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sujato

@sujato.bsky.social
618 followers 853 following 3.1K posts

Buddhist mendicant. Pali translations: suttacentral.net Forum: discourse.suttacentral.net Recorded talks: lokanta.live Events: The Monastery at the End of the World lokanta.github.io Writings: sujato.me 🚫 AI

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 20h
The end of an era. Millions of deaths & uncountable suffering from long COVID (including me!). Now the last free vaccine day in Australia. One thing hasn’t finished, and that’s COVID. 2.5 million lives saved, one of the miracles of science. Help yourself & help others: get your jab. I did.
jamanetwork.com
Lives and life-Years Saved From COVID-19 Vaccination
This comparative effectiveness study analyses the number of lives and life-years saved worldwide among those who had been vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2024 years.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
We shouldn't let misogynists get away with it just because they cower behind some tradition.
theguardian.com
Eiffel Tower chief to quit after female staff told to stay hidden during Hindu group visit
Patrick Branco Ruivo to leave post after decision contrary to France’s ‘value of equality’ sparked outrage and strike
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Bitter, stupid, and cruel, the hollow men are leaching us of our humanity, drop by drop.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I feel that the Buddha doesn’t get enough recognition for his support of female musicians in a notoriously sexist industry.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Due to overwhelming popular demand, or more accurately, a couple of expressions of mild interest, here’s the rabbit hole I’ve been down the last week or so. It’s deep. So deep, in fact, it should probably be called a wombat hole.
discourse.suttacentral.net
Kuru in the North
Uttarakuru is a mysterious land mentioned in the early Buddhist texts. I think I’ve found where it is, or more to the point, what it is. If you want to follow me there, be warned. The paths are new-he...
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Reading @gilduran.com’s Nerd Reich, one quick question: what’s in the water at Stanford? It’s like the ideological epicenter of resurgent Nazism.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Neat article on Helen as related to Indo-European stories of abducted women. One detail he misses: In the earliest telling, Rig Veda 10.17.1–2, Saraṇyū does not “decide to leave her husband”, she’s abducted. This draws her story even closer to Helen.
researchgate.net
(PDF) Indo-European Roots of the Helen of Troy
PDF | As a part of the series on female deities and demons in the Indo-European culture, the article begins by establishing Helen’s divine character in... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Thinking about how the Thai govt co-opts monks w/ lavish titles, I came across this from the pre-Buddhist Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa. It’s an old strategy, if not a Buddhist one. >He thus encloses the merchants and menials on both sides by the priesthood and the nobility, and makes them submissive.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Huh. So I think I may have discovered not just *where* Uttarakuru was, but more importantly, *what*. The answer is incredibly interesting, but unfortunately too long for a skeet. It has to do with shadow selves, with incest, with horses, with sunburn, and with the paths to the dead.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
👀
theguardian.com
Tech billionaires trying to live for ever? That’s a waste of time, says physicist
Exclusive: Prof Jim Al-Khalili says he will offer solution to ‘arrow of time’ problem in Royal Institution lectures
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
New — I wrote about this weird thing where people within the Republican party keep being exposed as Nazis and the party then tries to claim each one is an aberration. The facts, as I lay out here, indicate otherwise:
thehandbasket.co
Republicans don’t have a Nazi problem—they are the Nazi problem
A spate of recent revelations have shown the ideologies and their adherents are one and the same.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
So Vidhura, wise adviser to the Kuru kings Yudhiṭṭhila and Dhanañjaya in the Jatakas, is the same person as Vidura, wise adviser to the Kuru king Dhṛtarāṣṭra, uncle of Yudhiṣṭhira and Dhanañjaya AKA Arjuna. And all the relevant Jatakas should be considered as part of the Mahābhārata cycle.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
If you read one thing about what the tech oligarchs are doing …
theguardian.com
The end times fascists are plotting their escape from our world. Our mission is clear | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
An unholy alliance is working toward an apocalyptic future from which only a chosen few will emerge unscathed. It’s becoming clear how we stop them
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I got some hilarious news today, which unfortunately I’ve been asked not to share. But rest assured, you would have laughed. And maybe cried.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I probably shouldn’t have reposted Dr. Guenther’s message without context. My intent was not, "Oh no be scared", but "Look at these chuds up to the same old tricks." Here’s an article from *seven years ago* where OpenAI is saying that GPT-2 is too dangerous to release.
Screenshot of article, it seems from Wired, by Aaron Mak on Feb 22 2019, with headline, “OpenAI says its text-generating algorithm GPT-2 is too dangerous to release”
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It seems insane to get up, observe the signs of apocalypse, and just start living life. Sometimes all we can do is hold on to our humanity.
