Monday, March 3, 2025

How to control reality, get what you want


(Solace Fox) March 2, 2025: Everything we know feels solid — real. But what if reality isn’t as complex as it seems? What if everything is so simple once we look at it from the right angle? This video dives into the hidden truths of perception, consciousness, and the true nature of reality. Get ready to challenge everything you thought was real.

🕒 TIMESTAMPS
  • 00:00 - The illusion of reality
  • 02:15 - How our mind shapes everything
  • 05:42 - What happens when we look closer?
  • 09:10 - The secret behind perception
  • 12:35 - Is everything we see just a social construct?
  • 15:20 - Unlocking the simplicity of it all
  • 17:45 - Final thoughts
Subscribe now for free ► @SolaceFox #purpose #god #selfhelp #motivational #consciousness #oneness #spirituality #mysticism #enlightenment #awakening #awareness #life #motivation #universe #ego



Why do we not get what we want? It is because wanting has no resolution. With wanting arises not having. The solution, then, is not wanting. But how can we not want? (And isn't not-wanting a kind of wanting?) The way to not want is simple: LOOK long enough to see things as they really are. This leads to revulsion, and the mind/heart lets go (renunciation or "inner letting go").

Of course. we don't do this because sensual pleasures are our only respite, our only chance at any kind of "escape" from dukkha (disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, the woe of never getting what we really want). What do we really want? Fulfillment, which is not available through endless wandering on life after life through samsara, chasing satisfaction first here then there and anywhere we imagine it might be hiding.

Even without wishing, if we calmed-and-intensified (which is what happens on the path of purification by stillness and insight or shamatha and vipassana) by the mind through the meditative absorptions and learned to look at four things (body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects), the heart/mind would let go. That is the ultimate solution. That is what the Buddha advocated as actual escape. One will not hear this terse explanation from the AI generator or Tan Geoff, but the answer is implicit amidst the misleading text and talk.

Not getting what you want? The Buddha’s solution
Ego Podcast (Buddhism) March 2, 2025: Sadly, while "Ego Podcast" seems smart and thought out, it is just an uncredited reading of American Ven. Thanissaro's poorly worded opinions. It's a scam unless Tan Geoff is behind it, but if he were, why would he use AI instead of his own melodious voice?

These writings, though read by Ven. Thanissaro himself on his website and made freely available at WatMetta.org, are fed to an AI voice that mispronounces Pali terms and names. (This particular talk is about Ajaan Fuang Jotiko). The reading sounds confident but translates Pali terms in an extreme and idiosyncratic way. Instead of being of benefit, they are sure to mislead.

Then to give a pretense of depth, AI is used to generate and add unrelated images. Just to get views and seem important? They sound smarmy for a reason: that is Tan Geoff's personality. Revolting to some (like us), soothing to others.

These opinions are offered free at accesstoinsight.org and Tan Geoff's dhammatalks.org. Sadly, AI or "Ego" has little understanding, so every summary of a lifted talk is misleading. Why do we often fail to get what we want? No reason is given. This video talks about connection between suffering and conviction. This video is a rip off of this talk:
The Buddha teaches that the pain of not getting what we want can spur us to put an end to the vicious circle of "wanting, not getting, pain, wanting more." Unfulfilled desires are therefore not only negative — they can spark a determination to follow a path that leads to liberation from suffering.

Or we could just keep wanting and wanting and never finding fulfillment in all the ordinary things we wished for (because the sensual world told us we'd be happy through sensuality). This is why millionaires take drugs and are miserable. They have come to know that getting what one wants does not work to end the desperate craving that keeps us working like slaves to get them. Word to the wise: let go. Or keep going, and in that Zen spirit of which Alan Watts speaks, "a fool who persists in his folly will become wise."

Sunday, March 2, 2025

Sex sells: 'Pretty Woman' wins 5 Oscars



If "sex sells," who's buying? Young audiences.
Hollywood loves a sequel. Anora took home five, beating everyone else. Hollywood (the mainstream media dream machine) conditions us what to want and aspire to:
  • I'm a man. I want to be rich and find a wh*re with a heart of gold.
  • I'm a wh*re. I want to get me a rich man with a trunk of gold.
  • I'm a they. I don't know what I want, other than all of it. Is that available?
  • This is Hollywood. We'll imagineer it for you all!
"How can we milk more money out of Pretty Woman if Julia Roberts isn't pulling in ticket sales like she used to?"

"I know! Let's dump Buddhist Dick Gere and Hindu Julie Roberts and replace them with like a really rich Russian, who's too young to have that much money and handsome. But here's the twist, he's nice, too!"

"How's that a twist? Richard Gere was the nicest John ever, and Roberts was a ditz."

"Yeah, a sexy ditz. We'll make the protagonist smart, a shark in this version, and -- get this -- they're the victims, like of the Mafia. The women will eat it up, eat their hearts out, and their daughters will push ticket sales like it's all new material."

"Brilliant! What do we call it?"

"Hmm, we'll ask the Numerology Department to come up with something esoteric like, 'A whore huh?'"

"'A bore huh?'"?

"No, neither nor nor bore, wait, that's it! A nor 'uh!!"

"I like it! What's her last name?"

"Like 'Cher,' just Anoruh?"

"But that's 1+5+6+9+3+8=32=5. We need a 3. Let's try 1+5+6+1=3. That checks out!"

"The department suggests Mikheeva as her surname, which adds up."

"Get the psychics in here, we got ourselves a sequel!"


Conan O'Brien's Oscars 2025 opening monologue
(ABC) March 2, 2025: Host Conan O'Brien kicks off the 97th Oscars with his opening monologue. See more highlights from Oscars 2025 on Oscars.com.