.

 

 narrative causality

if a thing is mentioned as normal or no worrry it becomes abnormal or worry

like normal distribution, seeing heads implies non-heads will show up

heads and tails showing up implies non-heads-tails will show up, giving rise to the whole infinite galaxy between 2-6 sigma

went on a trip wrote a story received email from caretaker about child ghost

 how is it that we are living in the best of times but a country like venezuela with so much oil still has poor people ? ditto for any other resource rich country ...

looks like it may be the best of times but the best is not very good...

".. There are no longer natural famines in the world; there are only political famines....." Yuval Noah Harari

the human race has proved itself incapable of governing itself or providing a decent minimum living conditions for all. the writing is on the wall

it's time to let the robots take over

autofac

 forever, not even touching the real business of my life

i charade, waiting for ...

 An electron is not a thing

But more a poke that 

Tightens a spring

And voltage be the hand that pokes

Unlike typical force

Electron like marbles flows

Down the wire and we call it current

We tilt at windmills

Because we can

i bet that at one time,  yeast was like the 'bleeding edge product' of the fungi family, able to do what they did and move about

 the week is a fractal of the year. 

this is the garden of the mind. seeds of interest, passion, ambition, joy are already placed

 the idea is to do every week, in principle, in spirit, in miniature, in symbol, or even in effigy, what one wants to have done a lot of at the end of the year. 

thus one waters and nourishes the blooms, keeps the tender shoots green

these form the actions which become habits which eventually become the self

you are what you practice

Vipassana, Anapanasati, Zazen, Shine/Lhagthong etc are like programming languages

when combined with systems knowledge, and a huge volume of programs written , varying in complexity and application,  it adds up to something like skill/ virtue,  and accomplishment

   ** sooner you pick one, sooner you can ride it out the gate, and the ride is long  **

 i am but an inn, a lodge

a traveller with me stays

when he passes on where he goes, 

i wonder 

are these his hands or mine typing this 

is he, or but a sliver of light

part of infinite starlight ?

who will answer us these

while we wait for the joy, the music 

amidst concrete, ideas, and promises

 the beauty of India is it is crowded enough that self selection happens, but large enough that there is much variation, which self-selects and takes over a center or two, but bounded enough that no one can leave, so the various variegated self-selected groups have to develop tolerance and protocol to interact, hence both profiting. the mountains and sea ensure homogenity (indian) and the vast space ensures variety (castes languages crops diets, weather, culture, seafaring traders, on-camel traders ...etc)

that is why india is a rich melting pot , and the diet usually follows

 the most dangerous villains or enemies are not terribly different beasts, but they are almost the same as you, with just one wrong minus sign somewhere in the calculations..

i think i understand this god thing

the first god was death. the prayer was 'don't kill me!'

the second god was to preserve the soul while the body died and give good rebirth

the third god was to free the soul from rebirth itself

then buddhism came and said we don't need gods, just meditation will do

tibetan religion is shamanism with a buddhist adapter on top

best part is the shamanism still works

tibetan shamanism and kashmiri shaivism came at the same time ?

this form of religion involves deities worship,  invoking deities, etc 

tibetan book of the dead documents bardos

a bit south-east, garuda purana appears with a similar storyline

similar stories, logically made whole, to satisfy the brain ?

at some time, something happened, then buddhism, Patanjali's yoga, emerged. 

someone said religion is the opium of the masses. 

then they discovered anandamide. 

vedanta named it sat-chit-ananda. - what you get at the end of successful practice and 'deliverance' - eternal bliss

buddhist texts list  'blissful breath' as one of the milestones on the way to deliverance

bhakti traditions report devotees lost in bliss and dancing with joy , as a typical effect of the practice

so...

hinduism moved from fire sacrifices, to deity worship inside the house, and then to chanting and meditation - actually, hinduism still has it all, it hasn't 'moved from' , rather it has 

the insanely pragmatic japanese don't hold much with  blissing. zen practice is reported to quieten the noise in your head, the constant replay of past, simulations, scenarios ....  gallwey came up with a hack for this for tennis but zen supposed goes the whole hog

btw, sadhoos go into a soundless light less cave/ room and fast and meditate for eons, and come back regenerated (not rejuvenated) . apparently the stem cells kick in ? 

sadhguru probably refers to this as  inner engineering

my favourite, and most delicious 'conspiracy theory' comes from terry pratchett's 'thief of time' - which says the universe is created anew and destroyed in every 'tick'

 in this era economics and psychology are indistinguishable

business at the speed of thought has happened ?

someone's reading percy jackson. 

sora made this -

Thus the hero of the Odyssey is a great fighter, a wily schemer, a ready speaker, a man of stout heart and broad wisdom who knows that he must endure without too much complaining what the gods send; and he can both build and sail a boat, drive a furrow as straight as anyone, beat a young braggart at throwing the discus, challenge the Pheacian youthat boxing, wrestling or running; flay, skin, cut up and cook an ox, and be moved to tears by a song. He is in fact an excellent all-rounder; he has surpassing areté.

Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

(the book that started the eternal confusion. it talks about zen but it means arete, but then the specific type of excellence of skill with mind, which brings us back to zen....)

Pirsig is underrated. He plumbs both zen and greek philosophy with ease and aplomb, adds a dash of tao and dharma, and wiz-bang - unifies all of them into one twisted loop whose inside is outside and the restaurant is at the end of the universe and all. Problem with reading Pirsig is that it sits in your deeps so that whatever you come across is just a replay of something you've already read in these pages, but haven't internalised-to-action yet, so _you_ stream across life surreally, instead of the other way round...

but wait, there's more ....

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. 

Robert A. Heinlein

 with all these hindu pushups 

and stormtrooper workouts

my heart seems to have found

 a voice

it would like to sing

until tears come