Whoever knows that nothing depends on anything has found ...

Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn't exist. Mortals keep creating the mind, claiming it exists. And arhats keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn't exist. But bodhisattvas and buddhas neither create nor negate the mind. This is what's meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist. The mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist is called the Middle Way. If you use your mind to study reality, you wo...

 The Mind is the Way

Someone who seeks the Way doesn't look beyond himself. He knows that the mind is the Way. But when he finds the mind, he finds nothing. And when he finds the Way, he finds nothing. If you think you can use the mind to find the Way, you're deluded. When you're deluded, buddhahood exists. When you're aware, it doesn't exist. This is because awareness is buddhahood. If you're looking for the Way, the Way won't appear until your body disappears. It's like stripping bark from a tree. This karmic ...

 Leisure is an End That Can Only Be Enjoyed Without Burdens

But even when the work ethic reigns supreme, leisure holds a potent moral valence. Although we may not have much say over how we make money, we do have a choice about what we do in our free time. If work represents is, leisure represents ought: How we choose to use it will either embody our understanding of the good life or reveal the depth of our degradation. What is time well spent? Philosophers and social critics have long pondered variations of that question and offered rather consistent ...

 The Culture that Create Abundance has Difficulty Enjoying It

All were expressing a leisure ethic: a worldview in which a preference for free time and intrinsically motivated pursuits is accompanied by an understanding of how time can best be spent. To most people today, the notion of a leisure ethic will sound foreign, paradoxical, and indeed subversive, even though leisure is still commonly associated with the good life. More than any other society in the past, ours certainly has the technology and the wealth to furnish more people with greater freedo...

 Your Productive Life is Only as Long as You Retain Your M...

We ught to consider not only that our life is daily wasting away and a smaller part of it is left, but another thing also must be taken into the account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain whether the understanding will still continue sufficient for the comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human. For if he shall begin to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and imagination and a...

 Internet as a "Playground for Losers"

Realize that the internet and social media, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit is mostly bullshit. These apps are used daily by losers. Even if a successful person posts on Twitter or Instagram, that’s only 5% of their life, the rest of their time spend with firends, on gym or reading productive book. If people are truly getting things done, they’re busy and don’t have time to waste online. The internet is actually place for losers. If you can't stop doom scrolling you are addicte...

 Chengyu: Four-Character Chinese Expressions

心神不宁 (xīn shén bù níng): “to feel bad about nothing” 损人利己 (sǔn rén lì jǐ): “to seek benefit at the expense of others” 幸灾乐祸 (xìng zāi lè huò): “to enjoy others’ misfortunes” 力不从心 (Lì bù cóng xīn): “the qualities aren’t at the level of the aspirations” 亦步亦趋 (yì bù yì qū): “to blindly imitate someone” 桃李满天下 (táolǐ mǎn tiān xià): “to have pupils everywhere” 省吃俭用 (shěng chī jiǎn yòng)...

 Cultural Achievement Undermines Contemplative Attention

Excessive positivity also expresses itself as an excess of stimuli, information, and impulses. It radically changes the structure and economy of attention. Perception becomes fragmented and scattered. Moreover, the mounting burden of work makes it necessary to adopt particular dispositions toward time and attention [Zeitund Aufmerksamkeitstechnik]; this in turn affects the structure of attention and cognition. The attitude toward time and environment known as “multitasking” does not repre...

 AI as Longterm Memory

The current state-of-the-art Gemini model can fit roughly 1.5 million words in its context. That’s enough for me to upload the full text of all fourteen of my books, plus every article, blog post, or interview I’ve ever published—and the entirety of my collection of research notes that I’ve compiled over the years. The Gemini team has announced plans for a model that could hold more than 7 million words in its short-term memory. That’s enough to fit everything I’ve ever written, p...

 Undecided Voters are Uninformed and Disengaged

Many commentators have suggested that undecided voters’ opinions are better understood not as deeply held, thought-through beliefs, but as a sort of verbal Muzak. You say, of a candidate who has given many policy specifics already (and whose opponent speaks in word salad), “I need more policy specifics,” because it sounds better than “I don’t know what policies I want.” You say “The candidates just attack each other” because it sounds better than “I don’t actually know wha...