rigorous wholesome happymaxxing

some summaries, overviews

it turns out humans can be wayyyy happier than most people think is possible, by many orders of magnitude!

apparently we can reproducibly improve baseline wellbeing such that our 24/7 phenomenology has more positive valence than being on MDMA, but in a sustainable, wholesome way that feels connected, meaningful, whole.

apparently we figured out the micro-mechanics of suffering 2500 years ago, and it turns out ~all suffering is caused by particular 10-40hz mental tensions (likely literal physical tension), which are perpetuated by particular phenomenological illusions.

we can learn to investigate and undo this weird tension, and we gradually find that our base layer of experience just has unconditional peace and joy and happiness for free. we don't yet know why the physics of consciousness turns out to be like that, but thousands of people have rediscovered it to be that way!


there's lots of debate over labels, stages, maps, models, etc. but it's sorta widely agreed upon that there's a big milestone which some people label as "abiding centerlessness" and some people label it as "nirvana" (for some schools this is their "nirvana", for others it's not, but we don't have to engage in that debate and we can just acknowledge the agreed-upon existence of this particular huge notable phenomenological shift.)

{TODO} need to talk about the trap of like . getting caught up in maps and attainments and models and where am i and where should i go . but it's like dude just practice, don't worry about your UTR, youll get good at tennis if you understand tennis just make sure you understand tennis, the rating systems can take care of themselves,


it turns out there are many different routes to take on this journey, and many different things will resonate with different people at different stages in their journey, but it's important to note there are "scenic routes" to get there enjoyably and gradually/smoothly, and they seem just as effective (if not more effective!) than the faster, more direct paths. (see: “wet path vs dry path”){TODO}

it also turns out there are lots of "powerups" that are part of the path that seem really weird and “woo” but they turn out to be completely reproducible phenomenological experiences. (see: “jhanas”, etc) {TODO}


after a few thousand hours of practice, many people reach what could be labeled as “abiding centerlessness.” there's lots of debate over labels/stages/maps/models, so some schools/intepretations label this as “nirvana”, but i prefer not to engage in that debate, and we can just acknowledge the agreed-upon existence of this certain huge notable phenomenological shift.

right now this takes a few thousand hours of dedicated practice with good metalearning and/or good pedagogy (comparable to spending a few years doing an intense phd), but it seems likely that new technology and/or better pedagogy will speed this up by many many orders of magnitude (hopefully we get to see it during our lifetime!)


the field is largely preparadigmatic, most leading pedagogies aren't very good, it's one of the most confusing fields to talk about, and there's an incredible amount of mainstream misconceptions.

{TODO} insert a small amount of important/popular misconceptions

so, this project is sorta my attempt to help contribute to spreading this stuff around. i wanna share this cool thing with others, but i've found very few mainstream resources that make it accessible/understandable, and my main bottleneck for years was confusion due to terrible pedagogy. my goal is to be anti-confusing by being rigorous, coherent, comprehensive. i don't think i have any revolutionary discoveries, and i'm not yet a super advanced practitioner, and i believe i've only sorta passed level zero of the whole thing - comprehending wtf this is all about. but i think this "level zero" is the exact bottleneck for huge amounts of people (or, at least it was for past corbin), and i really think i've sniffed out a lot of anti-confusing ideas to have a non-trivial contribution to the pedagogical scene!


{TODO}

it seems like there's pretty decent pedagogy when youre already along the path / already started (eg Shinzen, etc)

but only insofar as theres pretty decent pedagogy for math, music, SLA, tennis, etc

there are still huge bottlenecks for many many people, especially untalented beginners or confused onlookers

and the decent/good teachers still do a rly bad job of helping those untalented beginners or confused onlookers, even if they r rly good at helping slightly talented beginners etc wtvr etcetc

so this project is rly for level zero, its rly for the confused onlooker / confused beginner

nothing revolutionary or new, just lots of anticonfusing puzzle pieces


{TODO}

i want to emphasize that this is extremely possible to the same extent that tennis 12 utr is possible, or phd is possible (or give other examples bc tennis 12 utr feels hard actually lmao . maybe HSK 6 level fluency? like just below native level fluency)

semirelated,, i think with good metalearning and good anticonfusion and good learning conditions then you can easily get to decent conversational fluency if it's your main hobby/passion for 2-6 months

i wanna become conversationally fluent at the happiness thing, it's probably via ifs


{TODO}

its sorta like . tennis analogy:

  1. endgoal is to win // be happy
  2. you do that by hitting the ball over the net into the court more times than the other player* // remove tanha which causes dukkha
  3. there are many styles to doing that (some of the variation is personal preference, some of it is bc some prove to be more effective), but it's all fundamentally aimed at hitting the ball over the net into the court more times than the other player // it's all fundamentally aimed at removing tanha (and thats just how it is, theres no arguing about it subjectively, its not a subjective argument, thats just like exactly the mechanics of what's happening)

(*) how to say this sentence better?

