Esoteric Dixie Dharma

I’m playing a video game right now, and the worst thing about it is that I am forced to try to win a war without being able to actually practice the art of warfare. Instead, I’m forced to only play what the enemy is good at, a captured democratic bureaucracy & all the choking pressures of media, institutional, and corporation control. I know I could win the game if they patched in an update that permitted the raising of armies … but alas, it’s just not that game. Maybe a community patch comes out someday, that fundamentally changes the game - but until then, if I want to win the game at hand, I have to figure out how to beat the enemy in a game where he holds all the cards. Very difficult position to be in. I don’t like this game very much, but unfortunately I can’t simply return it - I have to play it through to the end, and there’s just no replay value at all. I’ve really got one shot to do it right, and it’s stuck on expert difficulty. And by far, the worst part about the game is - it’s a multiplayer game, one of those MMO’s … and you’re just one avatar in a sea of others, most don’t even seem to be interested in the game, they just shit up the chat logs, and no one has any motive or incentive to do what you say. Your starting “reputation” meter has just 1 brick out of like 300 million bricks … and half of them, get this, half of them have completely different victory conditions than you … and if they find out you’re not on their team, they can perma-ban your account. It’s a pretty stupid game, and I still struggle to both find out the best strategy - and get that strategy communicated to my teammates without getting myself & others banned from the server - which ofc doesn’t help anything. Right now; building competence (but anonymously, so as to not get discovered), selective & secretive alliance-building (aimed at - very patient compounding growth in small unit cohesion … sort of raising an invisible army, without the risks of fighting the core loop directly, as it’s heavily policed - lots of opsec, can’t ever have enough opsec … compartmentalization too), and putting all of my own specs into mana (I have a theory that the mana stat allows you to better probe and leverage system exploits, giving you better D12 rolls) - and that’s my strategy. One of the most interesting things though, is that sometimes the stated rules of the game, and the actual rules of the game - are a little different, and allow for some sneaky loopholes to exploit. The whole team does a pretty good job with those - and what I’ve noticed is that when using one of those exploits, even though the enemy team basically knows who you are, they are totally powerless to ban you. So I do think we should keep working those - though, as always, risk management is not sexy, but it is very fundamental. No sense in even playing the game if you’re not going to be patient enough to mitigate silly risks, while taking carefully measured risks. All in all, absolutely retarded video game that I resent feeling compelled to play.

There’s a saying among stock traders to “love the red days”, meaning when the market or an asset you own is down. When everyone else is selling in a panic because of a temporary downturn, you can instead buy in at a lower price (or just hold it while they lose out), so long as you have faith in the assets long term performance. I think this sentiment is applicable to personal development as well. There are going to be bad days where you feel like your effort has been wasted, and you’re not getting anywhere, but it’s exactly these days where you may have the most potential gain so long as you keep your head. It’s where you get tested, and how great is it to not only pass the test, but to realize you’re being tested, double down, and tell whatever misfortune appears to go fuck itself, because you see right through it. How you perform on bad days now compared to earlier on is maybe one of the best indicators of progress to begin with, so welcome them.

I like this one

We Iz

Attention:

Jani spoke of this

Belief is essentially “to take seriously”. To take obstacles in your life seriously, or an insult, or a future event of which you have a particular picture in your mind, is to give them immense power over you. You don’t HAVE to take them seriously, you don’t HAVE to do anything. I love the video of Jorjani speaking on The Trial by Franz Kafka for this reason. The main character K is being harassed by a shady court of law, and he continues to find himself becoming embedded deeper in its grip by complying with their requests, filling out their paperwork, showing up to their court dates. In short, playing by THEIR rules. It becomes apparent at the end of the novel, were he to “just have laughed in their faces”, it would have likely all gone away. You make something real by believing it to be so, by taking it seriously, which in a literal sense is to give it authority over you. Beware of what you authorize.

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Follow my wigga https://youtu.be/Avv42Hui40I?si=mg8ABfK2qiL6OdWQ

A note about Dzogchen. In my own experience one of the most valuable parts of Dzogchen practice and its conception is that everything is already perfect, there is nothing that needs to be changed for you to feel comfortable, composed, and mentally clear or poised in a given moment. This idea is echoed in the Ultimate Refuge Prayer “In the true nature of my own mind emptiness-clarity, I take refuge”. When you need nothing other than your own mind (which you always have) to take refuge in, ie. support a state of bliss, clarity, confidence, then nothing can be wrong with any given moment. Of course, we go through various conditions and situations, some of which prompt actions we probably or almost certainly should take, but that is aside from the point I’m trying to make here. Regardless of the situation you find yourself in, whether you’re walking up in front of an auditorium to deliver an important speech, getting your neck crushed under 200 pounds in a wrestling match, or having to deal with an unexpected problem that requires your immediate attention, it becomes always possible to retain your composure when you are able to “take refuge in your own mind”. Link to the refuge prayer: https://lamalenateachings.com/dzogchen-refuge-prayer-with-explanation/

From mark frosts book, a secret history of twin peaks