Sign in

Dependent Co-Arising

@asitisnow.bsky.social
371 followers 368 following 1.5K posts

Meditation, lucid dreaming Awakening from calamity, some of it apparently real, most of it imagined What you are is prior to your idea of you. —Adyashanti You are prior to the idea 'I am'. Camp yourself there, prior to the words 'I am'. —Nisargadatta

PostsRepliesMedia
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 10h
Suffering [dis-ease] is neither punishment not caused by something we have done wrong, but instead, it is a current human habit to identify with the limited patterns of consciousness. ― Loch Kelly (in The Way of Effortless Mindfulness)
031
Reposted by Dependent Co-Arising
Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 12h
you don’t hold "AI" accountable; you hold AI developers, vendors, and corporations that profit off it accountable holding "AI accountable" is like holding a toaster accountable. it's an inanimate object. it doesn't have wishes, feelings, or desires
281520480
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Many scientists are individuals of great integrity, but too many of them have been failed by a mindset and system that rewards the lack thereof. Hard not to see a broader pattern at work here.
060
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I should qualify "meditation isn't for me" as "meditation is making me worse," which is not an uncommon experience for both beginners and long-time practitioners. We all carry trauma and hold delusional views to varying extent.
020
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Absent such work, practitioners might end up spiritually bypassing (e.g., using spiritual practice to create a new identity) or rolling up the mat ("meditation isn't for me").
130
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This checks out. Both the "afflicted mind" (#7) and the "storehouse" (#8) are unconscious, and other traditions may language this differently. The important take-away is that often some depth-psychological work is needed to make progress in contemplative practice.
130
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"Making Sense of Mind Only: Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters," by William Waldron, and "Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara: A Practitioner's Guide," by Ben Connelly, provide accessible descriptions of these models (and Yogācāra more generally).
020
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
So in that model, the 7th (afflicted-self) consciousness colours all experience through the six senses (consciousnesses).
240
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
In the Yogācāra 8-consciousness model, the 7th consciousness (kliṣṭamanas, the afflicted mind/small self) arises from grasping the 8th consciousness (the storehouse consciousness, or ālayavijñāna) as an individual "I," leading to an erroneous division into subject and objects.
130
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
"now turns out to be the content inside [this] model.... The root of [many] intractable problems [in the study of consciousness] is thinking that we are our brains and that perceiving takes place inside them.... We’re not reducible to our brains.” — Frank, Gleiser, & Thompson (in The Blind Spot)
010
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“If perception [of the world] is . . . our best guess about the hidden causes of [the brain’s] sensory inputs, then this must apply equally to our perception of the brain. The physical brain, which was supposed to be objective and outside the model [of how we perceive the world], . . .
110
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Yep, that's what, e.g., philosophers do, trying to develop and apply terminologies in hopes to be less wrong about things. Philosophy is never going to give an accurate read-out about what "mind," "matter," or the "brain" is, but it can be a useful tool for conventional fact checking:
110
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The notion of a "brain" that processes incoming sensory data is itself a construction of the mind. That doesn't mean that brains don't (conventionally) exist. But try as one might, experience cannot be grounded in a brain (or body or even "mind").
110
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The raison d'être of humans is that they can become buddhas. . . . Apart from spreading Dharma, there are no other human affairs. ― Lü Cheng (cited in Just Awakening: Yogacārā Social Philosophy in Modern China, by J. Zu)
Photo of a sunlit canal flanked by bluffs and trees on the left and a flat tree-lined trail on the right under a bright blue sky in very early spring.
030
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Le Guin one?
110
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Where do sound and silence meet? Where does one of them start and the other end? What do you hear?
020
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. — Rumi (The Guest House)
020
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
120
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Edward Hopper's painting Solitude, depicting a very small house in the country by a roadside amidst high yellow grass and below some scattered tall trees.
151
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
These conventional expressions arising from imagination are always unreal conventional expressions arising from imagination in its diversity. Therefore, the term conditioned is not the conditioned. — Samdhinirmocana Sutra (Unraveling the Intent, trans. 84000)
000
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The term conditioned is a word, a label used by the Teacher. Words that are labels used by the Teacher are conventional expressions arising from imagination.
120
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Some additional context here: www.npr.org/2025/04/29/n... A remarkable human being.
npr.org
Mohsen Mahdawi — the Columbia student arrested at his citizenship appointment — speaks
Speaking to NPR in his first media interview since his detention, lawful permanent U.S. resident Mohsen Mahdawi finds peace in meditation and hopes "America will fulfill its promise."
030
Reposted by Dependent Co-Arising
Vince Fakhoury Horn @vincehorn.space · 01/10/2026
I'm standing in solidarity with my Palestinian Buddhist brother, Mohsen Mahdawi. pvsolidaritycouncil.org/buddhist-sol...
pvsolidaritycouncil.org
Standing in Solidarity with Palestinian Buddhist Peace Activist Mohsen Mahdawi during the Ongoing Violation of His First Amendment Rights (2026)
