Makes it obvious what kind of thing to look for to see them. Translations like clinging & suffering make them sound like abstract ideas. They’re not, they’re fast subtle mental movements
Most people are motivated by unwholesome fuel (anger, craving, regret etc) and can theoretically clean things up and replace it with cleaner fuel (compassion, love, fun etc) that’s just as strong. The problem is cultivating good fuel is 10x harder than removing bad fuel
there are still flavors of experience but they’re mostly non-emotional. There’s sounds, tastes, touch etc. but no strong reaction to them, you’re not in your body hearing a song you’re in the song itself (it’s self aware). When fully present with something reactions are dimmed
I feel ethically better eating steak from an a+ farm than eating vegetables. The steak funded the existence of a cow at a good farm vs funded some vegies, and I’d rather be a cow than a carrot
my answer to the thiel question is that I think bugs and trees and stuff may in a sense be more alive than we are, bc felt-aliveness is a function of valence and sensory strength, and those may anti-correlate with organism complexity bc they aren’t nearly as regularized
fwiw my thing isn't like a productivity strategy it's just what my body has always done when i let it do what it wants, if it didn't i wouldn't try to make it do that
A surprising number of things clicked when I started treating feelings as the source of truth and working backwards from that
it's also been useful for becoming anti-numb, since you have to feel to do anything
If I'm walking through a room and feelings stop I pause like a frozen video game character until feelings show up and tell me what to do next
~Try a lot different things bc they often follow a power lay, diet, exercise, asking her out— most will not work, some that work will change your life Link
~IFS monologue, I give full freedom to any one part to stop me, I am just supporting them, if I feel off I will ditch whatever I am doing, put my eye mask on and get inside me to process Link
Since I’ve already been obscenely open, a month ago I was doing a sexual thing that nearly all my parts were for but one was against (it was scared and disgusted). So I immediately stopped and apologized to my partner and said I couldn’t do it, which was hard and embarrassing
immediately after though I felt much better and that’s stayed. Even though on an object level almost every part was pissed, they all trusted me more knowing I would do that for one part, it was a kind of proof. Since that day harmony has been way up