<2021-07-03T01:21:04.000Z> tengumatingpress: out of curiosity, are the Right Wing Dharma Squad reuploads going to remain staggered in chronological order or are there plans to do larger archive dumps?
<2021-08-24T17:55:16.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: I'm officially on hiatus but I wanted to say that physicalism is self refuting. What could even in theory cause you to doubt that you are currently experiencing? The answer is "nothing" 
<2021-08-24T17:56:36.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: This is kind of a variant on Descartes cogito except he got wrong that there is an I and expressed it in terms of thinking rather than experiencing. There is no "I" and experience can and often does occur in the absence of thought
<2021-08-24T19:11:49.000Z> tengumatingpress: yeah, I think I imagined they'd have.m a stronger position than they do 
<2021-08-24T19:13:11.000Z> tengumatingpress: I'm not sure if I'd say I'm going through a "crisis of faith" since I still broadly agree with even the debatable parts of its metaphysics, but I've spent an unhealthy amount of time lately trying to ensure I really believe it and it's the strongest possible position 
<2021-08-24T19:13:35.000Z> tengumatingpress: most of it has been useless and time spent in practice would've been more fruitful for verifying things 
<2021-08-24T19:17:23.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: On the contrary, for Westerners who have come up through the university system, intellectual clarity is essential. I was fortunate enough to be able to debate Madhyamaka with a Khenpo for months as part of my process 
<2021-08-24T19:17:34.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: He won obviously lol
<2021-08-24T19:28:40.000Z> tengumatingpress: was this a monastic thing or just at a local center 
<2021-08-24T19:28:53.000Z> tengumatingpress: feel free to not answer if this is doxable info
<2021-08-24T19:31:43.000Z> tengumatingpress: also I never actually went to college, most of what I know came from friends or reading
<2021-08-24T20:34:32.000Z> tengumatingpress: I do agree that studying the philosophy is very useful, if only to break the usual conditioning that only scientism provides a valid view of reality and all else is at best a possibly helpful hobby 
<2021-08-24T20:42:14.000Z> tengumatingpress: the enlightenment claim that science killed the possibility of faith is odd in hindsight, as if thunderstorms not being caused by the Thunderer going to war means nothing matters
<2021-08-24T23:29:32.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: It was in Asia. I was an expat for most of the Obama years
<2021-08-24T23:30:09.000Z> tengumatingpress: huh, sounds interesting 
<2021-08-24T23:30:21.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: And I mean we're all affected by the (((enlightenment))) cult of rationality
<2021-08-24T23:30:28.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: Even without a BA or whatever 
<2021-08-24T23:30:36.000Z> tengumatingpress: I assume it was India? or somewhere around the subcontinent 
<2021-08-24T23:30:46.000Z> tengumatingpress: yeah
<2021-08-24T23:31:00.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: Something like that lol. Lots of Tibetans around the subcontinent
<2021-08-24T23:49:02.000Z> tengumatingpress: I think that's where most of the diaspora 
<2021-08-24T23:49:09.000Z> tengumatingpress: went, I mean 
<2021-08-25T00:16:49.000Z> tengumatingpress: anecdotally, a good amount of people practicing Tibetan Buddhism I've known are Vietnamese and I'm not sure why 
<2021-08-29T23:01:30.000Z> tengumatingpress: btw this might be a heavy question, but re the Kalam cosmological question, are there any good responses to the assertion that physical infinities aren't possible, the big bang was the definite cause of all things and nothing came before, and so on?
<2021-08-29T23:59:18.000Z> tengumatingpress: from what I can tell, it hinges on a theory of time that's not really taken seriously, but I am not an insider re physics
<2021-08-30T16:38:40.000Z> tengumatingpress: actually, reading more into it just shows it devolving into arguing definitions, starting to understand why the Buddha recommended not being overly invested in problems re origins
<2021-08-31T15:58:47.000Z> tengumatingpress: last thing I'll say re this subject after spending more time dealing with it: I think the exercise showed I still have weird scientistic priors where I don't feel comfortable unless the scientific consensus is in total agreement
<2021-09-01T00:33:29.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: Hahaha. Sorry for being incommunicado, have been too busy for a proper length response, I have more to say but that sounds like a good summation. Tough to root out those priors! 
