Valuable essay from A. H. Almaas on different concepts of ultimate truths from different traditions (h/t Avery). The perrenialist idea is that the world’s mystical traditions are all different roads to the same destination - but it’s actually the opposite. They are all the same road to different destinations. I’ve seen a number of folks making a form of this claim. Dan Brown’s classic article on comparing the Yoga Sutras, the Progress of Insight, and Mahamudra in Transformations of Consciousness. Just recently on Discord, David Chapman mentioned this even in the context of different schools of Dzogchen - that they can have different effects. One axis I’d propose to think about how these paths diverge is the attitude toward reality in balancing passionate engagement vs. disassociation.
It’s funny - I was describing secular mindfulness as among the least psychoactive, but this essay below reminded me that it can be very potent as well! I feel compassion for what she’s been through. On the risk reduction front - I do believe one advantage of practicing Vajrayana is that if done correctly it is actually less likely to lead to these kinds of side effects because the highest teachings actually de-emphasize meditative phenomenology. There are of course different risks - more around the teacher / student relationship, historically.
A podcast about the Post-Christian return to Paganism and worship of nature. Worth thinking about how most people right now are tackling the meaning of life. One way you could put it is Christians on the Right are not really Christians, and Atheists on the Left are secretly Christian. A certain fringe on the Right valorize strength and scorn the downtrodden. It certainly seems to some on the outside that with Trump that outlook has corrupted Evangelicalism too - not very Christian. On the flip side, secular “Wokeists” elevate the downtrodden in a very Christian way (minus the forgiveness and grace, unfortunately - though I’d say that omission is historically pretty Christian too). Douthat was reluctant to allow the Left to assume the mantle of Christianity, citing euthanasia in Canada killing “hundreds of thousands of people”. The total number is more like 45,000 in the last 8 years, which is not nothing, but this seems like a weak retort because there is one point of divergence in one place. The podcasters also missed the obvious pagan - Burning Man connection as one strand of the Post-Christian Left. Western Buddhists, not to mention weirdo online Post-rats are basically non-existent too - which is too bad because I think they are over-represented amongst do-gooders within Tech, and I wish more people knew that. That’s also a reminder that you should know them by their fruits. More fruits please!