[Mr. Blonde]

Okay, I got about 4 minutes in. Going to finish the rest soon. He covers a LOT in a short amount of time.

Disclaimer: I respect his mind greatly and clearly he's a theoretical genius. But I do think he has some...shall I say...superficial generalizations about Eastern thought. Without seriously dedicating hundreds of hours to studying these ancient texts, hours meditating, and, in some cases, fucking with shamanic drugs, it is very difficult to fully understand these things.

It is worth noting that the very happiest people will also tend to have the strongest desires and be the most motivated....That's...the people who have fewest desires and the least intense desires, in many cases are the depressives.

As someone who has personally struggled with chronic, suicidal depression for years, and have always consistently tried to heal myself of this tendency, this seems like a very wild and broad statement based on nothing but personal speculation --- worse yet, by somebody who doesn't fully understand depression from a psychological perspective.

Most of the people I know who constantly "want" (aka desire) to achieve more for themselves, are some of the most anxious, borderline psychotic people I know. Many of them are doing what they feel pressured to do by society, parents, friends, etc. A

The thing about desire isn't that it's "bad" in any way. I look at it mathematically. Look at how many variables there are, social, psychic, political, even fucking traffic signals. It's impossible to "want" (aka plan something in the future) and NOT experience stress, because the "unknowns" and the "my plans aren't working" thoughts plague you all the time. This creates psychological suffering. The fact is, and I learned this vividly last year, no matter how much you try, plan, or want, you, a simple human being, cannot possibly control all the variables. To even imagine you could is madness, yet, so many of us live our lives like that daily.

Consider the alternative: if one has conditioned themselves to focus on the constant 'now's, and thus desire less for the future, what does one have to be depressed about? If you don't expect anything, isn't everything kind of a pleasant surprise? This is a simplification, and again, may only be an available experience to those who have pretty much lost everything --- so are merely happy to be alive, and have shelter, and food on their table.ll

Do I want more in my life than that? Of course, I'm human, I still have desire. But it's not happening now, and I am working towards those goals. It's no worry about it.

If someone is a melancholic depressive, in many cases meditation training will make the melancholic depressive worse.

I would really like to see some sourcing on this -- I've never heard anything like this, and know a lot about both meditation and depression.

Again, I know he is a philosopher and welcome to speculation, but based on my own personal experience, as well as more and more scientific evidence suggesting that meditation helps to alleviate (not a panacea) depression. I have become more aware of many things, suffering included, and sometimes it can affect me emotionally much more than others. But the continued training in meditation helps to separate myself from this hyper-empathy and divert it into compassion and understanding. I would say meditation is primarily "hardening" yourself to take suffering with much less ease, rather than completely eliminating it (overcoming is the preferred word.)

For Depression Treatment, Meditation Might Rival Medication - Forbes

Mindfulness Meditation Can Help Relieve Anxiety And Depression : Shots - Health News : NPR

I am predispositioned to "melancholic depression" and while meditation has by no means "cured" me of it, nor has do I expect it to, it at least helps me recognize the fact that I do suffer from those mental moods and it is my responsibility (not anyone else's) to do what is necessary to alleviate those symptoms.

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Interesting thoughts on High-tech Jainism. The future is definitely going to be weird man. I want to take a moment to quote from that Joseph Campbell book again:

Originally Posted by Joseph Campbell

Thus early societies learned that "the essene of life is that it lives by killing and eating; that's the great mysery that the myths have to deal with."

IMO, this could sum up the entire question of, at least human existence. The more you intellectually examine it, the more you see that reality (or at least life on Earth), simply exists by suffering.

Maybe we can change that in the future. But remember, it's not just physical suffering. Mental illness (the closest thing to Hell there is) is still a HUGE hurdle that many people still won't recognize as an equal illness to say, heart or kidney disease. This will be a huge issue in the future I believe.


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