Add your name to the petition here As Buddhist practitioners, we call for the end of all deportation proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., a fellow Buddhist p…
062
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
just as a fictional character does not make sense outside the cultural contexts of the fiction. ―Jessica Zu (in Just Awakening: Yogacārā Social Philosophy in Modern China)
010
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Western concepts such as those of race, the atomic individual, and society as a group of individuals held together by a social contract are parochial: they do not make sense outside of the post-Enlightenment Euroatlantic context,
110
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From generosity comes wealth, happiness from morality. From tolerance comes beauty, splendor from heroic effort. Through concentration, one is peaceful; through understanding comes liberation. Compassion accomplishes all aims. ―Nāgārjuna (Ratnāvalī, The Precious Garland, trans. McClintock & Dunne)
000
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🙏 I'm a rank beginner and bumbler myself, which is an asset, were it not for my many opinions and guesses. . . .
010
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Be always very wary of those who want to convince you that they are the "good guys."
010
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If such inhumanity and cruelty is sanctioned by the highest court of a country, it puts the entire moral worldview that underpins this country's judicial and political systems into question.
130
Reposted by Dependent Co-Arising
David Graeber Institute @davidgraeberinst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Brian Eno on how Lula helped the poor, which in turn stimulated small businesses.
15329
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Oh, and I'm a big fan of the Madhyamaka and Yogacara philosophical systems in Buddhism and of the Upanishads (as a contemplative's manual). I wish I could've told my younger self about them😂.
020
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Great question! Short answer: I don't know. Long answer: I feel at home in any tradition and framework that emphasizes contemplative practice in daily life to alleviate dis-ease. I'm a certified coach in Shinzen Young's UM system and just started dipping my toes (again) into Loch Kelly's EM system.
121
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Absorption is very useful as a preliminary practice (e.g., to easefully calm the mind), but it can become a fixation (on non-fixation) itself.😉
230
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Taking nothing in the world as their own, Having no sorrow for what doesn't exist, And uninvolved in doctrines They are called "peaceful." ― Purābheda Sutta (trans. Gil Fronsdal)
011
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
What is here when there is no problem to solve? ― Loch Kelly
030
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
People who hold onto the notion that self has an enduring essence are deluded as cattle. People who hold onto the notion of there being no self at all are more deluded still. Whatever you are fixated on, let that go. ― Saraha (in Moonbeams of Mahamudra, trans. Traleg Kyabgon)
021
Reposted by Dependent Co-Arising
Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part.
06322
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🙏
010
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The moment you recognize mind essence, it is impossible to find words or descriptions for how it is.... The very moment you recognize the essence of your own mind, there is no thing to see. ― Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (in As It Is: Vol. 1)
140
Reposted by Dependent Co-Arising
Ogmin @ogmin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Is there anyone more shameless in the eyes of those who have a conscience than someone who does not provide refuge for those who lack it, who does not, to the best of his abilities, comfort others or who takes the wealth of his subjects without thinking about them? ~ Mipham
1184
Reposted by Dependent Co-Arising
Gerrit @gerrit82.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
2. The good that repudiates the bad is not better than the bad, since it operates on the principle of exclusion. Only the good that embraces both the good & the bad is truly good. Such is the goodness & trust of nature (de) that follows upon Dao. The sage who follows nature’s way does likewise. Chen
151
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
All efforts we exert are an expression of the whole (manifestation of "the wind").
150
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Pao-ch'e answered: "You only know that the nature of the wind is constancy. You do not know yet the meaning of it reaching every place." The monk said: "What is the meaning of 'there is no place it does not reach'?" The master only fanned himself. The monk bowed deeply. — Dōgen (in Genjōkōan)
160
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
As Zen master Pao-ch'e of Ma-ku shan was fanning himself, a monk came up and said: "The nature of the wind is constancy. There is no place it does not reach. Why do you still use a fan?"
171
Reposted by Dependent Co-Arising
Nisargadatta Maharaj @nisargadatta.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Do not identify yourself with time, do not ask anxiously: ‘what next, what next?’ Step out of time and see it devour the world.
092
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The fact that much of today’s war coverage is focused on the cost to the “taxpayer” reveals a profound confusion about what it means to be living, breathing, compassionate human being.
160
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
🙏
031
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is the goal of Buddhist practice: to experience that which can never die because it has never been born. — David Loy (in Lack & Transcendence)
161
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The experience of mental clarity is awareness; the maintenance of attentiveness is mental stability; the realisation of self-cognising awareness as emptiness is insight. — Gampopa (cited in Moonbeams of Mahamudra)
042
Dependent Co-Arising @asitisnow.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
There's nothing "effective" about an altruism that's without care and compassion and draws on utterly naive and harmful assumptions about what is good and valuable.
150