<2021-09-01T00:36:30.000Z> tengumatingpress: nah, not expecting you to be my on-call Buddhist philosopher like I'm some Mongolian warlord lol
<2021-09-01T00:36:56.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: Lol I mean why not
<2021-09-01T00:42:12.000Z> tengumatingpress: one day I will choose between being a mountain hermit or enlightened warlord
<2021-09-18T20:53:47.000Z> tengumatingpress: out of curiosity, do you know of any good dharma centers doing regular zoom meetings? mine is slowing down dramatically
<2021-09-19T01:39:12.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: I can recommend something for you but you would need at least 2 other people 
<2021-09-19T01:41:28.000Z> tengumatingpress: that might be doable
<2021-09-19T01:41:37.000Z> tengumatingpress: what is it?
<2021-09-19T01:47:07.000Z> tengumatingpress: oh this might be a podcast joke
<2021-09-19T02:26:33.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: No it's for real 
<2021-09-19T11:20:36.000Z> tengumatingpress: oh?
<2021-09-19T11:20:39.000Z> tengumatingpress: please explain
<2021-09-19T19:43:08.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: samyeinstitute.org/dharma-stream/
<2021-09-19T20:03:31.000Z> tengumatingpress: I might attempt to start a local practice group, especially since the center I attended pre corona is probably going to shut down soon
<2021-09-19T20:25:40.000Z> tengumatingpress: tbh this is armchair analysis but the dharma center model doesn't seem very sustainable, as it is from what I can tell it's a struggle to keep them running even with fundraising from retreats, empowerments, and so on
<2021-09-19T21:50:31.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: I mean a "dharma center" is basically a "lay gompa" which doesn't really exist in any traditional Buddhist societies, the question is what the catalyst for a resurgence of monasticism is. 21st century insanity seems like fertile ground
<2021-09-19T21:50:40.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: that said, I personally vouch for this organization
<2021-09-19T22:56:59.000Z> tengumatingpress: tbh I really hope full monasticism isn't necessary for it to fully spread because I sincerely doubt monasticism is ever going to be viable in America, but I'm not a prophet
<2022-06-24T20:43:27.000Z> tengumatingpress: this is from a long while ago, but back in beginning of the year you were arguing with some guy re the plausibility of Buddhist cosmology and mentioned something about how the standard cosmological model might not be true, any layman friendly explanations? that line of argument was shut down quickly, but I'm curious about that, though I know even the usual big bang story still relies on there being some infinitely-dense energy preceding it and there hasn't been an explanation for that afaict
<2022-06-24T20:48:20.000Z> tengumatingpress: I apologize if this is a rabbit hole lol
<2022-06-24T20:49:44.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: it was with Myles who was hinging basically his entire defense of Christianity on "the consensus of modern physics" that there is no Big Bang/Big Crunch cycle. apart from being phrased laughably retarded, this issue is not by any means a settled matter. Big Crunch remains an active possibility. it is true that there was some amount of consolidation of opinion between 1990-2010 to the effect that there won't be a Big Crunch (I can't speak past then but I don'[t think there have been many developments either), however this is more or less entirely the result of the mathematical difficulty of getting gravitational attraction to outstrip cosmological expansion. it's not theoretically impossible by any stretch it's just hard to work out given the current framework
<2022-06-24T20:50:11.000Z> tengumatingpress: ah
<2022-06-24T20:50:47.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: however what's truly funny/retarded is that you don't need a Big Crunch for there to be a universe cycle, heat death can accomplish the same goal, Buddhist scripture only specifies that there are 4 periods or phases: universe comes into existence, universe exists, universe stops existing, blankness
<2022-06-24T20:50:49.000Z> tengumatingpress: so material cosmology remains at best an open question because we don't actually know enough to say much with confidence?
