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Pragmatically speaking, the level of evil in the world today (and since time immemorial) is closely tied to the amount of unconscious fear and unchecked desire people are carrying. At its root, it’s fear of suffering—not death, but suffering in all its forms. The more unconsciously someone fears suffering, the more likely they are to engage in evil actions: exploitation, theft, abuse, manipulation, etc. And the flip side is also true—the more someone is consumed by desire, the more likely they are to harm others in pursuit of relief, control, or gratification. But underneath both fear and desire lies something even deeper: the illusion of separation. The belief that we are isolated, disconnected beings trying to survive alone in a hostile world. Once that illusion takes hold, self-preservation becomes the highest priority—regardless of who gets hurt. Layer on top of that a lack of self-awareness (ignorance), and you've got the perfect conditions for evil to flourish: people blindly reacting to internal chaos, with no understanding of the root causes driving them. Even in extreme cases—rape, torture, senseless violence—the perpetrator is often trying to escape some kind of internal torment. They’re not acting from pure malice but from a twisted attempt to feel power, pleasure, or release from their own existential pain. That doesn’t excuse it—but it helps explain it. As for whether evil has increased, who knows. The world population is at a record high, so the raw number of evil acts may have gone up, but proportionally, it may have actually dropped. Either way, the level of evil we experience is a direct reflection of how much fear, desire, and unconscious separation is driving human behavior. The less those forces control us, the more harmony naturally emerges.

5?! Those are all pretty serious safety issues, fortunately I haven't seen many examples of any of these on the site, and definitely not by one person. We may be using different definitions: For instance, for spamming I don't mean posting a lot, I mean intentional actions, often using auto-posting tools or bots, for some purpose such as DOS, promoting scams, chasing genuine users away from a service, inflating views and back-linking, etc. Fortunately most of that should be handled by the forum management tools and it is difficult to do something like that here because I don't think you can auto-post, so it would need to manual, which is a lot of effort for the small reach of a niche sub. Credible threats, doxing, stalking, I haven't seen any of these and I have a hard time believing the mods would not shut those behaviors down and ban someone immediately. Especially stalking - although that can be tricky to stop if the person is using alt accounts to bypass blocks and bans or if they manage to find their target on other platforms as well. Hate-speech sadly is probably the most common of these on the site, but people are good about reporting it when it happens and the mods have always been responsive to it and shut it down. There has been some examples of character assassination on this sub over the years, but I can't think of anything recent. There was one about Damo Mitchell awhile back, definitely some posts along those lines during the "additional baked-goods" era. Those are usually very intense targeted attacks motivated by revenge towards some some person, on here it usually seems to be towards a master or public figure by an ex-student. I haven't seen any significant trolling on this sub, at least since I have been lurking, trolls are generally not invested in the content they target and rather involve themselves simply to create chaos and sow division, often using sensitive topics, rage-bait and trigger words to incite flame wars. It's pretty easy to spot and I can't see the mods not acting on it if it were to happen on the sub.

Its already there isn't it . Last week 'reputable doctors' freaking out - diabetic patients calling him and said they threw away their meds like he said and got the new herbal supplements . " What ! When did I say that ?" then he was shown 'himself' on an internet advert advising diabetics to get off their meds !

I've taken several workshops with Damo. One time I was standing in wuji, eyes closed, and then I felt something strange in my kidney area, like something was moving there. After some time, I opened my eyes and saw Damo walking around people and doing some finger transmission in ming men area. It was not a big deal, lots of qigong instructors can do that, but it was certainly very distinct. In any way, Damo stopped doing any transmissions in open doors events after that guy from apricot garden died from failed heart doing too much of faqi. I guess that death had an impact on Damo's approach to teaching. Regardless of all this, I doubt any new students will be able to pull off a training session with Damo these days. From what I understand, he has trained enough qigong instructors for open doors events, and only very few of his senior students can now work directly with him. Just crossed my mind how I was in a class with Shou You Liang and he decided to demonstrate how to emit qi, and for whatever reason he kicked his leg and shot his qi from his young quan towards me. It was not much, and I was not sensitive those days, but there was a very distinct feeling of some weird stuff hitting me. Good days...