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Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I urge you to go to X and read the threads of the conversation unfolding there after an Anthropic researcher announced his resignation last night, exposing that everyone in the company thinks that AI will “kill us all by the end of the decade,” and the Alignment Science lead at the company agreed. 🧵
Evan Hubinger &
@EvanHub
...
X.com
Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe Al could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.
Jacob Coxon
@hilbertspaess •10h
The people building Al earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing i...
21:27 • 9/8/26 • 14M Views
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Faces of courage.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
yesterday we had a harrowing and insightful presentation and discussion with Joah from Better Burma. For folks in Sydney, join us for a pindapata picnic tomorrow w/ Joah, meet at 11am, Harris Park Post office.
betterburma.org
BETTER BURMA
In the wake of the devastating earthquake, Better Burma is working to provide critical humanitarian aid to Myanmar. Originally founded to support the Burmese people after the February 2021 coup, we re...
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This week, Nadine Levy and I will discuss misogyny. Crows Nest Center, 7pm.
Flyer with Text: Dark week - September. Misogyny. Gender violence, cultural norms, devalue women, stereotypes, beauty standards. Background is an image of a black snake.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Mixed news on the case of Netiwit, the young Thai man prosecuted for conscientious objection to military service. He was found guilty but given a suspended sentence. He wrote to me that he was hopeful this is a sign that the law may change in the future.
wri-irg.org
Statement on the conviction of Thai conscientious objector Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal
We are deeply disappointed by the decision of the Samut Prakan District Court to find conscientious objector Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal guilty for refusing military conscription. In its decision of 20 J...
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Don’t be giving me ideas! Looking forward to some hinged discourse on this one. Most relatable line: >“I’m also going to quadruple the number of endnotes because endnotes are really fun to write,” she said. 💓
theguardian.com
Emily Wilson to retranslate the Odyssey from scratch
Wilson, whose 2017 English translation of Homer’s epic poem inspired Christopher Nolan’s box office hit, is revisiting it after criticising the film adaptation
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
You know what? I’m really sick of patriarchal bullshit. Did a panel yesterday on violence against women, and the Hindu pandit, having explained my own religion at me, averred that no Hindu texts justified domestic violence. Well, here’s Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 6.4.7, Olivelle translation:
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Talk tonight at the Crows Nest Center, 7pm. If you're not sure the way, start with flash floods in Nepal. Follow the melting glaciers to the excess CO2, which takes you directly to burning coal. Jump a coal ship to Newcastle. Then take the Pacific Hwy a couple of hours, we're right there!
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
AI data centers are driving fossil fuel use, which drives global heating, which melts glaciers, which creates flash floods. >“Nepal’s snow-capped mountains had lost close to one-third of their ice in just over 30 years due to global warming, the United Nations said in 2023”
Screenshot of the Guardian on this date, showing an article on the Australian governments backdown on requiring AI data centers use renewables, labelled "cause", and an arrow pointing to a label "effect" on an article on how the Australian govt is working to contact people missing in the devastating Nepal flash floods.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Ok, so today I'll be ranking Guardian headlines. Is this the future of snacking? Until someone actually takes a bite of one of these things, that’s a hard no. 2/10
theguardian.com
Hard to swallow? The future of snacking may be 3D-printed cookies made from upcycled plastic
Nasa-funded project uses yeasts to turn plastics and other waste into edible proteins, fats and flavourings
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Wake up everyone, a new Nadine Levy article just dropped!
theguardian.com
Surviving desire: what Buddhist thought teaches us about our war on want | Making sense of it
The work is less about fighting what we feel, and more about meeting desire with curiosity, integrity and wisdom
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
If you know only one thing about AI, this is what you need to know.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
New Jon Ronson, mind-popping as always. Why are men going mad? It’s a mystery! >He sent me ChatGPT’s assessment of [his proposed show]: “the most compelling entertainment project ever created”. > >“AI likes you a lot!” I texted him. > >“That’s who I talk to most of my time,” he replied.
theguardian.com
A party, 101 princesses and an eccentric millionaire: Jon Ronson on a mysterious castle – and what it taught him about masculinity in crisis
When my son texted me from a Connecticut fortress in the middle of the night with an alarming message, it set me on a quest to understand the bizarre lifestyle of its owner
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Amnesty published a report on how the anti-trans movement in the UK is a growing threat to human rights. The movement, funded by JK Rowling, then proved them correct by forcing them to retract it and remove all copies from the internet. Get it while you can, the following links work as of now:
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I finally got my essay under the word limit. I did it the hard way: go over every sentence again and again, asking, “Do I need this? If so, can it be phrased more concisely?” Smoothed out circumlocutions, deleted adjectives, straightened syntax. Worth it!