<2022-06-24T20:51:40.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: yes of course. like "Dark Matter." there isn't enough matter within galaxies, by our current best measurements, to explain why galaxies stick together. but they do. "dark matter" is a kludge. it's not impossible but who knows what the real explanation is
<2022-06-24T20:51:48.000Z> tengumatingpress: yeah, it's rather odd to assume the universes have to be physically connected, which admittedly is a matter of faith and the occam's razor analysis might still be valid, but then you also believe causality had an uncaused causer and there's also one realm for the people who believe something and another for those who don't
<2022-06-24T20:52:07.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: the bigger point here is that Big Bang/Big Crunch isn't *necessary* for there to be cycles, it's just very elegant
<2022-06-24T20:52:45.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: but Myles of course completely missed that and just went off 
<2022-06-24T20:56:13.000Z> tengumatingpress: I'm not autistic enough to not-understand the actual function of debate, but the shouting match + rhetorical trickery strategy doesn't really endear itself to me
<2022-06-24T21:00:03.000Z> tengumatingpress: from what I've seen, besides appealing to the current consensus re cosmology their other favorite argument is Pascal's Wager, but actually our interpretation of Hell is the worst one imaginable, ergo convert, which feels like it's lost the plot somewhere because it doesn't really hold power to people that haven't already accepted quite a few premises
<2022-06-24T21:01:16.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: yeah that last piece was really the only one that matters. "your version of hell isn't bad enough" like lmfao
<2022-06-24T21:04:15.000Z> tengumatingpress: generally I consider shittalking Christianity a sign of a subversive, but I will admit when reading the church fathers it was a little odd how really into thinking about how bad their enemies will suffer and how they'll get to enjoy watching it for all eternity
<2022-06-26T22:58:05.000Z> tengumatingpress: oh yeah, is RWDS ever coming back and just still I'm hiding whole the hosts sort out life event or is it unlikely we'll see new episodes? afaict you and aurataxomomist are the only hosts actively posting online 
<2022-06-29T00:17:50.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: I would rather leave a VM on this topic aare you on TG
<2022-06-29T00:18:04.000Z> tengumatingpress: nop
<2022-06-29T00:18:10.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: lol
<2022-06-29T00:18:48.000Z> tengumatingpress: if it's sensitive info then I can wait and see
<2022-06-29T00:19:02.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: no just kind of annoying to have to type out
<2022-06-29T00:19:11.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: tldr I guess is "maybe" 
<2022-06-29T00:19:11.000Z> tengumatingpress: ah
<2022-06-29T00:19:20.000Z> tengumatingpress: alright, I'll see how it goes then
<2022-07-09T01:28:14.000Z> tengumatingpress: out of curiosity, since you've mentioned knowing multiple languages before, any chance Tibetan is one of those? been interested in learning
<2022-07-09T01:30:30.000Z> tengumatingpress: the resource that seems best for overall learning appears to be the modern dialect, unsure if there's as much of interest written there, though if I ever find myself surrounded by Tibetans and can't expect English to be spoken it might be useful
<2022-07-10T00:03:37.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: so TIbetan is a monstrous clusterfuck of a language lmao
<2022-07-10T00:04:07.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: I don't know Chinese but I understand Chinese is similar in that it's hard to ONLY learn the classical language without having at least some contemporary spoken language
<2022-07-10T00:04:50.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: that said you are correct that the classical language is where all the cool/interesting stuff is, and while I am OK enough in it to be able to ask questions of lamas and understand the answer (at least after a couple rounds of back and forth), my primary skillset is the classical language
<2022-07-10T00:05:30.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: if you're interested in learning, I'd recommend these guys
<2022-07-10T00:06:20.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: ryi.org/programs/online-learning/himalayan-languages
<2022-07-10T00:44:59.000Z> tengumatingpress: Thank you, I'll check them out 
<2022-07-10T00:46:23.000Z> tengumatingpress: Besides obvious religious/philosophical shit I'm also interested in learning because I've heard good things about their poetic tradition. Was reading a translation of some of Gendun Chophel's poetry and enjoyed it, was curious how it sounds in its original language 
<2022-07-10T00:51:04.000Z> tengumatingpress: Ditto for the Epic of King Gesar, though apparently that's absolutely massive and the English translation I read was highly, highly, highly abridged 
<2022-07-17T18:27:46.000Z> tengumatingpress: was reading up on objections to the concept of "actual" infinities (the grim reaper paradox-class, since those seem the most pertinent), not entirely sure if I find them convincing because they appear to be variants of Zeno's paradoxes which don't really negate the appearance of motion, but I get the feeling the madhyamaka response would be an attack on the specific notion of time & causality of death as requiring a single discrete cause, which also sounds absurdly handwavey and unconvincing to people committed to the specific views generally held by the ones raising the paradox, any thoughts on that?
