iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

the realm of 'spiritual catastrophe', ie 'I'm think I'm losing it'. Eg the testimonies of those who fell for Rajneesh/Osho or Chogyam Trungpa or any number of others. It's all in plain sight.

000

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

In other words he was anchoring New Age woo in what looked like a form of scholarly Western Tantra; wonderful & I was hooked myself (long ago) but it's a dead end, as well as asking for trouble. How do we know? Jung himself admitted to mental illness & Stanislav Grof & others have well documented

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

(Response to a post elsewhere.) Jung was an advocate of his version of the perennial philosophy; in other words, behind everyday enchantment lies mysticism, & behind that lies an even greater cosmic consciousness, combining psychedelia with infinite profundity & God & everything else.

211

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

practical 'lab value' has genuine implications for what we think we 'know' about anything at all.)

000

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

would have in turn to be abandoned in favour of explanatory dogma. No amount of 'evidence' can override sequential logic without collapsing into incomprehensibility. (Doesn't mean nonsense explanations are impossible; just that accepting their

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

- perhaps such a possibility is true/meaningful - eg consciousness 'can emerge' from non-consciousness - but then normal accounts of causality & contingency become unreliable & unstable (& dependent for their sensicality on decree) & normal sequential thought

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Consciousness can't be contingent on something which it reveals, unless the 'laws of causality/contingency' can operate randomly & non sequentially - eg the light from a ceiling bulb can be wholly contingent on the cardboard boxes & the carpets it illumines

200

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

What for, & why?’ Declaring ‘Trust me, because I’m Enlightened’ betrays a total failure to inquire ‘further’. Simple fact: the hardest (unbreakable) koan is the one that undercuts enquiry at source: ‘what’s the ultimate point of existence itself, ‘enlightened’ or otherwise?’

000

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Jed McKenna sharpens the blade expertly & then can’t do anything with it. He urges us to keep ‘going further’, meaning never settling for anything less than total ‘truth/infinity’(!) But then never asks the question that destroys his entire discourse at the outset: ‘What’s any of this all about?

200

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

but this bundling of disparate theories only encourages a type of conceptual mysticism (ie the belief that ‘doing philosophy’ is a higher calling than just ‘thinking things through’.)

000

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

many disciplines (science, art, theology, whatever) like to label their theoretical underpinnings ‘philosophy of’ as if by doing so they form part of a quasi-mystical body of intelligent & perspicacious thought, distantly reinforced by a quasi-mystical desire for insightful human wisdom;

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Philosophy (properly understood) is the application of critical thinking only (analysing ideas, presenting arguments, following scholarly rules &c); philosophy doesn’t have a creed or a belief system; its only goal is teaching how to think & analyse critically. Confusingly,

220

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Double slit experiment: key implication: Basic experience (no matter what the phenomenon) is inherently unstable & ungraspable as a 'particularity/singularity' & this simple fact is way beyond most physicists as it undermines their belief in stable perception (what!?) as ontologically ultimate.

110

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Mystics try to maximise their sense of divine communion, forgetting that ‘hacking divinity’ is only one aspect of our experiencing. Yet spiritual insight begins with the realisation that the answer to existence is not selecting parts of it we might happen to like, but querying it as a totality.

113

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Point? You can observe your own death, just as you can observe your own life. (This is not doctrine; take a look & see - observe - for yourself.) Commonsense doctrine: life is like this & not like anything else, is a wilful disregard of the obvious.

004

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Basic ontology of experience: Limits on actuality are only momentarily, meaning that anything which appears singular & immutable is only apparently so; & if you observe experience objectively & persistently you can easily see that anything - rpt anything - can happen anytime, anywhere.

210

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Insoluble problem: 'consciousness' is the elemental lucidity which informs us of 'what is what' & ergo can't be explained in terms of something more primordial than it; the idea that it can shows a misunderstanding of basic laws of thought. Yet not a problem for those arguing contingency theories.

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

(Free book download) Adult spirituality in plain English, so an easy read. (Free download here): petereastman.substack.com/p/advanced-b... And you can always buy a copy from Amazon: amazon.com/dp/B08VYLP3NY

000

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

How can consciousness be contingent (that is, be causally dependent) on something consciousness is not only 'conscious of' but something which consciousness itself - as an empty, natureless 'revelatory capacity' – actually reveals to us in a revelatory presentation? Somebody help me out, please.

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

The most extraordinary New Age book of all time? But it led so many of us into delusional, weak-minded mysticism. (Article free to read) Yogananda: The Autobiography of a Yogi petereastman.substack.com/p/yogananda-...

petereastman.substack.com

Yogananda: The Autobiography of a Yogi

Classics of spiritual misdirection #7

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Hacking happiness (many posts): regret futile. Only one thing to do in life = ‘engage’ ie get a purpose (any, no matter how silly) & then, using intelligent time management (ask Spike Lee) just do it! If after all that, life is still very shit, then tough: welcome to adulthood.

113

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Went out into the garden late one evening last summer & some bats were swooping around in the darkness, & glancing up at them I knew exactly what it felt like to be a bat. (But if I had then thought philosophically I would suddenly have realised that I didn’t know what I knew.)

120

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

When it comes to spirituality, the Intellect (our capacity for impartial, objective & dispassionate judgements) is the ONLY guide we have; the heart & the soul & the imagination are impulsive, blind & misleading. Clarity of thought leads to the promised land; nothing else does.

110

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

‘The Buddhas say that Enlightenment cannot be attained because there is nothing to attain.’ Yes but you need first to attain the ‘unattainable’ to realise that truth; you are not ‘already a Buddha’ as your ordinary dumb self, as taught by various utterly moronic New Age sects.