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
There is more unconscious than conscious; of the conscious, there is more unexpressed than expressed; of the expressed, there is more organic than digital; and the digital is rarely the better part. Yet it is of these digital scraps that they pretend to construct a superior person. #banai
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Let’s destroy books to create a machine that convinces people not to read books. #banai #butlerianjihad
404media.co
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
AI Buddhist texts are to Dhamma as AI girlfriends are to love.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
You tell 'em.
theguardian.com
‘Everything is on the line’: students shun calls to stay in school and join anti-Hanson protests across Australia
High schoolers join university walkouts in major cities and several smaller locations amid urge to fight against racism
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Did I mention I really don’t like AI? Top discourse on this app today is about use of AI by gaming apps, which are apparently held to a higher ethical standard than Buddhist scripture.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
This is good, keep Dobby’s grave! Honor the fact that the world’s leading transphobe also has the raging hots for slavery. I suspect this could be a useful factoid in days to come.
theguardian.com
Harry Potter fans force relocation of £430m undersea cable to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’
Power cable linking UK and Ireland now passes near Bronze Age human burial remains instead of fictional grave on Welsh beach
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Instant classic, from the man who brought you “enshittification”.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
If you can’t say no, you’re in an abusive relationship. #banai #butlerianjihad
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the Juice Media @thejuicemedia.com · 11/08/2026
The Government™ has made an ad about Ai Data Centres, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative.
youtube.com
Honest Government Ad | Ai Data Centres
YouTube video by thejuicemedia
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Today, I did two things: filled in my census, and researched the monk Kuṇḍadhāna (?), said by the Buddha to be the first to vote (AN 1.211). Saṅgha is, or should be, a democratic system, and every voice is equal. The process is detailed in the Vinaya.
suttacentral.net
SuttaCentral
Early Buddhist texts from the Tipitaka (Tripitaka). Suttas (sutras) with the Buddha's teachings on mindfulness, insight, wisdom, and meditation.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I remember the days when neo-Nazis put up posters and firebombed restaurants in Perth. Now they have their own Ein Reich party and are paid by Facebook to spread hate and lies. One thing stays the same, though. They’re always sad, mean little boys at heart. This is an excellent article.
abc.net.au
My family was terrorised by a group of neo-Nazis. I decided to track down their leader
Crispian Chan was eight when his family's Chinese restaurant was firebombed by a neo-Nazi group. As an adult, he set out to track their leader down.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This week I’m going to be talking about the “radiant mind”. Was the Buddha talking about how your mind gets bright in meditation, or was he sneaking an eternal soul in the back door? You decide! See you in Parramatta, Tuesday 6:00pm at PHIVE, or Crows Nest Center on Friday, 7:00pm (also online).
lokanta.github.io
The Monastery at the End of the World · Lokantavihāra
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
“If you set out to design from scratch a tool to facilitate authoritarian rule, it would look exactly like AI. You would cherish it for its ability to destabilise our shared reality and its creation of disinformation on a scale unprecedented in human history.”
theguardian.com
‘I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young’: Katherine Rundell on the view from the classroom
Education is at a crossroads, argues the author and academic. Should we embrace new technology in the name of efficiency, or is it time to fight back?
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
A month ago, I gave a Dark Week talk on space, criticizing Elon Musk’s cosmist dreams. Since then, he has personally lost half a trillion dollars. I’m not saying there’s a connection. But I am saying there’s another Dark Week talk on tomorrow.
lokanta.github.io
The Monastery at the End of the World · Lokantavihāra
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The golden truth AI reveals is the fools who walk beside us.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
So someone answering a question from their phone read like three words and I said "that's ai" and they said "no it's not". "Sounds like ai" .... "Ok yeah it was."
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Another day, another ridiculous AI project using my work. One thing you can say about these AI apps, they're consistent in their complete lack of worth, imagination, or contribution to anything meaningful.
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
It’s that question that’s been bugging you for years now: why didn’t Tolkien write a sequel to The Lord of the Rings? On Friday, I’ll discuss the Buddha’s first sermon and how he solved this puzzle 2500 years ago. - 7pm AEST - Crows Nest Center Join online:
lokanta.github.io
The Monastery at the End of the World · Lokantavihāra
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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
“Whatever short-term income fossil fuel exports generate is overwhelmed by the deaths, destruction and decline in human security caused by accelerating climate disruption.” — Former chief of Australian Defence Force, Admiral Chris Barrie AC.
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