<2022-07-17T18:28:00.000Z> tengumatingpress: sorry that I'm treating you as an on-tap subject matter expert, hope it's not annoying
<2022-07-22T00:26:36.000Z> tengumatingpress: actually, the more I think about from a buddhist pov the arguments for causal finitism are probably wrongheaded because they assume motion, time, and events are ultimately real, so they're more epistemic issues than anything else 
<2022-08-03T15:28:41.000Z> tengumatingpress: ended up giving up philosophical wankery and just starting ngondro, in hindsight took a weird amount of time to commit to that but I suppose it's enough of a commitment it's best to ensure it's something you actually believe
<2022-08-03T21:43:37.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: lol good. sorry for incommunicado but it sounds like you are on a good track
<2022-08-04T01:32:16.000Z> tengumatingpress: yeah, ended up joining with the Dudjom Tersar
<2022-08-04T03:17:21.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: solid choice, if you haven't already been pointed to it Words of My Perfect Teacher is a great introduction generally but is also specifically for the Dudjom Tersar
<2022-08-04T03:19:22.000Z> tengumatingpress: I was recommended Thinley Norbu's Cascading Waterfall of Nectar, but I'll definitely give it another look
<2022-08-04T03:19:31.000Z> tengumatingpress: totally forgot Dudjom Tersar was the specific lineage in question lol
<2022-08-04T03:20:19.000Z> tengumatingpress: wait, it was Longchen Nyngtin
<2022-08-04T03:20:23.000Z> tengumatingpress: regardless I imagine it'll be relevant
<2022-08-04T03:21:38.000Z> tengumatingpress: a bit intimidated by the 100k prostrations & long Vajrasattva mantras, but it'll be finished eventually
<2022-08-04T03:21:47.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: ahhh yeah right sorry
<2022-08-04T03:21:57.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: yes relevant regardless
<2022-08-04T03:22:40.000Z> tengumatingpress: is it rude to ask what lineage you are?
<2022-08-04T03:22:53.000Z> tengumatingpress: iirc it's either a Nyingma or Kagyu group
<2022-08-04T03:22:58.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: honestly don't sweat the ngondro, it's meant for premoderns with nothing but time on their hands, not that it isn't beneficial but westerns often fetishize "finishing" it when the reality is you never stop doing the practices, can learn more advanced stuff without doing the 100,000 
<2022-08-04T03:23:20.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: and when pressed for time it's generally better to accumulate mantras of your main sadhana rather htan the ngondro
<2022-08-04T03:23:35.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: this is actually quasi-doxxable so please never repeat but Chokling Tersar
<2022-08-04T03:23:57.000Z> tengumatingpress: I won't spread it around
<2022-08-04T03:23:58.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: which is technically Nyingma but mostly practiced by Kagyus lol
<2022-08-04T03:24:32.000Z> tengumatingpress: yeah I know there's some weird stuff going on with the schools
<2022-08-04T03:25:01.000Z> tengumatingpress: like the Gelug fanfic about the imposter Guru Rinpoche that established nyingma teachings vs the original one that totally would've been a Gelug and was in fact indistinguishable from them
<2022-08-04T03:25:24.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: lol yes Gelugs are basically just off by themselves doing Hinduism in Buddhist garb
<2022-08-04T03:25:46.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: not that there aren't some differences between the other schools but they are much closer to each other especially after Rime movement
<2022-08-04T03:26:38.000Z> tengumatingpress: afaict basically every school has been at some point accused of every other school of being crypto-Hinduism
<2022-08-04T03:26:48.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo was technically Sakya and Khakhyab Dorje (15th Karmapa) was technically Kagyu and Mipham was technically Nyingma
<2022-08-04T03:26:50.000Z> tengumatingpress: *accused by every other school
<2022-08-04T03:27:00.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: but all their students all taught each other
<2022-08-04T03:27:08.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: yeah it's true about Gelugs though lmao they are realists about concepts
<2022-08-04T03:27:14.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: straight Nyaya epistemology