Damo's youtube channel was shut down. Had he demonstrated some degree of mastery on the internet. It would have been shut down sooner. People are needlessly paranoid about this stuff getting out of control.

The three “cankers” were said to be three cravings: “craving for the life of sense”, “craving for becoming”, and “craving for not-becoming” (DN 22; PTS vol. ii p 340). When the cankers are “destroyed”, the roots of the craving for sense-pleasures, the roots of the craving “to continue, to survive, to be” (tr. “bhava”, Bhikkyu Sujato), and the roots of the craving not “to be” (the craving for the ignorance of being) are destroyed. ... There is a lecture where Gautama described how, while abiding in the fourth concentration, he directed his mind to “the knowledge of the destruction of the cankers” (MN 4, tr. PTS p 29). That direction of mind, said Gautama, resulted in an understanding “as it really is” of what he called the four truths: the existence of suffering, the arising of suffering, the ceasing of suffering, and the path leading to the ceasing of suffering. Once he had understood the four truths, he directed his mind to an understanding “as it really is” of a similar four truths with regard to the cankers, and subsequently realized both freedom from the cankers and knowledge of that freedom. ... If a person can exhibit a mindfulness like Gautama’s without having become enlightened, and can have “seen by means of wisdom” without having completely destroyed the cankers, then how can one know who to trust as a teacher? Gautama’s advice was to go by the words of the teacher rather than any claim to authority, to compare the instructions of a teacher to the sermons Gautama himself had given and to the rules of the order that Gautama himself had laid down (DN 16 PTS vol. ii pp 133-136). Nevertheless, activity solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness, the hallmark of the fourth concentration, has been conveyed by demonstration in some branches of Buddhism for millennia. The transmission of a central part of the teaching through such conveyance, and the certification of that transmission by the presiding teacher, is regarded by some schools as the only guarantee of the authenticity of a teacher. The teachers so authenticated have in many cases disappointed their students, when circumstances revealed that the teacher’s cankers had not been completely destroyed. Furthermore, some schools appear to have certified transmission without the conveyance that has kept the tradition alive, perhaps for the sake of the continuation of the school. (One Way or Another)

