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How to escape suffering, if, you know, you want to
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So everybody here knows how to perceive and undo the karmic fetters that bind them to the existence-illusion complex, right? 

…what's that? You don't?! Oh dear…we're going to have to fix that, and quick! Your happiness and agency depend on it, so grab your listening ears and a bucket of crab legs and meet me under the bodhi tree, post haste!

A hoard of stoners and one sentient rhinoceros shuffle their way to the make-shift classroom that definitely didn't pass its building inspection

Ok, you ready? Jimmy, stop eating glue and pay attention. So, anyways, what I said can basically be translated as unlearning what you've learned. It's the human condition: we're born with incomplete brains which we build our first operating system on, then we finish growing our brains, but we keep the old software. It's bullshit! God definitely fucked up somewhere along the line, but hey, I got a dick, so I guess I can forgive the big dude.

Anyways, why is this important? Because when you exist with that incomplete framework, you're gonna suffer. You might say "But Miss Victoria! I thought you escaped suffering by releasing your attachments because the world is impermanent and the more you hold onto a desire for the world to be a certain way, like how I wish I had a billion diamonds in Minecraft, the more you're gonna suffer, which I do when my little brother griefs my base for the eighteen thousandth time!"

To which I must say, you're right. Good job, you get a gold star. However, keep in mind that there's a process of learning to let go of your desires and attachments. You don't just wake up one day, and say "Ah gee willakers, I think I'm going to transcend my Earthly desires for donuts and cheap hookers today! Let me just push on my nipples and do that." No, no, no, no. It takes time and effort on your part. Why? I'll fucking tell you why, friend!

See, the brain is like a pile of sand…

A student who's been blazing harder than the entire west coast raises their hand

"Can it be a pile of kief? I like kief."

…sure. Your mind is like a big pile of kief, and every grain of kief is an experience. Over time, you get a constant stream of kief onto this pile, all of which can be described as your personality, or whatever. But, underneath all that is a pretty immutable core of kief that rarely gets touched by the constant stream of new experience. It was here first, so it gets dibs on sticking around. So, to change your core personality, you gotta feed yourself a regular supply of profound and novel experiences to shake it loose.

This is what a pilgrimage used to be for. You couldn't just zip around the world with your American Express in tow. No! You had to physically pick yourself up and move on to the next settlement before integrating with the local population, working what jobs you could get, and then repeating the whole process. In doing so, it showed you the relativity of your own operating system, and you became a better, more liberated person.

Nowadays you can't really do that, but traveling is still an excellent way to wiggle that core personality loose. Learning new skills and languages is too. So is making and consuming art. And let's not forget everybody's favorite: outrageously heroic doses of psychedelics. Ok, a normal dose works too if you're basic. 

But, anyways, what was I saying? Oh yeah, perceive and undo the whole kaboodle. Good, I explained that. Basically, what I'm teaching here today folks is that if you walk down a new road everyday, eventually you'll be able to navigate to any destination. Free will is a skill, and self-actualization is going to naturally involve giving yourself as many tools in your toolbox as possible. And the more agency you give yourself, the more you can get through the trials life throws your way. 

Likewise, the more experience you feed yourself, the more you displace that which you have previously learned and you become like bong water: able to conform to any vessel it is placed in. These things will liberate yourself from suffering, because you'll learn to let go of wanting the world to be anyway because you can adapt to whatever you come up against, and you will have the perspective to know that when you are like this you are no longer a self. In fancy terms, you'll learn that you are really anatta; the non-self. More fancy terms: you'll evolve from a sense of ditension (I am) to a sense of cotention (It is).

And that's that. I hope my dumbass was able to pass on some life changing wisdom to you. If not, then I hope I made you laugh. If I did neither of those, let me know and I'll kill myself just for you. Anyways, this is the end of the post. Peace. 

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2 years ago