<2022-08-04T03:29:06.000Z> tengumatingpress: maybe now that I have greater context I should look at Beacon of Certainty again, I do recall Mipham having a pretty spirited response to Gelug accusations against the Nyingma presentation of Dzogchen
<2022-08-04T03:30:09.000Z> tengumatingpress: this is a little embarrassing, but the main reason I started taking Buddhism seriously was reading David Chapman's shit and developing an interest
<2022-08-04T03:30:25.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: Beacon of Certainty is great but very advanced
<2022-08-04T03:30:27.000Z> tengumatingpress: even though he is more or less a scientific materialist that himself doesn't take its views too seriously
<2022-08-04T03:30:49.000Z> tengumatingpress: also affiliated with the Aro gTer, which is certainly a can of worms
<2022-08-04T03:31:16.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: ooooooooof
<2022-08-04T03:31:22.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: yeah I steer entirely clear of that lol
<2022-08-04T03:31:40.000Z> tengumatingpress: wisdom from the gutter, I suppose
<2022-08-04T03:32:08.000Z> tengumatingpress: though admittedly it seems nearly impossible to verify whether or a terma is legit outside of practicing it and seeing if anyone gets that buddhahood
<2022-08-04T03:32:37.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: word of mouth counts for a lot 
<2022-08-04T03:32:48.000Z> tengumatingpress: I do know a good amount of surviving termas were initially not taken seriously before they received backing by renowned lamas
<2022-08-04T03:33:47.000Z> tengumatingpress: anyway I brought him up because Chapman recommended Beacon of Certainty as reading for some weird meta-rationality blog he was doin
<2022-08-04T03:33:47.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: I don't know how true that is lol
<2022-08-04T03:34:06.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: I mean it kind of depends but for example Jigme Lingpa was famous in his day, as was Chogyur Lingpa
<2022-08-04T03:34:24.000Z> tengumatingpress: maybe I'll dig up the posts I saw that to see if he named any specific examples
<2022-08-04T03:34:49.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: sure
<2022-08-04T03:38:22.000Z> tengumatingpress: >Aro Lingma may be a fantasy, or she may have been a historical person. I don't know and neither do you. We can have our opinions about these things, but opinions are not facts. Not only that, there are many termas and tertons that have come and gone in Tibet, whose names we have never heard of and will never know, too minor to have been recorded by anyone, too obscure, too remote. It is merely an accident that Chogyur Lingpa found favor with Khyentse Wangpo -- in Nangchen everyone thought he was a fraud and laughed him out of town. Even Kongtrul records that he doubted Chogyur Lingpa at first.
<2022-08-04T03:38:40.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: LMAO
<2022-08-04T03:38:46.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: "merely accident" ok dude
<2022-08-04T03:39:11.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: it's true you have occasional random dudes claiming to be tertons, were all of them frauds, i don't know
<2022-08-04T03:39:24.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: but that's extremely, I wouldn't even say selective
<2022-08-04T03:39:25.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: that's warped
<2022-08-04T03:40:10.000Z> tengumatingpress: I don't know much about the lineage, so this could be a very uncharitable reading, but he was initially a Sakya guy before becoming Chogyal Namkhai Norbu's student, so maybe this is Sakya historiography
<2022-08-04T03:40:37.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: that's not really what I'm saying unless the Sakyas endorse Aro Ter which I don't think they do
<2022-08-04T03:40:57.000Z> tengumatingpress: ah
<2022-08-04T03:41:04.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: aro ter always struck me as just egomania run amok
<2022-08-04T03:41:49.000Z> tengumatingpress: all I know is it seems nobody who was involved with it seems to believe any of it, which strikes me as a tremendous red flag
<2022-08-04T03:41:52.000Z> DK_Dharmaraj: I mean to put it bluntly the Sakyas may not practice Chokling Tersar but they don't doubt the authenticity of Chokgyur Lingpa's revelations, Barchey Lamsel is commonly recited  all over the place
<2022-08-04T03:47:55.000Z> tengumatingpress: ah