Something from my latest post, on my blog "zenmudra.com/zazen-notes", that might interest you: Gautama recommended a cross-legged seated posture for “arousing” mindfulness. I believe, based on my own experience, that the cross-legged posture exacerbates the shearing stress on vertebrae of the lower spine in the movement of breath. In my experience, consciousness can take place in a specific location in response to that stress, and the location of consciousness can lead the balance of the body to engage activity in order to relieve that stress. A frailty in the structure of the lower spine emerged in the 1940’s, when research demonstrated that the discs of the spine cannot, on their own, withstand the pressure of lifting significant weight. In the 1950’s, D. L. Bartelink concluded that pressure in the “fluid ball” of the abdominal cavity takes load off the structure of the spine when weight is lifted (“The Role of Abdominal Pressure in Relieving the Pressure on the Lumbar Intervertebral Discs”; J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1957 Nov; 39-B[4]:718-25). The pressure in the “fluid ball” is induced by activity in the abdominal muscles. Bartelink theorized that animals (as well as humans) make use of pressure in the abdominal cavity to protect the spine, and he noted that breathing can continue even when the abdomen is tensed: Animals undoubtedly make an extensive use of the protection of their spines by the tensed somatic cavity, and probably also use it as a support upon which muscles of posture find a hold… Breathing can go on even when the abdomen is used as a support and cannot be relaxed. (ibid) In the 1980’s, Gracovetsky, Farfan and Lamay suggested that in weight lifting, the abdominals work against the extensor muscles of the spine to allow the displacement of the fascial sheet behind the sacrum and spine: If this interpretation is correct, it would partly explain why the abdominal muscles work hard during weight-lifting. They apparently work against the extensor muscles. Furthermore their lever arm gives them considerable effect. In fact, we propose that the effect of the abdominal muscles is two-fold: to balance the moment created by the abdominal pressure (hence, the abdominal muscles do not work against the weight lifter) and to generate abdominal pressure up to 1 psi, which would help the extensors to push away the fascia. It is essential that the supraspinous ligament and the lumbodorsal fascia be brought into action to permit weight lifting without disk or vertebral failure. … It must be kept in mind that in some circumstances ligament tension may reach 1800 lb., whereas no muscle can pull as hard. (Gracovetsky, S., Farfan HF, Lamay C, 1997. A mathematical model of the lumbar spine using an optimal system to control muscles and ligaments. Orthopedic Clinics of North America 8: 135-153) Dr. Rene Cailliet summarized these findings: In the Lamy-Farfan model the abdominal pressure is considered to be exerted posteriorly against the lumbodorsal fascia, causing the fascia to become taut…. thus relieving the tension upon the erector spinae muscles. (“Low Back Pain Syndrome”, ed. 3, F. A. Davis Co., pp 140-141) Farfan, Lamay and Cailliet referred to the “lumbodorsal fascia”. That fascia is now more commonly referred to as the “thoracolumbar fascia”. The Lamay-Farfan model presupposed a flattening of the lumbar curve, like that of a person bent over to lift weight from the floor, but acknowledged that the control of the ligament system afforded by activity between the abdominals and extensors could not be directly accounted for in the model. My assumption is that in the cross-legged posture, activity engendered by the location of consciousness can bring about at least a partial engagement of fascial support behind the spine. (The Diamond Trap, the Thicket of Thorns) From a different post, about a year ago--in my experience, the activity Gautama described frequently revolves around the MDT: ... That brings us to the third concentration. Gautama described the third concentration as like “water-lilies” of three different colors in a pond, lilies that never break the surface of the water: … free from the fervor of zest, (one) enters and abides in the third musing; (one) steeps and drenches and fills and suffuses this body with a zestless ease so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this zestless ease. … just as in a pond of blue, white, and red water-lilies, the plants are born in water, grow in water, come not out of the water, but, sunk in the depths, find nourishment, and from tip to root are steeped, drenched, filled and suffused with cold water so that not a part of them is not pervaded by cold water; even so, (one) steeps (one’s) body in zestless ease. (AN 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19, see also MN 119, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 132-134.) The water-lilies I believe represent the influence of the legs, the arms, and the head on activity in the abdominals, and consequently on stretch in the ligaments of the spine. The feeling of a combined influence of the extremities in the abdomen could be said to be like lilies of three colors floating under the surface of some body of water. The exact influence of each extremity remains unclear (zest ceases), yet with a sense of gravity and a stretch in particular ligaments, I can arrive at an ease. Gautama declared that the sages abide in the third concentration. I remind myself that the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation tends toward coordination by the free placement of consciousness, and look for ease. (Applying the Pali Instructions) I would now have to say that the feeling of ease associated with concentration is the feeling of ease that arises from activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness. Activity of the body can follow automatically as the location of consciousness leads the balance of the body. Automatic activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness has a feeling of ease, and initially a feeling of energy (or “zest”) as well. Gautama spoke of the extension of the feeling of ease, an extension such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this… ease”. He used the words “steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses” to describe how the feeling of ease pervades the body, indicating that the feeling is accompanied by a fluid sense of gravity. The extension Gautama described maintains an openness of the body to the placement of consciousness at any point, and to ease through automatic activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness at that point. Gautama taught that the feeling of ease ceases in the fourth concentration. Instead of ease, a “purity by the pureness of mind” is extended: … (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind. (AN 5.28, PTS Vol. III p 19) The “pureness of (one’s) mind” is the pureness of the mind in the absence of any will, intention, or deliberation with regard to activity in the body. (The Diamond Trap, the Thicket of Thorns) Udayin, as an emerald jewel, of all good qualities, might be strung on a thread, blue-green or yellow or red or white or orange coloured; and a [person] with vision, having put it in [their] hand, might reflect; ‘this emerald jewel... is strung on a thread, blue-green... or orange-coloured’–even so, Udayin, a course has been pointed out by me for disciples, practising which disciples of mine know thus: This body of mine... is of a nature to be constantly rubbed away... and scattered, but this consciousness is fastened there, bound there.... (MN 77, tr. Pali Text Society vol. II p 217)

It can be slower

Disclaimer ; The above post may not have been written by me .