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Academic philosophy is currently unable to teach people to think objectively & independently & so be able to explore experiential existence with confidence & advantage; instead it teaches people to submit only to the musings of an authorised tradition. One angle: www.academia.edu/8090287/The_...

academia.edu

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Philosophy - that is, using your intellect to maximum effect on received ideas - is a preparation (if you're lucky) for metaphysics - ie exploring the furthest reaches of existence; and if you can get that far, consolation (in life) is trivial; alcohol will do just as well.

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Consciousness illuminates anything & everything without revealing itself; it is truly an invisible capacity; so how can we even know it's there? By deduction only. Can it be felt? No; the imagination supplies feelings & we can feel those, but they're not consciousness itself. tinyurl.com/2485h96s

tinyurl.com

‘Consciousness’ as an ‘identifiable’ something

An exercise in primordial ontology - involving observation and reasoning

110

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Academics! if you want ppl to read your scholarly book you'll have to give it away for free (as I'm doing) even if pub by a UPress they make a profit from subscription sales & after costs you get zero.(Ok New Age spiritual sh*t sells but that's different.) petereastman.substack.com/p/advanced-b...

petereastman.substack.com

Advanced Buddhist Metaphysics: Exercises in Sceptical Spirituality

(Free pdf book download) A way out of endless religious delusion: this is a ruthlessly sceptical approach to all things spiritual & mystical, including Buddhism (!)

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Adult spirituality starts here: abandon/shelve all beliefs & received ideas about God, Life, the Universe, everything & simply ask yourself: ‘what is existence?’ & ‘is there anything wrong with things as they are?’ Don’t turn to received ideas & dogma: look & see for yourself!

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Went into the kitchen & found I had forgotten to buy peanuts for my vodka blowout. Idiot! Life ruined! Worse, I should have been reflecting on deep spiritual metaphysics, not raging over f*king peanuts. So? Thoughts, from most infantile to utterly divine are just more thoughts.

130

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Ground (base) yourself (intellectually) not with theories & doctrines & likes but rather with what you can see with your own mind’s eye; & if you can’t see anything, it’s because your education was defective & you were never taught how to think for yourself. But it’s never too late: start today.

110

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Ontological uncertainty (now there's a thing!) always refuses to be put to bed by analytical clever-dickery. petereastman.substack.com/p/wittgenste...

petereastman.substack.com

Wittgenstein and ‘Certainty’

And the implications for ‘spiritual exploration’ as well as for philosophical metaphysics

120

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

QM, string theory, relativity &c; those who look to physics for an 'insight into reality' need to grasp that science is wholly unrelated to ultimate human existential needs & concerns (fulfilment, insight, enlightenment) & might just as well be regarded as misleading gibberish.

130

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

A few minutes of quiet time (as meditation) is no problem but as a 'spiritual practice', hours of mind games is not a useful avenue to go down.

010

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Meditation basically encourages the imagination to run wild & depending on the person, this can result in all kinds of problems, especially in someone who has a weak sense of normality. More importantly, mystical imaginings are not spiritual insights. medium.com/new-earth-co...

medium.com

I Meditated 1 Hour For 30 Days To Joe Dispenza (& Here’s What Happened)

The true highs, lows, and mystical

231

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Zen/Ch’an began in China as a core version of Buddhism- enlightenment only- nothing else. Idea was basic meditation could do it, but meditation activates imaginings & soon semi-psychotic states= enlightenment. Clarity of mind crucial for metaphysical quest, not idiocy. petereastman.substack.com

120

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

To engage meaningfully with metaphysics, you genuinely need to want to know what 'your being' can tell you about the ultimate meaning of existence. You have to be able to observe, explore & analyse objectively & impartially all aspects of mind. (Hard work; not for everyone.)

130

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

(Why? B/c mind, God, physics, evolution, love, soul etc are already known perceptual & conceptual features of experiencing, and we’re looking for an insight into ‘the totality of everything’.)

000

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

‘What’s the point of existence?’ can’t be resolved by identifying a feature of experience (mind, evolution, God, physics &c) & then explaining it causally in those terms; if the mystery is to be settled at all, something wholly unknown & unexpected & other will have to 'occur'.

230

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

(‘Objective exploration’ has nothing whatsoever to do with meditation, mindfulness, prayer, contemplation etc etc: all of which are received doctrines based in imaginative fantasy.)

000

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Basic choice (since Big Bang!?) between faith & belief (received ideas) or believing in nothing & taking life as it comes. But why not explore objectively – using intellect & observation– the features of experience itself & see if the mystery of existence can perhaps be resolved?

330

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Are we all worshipping the same God? Allah, Ganesha, Jesus, Baphomet? If God doesn’t know what I want/ need/think & has to be told (by me)=wow! If God does, why clutter the airwaves with junk? But can a Big Cheese answer the ultimate question: what’s the point of God? (No point.)

130

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Religious faith is about how to save poor ‘me myself & I’ from a dreadful annihilation. But if we closely observe experiencing itself, we can easily see that ‘me myself & I’ are mere items in the mix & are not its ultimate constituents. So any key to existence must lie elsewhere.

100

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

And me for myself for even longer!

000

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Achtung! Ultimate question is NOT ‘how do I please God?’ but rather ‘what’s the point of all this (including any God)?’ ie what’s the point of existence itself? What’s the ultimate point of this endless flow of experience? With serious questioning, God becomes very trivial.

110

Zen.Buddha.Tao @indybuddhist.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Nobel physicists/neuroscientists: get to work on theorising about ‘the hand’! an incredible organ which can make things, play music, gesture, allude; surely the result of collapsing invisible crystal microtubules & god knows what other wonderful fancies; fame awaits your genius.

110