Everyone is always rooting for you. Your parents want you to be a great son. Wife wants you to be a great husband. Your boss wants you to be a slam dunk hire. Every first date you’ve ever been on they’ve been rooting for you to get laid. Every time you started to tell a joke people hoped it would have a hilarious punch line. Your proximity to anyone is a reflection of themself, meaning the deck is never stacked against you, and your failures are completely your own

It is said that Avalokiteshvara was once asked by a disciple, “What practice is the most essential to accomplish buddhahood?” Avalokiteshvara answered that the most important thing, the most essential thing to do to attain buddhahood, is to practice compassion. This is because when you practice compassion, all other qualities, such as loving kindness and the enlightenment mind, are naturally accomplished and naturally gather

There is a fundamental vibratory hum or pulse to reality that we notice when we look very closely. The universe appears to flicker in and out of existence like the wings of a rainbow colored butterfly. The Buddhists call this Udayabbaya - the unceasing arising and passing away of phenomena. We train our concentration and perceptual sensitivity in part to perceive it more clearly. In Non-Dual Shaiva Tantra they call it spanda: the dynamic throbbing of consciousness. The tantrikas use the metaphor of God’s eyes opening and closing in each moment to manifest and withdraw the universe. Their language calls to mind the image of God’s REM conjuring the dream we call reality. Recently, scientific papers like the one QTd below are finding correlations to this phenomena in brain activity. The brain seeming to flicker between processing conscious and unconscious content at a rate of ~15 Hz (15 times per second). Like a fractal microcosm of the universe, we call forth our own dream of reality in this vibratory trance. This is why seeing this process more clearly is so important to the process of waking up from the dream. In some Buddhist systems we seek to become so sensitive to these arisings and passings aways that we start to see between their cracks. In doing so, we experience “bhanga” - the dissolution of our mind’s dream of a stable, continuous reality. But in the gaps between consciousness, we find not a blank nothingness but a reality beyond words. Something we might call luminous, empty and deeply blissful but of course is really none of these things because these are all words. Likewise, the tantric Shaivites seek to see in between the gaps between moments of perception in order - in their more theological language - to experience the everpresent luminosity of God (Shiva). Whether you are a Buddhist, a Shaivite, an atheist or something else entirely, learning to sensitize to the fundamentally vibratory nature of reality is one of the most powerful spiritual skills you can learn in this life. To peer between the cracks of existence. To find the numinous, luminous truths that wait for us there. To wake up from this flickering trance of a dream that we call reality.

Some of humanity’s oldest myths contain the same warning: not to look back. Lot’s wife looks back at the world she was leaving and turns into a pillar of salt. Orpheus looks back for Eurydice before they have completely escaped the underworld and loses her. In Japanese mythology Izanagi looks back at Izanami in the land of the dead and discovers that the woman he remembers no longer exists. Different cultures, different stories, but all have the same message….that there are thresholds in life that can only be crossed by accepting that what was behind you is gone. This doesn’t mean we have to forget the past. But it does mean refusing to live there. The past can teach you, shape you, and become material for the Great Work, but it cannot be inhabited again. We become frozen when we keep trying to resurrect an old relationship, an old life, an old identity, or an old version of ourselves. Transformation requires something to die so that something else can be born. Sometimes the final test of an initiation is simply this: can you keep walking without turning around?

Just being alive at the same time is an unimaginable karmic connection that should make our hearts burst with compassion

you cannot hand the responsibility of your life to anyone else. you can explain how you got here, who hurt you, what you were afraid of losing and what was done to you - but eventually, you have to reckon with the person you became along the way. that part of the story still belongs to you.

the trick is having the courage to live through a chapter you hate without letting it poison your belief in the story. even in the middle of something painful, you can hold onto that deep pull toward what your life could become. so much of life comes down to your ability to keep believing in what you cannot see yet, to keep faith in the story while you’re still living through the parts that make it hard to believe

how much magic you experience in this life depends on how healed your nervous system is. so prioritize rejuvenating the nervous system. when you feel safe, you are more open to mystical experiences and miracles and higher timelines.

Hot men: - have good hygiene - have hobbies (like autistic level interests) - are good at something - aren’t on dating apps - love their family - don’t complain about things they’re not willing to change - help old ladies cross the street - hold doors open - tell the girl he likes she’s beautiful - takes care of his mind / body / spirit - dresses well because he knows his appearance does indeed matter (look good feel good do good) - invests in his relationships - invests in himself - tries hard - gives a damn - takes initiative - speaks up - listens - is well read and well spoken - cares about something and someone other than himself

Next time the chaos of life gets you down, remember this quote from Cormac McCarthy: “You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.” Say it aloud. Feel it in your bones. Then just deal with the two feet right in front of you. It works.

“Nothing is worth more than this day.” ~ Goethe

Keys to a happy long-term relationship: - be obsessed with each other - be very affectionate - laugh together - eat together - want ~the same things out of life - support each other’s dreams - don’t blame your partner for your bullshit - figure out how to both get great sleeps every night - learn how to co-exist in a space, manage chores + orderliness in a way that feels good for you both - actually listen to each other - take responsibility for yourself - be curious about each other’s worldview - apologize + admit when you’re wrong - talk about money, figure out your shared / differing beliefs about how you want to generate, save, spend - always expand each other’s sense of what’s possible - speak to the highest version of each other - give gifts and gestures that show your partner you see + understand + think about them - connection + quality time that do not center logistics / life operations - build shared good habits - fall in love with the life you’re building together

Being able to very precisely articulate what you want and why you want it has never been more valuable

it is an unwritten rule of life that after every prolonged period of hardship and uncertainty, there is going to be a period when you are going to achieve quantum leaps across multiple areas of your life. the only requirement is that you do not give up on yourself.