Love this piece, thank you for putting these lessons together in such an eloquent way.
As a young adult I saw the negative emotional landscape as a battlefield that I had to conquer. So I would slouch through my days, battered by the incessant barrage of painful memories of the past. My life changed the day I realised I would always lose that battle. I started redirecting the spotlight and immediately felt lighter.
Can't thank you enough for summing up soo many lessons so eloquently! Youre doing gods work given the style of community you're aiming to hit this with. I wish you all the very best!
The biggest leap of faith with this is to actually get rid of the confused practise of processing subjectivity as objectivity.
Small comment: at the beginning of the piece you say
> I could choose how I felt about things
But I think that contradicts what you say later (you observe feelings and choose a reaction).
I liked the point about shame being a form of attention and that emotions feed on attention.
I really liked the link to predictive processing and Frankl’s space between stimulus and response.
Fwiw i feel like predictive processing is an underrated research paradigm for artificial intelligence (quite different from the dominant gradient descent-based paradigm).
Finally i thought the essay had some Deutschian/Popperian vibes: the foundation of critical rationalism is that there is no such thing as direct perception of the world. Popper’s famous quote, that “observation is theory-laden” fits well with this essay. He also develops the idea in a way that might interest you, culminating in his claim that “the doctrine that the truth is manifest is the root of all tyranny” (by “manifest” he means “directly accessible”).
thank you very much! this is a such a thoughtful comment
"I think that contradicts what you say later (you observe feelings and choose a reaction)." personally, i meant I can change the landscape of my feelings by not focusing on an emotion. for example, something might elicit (instinctively) both excitement and fear in me, but I focus on the excitement I feel more of it.
I haven't read Popper, but now he's on my list. I'm also going to look into this more predictive processing is an underrated research paradigm for artificial intelligence (quite different from the dominant gradient descent-based paradigm). since im a computer engineer
I love how you introduce detachment as the small gap between experience and response. It sounds like the vacant space between an inhale and an exhale. Grateful that the body instructs the mind. Knowing that something complex like perception of detachment mirrors vagal tone during breath work, makes restarting meditation practice seem less formidable.
Your X thread yesterday, the force of gratitude after a beautiful day, pairs like a fruit of the practices here. As if you woke up and chose the fecund ground of being, or something.
Thanks for reorienting me to what I used to think about when I was a happier person. It's working
Great read! Thanks for sharing. Lately I’ve been meditating by closing my eyes, letting my thoughts calm down, think of my affirmations and gratitude, and the rest of session focusing on my breathing. It’s been great so far.
I think my essay how I learned to be okay with dying captures my spirituality quite well! That being said I do believe in faith in prayer, I can def talk about it
I found this through X the other day and I intentionally re-searched this article again to read it once more, after having gone to point 8 in Eknath’s book. THANK YOU. His explanations on the passage and the mantram were the best I have ever seen. I felt as if I were listening to a wise and humble grandfather, and I loved his anecdotes. I don’t think anything before this point has really given me such clear steps for training my attention. And I practice a breath-based Yoga, so this is perfect for the stillness following my pranayama. Again, thank you for writing this. Stumbling upon it has had a tremendous effect on my life already.
Yeah one thing I've really started to understand is that there's a huge difference between feeling an emotion vs identifying with it - to your point about inevitable reactions
Love this piece, thank you for putting these lessons together in such an eloquent way.
As a young adult I saw the negative emotional landscape as a battlefield that I had to conquer. So I would slouch through my days, battered by the incessant barrage of painful memories of the past. My life changed the day I realised I would always lose that battle. I started redirecting the spotlight and immediately felt lighter.
This is so beautifully written, thank you for sharing!
Can't thank you enough for summing up soo many lessons so eloquently! Youre doing gods work given the style of community you're aiming to hit this with. I wish you all the very best!
The biggest leap of faith with this is to actually get rid of the confused practise of processing subjectivity as objectivity.
Great piece, thank you.
Small comment: at the beginning of the piece you say
> I could choose how I felt about things
But I think that contradicts what you say later (you observe feelings and choose a reaction).
I liked the point about shame being a form of attention and that emotions feed on attention.
I really liked the link to predictive processing and Frankl’s space between stimulus and response.
Fwiw i feel like predictive processing is an underrated research paradigm for artificial intelligence (quite different from the dominant gradient descent-based paradigm).
Finally i thought the essay had some Deutschian/Popperian vibes: the foundation of critical rationalism is that there is no such thing as direct perception of the world. Popper’s famous quote, that “observation is theory-laden” fits well with this essay. He also develops the idea in a way that might interest you, culminating in his claim that “the doctrine that the truth is manifest is the root of all tyranny” (by “manifest” he means “directly accessible”).
thank you very much! this is a such a thoughtful comment
"I think that contradicts what you say later (you observe feelings and choose a reaction)." personally, i meant I can change the landscape of my feelings by not focusing on an emotion. for example, something might elicit (instinctively) both excitement and fear in me, but I focus on the excitement I feel more of it.
I haven't read Popper, but now he's on my list. I'm also going to look into this more predictive processing is an underrated research paradigm for artificial intelligence (quite different from the dominant gradient descent-based paradigm). since im a computer engineer
I had to sit with this essay over the weekend.
I love how you introduce detachment as the small gap between experience and response. It sounds like the vacant space between an inhale and an exhale. Grateful that the body instructs the mind. Knowing that something complex like perception of detachment mirrors vagal tone during breath work, makes restarting meditation practice seem less formidable.
Your X thread yesterday, the force of gratitude after a beautiful day, pairs like a fruit of the practices here. As if you woke up and chose the fecund ground of being, or something.
Thanks for reorienting me to what I used to think about when I was a happier person. It's working
Thank you so much❤️❤️❤️
Great read, thanks Divya.
:)
Great read! Thanks for sharing. Lately I’ve been meditating by closing my eyes, letting my thoughts calm down, think of my affirmations and gratitude, and the rest of session focusing on my breathing. It’s been great so far.
I'm so glad you're benefiting from it. it's a weird and intensely rewarding journey inside your own head
Thank you. I love buddhism.
same!
Lovely article Divya!
Do you think you would ever speak about religion and your journey with that?
I think my essay how I learned to be okay with dying captures my spirituality quite well! That being said I do believe in faith in prayer, I can def talk about it
by the way someone made a youtube video based off one of your tweets, would you like to see the link?
I would love to! I hope I get credit though
Love this.
"As soon as I wake up, I sit for half and hour and repeat a certain passage in my mind over and over."
which passage, if you don't mind sharing?
I found this through X the other day and I intentionally re-searched this article again to read it once more, after having gone to point 8 in Eknath’s book. THANK YOU. His explanations on the passage and the mantram were the best I have ever seen. I felt as if I were listening to a wise and humble grandfather, and I loved his anecdotes. I don’t think anything before this point has really given me such clear steps for training my attention. And I practice a breath-based Yoga, so this is perfect for the stillness following my pranayama. Again, thank you for writing this. Stumbling upon it has had a tremendous effect on my life already.
Yeah one thing I've really started to understand is that there's a huge difference between feeling an emotion vs identifying with it - to your point about inevitable reactions