Indeed ! So obviously .... that little guy ain't me !

I think the permanent, throw the keys away and never reconsider bans should be reserved for safety issues: threats, stalking, hate-speech, trolling, spamming, doxing, character assassinations, etc. For other issues, I would support to a cool down period and a second chance if the person is interested in returning and agrees not to repeat whatever caused the ban. I didn't interact with him much, but there was a significant change in his posting prior to the ban - I don't know what prompted it, but there are some possible causes that should be considered for reinstatement, for instance, he may have been going through something behind the scenes.

Reading more of the passage that Gerard posted (same source): A second time and a third time the Venerable Mahamoggallana told that person to get up, and a second time and a third time that person remained silent. Then the Venerable Mahamoggllana took that person by the arm, pulled him outside the gate, and bolted it. Then he approached the Lord and said: "Revered sir, I have ejected that person. The assembly is quite pure. Revered sir, let the Lord recite the Patimokkha to the bhikkhus." "It is strange, Moggallana, it is remarkable, Moggallana, how that stupid person should have waited until he was taken by the arm." Then the Lord addressed the bhikkhus: "From now on, bhikkhus, I shall not participate in the Uposatha observance or recite the Patimokkha. From now on you yourselves should participate in the Uposatha observance and recite the Patimokkha. It is impossible, bhikkhus, it cannot happen, that the Tathagata should participate in the Uposatha observance and recite the Patimokkha with a gathering that is not pure. So the right thing to do was probably for the moderators to realize the situation could be repeated in the future, and after Daniel's ejection, withdraw from the recitations of transgressions that is Dao Bums altogether. Just kidding! What a strange world. I was ok with Daniel, but just before he got ejected, I had the impression that he was stringing people along to spring a secret agenda. Sort of like:

In this Damo talks about qi emissions - risks, benefits and relation to what he teaches (as well as his process for selecting who he teaches this to). I would suggest for specific questions you contact him directly through his Instagram site Damomitchell or through emails that are listed on his Instagram or websites.

Yes, I have seen this a few times in my life. Once, age 19 in the broad daylight while simply walking across my college campus this appeared slowly as very gossamer prismatic lines like vertices, seemingly stretching between every object you could name or call a separate "thing". It came with it the ability to seemingly know anything I wanted about those objects, but it was actually impossible to ask any questions, which I now realize, was because this visualization (for want of a better word) was only a relative representation of the deeper reality of unity/"emptiness". The next time I saw it, I had taken a low dose of MDMA and out walking by the ocean in the evening. It was most visible in the connections of the stars to each other. I would agree that this experience is where our contemporary stories of "Indra's Net" come from, and that such experiences are universally available, though still rare or possibly commonly dismissed as hallucination or mental illness. In the Buddhist model I would put this phenomena (like most "supernatural" events) squarely in the "Arising and Passing" category of the "Progress of Insight". These phenomena don't MEAN anything, except that your practice is exceptionally deep in the moment you are experiencing it, IMHO. That's good! More on the "Arising and Passing": https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-iv-insight/30-the-progress-of-insight/4-the-arising-and-passing-away/ More on the Progress of Insight (this is unlikely to benefit most casual practitioners): https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-iv-insight/30-the-progress-of-insight/ I include the links above NOT because the "Progress of Insight" or "Arising and Passing" represent that ABSOLUTE TRUTH about these experiences and are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about what they are, but because, as a description and working theory it expresses much of what I would say about this phenomena. Like ALL theories, religions, and stories about phenomena there just ISN'T a right answer about what they are, except to say that they aren't the full depth of understanding because they are impermanent and they DON'T mean anything specific except that you are "getting there". Of course, such things continue to show up even after you believe you have "arrived". (Hint: You never completely arrive! There is nowhere to GO! Just this is IT! ) Some other experiences I have had that fit this category: A whispy "fog" (seen with eyes open OR closed) that starts to form and not quite envelope the visual boundaries seeming to come from behind, and then almost closing the visual space. This usually happens when concentration/absorbtion is very deep but not concentrated on a particular object, as evidenced by intense "Nada Sound"/Celestial Chorus/Ear Ringing. A nice discussion on this predating my time here: A toroidal distortion in the shape of visual space, where the horizon is slightly curved to the right and left, and the sky and ground are turned under slightly. The perspective seems to be from the empty center. The same conditions apply - deep concentration, no object, Nada Sound. I first saw this during my "awakening" when the first taste of center-less, complete "no-self" occurred with it. I have seen it a couple of other times since then - once on the cushion and a few times when walking in meditation in the forest. It has no "meaning" really, beyond being a representation of the underlying non-dual reality. My teacher says that this one (to paraphrase), "Probably represents the limit at which "emptiness" can be seen by "beings" "with remainder". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(Buddhism)#Nirvana_with_and_without_remainder_of_fuel