lots of people r rly bad at tennis coaching the 3, but for meditation it's more like the bottleneck is the 2

like imagine if you thought in tennis to win you had to

cf. many nick tweets about being confused abt physics of happiness, correcting ppl abt it, startups physics of money, https://x.com/nickcammarata/status/1842295114720530770?s=46


{TODO} short commentary on power law of pedagogy

perhaps this article is an incredible intro/overview of some main things

excerpt

At least now it is clear that we have no idea what is going on, which forms a much better foundation for investigating on our own.

https://neuroticgradientdescent.blogspot.com/2020/01/mistranslating-buddha.html?m=1

——

combine that with my favorite translation of the premises of the buddha’s teachings:

ow! // how ow? // no ow! wow! // now how?

from https://x.com/wystantbs/status/1818716817483088211?s=46

copy paste from https://x.com/corbindreams/status/1957005063844462978?s=46

lemme just list some common pitfalls off the top of my head

  1. sorta trying to teleport to the end outcome of peace/joy/equanimity/etc by trying to change your mind like “i just gotta go w the flow!” “i should just accept this!” etc, which is kinda super ineffective

i just recently found out some people label this as “end-gaining”

https://x.com/sunsettler/status/1954623492915147169?s=46

a common mistake when doing fetters inquiry: end-gaining, expressed through tension.

end-gaining is an amazing concept i learned from The Alexander Technique by Pedro de Alcantara. it means fixating on the end result of a process you're doing, instead of the process, which usually makes the process fail.

in fetters inquiry, this is often expressed (unknowingly) through tension. for example, you're working on reactivity and you know the end goal is not feeling bad when bad things happen to you. yet, you're not done yet, and you're feeling bad. you subconsciously tense against / push away these bad thoughts. maybe it's accompanied by thoughts of "these feelings aren't even real / shouldn't be felt / etc".

this is not helpful. remember that negative emotions like anger, anxiety, etc are chiefly composed of layers of tension (thing happens -> refusing to accept that thing happened -> this feels bad -> tensing against the bad feeling). adding more tension on top of that doesn't resolve it. that's why a key part of working on reactivity is actually opening yourself up to and experiencing fully these negative emotions. you're gradually unwinding this tower of tension, until all that's left is a valence-neutral core, and perhaps some physical effects (the adrenalin component of fear, for example)

here’s one way that shows up in pedagogy:

https://x.com/rogerthisdell/status/1947690947585970247?s=46

A great bodhisattva ambition is to adhere to a high standard of theory of mind, such that we make the cognitive effort to remember what it was like to NOT have certain insights.

I have read entire books, by highly esteemed Buddhist master's, that were trying to be prescriptive to students about how to practice, but were really just descriptive of the author's living state. Arguably, to the right minds, these books serve as transmissions, but for many what is being described is not actually appropriate instructions for where the student is at in their journey; and the authors seemed to totally fail to consider this.

May we better meet those where they are and put in the energy (despite the mental tax) to model different set ups of mind - even if it means foregoing greater personal freedom from suffering.

We do it to bring more along with us.

another way it shows up in pedagogy:

https://x.com/chrischipmonk/status/1944077342923743396?s=46

Why does so much psych advice reverse causality? “Learn to set boundaries” “Accept yourself” “Be mindful” “Practice saying hard things” “Seek rejection” “Trust your gut” — but these are all CONSEQUENCES of feeling secure about stuff, not things you can “do”

  1. trying to remove bad emotions

it turns out suffering is produced by our resistance to things, not the actual bad emotion, and so the goal isnt to remove bad emotions (youre still human) but to lower resistance/clinging/attachment

and not in a philosophical way but like literally physiologically there are particular 10-40hz graspy clingy mental motions which turn out to be the cause of ~all suffering, which we can learn to investigate and undo

(and this is what “desire is the root of all suffering” really means, but it’s widely misinterpreted bc of bad translation — it’s not a philosophical argument, it’s super verifiable via meditation bc of things like sensory clarity)

2.5 trying to remove bad emotions via trying to fight/delete/repress/shoo them

it turns out this is just super ineffective, and the way to dissolve these things is more about letting them pass without constipating it (again, it’s about less resistance) and bringing them to the light and putting awareness on it (which sometimes can look like “love”)

ok im sorta simplifying but yeah basically

  1. directly doing insight meditation without untangling psychological gunk first

it turns out this is one of the common ways to do meditation unsafely (bc people get rly ungrounded n disoriented after experiencing things like oh my sense of self is an illusion, etc), but one of the ways it seems to be remedied by first laying a foundation by cleaning up your mind via good therapy (IFS, coherence therapy, gendlin focusing, etc) and enjoyable meditation like metta, jhanas

3.5 grinding “just focus on the breath”

yeah it turns out this is like the meditation equivalent of going to a tennis coach every day but not fundamentally improving bc you’re just hitting the ball and not really debugging the fundamental micromovements that matter