[krzat]

Interesting to see this here, without any context attached. I've been practicing loving kindness meditation for a few months now and the results have been incredible.

I'm atheist, pretty sure reincarnation is bullshit, but the method described in this sutta works. In mundane terms, you can train your brain to be happier and more joyful by those simple visualizations.

I'm not quite sure what is the role of spreading kindness in all directions, perhaps it somehow ties our perception of space and time, which is always present, with good feelings - what fires together, wires together - making them more likely to appear in future.

[roenxi]

> I'm atheist, pretty sure reincarnation is bullshit...

It is fairly easy to conclude that existence is bullshit. The evidence is that the whole world is a soup of atoms and any particular group of atoms that believes it is distinct from the rest is just confused.

If that makes sense to you, then either you don't exist now and you won't exist again ... or you do exist now and you will exist again. Or, to repeat that with different words, if you exist now you will reincarnate later. This perspective meshes extremely neatly with Buddhist philosophy. Although the idea that people can remember past lives is highly suspect.

[kajumix]

I have fantasized about a secular technological possibility for reincarnation (or afterlife). It's not outrageous nowadays to consider a future tech that allows taking a backup of your brain and restoring it later in a compute substrate other than your brain. The effect would be you waking up with your memories and personality in some other place out in the far future. Now, perhaps, our brain is being constantly backed up in the nature. Perhaps, if physics gets to the bottom of everything, we can travel far enough out into outer space in an instant, and look back at the brains of people on earth as they were an arbitrarily long time ago when light bounced off of them to reach that far out, and that with insane optical zoom and perfect neural resolution, so they can restore them? Whether you wake up in a hell or a heaven, is another question.

[nico]

Checkout the movie The Creator for a dystopian (or at least disturbing) use of that technology

[garyfirestorm]

> I've been practicing loving kindness meditation

how do you get started with this? any particular resource? what do you exactly do when practicing this meditation?

[krzat]

This should answer your question: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course

First impression may not be great. It's kind of cringey at first. It helps to think about this on biological level - there are parts of brain that give meaning to our lives, and this is how we train them.

[grahamplace]

Any recommendations for where to start learning?

[tangent-man]

It is said there are 3 jewels in 'Buddhism' the Buddha, the Dhamma (The Teachings - the so called laws of nature/reality) and the Sangha.

The word Sangha gets bandied about like nobodies business these days.. and nobody seems to care either.. talk about cultural appropriation! In my opinion westerners who are not ordained and are not true aupasikas have no right to use this word, but alas they do, in droves. I think in this context it means Maha-Sangha .. that is 8 pairs or individuals 4 types of special people:

Supatipanno Bhagavato sāvakasaṅgho. Ujupatipanno bhagavato sāvakasaṅgho. Ñāyapatipanno bhagavato sāvakasaṅgho. Sāmīcipatipanno bhagavato sā- vakasaṅgho. Yadidaṁ cattāri purisayugāni aṭṭha purisapuggalā esa bhagavato sāvakasaṅgho. Āhuneyyo. Pāhuneyyo. Dakkhineyyo. Anjalikaranīyo. Anuttaraṁ puññakkhettaṁ lokassā’ti.

Of pure conduct is the Order of Disciples of the Blessed One. Of upright conduct is the Order of Disciples of the Blessed One. Of wise conduct is the Order of Disciples of the Blessed One. Of generous conduct is the Order of Disciples of the Blessed One. Those four pairs of persons, the eight kinds of individuals, that is the Order of Disciples of the Blessed One. They are worthy of offerings. They are worthy of hospitality. They are worthy of gifts. They are worthy of reverential salutations. The incomparable field of merit for the world.

That is where to start in my opinion. find the true Sangha. there are millions of Buddhist Monks, especially in Asia. I have heard though unfortunately there are only a few thousand perhaps, a handful, practising the true way now. That sadly is the times we are living in. The end of days.. But that is where to start in my opinion. Good luck finding them.

_/!\_

[jbgt]

Two very nice meditation teachers, very skilled. They practice and teach for many years, long time based in Thailand. I like their approach of Compassionate Understanding, compared with some of the more achievement minded approaches we find often in Buddhism in the West.

rosemary-steve.org

[passion__desire]

HN crowd would love Daniel Ingram and his teachings.

https://www.integrateddaniel.info/

https://www.ecstaticintegration.org/p/daniel-ingram-on-emerg...

[nico]

His book is essentially meditation/realization for overachievers. It is almost the opposite of Zen

If you take everything as a task to be done and life as goals to achieve, then that might be a good book

Otherwise Reddit’s /r/meditation, /r/streamentry or just the Calm app might be better starting points

[passion__desire]

He is good for theory and without all the woo woo that comes with such traditions.

[nico]

That’s true, the book is very secular and maybe the most scientific you can get about the topics and practices discussed

[passion__desire]

I still find myself going back to Ram Dass and Alan Watts. There is magic in their experiences which shows in their storytelling. They know very well the limits of their experiences. There is a talk in which Ram Dass is telling story about his Guru and at the same time deconstructing it in a funny way.

[krzat]

Here is a good starting point: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course

[thenobsta]

Big fan of TWIM. I've tried several methods and TWIM seems to work super well with my brain.

[uberstuber]

There's a wonderful group that meets every Saturday to practice and discuss: https://tasshin.com/metta-squad/

[m_a_g]

If you’re new to meditation, then I can highly recommend “Waking Up”.