inductive reactance not recognized kicks butt..

This bit I disagree with. Taomeow never talks “crap”, on the contrary. She merely has another opinion here. But on the whole I agree with your opinion on this one. Once upon a time a long time ago, I did a mindfulness course. The teacher said he had been an alcoholic, but ‘mindfulness’ cured him and had kept him sober since. Now that makes sense to me. I definitely would have quit the course if he still was drinking.

I find the two approaches to be mutually reinforcing. I don’t always authentically feel and embody equanimity as easily as I think I do or would like to. The simple, formal practice is there for those of us who need it and can help us to actually feel that equanimity, or other enlightened qualities, in the challenging moments by first getting familiar under controlled and supportive conditions; and to know(gnow) what it is when it actually arises. At least that’s been my experience with dzogchen, which is very similar in practice to zen. That said, my exposure to the practice was regularly accompanied by talks, reading, and reflecting. The method of transmission was to hear the teaching from a credible lama, read the text, reflect on the meaning and actualize it on the mat, then in life’s day to day. The mat is a training ground where we can identify, with certainty, the source of equanimity and develop skills to access it, and be stable. Then the challenging situations of life become the whetstone and eventually the fuel to open and stabilize more.

Well, he scored 5 of those out of your list ! Sounds fair enough. And going through something here as well .... a deconstructing of his religious programming - that will cause either of two reactions or one response ; to get angry and try to defend and attack using every trick in the book , or feel confused and lost , the response is to reassess and re-navigate to a new understanding ... once truth has been revealed to you . Of course, its common practice to shoot the messenger . I also find not many people pay attention or remember . I don't know how many times over the years here I have laughed in the face of people being able to 'do things' over the internet .. like healing, or 'chi transference ' or tarot readings . I mentioned that several times to Daniel, yet when I offered to 'exorcise ' someone via DBs forum ( ) he , and some others took umbrage and reacted as if I was serious . But that wasn't the root of his problems and him deciding to go on the attack ... I know exactly how that happened . Because I DO pay attention and remember . I pointed that out several times . He of course tried to switch it back, muddy the water, use ad hominem , and every 'dialogue trick' in the book . Now most of that will work with the general ignorant population ( which is probably how people like that develop these 'averse skills' ). But not all Daobums be that generally ignorant I detected it earlier as an undercurrent and then later it was more of the same surfacing and being aired , it wasn't a new thing that developed . He had an ingrained and programmed problem . Also he often b boasted how well things were going elsewhere ... but that probably BS too . The fact of the matter is ; he was being an arse and getting away with it ..... until he tried it on the mods ... THEN it was decided he had an issue .

Humans: summer penises, summer vaginas, summer in between.