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
My preferred translations of tanha and dukkha are fast-grabby-thing and evil-vibrating-blob
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
I think part of this is westerners focus on their breath too much. The sutras barely mention breath meditation (anapanasati) but they talk endlessly about relaxing, lovingkindness meditation, and forgiveness, the scriptures are all about chilling out, which I think is way better
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
the way to soften the sense of self is to see it's a knot in your head, likely literal muscle tension. when you see that it's hard to unsee it, and then the question of "what is this for" goes away, things just happen, there's no this this is for. you're freed from the question
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